Little Boys: Mud, Goats, & Tractors

I have boys. Have I mentioned that? And they are boys among boys. Their favorite things in the world are trucks, animals, balls and mud. Ya, they love mud. Here Ben seeing how the mud in Arizona stacks up compared to California. He said the texture was great and while it didn't have that clay consistency that he enjoys so much in NorCal, it stuck to everything! And that just about made up for it.

Here is Sam, banging a hose nozzle thingy (what are those called?) into the house. He is also demonstrating his love of the mud.

The last day we were down in Phoenix we went to the zoo. It was pretty darn awesome. The boys loved it. And we all enjoyed chasing them around for the most part.

Grandma, Grandpa, Ben, Hannah and Emma. And giraffes.

Sam and Mommy. I'm trying to get Sam to roar like a lion. Because, ya know, he's on a lion. But, he wasn't having it.

Ben and Sam playing with (stone) elephant trunks

One of the highlights of our zoo outing was the goats. Oh my goodness. The boys loved these goats! They just ran on into the pen and tried to pet and touch and brush every single goat in the place. We had goats when I was little and we lived up in North Dakota. Apparently I would go out there and if they got too close or tried to squash my little 4 year-old self between them (goats are ornery, very ornery) I would just push them out the way (toddlers are ornery too). So, maybe the boys were just channeling that. Maybe. Either way, they really loved it.

Aunt Emma, Ben, Goat, and Aunt Hannah

Ben, Sam, and Goat

Sam and Goat. They were having a little chat in the shade. Sam was mostly saying, "Goat!" and the goat was saying, um, "bleat." Good times.

After a very, very thorough washing of hands and a liberal application of hand sanitizer we moved onto: Tractors!

Sam on the tractor and loving life

Ben and Sam on the tractor together, Ben loving life, Sam wishing he had it to himself again.

We finally had to pull them away from the tractors with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But we managed to find ducks, monkeys, and a couple bears and that seemed to make up for it. Though we didn't dare mention the t-r-a-c-t-0-r word. We would have been taking our lives in our hands.

Safe and Sound

Well, we are home from our whirlwind Arizona adventure. It was loads of fun. Thanks to Zach's family for putting us up and putting up with us. We can be difficult to handle sometimes. Mostly Zach, not me and the boys. We're great.

Easter Stories

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a glorious Easter. Sorry I didn't get this post up yesterday, but there is a Wii in the house and I am only human. Anyway, we had a fun filled day, as well as fun filled days leading up to it. As I mentioned before, we are down in Phoenix, Arizona visiting Zach's family. It's been oodles of fun. We got three baby chicks and a baby duck from a pet store to have fun with over Easter. Apparently they dye some with food coloring this time of year. Interesting. We got a red one and a blue one and a natural one. And a duck. The duck has really stolen the show, as it likes to be held and likes to fall asleep on everybody. It is truly adorable and Emma, Zach's little sister, has fallen in love with him. We named him Sir Lucky Waddlesworth. Yep. And the natural one is Buttercup and the blue one is Orlando Blue. The naming took a good deal of time and was done with deep consideration and sincerity. Anyway, lets move onto pictures.

Sam, enjoying the duck and chicks, before he learned he could pick them up.

Then we moved onto picking them up. Not always gently, but he was trying. Really trying. He would pick one up, drop it on my lap, then pick it up again and drop it on the ground. Good times.

Dyeing eggs!
Ben really got ino the eggs. Maybe you can tell that by the huge puddles of blue dye. There will be an orange puddle a few minutes after this picture.

Oh, there it is. He stained his hands and somehow managed to dye the entire bottoms of his feet two different colors. But man-oh-man did he dye some fabulous eggs.

Ben and Sam listening to bunny songs on Grandpa's Victrola. They really love this.

Opening Easter baskets! Emma and Hannah got us up pretty early to do this, but it still managed to be fun.
Update: Sam, not Ben, and his new cars. (So, in case you are wondering, yes, I do get them mixed up from time to time)

We had an easter egg hunt after dinner. Ben found the first one. He wanted me to peel it so he could eat it.

