Perftic garlicks....

Yesterday I unexpectedly had the day off (the boys were sick - or Dawson was anyway). I loaded up my kids and a picnic lunch and took them to a park in a neighboring town. I'd always wanted to check that park out because a. it had woodchips instead of sand and b. it just looked neat. It was neat. It has a toddler area with slides and steps in mini size that was just right for Colby to play on without help. The bigger kid area had 3 slides (a tie with swings for Kailin's favorite) and a "ladder" (those convex metal bar things that function as a ladder but look a little different - hard to explain I guess). Kailin loves the ladder at our park, but it's only 3 feet tall. This one was 8 feet tall to connect with the platform near the tallest slides. I am proud to say that Kailin ran right over to it and climbed up without any trepidation! She proceeded to go down all the big girl slides without anyone to catch her, and also told me to go play with Colby while she played in the big kid area. Where is my baby?? She's getting to be such a little grown up.

After our lunch and some more playing (read - it was WELL into "heading rapidly toward the wall" time) we left the park and I was secretly planning to stop at McDonald's for ice cream for the kids. As we drove up, Kailin spied it and said, "Can we go McDonald's - get some ice cream?" and I said yes. She said (in disbelief), "Can we??" and I said yes and she yelled, "That would be PERFTIC, MAMA!!!!!!!!" The ice cream plan was indeed "perftic" til we left and Kailin caught her toe in the parking lot and did a full out Superwoman onto the pavement. She howled and howled her pathetic overtired, scared, I need my mom howl. I snatched her up and brushed her off and kissed her skinned up knee and promised a bandaid when we got home. Luckily she's a tough kid and that did the trick.

I've also been meaning to blog about the garlicks. We have a year round garland with white lights in it right at ceiling level in our living room. It used to be a Christmas thing, but we like it and it's homey and there you have it. It hasn't been lit regularly since we unplugged the carefully orchestrated symphony of plugs from our Christmas village. The garland gets plugged into it somewhere in the middle (can you tell I share no responsibility for it's setup?!). Anyway, Kailin thinks the name of it is "garlicks" even though she knows what garlic is in the kitchen as well. She's forever saying "Daddy, can you light up the garlicks?" and I always have a mental vision of some sort of garlic bomb or maybe a garlic candle... neither is appealing.

Riddle me this...

Okay, one more post for the day. I haven't given a riddle in a long while. If you ask an almost 3 year old and an almost 4 year old to choose a cup from the following colors - yellow, orange, or purple, which color(s) will they choose? You're thinking I'm going to say that they both chose orange or purple or even yellow aren't you? Wrong. One chose green and the other chose blue. Seriously people. WITH A VISUAL!!! "Green is not an option. Would you like yellow, orange or purple?" "Green." From the other one, "And I want blue!!" I give up!!!

I think a little....

Apparently I only think a little. Despite having proofread my post the other day about our picnic, upon re-reading it this morning (yes, I do re-read my own blog sometimes - when I'm looking to brighten my day with tales of good times had by all or "it was much worse than this when...." scenarios) I discovered the following phrase, "While cutting up a watermelon it dawned on me that if we were headed to Harrington Beach State Park for our walk, perhaps a little impromptu picnic." Perhaps a little impromptu picnic what??? Would be nice, would be in order, would be fun, would be insane? WHAT?? Well, I'll tell you what - you choose because they're all applicable as it turns out. Ha ha ha. Just had to put that out there. I guess my remaining six brain cells were all busy with something else when I typed that.

And now, the wonder twins are both crying, so I'll have to go. Dawson is crying because Colby bopped him with a Princess Genevieve cell phone and Colby is crying because I took it away. A beautiful day in the neighborhood!!

Corn Dracula

So I posted that we were all headed for some ice cream after the kids woke up. Not so much. Kailin declared that she wanted to go to the park. I told her we were planning to go for ice cream, but she was adamant about the park. I told her she could go to the park, but then there would be no ice cream (and I have a horrible admission to make here - I slanted the decision entirely toward the ice cream which is much to my horror. Instead of being ecstatic that I have a kid who would rather do something active than go for ice cream, I push her toward something entirely unhealthy. When is my Mom of the Year Award going to arrive??). She was fine with that. In the end, my wonderful husband ended up taking both kids to the park while I slept off my headache. I need to remember that one the next time I'm annoyed that he didn't clean up the dishes or remember to put jammies in the diaper bag for the kids. They showed up in time to make dinner and I learned that they had a fabulous time (Colby tried charcoal and sand - turns out neither is particularly appetizing....).

Last night we had what I'd like to call the "All American Supper". (Yes, I shamelessly ripped Denny's off there. If our family ate faster I'd have gone whole hog and called it a Slam.) We had hamburgers (on the grill), baked beans, cucumber salad (a summer favorite of mine) and corn on the cob. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!

I gave Kailin her half cob and Colby was all over it. Pointing, shrieking...the whole 9 yards. I figured I'd let him give it a try and see what happened. To say that Colby loves corn on the cob would be the understatement of the century. The boy was all over it. He snarfed down his first half cob and then bellowed loudly anytime anyone else at the table had any. We gave him a second half cob and he shrieked something terrible when Steve took the EMPTY cob away from him. We've deemed him "Corn Dracula". Anytime Steve approached his chair with the corn, he would open his mouth like a little bird and then lunge forward for the corn before Steve could even get it anywhere near his mouth. It was hysterical to watch! If you visit us this summer, request that corn on the cob be on the menu. The dinner theater is worth having to pick your teeth for an hour afterwards!

Meanwhile....anytime you take a picture of Colby, Kailin will chime in.... "picture me!!" I was trying to "picture her" last night at dinner and all she would do is give me this cheesy grin showing ALL of her teeth. I tried to tell her to smile "regular" which then got me the non smile. Finally, in desperation, I made her laugh in hopes that I could get a "real smile." Third try's a charm, I guess!!

