musings and mutterings

Post 100 - Back to killing my own spiders

2009-10-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. Wren - August 16, 2001

I know that in the blogger world, a big deal is often made of the 100th post. Back around 50, I wondered what imaginative thing I would do with mine. As it happens, fate and the fact that I have finally gathered sufficient strength has decreed that post 100 will be to announce a devastating change in our family. This is not the time or the forum for details, but we will leave it that J has decided to move on to what he feels is greener grass.

Sad is too tame a word for what we feel around here. Although we have been buoyed up by many loving family members and friends, we all really miss our Daddy/Companion and are hurting from his decision to go. We all wish his choice had been different, but we are now left with the reality of picking up the broken pieces of this home and making it into something that works and is a loving and peaceful place for my three little ones to grow.

To this end, this will be the final post for The Wren Birds. As chronicles go, I would say this is a definite end of a chapter. I've never been accused of being unsentimental and I feel like the posts in this blog belong to the complete family that we were. It has been a month since he left and although "getting my feet under me" varies from day to day, I feel like I need to do something to signal a new beginning. Even if it is just a new blog, with a new title and a new feel.

This new phase of our lives will be chronicled (is that a word? If not, it should be) at:

The Greenest Grass

http://greenestgrassfamily.blogspot.com/

(I know! Irony...I couldn't resist.)

We welcome any and all prayers and good vibes sent our way as the weeks and months ahead will be very difficult as we adjust and find a new normal.

Kid-isms

2009-10-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

In the last 24 hours:

Samuel and Thomas got into a fight and Sam stood up and shouted:

"That's it!! This is the END of our happy friendship!!!"

I asked Thomas to grab me a diaper for Sis and he looked and me and then down at the toys he had clutched in his hands and said apologetically:

"Sorry Mom, I can't. I have a toy in each hand..."

Janie thinks it is funny when you sneeze.

Janie's Day

2009-09-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

For Janie's baby blessing on August 30th, we decided to make it a quiet affair at home, rather than doing it at church. However, anyone who knows me, knows that as soon as I find out I am expecting, I am planning the "blessing party" because I get a big kick out of entertaining. So I kind of went overboard for a party in honor of someone who can't even eat solid food yet. In this case, I got to do things a little differently since it did not involve a large crowd. Grandpa Wren did the honors of blessing our girlie and my parents attended as well as members of the bishopric. It was a beautiful blessing and the guest of honor looked beautiful (if a little disgruntled to be in such a fluffy dress) and the feast was plentiful. All in all, it was a celebration worthy of our princess.

I really need a better camera, don't I?

Amy, who runs the business 'Flowerz in her Hair' keeps JLo in bows and bling. She is awesome and she specially created the blessing headband. Isn't it pretty? Anyone with girls, check her out (link on my sidebar).

I love this bracelet but is it not likely to fit her chubby little wrist much longer. Had to document it...
New Jane and Vintage Jane bonding (She is Grandma K's namesake)

Two excellent Grandpas. My kids are exceptionally lucky.

Us five

The feast! It looks like a lot less here than it felt like I prepared. I do have to note that the lemon garnish on the lemonade was all Sam's idea. He saw it on a cartoon and thought it made a good finishing touch. It did, didn't it?

Come on, you totally wanted to see pictures of what we ate, didn't you?

(bowtie pasta because Janie girl is never without a bow! It's all about symbolism and atmosphere people!)

( A Jay special...)

The dessert that is likely to keep me in the will with both father and father in law :-)! We found some new fans for this particular dessert. Dad K even claimed that it trumps what has been his standby favorite (german chocolate cake) for as long as I can remember. If I really like you, I will give you the recipe. It's up to you figure that out though :) Even if you aren't a pecan fan. You will be converted. I promise.

Thank you to the family that attended and helped make the evening special.

Family Camp Out

2009-09-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

Despite our good intentions to get out several camp outs this summer, we only managed one (probably having something to do with the new baby!). However, it was action packed, if not very rugged.

The boys learned several new swear words while they helped dad set up the tent

We rode bikes around the campground (yes, the roads are paved. I said it wasn't rugged...)

We attempted to make tin foil dinners that looked much better before they were cooked. We didn't know how long they needed to be in the fire, so opted to keep them in for an hour. Bad idea...

So, we hunted down and dragged home a pizza from the wilds of the Little Ceasar's down the road instead. We were kind of glad it was dark by then, because we were embarrassed to have our neighbors in the next campsite witness our shame!

Dessert turned out okay

This is how Sam posed for every picture. Silly much? He must be five!

Thomas joining Sam in "the pose"

Dad and sis getting in on the action too.

Marriage...is what brings us...together...today...

2009-09-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today in the car sweet Thomas piped up:

T: "Mom, I am going to marry you when I grow up!"

While I was mopping up my melting heart, Samuel contributed his own comment:

S: "Mom, when you get married, do you just walk around and hold hands?"

Me: "Yes, you do that sometimes. What else do you think married people do?"

T: "They kiss!!"

S: (admiringly) "Thomas, you are really smart! I think married people also dance really good, and when you dance the most good, you get a trophy."

Me: (trying to figure out which of my child's parents gave him the impression that dancing is an integral part of a marriage) "So, I don't have a trophy, does that mean I am not a good dancer?"

S: "Ummm...."

It must be J he's thinking of.

Class of 2022

2009-09-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to say it! Five years ago, we looked at our baby boy and said "I can't believe he will be going to school in only a few years" and it seems like we said it only yesterday. Contrary to my predictions when he started preschool, I managed to not cry. I must be maturing. Or else I am sick to death of the constant Wren style wrangling that goes on between my monkey boys. Either way, it was still a hallmark day and the whole family accompanied Sam to school on the first day of the rest of his life.

*Interesting note: This child who has woken at the crack of dawn all summer decided a week before the start of school that sleeping in is good. Guess who we have to drag out of bed every morning? It might be a long twelve years...

True to the original Kinsel tradition, he was allowed to pick whatever he wanted for breakfast on the first day of school. He chose strawberry milk, donuts, bacon and ice cream. Three out of four weren't bad, but kind of a waste of the "whatever you want" rule. He'll learn.

In front of his classroom, showing Thomas how it's done at school!

The first of many desks!

*sniff* I'm so proud...

Belly Laughs

2009-09-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Happy 3 month birthday to our little J-Lo! Thomas can really get her to laugh much to the jealousy of older brother who feels like the title of comedy king rightfully belongs to him.

The non-adventures of me in CA

2009-09-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Janie and I ditched the boys at home and took a well deserved vacay back to the Bay Area to stay with my awesome sis Bek in her awesome house and play with her awesome kids. Bek had put me up for multiple summers both when I was a penniless college student looking for a sweet summer job and for six months as a homeless army wife. She even took me in with Husband and Baby #1 in tow while J ran a business out there for a summer. So, Bek's house always feels like home to me. Except it's a home where no kids are hollering at me and where I can sleep in and have no other demands on my time or emotions. We took naps and did nothing touristy, but all those oridinary things that seem so much more special when you are not hauling three kids around. You know, like when you lose weight and all those clothes you can fit into again feel like new? It was like that and it was great. We ate at Boston Market every day and visited Naartjie and Trader Joe's and the Cheesecake Factory and the best Goodwill ever. If you ever want good food, good rest, good conversation and good shopping, go stay at Bek's! Tell her I sent you... :-)

Cubby, Janie and Bek - Janie was fussy this morning but would calm down for Cubby. He asked me if I could leave her there.

The two big kids were gone the first two days I was there, so I got to play with Nono (Thomas' age) and hear her chatter and sing and I also got to see little G make the greatest faces

She is a mini Lulu, and so happy...

This looks like a grumpy face, but she was being silly

She spent at least an hour playing with her reflection

and the next hour patting the baby and saying "bababa." While we were there, she also picked up the sign for baby as well.

Then she got tired...

Bek also used her far superior camera and skills to take some pictures of J-Lo

Look at that scowl and those eyebrows. Is this J's kid or what?!

She has Alfred Hitchcock cheeks and you just can't keep from kissing and smooshing them (I bet Alfred Hitchcock had the same effect on people!)

On the way home on the plane, it was open seating and it was obvious that no one wanted to sit next to a baby, so we got an empty seat next to us on both flights. Janie didn't make a peep. This kid is already paying for herself!

Poor Janie...

2009-08-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

...Losing her girlish figure!

This is post bathtime and her hair always stands straight up after it dries for about 24 hours. She looks like Vanilla Ice.

Cascade Springs

2009-08-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, we visited Cascade Springs with the kids. It has been years since I was there and I was a little suprised to find that my memories of it were a little different. It was still beautiful though and it was a warm enough day that I was tempted to stick my toes in! Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Brad were going to come along, but were derailed by the flu :-(

Jen and Co. on the bridge ( I need a better camera!)

Aunt Jen pointing out the finer sights of the boardwalk.

Sis gets a ride

This tree gnome was so cute, we took him home and named him Sam!

Exploring the trail (Sam enthusiastically, Thomas reluctantly)

Water Skeeters!

Stranded!

Cool Rocks!

Heading Home...

Catching up - Grandpa's Birthday Cookout

2009-08-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

I am so far behind on my updating, but these pictures have been sitting in my camera, so...

We celebrated Grandpa K's birthday at a cook out in Provo canyon. I couldn't remember his actual age when the boys asked, so I just told them he was 100.

This ain't your average redneck cookout with something as plebeian as hot dogs! No way, we roasted redwine and gouda (or something) flavored bratwursts.

While the grown-ups ate and ate and ate...

The kids enjoyed themselves digging for treasure in the nearby volleyball sand pit. There was much throwing of sand and tattling (the former by thomas and birdie and the latter by Sam and EJ).

This is what Janie was doing when no one was holding her (poor girl - this was actually the day before her hospital stay).

Chilling with "Unca" Brad.

and Poppa!

Thomas wasn't impressed with his s'more. I am in the process of making sure he is really my kid!

At the end of the evening, goody bags were handed out (courtesy of Sam's insistance that goody bags are the best part of a birthday party).

To top the evening off, we had a little silliness....

...courtesy of Poppa!

Happy Birthday Grandpa/Dad!!

Super Effective Parenting

2009-08-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

What I found myself saying in response to Thomas' repeated acrobatic gyrations during family prayer tonight:

"Darn it Thomas!! Be reverent or you are going to get a bum spank!!!!"

Something feels wrong with that statement :-)

Some coincidence...

2009-07-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a big believer in the idea that often used adages are based on real truth, particularly the one that says "It never rains, but it pours" and the one that says "beware the 19th of July because you might end up in the hospital with your third born on the fifth anniversary of the hellish hospital experience with your first born's broken arm" (if that isn't actually an oft used adage then I'm making it one! Spread the word people - and anyone who is curious about this "anniversary" and doesn't know what I am talking about, remind me to tell you sometime...)

Long story short, Janie developed a fever this weekend and was admitted for a few days. It looks like a unrinary tract infection and a virus. Test results tomorrow will let us know what further tests/treatment need to be done since UTI's are not common for this age. Hopefully it is on the less bad end of what the possibilities are.

In the meantime, a few far away friends and family have requested new pictures. Now, she isn't in pink, which goes against everything that feels right at the moment and there is no bow in her hair which I almost can't stand. Bear with me because you may not recognize her...

This is how she tries to keep her pacifier in.

Just chillin' and being calmer, quieter (and prettier) than all the babies in all the other rooms.

Being a very good sport (first recorded smile)

Back to poker face (with chimpanzee hair! She just had a bath)

Big brothers came to have dinner and visit. After I took this picture I told Sam to make a handsome face instead...

...So Thomas made it for him (I gave up on a good picture)

2 days in the hospital is plenty. We're bored!

She is responding to the medication well and now we are just waiting on test results before they will discharge her. Big shout out to Grandma Jane and Aunt Jen who wrangled the boys on short notice for us and for all the wonderful friends and family who have checked in and offered support and meals and love. We know lots of amazing people (you know who you are...).

***UPDATE***

Good news and bad news! Our Janie tricked the doctors with her initial culture and she does not have a UTI, just the paraflu. This is great because the presence of a UTI potentially signalled a lot of other potential problems. The bad news is that I traded spots with J for overnight duty the second night so I could go home and get some sleep and ended up awake all night long anyway with a puking Thomas. Dirty trick...

This is where Thomas keeps his toy parrot...

2009-07-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Why? Where do you keep yours?

*I had to bribe T with a piece of gum to let me take this picture. He always gets embarrassed when we notice that he has done this (and he frequently stashes it there...)

Today...

2009-07-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

...I am grateful for a gospel that promises that these three little people are mine forever.

J Lo rocking her first non-pink outfit. It was difficult for me!

Samuel showing off his first complete row of stars on his "Big Brother Helper" Chart. His first reward was a fish he named "Swimmy."

The boys got their faces painted at a carnival and Sam was a clown but started to wash his face before I got a picture. He still really wanted to be in it. I think he looks like The Joker.

Big Brother really wanted to hold Baby Sister like the grown ups do, up on his chest.

Cuddling Sis

My three...

We have some preaching to do...

2009-07-09T22:25:00.001-07:00

Samuel seems a little confused about Jesus and the role he plays in our lives. He knows he is "the guy who made the world" but beyond that doesn't quite get it yet. This came to our attention through several conversations over the last few weeks.

Scenario #1

Sam: "Why doesn't Jesus go to church? (Accusingly) I never see him there..."

Scenario #2

while driving down a road with new asphalt, some of the rocks were kicked up and made a pattering sound on the back of the car.

Sam: "Who threw something at our car?"
Me: "No one. It's just some rocks that got kicked up and hit the car"
Sam: (Accusingly) "Did Jesus throw the rocks at us?"

Scenario #3

During the Sacrament, Samuel started grabbing more than one piece of bread from the tray...

J: "Whoa, what are you doing? We only take one piece...you know that!"
Samuel: "But there are lots of pieces, why do I only get one?"
J: "Because Jesus gave bread to his apostles and told them to remember him when they ate it, so we eat a piece every sunday to remember him."
Sam: "But if I have lots of pieces, I will remember him lots..."

We have a lot of work to do in the next fourteen years before sending this kid out to the mission field. And we should probably let him know that Jesus is more of a loving deity that the rock throwing, church skipping kind.

July 1 - Happy 3rd Birthday Thomas!

2009-07-08T09:24:00.001-07:00

Not Janie! Thomas at 2 months old

1 year old

We took some visiting cousins to Classic Skating for an Incredible Hulk (what else?) party

Little ones are allowed to ride scooters or bikes instead of skating. Everyone had a blast.

Sister also partied hard...

We love you T man!!

We've been...

2009-06-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Getting to know each other

Welcoming Sis home with original art

Getting acquainted with Raffi

hanging with family...

Hanging with celebrities...

Catching up on sleep

Camping in between rain showers

Sharing our toys

Playing "this little piggy went to market" with Sis (except in T's version, all the toes go to market except the last one which goes "whee, whee, whee...")

Catching zzzz's while mom and dad start Lost again from the first season.

Getting trophies for T-Ball ("I can't believe I WON, mom!!!")

Pretending to get a trophy....

Throwing rocks and sticks in the river

Practicing being awake for a change

The boy's vacation

2009-06-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Where were my boys while I was lounging in the hospital you ask?

Living it up at Aunt Mak and Uncle Dave's casa. With a finale trip to Grandpa's house (Grandma was being Mary Poppins in Egland taking care of another baby who needed her).

Check it out. No wonder they didn't want to come home. Good thing we had a cute sister to entice them with.

You can call her J Lo

2009-06-04T23:25:00.000-07:00

On June 2, at 1:45 p.m. Jane Lois Wren joined us weighing in at 7 lbs 12 oz. and is 20 inches long.

