Ode to Pajama Pirates

Costumes are fun!

Christmas 2011

It's be a wonderful and busy Christmas holiday. I can't believe that we start to get back to normal life tomorrow. Here are a few snippets from the holiday. My quick synopsis is that it is so much fun to see the boys discover all that the holidays mean. Daniel is fully into the small manipulatives and can follow a Lego or Playmobil pattern like a champ. It's really cool to watch. Christopher is all in on the trains and is fully experiencing what it means to be 2. Yeah for Mom and Dad ;) We've really enjoyed having Maggie here for the holiday in addition to Dan and Peggy. Christopher is in love with her dog, Tate, and usually greets him with, "I love Tate."

Proceed with caution. Lots of sprinkles straight into the mouth.

Daniel loved this activity.

Cheering on the Badgers with Non.

Christopher really enjoyed the game. When we asked him if he wanted to go to the Badger basketball game, he quickly recited, "Go Bucky, Big Red W, On Wisconsin, Down the Line."

Daniel working on the marble maze that Santa brought.

Boys at play.

Watch out world here we come!

Unfortunately this is the only picture of the three boys that I got from Christmas Day.

Teacher's Comments

Today when I picked up the boys at school, they were helping the teacher assemble the castle gift we had given the class. The castle had many, many pieces that had to be put together to create the finished product. I commented on her bravery taking on that challenge with four little helpers. She said, "It would have been easier if Daniel did not keep telling me that I needed to do it differently because it did not look like the picture on the box." Then she said, "but we do have all these leftover parts." Me being of the engineer mindset glanced at the box and then looked at the castle and assessed that she had, in fact, constructed the castle incorrectly. At that very same moment, she said that she had been telling Daniel that there was probably more than one way to put it together. Then it dawned on me... Is Daniel inherently like this, or did I create it? I'm guessing it is the latter because my reaction to her very nice, although not exactly like the picture on the box, castle was exactly the same as his. Luckily I'll have my chance to do much assembly in the coming days. Christmas with small children results in lots of assembly.

In that moment when I heard my words being echoed back from my son's mouth I realized that I just needed to let it go. Let it go, Rachel, let it go. I've known this for years, or at least I've been told that I focus on some of the smaller details, but I've never seen such a great example of it. I guess she is right, it's ok if all of the pieces are not in the exact right spot. Good thing is, I'm working on finding inner peace. I've taken up yoga, and I love it! So on those really trying days, I just head over to Dragonfly Hot Yoga and sweat it out ;)

We are putting together our last gifts for Christmas, and can't wait for the big day. Too bad it's likely going to be a brown Christmas this year. The little snow we had melted. Ok, must hit the hay and get a little sleep before tomorrow. Here's to hoping your Mother passes on her best qualities to you!

And just for reading, here is a cute picture of the boys.

Christopher-isms

Christopher is a very verbal child. He talks a lot about everything. He also mimics so much of what he hears. It is quite entertaining listening to him. He also has quite a few funny things that he likes to say and do. It all started with tricky several months ago. Anyway, here are a few for your enjoyment:

- When he sings the alphabet, he says "ooo" instead of "u."
- When we start pulling into the driveway he announces, "We're at Mommy's house ... Mommy."
- Most sentences are followed by ...(dramatic pause)... Mommy.
- His name is slowly gaining all of its letters. It started as "Kiffer," but will occasionally come out as, "Chrispher" now.
- Back in September or October when the days started getting much shorter, Christopher learned that it could be dark outside and it was such a novelty (he's been going to bed at 7 pm for as long as I can remember), he would run to the window and point and say, "dark outside" repeatedly until we would acknowledge that it was, in fact, dark outside.
- Christohper loves all the Christmas decorations, he has been pointing out all the "tiny balls" in the neighborhood on the way home. He likes to do that after he tells me, "I found it, Mommy. I found the moon, Mommy."
- Everytime he sees the phone out he says, "Talk to Gigi, Mommy?" and tries to talk to her even though no one is there.
- At every meal, no matter what we are having, he always asks Matt for a, "bite please."
- Christopher is also very interested in cooking. He always comes into the kitchen and asks if he can, "See it, Mommy. See it please?" Then he insists that he look in each pot and in the oven just so that he is in the loop about what's cooking. Hilarious if you ask me.

