Recent pics

Kiddos hanging out at church...




Mad baby!

Kite festival





Ben doing some babysitting

Quote of the Day

"Let's stay in bed all day, snuggling like puppies!" -Tucker

"This looks like chocolate." -Tucker, holding a piece of ginger

Quote of the Day

"My tummy hurts. I think if I watch TV it will feel better."
-Tucker

Kite festival

Yesterday the kids and I went to a kite festival while Austin worked all day. We had a good time and I have pictures to post later. Tucker was a lot more interested in the moon bounces and picnicking than actually watching or flying kites, and we had a fun morning. When Austin arrived home, he asked Tucker what his favorite part of the kite festival was. Immediately Tucker said, "I LOVED the bathrooms!" No discussion of moon bounce or the bubble machine or the new playground or the kites or our picnic--nope, Tucker loved the port-a-potties.

Some other endearing things Tucker has started doing:
*When someone calls, Tucker wants to speak with them, no matter who it is. If it's someone he actually knows, he gets the phone and runs away with it so he can have a long and private conversation.
*Tucker got into a phase recently where he spent a lot of time making snacks. He would get a container and go into the pantry and mix together as many different snacky things as he could find, stir them with a spoon and divide it all up into a bunch of different containers. Ben liked this phase a lot.
*Whenever I ask Tucker what he dreamed about he always replies "making muffins!" and then promptly asks if we can make some.
*Tucker loves mailing letters right now. He has been stealing so many of my envelopes I finally got him some little ones of his own at the dollar store. He stuffs them full of paper and other random things and I'm pretty sure he will find a way to get them into the mailbox.
*When we go on walks and there is no mail, Tucker is so disappointed that we have gotten into a routine of finding a special treasure--usually a stick or a pine cone--to put into the mailbox so it won't be empty. I think our mailman is probably confused. A couple months ago Tucker fervently wanted to paint our mailbox so it could be "beau-T-full" but thankfully seems to have forgotten about this project for the moment.
*Tucker loves getting his own cup of tea in the mornings. He specifies what kind of tea it is. Today he is drinking "Daddy Tea mixed with Big Boy Tea" but sometimes he wants "Mommy Tea" instead.
*Tucker loves investigating his closet and pulling out clothes that I've squirreled away for when he's bigger. He has found some car pajamas and a car sweatshirt, new khakis, new shoes... and each of these things are so much more special since he discovered them. Of course, we never know what he might be wearing when we go into his room after rest time.
*Tucker LOVES the dustbuster and the vacuum. He loves the vacuum's "magic wand" attachment and is on a personal mission with the dustbuster to rid our house of stinkbugs.

Tucker is also in a phase where he has been doing some not-so-endearing things as well. The past couple months have been very challenging for us in terms of discipline. Tucker is focused, reserved, exuberant, cautious... and very strong willed. Recently we have removed almost all of Tucker's toys in the house to get his attention regarding some major behavior things, and I have learned that he is also very resourceful. The toys have been gone for at least a week and a half and although he's noticed, he has had no lack of things to do. Everything that boy puts his hands on--Austin's tools, cooking stuff, Molly's toys, Molly herself, Ben's toys, the dustbuster, the vacuum, cleaning supplies, gardening things, CDs (even without a CD player), his own clothes, the chickens, and especially paper and writing utensils--becomes a toy.

In other news, Ben surprised me this morning with throwing up a good sized piece of gravel/small rock--probably 3/4 of an inch by an inch and a half. He has eaten and thrown up many, many different things but a rock is new. It must've felt like having a pill stuck in his throat, except for the fact it was about 50 times the size and sharp.

B

Tucker loves to begin words with a "b" regardless of whether they start with it or not.

Here are some of the b-words he's been using lately:
b-monitor (monitor)
b-mote (remote)
b-nelope (Penelope, a girl in his class)
b-grola (granola)
b-nilla (vanilla)
b-flower (flower)
b-parade (parade)
b-tivity (nativity)

Not sure why everything is better with a b, but apparently it is, and I never correct him because it's so darn cute.

Quote of the Day

Tucker and Austin are driving together and they pass a port-a-potty by the side of the road.

Tucker: I LOVE those potties! They are my favorite!

Hmmmm... I think we need to give Tucker some lessons in class.

Quote of the Day

"Someday, Mommy, will we go to all the libraries in the whole wide world?" -Tucker

Quote of the Day

Tucker runs into the kitchen and says to me, "I was making Molly into a cake!"
Tucker runs back to Molly and says, "I'm going to eat you right up, little cake!"