I am totally in love and think she is the most perfect little thing since my other two were this little. More pictures later (s well as the boy's reaction) For now we are busy watching her sleep...

and petting her soft head...

and fighting over who gets to hold her...

and drawing her welcome pictures...

and ransacking the toy boxes for things she might enjoy playing with...

and listening to her squeak like a mouse when she yawns!

Overalls

2009-06-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

My boys have recently been obsessed with the children's TV show about two bunny siblings Max and Ruby (I sincerely can't figure out why they love it and I have some issues with it, but that is another post for another time...) They watch the episodes we DVR so much that they can pretty much quote them by now. Sam always opts to be Ruby who, although she is a girl, she is the oldest and gets to tell Max what to do. Thomas just wants Sam to notice him, and is willing to be whoever Sam tells him to be, so he is always Max. Sam has recently been concerned that we don't have a pair of overalls (Max's outfit) to put Thomas into to really get him into character (Thomas has to dress the part, but Sam doesnt, thank goodness...). I have given a lot of vague promises about looking for some next time we are at the store, but hoped he would let it go. This morning he took matters into his own hands (which I should have expected) and made a pair for Thomas, complete with stripes and his name. What do you think? :-)

My Thomas

2009-05-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

With the imminent arrival of new baby I have found myself being very nostalgic about my baby for the last three years (not that I am allowed to call him that. "I'm just Thomas, mom!!!"). I realized that many of my recent posts have centered on what Samuel is up to. This doesn't mean that T has been inactive (or quiet) by any means. There just haven't been as many isolated, blog worthy moments with him lately. Instead, he is a conglomeration of Thomas-isms that make him our unique, fierce, funny little boy. I don't have the right words to adequately describe this kid's personality, but he is such a unique presence in our home in a way that is very different from Sam. I'm lucky in my boys. They may drive me to the looney bin some days, but mostly I feel like I don't deserve such good kids.

He has recently stopped calling himself "my thomas" as in "where is my thomas' shoe?" but the nickname has stuck, particularly with his dad. Here is our "My Thomas" list:

--He is going through a timid phase at the moment, but feels a lot more comfortable with a sword in his hand and will brandish it and say "I'm a BAD GUY!!!" If possible, he will ignore the many actual play swords in the toy box and reach for an unsharpened pencil and tell us "pretend this is a sword!" Ditto for the hook he has to constantly carry around to be Captain Hook. I got him a play one at a party store and he still prefers a hanger or the dough hook from my kitchenaide mixer. He has to have a "weapon" when watching a show that has anything remotely scary in it, and gravitates toward the few Disney shows that feature guys with swords (Hercules is the favorite) and he will mimic the fighting on the screen.

--I recently made him a peter pan shirt (the quality of which makes me unwilling to post a picture for posterity...) and when he puts it on, he switches right into character. When he is upset about being told "no," his catchphrase is usually "that makes me saaaaadddd...." but when he's in character it's "That makes Peter Pan sad!!" When told to stop throwing bologna on the floor, he looked me in the eye, shrugged and told me Peter Pan did it (what the heck did I expect him to do about it??) To be honest, Peter Pan is kind of a stinker...

--My Thomas is a cuddler and always has been! Unlike Sam who recently informed me that he would only let me cuddle him "when he wakes up with a nightmare, but during the day I just want to be silly." I'm more grateful for my little one who crawls into my lap all the time and wants to have his back rubbed. This morning, he gathered all the pillows in the living room and piled them around us and snuggled down. Every once in awhile he would reach up and pat my face and say "I love you, mom." He may be an evil genius who knows just how to manipulate us but I don't even care. Moments like those tend to make up for the exploration and consequent experimentation with the contents of my make up bag, or the 500th time he smacks his brother, etc.--My Thomas is active. This is a child who barely sleeps and has no time to eat and is the first one up every day and runs into our room to inform us that it is morning. The dark blinds no longer fool him in the morning, since he has taken to crawling out of bed whenever he wakes up in the night to check behind them to see if it is day. Good thing Jay is a morning person... There is no elevated surface in our house that T has not jumped off of and since I recently banned him from leaping from the couch arms, he has taken to pretending to fly from the top of the stairs. I expect a trip to the emergency room every day with this one.

--We call Thomas our "puppy" and he really fits the bill. All he wants to do is play catch and if no one will play with him, he throws the ball for himself and then cheers "Go Thomas!! All Right!!! Yeah!!!" As a barely crawling baby, he would carry things around in his mouth and bring us balls to throw for him, which he would fetch. Since we call him "puppy" a lot, he spends at least some part of every day officially pretending to be one and requires head scratching and doggie praise.

--My Thomas is intense in everything he does and always has been. He recently got a new pair of flip flops that he did not want to take off for a second. He placed them at the end of his bed at night and would put them on first thing in the morning. When he wasn't wearing them, he was carrying them. He is both Samuel's best friend and worst enemy without much in between. I love it when they play, but oh the fighting and the teasing...! Thomas has a healthy dose of "the little brother gene."

--My Thomas is a sweetheart. Not a sunday passes by that he doesn't tell me that I look "pretty" or "beautiful" on the way to church. He has recently started passing the compliments around to J and Sam, but I get the brunt of them, which I am actually okay with. Of both boys, he seems to be anticipating baby sister's arrival the most. He often points out baby girls when we are at the grocery store and asks if sister will be like that.

--My Thomas is a singer. Surprisingly, this kid sings all day long (Sam won't even sing in primary these days). He can remember lyrics really well and is actually in tune most of the time. If you are really lucky, someday you may hear him sing the "Go the Distance" song from Hercules, and it will melt your heart forever. You have to pretend not to listen though or your won't get a performance. His other favorite is the "Happy Family" primary song and usually busts it out when he is in the bathroom for some reason.

Learning to wink!

Thomas-isms:

"Are you nice?" (guaging whether or not I am still angry after he has gotten in trouble for something)

"How I'm lookin'?" (after getting dressed. He will put his hands on his hips and strut around the room.)

"I deeped in the water" (after he has accidently let his head go under the water at the swimming pool)

"I want some cereal with the bag on it" (translation: I want some cereal in a bag?)

"Can I have a juice of water?" (drink of water).

"I'm not going to talk anymore" (his threat when he is mad at me. Unfortunately, he never keeps his word...)

"I'm a BIG boy" (when trying to coax us to let him do something he isn't allowed)

"I'm just a little boy" (when trying to talk himself out of having to eat more bites of dinner)

The Pixie Motel

2009-05-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have always thought my neices were the greatest, but I now have reason to believe they might be the most creative and clever as well. We are lucky enough to have L visiting from California for the next few days and invited A over to play as well. The two of them made the greatest creation my backyard has yet seen. Aside from the extreme creativity of these girls, and feeling reminiscent because it was exactly the kind of thing my best friend and I would have done at the same age, it was so gratifying to see little girls being little girls for a change and enjoying sweet simple things. It feels like there is so much marketing focus directed to little girls to be grown up and mature (a la Bratz Dolls, etc.) that is is refreshing to see some get excited over something as classic as fairies. A has reported in the past that she gets razzed at school for being "old fashioned" meaning she is into things like fairies and loves the Muppets. Someday, I hope my daughter at 10 finds joy in these same kinds of things and doesn't feel the pressure to be older than she is. There is so little time to be young and so much to be old.

Both girls are very into the Neverland Fairies franchise and after playing with the dolls for awhile decided to build a Pixie Motel in the backyard for any fairies visiting "The Mainland" who might be tired. It was adorable, so creative and 100% their doing...(for the record, I apologize that some of the pictures are washed out. It wasn't a great time of the afternoon for picture taking but I wanted to make sure we captured what we could.)

Cutting the ribbon for the "Grand Opening"

Inside the Motel...

This was Samuel's creation since he desperately wanted to join in the game and do whatever the big girls were doing. It occurred to me later that we skipped a T-ball game (come on, they are twice a week!!) so he could build a fairy house with the girls. Think that will come back to bite us?! ;-) However, to be fair, he has no idea what a fairy is (judging by his confused questions), and only knows of Tinker Bell from Peter Pan so we had his creation be the Lost Boys hideout. He could relate to that! I love my creative boy.

The sign in front of the Lost Boys hideout courtesy of Sam

Feel free to send any weary pixies our way! I sincerely wish that we could keep the Pixie Motel in the backyard forever looking just the way it is (although Jay might object next time he mows the lawn!)

P.S. Just in case you are curious where Thomas was while all of this creativity was going on, he was watering all my plants in nothing but his underwear and a knitted ski hat. I like to think it was creativity of a different kind...

Raffi has a Birthday Party!

2009-05-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Around March, Sam became obsessed with the idea of throwing Raffi a party. It probably had something to do with his own party the month before, but I thought it was ironic since we "adopted" Raffi in March of the year before, so it actually was kind of a birthday (as much as stuffed animals have them anyway!). So, since we have already established that I am a sucker and since Sam was clearly not going to let the idea go, we designated one evening for Raffi's birthday party. Sam very much took the reins with this party, by the way. I helped with a few things like actually baking the cupcakes and finding stuff for the goody bags, but he did the rest and it was actually very fun! Making the carrot cake batter for the cupcakes. Because carrots are what giraffes like to eat (and because it was the only cake mix in the cupboard...)

Hard at work decorating the cupcakes.

Can you tell I didn't help? I would also like to point out the one that Thomas couldn't resist "testing."

Samuel decorated goody bags for the whole family.

The contents of the goody bags (again, the best that what was on hand in the pantry could provide!)

Decorations for the party

Helping Raffi open his present (a ball and a jitterbug baby toy) Raffi was thrilled as you can see by his facial expression.

Yes, we did light a candle and sang the song and those of us over five felt a little foolish, but tried to be good sports for the little folk who thought it was awesome. Raffi needs a little help eating his cake because Sam carries him by the neck so much, he has lost all the stuffing in it and tends to flop (and also because he isn't real...).

Sam created a game of "pin the anchor on the ship" and helped Thomas who tends to walk into walls even without being blindfolded.

I think J was cheating

Sam and Raffi playing with Raffi's new ball

So worn out from the excitement of the party they fell asleep during their pre-bed TV show (just had to document since this so rarely happens. They would both be night owls if we let them).

The End

Where have we been?

2009-05-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Shame on me! Should anything be more important than updating my scintillating blog?! What have we been up to that is so important? This one is for you Kate...

EASTER

Thomas is rarely without a hat. I should probably buy him some that actually fit.

All the cousins waiting for the Easter Egg Hunt. We missed you "missing" cousins!

Little Birdie counting her eggs

Lily among the lilies

Will finding new and improved uses for his silly putty.

TULIP FESTIVAL

FOOTBALL

Jay joined a local team recently and is having a blast being back on the field despite the multiple hurts he brings home after every game. They definitely worry me more than they worry him, though. I like going to the games since I have never gotten to watch him play before. I guess I didn't spend enough time in high school checking out cute #55 out there on the field. He started to play for Weber State but changed his mind about it before I got to see him play then either. The boys like going to watch the games because we bring a nerf football and they play "tackle" next to the stands and because I let Sam go to the concession stand on his own. They have a hard time picking Jay out on the field, but are impressed with his helmet and football gear in general.

Samuel usually meets Jay at the door every day after work with a "want to wrestle, dad?" Since football season started, he has been nursing jammed fingers and a tricky hamstring so the wrestling matches have been fewer and further between, but he can still bust it out on occasion.

T-Ball

"Monkey Do" likes to practice along with Sam.

Samuel started T-ball a few weeks ago and is having a lot of fun with it. We got him a Tee to practice with in the back yard and he likes to pretend he is coaching thomas. When Sam isn't looking, Thomas will steal Raffi and hit him off the Tee. I pretend I don't see. That raffi could use being taken down a peg or two. The games are the best part about t-ball. If you are having a bad day, find a five year old t-ball game and I promise you a good laugh. For such little ones they don't put kids in the outfield, but let them all hang out around where the pitchers mound would be to let them go after the grounders from the tee hits. Some of the other teams line the kids up and let them each take a turn getting the grounder, but Sam's coaches just put them all out there and just figure the fastest kid will get the ball. The problem is that they all want it and just because someone already has it doesn't mean they shouldn't try anyway. They are all business waiting for the ball to get hit, bent over with their hands on their knees like the coach taught them. The minute that ball leaves the tee, they all rush forward and dogpile on top of the ball and tussle for it while the coaches shout "don't fight, don't fight!" It's awesome. The video doesn't show them in their "ready stance" which is one of the best parts, but it is the best one I could get before my batteries ran out. I think every one of these kids has a career in football.

Coming soon:

Raffi's Birthday Party

Our Bathroom Mascot

The many personalities of My Thomas

Intrigued?

I'm clearly doing something wrong

2009-04-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

The other day we passed a mini-golf course and Sam got excited about going sometime.

"Mom!! We can go golfing! Dad can go and we'll bring Thomas, and you can stay home...and fix dinner."

Goody.

Meet Raffi (Part 2)

2009-04-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of December we took a vacation to Disneyland. The week before we went involved some serious negotiations about how much Raffi would be allowed to accompany us while in the park. I could picture losing him (for the record, the zoo gift shop no longer carries "raffi's" so he is now officially irreplaceable) and having to deal with the sad, sad aftermath. Sam was insistent that Raffi would be inconsolable if he was left behind in any capacity. He really just wanted to share his experience with his friend. Finally, I decided to compromise and allow Raffi along as long as he was tethered the whole time. I tied a ribbon around his neck and the other end to Sam or the stroller and we were incident free. In addition, I added a tag with our information trusting that most people who go to Disneyland are decent people who would contact us if he were lost and found.

When we go to D-land, we generally let the boys pick out a souvenir and Sam kept insisting that Raffi get one too. I think I have proven that I am a little bit of a sucker when it comes to this Raffi phase, but I thought I drew the line at souvenirs for imaginary friends. Until we came across this:

Yes. He has his own Mickey mouse hat! Apparently I have no "line"....

The cupholder in the stroller was Raffi's seat.

Around Christmas time, Samuel submitted his list for Santa and also began telling me all the things Raffi wanted. He was pretty modest actually. Mostly he just wanted a candy cane, a scarf, a blanket and a teddy bear. Are you wondering if he got it? I already said I am a sucker...

Sam and his new bike, showing off Raffi's stocking.

Helping Raffi "hold" his new bear.

Raffi's Christmas sweater. Sam spotted it at Walmart and it was actually had a little pouch inside to hold a gift card. We cut the pouch out and the sweater was a perfect fit. Meant to be? Maybe.

Around the house we tend to find Raffi in various costumes and acts of play. It always makes me laugh when I come across him in some scenario.

Being blasted off into space (in one of those kid cups from Denny's). Raffi goes to space quite a bit actually and sometimes we find him "landed" on the moon (Sam has a blanket that has moons and stars that he uses for his outer space backdrop.

Hide and Seek in a Mr. Potato head

"Dressing up" with his buddies (I actually asked Sam about this one and he said that each of these figures represented someone in our family. Ironically, I was not the girl one.)

Playing Pirates (The Mr. Potato Head toys we have offer a lot of options, don't you think?)

On our recent cruise to Mexico, Sam came across yet another souvenir for Raffi that once again, I could not pass up either. Sam spirited Raffi off the boat and into Puerto Vallarta before I realized he had him and against my better judgement I did not take him for safekeeping. Instead, I told Sam to put him in the side pocket of the stroller we rented from the ship and forgot that I did that. When we returned, Sam wanted Raffi to try on his new accessory, and he was not to be found. I began to panic and Sam's eyes welled up a little "You mean he's lost forever, mom???!!) I was actually considering taking a cab back into town to retrace our steps when I happened to remember the side pocket. Whew! (Later that evening J lost/had stolen his iphone and it did not magically turn up in any forgotten side pockets, but to be honest, I would have been more sad to lose that scruffy little giraffe.)

Ole!

Joining us for dinner in the dining room on the ship.

So now you have introduced to Raffi. He features quite prominently in our home. Love us, love our stuffed giraffes. Those of you who have never met him should come over. Sam will be happy to let you know what Raffi thinks, says and finds hilarious. He doesn't carry him around much anymore, but still talks about him constantly. Yesterday he chattered for an hour straight about how we all need to go to Raffi's house and the games we would play there. He also let me know that Raffi can eat whatever food he wants because he is a "talking giraffe" Giraffes at the zoo don't talk and therefore only eat giraffe food. Makes sense, I guess although I haven't heard much out of him. He (raffi) has been helpful recently because when he "asks" Thomas to go sit on the potty he is obeyed cheerfully as opposed to when "mom" asks him to go. The way I see it, he owes me for all the things I have done for him. He leads a pretty cushy life for a stuffed giraffe.

The Groupie

2009-03-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever known someone who is so anxious to be considered one of the "in" crowd that they will say and do anything they think will get them accepted. That happens a lot around here with my two boys. Samuel is the cool crowd and Thomas desperately wants in! As a result, he will follow Sam around, repeating whatever he says and mimicking whatever he does. Fortunately for me, this most often involves coloring these days (one more reason to be thankful that S was never a wild kid). They are affectionately known around here as "Monkey See" and "Monkey Do." Case in point, today on the way to church, Sam had a very itchy leg:

Sam: "I itch mom. Why does my leg itch?"
Me: "Probably because your skin is dry. When we get there we'll put some lotion on it."
Sam: "But it really, really itches. I can't make it stop itching."
Thomas: " I know Sam!! How about we BOTH be itchy??"

This may not be good if, say, Samuel takes up any of the many activities I would not want his brother doing as well. On the other hand this could work to my advantage if I can just convince Sam that it is worth his while to be nothing but a good example. Any ideas on how to do that?

Meet Raffi (part 1)

2009-03-25T19:59:00.001-07:00

We will never be able to claim him as a tax deduction, but Raffi is the true third child in our home. Raffi came to us via the zoo gift shop when in a particularly generous moment and the lure of 20% with our zoo membership, I allowed Samuel to pick out a toy for being so helpful with his brother. To my surprise, his souvenir of choice was a little stuffed giraffe. I steered him toward the rubber snakes. No thanks, mom. How about these cool magnifying glasses? Nope! I was afraid this stuffed animal was destined to join the rest of the junk at the bottom of the toy box as soon the newness wore off and he realized that stuffed animals were not all that much fun to play with. How wrong I was!

Throughout the next few weeks, this toy originally known as "my little pet" was Sam's constant companion. Always in his hand or pocket and always next to him at night, he had captured Sam's fancy. I was pleased, but not surprised since it had always been Sam's style to pick a toy and fixate on it for a few weeks at a time. After about 2 months, it was clear that Sam's little pet was here to stay for awhile. We decided he needed a name and asked Sam what he wanted it to be:

"Um...little pet?"
"Little Giraffe?"
"My little pet giraffe...?"

He had no idea, so J suggested Raffi as a joke (as in Giraffi!) and it stuck. Raffi he became. This post has been a long time in coming and in the meantime, I have been chronicling all of the Sam/Raffi adventures intending to have put all this down before. Someday when I get all the pictures together they will have their own book since there is nothing else that has defined Sam's personality this year so well as his relationship with his little buddy.

When Raffi came to stay, Sam started collecting all the other "pets" in the house of similar size and would set them up for bed or an adventure before bed almost every night! This is the night he put them all in their "room"

This night they all went a-sailing...

He also led several parades across the floor of his room, but I can't seem to locate the picture.

Raffi always gets his own pillow whenever possible and S

gets very excited when he finds anything Raffi-sized.

Going for a ride in the firetruck

And leaving on a jet plane

Raffi came everywhere with us. Someday I will go back through all of our picture books and count the number of pictures in which Raffi is unobtrusively held by or near Sam. I would suggest we leave him in the car at the store or on various other outings and the very idea was always met by shock and a suspicious glare. I think he would have turned me into the authorities for negligence for that if he could. So Raffi came along and more than once, when my absent minded four year old would casually set him down somewhere, we would backtrack across town (with, I admit, a little panic in my heart that we might have lost our Raffi) to rescue him. We finally compromised on me keeping him in my purse when we got out of the car, which thankfully satisfied Sam although he would ask to see him or to make sure I still had him three or four times on any given outing.

Sometime around May every year, Sam starts talking about what he wants to be for Halloween. Around July he decided that Raffi needed a costume and that he should be a parrot (have mercy) I don't actually know how I would have handled that one, because thankfully he switched to him being a ghost. Now that I can do!

Both boys start watching the clock around 4, hoping dad will walk in the door soon. Several times, I found Raffi standing sentinel at the front window, left there by Sam to alert him the minute J pulls in the driveway.

As anyone who has been anywhere near Sam in the last year can attest, Raffi shares his opinion via Sam very freely. The phrase "Hey mom, you know what raffi thinks...?" is thrown out frequently. Raffi also has an amazing sense of humor apparently because he knows so many jokes and constantly compels Samuel to share them with all and sundry. This is particularly awesome for me because I get to "laugh" at twice as many four year old jokes. Lately Raffi has been a good bridge between me and S for helping to define what is appropriate funny and what is not. For instance:

S - "Mom, do you know what Raffi thinks is funny? He thinks showing underwear is reeeaaalllyyy funny." (giggle, giggle, snort)

Me - "Uh-oh, did you tell Raffi that underwear is private and we shouldn't show it to people? I bet he doesn't know that."

S - "Oh!? Um, yeah I told him."

Also, back when keeping Thomas in bed all night long was a full time job, I eventually realized that by offering to let Raffi sleep with him, he would stay put since actually getting to hold the elusive giraffe was something Sam wouldn't allow in the daytime. Sam sleeps like rock once he is out and sneaking Raffi away was no problem, and on the rare occasions that he noticed that Raffi had switched allegiences in the night were explained away with an innocent shrug of the shoulders and an "I guess he wanted to sleep by thomas." Of course this was a perfectly natural explanation for one who never questioned that Raffi was real and did whatever he wanted to. Even now, Thomas will wander into our room in the night about once a week and want to climb into bed. I walk him back to his bed and he is still satisfied with Raffi's company as a substitute for mine until he falls back asleep.

Way to be a parenting buffer Raffi!

(to be continued...)

What has J been up to?

2009-03-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Many of us might be dismayed at having bruises that look like this, but I have never seen anyone more excited to get banged up a little. In between running his own company and managing major crisises (sp?) within said company, J has joined a semi-pro football team here in town in order for the chance to put on pads and a helmet again for awhile. He is back in the linebacker position and having a great time! I panicked a little when he came home with these bruises (which he assures me are completely normal for the first few weeks of football ??!!) because we are in between insurances at the moment and last year's stint on a flag football team resulted in reconstructive surgery on a torn tendon in his finger. All I ask is that he doesn't break his body in any way until insurance kicks in a few weeks from now. Cross your fingers for us.

Thomas (who can barely hold his head up straight in the heavy football helmet) is also getting into the spirit.

The "my teacher knows more than you" syndrome

2009-03-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today I was subjected to my first ever experience of the "My teacher knows more than you" syndrome, when Samuel came home from preschool to tell me all about the fire safety stuff he learned that day. Now, generally I would probably admit that any given teacher does know more than me, but I can't fight it when Samuel misunderstands what he heard and is convinced it is still right because "his teacher told him." For instance, he told me all about how if there is a fire, you are not supposed to scream or yell because "it will make the fire bigger" you are apparently not supposed to run if there is a fire for the same reason. I expressed my doubt that and he burst into tears.

"Why are you crying???!!!"

(sniff, snort) "You said miss Julie was wronggggg!"

(sigh)

Am I wrong? Has the fire safety standard changed since I was a kid? I agree with not neccessarily running, but the last thing I would want while searching through a smoky house is a kid who stays mum because he is afraid to make the fire bigger.

"But Miss Julie said so..."

What to do? Also, I kind of want Miss Julie to be wrong because I don't really like being replaced as the supreme authority on everything. I knew it would happen eventually, but had no idea it would be this soon.

They grow away so fast.

March 17, 2009

2009-03-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Since Jay's maternal grandfather was Irish, we thought we would expose the boys to their authentic Irish roots! So, we pulled out the green clothes and had a leprechaun named 'Lucky' leave (chocolate) gold coins all over the house and magically turn all the food green for the day. You know, just some of the basics of the culture! All three meals were green, just like they have in Ireland ;-)

Breakfast was complete with green eggs and lime yogurt (and goofy morning faces).

Lunch was lime jello jigglers, green mac'n'cheese, and green milk (by the way, if you put a few drops of food coloring in the bottom of a frosted/see-through glass - so they can't really see the bottom - and pour the milk in, they watch it pour in white and come up green. This nearly blew Samuel's mind. He thought he was witnessing Leprechaun Magic. Who am I to argue?)

Sam got into the spirit of having a Leprechaun in the house for the day and decided to leave him a snack; a tangerine, a banana, a donut divided into quarters, one blackberry, an apple, a pudding and some salted water (yes, salted. I don't know either...) and of course, utensils to eat it all with. While his back was turned, "Lucky" helped himself to some of it.

Dinner - Pesto Chicken Pasta, Green Apples, Jello and milk. Sam was a little concerned about being pinched and the fact that he didn't have any green pajamas to wear (I told him that the leprechauns pinch you if you don't wear green), so "Lucky" left one last coin on their pillows and a note saying good-bye and he would see them next year.

Proud to be 1/8 Irish!

The First Sign of Spring

2009-03-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

Around here I do not consider either the warmer winds or the appearance of Robin Redbreast as the first sign of spring. Spring has never officially sprung for me until mid-march when Samuel enthusiastically comes running to find me with one of the newly emerged yellow crocuses around our yard. I still have pressed and framed the first one he ever brought me in March of 2007. It touched me because it occured to his little barely three year old self to bring his mom a flower without any prompting or coaxing of that perfect hallmark moment. I will be very sad when he doesn't come running to me with them anymore. Little "Monkey See, Monkey Do" has also picked up the tradition and their requests for what I do with them are getting more and more awesome (i.e. "Put it in your hair mom!").

I have very sweet boys! Disregard anything else I might say about them around dinner time on any given night.

Me and Disney -- An Exercise in Co-Parenting

2009-03-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Lately I have found myself very grateful to the Disney company for thier assistance in raising my children. Aside from the fact that the boys love all the movies, Disney has incorporated all kinds of little life lessons that help me to make my point when I am raising my kids. All of these are things we have discussed outside of the example of disney shows, but I got some blank stares and could tell things weren't really sinking in (I'm getting used to this look). Here are the actual topics (always brought up by the kids themselves after viewing) we have discussed so far

Cinderella - If you do a good job cleaning, then good things will happen to you.
Finding Nemo - If you run away from us when you aren't supposed to you could get lost for a long, long time (but mom and dad will always come find you).
101 Dalmations - If someone bad takes you away mom and dad will never stop looking until they find you (a little morbid, yes, but still as important to instill in little minds as stranger danger).
The Lion King - If you tell the truth and admit when you think you did something wrong in the first place you might save yourself getting banished to a desert oasis (or, you know, whatever...) This one also inevitably raises the question "What happened to Simba's dad?" which is a little awkward at this age, but a good time to point out that even if parents die and have to go away, they still love you and watch over you.
Fox and the Hound - It doesn't matter if someone looks different than you, you can still be friends.
Pinnochio - When you tell lies, you ultimately get into more trouble (this has been a big discussion around here).
Snow White - Don't take candy (or poison apples) from strangers because they might want to hurt you.
Jungle Book - When adults tell you to do things (even when you don't want to) they are usually doing it to keep you healthy and safe.
Dumbo - It makes people sad when you make fun of them for looking different.

Of course some of the themes we do not get into much such as in the the little mermaid where the heroine teaches children everywhere that if you defy and ignore your parents and do your own thing anyway you may ultimately end up married at 16 to a person you don't really know far away from your family (and that it is a good thing...). Or the fact that the Robin Hood reminds me too much of the Democratic Party's take on the world today. Obviously who the boys decide to support politically in their adult years is TOTALLY their decision, but we may just "accidently" lose Robin Hood for awhile! That's all I'm saying...

I know some people have a beef with the Disney company and complain about how commercialized and how ultimately corrupted it is etc. etc. but I am standing up in defense of it here and now. So if you are one of those people, let's just not talk about it and I will still like you!

In the meantime, there is nothing like a little visual aid to help pound moral lessons into your little darling's head. Try it. Thank me later.

Handsome Regardless

2009-03-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Samuel spent quite a while creating a very specific hat. He just called it a "hat with two bumps" and I could not get out of him if it was supposed to be imitating a real hat. It was not a cowboy hat or a crown or anything else you might think a hat with two bumps might be. He finished it and we put a ribbon on it to hold it on his head and he immediately ran upstairs to check out his creation in the mirror. A while later, I noticed he wasn't wearing it anymore but assumed hs had stashed it with the rest of his artistic treasures. As he sat at the table for dinner, he seriously asked:

S: "Mom, do you think I am handsome."
Me: "You are very handsome"
S: "Because I looked at my hat in the mirror and didn't look handsome, so I took it off."

Ah Ha! Poor Sam has had his first artistic angst with his creation not resembling what is in his head. Or is he developing a teenager-like obsession with his looks at the age of five?

In other news, Thomas bid us a "G'night Fools!" as we tucked him in last night. So he is apparently two going on teenage gangster.

Me? I definitely feel my age today.

First Day

2009-03-03T23:16:00.001-08:00

Since you are all no doubt dying to know how the first day of preschool went, I can assure you that it was all Samuel ever hoped for. We were not even buckled in yet before he was asking when he gets to go back. I am specifically writing and saving this post to warm my weary heart on future mornings when I have to drag him kicking and screaming out of bed for school. I think these are officially the "good old days" so I'll try to enjoy them while I can.

This was shortly after Samuel told Thomas he would miss him while he was at school (said with a definite note of pride) but that he would come home and teach him what he learned. And he actually did!

And this is where Thomas hung out all morning, pounding fruit snacks and watching Peter Pan twice, while I frantically finished all my articles that had a deadline of today so I wouldn't have to miss book club that evening. You know, just some of that quality mommy/Thomas time I mentioned was important. You just can't put a price on it, right?

2009-03-02T20:38:00.001-08:00

At some point on any given day, my kitchen looks like this...

Apparently the bounds of creative genius around here are too large to be confined by mere table or counter top. Although that may need to change since the baby gut makes bending over to sweep up the little pieces during clean up harder and harder. If you ever come over and it's still on the floor, it means I have given up until mid june-ish.

So, there is a lot of drawing and cutting and pasting in our house (often not where we are supposed to. Not a day went by last week that Thomas did not get his hands on a pen and "decorate" the couch, which has by now become more of a conversation piece than an attractive place to sit.) Today in particular, Samuel spent 3 hours earnestly creating and cutting out a monster and aphid army. We read the grouchy ladybug awhile ago and for some reason, the Aphids in the book captured his fancy the most, so we have seen a lot of drawings and had a lot of discussions on that particular bug. Aphids and Monsters together I don't so much get, but that is my boy for you. Here is the final result (not including the ones he taped to his wall). Now he calls them "my paper friends." I know, I know...he is going to school tomorrow where he can make real friends of the human boy variety.

Thomas, who would leap off a cliff if his brother deigned to do so first, has also spent a lot of time creating and we are actually pretty proud that his art is now recognizable. Today, while sam was churning out his strange army, Thomas drew picture after picture of J. Each one he proudly brought to me and announced that it was a picture of "Cranky Daddy." We can't figure it out since J hasn't been home from work before 8 any night this week and hasn't been here much to be cranky or otherwise. Given the dad-working-late-every-night scenario, it would make much more sense if T was drawing "cranky mommy" pictures, but I seem to have been spared for the moment. Here is the masterpiece complete with a guided tour. Not bad for a two year old!

1. Eyes, mouth and chin (no nose!)

2. Arms

3. Legs

As long as this post is about the generous muses in our home, I am going to share another Samuel creation. When he is not talking about aphids these days, he generally wants to talk about camping and what we will do when we go and what J has done when he went, etc. These discussions led him to draw this picture tonight:

1. A half view of me climbing a mountain (why it is so small compared to everyone else's mountain is not something I am willing to think about at the moment).

2. J climbing his mountain.

3. Samuel's mountain

4. A river with a fish jumping out.

5. Samuel cooking a fish on a stick over a campfire.

6. Samuel's tent

7. Thomas and his mountain (Seriously?!! The two year old can hack a bigger mountain than me? Not thinking about it...)

One of THOSE moms, and totally okay with it!

2009-03-01T23:31:00.000-08:00

Samuel starts preschool on tuesday. He is five now, so that shouldn't be such a big deal, but he has never been, and I realize now that I have been making excuses and putting him off despite the subtle signs that he is ready (such as his daily requests to start school for the last 6 months or the counting down until kindergarten and asking me to give him homework). I have frequently been accused of being one of "those moms." You know, the kind that will bravely waves Jr. off to school and then breaks down in tears in the car and goes home to ignore the rest of the kids for the day and wallow in a pint of Ben and Jerry's. This is opposed to the kind of mom who blithely waves Jr. off to school and then goes home to ignore the kids for the day and celebrate with a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Subtle differences, yes, but differences all the same. Don't get the wrong idea, though. I am not one of those patient, saintly moms. Not a day goes by that at some point I don't wish the gypsies would knock on the door and make me an offer. The boys have become each others best friends and worst enemies and I am growing weary of the constant referreeing, which is what hardened my final resolve for Preschool enrollment. I am amazed at the myriad of ways they have found to torture each other beyond the usual hitting, kicking and poking (and occasional punching, S gave T a black eye a few weeks ago. Am I raising Wren boys or what?!) Anyway, Thomas, who has a particularly strong dose of what my sister dubbed "the little brother gene" (those of you with little brothers know what I am talking about) has discovered that he gets a really awesome reaction when he licks Samuel. Yes, licks! I don't know whether to laugh or spank his bum when he does it. Samuel tends to carry on like he has been poisoned though, so it's definitely effective. You can't argue with results and T is particularly savvy at recognizing what benefits come along with which actions. For instance, he mimicked Jay, who said I looked pretty when I came down for church a month or so ago. Based on my enthusiastic reaction, he has been inspired every Sunday to coyly look at me with his big, blue eyes and say "you look pretty/bootiful, mama." I assure you he gets well rewarded. Sam's preferred method of torture is to steal thomas' nose. Yes, you read that right. Samuel has somehow picked up on the standby joke of grandpa's everywhere and will pinch thomas's nose, casually announce that he is not going to give it back and wait for the howls. And oh, the howls! Thomas is horrified and will not be placated until I intervene and "make" Samuel "give him back" his nose (all the while thinking, " I went to college, I went to college..."). Sometimes I give him mine and the look of sheer relief on his face his comical. There is no catching it on camera, but it is definitely genuine.

In preparation for new baby sister (gasp, milestone...) we have moved the boys into thomas' room and set up bunkbeds, which they are thrilled with, of course. Who wouldn't like a bed that involves a ladder, a potential fort (when you curtain off the bottom bunk) and a certain element of height and danger? Every time I go in to tuck them back in, I get a tug on my heart that they are both growing so fast. Bunk beds just seem like such a big boy thing. I know 5 and 2 1/2 are still little, but it doesn't feel like it when you notice that they have started to run like little boys and not toddlers, or don't fit on your lap as well anymore. Or, when your five year old carries on intelligent conversations about aphids and the many ways you can kill slugs. Or your two year old spends the afternoon running around with a football, slamming it onto the ground and concocting his own honest-to-gosh end zone dances while shouting "Yes!! All Right!!! I'm awesome" I am definitely proud of who and what they are becoming but I do miss my babies (probably a good thing that we have another one coming along very soon). It occurs to us all the time now that Thomas is the exact age Samuel was when T was born. We thought he was so old then. Someday, when my boys are in middle school and are too cool to hug their mom, or have become sassy teenagers, I fully intend to look back at this post and laugh at myself for thinking they are so big. In the meantime, I am going to try to enjoy the spontaneous hugs and kisses from Thomas and the love letters that Sam leaves for me around the house. I will try hard not to think about school being one of the first major, independent steps away from me.

See, so we are all growing! I am excited to see what he gets out of school. He is only going two mornings a week, so we are baby stepping to Kindergarten, where I assure you that I will be an even worse wreck. Feel free to check back in August, when I will be president of the "one of those mom's club". Thomas will get something he has never gotten before, which is Mom's undivided attention for a few hours a week. We have felt that was an important thing to do for him as well before little sister comes along to cut into his already limited personal mom time. I'm pretty sure he will spend most of his special mornings asking where samuel is. There will be no one around to lick. Boring!! But on the other hand, his nose is totally safe.

Awwwwww!

2009-02-19T16:18:00.001-08:00

Not the cutest picture she will ever take, but it's fun to get a glimpse...

Do you have a girl?

2009-02-16T09:08:00.001-08:00

My extremely talented friend Amy recently expanded her bow business and now I am extra excited to be having a girl so that I can take advantage of the ridiculously cute stuff she makes. (And also crossing my fingers that she will resemble Thomas in the hair department instead of Samuel!)

She is having a President's Day sale with 20% off and I thought I would pass the good news along. Check it out...

Flowerzinherhair.com

details, details...

2009-02-15T16:02:00.001-08:00

Me: (hollering over thomas' shrieks) "SAMUEL!! Stop. Hitting. Your. Brother!!!!!!"

Samuel: (indignantly) "I didn't hit him! I poked him in the eye..."

Wren Reunion 2009

2009-02-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

I thought I would be able to do this sooner, but I found that I spent my week conducting behavior boot camp with the boys and breaking up the fights and panic that result when each threatens to send the other to jail (if I only had a nickle for each of the times I have heard "MOM, Thomas/Sam says he is sending me to jail..." we could finance another cruise in no time!). Since returning home, Thomas has also decided any specks on his food are lady bugs. Since he assures me over and over that he does not eat ladybugs, he has not had much food this week besides string cheese and cereal.

So, here is the best and less best of the 2009 Wren Family reunion (in no particular order):

BEST:

1. Happy, excited boys.

2. Lifting off and knowing we would not see the snow or need boots for a week.

3. Seeing all 40+ of the family (especially those who live far away).

4. Discovering the self serve ice cream machines within an hour of boarding.

5. Camp Carnival where we could take the kids and know they were being adequately entertained. Most nights we picked them up they had had their faces painted.

6. Samuel, Thomas, Jack, Olivia and Anna doing the twist at the family disco.

7. Towel animals on the bed every night after dinner.

8. Having the room straightened for me twice a day (I actually went through withdrawals after getting home. Ask J.)

9. Super friendly cruise chip workers who were so nice to my kids and always wanted to high five them as they went past.

10. Having the room straightened for me twice a day.

11. Having the room straightened for me twice a day (seriously! you have no idea...)

12. Wait staff who danced after dinner every night.

13. Mini golf on the top deck.

14. Finishing three books in five days.

15. The melting cake dessert in the dining room.

16. Breakfast in our rooms on the busier mornings.

17. Spotting whales, dolphins, flying fish and what we think was a hammer head shark as we passed Cabo.

18. Uninterrupted naps during the day.

19. Seeing everyone all dressed up on the formal night in the dining room.

20. Watching all the little cousins bond.

21. Samuel celebrating his birthday and being sung to in the dining room.

22. Taking the kids to the beach in Puerto Vallarta and seeing Sam get excited about the waves and Thomas get excited about sand digging.

23. Being reassured by our taxi driver (in PV) as we struggled to find seatbelts for all the kids that we didn't need to worry because he was an awesome driver and no one else used them.

24. Finding a Raffi-sized sombrero.

25. Finding Kinder eggs (even if putting the toy together almost made me wish I hadn't).

26. Discovering that the world's greatest kiddie pool is located at the Crystal Resort in PV.

27. Going on a date in Pto. Vallarta and watching a whale play out in the water (and sunset on the beach.

28. Real Mexican chicken Fajitas!

29. Getting some good deals in Mazatlan.

30. J's 30 minute $15 massage in Mazatlan.

31. Finding a shark tooth necklace for Samuel.

32. Playing games and hanging out in the evening with the grown-ups while the kids were at Camp Carnival.

33. Reading the Wren family memorabilia book.

34. 24 hour pizza!

35. Surprisingly comfortable beds.

36. Endless Jello at the Dessert counter for Thomas.

37. Not cooking a single meal or washing a single dish for seven days.

38. Glass bottomed boat taxi to lovers beach in Cabo for snorkeling.

39. J seeing a small shark (maybe?) while snorkeling.

40. Beautiful white sand beaches and turquoise water.

41. Wearing flip flops all the time.

42. The memory of getting in and out of the taxi boats at Lover's Beach (expect to get wet or get thrown, or maybe both. And then you are supposed to tip for it. :-)

43. Riding the glass elevators to the lobby on the ship.

44. J scuba diving for the first time.

45. Waking up in the morning and watching to boys race to the window to see if anything new was going on in the water outside. The morning we arrive in PV we opened the window in time to see a pirate ship replica sail by.

46. Getting rocked to sleep every night by the motion of the ship.

47. Boys who played so hard that they were zonked out the entire night and well into the morning.

48. Fun ship Freddy (the cruise mascot). We thought he was kind of creepy looking, but the boys thought he was awesome. So, he's in!

49. Watching the boys try to play air hockey on a rocking ship.

50. Good company.

Less Best:

1. J's iphone getting stolen.

2. Trying to pack up while being very seasick on the last day.

3. Not being ready to say good bye to hanging out with the extended fam.

4. Hanging out in Long Beach all day long waiting for our flight.

5. Coming home to a driveway that needed shovelled.

Bottom Line: We would do this again in a heartbeat! It was an amazing trip and is definitely one of the bext ways to vacation with kids. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

They get their moves from me!

2009-02-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

This was the family disco held the first night. Sam and his cousin Jack particularly know how to shake it!

Yes, thomas, stomping and clapping does count as dancing...

Every night in the dining room, music would come on and the waiters would dance and sing. The kids got a particular kick out of it, but my mother in law can also boogy with the best of them. This video of Sam shows him a little more subdued than he was moments before I started filming.

What a difference a day makes...

2009-02-09T16:08:00.001-08:00

Two days ago, we were here.

Now we are here...

(sigh!)

Bon Voyage

2009-01-31T10:31:00.001-08:00

Despite my good intentions to get a few posts that have been rattling around in my head on paper (er, cyberspace...) I have spent most of my week frantically finishing articles so we had extra spending money for our trip and just generally trying to meet my children's incessant, selfish need for water/food/attention, etc.
So, blogging went out the window, but when I get back I look forward to presenting a 2008 recap, as well as introducing you to a special friend named Raffi who has taken over our lives (not the singer. You'll see) I have been compiling a pictoral diary of all of his adventures with Samuel over the last t months or so. There, now that those two goals are down on paper, I have to stick to them. I know faithful Kate at least will keep me to my word!
In the meantime, I am off with the fam and the extended fam to sail the mexican riviera on my very first cruise (not my first time to mexico though. We went on our honeymoon and got grounded to our rooms by Tropical Storm Chantal.) There is nothing more romantic than virgin daquiris on the beach, while resort workers behind you frantically tape up windows and then run for the hills calling back over their shoulders that we may need to evacuate inland in the middle of the night and they will let us know...) By the next morning, the pier had washed away and we were starving after our "room-service" dinner of a tuna fish sandwich and a banana (no, we didn't pick it. They closed all the restaurants and left that at our door.) It still ended up being a good trip, but since we didn't get to leave the resort at all, we didn't get to see much of the country. Cross your fingers that this storm will at least be less stormy! See you when we are all tan and hopefully well rested!

Overheard

2009-01-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

Sam was playing boxing on the Wii tonight and asked Jay "why are we stretching our arms to that bad guy?" (he was describing punching the guy on the screen.) I can't decide if it is a testament to our amazing parenting that our kid is not familiar with a punch, or if (and I can't believe I'm saying this) he needs to fight more with his brother.

Jay has begun to doubt whether or not Samuel is actually his child or a foundling. Any of you who knew J in high school will understand this.

another blurb

2009-01-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

I realized that my posts of late have become short blurbs of funny samuel-isms but I actually have a thomas one for a change. He called for me after we put him to bed tonight and when i went in, he held up the transformer he had snuck to bed with him and plaintively asked "Why is this so freakin' hard?"

I have long suspected it, but when my two year old starts saying things like "freakin" I know exactly who he is copying. I guess it is time to start watching what I say. I already miss the more oblivious years. It's kind of amazing that while he hears and files away many things he is not supposed to say, he can't seem to hear me ask him to stop teasing Sam or eat his dinner.

2009-01-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

I like how when Sam "cooks" in his new kitchen, he serves me my meals with a british accent and calls me "sir."

Crafting?

2009-01-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

Our church held a party for the primary kids on Saturday to introduce them to their new teachers for the year. Sam came home a proudly displayed the orange tissue paper fish he had made and said he "had a blast." the next day at church I heard from at least three people about how while working on his fish, he enthusiatically piped up with "I'm crafting!!"

I plead ignorance people! I won't say that I am not crafty when I have the time and opportunity, but I don't call it that and certainly have not had any time to do it lately. Has he been "crafting" behind my back?

Untrimming the tree

2009-01-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

Today I tried to generate some enthusiasm from Sam for helping me take apart the tree (yes it is still up all you self-righteous overachievers!) I said we would have to take all the ornaments off and pack them away. He looked thoughtfully at the tree and said in complete seriousness "I know!! How about we just knock the tree down and all the ornaments will come off that way!"

I can't fault him for his logic since that's what happened the other six times he and T knocked the tree over.

*UPDATE* We did not knock the tree over to remove the ornaments but Thomas helped me take them off and put them in the box. He was out of the room when I dismantled the tree and put it in the box and wandered in to find the empty space. He instantly burst into tears and asked "why did you take christmas away, mom!?" I felt like a real scrooge and promises of a "really cool" new holiday called valentines day coming up did not fool him at all.

Christmas recap

2008-12-30T21:16:00.001-08:00

We had a very merry christmas this year! Being gone for the first week out of the month kind of helped us avoid the holiday drag we usually get by the week before Christmas. Generally by the time it arrives, I have been so focused on ticking things off the list, that I forget that it is supposed to be fun. Being so sick in the months leading up to the season, I also forwent (forgoed?) things like making Christmas cards and buying presents early. So, to all my friends and family who didn't get a card this year, you won't. And since I did most of my shopping online, your present is probably in the mail if you haven't received it yet!

For the kids, we went more simple this year present-wise with a vacation just behind us and one coming up in february. It was awesome! I want to bring back the Laura Ingalls Wilder days when kids could be wildly happy with a new tin cup of their own, a stick of candy and a penny. Who's with me?

The day after we got home from CA, we bought our tree. We usually make a big deal out of getting it but this time we were so beat that we picked up the first nice looking one in front of walmart where we had gone to get groceries. $30 we said? What a steal! We now realize that trees that are cut down sometime in mid-september and then sold at wal-mart are often a great deal. We were quite disappointed when it died about three minutes after setting it up and decorating it.

We love real trees, but are learning to accept the fact that we are not lucky with them. They die very quickly for us, even when we do everything right like cutting off the bottom and moving them away from heat vents and watering religiously. Last year we thought we would sidestep our Christmas tree fate by cutting down our own. We travelled out to a tree farm near us and because Jay worked late and it was already dark, found and cut down our tree with the aid of a spotlight. Here is how our tree looked in the forest (directly behind the boys):

This is how the tree looked when we set it up in the stand (yes, it is the same tree):

This is us at Rite-Aid that same night buying a replacement tree (that died before christmas, of course.)

Thomas liked to hide behind this year's tree until I banned the boys from touching it at all, because needles would shower off if someone so much as walked through the room, or breathed.
We thought we could stick it out, but about a week and a half before the big day the branches began to curl under and go brown. Everytime we turned the lights on we were afraid it would burst into flames.So, we took it down and I got a cheap, fake walmart tree to use next year as the kids tree downstairs. It was cute but not at all sturdy. At last count, the boys had knocked it over 6 times. Next year I am going to just buy two trees right off the bat and keep one outside until the first one dies.

Despite the two full size TV's in this house, the boys preferred to watch their DVD's on the eight inch portable DVD player under the tree. To be fair, I don't think I can blame them. I recall laying as far under the christmas tree as I could get when I was little to look up at the lights through the branches. Incidentally that memory along with the tree smell is why we have not yet given up on real trees yet and wont!) I'm not even going to pretend to be reasonable here.

Other than that, we did the usual stuff. Sam made a list of all the things we needed to do before christmas could come. On the list was, decorating the house:

Making gingerbread men and gingerbread houses:

And snowball fights and sledding:

Check, check, check. It was a blast.

Samuel had a very specific christmas list this year. All he wanted was a baby lion (interactive stuffed animal) a puppet with strings and a jack in the box. I wanted to ask him if he was sure he didn't also want a whistle and a ball and a whip that cracks! Oh, and also when he would be heading back to the early 1900's. With the exception of the Jack in the box (which is now considered a "vintage toy" and new ones cost at least as much as the bike I got him instead) Santa came through. We have put Grandpa Kit on the hunt at the thrift store for a more reasonably priced Jack in the box because my baby boy has his 5th birthday coming up in February.

Christmas Eve always comes with new Nick & Nora jammies and an ornament that represents their year (and as an extra special present from Thomas to his parents, he pooped in the potty for the first time. Gross, I know, but back me up any of you moms out there who have potty trained. It's exciting stuff. I almost had tears in my eyes I was so proud!)

We also enjoyed our annual Christmas Eve fondue feast (we were all kind of sick from cheese overload after but it was totally worth it) This year's Christmas Eve also happened to bring my brothers Brad and Jeff (who should have know this picture might come back to haunt him):

Before bed, Sam wrote a letter to Santa (Sam's "writing" on the left and my translation on the right) They decorated cookies earlier in the day and in case you are curious as to why there is so little frosting on them, it is because they were less interested in putting it on the cookie than in their mouths. Santa didn't mind. Rudolph got the leftover broccoli from the fondue plate. He didn't mind either.

I love how the tree looks before the presents get distributed and the paper starts flying. And yes, I got my boys a play kitchen. Whatever some of you are thinking has probably already been said by my brothers, but they love it and I had to look long and hard to find a set that was not girly and not plastic-y (and not $700 a set, Pottery Barn!!)

To top it all off, it snowed again this year! Altough the storm kept us from seeing family that we expected to get to visit with later that day, you can't beat a white Christmas!

I'll leave you Sam's version's of some classic christmas songs:

Deck the Halls (distinctly influenced by the movie "Shrek the Halls")

"Shrek the Halls with Boots and Donkey, Fa la la la la la la la la

Christmas has to be so lonky, fa la la la la la la la la..."

Jingle Bells

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

come inside, it's fun inside, come inside the sleigh - hey!"

He sang these versions so often, we were all singing them that way by the end. At the end of the day on Christmas, he asked me what was my favorite part of the day. It will be many years before he truly believes that my favorite part is watching my boys have fun (although I did recieve a sewing machine and that was pretty fun too!) We have a New Year's Eve party to rock at Mamma and Papa's tomorrow, and after that, behavior boot camp will commence (and in Thomas' case, potty training will resume).

Hope everyone else's Christmas was as great as ours!

Merry Christmas to all...

2008-12-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

...And to all a good night!

2008-12-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

It's a Girl!

Three out of four of us are very excited. Sam told me he is "just so sad, because he wanted a brother." Should I remind him he has a brother that he fights with constantly? Then he tried to negotiate and said he would be okay with a baby sister as long as she can walk like cousin Nono (Bek's 2 year old daughter). Thomas just put his hands over his eyes during the ultrasound. I think he was expecting a monster of some sort to come popping onto the screen. However, later he announced to Grandma on the phone "mama has a big belly!"

I immediately went to Target and bought something pink! Your turn Kate...

Happiest Place on Earth (part 2)

2008-12-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Tuesday - Of course Jay came down with the same flu I had and spent almost the entire day in bed. We hung out at the park for awhile and then came back and went swimming and watched fireworks.

Wednesday - Wednesday rocked! Lines were great, Jay recovered, food tasted good again and Sam got picked to be in the Jedi training show!

Thursday - Bek and family left on Thursday morning and we spent one last day in the park. It wasn't quite the same without our usual Disneyland compadres, but we had fun on their behalf!

No trip to California is complete without a trip to Boston Market! Those of you who have them near you, we envy you, and we may come visit you....

Thomas wasn't as impressed as we have raised him to be!

It's always nice to come home and crawl into our own beds! We are almost as attached to our awesome bed as we are to our children and we miss it greatly when we have to sleep anywhere else. No one puked on the way home although Sam claimed it was "the longest drive in his life." I tend to agree. We'll fly next time. I miss the churros already!

Tha happiest place on earth (part 1)

2008-12-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

Our favorite trip is always our yearly trek to Disneyland! We have always been lucky enough to be joined by sister Bek and her family (children's code names are intact!) This year we hit a few snags, but still had a great time!

Friday (the day before we leave): Moments after enjoying Training Table cheese fries with my younger brother, I feel less than awesome. I don't get too alarmed since I am still prone to bouts of morning (my eye!) sickness. I scrap all my good intentions to finish my lists and pack and have everything sitting neatly by the door by the time j makes it home from work. Instead I bully the boys into taking naps so I can "sleep it off." By 6 pm it is clear that I have caught the flu, the likes of which I have not seen in 9 years (the last time I was ever that sick, it was my birthday!) By 10 pm I am wishing J would mercy kill me and am resolutely trying not to think about the fact that I have not finished my lists, the laundry or done any packing whatsoever. I kick J onto the downstairs couch (to keep him safe from germs, right?) whimper through the night and finally fall asleep around 4 a.m.

Saturday morning: Sweet J takes the kids out of the house early to give me a chance to sleep in peace and quiet (my kids are incapable of being quiet. They sometimes even fight in their sleep). They visit McDonald's, and get the oil changed in the truck. Sam is strangely quiet and not hungry. As they pull into the driveway, he leans over and pukes onto the seat (I should note here that the truck is the first car we have owned without easily wipeable leather seats. We regretted that decision long before they were ever puked on.) Thomas looks over at Samuel with wide eyes and says:

"Duuuude! What are you doing!?"

Meanwhile, I find that I am (with the help of Zofran and tylenol) able to stand. Packing consists of throwing things unfolded into suitcases and rubber totes. We throw it into the back of the truck rejoicing that for the first time we don't have to play tetris in the truck with our luggage (Since we are all friends here, I don't mind admitting that that particular reason was at least 50% of the allure of getting a truck in the first place!). We pile into the car and I find that as long as my eyes are closed the whole time, I'm good. Sam agrees. We find our hotel and find ourselves eating Pizza and Jello at midnight.

Sunday: We leave Vegas around 9:00 looking forward to the short drive to the LA area. We're going to go swimming! Maybe the beach! We'll have dinner in Downtown Disney!!!...

Or, maybe we will spend the next eight hours completing what should have been a three hour drive. Clearly everyone in Southern California had spent the thanksgiving holiday in Vegas. It actually made us feel better that Bek, who was coming down from SF, was also hitting the same kind of traffic. It made us feel a little less picked on!

Early to bed...Disneyland in the morning.

Monday: First stop is the character breakfast. We love this. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is not interested in waiting in long lines to see your children's favorite characters around the park. Although Captain Hook's attempt to approach the table put Thomas into hysterics.

Thomas' face is how he looked most of the breakfast!

To be continued...

Frosty and Frostina

2008-12-14T17:11:00.001-08:00

I know I still owe a Disneyland update, but Sam dropped this little gem on us the other night and I had to share. He goes through reams of paper these days drawing everything he can think of and then bugs me for ideas. He came to me and proudly showed me his picture of a snowman:

After the usual sincere oohs and aahs and promises to put it on the fridge, he turned it over and just as proudly said "and this is a Snow Woman." Oh my!

He was confused and a little sheepish when I couldn't help laughing and wouldn't answer any of my questions about it, but as promised it is now hanging on the refrigerator. So far there have been no other anatomically correct pictures coming from our little Leonardo, but I will keep you posted.

December 7. A day that will live in infamy...

2008-12-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

A birthday wink for you!

December 7th saw two events that would rock america. The first was the attack on Pearl Harbor, which catapaulted the U.S. into World War II. The second occurred with the birth of older sis Katie (although technically, these days she is rocking the U.K. as she is living in London at the moment.)

Happy Birthday Kate! We love you!!!

Come home soon and live near us again so we can actually spoil you on your birthday! We all miss you and wish you were not so far, far away. Here is a video of the boys singing happy birthday and I should warn you it is the third take. In the first, Sam changed it halfway through and began to sing to Jack to cat and in the second, batman (thomas) wouldn't stop shooting his new pirate gun. In this one you change halfway through from Kate to "eggy-egg" but whatever, right? (Also, Sam asked if you were so old you had gone to live with Jesus. He did not like it when I laughed.) I told him that if you were then I was in big trouble.

Disneyland Update coming right up

2008-12-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

But in the meantime, we are so proud of our little Jedi Sam!

(This one is for you uncle matt!!)

We're off...Maybe.

2008-11-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

We have been planning a disneyland trip for months! The boys made a paper chain and we have counted off the days left, we have looked up rides on the internet to get them excited, we have drawn pictures and decided which ride to go on first. So, can anyone tell me why we have all come down with the flu the day we are supposed to leave? What cruel fate is this?

Jay is still fine, so we will carry on and get as far as we can before anything hits him. I guess I am on car puke detail (which we hope won't be as bad as a surpise car puke because we plan to go armed with billy buckets, towels and handy changes of clothing.) I can't think of a better way to start our long awaited trip. Keep your fingers crossed that we are all on the upswing by monday when the real fun starts.

News...

2008-11-24T14:27:00.000-08:00

We want to announce the eventual arrival of Wren baby #3 (yeah, we're terrified) around the first week of June 2009.

I would like it to be either a girl or a boy. One of the two.

J is rooting for a girl, but would not object to another member for his future football team.

Samuel is particularly interested in it being a boy so we can dress it in blue and name it either Bunny or Igor (don't know where he heard this name, we never saw the movie.)

Thomas (as usual) is oblivious to everything except throwing balls and jumping off of things, but if pressed for his opinion would likely say whatever Sam says.

We'll let you know...

P.S. What is with the spacing (or lack of) on blogger?

The things they know

2008-11-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

I don't mean to brag, but I think my kids might be smarter than yours! Don't feel bad though, because they are definitely smarter than I am. We have a new trend around here that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. After watching the movie Monster House several months ago (really creepy show, but the boys love it for some reason) which refers to a Uvula (the dangly thing in the back of your throat) Sam became fascinated with it. Thomas, of course, being the "Monkey Do" to Samuel's "Monkey See" also picked up on the fascination and at least several times a day Jay and I are asked to open our mouths wide so they can see our Uvula's (or as Thomas pronounces it "Wea"). Each time we are given an appreciative "Wow!" Then they open their mouths and show us theirs. It never gets old. They entertain each other with this in the store, at church, in the car and often it gets requested after prayers. I know for a fact that I didn't know the name of the dangly thing at the back of the throat until at least college. You?

In other completely non-related news, Happy 30th Birthday (yesterday) to my honey!

A Christmas Carol

2008-11-13T14:33:00.001-08:00

It's been our tradition in the last few years to dust off our copy the Muppet Christmas Carol the day after Halloween. It's my favorite Christmas movie, and Samuel is finally into it this year. Thomas, of course, is into whatever Sam is into. We have also spent a lot of time straightening out the logistics of what happens on Christmas Eve ("Mom, Rudolph will stay and play with me, right?" and "Why can't Santa just come in the front door?" etc.) So, when we were driving home from the store today (we have our best conversations in the car) and Sam thoughtfully started out, "so mom, on Christmas Eve..." I expected to answer some question regarding the Santa visit. Instead, he finished with "...ghosts in chains will appear in my room?" Huh?

Then I remembered the ghosts in a Christmas Carol. So, Sam thinks that's part of the deal. You set cookies out for Santa, carrots out for the reindeer, kiss mom and dad goodnight and then go to your room and wait for the ghosts to appear.

Me: (thinking I was reassuring him) "No, Sam. That's just a movie. Only Santa comes to visit on Christmas Eve."

S: (in real dismay) What??!!

Some children get disillusioned when they find there is not really a Santa. My kid gets disillusioned when he realizes that there is no such thing as Jacob Marley or the ghosts past, present or future. He has watched Nightmare Before Christmas a few times to prepare for our upcoming Disneyland trip, so maybe his Halloween/Christmas lines are blurred. It's probably a good time to confuse him still further by getting into the Nativity story.

Seriously though, go watch The Muppet Christmas Carol if you haven't seen it. It's awesome. We stepped it up a notch this year and bought the soundtrack!

happenings

2008-11-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

Every Sunday Samuel protests about going to church. He is no longer fooled that Primary is more fun than nursery where he requests to return to every week. He always end up having fun though and treasures whatever craft or picture he made for the whole week. I think the lesson this week though may have changed his mind about whether it is "boring" or not. He came home with a picture of a skeleton. Confused, we asked him why he drew that and he explained that it is a "skeleton who helps you feel good". We concluded that he had learned about the Holy Ghost and with all of his halloween memories fresh in his mind, he thought a skeleton was cooler than a "ghost." The Holy Skeleton? That helps people? I have no doubt that his teachers explained what the Holy Ghost is not your average ghost, but I know for a fact that he only hears one word out of three when we talk to him. I'm sure he stopped at ghost and gathered that it helps people, and took it from there. We'll have to work on that.

In Thomas news, he has been torturing me lately by getting out of bed multiple times a night and running around the house. We tried putting a baby gate on the stairs, but he had no trouble scaling it. We tried bagging him (basically like a sleep sack for a toddler. It keeps him from getting his leg over the side of the crib) but the wily kid shimmied right out of it in about 30 seconds. We put a child lock on the inside of his room, but after two nights he figured that out too. Now we are waiting for the crib tent to arrive (which we had wanted to avoid buying since he is relatively close to a big boy bed) and in the meantime, I have to be on the listen out for nocturnal toddler wanderings. Last night I didn't hear him at all, but got up around 4 a.m. to let the cat out and saw that his door was open and his bed was empty. I listened...nothing. All the doors to the outside have child locks on them, but that didn't comfort me much since he is a mini houdini apparently. I checked Sam's bed, I checked the downstairs. I started to get frantic and was about to turn on the lights and wake up Jay when I noticed a little white shape in the hallway outside our bedroom door that I had stepped over at least four times assuming it was a toy or part of the laundry pile nearby (give me a break, it was dark and I didn't have my contacts in). It was my son, peacefully curled up in the hallway. Who knows how long he cavorted through the house before deciding that was an awesome place to sleep. And great mother that I am, I rummaged around another five minutes in the dark until I found my camera. I knew my priorities. Here you go.

I am totally using this as more evidence that I need lasik surgery. Maybe next year. Maybe the crib tent will arrive tomorrow.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-07T10:22:00.001-08:00

Batman and the Hulk team up!

Thomas has evidence of Halloween all over his face

Pumpkin Picking at the Farm

2008-11-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

Every year we go to this farm to take a hayride and pick out a pumpkin!

Sam's enormous misshapen pumpkin!

We got lazy this year and had the boys paint their pumpkins instead of carve them.

Then we let them tell us what to carve on ours.

Soup Weather

2008-11-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

I have another recipe challenge for you all in honor of the cold weather (here anyway, sorry La Yen!) this one is so easy and quick that you will have time to make homemade bread as well. I used to use this recipe to cater lunches for some of J's marketing clients and it is easy to adjust for lots of people or just a few.

I am sure you have had potato soup before, but this one trumps all others ever created. This is the ultimate cold weather soup!

Suzi's Baked Potato Soup

4 Lg. Potatoes
2/3 c butter
2/3 c. flour
1 can chicken broth
5 c Milk (or 3 c. milk and 2 cups of water)
1 onion minced
crumbled bacon (to taste, but I use about 3/4 cup)
2 c. Cheddar
1 c. Sour Cream
Salt, pepper, parsley, (to taste)

Bake potatoes (baking them, particularly in the oven gives the best flavor. Boiling them isn't as good!) and scoop out flesh in big chunks (you can cook potatoes ahead of time, scoop and freeze. It makes the meal even quicker next time around.)
Melt butter in pot. Add onions and sautee until they are clear. Add flour and stir appx. 2 minutes. Whisk in milk/water/chicken broth and stir until smooth. Cook on med. low until thickened (don't boil or milk will scorch). Once the base is thick, add potatoes and bacon. Right before serving, add cheese and sour cream and cook till melted. Salt, pepper and parsley to taste. If the soup is too thick for you, add milk to thin it. This soup is especially awesome for dipping bread!

You will not be sorry, but you may gain a few pounds (worth it though!)

There's a storm a-comin'

2008-11-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

The weather channel has predicted an end to this completely gorgeous October and tells me that we can expect snow and rain within the next week. We hustled to get the yard winterized (our first clueless year of being homeowners with trees, we left all the vegetation and fallen leaves to do what it wanted until spring.) Yucky mush is what we ended up carting out in the spring.

The boys, who had previously refused to set foot outside lately because the back yard (with its array of trampolines, balls, trucks, slides and dirt) was "boring and hot/cold," discovered that leaves are fun!
When it actually did rain on Sunday, Sam wanted to go out. Wet leaves aren't nearly as much fun as dry ones!

Thomas also wanted to put on a raincoat and boots, but did not want pants (until he had his boots on, and then I said no - I knew he wouldn't last long). It took about one step out the door and a few raindrops on his face for him to change his mind (and then gave us accusing looks like we tricked him).

2008-10-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Sam: (from his perch on the toilet) "Hey mom, I think you are beautiful!"
Me: "Thanks!"
Sam: "and Dad is smart and super cool!"
Me: "Yeah, he is."
Sam: "and Thomas is crazy"
Me: "Definitely! And you are handsome!"
Sam: "yeah, and I'm really, really funny!"

Horrifiying

2008-10-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven't found anything to sufficiently horrify you yet this halloween season, I want to direct your attention toward this little article I came across.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/22/easpider122.xml

Go ahead and call me when you can't sleep at night either knowing such creatures are in the world. Those of you out there who are saying "that's cool." I don't want to hear from you at all.

The only thing I can think of that compares to this is the mental image I have of flaming hand-sized hawaiian spiders (courtesy of my father-in-law. Go ask him for the story sometime. It haunts me.) Anyone guessed that I am an arachnophobic yet?

Hey Kate and Matt, have a good time in Australia next month! Ditch the bug spray and see if they will let you bring a gun.

2008-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is for all you siblings out there, who got to contribute to the anniversary balloon ride, but didn't get to join the fun. Sorry about the yucky picture quality. I was using my old camera since my good one is not working at the moment. Wish you were there. Pretty much every one of you has a better camera than me (Actually, Jen's turned out great, but I don't have access to them at the moment).

A change in the routine

2008-10-16T13:51:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that I airbrushed the chocolate cake crumbs from

lunch off of Thomas' face before I posted this picture.

Too much information? Like you've never fed your kids chocolate cake for a meal.

Big news! Thomas no longer needs pennies to put himself to sleep, He does, however, need his two squishy pillows jammed up against each side of his face just so ("not like that mom...). He has also forgone the song 90% of the time, to my sorrow, but he does have to shout at the top of his lungs as you walk toward the door "I love you mom/dad" and you have to enthusiastically shout it back until you have shut the door and and said it back and forth as you walk away. Oh yeah, and he still needs his four blankets. In order.

Are we raising a obsessive compulsive here? Samuel only ever required a night light.

What's the opposite of a green thumb?

2008-10-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

We have long known that our yard is the despair of our elderly neighbor, who often gives us "tips" as he is down on his hands and knees with needle-nosed pliers removing stray crabgrass from his velvety kentucky bluegrass lawn. This summer while I was out in one of my few attempts to weed, he casually remarked that he had more snails in the last few years than he had ever seen in the last few years and how were we faring? I instantly felt guilty because we moved in a few years ago and seemingly brought a snail infestation with us. We aren't horrible homeowners though. Everything that faces the street gets cared for and the lawn is mowed and weed-whacked once a week, but we lack the pristine edges and completely weedless borders of our western neighbors. Our eastern neighbors make us feel a whole lot more normal.

Last year I tried to grow pumpkins. Nothing. I weeded, I watered, I fertilized, I prayed over them. Nothing. This year, one of the little pumpkins from our halloween decorations rolled off the porch and under a bush where it absolutely flourished this year. We now have five little pumpkins growing by our gate and I didn't do a thing for them. In our backyard pumpkin patch, I tried Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins again and basically ignored them. Weeds, snails and intermittent watering notwithstanding. Powdery mildew? So be it. They flourished and we had two pumpkins grow from the four we planted. Then last week, I saw a third which had managed to escape and grow outside the confines of my garden. I suspect it saw the rampant neglect going on and figured rather than take it's chances with the Miss Hannigan of gardners, it would take it's chances on the toddler/teenager infested park side of the fence. I'm not offended because in this case, the grass really IS greener on the other side. Good luck little pumpkin. We'll come get you for Halloween if no one else gets you first.

park side view

On the other hand, everything else has grown great under the new neglectful regime. I have more tomatoes than I can handle, the red and green peppers that I apparently planted too close to each other have born strange red and green streaked peppers, which Jay claims are awesome. Our onions might be small, but darn it, they grew! I haven't actually seen him do it, but I am pretty sure my neighbor shakes his head in sorrow daily for allowing such a travesty so near his immaculate yard. I do feel bad, but not bad enough to get out there and weed. Maybe I'll take over some tomatoes.

view from my side

Cute Thomas harvesting the fall crops.

Look at my baby's baby blues!

We doesn't like to share our toys at all, does we, precious...?

2008-10-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

In a futile attempt to end the constant wrangling over toys and the daily shrieks of "Thomas took my (insert special toy)" Jay made up a rule that anything that was downstairs was fair game. Samuel had to leave his special toys in his room, or deal with it when Thomas got his hands on them. Consequently, 3/4 of the downstairs toys have made it into the "no-thomas" zone in Samuel's room (along with every picture he has colored in the last year.)

On the bright side, it makes his bedroom floor cleaner than it would normally be.

My obedient boy!

2008-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Last week we were excited to find this desk for $20 at Savers. Sam spends 90% of his life drawing these days and we thought it would be fun for him to have this a space in his room that he could keep his art supplies and not be bugged by little brother. We painted over the ugly brown finish and were really pleased with the result. I had been kicking around the idea of finding a treasure map replica and modpodging it to the top of the desk to indulge the pirate theme Sam seems to want these days. The morning after we set it up, Sam was pestering me as I was working. In desperation I suggested that he "color on his new desk"

Bless his heart, that's exactly what he did....

spongebob and patrick and his name (sort of)!

A pirate and mickey mouse

This is me as Snow White for Halloween (I wish my eyelashes were that long!)

He was so proud when he told me to "come look at his new desk" and then was crushed when I couldn't repress my initial gasp of horror. He is very pleased with it and I know we can eventually paint it over, but in the meantime, I have learned a valuable lesson in literal 4-year olds.

In other news, I think I am the only person in the house that is excited about fall rainstorm coming this weekend. Rainy conference weekends are the best.

My point is proven

2008-09-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

The boys with the Grandparents Wren and their new coon skin caps

The boys and I were driving along in the car today listening to a Disney CD when the theme song from Davy Crockett came on. Having had a sister (yes, I said sister) who was very much into Davy Crockett in our younger years, I know that the gear required is only a coonskin cap and rifle. The imagination part is up to you. I reflected that it was kind of a shame many basic toys these days will talk and move and generally require little imagination. Not like the good old Davy Crockett/wooden blocks/barbies that don't sing days! It was at that moment that Sam asked "Mom, does Davy Crockett's gun transform into anything?"

Then I got my chops busted by him for laughing.

Do you like curry? Do you trust me?

2008-09-17T08:44:00.001-07:00

I have sung the praises of this recipe for awhile now and no one yet has taken me up no the challenge to make it and then become addicted to it. I have recently discovered the wonderful world of Curry and this meal is one I want to eat at least once a week for the rest of my life. It's the only thing I cook, besides chicken nuggets, that my boys will actually eat more than one bite of. Your life will be better, your marriage will be better, and your children will be more adorable if you incorporate this simple dish into your meal plan. Go on! try it! And then come back and tell me what you think. Anyone? Anyone?

CURRIED COCONUT CHICKEN

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 teaspoon salt and pepper, or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk (I use light and we don't notice the difference)
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed, diced tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons sugar

DIRECTIONS
Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Heat oil and curry powder in a large skillet over medium-high heat for two minutes. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Add chicken, tossing lightly to coat with curry oil. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in center and juices run clear.
Pour coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and sugar into the pan, and stir to combine. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

**If you have a range on your outdoor grill, then use it because the smell does linger a bit. But it's still worth it even if you don't!

Time to come clean

2008-09-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

My children's penchant for going into my closet and harvesting all the coins that fall from our pockets reminded me of a story.

Back in middle school, our classes started later than the high school that my two oldest sisters attended. One day, in the lull between them going and me, I was desperate for 50 cents to spend at lunch. I was reduced to going to the only place in the house where I knew money would be left lying around. My sisters room. I crept in and glanced around. The bright purple carpet made spotting random quarters and dimes easy and in no time, I had a generous handful and convinced myself that they would never notice since they were just leaving it on the floor. By the time I reached the door however, my concience got the better of me and I thought I needed to work for my "payment." I spent the next five minutes picking up clothes and making their beds, and left feeling vindicated for my theft.

After school that afternoon, I found out that Dad had noticed the clean room and praised them and gave them money as a reward. They asked me if I had been the cleaning elf and when I confessed to that (but not the theft) they took me to pizza hut for lunch to say thanks.

So, here you go Jen and Bek; I'm sorry I stole 50 cents from you (probably more than once, actually) and then took the credit for being a nice kid. Although to be fair, I think you took the credit when dad was impressed that your room was so clean And you each got $5 out of the deal, so you profited $4.75 each. But, if you want, I am willing to come clean your rooms again as penance (I don't take money off the floor anymore). And thanks for the pizza!

Dear Aunt Kate and Uncle Matt

2008-09-04T15:45:00.002-07:00

Today at library time, the subject was A for Australia. I reminded Samuel that Uncle Matt's house is in Australia and I wanted to share the picture he colored with you. I was going to mail it to you, but he really wants to hang it on his art board. He very reluctantly let it out of his hands to let me scan it. I have added the numbers for translation purposes.

#1 - The green circles are trees and the brown are pinecones. The pinecones are being thrown at the trees. The green swoop is the slide at the park and the the brown U is a swing.

#2 - A Koala Bear

#3 - Our house. The brown circles in the middle are the rocks at our house and the lines are our steps.

#4 - A monkey from the zoo.

#5 - Uncle Matt's house

#6 - A Spider with 8 legs

#7 - I just liked that he wanted to use the big A to sign his name and then forgot and wrote it again. SAAM!

As I wrote this, I told Sam we were making a letter for you and asked if he wanted to say anything for me to write down. This is how the conversation went (and keep in mind, that he was spelling out these random letters, not trying to type on the keyboard):

Me: Samuel, do you want to say anything to Kate and Matt?

S: um, say QRSTUV

Me: Are you sure?

S: Also say 6 and 4 and 3.

Me: No, Sam, you're supposed to say things like I love you, and I miss you.

S: Ok, what about QSTUV?
Me: You already said that. Are you sure that's all you want to say?
S: SRQGUV7G. That's all I have to say.

Do you guys have some kind of code I am not aware of? If QRSTUV doesn't say I miss you, then I guess nothing does!

Welcome to the Family

2008-09-04T15:45:00.001-07:00

Hello big gray truck!

Hello to not having to borrow one to haul anything bigger than a suitcase.
Hello to fond memories of my first vehicle (little gray truck)
Hello to having cooler seats at the drive in movie.
Hello to feeling bigger than most everyone on the road.
Hello to paying 87 cents a gallon for natural gas (that's a $3 round trip to Ikea people!!)
Hello to not having to tie the things I buy at Ikea with the money saved on top of the car.
Hello to a built in playpen for the boys (who ask the minute dad gets home if they can play in the truck bed.)

Good bye to my faithful little Explorer. :-(

Anyone need a ride anywhere? I get giddy when we fill this baby up for under $10.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

2008-09-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

Samuel is no idiot. He has recently figured out the self-preserving benefits of lying. What he has not figured out is why it's wrong. None of the reasons we are giving him to be an honest boy seem to be making much of an impression.

Me: "It's wrong to lie because then we can't trust you"

Sam: (blank stare).

Me: "It makes mom and dad sad."

Sam: (non-committal) "oh"

And in desperation:

Me: "It makes Heavenly Father sad"

Sam: (blank stare) "Mom, is Jesus pretty tough?"

Me: Yes, he's really tough, but he doesn't like it when we lie."

Sam: "Is he tougher than dad?

Me: "Yes"

Sam: (whispering) "are you going to send me to Jesus?" (clearly referencing a talk we had about the body and where the spirit goes when we die. Heaven help us if Social Services ever gets their hands on him again!)

Me: "Yep!" (okay, I didn't actually tell him that, but wouldn't that be an effective threat? "Stop hitting your brother or I am going to send you to Jesus!" But then that makes him a bad guy, so that idea is out. It's unfortunate that there are no gypsies anymore. "I'm going to sell you to the gypsies" used to be bandied about, but kids just aren't buying that these days.)

A few nights ago, Samuel's bedroom door was open after I had left it slightly ajar. I told him to close it and his response was that the wind blew it open. Given that he has a ceiling fan that was on, I conceded that it might have happened and left it at that. Last night, he was watching a movie on the portable DVD player, which sits on his night table and which he has strict instructions not to touch. When checking on him I saw that it was in bed with him.

