Monsta!

I was browsing Target tonight..... I went for scrips but the pharmacy was closed so I ended up with uh... some clearance swim trunks for P, a cardigan sweater for me and a Yankee candle. And these...

I saw on the endcap these "Create a Monster Shirt" iron ons.  Fun!  I had picked up some white shirts at teh beginning of the summer, anticipating that I'd make leaf print shirts or something similarly crafty with the boys.  However, as of this morning the shirts were still sitting there stark white.  Not anymore!  The boys created their own monsters and I think this is the neatest little invention ever!  Okay, maybe not ever but still... how fun!  I need to go back and pick up more.  There was a pirate themed one and a girly themed one.  Nieces!  :) 

Imagination

These boys... oh their imaginations just amuse me sometimes.  They think of things I would never have thought of at their ages.  I love it. 

Porter has always been fascinated with how things work.   I hope that someday he becomes some kind of engineer or something...  he's curious and very bright and is always trying to recreate things he sees.  For the longest time he's been intrigued by pulleys.  He'll point them out whenever he sees them in use.  A few weeks ago he made his own "pulley" (not exactly a pulley but it served the same type of purpose).    He had been experimenting with different ways to get his bucket to the top of the treehouse for a few days and finally figured out the best method.  Tie the jumprope to the steering wheel and crank it! 

Last week, when we were trying to make it through 95* days, I went and picked up a large pool for the boys to use in addition to their little blue pool.  They played outside for quite sometime and I soon found them like this:

TThese were no longer swimming pools.  Oh no.  This is their BOAT!  

Ice Skating

I first took Porter ice skating when he was 2 1/2 and he's always really enjoyed it.  We've been talking about sports and discussing with Porter what type of activities he could play in soon and hockey has always been his number 1 choice.  On Friday the boys and I had a "Mommy Son" day... McD's and ice skating.  I thought Hudson would be ready to start skating and I wanted to gauge Porter's interest in ice skating at this point.  

Hudson started out really wobbly... a lot wobblier than Porter ever was.  I was second guessing my decision to bring him... thinking I'd be holding him up most of the time.  Not so.  Within 10 minutes he'd gotten the hang of it and was going all around the ice on his own (with the walker).  Porter was a wild man, zooming here and there, trying to do spin stops and spin around (maybe he should take up figure skating?  HAHA!).  The boys blew me out of the water by skating for the entire hour and a half of open skate.  They did not want to take any breaks and had a little protest when I told them we needed to go.  

Ryan's co-worker has his son in a Learn to Play program in Chelsea that lets you borrow the hockey equipment (big plus b/c I'd hate to buy it all and find out after one round of lessons that he doesn't love it).  I also ran into a lady at the ice rink who was there with her son and grandson... her grandson is 5 and he is in the class at the Chelsea rink and he had nothing but wonderful things to say about it.  Completely sold me.  So, we're going to let Porter start lessons next month.  It should be pretty fun for him... I wouldn't let him try skating without the walker because he didn't have a helmet on (he tried once and was trying to skate a million miles an hour and fell and cracked his head on the ice), so he's really excited to wear gear and go without the walker. 

Speaking of sports, though, I'm trying to decide if we should let him try something else this year as well (they have t-ball, soccer and bitty basket ball available through the rec department and its pretty cheap).  I don't think he'll have the attention span for t-ball, and I am thinking basketball will be a little too difficult at 5 years old (maybe not?), so I was leaning toward soccer maybe?  I don't want to over-schedule him (or us!!) but I want him to try things out to see what he is interested in. 

Mommy/Boys Date Day

Today the boys and I had some QT together in Ann Arbor.

We first stopped by Moosejaw so I could exchange a jacket.  The boys liked walking up the "rock ramp" that people test out shoes on.  They also got to do pull ups on these ropes.  Moosejaw is a pretty neat company.  When you call, they answer the phone by saying "Mooooooooooosejaw!  How may I help you?"  And the MOOOOO sounds like a cow or something... very hilarious.  When we walked in the store, both employees were super friendly and greeted us as if they have known us for awhile.  I love finding business with great customer service!

