Merry Christmas Everybody!

toast!

So if this video seems a little random, you're right. We have a thing about toast.

This clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_aHkrjPo7A is a favorite at our house. Never ceases to crack me up! But seriously, watch it, and then Gen's commentary on toast makes more sense.....

the Readers Digest version of Jingle Bells by Genevieve

Genevieve explains the Christmas nativity

Heavy Lifting required...

So today I was in a store and went to pick up my purchase--in a box that weighed about 40 lbs. (I looked later.) A nice, concerned woman had an absolute fit that my obviously pregnant self was about to pick it up, and I told her, I'm fine, I'm cleared to lift this much.
So she asked me: "Do you have a job that requires you to lift things?"
(I guess she thought I was making this up rather than having actually discussed lifting with my dr...)
To which I replied, "Actually, yes I do. My job is raising my 2-year-old."

(She still went to my car with me. Which is very nice, really.)

Picture with Santa

We took Genevieve to see Santa tonight at the mall. She was quite excited until she actually saw him.... So Robert and I ended up in the picture with her, and it really captures the scope and drama of the thing nicely, I think! (I should add that Santa was very, very nice).

After we got home, we were putting up the Christmas tree, and Robert asked her if she saw Santa today. She said "umm-hmmm." So then he asked if she liked Santa, to which she replied with an adamant "No. I don't like him." Sorry about that, Santa.... maybe next year!

My turkeys make turkeys...

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Happy Birthday to Kathy!

Today is our friend Kathy Wetzel's 29th birthday. And Genny wanted to send her some special wishes.....

A Baby Picture

Yes, we're having a ..... baby. No we didn't find out what we're having, we're going to enjoy the element of surprise and our freedom to NOT plan for this child's room and wardrobe. It's going to be fabulous! Just a little story. With me to the hospital I had to take the doctor's order of what they were supposed to do with me (I guess). Scrawled across the bottom in the comments were three wonderful (although seemingly insignificant) words that I am thankful for: "supervised normal pregnancy" How thankful I am to be pregnant with this little one, and even more thankful that the only reason we were at the hospital was for a routine test. And everything looked fine. In the picture above, the baby's face is on the right, and baby is facing you. You can see some knee/hand/feet types to the left.

Daddy all covered in nenyahs...

Robert settled in for some football watching, and Genevieve brought him 2 green nenyahs, a pink nenyah, and 3 doggies. Quite the honor!

Ways to irritate Mommy if you're 2

When we were in college there were these hilarious e-mails usually called something like "Ways to annoy your roommate" Here's a prime example: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/annoy.html


So the other day, I was certain Genevieve had found one of these lists and was putting it into action..... and I decided to compile the 2-year old version. Please feel free to add more in the comments!


**Ways to irritate Mommy if you're 2 years old**

1. Ask for something to eat that Mommy would really like you to eat that requires more than 3 ingredients and/or a heat source. (Tuna salad sandwiches are ideal here, and extra points if you can get mommy to fix something she doesn't actually like!) As soon as it is served to you, feed it to the dog. Then demand more.

2. Figure out something that Mommy has run out of. Demand it every 4 minutes.

3. When you discover you are wearing something where Mommy can't check your diaper without actually undressing you (overalls are ideal), announce often that you have a poopy diaper when your diaper is in fact clean. Extra points if you can do this in a public place or when wearing a jacket. If you actually do have a poopy diaper, deny it, then run and hide so it cannot be changed.

4. Shut all the doors you encounter. Cry when they actually close.

5. Hide all Mommy's shoes except the high heels. Insist she wear them.

6. Remove your clothing. Cry when it comes off, and insist someone dress you again. Repeat.

7. Hide all the spoons. Preferably all in different places.

8. Announce "Want that, please!" and then scream "Noooooooooooooo" to everything in the room that Mommy points to and asks "You mean this?" Keep yelling, and only answer "yes" the 5th time she points to what you wanted in the first place.