Me: "Sam, I told you not to touch this"

Sam: "but the wind blew it down here!"

Today, he dismantled his skeleton straw (don't ask) for the third time and asked me to put it back together (for the third time).

Me: "Sam, stop taking this apart"

Sam: (indignantly) "I didn't!" (calculating glint in his eye) "The wind blew it"

Now, I don't expect my four year old to understand the laws of physics and the improbability of the wind picking up his DVD player and depositing carefully in his lap, or taking apart his straw while leaving it in his hand, but how much of an idiot does he take me for? He is clearly thinking "if the lie ain't broke, don't fix it!" Maybe the best I can hope for is that he will continue to be dense enough to use his one size fits all lies until he feels like we "might be catching on." The mental anguish of either me or Jesus doesn't seem to bother him in the least.

In the meantime, I am going to go sit him down in front of Pinnochio and give him a pop quiz at the end.

I heart Jack (the cat)!

2008-08-26T20:02:00.004-07:00

Pay no attention to the halloween socks that he has not allowed off his feet for 3 days!

Dear Jack,

Thank you for allowing Thomas to use you as a pillow anytime he wants to, and for being his preferred shoulder to cry on (literally) when the rest of us humans don't understand him. Thank you for not scratching or biting the boys when they drag you by the tail across the floor, force their new coonskin caps onto your head, or carry you all over the house in various boxes and buckets. Thanks for curling up next to me on chilly nights and for keeping the mouse population down in the yard.

All these things are what make me not "assist you out with my foot" when you cry to be let out at 4:00 a.m. every single morning.

Love,

your family

Parenting 101

2008-08-26T20:02:00.003-07:00

Have you ever had your child throw away a toy that they have been misusing (i.e. using it as a weapon...) fully intending to take it back out of the garbage and sneak it back into the toy rotation once they have forgotten about it? And have you ever forgotten to take it back out of the garbage until it was too late?

Me neither.

I heart Samuel!

2008-08-26T20:02:00.002-07:00

This picture is making Wren family blog history, because if our house burns down and we lose everything we have, this is one memory I want saved! It's not the most photegenic picture, but it captures "the face" which we had despaired of ever doing. You see, when Sam gets proud of himself but is embarrassed about it, he can't keep from smiling, but tries really hard to supress it. What he ends up with is this face. We had let Samuel take pictures around the house and Jay accidently took this picture as he was viewing them. Since it isn't the kind of face we could have posed him for, we were delighted because it cracks us up every time he tries to curb his visible pride. We just love this kid...

A Good Cause

2008-08-26T20:02:00.001-07:00

Feel like being supportive of a worthy cause? I have been following this story for several weeks now after being a fan of this blog. My sister Bek says it better than I do, so take a moment and read about Nie Nie day. Prayers and money are both awesome. Bidding on cool things and having the proceeds go directly to this family are even more awesome. It's hard not to be touched by this story and I know you have been thinking about getting some new stuff anyway!

Another Prayer Snafu

2008-08-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

Once again, Samuel has given his own special twist when it is his turn for bedtime prayers. After a little lecture on reverence (he wanted to say the prayer laying on the floor with his feet on the wall) he folded his arms and, with a glint in his eye, began "Dear Heavenly Spongebob..." We stopped him and made him start again, but could not stop the laugh that was causing me to silently convulse and turn blue. Thomas was concerned and kept asking "you okay mom?" I'm pretty sure that in the rest of the prayer he was thankful for our blessings or something to that effect, but I really couldn't tell you for sure. I was too busy surreptitously wiping tears from my eyes and trying not to snort. Samuel is at that awesome age when he thinks any silly thing he says is hilarious and when he genuinely is funny (without meaning to be) we get cussed out for laughing. If we let him see that this attempt to be funny was actually humorous, he would spend the next few weeks praying to every Nickelodeon/Disney character he can come up with. I guess even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.

Next family home evening lesson will need to revolve around who we are allowed to pray to in this house. We'll do that as soon as I can keep a straight face.

Compromise

2008-08-24T13:35:00.001-07:00

We are having friends over for a BBQ tonight and I foolishly attempted to bribe Samuel with fruit snacks (baby crack around here...) to help pick up the toys in the downstairs. After some rolling around on the floor and whining about how hard it is, he finally told me "Never mind mom, I'll just pretend this drink is a fruit snack."

I think you will go far, my lad!

I don't care about the Olympics

2008-08-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

There. I said it, and I feel so much better. Call me un-american if you want, but I just can't muster up any enthusiasm for the event that is apparently keeping the world on the edge of its seat and causing people to stay up way past their bedtimes on work nights. After the Olympics came to Utah, I was one of the 12 people in the entire state who just didn't care, didn't watch the opening ceremonies and didn't attempt to get tickets to any events. The Curling (what the @#$% is Curling, by the way) event was held in Ogden in the Dee Events center, which is located right next to our old apartment! Did I care that I was that I didn't see the event that took place in our own backyard? Nope. Do I regret not moving into our car and getting in on the action of subletting our apartment for a million dollars for out of state Olympic-goers, like everyone else seemed to be doing? You betcha!

So, now that the Olympics are on every channel (and filling up our DVR so fast that it kicked out all the kids shows I recorded to give me much needed breaks from my children), I have managed to catch something about Michael Phelps, the swimmer. I gathered that he has a single mom, used to be bullied and has a body like a fish (which, admittedly, I can see how that might have inspired bullying, but seriously? In your faces, Michael Phelps bullies! Do you think any of them have admitted to their wives or friends that they used to cream the new Olympic hero? Anyway...) As far as I am concerned, he is the only Olympic competitor. I can honestly express admiration for the dedication it takes to get that far, but I still don't want to watch it. If there is no mystery hatch, Jack Bauer isn't saving the world or Dwight isn't doing something stupid, it just can't keep my attention.

My sentiments are mine alone, though. Jay has been in Med.-High Olympic mode. Once, I heard him upstairs clapping (although at the time, I thought he was banging the remote on the headboard. It's been losing battery power and is seriously annoying.) Don't feel sorry for me. I'm okay with this! Besides, I have been far too busy not getting my laundry done or my house cleaned. There are several spots on my kitchen floor that have been needing my attention for several days now. I almost wish I was an Olympic devotee because it might be an acceptable excuse for letting things slip, but I am going to be honest and just admit that I've been lazy. Want to see what we have been doing instead of everything else we are supposed to be doing?

Making Maps

Eating at Thaifoon

Playing in the water

Hangin' with molten chocolate cake (you can't see it, but trust me, it's there...)

Riding (terrorizing?) the new UTA Train that goes to Salt Lake.

A Happy Ending

2008-08-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Samuel was in charge of prayers last night and did pretty well until he concluded with "in the name of Jesus Christ, The End!"

Night, night

2008-08-07T12:11:00.003-07:00

the big silver thing by his face is the plastic penny, the rest are probably in his hand...

Unlike his brother, who is the worlds best sleeper, putting Thomas down for a nap is always an interesting experience, and is almost always harder than putting him down for the night. I think he may have clued in that while he has to sleep, the rest of us are partying with play-dough and paint and markers and all the other things he has been banned from playing with because all he can do is make a colossal (usually un-clean-up-able) mess with them. Recently, he has been copying Samuel who is earning quarters for doing small jobs around the house, by asking for "quarneys" (cross between quarters, coins and pennies). We obliged by giving him a few pennies here and there and he won't put his coins in his pocket, but carries them around in his hot little hand. If there is a coin anywhere on the floor, our little truffle pig will find it. Most of the time he is still clutching his quarneys when it is time to sleep and so takes them to bed. I realize that any parent who reads this is probably flinching at the idea of their toddlers tenderly clutching a few pennies before they can go to sleep, but he is determined. I tried to take them away once and the length and volume of the resulting tantrum is not something I am willing to risk again. So far, no pennies have shown up in his diaper, so I am pretty sure that he isn't doing anything but carrying them. We got him some big (6 inch) plastic pennies, but he is not fooled and all that accomplished was that he wants the real pennies as well as the fake ones. I have tried trading him for a flashlight or something more traditional like a teddy bear, but it's the pennies that soothe him to sleep best.

He has recently added a complication to his bedtime routine by insisting on being covered with all the spare baby blankets he found in his room. There is his special green elephant blanket, his buzz/woody blanket, his Nemo blanket and last but not least, topped again by his spare special green elephant blanket (which was actually never supposed to leave the closet unless he lost his first one) in that order. He doesn't care that it's 100 degrees outside, he's comfortable. I hand him his newly filled sippy cup, which promptly hands back with the request for "more." We have learned that walking out into the hall for a moment fools him to thinking we have refilled his sippy in the bathroom sink and he accepts it smugly. Often, while he is distracted between the pennies and his sippy, I can shoot off a quick "I love you" and bolt. The problem is that he drops his pennies and can't find them in all the layers. All will be quiet until I hear hysterical shrieks of "my quarney" coming from his room. Finding his coins involves shaking his blankets and laying him back down and layering him up again. By this time, he thinks he should be done napping and requires more finesse to get him to stay there.

He doesn't really start protesting until I get to the door. "Hand?" "Hand?" comes a quivering little voice in between the gaspy breaths left over from the quarney crisis. Reaching for his hand, I will usually oblige with the bedtime song. During the song, he seems to revert a little. He gets a big, goofy smile on his face like he used to when he was a little baby and I sang to him. In reality, he is probably laughing at my lullaby attempts but he does calm down a little. The minute I loosen pressure on his hand to let go, he starts whimpering again. In the past I tried to come up with excuses to give him that required my immediate attention away from the room as that seemed to work better than just walking away.

Me: "Thomas, I have to go find daddy..."

T: "NO!!!"

Me: "Oh, I hear Sam. I'm going to go find Samuel, Okay?"

T: "NO!!!"

Me: "Mama's going to go to bed, okay? Night, night"

T: "NO, NO, NO...etc."

one last ditch effort:

Me: "I think I have to go find the kitty"

T: quivery voiced, yet reluctantly letting go of my hand "OK, Mama"

really?

Apparently he thinks that the cat needs me more than him at any given nap/bedtime and we have a 98% success rate with that excuse. He used to insist on sleeping with his shoes on and his baseball hat (on backwards because it's just more of a challenge, don't you think?) Once I tried to turn it forwards for him so he could lay on it easier, but I got cussed out. I started hiding these items before bed and he has recently stopped. He has pennies stashed all over the house though.

This mostly reminds me that parenting is whole lot of trial and error and figuring out what works for your own kids. Anytime we leave our kids with family or a babysitter, we usually have a ridiculous list of instructions to make the job easier. Often we get the "I've watched/raised kids before" vibe but we genuinely feel you need to know that if baby is fussing and won't take the pacifier, then you need to put it in his hand and let him put it in himself, then turn him at a 3/4 angle and pat his back while swaying back and forth. Or that toddler won't eat his cereal unless he has a blue spoon and won't drink any beverage without a straw. And so on and so forth. We used to call different baby sitters in the ward to spread the work around, but lately we have been sticking with one since it got exhausting trying to explain the random behaviors of our children and also how to work all three remotes for the TV before every gig. This babysitter knows and respects the sippy cup deception and how to work all the remotes. She's a keeper!

Looking back at this it appears that my children have me jumping through way too many hoops. I prefer to see them as battles I am not willing to fight. If you want, I can tell you about the battles everyday with Thomas about the shoes I will not help him put on and take off again every five minutes. Or with Sam when he tries to argue that he is not hungry for eggs, he is "only hungry for brownies MOM!!!" There's plenty more where that came from.

The bedtime ritual is definitely delicate dance that I'm not sure I would trade anyway. It's so very typical of my unique, spunky, determined little Thomas. It would be nice though if the routine transferred to beds other than his own. As it is, we haven't figured out what random order of things will get him to sleep anywhere but home.

So next time I ask any of you to babysit (and you know I will) you will understand the seemingly endless list of things my kids need to function. It's not because I am insanely picky. It's because they are.

I'm doing this for you. You're welcome!

We are going to be so taken care of in our old age...

2008-08-07T12:11:00.002-07:00

FUTURE DOCTOR/SCIENTIST

Sam's recent obsession with how the body works led to the purchase of this informative book, which came complete with a skeleton puzzle. Now, every time I turn around I am getting told how my heart works and where my veins are, etc.

FUTURE OLYMPIC ATHLETE

Thomas has been creating his own parallel bars all week. Everytime he hops down he requires applause. He gets it.

Kinsel Family Reunion 2008

2008-08-07T12:11:00.001-07:00

Grand Canyon/Sedona, AZ Trip

This year, in an unusual deviation from our normal family vacation (Disneyland in the off season), we travelled south with (sister) Mak and her daughter "princess" to join some of the extended Kinsel family in gorgeous Sedona, Arizona. Along the way, we swung by the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to show Jay just how Grand it really is and to take the first family picture we have had in 20 months (might as well do it right, right?)

Jay was impressed, I was impressed, Dad was impressed and Mak was impressed. When Sam asked where we were going, we had vaguely told him it was a "big hole in the ground". He was pretty excited to "stick his finger in it." When we arrived, he was rather disappointed that the finger sticking wasn't going to be as cut and dried as he thought. He was more impressed with the vast amount of puke that came out of him when we reached the top resulting from the combination of a long, windy road and a snack of string cheese and a capri sun. He is still talking about it. "Princess" kept insisting (while standing in the various lookout points) that she couldn't see the Grand Canyon, and Thomas was just happy to be allowed to throw pebbles off the side (although now that I think of it, that was probably illegal).

The highlight of the Grand Canyon ended up being the pinecones they found and then hucked at trees.

SLIDE ROCK NATIONAL PARK (Day 2)

Hi Mak! Although I am unwilling to post pictures of myself in swim gear, I have no qualms whatsoever about posting your hot bod! Thanks for being the swimsuit model for this section.

Slide rock is a series of natural sandstone waterslides that are really fun if you can keep the overeager 10 year old behind you from coming too close and slamming his heavily treaded swim shoes clad feet into your back. Also, if you can keep your bum from getting stuck in some of the, er, narrower passages as you are going down, that's great too. Surprisingly, the water was absolutely freezing. We made our way into the water inch by squeaking, gasping, chattering inch. It was definitely not what I expected from Arizona in 100 degree heat. There were some minor cliffs for jumping, which were far too much of a challenge for me, as well as some more major cliffs (60+ feet) which were barely enough to challenge my 14 year old cousin. It isn't that I am a total coward around heights, I just have a more healthy respect for the edges of cliffs.

Day 2 ended with steak cooked by dad, potatoes cooked by me, macaroni salad cooked by Albertsons, and a massive temper tantrum cooked up by both my darlings. After a great slide show put on by dad, in which we all discovered that young Aunt Lisa looked like Marsha Brady and young grandpa looks like a cross between young Jack Nicholson and Popeye, we packed it up for the night.

In the 3 minutes it took to get back to our hotel, Samuel had zonked out. I carried him up the stairs and tried to set him on his feet to dig out the key and open the door. He slumped to the ground, still asleep and stayed there. Thomas was very concerned about him and wouldn't come inside until Sam did.

While the three of us were doing this.....

...Thomas was still doing this!

THE NAVAJO EXHIBIT (DAY 3)

It would not be a vacation with my dad if there were not some kind of museum or exhibit included. In this case, there was a navajo exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona. Although it was difficult to keep 20 sticky little fingers away from the tables of beautiful and hideously expensive Navajo jewelry and pottery, they kids liked watching the puppet show and making crafts at the kids table. We all had (what else?) Navajo tacos for lunch (except Princess, who ate a navajo hot dog and Sam who had a navajo ham sandwich) and crossed our fingers that the kids would all fall asleep on the 45 minute drive home. They had all been promised a dip in the pool if they were good. When we got home, we woke them up, suited them up, lotioned them up and trotted them over to the pool where we had the pleasure of getting wet for 5 minutes before the black storm clouds rolled in and we were chased back inside by a thunderstorm, the likes of which I had never seen in my sheltered utah valleys. Needless to say, the squall kept up until about five minutes after we all decided we were tired of waiting around in wet swimsuits.