Trick-or-Treat

The boys had a blast Trick-or-Treating tonight and today at school at "people's work" as Daniel would tell you. I guess that's an added bonus of a corporate daycare. They are all about the treats. Christopher kept asking for "more treats" and pointed out all the "scary" things as we strolled around the neighborhood. He caught on to the concept pretty early in the game. Daniel later exclaimed that, "Trick-or-treat is the best night ever!" Unlike year's past where Daniel thought that the idea of Halloween was to actually go inside everyone's houses (at least four entries each year), he actually picked up on the get candy and run idea this year. We did manage to squeeze, "thank you's" in before the tail was headed on.

Our biggest delay was the little clown wobbling behind with a hat that wouldn't stay up. On one particularly long sidewalk that meandered around several flower beds, Christopher was lagging way behind. I went back to check on him to find him pointing at each petunia. After asking him what he was doing, he replied, "Counting. Counting flowers." As if to say, "Mom, these flowers are all lined up here along the sidewalk. Clearly they were put here for me to count." I'm pretty sure that this was his favorite house because when he finally made it to the door, he was rewarded with two "hot jack-o-lantern's" meaning jack-o-lanterns with candles inside and a full-size candy bar. You should have seen the size of my boy's eyes when that tray came out! So much fun tonight! Makes me look forward to future years.

The clown and Puff the Magic Dragon posing on the front stoop.

Daniel snuggling and Christopher showing me his Jack-o-Lantern.

Dan explaining something really important to Daniel about pumpkins and horses.

Risks of Creative Bedtime Songs

Matt started singing "American Pie" to Daniel as a bedtime song months ago. He now knows all the words and will correct any minor slip-ups. As an extension of this activity Matt started giving Daniel interpretations of some of the verses, for instance, "You know the girl who sings the blues is Janis Joplin." Well, as most things do with Daniel, this one came back to us yesterday when Daniel asked if Janis Joplin was going to be at the Wastewater picnic. The host got a good chuckle out of that one!

Crash!

Farmer's Market Fun

Highlights of the Farmer's Market today included star cookies and the Capitol. We almost got asked to leave the Capitol, but as we were not pouring beer on any legislators, they let the boys continue their hide and seek and echo games with only a hairy eyeball. Believe it or not, we actually made it through 2.5 of the 4 blocks, but in an effort to limit my purchases to what we wanted instead of what Daniel wanted, no pictures were taken.

Little Logic

Daniel asked me if he could use his Thomas puzzle tin box to bring his lunch to school. In lieu of just saying, "No Daniel, that's rediculous," my response was to ask him where the puzzle pieces would go. He responded in a not so subtle way.

Thomas puzzle box in the lunchbox cabinet

Thomas puzzle pieces in Daniel's lunchbox.

He's got it all figured out doesn't he? I guess the idea of a lunchbox with Thomas and wheels on it was just a little too exciting.

I guess I'm not in charge

Sorry for the infrequency of posts. Everytime I have something to blog about I get sidetracked. Life is pretty fun these days, but on occasion, things fall apart. Like today for instance. Here's the play by play:

9:45 am - Ok, time to put Chrisopher down because I have a conference call at 10 am.
9:58 am - Time to dial in for the call. What's that I hear? Christopher crying from upstairs.
10 am - Start conference call and cue "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
10:45 am - Oh no, someone is digging in the pantry. *6 was mute for the call right?
10:46 am - Use food to distract the boys during the last f 15 minutes of the call.
11:10 am - Finally done. Boys were fine. Time to regroup so we can go out to eat for lunch.
11:45 am - Alright, out the door and headed to Dumpling Haus. Very excited to treat the boys to lunch and hopefully birthday shopping for Matt.
11:46 am - From the backseat, "Mom, are we going to Noodles?" - "No, we are going to a new place called Dumpling Haus." - "Mommy, I don't like dumplings, I want macaroni and cheese" - "You are having macaroni and cheese for dinner, will you try dumplings at lunch? It will be fun. Is Christopher sleeping?" - "I don't want dumplings. Yes, Christopher is sleeping."
11:47 am - Enact plan b. Cluver's drive through. I suspect Christopher will be asleep for a while.
12:15 pm - Home for lunch. Relocate Christopher to the crib. Daniel eats nothing for the next 20 minutes.
12:35 pm - Daniel finally starts to eat.
1 pm - Put Daniel down for a nap only to hear Christopher start to wake up as I walk in front of the door. Seriously?
1:15 pm - Daniel is down, but not happy about it. Now it's time to get Christopher and feed him lunch.
1:57 pm - Here we are, blogging together, Christopher being a small tornado in my lap. Daniel sounds quiet. If he's not asleep, he'll come down at 2 pm. If he is asleep, great.

