4 Miles

As I understand it children and the immature adults of this world are unable to comprehend delayed gratification.  Therefore, I would expect that when given a choice The Tort would choose the pleasurable item first and deal with the less pleasurable item later.  I was wrong.

This evening I gave him a choice.  He could choose to play for 5 more minutes and then get his jamas on OR he could get his jamas on and then play for 5 more minutes.  I fully expected him to choose to play for 5 more minutes.  Nope.  He wanted to get jamas on then play for 5 more minutes.  Delayed gratification in a 3 year old. 

It is the end of November, the end of National Blog Posting Month.  I am very proud that I achieved my goal of posting everyday!  Who-hoo! I won't continue to post everyday, I feel I got a bit boring at times. But I do want to keep up posting more regularly then I was. And now, a few random things I wanted to share: 

This week in preschool they learned the letter "G". Each letter has a story with it, and Mr. G was chewing some gwey gum. The teacher gave each child a piece of gum today at the end of the day and he or she could chew it if Mommy said it was ok. (And how do you say no to that?) Will got his first piece of "Bumble Gum", as he called it. He swallowed it within the first minute.

Here is a cool site that lets you make a snowflake & help the Salvation Army.  The more snowflakes made, the more money the site will donate. Plus, it's really cool! Also, on the main page you can see snowflakes other people have made.

Alex has mastered something his brother never did at this age. He is able to sign "More" while eating to let me know he wants more food. That was the only sign I ever wanted Will to learn!  He never did. Will was talking before he ever showed me the sign–but he's very good at using it now!

Today we were leaving the store and getting into the car. Will was "kind of" in his car seat (he gets in the car while I put Alex in his car seat, then I go back and buckel him in) standing up in the door way, licking rain drops off the car (that's a whole 'nother "HUH?" there). I was starting to get Alex out of the front of the shopping cart when a man walking by smiled, said "Looks like you have your hands full. Are they twins?"

I said "No" and he said (as he's walking by) "Oh, they must be close then!"

I did cheerfully tell him "No, they're over 2 years apart!" and waited to shake my head until I was in the car.

We have had a string of gorgous weather the last 4-5 days: sunny and temps in the mid-60s. (Last year this time? The paper said the high was 28! Average high? Low 40s). I've been trying to get us outside as much as possible, so yesterday we went for a walk.  Will had this conversation with the ducks:

"Hi there ducks!

We don't have any food for you. I'm sorry.

Ducks, stop quacking, I'm trying to talk to you!" 

Will, August 2004 (About 1 year)

Alex, November 2006 (Almost 11 months)
Notice, I caught him in the act sooner then I caught his brother!

I mentioned Karl was here for the weekend. He got out his guitar and played for Will, then he allowed Will & Alex make music.

Saturday James' Aunt Nancy & Uncle Tom and cousins Stacy & Jake came to visit. We had tacos and played games all evening. This morning my parents & sister came down to join us at church for Alex's Baby Dedication.  It was nice to have so many family members in town for the simple, yet meaningful, ceremony.  James also ended up filling in for a drummer in the Praise Team so everyone got to hear him play. We had kept Will out of Sunday School so he could hear Daddy play. After the dedication I took both boys to their rooms.  They seemed much happier there then in the sanctuary. After church we came back to the house to have pizza, play more games and watch football. Another thing I'm thankful for is that both our families are easy to host and hang out with.  It makes holidays & family time fun, peaceful and NO STRESS!

Finally, I promised Nancy I'd put up the picture of our turkey with the roasting pan & cookbook she and Betty got me for Christmas a few years back. The turkey was a bit darker then it looks in the picture. It turned out very well–I know it was because of the quality roasting pan and the easy to follow directions I was given.

Only 5 more days–this posting everyday thing is getting to be a challange!

Instead of rambling on about nothing, I wanted to share something worthwhile I read on another site.  http://www.letssaythanks.com is a free site by Xerox where you can pick out a predesigned card and they will copy it and send a post card to a service member serving in Iraq. It's a very easy way to say thanks to some hard working people.

The boys got to go to the park with Daddy & Uncle Karl (and I got to clean without all my work being 'undone'). Here are some videos James took of their fun. Please know, no babies were hurt in the filming of this. But they are really funny videos and worth watching. (They are all about 30 seconds or shorter.)

This first one needs a bit of explaining. They have a tube that has a bit of a 'hill' in it for the kids to climb up and then slide down a bit. Alex has tried to crawl in it before and can't crawl up the hill because his pants keep slipping. Today he got a bit frustrated by that, so Uncle Karl gave him a hand.  

Note: He did this one all by himself, and listen to Big Brother's encouragement.

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! 

We drove up to my parents house and had our "feast" (as Will called it).   James' brother, Karl, is here for the weekend. He, James & Will drove up in one car and I was thankful for the peace of just having Alex & I.  My sister drove up from St. Louis. It was a fun day eating, watching football and playing games. We are very thankful for our families. And that Alex only fell down the stairs once. 

Another thing I am thankful for is our house. We moved here last year. It has been a struggle at time, we gained a child & lost some space compared to our previous house. Yet this house is in walking distance of James' office. (Instead of the hour + commute he did have.) The family time we have gained from that has been wonderful!  I realized many of you haven't seen it… so here's a short tour. Click on the picture of the house to begin.