Where are my lips?

Taylor came into the kitchen tonight asking, "Where are my lips?". I knew that she was talking about her lip gloss, but I told her that her lips were on her face, as her daddy laughed at our conversation! I then got her three tubes of lip gloss from the counter and gave them to her, but had to tease her a little bit that she always asks us where her lips are!

Thunder and Lightning means NO SLEEP for most of the Harding household!

At 3:30 this morning, another storm came through our area with impressive thunder and lightning. It didn't take long for Taylor to come running down the stairs and into our room. She had been scared the other night around 10pm when we had a storm and she watched TV downstairs until the storm was over. This morning, she climbed into bed with us and was shaking and very jumpy and clingy to her mommy. I needed to get up to use the restroom and she was so shaken that she followed me into the bathroom. She then wanted to watch a movie and so I took her into the living room and put a Mickey Mouse movie on. I laid down on the couch for 30 minutes and then took her back upstairs and put her to bed as the storm had passed. Within 30 minutes of putting her to bed, another storm came through and down she came into our room again. This time, Doug put a movie on for her, and I was still trying to get back to sleep from the first go around. She came into the room two more times for food and water and at this point, I was so exhausted that I told her that she needed to stay and watch her movie in the living room. When I got up at 7am, I came into the living room, thinking that Doug had taken her up to her room when he went to work, but she was lying on the floor with blankets under and over her fast asleep with the TV still on at a low volume. Doug said that she was asleep on the chair when he left for work, so she must have heard the garage door and shifted to the floor. I'm hoping for a better night's sleep tonight!! I asked Joshua if he heard the thunder and he said that he woke up and got up and found two flashlights in case the lights went out and then went back to sleep. I'm thankful for only one scared child as I read facebook today and several moms had 2 kids crawl into bed with them last night!!

Mrs Tomiko!

We were out biking today as a family with Taylor behind me in the trailer and Joshua on the tandem bike attached to Doug's bike. We were going along and I pass this woman, boy and husband on the trail. She smiled at me and I smiled back and we kept going. I thought, was that Joshua's preschool teacher, Mrs Tomiko, from Golden Start Preschool? We keep riding and Doug says, "Well, you can talk to her on the way back." So, about twenty minutes later, we come up to her on the way back at a cross stop. I say, "Mrs Tomiko?" And she says, "Yes!, I thought that was you and Joshua!" We start chatting with her and she was really excited to see us and it was so nice to see her again. She was so patient with Joshua not being potty trained during that year and they had a great year together. Joshua loved having her as a teacher and it was the perfect first school experience for him. He didn't remember her which I'm sure was a little bit hard for her, but it was still great to see her. Joshua was friendly and talked with her a little bit. She is no longer teaching and works as a property manager...such a shame b/c she was such a blessing to those kids, although, I'm sure that she is making a higher salary in her current job, which is totally understandable.

"I can't want that"

One of Taylor's favorite sayings right now...Instead of saying, "I don't want peanut butter crackers", etc...it is "I can't want it." It's really cute the way she says it so it's hard to correct her so that she'll learn to say it the right way, but I should probably work on that with her soon! She also says, "Taylor wants this" instead of "I want this"...hopefully, we'll get her straightened out before K4, but it's fun to see her language form!

Bottom Rung

So...the new favorite place to ride on the shopping cart these days is...the bottom rung! Not sure what the thrill is other than it's something different...but the kids FIGHT over who gets to ride underneath the cart! I think that Taylor started the fad, but it has caught on. All that I can think about it what is put under the cart...cat litter, probably dirt, etc...things that I don't really want my kids lying on!!! Trying to not be a germ phobe on this one so that they can enjoy just being kids:)

Dora yogurt and boys don't mix!

