I made a funny Mama!

Peanut made a funny that is. Lot's of them actually. This is how I found him this morning when I finally made it downstairs after nursing Cashew. Helping himself to a cupcake from the freezer. "I have chocolate for breakfast Momma!" Well yes you did.

 He is such a talker and says the best stuff these days. He saw Cashew crawling into the kitchen the other day and said, "He's crawling like a dinosaur." My other favorite thing from him is his new fetish with calling us silly:

"No, I want chocolate milk, silly."
"It's over there, silly."
"I don't go to bed, silly."

Maybe I say this to him more often then I think. He is getting really good at saying things in context too. Should I be scared? Yes I believe I should.

Other favorite quotes in recent days:

"I need to get in there," said in reference to the lower kitchen cabinets.
"I saved the day Mama!", after finishing an episode of SuperWhy.
"I go bouncing then fly on airplane? Ok. Yeah, sure!" This is him giving himself permission to do what he wishes, without waiting for my response.
"Play Ants in the Pants?", asked to everyone who enters our home this past week...and no one knows that this is a real Milton Bradley game which makes the adults quizzical looks that much better.

"WE'RE DONE!", said exasperatedly and loud enough for the whole congregation to hear immediately following the closing prayer at church.

"I hold you." This is one of my particular favorites that I may have mentioned in an earlier post. This is how he asks to be picked up. I always make sure to act as though he is going to hold me first, "NO MAMA! NO MAMA! I hold you, PWEASE!" So I pick him up and chuckle. Every time.

And let it be noted here. He has officially hit the, I want to do it myself stage, and makes sure we darn well know it...before he hurries over and asks, "Mommy do it?".

Well Peanut also is a bit clumsy and had a down right rough day a couple Sunday's ago on the injury front. He fell over while standing still in the bathroom watching me put on make-up. I'm not sure if he slipped on his blankie, or the bath water he so kindly distributed over the floor, but no matter how, he fell forward crashing face first into the cabinet under the sink and splitting the inside of his lip open when the knob came in contact with his teeth through his bottom lip. And of course the first thing he did when I picked him up was wipe his bloody, tear stained face all along my shirt to burrow into my shoulder. That stain will hopefully remind me that that shoulder provides comfort.

Well my friends the day had only begun. We kept him out of Sunday School since he had had a cough and runny nose for the past few days. So at this point we're at a bloody lip and a permanent runny nose. But that is not enough. He somehow gashed his chin open while jumping on our front porch step and again crash landing on his face. The permanent whining switch was now turned on and we spent the rest of the evening replacing band-aids and reapplying Neosporin. And I took a little video. But of course it won't upload. That camera is such a silly ;).

New York, New York (Part 1)

There's somethin' about 'cha!

Look I'm only a week later on this post than my goal! Hoorah!

Well what an adventure! We just took our first trip to the big apple and had a great time. The theme of the trip was sardines, as we squeezed 4 adults, 4 kids in car seats, 4 umbrella strollers, 2 pack and plays and all of our luggage in a Honda Pilot and then squeezed the same into a hotel room with two double beds. If only I had remembered to take a picture of the sleeping arrangements Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was great...exhausting, and fabulous.

After a little GPS mix up when arriving in the city we found ourselves driving into Manhattan and over a bridge right out of it again into a part of Brooklyn called Williamsburg (I think) before we were able to re-program it to actually get us to the hotel. We saw a whole community of Hasidic Jews. It was really neat. We finally arrived at our hotel checked in, parked the car, and went immediately to Times square. We started the feasting with burgers and concretes (that is what they call their super milkshake) at the Shake Shack. We ate A LOT on this trip.What's a vacation without good eats? Ok and during the drive Peanut picked up the catch phrase, "You're killing me." Hilarious!

The next day we were up bright and early, no alarm needed thanks to all four kids, and headed off to the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial. It was reverent. I found myself quite emotional. I still remember when it happened. I was coming out of swim practice early in the morning and I couldn't believe that the news was real, it all seemed so far away. Being on the site really solidified the event in my brain and made it that much more personal for me. God bless the USA.

 

 After that sober moment we tried to head to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Tried, being the operative word there. We had no idea that all of it was closed to visitors since Hurricane Sandy.  So instead we went on a hunt for some food trucks and then headed on a ferry ride to Staten Island. This was relaxing and provided a beautiful view of the skyline and the statue of Liberty.

 

 We made a quick stop at the bull on Wall Street. Oh how iconic. I kind of loved all of the giantness of the city. The buildings just towering everywhere. I love the suburbs, and I love farmland, so I wasn't sure if I would love the big city, but I do. I love it. And I love the ocean. What do I not love? :). It was wonderful for it's own beautiful and exciting things. It's dirty, and crazy and a little bit exhausting, but you feel like you are in the middle of everything! I see how it just draws you in. And I love how the whole city tries so hard to have green space anywhere they can fit it in. Aren't these tulips beautiful? Right in a courtyard near Wall Street. And this community garden. Gorgeous. All along our walk to the harbor.

