the sand box man

are they cute or what?

hangin with big brother...

These two... sigh... i just can't get over how sweet they are together. She gives him smiles and coos that no one else gets, and he wants to take her everywhere with him. That's where this picture comes in... he said "mom, i really want baby eislee to watch me play my video game!" and i said "just a minute maiko we'll talk when i finish the laundry." A few minutes later i emerge from the laundry room and where's eislee?! I wander into my room to see if maiko knows where she is and... well... you see.... she was loving it. He brought that little chair in first then went and got her and carried her over and put her in the chair.
And today, today i was really frustrated with little eislee. She was crying constantly and so finally i put her in the other room and walked away. Well, maiko says "mom, what are you doing? why did you just leave her in there?" and i say "maiko she just keeps crying."
"mom, she just wants you to hold her!"
"maiko, she can't have everything she wants!"
"she's just a baby mom!"

I didn't know what to say after that one, when did my five year old son get more patience than me? Also, just a couple weeks ago, i was telling the kids how pretty soon eislee wouldn't be a baby anymore and maiko just burst into tears, he was so sad at the thought of not having a baby anymore. Such a sensitive soul that maiko. i'm so glad my girls will grow up with such a wonderful big brother.

captivated

i rarely see them still this long... what are they watching?

matt driving the tractor? no... they've seen that a hundred times....

mmmm... the tractor's much more interesting when it's holding a tote with grampy in it... yep i think that would do it.

grampy and his creative apple tree trimming.

musical maiko

This kid loves music, and it makes me so happy. I've always wanted my kids to be interested in music. At school they have a music program right now where they get to learn about drums from this cool guy named mamadou and maiko is out of this world excited.

Also, when i took the kids to the toy store awhile back (getting a present for another kid's birthday) i told the kids that they could tell me what they wanted for their birthday and guess what maiko wanted more than anything? That's right, a new drum and a guitar! Makes me so proud :)

The plan right now is to get maiko some piano lessons this summer, we always said we would start the kids on the piano at this age and i think maiko would be really into it. We're definitely going to take it slow though, don't wanna burn the kid out! Just fuel the passion :)

k is for kitty

i got this hat for eislee at the silent auction when we went to the children's festival....cute huh?

and these kitty faces came from the family evening for the love of reading at toledo elementary... elementary... i can't believe i have a kid in elementary school... whew! deep breaths...

and i tried really hard to get a sweet picture of them together.... instead you get layla smiling sweetly while squeezing the life out of maiko.... hmmmm.