You say potato, I say brown root vegetable

So Will took Marshall out for breakfast this morning while I went to a doctor's appointment. They got muffins and went down to the water in Edmonds. Marshall loves to look through the binoculars and he tells Will," I see the river and the ferry boat." Will tells Marshall that it's actually called the sound, not a river. (To which Marshall, as usual, replies, "No Dad, it's a river.") Five minutes later Marshall is looking through the binoculars again and says, "I see the ferry boat and the noise." How cute is that?

Here are Josie's 2 month stats.

12 lbs 13.5 oz. (90%)

23.25 inches (75%)

head circumference 15 in. (50%)

Big baby, little head. :)

Here's a picture of Marshall and Megan (the girl he was babysat with) on her birthday at the zoo. If only this had audio since they were both telling each other what to do. At this moment, Marshall is instructing Megan on the proper way to walk in the street and Megan is telling Marshall that he needs to walk and not run when you hold hands. Priceless.

He's sooooo two.

So Marshall has decided that when he is not getting the attention he believes he deserves that negative attention is better than nothing......sigh... He normally never lets me get to 3. I have gotten to 2 so many times in the past week and begged, "Please don't make me get to 3. I really don't want to have to give you a time out." To no avail. Lots of time outs in the past week. But there are some hilarious stories to go along with it. I think he knows when I am close to reaching the end of my rope and does something really cute right then.

The other day Marshall was playing in our backyard which consists of a flat area near the house, a fairly steep hill with steps, and then another flat area that Will just woodchipped. So Marshall is on top of the hill and I am talking with my mom on the phone. Marshall decides he needs more attention and starts to go down the steep hill (something he KNOWS is off limits...not only is it steep, but it is pretty grown over and that's normally where we toss the dog poop). So I say, "Marshall, get back on those woodchips please. You know you are not supposed to go down the hill." To which he replies, "NO!!!!" I promptly get off the phone and bring him down the hill to time out, explaining "You don't talk to your mother like that. When Mommy asks you to do something, you need to listen."

Cut to the evening. I have just given Josie a bath and Marshall was "helping" by standing on a chair by the sink. When bath time is over he begs to play in the water. I tell him he can't do that because it's not safe for him to be in the kitchen by himself and I need to go get Josie dressed before she starts to reach decibels only dogs can hear. Marshall stays in the kitchen. I am in Josie's room and I say "Marshall Peyton, what did Mommy say? You need to get out of the kitchen." I don't hear anything and I think he is ignoring me and am getting a little peeved. Right at the moment when stern but level headed mommy voice is about to go to not happy mommy voice, I hear, "No thank you dear!" Clearly he was thinking to himself, "When I said NO! on the hill I went to time out. How do I tell her I am going to stay in the kitchen while still following the rule 'You don't talk like that to your Mommy'?" Hilarious, but still a time out, this time focusing on the "When Mommy asks you to do something you need to do it."

Here's a picture of Marshall playing "minature golf". (He was protesting that I was taking a picture instead of playing with the other lacrosse stick.)

Letting go...

So I figured out the real reason that I procrastinated so long on the bumper. Because it was a given that once I finished the bumper and we got another monitor, Josie would go sleep in her crib. Yeah, I definitely had a hard time doing that last night. It's so funny because with Marshall it didn't even phase me. I think he was in his crib by 3 weeks. But even though everyone tells you how fast babies grow up, I didn't really get it. But now with Josie, I know how fast it going to go and I definitely had a hard time letting her go from brand-newborn to little baby. I swear she was saying "Mommy, mommy? Where are you?" (Actually she slept like a log, only waking up once at 2 and then at 5 when Will got up for work and then I had her sleep with me.....what? I needed it okay?)

In other news, Marshall grew out of his carseat and got a new big boy carseat that will eventually turn into his booster. It has a cup holder. M loves the cup holder and thinks he is something special in his new seat. He wanted me to bring it into the house this morning after our outing to the park. I had to explain that there is a reason it's called a carseat.

Angel Baby

Really, I couldn't have posed her better. How angelic is this little girl?

In other news, I finally finished Josie's bumper. I procrastinated before she was born thinking that I would have a whole month off of work with just one child. Surprise! I am so proud of myself I'm going to post a picture of the whole crib ensemble. My friend Sandy made the skirt when we found out my mom was going to have to have surgery (during April vacation....see the extent of my procrastination?)

