Museum at a sprint

Today the boys and I ventured out to the Science Museum. I LOVE this place because a) it's free b) it's hands on and c) No one shushes you while you're there, thank goodness!

As a kid I absolutely hated going to museums b/c I just remember walking through them in a group at a snails pace with my school and hearing a thousand boring facts. I'm determined the boys won't view them that way so I let them touch as many possible things as they want, we make the exhibits speak in funny voices, and we basically take in the museum at a sprint pace since Cole was leading the pack and not contained much in his stroller :o)

Fin thought this bobcat was so cool. He was my self-imposed tour guide this time. He would walk up to an exhibit and say, "You see that bird there? His name is 'fluffy white bird'". So informative.

"I want to live with you"

Cole was so obsessed with the fish, when we had to move on he kept saying, "Fishes, Fishes" over and over again. I played dumb and said, "O you want your goldfish?", plopped him in his stroller so he could have a snack and we both were content with the arrangement :o)

Cool tree you could climb around on the inside.

Room full of fake people consistently creeps me out. They look SO real. Fin wanted to hold this guys hand, ha!

Fin was NOT having the snake displays this time, but Cole loved climbing up and banging on the glass. There were a few signs that said, "don't bang on the glass", but I really hate snakes so I didn't mind that Cole did it.

Using my greatest mathmatic skills I estimate that 5 Coley bears would fit into a dinosaur footprint.

Doesn't he look so tiny underneath this dino?

Fin thought they had a room dedicated to 'A Bugs Life' when he saw his grasshopper friend. Who am I to tell him it's educational?

Our attempt at a group picture. I was so conflicted as a mom trying to not put more of one kid in the pic then another, so I just cut off half of both their faces :o)

Funniest moment of the day was when we were in the butterfly room and fin clapped his hands at a butterfly. The butterfly flapped his wings back at him and Fin bellowed, "MOM, did you know I can talk to butterflies??". He kept clapping for a good five minutes and bless that butterfly's heart, it stayed there and flapped his wings back at him. I was dying laughing.
Walking out, Fin was telling me all the other animals he could talk to as well. When he mentioned snakes though, I called his bluff and said he probably would have to get closer then five feet to their cages and uncover his eyes if he was going to have a conversation with them.

Cheating in Winter

Saturday we enjoyed being outside most of the day as it was unseasonably sunny and warm. We tried to soak that up as much as possible because you know in January that it's just a teaser. My parents and Will met us out on Salem Street where we ate pizza outside and then walked down to an icecream shop and got cotton candy. I enjoyed it so much because it was great company and Cole lasted the whole meal happily in his highchair, which if you have a toddler you know this is a HUGE treat.

Love this pic of the boys.

I'll take a cheat spring day in winter any day!

In Pops' footsteps...

My dad is one of the greatest men in the world. Period. And I really mean that. But even some greats have their little quirks or flaws. Things like using a glass or ice cream bowl after the dishwasher has started drives him insane. If you ask him how church was today, he without fail will respond, "We ARE the church" so then you have to correct yourself and ask how going to the building was today before he'll answer.
   But one of the funniest quirks my dad has is his hatred of squirrels getting into his hanging bird feeder. It bugs the heck out of him and he has in invested in a BB gun just for this problem. We'll all being eating dinner calmly and if he spots a squirrel dangling on the bird feeder outside, he will without warning bolt from the table, dash upstairs, open up his bathroom window and shoot BB's at the squirrel. Nothing makes him happier.
     Well apparently, it's genetic b/c his grandsons share this same hatred. We've been spreading birdseed on our back deck to be able to watch the birds eat from our window but a pesky squirrel has been eating all of our feed. So Fin devised a plan. A plan that involved an aluminum trashcan on the back deck, bird seed on top, many legos and blocks, a step stool and some string.
And thus a squirrel trap was born...

Pops would be so proud.

The many faces of Cole

Oh, Coley Bear. Lover of all things Mama. He is my little shadow. It's sweet and frustrating at the same time because he is glued to my side every second that he's awake. He cries if anyone takes him from me. If I go to another room he walks around, blanket in hand, calling,"maaaaaaama, maaaaama". Upon us being reunited (ha!) he greets me with a "HIIIIIII" and then immediately asks to nurse. The boy doesn't mess around :o)

I've seen so much of his personality come through and he is my fearless, opinionated cuddler. He's started talking so much and just for my records sake his words are:

Hi

Mama

Dada

'in (Fin)

up

buh bye

I wub you

Nigh-Nigh

Ball

Danke (blankie)

Num-Nums

Tair (for his favorite chair)

in

hot

Most versions of my families names

'side (for outside)

diaper

doggie

These are just a few, there are more random words I'm blanking on. I'm thinkin' I'm gonna have another talker on my hand. Maybe he and Fin can just talk each others ears off :o)

Some pics that capture the many moods of Cole...

