5 Miles

Today Marcus got his first bath at home (James pointed out he got a bath at the hospital so we can’t call this his first bath ever–but that was a sponge type bath).

He wasn’t very happy at first. He does NOT like being cold and undressing him always makes him unhappy.

Once he got in the water though, he really did calm down. And that’s not a tear drop but a water drop on his cheek. He enjoyed the rest of his bath.

Then I took him out and he wasn’t very happy again.  But he was fine once he got dressed–and then he was awake for the longest stretch of the afternoon yet.

I was cleaning out my Draft folder and found this old post of some questions I asked the kids last April. It was fun to ask them again to see how few changed!

Will–answered April 18, 2008

What are you good at doing? Sharing, playing football with my brother, building train tracks 
If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it? A toy–a toy dump truck like my backhoe
What are you afraid of?  scary monsters and my shadow, but sometimes I’m not
Who are your friends? Preschool: Madi, Emma, and Garrett and at church: Davis and Lucus and Ethan 
What is important to you? Sharing
What is your favorite book? Trains
What is your favorite food? psaghetti and meatballs and cheese pizza
What is your favorite thing about school? playtime
What is your favorite thing to do? play at preschool
How do you show your family you love them? by hugging
What do you want to be when you grow up? a firefighter
Why? because Alex wants to be one too
What are you thankful for? my friends
Tell me something about God. Um….nope, I don’t know anything about God. Umm…he loves me and protects me (ok, so that got some prompting from Mommy)

Will–answered Oct. 6, 2009

What are you good at doing? playing basketball outside, playing Carcassone, doing the out of space puzzle at school, soccer 
If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it?  Put it in my piggy bank and  save it for later, maybe I could buy something! A few little cars.
What are you afraid of?  scary dreams
Who are your friends? Ethan & Issac (neighbors), Church: Ethan B.
What is important to you? Being fair
What is your favorite book? Train book I got at the school libarary.
What is your favorite food? cheese pizza and pepperoine pizza
What is your favorite thing about school? gym class, free time when I can do the outer space puzzle
What is your favorite thing to do? ‘nuggling you
How do you show your family you love them? by hugging
What do you want to be when you grow up? a NASCAR Driver
Why? I just want to
What are you thankful for? Mommy & Daddy, Alex
Tell me something about God. He loves us.

And to include younger brother, here are Alex’s answers  (asked April, 2008 when he was not quite 2 and a half, some are blank because I guess I didn’t think he’d understand them):

What are you good at doing? playing with piano bench.
If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it? I wan money! Wan money! (So we changed the topic) 
What are you afraid of?  
Who are your friends?  No
What is important to you?  Mommy, Daddy, Will
What is your favorite book? Goodnight Moon (Mommy assumes)
What is your favorite food? hot dog and peanut butter and jelly
What is your favorite thing about school? 
What is your favorite thing to do? 
How do you show your family you love them?
What do you want to be when you grow up? a firefighter
Why?  ‘cause I do
What are you thankful for?  Cars and trucks
Tell me something about God. Nope

Alex, Answered Oct. 6, 2009

What are you good at doing? Playing, ‘nuggling You
If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it? By getting a few toys like a tractor, a car and a tow truck and a few, 3 cars
What are you afraid of?  Scary dreams and lions and bears
Who are your friends? Ethan & Isaac, Preschool: Andrew, Church:
Isaac S.
What is important to you? You (Mommy)
What is your favorite book? Bob the Builder & Clifford
What is your favorite food? Chili 
 What is your favorite thing about school? Recess
What is your favorite thing to do? Play here at home
How do you show your family you love them? by ‘nuggling them
What do you want to be when you grow up? a firefighter
Why? because that’s fun, When I’m 8 or 9 I’ll play baseball and tennis
What are you thankful for? toys
Tell me something about God. He loves us.

W (5.75yr):  What is 10 plus 10?

A(3.5yr): 2?

W: no

A: 5

W: no

A: 7

W: No, count to 10 and then count 10 more.

A: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 — 61?

W: No, 10 plus 10 is 20.

A: Oh, right!

Alex: Cabbage? I’ve never had cabbage!

Will: Yes, you’ve had it before.

Alex: Well I didn’t eat it.

Last Friday (so sorry I’ve forgotten about this poor little blog for so long!), Will got to celebrate his half-birthday at pre-school. This is for the poor kids who have birthdays during the summer. He didn’t get gifts or anything, just a chance to bring cupcakes to the school. Since his half-birthday always falls aroundSt. Paddy’s day, it’s easy to find cupcakes in the store in his favorite color–green. It seems the last few years this has fallen around times when I’m busy (or just really soft) and I end up buying cupcakes for him. (Or, maybe it comes from longing for the store bought cupcakes when ever there were bake sales at school I was a kid! Sorry, Mom!) 

So, we ran to the store Thursday looking for cupcakes. And they didn’t have any!!! Until, our ever helpful Alex said “here they are, Mommy!” and pointed to the newest trend, cupcake cakes. No idea what I’m talking about?

See, it’s made of cupcakes–just clumped together to look like something. And they were green!

So I gave in and got them. After we’d gotten it, we found the other cupcakes (on the OTHER side of the display, of course!). Turns out they would only be a dollar or two cheaper to get 2 packages for his class, so I wasn’t being too extravagant–for buying cupcakes.