State of the kitchen....

I feel like I should give a "State of the Kitchen" address sometimes. I mean seriously....my life feels like it revolves around the welfare of my kitchen.

For instance, Friday's address would have sounded like this..."Well, we've been tuned in on the environmental needs of the kitchen and as a result the countertops are clean, the sink is sparkling again, and we are in a state of general organization. In whole, I think we can be very comfortable with the state of the kitchen and move forward into the weekend."

This morning, however, would have started more like "With a heavy heart I report that the kitchen is in a state of utter disarray. The countertops have been declared a federal disaster area and are under quarantine pending a major reclamation project scheduled in the next hour. The sink is experiencing the aftermath of a grape jelly spill and will need our full attention as soon as we are able to offer it. We would like to offer you hope in this hour of darkness, so we are happy to report that the food particle problem that was plaguing the floor has already been eradicated as a first step in our reclamation plan."

And who decided that some kitchens should have two ovens? A great plan, if you ask me, but shouldn't our first focus be on equipping kitchens with multiple dishwashers instead? I mean really...I literally just emptied our dishwasher and now it's nearly full again. It's not like we stacked all of yesterday's dishes on the counter or anything. I'm just talking about HALF of the dinner dishes (and pots and pans) and this morning's dishes. That's it. We don't have a particularly small dishwasher or anything - so clearly there's a need.

I'm happy to report that I have indeed reclaimed the kitchen and am feeling better about life in general. I won't even go into what the living room looks like. It's not a pretty picture!

Just a walk in the park....

Today was gorgeous. Although it was cloudy when Colby and I got up at 5:30 (leave it to him to awaken early on the one day his sister sleeps in a bit....), it was soon sunny and warm. My plan was to get up with Kailin and head out to the grocery store while Colby and Steve slept. Obviously that was shot to heck. ha ha. Kailin was up by 6 and by 6:45 I had them both ready to head out. Steve came down about that time and I did the cowardly thing and stuck him with Colby. Kailin and I set out and were back by 8:30! Hooray!! Looking forward to a long day of freedom ahead (astutely having busted my butt last week during naps to get the lawn mowed, the laundry done, and the house cleaned to allow us the guilty pleasure of having "nothing" to do this weekend), we arrived at home and I unloaded the groceries. While cutting up a watermelon it dawned on me that if we were headed to Harrington Beach State Park for our walk, perhaps a little impromptu picnic. I commenced to making up sandwiches, cheese cubes, crackers, and watermelon and portioning them out into ziploc bags and containers in the perfect sizes for our idyllic family picnic.

Steve made a pitcher of lemonade. This is of little consequence except that this is what I heard while I had my back turned cutting up the melon.... "What is this?" "It's the pitcher." "Why does it stink?" "It doesn't stink." "Yaaaaaessss. It IS stinking!!" She was talking about seeing the powdery stuff rising up out of the pitcher apparently, but her extended yes and her use of stinking somehow tickled my funny bone and I was laughing uncontrollably. She said it with such conviction in her voice. I wish you all could have heard it!

After Colby finally got up from his morning nap (read - when we gave up on him waking up at a reasonable time on his own and woke his sleepy butt up at 11am), we joyfully loaded the picnic, dog, and two kids into the Jeep and headed off for our adventure. A blissful ride to the park was followed by a joyful walk around Quarry Lake. We then returned to the car, spread our tablecloth on the grassy knoll, and enjoyed a peaceful and tasty meal together before heading home for some much needed naps (needed by all, actually taken by only the children).

Here's what really happened...Kailin was entirely uncooperative as we tried to get ready to leave (including throwing her brother's sandal and having a tantrum because her stuffed dog couldn't come with us). I forgot sippy cups for the kids and we had to turn around and head home for them. When we did finally get going, Kailin and the dog whined loudly the entire way to the park. I didn't hold out much hope for a calming walk. My hope fell further when the distance from the car to the trailhead was filled with...."Where's my picnic? Do you know where my picnic is?" Thankfully, I was wrong and the walk was actually entirely peaceful with Kailin playing a rousing game of "let Daddy get ahead and then run to catch him." We looked for fish in the lake and a group of little girls let Kailin look at the frog they'd caught. We did make it back to the car for our picnic only to discover that someone else had staked out the picnic table we'd been hoping to use (our options were somewhat limited with a dog). We plunked our tablecloth down right on the grass in front of the Jeep and I set about making our picnic as nice as possible. Steve and Sugar discovered that the pump hadn't been turned on yet and so we had one seriously hot dog and no water for her. Kailin was obsessed with not allowing the wind to blow any of the edges of the picnic cloth up and Colby set about cramming as much sandwich into his face as was physically possible. Idyllic, huh?

Seriously though, once things calmed down a bit, we did have a great little picnic and it was a lot of fun. The whole thing was fun - just in a much more realistic (much less idyllic) way.

The kids are both still sleeping as I write this, but after they wake up we're all going to McDonald's for ice cream. Kailin's been asking all weekend, "Can we go McDonalds? Get some ice cream?" so I'm glad to be able to tell her yes. She's getting to an age where she truly enjoys asking for something and then getting to do it. And I get the pleasure of seeing her delight. Win win if you ask me.

This day of fun has reminded me how blessed I am to have such a wonderful little family and how blessed we all are to be able to go where we want when we want and say what we want while we're there. Without wanting to wax philosophical or sound cliche, I am thankful on this Memorial Day that there are men and women who are willing to risk their lives to keep this country free. What a gift we have in this country, and in it's people.

And now, I think I'll take a little nap while the kids finish theirs. Save that, I hear Colby...

Yes Mam!!!