Concentrating at Storytime

How dare you take a toy of mine. All of them are mine!

"Mom, I Needed these goldfish at 6:30am. And I found them in your purse so I just figured what's yours is mine..."

Big boy climbs to the top of play areas and goes down slides with no fear.

I had a date night with Cole on Friday night where I gave him a play tubby and then we played legos in front of the fire. He was so happy and chill, I loved the sweet quiet time with him.

This age can be exhausting, as I remember it being as well with Fin. But the more verbal he is getting, the less fits I'm seeing and it's so fun seeing him learn so much each day. Plus he's my number one fan, and those are hard to come by :o)

Preschool in a tub

You will probably read this title and think, "Oh, she's going to show us all her preschool supplies that she keeps in a tub". No friends. Yesterday we literally had preschool...in a tub.

Whenever we paint or do really messing things, I tend to let the boys do it in our big tub b/c a) they think that's so cool and b)the only cleanup involved is me turning on the shower and spraying it down. Win-win.

Yesterday I was working on letters with Fin and Annie and we did it in our tub with window markers. It must be noted that usually I let the boys do messy things in the tub naked but for the sake of having a lady present, we kept their pants on. Good life lesson :o)

Between getting to color all over my shower and having a peanut butter and nutella sandwhich for lunch, I'm pretty sure Annie is a fan of coming over.

Mama bragging moment: I was SO proud that Fin wrote his name completely unassisted. And then did it again. He was so proud of himself.

Name at the bottom.

Annie was into the letters until she discovered Fin's fake razor. Then she was all about the shaving.

And then Cole started trying to shave the tub and things just got silly :o)

At that, my friends, is preschool in a tub. Maximum fun, minimal clean-up.

Whiskers on the counter

The boys are always in awe of Pat shaving. I guess getting to put a sharp blade on your face means you're really an adult to them. The coolest of the cool.

For Christmas, Banans gave Fin a shaving kit which he looooves to use. Every bath now is not complete without shaving off his "whiskers". And now the big boys can shave together.

Cole thinks they are so cool...

So he had to get in on the aciton.

Don't mind me, I'll just be cleaning the bathroom counters and sinks all the live long day :o)

Really??

       Ooooh Fin. I knew this day would come. My sweet lover of all things but sleep. My child who didn't sleep through the night until you were 16 months. My dragger out of bedtimes. My "kiss and a hug and a kiss and a hug and a kiss and a hug!" cuddley child. My "Is the sun up yet?" questioner. I knew this day would come.
        Fin, Cole and I were cuddling on my bed at the late hour of 6:20 am this morning when I brought Cole out to change his diaper. Fin asked if he could stay in my bed since he was still "a wittle sweeepy". Thought in my head, "THEN WHY AREN"T YOU SWEEEEEEEPING?".
        Cole and I were horsing around out in the living room when Fin marched out ever so annoyed and indignant.
        " Guys! Would you please be quiet. I have to get some sleep before I have to get up and go into work today!".
       O How the tables have turned.

Will babysit for cupcakes

I came home from a late night at work to find this:

Hallelujah!
We've had our little friend Annie come to play some mornings lately while her mom Jamie goes to her doc appts for the end of her pregnancy. Note to Jamie: Name that boy. We need to bond :o)
As a thank you, Jamie got me cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe which just shows you that she gets me.
I came in, took in the gloriousness of the site that beheld me, and immediately stuffed my face until my stomach was like "I'm in pain,but thank you,but I'm in pain, but really...THANK YOU".
You're welcome stomach friend with a compartment just for sweets. You're welcome.

Pancake o'clock

I"m a big fan of breakfast food. Love it, as do the boys. We have hot breakfasts most mornings but one thing we ALWAYS do is have pancakes on Monday. There is no better way to start the week. Today I went low-cal and skipped adding chocolate chips in :o)

Coley, while a finicky eater, will always down him some pancakes. And when he's done he subtley tells me so by hurling pancakes onto the floor.

