DNA

To Be Continued...

2011-04-19T10:20:00.002-04:00

DNA will be continued at www.putnamdnas.blogspot.com Thanks for following our boys!

Working 5 to 530

2011-04-17T19:42:00.004-04:00

Judy hired Spencer to watch her dog for 3 days while she was in Co. He had to let the dog out, give the dog food, water and a treat, and take the dog for a walk. And everytime he gave the dog a treat there was a note that he could have a treat (licorice) too! Before we got there the first day Spencer told me that he needed "a day off from work so (he) could play Wii." He was already tired before he started! I hope that's not how we sound! The 2nd day when we actually got to take Bootsy for a nice walk he laughed and laughed that that dog had to pee on every tree and hydrant and mailbox we passed. And today, when he didn't have to go take care of Bootsy anymore? He was sad. And worried. He asked about Bootsy 3 times. Turns out he liked working as much as he liked "being boss". That's right. I did let him be boss for an afternoon: "It was fun! I got to cut the pizza!!"

Make It Worth It!

2011-04-12T21:53:00.003-04:00

On Monday afternoon I received a call from Spencer's school that he had a stomach ache and needed to be picked up. I raced around to find coverage and be the mom who gets there fast to get her sick kid. But when I got there my sick kid jumped up from his floor mat and started telling me about the pretzels and cookies he had saved from his lunch. Does your stomach hurt? I asked him feeling his forehead. "A little" he told me as he raced out the door. When we got in the car he started begging for the pretzels, the cookies, an apple, to play outside... Spencer, you're sick. I'm not sick! Well your school called to tell me that you were sick. I'm not sick! I just missed you a little. Do you think you can pick me up early tomorrow? So we talked about other ways he could be close to me while I'm at work...a card, a letter, a phonecall... Can I go outside and play when we get home? No, I just picked you up sick. I'm not sick. Well, I left work to pick you up sick and now you're going to have to be sick. No outside. I can do whatever I want. What? What did you just say to me? Do you want to say that again? I can do whatever I want he said looking me straight in the eyes. I hope that was worth it Spencer because now you're going to go into your room and sit on your bed when we get home. It was worth it! A minute of silence.... Mom? What Spencer? What does "worth it" mean?

Spencer, the love machine

2011-04-10T21:47:00.003-04:00

Spencer. Spencer. Spencer. ...is also thrilled to be outside. We've played soccer non-stop for 2 days. He's a pretty good goalie. He'd rather play football he tells me, as he tackles the soccer ball to the ground. He's always diving on his knees or rolling his body up in a ball and throwing himself on the grass head first. He's adjusting to his new school just fine. He's learning about the planets. Every now and then I send homework with math problems and they all come back right. Academics seem to come pretty easy for him right now. Although he's going to a school at a church, his attitude has been a little challenging lately. He looks you cold in the eye and says NO, or he tries to dictate how things are going to go. It's forced David and I this wk to really come down pretty hard on the boundaries, which often makes us feel bad, but it does work and it seems like we're turning the corner. He's been having a couple of accidents in his pants. At first I attributed them to the funeral - he picked up more than I thought he would and since he adores his cousins, he worried when he heard about mine. But I think he just gets so busy he can't stop or be bothered to go to the bathroom. Yesterday he didn't wear any underwear and he told me it was because "it was a special day today, mom!" Funny how he sees things. What he's liking most about his school is his new girlfriend Abby. She's apparently giddy about him too. She's started wearing dresses in the morning and she drew this picture of the two of them hugging. "The hearts are so you know (they) love each other." He's a player, that boy. He told me he was saving his kisses for his girlfriend. He also told me he kisses his girlfriend at school. What?? It's very serious. She's come over to our house with her family and this past wkend we went over to theirs for dinner (where Reid threw up promptly at the dinner table, we think from his cake the night before :( ) Everything he says is so matter of fact. When I came home from Atlanta, Spencer asked me if I could see him up in the plane. I told him I couldn't because it was so high up and everything below looked really small. "Well," he paused "you should have brought your magnifying glasses." This morning it was thundering as I dropped him off at school. I heard him counting "one-seven, two-seven, three-seven, four-seven, five-seven." When he explained to me that he was counting between lightening I explained to him that he should be counting "one-one thousand" and he quickly informed me that he was "trying to count to a thousand!! one-seven, two-seven, three-seven..." I promised him next wkend we would pick a day when he could be boss. I explained that that meant he'd have to drive us places, clean, cook dinner and take care of Reid. He told me he couldn't do any of that but he could definately still be boss. We'll see how that one plays out... For now, I'm just getting all the hugs and kisses in that I can (already in the hallway, outside of his classroom where no one can see him). Cuz you know he's going to be 6 "soon" and 6 is big enough to do whatever he wants!

First trip to the beach: 2011!

2011-04-10T21:21:00.007-04:00

The (little) boys and I took our first trip to the beach on Sunday morning. Spencer proudly led us on his bike and Reid was more than happy to take a wagon ride along the road where he could point out all the cars and trucks that drove by. He wanted out when we got to the boardwalk though! He was so excited to be there! Here's a closer look at that face! We explored the beach for a bit Spencer got to throw some rocks and the boys both had a drink and snack I felt giddy just thinking about summer again. Here's Reid's face when I told him it was time to leave

but here it is when I let him pull the wagon a bit!

Here's a closer up of that one too!

If I had all the money in the world, I wouldn't buy a bigger house or a fancier car. I'd stay home during the summers and play on the beach with my boys.

Reid: the cake, the 2

2011-04-10T12:31:00.014-04:00

First things first. Daddy's cake for Reid. We debated over Thomas cakes, Curious George cakes, truck cakes, Lightening McQueen cakes... In the end, Thomas won out. Grandma was Daddy's assistant this time and she has now born witness to the work and love Daddy puts into his boys bdays! Here's Thomas! A chocolate cake in the front w/a coal car, log car, present car and animal car. Connected with twizzlers on a track of wafers and crumbled cookies! There's something on this train for every sweet tooth! Reid loved his cake. I thought I was videotaping him walking into the kitchen with us singing to him but turns out I wasn't. So, this is the closest thing I have to his reaction (although if I videotape him looking at a pic on the computer I may get close to reinacting it - he was screaming at it with excitement when I uploaded it!) Give the boy his cake! Is it real? Closer please! Got his hands on a tire. And there's the tongue again... Diggin in! Forget the fork! Mikey Likey! Reid celebrated his birthday with his best friend and brother, Spencer, us, Grandma and Grampa, Michele and Ron and his buddy Kayla! Who gave him a bath after cake! Yeyh! Reid got into the presents: Curious George and a puzzle book from the Whitmores, a shape sorter and James train that goes by itself from Grandma and Grampa, Lightening McQueen cars that fit on his Thomas track and Car cups from Tia, an outfit and Thomas tent from Nana and Grampa, and magnatiles from us. He was moving from gift to gift making new sounds at all of them to make sure each of us saw them.

I've got the chair picture that officially makes him 2.

Man he looks big in these all of the sudden. No time to feel sad - here comes the deliberate tongue pose again!

Reid's loving the outdoors now that it's warmer. He drives around the back yard in his coupe

He loves going to daycare, mostly to play with Sam but baby Eva's there too and apparently is fond of him! :) Sleep has been rough - he's definately been growing (right out of his clothes) but cousin Alli had no problems getting him to sleep on her lap one night

And tonight we moved him into a toddler bed. He curled right up and passed out. Even though he's not climbing out of the crib and the voice of many generations says WAIT! he seems to do so much better with an offering of independance.

I have many mixed emotions about his birthday this year - because he's my last and because I know how special this all is, and have been reminded how fragile it all is.

Both reasons make me want to just squeeze him and never let him go.

That goes for both my boys.

2 and 5. Wow.

Reid turns 2...

2011-04-07T19:54:00.000-04:00

Started the day with a birthday song. He didn't know what that was about. He clapped. Then he rolled himself onto his tummy and buried his head in the mattress so I couldn't see him anymore.

Got up for pancakes...

Unfortunately had to go to work...but on his 2 yr birthday he graduated from his diaper bag to Spencer's old Bob the Builder bag. He's starting to like Bob a lot. And I like that he can roll his own stuff now!

Tried to think of a dinner that would excite him but the rest of us weren't thrilled at the thought of eating just banana's for dinner so we went to Friendlys. Reid had his first whole meal there, not shared scraps from someone elses.

As you can see, he liked it.

After dinner, the staff came to sing to him. He was curious about it at first and had a quirky little smile on his face. Then they got too close and he teared up. The relationship was healed quickly with an offering of birthday sorbet. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

Will post more after his celebration this wkend. Happy birthday baby Reid!

In Memory

2011-04-01T13:48:00.006-04:00

Tuesday morning I flew to Atlanta for work. If you know me, you know I'm not a big fan of flying. That's only gotten worse since getting married and having kids because now it's not so much falling from the sky that I worry about as it is not making it home to them. On Monday night I squeezed my boys extra tight and I told them I loved them over and over in hopes that if anything did happen, they would remember. But it wasn't me that didn't return home this week. My cousin Nicholas was in a horrible accident on Tuesday, and on Thursday, he died. My mind jumps back and forth to the childhood Nick that I remember. From the Nick I use to babysit to the tenderhearted man I saw cry like a baby when he watched his wife walk down the aisle. It jumps to his son who he loved so much to the facebook status updates I've read over the year about his happy little family. It stops at the parents who lost their son, something now I could never imagine. He was a man doing everything right. And this was the definition of tragedy. Though I'm writing because I want to find words for that, I'm realizing that I can't. Life isn't about words, it's about actions. In Nicks death, 6 lives today were saved. Today, I can only pass on here to my boys what we have all been so hurtfully reminded of this week: Life isn't certain. Hug eachother more often and hug eachother tighter. Live life prepared. Nicholas left us all more responsible for that.

That's a wrap

2011-03-27T21:18:00.004-04:00

I'm happy to say that Reid's doing great. His hearing does seem to be improved. The tubes aren't all magical - he still has a hole in his chin. Such a baby. And such a big boy all at the same time (he's watching cartoons here). Actually got the house cleaned this weekend. We let the kids run amuck in it for a little bit and quickly realized they were going to trash it again so we locked them in this little square while we enjoyed it for a few minutes. They thought it was awesome. They even wanted to invite more people over to put in the small space with them. Spencer's school had a Princess/Warrior party on Saturday. ("I'm so excited about this party I couldn't sleep lastnight" Spencer said) In true fashion we didn't think about how to dress him until about an hour before. Fortunately we had a lot of cardboard in the house and Daddy crafted up a shield, sword and helmet. I asked Spencer to decorate his shield and you can't see it well but there's a picture of a person saving someone and the word SOT. I asked him what SOT meant and he said it means "when you think about something and search for it."

Despite his excitement he clammed up a bit when we got into the gymnasium. There were costume accessories and craft stations and bean bag tosses, face painting, etc. Took him a bit to get out and move but he eventually found his comfort zone at the bubble machine.

Across from Reid is Spencer's new friend Sunny. You know, his cousin.

Reid also found his comfort zone....dancing with the princesses. In the blue dress is Spencer's new teacher Mrs Audrey.

And in the red dress is Spencer's new girlfriend Abby.

Abby and fam came over later for a play date which Spencer was sooo excited about. He was sleeptalking and walking that night.

Admist the games in the gym was a station for building...made with empty food boxes. Poor, poor Reid couldn't understand why there were no Cheez-its or cereal or chips in anything here. Didn't keep him from checking inside every box!

The party ended with a parade and a story and a whole room full of confetti dump. I'm still picking it out of things.

Sunday we tried something new and went bowling. While we waited for our lane we hit the bar to grab a drink and catch the crazy March Madness game. Reid was crazy, crazy about the car commercials on the big screen. We weren't drinking him people, I swear.

Bowling was fun. Spencer kicked my butt.

and Reid maintained all of the balls.

And here we are. Sunday again.

Quiet Riot

2011-03-24T08:03:00.005-04:00

We were expecting the morning of Reid's surgery to be total, mmm, hell.

We let him direct us when he was ready for bed the night before. He played happily until about 10pm. We pumped him with some food in the middle. At 11:30pm David woke him back up and said Reid was thoroughly confused but happy to get up, play cars and snack on a banana and milk until midnight. He woke up just before 8am. His routine is to get out of bed and have a glass of soy and/or a snack before he heads to Jo Jo's. He went right to the snack drawer. But surprise! The snack drawer had been emptied and inside instead were 3 oversized cars from downstairs.

He was pretty psyched for those. Then he wandered over and looked up at the counter where the banana's usually are...surprise....there were blocks...same thing when he opened the lazy susan to bring us the peanut butter...a dumptruck! He forgot all about the fact that he was looking for food. He rode along to take Spencer to school. He loves it there and wants to take his coat off immediately to stay. I don't know if it's the small chairs, the extra kids, the extra toys, but he does really well in the bigger settings. When he got back home, we actually had to bring some jello to his attention because after 11 we knew he couldn't even have that.

He's only had jello once before so it was a treat but he really didn't even seem to care about that too much. He got down and went on playing. We anticipated having to leave the house all day to distract him. We never had to. At 1030 we pulled out the Lightening McQueen movie for the first time and for a boy who is starting to love everything on wheels, this movie was a HUGE hit. He was dancing and pointing and yelling. So happy. At 1115 we put him down for a nap. At 115 he woke up and at 130 we headed out the door for his pre-registration.

He never cried for food or drink once. He walked into the hospital carrying David's blackberry that was streaming Pandora and smiled and charmed people. We went right into the Pediatric wing and changed him into his cute little hospital gown and socks (NASCAR is on TV!)

He was very content to play with the toys there and with the nurses, losing his drawers every 2 seconds.

When one asked him to stop so she could listen to his heart with a stethoscope, I couldn't believe it when I saw him sit up, puff his chest out and let her do her business. All with a smile on his face.

