finding a happy place

it's been a while since we blogged about life at the pike house.

in an effort to forget the craziness of dumping spices in a cup, unwinding a spool of thread and roll of toilet paper, knocking over a lamp and breaking it, along with screaming games of tag in the house and fights for toys -- and this is just this morning -- i decided to find a happy moment to remember.

this was one of those perfect days.  mr. pike and i took the kids up to lake erie at the end of august. the day was not too hot, but warm enough with a slight breeze.  the kids played in the sand and splashed in the water.  

little girl and little boy were delightful.  they often talk about going back to the beach, and i'm kicking myself why we didn't go up there earlier in the summer.  we could have had many weekends of sand, sunshine, and joy.  

now we have something to look forward to for next summer.  and a perfect memory to get me through the day -- or at least until nap time. 

hotel living

there's nothing better than watching a show in a king-sized bed.  hotel living.

hanging around

we went to the circus this fall, and since then little girl has been practicing to be an acrobat.  it's a good thing we have low hanging pipes in our quirky loft apartment to practice on.  

little girl has also assigned little boy and mr. pike to be horse riders.  i chose to be a lion tamer.  there's a chance we might all end up in the circus some day.

family night

tonight during family night, we watched the scripture story the parable of the talents and talked to the kids (mainly little girl) about how each of us is given gifts or talents from our heavenly father.

mr. pike and i started listing some examples of talents -- like drawing or playing an instrument, being kind or patient.

little girl nodded and interjected, "or like being funny."

mr. pike and i agreed.

"or watching tv for a long time."

"sorry, that's not a talent.  that actually isn't even very good for our minds," said mr. pike.

then we began to talk about how we can practice and develop our talents.  i mentioned how we can practice dancing or gymnastics to get better.

"and we can watch more and more tv to get better," piped in little girl.

well, we definitely know what's on little girl's mind.  and since she got the application (maybe not the principle), i'm going to count this as a successful family night.  until next week.

when going on a road trip . . .

{little girl heading to the car on the start of our cross-country road trip}

it's important to dress to impress.  

you never know who you might come across in iowa.

i three now

although we're almost a month now from her big day, little girl is only too pleased to share her age. and tell you all about her birthday celebration.  


after seeing a picture of the caterpillar birthday cake i had when i was six (thank you, mrs. jones, for making it all those years ago!), little girl requested her cake also be a caterpillar.  


i could do that.  anything for the birthday girl.  and when little girl saw her cake, she said, "that is the best cake ever, mom."  and even though my efforts are far from "cake boss" or "ace of cakes" -- her compliment made my day.


the best part of her celebration -- watching little girl blow out her candles.  she blew and blew and blew -- with no results.  and we didn't use trick candles.  i kept moving the pan closer to her without getting it too close.  no need for hair fire repeats!  after five attempts, she blew out her first candle.  with the other two extinguished shortly after.

all little girl has wanted the past few months is a bike and scooter like many of her friends.  she only got one for her birthday -- a balance bike, a strider.


little girl picked out her own bike helmet and loves "riding" her bike.  (we are far from balancing or gliding yet, but she's getting good at scooting and has almost perfected her steering.)


watch out for us on the bike trails.

11-month birthday and a small fire

when blowing out candles, it's best to tie up loose hair. don't you think?

poor little girl. she had to learn that lesson for us the hard way.

in a sweet sisterly gesture, little girl offered to blow out baby boy's candle for his 11-month birthday. mr. pike was traveling that night, so i was the only one chaperoning. and as you can see here, i was busy taking pictures to document the celebration.

as you might expect, the celebration ended there. there were some tears and big hugs. but fortunately cupcakes have a way of making the world seem wonderful again. especially, because it was for dinner. (since two little ones didn't want to eat my delicious smoked gouda mac and cheese.)

happy 11-month birthday, baby boy! it's one we'll never forget.

ps-you'll be happy to know that after a bath, little girl has no visible signs from the fire.

too busy

mr. pike and i have two busy kids. they don't sit still for long. and neither do we. (how i long to sit down and eat lunch with a book!)

i can't even get my kids to stay still for a photo. baby boy loves climbing onto little girl's bed and they'll roll around laughing and smiling. i love catching the two of them together. i just wish my camera could catch them as quickly.

why is it that even a crawling baby can unroll half of your toilet paper onto the floor before you finish washing your hands at the sink? or your toddler can be singing and dancing in her room at 10 p.m. while you've been wasted for hours already.

if i had some of their busy genes, maybe my to-do list would be shorter. maybe i'd be burning more calories than i consume. maybe i could keep baby boy from unrolling the toilet paper.

asleep

never quite sure when sleep will finally overtake little girl.

thoughts from little girl

when you're two and a half, you say what you think. and so, we're always hearing about little girl's thoughts or opinions. here are a few of my favorite recent ramblings.

LG: "mom, you say my name starts with 'A,' but i say it starts with 'H'."

ME: "you do start with 'A.'"

LG: "i 2, mom, i start with 'H.'"

___

some nights mr. pike and i will hug little girl at the same time on either side of her. we like to call this a "sandwich hug." last week during a sandwich hug, little girl screamed out, "i the cheese!"

