Hanging Out...

....in the laundry basket? Yep, that's what we do in the Ramos house.

Spring Fair

For the second year in a row we took Manny to the Spring Fair last Friday. I think it was much better this year, there seemed to be a lot more rides.

Manny ran as fast as he could to the Pirate Ship ride. Joe and I were a little nervous about him on this ride, but in true just-like-my-mama fashion...HE LOVED IT (the Pirate Ship happens to be one of my favorite rides, I love that "gonna lose my stomach" feeling).

He loved the Home Depot car.

He did a great job sitting still for the face painting, telling the girl all about his fish at home.

This is Manny winning his $5.00 whistle. Yes, I said $5.00 whistle...totally ridiculous.

Easter

So, I started this post over a week ago, but my computer decided to die on me and so here we are a couple of weeks after Easter.

We invited both sides of the family to our house. It was quite nice, once you talk everyone into bringing something.

Uncle Josh and Auntie TT finally had a chance to meet Makenzie:

Manny and I made 18 Easter Ears for everyone to wear. I think Phil and Sarah were the only people who wore them for the whole day...thanks guys, they were a LOT of work (especially since Manny's attention span wore off after 4 and I had to keep convincing him to help me put the stickers on.

Girls' Nite Out and The Boys

Kenzie had her second Girls' Nite Out from The Body Shop. Here she is all dressed up:

The boys had fun playing while the Girls were pampered. Here is Uncle Phil, Uncle Josh, Manny's friend Roman and Manny. Look all those Lego's. Every time Roman comes over he goes directly to the train and he will let you know if you don't put the tracks together correctly!

Hand Colored Eggs

I LOVE coloring Easter eggs...with the little metal handle-thing that comes with the dye kit. Manny LOVES to color Easter eggs too....with his hands. We thought about stopping him and showing him how to color the eggs "the proper way", but hey, he was having a great time.

Concentration

Makenzie has recently discovered her hands and we catch her in with this same facial expression quite often.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Today Manny, Makenzie and I headed to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny. Manny told me about 50 times, "I so 'cited see Easter Bunny". I kept thinking, we would see how excited he was when we actually saw the Easter Bunny because last year he didn't like the big bunny too much.
Well, this year he LOVED the Easter Bunny




Oh, yeah and then we each enjoyed an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.

Splashin' in the Puddles

Manny, Makenzie and I took advantage of the "okay" weather on Tuesday and headed outside to play. We drew with chalk on the driveway, Manny rode his bike and we stomped in some puddles. It was great and a preview for the nice weather that is to come.





Do you like our rain boots?

Makenzie didn't really like the whole sitting still thing, so this is the only picture I have of her that doesn't involve screaming.

Not that one Mama

We were at Target today and I was looking at the wallets. I have a hard time finding a wallet that I like so I usually look at them for about a year until mine finally falls apart completely and then buy one. I think I have had my current wallet for 5 years and it is time to part ways.

Manny was looking at the wallet with me and said,

"Mama you don't want that wallet, it has no money in it".

Ring Around the Rosie

Here is a video of Manny and McKayla doing Ring Around the Rosie. At the end, Manny does the second verse all by himself (part of his slight OCD, he has to do everything completely).

"French Fries Make Me Happy"

Manny continues to remind me that "french fries make me happy" everytime we go by a McDonald's, or for that matter any time I offer him a snack. So, he was very excited when I told him that we were going to meet his friends McKayla and Kristian at McDonald's for dinner.

The kids (Makenzie was there too, but I didn't get any pictures, don't worry, I didn't leave her at home) all had a great time and before we knew it, we had been there for 2 hours and it was time to go home to bed! As soon as we got home Manny asked what he could have for a snack.

It was nice to get to chat with Christine while the kids were occupied.

"Mine contacts are red Mama, not blue like yours". He is too funny sometimes (you might have to click on the picture to enlarge it to it, but I forgot to push reduce the red-eye button).

P.S. This is a picture of Manny and Uncle in "Uncle's Gym" (yes, Manny thinks it is just Uncle's gym and yes Manny thought he was going to be sleeping here with Uncle when he spent the night in Dexter....to be two again...)

