North Dakota ROAD TRIP highlights...

We stopped at a hotel on the way up to North Dakota... loading 2 children and luggage into a hotel by yourself is pretty challenging but as you can see I found a great solution! The kids had a great time riding the cart and everything made it out together : )

Aiden says, "Marinn I want to hold your hand!"

Marinn says, "You can hold my arm."

These are the expressions that followed the conversation.

Caleb says, "Uhh uhh blahh!"

Toto replies, "Uhh uhh blahh!"

This is how the week went with them... Toto would just copy what he was saying and they would smile and laugh at each other like they knew what they were talking about. She called him "bay-bee!"

We had grabbed some lunch and hit the road again and Marinn says, "Mommy look!"  I look back to see an awesome airplane made out of 2 fries and the box. She was flying it all around the back seat. She's so smart and creative I love it! (Sorry about the bad pic but I was blindly shooting into the back seat while I was driving hoping that I would get a good shot of her plane.)

This is usually what Taurin looks like when she is sleeping in the car. Glad I was able to capture it : )

We are driving through a curvy part of the road and I said to the girls, "Hold on!" Then about 10 min later Marinn says, "Mom do we still need to hold on?"  I check the rear view mirror to see Marinn and Toto holding on to each other. I was laughing out loud it was soo cute! They are such great girls.

Shaw isn't the biggest fan of the pacifier and sometimes if he doesn't want it he'll spit it out and it will fly half way across the van. So I tied a string to my seat and then to his pacifier.  Whenever he would spit it out I would just fish it out of the back seat and give it back to him. He did amazing on the drive waiting patiently for stops and keeping himself content.  Gold star for Shaw!

Cheeky

Taurin likes to rub her cheek. She'll just take her index finger and stroke it down her cheek. Don't quite know why she does this but all throughout the day you'll see her just stroking her face. It's cute and gentle and Toto.

My Neighbor

Yesterday I started singing the Mr. Rogers song "Won't You be My Neighbor"... Marinn had never heard this song before and she was a bit intrigued.  As I continued in the song Marinn joined in... it went something like this.
...would you be mine? (Marinn: Yeahhhh)
...could you be mine? (Marinn: Yeahhh)
...won't you be my neighbor? (Marinn: Yeahhh)
She would sing it soo sweet like she really wanted to be my neighbor.  It was the cutest thing.

Handsome Shaw

I love this boy.

I love him in this hat.

I love his cute grump face that reminds me of his daddy.

I love that he looks like an old man.

He loves the parade.

Those people are throwing candy!

After the Veteran's parade today Marinn and Taurin were checking out their huge stash of candy they had piled into Taurins bike helmet... I was lucky enough to captures Toto's hilarious face! She is such a goofball.
After she realized that if you waved at the cars they would throw you candy she was super excited.  She would see a car coming and she'd try to get as close as possible waving the entire time. (We had to pull her out of the road a few times).  When the candy would leave their hand she would take off running towards it soo fast that the candy would fly right by her. She'd spin around to get it with her little eyes sparkling with excitement and her face beaming.  She would turn and run so fast that she fell and slid I don't know how many times. That's why she looks so dirty... she was just covered in grime by the time the parade was over... knees, elbows, bumm, etc... Not to mention she busted out some yoga moves in the middle of the parade.  Hilarious, super fun day for a parade.

Flaggeriffic

Today we went to a Veteran's Day parade... Marinn picked up a small American flag and she was watching the flag girls with the band go by and she started to try and do the same movements as they were... here she is trying out a "behind the head" move.

Doggie Distraction

Shaw loves his Rainforest Jumperoo... He jumps full force and there isn't much that distracts him but the other day and just now he stopped mid bounce to watch the dogs playing with each other on the floor.  He stops and looks intently at them growling at wrestling with each other. In this picture he is actually watching them.
I guess every guy loves a good fight.... what a man!

I love it.

A frog. A duck. And maybe a goose.

After church I was strapping Marinn in her car seat and I was asking her what she learned in her class.
Marinn says, "The Bible.. the Bible... in the Bible... lots of frogs... frogs... frogs... frogs... lots of frogs."
I say, "And then what happened?"
She says, "Ribbit... Ribbit."
"What else Marinn?"
Marinn says, "Then they died."
I say, "Ohhh wow... very interesting."
She says, "And then we.. duck! duck! duck! duck! duck! duck!... " as she is patting her head.
I say, "Goose?"
She says, "Yeah."

I'm not really sure what they learned in church today but my guess was they went over the plagues and then played some duck duck goose.

You want a piece of me?!

We were driving in the van tonight talking about what we were going to have for dinner. I was listing items off we might have and Marinn was saying, "ummm.... no."

I ran out of options and jokingly said with attitude,

"You want a piece of me?!... huh? You want a piece of me?!"

Marinn says, "Noooo, I want the whole thing."

She is so hilarious and smart.

I love her.