___

during lunch, i left little girl at the table to run upstairs. she met me on the stairs as i was coming back down. in a whisper, little girl said, "mom. i just saw a dinosaur. some parent dinosaurs. a girl dinosaur. and a baby dinosaur."

"are they nice dinosaurs?" i asked.

"they are t-rex dinosaurs. and they will eat us. let's stay here."

___

while the whole family was getting out of the car, i said, "boy, someone smells stinky!"

little girl replied, "it isn't me. i go to the bathroom on the toilet."

happy valentine's day!

over the past few days, i've been telling little girl about valentine's day. and she has been so excited to make cards and give treats to her friends and cousins.

last night for family night, we decorated sugar cookies. and little girl could not be more happy than sprinkling sugar all over.

(purple was her favorite, because it matched her pajamas. and when the purple sprinkles were all gone, she wanted to know where it all went. fortunately, red was next best.)

take 33 seconds to watch little girl finish off her decorating magic. i'm sure you'll be wishing that we were bringing some cookies your way!

lots of love to all of you! happy valentine's day!

when it's time to sleep

don't forget to bring a friend.

big.

or small.

creativity

creativity comes in all forms. from constructing a bridge to composing music, cooking a meal to creating a quilt.

i have a strong desire to create -- through art, design, sewing, cooking. little girl also likes to create. she loves play-dough, painting, coloring, building.

sometimes as a mom, i have a hard time between creativity and mess. i know some mess will come with creative bursts. i create plenty of messes around here, but my messes are more controlled.

the struggle is when you discover "unstructured" creative time, like when i checked on little girl before heading to bed the other night.

four packages of wipes strewn around her room, even hanging strategically on the crib. that's over 350 wipes.

inspiration must have struck on her way to bed. and there's no stopping those creative bursts. it's just takes some time cleaning it up.

p.s. - when little girl woke up, she looked around her room and asked, "where are all my wipes?" my creative assignment this week, a new place to store our inventory of wipes that's not in little girl's closet.

working on resolutions

i really was excited for 2012 to begin. a new year. a new start to new behavior. on a long ride back from virginia on new year's day, mr. pike and i created five areas in our life and set goals for us individually and as a family.

yet, as january comes to a close, the kids -- little girl and baby boy -- are well on their way to accomplishing their resolutions. while mr. pike and i are struggling to even get started on most of ours.

little girl is successfully wearing underwear. (hooray!) and little boy is on his way to walking. he's already pulling up on everything and taking steps when you hold his hands. (and if you ask me, it's too early to be starting all this.)

now mr. pike and i are just trying to get the hang of one goal in particular -- early to bed, early to rise. we can count the number of times on one finger we've made it. pretty impressive, huh? but february's going to be the month.

we'll leave the overachieving to the kids. (we get some credit for their success, right?)

let it snow!

little girl was so excited when we had our first snow. unfortunately, it was bitter cold, and i didn't want to get out. but, when it started snowing a second time, i took the kids out for a quick play.

i showed little girl how to make a snow angel. she looked at me and asked, "how do you make a wiseman?"

baby boy was so happy to be out -- he took a crawl in the snow and didn't mind when he took a face-full of snow!

ride 'em, cowboy

our cousins gave little girl and baby boy a cow for christmas. it's so fun to ride, little girl doesn't give it up much.

it's pure joy! can't you tell.

another song by little girl

this is for dad dad. it's one of his favorites -- and i caught little girl singing it to baby boy today during lunch. i'm sure we'll one day get all the words, but until then, enjoy.

i am a child of god

two is a great age. not to say it's a perfect age. because there are plenty of moments that i don't like it. but, i do love that little girl is getting things now. i'm amazed at how incredible her brain is working to figure things out. and because little girl's very verbal for her age, we get to hear about all these discoveries. i love it!

little girl also has a good memory for a two-year-old. (could it be all those frozen blueberries she loved to eat as a baby?) she will recount things that happened months ago. she's been memorizing letters, stories, nursery rhymes, and songs.

but despite her outgoing personality, little girl isn't a performer. so, i have to secretly capture these moments. here's little girl singing one of her favorite songs. the message of the song is so pure coming from her sweet voice

and yes, little girl is reading the u.s. constitution. it's one of her favorite books. (that and a cupcake cookbook.) uncle j. will be so proud!

our little cowboys

here are some shots from halloween -- all of our cowboys (mr. pike included).

happy halloween!

trick-o-treat! this weekend we preped for today's festivities by carving a jack-o-lantern. we each took turns designing one of its features -- well, everyone except baby boy. then mr. pike did the carving. it's a jolly, spooky pumpkin.

for weeks, little girl has been telling everyone that she's going to be a cowboy. i drove to the city last week to buy her some boots. i went to four different stores looking for a hat. and i burned the midnight oil saturday finishing a red-checked shirt and pleather vest. (i want a pleather vest now, too.)

then this morning, as we got ready for our halloween party, she didn't want to dress up. when our friends started showing up for the festivities, a friend asked her if she was a princess (because little girl had on a tulle skirt on). and little girl said, "no. i a girl."

so, if i'm lucky, little girl will wear her costume tonight and we'll take some pictures to share.

happy HALLOWEEN!