Today Fin decided his stuffed animals needed some pancakes too. The more the merrier.

Over time

Fin's been pulling some long hours at the Tractor Beaver Hump lately and I have to say, those co-workers of his are a little too sassy for my taste. Case in point, the other day Fin was messing around on his bunk bed ladder and I told him to be careful. When he continued horsing around, I told him he was disobeying and I didn't like that. His response: "But my workers looooove when I do this".
      It's not just his workers that are a bad influence. This morning Pat was teaching Fin his letters on the ipad. When Fin had had enough (seriously, how can you NOT recognize the letter "T" when you've just seen it three times??) he put the ipad down with a sigh and said,"I can't do anymore or my boss will fire me". Very clever, son.
     The cutest thing was the other day we were driving home from the Y and I told him we were going to go see Uncle Will play his basketball game in two more days. He ADORES Uncle Will and I thought he would be so excited but he got this sad look on his face and said,"I'm sorry but I can't go mom. And neither can dad or Cole. They have to go to my work with me. Dad has to move my pallets, Baby Cole has to pick up heavy things, and I have to click on my computer. So we can't go in two days, but we can go Monday!". What cracks me up the most is that he thinks when Pat and I are on the computer, we are just sitting there clicking for the heck of it. It's so fun getting a picture into his little mind.
     It's fascinating that this place is so REAL to Fin. He sometimes will tell us it's pretend but he really thinks of that place as a part of his everyday. The day I have to start cooking for his boss and co-workers though is the day I draw the line.

Lost in Translation

This morning Fin came and got me from the kitchen saying,"Aw look at our baby brother, he's so cute!". Can I tell you how much I love how sweet and affectionate Fin is to Cole? He thinks he's the cutest. I think they're both the cutest. Pat thinks we all use the word cute too much. Daily struggle :o)
    So I followed Fin into the living room and saw Cole lying on the ground with his blankie watching Mickey Mouse.
Me: Aw he's sleepy isn't he?
Fin: Sleeping? NO mom he's not sleeping, he's just watching Mickey.
Me: No...Sleeeeeepy. I know he's not sleeping.
Fin: He's not sleeping Mom, see?
Me: NO I said sleeeepppppyyy.
Fin (squinting up at me): Are you speaking Spanish??

I mean, is this a joke?

All in a days work...

Pat got a huge perk to his job last week when his boss allowed him to expense an ipad2. This took him from status of "I love my dad and he's really good at basketball and standing on his head", to "My dad's my hero and I kiss the ground he walks on" in Fin's eyes. They look up tooting Rhinos, talking genius parrots and letter games. You know, the important things. They are pretty darn cute while they do it.

A perk of my job at the Y is that a) I work with hilarious people and b) There are random costumes and props everywhere in the nursery. Add in a slow night and you get...

A Coley ladybug. Caroline (a girl I work with) gave me this costume that she found lying around and asked if I would put Cole in it. Subject my own flesh and blood to getting dressed up and having half a dozen girls oooo and ahhhh over him? Of course I will. Cole was a good sport and pretty stinkin cute. Lest you criticize me for dressing him up as a LADYbug... please remember that the lady bug, Francis, in a 'Bug's Life' was a man. Don't gender stereotype, people. It's an ugly thing.

Sometimes...

Sometimes you wake up at 6:30 and from the get-go it's like whoa. And you're mantra the whole day is, "I will turn this around", and yet everything just feels out of your hands.
Sometimes your toddler cries the whole day for no reason and you take him to the doctor and pay a co-pay just to have your doctor tell you he's healthy and just being fussy.
Sometimes you feel so tired all you want to do is faceplant on your bed but highchairs trays need to be cleaned (again) and you promised yourself you'd put the laundry away today and Cole still.won't.stop.crying.
Sometimes you are guiltily happy when said child finally cries himself to sleep at naptime, only to sigh for a different reason when he wakes up 30 minutes later.
Sometimes you jsut have to call it a day, take a hot shower, eat a milky way with a shot of milk and climb into bed.
Because tomorrow WILL be better.
And you can't appreciate the sweet days without some stretching ones sprinkled in.
And Finley's taken to spontaneously kissing me on the cheek like I imagine he will when he's a 6ft+ teenager towering over me. This makes everything right.

