Just so I remember

Oliver and I were walking back from the park last week. We were standing by a busy road and a motorcycle drove by.

"That motocyco?"

"Yep"

"Me dive motocyco!"

"Buddy, you have to be 16 to drive."

"sixteen?"

"Yep, and since you live with Mommy and Daddy you'll have to be much, much older to drive a motorcycle"

"Oh"

*************************************************************************************

Oliver has stopped saying 'good' instead of 'yes'. Well, actually, he said 'gooot', but we all knew what he meant. Just one more step away from his babyhood. He is talking more and more, initiating conversations, answering questions, asking questions, and using words he's heard his sister use. He turned 2 and a half yesterday and I'm becoming acutely aware of how fast time is passing. I'm trying to focus on each day, each stage, and enjoy the little idiosyncrasies they bring, because before I know it, they'll have moved on to the next thing. So, right now I'm enjoying the fact that when Oliver talks about himself he never says 'I', it's always 'me', that he starts every answer to every question you ask him with 'because', he says 'Oh, Man!' when things don't go his way (either that or he has a huge screaming crying fit), he calls downstairs 'downstairv', he loves falling asleep reading books, he loves the movie "Cars", he will throw his arms around my neck, bury his face in my shoulder and say "I wuv you!" when I pick him up, and loves to ask the question "Do you wuv it?".

I have started reading chapter books to Alison, and she loves it. So far we've read "Charlotte's Web" and "Peter Pan" and we are working on "The Little Princess". She LOVES Mondays at school because that is when she gets a new library book. This morning before school she made a picture to give to one of her classmates. She sticks up for her little brother if she feels he's being wronged, and calls us for him at night if he's calling and we can't hear his tiny little voice. She just finished dance classes and the other night in the car, in a very sad voice, she said "Mom, I miss Miss Carrie and I miss being a ballerina". The past two weeks she's been in two dance recitals, a spring concert at school, sang in church, and went on 2 field trips. She still loves bugs and spends a lot of time outside trying to pick them up and letting them crawl all over her.

On the other hand, this afternoon the kids had a fight. All I know is I was in the kitchen getting supper ready and I heard Alison crying, followed closely by Oliver crying. When I went out Oliver was laying on his back half in and half out of the sandbox and he had a scratch on his cheek. Apparently he had been burying Alison's feet and ignored her when she asked him to stop. She could only take so much and so she pushed him and somehow scratched his cheek. This is when I feel old...I made them come inside and sit in the naughty chair and step respectively. Then they had to sit on the couch, hold hands, apologize to each other, and tell eachother one thing about the other they liked. They got along splendidly for the rest of the night, but man, did I feel cheesy and old.

The long awaited pictures

Today Oliver puked into my hands, then when I was carrying him up the basement stairs he had a bout of diarrhea that overflowed his pants, went onto my arm and then ran down said arm and onto the steps. Alison, on the other hand, is spending her quiet time on our bed looking out the open window and shouting "Welcome to the Neighborhood!" to the new neighbors who are out in their back yard enjoying the day. She's gotten them to wave to her a few times.

Here are some random pics from the end of winter to Easter, which we spent with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Patrick in Wisconsin.

This is what happens when Oliver eats a ring pop. Or, really, food in general.

One morning they came out of their room wearing their new sunglasses acting all noncholant.

Eating pizza, on a bed, watching a movie after a day of playing at the waterpark. HEAVEN!

One sleeping, one faking.

Not sleeping.

Eating breakfast in the hotel room.

The bathtub zoo menagerie.

The Children's Museum.

Alison as a turtle at the Children's Museum.

This big digger showed up across the street one day and dug a huge hole in our neighbor's yard. As you can see, Oliver was completely thrilled.

Eating hot dogs at the Twins game.

Oliver's rally cap, which is what his hat looks like when he puts it on himself.

Cotton Candy soothes the sting of the loss.

Playing Wii skiing at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Filling the bird feeders.

Sharing a cute moment with Grandpa.

Found an Easter egg!

Easter duds.

Holding pattern

I thought Si was forgetting to bring home our back-up hard drive but it turns out that he has been bringing it home. He just hasn't told me. I was also under the impression that anything computer related was his job, but apparently backing up the pictures is my job. With the hard drive I didn't know was here. So, still no pictures. Sorry.