The pictures below are of Molly as a cake.

Molly is 6 months old

Molly June bug hit the half-year mark a couple weeks ago, so I think it's time to give a little baby update. I've been thinking about how Molly is different from how Tucker was at her age. So far what I've noticed is:

1) Molly is not as snuggly. She tends to keep her head up (not nuzzled into you), and she doesn't like to be held all the time. When she is held, she prefers to face outward so she can see what is going on.
2) She is a go-getter. She lunges for what she wants and is a persistent and clear communicater.
3) She doesn't like to be dirty. Tucker couldn't have cared less about messy diapers.
4) She is more physical than Tucker was. She turned over a lot earlier and the thrill of being able to do that herself makes her like tummy time a lot. I suspect she'll crawl way before Tucker did--she already manages to thump, thrust, rotate, and twist all over her crib (actually, I just ordered a breathable crib bumper so that she will stop getting stuck in the slats). She sleeps on her stomach now that she can put herself in that position.
5) She is less cautious than Tucker. She likes to be swung fast and thrown into the air... this is how to get her really laughing. Tucker was always a bit unsure about these things till he got used to them.
6) She loves to eat. Tucker refused solids till he was almost a year whereas Molly was drooling over our food by 3 months. She leans in and tries to get what we're eating. She has sucked the juice out of a broccoli twig, has gnawed on spiral ham for Easter, mashed up sweet potato fries and insists on three meals of solids a day (in addition to not giving up any nursing sessions). The funny thing is that even with her zest for food, she is much smaller than Tucker--she weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz at 6.5 months, which is 12 oz less than Tucker weighed at 4 months.
7) I think Molly's not as smiley as Tucker. When she does smile, her whole face lights up; she has a truly beautiful smile that illuminates her. She's not stingy on her smiles, but my memory of Tucker is that he was always grinning.
8) She is not as good a napper as Tucker. Part of this is due to the fact that her naps have to work around our schedule, but Tucker was much more consistent.
9) She is much more focused on other kids. Obviously this is due to having a big brother, but if she has a slightly older child to watch, she will be entranced.
10) She loves TV. Tucker didn't notice TV till a lot older, but Molly has been craning her head around to watch for several months now.
11) She loves Ben. If Ben is around, she has a hard time eating because she just wants to watch him (and he loves to be around Molly during mealtime). I don't remember Tucker having this fascination with Ben so early.

Ways my kiddos are the same:
1) They are both stinkers with refusing bottles. We are trying with a sippy cup for Molly now because at least she enjoys it and doesn't scream.
2) They both love to be outdoors. This is the antidote to fussiness.

Ways Molly and I are the same:
1) We hum when we eat something we like.

We love you, Molly June Bug!

Quote of the Day

Austin: I need a beer.
Tucker: You need a deer? Where is the deer?

The obsession continues....

"Cute Little Fella"

-Austin, talking about the four inch gecko/salamander-esque lizard that has gotten into our house.

I don't appreciate lizards inside my house. Let's rephrase that a little more accurately: I hate lizards in my house. But Austin has a point, and here's why:

I was downstairs on my computer last week and I heard Austin say "Oh, crap!" as he went up the stairs. Since he didn't call for me, I stayed put, wondering what was going on (if it was something about the kids, I was pretty sure he would've called for me). I heard a small racket for about thirty seconds and then he rushed down the stairs and outside.

At this point I got up to determine whether Austin was doing some sort of home improvement project and had severely injured himself. Instead, I found him coming back in with a bath mat, looking a little sheepish. Apparently, it was crossing his mind not to mention to his wife that he had just pinned a medium-sized black snake down in the upstairs hallway with the Swiffer, and then captured it and took it outside with the bath mat.

So, there you have it, the gecko (or whatever it is) is a lot cuter than a three foot long rat snake.

P.S. We suspect that the snake got into our attic by climbing the big trees that hang over our roof, and dropping onto the roof. It's anyone's guess how it got into the living space, but I am insisting that we get that investigated by a pest control somebody in the very near future.

And yes, we are

If one is good... six must be better

Tucker has some interesting dressing habits these days. He gets dressed in the middle of the night. He wears several different layers of socks or shirts or whatever else strikes his whimsy. His shirts often are on backwards. He likes his underwear backwards too because the big picture is on the back and he likes to see it.

Things got even more interesting this week when he decided he really wanted to be like his daddy, so he stopped wearing shirts to bed. It was pretty ridiculous to walk into his room to see a little bare-chested boy sprawled out across the bed (keep in mind our house is not especially warm this early in the season).