Bet you all thought that was a spelling error on my part. Nope. I did really mean "yes Mam!" because Colby finally took a full blooded American pacifier!! After I just asked a friend who's traveling to Taiwan in a week or so to pick some more up for us if she could find them (my attempt at getting him to switch a week or so ago was met with much ANGER including trying to forcibly rip the new bink leash off of his shirt!), he bit through the one I just gave him two days ago even though I started giving it to him only at naps and bedtime. That leaves us with just one more Chinese bink and over two weeks til we might possibly have some more. Drastic action was in order! I detached his "old new" bink from his favorite bink leash and attached the Mam one and clipped it on. He recognized the foe from his previous encounter and forcibly (there were teeth involved!) inserted and removed it from his mouth about 7 times. He examined it closely, put it in my mouth a couple of times, and then put it back in his own and left it there. Hallelujah!! I was seriously concerned about the quality of life in this house if we had a bink incident with no solution in site (or in country!)! He's had the new bink for 24 hours now and is doing fine. It is somewhat of a testament to Colby's temperament. He is very fiery on the surface, but in the end, he's a reasonable little guy and accepts his fate if he sees that there's just no way the battle will be won. He's no pushover, but he knows his limits. He also figures, I think, that anything attached to the end of the beloved bink leash can't be all that bad. Ha ha.

Vroom!!!! That is NOT a track!

Two...two....two stories in one!!

The vroom story is sort of a non-story. It's more my own bemusement at my son's new skill of making sound effects while driving cars around on our living room floor. It was just beyond cute and he was quite proud of (and entertained with) himself for doing it. ha ha ha. Little stinkpot!!

We took a walk at Harrington Beach State Park the other day and took a trail we'd never tried before. It took us over the prairie rather than our usual traipse through the woods. We saw a Thrush and that was neat - haven't seen one in awhile. After a little while we came to an area that had obviously been killed off - not sure if it was in lieu of a controlled burn or what, but all the vegetation was deader than a doornail. It made for a lovely palette for animal tracks!! We saw tons of deer tracks so I decided it was high time that Kailin learned about animal tracks. I pointed to the two holes in the ground and asked her if she knew what it was. She said no. I told her that a deer made them with it's foot and she said, "A TRACK!" I had to laugh. We looked a little longer and found a turkey track. I asked her if she could see any tracks (there were plenty!) and she said excitedly, "I see one!! I see a track!!" I asked her to show me and she pulled me forward toward what I could tell was NOT a track. We arrived at the "track" and she said, (imagine these words in a very serious tone and entirely enunciated...) "Mom. That is NOT a track. THAT is a POOP." Again, I had to laugh. She then turned our track search into a poop search. I suppose I should still be proud of my budding naturalist, but it did lose a little ambiance!!

I also wanted to note that last night I took her with me to run some errands and have some girl time. On our way she suddenly blurted out, "Daddy peent (paint)." I said, "Daddy peed or Daddy painted?" She said, "Daddy PEEEEEEEENNNNNTTTTTT" (Okay!!!! Geez!!!). I asked what Daddy painted. She said, "Daddy paint by the door. Daddy put tape on porch." We painted the porch rail and door trim this time LAST YEAR. I can't believe she pulled that out. Makes me look ahead in horror over what inappropriate time she will choose to recall our "poop hunt" of late!! We had a great time running the errands and she was absolutely entranced with the cart system at Aldi. I let her keep the quarter and that was just icing on the cake!

Wheee!!!

Or should I say, "Wiiiiii"! That's right. We've taken the plunge. We pooled our collective birthday money (and some of Steve's Christmas money - yes, the man can hold onto it for an eternity whereas mine typically burns a hole right in my pocket) and bought a Wii. "Wii" decided on Friday to do it and do you know that of course no one in the Ozaukee County area had one in stock?? Ugh.

Steve found one at Target this morning and it's been pretty fun playing it so far. The tennis game gave me a decent arm workout, but the boxing had my heart a pumpin'!! He got himself a hunting game and is busy stalking some sort of wildlife even as I type. I'm hoping it'll be something we can do together after the kids go to bed that gets us up off the couch. It also gives me an easy out for Father's Day. Ha ha ha. All I...er...the kids have to do is find a game he'd like and away we go!

And......

A lot of Kailin's statements these days start with "Annnnnnddddd". As in "Annnnnnddd then I didn't listen aaannnndd then you haffa carry my bike aaaaannnnndd then I walk and we go bank."

Last night just after story time in those sweet moments (usually sweet -sometimes rushed - and occasionally purposely forgotten after a rough day) when we snuggle in her bed together and after she said, "I love you the whole world!" 37 times (all of which I soaked up like a sponge), she came up with this statement... "Mom?" "yes, honey?" "I love you the whole world...aaaaannnnndddd don't take your bwa off!" Ummmmm...... what's the response to that? I asked her what she meant and she said, "Just don't take it off, okay Mama?" Can't say I honored that one. Sleeping in a bra is not my idea of a good night's rest!!! It tickled me to my very core, though - the thoughts that run through that girl's head are just beyond words sometimes!!

In other vocabulary news, tonight she said, "think think think!" instead of "sink, sink, sink" so that's a big change in her language skills

One other interesting Kailin tidbit is that she's starting to say "remember when" and sometimes the event she's remembering is months old and long forgotten. I wonder how much of her memory she's able to articulate and what goes on her mind that she's not sharing. For instance, today she was remembering that Grandma brought her home once. Indeed she did. But is she only remembering that it happened, or is she actually getting a mental picture of what that was like or how it felt? Are these memories that she has now ones that will stick with her through life or will they go away when they're replaced with something else? I have memories from around age 3 and onward, so it's certainly possible. I guess time will tell...but it's curious to me and I love to see her developing.

One fish, two fish, red fish, THREE blue fish??

We got Kailin a 10 gallon aquarium for Christmas. I think I posted once before about how the "$24.99" aquarium had actually cost somewhere around $150 (after rocks, decorations, plants, food, water conditioner, salt, and about 8 sets of fish (slight exaggeration) when we weren't getting the water balance right). I was frustrated and annoyed and wishing we'd never gotten the darn thing.

