Funny things they say

Miss Lucy has been such a big helper for me while I have been sick.  There were mornings where Mike would get their breakfast ready and then have to leave so Lucy would help Brandt, clean him up and get him down from his highchair.  She would say, "come on Brandt, let's go upstairs and play" and he would reply "okay sissy," all while I was trying hard to get myself up from bed and move to the couch or up to Lucy's bed to watch them play.  Every now and then one of them would start crying and have to come down for kisses, but overall they did great.  My Mom did come down and help us for several weeks, so that was such a huge blessing!  I knew my kids were being loved and cared for, and Mike didn't have to do everything when he came home from work.  It was an incredibly hard 9 weeks of all day sickness, and now I just have headaches and nausea at about 8pm every night. 

Lucy said the funniest thing while we were at lunch one Sunday after church.  Mike was trying to help Brandt finish his meal and he wouldn't take a bite, so Lucy said, "Brandt, don't you like Daddy."  He said NO in his teasing voice, by the way, he is such a mini-mike in that he likes to tease.  So Lucy said, well do you love daddy and Brandt said no again.  So Lucy went through all of our names and Brandt of course said no.  So then she asked him finally, "do you love Jesus."  Brandt said NOOO.  So Lucy says "well, I guess your going to hell when you die then."  We laughed so hard because she said it so matter-of-fact.  Mike and I just kept laughing about it the rest of that day and it still makes me smile.  I had asked Lucy if she talked about Hell in Sunday school.  She said they hadn't, and I only remember having one deep conversation about Hell with her when she was asking questions about salvation.  She's a funny girl.

Brandt has such a sweet little voice and he is just a parrot by repeating everything we say.  I love when you ask him a question because he says "yes" in just the cutest way.  He loves to make you laugh, so if you look at him during dinner he will raise his eyebrows, make a funny face or turn his head and look at you from the corner of his eye.  I could seriously eat him up because he is so stinking sweet.  I love that he will play restaurant with Lucy or dress up and then he will go all boy and throw balls and get rough.  We do have to tell him to be gentle with Lucy, so it should be interesting when the baby comes.  Another phrase we hear all of the time is "no, I try."  He wants to do everything himself, so I will say okay, but be careful.  So we were on a walk yesterday and he was jumping over cracks and walking around goose poo, and he would say "be careful, mommy, be careful."  I also hear over and over throughout the day... "what ya doing, mommy" and "where we going, mommy."  He makes me smile.

Baby #3

SURPRISE!!  We are going to have another baby.  My due date is September 2nd.  Lucy told everyone at Mike's birthday party.  She said "my mommy has a baby in her tummy."  Brandt says "mommy has baby in tubby."    Lucy hopes it's a baby sister.  She had even predicted twins, but thankfully only one baby was found in the ultrasound.

Brandt turned 2

Well, Mr. Tankers turned 2 in November. We had his Elmo birthday party on Thanksgiving. Mike's parents and my family were able to be with us. All he cared about was the Elmo cake. He would see the cake pan setting on the counter for the week before and say "see, Elmo". On his birthday, we went to Chickfila for lunch, Lucy picked because he didn't care. So they played on the play set for a while and then we went home for naps. Mike made a frame for a train station that my sister had given us. So now he had the coolest train station play house. We then went out to Carrabas for dinner with Mike's parents when they got into town. Brandt got an ice cream sundae which he wanted to share with everyone.

Brandt you have been such a joy to watch grow this year. You love Elmo and choo choo's. You love to say "Daddy, play choo-choo's up." Which means come play trains with me upstairs. You love to color, play outside, and do whatever sissy is doing. You are a great helper when it comes time to clean-up. You have shown absolutely no interest in potty-training yet. Grammy gave you some underwear for your birthday, but you didn't even want to try it on. If I say "Brandt, do you want to sit on the potty?" You answer with a definite NO. It will come, and Mommy doesn't mind keeping you a baby for as long as she can. Daddy and I love you, Brandt and we are so thankful that the Lord has entrusted you to us!

Ballet

Last night, we were upstairs playing, and Lucy decided that she was going to put on a ballet recital. So she ran in the playroom to get dressed up and came back in as a ladybug. Brandt saw her and yelled, "ballet, too" and took off for the playroom. He brought back this yellow puffy dress that my niece used in one of her ballet recitals. So as I am helping Brandt put it on, Mike says "Brandt, don't you want to play football instead." Brandt yells "NO, ballet." Then once he got the ballet dress on he just started twirling around and around like Lucy. It was so funny. Then when Lucy went to put on another dress, so did Brandt. Once again, Brandt was mr. funny man!!