Tucker has also decided he wants underwear like Austin. Austin happens not to wear Thomas the train underwear, so Tucker has taken to wearing his old training pants that are a solid color to be more like his daddy. Today I made his little world when we bought real boxers for him. To celebrate he spent the afternoon wearing SIX pairs of underwear. Two new boxers. Two training pants. Two character undies. Surprisingly he had a difficult time going to the bathroom with all those layers.

The most ridiculous bedtime ever

A few weeks ago Tucker had his first sleepover with his friend John. John's parents were going to a late-night event at their church so John came over to start his night's sleep at our house and be whisked away in the late evening when his parents were on their way home.

Tucker was beside himself with excitement. He ate a banana and about two bites of vegetables for dinner, and incessantly asked when John might arrive. I told him half an hour. He asked how long half an hour is. I told him about the time it was going to take Austin to come downstairs and eat his dinner. Tucker then started inquiring fervently about Austin's progress in the shower and what foods he was going to eat, as if rushing Austin through these events was going to make the time go faster.

John arrived and Tucker was ecstatic. We let them stay up an hour playing, and Tucker achieved new levels of hyper. He wanted to play with everything, with John at once. John was a little overwhelmed by Tucker's attentions, but held his ground pretty nicely except for when the ferry operated by Tucker was attempting to knock out John's train on the train table, and when the dinosaur came to attack him. A timeout helped Tucker regain a sliver of composure, but not much.

Both boys were in their beds in Tucker's room by 7:30 pm. As I walked out of the room, I wondered if they would fall asleep before John's parents came back to pick him up (at 10:30 pm). For awhile it was in question, but they did end up falling asleep at the reasonable (in such circumstances) hour of 9 pm. In the intervening hour and a half, Austin and I were treated to quite an earful. I don't know if I've ever heard such a long conversation between a two year-old and a three year-old boy. I wish I had had a recorder to immortalize their soliloquies.

John: My parents are gone.
Tucker: They're at church.
John: But I can't see them.
Tucker: Let's look out the window and check.
John: But we just looked out the window.
Tucker: But we haven't looked out the window again now.
John: Okay.

Mostly they talked about whether the lights should be off or on, and whether it was night-night time or not. But most of the time it sounded more similar to a "Who's on First?" skit than a conversation. One child would be speculating about whether Austin was in his office, and the other would be talking about the lights. Then it would shift and one would muse on whether it was, in fact, bedtime, while the other narrated what they were seeing out the window. Tucker is very sad he cannot have sleepovers every night. But don't worry, we read about Froggy's sleepover every night instead.

Quote of the Day

#1: "Remember, babies always cry!" -Tucker

Tucker reminds us of this several times a day, when Molly's crying, when Molly's not crying, when Molly's asleep, when Molly's awake--it really doesn't matter. I feel like my three year-old is trying to give me sage parenting wisdom. Hmmmm...

#2
Austin [to me]: Dear, could you...?
Tucker: Where's the deer???!!

#3
Tucker and I are on the couch in the living room, snuggling under an afghan
Tucker: Do you think a deer will eat this blanket?

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, which is the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, with the crowds of people around him waving palm branches, and putting branches and cloaks down on the road for Jesus to pass on top of.

Tucker was pretty tired and not at his best during the service today. I was relieved when the recessional was playing and we were done with managing our three year-old in the pew. And then I looked over, and I found Tucker wildly waving as many palm branches as he could find and laying them down in the aisle for everyone in the recessional to walk over (choir, altar boys, lay readers, deacon, priest). Just when I think he isn't listening at all. How does that boy know how to melt my heart?

Tucker at Three and a Half

I have just gotten out of the habit of blogging lately, and I apologize especially to the grandparents who are suffering from a severe lack of grandchildren stories.

Tucker helped Austin and I both celebrate our birthdays recently. I think possibly he was more excited about our birthdays than either of us were. That boy certainly does not lack enthusiasm. I think Tucker has been around adult women too much because when we opened a present or a card he would say "Awwww" as in "Awwww, that's so cute." He sounds like a middle aged woman meets three year-old.

I've mentioned before that I feel like Tucker is smarter than I am. This Sunday in church he spent the service trying to get my attention the whole time by blowing kisses and/or hugging Molly. Those gestures would be adorable if the whole point of the activity wasn't Tucker trying to see how much he could control the situation, how much he could get away with, and what my personal boundaries are as a parent. Couldn't he pick something a little more overtly hostile and disruptive to test the boundaries with?

