Early Voting

David went with me to Early Voting today. He was a hit with all the little old ladies working at the voting place. There was only one other couple voting at the same time as us, so David was able to sit at one of the voting booths. I tore a piece of paper from my wallet & he used the marker they provide to vote on his own ballot. He was very proud of this ballot! He followed me up to the ballot box and tried to stick his in the slot also, but I was afraid that might mess something up down the line, so I stopped him.

He got voting marker all over his fingers while we were there. Here he is showing us his messy fingers... oops... he'd already washed dishes! : )

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I had thought I was going to get off by myself to go vote, but I had to go back inside the house to get my wallet & David overheard me saying I was going to vote. He said he wanted to go and he started getting very upset about not getting to go. I told him he'd have to be good & he could go. He was indeed good, BUT turns out he thought I had said I was going to go to a BOAT! He kept asking where the boat was and when we were going to get in the boat!

It was a rainbow kind of day

Edited to add: I've gotten a few comments asking about the colored macaroni, so my Wordless post will now be wordy.

First of all, David spilled the jar of macaroni on the floor and we've been teaching him not to eat food off the floor, so... macaroni art! Two of David's handfuls of macaroni went into a baggie. Then I added 4 drops of food coloring and sealed tightly. Then David, with just a little help & encouragement, shook & squished the baggie until the noodles were covered with color. We spread them on newsprint to dry, then made the macaroni rainbow.
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I've been testing out a few recipes like this lately, which I'm including in my new e-book, Made With Love Recipes for Arts & Crafts, which will be for sale at the Homeschool eStore when it's finished.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Playing in the yard, David (3.75) asks, "Can we share it?" He's asking about his lawnmower. What he really means is, "Can I take it from Elizabeth?"

One night in the tub, David laid down to "swim" amongst the fish & duckies:
I'm swimming!
Fish swim, too!
Ducks swim, too!
Tadpoles swim, too!
Octopusses swim, too!



I started teaching David to sign at about 18 months, when he still wasn't talking. Now that he's talking non-stop, he still throws a sign in every once in a while. His fingers never have cooperated, but here you can see in this photo, while turned backwards, he finally got his fingers to say, "I love you!" He can do it with both hands, now, and is quite proud of the accomplishment. Now we can teach him to sign, "Live long and prosper." (jk)

One afternoon while he was sitting on the couch with the sun shining on him, I asked if the warm sun felt good. David replied, "No. The sun is hot. We need to blow on it."

I've lost track of the words Elizabeth (13 mo) has started saying, there's been so many! She never ceases to amaze me. The newest addition to her vocabulary is, "Night night!" She includes the exclamation point, too!

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Don't those eyes melt your heart?!

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For more Tiny Talk Tuesday, visit Not Before 7.

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Hey, leave me a comment!

Growing

Spring must be on it's way, because things sure are growing around here!

Look at that lanky little boy! In the last month, he has grown an inch taller!










Elizabeth wore her first pony tail Sunday afternoon!


And she roamed around the yard for the first time, too! She just crawled back & forth, gave Bob Barker a nose kiss, watched David, and crawled some more.

Doesn't that look like a pilates move?

Bubble Painting

Today, David & I made a bubble painting! We added food coloring to bubbles & let the bubbles pop & drip over his big tablet. It was a lot of fun!

If you look closely, you can see a little bubble sitting there on the paper!

This is the finished masterpiece under poor lighting. It's really pretty in person! I think we'll probably do this again some day.

Our Hearth

This is a photo of the old house down at Auburn. If you click on the photo you can see it larger. Looking out of the upstairs window is my dad (aka Grandpa) and his cousin, Darla. I also included Grandmama's handwriting from the back of the photo. At some point my Grandaddy's parents lived in this house (maybe 1946-1956), but they did not build it.


The remains of the house are beginning to form a pile on land that my dad still owns.


David & Elizabeth's Dad had a great idea to reclaim some family history, so we've been collecting the chimney bricks and will use them to build the hearth for our wood stove.

As the house has fallen down and laid on the ground for years & years, some of the bricks had become buried in the grass & dirt. Some had fallen through the floor boards.

Dad said if it had been any warmer, he wouldn't have stuck his hands under this house!

We also collected brick from an old house at the North Place. Nobody in our family ever lived there, but my Grandaddy bought the land about 1951.

Some of the bricks fron the kitchen chimney at the Auburn house had stars imprinted on them, while the fireplace bricks were plain. The bricks from the North Place fireplace were Ferris bricks, but the kitchen chimney was plain bricks.

Dad calculated that we'd need 230 bricks for the hearth. Extras will be used around the landscaping.

Wordless Wednesday: This doesn't seem right to me!

Sign in front of a public school

in Fort Worth, Texas.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

The other night while reading books, we had this conversation...

Mom: Are we gonna read Goodnight Moon?

David: Uh-huh.

Mom: What else do you want to read tonight?

David: Good Morning Sun?

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See more Tiny Talk over at Mary's... maybe (she's moving this week).

Goo Day!

Today while Elizabeth was napping, David & I made blue goo! He especially enjoyed mixing in the blue coloring.

Here at the end it was getting thick enough to pick up really well, but then it would turn back into a liquid in his hand. We're talking hours of entertainment here...

Spell check is still not working. So if you see any typos, just don't worry about it. Remember I've lost brain cells with each pregnancy.

