Grammy and Grampa T

Here are a few pictures from Grammy and Grandpa T visiting on their spring break. The trip seemed to go by fast. Cole still hasn't stopped saying, "Papa? Mimi?" Especially when I grab the platic plates or when he talks on a play phone, "papa?"

Online check in

I have suddenly become an advocate of on line check in. I had never done it before and never saw a reason. I am usually flying with kids so I'm usually checking in baggage and when you have a lap child you need to ask them to print you a ticket anyways, so I never saw a reason to do it. We came back from AZ on Easter Sunday. Not only was this a holiday, this was the end of spring break and a week that had bad weather which canceled some flights. We checked in for our flight 1 1/2 hrs early as usual, but we didn't have seat #'s printed on our tickets. Turns out they oversold the flight by quite a bit and we were part of the unlucky group that didn't make the flight. It was so frustrating to have PAID for a ticket, but not get to fly. We waited around for the next flight, 4 hrs later and attempted stand by. Not a chance. The playground picture is us attempted to let the kids move around while waiting for our stand by flight (on the not so large airport "play area"). The next TICKETED flight for the Swanks was two days later at 6:45 a.m. Did I mention that my parents are waiting at our house for us to get home to spend their spring break with us?

So we got someone to come pick us up, barrowed a carseat from US Air (not my favorite airline) and went to the Bakers for the night. My kids barrowed pjs and then clothes the next morning while their shirts were rewashed. We hit Walmart for toothbrushes, underware and deodorant. Chad woke up at 5a.m. to start calling and somehow got himself a ticket on the same flight for Monday. This meant he had to call work and go fax in his homework because he couldn't drop it off.

We decided to split up and let him take Cole and Makaila and I would go stand by. We head out for the same flight, a day later. We see the same desk clerk that knows we got the shaft the day before. Chad and Cole get on the plane. After it's all loaded they call one stand by. They call another. Then they call Swank and say they only have one ticket. We tell them Makaila will go if they can sit her next to Chad. Not a problem for her. I'm now freaking out a little because my whole family is on the plane and I want to go home too, but there is still a slight hope. There is a 5 minute hold on 7 seats from a connecting flight. But then I start seeing people rush to the gait. I think I'm toast, but I didn't go anywhere. Last minute they point at me and say, "come on". Someone from that connecting flight must have been too slow. I'm going through the tunnel and it felt like a Rocky movie. The desk clerks are in the tunnel giving me high fives and "you got on!". In my head I could hear the crowds roaring. The only better sound was walking by Chad and my children and hearing, "Mommy!".

AZ spring break

We spent our spring break in AZ. These are a few of the great pics we got from getting the cousins all together. Good times were spent getting ice cream, hunting Easter eggs, watching planes take off, several playgrounds, and riding a train. (Since I'm like a month late in blogging this, you get the short version)

pre-teen?

I got my first "whatever" tonight. It didn't have as much 'tude as I expect it to in years to come. We obviously didn't agree on something as we were cleaning up for bed tonight. . and out it came. "Whatever." That was followed by a quick, "I don't expect you to agree with me, but I do expect you to talk nicely to Mommy". Hmmm. . . hopefully we can avoid that now for at least another 5 years or so. Or at least 5 months?

Pancakes

I had to post these pictures. The pictures of Cole were taken on our recent trip to Arizona over Makaila and Chad's spring break. He was 19 months old. The pictures of Makaila were taken when she was just over 2 years old. I thought it was so interesting to get almost the same shot with both kids. Most of the time I don't think my kids look alike, but when you look at them like this, there sure are similarities. It is also interesting that Nana still uses the exact same tuperware for her pancake mixing!

Makaila lost her first tooth yesterday at school. I thought she'd loose it while I was out of town this weekend with the triplets, but she didn't. Before going to school it was bearly hanging on by a thread. I asked her if she wanted me to take it out for her and she didn't like that idea. She said she was walking down the hall wiggling it at school and it just came out in her hand. Her teacher put it in a bag for her. She was just so excited to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Cole's words

In the last 2-3 weeks Cole has about doubled his vocabulary. Of course to the outsider you may not think he is saying anything other than mama and dada (his 2 favorite words to say), but when you are around him enough you will realize there is so much more. "ba-ball" is basketball which he will say anytime he sees a basketball, a beach ball, a basketball hoop, a ball on his shirt, and basketball played on TV. This is not to be mixed up with "bi boy" which is what he says when Makaila asks him if he is a big boy. He says "baby" and likes to point them out in public, even if they are close to his size but riding in a stroller. He likes to say "bubble" and looks for them everywhere - filling the bath tub, fountains, foamy soap, spit etc.

