Getting ready for Spring

What do you think? Blue or Pink?

Winter 2013

We’ve had a busy winter! We drove to Ohio for Christmas and stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple days. We came back and celebrated Bailey’s 3rd birthday! Have had a number of illnesses; colds, stomach flu, ear infections – all fun things to have. Rob and Brett still do wrestling a night a week and Bailey is continuing her dance class. The kids are constantly challenging us and entertaining us with the funny things they say. Brett and Bailey really love each other and are creating games to play all the time. They currently are into either Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers. Mommy and daddy are typically the teacher/sansei or the bad, evil guy. I’m guessing depending on how they are feeling about us at the time.

Funny things kids say

‘Daddy your muscles are getting bigger, it looks like they are going to break your shirt.’ (This was actually said right after the last blog entry; Rob lobbied for me to add to blog and resend to everyone, but I thought it could wait)

We were eating somewhere and Brett asked to have some calamari. He’s had it before but this time he said, ‘Oh it tastes like fish AND chicken’. I thought that was a perfect description.

One Saturday Bailey suggested we should go to Dunkin Doughnuts (one of her favorites). Brett said, ‘We just went, we can’t go all the time because it’s not good for us!’ Brett has become our voice of reason.

Bailey was playing legos with Brett and she dropped a little piece down her onesie pajamas. She looked upset and said ‘Oh no, there’s a Lego IN me!’

‘I’m done eating; I just want to show off my moves’

We finally got some snow in Chicago! Brett and Bailey were SO excited to put on their snow pants and gloves and go outside. They did snow angels and shoveled, tried to make snow balls. Bailey was making snow angel, Brett walked over to her with a shovel in his hand.
Bailey said in all seriousness, ‘Are you coming over to hit me?’. I could not stop laughing. Who are we? The Sopranos?

Brett had some fish crackers left from his post wrestling snack. He asked if he could have them but in a very whiney voice. I said simply, ‘Not the way that you are asking, you are whining’. He went to the bathroom like I asked him to and I overheard him rehearsing in the mirror how he was going to apologize for whining and if he could PLEASE have his crackers. He came out from the bathroom and repeated almost verbatim how he practiced. I smiled and said, yes thank you for asking nicely. I feel he will do well when he has to practice public speaking for school.

The kids say prayers together before going to bed. Almost every night, Brett asked God to be with Uncle Brett so he’s not lonely.

Brett was running late for school, I gave him a list of things to do before he had to leave. He jumped up from the table, saluted me and ran off. Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing?

I saw a great deal online for girls’ dresses (Rob you may stop reading and skip to next story). I let Bailey tell me which ones she liked, I put them in the cart so we could decide. We were comparing the few that she liked and literally as I say ‘Ok Bailey which ONE do you like best?’ She hit something and the page changed. I asked Bailey what she touched…and then I saw ‘Do your happy dance your order is on the way!’ She hit submit and ordered all of them! Thankfully I was able to contact the company and they could cancel the order. My darling 3 year old has already learned the ease and danger of online shopping!

Brett is obsessed with numbers these days. He is frequently telling us what numbers are on the clock. I can’t remember if I shared, one evening going to wrestling practice Brett read the clock to Rob every minute it changed. ‘Dad! It’s 1 minute after 6!’….’Dad! It’s 2 minutes after 6!’ All the way to Maine South. Now he is constantly asking addition questions. ‘Mom what’s 4 and 4? What’s 5 and 5? What’s 15 and 20?’ I found Rob’s old flash cards from teaching and gave them to Brett. He calls them his numbers game and literally reads each one, guessing the answer and goes through the entire box. This is not a trait from me. I remember flash cards, and I disliked them.

We took Bailey to American Girl for her birthday. She picked out a doll and named her Bella (it HAD to be a B name). She takes her upstairs every night and tucks her in the doll bed in her room. Bella has really helped with the whole little brother disappointment.