The Budding Photographer

Manny loves to take pictures and he wanted me to post them on the blog.

Please don't tell me this is ANOTHER growth spurt

Manny has eaten just about all the food in the house (ok, not really, but that is what it feels like). Every other sentence out of his mouth today has been, "Mine has an empty belly".

What he has eaten today:
*bowl of oatmeal with raisins
* 1/2 of a pear
*bag of cheese popcorn
*2 pieces of turkey
*1 cup of grapes
*1/2 cup of dried cranberries
*1 mozzarella cheese stick
*1 banana
*4 sippy cups of milk
*veggie burger

and it is only 2:30pm!

It's not that I don't want Manny to grow, it is the fact that he is growing out of his winter clothes. He has like 4 pairs of pants and 5 shirts left that sort-of fit. I need spring to get here so that he can wear some clothes that fit!

Makenzie's 8-week well-baby visit

Makenzie had her 8-week Dr's visit today.

She weighed 12 pounds (up 1.5 in two weeks, yikes!)
She was 23 inches long (up 2 inches in two weeks, yikes again!)

However, the Doctor said that was normal, she just had a bigger growth spurt in those two weeks.

She is developing at the rate of a 3-4 month old (what a little smarty-pants, haha).

"Ready to go"

At 8:00 Friday morning, I got out of the shower to see that Manny had finished dressing himself, had put his rainboots on, and has somehow gotten his sweatshirt down (I do not dare to ask how) and said to me,

"Mine ready to go to Grampa's"

I had to explain to Manny that we had to wait for Daddy to come home and then we would go to Dexter to Grampa's.

Manny seemed to accept this answer, however, about every 20 minutes or so, he would remind me that he was ready to go.






I don't have any pictures from Manny's stay with Grampa or Makenzie's stay with Grammy, but they both seem to have had fun time.

Manny was very excited because he got to eat red hotdogs for supper and he went to the "dempshun" (redemption center) with Grampa and got cash.

As for Joe and I, we had a really good time on our night away.

Manny Says....

Tonight Joe was on the phone with a co-worker from the mill and Manny was trying to return a pen to Joe's desk so the pen could "be with his family"

Joe put his hand to Manny's mouth to let him know he had to be quite. No one has ever done this to Manny before, so I don't really think Manny knew what Joe was trying to do. Manny continued to say, "have to get back with the family" and Joe kept trying to cover his mouth. (I know you are thinking, why didn't I jump in and do anything, but hey, I deal with this stuff all day, plus I knew it would be easier just to let Manny continue what he was doing and then he would move on).

Anyway, after putting his hand over Manny's mouth three times, Manny finally said,

"Hey, stop that Daddy, that not very nice."

Over the river and through the woods....

To Grampa's house Manny goes....

Hooray! Manny is going to spend the night at Grampa's house tomorrow night, Makenzie is going to Grammy's house and Joe and I are going to a hotel.

Hooray!

Manny is actually very excited. These are the things Manny thinks he is going to do at Grampa's:

*eat pizza
*eat popcorn
*sleep in Uncle's bed
*watch Scooby Doo
*go to Uncle's School
*play with Casey's eggs (Casey is their parrot)

and he is very "cited" as he says.

Mama and Daddy are very 'cited' too!

Batteries and No Screwdriver

This morning I was trying to put the batteries in Makenzie's new baby monitor. Manny was very excited to have something else that ran on batteries in the house. He sat next to me and said, "Mine want to see how it works". He is quite the little engineer.



Then, which is the case with ALL baby things now, we needed a screwdriver to put the batteries in. Of course, I couldn't find one so Manny said, "You need screwdriver Mama? Mine have one on my tool bench." He ran in to get his plastic Fisher-Price screwdriver.



I tried to explain to him that I needed a tiny screw driver to pit into the tiny screws. Manny looked at me and said,



"Mine sorry, this is all mine have."

The Start of Potty-Training?

Last night, I heard Manny go into the bathroom, but didn't think anything of it because I was feeding Makenzie and Manny often wanders into the bathroom.

I heard him move his stool, I still wasn't worried because he often moves it closer to the sink to wash his hands or moves it under the light switch to turn it on.

