You want me to do what with that?

Ok, so now that I am watching Clanky and Momica's girls, the blog really REALLY has taken a back seat. We have been having a ton of fun and playing lots and lots.
Yesterday was one of those really fun days. It helped that Megan and Shaylee Bugs came over too. We pulled out the sugar cookie dough and frosting. The plan had been to make THanksgiving cookies, BUT no one still had any of their thanksgiving decorations out. So we just made lots of different colors of frosting and let them all have at it. I think they all had fun.
I do however wonder how children learn the phrase "I can't do it." so quickly. Gracie kept saying she couldn't spread the frosting, she couldn't put the sprinkles on, and she couldn't squeezed the tubes of decorating frosting. Only seh could and with encouragement she finally figured it out. This wasn't Javin or Shaylee's first time so they dug right in and had a blast. Livia was VERY hesitant to even touch the stuff. After Shaylee came over and started to take over her cookie, she finally decided that it would be OK to try.




After the cookie decorating (and eating) we pulled out the long forgotten finger paint and let them make so beautiful art pieces. That was quite funny to watch. None of the children had ever played with paint before and they were very resistant to put their hands in it. Well, the girls were anyway. Javin thought it was GREAT! Mommy let him, no encouraged him to get all messy. I think he thought he was in heaven. By the end of art time, he had paint EVERYWHERE! Grace hardly got messy at all, and was chomping at the bit to get all clean. Livia wasn't into the painting, or the cleaning, and Shaylee was loving the mess making, and only resisted the clean up a bit!
Fun was had by all, you know Megan and I just couldn't resist making our shared of mess!

The Sippy Cup Battle!

Orissa battled hard to reach her goal...Javin's cup full of Sunny D!

Orissa and the Sippy Cup! from Ryanne Leavitt on Vimeo.

Word(ful) Wednesday: No Box Too Small!

I can't remember a time since Javin has been able to move around the house on his own, when he wasn't crawling into boxes and using them as a house or a car or the store or what ever. The other day we got some movies in the mail. They came is a smallish box, and I was thinking there wasn't much I was going to use it for. Before I could whip out the trusty box knife to break it down to fit in the recycle bin, Javin had it prepped for take off. I think he said it was his train. I watched in amazement as my nearly 3 year old folded himself into the "train engine" and prepared to leave the station. All the while I was thinking, "there is no way he is going to be able to fit in that tiny box! It's going to rip down the side for sure." I was proven wrong and boy was he excited to have his own "train". Of course that meant one of us had to help the engine down the tracks...and really, who can resist when he looks up with those big brown eyes and says, "I wann go round and round, peese Mommy!"


I have yet to see a box in my house that hasn't been tried on for size, some haven't survived and others have become regularly played with imagination outlets!
For more Word full wednesday stories go see Angie.

Oh, Mommy...that looks so good!

A couple of weeks ago I was eating my usual bowl of Granola for breakfast with Orissa on my lap. She had become a bit of a grabby goose. I didn't think much about that until I felt a tug on my bowl. I looked down to find Orissa's mouth pressed to the side of my bowl and her hands firmly gripping it. She tried so hard to pull the bowl out of my grasp. As I moved the spoon up from the bowl to my mouth she watched the spoon with the intensity only a child could have. I, being the astute person that I am figured something crucial out that day...Orissa was ready to eat food other than formula and mushy baby puree. Oh, how she relished crackers and the like!
I just love watching my children learn new things!

So Far Behind!

Wow, I am so far behind. Life has gotten a bit more hectic and I am trying to figure out my new schedule. I am babysitting Grace and Livi again, and that is a lot of fun, but my routine has changed drastically. We in the leavitt household are not known for our morning skills. Where we used to get up at 10:30 or 11:00 we are now getting up at 7:30 or 8:00. I suppose that is a good thing, Javin is now ready to go to sleep at 9:30 or 10:00 pm instead of much later. I am still a non sleeper so it is a bit rougher on me. And Orissa has been under the weather for the past couple of weeks, and taking care of health issues are the top priority.
I guess what I am trying to say is, blogging has taken a back seat 'til i figure out how to work it in. I am trying so stilck with me PLEASE!
Orissa has really started to move. She is all over the place now. She crawls, sort of. It is mostly a backward motion. She also rolls everywhere, especially when there is something on the floor she takes a fancy to. She is also sitting up for really long periods of time. Oh, it is so fun to see her grow and do things that kids her age do. OF course, since she is still an itty bit, it looks kind of odd to see her sitting or crawling around, and when we feed her big people food in public we get a varied bunch of expressions from strangers.

Two Left Feet!

Javin is just the sweetest boy, OK, maybe I am a bit biased with my opinion, but he really is a wonderful boy. He always has a hug to spare and if you ask him where his smile went, he can't help but smiling. His laugh is guaranteed to to make even the grumpiest person you know to crack a smile. He loves to run and play and race and be dirty. He has a shirt that says "NEVER ENOUGH DIRT", and it fits him to a tee. Javin however, isn't the most coordinated of people. He always is trying to go faster than his feet can keep up with causing him to crash bang boom quite often.
They other day he was digging around in the pile of shoes in the entry-way. He triumphantly came clumping over in a pair of brown Doc's. "Ook Ommy I ave bown shoe," he said with a giant grin on his face. I looked down and sure enough, he was wearing brown shoes. Upon closer inspection, I realized he was wearing one of Mommy's shoes and one of Daddy's shoes and they were both the left. I just couldn't resist a good chuckle or taking a picture or five. How funny, he often runs like he has two left feet (only when he is in a super hurry, mind you).

Photo Story Friday: With Frosting on the Top!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Javin is all about making things with his play dough lately. The first thing he want to do when he gets up is make things. On wednesday we went over to Auntie M's house to play, which meant we didn't have his dough to play with. I had to improvise a bit. We decided to go for a walk to the bank, and on the way home we stopped at the grocery store and found the already made sugar cookie dough (I know I am a big cheater head) and some Halloween cutters. When we got home we made the cookies. Javin and Shaylee loved the whole cutter idea, bats, cats, ghosts and pumpkins. They just couldn't get enough of making the shapes and were so bummed when all of the dough was gone.
Soon enough the cookies were cooled off, the frosting was made and we had the kids all prepped for the climax, the decorating. At first Shaylee didn't see the fun in spreading the gooey stuff all over a perfectly good cookie, then she put the butter knife in her mouth and was sold...on the frosting any way. Javin was all about the decorating and made two just for his Daddy.




This is the first time either of them have and the joy of playing with frosting, and I am sure it won't be the last! What a blast to be able to watch Javin learn and grow. Alas, Orissa is just too small to make cookies...That however, didn't stop her from grabbing my cookie and licking the frosting (too bad I didn't get a snapshot of that, way cute!).