9. When in a store with shopping carts, announce loudly that you want to ride in a cart. As soon as Mommy tries to put you in the cart, scream "I walk! I walk! No cart!" As soon as your feet touch the ground, announce "I RIDE IN CART!" Repeat.

10. Point out strangers' hineys to them. Preferably in a line somewhere, where you'll be near one another for quite a while. Do this as loudly and clearly as possible, so that there is no way to deny what you mean. Be strong--resist all attempts to divert your attention from using the word "hiney" as many times as possible.

The princess has a new throne....

Yesterday, I bought Gen an Elmo video about going on the potty. She thinks it's cool, so then I bought Genny a potty today. She likes it a lot. As of now, she has gone in it twice. Big days around here!

My Picasso

Yes, still with the Elmo backpack. It goes everywhere these days! Here's my sweet artist at her easel---

Gen out on the town

Yesterday as we were outside, Gen was pretending to be a mommy, I think. She had her necklaces, her diaper bag, a bottle, her keys, her backpack, the cradle, and her baby. She even put the baby in time out at one point, because she screamed. It was hilarious.

Our poor Daisy Dog....

At Target today, I was searching for clearanced Halloween candy (none) but found a rack of dog costumes for 90% off... which is about what I'd like to pay for a costume for my furry friend. I got this one because I thought Gen would like for Daisy to be a princess. Turns out I was correct!

In Memory

We got the news that a good friend from Michigan left us Friday night. Kristen Ross died of multiple myeloma, leaving her husband Gunnar, her parents, sister and brother, and her two children behind.

I suppose I have my way of processing grief, and that is to revisit something particularly cool about that person. So I'm posting my favorite pictures of Kristen from the time we lived in Michgan. It was one of my favorite things we did with them, and one of the coolest and most memorable things from our time up north--they took us to a luge track.Kristen and Gunnar took us across the state to a luge track that is/was an olympic training facility, and we went luging. Kristen calmly informed me the week before to be sure to wear all natural fibers in my clothes because the friction from the ice might melt synthetic ones to my skin (!!). She's holding a luge in this picture.

Here's Kristen on the track. She was really a beautiful woman, but to this day, when I think of her, I always picture her in that crazy silver helmet that probably could be seen from space.... and yes, the luge is just as unnerving as this picture makes it look.

Here's Kristen (on the right) with her sister.

Kristen was a good person and a good friend. She had a great sense of humor. She and Gunnar were and continue to be examples to us. I was blessed to have known her.

Halloween Pictures!

Happy Halloween, Everybody!

Here's Genevieve with her Halloween pumpkin she painted at Mother's Day Out. She's quite proud of it! Hope you are having a good Halloween, and we'll post costume pictures soon (I hope!).

Time to Rock Out...

Well, Rock Band is a success with Genevieve. She really likes to play.

Gen has quite a few reasons why she shouldn't go to bed, including:
I go see Daddy!
I go now.
Special treat time, Mommy!
Nooooo beeeddddddd!
I potty now!

Tonight she added a new reason to delay bed: "I rock out, Mommy!"

Current Favorite Little Girl Quotes

Current Favorite Little Girl Quotes

• [We see a dog. Any dog. Usually one on a leash as we are driving past] "Mommy, look dog! Pat? Pat dog?"
  
• [We see any bus or a large SUV] "Big ole bus, Mommy! Sing bus song!" [We then sing "The Wheels on the Bus" ad nauseum]
  
• [An airplane flies over] "ay-plane Mommy! I hear it! I see it? Oh, so high!"
  
• [We drive past a construction site with heavy equipment] "Tractor, Mommy! Guys workin'! Workin' hard!"
  
• [Gen picks up anything to carry it] "So heavy!"
  
• [The sun in shining outside] "Mommy, sun! So bright! Sing sun song, Mommy." [We then sing the very small exerpt from that song on the Sound of Music where they say goodbye, "The sun has gone to bed and so must I....."]
  
