Top 10 October Laughs :: The Catch Up Edition

It has been a solid month since I blogged our family laughs. We have had plenty to laugh about so I have a huge list to choose from to write our October Laughs!  Needless to say, there wasn't any way to choose just five.

These aren't in any order since I had a really hard time trying to decide my favorites.

• In late September, our very dear friends' son had a birthday party.  We took Claire and left Natalie with my parents (it was her nap time).  They had a pinata and everything!  After we left the party, Claire kept talking about the pe-nayta.  Every time she said the word, she would get angry that it didn't come out like she intended.  I really had to turn my head so she wouldn't see me laughing.
• We were able to have a face-time chat with Miss Grace one evening before bed.  We even let Claire stay up a little late.  The next time she put the same pajamas on that she wore when we talked, she informed me, "These are the jammies that I wore when we talked to Miss Grace - for real mom."  Is she three or thirteen?
• Since the weather has not been very nice for playing outside, we have to be creative to keep the kids active while inside.  Our latest family activity is to put on hats, scarves and mittens so we can have a snowball fight (we use bouncy balls).  The girls giggle the entire time!

• Natalie has an obsession with wearing Claire's clothes, especially her undies.  She puts them on over top of her diaper but never properly.  She puts her waist through the leg holes and every other combination you can think of.  If you try to help her, she runs away.  She is one independent little girl!
• Claire loves to pretend all the time.  She was playing with my sister and Andria said she was a statue and couldn't move.  Claire responded with "if you're a statue why are your lips moving?"
• Natalie was running at Miss Cynthia's when she kicked a toy and fell down.  She was upset that her foot hurt so she bent down kissed her toes and ran off to play again.
• I have a box of my old barbies that Claire loves to play with.  Her latest obsession is with the Ken dolls.  One of the Ken dolls is a rocker Ken with rather large hair (80's rocker) and the other is a traditional malibu Ken (he was wearing a swim suit).  Claire was examining the Ken dolls when she said, "I like the naked Ken.  He's more handsome."  Her dad will be so proud.  
• One day Claire ran out into the living room as a lion

RAWR!

• Claire's birthday is March 1st.  When Miss Cynthia asked her when her birthday was, she answered, "Marched up".  
• As I said before, we have had some nasty weather here lately, cold and rainy.  We decided to bring the bounce house inside to let the girls burn off some energy.  You have to check out this video of what happened shortly after. 

That girl is a daredevil!  

Happy November!  I hope to be able to blog our laughs weekly again this month!!

Top Five Saturday Laughs :: 8.25.12

Happy Saturday!  I feel as if I'm cheating since I wrote these early so that I could guest post for Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles, but at least they're actually on the blog and not just a note on my phone!  Sometimes, I can't seem to keep up with my life.  Either that or I need to learn how to function on less sleep?

I actually captured some photos to go with our post this week.  Of course, they're not with my awesome new camera that my husband surprised me with for our anniversary/birthday/Christmas/valentines day (for the next three years).  However, they were on my phone. I did Instagram them so that has to count for something?

5.  Much to her talkative's sisters disapproval, Natalie is finally becoming more vocal.  Claire enjoys speaking for Natalie and likes to be the center of attention at all times.  Now when Claire wants Natalie to be quiet, she attempts to put her hand over Natalie's mouth.  This is followed by Natalie licking Claire's hand and hysterical laughing from both girls.

4.  Claire has this new fascination with trying to wink.  I was able to capture her "practicin' her winkin'" at the dinner table.

3.  We live next door to Ryan's mom and step-dad.  They own an ice cream truck (yes this is very bad when you're trying to lose weight).  If you ask Natalie if she wants to go to Grandma's house, she starts smacking her lips while nodding her head. It makes me think she may want something?

2.  Once we go to Grandma's house, Natalie will stand with her arms behind her back with the ice cream obsessed look in her eyes.  When we ask her if she would like some ice cream, she responds like this:

Every. Single. Time

The excitement is just adorable!!  She LOVES popsicles, devouring them in no time flat.

1.  My mom and I had a dance party with Claire on Sunday.  Claire yelled sung a made-up song with lyrics such as "We are cool girls.  We are rockstars.  Watch us shake our booties!  No one can stop us now!!"  We even had pretend rockstar costumes to wear while she had the real deal.  First she would dance with my mom while I cheered for them, then she would dance with me while my mom cheered and finally my mom and I would dance while Claire cheered for us.  We seriously laughed so hard making up crazy jumping, flaring, booty shaking moves.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Top Five Saturday Laughs :: 8.11.12

I'm having such a hard time realizing that it is Friday since I've been off of work since Wednesday.  What a great problem to have!!  We took the kids on a mini-vacation to a hotel/waterpark in Frankenmuth.  More on this later, but here are some of our laughs from the past week.

5.  On our way to Frankenmuth, Claire was a little tired since she hadn't napped in the afternoon.  I caught her beginning to dose.  A minute later, she strikes up a lively conversation to try an keep herself awake.  It was funny to see her figure it out, but seriously, why don't kids like to nap?!

4.  Natalie does absolutely everything that her sister does.  She's a little copy cat.  Claire was having a tantrum, so Natalie crossed her arms in front of her body and began to pout.  When I asked her if she was going to have a tantrum like her sister, she grinned and shook her head yes.  Thankfully that was as far as the tantrum went, this time.

