Summer Days

There really is nowhere to start. At a birthday party this weekend, a grandmother said,"Oh my gosh, Carla, it never stops!" Yes, she was referring to my children. However, right now, it is my whole life. Between a one year old boy, a two year old boy, music class, T-Ball, pediatrician visits, visitors, sewing for my children, sewing for other people's children, two theatre boards, Spencer deciding he doesn't want to sleep by himself, rehearsing for a play, being a supportive cook of my husband's smashing Paleo diet, laundry that multiplies itself, picking up toys, and hit or miss naps...it never stops! I am officially overwhelmed. Yesterday, I tried to microwave Spencer's lunch by putting it in the freezer. I have decided that something has to go. I voted the laundry and cooking, but I am not sure that is the realistic choice. The good news is that my little cherubs have decided to be little buddies. Like all brothers, there are still hourly scuffles and tears and complaints, but overall they are best friends. In the midst of the chaos, this brings a lot of peace. Here are a few brotherly moments:

We were at a party recently where a bigger boy who shall remain nameless hit and pushed Spencer and told him to get out of the way. Joey and I were talking about this on the way home when we hear from the backseat.

Alden: "[Boy] should not have hit Spencer. He is a baby and you don't hit babies!"

We decide to give a little lesson on taking turns and how the boy should have waited his turn and been patient instead of pushing Spencer. Then...

Mom: "It was so sweet of you to take care of Spencer and be a good big brother."

Alden (angry): "I'm not going to take care of Spencer. I am going to take care of [Boy]!"

Protective brother strikes again a few days later. We are in the kitchen together making dinner. I turn to the stove for that 30 seconds that somehow expands into a massive amount of time for a one year old to find trouble. If only I could accomplish as much in one turn of the head as two little boys! All of a sudden I hear:

Alden: "Oh, no! Mommy! Spencer has a knife. Knives hurt babies!"

Little man had figured out how to open the dishwasher, which was closed and locked, and retrieved a rather large knife that he was planning on carrying around the kitchen. Proud of brother for telling, proud of brother for knowing that we should not touch knives because they are dangerous, and realized we are back to hand-washing all the sharp objects since the dishwasher is now a danger area.

Now, Alden is not all love and support around here. Spencer has also been locked in the closet, closed in the dog cage, locked in the bathroom, bitten, forbidden from playing with any of Alden's toys (by Alden), put in time out (by Alden), pushed, tattled on, trapped in an upside down laundry basket, and water-boarded in the bathtub. This makes me more referee than Mom at times. My absolute favorite of late was this: Alden running to me whining and screaming: "Spencer is watching my T.V. show!"

Now, it did not surprise me when we did not want little brother to play with our toys, but I think this is a bit ridiculous.

We have finally joined the pool. This is the best thing I have ever done in my life! Spencer loves to float, and Alden has a great time jumping and pretty much playing in one foot of water so I don't have to worry about him at all. Not bad to just have to stand in cool water in the 96 degree weather and hang with the boys. Added bonus, they are completely worn out after a mere hour of sun and water which guarantees afternoon naps!

Alden has discovered water fountains. He loves them. We visit every water fountain we can possibly find wherever we go. I am learning to block out the germ factor and just indulge him.

Alden went swimming with the sharks! No, really. We went to see the sting rays and the sharks at the science museum. He is really a little nervous about actually petting them even though he always wants to see them and is an expert on proper handling/petting of wild animals. But, on that particular day, he got really brave and put his two little fingers in that little pool just as the shark swam by. Unfortunately, it was a little bit harder to reach than he thought and he leaned over a little bit more than he thought. Head first he went! He was in total shock for a few seconds. Everyone, I mean everyone, is looking at us. Then, he starts screaming that his skin hurts. Screaming! We make it to the bathroom and strip off his shirt and try to wash him off with flimsy brown paper towels and sink water. He is out of control crying and screaming and it suddenly comes to me to say,"Hey, Buddy, do you want to go to the gift shop and buy a new t-shirt?" This seemed to fix things. We got a lot more looks as we made our way to the gift show with a half-naked, wet child. He picked out this Octopus shirt from the sale table...and it glows in the dark!

