Dessert

 Last night after dinner, the boys were requesting dessert. Instead, we offered a trip to a nearby park. They had a blast running and chasing each other on the trails. The light was beautiful; the perfect end to the first official weekend of summer. On the way home, Isaac quietly stated, "That was good dessert." Yes. Yes, it was.

First Steps

As promised, here is a video of Isaac's first steps. I just love his persistence and the look of concentration on his face. It makes me smile every time I watch it, which has got to be close to a hundred times by now! (So as not to get our blog music playing over the top of the video, you may want to go way to the bottom of the blog and pause the music player.)

Magical Moments

Lately, it feels as if I spend my entire day mediating the relationship between the boys. Every other sentence out of my mouth is something along the lines of, "We don't push," or "We don't take things each other," or simply, "Share, please!" The boys are in general very loving and sweet towards each other. They just both abide by the Toddler's Rules of Possession:
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I am doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.

As most parents of young children know, the constant bickering (and my subsequent intervening) can get exhausting! Then, just when I am thinking I need to give myself a timeout, there will be one of those moments. One of the boys will do something silly and the other will erupt into a fit of giggles. Or Isaac will become overcome with the need to smother Noah with wet, slobbery kisses, causing Noah to roll around on the floor in a fit of laughter. One of those moments when I am reminded how special their relationship is and how lucky they are to have each other. It is in those moments that I love to just sit back and watch them interact with each other, thinking that this, right now, is what it is all about. It makes the constant breaking up of little squabbles all worth it.And sometimes, on a really good day, that magical moment will extend for several minutes, or even hours as the boys settle into play together. Yesterday was just such a day, and it was brought on by something as simple as an impromptu blanket fort. The giggles and squeals of delight that began as they crawled in and around the blanket suspended between two stools continued throughout the morning. Noah pushed Isaac back and forth in the cart. They jumped together into a pile of pillows and blankets. They played music together. Noah fixed Isaac 'lunch' in his kitchen and then 'fed' it to him at their table. It was wonderful and magical to see.
So, while I wished these moments happened much more often, I will take them when I can get them, because they are what sustain me through all those other not-so-good times. That, and lots and lots of chocolate.

Six Months

Dear Isaac,

You are six months old today. It seems like such a short time ago that I scooped you up out of the water when, in your hurry to finally meet us, you blessed your Daddy and me with the gift of being the only ones present for your entry into this world. Six short months, and yet already I cannot remember my life without your smiling face. Happy Half-Birthday, Sunshine.
Love,

Mama

My One and Only

With Curtis out of town on business and Noah spending the weekend with his Grandparents, Isaac got to be my one and only boy this weekend. For the first time in his little life he got all my attention to himself for four whole days. I made the most of each and every moment, filling the days with snuggling, gazing and smooching my little sunshine boy. And he drank it all in; laying in the sun listening to me play the piano, and sitting and playing next to me while I enjoyed leisurely meals picnicking in the living room.Now that he can hold a toy, he will finally sit in the stroller so we can go for long walks. Hooray! We went for lots of walks, even though it threatened to rain at any minute and was about 90 degrees outside.He also had his first rides in the Grandpa swing.

During naps, I got in some sewing and knitting time, making good progress on some projects that I will share later this week.

Tonight my other boys return, so today will be filled with more snuggling, giggles, and a million trillion kisses. Because, for a few days, he was my one and only boy.

~Jen

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

"Burgers in his nose."

Just So Cute!

I have said this before, but I am sayin' it again...Isaac loves to smile. In fact, he loves to smile almost as much as we love to make him smile. This leads to us spending large portions of our day talking in goofy voices, cooing and just generally looking silly as we try to convince those smiles to spill over into squealing, laughing territory. My absolute favorite smiles are the ones he gives me while he is nursing, when he looks up at me and grins as milk spills out of the corners of his mouth. Oh, the cuteness!At the end of the day, when it is almost time for bed, and he gets plopped on the floor in the hallway while Noah takes his bath, Isaac is still up for a good smile session with Daddy. Even though most of my photos come out blurry (he is an animated and active smiler) I can't resist snapping photos of his drooly dimpled grin.

