Archive for December, 2011

Serenity in November

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

***I just noticed this just got saved as a draft and never published!  Whoops!

11/8/11

Today in the car Serenity asked me, “Mama, do cars break?”  I explained to her that cars had engines and computers with lots of pieces, and if any of those pieces were in the wrong place the car wouldn’t go.  And then I added, “Oh, sometimes cars bump into each other and that can break them.”  She thought about that for a bit, and said, “There’s a third way cars can break… if you take them apart!”  “Oh, and a fourth way, if you BAM them really hard.”  And a few seconds later.  “Oh, oh, the fifth way is if you BAM them really hard with a house!”  I’m laughing now and say, “Yes Serenity, if you hit a car with a house, it will break.”  She keeps brainstorming other ways to break the cars… I think one way involved a heavy chair.  Fair warning. She’s really thinking this through. =)

 

11/10/11

Serenity is fascinated by words lately.  Whenever she hears a new one, she wants us to explain what that means.  And then in the explanation there is usually another word she wants to know the meaning of, so it can go on for quite a while =)  It’s fun trying to figure out how to explain words, and even more fun when she uses them.  Askew was the favorite for awhile.

 

She is also loving the idea of twins.  We were wearing the same color one day and she said, “awww, we’re twins.”  She and Donovan are twins because they both spit.  Ha.  It’s cute and so funny. =)  Not the spitting.  At least she goes into the bathroom and spits into the sink when she wants to be twins with Donovan.

 

 

 

Playing Monkeys with Casey

11/14/11

Yesterday driving back from Norman Donovan was fussy in the car.  He’s almost never fussy, but he was really crying this time.  Serenity started singing Twinkle to him to make him feel better.  It was so sweet Eric and I just melted =)

 

Serenity's First Haircut! She was SO good =)

Eric was explaining to Serenity how sometimes girls change their names when they get married, like Tina may when she gets married in January.  Serenity said that she liked her name, and her solution was, “Oh, I’ll marry you Daddy!”  Awww =)  When Daddy informed her he was taken, she said, ok, I’ll marry Emerson.  (a girl from school.)

 

11/20/11

Well, it’s happened.  I’ve never heard these words from her mouth before, but yesterday, thirty two times, Serenity said, “because why?”  =)  It must be ingrained in the genetic code.

 

She’s also asking me for definitions a lot lately, which is a ton of fun.  We talk about different words and what they mean, and then I usually hear her use them.  Super cute, like when she told me her sock “was askew.”  Then today, she asked me what often means.  I was scrambling for an example, so I told her it’s something you do a lot, like peeing.  I said you go pee a lot, so you pee often.  Then she looked at me and said, “You talk often.”  =)  Lol.

 

Serenity's class each said what they are thankful for... She said her Whole Family

11/28

Yesterday I put up the tree, and for the first year Serenity helped me!  I didn’t wait for a nap to get it done (I’d have been waiting a long time as she’s only taken about four naps since February).  She LOVED it!  It was so much fun!  She wanted to help with everything, from opening up the branches to weaving the lights.  Putting on the ornaments was her favorite part of course.  We had finished putting all the ornaments I’d planned to use this year on the tree, and she said, “Mama, we NEED more ornaments!  I HAVE to decorate!”  Ahh, music to my ears.  She also asked several times to make new ones, both for our tree and for Papa’s tree. She loved seeing the ornaments with her picture on them, and the ones that she had made for the tree previous years.  It was so sweet and fun.  So when she found the blue plastic ornaments that were really for outside, I didn’t object when she wanted to put them on the tree even though they weren’t in my original plan.  =)  We just enjoyed it!  Besides, she told me that the branches that didn’t have ornaments on them were sad!  She had to make them happy.  And the branches she can reach each have about three ornaments each.  It’s so cute. =)  And I like it blue and red, even if it doesn’t match the red and green tree skirt. And I loved that Serenity took her lunch and set up her little white chair about three inches from the tree just so she could stare at the pretty tree we made. =)  She also loved showing it to Donovan!  Donovan’s reaction was to stare at the lights, but I think he loved it too! =)

 

It’s very exciting to me that Serenity has some memories from last Christmas… Specifically, when we got the advent calendar down she went through every pocket looking for the gummy wreaths we had in there last year.  I sure hope I can find some more of those or something similar… no luck thus far!

December 29th: Zoo Day!

Friday, December 30th, 2011

12/29/11
Today we went to the zoo! As Serenity said, it was a “GORGEOUS day!” (Thanks Fancy Nancy =) Our animal goal was to see the Alligators. So we got a zoo map for the first time, and Serenity led us past the Monkey House (well, we had to go in and visit them, climbing the rocks there is Serenity’s favorite zoo activity) and to the Lowlands. Then we headed past the llamas to the Rainforest, where the Jaguar was back home at last. Then we took a curvy path past the rhinos, and then we went home. Serenity used some really cute phrases today, and I’m not sure where the rest of them came from. She said, “come on! There’s much to see!” and when choosing her dinner, while tapping her chin she said “perhaps.. perhaps…”

Donovan is really starting to express opinions now. He leans toward people and reaches out his arms to them. And sometimes he actually wants me to put him down, and he leans for that. We were outside and he was adamant about getting down in the grass, and at one point he tried to wiggle right out of my lap because he wanted us to follow Serenity, not swing on the brown swing. He added some emphatic “Unh, Aaah,” type sounds for emphasis. He wants to move sooo badly. He’s close to crawling and loves to stand!

Daddy came home before dark today! They got in a few more swings and now they’re blasting off to the moon!

Serenity loves pushing Donovan in the stroller!


A is for Alligator!

December 28th: Shopping with Grandma

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

December 28th: Shopping with Grandma
Today we decided to spend some of our Christmas money from Grandma at Barnes and Noble! Grandma was available so she came with us! We enjoyed a treat from the café first. I tried the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate that everyone is raving about. It was certainly tasty! Then we headed for the books. Serenity had asked for a new Fancy Nancy book, a new Elephant and Piggie book, and a new Backyardigan book in the last week, so we had that shopping list to start with. We added Knuffle Bunny, a stuffed Tasha and Dora doll, and a Dora book. Then I told her she’d spent all her Christmas money, so if she saw anything else she’d have to trade. Well then she found Dinosaurs love Underpants so she put back the Dora book to exchange. =) We got Donovan a new bath book that squeaks! He loved it so much he grabbed it from Serenity when she was reading it to him so he could eat it. =)

Then we met Daddy at the park for playtime! Then home for naptime and lunch. We spent the rest of the day reading our new books, and I did a little bit of cleaning/organizing. I can almost see my desk! Woot woot! No pictures today, but maybe I’ll take some of the kids with their books tomorrow to add to today’s journaling.