3.  I had asked Claire to be quiet, which happens often in our world.  This particular time she was upset so I stuck my tongue out at her to try and distract her from being mad.  She waved her arms like an umpire calling a base runner safe at home, looked me dead in the eyes and said, "not funny mommy, I'm upset!"

2.  When you ask Natalie what sound a monkey makes, she exclaims "OH, ohhh!"  It is so stinking adorable!

1.  Claire and I were playing Cinderella.  She was Cinderella and I was the fairy godmother.  I had just transformed her into a beautiful princess and told her that she had to be home by the stroke of midnight.  She replied that was much too late, her bedtime was at eight o'clock!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I appreciate you reading my laughs :)  If you want to enjoy more laugh posts, check out Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles and all the other funny posts.

Top Five Saturday {Sunday} Laughs

I'm pretty late in posting our weekly laughs this weekend, things have been rather busy!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Today is simply beautiful here and I am looking forward to when the girls wake up from their naps so we can go outside and play.

I hope you enjoy our laughs, I think they are pretty funny!

5. One morning I put on a pair of very plain sandals.  Claire looked at my feet and told me that my shoes were "not pretty".  She then proceeded to find my colored beaded sandals so that I could have pretty shoes to wear to work.  I don't think I will be wearing the plain ones ever again.

4.  Natalie has been a baby-signing machine lately.  She really gets into the signs.  My favorite is "all-done" after she eats.  If we don't get her out of the high-chair fast enough, she violently waves her arms around signing "all-done".  I crack up every time.

3.  Friday was a rather rainy day.  We were sitting at the dinner table when Claire taught us about tornadoes.  She told us, that "tornadoes are very bad storms with very big winds."  When we asked her where she learned about it, she informed us that she "read it in a book."  That girl cracks me up!

2.  Natalie wore her first ponytail this week.  It was adorable!

1.  There is a little boy at Claire's daycare who loves to make the girls scream by pretending to be a monster and chasing the girls around the house.  Apparently, he is very scared of bees and wasps, so Claire retaliated by pretending to be a wasp and chased him around the house buzzing the whole time. I had to tell her that she should be a kind friend, but inside I was really laughing!

Bonus laugh:  Claire was playing with her baby when she decided that baby needed milk.  

LOL!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 3.17.12

Happy weekend!  We have had the most gorgeous weather here lately and today is looking beautiful.  It has been so wonderful to get out and play outside.  My favorite part is not bundling up the kids when we leave the house, I was actually on time a few days this week!!

I am thankful that my girls are finally feeling better!  I am hoping that this trend continues :)

Here are our laughs from the week:

5.  Claire had an awful ear infection last week.  Last Thursday her right eardrum ruptured and then last Saturday her left eardrum ruptured.  This created major drainage and discomfort for Claire.  When her ear drained, Claire told me that her ear was peeing.  It is an awful thing, but her description made me laugh.

4.  Natalie is a strong willed little girl.  Big time!  She has been on a green bean strike for the last month or so.  She will not eat them - at all.  I got a text at lunchtime one day from her daycare provider.  She had tried to sneak a bite of green beans in with a bite of hotdogs.  Natalie spit the green bean out and then refused to eat anymore hotdog.  She could be more stubborn than Claire!  I feel bad for Ryan...

3.  Claire has an endless supply of play phones.  She loves to play with them, typically talking.  While we were playing, Claire told me to grab my phone so that we could text each other. I wonder who she learns that from?!

2.  We played outside as much as possible the past week. Since Natalie isn't walking yet (I cannot wait for her to finally do so!), I have been trying to be creative with how she can play.  She swings, plays in the walker on the concrete and hangs out in the bijourn.  We were in the front yard, so I had taken Natalie out of the bijourn and let her down on the sidewalk leading to the house.  She was crawling on the sidewalk and decided to venture into the yard, or so she thought.  She got one hand on the grass and sat straight up. The look on her face was priceless!  Needless to say, I found a way to contain her to one area since she will not crawl in the grass.

1.  One morning, Claire and Natalie woke up at nearly the same time.  I got Claire from her room first and brought her to the living room to watch cartoons.  I then went into Natalie's room to feed her.  As I was feeding Natalie, I heard Claire in the pantry.  Pretty soon, Claire came running into Natalie's room.  She asked, "Where do we keep the honey mama?"  I asked her why she needed the honey.  She responded, "because I am having honey nut cheerios for breakfast!"  HA!  I had to explain to her that the honey was baked on the cheerios.  I couldn't believe that she had gotten the cereal out of the pantry and poured it in a bowl.  All she needed for me to do is pour the milk.

I hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Make sure you check out Melissa's and all the others who participate in the blog hop!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 3.12.12

We have had a challenging week in our house!  Natalie has had Abuetoral breathing treatments since last Friday and she is finally starting to move air better.  Claire came down with croup, an ear infection and pink eye on Tuesday and spent the majority of the week at home with Ryan and myself.  Today, I took her back to the pediatrician since she wasn't feeling much better.  I found out that she has a perforated eardrum.  We've been to the pediatrician's office three times in the last week!   Of course, we did have some rays of sunlight through all this.  I desperately need to replace the bad memories with these funny things!

5. Claire wanted to play restaurant this week with Ryan.  She wanted him to be the server.  She handed him her water and the rest of the zebra cake she was eating.  When he asked her for her order, she told him she wanted sprite and a zebra cake.  After getting her meal, she looked at Ryan and said, "I need something else my maaan."   Giggles erupted after that!