He can say "wa-wer" or WATER, "wowwy" which is FROGGY. He can say "lamby" for Makaila's stuffed animal. He can say "pop" and "papa". He can sometimes say something that is close to "sissy" for Makaila (but it sounds a little like kitty). He can say boger (spelling?), which he said clearly pointing to his noise today. He is able to say sorry (of course this has only been said to Makaila after pushing her). He whispers "wow" and "roar" (funny he whispers those, hun?). He can say "me!" but in a good way. We like to say things like, "who wants to go to the park?" or "who likes bread?" and we all raise our hands and say "me!".

He does sign language for thank you, please, and more. He is a very good pointer. He "un"'s and points to tell me about what he sees or that this object from our book is outside last we saw it. He points next to him when he wants me to sit or lay next to him. Which of course is very nice to know he wants me to be by him.

Egg Hunt

Here was our Easter Egg Hunt. It was a fun event, but too bad Cole and Daddy missed it. Cole woke up the morning of the Hunt with a 103 temperature. So Chad stayed home with him and Makaila came as my helper. She was a champ! She helped put out eggs and even do a LOT of clean up afterwards. She called her age group "my team" and she knew now that she was in the bigger group, she had to get moving fast if she wanted to get a lot of eggs. The only thing she didn't like about the morning was the only option at that park was a port-a-potty and she had never looked inside one of those before.

Snow

Snow in Dallas. This is March 7th. We've even had a few trees in the neighborhood start to show blossoms before this. Can you tell I really like having my camera back (even though I had to pay to have it fixed and it was only 4 months old)?

Crazy hair

Here's some pics of the kids having fun with the disco wig before I put it away. I'm amazed I even got a picture of Cole before he took it off (it kind of tickles your face).

Salt dough

Here's just some pictures from when we made some salt dough. Makaila had a great time forming all sorts of things and then painting them after they baked. Cole just couldn't believe that I was letting him just stick his hands in it and get all dirty. I always seem to let the kids do stuff like this on the same day I just cleaned the floors.

Fire station

The kids went to a birthday party last weekend. Actually we are in the middle of a string of them. We've had 3 kid parties and 1 adult party in the last 3 weeks and we've got 2 more coming up. This one they got to visit a fire station and check out the ladder truck. The picture of the kids in the truck is deceiving because Cole was the first one who went up into the truck when Makaila was being shy. I will admit, it was cool to see the ladder in action from up close. I think every kid picked the rainbow or bubble gum ice cream, most mess that way.

Drawings

Now, I want you to know that my daughters drawings are getting so good and that I'm really proud of them. Look at the detail. She drew bows in her and my hair. She gave blond hair to her and brown hair to everyone else (even Chad who is sad to admit that is what color hair he had now). There is a watermellon for us to eat. We have fingers and toes. We have teeth. Oh, and the red dots on our teeth are blood. If you've read my previous blogs Makaila has a loose tooth so it is blood from us loosing our teeth. But Chad has been asking me "when are we going to stop having tails?" I can't answer that one. But I can tell you what the circles are. They are belly buttons. Oh yeah. And she decided that Daddy's needed to be hairy to be more accurate. But she accidently put hair on the wrong person, so we all got hairy belly buttons. Yep. Had to share that. Oh, and do you like how I am the tallest?

Male-Female differences

In case you haven't realized it yet, there are differences between men and women. I just wanted to share one recent example in our house. I had put away money for new bedding for our bedroom. I found 2 I liked and took Chad to check them out. I let him picked between the 2. So far I have purchased the duvet, 2 pillow shams, 1 set of sheets w/pillowcases, and the bed skirt. I used coupons for the duvet and pillow shams and followed a sale add to buy my sheets. I have just enough money to buy a few throw pillows if I can find them at a reasonable price (Target, Walmart or World Market maybe). Although I have been surprised at how quickly it all added up, I am proud that I have stayed within my budget. We were talking about how expensive the who thing was and Chad's comment was, "I didn't think we'd spend that much." I told him that was the difference between us because I knew I'd spend that much, but I was just hoping I would have got more for my money.

Hostage?