We finished off this day at an awesome little Cuban restaurant in SoHo. It barely fit our group and of course we were the only ones with kids. Kelly, my old room mate from the Olympic Training Center was able to join us. It was so good to see her! I can not tell you how much I love catching up with old friends. 

TO BE CONTINUED... 

Catch up!

Hola Senors and Senoritas! This intermittent blogging is now the norm. I have become that person. Se la vie! Am I spelling any of this right?? Well for now, we'll have longer more infrequent posts with a hope that one day I may do more. Since joining the smart phone revolution at Christmas, I am much better at Instagramming--It's quicker and less messy. Ha ha--so find me there if you so desire. Are we smarter by having the smartest of phones? Probably not, seeing that I allowed Peanut to feed Cashew a few bites of his dinner and took a picture with my smart phone before I stopped him. 

Well here's what's you've missed...Aunt Katie came for a visit. We went to the giant wooden slide, ate some good food, went to the bounce house and generally had an excellent time as usual. Ok and this wooden slide is actually a park that a religious group put together. The Mennonites maybe? So there we were. The Mormons next to the Mennonite picnic. There was also this sweet giant merry-go-round there too. It gave us opportunity for some excellent photos.

No not me. But it is one of my favorite pictures of my
good friend Ashley. 

Peanut has become our little resident artist. He is quite focused with a marker, pen, crayon, chalk and especially a paint brush in hand. And he's quite good for a two year old. Maybe I think that just because I'm his Mom. :) It makes me happy to watch. We also tried potty training with this little man. He was asking about the toilet and telling me he was poopy so I thought why not? We gave it two days and didn't have a single in toilet success so we've put it away for now and will try again later. "E" for effort! And speaking of that moniker, Peanut looked up one day and said to Rob, "A for effort daddy". It seems we have a little parrot in the house and a funny one at that. He has also picked up the phrase, "You're killing me". He is so funny. Oh and this is how he shows us things. He holds them up right over the front of his face.

Cashew is 7 months old. This child is a darling. He smiles. A LOT. He is now mobile. He doesn't crawl  in the true sense of the word but can pull drag and roll himself from one side of any room to another. We often find him wedged under the coffee table happy as a clam chewing on a toy. And chewing for a purpose may I add. He is working out tooth #3 and 4. The top ones. He is voraciously eating solid foods now. He has an aversion to most things vegetable and is a vacuum for all things fruit. I am a wee bit perturbed on this front in that, I made him a delicious chicken and vegetable puree that he would not touch, gagging and dry heaving for effect might I add, for a week straight. Then I open a package of store bought chicken and veggies and of course, he downs it. What a stinker.  Everyone else in the house thinks I'm at least a good cook.

This is when Henry said something sounding like "dada"

And speaking of everyone else in the house, we have a full house yet again. Our dear friends, and their two children have moved into our basement since selling their house and will be here till they make the big move early June. Poor them, to be crammed down there and sharing our bathrooms but, we are enjoying every minute. All the kids have a play mate all the time. Us adults do too for that matter. The Dad's don't have to do dishes by themselves at night and the Mom's have been crafting away, and utilizing all the extra hands and eyes for cleaning cooking and child watching. We made a Thanksgiving feast one Sunday just because it sounded delicious and I happened to have a turkey in the freezer. And it was delicious. And adult conversation through the whole day is really great too. Like so great. A full house is a fun house here! We will be so sad to see them go.

So here is one craft we have been going at like mad women. Quiet Books! These are like quiet books on steroids. This is my world map page. Each continent snaps off.  I love every minute of doing it and hope my sewing is sound so that it is not ripped apart. I'll show you the finished project when these pages are, well, done.

And this is what Rob has been working on. Out deck! He's ambitious and staying safe. Don't worry. We will not be falling off of this deck when it's done. No no. We will be having lots and lots of BBQ's and play time out there. I can't wait, especially with the hot weather coming. This basically is our back yard, with the other 3 feet of our personal property going to our garden. 

We have enlarged the square foot garden this year. I think I might be preparing for old age already. I love gardening. I have no idea why. We are have strawberries, green onions, two tomato plants, jalepenos, sweet peppers, cutting flowers, climbing peas, pole beans, radishes carrots, cucumbers and lettuce. I'll keep you posted on the progress and results. Maybe I'll even try canning this year. We have rabbits and stink bugs around these here parts so we'll see if any of my reading pays off on organic pest control.

May I just say I love all the different seasons. The change of seasons floods me with a sea of new memories each time and it fills me with the feeling that something new and wonderful is going to happen to add to that flood for next time. I just love spring with all it's colors and new growth and the sunshine. Oh the sunshine! Running through grass in my bare feet. Wearing flip flops. Flying kites. Mmmm. I just soak it in! We went and visited the cherry blossom festival in DC this year. We live in a really beautiful area.

I think that's enough for now...Next post, NYC trip. Hopefully it will be in the week. Wish me luck!