On A Walk

We do a lot of walks around the area. Partly because the weather is so nice, partly because it keeps the boys out of the house (hence a cleaner house) and partly because boys are like puppies and you have to walk them or they go crazy. Sometimes the walks are longer (about 1.2 miles) sometimes it's just 30 minutes to run around the apartment complex to work out the crazy.  

Either way, the boys go running, and Molly sticks with me.  I have two front carriers. One, the Ergo carrier is real nice because she is able to bunch up her legs and sit all huddled up (as she likes to be positioned) and it has a nice sun screen for her head. The other is a Baby Bjorn which means her legs are separated (she does not like this....her ankles are perpetually crossed--even before she was born!) but it has the advantage of giving her a little more visibility of the world around her. Disadvantage: no sunscreen. Advantage: Need for a cute hat.

 Here's me and my girl trying to keep up with the boys.

And here is Molly taking in the sights.

Movie Night!!

There is nothing positive about Michael leaving town. I miss him, the kids miss him, and doing all parenting and home responsibilities for several days without my cavalry is tiring, but it does give me the opportunity to spoil the kids with extras that would normally make me feel a little guilty...without the guilt.


So tonight we had a picnic movie night with pizza, snacks, and Charlotte's Web. The boys can stay up a little later, eat while watching a movie, and not have me badger them about "two bites of this before you have more if that.". They are thrilled. And since I can never compete with the fun-ness of their Daddy, it does give me a few points in the fun department.

After the boys go to bed, I'll have a little movie night of my own with a Bollywood flick I could never watch with Michael.

But, we still miss him and await his return!

Just Matthew

My baby boy:

Matthew is definitely the most rascal-y of the bunch (so far).  But boy, he is also pretty darn sweet.  He hasn't out grown just coming up for a hug.  He likes to pretend he is a little kitty, complete with a sweet little "Mew" as he crawls up for some loving (or even just a pat on the head). And he is by far and away (oddly coupled with his trouble-making tendencies) the most peace-making little child.  If Michael wants something Matthew has, Matthew won't put up the fight. He'll just say, "Here you go!" to make the other person happy.  

In fact, yesterday, and this is the dialog verbatim: 

Michael: "Matthew, I want that toy!" 

Matthew: "Ok...here you go Mah-doh"

Michael: "Thank Matthew, I really appreciate that."

Matthew: "You're welcome, Mah-doh, you're welcome."

I think sometimes his peacemaking skills are contagious.

He's still our little Moo!

Did I Mention She Was Beautiful?

Because She's Beautiful

Here's Molly sitting on my lap.

She is tired so we have a few yawns, but for those of you who don't get to see her, here are some of the expressions of our little girl.

Also, Matthew's in the background asking me to play the Airwolf song on my phone.

If you would like to see more of her, and also witness some of the daily crazy...click here.

I Want A New One

Some evenings are better than others. Tonight was one of the "others."

The details are pretty irrelevant, but the long and short of it was that I couldn't quite get to their Bible story right away (because of a tantrum here and there, me having to run to do some laundry, etc), but I promised the kids I would come back to their room after they were in bed, and if they were quiet, would come in and read them a story from their all time favorite Bible.

Apparently, 5 minutes was too long to wait because when I walked in to the room to read their story, Matthew had the Bible in his bed and Michael was sitting in his bed, as close to Matthew's bed as he could get.

Both boys had torn pages in their hands. Yes. They were both caught right in the act.

I was a little stunned, and definitely disappointed. I love this book. We read from it every single day several times. The kids love this book.  To have it destroyed was not only frustrating because it's a book.  Not just because it was a Bible (albeit a children's one), but also because it represents a lot of time together, it represents an important part of our bedtime routine and our naptime routine. Matthew especially would frequently get that book and flip through the pages reading the story during the day. I know we can buy a new one, but even still, that's a couple of days until it would get here, and we are not sure we will get one right away so they understand that these things have consequences.  I was so disappointed.