Bailey is our little comedian. Rob and I are nightly laughing at her antics. She is doing a great job finally with potty training and is thrilled to be wearing her Merida and Princess underwear. If she goes #2, she asks for privacy, a lesson learned from her brother I’m sure. Then instead of saying that she’s done, she’ll ask me to come in because she has a surprise! Every time she says, ‘I have a surprise...wait for it, wait for it…LOOK! Are you SO surprised?!’

After accidentally coming home with twice the candy we meant to from a candy store, Brett told me during breakfast ‘Mom, you shouldn’t go to a candy store when you’re pregnant!’ Apparently he was talking to his father about my inability to estimate weight of said candy. I said ‘Maybe the baby wanted candy?’
Brett was not humored. ‘Maybe he didn’t.’ Touché.

Brett wanted to play tic tac toe when I was trying to get dinner ready. I told him to practice and play himself. He continued to play then yelled, ‘MOM, I won!’. What a great self-esteem builder

Kids ask to do a ‘sleepover’ every weekend. They break out their sleeping bags for nap and bedtime and get to stay together on the floor. This typically leads to late talking and laughing but it’s so worth it.

Uncle Brett’s birthday would have been last week. I told the kids we were going to meet Daddy for dinner and asked where they thought Daddy would have gone with Uncle Brett for his birthday. Brett said immediately ‘The Owl Restaurant, that’s where he goes with his friends’. Bailey adds, ‘Let’s go and if we see a guy with no hair, than that’s daddy!’.

Winter 2013

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Fall 2012

I realize I am delayed in my blog posting, Rob has been the first to point out! It’s been a busy fall! Brett played soccer and now is going to wrestling practice with Daddy. Bailey goes to dance class and still loves it! I’ve had physical therapy for my foot 2-3x a week and would admit had a rough first couple of months being pregnant! Harman baby #3 is coming this spring! I’m finally feeling a little better and walking more on my foot, just in time for winter. Hooray. Brett goes to Pre-K 5 days a week and I usually pick him up with 4 other kids in the stroller. I would say, we are known for our big quad stroller and the kids have become quite the welcoming crowd for the other parents at pick up:) They are such the talkative crew!

We are constantly working on ‘using our words’ and ‘talking nicely’. I was giving Brett some options of how he could ask for something. He responded ‘I could…I could say that.’

One day in the car, Brett told me he wanted to ‘break through God’s place and go to outer space in a rocket’ I said that sounded pretty cool and asked what he would say to God on the way. He said ‘I would say sorry for breaking a big hole, I’ll fix it when I come back up but I don’t have the tools right now.’ I told him God would probably appreciate that.

Brett and Bailey have been into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We were coming downstairs in the morning, Bailey leading the way. She said it was dark so I told her I would turn the light on when I got in there. She said, ‘Ninja Turtles don’t need light!’ Ok then. She also said at the doctor’s office, that ‘Ninja Turtles don’t need check-ups!’. I have learned that if I need help persuading her to do something, I just need to phrase it that ‘Sensei says’.

Brett was trying to get the kids to play TMNT with him and made reference to ‘Just me and my crew…ok mom, you’re in my crew. If the new baby’s a boy he can be a Ninja Turtle, but not if it’s a girl’.

After Brett’s first solo day of Pre-K, I asked him if he made any friends. He said, ‘yeah there was a kid wearing a Spiderman shirt, so I figure we’ll be friends’.

Brett was up early one morning. I told him I was going to take a shower, he said ‘Great wash off the stinkys and I’ll watch a show’. I said ‘no, but you can read a book on the Ipad’. He agreed and I went to the bathroom. When I came out, I could hear music and talking. I soon realized Brett discovered how to watch cartoon episodes on an Ipad app. I asked him how he did that. He replied simply without looking up, ‘PBS kids mom’.

Brett has been enjoying Pre-K, although it has been difficult to get him ready and out the door! One morning, I was rushing to get him dressed and I said he needed some socks…he said ‘I think you want to get them.’