David and I thought the anesthesiologist was a bit crazy. "Oh he's a happy guy without any lunch today" (sir, please don't say the word lunch) "Oh this is going to be so easy. It's going to be good but not as good as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." REALLY? David, who usually doesn't say boo, said outloud "Come on, are you kidding me?"

But while we were flabbergasted by his food commentary, Reid again didn't notice or seem to care.

A few minutes later we were signing consent forms and I was walking him in to go to sleep. He sat on my lap and played with a plush frog and smiled at the doctor. The nurse said "Reid, I have some bubble gum on this mask for you" and he turned to the mask and never moved away from it. "He'll probably wiggle, or kick or try to fight you" the nurse warned me "that's normal." He didn't do any of that. None of it. He sat perfectly still and then they said "alright time to put this sleepy baby on a bed. Give him a kiss Mommy and we'll come get you in a few minutes."

That was it. About 10 minutes later we got a call that we could come back (and I could hear him screaming). The coming out of the epidural was the worst part. He was a BEAR. SO PISSED OFF. He screamed and screamed and thrashed and screamed and pulled at his ears and screamed. It felt like forever until Curious George came on TV and finally caught his attention. He immediately stopped and started talking and pointing to George and all was right in the world again.

He got a sandwich
as soon as he got in the car and we took turns whispering on the way home to him which he laughed at everytime. Based on that I think there's been a hearing difference but it's hard to say. We haven't had to yell any directions at him. The doc did say that there was a lot of fluid in his ears so they had to give him drops which we'll continue for a week.

He's so happy running around. I still can't believe how easy it all was.

And on another note, regarding Spencer...his 2nd day of school went better. He said that he missed me just a little (better than the whole day). The teacher sent home a note in response to mine that she was out the first day and they usually do do a letter and that he is very advanced. She said that they focus also on tracing, cutting, following directions, creativity, etc. The next morning David mentioned to her that he was coming from a really intimate setting and that he hoped she would help him socialize since he tends to go off in a corner by himself if he doesn't know you. A note came home lastnight that they had done pairings at different stations so the kids could get to know each other better. And that she was going to have some extra seat work on hand for him - things like writing words with the letter of the day. I thought that was great initiative on her part as I understand she's trying to balance a classroom of kids who also don't know their letters at all. I was much happier knowing he has a teacher I can communicate with. Spencer is definitely acting more comfortable. He keeps talking about his new friend Sunny. And Sunny "is his cousin because everyone he really likes is his cousin!" He drew me a great picture yesterday morning to bring home which I'll scan later and post. So cute.

Life is moving in the right direction.

Changes.

2011-03-22T12:38:00.005-04:00

It's only Tuesday but it's a touchy week in this house already.

Spencer started his school yesterday. He was so excited. The new backpack and lunchbox totally helped!

We met his friend Abby in the parking lot and when I dropped him off things were great. He couldn't wait for recess in that gym!

I worried about him all day, of course. Would the kids be nice to him? Did I pack him enough food? Did I pack him a cool lunch? You know, everything you could worry about. It didn't help that up until now, Spencer has always been at an in-home daycare where I could call or text or email and see how he was doing. Or the provider called, texted or emailed me pictures. I'm convinced that this change is more to prep me for Kindy than it is him!

So anyway - out the door he went with his backpack - Tia, doggy (that you gave him ages ago) went with him cuddled inside - and his extra clothes and a blanket for quiet time and the paper heart in his lunch box that says I Love You. "Don't forget to pack me your heart Mom!"

When I picked him up, he was playing at the table with Lego's. He looked so quiet and small - didn't I just say he was five and big and loud? I went up to him and rubbed his head and said hi and he leaned in and whispered in my ear "I missed you all day today Mom."

Broke my heart.

Then he went on shooting his figurine.

"He had a good day," the Director said but when he came in after lunch he did say "I think I miss my Mom now."

Broke my heart again.

Overall his first day went OK. His teacher was out sick so the Director was his sub and I guess she didn't have any lesson plans so they learned about Warriors and did a cutting project. I was disappointed to see no letters or numbers in his take home folder. I'm sure it was just because the teacher was out and I'm doing my best not to judge it on one day, but rest assured that I'm one of those Moms who wrote a nice little note back in the folder, including some of his sample homework so they could see his skill level. One of those Moms.

He really enjoyed recess. He played HOCKEY! And he got to sit next to Abby at lunch and they HAVE THE SAME WATER BOTTLES and THEY KEPT SQUIRTING THEMSELVES WHEN THEY OPENED THEM!

Funny the things kids love.

He told me about a french speaking boy in his class. He told me he sits next to twin boys. He told me that I didn't pack him any afternoon snack (he ate EVERYTHING for lunch) and I needed to remember to do that. He told there was no TV or computer there. When we called Abby's parents to compare notes she was on PBS and Spencer was getting his time on Starfall.

Funny the things kids miss.

He told me he'd go back today but I could pick him up at 2 because he just missed me.

What I think he misses truly is the setting he knows and a provider that loves him like her own - hugs and kisses when he leaves and little notes on the side of his homework that says I'm proud of you. Hopefully that will all come with time. In the meantime, I anxiously sit here watching the clock to pick him up again today (no, not at 2).

My little Reid baby is about to go through a lot of change too (to the song of $2000 in case you were wondering)

We found out last week that he needs to have tubes put in his ears. I knew it as soon as we left the padded room that he had his hearing test in. Even though he understands us, he totally failed that test. We're hoping tubes open up a whole new world of hearing things and thus, a whole new world of speech. His preop phone interview was hilarious. Does he close his mouth? Does he receive any physcial therapy? Has he ever had a dialated kidney? Does he have any speech impairments. He's so cute, I kept interjecting!

Might not be so cute tomorrow (is he depressed?) He can't eat after midnight and he doesn't have surgery until 3:45pm. If you know Reid, you know how vocal he is about food. I'm so scared o his attitude tomorrow, I've barely had enough time to sweat the fact that my little baby is going to be put under.

Wonder if they could spare some of that anesthesia for me? Give me a little rest from all this worrying?

Pour Some Sugar On It

2011-03-19T22:02:00.000-04:00

This year we chose Shelburne Farms as the place to visit during Maple Sugar Open House Wkend. It was so good, this will be an annual trip for us.

Breakfast was totally worth the $20 we put down for all 4 of us to dine on blueberry, plain and chocolate chip pancakes, sausage, milk and juices. You could stuff yourself as much as you wanted. Reid ate 3 before we cut him off!

We visited the 75 baby lambs

We hiked up to the sugar shack

and learned all about sugaring.

We visited a baby screech owl and we took a rest by a fire and listened to a story.

We sat on a tractor. Well, Reid sat on a tractor. It was the highlight of Mr I'm All About Wheels Now's day.

We tasted syrup on a stick

in a cup

a good to the last drop cup

and even got to taste it out of the pail (from lastnights cold boil)

And if that wasn't enough, we got to scavenger in the woods for chips that we could later redeem

for maple candy!

It was a sweet, sweet morning!

Spencer's Birthday Wkend

2011-03-18T20:07:00.000-04:00

After what felt like an eternity of waiting for him, the birthday boy is finally five.

Happy Birthday Spencer! I called to him when I heard his feet hit the floor Friday morning.

Happy Birthday Mom! he sung back as he ran over to me, stretched his arms in the air and demanded that I measure how tall he was. "I think I got bigger! I can barely fit into these clothes!"

Funny thing is, I think he did!

Getting ready for school that morning he danced to Robot Time..."hey!" he shouted surprised, "I still have the same moves as when I was 4!!"

His birthday was also his last day at Monica's school. The kids celebrated with blue jello and surprise swedish fish inside. His friend Abby, who will go to the new school with Spencer, gave him a homemade card which she scribbled "Best Friends Forever" on the outside. Later when I was oohing over it, he told me: "Abby and Steevie are both my girlfriends."

After we did our goodbyes at Monica's that afternoon, we met Grandma and Grampa on the front porch of our house with...

a new bike! This one is bigger and has ultra cool handbrakes that he is very excited about.

He's ridden it around the neighborhood a bunch now. Through puddles.

With only one hand. And "doing pop-a-wheelies". After one day, he and the bike are one!

Reid has discovered a set of Spencer's old wheels that he couldn't be happier about either!

After taking the new bike for a spin, we went to where else? Friendlys!

Spencer refused to make eye contact with anyone when the staff came out singing Happy Birthday.

"I find singing to me very disturbing" he told me later in the car. In fact when I asked him if he had the best birthday ever he said it was except for the songs. He's so uncomfortable with that stuff.

Nothing sprinkles and candy can't fix though!

And more presents!

Grandma and Grampa's card with the removable superheroes was a big hit!

He got the Kindy Leapster game...Tia, he's been trying to call you to tell you just how smart he is on his new game. The Leapster is cool again.

He got Reid from Mommy and Daddy. Oh come on, we always dress him up!

Magna-tiles from Mommy and Daddy

We actually split the box in half so Reid can get some for his bday in a couple of wks. I'm so glad we got them - both boys have played excellent together with them.

Mario swim trunks from Reid! Of course he wants to wear those on his first day of his new school.

Nana and Grampa came to visit Sunday and one of his presents from them was this cool (Lite Brite-like) magnetic mosaic puzzle. There's tons of sheets with numbers and foam colored magnets that make all kinds of surprise pictures. He's done a couple of those already. And Daddy's done one. And alright, so have I.

I asked Spencer if I could take his 5 yr old picture in the chair that it feels like we just stuck him in for the first time yesterday. "Sure, take it like this!" he told me.

I got one like this too.

And then it really hit me that he's 5. And I'm speechless.

St Pats 2011

2011-03-17T19:53:00.000-04:00

I meant to make green panckakes for breakfast. I meant to throw green food coloring and sprinkles around, cut sandwiches into clovers, do a clover hunt....

We didn't do any of that this year because as usual, life got too busy. But we did put the kids in green before we shoo'ed them out the door. Spencer was so mad about not being able to wear the blue windpants and brown shirt he had picked out, and on top of that HAVING TO wear underwear, that the morning was a total wreck. When I drove (late) by him playing outside at Monica's, he was still so mad that he turned around with his chin down and showed me his backside as I looked out my window to wave to him.

That stung a little for a lot of the morning.

Next year I vow to take the day off from work. I'll take them to the Ireland parade where they'll ooh and awe at big loud trucks and then we'll all go downtown and listen to music. And since I have it in writing, it will happen, right? Right.

Even though we didn't have it together for the kids this year, David and I enjoyed the quick Guiness after work and the company at home later. We know we're pretty lucky.

Reid, 23 Months

2011-03-16T06:26:00.000-04:00

I just remembered that I never took Reid's 23 month picture in the chair. Good thing I'm consistent. I won't be taking it right now since lastnight he fell on pavement resulting in the worst egg I've ever seen.

It was his 2nd fall in 2 days on pavement, on the same part of his forehead - the part that should have a dent by now. He was running to say hi to me when I got home from work and CRASH. It turned white and hard and big and swelled to the size of a half dollar immediately. At least a 1/4 inch high. I don't know what I thought was going to happen - his head would explode? - but I freaked out and sent David running across the road to see if they thought we needed to take him to the emergency room. I couldn't even look at him which is horrible because he had his arms extended out for me the whole time. Once I stopped flipping out, I managed to call the Doctor, and when I had to describe the bump over the phone and actually look at him, I managed to throw the phone at David and do the only thing I could do which was hug my baby and not look at his mad forehead.

We never went to the ER. He bounced back happy and normal. I stayed awake most of the night thinking about fractured skulls and bleeding into his brain and all the other things that make you run to the crib and hold your breath. He's fine. I'm tired.

These pictures do this thing NO justice. They were taken about a 1/2 hr after the fall.

Thank god I have his cute little eyes to look at in this picture.

Physical therapy comes Thursday. They still work with him about 1x month to try to build some strength in Mr Shufflers thighs so he can actually lift those little legs up stairs. I may call and cancel them since I've already determined he's never walking again. Ever.

He has his 3rd hearing test this morning to see if he needs tubes. We will go to that. I want him to hear me tell him to STOP. Stop crashing!

Other than the distorted forehead, which I have yet to see this morning because I'm up too early and he's still sleeping, everythings good in Reid's world.

We moved him up to a booster at the dining room table (he still has his little table too) and he loves to eat with all of us, unrestrained. He's still a picky, picky eater. He won't try anything if he doesn't recognize it. Sometimes it feels like he won't try anything if it's not smothered in peanut butter or breading or Ritz crackers. He asks for a banana every other minute and he devours pea soup and PB&J.

He got his first buzz this wk. The back of his hair also grows in one big curl and then there's parts where his hair still doesn't grow fast. He didn't mind chopping it off one bit. Walked right up to the clippers and stood still.

His hair is so fine we used the biggest attachment we had. He thought it was the best thing ever.

His new haircut are in the pics above. Minus the big curl that looked like bed head in the back, it's just cleaner, not all that much shorter.

Reid's still signing and mimicking sounds. His new one is bus! I know what he's saying before I see him turn and point frantically to the big yellow bus but you probably wouldn't.

He still loves Thomas and George. He plowed over a kid at play group last week who was wearing a Thomas shirt. He was.that.excited.

And he still loves Spencer. Follows his big brother everywhere.

Doesn't feel like he's going to be 2 next month. And at the same time, I think I took a few years off my life lastnight and it totally feels like 730 days. I wouldn't trade any of them except for the day he got the giganormous bump on his head. But then I wouldn't have gotten to see his cute as can be face running towards me all excited to see me before the fall. I guess I wouldn't trade that either.

The After Party

2011-03-13T19:47:00.003-04:00

Well, I don't really like my Batman game anymore.
Why?
I really wanted a DS.
Maybe when you're six you can have a DS but right now you have a Leapster.
But my cousins have a DS.
And they're older than you. I want the games you play to be more educational right now.
But Mario Brothers is edu - cation - al.
How so?
Because you run around a lot and you get exercise.
No, Mario runs around a lot and gets exercise. You're not really Mario.
Well Mario Galaxy is edu-cationa-al too cuz you have to read in it and reading teaches you to write.
Let's talk about it when you're six Spencer.
Ok! Maybe when I'm 6 we can talk about it!