This was a much better choice though than this ensemble. This is what happens when all of your friends are girls. I am surprised he put it on. He is very into boy vs. girl toys and colors these days and tells me all the time things he can't play with or watch because it is "for girls." Everything that is pink or has ballerinas he tells me is "for Helen because I am a boy."

Yep. He is a boy. Clearly.

More boy things: T-Ball. Alden attends T-Ball games. I wouldn't actually say that he plays T-Ball. The more the season goes on, the worse it gets. Alden is the one in the very back of the photo crouching down and picking through the dirt. That is pretty much what he does. The good news about this photo is that it seems that everyone else is board with the whole thing as well. These are the outfielders while the other team is batting.

This gives you a better picture. This is during the same game. Yes, during the game.

All that sitting in the baseball field must have made him hungry. There are two issues we are having that are demonstrated in this photo: Alden's fascination with snacking and his fascination with the step stool. First, he won't eat meals. He just wants to have snacks all day long. And they have to be in the blue bowls. He has deemed the red bowls are Spencer's and he will not eat out of them. If you don't get him a snack, he will sneak into the kitchen and make his own (with blue bowl). This is not something you want him to do. If you tell him he can't have something, he will fake cry and say,"I have a tummy ache." In his world, the tummy ache gets him sweets, gatorade, more of anything, and the ability to stay up as long as he wants. To get his snacks, he often uses the step-stool. Or just to randomly "wash dishes" whenever he felt like it. It got so bad that the step-stool had to disappear. The problem is that our cabinets were built for an amazon woman and now I can't reach anything! I do a lot of jumping these days.

Speaking of food, Joey has the whole family on the Paleo Diet. Basically, this means meat, fruit, veggies...no grains, pasta, dessert, bread. Um, really? We have two toddlers and we are eliminating pasta and bread! So, here is their first Paleo lunch. Turkey, cheese, and avocado. The fruit and cashew nuts were eaten before I could get a photo. They actually like it for the most part! We took them out to eat the other day and got them a sandwich. Without any prompting or comments from Mom or Dad, they both took the bread off and threw it away and ate the meat and cheese alone. It was weird.

Spencer preferred to wear it.

This is what we do with all the left-over bread.

But it is exhausting buying groceries.

Well, we cheated a little at Krispy Kreme. But only because Helen wanted to.

Now, for our random moments of fun. Alden thinks that this is a stop sign because it is an octagon. He runs out in the front yard and yells, "STOP!" to all the cars and buses.

After three weeks in a row of birthday parties, it was Wolfie's turn.

Blessings! Spencer has started to love books. The difference between Alden and him is still very vast when it comes to reading. He likes to flip the pages more than actually see what is on them. His favorite books are ones that have the touch-and-feel portion or are around cars and trucks. He doesn't like books about animals at all. Even though my boys are total opposites right now, I love that both of them are willing to cuddle before bed with a good book.

Sweet curls.

Alden dressed as Daddy ready for work with his Wall Street Journal. He wore the tie all day including to the shoe store...where he lost it. It took a return trip, four random children, two employees, and the three of us to figure out where he had put it.

Ready for Baseball!

One morning, Joey randomly woke up and wanted to take a trip. We went to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. Really fun to just get up and decide to go on a whim.

Sparked a whole new interest in Alden. The timing was interesting...they were studying space in summer Mother's Day Out...Alden is all into "spacemen"...and they cancelled the space program. Hum.

Naps have returned...for the most part...Amen! Know how? If you drive them around in the car for a while, like when they were newborns, they fall asleep and can be carried to bed. You know, whatever works, right?

