Fun with Hannah and Evie

Last night, Hannah and Evie Mayer came over to play while their parents had a date night. At Shane's brilliant suggestion, we broke out the ball tent. The kids had a BLAST rolling over the balls, jumping on them, crawling in and out of the tent, and just generally being the crazy kids that they are.

Hannah and Evie had a blast in the tent. Hannah is very affectionate with her sister and kissed her, and then tried to eat her nose. Hilarious. And Evie was okay with it all.

Evie crawled inside the tent and sat there playing with the balls and watching Logan and Hannah.

Hannah has a brilliant smile.

Kayleigh loved watching the bigger kids from outside the tent.

At one point, Shane went to the gym, so I was alone with all 4 kiddos. And really, I was pleasantly surprised, they did great! Evie, who is about 13 months, was exploring the place, but it was not her house, so she didn't know she's not supposed to pick up the dog bowls or play with the plants.

Kayleigh went to bed before everyone left, and Logan was so hyper afterwards, we had to calm him down a little before he was ready to go to sleep. Obviously, a good time!

Helping Daddy cook

Last night, Shane volunteered to cook his awesome spaghetti. Double awesome! (1) It's super yummy - he puts lots of spices, meat, green peppers, and tomatoes in it, and (2) I don't have to cook! Yay!

Logan being the helper that he is, wanted to help Daddy cook as well. He tried to cut up the green peppers with Daddy, but was unsuccessful by himself. So Daddy helped him cut it up.

After he was finished helping Daddy with supper, he helped me with lunch. He got to dump in the jalapenos and chili powder into the chimichangas. He wanted to help stir, but not a good idea with really hot stuff. But he stood there and watched.

Makings of a good cook?

Haircuts

Today I gave both kids haircuts. Logan was looking pretty shabby, as you can see from this photo with me. I cut his hair with scissors (and amazingly didn't chop off an ear!), and he did much better with scissors than the electric razor. I'll post pics of his chopped hair later. It doesn't look like one of the dogs chewed it, as it did a few months ago...


I gave Kayleigh some bangs, because her daddy said that he couldn't see her eyes. Of course, speaking from experience (I used to trim my own bangs), a little fringe can be a pain to trim. They always seem to add more hair! I had to lay her on the floor to cut her hair - when she sits, she rocks back and forth (if she hears music) or she melts into a cobbler/child's pose.


But K-bob looks pretty cute with the little fringe, especially when I put a little gel in her hair to keep it curly. Logan enjoys helping me put the "soap" in Kayleigh's hair. And she stands for it, which is great!

Drinking buddies

Kayleigh and Logan are drinking buddies - although Kayleigh is still trying to figure out the whole sippy cup thing. But if she has one, she doesn't reach for Logan's, and that makes for happy babies.

Cousins!

At the very last minute (like Friday morning), my big brother, Chris emailed me that his family was coming down to Houston for the weekend. They were going to stop by Homecoming at Rice and just generally get away from the craziness at Fort Hood right now. I second that, whenever we had anything "huge" happen to us, we'd go somewhere afterwards. You know, the coup d' etat in Manila - Hong Kong once the airport was open and we had passports. The earthquake in Kobe - back to Manila.

Anyway, Saturday morning, while Shane slept, the kiddos and I met up with the Callicott clan at Hermann Park. We had a great time! We hung out by the reflecting pool (both Lottie and Logan wanted to get in, but Lottie was a little quicker about getting on the ledge than Logan).

Then we went to the Japanese garden. Bapa has created a monster - whenever Logan sees a body of water, he MUST throw rocks in it. So what if all he could find was gravel? He had to throw something rock-like into the water.

While hanging out by the pond, we saw a wood duck. Lottie wanted to pet it, which the duck was not happy about, and then the boys thought that would be super fun too! So off they went, the duck waddling away as fast as it's little webbed feet would go, with two little boys and a girl chasing after it. Sorry the picture is blurry, they were all just moving too fast!

We rounded the kids up for a photo op in front of another little pond. Okay, so getting three kids three and under to look at the same camera, much less smile at the same camera, is a miracle. No miracles were worked today, but the cousins are still super cute together.

Logan and Adam had a super fun time looking at the koi. They must be fisherboys at heart - it's in the blood.

After running around, some kiddos were getting tired. So they all got in the Callicott stroller, and Logan did pretty well for a guy who likes his space.

After walking all over Hermann Park, we finally found the main train station for the little train that goes around the park. Adam thought it was great, Lottie wanted to sit on the seat, not on Mommy's lap, so we took up three benches. Logan was tired and hot, which translates into fussy and whiny. At one point he laid down under the benches on his tummy. As Amy said, "He has is arms and legs inside the train, so I guess it's okay."

It was a really fun morning, and it was great to see Chris and Amy and kids. I also enjoyed getting to see how the area around Rice has been built up. It's completely different from when I graduated, and that was only 8 years ago! There's a light rail, a new hospital, a reflection pool, etc. At least I could still find my way to the highway! The kids fell asleep on the way home, after Logan had an apple, a peanut butter sandwich, and two cups full of Tang.