_______________________________________________

Guess Spencer had fun this wkend. He has come into a room crying twice this evening. Real tears and everything. "I just miss my cousins. I'm sad because my cousins are gone. I just miss them."

Celebrating Five

2011-03-13T13:10:00.001-04:00

When I asked Spencer what he wanted to do for his birthday this year, I expected to hear something about bowling, or climbing, or Pizza Putt. Instead he said: "I want a Wii Cousins Party!"

What's a Wii Cousins Party? you ask. Well, it's when your cousins come over to spend the night and you get to play Wii!

That's it? That's all you want?

Yup!

Ok, then, easy enough to deliver.

It's true, there was Wii playing.

But they also played in the snow

They dug "a pool" in our front yard and a tunnel

which they were very, very proud of ("show this to our mom and dads!")

Oh! Judy got to come over too: "JUST Judy and my boy cousins!"

There was pizza. Reid insisted on sitting up at the island so he could be a big boy too.

And of course there was cake! We had no idea what we were making until Saturday morning but are so happy with how his Mario Go-Kart came out! It was pretty cool.

Seriously, chocolate donut wheels? Chocolate covered sugar cones? Marshmellows? Melted chocolate? Frosting? Sprinkles? Red Velvet cake?

I love the look on everyone's face here. It's real boys!

Pointing out the cupcake he wants. With the chocolate covered donut on it, of course.

Yum

Just noticed that he ate the chocolate all around the outside of the donut first!

Demolition Go-Kart

Judy got him a Mario Hat which he loved (and woke up in). The boys got him a Nerf Gun which of course he also loved (and is napping with).

He'll get our present next wk on his real birthday but for now, he got Reid! (who does not look amused)

There was movie watching and pillow pets

and pool and Foosball and cars

They slept great but of course with the time change they all lost an hour and with all of the hard playing (they laughed so hard my ribs hurt), my baby of the pack looks like this right now

He paused a long time before he blew out his candles last night

I have no idea what he wished for but I hope he gets it.

I suspect he already has!

My Basket Case

2011-03-10T07:59:00.002-05:00

Came out of my shower and found the two of them just hanging out. In a laundry basket.

Bites

2011-03-08T07:48:00.001-05:00

Reid's been cutting a tooth pretty much all wk. Which means we've been pretty much sleepless all week. Stayed home with him Wed as he was running a fever on top of it. He spent all day on my lap with his head buried in my neck, or on my ankles with his head buried on my leg, or in his bed, passed out under his blanky. He even dragged his blanky around the house - unusual for him.

Spencer had his first cavity filled. I worried for him but he did awesome. He opened his mouth wide, held still and didn't even seem phased by it. The dentist told him he was his best patient all day and when I called later to schedule a redo on one of mine, the receptionist said "your little boy did awesome today." Better than his Mommy. When I asked Spencer if he still liked going to the dentist, he quickly replied "yes!" Here's his cute crooked smile, post filling. The next day he said his teeth "feel soft again!"

Some call it Spring

2011-03-06T17:52:00.011-05:00

So we had some snow for a little while. Then we had some warmer weather and we took walks around the neighborhood and Spencer got back out on his scooter. Then we had more snow and rain and we played and frolicked.

Spencer came in this morning "ready for school!"

and we looked out the window and we had SNOOOOOOW

This was outside our garage door when we lifted it

Bigger than Reid snow!

This is Spencer trying to get out our front door @ 7 this morning. He couldn't wait to attempt it!

Video cracks me up (push play)

Trying to climb a mtn. I'm putting the video in here too even though it's long just so you can see how much the wind was blowing

Stopping to eat snow

King of the mtn!

Um, stuck.

Seriously. He's stuck.

Clawing his way back home.

Tongue sticking out.

The first hint he made it to the door? HELP HELP MOM HELP! Too much snow...door wouldn't open.

And 2 hrs later, this is where there use to be Spencer prints

Not looking like a lot of fun there Daddio

No one went to work. No one went to school.

But we did homework. And we did puzzles and we learned about Thomas.

And we did crafts.

This kid can cut better than I can.

And we made butterscotch oatmeal cookies and we built a snowy day fort

Such a huge hit that Spencer actually begged to TAKE A NAP in it

and look at this kid!

There's a head lamp in there now and cars and puzzles and markers and books and blankets and animals. I'm not sure where I'm going to find room to rest in there, but I'm about to go find out!

Mardi Gras 11

2011-03-05T21:06:00.000-05:00

It was suppose to be windy and wet so we left the kids with JUDY! for this years Mardi Gras parade. Not to worry, we still included them in a little dress up fun before we left!

Spencer was the photographer for some of these pics!

And yes, we remembered to bring them back beads!

Spencers 5 yr check up

2011-03-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

Spencer had his 5 yr check up this wk. Perhaps you heard the loud wailing around 230pm on Friday? I'm not sure even ear muffs could have blocked his screams out. I made the mistake of mentioning the doctors at dinner the night before and he immediately asked if that meant shots and proceeded to totally freak himself out about them for the duration. He spent the entire doctors visit trying to sneak - or not sneak and just run - out of the room. And punched, kicked, yelled when she tried to come near him with a needle. But once the first needle went in and he realized it wasn't so bad, all was well again.

He passed his questionnaire with flying colors. Yes's for everything. Yes, he can cut a straight line, hop, skip, recite a sentence, draw a stick person with seven body parts, draw his shapes. Yes, he can write his first name (and his last). Yes he can count to 15 (and add too). Yes, he can identify letters (and read). Yes, he can ride a bike (with 2 wheels and attempts it on 1). No, no problems or concerns or questions. He's a good, easy kid.

Do you like fruit? She asked him. "Yes, I like all fruits but banana's. Today I had blueberry fruit nuggets at Monica's because Lexi didn't want them. They were 100% real fruit and 100% healthy and really delicious and those are my favorites."

Do you like to read? "Yes, chapter books are my favorite but the one I'm reading now is very sad." (Burgess books)

His vision and hearing were both excellent.

Height: 42" (30%)
Weight: 44 3/4 lbs (75%)
BMI: 95%

She was happy to see him stretching out.

1 funny birthmarky mole thing on the back of his head to watch.

And we were done.

Spencer's lingering questions?

Now is it my birthday? When will it be my birthday? And when will I lose a tooth?

Couple of Carnival Kids

2011-02-27T17:57:00.000-05:00

The kids were both bears on Saturday but we took them to the Essex Winter Carnival anyways in hopes of squeezing in some fun. There was sledding and sleigh rides and snow shoeing, cross country skiing, rock climbing,

crafting,

magic shows, face painting,

soccer and football...

If we had done nothing but football and soccer both boys would have been happy. They didn't care if there was a line - all they wanted to do was throw the ball - and kick the ball - and do it again and again and again. Reid left us more times than I can count to go back to the football and soccer stations.

They were so fixated on only staying at the ball stations that we even left early for naps. I thought for sure our evening plans later with the Whitmores would be tanked because they were so grumpy, but as soon as Ron and Michele came they snapped right out of it. Something about someone elses attention does that I guess.

In fact we got so wrapped up playing fooseball and other basement games

that we didn't even leave for dinner until almost 7. Despite this mornings antics, both boys managed to keep it together all night and lived it up being out. Those are the times I'm reminded, they are pretty cool kids.

Moving up!

2011-02-26T12:30:00.002-05:00

Considerate of Spencer to wear ear muffs while he plays the (very loud) drums on Reid's kitchen toys, right? Before I could find my camera he was wandering around the house with these things on, playing his (very loud) harmonica!

But hey, we found drummer boy a school!

We saw things in the process that would make your jaw drop. A woman who fed trailmix to a kid with peanut allergies and healed him with the power of prayer. A house with a list of violations longer than your computer screen. A dirty basement and couch springs sticking out of the cushions. We considered things we never would have. Driving one kid to one side of the county, and the other to the opposite. Paying a 50% increase. Me, leaving my job and turning our new big master bedroom into a playroom.

And then, we found it. Spencer's always been on the in-home path but we found a Childrens Center that feels like the next natural step. It has classrooms and a gymnasium. The kids line up in the hall for recess and the cafeteria. They have non-english speaking kids and english speaking kids. They write their names and numbers and talk about friendships and feelings. And if we were signing him up for the full year, we'd get the week of Christmas off (as in tuition free!) and 2 wks more that we choose a year. Really! One place we looked at had no time off for us and we would have to pay her 4 wks off a year, plus a supply fee, a registration fee, a development fee, blah blah blah. This school has parent/teacher conferences and family fun days. It will help him transition into the behaviors of school. Maybe make Kindy feel a little less intimidating.

And better yet, he liked it. He recognized toys from Monica's. He loved the basketball hoop in the gym. He overheard something about a water sprinkler in the summer. The only thing he was bummed about was that there were no magna-tiles. That's an easy fix with someone and someone elses birthday coming up.

And one of his friends from his current school is signing up too! We've shared lots of agonizing calls and emails with her parents and are thrilled to send the kids somewhere together.

I can't tell you how good it feels to have found something that won't just work, but that feels like it's a step ahead, not backwards. I've learned a lot about myself in this process. Like when a guidance counselor I called for help at his future Kindy told me I was "saavy". Like I like to buy my kids things when I feel bad. One afternoon I went out with them and put them on merry go round rides in the mall, and bought them pillow pets and fed them special Luncheable treat lunches. I'm pretty sure, other than the special treatment, Spencer didn't have a clue things were so up in the air.

But they're not anymore. Now he's going to be settled somewhere safely where hopefully his mind and his body will be active, and I get to get on with focusing on the last few weeks I have of him being 4 years old. I hope someone feels bad and buys me something nice that day.

Not in the Handbooks

2011-02-23T19:54:00.008-05:00

This finding a school thing is a nightmare. It's time consuming. Emotional. Disappointing. Overwhelming.
Sign me up for anything else please.
Tell me what to do. Find me what to do. Tell me how it will be better.
I don't like being up in the air. I like plans. I like it when things go the way I plan them to go.
The mature me (that's David) is trying to tell the cry baby me (that's just me) that this is only 5, maybe 6 months out of Spencer's life. We're not talking about a huge chunk of time here. This doesn't have to be a life defining moment.
Then why doesn't it feel clear? Why does it feel life defining?
I know Spencer's teacher loves him. But she's abandonning him only months before Kindergarden starts. She made a commitment to him. To us. I picked her carefully, thoughtfully. And he's thriving.
Finding a school for a 5 yr old is like nothing I would have imagined. Does he have accidents? Does he nap? That's what people want to know. Not that his favorite team is the Patriots or that he likes to sleep with a blanky or that he can write his first and last name and do addition. Or that he's funny and sweet.
He's a money maker. 5 year olds go to Kindergarden. They aren't money makers. And did I mention he doesn't nap? Sorry, no vacancies.
The good programs are taken or too expensive. The bad programs are bad. The other ones are another 20 minute commute in the morning after we get the first kid to daycare. They're too dirty. They're too weird. They're too old. They're open in the morning. They're not open in the afternoon. They're open in the school year. They're not open in the summer. So and so liked them. So and so didn't.
Get a sitter. Get a center. Send him to your friends. Stay home.
It may be only 5-6 months of his life, but I'm pretty sure I've agonized 5-6 years off my life over it so far.
What will he learn? What will he play? Where will he be social? Compassionate? Where will he use his imagination? Will he be bored? Stimulated? Secure?
It's hard to find perfect in 3 wks or less.
But then, what is perfect anyway?
Hopefully it will be that I tried.

Georges #1 Fan

2011-02-21T22:28:00.001-05:00

Yes, that is a Sonicare box and towel on my bedroom floor. I live with a toddler. Now enjoy the video of said toddler watching Curious George. I can assure you the full half hour is like this (minus my egging him on). Crazy. for. George.

Playing @ Echo

2011-02-20T19:51:00.003-05:00

Cool igloo made of milk cartons...under construction...

(forgot to also mention that Spencer's so grown up now he walks around with his hands in his pockets)

Not to grown up to put his head in a giant fish bowl though!

Both boys loved the water play. Spencer, of course had to make his boat crash and fly and drop water on Reidan's headand Reid was happy trying to soak us both

really, really happy!
Afterwards we made a quick stop at the lake to check out the ice

Declared it cold and came home!

Spencer, almost 5

2011-02-20T09:13:00.004-05:00

Spencer does and says so many funny things. One night he found Johns ear muffs in his closet and he wore them all around the house. "WHAT?" he kept saying everytime we talked. "WHAT?" When he went to bed that night, I put them back up in the closet, thinking that out of sight would mean out of mind. Not so. I came out the next morning to Spencer half awake on the couch, with the ear muffs already on him! "Can I wear these to school today?" he greeted me.

The breakfast table is not immune to his Spencerisms either. While eating Special K and blueberries, he says in his most serious voice: "Mom? When can I get a tatoo?" A tatoo? I asked him. "Yeh, cuz I really like 'em. I would like five of them."

He acts like he's old enough now. He picks out his own clothes every morning and dresses himself. He picks out mostly windpants and long sleeve tshirts. Sometimes he surprises me with long sleeve tshirts underneath short sleeve tshirts. He tells me he picks the windpants out because he can slide on his knees LIKE THIS! on the floor and he doesn't put holes in them (so see now he can DO THIS!")

This morning he even got up and made his bed. "Isn't this the coolest bed evah?" he summoned me to his room, proudly displaying a frumpled pulled up duvet and a jungle of animals. Coolest bed evah! I echoed. "Yeh, and I'm going to make my bed everyday and you can't even make it this good."

He points out that he doesn't need me a lot. Like when I told him I was going to be away for work for a few days in March. "YES!" he yelled with his hands up in the air. "Daddy and I can play Wii!! Can you be gone for a week?"

