Us at home.

Our bi-weekly Costco run resulted in a ginormous pack of TP that I have yet to put away. The kids played on this for about 2 hours off and on, mostly on... and mostly on the pack of TP. Jake stood on it, Katie stood on it, they stood on it together. Then Jake sat on it and Katie pushed him around the house. Till it landed here, in our living room.

I was getting dinner ready on Saturday night (I think it was Saturday) and when I checked on the kids (a case of the "too quiets") I found this: Two kids playing happily on our rolled up living room rug. Oh, and see the puppy Katie is holding? It's actually Jacobs. And he likes it. But so does she. She wanted 10 of them for her birthday until I menitoned that if she got 10 of them, there would be no other gifts for her to open. She decided she might only need 5.

Katie and Jake in a quiet moment. I don't remember what I was watching... I hope it's not Real Housewives or something like that... (but it probably was. Either that or Food Network.)

This is not good and should probably have been an indicator that we have a "situation" on our hands. I posted about this. (Hint: check out the post about hospital visits to see the story. And no, we haven't actually needed to go to the hospital. Yet.)

How can they be so cute!? There have been more of these quiet moments lately.

Katie likes my shoes. She found these in my closet (probably while searching for one of her toys I hid in the closet. Needless to say she's not supposed to be in there.) and did not want to take them off of her feet. I was going to press it and take them away so they wouldn't be scuffed up but once I tried them on, I realized why I had only worn them once. They hurt. So I gave them to her for keeps. She was very excited.

Now for some other fun pics:

Katie and I went to Big Lots and she found many toys she felt were necessary to her birthday happiness. Please do not buy them for her. She needs clothes, shoes, and hair ribbons more.

Just kidding. Kind of. I mean, she does have lots of toys and only plays with Jake's. So maybe not kidding... hmmm.

Well, here they are since they are all ready to upload:

Will we be on a first-name basis with staff at our local hospital?

This week has been... Challenging.

With two kids who seemed determined to tag team their sleeping and coordinated the effort so well that not one blessed night gave me a full night of that very valuable shut eye, Jacob's extra efforts to fall, tumble, and flip off of the many surfaces he can climb onto at home (and we're finding that there are MANY that fit the bill now), and Katie's ability to go from happy girl to angry *grrr* monster (but still pretty cute) with her naughty talk backs and excessive use of the word "NO", well, like I said... Challenging.

Tonight was full of excitement of the falling/running kind. Jake was playing in the dining room where we have a small bench for the toy castle and toy house to set on. He must have tried to climb onto the bench. It fell, he cried, I was taking a nap so I pretended to sleep on. John handled the situation and since he didn't come charging into the room with a bleeding baby in his arms, I figured I was safe to continue in my ignorant bliss. Plus, I didn't have to wonder what happened for too long; Katie came in to give me the scoop. And also to ask for a refill of super duper juice. I was shocked when, after I told her I was taking a nap right now but I would get her some after I woke up, she said okay and headed out of the bedroom. She shut the door on her way out and I slept for another 20 minutes! Shocked.

Oh, and later in the evening Katie and Jacob were running through the house. Katie was holding Jake's hand and pulling him along in her wake. Well, she was holding his right hand in her left and not being too careful about her brothers need for personal space. As she rounded the corner into the dining room, I cringed, waiting for him to smack into the wall or table and breathed a sigh of relief when he cleared them. I stuck my head around the corner to see what happened on the next turn and saw Jake run (or be pulled) right into the play kitchen. Katie didn't even look back at the noise... she just kept pulling. Jake reoriented himself, and off they went. I laughed. Because it was kind of funny.

And for a little more excitement, tonight Jake was laying on the couch and *somebody* was standing on the arm of the sofa. I told Katie (oops, did I just give away the identity of the culprit?) to please get down carefully. She didn't seem to have her "listening ears" on. I told her again and something got through. She looked at me, wobbled, tried to balance but with no luck. She didn't step ON Jakes head exactly, but her foot did come into forceful contact with the side of his head on the way to the couch. He cried. Katie was sorry. We moved on.

And about 5 minutes later, it was deja vu. Katie balancing, Jake's head resting close to Katie.
And she slid off of the arm of the couch. And kind of laid down on Jakes side. She was getting up... and she slid down onto him again.

Arg.

More crying, another apology.

But we got it worked out.

Other than that, there wasn't any other kid to kid angst... Just Jake falling off of stuff he tried to climb. And he's only 1. Great. Lots of time to get on a first-name basis with staff at our local hospital.

Fun times.