• "I ride in Daddy's car?" [Anytime we all go somewhere. She really likes to ride in the cruiser.]
  
• "Oh, wook Mommy! Wook!" [Always appropriate]

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Saturday Robert turned 31, and Genevieve was so excited about his birthday. I should admit that this was partially because she thought it was her birthday again.... but anyway! She kept singing happy birthday, and pointing to herself and hollering "To GENNY!"

She decorated his present, and helped him open it. And she even helped blow out his candles.

But best of all, she wanted to help him play Rock Band! She was so excited about it, and told us "again!" after every song.

Happy Birthday Robert! We love you!

Genevieve's Kissy Fish

Today at the Discovery Center, Gen decided to give the fish a little love...

Little Girl and the Carrots of Destiny

Yes, I actually took a picture of my daughter's dinner. I'm not particularly crazy today (not any more than usual...), I just felt certain that a victory was approaching.

So Gen's not a big eater. She eats certain things, usually pretty reliably. But it's time to branch out. I don't want her to be a picky eater as an adult, and I don't intend on being a short-order chef in my own home. I think, within reason, my family needs to eat what's fixed for meals.

If you look closely at dinner, you'll see a few carrots in the top right corner. This is the third meal that those carrots have been a part of. She has declared them "ucky" each time, made horrible faces, and refused to eat them. So I just keep putting them on her plate. We went with the whole "when she gets hungry enough, she will eat what is placed in front of her" theory. In this case, it took 2 days. 2 days of her not eating meals, whining about food, demanding milk, and calling everything in front of her "ucky." Tonight, however, she actually ate. A few bites of the carrots of destiny--enough to call a victory!

party, party, we likes to party....

Our little one is 2. There was much celebration this week!

Last Sunday was supposed to be her birthday party at the zoo. This was for a few reasons: she loves the zoo, and it was a great way to have her party somewhere other than my house! I had a craft show on Saturday, and it looked like it would all work out great. There are very few weather-related things you can count on in the Panhandle, but you can usually count on it being dry. I'm going to admit that even though I am a very neurotic planner, I had NO BACKUP PLAN for her party. So when we got up Sunday morning and it was still raining, I thought... hmmmm.. could be trouble. At noon, as we were heading back from the ranch and it was still raining (and cold and windy and soggy) we decided No Zoo. Eek! This moved the party to my filthy, filthy house that was not decorated and had no party activities (the earlier answer to both of these was ... the zoo.) We scrambled around, and by 3:30 (with a lot of help from our friends and family) the house was clean-ish, it was decorated like a zoo, and we had cake and activities (we painted the kids faces like zoo animals)! a party miracle. Her party was lots of fun.

...

We are really feeling 2. All of the sudden, it seems Gen would rather argue than do anything. Feels like it takes an argument to do anything: change diaper, get dressed, eat breakfast, get in the car, sit in her carseat, ride in a cart, take a nap, take a bath, etc. You name it, we've argued about it in the last 24 hours. I know this is just part of being 2, but boy do I get tired of the arguing.

...

This week Gen's favorite game has been to "play party, mommy!" She puts out the napkins left over from her party, she makes a cake with her cool cake decorating set she got for her birthday, she puts our plates and drags chairs around, and everyone is supposed to sit in their chair and eat cake. It's pretty cute.

Wendy's blog wants you to help our friends!

Hello friends,
We're asking for you to help out a friend of ours. One of the TV stations in town is running a contest to give away a kitchen makeover. Josh and Careese have been selected as one of 5 finalists, and the final decision will be made by online voting. Below is Josh's entry that kind of explains why they need a new kitchen. Please read it--it's hilarious.
To vote, go to www.newschannel10.com and you will have to create an account. Then you can scroll down the main page and click on the "Living Spaces Ultimate Kitchen Makeover" link. Look for "Josh Wood". You can vote once per account per day until October 20th. If you'd like me to send you an e-mail reminding you to vote each day, just let me know and I'll be glad to. Thanks so much for helping our friends!Wendy

Josh's Top 10 Reasons the Woods need a new kitchen:
1. My wife is a stay at home mom with three kids ages 4, 2, and 1. She is pregnant with our 4th(and final, in case you were wondering), due in April. Due to another series of events, we are also in the process of adopting 2 more children (ages 2 and 1). Come April, we will have 6 kids ages 5 and under. It would be AWESOME to bless my wife pregnant wife with a finished kitchen.

