Empty Threats, Witty Comebacks

I remember as a kid really being against the idea of learning to ride my bike. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my dad first tried teaching me to ride said bike by pushing me down the hill in our backyard. At any rate, my family worked pretty diligently one summer to coerce me into riding my bike, especially since my younger brother was confident on two wheels well before I was. "We're going to take our bikes to Belk Park, and you'll be stuck at home alone," threatened my dad.
"I don't care," I recall saying. "I can run fast. I'll just run along with you."

It's funny how these childhood recollections are regurgitated through the mouths of my own young ones. Tonight, Auden made a huge mess while I was reading The Hobbit to Logan. Threw playing cards all over the floor. "Now you have to clean them up," I said.
"No," he whined. "There's too many."
"If you don't pick them up, then you have to stay home alone while Logan and I go to Chicago." (My Wise-Enough-to-Know-Better Mom self knows making empty threats is the wrong way to go, but my Lazy Mom self sometimes gets the upper hand.)
"No, I'll just drive your car."
"You don't know how to drive. Besides, we'll be taking my car...to Chicago...where you won't go if you don't pick up those cards."
"That's Ok. I will run."
Ha.

He's learning...

Auden's learning the classic chicken butt rhyme... Here's how it goes, according to him:

Guess who? 

Chicken butt.

Summer is off to a wonderful start...and it's not even officially here yet.

Logan's almost riding his two-wheeler by himself.

We camped out in the back yard...and didn't cheat by going inside to sleep around midnight like we did last year!

We made s'mores...damp firewood be damned!

We put in a lovely flower garden in the back.

We found the first lightning bug of the season.

We've harvested and cooked kale and broccoli from our garden.

In general, we're loving life!

Two-wheelin'

By the way, Logan's learning to ride his bike, sans training wheels. He does really well until the neighbors cheer him on and he jerks his head in their direction, along with the handlebars...
We're hoping that before summer is out, he'll be going solo. At least, I think that's what we're hoping...

To Boston, to Boston...

So summer vacation has begun! My school let out a full week before Eric's, so the boys and I decided to take a road trip to Grammy Renee's for Memorial Day weekend. The weather was sunny, the family time was lovely. The boys got to play with a marble chute set that used to be my brother's--great fun to build and to watch. The red-throated hummingbirds were at the feeders. Grammy and Papa read oodles of books to the boys and bought them new jammies. They were supermen. with capes. Greggie helped assemble Lego creations. Great-Grandma and pa Kop dished out their own thawed and sugared blueberries, which the boys devoured in seconds. Great-Grammy O. had everyone over for a barbecue. Aunt Marlene doled out goody bags and called out the numbers for BINGO with Auden. Nick and Laura showed their competitive nature. Uncle Rod teased. Tyler showed off his mad poi skills.

When we returned, Eric had brought home a turtle and bull frog to live in our pond. Both have taken their own road trips by now. He had also been hard at work building some cabinets in our kitchen...He's a Gemini; that's all I can say about that.

So now, we're gearing up for our summer trips, starting on projects we've put off during the school year. I've been doing some research on our destinations: Boston, Concord, Amherst, Salem. We also need to reassemble our basement, which is still a partially carpeted disaster after the 48-hour rainfall we had last month. And the boys' room will be repainted soon...once we've decided on a color. What do you choose when you're splitting the room--one side Batman; one side Spiderman?

Today we went to Hadley's graduation party. The boys had a blast with the trucks Karen picked up for them, and they had a blast with Hadley, Paul, and Paul's girlfriend. We reminisced about how the family has changed. It was years ago at Christmas when the now-graduates and college students performed a play they had written themselves, as well as some musical numbers. I suppose our boys will have to carry the torch :)

Tomorrow, what will it be? The zoo? We shall see!

Funny story: Logan weighed himself at Grammy O's.
"Mom, what's 4 and 0?"
"That's forty," I replied.
"I wonder what my belly weighs...What's 2 and 0?" (I'm not sure how accurate Grammy's scale actually is.)
"Well, 4 and 0 is forty, so what could 2 and 0 be?"
"Hmm, that must be twoty."
Hahahaha.

Easter

It was a cold Easter this year, but a fun one nonetheless. Thanks, Auntie Jackie, for having us over! Here are some photos from the weekend:

Happy birthday, Logan!

How have you grown so quickly!? I love your curious mind and sensitive heart. I hope you keep both traits with you your whole life long. Your friends and family, near and far, helped make your birthday special.

We had an early birthday with mom's family, after braving a blizzard on the way there and staying over in a hotel. Good thing there was a swimming pool! Then you shared cupcakes with your friends at school. You wished for a scooter...and got one that evening at Chuck E Cheese's! Such a crazy, fun time you had with Jeff flying around the play tunnels and video games. Then we spent some special time with Grammy, Papa, and Uncle Greggie.

