Goodbye inside toys...

Hello warm weather!! I hope toys don't get jealous, because if they do all of the toys in the house are going to get mighty down in the dumps. Between the bikes:

The new load of sand in the sandbox, the neighbor's new trampoline, and running through the sprinkler (already done a couple times this year), I don't expect to see these two playing inside all that much til, say, October. Outside kids all the way! Keith got this bike last week, it's the same size as Belle's and he LOVES it. He was already riding hers whenever he got the chance and hardly ever riding the tricycle anyway. He was instantly a pro and rode all the way to the park--nearly a mile away--, played at the park, and rode most of the way back as well before David had to give him a shoulder ride and carry the bike the last block home. Isabelle rode all the way and back just fine.

We've decided Keith gets away with a lot of things that Belle would not get away with. Because he's either super cute or super stubborn, and Mom gives in to both. Hopefully the real reason is that he's 3 and she's nearly 5. but in any case, he usually gets his way. He is also going through some sort of attachment phase. He gets absolutely hysterical if I have to go somewhere without him. He reacts the same way when Isabelle leaves for school--to the point where the neighbor I carpool with takes him with her to drop the kids off--for some reason he handles it better that way. Today she had errands to run after dropping the kids off and she couldn't take him. It was not pretty. He stood at the door with sad tears running down his checks shouting and waving "Goodbye Bella!" tell there car was out of sight. When he finally calmed down David & I played with him for about an hour and a half, giving him some time with us by himself. He also cries and has to give David about 7 hugs and kisses and tell him he'll miss him when he leaves for work. So basically, he doesn't like anyone to go ANYWHERE without him. He wants to go to work with Daddy, to school with Isabelle, and everywhere I am going. I'm not sure if he is worried we won't come back, has some deep need to be involoved in everything, or....?? no idea. then, there's church. Yesterday he cried and fought when he got out of the tub. When I got him dressed. (he HATES pants and I even bought him some khaki dress shorts to try and reduce the Sunday-morning resistance. It has improved only slightly.) Then refused to go to nursery. As in arching his back and dragging his feet refusing. (maybe this is part of the not-wanting-to-leave-family thing? He can't go anywhere without US?) Then had a royal fit 10 minutes into sacrament meeting. Yep. His time out when we got home was a long one. He told David he doesn't like church. The conversation went like this: David: "Keith, why don't you like to go to church?" Keith: "Because it's bad there." D:"Do they talk about Heavenly Father at church?" K: "Yes" D: "Is that bad?" K: "No" D: "Do they talk about Jesus at church?" K: "Yes" D: "IS that bad?" K: "No" D: "Do they talk about families at church?" K: "Yes" D: "Is that bad?" K: "No" D: "Then what is bad about church?" D: "They don't talk about oven pampmakes" (his favorite food, german pancakes) WHICH actually they DID because his nursery teacher asked him what his favorite food is, and of course that was his response, and she took it further and asked him what he likes to put on his pancakes, etc. These are the answers we get. He doesn't like church because they don't talk about pancakes, he doesn't like nursery because they have a scary T-Rex toy and minty marshmallows. Both of which they threw out when he cited them as the no-nursery culprits. Oh, and he couldn't finish his dinner yesterday because the table cloth was ugly. See what I mean? Either too cute or too stubborn. I'm hoping if we just keep plugging away eventually he'll grow out of all of this....

Signs that Isabelle is growing up

1- The sidewalk chalk words on the front step were not written by me or any neighbor kids, but by her. Included are: Isabelle, Mom, Dad, Beby, and Keith (which he did mostly, she helped him some). 2- she was fine to sit on the bench in sacrament meeting by herself while I had to take Keith out. It was even during the sacrament portion of the service, and she took hers and passed it on to a ward member we were sitting by who she doesn't necessarily know. 3- I reminded her that after she was done eating lunch she needed to do her unload the dishwasher job, and I didn't have to tell her again when she was done eating several minutes later. She just got up and did it. (she unloads the plastic kid dishes and silverware after I take our the sharp things every day) 4- she read, all on her own, a page like "see cat run. run cat run. Cat has a hat." etc.

Pictures

The videos in the post below are about 30 sec. each, but if you'd rather just look at pictures here are a few. The one of Keith is what he was doing while I was out taking pictures of Isabelle in the mud puddle. He poured himself, and the neighbor girl, bowls of cereal. with milk. Luckily he didn't spill, the cereal was just swimming :)

Latest Kids Movies

Belle came home from preschool on a rainy day singing this song, and looking for some puddles to try it out in. Unfortunately the best one found was a muddy one, but she had fun, and some neighbor kids followed her (like they usually do) to join in the fun.
I couldn't get the videos to upload to blogger, so you copy and paste the youtube URL into your browser. Sorry to make it complicated.

http://youtu.be/p6WNCXqh4sM
http://youtu.be/1KtFqekAyx4


Ketih's ABC's etc.


http://youtu.be/SnAWPMWmNE8
http://youtu.be/0i_YQfOb3f4

I'm confused...

It seems as though we have moved INCREDIBLY fast from these little ones:


To these big kids:



How did this happen ?!?

Good thing they are as fun as ever :)