Match made in heaven

For my birthday my sister in law gave me a giftcard to Bath and Body Works. I LOVE giftcards because they force you to buy things for yourself whereas you would normally just spend your own money on useful things you need.

Pathetically I haven't had lotion in a long time so I was excited to find my own scent. After testing every scent in the store (dont judge, I was living up being in their without kids), I walked out with this gem.

I LOVE the smell of the lavender and chamomile but it was after I got home that I noticed what it was named.

Ahh sleep. Ever elusive, the mistress in my life. One day we will see each other for long meetings. Until then, I will wear you proudly.

Spontaneous boy heaven

Yesterday Pat had to work from home so I promised to have the boys and I out for the morning. I was drawing a blank on where to go since we couldn't spend money and I thought it was cold. I decided to just go hang out at my parents house but on the way I saw a huge construction site with HUGE mountain like hills of dirt and construction vehicles of every type. And the place was deserted. I did a spur of the moment (maybe dangerous) U-turn in the middle of the road and pulled into the construction site. The place was like boy heaven. I unloaded them, found random sweatshirts in the car and told them we were going exploring and to climb mountains. Fin so boyishly excited.

I had no idea CAT vehicles are so huge. The tires were much taller than me. I would call them by their names but I have NO idea what they each was except some had a scoop and some had a shovel.

Cole was pretty impressed.

I couldn't believe how big the shovel was compared to Fin. He thought he was cool stuff climbing inside of it.

Pre-gaming our mountain climbing by climbing a huge mound of dirt.

In order to get Cole to the top I had to carry him on my hip. Note that this is the one day I was not wearing exercise clothes. So up I hiked those huge hills with Cole on my hip in my boots and dress. I didn't realize how hard it was until Cole started imitating my huffing noises. Smart aleck.

View from the top.

Fin at the top of one of the hills. I can't tell you how huge they really were. He was so proud and a little scared.

Showing his muscles.

Cole was unimpressed by the hills, but he did like tasting the different samples of rocks and dirt.

The fact that they had just had baths be darned, they had a field day playing in the dirt. It was like being at the beach, only so very dirty.

New favortite picture. Love my sweets.

Fin was dead out from all that climbing. I'm thinking of having the boys do sprints up the hills everyday before naps. It's worth it :o)

It's so funny to me having grown up with girls to now see life through boys' eyes. It is SO much fun and I love the spontaneous "playground" we stumbled upon. The construction supervisor may not agree with me.

New Year, New Blog Design

Let me start out by saying I'm pathetically technologically challenged.
Like I couldn't even figure out how to survive 'Oregon Trail' when I was young. I would just keep throwing supplies off my wagon/raft when crossing a river until I had nothing less except some ox and then I would die of diphtheria. Everytime.

That being said I wanted a new blog look but didn't want to bug anyone to do it so I had to do it myself. And it was hard. And I HATED putting up a pic of myself so I just chose one of me eating a dessert because that pretty much sums me up. Except lately I've tried to be healthy and have been scaling back on chocolatey goodness and increasing sprints and and bouncing around on an exercise ball at the gym. This half makes me happy and half makes me want to smack myself and yell "sell-out".

All this to say...The blog looks different. Likey?

Finisms and Coleisms

Just some little tidbits I want to record to look back on one day...

Fin
- Yesterday morning we allowed Fin to have a bowl of Lucky Charms in the living room with the warning that if he made a mess, he would have to eat it at the table from here on out. As predicted there were little Lucky Charms sprinkled all about the floor and on the couch (no marshmallows were found though..hmmm). I told Fin that because the Lucky Charms made such a mess, he couldn't eat there again. He indignantly responded, "Well we need to call the police man then and tell them that the people that make Lucky Charms make a HUGE mess, cuz mom, Fruit Loops DON'T do this". He was so mad and felt so wronged. Never occured to him that he was the culprit.

-Today he was asking about heaven and I was trying to describe it to him in preschool terms. I told him you feel no pain there and nothing hurts. He thought about it for awhile and then said, "So if someone throws a sharp gumball at me, it won't hurt at all?"
I assured him it wouldn't and then he replied,"So in heaven, if someone puts a lion on me to eat me, that won't hurt?".
Umm come again? Before I could answer he quickly said,"Oh, never mind! I'll just punch him in the throat to get him off".
Note to Pat: Stop watching Youtube videos with Fin and plotting how to take down the animal kingdom.