Alden's first drawing that actually looks like something. It is a man in case it doesn't look like something to you. We are working on our name. We have made it through A-L-D, but we are stuck there. The curve of the D is a little challenging. He keeps making P's. He is so proud of his A's. He wants to show everyone and always says he wants to practice his A before bed. I will try to get a photo for the next post. Maybe by then we will be on E!

Mr. Chill

Life in Pictures

My camera is broken. I am not happy about this. Mainly because it was a nice camera that was a gift and I am pretty sure that my significant other is not in the mood to buy a new one right now. So, I have had to rely on my iPhone for photos. There are, therefore, a tremendous lack of photos around here. Well, comparatively. So, these are some snaps from the phone from who knows when this Spring/Summer that tell more of a story of our lives than I thought.

You got a little taste of pajama boy in the last blog. Here is the photo to prove it. Yes, these are Christmas pajamas. He loves his Christmas pajamas, and of course as you might guess, he has to pick out his pajamas "All by myself!" It is really not worth a screaming fit to worry about red and green long sleeves in July. In fact, we do not wear short sleeve pajamas at all. That is really unfortunate since that is all they sell in little boy pajamas in the South in the Summer when it is 90 degrees! If you dare to put short sleeves on him, he cries and tugs at them and says, "They won't come down! They won't come down!" This might be followed by,"Wolfie doesn't like this shirt." Love the displacement of blame. Oh, please note the best part. They are on backwards because, yes, you guessed it, "I want to do it all by myself!" Again, is it really worth the battle to turn it around? Nope.

This photo also tells the story of the drawers. There is no way to put a safety latch on the kitchen drawers in my house. Not that it matters because they just take them off anyway and get into whatever they want. But, for some reason, they love this drawer. Every single day, both boys at the same or alternating times, love to take everything out of the drawer and drop it on the floor. And what do I do? I pick it up. Love how I am teaching them zero personal responsibility by making them clean it up themselves and totally condemning their future wives to a lifetime of exasperation over their lack of appreciation for drawer organization. Needless to say, it does house their bowls and snack cups so I guess they can take it out all day long if they want. It used to house the syringes we use to give Spencer his medicine, but after about sixty to one hundred sixty times of picking up 20 pieces of multiple 5ml syringe parts off the kitchen floor, I finally got the brilliant idea to move them. You know what? They never touch any other drawers in the kitchen. There are nine of them! A strange but very convenient habit I suppose.

Mr. Merry Christmas has also learned to open all the doors in the house. Joey left for work this morning around 8:00. By 8:30, I texted him that we needed to install more chain locks to the tops of the doors. He has all sorts of excuses for going outside. Sometimes he needs to get something from the garage (never a good sign), sometimes it is because Lucy is in need of food or water (it took me 45 minutes to pick the 5 lbs. of dog food out of the mortar between the bricks the other day), he needs to check on Reese's Pieces (more about that later), or some random task that now involves turning on the water hose incessantly. Luckily, we have the "beep, beep, beep" alarm that alerts me to his little escapes. Note that he does not listen at all anymore so standing at the door and yelling threats of what will happen if he does not get in the house does nothing. You should hear what I come up with. I got so desperate the other day I shouted, "Wolfie will have to go in the dryer!" What does that even mean??? He had been upset by some commercial for washing machines earlier in the day that involved washing a stuffed animal. Clearly, he saw my bluff because he kept running. The only way to get him back in is to chase him down and carry his 30-something pound tushie back in... and directly to time out.

Summer = Desperation. There are so many hours in a day. There are just so many. Some days more than others. Those days with more hours are also days when you don't have Mother's Day Out for weeks and weeks. You know it is bad when you decide one day to get in the car and drive 30 miles just so you can play in your mother's backyard because it is bigger and has different toys...and they are not even at home! Yep, I did that. Then, we broke into her house and "borrowed" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Now, I went because I was thinking that it would be a place where the boys could run and play and just go wherever and I could sit back and relax.