In other news...we signed Alison up for kindergarten. She will be going to school all day, every day come fall. Pretty amazing. I can't believe how time is flying by. It's going to be hard to be without her every afternoon, but school gets done at 2:45. Hopefully she'll get in the car and be full of stories about her day. I'm excited for her and hope that I will be able to let go with as much grace and dignity as I can muster. That is, I'm going to try very hard not to by a big, blubbering mess her first day of school.

A Teaser

*****Si forgot the hard drive, so you'll just have to wait for those pictures. Now, pick yourself up off the floor, dry those tears, and go watch The Amazing Race for me while I'm stuck at work.******

I will be posting pictures, hopefully this weekend. I have pictures from Christmas, various walks, our trip to the water park, and maybe a few things I'm forgetting. However, I am afraid to upload anything onto my computer because the squirrel that makes it run is obviously getting very, very tired. That is, Si and I are pretty sure it's about to crash. So, until Si brings the back-up hard drive home from work and we can back up all of the pictures I'm not risking it. You want to hear something else hilarious? The camera is acting all funny and making horrible noises when we use the zoom, so that does not bode well for it's life, either. Ah, electronics. How they bleed my bank account dry.

Randomness

I'm posting again? Wow!! You are all so lucky. That is, if anyone still bothers to check in. I fear I may have lost my already paltry reader base. Just in case no one is actually reading this anymore, I'm not going to waste precious brain matter on this post. Here, in no particular order, are some random funny things that the kids said or did or whatever...just--here!

I told Alison yesterday that today would be the first day of spring so she insisted on wearing her summer nightgown with the short sleeves. She wore it while watching Sesame Street and eating breakfast this morning. Her arms and legs felt like ice cubes, but she insisted she was fine.

Earlier this week I got out the tee ball for the kids to play with. Alison took a few good whacks at it, as did Oliver. The wind picked up, and the ball wouldn't stay on the tee anymore, so Oliver dismantled it and started using it as a gun. He pretended to shoot birds, inanimate objects, and his sister. I feel like this is one of those innate 'boy' things, like making car noises. Si doesn't hunt, we don't own any guns, and I don't recall Curious George demonstrating how to use one on TV. I'm pretty sure I'd remember that.

Si asked Alison how I looked while getting ready to run with my new shoes. Alison said "sexy". Considering I was wearing drawstring pants, a T-shirt, and my brand-spanking new running shoes, I'm sure she has no idea what it means. However, and in the interest of full disclosure I'll just say that every bad word or phrase Alison has learned she's gotten from me, I don't routinely use the word 'sexy'. That didn't stop Silas from immediately blaming me. I, in turn, blamed listening to the radio.

Continuing with the subject. We're eating supper, there's a rare quiet moment. Alison looks at me seriously and says "Mom, remember when you said freakin' this morning? That's a bad word. You shouldn't say that."

And here's to hearing your words repeated back to you in the voice of a 4 year old girl. Once again, we were eating supper. Silas and I are trying desperately to tell each other anecdotes from our days without getting interrupted by the kids. Alison: "Mom! You shouldn't talk with your mouth full!" I dutifully stop talking. A few seconds later Silas starts talking to me. Alison raises her hand, puts up her pointer finger, waves it at him, and says "uh-uh-uh!" You know, each 'uh' higher than the previous one...you get the point.

Well, that's all for now. Maybe next I'll actually post some pictures. Well, I'll only do that if I am sure there are signs of life here. So, comment. Please? I'd really like to know if there is anyone still checking this before I go and start using my brain again.

Christmas in March

First of all-I just have to say I'm sorry for neglecting this blog for so long. We seem to be in this rut where we make a big decision, feel good about it for a while, then another one appears before us and, well, I'm the kind of person who over-thinks and over-analyzes every decision I've ever made. I think and analyze so much that it becomes this giant, bigger than life thing that I can't control anymore. I know I'm doing this even while I'm doing it, but that doesn't mean I can stop. So, I guess I've been too busy thinking in circles to write on this blog.