After Moosejaw, we headed to the mall so I could pick up a few pair of jeans for the boys.  We went to Children's Place and got them some jeans and underwear (more on that in another post!).  Then they played for a bit in the play place and afterward we went to Gap and walked through Build A Bear.

When we were finished at the mall we intended to go to Panera for lunch (I'm always craving me some Panera!  LOOOVE their Smokehouse Turkey Panini and their Chicken Cobb Salad!).  Panera was packed and there weren't any tables available so we went a few stores down to Bella Italia.  It is a little Mom-and-Pop place and they had yummy pizza!   It reminded me of Sbarro's pizza (or East Lansing-ers... Georgios!!!).  Large slices, thin crust and cheese.  YUMMY!  The owners were a younger couple with a baby around 8-10 months old.  They were all there, working (even the baby was hanging around!) and I thought it was so neat.  Everyone who came in after us seemed to know them really well and they all held conversations with them.  The boys each devoured a huge slice on their own, plus breadsticks.  They got spoiled and I let them get Sierra Mist.  Pop is like a huge once a year treat around here.  They thought they'd struck gold!  Bella Italia also has ice cream, and for checking in with FourSquare we got our cones for $1.  Sweet!   We'll definitely go back.

We had such a great afternoon.  On our way home, Hudson zonked out and Porter watched a movie.  I love spending time with the boys like this.  Even though taking 2 kids shopping/running errands/out to lunch isn't the easiest thing to do, I love just being with these boys.  They make my world so much nicer.  

Chaotic bliss... or just plain chaos

[[Today I am thankful for those that can understand and appreciate the chaos in life.]]

No pictures today.  Although pictures would make this post much more hilarious. 

Katie and I met up at the Dahlem Center with the boys this morning.  Right up their alley... wildlife and frogs and turtles and a nature trail.  Except Hudson is 2.  And he's 2.  Did I mention he's 2?  And 2 is taking over.  Literally.   

He didn't sleep well last night... he was up about 3 or 4 times with a horrendous bloody nose.  I mean blood pouring out in drips and soaking his shirt and getting all over his legs and diaper and bed.  Made for a sleepless night for both of us and we were both cranky this morning. 

The world was against Hudson today.  It really was. 

First we didn't drive the truck.  So Hudson yells at me that he doesn't WANT to see Katie!  I hate Katie!  He says.  WTF?  

So I ignore.  He's mad and he's... 2.  

We get to the end of our road.  God forbid... I turned the wrong frickin' way!  And he wails on..... "I don't WANT to go this way!  I want to go THAT WAY!" 

I ignore.  He's 2.  He's grumpy.  Frick he is 2.  Terrible 2's have never been so rotten sounding!

We get to the Dahlem Center and he's still pissed.  Pissed I pulled in the parking lot and parked.  Pissed we were there.  Pissed we were meeting Katie (poor Katie... she was the brunt of his rage today!). 

 We walked up to the building and walked around this little trail.  Took about 2 minutes and somewhere along the way Hudson got ticked about something and again, he's screaming.  

Then he didn't want to go inside the building to see the animals and the gift shop.  Yell yell yell.  Scream, cry, whine. 

Then we went on the nature trail... I'd say maybe MAYBE a half a mile?  Not even.  it was so short.  Halfway through, Hudson wanted me to carry him.  

I told him no.  

Pissed him right off.  So he sits down and pouts.  Nolan tried to convince him to come with us.  I wasn't playing games.  I left him right there and ignored him.  He finally caught up with us and was just sobbing.  He was having such a rough morning. 

We decided to grab some Mc D's and head to Betsy Butterfield.  I spread out my quilt that I keep in the van and we all pile on with our lunches.  The boys had wanted chicken nuggets.  That is, until Hudson saw my double cheeseburger.