A whole yard and Spencer finds the damn stairs! We could have stayed home for this and saved gas.

What really is great is when you have other parents who are also running out of things to do with toddlers when it is already too hot to play outside and you have already gone through every toy in the house twenty times. Then, you just do the same things at someone else's house and it seems all new again! Love that trick. But, everything is better with a friend, right?

Naps. Oh my oh my oh my oh my! Naps. I hate nap time. Why? Because it is the sequel to the movie War of the Worlds. Do you know that Alden is sick everyday? Yep. He is so sick that he can't nap. He dramatically coughs (no comments about where he got the dramatic part from) and tells me he needs to "spit up." I tell him if he is sick then he should get some rest. He says that is ridiculous because you can't sleep when you are sick! Mommy is so silly! Really? I can't wait to go and visit the doctor for our three year check-up and ask her what to do when you are sick? Yes, I do want to prove that I am right to a three year old. After books and begging for more books and going potty and lullabies and stories...then he messes around for thirty minutes...then he has to be let out to go potty again where he wants to sit and read a book for a little while. Then, the battle continues. I am making it sound mild here. It really is just parent torture. Exhausting. So, you are feeling all smug and thinking that he is ready to give up his nap and I need to accept that? Nope. This is what happens (see above) the second you give up and decide to go and do something. This child will jump, shake his head, sing, talk, and poop just to try to keep himself awake. I swear he has trained himself to poop at exactly thirty minutes into nap time everyday. Just to challenge me.

I don't really know what this is about, but it was just hilarious that he got the whole ensemble correct. And that we stood up on top of the fireplace to show it off. This is my BOY. Trucks, construction, and dogs. That is all in the world that excites him.

Okay, so sad news. One morning, Joey informs me that one of our koi has gone to a big fish pond in the sky. Oh, sad, I think we lost little Sal may he rest in peace. No need to tell Alden. A fluke, right? Wrong. I had a babysitter that afternoon. As soon as I come home, she informs me that one of the fish is "sleeping" in the koi pond and that Alden wants me to wake him up. Whoops! So, now he knows Glennie has bitten the dust. I text Joey who replies, "What the hell!" The whole house goes into emergency mode. I now have to confess to Alden that Glennie is indeed dead. Then, I try to explain dead by saying that Glennie went to be with Jesus. This was very confusing because it was followed by a series of, "Why?" questions. As this was our first brush with death, I thought, oh, no, the rest of his life depends on this moment and what I say. Not so much. I finally just give up and tell him that Daddy is going to fix it. So, Alden gets on the phone to Daddy shouting, "It's an emergency! It's an emergency! Glennie is sick. Come and help her!" Yep, she is pretty sick and about to go to the landfill hospital. BUT, Daddy, who has already left work at the text, shows up with the Fish Doctor (this is for real)...and a bag of new koi. We try to convince Alden that the new koi, who is like 1/8th the size of Glennie, is Glennie all better. Now, anyone ever met my child? He did not buy this for one second but sort of just agreed to go along with it and look at us like we had lost our minds. Unfortunately, Mookie is missing at this point. Fish Doctor finds the corps under a rock. Determination: Death by Daddy putting too much tap water in the fish pond because he forgot to turn off the hose last night. Know what Daddy guilt is?Joey just blurts out, "I'll get you a turtle!" And so, since he dug the hole, had had to leave work early again the next day to get...

Reese's Pieces. (He is on the rock. It is kind of like Where's Waldo to find him) I asked Alden what he wanted to name the turtle. He said something along the lines of wabgagokooka. This is what he always does when you ask him to name something. Just makes up some nonsense word as if he has never heard a name in his life. He did this for a month at Christmas with the Elf until finally he suddenly announced his name was Sam. Same here. After a few minutes thinking in the tub (isn't that the best place to think?), he said he wanted to name him Reese's Pieces because that is what E.T. eats. Alden Joe has never had that candy in his life, or seen it, but that is what he named our turtle. He checks on him day and night. We have a spotting every now and again, but mostly Reese's Pieces just lives under the rocks with Robert Redford. Yep, you got it. I was reading the Robert Redford biography and Alden caught on. He told Joey that that was Mommy's friend. It just so happened that we got a bunch of new fish that week and he named one Robert Redford.