I've been meaning to tell everyone that this Christmas was probably the best one we've had since getting married and having kids. Oliver was old enough to kind of get what was going on and Alison remembered some of our traditions. For instance, the first ornament to get hung on our tree is this glass pickle. Everyone leaves the room, I hang it somewhere, and then we make Alison and Oliver try to find it. Well, really, we make Alison try to find it. This year as we were getting out all of our decorations she kept asking me about the 'tricky pickle'. I was SO happy that she remembered! I must have hid that pickle 20 times while the tree was up, and each time she was just as thrilled when she found it.

We stayed here and hosted, and I'm just going to come out and say it...I had fear. I was really looking forward to it, but we live in a 1400 square foot house. I was wondering how it would all go. It turns out that you can make anything work. We had a nice Christmas dinner thanks to Mam and our new kitchen, plus plenty of appetizers on Christmas eve, and the kids got to wake up and open presents on Christmas morning in their own living room. I have to stop and say that Oliver was pretty pissed off when he realized that all of those cookies we were putting on the nice plate on Christmas eve were for Santa and not for him.

So, in summary, I'm crazy, we had a good Christmas, and Oliver likes cookies.

Febuary first?!?!

What, really? It's been that long? I am a huge slacker. I haven't forgotten about this blog, I promise...I will start updating more regularly soon.

(See how I said more regularly? Not regulary, because let's face it, that will never happen.)

Typical Night

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

On Sunday, neither one of the kids slept. Those of you that know me would think that my head exploded that day, because if there is one thing that bothers me, it's a child skipping a nap. Especially 2 year old boys who need naps to be human the rest of the day.

Sunday was different, though. Alison partially moved into Oliver's room over Christmas so family could sleep in her room. Now she doesn't want to move back. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if we completely move Alison into Oliver's room and get them bunk beds, which would make the most sense space-wise, we'd have a spare room upstairs. I have dreams of making one corner a 'book corner' for reading and having a little table for them to color and having a place that's not the living room to put their toys. On the other hand, I love Alison's room. It's girly without being too girly, and it holds a lot of memories for me. I rememer being pregnant and painting and putting the crib together and standing in there wondering what it would be like to bring a baby home and have it sleep in that crib and rock it in that chair. I remember taking the crib down and putting together her new big-girl bed (which is also perfect for that room) and how excited she was to sleep in it. I love the color of the walls and the painted trim and the flower hooks and the rug and her nightstand with books and her plant on it. It's all just so Alison.

But Alison and Oliver are also enjoying forging new memories in the room they share now. Sunday afternoon a few minutes after laying both of them down and sitting on the couch to relax and watch some television, Alison came walking out into the living room. "Oliver is sitting up in his crib", she announced. I'm pretty sure Oliver was sitting up because Alison was walking around the room gathering books to bring back to bed with her. I went back in, settled everyone down, and came back out to collapse on the couch for an hour. A few minutes later, after hearing some rustling from their room, Alison came back out again. "Oliver is talking to me", she said. This time it was Silas's turn to settle them back in. Once again, more rustling. Alison reappears. "Oliver wants to sleep in the chair because I am sleeping in the chair." This one takes a while, but after we convince them that no one is sleeping in the chair even though it's so 'comfortable', we come back out into the living room. "I'm pretty sure this time it's going to stick", I tell Silas confidantly.

We are watching T.V. when we hear giggling. We sneak down the hallway and stand outside their door. "Chicken butt!" Alison says. Oliver belly laughs. When he stops, Alison does it again. "Oliver, Chicken butt!" Peals of laughter ring out from the direction of his crib. "Addi, jhick-en butt!" Oliver says. They both start laughing.

It was about the cutest thing we'd ever heard. Si and I ended up bringing them both out to the living room to watch "Cars" where this eventually happened:

Maybe I can let go of another piece of Alison's babyhood if it means they learn how much fun it is to make each other laugh.

Mental note

Dear Arm,
Please stop putting cookies in the mouth hole.

Regards,
The jeans

Money makes the world go 'round

This afternoon Back Seat Girl was in her room singing songs into a "microphone", which was really the brush attachment to an old curling iron. After a few rounds of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" she announced to her audience, which consisted of Back Seat Boy and I, that "whoever tells me you like my singing two times gets a penny!". I looked at her and realized the pockets of her pants were bulging with loose coins.