He really is that easy going and easy to please. He's not so great at entertaining himself anymore: "What can I do? I'm so...boring." But mostly I just think he loves to hang out with people. He's like any almost 5 year old boy. He likes to build things, read things, and shoot at things.

He's always liked to learn and that's still the case. He's learning his last name now and addition and subtraction. He's really thrived at his new school, which is why we were so disappointed when he came home with a letter last wk that his school would be closing on 3/25.

I'm so sad about it. For so many reasons. The easy commute. The cost effectiveness. Most importantly that Spencer's adjusted and happy and safe there. I'm not sure what the next step is yet for him. We're interviewing places now, but there's not a lot out there that has any openings. His teacher suggested if I can't find a preschool component, she would give me her lesson plans and print me out his seat work. When I asked Spencer if I could be his teacher (in my oodles of free time) he told me: "I don't need you to help me with seat work Mom. I can do it myself!"

He's so different than I am, too. I was crushed at the thought of having to transition him somewhere else. Crushed. His reaction? "That's so unfair! I wanted to get on the bus there when I turned 5!" Once I assured him he could still ride Bob's bus, but from our driveway? Totally fine. "Ok" he said.

Spencer finds something awesome about everything and that is how he is my teacher. After the 100th Presidents Day commercial, I overheard him say "Wow! Presidents Day looks like a lot of FUN!"

He blurts out "I love you" or "thank you for making this for me for dinner" or "I'm getting real big Mom but don't worry because I'll always be your baby" and a hundred other nice things out of the blue.

And he signs them too. "This is I love you without saying I love you."

If you're really lucky, he'll tell you he loves you all the way to the moon and all them other planets and back too. Who knows how far he will reach when he's FIVE!

Reid, 22ISH

2011-02-20T06:57:00.010-05:00

22 months plus some (because I'm busy chasing 22...)

See what I mean...

Fat chance getting this kiddo to sit still

I went back in the blog to read about Spencer at 22 months. In my memory it all feels so different, but really it's not.

Reid has the same streak of independence. He wants things his way, his terms. He has no regard for the word NO, except that he understands it means he's not suppose to do something. In response he usually smiles at you, shakes his head NO and does it anyway. (That said he is so sensitive that you can hurt his feelings just by not understanding him and his reaction is a big SILENT cry) He likes to explore on his own - although people make him bashful, this one has no stranger anxiety at all. In a crowded room, he will yell for your attention and if you make eye contact, he will smile, wave at you and take off. I've become quite skilled at pretending I'm not watching him out of the corner of my eye, because the good thing is, if he doesn't get your attention, he usually won't leave.

We went through some awful sleep this month. He's teething, he's snotty, his mind is busy, and all he wanted to do was get up and read books. 11 at night and he wanted to get up and read a book. I took this picture one night when I finally got him to sleep in the middle of our bed. After he's down, he'll sleep all morning while the rest of us are up going about our day.

Fortunately I think we're out of whatever that was all about.

He's a very routine kid. He doesn't like anything in his bed but his blankets. And I'm very routine Mom because I keep testing him by putting things in there (pillow, animal) I always find them on the floor. At night he has to wave goodnight to everything in his room and in the morning he has to hand you his blanket before you lift him out of his crib. At Jo Jo's he watches the window right at 430 for Daddy and as soon as David pulls in the driveway, he runs to his bag, packs it, picks it up and drags it to the door to go. Everyday.

Language is progressing. He imitates any sign and has a handful of signs that he uses spontaneously. I was asking him where his body parts were the other day and when I said great job and walked away, he signed more and grabbed his toes and his hair to do it again. It's even more exciting for him when he's figured out that he does have a way to communicate what he knows and what he wants.

He's obsessed with trains, the same way Spencer was obsessed with Bobby. I put a train sweater on him last wk and he went around yelling and grabbing his belly. Thomas was on TV yesterday morning and he squeeled and danced and yelled and spun around with his eyes closed (unfortunately I only have a clip of that at the very end of this video)

He also is very fond of Curious George still (a monkey who doesn't talk either!) and of all things, Mr Potato Head from Toy Story.

He loves to find things so much in book that he's started sitting down with Where's Waldo books and pointing. He's not finding Waldo, mind you, but he's preteneding.

He loves music. He makes his people play Ring around the Rosies and he'll be the first in a play group to run into a circle and imitate a song.

He loves puzzles and the applause he receives for matching a piece to its home.

He loves the outside. He will walk (run) around the neighborhood and fortunately we had a day this week that was just nice enough to do so.

He discovered Spring (and was ALL boy about being in the mud)

And then it was over! And winter was back!

He's still a picky eater. He just won't let certain textures anywhere near his mouth (although he thoroughly enjoys what he likes!)

When he actually tried a piece of deli meat at Costco's the other day, it was so monumental that I called David to tell him about it. It's not the taste. He's not so picky about that. It's the texture. We just keep trying.

I did come up with this genious idea this wk to move the little table inside. And look at him here - eating a pulled pork sandwich and potato salad.

I mentioned he was independent right? He loves eating meals here. I even find him waiting for them in his chair. He sits in the chair by himself, clears the table by himself (loads the dishwasher,tries to puts his cup in the fridge)...we're trying to make meals more in his control and so far, it's working really, really well.

That's the secret with almost any 2 year old right? Make them feel like they're the boss?

Of course, there's a secret to any boss too. Behind them is their mother.

An Interview With Spencer (about love)

2011-02-13T20:24:00.000-05:00

The setting: I brought Spencer into the office and told him that I wanted to write a post about LOVE but I needed his help. What is love? I asked him, sitting in front of the keyboard....

Love is...

(pause)

John.

(pause)

and I also love Tia's Brian.

and Tia's Cameron.

and Uncle Ryan's Cameron and Evan.

And the girls.

Ok, but what does love mean?

I love you.

Ok, but what does love mean?

It means that I love you.

Can you try to define love?

I love you.

How does love make you feel?

Happy.

What else?

Love also makes me sad.

(Pause)

And love makes me mad too.

(Pause)

Love makes me play ball. Love makes me play leggos. Love makes me color. Love makes meeeeeeee watch football. Love makes me watch basketball. Love makes me watch hockey.

Ok.

That's all.

How do you think that love makes things better?

By telling someone.

How does it make you feel when someone tells you they love you?

HAPPY!

So, what do you think Valentines Day is about?

Giving hugs and exchanging cards. And happy.

On The Wings Of Love...

2011-02-13T18:23:00.007-05:00

We went to Grandma and Grampa's this wkend and were spoiled with fun things to do. We walked around Yankee Candle. Spencer loved the pirate ship there. Reid loved the toys - in fact he picked up a Curious George puzzle off the shelf and put it in the shopping cart and proceeded to walk away with the shopping cart - both boys loved the train...But neither boy would let me get a picture of them on a sleigh or in front of the snow or anywhere TOGETHER.

From Yankee Candle we went to the Butterfly place

Reid liked the gazebo more than anything. Spencer did too at that age. Ramps are very fun to run up and down. More fun is running away from whoever is trying to watch you

Doubt he's pointing at a butterfly here. He didn't stand still long enough to notice them. He's probably saying THERE YOU ARE, HERE I GO!

3 second rule

Spencer laying his eyes up close on a butterfly

He really, really wanted one to catch him. He was very helpful, holding his arm out and such

He waited patiently (check out his dual colored batman shoes - the butterflies will like to stare at those! he told me)

and then this lovely lady came along to help us

Took a while for that butterfly to move on

but he did!he wasn't on there very long before Spencer said we could take him back

after that all of those colored butterflies were his proclaimed "friends!"

On Sunday, Grandma helped Spencer make his Valentine cards to exchange at his school party tomorrow

and that's not all! They made cupcakes too!

And of course, they're taste tested, Spencer approved!

From the Dentist's Chair

2011-02-10T19:56:00.004-05:00

Spencer and I had matching dentist appts today (he wanted to know if they'd take any of his teeth - he checks every wk to see if he's losing any) The last time we went (his first dental visit) we both went into the same cubby and one of us had our teeth cleaned while the other waited. Then we switched. I thought it would be the same today but when they came out to the waiting room they asked for Spencer and said someone would be out to see me in a few minutes. He jumped off the chair and followed the hygenist out the door...leaving me and my quivering bottom lip out in the waiting room. I don't know why I thought I would go in with him. I don't know if I thought I'd sit with him and hold his hand until he was 14 yrs old. But there he went by himself. His sure confidence told me to sit still and wave goodbye to him, but it was an emotional moment in my world.

Later, when my hygenist came to get me and I sat on the other side of the petition, I could hear my big brave 4 year old talking NON stop about how he played Mario Galaxy with Daddy lastnight and it was hard, but he was really good, better than daddy...and he had a donut this morning that he didn't brush his teeth after because he was at Mommys work...and Mommy wants him to eat lunch with her but he's pretty sure he's going back to Monicas to have lunch because she's his teacher and he needs to go back to school...and can you get that thing that's stuck in his tooth because he's been trying to get it for a long time now and can't...and he's doing a really good job brushing his teeth...and he likes Bowser and Yoshi and and and and...

I don't know how she got any cleaning done, except that I could peek behind the petition and see him talking and then see him open his mouth and wait for her...start talking again...open his mouth...

I was so, so proud of him, listening to how comfortable and independant he was. It was really awesome to easedrop on him.

Then my dentist came in and ruined my moment by informing me that I have EIGHT cavities. Before today I had ZERO. I could go on a big long soapbox about their new upgraded software and his jerky attitude and my crushed pride, but David's listened to enough of it already. I'll go on another soapbox when I get the bill.

I was so bummed about my own cavities, I didn't have any reaction left when they told me that Spencer had 2 of his own - also in between his teeth. This is a boy who brushes faithfully, flosses and only drinks juice or eats candy on a special occasion. He has no idea that he has to go have fillings next month and if they weren't the teeth he needs until he's 12, I wouldn't take him.

I can't wait to see how many cavities Reid has when he starts going. I rarely get a toothbrush in that boys mouth - and only if I sing "When you wake up in the moring and it's quarter o'5, you just can't wait to you come alive, you brush your teeth, chchchchchchchchchch"...

Spencer celebrated the rest of his healthy mouth tonight with new toothpaste - a tube I just bought myself actually. The dentist better not take that smile away next month.

Family Portrait

2011-02-09T14:24:00.002-05:00

Spencer always makes me things at school - which I love.

The other day he made me a picture of him and I. I'm the skinny one with my tongue sticking out ("that's not your tongue mom, that's your smiley face")

He signed it, like he must sign everything he creates. I love that he ran out of room and put the "r" way back up at the beginnng of his name.

And then he topped the picture off with his other love.

It's not an exclamation point.

It's not an attempt to write love.

It's a hockey stick and a puck.

I think he knows he's not getting daddy on board for hockey, so he's starting to work on me!

The Spencer Ship

2011-02-07T19:44:00.002-05:00

The other night at dinner, after a taxing afternoon with both kids, I looked at Reid's dirty face and I turned to David and said "I'm off shift, he's all yours." A couple minutes later, from the other room, Spencer yelled "Yeh! I'm OFF THE SHIP too!"

#####

Spencer was super excited about the SuperBowl this year. He wanted the Steelers to win: "I don't know them Packers" he said. But then our neighbor stopped over and he wanted GB, so all of the sudden Spencer was all about GB. Michele and he had an earlier bet. If the Steelers won, she would take him to Friendlys but if the Packers won, he would take her. "Yeh! But I want the Packers to win so I can buy dinner!" Spencer corrected me. I tried to teach him about the finer details of betting and encouraged him to cheer for the Steelers so he didn't have to pick up the tab but he never quite got it. He clapped for GB the entire first half until we put him to bed at half time. The first words out of his mouth this morning? "Mom! Who won lastnight? The Packers or the Steelers?" When I told him GB won, he stuck both hands up in the air, jumped up and shouted "YES! I get to buy dinner!"

And the theme is SNOW

2011-02-05T22:27:00.001-05:00

Reid trying on David's hat.

Despite the fact that it kept falling over his eyes, he loved it. He got all frothy at the mouth everytime I put it on him.

Another storm on Saturday. A thundersnowstorm. There were great bright flashes of lightening and long thunder. And huge snowflakes.

We followed a plow home from a chili cookoff and you couldn't even tell there was a plow in front of us.

Nor could you tell our road had been plowed the next day

We all woke up to a Winter Wonderland and a whole lot of heavy wet snow to shovel.

And play in.

And snow blow. I love these pictures. Reminds me of Spencer following David around with the lawnmower. Such helpful boys!

The snow was so compacted that in some places you could seriously walk on the top of our lawn. That's what I'm doing here when I took this picture of the boys in their fort.

Daddy dug them their own man cave.

Later Spencer invited me to a snowball fight.

This was his protective wall.

This was where he kept his snowball stash

He showed me no mercy!

And Reid cracked up the entire time

Except when he didn't

Spencer got to end his day by walking up eye level to the roof of our house and knocking the icicles off. "This is AWESOME" he shouted.

More snow tonight. No place to put more snow. It might drive our play up on the roof!

Snow Day!

2011-02-02T20:28:00.008-05:00

It's been forever since I've had a snow day. Forever.

But I took one today. You know, for my kids.

We took Reid out this morning in the snow.

It was coming down so much that he was soaked after just a sled ride around the neighborhood.

Look at those cheeks (pinch pinch)

King of the MtnMeasuring snowHe liked it much better this afternoon when it wasn't snowing quite so much.

Took him a minute to get his snow legs

and then he was all over

Laughing, laughing, laughing at what he could do with all of that snow. He was throwing it and digging in it and punching it

I couldn't get this video edited and there's nothing after the first few seconds so don't bother with the rest, but he loved chopping up the snow. Loved it more before I took my camera out (of course)!

And then we picked Spencer up from school early (gotta love that right across the road) and he tried to make a path through the lawn

Looked like a lot of hard work to me

But he did it!

Then he had to be King on the Mtn too.

Took both kids for a sled ride before dinner

Spencer looked like a king in his throne

and Reid couldn't stop laughing at the idea of both of them being in sleds

To think I could have missed those smiles behind my desk today.