Really, is there anything more cute than a happy, chubby baby? I think not.

~Jen

Shell Phone

Amongst his playthings, Noah has a bowl of various types of seashells. He pretends they are musical instruments (and makes me play each one), food, cars, and boats. But usually, he pretends they are phones. Shell phones.

He often carries one around his pocket and throughout the day he periodically takes it out to have long, animated conversations with Grandma or Daddy. I love to listen to the inflection in his voice and watch the seriousness with which he talks.

Noah conducts some important business on his shell phone.

Oh, the imagination of a child!

~Jen

First Smiles

Is there any better reward for weeks of crying, sleepless nights, and spit-up than those first baby smiles? I think not. Getting Isaac to smile at the funny black box in front of my face is a bit of a challenge though. Here are my blurry (because if I took the time to adjust shutter speed, he would be out of his 2 minute "happy mood" window) attempts...all of them. How could I pick just one? :)

Oh, those dimples. They are going to melt many hearts in his lifetime!

~Jen

A Marvelous Weekend

It was a busy, yet fun filled, weekend. My apologies for the delay in my posting. Here's a brief recap of what has gone on:

It's musical time again! This fall, the VACT is performing "Something's Afoot"; a murder mystery musical that spoofs Agatha Christie's 'Ten Little Indians'. One of the opening numbers is an appropriate title for this blog post. For this show, the orchestra is on stage and behind the scenery. It makes for some interesting acoustics, but it's fun to see and engage with the actors/actresses in between scenes. The first weekend's performances went very well. Next Thursday through Saturday are the final performances. If you're interested in seeing it, ticket information can be found here. For those who have already seen the show, thanks for coming and I hope you've enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Ted! We hope you had a special day. Since it falls on Halloween, how better to celebrate it than with a 'Happy Birthday Pumpkin'?

Now, when Noah hears the rumblings of a little engine whiz past our house, he'll look at us straight in the eye and in all seriousness mention 'melmeln'. We finally caught on that he was trying to tell us that this was the 'mail man' driving by. Sometimes, during the middle of dinner he'll think he heard the 'melmeln' again and inform us, just in case we wanted to check. We think he uses this term for other meanings as well that we're still trying to figure out. If you recall one of our earlier posts, you'd most likely understand.

As you've seen in her recent post, Jen has been knitting up a storm. I'm not sure if I've seen her without knitting needles and yarn in her hands for some time now. I can't even keep up with everything she's done. She's like a machine: she knit me a hat, she knit herself a hat, she knit a friend a baby hat, and now she's working on some mittens. She's just so gosh darn talented.

Daylight savings time happened. It's getting close to the time where I'll go to work when it's dark and then return home when it's dark. If I'm in my office for most of the day, there may be a good chance that I won't see the sun. It's definitely a sign that 'ol man winter is on his way. I will mention, however, that I did enjoy that extra hour of sleep--very rejuvenating. With all that has been going on, that one additional hour made all of the difference.

Finally, it was the weekend of Halloween, one of my favorite times of the year. Maybe it's because it's one of the more creative holidays. I really enjoy seeing the kids dress up in their ingenious costumes as well as turning pumpkins into my own artwork. For those of you that aren't aware, I go a little crazy with pumpkin carving. We go and pick out the pumpkins at a local farm and then I use basic carving tools to sculpt a design. It's a tedious, delicate process, but I love the challenge involved. I always like to carve things that the kids can relate to as they visit our home for trick-or-treating. It's also fun to make the parents of the trick-or-treaters think about how the carvings could be done. In previous years, I've commonly done a number of movie characters, including action heroes (Batman, Spiderman) and cartoon (Shrek, Nemo). This year, I thought I'd go with a theme to help celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Movie The Wizard of Oz and the 100th Anniversary of Frank L. Baum's book Wizard of Oz.