Well..... times change. We've had the same fish now (knock on wood) since about February and I enjoy watching them swim around. When we got back from Taiwan, we discovered that we had a baby fish in our tank! This is utterly amazing since we were supposed to have all male fish... so much for that! I kept thinking the baby fish (which was really hard to find in the beginning) looked bigger or smaller on any given day until I realized there were TWO baby fish!

We've had a really fun time watching them grow and now they're big enough to have come out of hiding and swim with the big fishies. We've been so curious as to which fish they'd be. Originally we thought maybe they were the red fish with the black fins, but that was unlikely since we only have one of those. They're finally big enough to show their true colors and the verdict is in... they are going to be blue Mollies. Hooray - that's my favorite fish in our tank. Kailin loves her baby fish and shows them excitedly to anyone who enters the house. ha ha. I guess I was too quick to judge back in the days of "which fish will die today?"

Mysteries of the universe...part two

Okay, so last time it was called "Mysteries of the world..." Today's mystery is this. How come guys can lay down, take a deep breath, and be asleep. I mean BE asleep. SLEEPING. Immediately. WHY is that??? Why do I need to lay there for half an hour (or more) wishing I could fall asleep, but instead thinking about random things that more often than not I don't even give a darn about?? This applies not only to the time when I initially go to bed, but also to when I have gotten up at 4:15 to tend to Colby and so desperately want to get back to sleep for my remaining hour when I return to bed at 4:30 that I will in fact somehow ELONGATE the process and lay awake for 45 minutes instead of 30. WHY???? Steve rouses and then I hear the deep breath and he's out. OUT! I'm not angry that he does it - I'm JEALOUS! I know that it's probably directly related to the fact that guys can, also inexplicably, empty their heads of all thought. HOW do they do it and WHY can't I?

Ponder and let me know what you think - it's a mystery to me.

Lost and found

You'll never ever in a million years guess what got found today! Remember a month ago when I lost my right contact? Thank Heaven I never spent the money to replace it! My old left contact has still been working fine so I never bothered. Kailin was messing around in Colby's room this morning and somehow, somewhere, found it! Guess I now have a spare for either eye (the old left one). Now that you've been bored into a coma with tales from the carpet....I'll move on to the more important find.



This is difficult to articulate, and I admit that this find is also mostly for me. Before we adopted, I'd never have guessed that I would be triumphing over the day that I no longer felt the tenuous stretch of my relationship with my son. I didn't feel this way when we brought Kailin home - perhaps because she bonded so strongly with me right away or perhaps because she was younger, or maybe because I just didn't know to think any differently. With Colby rejecting me at first, I have felt - up until the last few days - as though I had to walk a little on eggshells with him. Like I couldn't just kiss him all over his fuzzy head whenever I wanted, that I couldn't do anything that might upset him for fear of shattering what little trust I felt like I waited so patiently to build. I've noticed in these past couple of days that I am feeling more free with him. I made him really angry the other night at dinner (not on purpose) and he still came to me for comfort and to make nice. That spoke volumes.

He's felt like mine since the first time he laid his exhausted head on my chest and he was mine when he reached up around my neck with his little hand and squeezed - but he's mine now in a much more intimate way. He's mine to snuggle and squeeze and tickle and mush around like I do with his sister. Not that I haven't been doing those things these weeks - I'm just doing them in a different way now. I wanted to record all of this because I never want to forget how God has filled my heart with warmth and love this week (ugly days and all) and it's a good reminder that being patient brings great reward.

A swing and a miss... (aka....once, twice, three time's a surprise)

After Steve got home last night, we decided to take the kids to the park for awhile before dinner. Kailin immediately clamored for the swings. Colby plodded along - mostly happy to remain upright in the grass/sand. ha ha.

Kailin wanted to swing "on the big girl swing" which she's been doing since the end of last year. She always surprises me with how daring she wants to be with the "push me higher" scenario. She's not brave in those areas typically. Brave with shots, yes, but any kind of adventure or out of her box scenario leaves her scurrying to cling to my legs until I force her to discover that she likes something (sounds a little Mommy Dearest, doesn't it?!). Not the swing. She's far out of my comfort zone and well within hers, it seems.

We had Colby in the baby swing next to Kailin and even he was daring enough to get a couple of real pushes. Surprise me again!!

The inevitable (and my worst fear) happened. Kailin flipped off the back of the swing and landed in the sand with a sickening thud. She wailed. I wailed inside and grabbed her up and dusted her off in a very brave mother sort of way. Another little girl ran forward and snagged the swing. The woman with her (not her mother as it turned out) tried to tell her that it was still Kailin's turn. Knowing my daughter as I do I said, "Oh, she won't be back on the swing anytime soon anyway!" Surprise!!! She wanted right back on. Who'd have thought (surely not me!)? I let her back on and gave her a gentle push. None of that. "I want HIGHER, mama!!"

It just goes to show you that kids will indeed surprise you around every corner and that my mother bravado is stronger than I thought - I really wanted to cry with her when she fell, but I resisted the urge and she sprung back and climbed right back up on that horse. I'm glad that (at least in this instance) I've managed to avoid limiting her by confining her to my idea of what should be her comfort level. She's shown me she's starting to be ready to spread her wings a little. With a deep breath and a lump in my throat, I'm going to let her.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood!!

As predicted (ha ha ha - or should I say "as decided"?), today was wonderful! Seriously. It was a gorgeous day outside and the kids and I had a blast. I'm sorry to report that Twin Two was out sick today and wasn't able to join in on the fun. After Colby rolled out of bed at 8:30...we decided to head over to the Elfers' for the day and spend some time with our friends. When I told Kailin she said, "That would be FUN!!!!" and then after some thought... "is my brudder coming?" I said that he was and then after some more thought she asked, "are YOU coming??" That one made me laugh.