Sam, putting eggs into his basket.

Sam, stealing eggs from Ben to put in his basket. He really got the hang of Easter egg hunting quickly.

Tallying it all up.

We had a lot of fun. And I'll probably put a video of Easter Egg hunting up here later. But, to get distracted by a fabulously fun video game is human. In the mean time, here is a picture Sam riding Harry the dog like a horse. Enjoy!

Guess where we are

We took a lovely car trip down to Phoenix to visit Zach's family for Easter.

Ben on a car snacks sugar high.

Sam, after many animal noises and songs

More details about the trip tomorrow with our Easter post. There will be baby animals and adorable babies! Prepare yourselves!

Wiggly, Wiggly Insanity...

A few months ago we were living in blissful ignorance. At least regarding television. The boys would only watch about ten minutes or so of any movie or show before they started climbing the table or playing with their cars.

Then came Christmas. Our neighbor gave us a DVD of Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas. It's a movie by The Wiggles. Had you already figured that out? Well, good. I popped that in, thinking that it would distract them for the standard ten minutes while I started dinner. As I was successfully preparing a meal without any interruptions, I began to wonder if the boys were okay. I found them both standing inches away from the TV, with these exact expressions on their tiny little faces.

Wonder, delight and amazement

That first Wiggly encounter was, of course, far, far, far from being the last. We watched that DVD so much that we decided to bring it with us to Maine and burden Grammie and Grampie with it. After Christmas, the boys still wanted to watch it. After several weeks, totaling to almost two months of the same Christmas movie, I decided that measures needed to be taken. Enter YouTube. We found that tons of people have put little clips of the Wiggles online for our viewing pleasure. it really is so sweet of them. Really.

Sam, Ben and Mommy - a daily dose of Wiggles

The boys will request the Wiggles by saying, "Wiggy!" They know the moves to a few of their songs. They pretend to be asleep and then say, or try to say, "one, two, three, wake up!" for those of you who don't have a clue what I am talking about, this is a particularly funny joke performed by the narcoleptic, purple Wiggle, Jeff. We have spent countless hours playing this game where one of us "falls asleep" and the others wake them up. Good times.

I'm usually doing something on the internet as well. This is purely for visual effect.

Sam, after waking up early from a nap and requesting, "Wiggy"

I'm not in love with all this Wiggle watching, but at the same time, I don't hate it. The boys enjoy it and they really won't watch it for too long before they get distracted. And if truth be told, I like the Wiggles. They are extremely silly and kinda funny and they have very addictive songs. Zach and I have both had various Wiggles' songs stuck in our heads. So, if you have a moment, here is a look into this Wiggly, Wiggly World that we are entrenched in. But be careful, because they'll probably get stuck in your head as well.

And there is a whole lot more where that came from.

Oral Hygiene

I am all for keeping a clean and healthy mouth. But, when I came upstairs this morning, I was greeted by a big pile of dental floss surrounding Ben's feet. He was still pulling more out.

The boys enjoy flossing. They'll pull some out and string it back and forth through their mouth. I'm not sure how effective this actually is, but I guess it's good to start the habit. They enjoy brushing their teeth as well, but they seem to just suck the toothpaste off the brush and then they want more. And anyway, they were playing with their toothpaste the other day and now I can't find it. Oh, well.

Sam - keeping it clean

After I took the floss away from him, Ben managed to get it again and pull a little more out.

That strip ended up on the floor as well, right after Ben sucked the mint off of it.

And then he fled the scene. Or rather clomped into the next room. (By the way, don't you love the boots? They are way too big for him, but Ben loves his "BOOTS!" and will put them on all by himself.)

Now the boys and the hall carpet smell like mint. If that's not a silver lining I don't know what is.