"Can I have a bite that?" He says.  

"No thanks"  I say

And here we go again.... only this time he throws his face/head into the blanket... smack dab in the middle of my ketchup.  Literally... 3 packets of ketchup mushed on the top of his head.  Niiiice.

Adrian is all over... trying to grab everyone's food and drinks.  Katie and I are guarding things left and right. 

The kids go play and Nolan comes running over, legs waddling, "Take them off!  I'm all wet!  Hurry and get them off me!"  He had slid down the slide into a puddle.  So Katie takes his pants off, puts his tennis shoes back on and sends him to the playground in his diaper and shirt and tennis shoes.  We were cracking up!

Then Porter... oh my child with naughty words... he's playing with Donnie and says something like "I'm gonna catch those damn idiots!"  EEEEEKKK!  

So, here we are.... one kid with a ketchup mohawk, one running around in a diaper and shirt, another yelling obscenities.   Niiiice.  

I'm so thankful to have girlfriends who get it.  This chaos that is our life.  You must love it, you must.  

Halvsies

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. - Emerson

Lately the boys have been such a joy to have around.  Sure, they still have their fights, but for the most part it seems like they've entered this phase where they are so much more tolerable.  I know, that sounds terrible.  But it is true.  For awhile there I was honestly contemplating calling it quits on adding to the family.  And lately I think it'd be completely manageable (minus the $$ part...) to add another baby... but I also find myself feeling kind of content with the two little munchkins I have for the time being.  I want to enjoy these sweet little guys while I can.  Life is so busy and goes so quickly.  I know someday we'll have another baby... maybe next year, maybe in 2 or 3 years.  Who knows.

PORTER: 4.5
Porter has blossomed so much since starting Preschool.  The kid who couldn't stand to color for more than 45 seconds?  He's rarely without a crayon or marker in hand, and even asks to be tucked in bed at night with a box of Color Wonders and his coloring book.  He colors himself to sleep.  Not kidding.  Hudson and I picked Porter up at Cubbies last Sunday and we were a little early... I peeked in from the hallway and saw Porter sitting so quietly, concentrating so hard on his coloring art project they were finishing up.  I felt so proud and in awe at the little boy he was becoming.  He is so independent and loves to help. He is quite the Mama's Boy as well.  When we get home from school/work, he usually is asking to go play with Kyle, our 11 year old neighbor... which cracks me up.  I think part of it has to do with the fact that he has Nerf guns!  Last week we were putting Cars tattoos on the boys and he kept asking me "Hey Mom!  Do I look famous?"  And then he says to me "I really should have put that Sally tattoo on.  That'd have looked rockin' on me!"  Where does he come up with these things?  His teacher has dubbed him "Best Dressed" and it cracks me up. She seems to have a soft spot for him... he's usually the last kid being picked up and she's always giving him candy from her candy stash.   Today she said "Oh I told him he could have a piece... I told him he'd have to wait until everyone was gone."  What a little sneak :)

HUDSON: 2.5
Hudson is no longer a baby.  Sure, I still call him my baby but this kid can talk circles around you.  And to watch him... he's a toddler!  A kid!  He's growing up so fast.  He is such a compassionate little guy... if he even thinks he's hurt my feelings or made me upset he's immediately hugging me and saying "I'm sorry Mama!" with his sweet little voice.  He still has his Mine Mine.... and pretty much always has about 4 cars and trucks in his hands at all times.  And even at 2.5 he still hasn't shaken the "Bessie" nickname.  Its not uncommon to hear us refer to him as "Bess" or "Bessie".  This kid is still an awesome sleeper... since moving him to his big boy bed oh, a year ago (?) he rarely protests bedtime.  Its not uncommon to check in on him an hour later and he's quietly laying in bed reading a book or driving his trucks on his pillow.  Hudson is finally back at Miss  Marleen's and he fell right back into the groove of things with no problem.  He's pretty laidback anymore about change and transitions so it doesn't surprise me.  Marleen hasn't seen him since spring, when he had just turned 2.  She is blown away by his speech and she said he's their source of daily entertainment... he cracks her up with the things he says and does.

