Buh-Bye, Now

This morning we are lounging. Xander is looking at Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook (it is very fun to look at, I can attest to that), Nick is playing with dinosaurs, and I am, obviously, blogging.

Nick wanted the dinosaur bin opened and Xander offered his help. Nick brought it over to me instead and when Xander continued to offer, he squealed. I told him no, let Xander help you. So Xander opened the bin for him.

Nick said: "Thank you." pause "Buh-bye."

Some Fun Pictures

This was the day we tried peanut butter and jelly sushi rolls for lunch.

Yesterday Xander made himself glob-of-peanut-butter-on-bread for lunch. Today, after eating what I made him, he made a peanut-butter-hot-dog-bun sandwich. It consisted of one hot dog bun, a layer of peanut butter, and another hot dog bun on top.

I had bought a five-pound (yes, five-pound) jar of peanut butter after realizing how quickly we go through peanut butter. While carrying it to the table today, Xander dropped it and the lid cracked. I am now covering it with a bread bag and twist tie and storing it in the refrigerator.

I think all this goes to show that I am seriously mismanaging the use of peanut butter around here.

Jello Bar

Nick is teething, with two-year molars. It's gotten a bit better in the last two days, but he is usually a long, slow, ungracious teether.

I bought some frozen fruit bars at the store in the hope that it would be something that would help his gums feel better. Today the boys tried them. And liked them. In fact, Nick is still enjoying his and he looks like an extra in a horror movie with drippy red gore all over his mouth, chin, hands, shirt, and arms.

He held his out to me and said, "Jello?"

I said, "It's a strawberry fruit bar! But I bet it does taste like Jello to you."

He said, "Jello bar?"

I thought that was quite original of him. :)

Yesterday, we went to visit Granddad and Grandma Janet. It was a fun time except for the car ride. Janet cooked us roast pork, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade bread, salad, and blueberry pie. Oh yes, and cupcakes for the children.

This afternoon, we are going to the YMCA with our spanking new membership to use their pool! Should be fun. Except for the car ride.

Dinner Vocabulary

I loooove the way Nick says things right now. As a matter of fact, there a couple of things I still haven't corrected Xander on because they are adorable...but I try to correct him on most things, I do. :)

Tonight, for dinner, Nick had hot dogs and plain linguine noodles. I know, terrible dinner, right? Anyway, he called his meal "fot dog buns" and "doodledoodleoodleoodles." Every time. It.is.awesome.

Xander's Chinese Dragon

The only input Xander had in making this Lego Chinese dragon was scenes of Chinese dragons in Angelina Ballerina and my comment that red was a good color for Chinese dragons.

Later, he had his Lego Kingdom knights riding on its back. That was cute.

He asked if we had any more pictures of his Chinese dragon. When I said these were the only ones, he said, "Awwwwww, that's not enough!"

I told him we would take more pictures next time.

Building, Kissing, and Going to the Doctor

Xander saw a program about Chinese dragons in Angelina Ballerina today and wanted to make a Lego Chinese dragon. After my insisting several times that I was busy and could not help him, and some tears and Xander insisting that he didn't know how to make one....Xander made a Chinese dragon on his own out of his Legos! I will have to post the picture later because I think Blogger is glitching today with pictures.

Nick sat on the guest bed with Pooh and Tigger and had Tigger kiss Pooh. Very sweet. Then he picked up a car and had the car kiss Pooh. Okay.

We have our first Cedar Park pediatrician appointment(s) this afternoon. I am not looking forward to it because Nick has been showing bad teething behavior lately. Hopefully it will go much better than I think it will.

Pictures In Toes

Nick is under the weather, poor thing. At first it was just a slight cold, but in the last couple of days he has practically asked to be in bed, either resting or sleeping or playing, most of the day. We have well-checks for both boys tomorrow when I can ask if the doctor sees anything out of the ordinary with him (like an ear infection).

So just now I went to his room to get him out for a snack and he was busy placing his laminated pictures in between his toes.

I asked him, "Are you ready for a snack? Or are you busy playing Pictures In Toes?"

He said, "Pitcher in toes, pitchers in toes, pitchers in toes." He wasn't quite ready.

Father's Day 2011

I know it's still early on Father's Day 2011, but I'm posting some pictures below. Erik and Xander went to a Youth Fishing Derby at McKinney Falls State Park yesterday. Xander already knew some of the things they taught at the workshop due to previous fishing trips and practices with his dad. However, they had never caught even one fish together. Yesterday, they caught five! Xander had a great time.

Today, so far, we have had lunch, chocolates, and gifts. I gave him a remote control/mail/miscellaneous caddy and three books on brewing beer. In the time since I ordered those books, he bought one for himself and Jeremy generously bought him two, so he now has some serious studying to do.

Xander and I made him something as well, but I've put it somewhere and forgotten where. :(

Later today, we are going to tour the neighborhood YMCA which is allegedly quite amazing. We're thinking of starting a family membership. We can also go swimming when the pool opens...it is going to be another record-breaking hot day here, something like 106 degrees.

Tonight, we are having Erik's request: barbecue pork on Texas Toast with french fries and salad and either strawberry shortcake or chocolate chunk breadsticks. I have one more idea for the day, but best keep it to myself for now.

"Have fun!"

I always leave Xander or Nick with a cheerful, "Have fun!" when I put them in roomtime or independent playtime.

This afternoon I put Nick in his pack 'n play with his toy bugs and left. He said, "O-kay, ha' fun!" I had forgotten the catch phrase. I repeated it back to him.

I noticed this with Xander at three years old, too. A couple of times when I wanted to be in my bed reading a book during his rest time he said, "Okay, have a great time reading!"