4.  When Natalie waves, she waves like she is in a parade.  It is so funny to see the big girl wave out of a little baby!

3.  Since Natalie is on Abuetoral for her wheezing, Claire likes to help give her little sister her nebulizer treatments.  During one of Natalie's coughing spells, Claire told me that Natalie needed her "A gorillia" so she would stop coughing.

2.  Ryan stayed home with the girls on Thursday.  He was texting me photos throughout the day of the girls.  I got one during breakfast, lunch and watching cartoons.  The best text I received said this: "Natty had a poop so big it came out the leg & filled her jammies down to her toes!!!! TO. HER. TOES. #notkidding"
I cannot explain how hard I laughed at this!! It is always funny when someone else has to deal with the blowout plus the hashtag in the text. #priceless

1.  I was reading a book with Claire when she pointed at a mole on my arm and asked what it was.  I told her that it was a mole.  She responded, "That's where Santa was."  It took me a minute, but I eventually told her that Santa was at the mall and not the mole :)

Here's to hoping for a healthy week next week.  I'm going to head over to The Mommyhood Chronicles and read the funny blogs since I could use a good laugh!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 3.5.12

What a busy and exciting week!  As of Thursday, we officially have a THREE year old!  We have been in full birthday mode around our house.  We are looking forward to the big birthday party tomorrow with our family and friends.

In between all the birthday fun and a sick, teething baby we still managed to have quite a few laughs this week.

5.  I was having issues with my voicemail on my cell phone this week and could not retrieve messages for whatever reason.  Ryan is my personal 'geek-squad' so I made a comment to him about the voicemail being screwed up.  Before Ryan could even answer, Claire piped up, "I can help you mommy!"

4.  Natalie has been very into giving kisses lately.  When I tell her it is time for night-night, she instantly opens her mouth wide open to kiss everyone before heading to bed, big ol' wet sloppy baby kisses.  Makes me laugh every time!

3.  We gave Claire a microphone and stand for her actual birthday.  It is perfect for her since she loves to be the center of attention.  She takes the microphone and stands on stage (the fireplace hearth) where she then performs.  This morning, she decided she was going to be a comedian and tell a joke.  The performance went something like this:
C: "Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Claire"
*hits applause button* while Natalie and I clap from the couch
C: "What does a cat read in the morning"
Me: "I don't know"
C: "The meeoowwspaper"
Hysterical laughing ensued.

2.  I was cooking dinner one night and Natalie was playing in the pantry.  I couldn't see what she was doing since her body was nearly completely in the pantry.  I opened the door only to discover that she was standing up to the dog food storage container, reaching in and eating the food.  I guess I needed to cook faster!

1.  This final laugh also begins with a performance of Claire's.  She was standing on a play chair with her microphone and told Ryan, "I'm going to get an erection".  Ryan quickly responded, "Do you mean you're going to be the director?!"  Claire said, "yeah" and proceeded to be the "erector" for the rest of the show.  I love the unintentional funny things!

If you have some laughs to share, come link up with The Mommyhood Chronicles!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 2.25.12

What a long, fast moving, super busy week!  I am hoping to get some rest this weekend since have come down with the dreaded cold that has infected my household for the past few weeks.  I am hoping the cold moves along as quickly as this past week has.  I am very excited to share my laughs with you this week!

Like always, I am joining my friend, Melissa, in her Saturday Laughs bloghop.  If you have a funny post, you should link up too!

I remembered to write down lots of laughs this week, so I had a list to choose from!!

5.  Claire and Natalie are starting to interact more and more while playing.  In the bathtub, Natalie was holding out a fake cookie and Claire was pretending to eat it.  They both got a kick out of this, but then Claire took it in her mouth and shot Natalie in the face with the water from inside.  That was seriously so funny!  Everyone laughed so hard, Claire laughed so hard that she got the hiccups!

4.  Whenever Natalie hears any type of music, she begins dancing. The majority of the time she twists her upper body and reminds me so much of the "we did it dance" from Dora.  She only dances for a little while, then it's back to playing.  It makes me smile every single time.

3.  Thursday evening I was feeling rotten and Claire was in full stall-before-bed mode.  I was tired from a really long day at work and getting rather frustrated with her.  I finally barked at her to get in her bed and lay down.  She put her little hand on my cheek and replied, "Mommy, is that how we ask for something we want?"  She was right, I had to apologize for not having good manners.  Of course, Ryan thought this was hysterical!!  

2.  Natalie is obsessed with the refrigerator.  Whenever it is opened, she crawls as fast as possible to start pulling things from the shelves in the door.  Sometimes I just let her play in there while I'm cooking since it can entertain her for a good five minutes.  This week she discovered the bottle of chocolate syrup and somehow managed to open the top.  Now she's really obsessed with the fridge!!

1.  Claire LOVES cooking.  All kinds of cooking and baking.  Lately she loves to pretend to cook and bake.  We have pretend food all over the house.  There are bowls, measuring cups and spoons in every room.  Ryan  was bathing the girls one night and Claire was pretending to cook Chinese food in the bathtub.  She had a big mixing bowl and spoon and was adding the ingredients (water).    Here is the interaction that I overheard:

R: "Claire, what are you doing?"

C: "Rubbing my boobies"

R: "Why are you rubbing your boobies?"

