i two

 Vander has been able to express his creative side more often, recently.  Sometimes he gets the camera when I'm not looking, like this moment when I thought both of the younger kids were asleep, so I tried to take a nap too.  What does he take pictures of?  Mostly the floor, the ceiling, and himself.  But here was a cute one I found of a napping Bellana.  You can still see the pirate eye patch that I hadn't washed off from the day before.  I'm glad she slept through her photo session!  I only found out about it when I was taking pictures off the camera.

 Vander is my little mess-maker, my sweet toddler.  But if I try to call him Buddy or "my little cuddler" he indignantly informs me "No, I Vander!"  And if you ask him how old he is, he'll tell you "I two" or "I two and a half," depending on whether Annalee was also answering the age question, which she always answers with "Five AND A HALF!"

Here he is, trying to put galoshes on over sandals.  Then he asked for help.

A few months ago he was showing a lot of interest in using the potty so I bought him some underwear.  It didn't go very far, though, because he only knows when he needs to do #2, not #1.  It is attractive to me to have him out of diapers so I don't have double duty, but I just don't have the energy right now to potty train him.  I want to wait until he is really, REALLY ready and practically potty trains himself.  So much less stress.

Oh, how we tried to get Bellana to take a bottle and a pacifier!  Maybe I'll get it right if we have a baby #4?

Trying on Daddy's shoes.

"Heh heh!  Aunt Tara won't notice if I borrow her boots!"

Hmmm, I just realized that she still probably doesn't know about this because I think she was asleep.  Gotta send this to her.

A quiet, rare moment when all of my kids are playing together nicely! Annalee is sharing her camera, which has games on it.

Oh Vander, you are so helpful!  I was feeding Bellana and Vander was supposed to be playing on the computer and waiting for breakfast.  Instead, he somehow managed to get my "yucky" cereal out, pour a bowl, and top it with eggs! I found the carton of eggs in the garbage since he had dropped it and broken a few.  Some were still unbroken, so I rescued them.  I don't have a clue how he lifted a full gallon of milk out of the fridge and onto the table.  I'm just glad he couldn't get it open!  The blueberries were from the freezer.  Nothing is out of reach anymore!

Another time when I was changing the baby's diaper I came down to find all of the dog food in the bathroom sink.  He had even washed it with soap and water.  It was soooo hard to stay in the room long enough to clean it up because it smelled just like dog barf.  I always thought it was the barf part that smelled so bad, but I guess it's just wet dog food.

Got my camera again!  I love you, my helpful sweet boy!