Nick's Family Birthday Party

Xander helping make the treats

Right before this was taken, he said, "Aaawwww! It doesn't taste good for us all by itself!"

Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, copied from this blog

the Very Hungry Caterpillar (book by Eric Carle) ate all these things, so we did too

Nick loves fruit

that was not a tornado that went through our kitchen, that was me

yum!

he looks so old!

That was about it! Low-key with lots of food, which is the way Nick likes it.

Nick Really Likes Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

Chef Xander

Wisely or not, I allowed Xander to think up and make his own lunch. He came up with this:

While I put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, granola with raisins, and milk in front of Nick, Xander proceeded to make him a whipped-cream-and-raisins sandwich.

Nick is saying, "Mmmm, nummy!" over there. He could be talking about either sandwich. I suppose it's the whipped cream one, though.

Birth Day

Nick was born on June 8th, two years ago, at 2:55 P.M. Eastern time. We are in the Central time zone now. As I am posting this, he would have been 25 minutes old two years ago. It does NOT seem like two whole years ago, but when I see the pictures of those days it is amazing how young the children look.

From birth (and before), Nick was our thumb-sucker. We have an ultrasound picture of a cute snub-nosed little one sucking his teeny tiny thumb. At two years old, he still uses his thumb for comfort and sleepy times and you can tell. The thumb is red and calloused, poor thing. Nick doesn't notice so it must not be painful. If we say, "You don't need your thumb!", he takes it right out, but it is his crutch in stressful times.

He was born more cautious than Xander, but with Xander's exciting example for two years he has become almost as fearless and almost as active and almost as injury-prone.

He knows how to count to ten and every time he points to a number or letter and says what it is, he is correct. I haven't tested him to see if he really knows all the alphabet, but from what we've seen I think he does.

I have sung him the same lullaby for naps and bedtime for one and a half years. He now sings along with me, very loudly and not quite correctly. He goes down to sleep happily and every once in a while will ask for a nap.

He loves stuffed animals. He also loves cleaning up and having me "pu' 'way" what he has cleaned.

Just today I learned that he can sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the ABC song. He also sings a little bit of "The Farmer in the Dell."

We are celebrating his birthday on Saturday when Erik can be here all day. Today we are just letting Nick do whatever he wants (within reason) and this is what he is enjoying so far:

1. falling down on purpose and saying, "I fall down!"

2. screaming excitedly

3. eating (breakfast bar, cinna-biscuits, apple slices, hot dog with mustard, ice cream cone...)

4. running around with his balloon (one of those little supermarket silver ones - and it may mysteriously disappear during naptime b/c this is not the safest of activities)

5. showing me cars one at a time and saying, "Car! Car!" or "Monster truck!" until I repeat.

6. playing stuffed animals with Xander

Payday!

Starting this week, Xander earned a larger allowance than he has been used to. He is required to make his bed every morning and clean his room every night, and on Sundays he has to help Mom cut coupons - or no allowance. (I gave him a choice of chores and he chose the cutting coupons.)

He is saving up for special toys by putting about half of his allowance in the piggy bank. "Special toys" are things like Lego sets and maybe a Pokemon DVD. About half of his allowance goes into his wallet for free spending. (Almost free spending; I am sure there will be things I don't allow him to buy as he gets older, for safety or other reasons, but the point of spending money is to allow him to make his own decisions and live with the consequences. So far he is delighted with the consequences.) About 10% goes into his Sharing jar. We will be talking more with him in the next month about what to do with that money. In the past, he has used it to buy his cousin Christmas gifts.

Today he chose to spend his three dollars on three toys from the Dollar Tree: a foam sword, a grows-in-water dinosaur, and a small set of police officer figures (they look like army soldiers only they are blue and police officer-y).

As a mother, I will say that 1) he has about four play swords already and 2) he already has a grows-in-water dinosaur and 3) he has so many small figures we routinely take them away for periods of time when he "can't" clean them all up at night. But 4) he is very helpful around the house, even beyond his required chores and 5) he is SO HAPPY with his sword and dinosaur and figures. He told me so. He is very affectionate toward his little growing dinosaur.

And a little side note: He is an extremely good, helpful, loving, understanding big brother. If you don't mind being bonked on the head by a foam sword every day.

Drawing at Five Years Old

An interesting thing: Suddenly today Xander is drawing objects with the shapes that young children usually use to make them. The reason this is interesting is that he was one of the children who was behind in this skill in his pre-kindergarten class. I saw many drawings (several of the girls' work and a few of the boys') posted in his class that showed stick-figure people and square-triangle houses and even more advanced representations. Xander's and at least one other boy's were mainly scribbles in vague patterns.

Today he wanted to draw. In a minute he showed me a square-triangle house, a lighthouse, and a square-triangle house with one window that he later decided looked like a volcano. Then he drew lava overflowing everywhere, so if I were to show you the drawings it would now look like his last year's drawings. :)

I fully expect to see a sun with rays in the corner of his pictures someday soon.

An Adult Warrior

It's a sad day for a mother. My darling oldest child has changed his career aspiration from paleontologist to warrior. Specifically, a warrior who shoots a bow and arrows for target practice.

Dinner Plan

Xander has been watching me plan our weekly menus and set the table. He thinks it's funny when I set two forks for each of us for salad and the main course.

Today, on his own, he said that he could plan what was for dinner. So I went with it. He selected oatmeal and applesauce. I showed him how to look for coupons and then we went to WalMart to buy oatmeal and applesauce (and a vinyl tablecloth and four placemats and an All You magazine). I warned him that I would be cooking something to go along with his meal that Dad would like.

Xander set the table with two spoons for each person, one for oatmeal and one for applesauce.

Dinner is ready!