Monday Magic: Kids say the cutest things

I really should do this more often, but quite honestly, a lot of times I forget to write it and then forget it. ::hangs head in shame:: But, I'm resolved to do better, because the true is there is nothing funnier (or sweeter) than kids and some of the things they say or do.

W Funnies
- Me: Did you see all the strawberries growing on our deck? Pretty soon, we can pick them and eat them. W: You don't grow strawberries. You grow muffins!

- The other day we passed by my old office and I pointed it out. W will then onto ask me if I remembered when he used to work at his old office? He asked me if I remembered who he worked with and when I didn't he listed about 5 of his friends and "of course, Alex" (his cousin). When I inquired what they did at work, he matter of factly responded "Work." ::Duh::

- He likes to tell his daddy "Have a good day at school, Daddy. Be careful, Daddy." when S leaves for work.

G Funnies
- We went to Ross Dress for Less and they have these big poles attached to the shopping carts. I have no idea why or for what purpose, but G was fixated on them the other day. Every time we would pass by another shopper who were mostly female, G would exclaim, "Itsa ho!" meaning "it's a pole". Unfortunately, it sounds as if he was calling someone a disparaging name. LOL!

- He loves to tell people about "fissies in wa-wa" even when we are no where near fishes and water. The confused look on faces is priceless.

- He calls his his brother, "Bubbie" instead of brother, but more than that if you ask him what our names are, he will tell you. However, if you ask him his name he will growl and then laugh.

santa express plus christmas parade equals tons of fun

We have been having the best weekend. Last night we celebrated S's birthday with a great group of friends. I was a little nervous because we were bringing a couple of different circles of friends together and you never quite know how that will go, but it went really well. However, I think the best part was that it was an adults only party and my awesome aunt kept the boys for the night so we wouldn't have to worry about picking them up late at night.

It was surprisingly eery this morning though when we woke up, because there was no sounds of little children in the house and everything was in the same place we put it the night before. You know we've really adapted to having kids when the quiet and neatness gets to us. Ha! In any case, I really missed my stinkers and couldn't wait to pick them up, because...

We had tickets to the Santa Express! W and G are really into trains and they got to go on an hour long train ride with a certain man in red making an appearance. Making the whole experience even better was having my aunt and her granddaughter (my cousin's child) come with us. W and his cousin, T, are 6 months apart in age and always have a fantastic time together.

Checking it out with daddy

Mommy says don't forget about me!

Trains are cool.

Hi!

Cousins at play

Auntie S, T and W

All aboard!

Are we ready yet?

The choo-choo goes "WOO-WOO."

Scolding Santa's Elf for sneaking the train without a ticket.

I got to say that the conductor was pretty cool.

Visiting with the big guy, Mr. Ho Ho Ho himself.

The plan was to go home after the train ride but as luck would have it, the town I grew up in was having their Christmas parade so we decided to stay and enjoy it.

In front of my grandmother's house

which is now owned by my aunt.

Enjoying his view of the parade

No matter how old you are,

everyone loves parade candy.

late pumpkin patch pics

We went together to the pumpkin patch back on October 16th, but we forgot to put the memory card in our camera which wouldn't be so bad since our camera will hold a certain number of photos without the card. Ok, no problem, except we had misplaced our USB to camera cord and had been just using the card reader. Well, praise be! I found our camera cord today and downloaded the pics. And, you know, the world was completely missing our on seeing our Pumpkin Patch pics, right?

Riding my wagon and taking it all in.

Fun in the trailer filled with "cah-tin!"

Made it to the top!

Ready to get down.

Giddy-up!

Can you boys sit here for a picture for mama?

Okay, look at mommy.

Ok, guess not. I give up.

Let's go pick pumpkins.

Dis one.

Cooling it with the pumpkins.

"Ah" see horsey.

Hey, who goooooeess there?

We love farm animules.

Total Randomness

Just a few random thoughts that have been going through my mind:

1. Probably *not* a good thing to give W M&Ms at 8:35 at night

2. I saw a lady driving a Mercedes with a "Wifie" tag. I wondered what my personalized tag would read if I had one. The first thing that came to mind was "wornout." (I was just have one of those days at the time. Bah!)