Looking Shark'!

2011-01-31T19:41:00.004-05:00

We went for a quick day trip to visit Great Grampa and have dinner at Nana and Grampa's. Noni cut both boys hair again. .

Straggly before picture:

Suffering through his haircut with a half a row of saltines. Poor Grammie. He hardly kept his head still for her at all.

Having too much fun. Look at all that hair! And my curl!

The only after picture I have so far. He looks like a completely different boy, but very handsome.

Spencer also suffered through a haircut with marshmellows.

He wore all camoflouge this day because he thought it would be fun to see if Grampa could "see" him.

When he was done he noticed a batman mug up on Noni's shelf. "I really like that" he said. Say no more.

I told him his haircut looked "sharp!" A few hours later, on our way home, I said "wait until Daddy sees your new haircut when we get home Spencer!" "I know Mom!" he said, "cuz I look like a shark!"

I love that kid.

Friendly People

2011-01-30T07:44:00.000-05:00

Man, these kids just hate Friendlys.

(sorry there are more photos of Reid than Spencer here but he is a much easier kid to capture on film - the other one is very wiggly and hides under the table a lot. And is busy begging for things. Like the game outside of Friendlys that captures stuffed animals. He really, really, really wants one of those!)

Crunching

2011-01-29T07:37:00.003-05:00

More pictures that don't do the whole experience justice - but - if there's a sound I'd like to remember 10 yrs from now, it would be the laughter that came out of Reid when he discovered the crunching sound of snow under his feet. I had to drag him kicking and screaming back inside after he walked all the way down to the corner of our road and back!

Integrative Therapy Update

2011-01-27T07:04:00.004-05:00

We had our mtg with the Integrative Services team on Thursday - 5 of them total in our living room. This team is so great; they've really normalized everything for us and Reid is always so happy to see them. He greeted them all with a pot of pretend Koolaid. He loved being in the center of the circle. No major updates to report. Everyone seemed happy with his progress. When I asked if he was where they wanted him to be after we met 6 months ago, they said he was "exactly on his own path." He's progressing and doing everything the right way, in the right order, just on his time table. One said that it was hard to compare him globally because his fine motor skills and social skills were so high - it's just his talking that's behind and his oral skills that seem confused. He plays great, he loves being with people, he's a superb problem solver and even though he can't talk he communicates like he can by using different vowels, pointing, leading and labeling. He does some signing when he wants to (more, go, and of course anything in song) He's one of the more "on the go" kids they know. Once he started walking, he hasn't stopped. Even in play, he squats but won't sit. He just goes, goes, goes. Stops occasionally to give you a big hug and fat wet open mouth kiss, or to plop in your lap backwards for a book (which he chases us around with these days), but other than that he's always on the GO. So the plan is to continue with the team. Physical therapy will work on getting "Mr Shuffles his feet" to pick them up higher. They'll continue to watch the left foot that bows out but think that's a strength and flat foot thing right now. Occupational therapy will continue to teach him to chew, not mush with the roof of his mouth. They also pushed us to get him tested for allergies because he's always so wet. Speech therapy will continue to give him actions and sounds and teach him to label and communicate. And in July, we'll all meet again. My guess is that his talking will be like his walking and it won't stop once it starts either.

We're just so glad to be out of the AHHH phase. Of course, now Spencer is going around the house pretending he's a seal named Tippy so the house is full of "ahh ahh ahhh ahhhh" again! Never quiet here!

David covered Reid duty Friday morning and took him to play group.

I guess the two of them bonded because Reid wasn't interested in me the rest of the day. Put a nice big fat smile on his daddy's face anyway and maybe a little secret one on mine.

I've got boogers and ear wax

2011-01-24T19:28:00.009-05:00

Not only is it harder to post lately but it's harder to take a good picture of these kids. I just dumped this weeks photos into a folder and you know what I have? I have boogers. I've got Reid with his finger shoved up his nose signing the Mommys on the Bus go shhhh shhh shhh. Not to mention he has squash all over his face. I've got Spencer looking at me cross eyed with his hair sticking up because I haven't had time to cut it in the back. And let's not forget the nice glob of ear wax the photo picked up. I've got pictures of Reid with wet collars and orange hair. And more of Spencer, or at least the back of someone that looks an awful lot like Spencer, running away from me.

This weekend was so cold (-15 one morning!) that we stayed in ALL day Sunday. Never even got dressed. We played a lot of Dominoes and Yahtzee Jr and cars and watched football and it was fun but do you know what happens when you keep 2 boys in your house alllllll day? You also dump a lot of photos into a folder that show some kind of hurricane blowing through your living room. This toy, that toy, a sock, a used tissue, a couple of coats and scarves and blankets and toys and toys and crumbs.

Mostly the kids play well together. Reid gives Spencer more hugs and kisses than anyone. But he also beats the crap out of him more than anyone else. He expresses his love for his big brother mostly by pounding on his head. Sometimes with a car or a block in his hand.

They play and sit on the sofa sometimes and watch TV together. On Saturday mornings we all pull the covers up to our chins in our queen, should have gotten a king sized, bed and watch cartoons.

Spencer has always loved books but Reid has finally gotten to a stage where he loves them too. He brings one out to us and backs himself into our laps. We still can't read a whole story to him but we can look at pictures and find things. He loves to find tractors (yes Spencers PJs are on backwards AND inside out)

and he really, really, loves to find George

You can sorta tell in this picture that Reids crazy curl has gotten longer and thicker again. It's so funny to go anywhere with him - that curl makes so many people smile at him. He has to be a ham just to take all of the attention.

Spencers eating has slowed while his brothers remains unscathed. Reids figured out how to get himself into the snack drawer and the freezer now. Would someone please tell this kid he cannot eat frozen waffles? Much less 24/7.

Spencer's learning his AM words at school. Pam, Am, Sam, Jam....he still loves school just as much as ever. Reids finally learned where his belly is and we've heard "up" "hat" "dada" and "no" this week. Could you hear it? I'm not sure. But the vocab is definately coming. With that comes a lot, a lot, a lot of interrupted sleep. He's down at 7, up at 11, down again, up again, down again, up again, down again, up again...oh wait too many downs and ups, time to go to work. One thing he doesn't like to do is get up in the morning. It's not uncommon to open his door at 830 on a Sunday morning and find him up in a corner snoring. Thankfully Spencer can sleep through Reid, which is way louder than a train going through his room.

There's no easy transition to updating that Spencer is finally somewhat confident in wiping himself and Reid no longer drags us to the potty. He drags the potty to us!

He runs away when it's time to get dressed and oh, so does his brother. In the morning Spencer shuts his bedroom door and orders all of us to stay away while he puts his fabulous outfits together. This picture is bedtime so it can't really be rated but his preference is windpants or sweats with a tshirt he knows that one of his cousins passed down to him.

Those might be socks he's worn 3 days in a row in that picture.

So, let's summarize: We're busy. Our kids are messy. And maybe a little dirty. But they love each other

and that, I guess, is all I really needed to capture this week.

Freeriding

2011-01-15T20:27:00.005-05:00

Spencer's New Year resolution is to "ski and snowboard"

Last wkend he knocked the first off of his list.

We borrowed a friends ski's and boots and went to this great (free) hill that we wish was around the corner from our house! The same hill we went sledding on -

Reid and I waited in the warm shack

I thought maybe Spencer would back out but he was pretty excited to try it. And as his "I've never tried it before and now I'm afraid to death to do it" Mom, I really wanted him to try it.

Here he is putting on his boots. Even that was exciting.

It's hard to see in this picture but he did the "Gramme Ida" and had his tongue sticking out almost the whole time. And his arms posed exactly like this too.

He made David promise to not let go of him and then 2 minutes later he told him "LET GO OF ME DAD!" and was asking to go up the rope tow.

Pure joy on his face here. Mine looked pretty similar.

He tried it about 5 times - probably would have done more if we didn't round him up in the cold with the promise to try it again soon

Here's his "after" face. I think he'll hold us to our promise.

A couple of videos so you can experience the pride too. The first one was his first pass. The 2nd video is his 4th.

Snapshot of last wkend

2011-01-09T19:08:00.011-05:00

Reid finally got his hands on a hammer at Lowes and made his very own Game Box.

What a great first project it was for him. He's loved hiding his cars and anything else that will (or won't) fit inside it!

We met Veronica and Stephanie there too. The kids took over the store. Yes, that was us.

Spencer took us all out to Friendlys for dinner with his "credit card!" We stopped to see the lighted truck on the way home. Reid points and smiles and oohs and ahhs at that every time we drive by.

Even more so now that he's been up close to it!

We bundled up and played outside in the snow

Even made a little house.

For the kids.to live in when they're listening ears aren't working.

Kidding of course. You know I'd let this face in!

Reid Turns 21!

2011-01-07T18:38:00.000-05:00

It's official. I had to count backwards on my hand how many months Reid actually is. But it's impressive that it took me this long, right?

Oh. My baby is not a baby anymore.

Except maybe when he eats.

and maybe when he picks up anything we leave on the floor. I found my phone with the peanut butter last wk!

He runs all over the place. I hear his feet thumping down the hallway as soon as I come in the door after work. He greets me with his mile wide smile and tackles my legs for a hug.

He's getting tougher skin. When he crashes head first into the floor, he just touches the spot he hit and gets up and takes off again.

He still doesn't have any words, per say, but he's a whole lot easier to understand. His vocab has varying pitches and accents and I swear he said "BYE!" the other day. We know when he wants something, and usually just by his tones, we know what he wants.

He loves, loves, loves to sign Wheels on The Bus and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He twirls around in a circle making the appropriate signs. And when the song is over, he signs MORE.

He's smart. Really smart. But he likes applause for smart and funny things that he does. When therapy was at our house last wk, he kept stopping in the middle of his games and putting his arms up in the air as if to say "TA DA!" So proud of himself!
Spencer is still his best buddy. He doesn't let him get too far out of his sight. For the most part, Spencer's pretty obliging. Who doesn't want a fan club?

He's changing everyday. Recognizing things, labeling them in his own way, figuring things out...when the words do come, he's going to have so much to say.

I can't wait to hear it.

The only thing consoling about the fact that he isn't my baby anymore, is that I get to watch him turn into this terrific, fun, loving little boy.

His personality fills a room up almost as much as it fills my heart.

Starting up 2011...

2011-01-02T14:11:00.008-05:00

The week of holiday vacation started off rocky: The chaos of Christmas. Reid cut his 2 bottom canine teeth. The going here, the going there. And then we got into the groove. Naps were easy breezy. We ate and ate and ate -

we couldn't stretch our ham enough. Turns out both boys are huge fans of pea soup (this may be a gross green shot but check it out: he's eating with CLOSED lips)

We played with friends at home and at Echo

This is Reid trying to mangle - er - touch the starfish

Judy babysat so we could go out and watch Ron try to tackle this burger and fries (in 30 minutes)

We went sledding

and when the snow almost all disappeared, we found a bikepath in our town that we didn't even know was there, and went exploring it on the scooter.

This is David running to catch up with Spencer who had no fear on any of the hills.

New Years Day we partied at Jo Jo's with a houseful of other people but no one that Spencer was excited to see more than Christian

and Steevie!

Steevie was a little excited too! :)

We were dizzy with fun outside and inside too (push play)

and now the week is over. Just like that. "You can cancel work tomorrow, can't you Mum?" Spencer asked.

Except I know tomorrow would come and he'd still want to go to "school" and even though Reid has been stuck.to.me.like.glue all week, I know he'd get a glimpse of Sam and Jo Jo and run away from me too. So life goes back to the way it's meant to be for all of us.

Spencer's New Year resolution is to learn how to snowboard and ski. Seriously.

I have less of a lot of things and more of others. But mostly I hope to just enjoy and be thankful for everyday I have in 2011 because if there's one thing I learn everyday it's that I have a whole lot to be grateful for and the rest? It doesn't really matter.

Happy New Year!

Filling up with cheer!

2010-12-30T12:48:00.000-05:00

David teaches Reid the finer points of brewing beer. He couldn't have a more captivated audience.

He could, however, have remembered his funnel

Look at that monkeys face! Is he drunk off the hoppy aroma?

All 3 babies, buckled in for the ride home. This should be an interesting side by side picture in another decade.

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

2010-12-29T09:44:00.001-05:00

We're starting to recover from Christmas around here.

It was a great day. We never got dressed. We ate a lot. Dinner was a disaster but the ham has been absolutley deli to eat off all week. The kids got lots of toys. They played hard. We got some Wii games. We played hard. No one napped. Everyone bounced off the walls. It was the exhausting magical Christmas everyone should have. Except maybe with a nap.

Spencer woke us up about 615am. He tiptoed in, jumped on the bed and informed us Santa had come. How do you know? I asked him since I had made him promise not to peek in the living room before he came to get us. "I just looked at his plate Mommy and he ate all his cookies and left a little bit of milk, but I didn't look at any presents!"

Did you hear the train? I asked him. Daddy said he thought he heard the train lastnight after we went to bed! Spencer hadn't heard it but he smirked. That silly Santa. Guess what. That silly Santa left another picture on Mommy's camera. Wasn't Spencer excited to see that later when I was downloading photo's onto the computer.

We sat on Spencer until 630am when we gave him permission to wake his brother up.

Our three faces must have been a funny sight!

I think I might have scared Spencer with all of my demands to wait until I got around the corner with my camera before he came around. And I think Reid just thought Spencer was holding his hand and leading him to breakfast!

Spencer shows us the (mostly) empty plate.

Oh, he spots the scooter!

On the flip side of this tag is a photo of Santa. Later when I asked Spencer if he wanted to keep it or if I could recycle it, he said "No, I want to keep it. I need to remember Santa so I can be a good boy until he comes next year!" Alrighty then! Where shall I put this? On his forehead?!

Trying out the new TWO WHEEL scooter. He's been riding this all through the house. We eventually made him take it to the basement to ride. There's only been 1 accident so far and it's Reid who has the scrapes and bruises underneath his chin. He ran right into it.