The real question is, should I attempt birthday shopping again when Daniel comes down? The way my day is going I think that might lead to a reapeat of what happened at 11:46 am. Christopher is going to need more sleep. Wouldn't that be fun? Online shopping, here I come.

Day Out With Thomas

Yesterday we surpised the boys with a trip down to Union, Illinois, to do Day out with Thomas. The boys had a blast. I was really amazed that they did not even start asking about where we were going until we were on the road, and then a simple, "Illinois" was sufficient for about an hour. Then Daniel started to get curious. We told him that it was going to be a surprise. His list of guesses as to what the suprise might be was quite entertaining. First on the list was a marble race track. I've forgotten the rest of them, but one might have been getting peanut butter and liversausage sandwiches. Seriously, who could eat that? I have Matt to thank for that one. So here are the pictures. The boys got Thomas tatoos, and have been avoiding baths ever since Saturday in hope that that tatoos will last longer.

Our first Thomas sighting. Unfortunately, it's impossible to get the boys to look at me when Thomas is nearby.

Having a warm-up ride on the streetcar.

Ready to go!

Someone scary must have been walking by.

Tickets!

My squirmer.

Boys

I don't even know where to begin on the blog these days. So much is happening so quickly that I just have not had time to share much. Sorry. I think this is mostly a result of Daniel virtually giving up his nap. I say virtually because he is actually napping as I write. Probably the reason why I'm writing. Anyway, they are both growing up and changing so quickly. I'm enjoying the freedom of having slightly older children whose eating and sleeping needs are slightly less demanding. Like today, we want shopping, then we went out to eat lunch, and we finished by walking over to our new library. It was a lot of fun. Not to mention the few hours before leaving that the boys played together in the living room. It's been a fun day. I'm sure the evening will be difficult just because I'm jinxing myself by writing about it. We shall see.

We have been swimming a ton this summer. Daniel can do amazing things in the water, and he loves it. I'll have to take another video soon. He was jumping into the deep end today! Maybe he will be able to do the diving board this year. He can't wait. Christohper loves the water just as much. His favorite thing is jumping in the water. He likes to count to three instead of having me do it. After about half of his class he usually starts asking for his towel. When I don't clue in right away, he starts clarifying by saying, "Thomas" and pointing to our chair where his Thomas towel is. Usually I can distract him through 2/3 of the remaining swimming lesson time, but sometimes he gets his way.

Here are some pictures from July!

Farmers Market!

Neighborhood bike parade. Neither boy made it the block on their vehicle.

Cousins!

Conversations

When you receive pictures like this in emails, you end up with interesting dinner conversation.

Christopher is talking up a storm these days and Daniel is starting to read. I'm having trouble keeping up. I think that is because Daniel has recently quit napping at home on most days. We will get the occasional nap on a Saturday, but naps rarely come on the days we are home. I was very spoiled with almost 3 years of a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. The boys have been napping at the same time in the afternoon for as long as I can remember. It's so different now and my learning curve is steep.

Christohper mimics everything and is a real studier. He will listen, repeat, look for the thing again, and tell us about it. You can almost see him thinking. Backhoe was the word he learned in the video. His long babbling sentences are starting to take form. One of his favorites is, "What is this?" I'm also impressed with his ability to know what he wants. Christopher has been asking to go down for bed or a nap for many months now, and has been requesting food when he is hungry since his first birthday. Now that is extending to finding a certain picture in a book or a specific kind of food. It can be frusterating as a parent to figure out what this specific thing is, but he's a good enough communicator to get the point accross without too much distress, usually.

You will notice that Daniel is singing the chorus to American Pie. That is his latest bedtime song. Matt was really happy to move on from "Outdoors" to the tune of "I'm Yours" which he's been singing for almost two years. Daniel loves the song so much that I had to print the lyrics off the internet so that I could sing the song, too. We need to teach him more songs. He really seems to enjoy singing. His imagination is starting to blossom. The stories and roleplaying that I get to overhear are wonderful.

Alright enough of this rambling. Matt was accusing me of being an infrequent poster, so I've responded with a double post today.