C: "Because I burnt them on the stove when I was cooking"

That girl seriously cracks me up!

I have a bonus laugh since it literally just happened as I was writing the others.  I have blogged before how Claire likes play where she wipes off our kisses.  Ryan asked her for a kiss goodnight and he then wiped off her kiss.  This happened three times.  On the third time, he told Claire that he wasn't going to wipe that kiss off because he liked it.  Instantly, she responded with, "why didn't you like the other ones daddy?"  Ryan told her she was just like her mother.  What a typical girl response! Ryan is still laughing about that one.

Top Five Saturday Laughs 2.18.12

This week has been super busy for us, so I am thankful that the weekend is here!  I love writing these posts and this week is no exception to that rule.

5. I don't know if you'd call this a laugh or just plain pathetic, but I finally took down all of my Christmas decorations this past week. I had taken down all the super Christmas stuff (tree, stockings, centerpieces) but I still had plenty of snowmen and garlands on the shelves.  I was just glad to get it down before Claire's birthday in a couple of weeks.  

4.  I've written about the game where Claire wipes off my kisses and I make a big deal about it.  She thinks it is hysterical and I get tons of kisses.  I made the comment that I didn't want to see her wipe off anymore kisses. She responded that I should just close my eyes and proceeded to wipe off the kisses with giggles.

3.  Natalie is becoming quite the daredevil.  The girl has no fear.  She will climb everything in site.  She was climbing at daycare one day and her daycare provider called her a daredevil.  She clapped with delight at the name and Claire said, "My daddy calls her that, but my mommy calls her a stinker."  Oh the things she must hear!

2.  Claire and Natalie were playing the movie, "Bolt" together.  Really, Claire was playing Bolt and made Natalie be Bolt the dog.  Claire was calling Natalie to her, "Come here Bolt. Come here!" Natalie just sat up on her knees and shook her head no.  She wouldn't budge as long as Claire called her Bolt.  We've got two strong willed girls on our hands!

1.  My favorite laugh of the week happened in the morning as we were getting out of the car at daycare.  Claire always has her sippy cup with juice and her breakfast during the ride since we can't ever seem to get breakfast in at home.  I asked Claire to hand me her juice cup and pancakes.  She then informed me that she didn't have juice and pancakes, she had beer and candy corn.  I have NO idea where this came from, but it cracked me up. 

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 2.11.12

Happy weekend!  I am looking forward to *hopefully* sleeping in tomorrow morning.  I am linking up with Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles for the Saturday Laughs Bloghop.  Make sure you stop by and check out all the funny posts, it's a great way to kick off the weekend.

I hope you enjoy our laughs from the past week.

5.  I had turned on Mickey Mouse for Natalie one morning while we were getting ready.  After I got her out of bed, Claire was protesting watching Mickey and decided to take measures into her own hand, literally.  She started pretending that her hand was a remote and was pushing her buttons.  I thought that was rather creative.

4.  Both girls love to play on our bed.  Ryan was hiding under the covers with Natalie and would sit up and yell "surprise".  Everyone was cracking up, but Natalie was laughing the hardest.  She would get so excited every time the covers were whipped off, that she would jump so hard that she nearly stood up.

3.  Tonight during her bath, Claire was testing her limits.  She was being very rude and rather mean.  Everything was "NO" or "don't say that" or "stop talking".  Can attitude start already with a nearly 3 year old?! She had to get out of the bath without getting to play (again making mommy very unpopular).  At this point, I was thankful that Ryan got to deal with Miss Attitude and I took Natalie to her room to feed her.  When it was time for Claire to go to bed, she asked me to carry her like a baby.  She then informed me that she "was a mean baby in her bath, but is now a nice baby."  At least she understood that she was being mean?

2.  Speaking of baths, the girls often take a bath together.  Claire loves to blow raspberries on Natalie's back and belly.  As Claire was about to raspberry Natalie's back, she stood up and Claire's lips landed squarely on Natalie's booty.  I laughed until I cried!

1.  Claire has a large stuffed cowboy Woody doll from Toy Story.  She calls him 'Big Woody' since she also has a smaller stuffed cowboy.  That in itself is funny, but this week she gave Big Woody to Ryan to hold while she went to do something.  As she was running away, she yells, "Daddy, you're holding your favorite Woody!"  We both busted up laughing.  

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Happy February!  I will call January the month of the sick children in our house.  Historically, January has been a bad health month in our family and this year was no different.  I was ready for it to leave and hopefully have healthy kids.  Claire woke up yesterday morning with a nasty head cold that made her miserable the last two days.  I am really hoping that Natalie will avoid it so her sleep training progress can continue.  I have been rather consumed with this (yes, I get neurotic over things and obsess just a little bit) so I know we had many more laughs than what I wrote down.  In my sleep deprived state, I just can't remember them all!  So I must apologize since they are a little weak.

5.  Claire finds this little game we play especially funny and it is one of my favorites.  She likes to wipe off my kisses and thinks she is the funniest thing when I make a big deal that she wiped it off.  I pretend to get all mad and hold her hands so she can't wipe them off.  Of course she always wipes them off and I get to give her more ;-)  This week, she wants me to wipe off her kisses which makes for twice the un-protested kisses!

4.  Natalie has started the "So Big" game.  She laughs so hard when you ask her how big she is.  She throws her arms in the air and screams when we exclaim, "So Big!"