A few seconds later I see him run out of the bathroom, but stop in the living room and then run into the kitchen. I could hear Joe talking to Manny and began to get curious.

Manny had taken his diaper off, moved his stool near the toilet and attempted to pee. He told Joe, "Mine no pee, too dark". Then he had run into the living room and found an empty play cup and peed in that. (He missed a little bit, but I thought that was a pretty good try).

Hopefully we are on our way to no more diapers...we will see.

Manny Says...

Manny woke up this morning and the first thing he said to me was,

"Mama, we have no hotdogs"

My Dad would be proud that the first words out of Manny's mouth were about hotdogs.

The Lunar Eclipse

So, Joe stood outside for HOURS on Wednesday night to capture the eclipse with his camera. I enjoyed looking at the pictures the next day from our nice warm office rather than watch the "live event" outside in the freezing cold.

I took Manny and Makenzie to get their pictures taken this week at JCPenney. They came out so cute! They were playing on the floor and I decided to take some of my own pictures. I wish Joe was home so that the pictures would have been really good (he is a much better photographer than me).

Political Affiliation for a toddler

Today, Joe and I were talking about the election and I asked Manny if he was going to be a Democrat or a Republican? He said, "Pub-ah-lick-in". Hmmm, I thought, so I asked Manny again, Are you going to be a Republican or a Democrat? He said, "Dem-crat".

Joe said to Manny, "Manny, Daddy is a Republican and Mama is a Democrat, which do you want to be, a Republican or a Democrat?" Manny said, "Manny want be a butterfly."

There you have it.

Manny Says...

Manny says, "Macky-Roni" for Macoroni and Cheese.

How to Quiet a Screaming Makenzie

One day last week (I know, I am a little behind), I apparently was taking too long to make Makenzie's bottle and she was screaming louder than anything you can imagine.

Manny did his usual, "Oh, Kenzie, it's okay. Honey, it's okay, let me kiss you". He was doing all the tricks that he could think of All of a sudden from the kitchen where I was trying to figure out why I was taking so long to make a bottle, I heard silence.

I listened for a minute and when I still didn't hear anything I quickly went into the living room (of course I was thinking the worst). But, what did I see? Manny was laying on the floor next to Makenzie and he had put her pacifier in her mouth. He looks up at me and says, "See Mama, she's happy now."

Manny Says....

Manny doesn't like when Makenzie cries and always says, "Mama (or Daddy) pick her up".

I didn't think it was because he was annoyed that she was crying, but I wanted to find out for sure.

I asked him why I have to pick her up? He answered, "because it makes her happy".


What a sweet boy.

Manny says...

We recently purchased the movie Annie (which I LOVE and thought Manny would too, turns out Joe is a bit of a fan as well).

Anyway, Manny has an Auntie Annie and a cousin Gracie who just came to visit after Makenzie was born.

Yesterday Manny was trying to tell me that he wanted to watch the movie "Gracie". It took me several requests to figure out that he wanted to watch Annie, but he was mixing up their names.

When I finally figured it out and asked him if he meant Annie, he said, "Oh yes, yes, yes, Manny watch Annie, not Gracie, mine forgot."

Chocolate Fondue

Need I say more? Not if I am speaking to Manny.


Manny has such a love of chocolate that when he even says the word, he uses a different voice and his facial expression changes to one of adoration.


For Christmas I received a chocolate fondue pot for my yankee swap gift....yay.

Manny's curiosity finally got the better of him and he asked me what was in the box and when we could make the chocolate things that were pictured on the box. So I told him that after dinner we could make chocolate.


His head almost started spinning he was so excited. All day he continued to remind me that we were going to "make chocolate".

Our first visit to GG's

Last Tuesday Manny, Makenzie and I decided to go visit GG (plus GG was quite anxious to see her great-grandchildren :).

Manny Says...

The other day, Joe called from work and wanted me to record the Presidental debates on his computer...on MSNBC. First, I don't even know what channel MSNBC is, so I had to look for that and then I couldn't find where it said, debate or anything Presedential.

I was getting frustrated and said, "Grrr, Joe, I can't even find this". Manny looked at me, laughed and said, "Joe not at home, Joe at work Mama"