what's in a name?

Ab has a little pink plastic case that came with one of her dolls that she was using today to hold bandaids. It has a picture of a bear on the top and says "BABY WIPES". This afternoon she brings it over and says, "Look mom! This has my name on it! See?, there's an A - B - B - and Y!" Right you are Abby.

I'll huff and I'll puff !

Scott and Celeste Smith were loading up their packed house, getting ready for the move tomorrow, so Sarah came to play for the afternoon. I'm pretty sure those girls played with everything in the house! They started out drawing and putting stickers all over, to fort building - eating a snack inside and playing "Three little pigs" where I was the big bad wolf. :) then they played around with the cars, driving around the house to the "dentist, grocery store, and gas station" while I made lunch. It was mac and cheese and Sarah was telling me she doesn't like mac and cheese. "Only my mom's that she makes". But after a couple of minutes of watching Ab scarf her's down, she digged right in. They headed outside to jump on the trampoline with their baby dolls, and a couple of bouncy balls. Dax was having a great time on the porch swing, so the girls wanted to join him. It was pretty cute. They kept kissing him on the cheeks. They came inside and played with the tunnel and did tetter totter on the blue swing and then went to Ab's room for dress up. Every so often during the afternoon, one or the other would come say to me, "We're good friends." It was fun having them get along so well. It was getting past nap time for Dax so I laid him down, and came out to find Scott had already loaded Sarah up. It was a pretty fantastic play date. I look forward to doing it again.

tut, tut, looks like rain

This is some great March weather we are having. Lots of rain and evening storms with thunder, lightning, and the occasional hail downpour. But,wait! It's the end of MAY!! Here's Dax standing on the chalk table eating a carrot and watching the rain come down. He liked when I opened the window after it calmed down a bit.

We were shopping at Winco today, and I bought some carrots. D was getting restless so I gave him one to crunch on, and he carried it around for the rest of the day rubbing it into his gums.

Here's Ab playing Memory. She likes finding all the princesses and then animals. I think she knows the names of all the characters, and there are a LOT of cards. For a while there she was making her bed before she came out of her room, and as soon as she saw me she wanted to get dressed. Now, she'll stay in her jammies as long as I let her - bottoms optional :)

explain it to daddy

It stormed yesterday evening while we were driving to grandmas for a BBQ and some swimming. Ab asked why it was raining.
JB: To give the trees and grass a drink
Ab: What?!
JB: The rain is a drink for the grass and trees so they can grow
Ab: No Dad! They can't drink!
JB: Why not?
Ab: They don't have mouths!!!

Dax had a birthday, shout hooray!

Well, our little guy survived his big sister and made it to his first birthday!! We had a fun day doing usual stuff and then after dinner, Dax opened his presents. There are a lot of pics so I made a slide show. We got him a little pool, mom got him some shoes, and dad helped me get him a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car. It took him about an hour, but then he was climbing in and out on his own. It's funny when he goes to the side that doesn't have the door, and he'll reach across and pull himself in. He's only figured out how to go backwards, so when he runs into something and can't go anymore, he'll just get out. It's been a ... a... a hard thing for Ab. She wants the car, because, well what 3 ear old wouldn't want there own car?! Started to think that I should have gotten 2 :) But it's getting better. Sometimes the turns they take are shorter than others, but we'll get there. We brought Abby's bike in from the garage so that she could ride around on that while Dax rode in the car, but she's still not haveing any part in that bike since the crash. I'm thinking that I need to get her an actual trike. She'll ride the ones in the stores, but she thinks that her bike is too big and it's scary. I can understand. Anyways, then last night we had the family over for cake and ice cream. Dax had been in a needy mood all day, taking weird naps and he had not slept too good the night before. I couldn't really get him to eat anything, and was a little worried about having so many people over. But as soon as they came, he was his happy little self. I cut off a square of the chocolate cake and badly frosted it, sprinkling sugar on it in the shape of a D. Striped him down to his diaper and sat him in his chair while everyone sang. I got the tray in place with the cake and lit candle on it, and he grabbed the flame- but didn't get hurt. I helped him blow out the candle and he started to fuss. He didn't really get into it until I gave him a spoon!! HA!! It was pretty cute. It was a lot of cake, and he ate a good chunk of it. Then we opened presents, and headed outside to play with the sprinkler Aunt Julie gave him. He stayed back laughing at it while Molls and AJ ran through. Of course Ab was keeping her distance. Then we just hung out and the kids played in the fountain. Everyone headed home. We came inside and Ab says, "I like parties!" Me too Ab. Me too.