3. I was putting our things in the car one afternoon after day care and Claire wanted to get in right away.  She began pushing on my butt and yelled, "Mom, move your big booty!"  I replied, "Claire, that's not very nice to talk to Mommy like that, how do you ask nice?"  Claire said, "Mom, move your big booty, please!"  I seriously cracked up.  Earlier in the day, my co-workers and I were discussing the Brazil Butt Lift exercise video. I guess it's time to invest!

2.  Natalie has started to pat my back when I pick her up.  She rests her head on my shoulder and pats my back.  It is so cute!!  I just love it!

1.  My favorite laugh of the week was told to me by our day care provider.  Claire and her friend Taylor were playing with dolls.  Taylor had a bottle to feed her baby, but Claire did not.  Taylor told Claire that her baby wasn't able to eat until after Taylor was done with the bottle.  Claire responded, "It's ok, I am feeding my baby with my booby"  I guess Taylor looked at our day care lady like this girl is crazy!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Make sure you check out the rest of the laughs hosted by Melissa at The Mommyhood Chronicles

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Happy weekend!  It is a snowy Saturday here once again, but the sun is shining.  This was the first week I have worked five consecutive days since before Christmas.  I didn't have to take any time off for sick kids!!  Natalie is improving, however she still has rash flare-ups on occasion.

I am thankful to have had lots of laughs to choose from this week!!

5.   We had gone out to dinner one weeknight this week {gasp!} and our server had asked Claire her name.  Without missing a beat, she responds, "Violet."  When I questioned her about it, she said that she was Claire at home and while away from home or daycare she was Violet.  Turns out, she asks her friends and daycare provider to address her as Violet most days.  She has a HUGE imagination!

4.  Natalie has discovered the art of being chased.  She loves it.  She screeches in delight as you chase her.  This also goes for the times where you need to get her to change her diaper, get her to eat or put her coat on to leave the house.  I can't help but laugh, she has so much joy when crawling away!

3.  The girls and I were playing in Claire's room, when Claire opened her closet door.  In a very excited tone, she exclaimed, "What do you know, Belle is in my closet?!"  After she says silly things such as that I often respond with, "You crack your mother up."  After her Belle statement, I started laughing to which she responded, "I know, I crack my mother up!"  Ryan was downstairs and wondered what I was laughing so hard about.

2.  I took Natalie in our room to the full length mirror, she was so excited to see her reflection.  She squealed and eventually started saying "be-be" while touching the mirror.  It was seriously adorable!  Claire came in to see what we were doing and exclaimed, "That's the funniest thing I ever saw!"  My girls make me laugh!!

1.  Often when I'm making dinner I put Natalie in her highchair with a snack to contain her.  One evening, Claire wanted to feed Natalie.  Typically she gives her a few puffs on her tray, however this night she got the idea that Natalie needed the ENTIRE container of puffs on her tray.  I didn't realize what was going on, but looked over to a mound of puffs.  I took this photo after some had been cleaned up.

Notice our chubby beagle waiting for puffs to fall :)

Happy weekend everyone!!  

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Happy weekend.  What a trying few weeks we have had in our house.  Natalie has been sick the last couple weeks.  Just when I thought she turned the corner, she came down with a low grade fever and became very lazy for three and a half days.  On Thursday she began to perk up, only to break out with a rash today.  Poor little girl can't catch a break!!

On a happier note, I was able to celebrate my best friend's 30th birthday today.  We had a delicious lunch, afternoon at the spa and ended the day with pizza and cocktails.  I am very thankful to have Jen in my life and so happy to celebrate together!!  While we were out, I realized that I didn't have five laughs and today provided me with two otherwise this would be the top three laughs :-)

5.  Claire has started to act very grown-up lately.  I guess that she knows she'll be three here in about 6 weeks.  Ryan came home from work on evening and was greeted by a very emphatic Claire, "Hi Daddy, how was your day today? How was work?"

4.  Natalie is becoming quite the little monkey.  She loves to climb on anything in sight.  Her favorite obstacles as of late are the little chairs.  She climbs up, stands on the seat, squeals while jumping up and down.  She is so proud of herself!

3.  Jen told me the story that during a road trip one day, her daughter Addison (who will be three in May) passed a police officer who had his flashers on while assisting a broke down car.  I honestly don't remember all the details to the story, but it went something like this:
 Addison (from the backseat), "Mommy that guy is naughty!"
Jen: "The police officer is just helping since that guys' car is broken down."
Addison: "That guy is naughty.  That pisses me off!"
I seriously laughed until I cried!

2.  Claire still has her pacifier at naps/night and we often allow it first thing in the morning when she's laying on the couch watching cartoons.  I am really over that thing and cannot wait for the paci fairy to visit.  I often refer to it as "your stinkin' paci" since it often gets lost and we are looking for it at the most inconvenient times.  One night before bed, we were looking for the said paci and Claire busts out, "Where is my stinkin' paci?"  She mimicked my tone perfectly and I thought Ryan was going to fall out of his chair laughing.

