Arrrrgh!

We went to a restaurant for lunch and before we left, the waiter made paper hats for the boys out of menus.

Merry Christmas!

An Early Celebration

We are traveling to see McMoose's family for Christmas, but we wanted to have a "Christmas" of our own before we left town. We have been so busy the past few months that it was wonderful to have an entire day to just be together and enjoy each other. And play with presents, of course! Here are some pictures from our day yesterday. I wish my phone allowed me to caption each photo, but unfortunately, that feature doesn't exist yet. I hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I have enjoyed mine!

Antics

Here's what Weston has been up to recently...relishing his meals by licking the plates and standing on windows!

Cheesy Math

While eating cheese sticks at lunch...

Luke: I turned my two cheese sticks into four!
Me: Cool! You had two and you divided them in halves to get four.
Luke: Yes. Now I subtracted two of them because I ate them.
Me: So you have two left?
Luke: Yes! And soon, I'm going to subtract these two and then, I'll have zero. Maybe you should get another cheese stick to add to my plate.

Lots To Say

Weston has been communicating a lot recently and I wanted to record some of what he's saying.  Of course, there's the usual "Mama," "Dada," stuff, but here are some of the newer things:

-Clop, clop, heeee: horse. How is his version easier than just saying horse??
-cheep, cheep: bird
-moo: cow
-roarrrr: any other animal/character with a face. There was a picture of a cupcake with a face and he roared at it today.
-Eww: I touched something gross, get it off me RIGHT NOW!!!
-wawa: I'm dying of thirst, woman, get me some water!
-wiwi: swing
-mimi: milk
-Jit: Luke. I have no idea how Luke turned into Jit, but Weston is very proud of himself every time he says it.

He's been putting words together, too...mostly involving "Jit." Jit shoes, Jit socks, bop Jit, that kind of thing. (Yes, he does gleefully announce his intentions to bop his brother.) Every time he comes up with a new word, McMoose, Luke, and I all get excited. This is such a fun stage...even though I know that once he starts talking more, he'll probably follow in his brother's footsteps and debate everything I say.

Letting Go

I had a good opportunity to practice letting go of some control this morning. I was folding laundry when Luke came up to me, watched for a moment, and then asked to fold his own. He has been doing this recently, so I said, "Sure, would you like me to remind you how to fold things?"

"No," he replied, "I have a better way...let me show you."

And so, he did it his way and I did my best not to jump in. End result: oddly folded laundry and a very satisfied three-year-old.

Luke says...

Luke was sick recently and although illness is never a fun thing, it can sometimes be a funny thing. We spent an entire day watching Sesame Street on YouTube (lesson learned from that day: episodes from the 70s and 80s are way more fun than current episodes.) That evening, I told him that it had been a special day and that we only spend all day watching TV if we're sick. The next morning, we had to have this conversation...

Me: are you feeling better today?
Luke: well...I'm a little better and a little bit sick.
Me: really? You sound much better.
Luke: I think I'm sick right now, so we should watch Sesame Street, but after we do that, I bet I'll be feeling better!

Later, he was trying to figure out just how he got sick I'm the first place. I tried to explain germs to him, but he didn't like my explanation. Instead, he countered with the following: "One day, when I was in India, I got an ouchy on my foot because it got a scratch. And then, all the germ-bugs came into my body through the ouchy. And they lived in my foot for a really long time and then, they came up to my nose and turned into boogies." (He doesn't remember our trip to India, but he references it whenever he's trying to win an argument.)

He wanted me to make a sentence using the word "sand" yesterday...

Me: The sand is in the sandbox.
Luke: That's not true. There's no sand in our sandbox yet.
Me: No, not in ours, but there's sand in other sandboxes...like at the park.
Luke: But you said THE sandbox, so that means ours. If you meant the park sandbox, you should have said A sandbox.
Me: I meant THE sandbox at THE park.
Luke: Listen, that's not how it works.

Halloween

I meant to do this about a month ago, but better late and all that jazz, so here are our Halloween pictures.

Luke was very interested in themed costumes this year. At first, he wanted our family to be the Billy Goats Gruff and a troll, but luckily, we were able to dissuade him from that plan. Apparently, McMoose wasn't thrilled about being a troll. So instead, the kids were Thing 1 and Thing 2, of The Cat in the Hat. McMoose and I traded off on being the Cat.

McMoose was crazy busy at work in October, so we made the most of the time we had and it was a very nice Halloween.

Pictures from October

We've had a lot of fun this month. The weather has been wonderful and we've enjoyed being outside as much as possible.

Dandelion fluff: not delicious

Oh, right, we're supposed to BLOW this stuff off, not eat it.

We went on a firestation tour and Luke got to sit in a police car...

AND a helicopter!

We have a new walking/biking trail behind our neighborhood, which we've been exploring.