Now I just have to finish the curtains and I'll be done. (Will's joking that by the time they're done, we'll be ready to move. That's about a year away...hardy har har....)

Something new everyday

I feel like Josie is changing constantly! She has recently decided that she doesn't mind being put down so much. She'll actually sit in her bouncy chair or lie on her play mat and look around instead of immediately crying to be picked up. She really likes being outside and it immediately calms her down (most of the time... :)). Today she fell asleep in her bouncy chair in the backyard while Marshall played and I cleaned up a bit. (We finally got a nice, warm, sunny day in Seattle to go along with our 16 hours of sunlight. Yippee Summer Solstice!) These are really big steps for her (and me!). (Although I must admit that my arm muscles were definitely benefiting from all the carrying. Two tickets to the gun show anyone?) And today I swear she batted at a hanging cow on her play mat. I mean, her arm definitely hit the thing a couple of times. (Sure she was a little fidgety at the time....but I think she's advanced. :))

Marshall has decided that he doesn't want to take a nap. This is quite unusual for my child. He loves to sleep (truly his father's boy). But Mommy really REALLY needs naptime to stick around. And he does too. He's a super crankpot in the afternoon if he doesn't get one. But the conditions have the be just right for him to take a nap. He can't go down too early or too late. I feel like I am back in sleep training time. I am thinking this probably has something to do with the fact that we FINALLY took away the pacifers. We used croup as the excuse. (You had these pacis when you were sick and we don't want you to get sick again.) Lesson learned on that one. Note to self: Get rid of those much earlier with Josie.

We went to the Firefighter Day at the Musuem of Flight today. Just me, Marsh, and Josie. It was fun but challenging seeing as 1) Marshall feels he has the right to climb into every vehicle, push every button, and pull every lever, and 2) Marshall does not go for standing in line and waiting your turn. Add in Josie strapped to my chest in a wrap and we've got all the makings for an interesting day. Marsh did have a great time, but none of you will see these memories because I can't find my camera and trying to carry Will's fat daddy one would have pushed me over the edge of sanity. (Perhaps I should be tidying my house instead of blogging so I can find things like my camera....nah....) So you'll just have to imagine Marshall insisting that the woman firefighter let him put on her helmet and her being very good natured and letting him wear it. (Then imagine Marshall trying to walk away with it and her holding it on his head, saying, "It's very heavy....I don't think he can hold it up" with a bewildered look on her face.) A good time was had by all, but even Marshall was ready to go after an hour. :)

Like mother, like daughter...poor girl!

Apparently when I was a baby, my parents always knew when I was down for the count because I would hold one arm straight out. (A position you would not think would be relaxing....) Anyway, check this out...



This is how Josie fell asleep this morning. When I put her down both arms were next to her. I went to get Marshall dressed, came back, and found this. It's so funny how behaviors can be hereditary. Like how my parents say sometimes I talk and laugh exactly like my aunts Pat and Linda, even though I haven't spent a ton of time around them. Odd......I wonder what else we accidentally passed down. Poor girl.

In other news, my good friend Ka`iu just gave Josie her Hawaiian name. She is Ililaniokawekiu (straight line over the e). The literal meaning is the unexpected rain that falls only on the highest mountains. The figurative meaning is the princess who sits on high. (Because she arrived pretty unexpectedly in April and likes to be held all the time :)) I LOVE it! It's neat because Marshall's name, Ho`eaikekili (arrived on a rain drop), also relates to rain. (And we have to like the rain or else we'd never make it out here in Seattle!) She put so much thought into these names. The kids are lucky to have their Auntie Ka`iu.

Copy Cat

My poor friend Andrea....I'm copying her left and right. First she sends me a blog for her son Sean and I think, "What a good idea! I should do that." Then she puts a movie of Sean on her blog and I think, "I think I can do that too!" But for the record I bought my purple prom dress BEFORE she bought hers. :) (All of our picture albums are currently in storage or else I would scan in a picture so you all could see what I mean.)

So anyhoo...here's a video of what I found Marshall doing while I was putting his sheets in the laundry yesterday. You can hear Josie in the background protesting the fact that she isn't being held. Clearly he's feeling better. (He must have gotten a really mild case of the croup because we didn't have to deal with any of the horror-story midnight coughing fits.)