I woke up late this morning and so I needed to get Joshua to school and didn't have time to make his lunch prior...and still got him to school 15 minutes late! So...Taylor and I showed up at lunchtime with his meal and sat with him during lunch. As soon as he opened his lunch, he saw the Dora the Explorer yogurt....and the embarrassment showed on his face! I felt so bad... I had thought that he enjoyed watching Dora on TV and so he wouldn't have a problem it the yogurt. Well, Mommy was wrong!!! This is the first time I have embarrassed my son in front of his friends! I strategically took the yogurt out of his lunch with a paper towel wrapped over the Dora on the side and handed it to him. None of the kids saw the Dora logo, but he wanted nothing to do with that yogurt...so I ended up eating it to not waste it. Lesson learned!

4 year old!

Taylor is now 4 years old! Our baby is growing up and I cannot believe that we are already celebrating her 4th birthday! She had a great day today from the start. We let her open her gifts from extended family this morning to spread out the gifts so that she had time to enjoy them all and play with them throughout the day. She did just that! She opened the gifts from Aunt Angela and Uncle Doug first which was a Leapfrog tag book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and a "My Little Pony" Playdoh set. She opened them on the way to Joshua's school and couldn't wait to get home and open the playdoh. She didn't have the Leapfrog Tag pen yet, so she did not know the significance of the book she got at that point. She played with the pony for quite some time...combing the playdoh mane and making flowers and stars and hearts to put in its hair. She then opened Aunt Chris's gift which was a Mickey Mouse travel pillow and sleeping bag, which she loved! She immediately put them on the big chair in the living room and snuggled into them with her lamb. After about 5 minutes, she took them upstairs and put them on her bed along with her camping sleeping bag which she has been sleeping in for about a month now! From the moment we got her the sleeping bag for camping trips, she has been enamored with the bag and wants to use it on a nightly basis. I'm hoping that this lighter, easier to wash sleeping bag will take the place of the bigger one for nightly use! She then opened Grandma and Grandpa's gift which was the Leapfrog Tag Pen to be used with the Leapfrog books. As soon as I got the pen's software downloaded and the books, she had fun using the pen for quite some time. I think that it will help her complete her letter and number recognition which she is doing well with, but has 20-25% of the letters in the alphabet that she needs help recognizing. She then got a gift delivered to our doorstep this morning from my friend Julie Jones. It was an adorable Peter Rabbit canvas purse with satin lining and a beautiful book called "The Lost Unicorn". She had me read the whole book to her and it was really sweet with beautiful illustrations to look at. So...the rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent playing, watching a little bit of TV so that I could work on the kitchen and then bike riding once Joshua got home. We also made a trip to the store to pick up the cake that she had chosen, "Minnie Shopper" which consisted of a road that Minnie Mouse stands on looking at a storefront which can be turned into a picture frame. She also picked out a Care Bears balloon which mysteriously was destroyed within the first two hours of its life! Joshua had a guilty look when asked about it so I am assuming I found the offender! He was sweet to his sister on the way home from school, though. He said that he started making something for her at school in his free time, but didn't have time to finish it so he was going to save it for next year! He also gave her a kiss (on the lips!) in the car and a hug and told her "Happy Birthday" and that he loved her. It was very sweet and when I asked him why he kissed her on the lips, he replied "Because I love her!" If that doesn't melt a mother's heart!! When daddy got home, we ate Costco pizza and fruit and then sang "Happy Birthday" to Taylor. She blew out three of her candles before we got started on the song so I relit them and then we sang. It took at least three blows on the candles to get them extinguished and she got a huge smile on her face when they were all blown out. We then ate the yummy cake (Taylor asked for seconds and worked her way half-way through the second small slice). I then asked her if she was ready to open gifts and I got a very loud "Yes!!!!". She, of course, enjoyed every minute of opening her gifts which was a bit rough on her big brother who wanted to celebrate his birthday today as well. He got a party favor which was a zhu zhu hamster pet (which he had told me recently he wanted so he was extremely pleased with his gift!). Taylor received a Disney Princess CD player shaped as a carriage with a microphone attached in which she sang at the top of her lungs into the microphone enjoying the kid's CD I had put in for her! She also received two more Leapfrog tag books (Tangled and Dora goes to School), a Minnie Mouse movie "Minnie Masquerade" with a Minnie Mote (remote) that can interact with the movies, two zhu zhu pets play areas (a zhu zhu pets beauty salon and a run area that is a figure 8 shape) as well as 5 zhu zhu pets (Peaches-her favorite!, Patches, Cappucino, Scootles, and Jinx). She didn't think much of the zhu zhu pets gifts at first as she didn't know anything about them, but once they were set up and she and Joshua were playing with them, they were a big hit and they played with them for about 2 hours. The little hamsters are cute as they talk and squeal, go forwards and backwards and really act like little hamsters:) We finally got the kiddos to bed (both took their hamsters to bed with them) and we plan on heading to the zoo tomorrow to continue the birthday celebration over the weekend! Taylor got phone calls from Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Angela and Uncle Doug and kids. She also got a card and $10 from her Great Aunt Merry and Uncle Bob. Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We love you so much!!!!!