Other Boy spent some time here and I was reminded of how much fun these boys have together. Here, they were making up stories using flannel boards.

We painted pumpkins...

...And ourselves.

We toured a local dairy farm, where Luke had his face painted as a cow and went on a hayride and watched chickens eating a snake. (Um. Did you know chickens ate snakes?)

The State Fair came to town and Luke really enjoyed this huge slide.

He and Other Boy got to go on some rides by themselves!

And of course, feeding goats is always fun.

They don't really look like they're two years apart, do they?

We went to an insect-themed tea party. My boys ate waaaay more than their fair share of snacks.

I took the kids to the zoo one Saturday. Here they are, being "unhatched birds," as Luke says.

Looking very chimp-ish at the zoo.

Such fun!

This is apparently Luke's favorite new outfit. He got so many compliments on the bow tie that he wore it again the next day...or two.

...Stay tuned for Halloween pictures!

Not Interested

Dear Solicitors,

No matter what you're selling, there's a pretty good chance that I'm not interested. With that being said, even if you're selling the Holy Grail itself, I will not buy it if...

-you ring my doorbell during naptime. Do you have any idea how much planning it takes to get these kids napping at the same time? So when I finally pull it off and am enjoying a few minutes to myself, DO NOT come wake them up with some asinine sales pitch about insect repellant.
-you ask to see my parents.
-you ask to see my employers. Because...really? REALLY? Get off my damn porch.
-you look at me skeptically when I tell you that I am, in fact, the homeowner.
-you forget the NAME of your product.
-you utter the phrase, "Well, I can't leave a card or a brochure because we really need a decision right now..."

So Much To Talk About

We've been hitting on some big concepts around here lately. There was the discovery of the basic principle of democracy:

Luke: Can we go gem-mining today?
Me: I wish we could, but no. It's too long of a drive.
Luke: I'm okay with a long drive.
Me: Yeah, but I'm not.
Luke, after briefly conferring with Weston: Well, I talked to Weston. He's okay with a long drive and I'm okay with a long drive. That's two of us. You're only one person, Mama.


And the discussion of gravity, which happened while looking at a book about astronauts:

Luke: How do astronauts fly?
Me: Well, on Earth, there's something called gravity that holds us down close to the ground. That's why when we jump up, we land back down on the ground. But in outer space, there's no gravity, so people and things can float around.
Luke: Well, can we get on a space ship and go to space and fly around someday?
Me: Right now, only astronauts can do that.
Luke: Well...we could build a space ship. Then it would be ours, it would belong to us, and we could do whatever we wanted.
Me: True. We'd have to figure out how to build one, though.
Luke: I think I saw a kit at Target. It had all the parts and you just have to put it together. It even has instructions! We should get it next time we're there.


And the concept of death, which came during a pretend game of doctor:

Luke, after listening with a paper stethoscope: You have no heartbeat.
Me: Oh, dear! All living people have heartbeats. If I had no heartbeat, I'd be dead.
Luke: Yes, you are dead. Just sit there with your eyes closed and don't talk. Don't worry, I'll fix it.
Me: You'll fix me being dead?
Luke: Yes. After I do all the things to you, you'll be alive again.
Me: You know, once something dies, it doesn't come back to life again.
Luke: Yes, but I know how to do it.
Me: Do tell! What's your secret?
Luke: First, you get a shot. Then, you get some sunscreen. Then, you get an x-ray and the x-ray makes you live again. Now stop talking and be dead.

Pictures from September

Waterfalls we hiked to when we were on vacation in the mountains

Proof that Weston was there on the hike. I tried to get a picture of both of us together, but apparently, my arm isn't long enough.

We looked through a bridge and I held my phone waaaay out over the water to get this shot. Risky, but I like it :)

Weston helping me unpack.

A friend and I took our kids to lunch at a restaurant with a ridiculously long wait for lunch. Luckily, they also had hammocks out front.

Oh, how I love these overalls!

Where's Weston?

There he is!

Engrossed in collecting acorns

Who knew a bucket and some acorns would entertain him for 30 minutes?

My camera does odd effects without my permission sometimes, but I like this one.

I loved the overalls so much, I had to get them matching pairs. Luke coordinated their outfits that day, down to the matching blue shirts. It made it really easy to keep track of them at the park...clearly, I should do this more often.

We went to a puppet show, where the people were the puppets.

Here are Luke and Other Boy, entranced by some kind of mask. They talked that poor frog's ears off.

Picking dandelions = current obsession. (Also: the reason we have a billion dandelion plants in our front yard. He keeps scattering the seeds and growing more!)

See the scrape under his eye? That was his first big ouchie. Didn't even phase him, but it sure looked pitiful.

He brought me these sunglasses so that I could put them on him, and then went and checked himself out in the mirror repeatedly.

And...this is what happens when he tries to put them back on himself.