The Parent Trap - a new perspective

The other night I somehow got to thinking about The Parent Trap, both the older and newer versions. I've always liked these movies, despite being a lil' silly, they are both fun and have awesome houses (the California houses in both movies are really neato). But as I was thinking about the whole scenario it suddenly dawned on me: these people are awful!



They get married, have twins, and then for reasons never truly addressed in the movies (and all the better for it) they decide they despise each other so, so much that they are willing to give up ever seeing one of their children again, just so so as to never see each other again! Now, in movie world, where we can throw around phrases like "suspending disbelief" and "it's only a movie" I know that we need to be presented with a problem so that we can follow along with the resolution of the problem, but if you just look at the bones of the story, the parents decided to never see one of their children again.

Now, here comes my new perspective: Ben and Sam. I honestly, truly cannot think of any (vaguely plausible) scenario where I would take Ben and leave Sam with Zach, planning on never seeing either of them again. And I imagine that most parents feel the same way. So, who are these people? Really! And how is it that they are so darn likable in these movies? And what would they have done if they only had one? And then they get married all over again in the end!! Ya, these are weird people.

I guess this is what it's like to have the wool pulled away from your eyes. Whatever that means.

Sam & Ben - irreplaceable

Emergency Room - Don't Worry!

Sam's bump on the noggin.

The other day, as I was finishing up the previous post, Sam fell off the bed into sliding keyboard tray and punctured his head. There was blood and I freaked out. I made Zach run home and check on him while I looked up signs of concussions and trauma and the need for stitches. The bleeding stopped and Zach calmed down. I didn't.

Then Sam fell asleep. Then I really started to worry. Worry that he had a concussion, worry that he was going into a coma and all kinds of things. I kept pulling his eyes open to check that his eyes weren't dilated or something. Of course, it was his nap time and he was really tired, but still.

The nurse from our doctor's office called back and said that we should probably have him checked out since it was a cut on the head and to go to the emergency room. So we scooped up our sleeping, soon to be awake children and put them in the car. Then calmly drove to the emergency room.

We walked in and were admitted right away. We walked back to our room and passed several rooms where real, slightly disturbing emergencies were going on. I felt a little silly. The nurse came in and looked and said, "oh, ok, it's just little." The doctor came in and said, "oh, that's won't need stitches. We'll just glue that." They both came in and glued Sammy back together. Sam protested like mad. He thought the scar would make him look tough; attract the ladies. Sorry, buddy. Then they gave us an emergency room fast pass for Sam - apparently they figured this would not be the last time they saw us - and we headed home.

Sam is fine. More than fine. He hasn't even picked at his glue. And his Mommy, besides being exhausted by an afternoon of worry, and a missed siesta, feels a little silly. But still, if a Mommy can't worry about her children, then what is the point?

Update 3/10 - The glue came off and all is well. It looks like he probably won't even have a scar. Though it would be a good way for other people to tell them apart. Hmm...

why me?

I was going to title this post "a series of unfortunate events" and then I realized that I had already used that. That is probably a bad sign. We went on a walk yesterday and bought this pot.
It's called a strawberry pot. You plant strawberries in it. You may be wondering to yourself, wondering, "Katie, aren't you guys poor college students? What are you doing buying elaborate, specially named pots?"

Oh, we broke it.

Yep. We had just stopped by our local non-profit garden center to look at their seedlings and were about to leave when our giant, monster of a stroller (have I mentioned I want a new stroller) knocked it over. And it broke.

So, we ended up paying $18 for this. Ya, I know. I'm not too happy about it. Luckily, because I have a long history of breaking things I have become amazingly adept at putting things back together (I once ruined a cassette tape of my sister's, took it apart, and taped it back together without her knowing. Until now. Sorry Carina!)

At least now we know which side is the back.

After leaving with our broken pot, we went to the library to return a book about trucks that the boys had torn apart while my back was turned. It's going to cost us $23. Zach says that we need to make sure that we get to keep it.

So now the only question is, what are we going to plant in this pot? Any ideas?