Will was excited to take his crocodile cake and share it with his friends. And there were enough left over to share with us afterward. (Sorry, I didn’t realize how poorly it’d show through the plastic lid. I also didn’t know they use frosting to keep the cupcakes in place on the tray so I didn’t have to worry about them sliding around–how nice!) (I will add, in my defense, that most schools want store-bought items, not homemade now, for food allergy issues. And this is Will’s last year for a half-birthday. After this school will start and he’ll have his birthday 2 weeks in, and not know anyone yet. So I was up for one last hurrah.)

Today Alex asked me when he’d have his 2nd birthday. I told him he already had it and his 3rd birthday, his next one was his 4th. Then I realized he wanted to know when he’d have his HALF birthday…Shesh, spoiled kids…I told him July. If we do cupcakes, we’ll make them at home!

Grandma asked Alex "Do you want half a piece of pie or the whole piece of pie?"

"I want half!….Act-ua-lly, I want a whole piece!" (It's funnier if you hear how he says it, but I wanted to remember it.)

* * *   

Today we were having leftovers and we were all eating turkey standwiches. I notied Alex had eaten the bread and the cheese, but not his turkey. I asked Alex "Don't you want to eat your turkey?" He replied "No, I don't like turkey, it takes too much like meat."

* * *

Driving up to Grandma's House we hear lots of "When's Grandma's house?" and "When's the exit?" I try to help the kids know by looking at the mile markers, but Alex has no concepts of numbers, so I tried to tell him the cities we'd go through or past. I mentioned Anderson and Munice. Later he asked, "Mommy, are we at Mon-kee yet?"

* * *

Alex was sucking his thumb. Grandma asked him if she could have it. He looked down at it and then said "No, you can't have it 'cause it's stuck right here!" and pointed to his palm.

I meant to come up with a few more ('cause there were a bunch of funny ones) but saved this in drafts and forgot about it. So you're getting it a week later with some of the really funny ones forgotten and not included.   

We got to Teri & Rachel's and one of the first thing Alex says is "Mommy, where are deir doys?" (Where are their toys?). Um, sorry bud, that's why we brought our own–unless you want to play with dog toys!

* * *

Will: Freeways are called Freeways because you're FREE to go FAST on them, there are no stop lights. You can go fast unless there's road construction, the you have to slow down.

* * *

Alex has taken to calling his blanket "Blankie Miles".

The boys are playing "Race the Truck" while I've been folding laundry. One person races "big truck" while the other has the starting flag and tells the racer when to go. Alex keeps saying, "On mark, set, engine!" (I'm guessing it's a combination of "on your mark, get set, go" and "start your engines".)

Last week I found a pair of bright green rain boots on clearance in Will's next size (they're a bit too big right now). I've been keeping an eye out for boots for the boys, and the fact that they're green made them even better. Both boys have been wearing their snow boots outside when it's muddy, and Will's boots are really starting to get too small.  After we got home, he put them on and went out to play on his motorcycle. Then he came back in, asking for his bike helmet.  Now, he's a policeman when he wears them.

Last Tuesday was 80s Night for our MOPS group. Here's me getting my hair teased, since I needed help! (In my defense, I was too young for most of the big hair time, by the time I was in high school it was the early 90s, and while I was in Texas, home of the big hair, I had short hair. And yes, I am wearing the vest James work in RD&S's wedding, it seemed kind of 80-ish, or the most I had in the house. 

As I mentioned in the last post, Will's Spring Break started last week. So we've been finding different "crafts" or activities to do. Last week we pulled out the paints–a VERY special treat because Mommy doesn't want to deal with the clean-up/supervising of Alex.  Here are a few pictures of that fun time:

The middle picture is a self-portrait of Will. It's him with spiky hair.  Alex had a great time with his water colors and actually made some nice abstracts.  

Saturday and Sunday we had the warm weather we've been waiting for! (I heard one of the weather people say we'd already had 2 days in the 80s by this time last year!)  We hit the 60s and spent a lot of time outside.  On Saturday, James had help from the boys while he laid some bricks by our gate. You can see they were great help. I spent the time preparing for my Monday class.

Sunday they were going to help me pick up all the sticks we've had fall off the various trees in the past few months. The boys got smart and decided pretty quickly they'd rather play then help me. So we were outside while daddy watched the race.

Monday we had our trip up to Grandma's house and they played outside all afternoon while I did labs and taught. We hit 70 that day! I had to smile at the students in shorts.  The boys were excited to wear T-shirts and Alex pointed out (quite happily) "No coat!" when I was putting him in the car to go. Will was sad the next morning when he went outside and realized it was cool again! Typical spring weather, we're changing several times each day!   

Yesterday I attempted to make my own yogurt. Again. I've tried this various times over the last 3-4 years with dubious results. Once again I had really runny results, but it worked well for smoothies. So we made berry smoothies for our 3:00 snack yesterday. Or "Milkshakes" as the boys called them. Alex enjoyed his more than Will (probably because it wasn't as sweet as a real milkshake). When his straw got blocked by a berry he started to cry "Milkshake broken!"

Today we made sidewalk paint and painted the deck (and anything that was on the deck). The boys enjoyed making their car "beautiful".

I left the next picture big so you could see a true artist at work–or at least one who's not afraid to get into his craft and to really show the world his work.