I should add... these are the baby pigs we saw at Flavor Fruit Farms.  They were sooo tiny and cute!  Hudson LOVED the pigs... the big one in the cage next to them was his favorite and he kept trying to climb in the pen.  He got so far as to have his legs through the fence and was sitting on the fence.  Stuck!

What's yours is mine, what's mine is yours

I really have to applaud Porter lately for some great lengths he's made in the big brother department. He is typically pretty protective of Hudson.... when the situation doesn't take anything from Porter. However, put the two boys together on their own and usually one of them figures out a way to get under the others skin and kaboom... sibling squabbles. It's incredibly annoying. I'm not sure if its jealousy on Porter's part or if he's just unable to comprehend that Hudson is little and doesn't quite "get" rules of sharing yet or if he just plain doesn't like his brother. I surely hope its not the latter. I had big dreams of them being buddies growing up.

Anyhow, lately he's made lots of little improvements... baby steps, if you will... in sharing and "filling Hudson's bucket". It makes me proud to see him be caring toward his little brother. We make sure to praise him and make a big deal about how nice he's being and what a great big brother he's being to Hudson.

This evening after dinner I gave the boys some popsicles. Hudson plain cracks me up when he gets sweets. He laughs the entire time he eats them... after every lick. He had a sucker earlier today... I took the boys into school to help Mo work on the room and needed something to keep them both quiet for a bit... and Hudson would get this huge grin on his face every time he took a little taste of his dum dum. So cute.

Porter and Hudson were so sweet with each other, sharing their popsicles with each other. Porter asked for a lick from Hudson and then Hudson gave him a lick of his (ok, so most of the time Porter took his own lick from Hudson... but H willingly shared!! YAY!)









I should mention... I did a bit of photoshopping to Bessie's face... this weekend he woke up (Sunday) with some sort of bites or rash all over his face. His actual complexion is more along the lines of this....


I took him into the doctor today and of course everyone who saw him exclaimed "What happened to his face!!" Dr. Williams said it looked like sand fleas... not sure if that was by process of elimination after hearing they had been playing in the sand box Saturday evening and he woke up Sunday morning with bites. I loved when she came back into the room with information on how to get rid of sand fleas and admitted that she went and googled it. Nice. I could have done that at home and saved myself $15. LOL!

The Monkey Updates

Hudson:

• WOW! Says "WOW" all the time!


• Truck: "tuck" Can tell you what a truck says ("rrrrruuuuuhhhh"!)


• I found him snuggling with Ella the cat this morning. Or was it Ella snuggling with him? Either way, it was cute.

Porter:

• I love bedtime with Porter. We usually lay in bed and talk about the day. I can tell that this is such a reflection time for him. He asks questions, tells me things, and we talk about things we'll be doing in the following days. Lots of times he'll say "I had a great day today"
  Saturday, he said "I had so much fun today. I had fun at Omas and at Papas." I asked what his favorite part of the day was. "Chasing the boy with the blue car." We went to the park and he and another boy spent the whole time running after eachother, laughing and playing.
  
  Last night he says to me "We had a lot of work to do today." I said "Sure did. What was your favorite part of the day?" "Driving my yellow truck in the dirt. And riding my 4-wheeler."
  

Monkey Update:

Porter @ 3 Years

• Still loves trucks... trucks trucks trucks. Anything trucks.
  
• Is in a sharing rut... everything is "I just had that!" "That's mine!" He's been great at sharing up until the past few weeks.
  
• Can identify all the letters of the alphabet
• Knows some letter sounds. Said the word "Cucumber" last night and then said "Cucumber.... starts with Q!" haha!
  
