I managed a post, but I'm too tired to think of a title.

Seriously, I've sat here long enough staring at this post trying to come up with some clever way to title it. My brain has shut down.

Anyway, on with the post...



While Cole and Max are becoming best little friends, they are different in many ways. One of which is their sleep positions.

When Cole sleeps, he likes his "sheet up to his neck" and doesn't move much.

Like this:


Max, on the other hand, may or may not want to be covered, and he tosses and turns like a mad man. I never know how I'll find him when I do my nightly check before my bedtime.

Here's a sampling of the positions I've found him in:



And sometimes he just rolls right out. Good thing we still have his mattress on the floor.


I hope he calms down a little as he gets older. Otherwise, I feel for his wife.

Sweet Conversations

Today, we were sitting at the kitchen table when Cole and I had this conversation:


Cole: When I'm grown up will I still live here?

Me: Well, you'll probably want to have your own home then.

Cole: But who will be my mommy?

Me: I'll still be your mommy, we just won't live together. You might have a wife, though.

Cole: Oh. Yeah. Who will be my wife?

Me: Well, you get to choose your wife.

Cole: Oh. Well, I want you to be my wife, Mommy.


If that doesn't make you melt, I don't know what will.

A Visitor in the Night

It was around 3:00 in the morning, although I didn't know it at the time; it felt like I had just closed my eyes. We had stayed up late watching the movie Prince Caspian, but even still it took me awhile to go to sleep, my mind swirling with thoughts; thoughts from the day, thoughts from the movie that evening, and thoughts from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy we had watched the week before. Finally, I fell asleep.

I was curled up on my side facing the door to our bedroom. A noise stirred me from my sleep and I opened my eyes in time to see the door opening. Naturally, I assumed it was one of my boys.

My eyes came into focus and I stared in disbelief. Coming through the doorway was not one of my sweet sons, but rather, a dwarf! Startled, I sat up quickly. Friend or foe, I did not know, but slowly and silently it approached the bed. Alarmed, I clamored to the end of the bed and tried desperately to alert Derek to the stranger in the room. To my panic and frustration, my mouth would not form the words. Like a 1 year old who can't speak but knows what she wants, I pointed and grunted at the thing coming towards me.

As the dwarf at last made it to our bed, Derek awoke, sat up, and said quickly, "What's the matter?"

Finally, the words came. I pointed and exclaimed with an exhaling breath, "There's someone here!"

In the same moment I said those words, something happened to our little visitor. He morphed right before my very eyes. He went from being very distinctly dwarf...to very distinctly Max!

Shaken and confused, I heard Derek say, "Max, you need to go back to bed, son."

Feeling embarrassed and still shaking, I quickly offered, "I'll take him."

Just as quickly, Max responded, "Daddy do it."

I can't say that I blame him. I'd want my nice calm daddy to take me back to bed too after seeing my crazy mommy act like a mad woman.

I only hope I don't have any other strange sightings in the night, or I may end up in the loony bin. Good thing my family loves me so much. I know they'd come and visit me; dwarfs and all.

Mommy's Little Helpers

Cole and Max love to help me in the kitchen. When I can, I come up with little jobs for them to do when I cook dinner or bake goodies.

For example, when I make roast potatoes, I let them "paint" on the oil, then they sprinkle on the seasonings (I pre-measure it for them so their eager little hands don't accidentally put too much). When they the boys have finished their job, I just toss the potatoes to get the yummy stuff distributed evenly.


And they love to help wash dishes. I fill up one sink with soapy water and the other with plain water. Cole washes, and then Max rinses off the bubbles. I usually have to re-wash some things, but it keeps them busy for awhile while I do other things in the kitchen. Cole is great at this; Max, I have to watch. After awhile he thinks it's more fun to splash the water everywhere instead of rinse off the bubbles. But it's great for a little while!

Roly Poly Baby

Hi, Seth!

Seth?

Oh, there you are!

Evidence of Max

Our sweet Max is a busy, little boy. Derek and I get a kick out of finding evidence of where he's been. Usually, it's harmless; like finding a truck parked in the pantry...



Or a spoon in the toilet paper...

Sometimes it's slightly annoying, like finding a buckle already done up when I have Seth in my arms and I'm trying to get him in his car seat (or swing, or bouncy seat, etc)...

But today we hit a whole new level...

I was sitting on the couch with Seth. Cole and Max were happily playing together, running back and forth from their room to the living room with blankets and pillows making a little nest for themselves on the living room floor.

On one of the trips, Cole came back to the living room, but Max didn't. Then I heard some noise coming from the study.

"Cole, please go see what your brother is doing." Cole went to the study and came back reporting, "He's playing with the computer."

Feeling too lazy to get up, I called back, "Max, leave the computer alone," hoping he would obey without me having to go get him. Obediently, Max toddled quickly back to the living room.

A little later I went to the study and noticed two things about the laptop. First, it was turned off, and I knew I hadn't done that. And second, well, see for yourself...

Uh-huh, yeah. The space bar is missing.

"Oh great," I thought, "How did he get that off," and, more importantly, "Where on earth did he put it?" I did a quick scan of the area, including the drawers in the desk since I know how much he likes to put things in things, and didn't see it. Figuring he must have carried it back with him to the living room, I left the laptop and assumed it would turn up when we picked up all the toys at bedtime.

At bedtime, the space bar didn't turn up.

I took Max to the study and pointed at the computer. "Max, where did you put the space bar?"

Immediately, and very matter-of-factly, Max pointed to the floppy-disk drive and said, "Dat hole."

A flashlight and some poking around revealed that the space bar was, in fact, in "dat hole." Thankfully, I retrieved it and put it back in it's place without too much trouble.

I have thought for a while now that Max would be one of those kids that liked to take things apart and put them back together, just for the fun of it. I just didn't expect it to happen at 21 months old!

Bug Week

Inspired by my friend, Jessica, I wanted to do some themes for the kids during the summer. The first one we did was Bug Week, and it was lots of fun!

We enjoyed all kinds of things such as bug hunts, bug crafts and eating bug snacks. We also read great bug books like Miss Spider's ABC's, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Grouchy Ladybug. The boys really enjoyed the whole week!

Thanks, Jessica, for the great lesson plans and ideas!

I didn't get pictures of everything we did, but here is a sampling:

Making Lady Bugs

The Finished Product

We also made Caterpillars...

...and ate fun snacks like Ants on a Log, Spider Cookies, and Dirt Cups.

We used homemade magnifying glasses (minus the glass) on our bug hunts...

...and found some ants, a spider, a beetle and a few roly-polies.
(I think I'm glad we didn't find any more than that!)



Of course, Seth was along for the ride,
but he let the big boys do most of the work!
What a fun week!

***For links to the crafts shown above, click on the blue words.