Julie and I decided to take the kids to the park. Julie said that Jonah's 4-wheeler was all charged up and asked if I thought that Kailin would ride with him. I said I didn't think so, but we'd give it a try. She decided to ride on the back of the stroller instead of with Jonah - much to his disappointment. About 4 blocks later, she said, "Mom? Do you think I could ride with Jonah?" I assured her he'd be thrilled. We loaded her on and told her to hang on tight to him. She hung on like they were off on a Harley and away they went! These pictures really do not do it justice. They were cute beyond words. He was showing off for her and swerving around a bit and riding over the curb and she was giggling and loving every minute. I just wanted to eat them both up!!!

At the park, Colby pranced right up to the top of the tallest slide and wanted to slide down with no one to catch him. I swear - he is ALL boy - bravado and all! He also discovered that he DOES like the swings! Brooke doesn't like the swings, so Colby joined her for some quality time with the woodchips. They were cute together. Colby was making little "bub bub bub" noises (you know the ones I mean) with his finger on his lower lip and Brooke did it right back at him.

On the ride home, we thought maybe Kailin would want to drive. She thought so too - for about 2 minutes. I think both kids got a jolt (literally - it kind of looked like someone trying to learn to drive stick as she jolted them down the path) of reality and soon Kailin announced that Jonah should drive. Ha. He took the wheel and off they went again. Hot shot thought he would drive over some sand. He dug a rut so deep we had to giggle!! We moms had a great laugh over it and pulled them free.

Even Colby had a blast playing in sand and padding around outside barefoot for the first time. I caught him mid "uh-oh" and couldn't resist sharing my cutie.

The kids wore themselves out playing on the deck and the moms got to have some great conversation. I wish we lived closer so that we could do this every day!

Year of the dog?

Your Chinese zodiac symbol is supposed to influence who you are in life. Colby was born (by days - he was almost a Boar) in the year of the Dog. I didn't realize how much he has been influenced until I saw him sneaking a snack out of Peanut's bowl the night before last! I admonished him and thanked God that Peanut let him do it (Peanut, much like Colby, does NOT share food!) without trouble. Be a fool once, shame on me. Be a fool again, no mommy of the year award! I turned my back and found him sharing Sugar's supper next!!! I think I got 12-15 kibbles out of his chipmunk cheeks! I wish I'd thought to grab the camera and I'm glad that we feed our dogs a high quality chicken and oatmeal dog food with no nasty chicken byproducts!!!! I must admit that this is not the first time Colby has dined on chicken and oatmeal crunchies.... Steve caught him stealing from Sugar one time last week as well. Stinker!!!!

Wait for it.... Wait for it....

Have you heard of the movie "The Fantastic Four"? I enjoyed it a lot more than I enjoyed the Cranktastic Cohort yesterday!! Oh my goodness!!! Kailin woke up around 5 (as usual) and then proceeded to wail in her doorway and open and close her door (we'd asked her not to come to our room in the morning anymore in an effort to stop her from slamming our door (which is adjacent to Colby's)) until she woke her brother at 5:15. 5:15 is TOO EARLY for Colby (and the rest of us, but that's another story!). So he was cranky. Kailin is always cranky because she truly needs to sleep later. When Twin Two arrived, it was clear that this might be an ugly sort of day.

Normally, Twin Two fusses as his mom is walking out the door and is all smiles and giggles and happily waving by the time she's backing out of the driveway. Not yesterday. He fussed and fussed and fussed. Hmmmm..... He felt a little warm to me, but he'd just been in the car with a jacket on. I waited awhile... he still felt a little warm, but he'd been running around. The Twins went down for their morning naps and I dealt with my Impatient Princess. When the Twins awoke, Twin Two still felt really warm to me, so I took his temp. 100.7 A quick call to his mom to okay some Tylenol and off we went. Everyone ate a great lunch, so hooray for that!

The Cranktastic Cohort was winding up to full Crankticity when I deemed it time for immediate deployment of the Nap Initiative. I had the Twins down for naps when the phone rang. "We have a realtor who would like to show your house this evening between 6:30 and 7:30." Excuse me? Did you say TONIGHT - as in - FIVE HOURS FROM NOW? AND did you say 6:30 to 7:30? You did???? $#*^!!!!! "Ummm.... could you see if they might be able to come between 6 and 7 instead?" Of course they could not. They did agree to try to come as close to 6:30 as possible. Okay, I'll take it. Put Kailin down for her nap and hear that Colby is still awake in there. Normally, I'd be annoyed by that, but he will actually sleep until he needs to sleep and also - it meant I bought myself some more cleaning time.

We don't have regular interest in our house and although we should keep it mostly clean just because you should and we should keep it extra clean for showing purposes....we've neglected it as of late. Of course all of this would go down on a day when Steve is going straight from work to the dentist and then to dog training. Of course it would! I busied myself cleaning the downstairs and managed everything I could get done with the kids sleeping upstairs about five minutes before the first one woke up. Hooray for small miracles.

Twin Two was up first. He felt warm again, but it was only 45 minutes or so til he went home, so I decided against medicating again. Twin One followed shortly thereafter. I brought them downstairs and discovered that Twin Two was quite clingy. After a short while, he ventured off my lap just in time for Kailin to wail her way down the stairs and climb up. I snuggled her until she requested a snack and then got granola bars for everyone. Kailin and Colby snarfed theirs down with gusto. Dawson snubbed his at first, but gave in to peer pressure eventually and requested some. Colby toddled over to the table where our tv is and then lost his balance and whacked his face on the table - it was hard enough that I thought we might have blood and/or tooth issues. He toppled over and in the process, brushed past Dawson who pretty much just sat down a little hard. Colby hopped back up and went about his business. Dawson went to pieces. He cried so hard that he choked himself and gagged. Thankfully I made it over there in time to make sure he didn't choke and to catch the majority of what came out of his mouth. That was 3:45. He did not calm down again until he went home at 4:15. Poor kid. Needless to say, between him crying and sputtering and Kailin and Colby fussing and wanting to be picked up...not so much cleaning of any kind got done. As soon as Dawson left, I herded my kids upstairs and cleaned like I've never cleaned before. Let the dogs up. Fed the kids. Fed the dogs. Wiped down the kitchen counters (which were finally clear of debris after I took some loads of stuff upstairs after the kids got up). Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Dogs back downstairs. Kids back upstairs. Cardio vacuumed (I was one seriously Sweaty Betty). Put kids in their jammies. Herded kids and vacuum back downstairs. Got kids milk and packed diaper bag. Herded kids out the front door and into the Jeep.

