The Great Outdoors

It finally feels like spring out there!  We've been spending our afternoons outdoors this week and it's been GLORIOUS!  I've even been giving them their snack on the deck on a cute little picnic table:

 We've been going for walks in our new neighborhood and discovering the many playgrounds hidden within.  When we stroll by, M asks, "play? Play? Play?"  then N pipes up, "Play?"  A bit later on our stroll, when we roll by another one, he asks, "play 'gain? play 'gain?"  They just can't get enough!

 There's just enough slope in this area for the guys to push their cozy coupes up the grass, then ride them down the sidewalk on the other side of the little pine tree.  They love this game and will play it for hours! okay, minutes - but it seems like hours!

Maybe someday he'll try out for the Twins!  And what's cuter than 2 little boys at a picnic table?  4 little boys, of course!  Our best buds came over for fun in the great outdoors yesterday - until it downpoured! 

We are all so happy for sunshine and warmer weather!  It couldn't come soon enough - welcome, spring!

Uncle?

Last summer, I made a Shutterfly book with pictures of all of our extended family members so that the boys could see all of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins whenever they wanted.  I thought this was such a stroke of genius! 

While I sometimes believe that my boys are also geniuses, yesterday I determined that they are not.  Because we picked up this "Trucks" book at a garage sale over the weekend and for some reason they think "construction worker," the guy who drives the bulldozer, is named "Uncle." 

Neither my brother nor any of my brothers-in-law work construction!  By they're pretty sure this guy is their uncle.  Go figure.

Good News! Bath Night!

I found my phone!  It wasn't lost long, but I have a terrible habit of misplacing it when it's on vibrate, I'm alone, and it's nighttime. 

I received my new bedding!  I've never had a problem ordering anything from Amazon, but I didn't realize I was buying this item from a vendor selling through Amazon, so (dun-dun-dun) it took a MONTH for the right item to arrive, complicated of course by the fact that I MOVED during that period!  

AND, I found my camera's charger!  You, poor readers, have been paying the price all month because I've taken no new pictures.  Once it was charged, I took pics of our first activity - bath night.  My boys get a bath every other night whether they need it or not (they always do).  Just eating they get dirty!  If you look closely I think you can see guacamole under M's nose - or it could be a booger.  Either way, they were really funny tonight in the tub.  Here are my little hams:

N's curls rinsed out - look how long his hair is!

N's curls, before the wash

Cutie Patootie Peeking N

Smiley M - I think he looks so big here!

Blue, green, red, blue...choo! Choo!

No, red, then, green, then blue

Okay, N, but I'll make it two blues.

Whatever.

Chip!

Last week, I made sloppy joes and served them with green beans and potato chips.  I love this dish because it's a homemade recipe that everyone likes and it's the perfect excuse to open a bag of kettle chips.  However, I made the grievous error of actually placing potato chips on the plates at the beginning of the meal - with the sandwich and vegetables, the way a normal person might choose to plate a meal.

N, my little eater, is quite good at picking up table manners, surprisingly.  He wasn't so much in the beginning:

March 2010: avacado!

He everything equally: some meat, some bread, a chip, some veggies, drink of milk, start again...basically.

M is a bit more...shall we say...focused?

He ate one chip, two chips, three chips, then...
"Chip?
"Eat your joe and your green beans first," we replied.
"Mo?  Mo chip?"
"No, eat your sloppy joe and drink your milk," we repeated.
"Mo chip? Chip? Chip? Chip? Chip? Chip? Mo chip?"
We ignore this, and praise N for eating his sandwich and green beans.
"CHIP?  CHIP?!"  Here is where he decided that we most certainly ARE deaf and resorts to the sign language that I taught him last year, repeating louder and with the "more" sign:
"MO CHIP?  PEEESE?  MO CHIP?!  MO CHIP?!  PEEESE!!"

Here's where I have a flashback of a lactation consultant helping me with nursing twins say (about M, of course), "He's escalating."  No kidding, Sherlock.

"CHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPCHIP!!!!!PEEAASE?!CHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPS"

Hubs and I make eye contact across the table, and we smirk.  This is actually getting quite funny because we both know that we cannot back down now, that we cannot give him a chip and therefore teach him that this is the way to behave to get what you want.
"CHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPCHIP!!!!!PEEAASE?!CHIPCHIPCHIPCHIPCHIP!!!!!"

"Okay, you're done.  You're going to time out." One of us gets up to wipe off his hands and end his meal.

And what did he find under the sandwich at just that moment?

A chip.  One lonely chip.

M gobbled it and with his mouth full and smiling said, "Chip!"

I love chips!

 

"You've Got a Friend in Me"

The boys' first warm outdoor afternoon two weeks ago.  They LOVE their new backyard and were missing it terribly today!

Weee Ooooh Weee Ooooh!

Pick up a plastic egg, pop the jellybean in your mouth, toss shell aside, repeat as fast as possible.  That was how our Easter egg hunt in the backyard went yesterday.  It lasted all of about 7 minutes, until we heard

"AaaaaOOOOOOgaaahhhh!"

There was a 1930's era fire engine going down our street, filled with kids in the back.

No kidding!

So we stopped our egg hunt - it was over, anyway, and went to introduce ourselves to our new neighbor.  Who just so happens to own the very same engine!  Who hurried the four of us aboard as he loaded up another batch of grandkids.

We'd literally said only hello and told them our names before we were swept away on an Easter afternoon fire engine ride!  Hubs and I were holding onto the fellas for dear life, laughing, and shaking our heads.  What just happened?  Who is this guy driving us around the block?  Is this thing road-worthy?  Oh, well, his grandkids are back here with us, so it must be safe, right?

The Easter Bunny in our new town drives a fire engine!

Welcome Home

I'm back online finally!  We've learned that the house is wired so that I can only have my computer in one of two places: Hubs' office or the kitchen counter.  So now that we've moved in together (hee, hee) and split wires, I have my desktop dinosaur back up and running!  The flip side is that I'll only have access to it when the boys are sleeping.  That's not all bad - if I didn't have enough to keep me busy before, I certainly do now with more rooms to clean!

Astonishingly, we are closing in on two weeks in our new house.  Here we are opening the door with the boys the first day:

We had lots of friends and some family on hand to help us with the move.  A thousand thanks to you all for your love and muscles!  We couldn't have done it without you. 

The playroom is currently my favorite room in the house!  The weather has been pretty chilly since we got here, so we've been spending our hours down in the basement.  Above, you'll see my sons demonstrating how to play quietly and individually!  It doesn't last long, but it's heavenly while it does! 

We did have one nice day, and since they tasted the freedom of the backyard, they've been begging to go "oussigh?"  The cozy coupes arrived safely and will be well loved again this year.

We are going to go with a "rocketship" theme in the boys' room because this is what their bedroom has!  A giant hand-painted rocket!  There are stars, too, and a smaller one on another wall.  Of course we chose this room for them and I can't wait to put the rest of it together. 

There is so much more to tell you and so many stories of the boys and how they love exploring their new house and how they are finding so much trouble together!  But first,I wanted to send you a couple of pics and a little love to tell you that we are alive and well and enjoying the blessing of our new house together.