New Song

While in Kansas, it snowed on New Years Eve, and it was cold...like a high of 3. So the 4 of us bundled up and headed outside to play in the snow. Mike got the 4-wheeler and tied the sled to the back of it and pulled Lucy, Brandt and me around the farm nice and slow because Brandt is our cautious one. After Brandt and I got off, he kept pulling Lucy around the yard and going in circles and going faster. Mike then took Lucy for a 4-wheeler ride and was making donuts in the snow. After everyone was too cold, we went in for hot cocoa. When I was getting all the snow gear off, Lucy said to me, "Mommy, I made up a new song while I was outside." I said, "you did, what was it." She said "God is with me when I am scared." I said, "did you come up with that while you were on the 4-wheeler with Daddy." She said "yes". I said, "why didn't you ask Daddy to slow down." She said, "I did, but he only slowed down a little." I laughed so hard about that, and when I told Mike he just cracked up. He had no idea that she was scared. I love that her mind went to God right away when she was scared and that she made a song. So sweet!!

All About Lucy

Lucy loves to go the the library. She picks out books to read during her rest time in bed, and helps Brandt find books that he will like also. So she works hard on her reading every day, and we are amazed at how fast she is getting and the words she can sound out. We will take turns reading a page on larger books and she moves my finger if I run it under the words she is reading. So now we have gotten a spelling book and are working on that because she is always writing or drawing and asking how to spell certain words. I'm still prayerfully considering homeschooling because I don't want her love for learning to get lost or slowed down. It's so hard knowing what to do. I was just looking back at pictures of Lucy last year, and she still had the chubby little toddler face compared to now. She is looking like such a big girl.

Lucy is such a monkey... she crawls all over the swing set. She is getting so strong. We go for 2 mile walks and she rides her bike the whole way. She gets pretty tired and Mike has to push her up some of the huge hills on the trail, but she does it. She is so proud of herself when we get home.

Today after we finished reading a story we were talking about how the holidays are coming up and that Daddy will be home more often because he has so much vacation. So then she said "you know what my favorite part of Christmas is?" I started to guess...that Daddy is home more, that we get to bake cookies, that we go to Grandma and Papa's and Grammy and Papa's... of all which she answered, "oh I do like that, but that's not my favorite." I was trying to completely avoid saying Christmas presents because I was afraid that was what it was. So finally I gave up and said so what is your favorite part. She said "that Jesus was born." I am starting to cry all over again just typing this, and of course I started crying and hugging her right after she said it. I said, you've got it, that's right! And here I was afraid she would say presents when she said what our greatest gift of all is, Jesus Christ. This precious girl amazes me daily. I am so blessed to be her mommy!!

All about Brandt

Brandt is almost 2 and is beginning to talk more like a big boy, but it is still sweet little words and the most common words we hear throughout the day are "sissy", "mommy" and "baby" and "tweet tweet." Tweet tweet is for binky, and just when I was about to take the binky's away, he began calling it his tweet tweet. I thought it was so cute that I couldn't bring myself to take it away because I love to hear him say it. Baby goes with him everywhere and is always in need of a bath. I washed him last week and Brandt cried so hard when we put baby in the washing machine. It was so sad. Then when he heard the buzzer, he ran to the laundry room and then I had to tell him that baby wasn't ready to play yet because he had to get dried. Oh, how he cried again as we put baby in the dryer. It's a very traumatic experience for him and so baby is dirty this week and we just put some baby doll pajama's over him until I can sneak him away for another bath.

So after dinner, we usually all go in the living room or playroom and play for a while. One night, Lucy wanted Mike to throw blankets over them and then tickle them. So he was doing it for the longest time and they were laughing so hard. Well, Lucy told Mike to do it to me. So he did it and was tickling me and Brandt ran over to me crying "mommy" and was trying to save me. He did not like them getting me. It was so sweet. Then we had a sweet friend take our family picture last week, and whenever she was trying to take a picture of just Mike and I he would run over to me, stick his head between my legs and cry so hard. My goodness, I do have a mama's boy on my hand. I like it that way!!

I love that Brandt will play dolls and tea party with Lucy, and then a minute later he has found something to "fro" and is tossing it up in the air and yelling "fro" every time. We were in the kitchen and all of a sudden we here banging, so Mike goes up to see what it is and he finds Brandt throwing a ball against the wall. Mike tells Brandt not to throw the ball at the wall. He says "oh" and then goes over to another wall and it about to throw it. Mike says tells him not that wall either. He does this again and finally Mike says, here buddy throw it to me. So he gets all excited and starts to "fro" it.

I have noticed that Brandt will say "ta u" a lot without me even asking him to say thank you. He will do it when I hand him something or help him with something. It makes me smile every time because I can see such a sweet kind spirit in him. He also is quick to say sorry and give hugs. Oh how I love this precious little boy who is growing up much too fast for his mama!