1.  The last laugh is from today.  At lunch we went dutch, both pulling out our (same) bank debit cards to pay our respective half of the bill.  Then we went to a local sports bar for pizza and cocktails after our spa day.  I was planning on treating Jen since we hit happy hour prices. When I got the receipt copy to sign, I realized Jen's name was on the signature line.  We laughed that she actually treated us to dinner and drinks.  We were quite thankful that we figured out our cards had been switched at that point as well.  Then as we were leaving, I had the realization that I used 'my' bank card to pay for our spa afternoon, which of course meant that Jen had funded her own birthday celebration!  I haven't laughed that hard all week, it brought me to tears!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!  We have swimming lessons tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening birthday dinner with my younger brother - he's turning 21!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

I am so excited to focus on some laughs of the week!  Natalie came down with a nasty cold, ear infection and croup.  The poor girl was totally miserable.  In my human nature, I would have only remembered this from the past week if I had not been documenting our laughs.  After reviewing my list, I was so excited to actually have enough laughs where picking five is hard!  Yet one more reason why I LOVE these posts!!

5.  Changing Natalie's diapers these days is nothing short of trying to put socks on an octopus (thanks Ryan for the metaphor).  For this reason, I often take the changes in steps.

• Step 1. Diaper off, wiped off and clean diaper on (this is a victory if she hasn't rolled over at least once in this process or I have her dangling by her ankles pleading to stop moving) 
• Step 2: Break for both of us 
• Step 3: Pants back on.  

Often times, step 2 is quite long since getting her to cooperate is so challenging.  I had left Natalie's pants on the floor and when I went to put them back on her, I couldn't find them.  I asked Claire where they had gone and she throws her blanket off her lap to reveal that she had put them on.  I couldn't stop laughing and both girls started laughing too!

4.  This one requires a little history.  I have a younger sister and when we were kids, I would often pretend she was my dog.  She had a cage (either a laundry basket or small flower fencing) that she lived in, she had special food (cold water with oatmeal - not cooked) and a leash.  So it was especially funny when Claire pretended that Natalie was her dog this week.  She ran from room to room, calling Natalie, "Come here silly doggy, coommmee here."  Natalie thought is was so fun getting undivided attention from her sister and crawled her little heart out.   I, of course, took a video and sent it to my sister :-)

3.  I have blogged about this before, but my dad loves to do this chant, "Grandpa is great!" Claire always comes back with, "Mommy is great".  They were going back and forth with this, when my dad changed it up saying, "Mommy is great".  Right on cue, Claire exclaims "Grandpa is gr- ... HEY you're not great"

2.  One evening before bed the girls were eating their snacks and Natalie was having a fruit pouch (which we call smoothies).  She had put her pacifier back in her mouth while Ryan was in the process of feeding her.  Ryan told her if you want more smoothie you have to take out your pacifier.  He hadn't even finished the word pacifier when she projected it out of her mouth.  I guess she wanted more!

1.  When my sister was pregnant, Claire gave the baby a womb-name of Boots.  Throughout Andria's pregnancy, Claire repeatedly told us that Aunt Andria had Boots in her tummy and she had baby Dora in her tummy.  After Boots was born, we explained to Claire that his name was Tyler.  Baby Boots may have made an entrance, but baby Dora is still in Claire's tummy.  This week she made the following statement in her most matter-of -fact voice:  "On my birthday, baby Dora is going to turn into a baby Tyler and come out."  I don't know where she comes up with this stuff!

Make sure you come and join the fun, or at least laugh with us this week!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Hi all!  I am beyond honored that Melissa asked me to do a guest post on her blog while she is away! (Thanks again Melissa!!) So these laughs will be posted here and on The Mommyhood Chronicles site.  If you haven't before, check out some of the awesome giveaways she has going on.

We had lots of choices for our laughs this week, but here are our top five:

5.  For Christmas, Claire received the Little People nativity scene.  She has been obsessed with nativity scenes since last Christmas, particularly Baby Jesus. So this was a perfect gift for her - one she can't break!  All week it has been a requirement that she sleeps with Baby Jesus.  On Tuesday, she went to bed without him.  Of course, this didn't fly and she had to have him in bed with her.  She then proceeded to send me out looking for him while describing what I was to be looking for; "He's got white clothes, yellow hair and lays in the hay."  Thankfully, her description allowed me to find Baby Jesus, I don't think I would have found him otherwise.

4.  Natalie has figured out how to push her older sister's buttons already.  The favorite thing of the week is to crawl down to Claire's room and steal her pacifiers from her bed.  (Yes, we still have those retched things, but they have to stay in her bed - that's our next battle!)  Natalie knows just what she is doing as she squeals in delight while crawling down the hallway with Claire's pacifier in her mouth!

3.  I am unable to wear most jeans without having my 'coin-slot' (aka butt crack) exposed while sitting on the floor to play with the girls (please tell me I'm not alone here!).  Claire took notice one day and unbeknownst to me played me like a slot machine.  When I used the restroom later, I discovered a small hair-tie in my undies.  When I asked Claire if she had put it down my pants, she giggled and ran away.

2.  Natalie is getting even faster at crawling and cruising.  If you turn your head for 2 seconds she's out of the room headed for something that she's not supposed to get into.  Ryan and I were in the kitchen one day while keeping a watchful eye in the living room for Natalie.  Or so we thought.  Claire soon exclaims, "Hey Natty, you can't have chips!"  Claire had left a small bowl of Pringles withing reach of her sister.  Natalie decided that she didn't need small bites anymore and a giant Pringle was more her speed!  She really just wants to do whatever her big sister is doing :-)

1.  I can't do this laugh justice by just writing, so I must show the video:

"How do I look?"  We seriously laughed until we cried!

