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.

Surprise Guest

Grandpa A and his big red rig rolled through our town yesterday!  Being a trucker, you'd think he'd come this way more often, but that is just not the case.  Daddy also had the day off, so we made a day of it.  First Daddy and the boys went to pick Grandpa up from the truck stop nearby.  They even got to climb in the cab and blow the horn!  M liked it but, N - not so much.

Grandpa A with the boys and his big red rig

The four of us had already planned to see the Macy's display together, and this time, stop to see Santa, so Grandpa just came right along with us.  The fellas love, love, love the animated elves - there's an Elfin school, singing forest, Santa's workshop, Reindeer flight school - you name it!  They, however, felt quite differently when we got to see the big red man. 

They freaked.

That's putting it mildly.  *Sigh* 

I'm sure they thought the best part of the day was when Grandpa produced two big semi-truck toys for the boys.  In fact, I know it.  M hollered all the way out to the van when we left for Macy's, and only relaxed when Grandpa retrieved a cab for him to play with on the ride.  Whew!

It was a Monday full of surprises: Grandpa, semi-trucks, Daddy home, and Santa.  That last one was not a nice surprise, after all, I guess.  We have plans to meet him again on Saturday at the Multiples club Christmas party.  However, I am lowering my expectations.  There will probably not be a cute Santa-and-kids-pic this year.  At least, not a smiling one!

Blabbermouths and Yesterday's Pics

RRRRR!  Cement Truck!

(in a baby British accent) Ouch!  Charlie!  He bit me!  And it really hurts!

Charle Bit Me You Tube Video

I know that this is NOT the way the biting incident went down in the nursery yesterday, but if you've never seen the Charlie Bit Me You Tube Video, I promise you'll laugh today!  And N's wound is already healing - I doubt we'll be able to see it by Friday.  You can see the mark above his left eye.  And hopefully N and Biter will be at peace because we'll be seeing him every Tuesday.  My sister reminded me of that after she read the blog last night and told me that my niece was bitten by a Biter at her daycare for months!  Aaah! 

Hubs and I were talking this morning about the funny stuff the guys are "saying," so I thought I'd share what's coming from the blabbermouths:


Both guys LOVE pointing to the airplanes that fly overhead (we're in the "path" for the runway at MSP) and go, "ooh, ooh!" and I tell them, that plane is landing at the airport where Daddy works.  They both do an over-exaggerated "all done" sign when they're finished eating and I swear I heard one of them say "all done," the other day.
N says:
"Mo?" and makes the "more" sign
and "Eeee?" making the "eat" sign
he taps his head to make the "night night" sign and makes a fist for the "milk" sign  
"nnnnnnn" with a point to his nose is, of course, nose
"whuuu, whuuu" (really low!) is "woof, woof" for doggy
of course "Ma Ma," and "Da Da" for us
N folds his hands when we say grace at meals and our bedtime prayers

M is a real chatterbox!
"Mo?" and "Eeee?" (really high!) are two of his favorite words and signs as well. 
He mastered Ma Ma and Da Da as well
He also makes the milk sign and adds
"nye nye" to the  night night sign 
"nnnn" for nose as well as
"whuu whuu" for doggy
But he's expanding his vocabulary.  He says "choo choo" for every train-like thing he sees!
Truck seems to be "RRRRR" or "Whoa!" Either way, he's quite impressed.
M says "Ayen" when we say "Amen" after grace and bedtime prayers!

Snips, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails

That's what little boys are made of.

Yesterday I was marveling at how my babies really are boys.  They are fascinated by every truck that goes by, and make "woah," "oooh," and "rrrrrrr" sounds when they see them drive by or play with their truck toys.  How do they know how to do that? 

Since I've been reading "Bringing Up Boys" by Dr. James Dobson, I've been a little more thoughtful about being a mother to boys lately, too.  So when we were loading up to leave and the cement truck was in our neighbor's driveway, instead of ignoring it, I took it as an opportunity to let the boys watch men work.  We sat on the steps and watched the cement being poured.

Then on our walk yesterday, a little toadish looking frog was hopping across the path.  Rather than ignore it, I stopped and picked it up to show them.  M got a hold of it and put it to his lips!  Not to be outdone, N did the same!  I told them that God made frogs, too - we'd been talking (I'd been talking) about how God made the trees and how they change in the fall.  I was about to tell them we don't eat God's creation, but stopped - because we do!  So I just said frogs aren't for eating.  I wasn't going to mention that frog's legs are a delicacy in some places.

The frog and the cement truck are things that I wouldn't have stopped to look at even a couple weeks ago.  But the fellas aren't babies anymore and they let me know all day every day that they are boys.

Today was another example.

N got bit.

Yep, in the church nursery.  By another boy.  I should have known it was going to happen someday, but I've yet to see either of my sons try to bite each other or anyone else.  (Except for the one time N chomped down on Daddy's special parts....and then when he was nursing....so perhaps there are tendencies, but....anyhow...)

Fortunately, he was the bitEE, not the bitER, and the other mom and I were able to exchange apologies and forgiveness.  N is just 16 months old, so does he even understand what happened?  I explained to him that what the boy did was not nice, but that when someone does something wrong to us, Jesus teaches us we need to forgive them.  Then I took him with me into Mom's Group and fed him a banana and juice.  All was forgiven, it seems, after that...and some Peekaboo Barn game on my phone.

(I've tried 3 times to upload pics for this entry, but for some reason, I can't get it.  I hate technical difficulites because I am NOT a technical person.  If it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, then I don't know how to fix it.)  I wanted to show you the bite because I want to know - will this go away by Friday, when we are getting family photos taken?!  The skin is not broken, so I hope it will fade away and not bruise.  Or that my photographer can edit it out. 

It seems as though I've turned some kind of corner as of late, from being a new mom to little babies, to being a mom to BOYS.  I like the cement truck and frogs, but the biting?  I hope I handled it with enough grace that I'm not sent that test again!

This Week in Pictures

Monday: I took the boys to watch Daddy play softball.  Matthew didn't take his eyes off the game.  Nathan didn't take his eyes off the goldfish crackers.

Tuesday: I took the boys to see the Puppet Wagon at our favorite park.  It's cute and a good excuse for a picnic on a beautiful afternoon.

Wednesday: We introduced them to Veggie Tales this week, and it's getting easier to feed them vegetables!  I walked the boys down to the farmer's market and the man I bought veggies from gave each boy a cucumber.  I let them play with them on the way home, only to discover that Nathan ate half of the cucumber when he tossed it overboard and it got run over by the stroller!  Matthew had chewed a significant chunk off of his, too.  I didn't get photos of that, unfortunately, but I did get this.  After breakfast that morning, while I was cleaning in the kitchen, they somehow got this bowl of grapes off the dining room table and were eating them as fast as possible when I found them.  I guess they were still hungry!

Thursday: Daddy's working an evening shift today, so it was playtime with Daddy all morning!  Mommy got a chance to actually clean the boys' room while they played and discovered some forgotten trucks.

The End.