Strawberry Jammin'

Arden started Tap/Ballet class last month and she loves it! (After $50 worth in shoes, she better love it until at least those no longer fit!) It's hard to get good pictures of her these days, but I asked her to show me some dance moves.
She has only been four times due to the holiday weekend but has made major improvements from that first class when we only observed. She just asked me if she could go to dance today.
She is in a small class-only three other girls and she is the youngest. It's a 3/4 year old class, but it goes by the year you turn 3.
She loves to come home and show us all of her moves.
One of the songs they dance to is called "Strawberry Jammin" and I can't get it out of my head, so here it is in case you want to get strawberry jammin too:

Peas and Kank Koo

Arden has the best manners of anyone I know.
Me: Arden please eat your broccoli (or green beans, peas, carrots...you know, anything healthy.)
Arden: Oh, no kank koo, mommy. Daddy eat it!
Me: It's time for nap.
Arden: Oh, No kank koo.

She pretty much says 'no thank you' to everything she doesn't want and 'thank you' to everything she's given or if we help her with anything she's very quick to thank us. As simple as buckling her into her car seat gets a "kank koo."

If she spills or drops anything, or even if someone bumps into HER, she's quick to say 'I'm sorry.' She does have two ways of saying it though. She either says, "I sorry! I sorry!" or says, "I SOOO soooorry" in a rather sarcastic tone.

I love this picture of her from the summer playing at the park with Brigham.
She almost always says 'please' for anything she asks for and says it so sweetly.
When asked a question, she also says, "I sure did!" a lot.
Like yesterday, she wanted a cookie but I told her she had to eat her orange first. A few minutes later she asked for the cookie. I asked if she ate her orange. "I sure did mommy!" She didn't.
She has a really good memory and sometimes she really shocks us.
She loves to help cook 'dinder' which includes breakfast and lunch. Anytime I'm making something, it's dinder and she's going to help whether I like it or not.
She recognizes some of her letters and numbers and all of her colors, but on occasion she does call black/brown the same.
A couple of weeks ago as we were driving to Ashley's house Arden and I had this conversation:
Arden: Mommy has brown shirt and another color shirt!
Me: Good job, Arden! I have a black shirt and a grey shirt!
Arden: Awww good girl, mommy! You're sooo smart! I so proud of you!

I do say those things to her quite frequently.
A couple of weeks ago, I made her a sandwich. She requested "Butter and jelly but no butter (which actually means no jelly)." I gave it to her, and she said, " Kank koo, Mommy! I so proud of you!"
I took these photos a month ago. I'm not so sure I'll ever get caught up. I have 400+ posts in Reader I haven't looked at.
I apparently say "sure" a lot because Arden does too...that or "hmm....I not sure!"
When I talk to Easton, I say "hey buddy" and "sweet boy" a lot. Now Arden does too and it's so cute.
Today when we got Easton out of bed, I said 'hey, cutie pie!' Arden followed with "Hey cute as pie!
She remembers where things are when I can't find them, loves to help (she's always saying, "I help, mommy!) and is very nurturing.
She prefers to wear her hair down, loves jewelry, purple fruit snacks and pink clothes. Favorites games are hide and seek, chase and acting like a "Kiger" (tiger.)

4 Months

My big ball of happiness is 4 months old!
He loves attention, the little boy who is always at the mirror the same time he is and Arden. I really think Arden is his favorite person. If only she could feed and carry him (she does try both of these), we'd be set!
He tries really hard to crawl and does manage to scoot around...not always in the direction he wants.
He laughs the most when being thrown (I don't actually let go of him, but I don't know how else to explain it) in the air and watching Arden jump on the bed.

Stats:
Length: 28in (off the charts)
Weight: 18.2 lbs (90-95%)
For almost the past month, he's been in size 12mo sleepers/onesies.

The day he turned 4 months, I was taking these pictures of him and Arden came in with this bow tie and managed to put it on him all by herself. I went with it. She trips me out.
He's fairly easy going unless it's close to 8PM. He doesn't mess around with bedtime and apparently I shouldn't either.
I think Easton will forever be called by his first and middle name by Arden. She loves to ask what all of our names are and every time I tell her his name is Easton, she says, "no, that's Heaton Warner!"
Our day is not complete without at least 2 outfit changes for him and one for me. The boy spits up like no other.
He wants to sit up so bad...He likes his bumbo chair OK, but every.single.time I put him in it, he spits up. It doesn't matter if he ate 3 hour ago and already spit that entire meal up. It's not coincidence. He spits up more now that we use it.

(Arden gives the sweetest kisses)

We sure do love this little guy!

Choo Choooooo

On August 2nd, my mom was coming over to watch Arden and Easton so Derek and I could go to the Train concert. She got a flat tire on the way over, we missed Gavin Degraw opening the show, and decided last minute to take Arden with us.
When we got there, Derek started questioning the decision to bring Arden. (I brought it up half joking, he pushed to do it) He asked me if we were bad parents for bringing her. I said, "no, we are cool parents."
We were pretty close to the stage, so I got some ear plugs from the super nice sound guys. If you have never seen Train live, you are SOOOO missing out. Not only are they the nicest guys on earth, but they have such a great live show. Lately, they've come out to a loud train horn.

Wow.wow.wow. Pat took some dance classes in between tours and danced with this backup singer/musician for one song....I can't remember which one. It was beautiful.

Arden was in heaven. When the band came out and started playing, she got a huge coy smile on her face. It was so cute. She absolutely loved it and danced and was glued to the stage the whole time. She also clapped, and put her hands up when everyone else did.



It was 10:30 when this picture was taken. Arden was sleeping with her eyes open. I showed it to her the next day and she said, "Awww cute! That boy's holding mommy's purse!"
She sings "Soul ti-ter on the radio" all the time. When she actually sings along with the song, she does pretty good. Music is her thing.

It's been over a month, and she still talks about the concert. Last week she told me, "Mommy, Daddy, Auden go see soul ti-ter. Really loud so mommy got me things for ears. Sing songs. Go see that boy. Mimi watch Heaton Warner."

Pat offered us tickets to the Atlanta show and I was thisclose to going, but a lot of things got in the way. First it was super lame friends =). In no particular order, one friend was going to fly down from NYC before going back to Ireland and spend a few days with me but that didn't work out. Another friend was going to fly up from FL to go. I think she chickened out. I can talk crap about her too because she doesn't read this blog. Another friend had to work. I think she just chickened out too=). I was trying to think of a way my sister could go since she like the bands too, but she also has a kid. Derek and I couldn't go to the concert together because of the kids. After talking to my awesome aunt (I'm not even sweet talking here; she doesn't read the blog either....I'm starting to think no one really reads this thing), she came up with the great idea that she and my uncle would drive to ATL from Chattanooga, watch the kids in a hotel while Derek and I went to the show, then the next day, we would all drive back to Charlotte. Although I was looking forward to a little fun girls time, this new plan worked for me. Then I found out that my mom was moving THAT. DAY. So it kind of threw everything out the window. Oh well....you know...Train actually is playing in Charleston in October (nice COOL weather) so maybe I'll request tickets for that show!

Easton turned 4 months yesterday, and I will not be getting to that post today....but soon!