Kevin Plays in the Sink

Kevin loves running water. He is short on smiles in these photos because he had greater than 103 fever for 4 days this week!

More than a few times each day, I catch him in the bathroom, on a stool, with the sink turned on! When he sees me doing the dishes, he immediately grabs his red chair and brings it over.

A funny thing about Kevin, though, is that he doesn't like bubbles at all! He has never had a bubble bath until last week. I guess I'm a little bit of a mean mom, but all the bubble bath I have seen contains lots of fragrance (and phthalates), so I don't use it for bathtime. When he was sick earlier this week, I decided that a bubble bath might be fun for him! He cried and tried desperately to get the bubbles off - rubbing and touching his arms and legs! I forgot about this and filled the sink up with bubbles a few days ago for him to play. He again seemed afraid of the bubbles and wanted them OUT of the water!

Chris Reading to Ellie and Kevin

Kevin has decided that he wants to be part of Ellie's evening story time. He usually only lasts a few minutes before he starts climbing all over everyone and pulling down the blinds! On this night, the story time was in the living room, but as you can see, Kevin has already lost interest!

Ellie and Maddox

Ellie and Maddox, our neighbor, cuddling for movie time!

Ellie Rides Her Bike

Ellie loves her bike. She carefully rides it to SMU around and around the fountain! Over and over again! But she remembers the spot where she almost fell, and always carefully gets off her bike and walks her bike over the "dangerous" spot!

She also likes the park her bike with all the other bikes!

Ellie's Faces

Who doesn't love the many faces of a four-year-old. I actually caught one of her favorites on camera. The first photo is the "I'm mad at you face." This time, I was in trouble with Ellie for not listening to her. I was too busy taking pictures for the previous post of Kevin!

If only I had a flower for every time in a day that I say, "It's ok to be mad, but it's not ok to be disrespectful." I'd have a beautiful bouquet!

Kevin's Shoes

These pictures are all very similar, but I just thought they were so cute! But, notice the sneakers...

Kevin has some Elmo slippers that he loves. They were Ellie's when she was his age, but she hated them. He will wear them all day, though! This morning, when I was getting him dressed (in cousin Mason's old PJs), I asked him if he wanted to wear his Elmo shoes. He said, "No... zsha, zsha, blah, hoo". I asked him again, and he gave a similar response. So, I decided socks would be enough.

Then, he climbed out of my lap, went to his closet and pointed to the shoe shelf, saying, "Blah, hoo, zswah, zooo." (Kevin language for I have something very important to say. You just don't understand me.) So, I picked him up. He pointed at a shoe he never wears. I gave it to him. He looked at it and said some more Kevin babble. So, I took it from him and put it up.

He then pointed at his sneakers and said more babble. So, I gave him his sneakers. He looked at them and said, "Ooooh, shwah boo shwa zo. Oooooh." So, I took them away to test if this is what he wanted. Then, he got very upset.

I gave him both sneakers and went to sit in the glider without saying anything. He walked over, climbed on my lap and gave me his shoes to put on!

I just thought it was a cute story because it shows that he is developing preferences about such things. So cute!

December - Christmas Eve

Cousins Carly, Pug, Ellie and Kevin in Nessie's crate! They got in there on their own. First Pug (always the leader of the group), then Ellie, then Carly, and finally Kevin!

Ellie and Pug

I am missing some mid December photos, but I'll start from Christmas Eve!

We spent Christmas Eve in The Woodlands. Ellie and her cousins put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for Rudolph. Ellie received a Groovy Girl to sleep with for her "night night" gift, and Kevin got a santa hat! Dinner was delicious.

Christmas Eve crew - Greg, Megan, Carly, Pug, Liz, Todd, Granny, Grandpa, Chris, Abbey, Ellie and Kevin

"What's that?" asks Ellie's friend, Leah...

"Oh, that? It's a grilled-cheese-getter."

Said with such confidence and certainty! I mean, what else could it be???

November - Arboretum

We went to the Arboretum, and Kevin LOVED one little playhouse. He stayed there, pretending to pour and drink over and over again. He was so cute. When he was done pretending to drink, each time he would say "Ahhhhh." He is so cute!

November before Thanksgiving

Painting on the back deck is something the kids love to do! Kevin does eventually start causing trouble by trying to paint on Ellie's picture. But she loves for him to paint with her, so she only complains a little!

A visit to The Woodlands was really fun, but I didn't take many pictures. Yes, Mom, I will add more once you send me the pictures!

Kevin loved the dog crate, and both of the kids loved the dog! I kept waiting for Ellie to get tired of the dog, but she never did. She really loves animals!

We went to a tree lighting at Market Street, and Christmas festival as well. At the festival, there were ballet and Irsish dancers. Ellie loved watching them dance. She was fascinated!

We also had a tea party with Ellie's two grandmothers, one of her great grandmothers, and of course her mother! She loved the cake and was very cute! She has decided that she wants a tea party for her 4th birthday!

Trial run at Christmas card photos. The lighting was terrible, and I was the only adult around. I was testing out a silly idea for the Christmas card.

Halloween leftovers!

After Halloween, we had a bucket full of candy! We decided to help Ellie realize that she didn't need all the candy! So, we planned an activity. We had a bowl full of "sometimes" and "anytime" foods. She took each item out of the bowl and placed it on the green paper if it was an "anytime" food (healthy) and on the red paper if it was a "sometimes" food (unhealthy). We talked about how the food on the green paper makes us healthy and strong, and too much of the food on the red paper can make us feel yucky.

Then, we brought out the candy bucket and asked her where it would go. She correctly placed it on the red paper. So, we asked her how she would feel if she ate it all. She said yucky, and then said, "So I shouldn't have all of it, but I could keep just 3 pieces and then I wouldn't feel yucky." We agreed! So, she picked out three pieces and the rest of the candy was tossed - without a struggle!

I doubt this will work again next year, but we'll certainly try!

Ellie Reads to Kevin

I think she is more excited about this activity than Kevin is!

Longhorn Pancake!

Chris's dad is the pancake King! Ellie loves for him to make her pancakes in the mornings! She usually requests animal shapes, and mine are usually just round. But one morning, I was in for a treat - a longhorn pancake! Pretty impressive!

Halloween

Here are some pics from Halloween. Ellie had such a great time. We went to a party and went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Ellie was Supergirl and Kevin was Winnie the Pooh dressed up as a bumblebee (so he could steal the honey). During the trick or treating, Ellie fell down and spilled her candy about four times as she ran from house to house! She was so excited.

I carved my first Cinderella pumpkin. Ellie painted the smaller pumpkin and was so concerned that something would happen to it while were gone trick-or-treating. I assured her it would be fine, but oops! Some Halloween pranksters stole her pumpkin, and she was so upset about it! She wanted to "have a meeting, and ask everyone if they are the one who took my pumpkin." The cute part about the meeting is that she actually thought everyone would come and that we would find the pumpkin theif!