Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy Birthday Nana! We miss you and can't wait to see you in May. Here are some a ton of photos of recent happenings.  They are kind of out of order, but here they are:

This was from Oliver's birthday. I love how happy he looks, enjoying his cake, surrounded by his friends.
I don't have a ton of good pictures from this party because Ryan and I were busy being Master Spy trainers. Even though fully half of the invited guests (4 out of 8) cried at one point or another during the party, Oliver (alias "Flying Falcon") had a blast!

 

Elliot got an excavator from Grandpa Ford. His favorite thing to do is "play diggers" in the backyard. Everyday he asks me to play diggers with him, I need to be better about saying yes.

Andrew still looks like a baby with his bald head, but he is turning into a real little boy. He loves to do what his brothers are doing. He gets out and plays diggers, he plays Legos, he even prefers to sit with them at their table, rather than get strapped into his high chair (who can blame him). 

 It has rained a lot here this spring which has created a LOT of mud. This is what the boys looked like after one spectacularly messy afternoon in the backyard.

This is Elliot showing me that he could go inside because he had already washed his hands!! This explains why the towels in the downstairs bathroom are usually caked with mud. 

Andrew ready for a bath in the utility sink in the garage. 

We got a membership to the UC Botanical Garden. It is AMAZING!! The boys think it is thrilling to see so many cacti. They point them out and ask, "who would like to get poked by this cactus?" We all agree, "not me!!" Sometimes I pretend that I am going to cuddle up to one and take a nap on this "nice soft pillow" and they scream, no, mom, don't do it!!! I think I have probably exaggerated the danger of cactus because they think its pretty miraculous when we make it through in one piece. We'll have to take you here when you come to visit. The boys were especially excited about this giant specimen.

 Andrew rode around in my Ergo carrier but he loved to reach out to touch the flowers.

 

 

So this pretty much illustrates the different personalities of these boys. Oliver is quietly picking flowers while Elliot, bored and tired, decides to mix things up by mooning us. "Who wants to see my stinky weapon?" he taunted before pulling down his pants. Can you see that smile on his face in the last frame?! He is thrilled with his own performance.   

Oliver got Legos for his birthday and has turned into a complete Lego maniac. We were worried that Andrew would eat them but he doesn't put them in his mouth and is just as into playing with Legos as his brothers. This helicopter has been destroyed (usually by Elliot) and put back together (by Oliver) so many times I think he could do it in his sleep. I am really proud of him for learning how to follow the directions because it's actually not that easy. He also makes his own original creations which are pretty cool, too. 

We found this tricycle buried deep within some bushes near our house. It looked like it had been there for a decade at least. We excavated it and brought it home (is that considered stealing or cleaning up the neighborhood?) It's pretty junky but the boys love pushing each other around on it. 

Sick Day Silhouettes

We have been sick all week. It started last Tuesday with Oliver starting to cough on the ride home from Karate. By evening he was looking like one sick puppy. Then Andrew got boogery and feverish, too. By Friday Elliot and I had both caught it, too. Remarkably Ryan has thus far been spared. I feel better now but not 100%. Anyway, on Thursday, before we were all entirely down for the count but all home "sick" from school, we did this art project that I thought came out pretty well.

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with silhouettes (like old fashioned cameos) because we are making cameos of all the kids in Oliver's Kindergarten class for the school auction. I am the "Art Awareness" coordinator in his classroom this year. It is a lot of fun to plan lessons...less so to see them go wildly off the rails in the classroom. It's just tough when there are 32 kids, even when there is a lot of help from other parent volunteers. The level of fine motor skill varies so much at this age so what is relatively easy and straightforward for some kids is just overwhelming for others. So far, I have not had a lesson where I didn't leave feeling totally exhausted and like I should have made it MUCH simpler.

Anyway, so the basic way of making these cameos is that you take a photo of the child in profile against a white background (a white wall, for instance). Bump the contrast in whatever photo-editing tool you have (I used Picassa) until the kid-shape is completely black and the wall is white.  You can then print out the photo onto cardstock and cut it out. You can paint over the card stock which is what I plan to do with the Kindergarten silhouettes, but I wanted to try something else with the boys. I printed out their profile photos and traced it onto contact paper. I put the contact paper silhouettes on small canvases and let them got at them Jackson Pollock-style. When the paint dried we peeled off the contact paper and, voila! impressive likenesses of my little guys.

(No Oliver is not brushing his teeth, I thought the toothbrush might make a cool fine mist-type spray if we tried flicking it with our fingers. It didn't really work, though. Meh...it was worth a try.)