So, basically, she emptied her piggy bank to bribe me into giving her a compliment. I'm going to choose to not explore the deeper meaning here.

The first in a series

One of the best parts of having kids is getting the chance to see the world like a child again. You know, there is a big span of time between being a child and then having a child of your own (well, hopefully it's a big span of time...do you hear that, Back Seat Girl?).

Adults tend to run through life thinking of things to accomplish, to see only what they are looking for, while children for the most part let life happen to them. They go to the park to play on the swings, but what if you see a bunch of flowers on the way? What if someone is walking a dog and they stop to let you pet it? Hey, look! Something shiny! You get the point. One of the hardest things for me to get used to after BSG became mobile was the fact that running errands was no longer going to be something I did in an hour in the morning. It was going to take a while, but it was going to be fun! I was going to see and notice things I would never see or notice if she wasn't along. Walking to the park was no longer just a way to get to our destination--now getting there was half the fun.

It's gotten to the point now where I don't really like to run most errands without at least one of them along. I've finally realized that this is a part of my life where maybe things will take longer, but they will be a hell of a lot more fun. Now I let Back Seat Boy push the little cart at the grocery store while we pick up a few things for dinner. It takes FOREVER to get just a few things, but we do a whole lot of laughing along the way. I know that in a few years I'll be rushing through the grocery store at break-neck speed, doing a whole week's worth of shopping in the time it takes to pick up some ingredients for supper now, and thinking wistfully back to these days when every errand was an adventure. It wasn't just grocery shopping...it was a field trip. The dry cleaners isn't just the dry cleaners, it's that super cool place we bring our sleeping bags after camping trips and watch them spin around in the big machine, where one time Shrek was on the giant TV in the corner, where there is a vending machine and mom actually bought treats for us out of it.

Hopefully, even after they grow up a little and don't want to run errands with their mom because *gasp* what if someone they know sees us, I'll still be able to take time to notice the little things along the way. That's one of the many things my children have taught me.

Thanksgiving...remember that?

We packed up the wagon and headed to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. Driver took a day off, so we got to spend lots of time with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Patrick.


We got an early start, so they got to eat breakfast and wear their jammies in the car.

Helping Grandpa and Uncle Patrick fill the bird feeders.

What, you don't eat stuffing with your hands.

She asked for the leg. And I promise that's not her wine. She prefers red.

This is what your face looks like if you eat stuffing with your hands. Actually, that's better than normal.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thank You, Pilgrims and Native Americans!

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Don't forget to put cranberry sauce on your leftover turkey sandwiches...it's too delicious for words.

Well, something in Show Business at least

Back Seat Girl holds up a piece of broccoli:

BSG: "Look, Barack Obama!" (you know, because Barack and broccoli kind of sound the same)

We all laugh (except for Back Seat Boy, who we have decided doesn't really know what is going on about 75% of the time).

Me: "[BSG], maybe you could be a satirest when you grow up."

BSG: (in a bored, 'I've already told you this a million times' tone) "No, I'm going to be a movie
maker when I grow up."

You can still play baseball--even if there's snow on the ground

Today was not the first snow here in balmy Minnesota, but it was the first snow that stuck around past nine in the morning. It was also the first time Back Seat Boy got to actually play in the snow. Last year he couldn't walk and when we took him outside spent a lot of time crying and whining because he couldn't move. I'm looking forward to getting to take them both out this year to play and go sledding.

Please ignore all of the leaves you see under the snow. We raked the front yard once on a nice fall day, but that maple tree hates us. It waited to drop the rest of its leaves until it was practically impossible to get them up before it started to snow/sleet/rain every other day. It also drops branches constantly. I'm pretty sure it's trying to kill us.

Home, Sweet Home

On Halloween of this year Driver and I celebrated six years of home ownership. If you would've told me on October 31st, 2002 that we would still be living here I probably would not have believed you. The plan was to stay here for five years-TOPS, then move to something bigger and better. Well, here we are, our family has increased times two, and we manage to not run into each other too much.