Alden was so excited to go to his first T-Ball game ever. We were all set and he was talking a mile a minute about his glove and his bat. We drove up to the ballpark and guess what? No one was there. Mommy had the wrong date. Well, in my defense, they cancelled practice and I didn't know it, but still, I was the worst Mommy in the world. He just walked on that empty field with the most pitiful look on your face you have ever seen and burst into tears. I told him I would get him ice cream and he told me no. He said he wanted baseball. I finally got him in the car and took him to get the ice cream of all ice creams to make up for my guilt. His one tiny serving of vanilla with two gummy bears that he usually gets turned into a cup full topped with all the gummy bears he wanted, brownie, chocolate syrup, and three kinds of fruit. He did forget about it for the moment, but this is what I hear all the time, "Mommy, remember when you messed up and no boys and girls were at T-Ball?" Every time I get him dressed to go he reminds me.

He did get to play eventually. He is the youngest on his team. Basically, this means that Joey has to play T-Ball as well because all I hear from Daddy is, "He doesn't listen!" He wants to play batter and right fielder at the same time. He hits the ball and no matter how much you shout go to first base, he runs after the ball to bring it back to the coach. Joey practiced with him though and he actually made it to first base a couple of times this week. Of course, he joined another little boy who refused to leave first base, but we only care that Alden followed the rules. I think that he spends most of his time being redirected to appropriate places. He can hit though! And shout out to Mom who has now found out she can as well. I have been dying to go to the bating cages, but asked Joey to throw me a few in the front yard and was able to knock them out...with a T-Ball bat, but hey, still better than I was in high school P.E.

Not all messes in this house start with "A." Spencer is finding a way to do his share. This is how my life works. Trying to cook dinner. Alden hauls off to the bathroom removing every piece of clothing as he goes. Spencer sees the opportunity to climb the blasted stairs and babble his way through the kitchen. Mom gets Alden securely on the toilet and goes to shut baby gates to kitchen thinking Spencer will be safe because she hears, "Mommy! Come wipe my bottom!" Lovely. While I am doing this, I hear screaming. Spencer screams at every little bump, so I complete my task and go and check on him while Alden is telling me to put his clothes back on. No yelling, "I'm cold! I'm cold!" I then see an open oven door. See screaming baby. Did not take my masters degree to figure out that now Spencer is suddenly able to open up oven doors and tried to check on dinner for me. All in a matter of seconds I tell you. Spencer now goes with us to the bathroom.

Spencer had his 15 month GI visit. Looks like we are hanging on to the medicine and the pacifier. We had a trial of stopping just one medicine, and it was not good. We had a trial day of no medicine at all and it was even worse. The baby who is never fussy suddenly became absolutely pitiful. So, medicine is back. Dr. King also tells us that the paci is the only thing that makes him feel better...that and food. We wondered why he eats so much. The doctor says that eating makes him feel better because he is swallowing. He has moved from the 10% to the 50% in three months! Although he is still in a good weight range, he said that we had to not worry about the judgement of having a big kid with a paci or we would just have big kid period. It is the paci or too much food which will make the reflux worse. So, you will continue to see Spencer and his best friend. If you don't like it, then you can live with him without it (Those were Dr. King's words).