It's hard to believe that we are able to say this is the first Saturday Laughs of 2012.  Thank you for letting me share our laughs with you!

Heather

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

I cannot believe that this is the final Saturday laughs for 2011!  This year has absolutely flown by, something about having kids makes time go even faster. 2012 will bring a third birthday for Claire and Natalie will be turning one!

My laughs this week are a combination of the last two weeks since I was unable to find the time to write last week with all the celebrations.

5.  My mom sends the girls cards for every holiday through the mail.  Claire loves getting her own letters.  Last week she received her Christmas card that had a kitten on the front.  Claire LOVES cats, she opened the envelope, shrieked at the sight of the cat, hugged the card close to her chest and exclaimed, "A KITTY CARD, JUST WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!"  She proceeded to run around the house clutching the card all while yelling how much she loved it.  She wouldn't even let me read it because that meant that she had to let it go.

4.  When Natalie was younger she had this laugh that we lovingly named the 'raptor laugh'.  It made a comeback and I captured on video, it is so funny! (This video was shot on my phone, so the sound quality is not the greatest, I had to turn up the volume)

3.  Last week I had a nasty stomach virus that rendered me helpless for two full days.  While I was in bed, Ryan was on Mommy and Daddy duty.  It was during this time that Claire decided that she no longer had to sleep with her pull-up.  Ryan was greeted with a naked tush on both mornings that he woke her up.  He did not tell me about this (or if he did, I don't remember), so the first morning that I got her up I was shocked to see her naked booty!  She thought this was hysterical.  So every morning (or after nap) she is typically naked from the waist down.  Silly girl!!  Thankfully we have only had a couple accidents!

2.  Natalie is getting super mobile super fast!  (She took one step on two separate occasions this week!!)  She now doesn't have time to go around things, so up and over she goes.  It is so funny since she just throws herself over whatever is in her way (see photo below), not worrying about face planting.  I have a feeling that she is going to be our daredevil!

There goes Natalie over mommy's booty

1.  Our most memorable moment of the week was Claire's production.  She decided to sing some made up crazy songs, while standing on her booster seat (that was on the floor in the living room). In addition, she named herself Lady Gaga.  I have no idea if she knows who Lady Gaga really is (we have never listened to Lady Gaga with her or even talked about her that I can recall).  Then she was singing about Mama Gaga, Dada Gaga and Baby Gaga.  I was literally crying over her silly songs, sung in silly voices, but the funniest part was when she told Ryan that he had to be quiet and not sing because he wasn't on stage.  I had tears streaming down my face!

We really do laugh a ton at our house, but sometimes it's hard to describe why these things are funny.  I laugh the hardest at my kids when they are laughing, they can be so silly together.  Since I can't describe this laugh, here is a bonus (phone) video that is a typical evening at our house.

May 2012 be filled with laughs for all of you!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Where has December gone?!  I swear it was just Thanksgiving and here we are, just a little over a week until Christmas.  I have one more day of shopping for groceries and stocking stuffers, then it's on to the cooking/baking and wrapping.

Enjoy our laughs for the week!!

5.  I have talked about Claire's love for nativity scenes.  The other day she was playing nativity scene in the bathtub.  While peeking in the curtain I could tell that she had a shampoo bottle that was Baby Jesus.  I heard the following, "Who is coming to visit Baby Jesus?  First is the angels on high, then the wise-men."

4. My dad is a super pushover when it comes to Claire.  He does whatever she asks, all the time.  While visiting last Sunday, Grandpa volunteered to get Claire her dessert.  My dad then starts the chant, "Grandpa is great he gives me chocolate cake."  Claire puts her hand in the air and yells, "Stop saying that!  Mommy is great!"  I thought this was hysterical and am still laughing about it, but I don't think my dad thought is was a funny as I did :)

3.  At one point during Sunday's church service our entire family was in the lobby.  There is a live feed to televisions in the lobby and Claire was super excited that Pastor Brad was 'on TV'.  I went back in the service while Ryan stayed with both girls.  Ryan told me that Claire asked for the channel to be changed to a cartoon about two minutes later.

2.  We were brushing the girls' teeth one night.  Natalie doesn't have teeth, but we let her chew on her toothbrush.  We went to find her toothbrush and Claire informed us that she had moved it.  She quickly volunteered to go get it, which was a good thing, we would have never found it under Natalie's changing table.

1.  My favorite laugh of the week is the giggles this one produced before bed one evening.  We moved a playhouse out to the living room for a new obstacle for Natalie to master.  Claire jumped in the middle of the house, while Natalie opened the shutters to see her.  Claire would squeal in delight and quickly shut the shutters while telling Natalie to open the window again.  They were both giggling and screaming and the whole encounter had Ryan and I laughing so hard.  What a wonderful way to end a day!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

It's still officially Saturday and it's been a wonderful weekend so far!  We just got the rest of our house decorated for Christmas, I love this decor so much!!

My girls get funnier by the day, but I am not doing such a great job writing everything down!  Here are some of the stand out laughs of our week.

5.  Natalie is quite the climber these days - over everything that is in her way.  The other day, she got 'high-centered' on Ryan's legs and got angry that she couldn't get over them.  We just sat there laughing at her tantrum.   Yet another tantrum throwing girl for our family - ha!