I think one of our kids is holding our coasters hostage. I'm not sure which child it is yet. Or what their demands will be. Makaila claims she has no idea where they are. But occasionally her memory fails her. Well, that is only when it benefits her. Cole's staying silent about the matter. But don't worry, they left one for the coffee table. If you come to our house we will even let you use it. But if you bring a friend or spouse you will have to fight over it.

Haircuts

Cole got his first "real" haircut. He's had a few trims her and there, but nothing significant (not including the cut big sister gave him). We had Makaila go first so he would see how it is done. She never likes getting them, but always does fine. So we asked him if he wanted to go next and he was just ready to climb up in that chair no problem (that's the picture of him sitting without the cape on). He did not make a peep the entire time. No crying or anything. A little eyes closing when it tickled, but he did so great! That is them enjoying their lollipops after the haircut. I think I need to remember if I go someplace that doesn't give them out to bring my own for them because my kids will remember.

Search for Froggy

I wish I could add all the time in my day I spend looking for Cole's Froggy to my aerobic work outs for the week. A good one was recently finding it in the pantry. Sometimes it is behind the TV entertainment center. Last week it was in the ball box in Makaila's closet. Last night we searched all over to find it inside the seat compartment of his ride on fire truck. Today before his nap I searched everywhere to finally find it in Makaila's doll stroller, inside of a shoe box with a new book of his. How are we supposed to keep up with him?

Loose tooth

We went for Makaila's bi-annual dentist check up. She actually said the words, "I like going to the dentist." after we left. But they give her a token for the toy machines in their office and they give out a free kids meal at a fun diner that Makaila enjoys getting their ice cream. Plus she likes getting a new toothbrush and this time they gave her berry floss. So who can blame her?

But the big news in this house is that we have 2 loose teeth! She is only 4 and we have both bottom teeth loose. I made a big deal about how big she is to have a loose tooth and she is just so excited about it. We've read some loosing teeth book and some that mention the tooth fairy, so it is exciting now to be happening to her. Plus I showed her the small pillow she has been using for her doll pillow is actually a pillow with a pocket for the tooth to put out for the tooth fairy. Now we'll see how Makaila's personality handles this. The dentist said it probably won't be out until after her birthday (2 months away), but if she follows her mother's history she will be single-focused and sit down and wiggle that tooth until it comes out. Hope the tooth fairy has cash on hand.

Groovy Baby

Okay, what you are lucky enough to see is pictures our friend J's 40th birthday disco party. And she so doesn't look a day over 38 (had to put that in because she'll probably be reading this). She had the groovy disco party. Complete with the disco ball you see in the background and with leather pants wearing DJ-ing brother (who you also see in the background). All night I kept thinking of the Friends New Year's Eve Resolution episode where Ross gets the leather pants ever time I saw her bro.

Chad's leisure suit and pasley shirt fell through the morning of the party so he had to go with just the wig and terry cloth shirt. My outfit wasn't the best, but I was pretty proud of the flip I had going with my hair.

But anyways, we had Mexican food and Margaritas to enjoy with groovy 70's music to dance to. Good times were had by all. Except it made me feel old. Not because I knew all the 70's songs (because for the record I DIDN'T) because I was more of an 80's kid, but because of how after getting up early to work out that morning and having 1 margarita at 9:20 I felt like it was 10:30 and I needed to start getting ready for bed. How sad is that?!? But I had several friends also decked out in 70's garb that agreed with me.

Our commedian

Cole is working on more words. Maybe more sounds really. He likes to just sing sometimes. It is funny listening to him. "baa, baa, bap", "bebe, bee" or "ma, ma, ma". It is just more in a singing tone that babbling. Occassionally you will say something and he amost immitates it back (minus some of the harder sounds).

We think he may be our little commedian. He likes making us laugh. He often makes the "uh, uhn" noise until we look at him. This is so we can see the fork, ball, puzzle piece or whatever "funny" thing he has in his mouth. The other night during bedtime Bible story he kept, "un, uhn" while froggy was on his head and we weren't quite giving him the attention he wanted. Finally I realized that he had froggy on his shoulders in the way we might carry him on our shoulders. When I said that to him he smiled and stopped doing it.

Teenage life?