On the subject of church, Tucker continues to be fascinated by our priest, Father Glenn. He says things like, "Father Glenn, I love that guy!" and sometimes does the hand motions that Fr. Glenn does and repeats parts of Fr. Glenn's part in the liturgy. A month or so ago he spent the whole ride home from church asking questions about Fr. Glenn, mostly where he lived, and if he has a playground in his backyard. Now when we pass Harris Teeter, Tucker says, "Fr. Glenn lives around here!" Tucker is also obsessed with the process of extinguishing the candles at church. He is pretty sure that when I grow up I will become a big boy and can extinguish the candles at church. This Sunday Austin was the layreader so he was up at the altar and apparently Tucker was very upset that he wasn't the one putting out the candles. He is already wondering when he will be old enough to put out the candles.

Tucker is also obsessed by teeth falling out. A six year-old friend from church was showing Tucker where he lost a tooth, and introduced Tucker to the idea of baby teeth and adult teeth. Tucker is very interested. He has clarified with me and with Austin numerous times about who has baby teeth, who has mommy/daddy teeth and what kind of teeth Molly will be getting. Tucker is not a child who is afraid to dissect a subject to death and this is a case in point. Of course, a new book about Arthur losing a tooth hasn't helped the situation.

Speaking of books and obsessions, currently Tucker is into the Froggy series and it's driving me nuts. I think I would prefer to shoot myself than to read more Froggy books. FYI.

The biggest development in Tucker's young life lately is that his incessant talking has becoming more incessant. Right now he must ask about 1000 questions a day. If he doesn't have a new question to ask, he asks a question he has just asked. If he just asked a question, he may as well elaborate on it with another question. Our discussions go something like this:

Tucker: Will my raincoat blow away in the wind?
Austin: No, it won't
Tucker: How won't it blow away in the wind?
Austin: It's too heavy.
Tucker: How is it too heavy?
Austin: The wind isn't strong enough.
Tucker: How is the wind not strong enough?
Austin: Go ask Ben.
Tucker: How will Ben be able to talk?
Austin: [No answer]
Tucker: Will my water blow away in the wind?
[Repeat entire conversation about water.]

I love my exuberant little boy, but by the end of the day I'm really channeling that oldies song: "Silence is golden, golden...."

Florida, x2

We're hanging out in Florida with my family for a long weekend. We went in the pool today, but mostly it was an excuse to put Molly in her cute bathing suit. She was pretty serious about the whole thing, but not unhappy.

Molly has decided that babies don't need to nap during vacation, so she has been a little sleep deprived (the plane ride here was not fun...). Tucker has decided that he likes to stay up and play after bedtime. Last night he was awake for at least an hour and a half after a later-than-usual bedtime, shining a green light he found all over the room. We found him conked out half on and half off the bed, asleep in the middle of playing.










We went on a boat ride on the Banana River, which is part of the Indian River lagoon system. The whole river is only a few feet deep, and doesn't have a current so we were in a pontoon boat. We saw manatees mating right at the side of the boat. They were oblivious to us and put on an amazing show. We also got good dolphin sitings, though they weren't as much in a mood to play.

Crazy Kiddo Gets Crazier

A few nights ago we checked on Tucker before bed, only to find the lights on in his room and him completely dressed in a new outfit. His pajamas were strewn on the floor and replaced with jeans, three socks on each foot (all mismatching), a yellow sweater base layer with a long sleeve shirt over the sweater. He was totally content and conked out in an utterly ridiculous fashion. (It was easy to get a good picture because the light was on.) This morning he came into our room wearing yet another outfit.

Dancing man

Lots of Videos

We're visiting my mom right now who has a fast internet connection so I can actually post videos without the connection timing out. Here are videos of Molly eating for the first time, wiggling like crazy on one of our first warm days, rolling over, trying desperately to roll over, squealing and generally doing all sorts of good baby things.

My crazy kiddos

Crazy Kiddo #1:

-Emerged from his room during rest time yesterday in a red vest, Mickey Mouse hat and socks on his hands to do something unidentified in the bathroom (ie not using the potty). He saw me in the hall and turned around and ran back to his room. The pic is of his outfit on Saturday. He picked it out himself, if you couldn't tell.

-Came into our room this morning with wet sweatpants. Upon inquiring, he told us that he decided he didn't want to wear a pull-up to bed and took it off after Austin had put him to bed last night and put on different underwear and pajamas. Good show of ingenuity and independence... poor wet bed! (When he doesn't wear a pull-up, we have to wake him up to go potty, which is hard to do when you think he's wearing a pull-up.)

