Some 'isms'

Jillian came walking out of the bathroom the other day with Matt's potty seat on her head saying "Hat." She has a mind of her own these days and don't even think about trying to help her climb up and down the stairs or telling her what shoes to wear. She loves jewelry and calls it "bling." Her favorite things to do are playing with her snap and style dolls, putting on all her "bling," playing with her dollhouse and singing. She loves Dora and The Little Einsteins. She can count to 20 and say hello in Mandarin. She loves to sing and can sing her ABC's, twinkle twinkle, bah bah black sheep, ring around the rosy, and Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts. After we put her to bed at night, she can usually be heard on the baby monitor naming off everyone in the family: "Memere, Pepere, Meema, Papa, Chell, Paul, Jonathan, Ryan, Mattchoo, Katy, Steef, etc." Her favorite terms right now are "Umm..." and "HELP ME!!"

Matthew is my little bull in a china shop. That kid has more bruises and scratches and scars than any of the rest of the family combined. Poor thing, it also seems as if he's allergic to everything... he had a reaction to a bandaid a few weeks ago and we think it might be a latex allergy... he has big dark "allergy" circles under his eyes, his nose is always runny and he has a perpetual rash somewhere on his body at any given time. He's such a goof, though, and such a sweet kid, even though he is going through a "I'm-three-and-a-pain-in-the-ass" stage. He's been really pouty lately and it's so surprising coming from my sweet little man. We escaped the "terrible-twos" relatively unscathed so I figured we were home free. Maybe not. We're working on good manners, asking nicely, not grabbing, and not "being fresh." But it's all worth it when he comes up to you out of no where and throws his arms around your neck and gives one of his "Sqeeeeeeeeezy" hugs and says, "I love you mumma." His big term right now is "sure." Everything is "sure." Would you like a peanut butter sandwich? "Sure." Would you like a bath? "Sure." Is the world coming to an end? "Sure." LOL. Except he can't say his "sh" sounds yet so it comes out like "ssssuur."

I was cleaning up the kitchen today after making lunch for the kids and I over heard Matt talking to Jillian: "Pickle, when I grow up and become a big tough guy, I'm going to marry Jadyn."

These are the moments that I want to remember for the rest of my life.

Another big piece of news is that we found out last week that Matt was accepted into the nursery school program at St. Michael's Parish School in North Andover. I can't believe my baby, my baby, will be going to school in the fall, even if it's only 2 hours a day three days a week. I'm going to bawl that first day. But I think it'll be really good for him to have a little bit of structure and for the social aspect of it because he's such an outgoing, social kid and he doesn't play with kids his own age enough, in my opinion.

Okay, I'll leave the story about the bat in our bedroom last weekend for another time... I have to pee.