We all went to McDonald's for ice cream. Both kids delighted in it and I was thrilled that I'd thought of it. Not only did it occupy them for awhile, but it was a great family moment (it would've been even better if Steve had been there). Kailin even tried to share her cone with Colby (who was sharing one with me). She really only managed to smear his coat with ice cream as she entirely missed his mouth - but her spirit and effort made me proud and I didn't care about the coat. On our way out, a woman there with (I presumed) her grandchildren stopped me and said, "Your kids are..." at which point I waited for "adorable. Are they Chinese?" or "beautiful.... where are they from?" or "so cute. Are they your kids?" Well I waited and I waited, but what she said was, "Your kids are so well behaved!!" What a pleasant surprise! I thanked the woman and then her grandson held the door for me and I said, "Wow! That's really gentleman-like for a young guy!" and she said, "He makes Grandma proud!" What a lovely interaction! I wondered anyone in the McDonald's thought I was a nut case for having my kids in there in pajamas or wondered if I didn't know that the outfits my kids were wearing were in fact pajamas and not outfits at all. ha ha.

The fun ended. As soon as I loaded the kids into the car, Kailin began asking a series of incessant questions and fretting about every single answer. Colby just plain wailed. For half an hour I drove around like that before I just said, "I'm going home and if they haven't been there yet, I'll sit in the car at the end of the block until they leave...." Luckily, they'd already been here, and I snatched the kids out of the car and put them both to bed!!! WHAT A DAY!!!!!

Today will be better - I've already decided.

Now THAT's a mouth full!!!

I was going to post this yesterday, but we had a visit from our friends the Lemms during the day and then the rest of the day just sort of...slipped away. This first picture is one I call "bucket full of Colby". He was delighted with the game Uncle Jason invented of raising and lowering him in the bucket. Peels of laughter abounded!

We were eating dinner the other night and Colby jammed his mouth SOOOO full of food that he couldn't even close it!! I laughed out loud at him, and he one upped me by showing me the entire contents of his mouth (which included carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli as you can see here). Then I was laughing out of control! I told him to show Steve and he was only too happy to comply. How he didn't choke, I'll never know!! I suppose I shouldn't be complaining that my son was stuffing his mouth with vegetables!!!

His uh-oh is a full blown two syllable word now and he continues to develop his dance skills - much to my amusement! He's attempting the stairs now and quite proud of himself when he manages the whole flight. We tried the swing at the park yesterday and it still scares him to death, but I found that if I barely swung him and stood right in front of him so he could "get me" each time, he was okay. Baby steps, I guess. The slide, on the other hand, was a hit!

Kailin is starting to play (nicely) with her brother and he is learning that she's not always out to get him, so that's been a great development this week. She had the rest of her M's after dinner the same night as Colby stuffed his face and she wanted me to "picture" her. Here's the result - entirely adorable if you ask me!

Things here have been a little crazy as we settle into "real life". Both kids are now up at 6 or before (Kailin is ALWAYS up before 6), so showering is becoming a challenge for me. Colby still WAILS the entire time I'm in the shower if he's in the bathroom, so I'm trying to come up with ideas for what to do about that. Suggestions happily taken!

It's going to be a busy Mother's Day weekend for us - but a fun one full of family. That's my favorite. This will be the first Mother's Day that all of the Schultz women are mothers and I'm looking forward to spending the day with with them. I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with two beautiful kids who both have a wealth of personality and who fill my heart with joy (most of the time... ha ha). They truly are the twinkle in my eye and the light in my life. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this!

Wonder Twins activate...form of two teething toddlers!

I've decided henceforth to call the two "little boys" The Wonder Twins. They are hysterical together.

Monday included a sympathy cry from Wonder Twin One (Colby, since he's older) when Wonder Twin Two banged his head and was wailing.

Today they played amiably with blocks together for awhile and then mutually lost interest and went their separate ways. Soon after they delighted in a game of chase. They never did decide definitively who was the chaser and who was the chasee. ha ha. If I hadn't been afraid of interrupting their fun, I'd have run for the video camera.

They're almost exactly the same height, so watching them toddling around is so adorable. Listening to them both whine when it's lunch or nap time, however, isn't quite as pleasurable.

I'm sure there will be many Twin Tales to follow.

Yesterday...seems so far away...

I had all these witty math word problems to describe my day yesterday like - What is the probability that three randomly selected car seats will fit into the back seat of a Jeep Cherokee? One 2.5 year old and two 1 year olds are released into the front yard while one mom attempts to put a third car seat in the back seat of a Jeep Cherokee. They scatter at approximately 5m/sec in random directions. How long will it take the mom to discover the error in her plan and subsequently, how far away will the children be by the time she sets out to round them up?

I decided (in a moment of sheer lunacy) to go to Walmart with the kids yesterday. We needed a few things and I also wanted to make some meals for my sister before I went to see her last night and discovered that I was missing a few key components. I didn't think it would be all that hard to do. I didn't think hard enough!!

