Little ones with big ideas!

Walter got a new toy and all I can say is thumbs up to leap frog! It has been helping him to sound out small words and now he pretty much knows his upper and lower case sounds along with each letter. It's been so much fun and has sparked his interest more into writing them too. This kids wheels are always turning! Tonight on our walk we walked past an empty house and he said to us "some day I'm gonna get all the ladders from peoples houses that aren't using them and build train tracks on them all the way up to the houses in the sky." I said whose house is up there and he said "Jesus's." The things they think they can do at this age. I remember as a kid thinking that my sisters and I where going to dig a hole leading all the way to China in our sandbox!

Little miss Rose E is growing up before our eyes too! Lately when I say something to her she'll respond with "oh" or "okay" and if she accidentally bumps into me she says "sorry" and gives me a kiss. She is little miss independent though! Whenever I announce that we are doing something (everything from eating to brushing her teeth or going somewhere) she runs away and says "I hiding." On the other hand though I have never seen a child smile so much as this one.

Still seeing white!

We had to use our wagon for a day as for we popped a hole in our stroller tire (although I can't really complain after how many miles those tires have seen). Anyway, Walter of course thought it was exciting and pretended he was in a train, if you look closely he is making train noises too. Today he also made "band aids for his tracks on his layout to protect them from bugs." As you can see though it still seems like bug season is so far away.
Little Miss Rose E here thought she could get away with taking Daddy's boots on the hike and Walter is "fishing with the mitten" (one of the mittens came off of the string). It seems that every venture out of this house ends up to be an adventure!
Last but not least this leap frog toy has become a favorite for Rose E, it sings songs about counting and she likes to sleep with it, so every once in a while in the middle of the night we will here from her room "hi I'm tad and you can count on me."

Cute as a button!

Walter and I made an Easter decoration today, his didn't have one bear spot on this egg but he sure had fun! Speaking of eggs, today we where at the grocery store buying eggs and he said "mama if we sprinkle water on those eggs will a chicken grow inside of them?" It made it even harder not to laugh when someone else heard him and started to chuckle. He is questioning everything these days, he even asked me why the trains are able to talk in the Thomas stories.
Our little Easter diva here. The kids have been pretending to be the Easter bunny and have been hiding plastic eggs around this house and then escorting them around in this basket. Check out her home made hat too! She wanted a bib for her dolly and then after tiring of it on the baby she decided to turn it into a fashion statement. Her newest accomplishment the past couple of weeks has been that she can know match things up. I've noticed that she now knows where the pieces go in a puzzle and works at it until she gets the piece in just right.

Rays of sunshine!

Gotta love this girls sense of fashion sometimes! She has discovered where I keep my dress shoes! This little diva has learned the phrase "no I won't" too and she's not afraid to use it. It kinda makes me chuckle though, usually it's used when Walter wants a toy from her.
Walter and Rose E were thrilled to spend some time with their cousin Ariel this week (he came to visit during his spring break). Lately when Walter is having a good time somewhere he will say "I wish this day would never end."
It has been a strange couple of days for me. On Tuesday I felt like I was getting a cold and then all of the sudden my face was swollen and I could barely open my eyes. Then I got hives. Anyway, I have been combating it with allergy medicines and am just stumped as to what the cause could be. The kids brought a smile to my face yesterday though, the medicine made me tired so Walter stirred-up some pretend food to make me a medicine to "make my bones stronger" and to make my "eyes less puffy." Then he made "roast beef-chicken for supper." He has been sweet and concerned about me. Rose E made me smile too as for she was playing with stickers and put a Y sticker in the middle of my shirt, I told Jeff she couldn't have picked a more appropriate one! Yesterday she too had problems of her own, she is getting in two teeth and had a fever to boot. At least today though things are looking up.

Snow snow go away come back another day!

This kid literally eats, sleeps and breaths trains! Here he is asleep in his Thomas pajamas while wearing one of Jeff's Chesapeake and Ohio train hats (usually there is a train tucked in there as well). Then yesterday I had to laugh because I made a cheesecake and after I put the chocolate topping on I caught him licking the spoon and when I asked what he was doing he said "I'm feeding coal to the tender."

We have been doing a lot of creating lately with his blocks too, each "layout" has "train tracks"(of course) and "car roads". This one also had "a car road bridge for the cars to go on top and a train track to go underneath it."
This girl loves anything that has to do with laundry! Yesterday I tried to put clothes away into Walter's drawers and I swear she took more things out than I put in. She would spot something and say "I need it." Then when I was finished (and snuck all of his clothes back into his drawer) she looked at the basket and said "play basketball."
Afterwards I decided to take a peak into our yard to look at their basketball hoop and saw that yes indeed it is still buried in snow. At least today though we had 50's weather, woo hoo! I was finally able to take the kids for a walk without snow pants!
It was nice to see some of that snow melt but we still have a ways to go. Here Walter is standing in our driveway.Last but not least Rose E's typical appearance lately (which includes a hat, a necklace and a purse).

Sweet dreams

I have found it interesting to listen to Walter go into to detail lately about his dreams. Most of the time of course he dreams about trains, but, yesterday he dreamt that there was a talking pig and a talking sheep and that the sheep was chasing him so he ran into his room and shut the door. Wow, just never know what goes through those little minds, but on another hand I guess it isn't too surprising considering how many animals "talk" in children's stories. I clearly remember as a child believing that my stuffed animals where all going to "come alive" when I wasn't looking just like the Corduroy stories. Rose E has been telling me a little about her dreams too. This morning I asked her if she had any and she said nodded yes and said "playing Walter." Most mornings this little girl wakes up though and the first thing that comes out of her mouth is "see Daddy" (not that she isn't happy to see me but there is just something special about that Daddy of hers). She is definitely getting a little mind of her own. I had to laugh because both kids wanted to play with a balloon this morning (of course we only had one) and so she was holding it and I said "Rose E, Walter wants you to throw the balloon to him so you can bounce it back and forth" and she said "no thank you" and ran away with it.

Shop till you drop!

The kids have been pretending to "shop" in this house. Rose E is a true girl, filling her cart and bags with all kinds of goodies and Walter has found yet another use for those handy dandy calculators, cash registers. Oh and on another note here Rose E is wearing Walter's sweatshirt. As soon as I open his drawers she is looking for a different outfit to wear.

It's hard to see here but Walter asked me to get some more toy food from the basement (to go along with there shopping adventures) of course it was at a time where I was busy in the kitchen so he wrote me a reminder note for when my work was finished. Speaking of "work" he tells Jeff and I all of the time "I have so much work to do today" and that work usually means playing to do.

Mama's little princess. Which reminds me,"princess" is a new word of hers, now when she sees girls in fancy dresses she is a "princess" and this little princess can't go a day without her necklaces.

Walter took this picture of the two of us. I guess he's tired of me getting to snap all of the pictures.