Happy birthday!

We love you, love you, love you!

Proud Moments

Logan's pretty excited about turning five. The birthday party, the cake, the friends and family, the presents, adding another digit to his age. He's been bombarding me with questions about his age in relation to his brother's, as though he's making sure that he will always be the older brother...."So, when I'm seven, how old will Auden be?" I gave him the first five answers or so, but now he's on his own. Working on the math skills... :)

Anyway, I've been a little stuck when relatives are asking what to get him for his birthday. He's really excited to get clothes this year. (Is he five, going on 60?!) "Long-sleeved shirts" (he really means short-sleeved shirts) and shorts are on the list. As for toys, he's non-committal. We stopped by Grammy Sue's yesterday for a short visit, and she asked what he wanted for his birthday. His reply? "Eh, I get what I get and I don't throw a fit." You know, he can be pretty sweet sometimes.

As for Auden, we've ventured out to some stores, church, and to a friends' house for a play date, and he's acting like he's solidly potty trained now. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm starting to feel relatively confident that I've bought our last box of diapers. Ever.

And tonight the boys were listening and singing along to Logan's preschool songs--his Jolly Phonics (Some British songs--get the pun?--that take them through the alphabet), days of the week, the colors and the months in Spanish, etc. We sat down to read some stories. Logan wants to sit, not by me, but by his brother. "I love you, Auden. You're my best buddy" "I wuv you, too, Yogan." It's moments like these that bring me sanity and melt my heart.

Fun in the snow

Well, we didn't get as much snowfall as we had anticipated, but we've been making the most of it...

Happily over the new year...and then some

I read my last--very brief--post and realized that we survived the holidays, and happily, and have embarked on this new year without comment. Record for posterity I must (and for the few family members and friends who check in now and then), so here I go!

Christmas, as most things in life, did not go quite as planned. We were supposed to spend Christmas Eve with Eric's side of the family, but the day before Christmas Eve, we ended up taking Auden to the ER just to check on this nasty cough and slight fever he had been dealing with for roughly a week. It turns out he had RSV, a nasty cold virus that can cause pneumonia, especially in kids under two and people with fragile immune systems. So, we decided to contain our germs and stay home. It was quiet and a little strange, but we fixed up a dinner of crab legs (for Eric) and pasta with browned butter and mizithra cheese for me and the boys. We had stopped by Eric's parents' to swap gifts, so the boys opened a crazy amount of presents, and they went to bed at a relatively reasonable hour.

The next morning, we woke up, opened gifts from Santa, which included an indoor trampoline for Auden and a Beyblade set for Logan, and we headed down to my parents' for Christmas Day. Always good to see the fam! My cousin Tyler was on leave, and he was finally able to meet Auden and see a walking, talking Logan. If anything, the holidays remind you how fleeting time truly is. My cousins used to beat me up mercilessly. This year, they just shot Nerf discs at my husband...and, in turn, my children attacked them. Ok, so maybe it's nice to know that we really aren't so grown up after all.

The rest of our break was remarkably productive. As we fought off the cold that Auden so generously passed to the three of us, I did most of those projects that I half-heartedly put on a to-do list to accomplish during break, the ones that never actually get done. Well, this year, they got done! I cleaned out our storage room, donated three bags of toys, organized the boys' room and the new office, organized the pantry and got rid of all the stuff that had expired in '08 or something. Wow. Not that I typed that out, I feel not productive but incredibly lame.

Eric and I had the neighbors and their kids over for an early new year's celebration. The kids played together really well, and we actually got some grown-up talks in. Not bad!

We had time for laziness and leisure. Eric and I saw two--count 'em--two movies in the theater (Les Miserables, The Hobbit--bother entertaining but entirely too long), and I got hooked on the BBC series Sherlock. I also made it through Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite, a so-so book that makes conjectures about the origins of various monster myths.

Auden started potty training full force. It's been weeks since I've changed a poopy diaper. It's so easy to forget how nice that fact is. Still a ways to go, but we're on the right track.

The only thing missing is my commitment to working out in any way whatsoever. But I'm finally at a point in my life when I'm feeling the effects. My legs and shoulders feel crampy in the evenings; my energy level feels rather low, and it's not just because I'm a mom. For the first time in my life, running just doesn't appeal to me. I'm thinking pilates. Maybe next month I'll see if there are any classes out there... :)

This past weekend was great--spent some time with Eric's side of the family. Always fun to see the boys play with their cousins and clown around for grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Hope all of you are well!

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...