Hug a Stranger Day

Have you ever been going along in your day and received a random hug from a stranger? I have not, but I've gotten the opportunity to see it happen quite frequently.

Before I explain... a question: If a random person came up and hugged you how would you respond?

Marinn has the market cornered on hugging random strangers and Taurin is following close behind.  I'm not quite sure where this came from (I'm really not one for hugging strangers) but I've come to enjoy peoples responses.

Marinn hugged an old lady at the Hope Mills park one day.  The lady was just walking across the grass and Marinn went out of her way, ran over and hugged the lady.  The ladies face lit up and said, "HI! Do you want to come home with me?" then she put out her hand for Marinn to hold. Marinn took her and like sure sounds good to me. (Obviously this is the point where I told Marinn she needed to stay with Mommy).  The lady looked truly happy and grateful to have gotten a hug from my cute kid.

I haven't noticed a pattern of her random stranger hugging... she never targets the same demographic but I have observed that there is zero interaction with the person prior to the hug.  It's like she's sneaking up on people who haven't noticed her so she can really catch them by surprise.

Just Tuesday we were at the park and she was playing on the toys and out of no where just hugged a random mom on a bench.

Some people hug her right back like they really needed a hug that day... others awkwardly hug her back... others look around like they are seeing if someone is watching. It makes me wonder why she chooses the people she does... like she just senses that they needed a hug or something or she is just being silly and thinks it's fun, or maybe she wanted a hug and so she just grabbed the closest persons she could find.

Taurin has joined her in interacting with strangers... we were at the park and Toto just went and sat down in a ladies lap.  Now the lady had a bag of bread and I think Taurin was just trying to scam some bread off of her but it was funny either way.  The lady was really nice and actually gave Toto 3 mini loaves of bread because it was moldy and for the ducks... so she showed her where the ducks were. Marinn got in on feeding the ducks too and they were all super excited.

Marinn doesn't limit her hugging and affection to adults... she loves meeting new kids. She'll invade their personal space asking them there name and if they want to come play with her. She'll try and grab their hand to lead them away with her. Just yesterday she met a little girl in the fabric store and was asking her name and rubbing the little girls belly.  You know kids don't hide there emotions and most kids just looked really overwhelmed and try to get their hand back. But a few week ago we were at the park (wow lots of park stories) and Marinn met a little girl that looked close to her age and they were playing together.  They seemed to be getting along great... I watched as they were hanging on some monkey bars facing each other and the little girl says, "hee hee hee you're funny!"  in the cutest little voice.  Well, it was time to leave and I told Marinn to say goodbye to her friend.  She was bummed we were leaving and went over to say goodbye.  She gave the girl a great big hug, then the little girl put both her hands gently on Marinn's face and said with such compassion and love, "I will miss you soooo much." Marinn put her hands on the girls face and said in the same honest voice, "I will miss you so much."  It was one of the sweetest things I had ever seen.  It was like Marinn had finally found someone like her... it looked like they had been friends for year.  A beautiful moment that I hope that I will not forget.

So... Have you hugged a stranger today?

Be our Guest

Marinn loves guests... when there is a knock on the door or a ring of the doorbell Marinn is usually the first one to welcome a visitor.  She also enjoys saying goodbye to our guests.  She will stand out on the sidewalk and wave as they drive away... all the way... she keeps waving until they have driven all the way down the street and turned out of site.  Usually after we wave she decides it's a perfect time to check the mail... she has me lift her up so she can get the mail out of the box.  Then she will ask me to go inside before she does and shut the door then she knocks or rings the door bell and I say, "Well hello! Sooo nice of you to visit, please come in!" (insert my very dramatic friendly voice here).
She is soo hilarious, I guess sometimes she just wants to be the guest.

Pizza Pizza!

For lunch today we had pizza... I looked over at Taurin and she had                    <- this look on her face.  Like she was in heaven as she was eating her pizza.  She's a goofy kid... I love that she's a goofy kid... I love that people see pictures of her and say, "she's a goofy kid huh?".... I guess I like that there is someone to be goofy with.

Gotta taste everything...

Taurin loves to taste stuff... I'm not sure if she is looking for a specific flavor or if she likes the feeling of different surfaces on her tongue.
As you can see an example on the left.
The other day we were at a friends house and I noticed her bending down toward the floor.  I asked her what she was doing and she proceeded to show me.  She bent over and gave the tile a good lick.
There have been many other moments where she has tasted questionable substances (nothing dangerous just gross). Maybe my little Toto is destined to be a taste tester, food critic, fear factor winner or a famous chef... we will see!

Moooring!

When Taurin wakes up in the morning and we always try to get her to say "good morning".
Her little voice has such a cute sound to it when she says, "Goood Moooring".
She was with me the other morning when I was getting Shaw up and she was saying as loud as possible, "Moooooring!!! Mooorring!!! Mooooorring!"

My Sound

Marinn (age 3) farted the other day...
Mar Mar says, "What was that sound!?"
Marinn replies with confidence, "It was my sound Mar Mar."