The first issue was the installation of the extra car seat. It would've been no problem to do if I'd put the boys down for their morning naps, but as any mom who has a two nap a day child can attest - if you avoid nap times then you have NO TIME to actually do anything. Avoiding the afternoon nap is a huge mistake since Kailin only takes one nap (please see the Night Owls and Early Birds post for details on what happens when Kailin misses her nap). Anyway - the flaw in my plan was that I could obviously not leave them all in the house while I went out to put the extra car seat in, but I also could not contain them well if we went outside. I opted for the outside option so that I could at least hear and see them. Ha!!!! About 4 minutes in, I wrangled wonder twin #2 and put him in a car seat so that I was only capable of losing track of my own kids. Ha ha ha. It was all fine and dandy until I discovered that I needed to shift the seat he was sitting in! I finally got the car seat wrestled into the Jeep and plunked the remaining two into their seats and away we went. Wonder Twin #2 immediately began his car ride with a series of guttural "ahhhhhhhhh"s. I forgot that I missed that. Wonder Twin #1 stared at Wonder Twin #2 in amazement. Kailin chattered on independently and incessantly. Somewhere along the way, both twins fell asleep. Kailin chatted. Neither twin was ecstatic about being awoken upon our arrival.

Thankfully, I'd thought about problem #2 before we left the house. There really isn't a good cart option for a pair of 1 year olds. Kailin can walk, but the boys both need a lift. When they're a bit older, then those double carts will work well, but the harnesses aren't big enough yet and the boys are two squirmy anyway. I put Twin Two in the cart and schlepped Twin One around in the baby carrier. Not optimal, but certainly workable. I noticed that I got more than a few stares with my entourage in tow!

I got most of our stuff with little protest from the gang. Kailin got a little uppity toward the end of the trip, but she did great overall and it was indeed getting on toward lunch by the time we left. I made a big game out of going on a "mission" in search of M's. Surprise, surprise we found some, so Kailin was happy once again. She dined on her M's on the way home and helped me to pass out cheerios to the boys to keep them happy.

All in all, it wasn't bad for a first outing and I would probably do it again - although I'd install the car seat the night before and I would try to find a way to avoid going during nap time. Not sure that's possible, but it was an adventure anyway!

Last night I went and had a couple of fillings (in my wisdom teeth - they ought to be smart enough to know better, don't you think?) done and then headed to the mall to pick up the kids new portraits. After that I made a run to my sister's house to see my nephew....er....her. Ha ha. He is just so stinking cute!! I got home (late) to a house full of sleeping souls and they remained that way straight through til morning!

Tiny dancer

I have a tiny (or not so tiny) dancer on my hands. Colby is really into bopping along with whatever music is playing. It's pretty cute and I need to get it on video before it goes away.

His "ooooooo" has turned into a one syllable "uhoooooo" which I think will phase into a full fledged "uh-oh" soon. I wish I could say that "Maaa maaa maaaa" refers to me, but it means "more" instead. Oh well... ha ha. I remember that uh-oh and more were a jumping off point for Kailin's language development, so I'm excited to see if Colby's about to take the leap or if he's more of a "wade in" kind of guy. He's got the signs for hungry, thirsty, more, and all done down pat, so that has helped a ton. I'd forgotten how hard it was to have a child whose needs you aren't sure of (ie; one who cannot go on in great detail about the nature of his needs the way his sister can).

Kailin has given up "scewfdiver" and can say screwdriver now. Darn. I liked that one. Oh well....

My little man wants some lap time, so I best get going. I do have a longer post about yesterday, but it might have to wait for nap time. (Incidentally - spell check doesn't think that scewfdiver is a word! How absurd! Clearly spell check is broken..... ha ha ha)

Night owls and early birds...

So I was the night owl on Friday night. I went out with my sister-in-law, Jodi, and didn't get to bed until 1:30 - nearly unheard of for me in the recent past! Of course my early bird got me up at 5:15. Not enough sleep for me - or her. It turns out that she went to bed Friday night right on time at 6:45, but didn't actually go to sleep til after NINE!!!! Needless to say, she was NOT a happy camper on Saturday morning. So much so, that after much consideration (and taking into account that we all still have this cold going on) we decided to forgo the Cricket School end of year performance (I absolutely could not fathom forcing Kailin, in her Saturday morning state, onto the stage to be a rabbit - or to sing the Ni hao song...she barely agreed to do it when she was in a good mood!).

We went down to Steve's parents' house as planned. The kids both slept on the way down. We were looking forward to seeing our new niece, Evalyn, and spending some time with Jason and Sara as well. All was going well until Colby refused to take his nap despite being tired. We agreed to let Kailin go without her nap (despite the fact that I have previously vowed NEVER AGAIN to allow her to skip her nap) since she was having so much fun with Jason and Sara and had slept on the way down. By 5pm the kids were getting to the end of their energy ropes, so we fed them and put them in their pjs and put them in the car and headed for home. They both fell asleep and went easily into their beds when we got home. We thought we had it made. We thought WRONG.

Kailin was up screaming at 8:45. Steve went up there. She was tangled up in bed. He put her back down. She was up screaming at 9:15. I went up there. She was disoriented and out of sorts. I calmed her down and took her to the bathroom. I put her back down. She was up and in our room at 1:45 and 2:15 and 2:45 and 3:15 and 3:45 and then Steve put the doorknob thing on her door and she wailed until at least 4:30 and then I finally fell asleep. I have no idea what time she actually fell asleep, but she got up at 6:30. Unfortunately, her brother got up at 6:10, so I was up at 6:10 and didn't get a shower. My head was pounding and my neck and shoulders were stiff to the point where looking in any direction other than straight ahead was less than pleasurable. I'm not sure why that happened. At any rate, I decided that braving church with two little ones in that condition (theirs and mine!) was not probably going to result in anything good. Normally, I'd have my faithful companion by my side to support me and help me through...but my ever faithful and loving husband actually got up at 5am and went to work on Sunday so that he could stay home with me today - the first day the boys are back. What a man! He's my hero...the wind beneath my wings...the breaker of the wind...oh wait - that's a different "quality".