3. Before kids, I wholeheartedly believe the only 2 things you can count on for sure in life were death and taxes. With kids, I revised that to death, taxes and laundry.

4. As my birthday approaches, I'm really missing my mom. I still can't believe she's gone. I look at my boys every day and wish she could see them now.

5. Where has my willpower gone for dieting/exercise? It's straight up disappeared.

6. It's probably not normal to bribe your kid to eat chicken by offering him broccoli. But. hey, since my kid actually likes broccoli, it works for us.

Am I in a weird mood or what?

Ok, so we've been on the party circuit this month. The first 2 weekends alone, we had 4 birthday parties. No parties this past weekend, but W's got 2 more invites for the weekend of the 22nd. Holy number of birthday parties! But, out of all those parties, I snapped this dance footage at my nephew's birthday party.

Up until this month, W has been very reluctant to get on inflatables. I always thought it might be the noise of the pump since he's not crazy about loud noises. But, something happened this month. He discovered he loves playing on them and little boy is making up for lost time! Little G, on the other hand, has NO fear and if he can get it up, there is no stopping him.

All my boys going down the big slide.

We've also been taking advantage of this glorious weather and been hitting up the parks like crazy. A couple of years back, the town I grew up in put in an awesome park and even though it's a little bit of a haul to get there, I like to take the boys out to it from time to time. Here are a few shots of our last trip.

Follow the leader.

Look at me, mama!

Hi.

Despite the look of terror on my face, I'm actually loving this!

Wheeeeeee!

(Though a bit blurry, I love this picture.)

How you doin'?

First day of school

We are ALL happy about school starting.

Yesterday was G's first day at Parent's Day Out and it was W's 1st day of 3K pre-school. I have been looking forward to this day for quite sometime. Partly because I need a little break from the kids from time to time, but also because they need the intellectual and social development that only comes from being around other kids in a more formal setting.

W went to daycare while I worked and really misses being with other kids. But, he's also smart. I know all moms think that of their kids, however his teachers in the past have commented on how bright he is so maybe I'm not completely biased. We met his teacher, Ms. G, the other night and I was really impressed with her. She's been teaching for over 16 years and was recently certified as a Love and Logic Facilitator. I had been listening to Love and Logic podcasts for a little while. For parents, it provides simple and easy-to-use tips and techniques to help parents have more fun and less stress while raising responsible children. For teachers, it helps them spend more time teaching and less time disciplining students. His teacher does teach courses in Love and Logic so I think S and I will take it in the spring after my dad's surgery is over.

G, on the other hand, hasn't ever really been away from me so this is all new to him. He'll spend most of his day just playing, but they do start trying to incorporate some sort of a Christian curriculum appropriate for his age group. He has 2 teachers, Ms. D and Ms. S. , which is needed when you have a classroom full of active toddlers. I have no doubt G will love it, too. He is so curious and full of energy so this will give him something new to learn.

On their way into school.

Big question: How did the first day go?

G and I walked W to his room and introduced him to Ms. G. Immediately, W was looking over her shoulder and sucked into the vortex that spotting new toys can only create. He didn't even notice that we had left the room because he was too busy digging into the toy bins.

W and Ms. G.

(Notice the new toys already stockpiled in his arms.)

For little G, he walked into the room and I could tell that his little mind was trying to process what was going on. I really wanted to get a picture with his teachers and him on his first day, but there were so many little ones upset that their mommies had left them that it just was not possible. G was starting to check out the toy rack when he noticed his some of his classmates and then it was like a lightbulb went on and he realized "Oh, carp. My mama's about to leave me." I had almost made it to the door when that realization clicked and his water works began. The little sad face almost broke my heart...until I got to the door and realized that mama's sweet freedom for a few hours was at hand and then you could not wipe the smile off of my face.*

Happy boy home after school.

*G's tears didn't last for long his teachers reported later that afternoon. I received a great report that he had had a fantastic day.

Monday Fun

It's a rainy day here in the sunny South so I thought I'd brighten it up with some little bits of cuteness.

