Buttercup and Baby Mady

Buttercup loves babies. Loves them. So how fortunate for her that Aunt Anna takes care of a 7 month old baby girl every day! Buttercup has seen baby Mady about 3 times, and she loves to hold her, sing to her, kiss her, etc. Here are pictures and a video of Buttercup and Mady at our house the other day:












































It's so funny that Buttercup is so much a girl and Oliver is so much a boy. They are both special and wonderful in their own way. I'm so glad I get to be their mommy! :-)

Conversation with Oliver

A preview of things to come:

Me: Oliver, can you please go wash your hands?
Oliver: Nope!
Me: What's the nice way to say "no"?
Oliver: No, thank you, ma'am. ("Ma'am" was said with some serious attitude.)
Me: Excuse me?
Oliver: No, thank you.
Me: Okay, well you have to wash your hands before you eat your lunch, so you won't get to sit down until you wash your hands.
Oliver: silence
Me: silence
Oliver: I'm going to wash my hands. He washes his hands properly, then stands in the kitchen, looking at me.
Me: Thank you for washing your hands.
Oliver: I will NOT say "you're welcome".

The teenage years are going to be interesting! I'm glad I have 10 more years to prepare. :-)

Sibling Snuggles

AKA -- proof that Oliver is getting better at tolerating his little sister. Granted, he was watching the bull shark episode of Shark Week (again), but he didn't seem to mind her snuggling with him while he watched! There is hope. :-)

Spastic Dancing and Coloring Sharks

Last night, I dug out some old CDs for Anna and Dennis to make playlists for their iPods. Oliver loved the songs -- here he is dancing to "Opposites Attract". (Unfortunately for him, he has to learn his dance skillz from me.)




The other day, I decided to surprise Oliver by tracing shark pictures for him to color or paint. He was so excited when he saw them! Then he sat down and colored for approximately 1.2 minutes before saying he was done. Ha ha!! I saved the papers and I think we'll try again on a different day. I think I should have gotten the glitter glue out instead. :-)

Sleepy Princess

Buttercup is feeling a lot better now, and is acting like herself again! She even giggled and played for a long time after dinner last night. She's still pretty tired though, so she's been catching up on sleep today.

This morning we all ran a couple of errands, then came home about an hour before lunchtime. I took Oliver outside to ride his bike, and we came back home to find Buttercup napping on Dennis in the recliner. It was just so sweet!





























She napped for about 20 minutes and then woke up to eat lunch. Here she is, feeding herself yogurt. Obviously she still needs a lot of practice with the spoon!

Even more Oliver-isms

Here are a few things Oliver said this morning:

"Do whale sharks swim in the duck park rivers with the bull sharks?"

Me: Do you want to wear your doctor pajamas so you can be Dr. Oliver and help Buttercup feel better?
Oliver: No, I want to wear my construction worker pajamas so I can saw her leg off. And then I'll hammer a nail in her leg. Would that help her feel better?

"Buttercup, you don't have to cry. Maybe some day someone will buy you a big sack full of animals."

"You know, one day, a long, long time ago, I put a lot of hair in my . . . [looooong pause] . . . hair."

"I think, the next time I'm a whale shark, I'm not going to eat plankton. I want to eat a peanut butter and JELLYFISH sandwich instead!"

Buttercup's first ear infection

Poor Buttercup really is having a rough week. :-( She has her first ear infection, and both ears are infected. Yesterday seemed to be the worst though, and thankfully she was acting more like herself today.

This afternoon she took a loooong nap (over 4 hours!) and woke up hungry and in a pretty good mood.















While she was napping, Oliver and I watched some TV, cleaned the bathrooms, and played with his tools. Here's a video of Oliver The Dentist: