Gearing up

Well, I've been doing my best (well, maybe not my best) to avoid the news as much as possible the past week and a half. I talked to Logan about the shooting in Aurora, CO, but this one I'm hoping he'll remain blissfully ignorant about. Twenty-six people shot in an elementary school, and the NRA's solution is to have an armed policeman in every school building. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? I wish things were that simple.

The holidays are on their way. We're out of school for two weeks. For most of us, the world didn't end.

Summertime

I know, it's a strange title for a post in December, but I just wanted to record a nice memory. Auden always asks for a song or two before he goes to bed. It's funny how the kids eventually choose the lullabies, not you. For Logan, it was Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" and "In My Life" by The Beatles, but Auden's choices are "Summertime" (fitting for a summer baby; I like the Ella Fitzgerald version) and "If I Had the Wings of an Eagle" by Ziggy Marley.  He likes daddy to sing "Snuggle Puppy," which is pretty adorable since Eric doesn't sing all that often.

Anyway, Auden sings along to both songs--he knows most of the lyrics, surprisingly. And when I get to "Nothin' can harm you," Auden shows some potential jazzman qualities: while I'm holding that note, he follows it up with "No harm me" like he's improvising or something. Cute.

Jokes from a four-year-old

Logan's really into jokes these days. Not ones he's heard...ones he comes up with himself. So I thought I'd share a little taste of his sense of humor. It's strange, but these two jokes say a lot about, well, his parents' poor joke-telling skills.

Why did the bear cross the road?
To get to the other side so he could eat the stuff over there.
(Ok, a variation on the classic chicken version, but with an added practical reason for the bear's short jaunt. Way too logical/serious to be funny. He gets it from me.)

Why did the bear eat the wolf?
Because he was mad at the wolf because the wolf was making fun of the wolf...I mean the bear...so he ate him!
(Screwed up the punch line...Totally Eric. But this one made me laugh anyway.)

Colds

Our household has been hit this year with a cold that just won't quit. Auden's been sick off-and-on since Halloween, and on and on it has gone with all of us in varying stages of stuffiness, coughiness, sore-throatiness. I'm really sick of being sick.

Anyway, as I was rubbing some balm on Auden's chapped nose, he characterized his cold brilliantly for me. This is what he said: "Mom, I have diarrhea nose."

Gross. But how apropos.

My Precious

This weekend Logan thought it would be a great idea to go through all of our board games in our play room/basement. He hit nearly all of them. Cranium, Blokus, Risk (Lord of the Rings edition), Stratego, Battleship...the list goes on. As a result, this afternoon was spent picking up said games, which were strewn all across the basement floor. I had Auden and Logan sorting the LOTR Risk pieces, which consist of a crap load of elves, orcs, trolls, humans, and dwarves. Oh, and there's a pretty convincing ring of power as a game piece. In fact, I thought it was one of Eric's long-lost wedding bands until I did a double-take and realized it was yellow gold...and was adorned with elvish scrawl. Anyway, Logan found it, quickly snatched it up, and said, "Oh! This is so pretty! I love it!"
"Would you say it's precious?" I couldn't resist.
"Yes, precious! That's it. My precious ring." He even petted it lovingly.
When he wasn't looking, I put the ring back in the box. I'm not taking my chances. We don't need any of those shenanigans unleashed around our house. :)

It must be the witches...

Last night I was tucking Logan into bed, and he put his blankie around his feet, under his comforter. "Are you getting cold at night?" I asked, thinking his legs and feet were chilly or something.
"No, I just like to put my blankie and Spikey (his panda bear) under my covers at night so the witch won't get them."
"Wha?"
"Yeah, this witch comes in my room at night and just throws my blankie and my panda on my floor while I'm sleeping."
"No, I think that you twist and turn at night and kick your blankie and panda out of your bed."
"Nope. It's the witch. Where do witches come from, anyway?"

Maybe we just had a little too much Halloween this year? Our neighborhood block party was pretty tame, but we made the most of it. The boys had fun playing with their friends. I made a jello brain. A good time was had by all, in short.

The boys did their trick-or-treating early to beat the cold, so we had fun hanging our with our friend Leah and handing out candy to other ghoulies. I think Logan actually had more fun handing out candy than he did getting candy for himself.

Auden is fighting off a cold and ear infection. He's been handling it like a champ, but I wish the coughing and snotty nose would clear up already. It's been about two weeks and he's still hacking and blowing snot rockets. Why must toddlers wipe the snot that's oozing out of their nose clear across their face, but it's like the worst thing in the world if you wipe their noses with a tissue? Gross.

Wash hands!

A friend reminded me of a story I forgot to blog about, so here goes...

I woke up early to get a try to catch up with some paper grading. Auden woke up as well, foiling my plans. But I decided that instead of keeping an eye on him, I'd let him play quietly and happily with his puzzles in the kitchen floor while I graded some papers in the living room. I'd check on him in a few. Well, you can probably guess how that went.

I had made it through one paper before I heard what sounded like water being splashed around on the kitchen floor. What the?! I know he couldn't have gotten to the water, so what was going on. In I walked, only to find Auden in a huge pool of canola oil, splashing and rubbing his hands together, a big smile on his face. "Wash hands, momma! Wash hands!" Yeah, that was a brand new bottle of canola oil all over the floor, all over my son. I picked him up, stripped his jammies off, cleaned him up, and then mopped up the floor. Still, I don't think the grout between our tile will ever be the same. I think I've learned my lesson...

Who did that?

Mom: Auden, I think you need a new diaper. You're stinky!
Auden: Daddy did it.

Apparently, Auden is a child prodigy when it comes to blaming others for stinkiness. Well played, my son.

What a lot of time has passed since the last post! We've been to the apple orchard, which was quite different now that both boys are completely hands-off mobile now. Showing no fear, Auden climbed up the steps to the big tunnel slide and went down all by himself. And this year the mazes were particularly attractive to both boys. While Logan made his way through the wire-fence maze, Auden made the most of his diminutive height and crawled under the fencing, which was elevated about 1 foot off the ground, thereby bypassing the challenge for him and the boredom for us, since we didn't have to wait until he made it to the exit the right way. Thank goodness Grammy Renee and Papa George were there for backup because once the boys hit the hay bale maze, all bets were off. Two kids entering a tunnel/maze + four possible maze exits that empty said kids into a crowded play yard= anxiety-ridden mother. Thank goodness we all made it out alive--even after spending some time at the petting zoo...and subsequently de-germing our hands.

After visiting the orchard, we thought the only sensible thing to do was decorate for Halloween, which Logan is super excited about. I found out after unpacking our decorations, however, that we need more stuff. Guess what we'll be doing on the Saturdays leading up to Halloween!? Craft projects, kids!

Oh, and I promised a picture with Auden's new hair, so here it is. This is how excited we are about Halloween.

Speaking of craft projects, Logan's been doing lots of those at school these days. Every day he brings home a necklace that's been strung with pony beads, straw pieces, and pipe cleaners wound in tiny spirals. I think his fine motor skills should be fine tuned by mid year...or maybe sooner, because he's actually writing his name pretty well on his own now.

Haircut

This weekend was a rather eventful one. Eric's coaching cross country, so he's gone until early evening through the week and all day on Saturdays. I spent most of Saturday doing what I usually do on Saturdays: Doing housework. But this time I had games to get ready for our Sunday school kick off as well. It didn't make for a happy Carly situation.

I seriously need to find a way to change my habits so that I don't get so crabby. Between wrangling the boys and trying to catch up with the household chores solo, my mood usually goes south. Maybe this weekend, I'll just take all of the junk that's littering the house and all the dirty clothes, make a nice pile in our patio fireplace, and torch it all. We could make s'mores. That would surely improve my mood--enjoying a delicious treat while tidying up a bit.

Anyway, the games were a success on Sunday, and we stopped by Kite Fest afterward. It was perfect weather--the breeziest we've seen the fest, so all of the huge kites were out. Logan flew his dragon kite solo again this year and had fun...until it wasn't fun anymore. Auden was enjoying his new cropped cut...oh, yes. Eric decided to cut Auden's long hair, which I really loved...with clippers. It was horrible. His bangs, cut horribly short, straight across, made him look like Jim Carrey's character in Dumb and Dumber, and his hair was still long in the back, which looked startlingly similar to a mullet. I had to do something. So I took him to the Hair Cuttery. The woman who cut his hair was politely tight-lipped about his hair until I explained the situation: Daddy decided to cut his hair. "Don't worry, hun. I'm just going to start with a 3 and fade it toward the top. It will be finger-length, but it will look fine again." And it does, look fine, that is. He just doesn't look like my little boy anymore. How can a haircut make a kid look like he's grown a foot and put on a few pounds? Anyway, I'll post a picture soon. Mom, you won't recognize him this weekend. Be prepared! :)

Frogs and Friends

We went to the lake house today with our neighbors. It was a beautiful breezy day and the boys had so much fun playing and swimming with their friends. Nate, the dad component of our neighbors, and Eric drove crazily around a crowded lake on the wave runner.

There is either the dumbest or bravest of bullfrogs who likes to hang out at the dock, and Eric once again caught him in the net for the kids to see. He even let Zion, Logan, and Joylin hold him this time. Wish I had some pictures, but alas, I forgot the camera. Another image I wish I could share is all of the kids lined up on the back of the pontoon boat, legs stretched out and toes dangling over the seat. I wondered if years from now I'd be able to look at the picture and pick out Logan and Auden's heads from the crowd. (Our neighbors have four kids, so it was a bit of a crowd today.)

Since I'm dealing with some sort of yucky cold/flu virus (oh, my aching and stuffy head, my sore throat, oh, the chills...), we decided to take off after dinner time. But we prolonged the trip enough to make a roadside stop and pet and fed some horses. Logan wants one. So does Auden....and Eric. Of course.

We hope you're enjoying your Labor Day!

Nail

The fingernail is off, folks...gross...

Owwees

Yesterday was officially my last day of freedom. I started back to school today, and in preparation for the coming school year, I went a little crazy trying to cram all of the little tasks I "needed" to do into one day. I think on some level my frantic scurrying around is my way of avoiding the onset of a big change in our schedules. I also think it's a way for me to deal with mommy guilt. I'm leaving my kids in the hands of other people for most of the day, but, damn it, they're going to know I love them because they'll have all the stuff they need, along with a meticulously prepared lunch! (Ok, so maybe it's not so meticulous.) But I seriously hate the fact that Auden would be back in daycare today (even though his sitter is great) and that Logan would be in preschool for the whole day.

After doing a few loads of laundry, I decided Logan (not to mention Eric) needed a couple more pairs of shorts, so we went off to Kohl's just before dinner. The boys were a bit wild and instead of watching the boys dancing around in the checkout line, Eric took them into the breezeway by the doors, I guess so they could potentially knock over shoppers entering the store. Anyway, just as I was making my way to the doors myself with all of our new duds, I see Auden screaming his little head off. Apparently, Logan had opened the door a couple of times and let it fall back. Auden decided to reach up just as it was closing, and the door instead closed on his tiny pointer finger. It looked pretty awful, and I was about to cry, telling Eric we needed to go to the hospital. My rational side was thinking, "It's his fingertip. What are they going to do if it's broken anyway?" My hysterical mommy side was thinking, "But what if his finger is crushed?! I just want some assurance that his finger is not going to fall off."

We ended up going home since he calmed down pretty quickly in the car, and we tried to put some ice on it. I knew he would be OK when instead of crying, he said he wanted to go outside and play with Jackson and Mimi. It looks better today, but his fingernail may well fall off. As if that weren't enough trauma for him, one of his little daycare buddies bit him twice today. I sure hope tomorrow's an easier day for him.

When I asked Logan how his first day of full-day preschool was, he said "it was really confusing." As for his lunch, he somehow misplaced his sandwich, so he ate a bag of grapes, some goldfish, and a yogurt  today. The woman who runs the preschool asked, "Did you pack Logan's sandwich in a blue plastic box?" Yes, I had. They found the box and sandwich somewhere on a lunch table and asked all of the children if it was theirs. Logan, apparently, denied it was his, even though they were pretty sure it was his. He was adamant. It was not his sandwich. So he went without until the end of the day when I explained that, yes, it was his sandwich. "I wondered why my lunch was so small," Logan said with a chuckle. Then he devoured his sandwich in the car on the way home. Thankfully, the preschool teacher had put the sandwich in the refrigerator for the day. Best laid plans, right?

I want a Kindle

Logan still hasn't learned to print his name. He can recognize his letters but just has no interest in doing anything with them. So tonight I told him we should challenge (aka bribe) him: "When you learn to write your name, maybe we'll get you a special prize."
"Like what?"
"Well, maybe a small set of Legos or something."
"But I already have Legos." (Thanks for spoiling him and taking away all of our bribery options, mom.)
"Ok, so we could go to the store and see what you might like."
"I just really want a Kindle."

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, my little angelic barbarian, my hilarious, sweet, snuggly, bright, cake-eating, crazy-coordinated, destructive, mess-making, parroting daredevil. I can't believe you're two! We love you to pieces!

What happens when I'm reading a good book...

My son transforms himself into an eyeglass-wearing zebra.

Grasshoppa

Here are some pictures of Logan's springy pal. The little critter was really docile since we fished him out of the wading pool. He gave us just enough time for an up-close investigation before his wings had dried out and he took off. Logan was fascinated

. Auden wasn't so sure about it.

Tomato Safari

I think we may have planted the tomatoes a little too close together again this year.

This post is for you, Grandma Kop. I'm a little embarrassed to post the pictures because I know how meticulous of a gardener you've always been, but they're just too funny not to post. I've realized this year that picking tomatoes can be truly enjoyable when there are no mosquitoes out. And I can't say how glad I am for that, as I now have to literally climb and crawl through our tomato plants to find the ripe ones.

The plants may look a mess, but they're proving to be pretty productive. The group of tomatoes in the picture is from just one evening's picking. I'll be sure to send some home with mom and dad for you this weekend, Grandma!

Prepositions Matter

Since our flooring project is still in progress, tonight we ate at a Mexican place--quesadillas for the boys--when Auden was making an especially boisterous request for more soda. Our convo went like this:
"You have to eat that piece of your quesadilla before you can have another sip."
Auden takes one bite and reaches for the soda.
"No, this whole piece has to be eaten. You have to put it in your belly."
You know what he does...He lifts up his shirt, places the piece of the quesadilla on his belly, smiles, and makes for the soda again.
We are laughing too hard to keep the soda away from him.

Not yet two, going on...

Auden has always been a funny kid. When Logan is whining or crying about something, Auden mocks him by puckering up his face and making this funny high-pitched "wha, wha." He likes to rub anything gooey in his hair. He'll have blank paper in front of him but prefers to draw all over himself. Funny stuff.

But these days, he's showing some spunk.

Tonight we had pizza because we couldn't use our kitchen since Eric is tiling the floor. So, of course I want a Pepsi with my pizza, but I gave the kids water because I don't want them all hopped up on caffeine and I had just caught them sneaking Swedish Fish that were meant for Auden's birthday party. By the time I had finished dinner, I still hadn't drunk all of my soda, and I was picking up, shuttling things into the kitchen, when I came back to the table to see Auden stretched over the table, craning his neck to sip my soda after I had told him he couldn't have it. So, I gave him a time out. As I'm sitting him in the corner, he reaches up to hug me: "I wuv you, momma. I wuv you, momma." I managed to keep a straight face, but the laugh was still breaking in my voice.

Eric was putting him to bed tonight, and he walked out of his room four or five times. Annoyed, Eric was pretty stern with him. Auden's face crumpled; he started to cry. Then he whimpered "Fine!" and went to bed.

Morning!

Auden has officially moved up in the world of bed ownership. We've converted his crib into a toddler bed. It's amazing we've held on to the pieces all this time, since we never used the convertible aspect of the crib with Logan. He went directly to a twin bed to make way for baby brother. We were inspired to convert (the crib, that is) last week after Auden opened his own door, walked out, and said, "Morning!"

I'm sure he could have stayed in the crib for a while longer, but having just talked to my neighbor, whose granddaughter had recently broken her arm after attempting to crawl out of her crib and is now sporting a nifty elbow-to-shoulder cast, I was a little paranoid. But converting the bed just wasn't enough furniture change--I also shuffled around the arrangement of his dresser and chair, since he was using the chair to climb up on his dresser, where I used to store the chest balm and petroleum jelly, which he has been known to smear liberally into his hair. I feel like my life revolves around concocting plans to circumvent injuries or yuckiness. By the way, if you ever need to remove petroleum jelly from anyone's hair, don't wash the hair, but rub baking soda into it, then brush it out. Thanks, Internet, for that pearl of wisdom.

It's been a strange and sweltering summer...Auden's become a parrot, repeating everything back to you...Yes, even the things you don't want him to repeat. I kept hearing "God darn it!" repeated back to me several times this morning on the way to taking Logan to preschool. I'm really thankful that's all that came out of my mouth after the morning we had.

Oh yeah, so Logan's just started preschool. How crazy is that?! And he's discussing the news with us. In terms of difficult "milestone conversations," I think talking to him about the birds and the bees will pale in comparison with talking to him about a mass shooting. "But why did he do it?" "Well, that's really what we'd all like to understand and probably never will." I was worried about upsetting him with the news of what happened in Colorado--actually, he summarized the news story we had heard earlier that evening while listening to NPR in the car. But once he knew he wasn't going to get a good answer about why this guy did this horrible thing, he just kind of dropped it. I guess I wish that were my reaction, too.

A Trip to Remember

Well, summer is nearly to that point where it goes into hyper-speed. We've just returned from our family vacation, and I think it's time for another rambling post to record all of those wonderful and (more frequently) humiliating moments.

Eric and I took a weekend trip to New York at the beginning of the month and had a great time. We saw Philip Seymour Hoffman play Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman--he was fantastic, as was the rest of the cast. And we had a long night out at the W hotel with Alex, Eric's friend from college.

When we got back we had some time to work in our garden, play with the neighborhood kids, and pack up for our next trip, the Hill family vacation. We spent a couple nights with my family on the way to Gatlinburg, where we stayed in a huge three-story vacation house in the Smoky Mountains. Some highlights were the hikes we went on. We saw three different waterfalls; Auden splashed around naked in a freezing stream; we saw tons of salamanders, even three different varieties of them. Logan rode his first go-cart solo in Pigeon Forge. He was a surprisingly cautious driver, even when the ride attendant tried to mix things up by racing him. Auden's two-year molars are coming in, so he's been rather moody and hasn't slept well; fortunately, we had a king-size bed where all four of us slept for a couple of nights.

It was fun to see that our kids and Jackie's Isabel are starting to play together really well. When we asked Logan what his favorite part of the trip was, he said, "Playing with Isabel."

We just hadn't had enough vacation yet, though, so we saddled up and headed to Cavern City, KY, to see Mammoth Caves. Boy, was that a mammoth surprise. We went on a two-hour evening tour. It was an easy walk, but Auden was in a full-on screech mode and Logan was whining about being tired and his belly hurting. Eric and I carried the boys the whole way, and we held our breaths and tried to appease screeching Auden with suckers when the tour guide, who really liked to hear himself talk, gave his spiel about the history of the caverns. We hung back at the back of the group with the back-up tour guide and asked if we could turn around. Things really weren't working out. Besides, the head tour guide had said Giant's coffin was the last place we could turn back. "No," said the back-up guide. "We're a little more than halfway through. Sorry." Great.

On we went, trudging our children along down a dark, damp stairway when Logan starts to complain that he thinks he feels sick. Great. We're in a cave, for chrissake. But at the foot of the staircase were rows of benches, a more formal location for the chatty tour guide to do his thing. Everyone was seated, waiting for him to begin, and here's Logan, feeling sick. Back-up tour guide raced with Eric to a trash can, which was tantalizingly close, just past the stage area. But, alas, they were too late. With about 20 feet to go, Logan threw up right in front of our seated tour group. There's nothing like hearing your kid's vomit splatter on a cave floor, then an awkward silence, then hearing chatty tour guide at a complete loss for words finally say, "Well, that was...Uh, let's just move along to the next site."

I've been toying around with six-word memoirs lately. I have a new one to add to my collection: My kid befouled a national park.

Logan felt great after the whole getting sick in fantastic fashion, and we made it out of there alive. The next day we stayed in a really nice cabin in Shawnee National Park in Southern Illinois. We swam in the lake there and went for a nice hike, again lugging both children along. Saw a turtle and two lizards skittering around. We were supposed to stay a second night and then stop back at my folks' but what with Logan's belly still in an uproar and Auden and us tired and cranky, we decided to head for home a little early.

The boys were great on the car ride back. They even stayed awake to see their kitties and could hardly settle down for sleep. Our garden exploded and the weeds had started to claim more territory, just as they do when we leave for vacation every year. What with it being so dry, though, we were thankful our neighbors had watered for us so that we didn't come back to crispy plants. In fact, I pulled a quarter of a gallon bag's worth of sugar snap peas (our first harvest of those this year--the rabbits have always eaten them to the ground every year before) and a couple meals worth of green beans, as well as some broccoli. Logan even ate the peas, and Auden was eating them as fast as I could pick them. "Nummy Nummy!" he said, shaking his head with a smile. I love summer.

Talkin' Auden

Auden is in that fun parroting stage, where he can repeat back just about anything you throw at him. It's fun, but sometimes causes some confusion because when you ask him a question, he spits back a version of what you asked him, which is not very helpful at all in ascertaining what he wants. He's excellent at saying "sorry," but then again he has had lots of practice with that word. Being a rough kid, he tends to jump on your gut when you're relaxing in a reclined position or he smashed his head into your face when he's trying to snuggle up. Any time you say "Ow!" he immediately follows up your exclamation of pain with "dahwy," Audenese for "sorry."

He's also taken over Logan's old trike and pushes it along with ease. He even pushed the pedals a bit by himself yesterday. It's amazing how fast he's growing.

Zombie Island

For some reason, the flags were flying again at a local park today. Memorial Day was the last time we saw them, and with that came the discussion about remembering soldiers who died serving our country, describing what happens in war and explaining it's a terrible thing. So of course Logan now associates the flag only with soldiers dying. "Well, yes, we fly the flags to honor soldiers who died, but the flag also stands for our country and the good things our country represents, like being free to do and say what we want without getting in trouble for it...usually."
The conversation then spiraled to where we live--our city, then our state, then our country, then the world, and I asked him, "Do you remember any other countries or continents in our world?"
He replied, "I know Zombie Island."

Ahhh, summer break is tantalizingly close...Today the boys and our neighbor's little girl spent some time playing in the sprinkler. What a blissfully simple time...the squealing, the laughter...

After they dried off, we helped daddy in the garden. Weeding, setting up our irrigation hoses. The boys played in the sandbox only moments until Auden launched a few handfuls of sand into big brother's face. So, he was relegated to the yard. Of course, he wandered into the garden to sit between one of the rows of plants. The next time I looked up to see what he was into, I saw he was eating clods of dirt just as happily as though they were chocolate cookies. Now I have to look up the likelihood of his contracting a tapeworm or something of that ilk.

Snoring toy

I've been trying to liquidate the ridiculous amount of toys we have accumulated the past four years. After Logan turned four this month, it seemed especially urgent that I do this, so I thought I would collect and bag up the toys that were seldom used. The boys would never notice, right? I had grand visions of making a killing by having a yard sale early this summer.

Of course, Logan broke into the storage last week and emptied all of my work onto the basement floor. "These toys are great!" he says. Ah, the novelty of it all...Days later I managed to pack up the toys again. Two toys make annoying noises; amazingly, their batteries haven't run down and I see no way to shut them off. If you hit them a certain way, one of them makes a snoring noise, one sounds like a dump truck. My parents are visiting this weekend, and I could see they were a little concerned with the piles of things that have accumulated in our laundry room. Among the accumulated piles are the toys...and, of course, the perpetual piles of, duh, laundry that always has to be done. Anyway, my mom and I were talking in the laundry room where I had left the toys, and the snoring toy kept going off. We asked Logan which toy made the snoring noise. "That's Papa George!" he said. Pretty funny.

And the question remains, should I have a yard sale, or should I just stop kidding myself, take those bags of toys to Goodwill and be done with it!?

Go, Karate Kid! And other miscellaneous updates...

Last week the boys and I went to visit one of my college roommates and her little girl. Claudia, my friend's daughter, is three months older than Auden, but as an only child and a particularly petite one at that, she is still a little hesitant to navigate new territories. The new territory in her living room was a toddler slide. It was maybe three-feet tall, had a little platform at the top of the stairs. Of course, the boys were all over it after we had had our dinner. Both of them climbed up onto the platform and Auden, sitting at the top of the slide, allowed Logan to go by just so he could push him down the slide. The two were cackling like a couple of maniacs. It was just a matter of time for Claudia to get in on the action, really. My friend was complaining that she always has to pick Claudia up, place her on the slide, and help her down. "Just give her time," I said. "I think the boys will show her how it's done." Lo and behold, she made her first trip up the ladder and down the slide on her own. She clapped her hands and said, "Yay!" So we all cheered along with her. "Yay, Claudia!" But for Logan, it became, "Yay, Karate Kid!"

Since I'm making a post and I have several things to update, I'll just start with another story from three weeks ago. Eric signed up to do the Warrior Dash in Lake Geneva, WI. We hopped in the car to stay in a nice hotel with a fantastic water park that was adjacent to the resort where we stayed. When Logan saw the massive waterpalooza, he was a little at a loss for words. He just kept saying, "Oh my gosh!" There was a splash park, complete with three slides and kiddie swings; a lazy river; two huge water slides; an indoor-outdoor hot tub; a 5' pool with an obstacle course, slide, and basketball hoops. All in all, it was pretty cool. Logan and Auden both enjoyed the splash park, though it was a little cold, but he had a blast going down the big water slide. He could go down it if we used these two-seater tubes. Before we launched ourselves down the slide, I was thinking it would be a fairly tame ride, but tame it was not. We were hurtling through the twisting, dark tunnels at mock speed, while Logan, who had already gone twice with Daddy, was squealing and giggling like a little girl. As soon as we splashed into the pool, Logan turned and said, "Let's go again!" I can see swim lessons are going to be a necessity this year, as Logan almost leapt into the deep pool without his floaty belt. I think he's getting a little over-confident around the water. Hopefully this year, he'll learn to swim more independently.

Auden loved the water, too. We took him down the kiddy slides, which he loved, and he had fun splashing around. We also took him down the lazy river, which was a nice, relaxing trip. We were thinking the pool time would wear the boys out and they would sleep like babies...Unfortunately, that's not how it worked out. Both of them woke several times through the night and I was a little crabby the next day, not really in the best of spirits to lug the boys through the Warrior course.

Eric trudged through fake snow, mud, water, and more mud to complete his race. Of course, he didn't train all that much but still finished the race looking like he had just taken a jog--a wet, muddy jog--around the block. Eric's parents were with me--thank goodness! And helped wrangle the boys. They both did well at first, but then they tuckered out and became little beasties. Auden started screaming and flailing each time I tried to pick him up. We ended up at the bounce gym and slide, which made their time at the race (and mine) much more enjoyable.

The next week was Logan's birthday at our house. All of Eric's family, my parents and brothers, and some friends from the block were in attendance. Fortunately, the weather was nice so we could spill out some of the crowd into our backyard. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids, which was pretty successful. I think I'll make a tradition of that--I'm not that inspired to come up with party games, but an egg hunt is a relatively hassle-free way to entertain the little ones...aside from stuffing the eggs. Thanks, mom, for helping! And thanks, Sue and Jackie, for bringing some! Logan was so intent on finding an egg by our pine tree that he smacked his forehead into the trunk. Auden did really well for himself. He actually found several without too much help, and he didn't look to see what was inside them, so he maintained his focus. That is, until he happened upon a jellybean-filled one that popped open. Then it was time to open the eggs rather than find more.

We went to church the next day and had mom, dad, and Greggie over for some fruit and quiche. And that was our Easter!

Just one final story I didn't witness first-had, but Dawn shared it with me, and I thought it was cute, so here it is: Logan was anxiously waiting for Kaleb to get to Dawn's the other day. Dawn kept telling him to be patient and assured him that "Kaleb will be here any minute." Logan looked at her, sighed in frustration and threw up his hands, saying, "But I just don't know which minute that will be!" Ha.

Happy birthday, Logan!

You seemed so fragile when you were my teeny tiny baby four years ago. Now you're my super hero cheetah who flies down the sidewalk as fast as a...well, as fast as a cheetah. You're curious and opinionated, caring and hilarious. I'm so very proud of you and thankful you're ours. Happy birthday.

Auden's Food Choices

Auden ate a sock raisin (that being a raisin affixed to the bottom of his sock). Thought the blog should know.

Too cute not to post

Swingin' Free!

Today we went to the park to enjoy the gorgeous weather we've been having. It was the usual--the boys romped around, climbed on the equipment, slid down the slides. Usually, the swings are a rather painful experience. Logan especially loves them, but once he's on the swing, there's no getting him off of it...and there you are, pushing him on the swing until your arm goes numb. Last year we tried teaching him to pump his legs and keep himself going. He pumped his legs alright, but he didn't get very much momentum going because we neglected to teach him about the leaning that's involved too. It's funny how you forget the nuances of little things like swinging on a swing set when you're an old fogey. Anyway, today he actually mastered the leaning and the leg pumping to keep himself going successfully. We're officially free of pushing one of our kiddos on the swing! Yahoo!

Auden is still our perpetually happy boy. The nice weather is wearing him out, which is great because the 3-4:00 AM wake-ups have gone by the wayside. He scoots along happily outside, (except when he wipes out and skins his knees) kicking soccer balls and throwing playground balls in the air. When he falls, he lets out this throaty "Ahww" or Whoa." When he comes inside, he shoves food in his face and cuddles with his "beedy."

His favorite words of the week are "outside," "inside," "door," "water," and tonight, he gleefully sang out "pizza!" since we made it a Sunday night pizza dinner again. He's becoming so independent--I can't believe how quickly he's growing, how loving he is, how wonderful his big brother is. I love, love, love my boys!

Tall as...

So a couple of weekends ago I was looking on amazon for growth charts for the boys, and I found one that exceeded my expectations. It's listed in centimeters, which is kind of annoying, but every 5 cms or so lists a new "You're as tall as..." statement. For example, Auden is 80 cm, as tall as a gremlin. Logan is 103 cm, as tall as a cheetah. Both, I find, are fitting descriptions for the boys, and, coincidentally, Logan's favorite animal is the cheetah these days. He has been playing a game of his own design (ok, he stole it from the cats), "flashlight cheetah," which involves one of us rolling a flashlight beam around the floor, while he growls like a cheetah, smacking at the circle of light. Now, I'm not sure how or when they measured a gremlin, but it's amusing nonetheless.

Did you know a Dodo bird was 100 cm tall? I had always pictured them as being about the same size of a chicken. No wonder they hunted them to extinction. Imagine the drumsticks on those birds!

I'm as tall (or long?) as the world's longest mustache, 172 cm. Eric, at 186 cm, is as tall as a Yeti. So, how tall are you?

Photo update

By popular request...Here are some photos of the boys. Shamrock specs make them look like mini Elton Johns.

Beedy!

So, you all know how Logan used to call his blanky "Beedon." Auden has similarly become attached to his special blanket, and last night as I was putting him down to sleep, he started to fuss and thrash around. "Beedy!" He whined, and as soon as I gave him his blanky, he was fine. He folded his little hands behind his head, like he always does when he's going off to sleep, sighed a pleasant "Beedy!" and settled down for the night.

We're noticing a rush of words starting to erupt from Auden lately. It's a welcome sound! According to Grammy Sue, he said "rock star" the other day, which is probably the coolest verbal outburst, but the more consistent ones are "birds," "water," "stinky," hello," "bye-bye." He counts off, "one, two, three...go!" and says "no" with a dramatic head shake whenever he can. He still calls Eric "Mommy," which is funny. When we correct him, he just smiles, points to Eric, and says "Mommy" again, like he's just doing it for the sake of defying us. It's become a little inside joke. He's doing these funny little dances, too. Picture the haka ...maybe that's too aggressive...ok, a sumo stance--that's pretty much it.

Tomorrow Logan will embark on his first show-and-tell speech. This little assignment brought to mind how funny my young child's mind is. His teacher asked him to bring one or two toys, etc., that are really special to him and be prepared to say a little something about them. On the way home, I asked him what he was planning to bring: A Superman figure given to him by his Uncle Jim and Aunt Karen and a monster truck given to him by Papa George. I guess it's pretty remarkable that he can remember who gave him these toys, since he and Auden have a ridiculous amount of toys, but I was wondering what made them so special. He goes through phases, and those two toys are certainly hot items lately.
"Because they are special, so special," he said, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yes, but why do you like them so much?"
"I just do."
"Do you think of the people who gave you those toys when you play with them?"
"Yeah." That's it. Nothing complicated. He just really likes those toys because they're cool--duh, mom--and he likes the people who gave the toys to him.

Logan says

Logan was pulling his blankie across the living room floor, and Auden hopped on. For a few seconds, he rode the blanket standing up. "Hey," Logan said, "it looks like Auden's walking on the water, just like Jesus!"

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Auden got his first nosebleed today, in a very boyish fashion. I was making dinner; Eric was in our bedroom, where the boys were playing on our bed. Eric left to fill up the humidifier, and whamo, the boys collided, Logan's head into Auden's face. When I came into the room, both boys were crying, and Auden had a bloody snot bubble ballooning out of his left nostril. The bleeding stopped quickly, but I have to admit, I did wonder if I'd have a toddler version of John Kerry on my hands for a second there. Later, Auden was eating some yogurt--his favorite method of eating it is by taking the little tub, clamping it in the middle, and drinking it. Mainly, he ends up with a nice coating of yogurt all over his nose and mouth. Tonight, he had a little added color to his yogurt face, as his nose had started leaking again. Yuck. But still funny.

New 'do

I cut off my hair! For years I've been wanting short hair, but have never had the guts. Well, I figured since my hair was so long, I had the added bonus of being able to donate it. It was kind of funny to read what they wouldn't take for donations: No gray hair, no bleached hair, no dreadlocks. I get the dreadlocks requirement, but it made me chuckle nonetheless.
I came home from the salon last night, Logan took one look at me, his jaw dropped, and he said, "You're not my mommy, you're Grammy Renee!"

Photo ops

I realize I haven't posted any pics in a while, so here are a few that serve to recap our holiday.