Trip to Maryland--Part One

We spent the weekend visiting our friends Molly, Pato and Violeta in Silver Spring, MD. On Friday, we took the train into D.C. and went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Then we turned the kids loose on the National Mall. It was cold, but lots of fun.

With a very still giraffe at the museum.

The requisite Washington Monument pic.

Luke and Violeta liked the mini version. That's the White House in the background. Luke kept yelling "Hi Barack!"

Running towards the Lincoln Memorial (we actually didn't make it that far).

Catching our breath with Violeta and Molly at the WWII Memorial.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It was a beautiful day for goofing around outside! Not a cloud in the sky. I think the boys were outside most of the day until corned beef and cabbage time. They liked the corned beef, not so keen on the cabbage. Guess I'm the only one who actually eats the cabbage.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Yesterday was Dublin, OH's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. We had fairly nice weather. This is a great parade and rivals the Dogtown St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Louis, which we've gone to a few times. We love spending St. Patrick's Day in St. Louis with my cousins, but we are going to Washington, D.C. at the end of this week, so that will be our spring break trip this year. I have to say that the parking and walking is much, much easier in Dublin--although Dogtown allows spectators to drink beer while watching the parade. Tough call.

Trying to get navigate the low power lines with a large shamrock.

The Blarney Bug.

The very last Christmas gift . . .

This table is too big.

This table is too small.

This table is just right.

Thanks to Craig's List (where we sold the old table in less than 24 hours) and a check from my stepmom, we now have a new dinette set that matches the chandelier and piano. The kids will be sitting on towels indefinitely to keep the new chairs clean. Most importantly, the table has a leaf that makes it 18" shorter than our previous table for everyday use. Hopefully, this will make for fewer cracked heads as the boys run circuits through the house. Thanks Carole, come visit soon and sit at our new table!!

A Study on Mommy by Luke

Snacktime

On Friday morning, Luke asked for popcorn at 7am. Popcorn is definitely not a morning smell for me, but it's a healthy snack (we don't do the microwave kind), so here they are chowing down on early morning popcorn.

On a related note, Luke has started the classic bedtime stalling techniques. One of his favorites is "I'm hungry." I read a tip somewhere that if your kid says they're hungry at bedtime, then offer them only veggies. If they are really hungry, then they'll eat them and if your kid stays up an extra 10 minutes to eat a carrot, no big deal. So here's Luke enjoying a "late night" carrot at 7:30pm last night.

Bikes

I could not face the mud in my backyard this afternoon, so we went out front to ride bikes. Michael is finally big enough to ride the green motorcycle, albeit very slowly. It sure makes him look like a big kid. Speaking of big kids, Luke is getting a bit leggy on his tricycle. Time to buy a new helmet and get him going on his two-wheeler (with training wheels, of course).

COSI morning

Michael and I hooked up with some friends at COSI this morning. Luke and I used to go there at least once a week when he was Michael's age. In fact, we were there the day before Michael was born and I was in early labor, but didn't know it! Unfortunately, with Luke's preschool and my work schedule, Michael hasn't gone nearly as often. He sure enjoyed himself today!

Grandpa Update

My aunt called last night. Grandpa is doing better. Aunt Loura flew home to San Diego today. She left Grandpa with a stocked pantry and full prescription bottles, but he will probably still find an excuse to get behind the wheel of his car (the state of Texas let him renew his driver's license in December--but only for two years, they said. If he makes it to 104, he'll have to take the road test again). They are looking into getting a nurse to come and check on him at home once a week. They just have to figure out if Medicare will cover it, which it should. Most importantly, Grandpa and Betty made up. Thank you so much, everyone, for the prayers and good wishes.

Luke and Vincent

Luke saw a picture of Starry, Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and wanted to know more about it, so Matt played him this video of Van Gogh paintings to the song "Vincent" by Don Mclean. Luke asked Matt what the song was about. Matt told him that Van Gogh didn't have a lot of friends and had a hard time and that people didn't appreciate his paintings when he was alive. Luke said "But why? These paintings are great!"

school day

I've been volunteering in Luke's classroom this week, which means Michael has been tagging along. He likes sitting at lunch with his own lunchbox like Luke. I think he'll love going to school next year.

Here are Luke and his two buddies sharing their lunches. The highlight today was listening to 18 3-year-olds simultaneously tell "knock, knock" jokes during lunch. Not one of them knows an actual "knock, knock" joke. I think Lucy's was my favorite. Hers went something like:

Knock, Knock
Who's there?
Table.
Table who?
I love snacks!!!!

It was even nice enough to stop for a quick park trip without coats on the way home.

Slate Run

I forgot to post this picture from Slate Run. We went over the weekend to the historical farm where they were making maple syrup. It was much colder than we thought it would be and our visit was pretty quick. But Michael fell in love with the "tee-keys" which were extremely loud and obnoxious and chased the kids back and forth along the fence.