Reid has loved his bowling ball set - a ball he can throw in the house - you bet!

I don't know why my pictures have all come out washed out, but this was Xmas morning bowling.

Pretty funny!

Santa also brought a new Wii game. One that requires jumping, stomping and ducking on a mat. All things that will be very good when we're stuck in here during the dark, cold days.

Spencers favorite game is stopping the Runaway Train

and Reid just loves holding the steering wheel. Excitement at its peek for him.

Such a funny game!Reid needed a little bit of coaxing to look into his stocking after we pryed the candycane and wrapping out of his mouth.
But he got lots of good loot.

And both boys have enjoyed the paint stamps

Spencer was happy to find a nutcracker in his stocking

and a chocolate Santa

and -oh my goodness - a FRIENDLYS CREDIT CARD!! That and the gum were the winners.

Spencer and his loot

He's informed us that because Reid got a Freindlys "credit card" we can MAYBE go there TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!

Spencer gave Reid a new Baby Genious video. That was a pretty big hit if you can't tell by his wide open mouth!

And Reid gave Spencer a Wheres Waldo calendar. Also a big hit!

The boys got playdough making tools. Spencer enjoyed making his own burger and fries and after Reid tried eating them, he just enjoyed watching. The chip maker cracked him up!

There were lots of pointing at presents from both boys. This, I think, is the Little Fisher House boat. Reid's pointing because "ssssssss" and Spencer's pointing to tell us that it's just like HIS at Grandmas house! (sorta, grandma's is the original and hers is much better!)

Reid also got a Little People plane from Tia and co. He's definately into all of these Little People much more than Spencer ever was.

Spencer was excited about his head lamp. Camping and fun this summer, here we come!

Score one for Daddy too, because he was very excited about a dartboard we can add to the collection downstairs that he can actually throw on. Another fun present for Reid too because he thinks the darts hitting the board are hysterical.

More pointing at a Sort and Snap puzzle.

Not letting go of his Mr Potato Head to get another present. Interventive therapies suggested that toy for learning body parts. He's had fun with it.

Supervising Spencer while he opens up his BATMAN WATCH!

Think he LOVED IT!

Look it's "8 20 40"!
He also got a new Leapster Batman game. In just a couple of days he knows more math than I knew he knew.

And this is how Christmas ended. Spencer finishing up his game of Wii before Maryam and Kevin came over. And Reid, in a rare occasion, resting on the floor.

Christmas 2010 left as fast as it came. But we're going to try to make as many days feel like Christmas as we can around here because playing together was the best highlight of all.

Santa Prep 2010

2010-12-24T13:14:00.001-05:00

The power went out on Xmas Eve just as we put the stuffed mushrooms in the toaster.

We lit candles everywhere and carved cheese and sausage by headlamp. And we pretended we had a pretty tree to look at and nice lighted houses on the mantle. And that we could smell all of the other apps cooking in the oven.

One of us really liked having no power. Spencer plopped himself in front of a candle and just gazed into it.

I like this picture better though. He still has his nails painted.

How'd we rein in the little one you ask? We had to dig up a pack and play so he'd keep his face out of the candlelight and out of the wine.

Because when he wasn't baracaded, he looked like this

and this

and this!

Not very relaxing...

Fortunately the power came back on about 20 minutes later and we proceeded full speed ahead with operation stuff our faces.

Spencer talked about Santa the WHOLE day. Santa, Santa, Santa. "When is this day going to be over Daddy? I want Santa to come." And later, "Mom, when is Santa coming? I miss him!"

Checking on Santa's whereabouts. "Are we after Africa?!"

He was just wired. Bed time couldn't come fast enough for any of us!

Reid couldn't even stay up long enough to put cookies out. But his big brother took good care of Santa. He asked if he could write a letter-

which he punctuated with a heart at the end

Hoping he's Santa's first stop!

Next, snacks for the reindeer! So wired he thinks he's Rudolph!

Hanging up his stocking. He chose the holly this year.

and 2 minutes after we put him to bed he came out and yelled at us: "You need to go to bed right NOW!"

Fortunately he passed out

and his brother had visions of sugar plums dancing in his head too

Santa came and did his work

(a 2 wheel scooter for Spence and a bowling ball set for Reid)

Spencer had me so excited about Santa, I was almost too giddy to go to sleep too. Almost.

I hope Santa brings us this same excited, innocent, cute little boy next year too! (push play)

With love from all of us,

2010-12-24T11:34:00.000-05:00

Sending you a gift bag of happiness and good cheer!

May your New Year be jolly!

May you be healthy!

May you give hope to those around you

May you experience unconditional friendship & love

and may you always remember to be thankful!

Merry Christmas!
and a happy, happy New Year!

Naughty or Nice

2010-12-23T20:09:00.001-05:00

(from the lips of Spencer)

Santa comes tomorrow night!! I wonder whose house he will go to first? (silence...)

Daddy, what do I have to do to have him deliver to my house first? (in a voice that promises to be the very best boy ever)

Pisser

2010-12-23T20:06:00.002-05:00

Reid is obsessed with the toilet lately. 3 nights in a row he has come home and sprinted to the toilet - if i miss the sprinting, the evil laughter is what gives him away. I find him standing over it, arms in up to his elbows, laughing like he's having the time of his life. This morning I was awoken to Spencer yelling "Mommy!! There's a car in the toilet!"

Guess we don't have to pick through the trash anymore for things he's tossed away!

Photo updates for the fam

2010-12-22T11:59:00.000-05:00

Spencer's "school" had their Christmas party this wk. One of the little girls is allergic to milk and cinnamon. This is what we came up with for Spencers snack contribution. Apparently even with all of the cookies and chips, it was a hit, because he came back with an empty pie plate!

And these, Nana, are the replacement sneaks for Spencer's Toy Story shoes. He's moved out of the T size and into the little boys section. The shields can be changed to blue or yellow - like an old Swatch watch. He loves them!

Ashes Ashes

2010-12-21T22:53:00.003-05:00

Watch this video if you want a reason NOT to quit your job and do daycare in your home!

Look at this picture if you want a reason to...

In the Season

2010-12-20T21:35:00.011-05:00

When I took this picture, I asked Spencer to think about Santa. Can you see the dreamy far away look in his eyes?

Or maybe that's just utter contentment and exhaustion. We just celebrated round 2 of Christmas - this time at Nana and Grampa's house.

When I was a kid we use to go down to my gram's (Spencer's Noni) on Christmas afternoon. Before we could open any presents all 11 of us cousins had to sit in a pile so that all of the Aunts could take pictures. I remember us being rowdy and uncooperative and excited - jumping up after each flash because we thought we were done and had permission to start tearing through the paper but there was always one Aunt telling us "just one more, everyone smile!"

Not much has changed for the next generation. This is their serious face. Cameron's peekaboo'ing at the far left around Johns shoulders. Evan-Alli-Annie-Spence-Brooke-Annie-Reid.

Reid got a little more into opening gifts this go around. After a present he'd pace in a little circle looking for some more paper to take off.

(The boys opening their Wii remote from Uncle Ryan & fam) Spencer's really excited that all 3 of us are going to be able to play MarioKart. Reid's just excited about the remote. If he hears the Wii power sound he flies to the TV with anticipation.

Kinda like how whenever he sees something in the shape of a Wii wheel now (like this thing my mom made out of corks for hot plates) he grabs it and steers while making a car sound.

I thought it was funny that he stuck this right in his mouth

Especially when there was so much gorp-gunk-whatever you call it yumminess to be devoured

Spencer waited very patiently for his presents and was rewarded with all kinds of cool things.

Sneaks and an outfit

jumbo coloring books

and a Leapster 2. Because his older cousins were playing with their Nintendo DS he thinks that HE got a DS and there's no point in correcting him because he's thrilled. Besides, the first time I did correct him he said that he knew it wasn't a DS but it was OK if he called it that. (As I type I'm listening to David playing with it out on the couch while Spencer sleeps).

Reid got an outfit and his first Leapfrog Laptop...maybe he'll leave mine alone now but that's doubtful. And a book and a backpack to carry it in

and psych! the backpack had cars in it!

And just when you thought all of the opening was done, along came Noni with one more small present for everyone!

Rubber balls!

After gift exchanges we all conjured in the kitchen for soup and sandwiches. The boys went off afterwards to do boy things

and the girls went off to do girl things

and before long they were doing things together. Spencer really wanted to have his nails painted

and Grampa - I told you this would be on the internet - had his toes painted

the kids thought that was hilarious

Saturday night Kyla and Dianah came up to the house to babysit (thank you!!) while the adults went out for dinner & drinks. And the fun still didn't stop the next morning because we all got up to go sledding.

"HOLY COW! HOLY COW! HOLY COW!" was all I heard come out of Spencer's mouth after his first run down

Grampa got out Grampa Gene's scooter and showed us how real sledding was done

And Reid had his first trip down in a sled too. I heard him inhale air somewhere along the middle when all the snow was blowing in his face but he liked it!

(Aunt Andy and Reid)

He didn't so much like being dragged back up. Dragged. Can you see him?!

Cracks me up - he's just laying there with his eyes closed. He's so bundled up he can't move a muscle.

Spencer's back to liking winter again - because he's eating snow again and it tastes good!

It was a great wkend. We are Jolly. And spoiled.

And pooped!

Christmas before Christmas before Christmas

2010-12-17T11:44:00.004-05:00

We celebrated Christmas (round 1) with Grandma and Grampa lastnight.

Spencer was bouncing off the wall with excitement about all of the presents.

Reid didn't know what to make of it all but he was a good picker upper - tearing paper off and putting it in the garbage.

The boys opening their new sleeping bags:

which Grandma also made new travel pillows for (camping! camping! camping!)

Spencer tried his new bag out lastnight and said it was "very comfortable!"

The boys got snow castle building tools. Spencer told me this morning he could also use them in the sand. "I thought you liked winter?" I asked him "Yeh, well I'm over it. I don't eat snow anymore!"

Spencer also got the Fire Boat Legos that were on his list

I can't tell you how many times he said "it's just like what I wanted! Yeh, well this is just want I wanted!"

We're on page 39 of putting it together already and when he's in his room not building it, I can hear him making the men talk or the boat shoot.

Reid got building toys too. He had an equally good smile on his face when he unwrapped his Thomas magna blocks. Both boys have played lots with those today too.

Reid got his own train (Victor)

and Spencer got a homework book "to help him learn!!"

And the night was over in the blink of an eye. True to the holiday spirit, I'm pretty sure that even more than the awesome presents, both boys dug spending time with Grandma and Grampa the most.

Reid 20 months plus

2010-12-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Reid is turning into quite the toddler. His haircut, his stature, his attitude - he's all little boy. He shakes his head no at almost everything. He's into the food cupboard every other 2 seconds. He points to, and gets into, everything. If he knows there's something in particular he shouldn't do, he waits to get my attention, waves at me, smiles and after making sure I'm watching, does it anyway.

He's got a temper to match all tempers. One afternoon when he was particularly pissed about being put down, he threw all of his blankets on the floor, took of his shoes and socks and threw those on the floor, TOOK HIS DIAPER off and threw that on the floor AND pulled the bumper off his crib and threw that on the floor.

Pissed, yes. But as soon as I went in, he melted into a puddle in my arms.

His favorites are still trains and the Baby Genious Nursery Rhymes video. He shows no interest in signing but he imitates songs - Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know it, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - so we've rented some new signing songs at the library that are a bit more sing songy and he imitates some of those. I hope I don't have to sign math and science to him when he gets older.

This is his first winter on his feet and snow makes him very curious

He points at everything. The First Word books now are also a big hit. His speech therapist made him a poster board with pictures velcroed on it - a potty, drink, crackers, muffins, banana, apple - so we're working on directing him there when he wants to tell us he wants something.

Mostly we're just working on keeping up with him. I tried to take him shopping with me today and spent 3/4 of my time chasing his laughing butt around the store while he kept trying to run out the door.

Yes, I'm that ragged Mom.

But he's totally worth it. He's sweet and cuddly and smiley too. And growing way too fast.

Yes, there is a Santa Claus

2010-12-11T16:36:00.001-05:00

A few days ago Santa sent Spencer an email video. In it he told him that he knew he was being a good little boy and a good big brother. Santa reminded him to continue to be kind and generous. The reaction on Spencer's face when he watched it brought tears to my eyes. This year, Spencer has all of the magic of Christmas in his heart. He wouldn't make eye contact with Santa on the computer monitor but he stared him down from the corner of his eye and he tried awfully hard not to let his smile stretch all the way across his face while Santa was talking. Occasionally his arms would go up in the air in excitement, but after Santa signed off it was his whole body that jumped with anticipation. "Santa knows I'm being a good boy! I have to try to keep being a good boy!"

So this year when we made our annual trip to the Christmas Loft to pick out an ornament and visit Santa, Spencer wanted to write a letter but not one that included a wishlist. Instead he wrote Santa this simple message: "Dear Santa, I ben good." Before he wrote his name he drew a smiley face so that "Santa would know that he'd been good!"

When we got into the Christmas Loft, both boys were just in awe. I kept trying to capture the look on their faces with my camera but the pictures just don't do the light in their faces justice.

They just stood, frozen - eyes wide.

I forget how much there is to look at in that store. They loved it all - the houses, the trees, the statues, the elves that worked there...

Oh, and the train. Spencer has loved this train since our very first trip when he was a baby and Reid just loved it too.

We wandered the store looking for the perfect ornament to sum Reid up right now. And when we found this train ornament and he went crazy at the sight of it, we knew we'd found it

Thank you Spencer for modeling it for me since I couldn't get Reid to stop playing with it long enough to get a pic.
Spencer's very into Nutcrackers this year. He makes them talk to each other and fight on our tree.

Not surprising it was his choice for a personalized ornament this year.

After finding our ornaments, we started our search inside the Loft for Santa. Spencer's been so excited about Santa this year I thought he would clam up and I thought Reid would cry and bury himself in my shoulder. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Here's Reid spotting the guy in the red suit for the first time. He's ho'ho'ho'ing his way towards him.

