Frozen in Time

Does anyone know how to freeze children at the age they are at right now? I seriously want Peyton to stay exactly how he is right now. The things he says, they way he looks at me and says, "I not me, I doggy!" So I have to call him doggy the rest of the night. I want him to always love me the way he loves me now. Because he adores me, and I love it. I want him to always wake up in the morning and say to me, like he always does with sleep in his eyes, "Good mornin mommy! Good mornin Pay!" And my favorite, "I yuv you more." So does anyone know how to make them stay like this forever?

The imagination of a 2 year old

Yesterday I decided to make homemade dinner rolls. Peyton loves to help me cook and make things. He helped me knead the dough and we waited for it to rise and then he helped me punch it down. I started to make the dough into balls and I gave him one to do all by himself. It wasn't a very good one and he wasn't done rolling it by the time I was done, so I let him play with it for a while. It kept him busy for hours. It was awesome. And it was really interesting to see the many ways he came up with to play with this small ball of dough. The picture shows just a few things that he used to stamp, roll and poke with. It is so fascinating to watch him use his imagination. I don't know why I never thought of letting him play with play dough before. I found a recipe for play dough that my mom used to use when we were kids that I will definitely be using.
These are some of the many things: a dinosaur (for foot prints), a heart cookie cutter, a pirate toy (again for footprints), a scewer, fork, those things you put into tuna cans to drain them, rolling pin (or what he calls it, a 'rock and roll'), and a lego piece.

My new vacuum cleaner

Yep, it's Paige. There were rice crispies all over the floor (Peyton's favorite thing to do) so I put Paige down on the floor and went and got the vacuum. As I was rolling it out there was Paige already doing all the work for me! What a good girl. I think next week I will see if she will scrub the toilets for me, and then maybe folding laundry will be next.

And this is Peyton and Paige playing in Peyton's room. They do this pretty often and stay busy for a little while. I am even able to run out for a few minutes and do a load of laundry or take the trash out. But I can't be too gone too long or Paige will freak out or Peyton will smother Paige or knock her over or something like that. Peyton thinks he's playing but Paige is not amused most of the time. As you can see Peyton is not very happy in this picture, it's because I wouldn't let him take a picture, I wanted him to pose for me so that I could document the moment. Well I documented it anyway.

First you, then me, then you, then me.

Tonight, while finishing up dinner, the kids started acting very goofy. Of course Paige started it as always and Peyton just fed off of her and started getting really silly. I was just laughing watching both of them. They entertain me.

At Least we have our health....

Today is President's Day. Josh and I both had the day off from work so we decided to go to the zoo as a whole family. It would be so much fun! We talked it up for a week with Peyton and he was so excited. Every day he would say, "Monday zoo". Oh my gosh, he was so excited. Then this morning I asked him, "What are we doing today?" "Zoo!" was his answer. So we packed up, got lunch and snacks from Safeway and Subway (ha ha) and we took off for the zoo. Well, as I said before, today is President's Day. It never crossed my mind that every other family in the valley was thinking the same thing I was. As we neared the zoo there was a sign that read "Zoo parking full blah blah blah" And I thought, well let's try anyway. We got into the parking lot and drove around for half an hour with no luck. And while driving around looking for a spot Josh actually said, "Gosh this place is a zoo!" hahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahaha! I thought that was hilarious! I am still laughing at that comment. So, we decided to leave because even if we did find a place to park, we'd have to walk a mile and then it would be so crowded, it wouldn't have been enjoyable. So we decided to check out Big Bass Pro Shop instead, I thought that maybe Peyton would think it was the zoo.

We got there and that place is amazing! We spent over an hour in there and we all had a really good time, Peyton thought the animals were cool and he followed the animal prints all over the place and Josh talked me into buying Peyton this pretend wooden gun. Peyton loved it, he thought it was the coolest thing. So then we decided to go to Freestone Park and feed the ducks and have our lunch. On the way to the car Peyton kept saying "I wanna go zoo, I wanna go zoo" in this very pathetic sad way. So we tried to tell him that we were just at the zoo and now we are going to go feed the ducks. That held him over for a little while.

We had our lunch on the grass and everybody was eating and happy. We were really enjoying our day so far even though we didn't make it to the zoo. And then everything turned. Josh and Peyton left to go and wander the park. Paige and I stayed and sat on the grass and ate cheerios. But she was just in one of her moods and all she wanted to do was pick at the grass and I wasn't about to let her play where the ducks to their business. So I was done dealing with her throwing fits so I went to look for Josh and Peyton. When I found them it looked like Josh was worn down just as much as me and Peyton had been crying. It was meltdown time. Both kids cried almost the whole way home. We were not enjoying ourselves anymore. We were done. At 2:30 in the afternoon Josh and I were done being parents. Done. Unfortunately, our trial period was up so we were stuck with the kids.

It's been a few hours since then, and I think we feel better about our kids for now. I guess we'll keep them, just for a little while longer.

Just a couple for Josh...

Here are your children. Adore them. Okay, that's enough.

No title, the picture says it all...

These are great moments. Now, I post this to remind myself and to remind Josh how great the good times are.