Saturday, June 14, 2008

Happy Father's Day!



We're celebrating Father's Day early since John leaves in the morning for Singapore. We hope everyone has a great day today and tomorrow!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Like Father, Like Son

Jake is fascinated with computers, okay, more like obsessed. He can't get enough of them. I mentioned to John that he should bring an old keyboard home from work that he could play with and yesterday he brought home an old laptop for the boy. He pulled it out and gave it to him this afternoon for the first time and he was SO excited. This is one thing though that he WILL NOT allow Abby to play with. She can only play with it if he's out of the room. He kicks, screams, and cries to no end if she tries to touch it. He was so cute this afternoon playing with his very own laptop.

Water Works!


While Grammie was with the kids when we were in Hawaii, she surprised them with an outdoor water spray mat thingy. Jake's been a little unsure about it, but this week he finally decided he liked it. Today, we pulled it out and decided to have a little fun in the water. If I don't have time to fill the pool up, this is the next best thing. Although I have to set the spray really low for Jake at first (spraying no more than 2 inches). Jake will actually sit in the middle and play in the water, but Abby loves crawling around it, drinking out of each spray like a water fountain. Today Jake decided he'd also try this to see if he was missing anything.

After playing in the sprinkler for a bit, they decided to take a break and play with the water hose. They love turning the water up high and watching the sprinkler. In the pictures though, you'll see Abby is tired of Jake hogging the faucet and actually decides to bite him! No worries, Jake just pushes her off. (If any of you know of a child proof mechanism for the outside faucet, let me know. I definitely need something!)

After turning the water up high, they both ran to see the sprinkler again. Jake actually played with it and wasn't scared. Yeah Jake! Abby still tried to drink the water.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Our little chatterbox

We'll Abby is our first official talker. Right now she has 5 or 6 words...
- eekaboo (peekaboo)
- uh oh (her favorite is to say this as she knocks her cup off her tray...on purpose of course)
- oeoeo (eieio from old MacDonald)
- voom ("vroom" sound when she pushes her train around)
- tickle tickle (she says this with her hands out, fingers wiggling, as she chases Jake to tickle him...Jake loves for me to chase him and try to get him, she picked this up from me and now chases Jake around)
- and possibly "that", she points to things and says this all the time, but I'm not certain she's really saying "that" or not
- they both have been saying "mommy" and "daddy" for a while now, but I'm still not certain they know what it means. I think it's really just part of their jabber as they say this all the time, not necessarily when they want us.
Right now, she still jabbers a lot, but maybe as she says her few little words, she'll start talking more. Jake is still one syllable sounds for the most part. It's funny to listen to them "talk" to each other. Abby is definitely the dominate voice in the house so far. I'll try to get some video of her talking, but you never know when she'll want to talk and she usually is too interested in the video camera to say anything.

They also crack me up when we sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". This has always been Abby's favorite song, but now that they're learning the hand motions to this, Jake's jumped on board with this song. They both love for me to sing it and try to follow along with me. They really just wave their hands around, but if you know the right motions, you can kinda pick them out in their waving.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Little Surfer Boy & Hula Girl


When we were in Hawaii, John and I picked up outfits for the kids. So yesterday we put them in their new outfits and tried to get some pictures. I also got a ukulele for Jake since he's so fascinated with John's guitar. He loves the ukulele and gets really upset when Abby tries to play with it. He carried it around the house all day when we first brought it home.

The kids were so cute in their outfits, but trying to get them to cooperate for pictures is totally out of the question now that we are so mobile. I actually only got 1 picture with the two of them together and you only see the tops of their heads as they're standing up to run off (in different directions!).

Friday, June 6, 2008

Back to Reality

Well, we made it in from Hawaii yesterday. We took the kids a bit by surprise when we showed up at breakfast. They tried to conceal their smiles as they ate, but wouldn't stop looking at us. Once they were done with breakfast they were ready to play...really, ready to be held.
John and I had a great time in Hawaii although I wish we would of had more time. We went to 3 different places so it felt like we were traveling a lot between places.
Our first stop: Honolulu - the city was buzzing! Tons of tourists and sites to see. We took a tour and visited the whole island of Oahu in 11 hours! We stopped to see Pearl Harbor first then headed out across the island.
Our second stop: Hana - this is a small quaint town with only 1 restaurant, 2 hotels, 1 general store and 2 churches. Not even a stop light in this place. But the road to Hana is legendary. It's only about 30 miles between Hana and the next major city, but it takes about 3 hours without traffic. You average 15 miles an hour as you twist and turn up and down the mountains climbing to Hana. It was absolutely gorgeous. We saw rainforest's, beaches, even dessert! Once we made it to our sea side cottage, there was nothing to do. Which I liked! This was my favorite stop on our vacation.
Our third stop: Wailea - the famous beaches of Maui. This was actually a nice combo between our other stops. You could still relax (although you were secluded), but if you wanted to go out and enjoy the town, you could. I think this was probably John's favorite stop.

Pics are posted on the left side, or you can click here to view the entire album. It's not in order like the slideshow on the left, but you can read the labels better. Oh - I just found out if you click a photo in the slideshow on the left, it will bring it to full screen!!!!

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh311/TxMommy_photos/Hawaii/