It was a full two day process to complete the designs, empty out, and then carve the pumpkins. Noah was a good supervisor to make sure I was staying on track.

Following the storyline of the film, Dorothy Gale, who lives on a Kansas farm, dreams of a better place "somewhere over the rainbow." After a tornado strikes her unconscious, Dorothy dreams that she, her dog Toto and the farmhouse are transported to the magical Land of Oz.

There, Dorothy is told by the Good Witch of the North, Glinda, to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and meet the Wizard of Oz, who can help her return to her home back in Kansas. Along the way, she meets a Scarecrow who would feel much happier if he only had a brain.

Later on, they meet a Tin Man, who wishes he could have a heart.

Further on down the road, they come across a Cowardly Lion, hoping to ask the wizard for courage. This one was the most challenging carving, partially due to the pumpkin's size. The Cowardly Lion took 2.5 hours to complete.

Throughout their journey to the Emerald City, they try to avoid the Wicked Witch of the West and her attempt to retrieve her sister's ruby slippers from Dorothy.

I was pretty pleased as to how everything turned out. Usually, when carving such intricate designs, the pumpkins only last for about a day and a half to two days. Despite the short lifespan of these carvings, I still think it's worth it. I found that my witch shrivels up rather than melts.

We thought that it might be fun this year to dress Noah up for Halloween again. We were coming down to the wire without fully deciding what he should wear. As we strolled through the local Target's Halloween clearance section, Noah smiled, pointed, and said, "DUCK!" The decision was made.

He wasn't too thrilled to walk around outside. He was having more fun watching the trick-or-treaters from the windows and then helping me hand out candy. After he understood that kids came to the door with every doorbell ring, he started signing to me 'more, please', as if I had some control as to when the trick-or-treaters came to the door. He tolerated the costume for just under two hours. It was pretty funny watching him waddle around as a duck.

Maybe next weekend will be a little more laid back. : )
-Curtis

Simplicity

Sometimes we need to take a step back and think what life would be like if it were more simple. Noah often challenges us with this very idea daily. As he continues to try to learn and understand the English language, he decides to take a simpler approach when speaking. Why have multiple words to describe the same basic concept? If you say a single word often enough, people will begin to understand all of the many different connotations behind it. Maybe it's his way of procrastinating at such an early age.

For instance, here are a few words in which Noah decided to generalize:

• Cold: An extreme temperature change; either hot or cold.


• Car: Anything that has wheels OR makes a loud grumbling noise, such as a vacuum, lawn mower, or a bike.


• Bees: A non-smooth, often abrasive, texture OR maker of pain; Also, any insect, spider or creepy, crawling object.


• Down: Any movement in a vertical direction.


• Moo (Cow): Any object that has light color with dark spots, such as a cran-raisin muffin or a wedding picture of a couple on a beach with black lava rocks.


• Sauce: Any mushy substance, such as oatmeal or yogurt. As in "Goodnight comb, And goodnight brush, Goodnight nobody, goodnight sauce."


• Call: Any object that resembles a phone, can fit in the palm of your hand OR has multiple buttons, such as a remote control, calculator, or fingernail clipper.


• Bobbo: Any object that resembles a rabbit, such as kitten, squirrel or mouse.

Although we often smile and hold back from laughing when he looks so seriously into our eyes and mentions one of these words with dramatic hand gestures, he has a point. Sometimes we try too hard to get our point across. It's true. A single word can have multiple meanings and it's often more effective spoken alone.

• Love: Noah, Jen, Baby, Chocolate, Family, Life

- Curtis

"It's Raining, It's Pouring" by Noah

It's raining, it's pouring.

Staying inside is boring.

I got a new suit,

so I tried it on . . .

don't I look adoring?