Instead, we spent the afternoon playing a game called Wise and Otherwise, which I completely rocked at (it's not because I'm a nerd mak, it's because I am amazing). That evening we ditched our little energizer bunny with Grandpa and took Sam out on a dinner date night with us. Aunt Lisa had drawn a little face on his leg earlier and he named it "Tamuel." A little pair of glasses from the Mr. Potato Head set was the right size to fit on his leg over the "eyes" and he consulted "Tamuel" about everything for the next several days. For dinner that night, Tamuel thought the chicken strips and root beer from a bottle sounded good to them and they enjoyed it immensely.

Anyone recognize the background? Apparently Walt Disney used to live in Sedona and the mountain in the background is called Thunder Mountain. Recognize it now?

As I picked pictures to post, I realized I don't have many of the extended family. I saw mak running around with her far more superior camera and fingured I would just get them from her (so, sorry to those of you who didn't get to go. Mak will probably post them?) For the record, everyone is pretty much the same except Javan, who grew about 7 feet since I last saw him, and Morgan, who didn't exist yet at the last get together ten years ago.

As is always the case when I see family for the first time in a long while, I wish we saw them more often. It was a bummer we had to keep our trip so short, but it was a great reunion. It was definitely worth the 10 million rounds of the "animal game" it took to get there with minimal tantrums (no matter what animal we were describing, Thomas always guessed "crocadiddle" which made it kind of easy). We want to shoot for Orgeon in the next year or two. If we only have reunions every 10 years, I will be 40 for the next one. Too wierd. Your turn Mak...

Par-Tay!

2008-08-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

Thomas turned two at the beginning of July and for the last year I have had an elaborate bug-themed swimming party planned. When the end of July crept up, we copped out and settled for having a few family members join us at Jungle Jim's (a cooler, less crowded version of Chuck E. Cheese) for pizza. We did have bug shaped cupcakes though...

Sam thought the game tokens were real money and felt pretty rich having a pocketful of change. At the end of the night, after $10 in tokens, he took his handful of tickets (100) up to the prize counter and walked away with...one package of poprocks. I hope he had a whole lot of fun actually playing the games, because I could probably buy him a $10 package of poprocks anytime.

Thomas just wanted to play anything that involved throwing balls. He was absolutely in the right place for that.

Little neice Birdie amused herself a different way. I'm thinking about installing one of these at home for the next kid. She crawled up and down it for the longest time!

At one point in the evening (oh, all right, it was the third time) we noticed that none of us had Thomas. The place wasn't very crowded and he was usually to be found around the games. This time, after a frantic search, we found him here.

Apparently, if you send your two year old into the game to get the balls out, you don't have to put a token in to get them.

That's my boy! Happy belated birthday T!

A visit from our surrogate daughter

2008-07-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

We love when Lu comes to visit!!

hot dogs and "macky" cheese on the patio

Getting put to work picking peas with Uncle Jay

Making "green slime" cookies

The master bread dough kneader

Both kids agreed that smashing the blackberries was the best part of making jam

Anatomy of a Shopping Trip (or the real reason for food storage)

2008-07-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I am insane. I know that going to the grocery store with both boys takes years off my life, and I know that I will generally spend the whole trip hollering for Thomas to slow down and for Samuel to hurry up, but every once in awhile I get a little delusional and think some how that I am the boss. I'm the mother, right? I. Am. The. Boss!!

Well, today I attempted an ill-fated trip to the grocery store to get a week's worth of groceries. For the last few months (pretty much since Thomas decided he is far to old to ride in the cart if Samuel doesn't have to, and since Jay is working so many weekends and late nights.) we have done quick trips. We scurry in, grab our milk and eggs and generally tend to still stagger out, with both kids crying, having forgotten half of what I went for in the first place. Bek's friend Lisa wrote a very insightful article comparing having a toddler to negotiating with terrorists. That resonated with me so much that if I ever get to leave the house and work again, I am putting on my resume "Skilled at terrorist negotiations. Some experience at preparing meals during said negotiations." Just to break it down for you, here is how our trip went today.

Walk in the front door at WalMart. Being a "smart" mom, I withheld snacks all morning and attempted to distract my children with Happy Meals, hoping it would keep them busy enough to not run in separate directions. In addition to this, I picked up one of those carts that seats two children.

McDonalds:
-Thomas doesn't like his seat and wants Sam's. Sam screams.
-Sam wants the yellow transformer and they only have purple ones. Big, disappointed tears well from his eyes. Nice McDonald's worker dives to the bottom of the box and finds one. Thomas runs away while I am attempting to simultaneously getting Sam to show proper appreciation for the worker, while explaining that crying isn't the way to get what we want.
-I find Thomas under the far corner table laughing at me.
-I tuck my extra large Diet Coke (caffeine for fortification) carefully into the cart. I tuck the boys in almost as carefully. Moving on...

Produce Section:
-Thomas is already tired of the cart and has already dropped his drink twice. I have managed to pick up one bunch of broccoli, one bag of carrots and some grapes. I have pulled Thomas away from the tomatoes, stopped him from pitching the avocados and also from doing somersaults in the middle aisle. Tantrums all three times.

Meat Section:
-Both boys feel like they NEED to poke thier fingers into all the meat packages. Pull them each away by an arm. Samuel submits fairly meekly, Thomas screams. We attempt to cross over the the baking aisle, but the boys get distracted by the big center aisle coolers, and want to scale all the way around the outside edges. Samuel comes pretty well when I ask, but Thomas needs to have all ten fingers pried off (screaming). I decide at this point that Thomas needs to be restrained in the cart whether he screams or not. I find out (too late) that every one of the 3 restraints on the cart is broken. I try to negotiate and get him to understand that if he doesn't hold onto the cart and walk by me, then he has to get IN the cart. He has that uncanny intelligence most 2 year olds acquire and knows I can't back up this threat since the cart is half full and I already tried buckling him in to no avail. I pull out the chicken nuggets and lure him to the baking aisle.

Baking Aisle:
Halfway down the aisle Thomas is done with the nuggets, and only wants to climb on empty shelves in between the flour sacks. I open a package of raisins and speak in a high, super excited "you don't want to miss this" voice to get him to come have some. He takes two steps forwards, perceives he is being tricked and collapses to the floor. I say good-bye and pretend to leave. He isn't fooled. I end up tucking him, kicking and screaming, under one arm and pushing the cart with the other, completely forgetting the sugar I came into the aisle for in the first place.

Dairy Section:
-While standing in front of the cheese, Thomas points emphatically, and says he "want's THAT!!!"
Me: "What, the raisins?"
T: "NO!!!"
Me: "Show me.."
T: (still pointing emphatically, but very generally) "THAT!!...THAT!!"

This scenario ends with me picking him up so he can show me what he wants. Not surprisingly, he doesn't find "THAT!!" Lots of tears and crying ensues as I plop him in his seat and block his every attempt to escape with my knee. Keep moving. Try to ignore the dirty looks from other shoppers.

Garden Section:
- After traipsing across the length of the entire store, I am throwing patient reasoning out the window and am shamefully promising lollypops if Thomas will just stop his steam whistle shrieking. This works as it always does. I'm sure it's calculated, but I'm desperate. I open a package of Tootsie Pops (incidentally, people opening things before paying for them is one of my pet peeves and is something I always swore I would never do until I had a two year old). I know I have appx. 3.5 minutes before he is finished and I attempt top speed through to get what I need.
-Sam informs me that his finger is stuck between the side slats of the cart. I free Samuel and Thomas HAS to have his shoes off. I refuse.
-Thomas removes his shoes himself and immediately cries for me to put them back on. I refuse. He pitches them over the side. I stow them in my purse.

We make our way toward the checkout line and Sam dashes for the clothes so he can hide in the center of the racks. Thomas attempts to follow. I grab him and holler for Samuel who come once I make it VERY clear that we are not playing hide and seek in Wal Mart.

Thomas dashes off while I am paying for the groceries. I run after him and catch him at the other end by the hair salon. Well meaning WalMart worker remarks "he's fast, isn't he?!" Yes, he is.

During today's shopping I ended up getting a few items for our food storage and it occurred to me that our prophet is very smart. We may end up needing our food storage if an earthquake hits or Jay loses his job, but at this point (as long as we have toddlers) it is far more likely to get used because I don't dare go to the store with my kids in tow.

I was understandably grumpy when we got him and as I went to get Thomas from his car seat, he grinned at me and said "you cool, mom."

Glad you think so.

Incongruity, thy name is child

2008-07-08T12:30:00.002-07:00

Last night at the store, Sam was came with me to spend the last of his money from his Montana trip. Getting bored in the produce section, he decided to shimmy down and lay on his tummy in the space under the cart (where you carry big things). This particular cart had long wire slats rather than a wire grid and he somehow got both his knees wedged down in between the slats and couldn't get them back through. The next five minutes had us both on the floor, with him howling in pain and me trying to pull the slats further apart, straightening his knees, twisting him to the side, etc. to no avail while visions of the Roy City fire department having to saw the cart in half danced in my head. Eventually, with the help of a few concerned fellow shoppers, we twisted him just right and got him out. As he dried his tears, I thanked his rescuers (both middle aged women who went away good-naturedly snickering). I turned to Sam and spoke over his post-sobbing, gaspy breaths and said "We're not going to sit under the cart anymore okay?" He looked at me in astonishment (tears still lingering in his eyes) and said "WHY??"

(deep breath)

The key to good parenting is a set of earplugs

2008-07-08T12:30:00.001-07:00

This week has been wierd. J is off on a 5 day backpacking trip in Montana with his dad and brothers and we took the opportunity to send Samuel to be spoiled by his Grandma Noni who lives near the backpacking route. So, it has just been me and thomas for the last few days. Just me...and Thomas...

(psst, I'm going nuts...)

Although I knew I'd miss Sam, I thought this would be a great time to catch up on a few projects, while I had one less kid underfoot. The truth is that having Thomas underfoot is more like having three kids running around. He is incredibly bored without Samuel, so instead of being off tesing his brother, he wants to be on my lap or into whatever I'm doing and have the same conversations with me over and over. They go a little like this:

Conversation #1:

T: Mom?
Me: yeah?
T: Mom? Mom? Mom?
Me: yes?
T: Mom!!?? (as though I hadn't answered him at all)
Me: WHAT!?
T: Hi Mom!

Conversation #2

T: Mom?
Me: Yes?!
T: I'm 'cared (scared)
Me: No, you're brave
T: (Indignantly) No, not!!!
Me: Okay.
T: Mom?! Mom!?
Me: Yes?
T: I 'cared
Me: Why?
T: because. Mom?! Mom?! (this then leads to Conversation #1)

Conversation #3

Me: Thomas, no, no!! (when he is about to either throw something up into the whirling blades of the ceiling fan, or throw a ball at the new flat screen TV, or emerging from the pantry with two handfuls of flour..)
T: (with no small amount of bewilderment and indignation) WHY!!??
Me: Because you will break it/are making a mess.
T: I 'cared...(then refer to Conversation #2)

Despite all this, I have managed to get both the boys closets cleaned out (something that hasn't been done since we moved in almost 3 years ago), and the piles of too small clothes that I've been regularly pulling from their drawers as they outgrow them (way too fast) sorted into the approriate boxes and packed away. Thomas tried very earnestly to help me pick up the totes to carry to the basement. If only... Also, despite great odds, I got the front lawn fertilized. Normally Thomas is delighted to get to go into the front yard, but at the moment, he won't go outside unless carried there. All the noiseless fireworks we set off last week must have freaked him out more than we thought because I pulled out a package of poppers for him to play with (he's done them before) while I worked on the yard and he ran for the front door crying and shaking. Poor kid.

It's been interesting and fun to have one on one Thomas time though. As a second kid, he has rarely gotten my undivided attention. As long as I am not trying to accomplish anything, we have had fun. He has had the run of the house and all the toys and has spent a lot of time cuddling next to me on the couch ("move, mom") when I take a reading break. We'll be glad to see our boys home tomorrow though. I never realized how helpful it was to have Samuel around (even with the constant fighting). You would think I would remember what it was like to have a single toddler boy around the house, but when Samuel was this age, we were living in California with Bek and her kids.

Right now, Thomas is downstairs pounding on all the hard surfaces he can find with a big stick (where did he get a stick?), but I am ignoring it since he can't reach the TV.

Also, I have my earplugs in.

Independence Day!

2008-07-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Boys!

Watching Fireworks from the safety of Grandpa's lap!

Laughing (and crying) at the boys' attempt to light "worms"

All our fireworks this year had to be noiseless ones to keep Sam from going catatonic again. Both boys were pretty unsure the whole time, although we did get them both to throw a few poppers eventually. Score! Maybe by Roy Days (august) they will be ready for the fireworks they shoot off from directly behind our house. (Ready or not...)

Escape Artists need really good Life Insurance

2008-07-01T09:57:00.001-07:00

A few days ago we had a life insurance guy come to our home to sign us up as responsible adults (something about turning 30 made us realize we aren't kidding around anymore!). As usual when we have other adults come to our house, the boys were alternating between showing off (in this case, leaping off the arms of the couch) and whining for our attention. But, whichever one they were doing, they were constantly in and out and definitely underfoot. As we sat there listening to the agent sell us a rider policy to cover funeral expenses in the sad event that we lose one of our kids, I looked out the window to see our neighbors pull up in their minivan. The door opens and the oldest son leaps out and runs towards the garage. I thought that was strange, but figured they had located a lost pet or something. Moments later the doorbell rings. I answer it to see my neighbor lookng frantic.

Neighbor: "Is Sam okay?"

Me: (terribly confused because Sam is in the room with us) "Yeah, he's fine, why?"

She goes on to explain that as they were driving by they saw a frantically kicking little pair of legs under the door of the garage. Naturally, they assumed that the door had closed on one of our children, which explained the son running from the car like he did. He went to try to lift the door up so they could pull him out. In actuality (sp?), we have been leaving the grage door open about 6 inches for our for our 'fraidy cat when we leave him out all night so he has a place to retreat if he is threatened by one of the millions of feral cats in the neighborhood. As the child lock was temporarily off the inside garage door, he had been jaunting out, shimmying under the (what we thought was way too small) crack under the garage door, tasting a moment of freedom and coming back inside before we were any wiser. Apparently his way back in was more of a squeeze than his way out. When the neighbor ran to "free" him, he came inside as fast as he could and was therefore innocently standing by by the time neighbor made it to the door. I felt like mother of the year...

We now know that children (at least ours) are like little vermin and can squeeze into places you never thought they could or would try. We also now know that this house needs to be like a watertight ship and no door can be left un-child-safety-locked! And most of all, we have learned not to underestimate our children's penchant for getting into trouble.

And yes, we bought the child life insurance. That guy never had such an easy sale!

Happy 2nd Birthday Thomas!!

2008-07-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

JULY 1, 2008

Why wear one hat when you can wear four?

Two hats and a bra!

Happy Birthday to my little spitfire who definitely marches to his own beat! You are totally cooler than you look these days!

Let's try this again

2008-06-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

I have had a blog for the last three years, in which I have managed to write only 3 posts. Since I am a) no good at keeping up in my journal and keeping track of my kids antics (I want proof in the future when I demand some good behavior in return for the merry dance they led me in the first years of their lives). And, b) now that we have family and friends in distant parts of the country/world, it's a good way to keep in touch, I am going to give this blogging thing another shot. Here goes...