It was a very scary thing for me, buying a house. I wasn't nervous at all on my wedding day, but the day we closed on this house I was trying very hard not to vomit into my cupped hands. I remember looking at that huge number and wondering what the hell I was thinking. What WE were thinking. We knew nothing about owning a house. We were going to be responsible for mowing the lawn and fixing stuff when it broke, and there was probably going to have to be some preventative maintenance. We live in a fifty year old house. Things break. Stuff happens.

I can honestly say now that I love this house. No, not because of all of the closet space or the very efficient kitchen (ha, ha), but because this house has a lot of our history in it now. We'll always remember it as the first house we ever owned, just like we wax nostalgic every time we drive into uptown and are anywhere near our old apartment or old hang-outs. We've remodeled the bathroom and stayed married. I sat down in the middle of the living room and completely freaked out when I was seven months pregnant with Back Seat Girl. I cried on the bottom step the morning I went into labor with Back Seat Boy and Mama Wonder showed up to take BSG and I realized our family would never be the same. I've read countless, countless stories in every room of this house. I've seen two children learn to walk (FINALLY) on its floors. I've cleaned up puddles of pee and piles of baby food and spent many dark nights nursing tiny babies while only half awake.

I'm not saying we're going to live here forever, because we're not. Believe me, we've thought about it-thought about remodeling or adding on, but it just wouldn't work out. I know that someday we'll be making new memories in a different house (preferably with at least two bathrooms and room for more than one butt in the kitchen), and when I look back at this house it probably won't seem so small and the kitchen won't seem so useless and having only one bathroom won't seem like so much trouble when we have company.

The thing that I will miss most about this house when we move, though, is the nice, low mortgage payment.

2 Years Old

That was Back Seat Boy on 12-5-06 at one month old. This is Back Seat Boy today:

The time that has passed between the two pictures has gone by in a flash. I can not believe that my youngest is already two, but then again, it's hard for me to remember a time when he wasn't here.

How do I describe the little boy he has become? Well, he loves balls and trucks, but also likes to read books about princesses and knows that when we put in a CD he will probably end up dancing with his sister and being her prince. He loves to throw things but will also find any number of cheap plastic beaded necklaces we have around here, put them on, and declare that he is "pittee". He can hit a ball with a bat, but can also spend a lot of time sitting on the floor reading book after book after book.

He makes us laugh all day with his antics, whether it's pushing his trucks around the house, trying to tell knock-knock jokes that make no sense, tackling us or begging us to "tacko" him, wrestling with his sister, or making sure we pray before every meal by frantically repeating "Jesus, Jesus" over and over again until we all sit down and fold our hands. Maybe he's going to be a pastor, who knows? Another thing that Driver and I find funny--the fact that the things he gets mad at most often (besides his sister) are physics and gravity. I'm sorry mommy and daddy don't give you much sympathy for that, little man, but someday when we tell you some of the stories I hope you'll laugh with us.

He is scared of parts of the movie "Monsters, Inc." and also a recent episode of Curious George. It had to do with dark caves and shadows. He was sitting on my lap while watching it and suddenly tried to crawl up onto my shoulders while burying his head into my chest at the same time.

He's starting to put more and more words together now, still no complete sentences but lots and lots of phrases. Right now his favorite is "Scawy Monsto" for "Scary Monster", seeing as how it was just Halloween and we saw our share at the costume store. The kids begged to go again just to see all the scary monsters, so I took them the day of Halloween. For all of BSB's brave talk about the 'scawy monstos' he was not about to touch any of them. When we went trick-or-treating that night there was one house that had a guy dressed up in a mask, etc walking around in the yard. BSB did not want to leave that yard. The whole rest of the night we would go to another house and he would be looking around for another 'scawy monsto'.

Hey-remember when he didn't walk? Yea, that was really great. Well, now that he does that he also runs and is pretty close to jumping for real, too. He hates riding in carts at the store, insisting on walking instead. The only time I get him to ride for any length of time in a cart is by a)constantly plying him with cookies or b)puting him and Back Seat Girl together in one of those double car carts at the grocery store.