Big brother isn't the only one whose been hijacked by the Xmas magic this year. Look at Reid's face!

Spencer moves closer...I couldn't get my camera to click fast enough.

Spencer hands his letter to Santa.

And Santa was so kind and generous, he took the time to sit down and read it (translated it perfectly). Even more, he turned it over and discovered Spencer had written the letter on the back of one of his homework pages. "Oh my what a good job you're doing in school" Santa said. Spencer just beamed. Or was that me?

The kids got their candycanes. "Thank you Santa" Spencer said so politely.

Reid wondering if Spencer likes these candycanes as much as he does. (The answer is yes!)

A quick timer pose to remember the day that all of us believed in...believing...

The Perfect Gift

2010-12-10T20:47:00.005-05:00

Spencer had been in bed for about 20 minutes tonight when I heard his feet on the floor. When I went in to investigate I found him on his knees wrapping his etch a sketch in his tool blanket. When I asked him what he was doing he quickly told me that he had made something for his Daddy's birthday tomorrow and he was wrapping it up. I asked him if I could peek and there on the etch a sketch was a picture of a stick figure next to the letters D-A-D. It might be the best present David ever gets. It's certainly the sweetest.

Addendum: Spencer also made a paper card for David. Here's the inside:

(David playing basketball)

HUGE THANKS TO JUDY who kept the kids overnight so that we could celebrate David's 40th with friends at our house. She is so awesome to our kids and I hope they always appreciate her and we always remember to continue to pay it forward!

Fa la la la la la la la la la

2010-12-05T21:39:00.008-05:00

Spencer and I made "special" cookies for our "special tree decorating night."

Spencer "reading" the instructions (i.e. reading the pictures)

Lining them up!

Showing them off!

Putting them in the oven!

Dancing because they're in the oven!

Reid being impatient (in the end the cookies made him spit up :()

Spencer being equally impatient

Reid was a little confused about what happened to his play kitchen but he was impressed with the tree that took its place. When he wasn't sticking his arms up like this in amazementhe was grabbing branches in both hands and shaking them like a pair of reins

Everyone helping!

Spencer's favorite ornaments were the soldiers. I'm guessing because he made them talk and shoot at each other.

He really got into hanging ornaments this year

This is what happens to two sugared up boys

Admiring his workLittle sugarplum sleeping underneath his Christmas tree. This couldn't get sweeter.

And to quote Spencer, "this wasn't a rotten day Mom. This wasn't a rotten day at all."

The Perfect Tree

2010-12-05T14:59:00.006-05:00

Spencer points to a line of trees that he thinks the perfect tree is hiding in

at first we thought this was the perfect tree

but we picked this one instead

hanging out freezing while Daddy cuts it down

Spencer was very excited this year to be big and strong enough to help us get it back to the car

behind his jacket, his smile is a mile wide

He earned his hot chocolate and candy cane!

Reid waved Merry Christmas! to the tree farm on the way out

with one less perfect tree on our car to bring home.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

2010-12-05T14:20:00.004-05:00

Before Spencer and Reid were born, David and I use to meet our nieces and nephews at the top of Churchstreet for the Holiday pony rides. The kids loved them and then everyone would come back to our house for pizza or something equally easy.

Now the cousins are too big to be as excited about pony rides but our two aren't past wrapping them in warm clothes and braving what always feels like the coldest day of the year just to ride a pony in a circle. Not any pony though -ponies with reindeer antlers and santa claus hats.

Do you think these 2 boys are related? They're both licking their coat zippers.

Everyone gets a turn with Snickers!

And everyone gets a candycane!

Even the little boys who don't remember that they've ever even seen a candycane before!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is about Christmas

2010-12-05T08:47:00.004-05:00

Last Wed we let Spencer stay up and watch a Xmas cartoon. The Grinch and Rudolph were both on TV but the abominable snowman scares him so he chose The Grinch.

We all packed into our bed with crackers and cheese and childhood memories.

Later Spencer would retell the story:

"The Grinch thought Christmas was about presents but it was about Christmas. He took all of the toys away and then he thought about the people and he knew it wasn't about toys, presents, it was about.. Christmas."

When asked what Christmas is about, Spencer answers very seriously:

"Christmas is about Christmas."

Future Blogger

2010-12-05T08:43:00.001-05:00

hi ths is spencer

Dress Up

2010-12-05T08:41:00.002-05:00

Reid isn't the only boy in this house that's growing - growing - growing.

Spencer loves to surprise me in the morning by picking out his own clothes and putting them all on - socks to pants to shirt to baseball cap. He comes out with everything on, everything buttoned and zipped and asks me if I think he looks cute in what he picked.

Well, duh!

Hear Ye? Hear Ye?

2010-12-05T08:14:00.004-05:00

I took Reid to his hearing test Tuesday. Pretty sure he can hear but he's definately selective about his listening, paired with the delayed speech, makes it questionable whether it's tone/frequency related.

The appt started with the 2 of us being shut in a small room with a chair in the middle of it...a computer and a mouse on the other side of it (ever seen a toddler go gah gah over a keyboard and a mouse? Then you feel my pain) and on the other side? A chest full of drawers full of pokey tools. It was a nightmare. I had to pull out all of my creative distractions. I called Daddy on the cell phone and Reid walked around and around the chair in the middle of the room "Ahhhing" to Daddy on the phone.

We had his ear drums tested first. Those showed that they were stiff, which implies fluid in his ears. The 2nd test, we got shut in a padded room for. In the right corner there was a black box with a pig in it and in the left corner, a black box with a sheep. From the other side the controller would make noises - very softly at first, then louder - and as he turned towards the noise, a light would turn on, the animal would pop out and the controller would say excitedly "there you are! you see me!" It was like a live version of Peek a Boo - Reid.loved.it. Unfortunately I could hear the soft noises before he responded so I was prepared the test wasn't going to come back with flying colors.

"Do you think he's delayed?" the tester asked me on our walk back down the hallway to the room with the chest full of pokey tools.

She might as well of just stabbed me with one of her instruments right there.

I never expected to be asked if Reid was delayed at a hearing test. And I certainly hadn't been feeling in the past few days that he was. Yes, he's slower to DO things but not necessarily slower to get them and the fact is, he's getting them.

The reason behind her question, as I understood it, is that a child who is considered to be delayed at Reid's age shouldn't be tested against normal standards. His hearing was below average but his response time, or what causes him to respond, could be measured differently.

And then there was the fluid behind his ears. Explained this wkend by his full fledge snotty cold.

No infection. No reason for alarm but we go back in 6 wks for a follow up and a discussion about tubes if the fluid isn't gone.

Reid's occupational therapist came Friday and I put her on the spot. Will Reid always be delayed? Will he always have this label?

I didn't break down in tears to her or anything - I did enough of that after the test because you know - you think your baby is brilliant and you want things to be easy for them and you don't want them to have to struggle with anything.

She was great. She said what anyone would and has said to me but she had the experience to make me listen.

He's not globally delayed. His motor skills have caught up. He's cognitively and socially with us. And childrens intervention services are intervention services...here to help him get where he should be. They fully expect him to test out of their services.

As proof he's started engaging that top lip in the last wk. He's making blowing noises with his lips, cleaning food off his spoon with his top lip, sticking out his tongue (which, because he's tongue tied, always makes me laugh)...

Before I know it, he's going to drool less and talk more and think he's smarter than I am and then tell me so too. And then I'll talk less and drool more and he will be smarter than me and I'll wonder where all the time went.

It's His Obsession

2010-12-05T07:40:00.010-05:00

Reid has become completely obsessed with a few things lately.

#1 His train table:

He'll go around and around and around this table forever, making all kinds of vehicle noises. His favorite part is the tunnel.

If something train related catches his eye in another room, he takes off and runs! to his table.

If he wants you to play trains with him, he grabs your finger and leads you there. There is no resting when there is train play to be had.

# 2

Baby Genius Nursery Rhymes DVD. OMG, he loooooves these. He stands in front of the TV and stomps his feet and claps his hands and turns around. If you ask him if he wants to watch it for a minute, he'll run to get the remote with this hyperventalating noise coming out of his throat.

But the funny part is that while he watches it, I think because it's so animated, he associates it with the Wii. So he grabs one of those remotes too - usually the steering wheel, his favorite - and

he stands in front of the TV waving it around. It's not like we play a lot either, but he knows.

Recently we got out bowling again and boy did he think he was King of the mtn behind that remote!

Look at his expression!

Oh yes, he also loves turning anything into a phone

#3 Bath time

Totally loves his bath. It's like candy. Can't wait to get into it.

But may need a new, bigger robe for Xmas!

There's suddenly so much to see and do, I think my chances of keeping him wrapped up anyway are pretty slim!

Making a House a Home

2010-11-28T19:21:00.010-05:00

The day after Grampa and Nana's house, we went to Grandma and Grampa's house so Spencer could make his gingerbread house with Grandma.

But not before a trip down memory lane with 3 Men in a Tub (doesn't Reids shirt LOOK like he took a bath?!)

and an old story about the Road Runner, projector style!'

Spencer was pretty excited to make his house!

assembling the roof

if his expression doesn't give that away...

when besides halloween do you get to count this much candy?

serious decorator

job hazard!

distraction!"Mommy, is this the best house ever?"

permission to have candy!

the engineers - too bad I cropped their final project! (but good thing I have more pics!)

And even though Spencer loves his house, my sweet fat hearted little boy asked me if he could bring it to "where (I) work" to share it with people. I could have melted right there.

I'd been thinking about a family service project this year that would teach him about giving to others, that would be age appropriate, and it turns out he came up with something all on his own, without any prompting. I couldn't be prouder.

Either could he. Look at this face of him delivering his house!

Making a love note

Last pose!

When I told him today how many people loved his house, he made me even prouder. He jumped up and down and he said: "I MADE THAT MANY PEOPLE SMILE? YESSSS!"

And this is me jumping up down. THAT'S MY BOY!!

Thanksgiving Turkies

2010-11-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

I can't put into words yet, the lessons I've learned this year about what's really important. Except to say, I'm very thankful - we're very thankful - to have these healthy turkies in our lives. I could squeeze the stuffing right out of them.

PS check out Spencer's smiley faces he drew in!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-25T18:44:00.000-05:00

This year we joined Uncle Joe for Thanksgiving. All 26 of us! Including David's parents.

...another table extension

Spencer was so excited to be with his cousins (his "best friends!") We must have heard the name John a hundred times - enough that David turned it into his own drinking game!

There was so much food: turkey and pork, and every side you could imagine. The dessert buffet didn't look any different. But out of all the pies Spencer had to choose from, he selected "CUSTARD!" (and some of Uncle Joe's homemade pumpkin icecream!)

He asked for blueberry pretzel salad ("blueberry stuff") after a couple bites. Maybe it wasn't as sweet as he thought it sounded!

Reid indulged in a molasses cookie.

Of course there was lots of lounging around for Thanksgiving -

these 2 were buds - Reid took every opportunity he could find to share his food with the dog

Spencer got in some Go Fish games (who taught him that?) And Reid really wanted in on that action too.

maybe someone could teach Spencer not to show all of his cards to his cousin Tammy!

There was drool

and play

and ring pops (Noni introduced them to Spencer)

There was laughter and family and thankfulness.

Noni's Barber Chair

2010-11-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Reid had his first real, real haircut. Not just the curl, but the whole thing. The back of his (blondie)hair was getting so long, it was curling and he was starting to twirl the curl in the front.

Here he is in Noni's chair with a bag of animal crackers to keep him occupied. I love how they both have the same expression on their faces here.

over an inch cut off the front

our handsome little boy post haircut

He still has his dark thick patch in the front but it's blending in more everyday. I don't know if it will always be his signature, but one thing I am certain of is that he's always going to leave one where ever he goes, and on whoever he touches.

Thankfulness

2010-11-24T18:32:00.000-05:00

Save this Thanksgiving for forever because when asked what Spencer's thankful for, his answer to people has been "my mama!"

He's also thankful for his teacher Monica. Here's a letter he composed and wrote for her all by himself.

Complete with "Thanksgiving colors"

"MONCa, i am Thankfl FOR YOu, Lov Spencer

He was so proud of his card that he told me that he was going to give himself a "gold coin stamp" on the back!

Buried Treasure

2010-11-24T18:20:00.001-05:00

I unburied these on David's phone...from libary pajama night this summer...superman and his woman! (before batman took over my 4 yr old)

Picker Upper

2010-11-23T20:35:00.003-05:00

Reid likes to pull all of the books out of the bookcase and then sit in the middle of them and read.

He also likes to throw things away. If he finds anything on the floor that even resembles trash - a receipt, a sandwich baggie, a piece of paper he'll pick it up and throw it away.

Today he stepped it up a level and took a page out of a book, crumpled it up and then walked to the garbage to throw that away.

If I'm loading the dishwasher - he comes behind me and closes it. And tonight he cleared the table and tried to throw away the dishes.

I like that he likes to pick things up but we might have to make some ground rules for our little housekeeper!

Deck the Neighborhood!

2010-11-23T18:24:00.000-05:00

It's not even Thanksgiving yet but the lights are starting to come out and Spencer couldn't be more excited. "I'll have to get Daddy on our lights!" Normally after school his "feet are too tired" to take a walk, but not when there's decorations to look at!

The Santa Train

2010-11-20T23:45:00.000-05:00

My friend Jen came up with her son Drew this weekend. Jen and I went to college together too many years ago and hadn't seen each other since David and I got married - hadn't spent time together in even longer. It was great to see her and meet her son! And if she ever posts her pictures (hint! hint!) I'll throw more up here!

We braved the mall to see Santa and ride the train through the mall. I was prepared for cheesy but it was actually pretty cute and Spencer has been talking about seeing Santa and Mrs Claus on the train ever since.

He did make a list for Santa. He was insistent about that. But since we only saw Santa riding by, the letter is still in my coat pocket and fortunately he's forgotten about it.