2. We ripped off the original 1969 laminate countertops and realized shortly thereafter that new countertops did not fit in the budget. We set the old countertops back in their place. I am surethat there are 40 year old countertops out there that have a nice vintage look to them. This is not the case here. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at them.

3. The cook-top……Since countertops did not fit in the budget, our cook-top is sitting on/in an old door that we cut tofit for a countertop. It is not as decorative as it sounds. Also, we accidentally knocked over amixer on our cook top and cracked it a bit. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at it.

4. Apparently, the previous owners of the home built the cabinets to hold an oven and a half.Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an oven and a half. So, we have a small single ovensitting in a large opening. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at it.

5. The ice maker ordeal……We put an under-the-counter ice maker in our kitchen. It kept flooding our cabinets and kitchen.After having 3 companies look at it, and after a few expletives, it now functions as an empty tincan holder. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at it.

6. The previous owners of the house had apparently done some remodeling of their own. Wetook down the oddly-placed ceiling fan in the middle of the kitchen and replaced it with a veryfashionable dangling interrogation-type bulb. We aren't quite sure what to put there….probablydue to my lack of creativity when it comes to design. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at it.

7. We peeled off all of the old linoleum back-splash in preparation for putting up some newstuff. Life has happened and we haven't had time to do so. As a result, our current "back-splash" is the remainder of some sort of green bonding substance from the sixties. I am about80% sure that it isn't toxic. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at.

8. I started to build a raised bar onto the counter. Life happened and now we have a skeleton of a raised bar. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at it.

9. When we bought the house, the cabinets were a nice textured ivory color. We soon realizedthat they were actually white after scrubbing almost 40 years of filth. We repainted and glazedthem (by "we", I mean my wife and mother-in-law, I don't understand glazing). After a few yearsthe paint is beginning to chip (mainly due to the kids spilling things on the cabinets, banging onthe cabinets with drum sticks, chewing on the cabinet doors, banging the cabinet doorstogether, and crashing their tricycles into the cabinets). My pregnant wife is tired of looking at them.

10. I may have mentioned this already, but it is worth repeating….my wife is pregnant. We will likely have a reality-show sized family by April. My pregnant wife is tired of looking at thekitchen. Please bless her with this!

Birthday Princess!

Well, I can't believe it, but Genevieve turns 2 today.

According to my bathroom-scale-o-questionable-judgment she weighs 23.8 lbs, and according to my limited ability to hastily mark the wall, she is 33 inches tall. She loves to play with her babies, and help me cook, and play outside. She loves Cinderella and Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh.

Our little Aggie

Gen puts baby to bed.

Here's where we sit every night to read books before bed. So today, Genevieve is putting baby to bed. So you can see her Nenyeh (green blankie), and her pillow. These (along with the baby) are the required elements for sleep, and she prefers for them to be in the chair with her when we read. She has an aversion to them being in bed when she's not, and she refuses to get out of bed until I am carrying all of them. It's funny. She greets me in the morning with "There you go!" and hands me all three.

Potty Time, Excellent....

Look closely at Gen's report card for Mother's Day out this week.... do you see the words "In Potty"? It's a first for us, and a miracle of peer pressure, apparently!

Gen explains geography

Robert had a trip for work to Denver, so I explained to Gen that he was in Colorado. I thought it was hilarious to hear her say "Colorado"! She asks about Meredith and Parrish a lot, so I've told her they are in Oklahoma (and I can tell she doesn't believe me that this is a real place), but I also love her version of "Oklahoma." And the Elmo song too.....