There is some bleeding of the paint under the contact paper. I tried to make sure that there was a good seal, but we thinned out the paint so it would fly and it got under the contact paper anyway. I used some gesso and a small brush to touch it up after I took this last picture.

Castle Rock Hike

This afternoon we went for a hike in one of the regional parks near our house. It is really only 5 minutes away but we only "discovered" it recently. We figured it would be a pretty nice hike with the boys since it is fairly flat and there are some interesting rock formations. Our destination was a cave that Ryan found the first time he went hiking in the area. It was probably under a mile from where we parked. They were pretty good troopers on the way out to the cave, but then on the way back they complained bitterly about how tired their legs were. At one point Ryan was carrying both boys, one in each arm.

Under the best of conditions Elliot is slow as molasses. Today he pretended to be an excavator the whole hike. He scooped up sand and dirt (hopefully not horse poop, which was in plentiful supply along the trail) in his "claws." And when we tried to get him to go faster by saying, "come on, Elliot let's race. Be a speedy excavator." He just replied, "well I am not a racing excavator, I'm just a little excavator." Once they are snug in their beds I think back on the day and find things like that incredibly adorable and wonder how in the world I could get impatient with him.

He really is so cute and he has really come SUCH a long way in the last year. It is just amazing. He is so much calmer and nicer to Andrew. We don't have any of the sleep issues that plagued us ALL last year. He goes to bed without any drama and stays asleep all night. I love to tuck him in to bed. He says, "can you give me one little snuggle and we can talk about stuff?" I lay down next to him with our faces close together and we whisper about our day or I ask him "would you rather" questions such as, "would you rather drive a dump truck or a cement mixer?" or "would you rather eat Oreo cookies or rice crispy treats?" Then I tell him the spot I made for him is all nice and warm, and he scoots over so he can sleep in the "warm spot" and he turns over the pillow so it will be cold on his cheek and goes to sleep. Tonight the boys were in bed by 6:30. Ryan and I were in absolute heaven!!!

Oliver is doing really well, too. He is still loving Kindergarten. I adore his teacher, she is completely unflappable. There are 32 kids in his class. (I know, crazy!!!) But she is just like this amazingly serene, kind but firm, Mary Poppins-like force for good in the world. She never raises her voice and gets all those wiggly, independent, impulsive Kindergarteners to more or less march in the same direction. She has created such a good learning environment where consideration and kindness to others is just as important as anything else that they are learning. Every day before they go out on the playground she reminds them that if someone asks them if they can play with them, the answer is always, "yes!" Oliver is thriving in that environment and has made some great friends.

Here are some more pictures of our hike.

Elliot's Grandma

Elliot just LOOOOVES his Grandma. Every day he recounts vivid stories of all the fun he has with his Grandma. He loves to talk about the special things he is allowed to do at his Grandma's house, the amazing toys at Grandma's, the candy he is allowed to eat at his Grandma's house, the dinosaurs he keeps at his Grandma's house. Wait, what? Yes, that's because while some kids have imaginary friends, Elliot has an imaginary Grandma. Not only that, but his Grandma is a dude. He is quite insistent on this matter. It is not his Grandpa, it is definitely his Grandma and this Grandma is a HE.

This fall when he first started talking about his Grandma I assumed that he was making up stories about my mom. It made me smile to think that he had such affection for my mom that he made her into the heroine of his imaginary tales. When my mom came to visit for a few weeks in September I was interested to see how he would reconcile his flesh-and-bones Grandma with the Grandma that he kept telling stories about. Now he certainly loves his Nana, and they had some real life adventures together (going to the fire department and getting to sit in the fire engines), but it was clear that the Grandma who lets him keep a spinosaurus for a pet, who shoots real guns, and who lets him stay up all night eating candy is a character not even loosely based on my mom, or Ryan's mom for that matter.

Elliot often uses stories about his Grandma to one-up Oliver. Oliver has been invited to a karate birthday party this coming weekend. Elliot is jealous but he expresses it by telling Oliver that his Grandma had a karate birthday party that was just for him. His Grandma also has a bounce house that he can play on any time he wants. When he is mad at me he tells me that I can't come to his Grandma's house. And then when he feels loving he tells me I can come to his Grandma's house for a sleepover.

This morning I was talking to the boys about being peacemakers. I told them that being a peacemaker meant trying to find a way to not fight. Elliot said, "Actually, my Grandma likes me to fight. He wants me to fight because I fight monsters. Dere are monsters at my Grandma's house. Dey have beebee red eyes."