Right before school started, we were in the car and Brett yelled, ‘MOM we need to go to Walgreens!’. I asked why? He said, ‘They just said come to Walgreens to get all your school supplies! Hurry!’ Marketing at its finest. He also loves Subway and every time he sees it, he yells ‘Subway…EAT FRESH!!’.

After watching the Olympics, Bailey put a necklace around my neck and said ‘Here’s your medal for being the Best Mommy!’

Was tucking Brett in for nap one day, and he said ‘I’m really glad I have a mommy who’s home all the time’.

The boys were at wrestling one night and Bailey and I were relaxing in the livingroom. She said, ‘I’m going to come sit with you, I need some love’.

Brett was playing with the other kids and I hear ‘Oh no, I don’t have THAT insurance!’ I have no idea where that came from.

When I was still on crutches I had to have some help with the kids. Our very tall friend Todd helped out. 2 months later Brett asked if Todd was coming over, because he was the best sandboxer.

Brett is hit or miss on naps these days. I should really feel lucky that he naps at all. I thought he was down one day but came down 90 min later and had a ton of questions about ‘boobs!’ I struggled to keep a straight face as I answered questions like…’can you swim with them?’ ‘do you take them off to shower?’, etc. Oh the curiosity of boys.

Heard Bailey in her room at 6am one morning. She was busting out with ‘I like to move it, move it!’ Then went to singing ‘We are young’. Girl is hilarious.

Another morning I asked Brett if he was ‘pooping’ because he was taking so long in the bathroom getting ready for school. He said ‘no I’m just showing off my body’ and I go in to see him flexing in the mirror.

The kids were a little hyper one day and I was not faring well with the whole morning sickness situation. I asked Brett to do something, I can’t remember what. He said ‘sure and maybe you could go get yourself some coffee’. Bless his little heart.

Before you think he’s all sunshine and rainbows (in the immortal words of the great Rocky Balboa)…when we were coming back from Bailey’s dance class, we had to stop because there was a family of geese trying to cross the road. Brett said ‘If I was driving, I would drive right over them!’ I thought that sounded bad, but then he clarified…’well if I was in a firetruck and going to an emergency, I wouldn’t have time to stop!’

We flew to Texas for Thanksgiving to visit Grandpa Tom and Mia Karen. Our first time to Houston! The kids were so excited to fly and actually did a great job traveling. They had a blast playing with their cousins and loved seeing the NASA Space Center. But their highlight really may have been the ‘Eggs and I’ diner that had chocolate pancakes and chocolate waffles! They have already asked when we can fly again.

Kids have discovered they can hear each other from their beds if they talk loud enough. So they have had nightly discussions before going to sleep. We heard one night Brett saying ‘Bailey! Why are you still awake?!’ She said ‘I like to be awake…all the time!’. To which Brett replied, ‘Be quiet!’

Bailey was playing a little rough with a stack of books, I asked her to play gently. She said ‘Thank you for reminding me to be nice to my books, I love it when you say that…and I LOVE it when you give me 3 treats!’ I had just let her have a snack, apparently she wanted more.

We were eating zucchini one night. Kids liked it and kept asking me to how to say it. After about 10x, Brett said ‘Oh I got it, Zoo-bikini!’

Brett – ‘I need to buy my own house so I can see my wife. Cause if I don’t see her I’ll miss her. I can’t stay at the fire station all the time’

Brett was preparing for Halloween and told me he needed to lift some weights so he had muscles so his Ironman costume would be hard like the real one.

Kids have both been really excited about a new sibling on the way. They were first divided, Bailey wanted a girl and Brett insisted it was a boy. After our last appointment, Bailey said she’s pretty sure it’s a boy now. Brett asks each week how big the baby is. Brett is set on us doing a gender reveal, like Uncle Phil and Auntie Kylie because, ‘we have to know what color the cake is! That’s how you find out what the baby is!’

Fall 2012