We went to see some helicopters at the Museum of Flight this morning. We told Marsh he was going to get to see helicopters and he was thrilled! So Will pulls up at the museum and there's airplanes all over since it's one of Boeing's facilities. (Including planes from the Turkish and Australian Air Forces being repaired...that was pretty cool) Anyway, Will says, "Marsh, look at all the airplanes!" and Marshall says,"Yeah Dad, but I don't see any helicopters." He's a focused little boy.

And for good measure, here's a picture of Josie. We ordered her birth announcements online from a place called Vanilla Print. I highly recommend them. We wanted an additional line put in about Josie being named in memory of Will's friend Captain Jen Harris and none of the other companies would let us customize their set language and not pay a gazillion dollars. They even let us change the color to purple instead of pink. Here's one of the pictures from Josie's photo shoot.

Croup!

So I love Anne of Green Gables....with a passion. And in that book, Anne rescues a baby who has croup. Never did I think that I would ever have to deal with that too....

But yesterday, out of the blue, Marshall woke up with a horrible barking cough and was wheezing by lunchtime. So after nap, the doctor said she could take us. So we are rushing over to the doctor and the poor little guy throws up in the backseat. He was so good too! He didn't cry and was very stoic about the whole thing. I only had an extra t-shirt so he had to wear a t-shirt, diaper, and my rain coat into the doctor. And as I am carrying him up, he looks at me and says "I'm sorry Mom." Talk about breaking your heart! The funny part was even though his energy was low, he was still characteristic Marsh. We are walking out and I held the door open for a woman who said "Thank you". Marsh picks his head up off of my shoulder and says "Your welcome." Such good manners....

Anyway, so we have Purell stations in every room in the house and are trying to make it so that Josie and Marshall are kept apart. (Pretty hard seeing as we have a pretty small house! :)) And things are looking up today. Marsh is still wheezing a bit, but hasn't coughed very much at all. And (cross your fingers) Josie isn't showing any signs yet. Let's hope for the best!

Rain rain go away....

Poor Nana and Papa....they've been here over a week and we've had maybe 2 non-rainy days. And it's unusually chilly. People are calling it "June-uary". We're trying to get out the minute the sun shines! (or at least when the rain stops...) Really, it does rain a lot here, but it's not supposed to be like this in June. And back in Massachusetts it's over 90. Go figure!

Here are some of the latest pictures. (And don't ask about any further potty training successes...it's a sore subject. Lots of sitting on the potty and reading books, no action.....sometimes he'll go right after we get him off the potty. It's his own way of saying, "I'll do this when I want to, not when YOU want me to.")

Hey, when life give you lemons....go PUDDLE JUMPING dressed as Fireman Sam!!! Yippee! (Marshall likes to wear his fireman hat backwards. I kind of think it looks like the flying nun.)


Josie enjoyed her bath with Nana a lot more than she likes them with us. Look at that gut! That's my girl....


Marshall and Papa putting up the birdhouse that Marsh painted the week we brought Josie home. (I have lots of good ideas, but am a little delayed on the follow-through)

POO POO on the POTTY!!!

Sorry friends that do not yet have children, but I need to talk about this because this is a BIG DAY for us in the Roberts' house. We have been trying to potty train Marshall for MONTHS but he refuses to even think about it. I finally got him a new potty seat the other day. It's Winnie the Pooh (ironic no?) and is cushy (he's such a man.....). Marshall finally agreed to sit on the potty since he thought it was a new toy. And on our second try, lo and behold, MAGIC HAPPENED!!! His face was priceless. Like, "what the heck did I just do?" We tried to reinforce the moment with about 50 M & M's. Will's parents are here and I told Papa to keep on handing them out. Let's hope this continues!!!!

This is not a picture of the actual moment, but a practice run from a couple of months ago. (In a few years, Marshall will be mortified that I posted this online. Excellent....)

Nana and Papa love to go to the beach! It was a pretty low tide and they went searching for sea creatures. Nana and Marshall found some crabs and these gelatinuous, urchin-y things (animal identification was never my strong point. We needed Auntie Sarah with us!) that squirted water at you when you poked them.

Here is Josie (picking her nose....she's such a lady) and Keith and Jennifer's daughter Peyton. Josie is five days older than Peyton.

Check out the head control on this girl people! Only 5 weeks old and already such strength!