I love his imagination and I love that he has an imaginary ally who spoils him and lets him do all the things he longs to do and always has his back. In that respect his Grandma IS a lot like his Nana.

Back on Track

Oh, man, has it really been almost 3 months (1/4 of a YEAR!!!) since I last posted. It's not like life has slowed down around here (au contraire!) but I haven't been recording or documenting it and I know, know, know I'm going to regret that. The boys are growing up so fast and I really want to be able to read and remember what it was like at this stage. I feel so rusty writing. I have a million things that I've been thinking about regarding the boys. For instance: Ollie's eating/weight/gut issues--I thought this was behind us, but he's had ongoing stomach aches and is losing weight again so we are seeing a pediatric G-I specialist. Elliot's behavior- it's improving but does he have ADHD???? Why is he such a handful??? Is it birth order? Are we not giving him enough attention? Are we not being consistent enough??? Is he just immature and is this something he'll outgrow?? Will he ever have friends if he keeps being such an annoying pest (his signature preschool move is to knock down other kids' Lego towers). Could Andrew be any cuter? How can I ever get enough of his adorableness??? Is there something I can do so that he doesn't turn out to be a picky-eater like his brothers? Is that genetic or does it have to do with my cooking/parenting?

These are just a random sampling of the million-odd thoughts that are banging around my head like so many loose pinballs. Maybe I'm experiencing so much mental chaos because there is this backlog of things that I need to address. I wonder if I wrote more often, perhaps made myself write a short little something every day, I wouldn't feel like I have cobwebs in my head or that I have mental constipation.

So, with that being said, I will not *YET* commit to writing every day, but I have already decided that my goal for 2012 is to focus on and improve my daily habits. I need to do a better job of attending to those little daily habits that become routines that shape our character. Broadly speaking, it is really so hard for me to be constantly vigilant and consistent. It is just not my strong suit. I am good at spontaneity and short bursts of energy and productivity, but not really great at sustained effort. So I'm hoping that if I change my daily habits I can just re-train myself to be conscientious without having to constantly think about it, it will just become my habit. So I won't try to change my nature (which I don't think will work anyway and will just result in frustration) but I'll just try to improve my "autopilot" so that certain things will just become routine. Some of the things I need to do DAILY are: floss, take a multivitamin, read my scriptures, work with Oliver on his reading. The things I do on a daily basis already that I am proud of are: exercise (running), generally being organized, keeping the house uncluttered, having one-on-one time with each of the boys, not letting the boys watch TV (except the occasional half-hour of this show called Wild Kratts on PBS Kids).

Non sequitor: I have been reading the boys Charlotte's Web each night before bed. It is wonderful! Even Elliot is interested and cuddles close to hear the drama going down in the Zuckerman's barn. This is one of the BEST parts of being a parent.

We are hosting two of Ryan's brothers, Taylor and TJ, for Thanksgiving this year. TJ arrived with his 7 year-old daughter Macy on Monday night. The next day we took them to the Lindsey Wildlife Museum, had a picnic at Larkey Park, and rounded out our day visiting the dogs and cats at the animal shelter. Taylor and Lisa arrived that evening with their kids. It's been fun seeing the boys developing good relationships with their cousins. Macy and Oliver get along really well. They are both pretty mellow and tender-hearted. David is sweet and funny too.

Thanksgiving dinner went fairly well. It was not the least bit stressful because we used the same menu and recipes we did last year. Ryan had created a spreadsheet that showed what needed to be done at each 15-minute interval (I've got to say I love having such an organized husband!). We made sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, rolls, and turkey with maple-apple cider glaze. It was pretty good, but for some reason throughout the whole meal I kept thinking about Thanksgivings at my grandparents' house on Long Island. The food that we served tonight was good, but something was missing. It didn't fill me up the way Thanksgivings at Grammie and Poppop's filled me up. It wasn't as exciting (and Ryan even got out the crystal and china and we set the table so beautifully). I don't know what it was. It seemed sort of just ordinary. It was a feast in terms of the amount and quality of food, but there wasn't that same feeling of it really being an event that will last in memory. The kids were watching a movie while we were eating, so it was all very civilized for us, but nevertheless, it seemed like just a nice Sunday dinner. I'll have to give that some more thought because I can't put my finger on it.

Here are some pictures of the boys that don't go along with the post but I figure it needs some photos! Since we've switched to Mac, I am not using Windows LiveWriter anymore so I'm going to have to figure out a better way to post pictures than with Blogger. Anyway, here are the boys playing with sidewalk chalk in our backyard.