Happy Valentine's Day

We're slowly getting well around here and I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged! I'm sure I've missed telling you about all sorts of wonderful things going on in our lives, though right now I can't think of a single thing! David & Mom are on antibiotics to get us over the crud...

For Valentine's Day, Dad attended Aunt Rhoda's funeral, David ate almost a whole plate of Valentine cookies that Grana made, and we ate heart shapped pizza at home for supper.

Oh, forced weaning!

Yep. Elizabeth had started weaning herself to some extent, but thanks to Mom's antibiotic and presctiption Robitussin with Codine, breast feeding had to come to a screeching halt. Perhaps it was harder on me than Elizabeth, because it hurt like the dickens for about 4 days. She just seemed a little fussier than usual, especially around times when she was used to BFing. I had already learned that she needed lactose free milk, so with that, she's doing pretty good.

To see some more cute Valentiney pictures,

click on the slideshow button below.

Sorry I couldn't embed this one.

You'll have to click "play".

Anybody else having problems with the spell check function?

Elizabeth's Talking!

I may be picture-less for a few days because I'm sick. I wanted to write down what Elizabeth's been saying before I forget it, though, so here ya go:

Sunday at lunch with Aunt Wee & Uncle Bubba, she said Aunt Wee! I think Aunt Wee almost cried! Aunt Wee keeps Elizabeth on Wednesday nights while I take David to Cubbies and has been in the nursery almost every Sunday that Elizabeth has gone!

Monday, much to Grandma's dissappointment, Elizabeth said Grandpa. Grandpa makes funny faces at Elizabeth & she loves his beard!

Tuesday, while during Sesame Street, Elizabeth said Baby Bear. Then I was in the bathroom with David & when we came back, the ending credits were rolling & Elizabeth was signing, "All done!" That amazed me that she recognized the credits meant Sesame Street was all done. Later that day we saw some real live horses & she tried to say horsey.

Let's see, what else has she said... diaper, David, cat, she tries to say kitty, oh - outisde I wasn't sure if she said "dog" or "Bob" (the dog's name), she says duck and quack, Mama & Dada of course, and there's probably more, but my head's too foggy. She amazes me, seems like she's always coming up with something new!

OH - this morning she said "AB". Yep, A-B. So I sang the ABC song & she danced around just as happy as she could be! She's so adorable!

And she has 7 teeth, now! And is crawling pretty good... especially when there's a cat she could crawl to!

I felt pretty terrible today, David's under the weather, too. Please pray for us to feel better, and for protection for Elizabeth and the rest of the household to not get sick, too. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning.

Tiny Talk Tuesday: All in a day's words.

(Keep in mind, I did not say yes to all of this! Some of them came so quickly I didn't have a chance to answer. Some of them were repeated until I did answer!)

Can I have purple juice?

I need a napkin!

Mom, are you coming?

Can we watch Sesame Street?

Can I have more Cheerios?

I need a spoon.

I am a helicopter!

Can I get dressed?

Can I jump?

Can I have a cookie?

Can we go?

Will you stop shooting me please?

Can we go to the library?
Are we going to the library?
Are we going to the library?
Are we going to the library?

Can we look at books?

Can we play?

Can we sing songs?

Can we sing the sing song?

Can we sing the Veggie song?

Can we sing Itsy Bitsy Spider?

Are we driving?

Are we going to the library?

Did we find the library?

Can we get out?

Are we parking the car?

Can I push?
Can I walk?
Can I run?

Can we ride the elevator?

Can I play?

Can I play?

Can I play?

Can I see Dorothy?

Can we go to Old McDonald's?

Can I take my seatbelt off?

Can I have chocolate milk?

Can I have french fries?

(lunch)

Can I have a little drink?

Can we get out?

Can I have a crab?

Can I have pizza?

Can I have a vitamin?

Can we go?

Can we get trucks?

Can we go to Sears?

I see two Sears!

Is Elizabeth laughing?

Can I watch Dora?

Can we go home now?

(nap)

Can we make more juice?

Can I have Goldfish?

Can I play?

Who made a mess?

Can I get Green Ramone down?

Can you fix it?

Can I help?

I am a super hero!

I need to potty!

Am I tt-ing?

Are you tt-ing?

Did you burp?

Can I have a cookie?

Can I have cheese?

Can I have Spaghettios?

I don't want maccaroni!

(supper)

Is that an N or a Z?

N for noodles!

Can I play?

Can we read the Bible?

Can we read books?

Can we read two Bibles?

Can you put Elizabeth down?

Can I watch ABC Sesame Street?

Is Elizabeth crying?

Did Grandpa burp?

Can I take a bath?

Can I take a shower?

Can I have a pull-up?

Can we read two Bibles?

Can I watch Veggie Tales?

Can I have tooth paste?

Can I tell Grandma & Grandpa nite nite?

Can we sing songs?

(more talking as he drifted off to sleep...)

Yesterday, when Sesame Street was rolling credits, I saw Elizabeth signing, "All done!"

See more Tiny Talk Tuesday at Not Before 7!

Happy Groundhog Day!

More of David's Photos

I finally got David's camera located & downloaded again! It appears that his pictures may be improving! Here's Elizabeth in a chair cage:
He did a pretty good job centering Tort for this photo:

And look, he even got Mom's eyes in the photo this time!

This is one of the photos I mentioned earlier. He had all of his blue-eyed cars lined up in a row and took their picture. He had a bunch of pictures of the lineup, but this was my favorite with his toes showing!

He took lots of pictures of his favorite Cars. This is Snot Rod.

And here's his self portrait!