His relationship with his sister is really blossoming. They had to go to another daycare recently just for a day where they were split up, and BSB spent the better part of the morning crying and sad that he was not with BSG. The other night after dinner BSB gave BSG his last M&M, if you can believe that. I can tell you right now that I can not think of any scenario where I would give my brother my last M&M.

If there is one thing I want for him it's to always be this happy. He is honestly the happiest little guy in the whole world. I'm not saying he doesn't throw a temper tantrum now and then (yesterday he laid down in the middle of all of his toys when I wouldn't give him a candy corn), or that he never disobeys me and is the perfect child (we often say he has a head made of wood because holy cow, that kid is stubborn), but he spends most of his time happily playing, running around the house, running errands with me and charming the pants off anyone who dares make eye contact with him, and otherwise just being a general joy to be around. I'm so happy to get to share his childhood with him and I hope that he can keep his sunny attitude as he gets older and realizes that the worst thing in the world to ever happen to him will not be the fact that I told him to walk this way when he wants to go "Dat Way!". (Picture him with wrinkled brow, feet planted firmly on the floor, finger pointed defiantly in the opposite direction from where I am walking.)

Happy Second Birthday, O-Mac! I love you so much and look forward to every day I get to spend with you.

Love,

Momma

Slacker

I'm going to have to start paying someone to update this blog. I don't know why I have been so terrible about this. I have had ideas about what to write, we even went to the apple orchard so I have good pictures, but for some reason I have not been able to sit down in front of the computer and type out a post.

I did just finish a book I was obsessed with (I'm sad it's done), so maybe now I can try keeping you all up on the goings-on around here. Not that there is anything TOO exciting. We don't live like rockstars around here.

That being said I'm at work right now so I'm not going to be able to post any pictures or write my usual terribly elegant posts because I'm trying to work with a hangover and it's late and I'm tired and I'm feeling very stupid and old.

Siblings

I once heard that the best gift you can give your child is a sibling. I have a lot of memories of playing with my little brother growing up. I also have a lot of memories of him annoying the crap out of me, but what big sister with a little brother doesn't? The best thing about having a sibling is that you can get mad at them, you can fight with them, but they'll always be your brother or sister. There's also this great history you share with a sibling once you grow up and become adults. I've known Driver for twelve years, I've known my brother for twenty nine.

For the first year, well, really year and a half of Back Seat Boy's life, Back Seat Girl really didn't seem to take much interest in him. She wasn't jealous of him, she didn't dislike him, in fact she did profess to love him. There just wasn't that much interaction going on. I remember at one of BSB's check ups the Dr was asking me how BSG was doing with a little brother. When I told him it bordered on indifference (BSB was probably only 2 months old at this point), the Dr told me that was pretty normal. To a 2 year old, a baby is like a broken toy. It doesn't do much but eat, sleep, poop and cry. And it doesn't do those things when you tell it to, it just does them. BSG likes things that do what she tells them to.

After a while BSB began to crawl and stand up and play with things, and that increased their interaction a little. I remember one night I was cleaning up after supper and they "chased" each other around the house, BSG walking, BSB crawling. It was just a glimpse of what I get to enjoy now.

I don't know when it happened, but the two of them see to be forging a beautiful relationship. They play together, they talk to each other, they hug each other good night. BSG has even said things like "I love hugging [BSB]". Yesterday BSB kept going up to BSG just for the sake of getting a hug. If BSB sounds like he's in distress anywhere in the house BSG is constantly asking me to go and help him, and gets mad if I take too long. She is always trying to teach him new words and or how to play hide and seek correctly. He is also very often unwittingly the dad to her stuffed animals. She sends him off to work and receives him back "home" (her room). I really don't think he knows what's going on half the time, but he loves it because he loves playing with his big sister.

They definitely have their squabbles (the one toy the other has is THE BEST toy every created in the history of the world and I MUST HAVE IT), but I know they love each other. When they grow up they'll be able to talk about how crazy mom and dad were (are) and can you believe we lived in that tiny house with one bathroom or how much fun they had on our camping trips. I love watching them make memories together that they'll be able to talk about with each other long after Driver and I are gone. I love watching them form this bond that is so unique to being brother and sister.

I really hope they don't have too much to discuss in the 'Mom and Dad are nuts' area, though.