-Fin was dwaddling before naps and I had to reprimand him...
  Me: Fin, when you disobey it makes my heart sad because you're not listening and Jesus wants you to obey.
   Fin: Did Jesus say that?
  Me: Yea, there is a whole verse in the Bible that says, "children obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right", so if it's in the Bible, it's a rule and a big deal.
   Fin: Well I'm going to write a book then and say, "Don't slam the potty seat down loud when you're done peeing".
OMG HOW do you parent with a straight face??

Cole
- Cole has taken to throwing things away and applauding himself for it. He's so quiet about it, but when I hear a loud BANG (b/c our trashcan lid is stainless steel) and then a baby voice saying "Yay!!" and clapping, I know I've got some treasure hunting to do. So far amidst the trash I've found socks, balls, the remote, wooden cars, various toys, a rubber ducky, utensils, and my toothbrush. Think I"m going to splurge and get myself a new .99cent one. Too gross. He is SO proud of himself.

-Today at the doctor while she was examining him, Cole kept singing in a gravely throaty voice, "Maaamaaaa". She laughed and said, "I'm not your Mama!". I had to explain to her that he was pretending to be Animal from the Muppets and singing a part from Bohemian Rhapsody. Seriously, WHO's 15 month old does that??

These boys definetely keep me on my toes.

Winter.

It finally caught up to us. Yesterday I felt it through the bottom of every door and heard it in the crackling of the window panes against the wind. I lit all our candles last night, and turned on the fire as well. One door is broken on the fireplace and keeps swinging open and while that normally bothers me, this time I swung the other one wide open as well and immediately felt warmth.
    I padded down the halls in my new slippers and crept in to check on the sleeping babes like I do every night. Kissing their cheeks to make sure they're warm enough, inhaling their sleepy smell, breathing the same prayer over them I pray every night. Help them to know You. Help them to bless others. Keep them safe. Guide us.
    I added an extra quilt to Fin's bed not so much because he needs it but because if he stirs in the night, he can burrow down and feel safe in the weight of his nest. The same way I do in mine. I toss a light blanket over Cole, knowing he's already warm enough in his footie pajamas but needing to know he has a blanket on him. For my sake. And I know he'll kick it off within five minutes. My wild sleeper.
    I want to take a hot shower for the warmth, but I don't want to feel the cold when I get out. So I add layers, crawl into bed, check the monitors and turn on my fan. Not for the cool air but for the comforting noise. I burrow down and drift off listening to the angry wind and my husbands' soft puffs of air as he breathes.
     I know at the end of February I will be restless. Dying for chlorine hair, sun-kissed skin, rasberry tea. But for now I'm content. Content to nest.

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They say it's your birthday...

So I turned 27 on Friday. I wasn't excited, I wasn't dreading it, I was just kinda "eh". But then I remembered there is much chocolate, and presents and love on that day that adding another year onto the ol' time clock isn't too bad. Plus I totally don't feel 27. If we're being honest, I feel 19 at all times. Just a little sleep deprived, hips-wider-from-childbirth 19 year old in charge of 2 kids. Sometimes it's scary :o)

My mom spoiled me by cooking me a delicious brunch and then the boys spoiled me by taking long naps so I coud nap too!

My neighbors across the street brought over this gem midday which I was more then happy to indulge. My Aunt Cathy always says calories don't count on your birthday.

Pat suprised me by coming home early and he and Fin gave me my presents. Fin picked out some candles for me which Pat assured me, Fin smelt every.single.one in the store before choosing :o) Then Pat had me close my eyes and brought in this...

An Old-fashioned bike!! I was so so excited. We live near a lot of little restaurants and a grocery store and I often walk there if we need just a gallon of milk or a pack of diapers. A coupe of times I mentioned that it would be fun to have a bike like in the 50's with a big basket on the front I could use. I NEVER dreamed I'd get one. Pat totally suprised me and I love it. Just gotta fasten my basket to the front and I"m in business. I shoud have been born in the eary 1900's. I'm much better suited for it.

Then Kier came over so Pat and I could go out for date night. The best gift of all!

The night ended with an awesome birthday cake my friend Jamie made me. I started out modestly with one piece and let's just say within 24 hours that sucker was gone. I woud blush but I'm not ashamed.

If the goal of your birthday is to feel loved: mission accomplished. Kinda wish I could do it all again sooner then a year. Thank goodness for Mother's day :o)