Baby boy loves wearing his Monkey backpack leash and shoes. It doesn't matter if we're not going anywhere or not; he's happy a clam in his pjs, leash and shoes.

Big boy loves putting on his daddy's rain boots. Who needs pants when the boots are thigh high?

I also thought I'd share big boy's favorite song right now. It's totally apropos for a Monday.

San Antonio Vacation: Yee Haw!

When I originally told my father that we were going to fly out to San Antonio for vacation, his response was "Oh no." When I said S was flying out the day before and it would just be me and the boys flying out the following day, his response was "Oh God." LOL! You would have thought I has told him that one of us had cancer. Now, I know that trekking out with 2 small children wouldn't appeal to an older person, but after staying at home for a year, I was ready to do whatever it took to go somewhere, even if it meant I had a day of Hell in order to get there. Ha!

I did a little research prior to our flight on how to keep the kids happy and off we went. The boys did much better than I had ever expected. Really, the worst part was lugging 2 car seats, 2 suitcases, 1 back back for mama, and a lightweight stroller by myself into and out of an airport. Once it was checked in, we were all copasetic.

The key to keeping W happy was bringing his pack back filled with beloved items and packing a few new (little) presents. I had brought 2 new gift wrapped books and a little toy set that he had gotten for his birthday but hadn't been allowed to open. I also loaded a new Thomas the Tank Engine movie on the Ipod and he was set. The key to keeping little G happy was to ply him with snacks. On the first flight, he had a sucker, yogurt pretzels, fruit snack, airline pretzels, his sippy of water, and another lollipop. I was covered head to toe in sticky but we had made it through the flight with 2 quiet children.

Little G is my child even if he looks like his daddy. Look at him sticking his tongue out at me while waiting for flight #2.

W showing off his Toy Story book bag. He wanted to wear it every where!

We had a fantastic time in San Antonio! S was there for a conference so mama and her little ducklings headed out on our own during the mornings, nap in the afternoon and then go out with daddy in the evening. Since we arrived Tuesday afternoon and we were adjusting *cough, recuperating, cough*, we kept it easy that night and just went out to an authentic Tex-Mex restaurant - Pico De Gallo. They has a fantastic, but loud Mariachi band which little G loved, but scared the bejeezus out of my big boy. He sat in my lap, covering his ears with my hands and asked to go home. Once the band took a break, he was a happy boy and even told the waiter, "Tanks, tanks for making da noise!" Maybe he enjoyed the music a little? Ha!

On Wednesday and Thursday, we went to the San Antonio Children's Museum, ate in a Saloon and swam in the hotel pool. The children's museum wasn't as nice as McWane, but it gave us a place for the boys to run around and burn off some energy in a cool place, safe for kids. The Saloon was apart of the Texas Buckhorn Museum, a tourist trap, but it did give us a neat place to eat and people watch.

G climbing through a little house and playing peek-a-boo.

W having a good time playing with balls.

Mounted animals at the Saloon.

I'm a cowboy. YEE-HAW!

Why yes, that would be a grizzly bear and woolly mammoth behind us.

What would be San Antonio without the Riverwalk and The Alamo? San Antonio is beautiful city with a lot of history and culture plus great amusement parks like SeaWorld, Six Flags Fiesta and Schlitterbahn Water Park (in nearby New Braunfels). If you haven't been or haven't been recently, I would highly recommend it.

Beautiful.

Mama & her boys

Daddy and his boys

Look at those sweet pink cheeks.

Sweet, but hot little boy.

Another view of the Mission

So cool.

The west side of the Mission.

I love this tree.

We capped off the trip by going to Sea World and San Antonio Zoo. W was excited and then terrified of the Sea Lion Show. He's not a big noise kid and it got to him. Little G clapped and laughed through it all. Thankfully, by the time, we saw Shamu, W had calmed down and actually enjoyed seeing the show.

But all good things must come to an end and we were happy to come home on Sunday. We are ready to settle in fall and a new routine as the boys prepare to go to school part time in a couple of weeks. We are truly blessed .