Alden loved playing in the kid pool at Helen's house, so I thought I would get him one. I went to the very scary Wal-Mart alone at night to buy a big plastic one only to not have it fit in my car and then wait in the very scary late night return line at customer service to get my money back. I found an inflatable pool that I thought would work great. Blowing up this thing with a bicycle pump while your kids were already inside it was just how I needed to start of my morning. It wasn't 30 minutes later, while still int the midst of some strange desire to use tools and complete DIY projects, I was putting together the See-Saw when Alden decided to use the needle-nose pliers to cut a hole in the pool. He just came right over and said, "I cut a hole in the pool." Well, great. With a duct tape patch, we did enjoy Alden taking the hose out of the pool to be a fireman instead of filling it up and Spencer standing outside the pool and staring at it for a full hour before it deflated under the duct tape patch.

And there you go. Feels good to air our dirty laundry.

Happy Birthday

Yes, we are officially three years old! Here's hoping that three is the end of the terrible two's. For those of you who want to tell me that three is worse, just please don't tell me.

I will say that three years old started out with a bang. Alden was so excited that he was having a dinosaur party at McWane. He picked it out himself way back in February and never wavered that that was indeed the celebration of choice. Paleontologist Alden, pictured here, knew the names of every dinosaur during the dinosaur exhibition by the McWane staff. At least three of the kids actually listened. I think that was about all out of the 16 that were there.

Including my child who was not even on the correct side of the room.

The academics.

Not to worry, everyone was very interested when it came to the cake!

None as much as Spencer. We put the cake down in front of Alden to blow out his candles. Spencer did not understand at all why the cake was then taken away by the party coordinator. The baby had a meltdown. His love of food is truly out of control. I pacified him with his milk for a few minutes, but he demanded not one but TWO big kid size cake slices. He then proceeded to throw up later that day. Excellent.

He, then climbed inside a mushroom.

And tackled his brother.

It just seemed easier to give Spencer to Grumps for the day who became his personal buddy.

Pretty soon....

Alden loved bringing his whole family to his favorite place to play. I don't think I ever even saw him after we left the party room because he had so many people to entertain. It was great because most of his friends stayed to play and all sort of migrated to one place together.

We told Alden that we would leave and get him pizza and Sunny D at Dave's pizza with all of his grandparents. But, no. He seriously could not be talked into anything except the food court at McWane Center. You know, it is one of those things were we did it one day and so now we have to do it every single time we go.

A very blessed child!

So, did I say that Alden turned 3 at McWane. I lied. It was not actually his birthday. When your birthday is on Memorial Day weekend, you have to have your party early. So, for his REAL birthday, our little family went to the park for a picnic and to play.

Spencer in meditation.

Alden taking in the beauty of nature.

Enough quiet time. We found sprinklers!

Yes, those were new shoes.

Alden was actually and honestly shocked that he was wet when it was all over. Go figure.

His birthday present from Mom and Dad. Please don't tell him this, but guess what? They had one kid's one-size-fits-all helmet at the store. Guess who it didn't fit? We have to go shopping for bigger helmets...

It was a day of what boys and boy mamma's do best. Cars...

Trains...

And, of course, baseball.

Happy Birthday Alden! At 3, he is energetic, happy, and one of the most observant and insightful people I know. He loves to cuddle on the couch, cook, play ball, Toy Story, trains, and Wolfie Dog Dog. He can get himself dressed, even if he always puts his clothes on backwards, and can work puzzles better than his parents. He is unbelievable social and talks to anyone and everyone who will listen. Yes, he sings and loves the theatre and I am just fine with that. He thinks T-Ball is super cool and can bat left-handed. He has a mind like a steel trap and never lets you forget anything you did wrong! We still love animals and the zoo more than anything in the world except maybe reading books. He would stay in his pajamas all day if we let him and declares that, "He does not like these clothes" everyday before his nap so he can put his pajamas back on. His favorite question is, "Why?" If he doesn't think anyone is listening, he will quietly tell his little brother that he loves him and that "you are my best buddy." But, most importantly, he never lets us forget that, "He is a big boy! He is NOT a baby."