• Finally can sing the ABC song (he's not a big song-singer, and he's been able to sing parts of it for awhile but never all the way through)
• Is extremely attached to his Grandma (my mom)
• Developed quite an attitude recently. I hope its just an age/stage thing and not a reflection of our parenting.
  
• Has become afraid of his bedroom at night... tells us "I get scared sometimes!" in such a sad voice.
• Makes me laugh every day
  

Hudson @ 9 Months

• Is becoming more mobile... goes from sitting to laying, rotates in a 360* circle "army crawl", and army crawls.... backwards. He gets up on his knees, but just hasn't figured out how to move.
  
• Has 2 bottom teeth and his 2 top teeth just broke through.
  
• LOVES his Oma (my grandma)
• Eats 3 meals a day (mostly regular foods, but occasionally baby food too) and has four 6oz bottles a day
• Still wakes up once a night, usually around 5am. We toss him a bottle and he goes back to sleep until 7/7:30am
• 
  

Crossing fingers

Hudson has been sick since Monday with a nasty cold... we took him to the doctor Weds and he checked out ok (hasn't had a fever), but the poor kid sounds TERRIBLE. He's hoarse... he can barely cry or babble or whine (which is kind of nice HAHA!). He's irritable, fussy, and just not himself. He coughs and chokes on the mucous. Poor kid!

And now, Porter has a fever.... (sorry LeeAnn if Lukas comes down with anything!!)... the Howards were over this evening and Porter pretty much put himself to bed on the couch before they left. Grabbed Rocky, cuddled up with a pillow, had that glazed over look and just zoned out.

So far his fever isn't terrible (1o0* I think Ry said) and he's sleeping ok. I am nervous for it to turn into RSV again. I can't fathom going through what we went through last year!

Other than that, we've had a low key weekend. Yesterday I had some girlfriends over for a "12-hour crop". I actually got 12 layouts done! Today I invited a few of the girls over again and LeeAnn took me up on the invite. We worked on a little Christmas Card project and I got a few more pages done.

Tomorrow looks low key as well... my kind of weekend! I'm hoping the boys will be feeling better by Monday! I hate to have to call into work with sick kids after a 2 week break!

Widow Weekend

Ryan is in Wisconsin this weekend for the Packer/Lions game with Jade and Don, so the boys and I are flying solo until he gets home tomorrow. I hope he's had a great time tailgating for 3 hours and then sitting outside for a 3-hour game in 20* and sunny weather HAHA! The difference in fun for women and fun for men....

Ry left yesterday around 11am. I was watching Heather's girls so I had all 4 kids until about 7pm last night. Loooong day. Luckily, Katie and the boys came over around 5 to give me a little sanity break and some adult conversation. Thankfully they came through with plans to stay the night here so us "widows" could keep each other company. The boys hung out and watched Speed Racer and ate popcorn and stayed up way too late. Katie and I managed to scrapbook a few pages until about midnight and then sat up until 1:30am chatting.


After some Monkey Bread for breakfast, Katie and the boys took off for home and my boys and I went into town to run errands... we went to Target and to Kohls so Porter could pick out a Hallmark ornament to commemorate his year 2008 (oddly, out of Buzz Lightyear, SpeedRacer, Little Einsteins and Handy Manny, he picked the latter.... I didn't think he was "that" into Handy Manny!?). I picked up a Super Baby ornament for Hudson- thought that was fitting. Lori had given me the New Home Hallmark ornament, so I think we got a pretty well rounded set of 2008 ornaments.

Porter is just hanging out with me watching Kung Fu Panda. He's been staying up past his bedtime more often than not lately. I'm hoping to get a little cleaning done tonight after P goes to bed and get this house somewhat presentable for our New Years Eve party on Wednesday. I have way too much laundry to do, bills to catch up on (I always seem to get behind on balancing the checkbook etc around busy holidays) and a mud room to clean out. Not to mention my entire scrap area downstairs to organize and move to the apartment for a scrap night next Friday.

Speaking of all that... I should get going.

Some pictures from the weekend....