Thank you

everyone for the prayers. I haven't heard from El Paso for 36 hours--we are a "no news is good news" family. I'll probably get an update from my aunt or stepmom over the weekend if everything continues to go well.

Grandpa update

I just got off of the phone with my Aunt Loura who flew into El Paso from San Diego. Grandpa S.T. checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice. He apparently threw quite a tantrum when the doctors tried to keep him in after promising that he could go home today--even using some very un-Grandpalike language. His bronchitis is bothering him and he's having trouble eating and swallowing his pills--something they wanted to take care of at the hospital. Finally, my aunt decided that he had to make this decision himself and she drove him home. She's going to stay with him the rest of the week and will try to get him into see his regular doctors. We are praying now that Grandpa comes to understand and trust that we know he wants to spend his last days at home in relative comfort and we want to honor that request, but in order to accomplish that, he may need some medical intervention now. I'm also asking for prayers for Betty, my grandfather's ladyfriend. She's in her mid-eighties and has been Grandpa's companion for over fifteen years. In many ways, she is more of a grandmother to me than my grandmother was. She's the one that took him to the hospital and he apparently said some hurtful things to her in the heat of the moment and she is feeling badly. This is a picture of them from Grandpa's 100th birthday party.

prayer request

My stepmom just called to say that my grandfather is in the hospital. He hadn't been well for several days, but is apparently feeling better now that he has been admitted. But it does seem heart related. Grandpa S.T. is 102 and has led a wonderfully full life. Please pray for God to watch over him. I hope that it is nothing serious and that he will be sent home in the next day or two. If it is serious, I pray that things progress quickly and painlessly. It makes me very upset to think of him lingering in a hospital bed because that is not how he has lived his life.

violin

Matt took Luke to the Loft Violin Shop to get new strings for his violin. They came home with this.

We are now the proud renters of a 1/16 violin. All the money we spend on rent is put into an account at the shop that we can use towards the purchase of a violin in the future. They don't stay in this tiny size long enough to make purchase practical.

Matt says he holds it very well and can already play the first four notes of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. As far as I'm concerned, those are the most important four notes anyway. After all, that's the "Twinkle, Twinkle."

Here he is a year ago with his box violin.

And now.

racetrack

Sometimes I think my Hot Wheels obsession out paces my kids'. I've had dreams of shooting cars down the stairs for a while now. Toys R Us just started selling the old school track I remember from being a kid and I picked some up. Jennie, Luke and Michael raced cars for quite a while this morning. I have bigger plans in the works. I saw a track that can attach to the top of a door to make a super steep drop. I have a vision of hooking it up to Luke's bedroom door, running it all the way down the hall, down the stairs and through a loop of some type at the bottom. Makes me think I need to get Luke's friend Eli over here soon, I think he likes cars as much as I do.

Valentine's Party

On Monday, we ditched the snow make-up day at school and went to Nolan and Mason's house for a Valentine's Party. Loads of fun, but man the kids are getting big! Luke and Jake's knees were brushing the floor when they took the ride-ons for a spin. Michael and Charlie looked like little men at the train table. We went outside for a bit and it was shocking--a handful of almost four-year-olds were too many for the sandbox and too many for the play structure. A year ago, that wasn't the case. Where does the time go?

Play-doh

WARNING! This image may be disturbing to some viewers.

I know there are moms out there (I'm thinking of you, Melissa) who work really hard to keep the play-doh colors pristine. Just look away now.

This is what happens when you let your 3-year-old boy explore what happens when you mush 20 small cans of play-doh all together. Now we have a giant ball of grayish-colored playdoh in one tupperware as opposed to a ton of tiny cans. But now I want to go buy more and do it all again because it really was fun.

Naptime

Clearly, Michael does not have enough in his crib.

Thaw!!!

We're in for a warm few days and a major meltdown! Our never-plowed street is a torrent of icy water. I've decided rain boots are the best invention ever. I don't think I ever needed them much as a kid--Colorado's dry weather combined with a girlish distaste of being wet and dirty. Not so my boys. They loved being out in sweatshirts as opposed to big coats and both got wet and gross. I think they'll be living in the boots for the next several days, heck, with spring on its way, they may be in rain boots for the next three months!!

Daytime Slumber Party

Today was Slumber Party Day at Luke's school. Luke wore his jammies and brought a sleeping bag, pillow and stuffed animals. He had to wear his rainboots because they were the only shoes that fit over his jammie-feet. They watched a video, made pizza and had a great time. Mommy, however, thought it was an awful lot of extra stuff to lug to school and is glad that it only happens once a year.

computer time

It's been a bit of a challenge getting adjusted to my new work schedule. Now on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, we mainly stay at home so that I can get ready for work. Here they are having their own computer time while mommy works at the big computer.