The Definition of Dammit

On Monday I received a panicked call from Matt as he was on the way to school with the boys, "Rachel, Daniel just said 'dammit'. What do I do?" Not knowing the situation or the use, I thought we should just see how it evolved from that moment. Well, tonight Daniel tried out the word again. He just said it as we were walking up the stairs to go to bed. So Matt and I decided to have a little chat with Daniel unrehearsed. I asked Daniel if he knew what that word meant. He thought about it for a while and responded, "When you forget something, you say 'Oh Dammit' Then you turn around and you go back and get it. Then you say, 'Here it is.'" Matt remembered all the times that happened in Daniel's presence and in a moment of irony had to restrain himself from saying, "Oh, dammit." There was no debate over where Daniel picked up that nice token phrase. We told him that it's much better to say, "Oh darn," or "Oh gosh, oh gee." He seemed convinced. Hopefully, we won't be hearing from the teacher about this one.

Word of the Week: Tricky

Christopher's vocabulary is expanding by the minute. It is really fun to hear so many new words from him. He is also starting to say multiple word phrases like "tricky puzzle" or "I did it" or "Mommy snuggle Bucky." Then there are the times that he babbles paragraphs and ends with "ball?" as if he had just asked you a very involved question and needed input from you. I just have to guess during those times.

Christopher has had a little fever during the past couple days, which has made him a little more cuddly than normal. When we put him to bed now, he always requests a book. So we did the book, then we said prayers and sang songs, and he just wanted to snuggle. Usually he would be crawling out of the chair and pointing to the crib saying, "night, night." He loves to go to sleep and it takes him about 3 minutes to get from in the room to asleep. He's a dream sleeper.

Anyway, I just decided to enjoy the moment and rock him to sleep. I'm usually the Mom who is looking forward to the next stage or accomplishment, but occasionally things catch me off guard and I get a bit sad that they are growing up so quickly. Rocking Christohper to sleep was one of those moments. Before I knew it I was sitting ther in the dark with tears falling down my face. I didn't realize how long it had been since I snuggled one of my boys to sleep. It was a nice treat. I guess that is the upside of a slight fever. It slows them down enough that they will pause for a snuggle every once in a while.

Perspective

Last night we had some friends over to do a little project and for dinner. Christopher had gone to bed and the adults were sitting down to eat dinner. At one point when we were eating Daniel siad he needed to go to the potty. That sounds good to me. We spent a year tyring to encourage him to use the potty, and a few weeks ago, he finally go the hang of things. He is doing great now, and I'm just thrilled that he is using the toilet regularly. So Daniel heads in the direction of the bathroom and sits down on the floor outside of the bathroom and takes his underwear and pants off and walks into the bathroom. Although a little unconventional, I really did not have a second thought about his approach. Now our dinner guests, who thankfully are very good friends, were slightly suprised by this little show while we were eating dinner. So I asked Daniel to close the door. Well, he did that, but his clothes were still outside the bathroom. We had a second showing a couple minutes later. I've been so focused on getting Daniel to actually use the potty that I've lost all concept of ettiquette. I guess that can be our next project. I just wonder what other things have become the norm in our own little world that are not in any way appropriate outside of these walls?

Winking

I love the funny words that kinds make as they are learning to talk. Christopher's most recent hilarious word is working which he pronounces "winking." I never knew how frequently this word was used until now when it seems to be every other word out of his mouth. Everything is either "winking" or "not winking." The video has a short clip of "winking." Maggie and I tried many times to get a better example, but this will have to do.

Boys

As the weather starts to warm up a bit, I think I'm just discovering what it means to have boys, and more importantly what it means to have two boys. I can think of numerous events that all happened today to share with you that might shed a bit of light on the situation, but I think this video says a lot. I started shooting it to show just how much Christohper loves water. Daniel had dumped his little water container on the deck, and Christopher was having a blast jumping in the tiny little puddle left behind. Well, as Christohper discovered 30 seconds later, there was a much bigger puddle around the corner for him to jump in. Christopher's most frequent word these days is 'outside' because he is always asking to go outside, from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed, the request is continually, "Outside?" I'm still on the fence on how I'm going to handle the whole clean clothes or dry clothes issue this summer. Between the sandbox and the hose, which by the way has been outlawed as of today, the boys are always relatively dirty. We've only been playing outside for a week at this point. I'm wondering if I can put a mister/shower gauntlet on the deck to just shower down everyone before they enter the porch. Needless to say, the boys are thrilled to have a yard to play in and each other to play with. Christohper is mastering climbing the fort and sliding down the slide, and Daniel is trying his best to do the monkey bars. He has a long way to go.