Crazy kiddo #2:

I swear, Molly June is crawling. She motors around her crib like no other. We put her down in one spot and we come back and she has flipped over, rotated 180 degrees, and is at the total opposite end of the crib. How in the world does she do this? Yesterday she managed to do this move-to-the-opposite-end-of-the-crib trick and push herself up against her mobile, which meant she was hitting her head on the plastic. That scared her, so she picked up her head more, which meant she banged it more on the plastic. Not her finest moment. I need to spy on her and see what exactly she's doing to be able to move that much.

A few more pics...

Molly loves it when we put our head on her tummy, so these are pics of Tucker making her happy!







Tucker trying to play the tackle game while Austin tries to watch basketball

Quotes of the Day

"No, Tractor! Go back to the farm, Tractor! Tractors are only supposed to be on the farm!!!" -Tucker, in near hysterics upon passing a tractor in the road yesterday

Unconventional way to answer the phone: "Here I am!" -Tucker [I guess "hello" is so yesterday]

And another one from Sunday...
Tucker: Mama, do you like deer?
Me: Sure, they're fine.
Tucker: I don't like deer. They smoosh cars.
Me: Well, cars only occasionally hit deer.
Tucker: Deer are mean. And angry. Angry mean deer smooshing cars!!!!

Catching up, or at least hanging on

The past month has been a doozy around here. I've been sick for five weeks, no exaggeration. A cold I caught in Florida turned into a lung thing which turned into a sinus infection. Now, two antibiotics later I think I'm turning a corner. I hope. I have new empathy for my father-in-law who has chronic sinus problems. It's awful!

All my energy of late has gone into all of us reaching the end of the day alive, fed and clothed, preferably with the house not on fire. (These seem like lofty goals to me, too!)

But of course, the kids have been anything but static over the past month. Molly especially is changing rapidly. She learned a couple weeks ago how to roll from her back to her front, and she is excited with her new powers. In fact, when she first learned she lost all interest in nursing for several days. I think her thought process was something like this: "I'm so powerful! I can roll over! I no longer am subject to normal human conventions like eating!" She likes to be on her stomach now just because she can do it herself, and she just feels stronger to me. She no longer likes to be in a reclining position, and spends her time in a crunch trying to sit up straight. Her other major accomplishment is trying to grab hold of everything so that she can put it in her mouth. This is a delicate operation because she REALLY wants it in her mouth and if all doesn't go according to plan, I have a passionately frustrated little girl on my hands.

Tucker's favorite thing right now is playing a tackle game where he finds an unsuspecting parent to sit on the rug so he can run over and tackle us to the ground. The other day he had a stomach bug and the first thing he said in the morning when I walked into his room was "I don't want to play the tackle game" (not that there was any chance of me wanting to play the tackle game at 6:30 am with a sinus infection after spending the night cleaning up vomit....) It was like telling me in flashing neon lights "I feel sick, Mommy."

One of the other highlights from the last month was a concert that Tucker participated in at the Bible study we go to. It was ridiculously cute. Tucker did the University of Florida gator chomp throughout most of the songs, and was quite the little wiggly-dancing-singing enthusiast. He had a lot of the audience laughing out loud. It's funny; Tucker will be too shy to hold hands with the other leaders in our little prayer circle beforehand, but he can be the absolute center of attention on the stage and think that is the best thing since sliced bread.

Another milestone in my little boy's left happened yesterday: he climbed his first tree, much to the delight of our 86 year-old neighbor, Althea. He also filled out his first NCAA basketball bracket yesterday, with a little help. I told him yesterday morning we needed to fill it out ASAP if he wanted to be in our extended family pool. He promptly got down from the breakfast table and ran to get his football helmet, and to get me a ridiculous hat shaped like a birthday cake. Apparently, picking a tournament bracket is predicated on the proper headwear. Who did he pick to win it all? Notre Dame. Why? I told him their mascot was like a leprechaun. Other favorite teams were Michigan State because they wear green, Richmond because they are the spiders and Aunt Liz went there, and Washington because that's where Uncle Mike lives.

There is, of course, much more I could add, if I could think of it. It's even possible that one day all my brain cells will collect in one place and I'll start speaking in complete sentences again. :)

Quote of the Day

"Daddy is marching home right now to tackle us. He will also tackle a deer. And he will tackle a fish for a bear."
-Tucker, on when Austin will return from a Bible study at church

Quote of the Day

"Molly's looking like a dragon and she's twins with me. I love that! And I'm twins with you, and with Benny." -Tucker

Obviously.