25 Random Things about Luke

This activity has been sweeping across Facebook for the grown-ups. I thought it would be fun to post 25 Random Things about each of the boys. For mommies with blogs, by reading this post, you are committing to writing them for your own kids! Just kidding.

1. His original name was Luke Samuel, but I wasn't fond of how it sounded. My stepdad thought to name him Samuel Luke and call him by his middle name. We knew we wouldn't call him Sam because he has a cousin named Sam.
2. His current obsession is mummies and "scary" beetles (scarab beetles).
3. He loves gory saint stories like John the Baptist losing his head and St. Sebastian getting shot by arrows. He'll make a great little Catholic.
4. He will sit and eat an apple for 45 minutes or he'll take one bite and be done.
5. He must have an apple in his lunch at school, but he doesn't ever eat it, it just has to be there.
6. He loves words. He likes to talk about words, make-up words and ask what words mean, but he doesn't like to read all that much.
7. He refuses to learn how to dress himself.
8. He hasn't napped since he before he was 2 1/2.
9. He has learned how to "pick-up"--we caught him running hand in hand with some little girl at Polaris yesterday.
10. He makes up songs. Long songs. With titles like "The Wind Is Gone." His favorite repeating verse is "and through that time," he sings it over and over.
11. He'd rather have 50 small crappy toys than 1 big nice one.
12. He is very dramatic. His teacher says he puts on quite a show when he gets hurt. He once scratched his leg at school and spent the rest of the day hopping around on one foot because he was "too hurt" to walk.
13. He could care less about numbers and counts terribly after ten.
14. He loves rings--the sparklier, the better.
15. I'm not sure he will ever be a very good "team player."
16. He still only uses the little potty.
17. He's not scared by scary things--he loves skeletons and ghosts and monsters and vampires and rats and snakes. He's watched things would terrify most kids, but . . .
18. . . .he is randomly scared by situations on Curious George and I have to be sure to watch it with him.
19. He has the healthiest diet and eating habits of anyone in the house.
20. His jammies must have feet.
21. He can't stand it if he's not good at something the first time he tries it (can't imagine where he gets that).
22. He's very agile, nimble and pretty fast for his size.
23. He erupts with spontaneous praise and thank-yous, especially for dinners he likes, even at friends' houses and restaurants.
24. He wants whatever toy Michael has. He wants to do whatever Daddy is doing.
25. He is exactly like his mother only at a louder decibel level.

25 Random Things about Michael

1. He can sing the Spiderman theme song--"Miterman, Miterman"
2. He has a recent obsession with colby-jack cheese sticks.
3. He would do anything for gummy fruit snacks.
4. He is still missing quite a few teeth.
5. He likes to poop in the middle of the night.
6.He can build a pretty good tower out of mega blocks.
7. He has learned to say "no," but he says it very cutely "no-wa" with a dramatic hand gesture.
8. Because he's going to be in his crib longer than Luke was, I have set it up more like a bed with a pillow, cute blanket and about a zillion animals.
9. He says "bye-bye" to everything and everyone.
10. He loves his boots.
11. He hates being carried except when he demands to be carried--which is always when I am trying to cook in the kitchen.
12. He can spot a McDonald's from the car--"Mmm.Mmm.Mmm.Nonnal's!!" I swear we really don't go there that often.
13.He runs errands with mommy like a champ and doesn't mind repeated ins-and-outs from the car.
14. When he snuggles, he has to tuck his arms in.
15. He really loves books and especially enjoys pretending to eat pictures of food.
16. He currently disdains most fruits and veggies.
17. He only wants milk from a bottle.
18. He was born almost two weeks early, but only weighed one ounce less than Luke who was only born two days early.
19. He can fill out 18-month and even some 24-month pants. Luke was still wearing 18-month shorts last summer and grew too tall to ever make use of 24-month pants.
20. One of Luke's classmates has had a crush on Michael for over a year, unfortunately, she expresses it by, well, crushing him.
21. He looks just like Matt's mom and seems to be channeling her, my great-grandmother Vera, my grandpa S.T. and all of the calm and gentle familial spirits.
22. He is a late-ish talker and his limited vocabulary features a disproportionate number of tv character names.
23. He's had a rash on his legs for probably 3 months, the doctor doesn't know what it is, nothing we've tried has worked, but it doesn't bother him and isn't spreading, so I'm just letting it go.
24. He's always had a ridiculous amount of hair and it grows really fast.
25. He sometimes stays up for almost an hour at naptime and bedtime screwing around in his crib. I once went in to find him holding some kind of meeting with all of his animals/dolls lined up and sitting across from him.