Baby Pictures

If you want to see a few recent baby pictures, here is the link.

http://www.jenniferberryphotography.blogspot.com/

I put a new link now that works! Sorry about that.

The Bird that Never Sleeps

My sister in law let us borrow a tape of children's stories by Odds Bodkin. It is wonderful...full of excitement, great voices, and bits of music! My kids ask for it every time we get in the car. There is one story where 'Wowosim, the guardian bird' is guarding something. Over and over, the bird say, "I am the bird...who NEVER sleeps! I am the bird...who NEVER sleeps!"

Now let's switch gears a bit. Estella has been fighting nap time. It started when she realized that the boys often watch a movie while she is sleeping. I tried to remedy that by having the boys lay down in their beds for a "rest" before I started putting Essie to sleep, but I think she knows it's a bluff. Yesterday, nap time came around and I was desperate for her to sleep. She cried off and on for an hour. Then she started yelling, "MOM...MAMA," followed by, "I am a bird...NEVER sweeps! I am a bird...NEVER sweeps!!!" I couldn't believe my ears. What a hysterical, clever little girl!

Bathing Beauty

Estella still LOVES being in the water! Every morning while I am in the shower I can expect to have her join me before long. She pushes the door open and starts stripping. When I peek out to see if it is her she gives me a huge grin and says, "Naked. In the shower." She doesn't stand with her back to the water spray like both my boys did (still do). She gets in the water and sits down right in the middle of the downpour. I usually plug the tub so she can stay in for a while after I am finished. Here are a few pictures of her in the bath-after-shower. Her hair is hanging down her face because the shower water was falling right on top of her head the whole time.

For any photogs who are curious...I have HORRIBLE light in my bathroom, so I used a flash and bounced it off the wall directly to the left of her (as you are looking at the picture). I have been afraid to use flash, but have been experimenting with it in situations that I don't think I can get acceptable pictures otherwise. I have been surprised with some good results. I love that I was able to get some light in her eyes where without the flash, her eyes would have been completely dark. I also bounced the flash in the pictures of my kids devouring the leftover cookie dough.

Nicholas, the sorter

...sorting by color...

...and by shape!

I found it interesting how he arranged everything...with the same colors or shapes on opposite sides, mirroring each other. When all of the egg holes were filled, there were still some remaining buttons. I kept trying to think of complicated ways to move things around to make them all fit, but still keep the pattern. Nicholas was much smarter than me. He just put the rest of the buttons back in the bag...problem solved.

Cookie Dough Vultures

Ballerina Book Lover

My mom gave Estella these ballerina pajamas for Christmas. She loves them so much that she fights me when I try to take them off in the mornings. Several times, I have just let her wear them all day. I took her to the grocery store wearing them once and had multiple people comment on them.


Estella loves books. If she is ever quiet for a few minutes I get worried because it often means she is making some mischief, but lately I more often find her just sitting with a book in her lap, flipping through the pages. If I ever sit down on the couch, she immediately grabs a book, runs over, and asks, "Read it?"


This past week she has been continually asking me to read a book called "A Drop of Blood." It is a children's science book that explains our blood. I got it because Nicholas has been asking a lot of questions about how our bodies work. I expected the boys to like it, but Estella? She points and says "Platelets. White Cells." It is really cute.

Quarter Machine Disappointment

The boys both had a dollar and change to spend, so after a lot of pleading on their part we headed out to the Dollar Tree. It is so interesting to me how differently they spend their money. Thomas is very careful. He wants to look at ALL of the options, carefully narrowing it down to a few favorites to choose from. He asks a lot of questions about whether or not I think it will break easily, if I think it would be a good choice, etc. He never buys candy or food. He wants a toy that will last a long time. He is often disappointed and regrets his decision. Shopping with Thomas takes a long time. Once he has bought something he is pretty possessive and protective. He wants to be sure to keep his hard earned toy safe.



Nicholas, on the other hand, is super easy to shop with. He walks in the store, looks down the aisle, walks directly to the first toy that catches his attention, and says, "This is what I want." Done. Because he usually shops along with Thomas, he generally ends up changing his mind during the waiting time, but if it were just him it would be fast. He often buys food. He bought a big box of gobstoppers this year and shared them with the entire family for weeks. This time at the dollar store we happened to walk down the snack aisle on the way to check out. He spotted a big bag of animal crackers and was set on them. Even before we were all buckled in the van, he was opening them and generously passing them around.



Next to the exit door of the store there were some quarter machines. Nicholas still had a quarter pinging around in his money jar and those machines were just begging for it. He quickly decided on the runts and was very pleased with his handful of candy. Initially, Thomas said he wasn't going to get anything out of the quarter machines, even though he still had three quarters to spare. While Nicholas was buying his candy, though, Thomas spotted a Bakugon (very popular with his Kindergarten friends right now). Now, the cheapest Bakugon you can buy at Walmart or Target is $4. This machine only took $0.75. I didn't look closely at it, and just said he could do whatever he wanted with his money. He quickly put the money in, turned the crank, and pulled out.....a REALLY lame monkey head. He was shocked, angry, and in tears. He had been decieved by bad advertising. He tearfully asked if he could put it back and get his money back. When no was the answer, he was devastated. I looked closer at the machine and saw a large picture of bakugons covering almost the entire front. There was an opened Bakugon attatched to the picture. Looking closely inside at the little toys, there was ONE Bakugon at the very front where you could see it. Then, there were a lot of cases that were completely black so you couldn't see inside them. Finally, in the middle, heading down the chute were cheap, lame, junky things no one would want. I showed him this and we left. When we got home we talked about advertising and how you need to be careful when spending your money. We discussed how if you think you are going to be able to buy something for much less than you know it is worth, you probably aren't going to get what you think you are. All in all, I think it was a good lesson...a lesson that if remembered will be worth far more than $0.75.

After we took this picture, he threw the silly thing in the trash.

More Christmas Pictures

I didn't do a very good job at taking pictures while my family was here over Christmas. I think I was too preoccupied with being the hostess. Here are a few that I don't want to get lost in my sea of picture files, never to be seen again.

Nose Plugging Alternative

During the months of November and December, Thomas and Nicholas took evening swimming lessons. About a week before Christmas, they were conversing about their upcoming lesson. Thomas just recently mastered the skill of going underwater without plugging his nose. He loves to dive down and swim as far as he can underwater. Nicholas is still hesitant about going completely under the water with or without plugging his nose. He'll do it, but he doesn't like it.

Thomas was trying to convince Nicholas that it is SO FUN to go under the water. Nicholas replied by saying he didn't want the water to get in his nose. Thomas told him to just not breathe through his nose and kind of plug it up inside. Nicholas thought for a minute before excitedly replying, "Oh, yeah...like this!"

I didn't know it was physically possible for someone to plug their nose with their upper lip! I sure can't. I thought I had birthed a unique wonder and excitedly showed Jackson as soon as he walked in the door from work. He shattered my excitement by saying, "You can't do that?" and he proceeded to plug his nose with his upper lip with minimal effort. Crazy.

Here are a few more classic Nicholas faces for your enjoyment. He is a delight!