Gen's tea party hat

More jump, please!

We went for a walk, and Gen discovered she liked to jump better than walk. Poor Robert did this for about half a mile. I think he got his arm workout for the week!

ok, I know it's been a while.....

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while, so I'll put a bunch of pictures in from this summer. Here's Robert and Genevieve about to head out to the pool.
Here's Gen adoring her very tolerant Daisy dog.

Gen's new shirt. Guess what! She'll be wearing it again in April....



Recently Gen decided she wanted to sit on the potty.... what a big girl!

Gen's favorite things

What a language explosion we have had around here lately! Gen talks (a lot) and she has a few favorites topics that we discuss multiple times a day, every day. Here they are:

1. The fact that Daisy has a tail. Or any dog. Or animal. She's into tails. Then we follow with a discussion of whether Mommy or Genny or Daddy has a tail.
2. The fact that she (or anyone else) is wearing shoes.
3. The fact that Genny is funny. "I funny! I funny! I funny!"
4. Baby Shelby (her 6 week old cousin). We even drew pictures of her the other day.
5. The fact that Daisy has feet, eyes, ears, a collar, and fur.
6. The fact that Daddy is at work, and there are stairs at his work.
7. The fact that keys go in the car. This is good, since I have trouble keeping up with keys. Not the function of keys so much as the location.

Gen (almost) says happy birthday

Happy Birthday Nana!

Genny's happy

(Yesterday as we headed home from the pool, this was our little conversation)

Mommy!
Yes, love?
Happy! Happy, happy, happy, happy. Daisy happy!
Yes, Daisy is happy.
Mommy happy?
Yes, Mommy is happy too.
Daddy happy?
Yes, Daddy is happy. Is Genny happy?
Yes. Happy, happy, happy, happy.

Gen plays Rock Band

Gen's princesses

Gen tells a story

Genevieve is cautious. But yesterday she decided she wanted to go down the water slide at the pool. Now, I had to go with her, but for the kid who took a month to go down the slide in her own backyard, this is a Big Deal. We managed to go down the slide 3 times, and she was quite proud of herself.

So after dinner.....

"Genevieve, go tell Daddy about going down the slide at the pool today."
"Daddy! Stairs. Whee!"

Yep, that about sums it up. Really captures the scope and the drama of the thing.

little girl hair woes

This morning, I injured myself doing Genevieve's hair. Lame, I know. I hold the little tiny rubber bands in my teeth while I get the hair all combed, and then use one hand to hold the hair, and then a combination of other hand/teeth to stretch out the rubber band to magically get it on the tiny ponytail. (oh, and all of this while Gen pretends to be a hurricane). Anyway, in the "holding rubber band with teeth while stretching it" stage I predictably popped myself in the lip with the rubber band. I think I'll live, but I have an impressive welp.

At a Sunday school party this weekend, Robert and our teacher were discussing the utter impossibility of fixing a little girl's hair, when suddenly Robert realized something that made him feel much better about not being able to do Gen's hair as well as he's like to:
"But Rich, you're a brain surgeon!"

The Toast Pot

Sometimes Genny comes up with something, and I have to admit she is mimicking something I have done. This one, I can't explain......
She has decided that toast is best eaten out of our smallest saucepot, in the middle of the floor, cut up, with a fork. She only wants toast out of the saucepot, nothing else.

ah, the 80's

We were reminiscing tonight about the various 80's fashions we wore, or witnessed other fools wearing............ so here's a top 10 recap:

1. Hypercolor T-shirts. Frankly, this made no sense. I don't want visual aids as to where I'm sweating. I should mention though, that I had one of the first of these in my little circle of 7th grade friends....
2. Hammer pants. What was the stylist on who came up with these? We abstained from this weird trend.
3. Coca-Cola shirts. Mine was pink and white, and I absolutely loved it. I think I wore it long after the trend had left the building.
4. Jeans with zippers on the ankles. What exactly were the zippers for? A shoe emergency?
5. Fold-roll. Boy oh boy did we do this one well.
6. Jams. Why wouldn't you want your shirt to be inside out?
7. Guess jeans. With the triangle on the rear. Fold-rolled.... hot!
8. Converse tennis shoes. I always wanted a pair of black hi-tops. Daring and dangerous!
9. Kaepa shoes. And trying to find a matching set of those blasted little triangle things to accessorize with my neon shirt!
10. Crimping, perms, and other ways to ruin your perfectly adequate hair.

Feel free to add other trends I missed!

Haircut Time

Gen's hair has been growing overtime, and it's halfway down her back when it's wet. It's starting to look a little scraggly, so we decided to trim it up. I can't believe she is such a big girl!

Would you believe that we cut 3 inches off the back? That girl had some serious hair!

2 is a state of mind

Perhaps we should have been worried a couple of weeks ago when Gen learned the number 2. She was just telling us where she (and we!) were going.

So here's some new accomplishments to note...I think she became a 2-year-old over the weekend.

Last weekend "Dada" became "Daddy." And this past weekend "Mama" became "Mommy."

Sunday night she demonstrated her growing fine motor skills as she found a water spray bottle and squirted it at... anything not moving in the house. Here's a picture of her waiting for Daisy to come back in the dog door.

We've been working on "please" and "thank you." She's doing well. So a few nights ago when I handed her a paper towel and said "Go put this in the trash" she corrected me: "peez, mommy." Zing.

She's stringing 3 words together, which is cool. "Good girl, Daisy" is a good one, as is "Daddy go work." AND she actually told me I was pretty (when I put on her very loud mardi gras bead necklace). But pretty, nonetheless.... I'll take what I can get.

She's figured out she likes things a certain way. All snack foods require a bowl, all dinner foods require a fork, chairs belong in a certain place, people belong in certain chairs, etc. And she's very into the number 2... hmmmm, this sounds strangely familiar.....

Doctor Genny

Gen's been playing with her doctor kit lately. She likes to check baby's heart and her ears.
She's wearing her pajamas and her new extra-fancy silver tennis shoes because she demanded to wear shoes, even with pajamas.

After she got tired of checking baby's vitals, she started chasing Daisy with the blood pressure cuff shouting "cock a doodle doooooo....." And no, I have no idea why. But it was funny!

Hungy

My favorite word around here is "hungry", or as Genny says it "hungy." Just a little video of her saying it that makes me laugh every time.

Gen's farm

Target's dollar section had quite the selection of farm animals, so I got Gen a horse, a cow and a pig. She's thrilled with them. She is telling the horse "pat, pat, pat" as she pets it, and she has decided that since the horse's eyes are hard to see, it's sleeping. So she is shushing me to tell me the horse is asleep.

Island Girl!

We took a wonderful trip to Galveston last weekend for my cousin Lauren's wedding. Here's Genny, ready to go, with her "pack-pack."
We went to the aquarium at Moody Gardens, and it was great. Gen loved the fish, or as she calls them, "shoes."
There was a playground at Moody, and Gen requested to play. "Pay, peez. Pay?"
Here we are at Khema, where we ate Friday night.

On the boat.Miss Genny at the wedding, looking through the program. After the ceremony, Gen shushed everyone for a few hours. Wonder where she learned that one.....

With Nana, outside the church.

So every time we travel, Gen learns all sorts of new things. This trip, she really improved her speech. She learned many new words, and she got better at putting words together. One of the new words I'm not so sure about though. She has started calling everyone and everything "bay-bee-dollllllll" Now, none of us walk around saying that (We're not 1930's pimps, for pete's sake!) so I'm not sure where she picked that one up.

Anyway, it was super fun, and we wish the best to Lauren and her new husband Chad! Welcome to the family, babydoll....