As a side note, Christopher is very interested in Daniel's potty training efforts and enjoys participating in the underwear wearing part of the game. Come to think of it, he usually gets a sticker every time Daniel uses the potty, and also gets whatever Daniel chooses as a special snack or treat. Hmmm, maybe Christopher is seeing the cause and effect here, and is just being supportive for Daniel. I can see his mind working now, "Daniel, if you use the potty, I get cheese puffs. Come this way, I'll show you what to do." Then he walks to the potty, opens it, and sits on it.

Facebook Status Inner Circle

I find myself wishing more and more that there was an inner circle on Facebook. I often have witty status update ideas, but I'm not really sure I want them out there for everyone to read. For instance, today I would like my status to be, "Things I'll trade for naptime: No accidents and two poops in the potty and it's only 3 pm!" If you talk to me regularly, you know that I cherish afternoon nap. You might also know that Daniel is resisting the potty with full force. (I guess the amped up reward system is working.) I'm just not sure how many people really think that would be funny or know me well enough to understand the real meaning here, but for those of you would would get it, I would love to hear similar things from you. Hence, my idea of the inner circle. Those of you who like hearing things like that from me could be in the inner circle. Everyone else can just read the not too personal updates.

The Videos I Miss and One Good One

Now that I'm living in the modern age of smartphones, capturing life's moments has been much easier, but I still manage to miss some classic moments. Just yesterday there was a moment I wish I could have memorialized forever. Yesterday seemed like one of the longest days of motherhood I've ever had. Both boys have a dramatic streak that comes out from time to time, and yesterday the collective Lee boys had hours of crying. In my role as Mom, I'm always trying to pinpoint the reason for things like this. Are they tired? Are they hungry? Are they bored? Do they miss their relatives? Are they sad that it's raining? What did I do wrong to result in an entire day of crying and fits? I'll never know.

Well, at 4 pm the rain finally let up, I put the boys in their boots and we headed outside. I was hoping that they would find something fun to do outside, and I thought that the noise might seem quieter outside instead of inside. Well, in the true boy spirit, they located the only puddle within 100 yards. The puddle was not very large, but it was large enough for them. Christopher jumped in the puddle for 10 minutes before he realized that sitting in puddles was fun, too, and dunking your head in it was even more fun. Daniel had his rake with him and tried out raking the puddle. Not as fun as jumping, but still fun, especially when you got to bash your brother in the process. Unfortunately, we had to end the fun abruptly when Christopher had an over zealous dunk resulting in a skinned cheek. We headed inside for baths because as fun as the puddle was, it was equally, too.

Well, I promised a good video, too. Today I got to watch Daniel and his Little Builders friends perform "Spider, Spider." It was incredibly cute. The audio is a bit hit or miss, but I think you will get the idea. Enjoy!

And, if you want to skip to the end, here are the bows. Adorable!

Loving the Park

Mobile Posting

Trying out new tricks today. Enjoy!

Moving Targets

After having a relatively successful church outing, the boys
decided that cooperating for a photo was not in the cards.

Happy Easter

Christopher, "Mom, I'm not sure I'm so into this second child thing. No eggs, only one boot. Give me a break."

Daniel, "Look at all my eggs! I love the Easter Bunny!"

Don't worry, Christopher is not really deprived, he just hid his eggs under the grass to get sympathy from everyone:)

Loving the Beach!

Steeley and Daniel on lookout.

Checking out the lighthouse.

Daniel and "The Great Aunt Lizzie"

Christopher was not so sure about the boat.

He will love me for this one when he gets older ;)

Beach bum.

Christopher loves the sand on the body and in the mouth!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

We've been celebrating Daniel's birthday this week. He was so happy to be three and to have two birthday parties. I'll get pictures of those up here soon, but here are a few of him enjoying some of his new toys for now. Such a happy guy!

Hello Florida!

We are in Florida on vacation for a long weekend. It's wonderful! It's been 85 and sunny with a light breeze since we arrived yesterday. Both boys are so happy to be in a warm and sunny place, and they are loving the water. Within hours of arriving we were at the beach, and Daniel was diving into waves like he lived on the beach. He couldn't get enough of it! Christopher must be learning to swim through osmosis (he's taking a break from lessons between Christmas and mid-summer) because he also was taking waves like he owned them and trying to jump into the pool today. These boys are fish! Can't wait for the rest of the weekend.

At the pool, anxiously awaiting the end of water aerobics.

Jump number 65 of the day.

Ice cream for the hard workers!

Christopher did not move from this spot for about three minutes because he was so exhausted from the pool.

I have a feeling we will be doing a lot of this in the upcoming days, months, years :)