4.  For the longest time, Claire would repeat whatever she was saying until you acknowledged her.  You couldn't get away with 'that sounds good' or 'yes honey'.  It was a 'yes Claire, I see that game, we can play it'.  Basically repeating whatever she said back to her.  I think she's finally over that phase!  The other day, she told me, "stop saying the same thing as me mommy."  Music to my ears!

3.  Claire found an old pair of 2T footie jammies in her drawer (she's in 3 or 4T) and insisted that she must wear them on the spot.  Somehow we managed to get her in them, but she basically looked like a bobsledder, they were SO tight.

2.  As some of you know, we are big Detroit Tigers fans.  We have a Tigers board book that Claire loves to read.  She calls Ryan in her room after reading it and turns it to the page with Comerica Park.  She then screams while jumping up and down, "That's Co-Erica Park, when I grow up, I'm going to play baseball there.  I will be the. FASTEST. RUNNER. EVER"   That's our girl, super competitive at 2 years old.

1.  Natalie has taken to shaking her head 'no'.  She started this at daycare and I hadn't seen it yet. The next day, I went to lay her down for her nap and told her it was time for night night.  She responded with the most vigorous head shake to date. I seriously cracked up over it.  

Enjoy your week!  I am looking forward to finishing up my shopping (three stores to visit, hopefully all the same day since two are for giftcards), mailing my Christmas cards and getting started on the wrapping.  I also hope to be holding a squishy newborn since my little sister is due anyday with my newest nephew/niece.

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

What a long week!  I only had to work two days last week, so I didn't think this weekend would ever get here!! We are going to get our Christmas tree tomorrow which makes me SO excited.  I love when the house is decorated for Christmas, I really wish it would stay that way for longer than a month!

5.  Claire is the queen of slow moving if she doesn't want to do something.  It seems to be especially true when I am trying to get us ready to leave on time.  For the record, we are NEVER on time, but if I'm there within 10 minutes of supposed to be there time, that's close enough, right?.  One day, she was doing a million other things besides putting on her coat and boots to leave.  I was asking her repeatedly, "Claire, please put on your coat and boots." The last time, I busted out the "Claire - put on your coat and boots NOW!" She responded by stopping whatever she was doing, looked straight at me and said, "Please be patient."  Oh my, now she is using my lines against me!!

4.  Natalie is cruising around the house these days.  Literally, you turn your head and she's across the room.  She does not like it when Claire leaves the room that they are playing in.  She tries so hard to keep up with big sis and Claire normally squeals in delight since her sissy is chasing her.  It brings a smile to my face to see them interact in such a fun way.

3. Claire likes to check if our dogs like whatever food she's eating by dropping it on the floor and seeing if they will eat it.  We had gone out to eat with my family and Claire noticed the mess under her seat after dinner was done.  In her loudest, matter-of-fact voice, she exclaimed that "I made a mess! They need dogs here, then their floor wouldn't be so messy."  She loves to have an audience that's for sure!

2.  Natalie has learned how to blow out this week.  Her new 'trick' is to blow her pacifier across the room.  I have no idea how this came about, but it cracks me up every time!

1.  I took the girls with me to my cousin's house this week for a jewelry party.  Claire didn't want to wear the shirt that she had worn to daycare that day, because she didn't think it was pretty enough for the party.  We didn't have time to change her clothes, so I disregarded the request.  She then asks if she could wash her hands.  I told her it was fine and I was going to get Natalie ready to go.  When I came in the bathroom, she had soaked both sleeves of the aforementioned 'un-pretty' shirt.  "I need a new shirt, this one is wet," was her response.  At the time this made me quite upset since we were already late.  I have since told this story a couple times which has made me realize how funny it really is!

Top 5 Saturday {Sunday} Laughs

I figure I may as well keep with the day late posts this week, since I did My Favorite Things Friday on Saturday,  my Top Five Saturday Laughs get the Sunday spot.  I am amazed how quickly the past five days have gone.  I am not looking forward to a full week of work either!  Having so much time home with my girls really makes it hard to go back to work.  We had lots of laughs this week, but I neglected to write them all down so here are the ones I recall:

5. On Wednesday, the girls and I went out to lunch with my Mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew.  We went to Claire's favorite local Chinese restaurant.  Somehow we ended up with all the extra fortune cookies at our house.  Claire ate a couple and wanted to save one for daddy.  When she gave it to him, she told him he had to be careful not to eat the tag, so he had to break it and take the tag out.

4.  While Ryan and I were cleaning up from dinner one evening the girls were playing in the living room on the floor.  Ryan looks over to see Claire picking Natalie up off the ground.  It was a good thing he saw it first and calmly asked Claire to put Natalie down gently, I don't think I would have been as in control!

3.  Claire has been obsessed with playing catch lately. During one of the many games, she looks at me and exclaims, "This is a hard job!"  When I started laughing, she began to fake laughing with me.  This eventually turned into real laughing. She is such a crack-up!

2.  I threw a baby shower for my little sister this weekend.  In the middle of the shower, Claire decided to tell me that we still hadn't given Aunt Andi a shower yet.  Having a toddler makes you realize what a crazy language we have.

1.  One night at dinner, Claire was singing to Natalie.  Natalie then proceeded to make all kinds of noise, mimicking Claire's tone and volume level.  She was totally copying her sister and it was all sorts of funny!  Claire's reaction was that she wanted to sing all by herself, which made it even funnier.

I hope everyone has a great week!!