Makaila is giving us glimpses of how life may be as a teenager. She will be perfectly fine all day and then just suddenly have a huge meltdown about getting pajamas on after bath and how she "just wants to go to bed right now" or during dinner time how she "just wants to lay on the couch and not eat". Sometimes I think she is just really tired and doesn't know how to communicate that well. We had the not eating one last night. She had asked me for oranges because she has had a runny nose and we've talked about oranges helping you to get better when you are sick. So I prepared an orange in the way she had asked. We had breakfast for dinner and with it sausages that she just loves. She took one bite of sausages and didn't want to eat at all. She went into this big thing about being sick. We would have loved to just send her to bed as soon as dinner was over, but it was a special Night for Dads at school and they were going to sing a song for them. So they went off to school and of course their were donut holes there. She was her normal self when they came home. Sometimes we just look at each other and say "what was that all about?"

Makaila

Last Sunday we had great weather and we went to a lake to feed the ducks. It was so nice to have a warm weekend in the middle of February so lots of people were there. We pulled up and there was a guy juggling near where we parked. Makaila goes, "look, he's jiggling." I had to laugh at that one.

Then last night we were talking about a thing for Fathers at her pre-school coming up. She said something about how she didn't know if she could go because it was pretty late, at 7:00. She was happy when we told her since it was something special she could go anyways.

new words

Cole has recently said bubble and nana (for banana) at the appropriate times. It will be fun to see his vocabulary begin to expand.

I still think he is going to be difficult at age 2. He is beginning to voice his dislike. Yesterday getting ready to leave he was just having fun playing with Makaila and he didn't want to stop. In the morning it can be hard to get him dressed and change his diaper when he is playing. He will just cry. Really hard. I think he just doesn't know how to say anything so he just cries. Big tears. He hasn't done a really bad one in public yet, but I know it is coming.

scare

Sunday we were watching the Superbowl. The kids were having fun climbing all over the couch cushions. Chad was joking with the kids and pretending to tackle them on top of cushions. They had done this lot of times and the "last 2 minutes" before getting pajamas on Cole got his first tackling injury. Actually we totally don't know what happened. Chad was being really light with him. He put him down on the cushion and pretended to tackle him and Cole just suddenly started crying. We didn't see him hit or twist anything. But the scary part was he did that crying so hard no noise comes out thing. And then as Chad was holding him up to look and see what was wrong with him he went kind of limp and his face looked blue. I am NOT exaggerating here. It was the longest few seconds of my life. I thought maybe he was chocking on his tongue or he had broke his neck. I was planning out our trip the ER. I held Makaila close and prayed for Cole. But then the eternity of a few seconds past and Cole began crying again. After Chad couldn't find any bumps, bruises or dangling limbs he handed Cole over to me. Cole just sat and leaned against my chest and sucked Froggy's thumb for quite some time. We never did figure out what had happened. But Cole was back to his normal self before he went to bed.

playing well together

It is really fun to see as Cole gets older how the kids can play together so much more. Of course I have figured the 2 best times they play. 1. when I want to go somewhere and 2. when it is time for bath or to get ready for bed. I don't know how, but somehow they just know.

There are also pictures from Makaila and Cole playing hide and seek with me. They got inside her dress up box. Together. Of course just as I was coming in the room to look for them Cole opened up the box. But I still thought it was pretty funny.

The pictures with the blocks are when we played in Cole's room the recently. Weather had been cold so we were looking to stay busy. We made the bridge for Cole to crawl under. Then we build the wall of Jerico and walked around it 7 times before shooting. I'm sure Cole had no idea what was going on, but he liked being a part of it anyways!

bathroom

I am amazed at how kids can entertain themselves sometimes. While I helped Makaila brush her teeth and dry her hair after bath Cole completely entertained himself around the toilet. What is there to do around the toilet you think? Oh, play in the trash can with an empty bubble container and eat the toothpaste from an almost empty tube. Then you can flush the toilet a few times followed by rolling the toilet paper roll a bit. After that you play with the bottle of air freshener. And somewhere in all this you get your head stuck between the wall and the tank of the toilet. But surprisingly he didn't cry. He just squirmed and wiggled until he got his head out and moved on to the next thing. I wish kids played with the things they are supposed to as much as they play with the things they are not.

In the Kitchen

The kids keep growing and changing. Cole now has the ability to climb up on our chairs. He will pull up to see what is on the table. (except he gets pinned under if the chair is slid too far under the table) He even will slide it over to wherever I am working in the kitchen to see what's going on. Especially if there is food involved. Here are the kids helping Chad make cookies. Cole is also working on using a eating utensils. He's getting pretty good at forks. For cereal sometimes he holds the spoon in one hand and eats with the other. But it's a start.

