Palm Beach and Toddler Lying

Cute things Taylor Did Yesterday
Taylor got this huge kick out of telling Jess and I "Ants bite you! Don't touch the Ants! Go to Time Out! Be Quiet!" I can't tell if she's mixing thing we've told her with things from school (Ants from us, Time out from school) or if perhaps they had an antbed at school and told the kids not to touch it? Either way, she made SURE we understood what we weren't supposed to be doing. Then she made Jess take a nap and attempted to cover her up with a blanket.

Edit: Wow, while I was writing this Corey came out and told me there are ants in the kids room!! I guess Taylor really DID see an ant yesterday. I've really got to start believing her, because she's never once told me about ants where I didn't end up seeing ants either right away or in that same spot later on. Regardless, we just went on an all out deep clean of the kids room and found they were in the garage too. Mission Destroy Ants: Complete

Lying
Travis is starting to lie. And while that might not be a huge deal, the lies he tells are. The first time happened was when Sharon picked him up from day care one day because he was sick. In the car, he told Sharon his finger hurt and when she asked what happen he said "Pawpaw bit me." Sharon was like, "No, paw paw didn't bite you Travis; you shouldn't say things that aren't true." Then a week later, he stumbled here at the house and fell. He cried and came over to me saying "Larry did it!!" I was like, "I was standing right here, and Grandpa Larry didn't do anything to you."

Anyway, he woke up this morning with his eye swollen. We aren't 100% sure why - perhaps a bug bite from palm beach. We thought maybe sand, but his eye looked fine all day yesterday and it wasn't bothering him. There appears to be a bite on the lid. Anyway, Corey told me that when he asked Travis about it, Travis said "Larry hit me."

I'm pretty concerned about this. It's one thing to lie - it's another thing for him to be going about accusing people falsely of things. Usually when the kids hurt themselves they blame whatever it was that they bumped into (The chair hurt me or the ground or whatever) but here and there Travis says these things.

I know they aren't true. Paw Paw and Grandpa Larry wouldn't hurt them anyway, but they also don't get to see the kids much anyway with their work schedules and when they do it's always in a group setting just because that's how it's been. I just don't want Travis to go to day care and say "Mommy hit me" or "daddy hit me" or even that their grandparents hit him when it's not true!

Palm Beach
The kids, Jess, and I all went to palm beach yesterday. It really is amazing how much better behaved my kids are when we aren't at home. Watching them is more challenging in public because you always have to be vigilant, but the fighting between the two, the little fits, and the whining are so much less, in some ways it's worth it. Plus, we all get out of the house and get some exercise.

The weather was beautiful so we walked from the parking lot (the one behind Moody Gardens) all the way around to palm beach. Once there, we took the kids first to the sprinkler area. Taylor spent more time running AROUND the sprinklers than through them and she hardly got wet at all! Travis, on the other hand, had a blast playing in the water and came out sopping wet. After awhile, the kids told me they wanted to go in the big pool.

Palm Beach provides life jackets, so we picked up a couple for the twins, then found ourselves a nice spot close to the water to put all our stuff down. We swam for awhile, then I ended up taking Travis to buy some sand toys to keep him from stealing other people's. They played in the sand and Travis took the toy dump truck with him in the water.

All and all we had a nice time. I'd never been there before, so I didn't take my camera because I didn't know what to expect and I was worried about breaking it (Jenn + Water + Electronics = Bad for anyone who knows what happened to my cell phone.) Next time I'll try and buy one of those water proof cameras to take instead.

Sitting up
Evan is definitely sitting up now. He can hold his position upright for at least 30 seconds before he teeters too far in one direction and often if he wobbles he catches himself. I'm pretty impressed with his balance, because he's only 4.5 months old. I think with a little more practice, he'll have it in no time!! He hasn't made much progress on scooting or crawling yet, but he does roll over a lot more now, so I can only assume that's the next step.