Here's some stats on the little guy:

-getting better at eating solids. likes green beans, crackers, hot dogs, cereal, puffs, BREAD CRUST, ham, beans, chips. not a fan of fruits.
-loves the bottle. likes the sippy cup
-champ at walking, climbing, and rocking on the blue horse
-says "dada" and "mama" and sometimes something that sounds like "hi"
-loves to give Ab hugs, and open mouth kisses
-would probably love to become a fish so he could always be in the water
-has been wearing 12 month clothing for the past 5 months
-likes being outside, rain or shine
-still no more hair than he was born with
-likes to read books with big sister

May 12, 2008. Kind of a long video, but funny. They both love to do this and will do it for a good 20 minutes. Sometimes Ab will sing, sometimes not. They were both still a little sick. Dax starts his inhale laugh and it makes him cough :) I wonder if anyone ever did this on the horse?? Let me know Renee.

This is about a month ago. This is how Dax rides it by himself. He'll get really going, but I haven't got on it video yet. He's so boy. He'll get going really far back. He hasn't tipped over yet...

Ab: Knock, knock

me: who's there?

Ab: Mommy

me: Mommy who?

Ab: Mommy Banana!! Haha!!

Ab: Knock, knock

me: who's there?

Ab: Mommy

me: Mommy who?

Ab: Mommy Banana!! Haha!!

5 years

Happy Anniversary to us. What a fun and hard time it's been. I love him more today then I did that day. I love how we can talk, or how not talking says everything. I love learning and growing as a family together. I love how he pushes my boundries and I push his right back. I love how he can calm me. When everything is going crazy, he can just walk in and it's all good. I love how I have become a wife and a mother. How I have earned those titles and work at them daily. I love our goals. I love the hugs. I look forward to the road trips and camping.

We were able to go to dinner tonight, thanks to my mom. A much needed outing after the weeks we have had being sick. It was great to start and finish a conversation :) It was nice to catch up and get filled in on what has been going on and what is coming up. Really nice. I'm not sure if I'd ever hear about some of the things if we hadn't gone to dinner. It was fun to talk about the past five years, the cycles that are in our lives, and the plans for the next five years. I really appreciate everything that he is doing for our family, and am so glad that we are who we are, and that we are together. Go Team Brown!

Five years isn't a long time, but look what we've done! Here's to five more, and five more, and five more, and five more, and and and....

just a note

for a couple of days after the swimming party, if Ab asked to go somewhere and I said no because we are still sick, she would say "Well then I want Aunt Megan take me!" It was pretty hilarious.

Cinco De Mayo

We are on the home stretch of JB coming home, and I know the kids are just going to hug him for hours. If they can get past me :) I got sick on Saturday and it got worse today. Mom planned a Cinco De Mayo pool party, so I asked Meg to pick Ab up so she could go and have fun with everybody instead of being stuck at home again with me. I heard she didn't eat any dinner and sat next to the pool for almost an hour before she really got in. Then when they went inside, she ate a huge bowl of ice cream. That's my girl. Aunt Betsy brought her home, and Dax gave her a big hug. It was kinda fun to be home alone with him. He's such a happy kid. He let me tickle him for about 30 minutes and then crawled back and forth through the tunnel. A holiday for the books :)