Great Christmas

Since I'm like 2 weeks short on the Swank Christmas I'll make it short. It was great. My kids got spoiled. We all got tired of the car trip. Hotel pillows stink (but what do you aspect for $49.95). And it's amazing we got it all home.

There were many hot items this year. Cole got lots of good boy stuff. No need to play with sisters dolls where there's Tonka trucks, tow trucks, tractors and remote control cars. He can build a huge garage of bricks for all his trucks. But he and sister have already gotten lots of use out of their new sand table (that I got for a smokin' good deal on line). He's also loving to bang on a new drum which Uncle Cory helped the kids break in.

Sister got many thing to keep her artistic side going. Pens, calendars, draw on ponies, make up and some clothing like any girl needs. She now can wear her bathrobe every evening after baths. And her big group gift of the Leapster with several games keeps getting used. She is still on the first level of everything as she learns more how to use it. Cole of course wants to push buttons whenever she plays it. She is also is sporting the new watch every day and is sure to tell you the time when needed.

It was great to spend time with the fam and get to know the new brother-in-law a little more. Hopefully I didn't freak him out too much by warning him early Christmas morning I'd sick my kids to jump in bed with him. Ah, he'll get over it.

Hiding

Cole has a few favorite games. Being chased aournd the house is his favorite. The second best is "Where did it go?" "Where did it go" has several variations. "Where's Cole?" and "where's Makaila?" of course are the obvious ones. "Where's Froggy?" He does NOT like. After that his games involve either climbing on things or throwing things with the "UHN" sound effect.

Texas sink

This may be so strange that I took a picture of my daughter in a McDonald's bathroom, but I just couldn't believe that there exists a sink in the shape of TEXAS. Look at it! Do you know any other state that can do that?

Lack of holiday blogs

Wish I had a great excuse to my lack of blogs lately, but I don't. It took a week to get ready for the big Christmas car trip, we were gone for a 9 days and then it took a good week to get back to normal around here. And Chad still owes me a car wash for road trip snacks in the car I drive. I am never a fan of putting away Christmas decorations. It's not just the pure fact of what a pain it is to get the wreths and lights into boxes. It's not how our stuff multiplied (without purchases) and we had to use another box to put away that we had taken it out of. It is all that with the big emptiness that comes from my decorated shelves being not decorated, my front window not containing a tree (although thrilled not to have Cole pulling off ornaments all the time), not turning on lights every evening and seeing them in my neighborhood and realizing all the gifts are unwrapped and the anticipation is over. Kind of sad, ya know.

But what was really cute was seeing the kids going out of their way to help Chad put the stuff back in the attic. Makaila wanted to help Chad carry stuff and then Cole REALLY wanted to help too. So we had to take out these bags of lights so there was something Cole could carry (even though they all fit into one big box). He also has had much practice with stairs and Grammy and Grandpa's and apparently that carried over to ladders. So this is the beginning of his dangerous accent to the attic (which he did with NO PROBLEM). Not too excited about this. Good think we don't go into the attic too often.

You are also getting pictures of Chad putting together Cole's new blocks and Makaila playing with her "new" dollhouse via sometime in the 1980's. I had a tough time because I went with the Santa knew to deliver the dollhouse to our house instead of Grammy's since we wouldn't be able to get it home. Then she caught me when I said I one time. Later I fessed up that it really belonged to myself and her Aunt Jamie. Some day she'll hear the whole truth that Grammy had really stored it for like 20 years and even moved with it to like 3 different states just hoping for a girl grandchild who could share the Strawberry Shortcake joy. The house lasted better the actual Strawberry Shortcake doll (she's looking like she has female pattern baldness), but we've got a lot of dolls in great shape. I think Jamie and I enjoyed the Christmas gift because we researched on the web to see how much it would go for on ebay and what the names of those dolls all were. Can I just say that we had like 90% of the stuff out there between the two of us. I can also say now playing with it again I truly don't know how to get those dolls to sit in the dining chair for dinner time without them falling off. These dolls have NO KNEES if anyone has forgotten. And Makaila just thinks it is so funny that I keep messing up and calling Huckleberry Pie "Huckleberry Finn". I guess she won't get that until high school.