Gotta love 'em

These kids are so funny - you gotta love 'em! We had fun playing in Kayleigh's room after naptime. Kayleigh was talking and making faces. Logan wanted to use the camera, so with some supervision, he took some Kayleigh pictures. He had a good time.

Then they got up in the rocking chair (ok, I put Kayleigh there) and played with Daddy's old bear. The bear plays music, which fascinated both of them.

How fun just to hang out!

Swollen hand

Now Kayleigh's right hand is red and swollen. Stupid mosquitoes.

Sticker boy

We went to Kroger yesterday to pick up some milk and other sundry items. Logan got to drive the car at the front of the cart and also got a yummy oatmeal raisin cookie that he didn't want to share with Mama. He also got 5 stickers from Mr. Mike, the cashier. Before I was done checking out, he had found places for them all over his clothes! Here he is modeling his stickers.

Six month check up

Well, the baby girl just had her 6 month check up, 4 days before her 7 month birthday. Whatever. She's a long one at 27.5 inches (92%) but skinny 15 lbs (22%). And her Uncle Doug would be sad, she has a small head - though her hair does make it look much bigger.

While we were there, the Dr. Quillin checked out her swollen left hand. She'd gotten one or two bug bites on it and over the weekend the whole hand had gotten swollen and red. He said it was pretty common and not to worry unless all the extremities were swollen or the bite got infected. Just some baby Benadryl and call it good.

And because it's been so dry recently, she's broken out in bumps all over her arms and legs. Eczema. Poor baby has the dreaded sensitive and dry Adams skin (thanks Gram). So I'm supposed to grease her up at least once a day and give her a bath only 2-3 times a week. Also, her diaper rash is so bad (I've been using disposables for almost a week), that Dr. Quillin said if it got any worse, to use Hydrocortisone cream on her. No wonder she doesn't like diaper changes!

But as she sat up on the table playing with her rattle, the doctor looked at her and said, "She's beautiful. She must have great baby pictures." I couldn't agree more!

Sleepy baby

Babies can sleep in the most awkward positions. Kayleigh is no exception.

Here she is with Daddy, doubled over between his legs in the PlayStation chair. Don't ask me how she did this. She was also not happy when I carried her to her crib to sleep - she was content to stay like that until morning!

On the way back from the gym (all of 1.5 miles away), Kayleigh fell asleep while playing with her elephant. And she was apparently playing with it in her dreams as well...

Food, glorious food!

Ahh, food, the fuel of our lives. Sometimes, you drink only milk in the morning, waiting for your daddy to get home from work so you can eat half of his food. Mmm, Fiber One honey clusters from daddy's bowl - there's nothing quite like it.

Today, when Shane got out his bowl and the cereal, Logan got excited. He reached into the silverware drawer and pulled out a spoon (a metal one, not a baby spoon), then pulled back the computer chair (Shane often eats breakfast in front of the computer). He was ready for Daddy to sit down so he could get some yummy yummy cereal!

Sunday is our day to eat in front of the TV (football's on!). Logan loves to eat on the couch, and we bring in Kayleigh's chair. Well, Logan was being Mr. Helpful and was trying to feed his sister. He did a pretty good job of it, though he didn't really get much food on the spoon. But Kayleigh didn't seem to mind.

Of course, this is what happens when your brother feeds you!

Cute pictures

Okay, so there's really no rhyme or reason to these next pictures, except that they're super cute!

This is Logan putting Cow down the slide. He also pushed Cow on the swings and made Cow noises.


Mama's little helper. We were making Jell-O pumpkin pie. Logan loves pumpkin pie, fake or real. I let him lick the bowl (and he stuck a spoon in the pie and took a bite), and he kept asking me, "Mama, bite, pease?"


While Logan and I were cooking, Kayleigh and Daddy were playing around. She thought being on his shoulders was such fun! She would squeal when he bounced her.


The next day, my little guy was sick. Here he is watching "Finding Nemo" (for the second time that day and the millionth time ever!). He fell asleep finally. Poor guy spiked a fever of 104, but it was down around 100 the next day, and today it's normal. So we didn't have to make a trip to the doctor. Kayleigh was also out of sorts. She was running a low-grade temp and was just really fussy. So, I'm still catching up from my sleepless few nights.


Here's Daddy feeding both kids. Good thing he's ambidextrous. He'd give Logan a bite of his (Daddy's) cereal and then give Kayleigh some mashed bananas. What a man!


Banana-face herself! Yup, that hair is all her! Bushy and thick and curly. It's hard to do anything with it! But it's cute...

Pumpkin carving

Although Shane and I decided not to do a pumpkin this year, Logan got to help carve his first jack o' lantern on Halloween with the aunties. He had fun scooping out the goo and seeds from the insides. Hope said later that Phil must really love Logan, because when he put a raw pumpkin seed in her mouth, she ate it!

Logan was such a helper boy, trying to cut the pumpkin with Auntie Phil.

Kayleigh got to go over and watch. She had a blast, too!

The finished product! Cute isn't it?!