Sugar Man

I'm still waiting to get the camera from Josh's parents, so in the meantime, I thought that I would share a recent Avery story. Most of you who read this have heard it because I thought that it was that funny, but whatever...

The other day, Avery came home from school and said,

"Mom, D (I'll spare his name) has a lot of things with sugar in them in his lunch. So, I told him that he really shouldn't eat all of those things because, if he does, he won't grow up to have big muscles."

Whitney - "And, what did he say when you told him that?"

Avery - "Well, he told me that he really likes those things and still wanted to eat them."

Whitney - "So, what did you say to that (hoping that she just left it at that??!!)"

Avery - "So, I said to him, 'Well, ok then, SUGAR MAN!!!!'"




The following day, it just so happened that we pulled up right next to D and his mom (who I am friends with) getting out of the car at daycare and she tells me that D no longer has cookies in his lunch because he told her that Avery doesn't allow him to eat sweets any more.

As you can imagine, I was slightly embarrassed and can only hope that she realizes this truly had nothing to do with Josh or I and that it was all Avery. Given that she knows Avery well, I'm sure she realizes this...

Perplexed

I realize that TX and RI are not really all that close geographically speaking. But, I am still perplexed as to how 2 places in the same country can be so different weather-wise. To be honest - it really ticks me off knowing that people in places like TX are living in warm, beautiful weather and then people (aka, me) are living in RI where it is still snowing AFTER the 1st day of spring. Then again, I guess those people in TX will be jealous of us people in RI come July when we spend all day outside in the gorgeous 75 degree and sunny weather and everyone in TX will spend all day inside in order to get away from the hot and humid 100 degree weather. But, whatever....this post isn't about me or the weather. It is about my nieces (and my sister, parents and brother in law)...

Which brings me to another thing that I'm perplexed by...how is it that babies can be so different even when they are at least 1/2 way made up of the same genes? I'm not joking when I say that Charlotte literally wakes up to eat, then gets a bit fussy until she pukes and poops, but then as soon as she gets that out of her system? Is CONTENT. A word that is foreign in the Holland household when it comes to babies.





For a brief second, that little stinker tricked me into thinking that all babies are like her and that I could handle another! Josh was less than thrilled to hear this and quickly reminded me of our not so content times with Alex as a baby. He has a point...

Anyway - my weekend in TX was spent exactly how I wanted it - meeting Charlotte,



playing with Annabel





Helping Lexi with Annabel so that she could get some much needed sleep and so that I could get some quality time with my oldest niece...



and hanging out with the rest of my family...oh, and doing all of this in 75 degree weather.



On top of all of that, we managed to fit in a trip to a Brazilian Steak House for a belated bday celebration for my mom. As you can imagine, my father was in heaven.





I also got to visit the Houston Rodeo for the first time...





Wow. What an experience. I have to admit - my stomach was having a bit of a hard time with some of it - did you know that they put a rope around the horses' manhood to make them buck????? I'd consider that borderline animal cruelty, but who am I to say? It just so happened that Kid Rock was playing that night at the rodeo. We attempted to stay for a bit, but Annabel would only keep these head phones on long enough for me to take the picture, so we figured it would be best to spare her hearing and miss Kid Rock as a result...

After Texas, I flew (for the second time in a week BY MYSELF!!! (more on that later)) to Florida to meet up with Josh, his parents and the kids. It is at this point that Lexi called to tell me that I forgot my camera in the stroller, so the Florida post will have to wait until I can steal my inlaws' camera from them and post the pictures that I took with that...

Holland Motto

"An occupied baby is a quiet baby...."

I have finally just accepted the fact that Alex will always just get into everything. But, you know what? As long as he is quiet and occupied for even just 20 mins? I'll let him. Some of our favorite pastimes around the house are:

Playing with our sister's silly bands (yes, he is finally of the age where he will not put these in his mouth and choke on them, so don't you worry...)

Playing with Mommy's spice rack. Yes, I know I've posted about this before, but as you can see, it is STILL a favorite activity. So much so that we now introduce it to our friends!



Our latest favorite game? Playing with the water in the sink, which involves filling up tupperware containers and pouring the water from one to the other (or all over ourselves or the countertop or the floor). Josh is convinced that the well will run dry any day because of it. I'm not, so I say, let the child play with water!



AND, the best game of them all?????? Peeling the stickers off of canned goods in the pantry and sticking them on our head!!!!!

Keeping Busy

Little Compton is gorgeous. Definitely the place to be.....IN THE SUMMER!!!! Winter? Not so much. The population drops by about 2/3's (resulting in approximately 10 people living there vs. 30) and it is cold and wet and, in case I haven't mentioned it, a bit "out there." That said, it is a challenge to find things to do to keep a 3 year old and a 20 month old busy on the weekends. But, we have managed.

A few weeks ago, we went to the Winter Festival in Newport. Holy Bouncy House Hell. Wow. Picture a ballroom at the Marriott filled with literally 10-15 bouncy houses and approximately 5,000 children. Holy crap.

Regardless, Avery is now big enough to go in the bouncy houses by herself and to deal with all of the other "bigger kids" running around, so she had a blast.

Al? Well, Al had a blast too, but given that he is too small and would get smooshed by the bigger kids, Mama had to be in the bouncy house with him. It was fun....for the first minute. After that, I was starting to get hot and sweaty and annoyed with all of the kids who can't seem to wait their turn in line and would just run Al right over if I let them. Much to their dismay, my butt was just large enough to shove them out of the way if they caused too much trouble. They didn't mess with Al after that.

The only issue that we had was that Al is currently at the age where he has a hard time with transition. And, by transition, I mean leaving the bouncy house to go and do something else. So, basically, every time we exited, I had to deal with a kicking, screaming 20 month old. He was THAT kid. It was awesome. Once he calmed down, we managed to get each kid the world's fastest face painting (not kidding - the rainbow? one sponge with 6?? colors on it). As you can see, not even the large, green shamrock on Al's head could cheer him up after being removed from the bouncy houses...

Avery also got a chance to touch a real alligator



and to watch some crazy scientist guy do science tricks.

Last weekend, it had snowed on Saturday night but was then in the low 40's on Sunday, we got a chance to get outside. Yet again, poor Al was stuck in his sister's clothes.

This time, it was because his snow pants and boots were left at daycare on Friday. The way I see it, he can have the "why in the hell am I wearing pink again?" discussion with Grammy and Grampy, as they are the ones who picked him up on Friday. Anyway - not only was it warm, but the snow was also perfect for building a snowman...named, Melissa.






Clearly we are not well trained snowman builders because, this was Melissa approximately 10 mins after she was built.

And, not only did Melissa die a sudden death, but as it turns out, Melissa was also toxic, as I made her mouth with raisins and her eye balls with hershey kisses - both of which will poison Deacon. That said, after Melissa's collapse, I was stuck crawling around trying to find every last raisin and chocolate chip so that Deacon couldn't eat them. I think that he did manage to find one, but he is still alive and well, so I'm not too concerned. Never boring!

This weekend, we start gymnastics up again, which will be a nice way to get out of the house on Saturdays up through May and then hopefully we will be back in playground and beach weather. This time around with gymnastics proves to be even more exciting, as Al is officially participating. Lord help me with the "transition"with that one!