So I walk in the room and the look on my face as I saw the papers strewn all over said it all, and immediately Michael realized what he did. It's like, he just wasn't thinking prior to that point and then all of a sudden he realized what just happened and that he was responsible for it! He instantly broke down in tears and yelled, "I want a new one!!"

Oddly enough, his plea and realization of what he had done was punishment enough. I didn't have to yell or scold. I just picked up the papers and walked out. It took him another while to mull that one over....

Haha. Toddlers.  Their emotional chaos can be so funny in a sad, pathetic sort of way.

Sayings....

I've been needing to do this for a long time.  Michael and Matthew are so talkative, I no longer really get a chance (or take the time to write down the things they are saying or the way they are saying it that will be unique to this stage in life.  I noticed this in particular when Matthew looked at his Lightning McQueen shoes and called them "Lightning McQueen" instead of the normal "Chee-Cha", Matthew's long-standing version of "Ka-chow!" which we say so often we no longer think it's weird.

Matthew is now defaulting to the proper names of things.

For instance, "stee" is rarely used any more. Matthew really does prefer "helicopter."

Matthew used to refer to himself as "Matt-ta-tee" or "Matt-ta-tim". He most certainly prefers the proper "Matthew" and will forcefully correct me if I revert back to his previous version.  He does, however, still call Michael "Mah-doh" and refers to Daddy as "Donny" a name we use so often for Michael Sr, again, we don't really think it's weird anymore and we hardly realize we're doing it.  Michael Jr also joins in and frequently adopts this usage.

The boys still call hot chocolate "Gak" but Matthew's version is more like "Dot". It is really hard to correct him to say it right when, after all, we have devolved "hot chocolate" into a somewhat gross sounding "Gak."

Matthew still has trouble with a lot of consonant sounds. He can identify his letters, but pronouncing them is still difficult.  The sounds C, G, F, J, and Y are particularly difficult and so he modifies as best he can, usually using a "D" or "T" sound, like, "Dross" or "Lello" (for yellow). You can tell he is trying to say it correctly, but just can't and so modifies as best as he can. It's "tute."

When Matthew does something he shouldn't like throw food and I ask him about it I'll say, "Matthew, what did you throw?" and he'll say "Nobody."  That's his standard "I didn't do it" (or I'm not going to admit doing it response).  "What did you do?" "Nobody."  Michael always looks at me waiting for my response as if to say, "Are you going to buy that, Mom? Come on! Get him!"

Michael's standard issue conversation-maker is, "What if" and "What will they say."  By they Michael means anyone that pertains to the subject at hand.  "What if you run the stop sign?" Me: "The police man will give me a ticket" Michael: "What will they say?"  "What if I bring a helicopter to Mass? What will the priest say?"

Michael's "what if" scenarios always tend towards the trouble-making. "What if I run the stop sign?" "What if I push the bad guys away" "What if you don't look both ways?"  "What if I don't give away my toys (to Good Will)?"  Trying to steer it towards the positive always stops Michael in his tracks because he likes to think of the drama of things being in trouble, but flipping it around gives Michael pause, "What if you do? That would be so nice....you'll make them happy."  He would rather let his imagination run into the slightly more dramatic.

Matthew uses the phrase, "It's not cooperating with me" a lot, but in his toddler talk it usually comes out, "It's not coperating me" That's one of my favorite phrases and we get it a lot when we try to get shoes on, for some reason.

I'm discovering that motherhood involves largely the same conversations day in and day out, especially with regard to Matthew. We add on new phrases (that I have to learn to decode from Matthew's little dialect!) each day or two, but for the most part, it's the same phrases and sentences that come up....the same responses to the same situations. It is amazing, though, to look back and see how far they've come  in so short a time. Having taken 5 courses of Spanish in high school, Matthew in 2 years time can say way more in English than I can say from all that spanish...They're amazing!