Fish Soup & Cut Hair

It's been a while...so this one is long....bear with me.

I cook quite often and I always ask Haley to help me cook as I feel it is an important thing to learn. I am HOPING (and praying) that when she is a teenager she can be in charge of dinner once a week to help prepare her for whatever lies ahead in her future. A few days ago, she spent about 30-40 minutes making this “Fish soup.” She put in her fish, then cut up Styrofoam bowls, cut up yarn, and cut up Kleenexes (don’t worry they were clean) to mix in the “soup”. She spent a lot of time cutting the pieces so I had to take a picture of the end result. I later found out (today) that she had cut her hair as well. I found a little chunk of hair on the floor in the kitchen. And I was just thinking the other day how we got so lucky that she never cut her hair. But, luckily she didn’t cut much, has A LOT of hair, and I can’t see where she cut it. We lucked out....this time.

Haley also HAS to have either a purse, or backpack, or whatever to carry her belongings with us when we go anywhere. Whether it is to church, the post office, the park, the store…she NEEDS her stuff!

This is when we heard some crackling noises of an animal in the bushes across the street. She wasn't so smily then. She has told me on several occasions that she wants to move to a house where there are no mountain lions. I have repeatedly told her the mountain lion is gone...but she doesn't believe me.

Haley is quite the artist. She cut this yarn and made them into smiley faces.

Haley loves to put on layers and layers. It is usually of socks though (so she has elephant feet) but this day she decided to do this. Chubby bunny :)

Skinny bunny.

Haley has been quite helpful lately trying to read Cole books.

Cole is turning here to tell Haley a sound of one of the animals. He always gets so excited when he knows what the animal sounds are.

I have a similar picture of myself when I was a baby sitting on my brother. So I thought it was funny I could capture the same moment with my kids.

My Cole baby got his 4th or 5th haircut by Craig this week. A buzzed head is a happy head….but no more Mohawks :(. Cole is FINALLY starting to communicate with us and seems to be understanding language better. I had his hearing tested this past week as I have been concerned about his lack of understanding language. The test showed that he isn’t hearing well in his left ear due to fluid, BUT he just got over an ear infection a few days before (we finished the meds 3 days before the test), so it is probably from the ear infection. I took him back into the pediatrician to see if there is still fluid. There is, and I was told to come back in another month….argh. But, over the past two weeks there has been some huge improvement and he seems to be coming around. Cole now says “neigh” for a horse, in his own fake laugh. He says gee gee for kitty…gee gee for doggy, but also so wfff for woof. Uh-oh. Ba Ba Ba (for duck-quack quack quack…funny, I know), Yie yie yie for E-I-E-I-O (Old McDonald). I think that is pretty much it…but I could be forgetting some.

Cole is quite funny and here are a few things he has done this week. He was pushing himself across the floor on his tummy, pushing himself forward and backward and forward to get his fruit loops , then laying his head down.

Cole has been grabbing clothes, towls, etc and dragging them behind him. Not quite sure why he loves it so much, but he sure enjoyed the items following him.

Cole and Haley watching a Baby Einstein.

We were rolling the ball back and forth when Cole started putting the ball up to his face to look through it.

And this is what I have to deal with each day. This kid is SOOOO destructive. I was on the phone with my friend Candy when this happened. Walked out of the room for a minute & then walked back in (in about 20 seconds) and Woo lah. A mess.

Haley received a present today from the Perkins back home. A new headband, sheep & bracelets (she is only showing off her new beloved headband here).

We bought the kids a new playhouse since our all concrete patio backyard is not kid friendly, we thought a playhouse would help.

Haley TRYING to give Cole a hug for a picture. He had just given her a hug a minute before, but I guess he wasn't wanting seconds :)

As for the Craig update: Craig went to Blockbuster to try and get us the movie 2012. He walked in and asked the guy behind the register if they had the movie “Two thousand and twelve” The 16 year old punk kid looked at him and said arrogantly, “You mean Twenty-Twelve?” (Like get with the times man!) Craig rolls his eyes and says, “Yes, Two-Thousand Twelve” The kid then looks at Craig in disbelief and has the nerve to say, “Um. It just came out this week and it is Friday night. No we don’t have it.” (Like Duh!!) Craig was fuming. Punk kid :) Plus, do you pronounce this year Twenty Ten? No, it is the year two-thousand ten, thank you! Just like Two-thousand twelve.

Me, I have been sick with a cough for over 4 weeks now. I just can’t seem to kick this thing. Maybe tomorrow will be better!!