New bike for Taylor!

Taylor got to go to Wal-Mart today to look at bicycles while I picked up a few things that I needed. I didn't know that we would find "the bike", but it turned out that way. I should've known, though, that once she tried out a bike, she would fall in love with one. We went over the bikes and I asked her if she wanted to try some of them out, and at first she wanted the princess one. It was too small for her and so there were two options for the 16 inch bikes...barbie or a purple sea star Huffy with flowers on it. My vote was for the Huffy and I didn't even point out the barbie one. Not that I have anything against barbie (as I played with barbies much of my childhood years) but she doesn't even know who barbie is yet and so I showed her the purple one. She got on the bike and after riding it around the bike aisles for at least 20-30 minutes, she was sold and didn't want to get off the bike. Thank you Gran and Grandaddy for purchasing this wonderful birthday gift for her!! She has been on the bike ever since. The past two days she has wanted to ride it every chance she gets (rain or shine) and weather is not an issue. She doesn't care if it's 40 degrees outside. She wants to ride that bike around the driveway and through the garage. She picked up on her skills quickly, too. The bike has training wheels, but she has gotten quite agile on it already and when she falls, she cries and then picks up the bike and gets back on and takes off once again. Doug said that her strong will is paying off in this area! Joshua has gotten excited about his bike now...he has ridden it more in the past two days with Taylor than in all the time that he has had this bike for the past two years. It's great to see him enjoying his bike, too. He's getting really comfortable on it and we hope to remove the training wheels soon, as he doesn't seem to need them to balance himself on the bike. He's almost outgrown this bike so he can easily put his feet down if he starts to lose his balance. We plan on getting them both out on a better, longer riding trail so that they can really get some great practice. Doug joked that I should name the title of this blog, "Taylor and Joshua learn to ride their bikes together!". We are so glad that Joshua now enjoys riding and maybe he just needed a buddy to ride around with to make it more fun. We'll have them on 30 mile bike rides in no time! Ha:)

Answer to prayer

I woke up this morning thinking and worrying about the right decision for Taylor in the fall with K4. Do we send her to the full day program with Ms. Garrett, or try to work it out with the school to send her half day with Ms. Garrett. Ms. Garrett's class is the only option that I'm willing to do for Taylor and her well being. She and Mrs Harrison seem to have a conflict in personality, so we are going to make sure that her first year is amazing with a teacher that she feels comfortable with and who really enjoys her. I was lying in bed and just asked God for the answer to this dilemma and I wasn't expecting a response so quickly, but an hour later, we were getting ready for church and Taylor comes walking into the bedroom. She starts telling Doug and I that she wants to go to school (church school). She also started talking about Joshua's school and how she wants to go to school. I ask her if she wants to be in Ms Garrett's class, and she says, "I want to go to Mrs Garrett's class Joshua's school". "I want to go all day". I don't know where this came from, but I'm thinking that God put those words in her mouth to calm my worries about what is the best option for her in the fall. We will go for full day and see how it goes. If it is too much, then we can just pick her up at noon from Ms Garrett's class and Ms Garrett is totally fine with that. Thank you Lord!