Snoozing

We had a bit of a relaxing weekend as Daniel and I are fighting some sort of cough/cold and David is having yet another round of crazy poop/stomach issues (multiple costume changes throughout the day). So there was lots of "sleeping in" until after 7 am! and naps. Even Connor got in on the action.

David rolling out of bed.

Napping with Connor on mommy & daddy's bed.

Next generation of dreamers

Some conversations are hard to have with a 3 1/2 year old, mostly because you don't want to expose them to the concept of death or bad people, but when they ask you have to be creative. I like to read Daniel's "Daily reports" from school to see what he learned about that day and to ask him about it. Yesterday they learned about Martin Luther King Jr and made him a birthday card. I asked him over dinner who the card was for he said  "King Junior". Okay, but when Daniel said he wanted to stay up and watch what "mommy was watching" (the State of the Union) I figured that would be a good time to discuss. So up comes President Obama and the conversation went something like this:

M: Daniel, this is exciting, it's the State of the Union!
D: What is that?
M: It's when the President tells us the good things happening in the country.
D: Is that Martin King Junior? (me feeling a "parenting fail" and trying to course correct)
M: No, that's President Obama....but he is President because of Martin Luther King, Jr.
D: Oh...well where is King Junior?
M: He's in Heaven with Jesus.
D: Why is he in heaven with Jesus?
M: (ugh) Because a bad man didn't like some of the things he had to say
D: What did he say?
M: He said that everyone should be treated the same.
D:...
M: You know your friend Ariana in your class room? Some people said that she should be in a different school just because she has brown skin. That's not very nice. right?
D: No. But why was there a bad man?
M: Because sometimes there are bad men.
D: I'm going to go shoot that bad man. That's not nice!
M: Remember, we don't shoot people (or animals) but you're right, that's not nice. We need to treat everyone, even if they're not like us, the same.
D: (still holding his finger like a gun) I don't like that bad man. I want to be nice to people and help.
M: That's good. I don't think that would really go along with Rev. King's call for civil disobedience, but that's a good plan buddy.

And then I taught him to clap for the President when he called for mandatory paid maternity leave. :-)

Ad-bentures

Daniel's running break.

I was on a business trip Wed-Friday last week so just barely digging out, but that meant I wanted to spend some quality time with my boys and take them on some adventures. Or as Daniel says "Ad-bentures" (because you know, V's are B's). On Saturday we started with Daddy taking David to swim practice and mommy taking Daniel for a run. Last week, when it was about 7 degrees outside (literally) my phone froze so I couldn't document Daniel telling me to "go faster, daddy is faster than you" and to show how bundled up he was in his little stroller cocoon. This week it was a balmy 27 degrees so Daniel got a 2 minute play time at the playground at our turn around point. He only asked me once why I was going to slowly. The boys got some quality time with grandma that night so mommy and daddy could go out on a much overdue date.

Time out, don't run away from mommy

Practicing for that golf scholarship

David loves to build

Sunday was the REAL adventure as we braved the rainstorms after church. I had purchased a family membership to Port Discovery in Baltimore last year during a MLK weekend trip with friends with the hope that it would get me up there again. The place is amazing, three-stories of fun and learning. We never made it back. The membership was expiring at the end of January and I thought it would be a fun Monday activity while daddy was working but I saw that it was open/free to the public that day so no way was I braving that by myself. Instead we went after church and tested out the "no nap" Daniel. I was somewhat okay until around 3pm when we were trying to leaving. Thank goodness for reinforcements.

Working as a team

Pedaling fast like mommy

banging on a kettle drum

air/wind shooters

driving the train together

BIG bunny

Unwilling knight

My little jester

 So Monday, the actual holiday, I finally had to get some things done. So our "ad-benture" included a trip to the pet store (a zoo), the grocery store (they could get one snack), drive through lunch (french fries!), and the bank to coin counter. We made it through the pet store and grocery store before D2 passed out. Thankfully we could still get lunch since tummies were growling. We'll save the bank and Target for the afternoon...or another day.

David loves Nemo!

Woo hoo! We got the magical cart!!

Like father like son

Someone loves extra wintergreen chewing gum just as much as his daddy. So much so he pulls stuff put of the pantry to get at the boxes. Now we just need to teach him to take off the foil wrappers before eating it.

Man of few words

When I took David in for his 18 month check up the doctor ran through all of the developmental milestones with me that should be happening by now. Does he laugh? Oh yeah, the best. Does he point to things? Like a little dictator. Does he make eye contact? Yes, unless he knows he's done something wrong. Does he have at least 5 words? Err, not really....when I said that the doc stopped looked at me and then looked at the pacifier in his mouth and said "that has to go". As the mother of this VERY spirited child I am nearly as attached to his "chupo" as a way to calm down a public tantrum, calm him down enough to go to bed, etc. He's a boy version of Maggie Simpson. But I agreed to the plan, cut the paci during the day at school for the first week, cut it at night for the second. We've made it through phase one and the school is more than happy to help with that and let me know he's doing well, but we're still having a hard time cutting it out at night. Thankfully we're being rewarded with more "talking" but still not nearly as clear as our VERY verbose Daniel. We'll get an occasional "Ball" (pointing at a ball or an orange). Connor, or any dog, or picture of dog, or four-legged creature is "Con-rrrr". We've even heard a random "carrot" (pointing to a baby carrot) and a possible "gran-ma" and some other words here and there. Thankfully having that week off at Christmas we were able to spend more time with him "coaching" him with words and making sure the chupo stayed out. And I'm working on signs for "more" and "eat" since he's usual response is a meltdown and he's in a major eating phase right now. I know logically that he'll bust out with a bunch of words soon, but the waiting, and lack of communication right now is challenging. Now we just need to convince Daniel that he wants to be a translator.

New year, fresh start.

I started this blog three years ago as a New Year's resolution and I'm getting back into it as another resolution. I've been off of the blogging wagon for two and a half months, but considering the fall we/I had, I give myself a whole lot of grace and forgiveness there. Two major (very stressful) work events in October and December, training and completing a Half Ironman, various versions of the fall plague working its way through our house, moving, and then travelling for the holidays. Pfeww, I'm tired. But they boys are too cute and I've snapped too many pictures to not post up to their virtual baby books. It feels overwhelming to catch up on the last few months, so my plan is to start fresh and then splice in some oldies/TBT's (Throw Back Thursdays) if I have time. So here we go...nothing feels more fresh than the first snow (read: miserable commute) of the season! Daniel has been talking about a sled for weeks so we're finally going to get him one after work/school today. I've been scouring looking for snow boots for him and finally broke down and ordered some on Amazon this morning (seriously, $40 for toddler snow boots you hope they can still fit into at the end of the season).  Daniel's teacher, Miss Marisa, told them to wear their pj's backwards so that it would snow. And he did...and it snowed! He was very pleased with the results and tried to help me brush off the 2-ish inches of snow until he realized how cold it was! Guess that will teach him to wear his gloves!