I hung out at home with the kids (not really - I hung out with Kailin. Colby went down for a nap at 8:30 and didn't get up until 11:45!) and then my mom came up for a visit. We had lots of fun and Kailin was thrilled to monopolize Nai nai. They blew bubbles and went down our little slide (Kailin, not my mom) and tromped around in the yard. After nap we took a drive over to visit the family I sit for (a little reacquaintance time before the old drop off today) and the kids had a blast! Dawson and Colby are only about 2 weeks apart in age and they were so cute together!! I found out that I won't have both boys back for a couple of weeks, so it should give me a good chance to adjust to the "twins" before I have a full house.

It was supposed to be pancake Sunday, but we stayed a little too long for that. The kids had peanut butter and jelly when we got home and Steve and I had frozen pizza after they went to bed. Thankfully both kids slept all the way through last night (although the early bird was up at 4:50) and we are all better for it this morning (and I am very very very thankful to have my husband home today!!).

The trials and tribulations of a two (and three quarters) year old...

This week has been an interesting one for Kailin as well.

In big news, I signed us up for Mom and Tot swim lessons last night. We'll be hitting the pool for an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays from June 16-July 16. I'm excited because I know she will love it, it'll be good Mommy and Kailin time, and I've been dying to get her into swim for almost a year now since she's such a water baby. I'm hoping that taking a class with me will help her to take a class WITHOUT me soon. Since Steve teaches on Monday nights, we'll be getting a sitter for Colby on those nights (hint hint - we're taking applications from any interested parties).

This morning she helped me unload the dishwasher and for the first time, I was able to give her some "real" dishes to put away. Usually I restrict her help to silverware and plastic bowls which she mostly just handed to me to put away. She reveled in her promotion and it was nice to have the help. My baby sure has grown since we brought her home two years ago this month!

The phrase of the week has been, "Mom, I love you and I missed you!" anytime we are apart for more than 5.5 seconds. It warms my heart and makes me laugh at the same time. I'm not sure when the transformation from mama or mommy came, but I'm Mom most of the time now. That makes me giggle a little bit, too. I feel a little like a character on a certain soap opera (which I won't name, but suffice it to say that Marlena has had glowing green eyes and now has a name that looks something like Marlena Evans Brady Evans Black Brady Black Evans Dimera Black Brady....or something like that) who left her toddler home and went on her honeymoon and returned to a teenager! Kailin sure has grown up this past month - whether it is perceived or real. She's got such big girl ideas now.

I snapped the shots in this post this week and wasn't trying at all to set them up or capture the light or - I had the camera out and turned it on her and snapped. I think I can honestly say that my daughter has none of the unphotogenic qualities of her mother. That girl makes a good photo no matter what she does!!

I'm hoping that as these weeks wear on, things are feeling more normal in her life and that they will continue to improve to a point where she can entirely be herself again. I think she's done remarkably well with all the change, but she does still struggle with sharing our attention. I hope that as we go on she'll find a good balance and I won't have to feel so much like she gets the lion's share of our negative attention and the lamb's share of the praise. I've caught her being sweet to her brother lots of times this week and made sure to tell her how happy and proud that makes me, so I hope that has reinforced things for her. She is doing lots better as time goes on, so I know we're making strides in the right direction. I can't wait to see what next week will bring us!

The thrills and chills of a teething toddler (with a cold)...

The week in review.... (the pictures pretty much capture the mood this week - just barely acceptable or downright ugly... poor little guy! The last picture is my favorite. He is into making the O sound and he makes the tiniest little o with his mouth and then says "OH........." and I was dying to get it before it was gone!)

"Heads together", I'm a little (oh fine, now I'm losing adjectives!! I thought it was just nouns! What's the word for when you have mixed feelings about something.....not confused, but I swear it starts with con...probably not -ooh, after finishing this paragraph it came to me - CONFLICTED!)_____ about. It used to be a favorite game (of his, not always of mine) and has gone by the wayside in favor of pointing at random objects and saying "uh?" The objects are random to me - not to him. Should you fail to correctly identify the object (which is not always located in the house - might be that he's pointing outside at something you can't even walk up to), the pointing and "uh" will continue until you succeed. Part(s) of me (the bruised and battered ones) aren't so sad to see Heads Together move along, but another part of me (my mommy heart, I think) is sad to see that in just 4 short weeks he's already grown into a new phase in his life.

He is surely growing even more comfortable here and letting us see the real, true blue Colby more often. He's still a good sleeper and he still loves to make us laugh, but he's also a people pleaser. He delights in it, but it is not his driving force. He is an obedient child for the most part - more so than I'd expect from a 15 month old. He tries to be obedient even when it doesn't suit him, but forcing your hand if he declines will usually result in an unsavory reaction from the little man. ha ha. He is a tender boy most of the time and loves to snuggle with us (or his blankie). Balls are a favorite toy and climbing, plowing into, (as of yesterday) jumping on, crawling through...mark some of his favorite activities - he is ALL boy!

He's already learned several baby signs and (I'll live to regret this...Kailin taught me that!) I hope his verbal responses will follow soon. His comprehensive English is quite good considering he's not been hearing it for long, so that's helpful. I think his urge to investigate and problem solve probably help us tons in this respect.

I've felt bad for him this week as he is getting the wicked incisors and then was socked with a cold on top of it. Poor guy! He's not been eating well this week. I think in the earlier part of the week it was due to cold symptoms and lack of appetite. Later in the week, I think it was teeth. Yesterday it pained me to see him refuse cheerios in the morning. He'd put one in his mouth and then reach in and remove it again. It was clear that he was hungry, so I ended up giving him baby food and yogurt for breakfast. By noon things must have calmed down a bit in his mouth and for dinner he was back to eating several portions worth of veggies and pasta with chicken, so I knew he was on the mend in all respects. This morning he's been able to actually breathe through his nose again most of the time, so he was able to drink a bottle in less than 47 minutes for the first time all week! Progress for both of us. I've noticed less drool these past couple of days, so I'm hoping those dumb teeth are almost ready to pop and we can get entirely back to a normal (and dryer) life!