He wants a Batmobile, leggos, leapster 2, and a Mario shirt (among many, many other things that he didn't have time to write)

Here comes Santa! Must be the deer are still at the North Pole!

Waiting for our $3 p/p ride.

Spencer didn't want to go without me but afterwards he said "I'm glad I went Mommy, that was fun!"

The mall was also doing face painting and a bouncy house.

Reid was in his glory just running away from us

but while Spencer waited in line for his face painting, Daddy threw Reid on the carousel with Drew. It was his first ride and we'll probably have to avoid that section of the mall from now on - he loved it.

wish his mile wide smile wasn't camouflaged by a steering wheel here

Here's Batman! Everything batman. He's also getting into Star Wars. I don't know where it comes from. Or why. But he's obsessed. Then he tells me "it's not age app'op'iate mommy!"

A little lunch break
before going home and climbing through tunnels

and playing trains and crashing

Hope this becomes an annual trip for our friends! After they left, Spencer told David "I'm so boring. I need a vacation."

Dangling Carrot

2010-11-20T20:30:00.001-05:00

Spencer was pretty psyched to find this in the garden!

Revisiting Infinity

2010-11-16T10:49:00.004-05:00

Saturday night we let Spencer stay up late and we climbed into our bed with icecream and m&m's and all watched Toy Story 3 after Reid went to sleep.

Ever since then all I hear on the other side of Spencer's door is "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!"
"THIS IS AN INTERGALACTIC EMERGENCY!" and "BUZZ LIGHT YEAR TO THE RESCUE!"

Seems all of his Buzz Light Year toys have resurfaced. I'm just waiting for him to start demanding I call him "Andy" again.

Reid, 19 months

2010-11-14T10:05:00.000-05:00

Reid, 19 months on 11/7:

He sat still for his picture for 19 seconds.

and yes, he has 19 inches of drool coming out of his mouth.

And no, he's not laughing at anything special. This is Reid. Everything is something to smile at. Unless it's not.

He has such a personality. Nothing is half funny. It's laugh from your belly funny. And nothing is half maddening. It's throw yourself on the floor and bang your head maddening.

He's anything but predictable except that he's not predictable. I don't know when I take him into a store if he's going to flirt and close his eyes (and twirl his curl now!) or if he's going to fixate on something he wants and ahh! ahh! ahhh! at me until I'm twirling my hair.

He and I went to our first playgroup together last week. I wish I had known about those with Spencer. Or sooner with Reid. It's a room full of toys - every toy you can imagine and crafts and playdough and story time and music (which he loooves). He had a blast.

He didn't at all seem behind anyone there - except that he wasn't as laid back. He can walk now - run in fact, but if he sees a corn popper or a walker, it's still his preferred mode of transportation because of the speed it gives him. He spotted one at play group and he maneuvered that thing all over the room - over anyone in his way - even if it was another little person like him with a nametag on their back.

He walks around the neighborhood now and his arms have come down quite a bit.

He still walks so stiff legged. I love it.

We still have physical therapy - Michele visits Jo Jo's 1x month just to make sure he's progressing in his enviroment there too - and to work on stairs.

In our house his favorite thing to do is to walk into a room and close a door and yell behind it for us to come and get him.

He has Occupational and Speech Therapy 2x month. Usually they overlap. The whole team is great and he loves to see them. We're practicing all kinds of new tricks to get him to close his mouth and engage his top lip. And he's picking up on some signing: milk and more.

He'd still prefer to just ahh loudly to us what he wants. Crazy thing is we always have a pretty good idea what that is.

He's still not adventurous in the food department (although he loves to eat. all the time). Like his personality things have to be a certain way. Don't you dare take muffins out of their wrappers. He'll do that or he'll throw them on the floor and sacrifice them. And don't come at him with a spoon. He has a hand to guide a spoon to his own mouth thank you very much.

This week was the first time he would even put his mouth near a fruit roll up. He won't typically even let that kind of stuff touch his lips.

I hope he remembers the taste once I fiiiinally tricked him into it.

Because he loved it!

Know what else he loves? CANDY! Ever since Nana introduced him to a Kit Kat on Halloween, he's been breaking into the snack drawer and we're finding them everywhere.

This was my favorite discovery:

Should have seen his feet stomp when he got a taste of a peanut butter cup!

I'm looking forward to his follow up appt this Friday for the reflux meds. They never worked and we're still challenged trying to find meals that he'll try or that he doesn't spit up. Poor kid. He loves dairy but it still seems not to love him.

Reid's doing well at Jo Jo's. If I'm having trouble getting him into his carseat in the morning, all I have to say is "Wanna go see Sammy?" and he lights up. I'm so glad he has a bud.

He loves to be outside. He loves to take baths. I love to watch him cover his eyes up when I wash his hair. He does it everytime. He loves the stomp stomp! part of If You're Happy and You Know It. He likes Curious George but he doesn't love anyone yet the way Spence loved Bob The Builder. I can't wait to see who he'll follow. He loves to pretend he's playing MarioKart. He loves to comb his hair while I'm drying mine. He gives big open mouth kisses, more times now without prompting. He loves to explore in my kitchen and move my strainer and my tupperware to his. He loves to point to things. He loves to play with you.

If I could freeze one thing about Reid right now and keep it forever, it would be the way he smiles when I get home - or when he sees his Daddy or his brother when they get home. How he toddles around the house and cranks his neck back to see if you're following him. How he yells from another room to make sure you're still there. I would freeze his pure joy because when I'm around him, I can't just half feel anything either.

Spencer's Medal

2010-11-06T09:51:00.001-04:00

Spencer got his Venture Challenge medal in the mail today!

A medal just for having fun with Parks and Rec...

Looking forward to more camping, hiking and exploring next summer. For free!

1-800 Mickey

2010-11-02T21:59:00.002-04:00

We keep getting these cards in the mail. Spencer keeps thinking they're for him. The first time he was beyond elated that Mickey Mouse had sent him a card with his phone number on the back. WHEN CAN WE CALL HIM???
Now he wants to know why Mickey keeps sending them to him and when we're going to go to Disney to ask him!

A Family Portrait

2010-11-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

Spencer knows that I love the family portraits he draws so it's not unusual for me to get a couple per week. They're never alike though. As in, they're never the same family!

Here's one from a couple of wks ago. It's "Mommy, Daddy, Spencer, Reid and just a yellow mark..." I asked him who the other ("yellow mark") was and he said quickly: "John!" (his cousin).

Todays family portrait?

"Mommy, Daddy and Spencer."
That's very nice Spencer! Where's Reid? Isn't he part of our family?
Just as quickly Spencer replied, "he's with Judy!"

The 5 4's by the way are because he's 4, almost 5.

He's very into homework these days. Mostly in the form of writing letters to people. Watch your mailbox because if I ever get myself out of this cloud of work I've been in, I'll actually put postage on them and send them to who they're meant for.

I just got done telling a friend that Spencer can't read but now I find him spelling. If you give him a pen he'll spell Dear and he can spell dog and sound out cat and other words that I think are all recognition words. He still needs some prompting and he can't recognize that word in a book - but he can write it. Weird.

For homework tonight we wrote words that rhymed - these are all his rhymes:

cat hat bat Dog hog box fox Man Pan

The star is mine. He thought that was like getting a million bucks.

He's not the only one with homework every night. OT suggested bubbles for Reid to try to get him to blow and engage that top lip of his that he's so completely obstinate not to use.

Nothing yet but he sure is having fun. And his big brother likes that homework too.

Maybe Spencer will draw him back into tomorrows family portrait.

No Trick, All Treat

2010-10-31T22:30:00.000-04:00

It's Trick or Treat night!

or should I say DAY. These kids were spoiled all day long.

Nana and Grampa came with treats (Reid had his first chocolate bar. A Kit Kat. He loved it).

and since Reid wouldn't wear his costume, we dressed up the dog.

And only these kids would inspire 2 sets of our neighbors to bring treats to our house for the boys because they weren't going to be home later. We're talking candy, skeleton cups, glo sticks, and popcorn balls.

Forget about any posed pictures at our house. Reid didn't want to wear his hat. And then he didn't want to sit still. And then he was screaming. And then he wouldn't even take another chocolate bar as a bribe because we had broken it in half and he didn't get the whole thing - and then Spencer was distracted...

Totally miserable.

But once we got outside, the only thing miserable was the weather. Windy, a little snow. Cold. David should have totally worn a lion costume.

We started at Maryam's house. She wasn't home but her daughter was and I finally was able to snap a picture of Reids little coy look he gives people when he's flirting with them. Head to the side, eyes closed, cheeky smile (for the record, Reid did have a cute little black nose before his temper tantrum - the other half of it is now on the back of his arm)

Once he realized there was candy in this gig tonight he was a much better boy. Held onto this box of nerds forever.

Our 2nd stop was JUDYS!

By the way, Grandma made Spencer's costume (a "flying tiger!" the flying part would be Spencer's idea). He just loves his soft belly and ears and his "tail made with wire!")

Next year I think we'll get dressed at Judys and take our pictures there! They were much more cooperative at her house. Of course she spoiled them rotten with a matchbox car each and candy and pretzels and pez...

We trick or treated with Logan again this year - and only the small loop again because it was so cold. The boys ran door to door excited about ringing the doorbell. They were super polite and Reid was super excited to stand there with them.

First thing Spencer did when he got home? Counted his candy. "65 candies Mom! Holy Moly I got a lot!"

-3. I ate some after he went to bed.

Ghost Feet

2010-10-31T22:18:00.002-04:00

We painted feet again this year

Except this time Spencer insisted on painting his own

and Reid sure as heck didn't sit as still as he did last year

Spencer took these pictures. Notice Reid trying to EAT the paintbrush.

Now those are some scarey cute feet

Happy Halloween!

Booooo!

2010-10-30T21:25:00.000-04:00

When I first told Spencer that we were going to the Haunted Forest with Ethan, he jumped up and down. "Yeyh! Will there be hidden treasure?"

No Spencer, it's a HAUNTED FOREST.

"Oh! Ok...Well don't worry Mom! I'll protect you. I'll pick up sticks and shoot 'em!"

His bravery continued right up to the entrance line. He was pretty excited to be doing something without his baby brother (although really, really jealous that his baby brother was at Shell's house)

Spencer cowered pretty quickly once we got into the forest and they started teaching us dances to ward off any trolls or witches that wanted to turn us into pigs!

This was the only station after that where he wasn't hiding behind one of our legs. And it's only because the people at this station said "step closer children, we have toys!"

We couldn't even convince him to go up to the "good" wizard at the end of the matinee and collect his pumpkin.He wasn't having anything to do with it. "Can we go to Shell's now?"

Fortunately I don't think he's scarred for life or anything. When asked afterwards what he thought about the Haunted Forest he said "It was a little bit fun. It was a little bit scarey..."

After the Forest we headed to Shell's to watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Spencer was so happy to be watching it with her (because he knows she LOVES Snoopy)

He had a great afternoon of cartoons and Halloween treats

We ended our fun Halloween eve with a drive by of a hill that had hundreds of carved pumpkins - along the road, in the river, even in the trees.

Who knew there was so much to do for Halloween. Spencer can hardly wait.

Halloween Menu

2010-10-29T21:03:00.000-04:00

Because we can't eat only candy this week.

Pumpkin pancakes. Yum, yum, yum.

And eyeball tacos.

For Spencer, these were like biting the heads off of animal crackers!

Carve me crazy

2010-10-26T13:20:00.001-04:00

Ahhh, pumpkin carving on a weeknight. Nothing good can come out of it.

What really happened: Got home from work at 6pm. Cooked and shoved food into hungry mouths. Cleaned up the dinner table. Found one rotted pumpkin and cleaned up spilled pumpkin juice on the floor. Carved pumpkin while arguing with non-cooperative, tired, overstimulated kids (the last 2 might have been me). Took quick momentous picture. Tucked kids into bed at 745pm, never to repeat carving pumpkins on a wknight again.

How pictures can make it all look fun:

Spencer tracing his chosen funny face:

Proud of his artwork:

Hanging with his new bud:

He was really not a fan of the guts but he was obsessed with the shovel:

and the knife:and back to the shovel:

Reid wouldn't even touch the pumpkin. He wouldn't have anything to do with any of it.

There's Spencer, looking into the pumpkins soul again:

The pumpkin looks scared:

He knows how it all really went down:

"Hey Spencer! We should put the pumpkin up on top of the porch rail!"
"No we should not. That is where the rocks go."

Birthday Greetings

2010-10-24T23:59:00.002-04:00

Lastnight I went in to kiss Spencer goodnight and he was hiding a homemade card under his mattress. He gave me strict instructions not to look at it (he didn't tell me what it was) because he was going to get up early and work on it some more.

The next morning he and Reid opened our bedroom door and came to my side of the bed with the biggest.smiles.ever. Spencer shoved his card into my hand and Reid toddled right behind him with his card extended for me too. It was so sweet - I wish I'd had their faces on video to watch over and over and over.

The outside of Spencers card said "Happy Birthday Dear Mommy" and on the inside he had colored me a sun and a rainbow.
Reid drew me a picture that needed a little more explanation but I think it's an abstract of pretty flowers.

I still remember the homemade cards we use to make for my parents, grandparents, great grandparents...the poetry we were so proud to write...the love and pride we put into them...

These are the real Hallmarks and the best birthday wishes ever.

Decorating for Halloween

2010-10-24T19:20:00.005-04:00

Our house is finally starting to look like Halloween - inside and out (and I can name one 4 year old that's very excited about that!)

Spencer helped stuff pumpkin bags this year

Well, he sorta helped

And Reid sorta sat still

Who am I kidding. His mouth is completely shoved full of animal cracker bribery here

And so the treating begins...

Basket Case

2010-10-23T19:18:00.000-04:00

Potty Walk

2010-10-23T08:48:00.003-04:00

I've got to get some video up here of Reid prancing around the house with a smile from ear to ear. He's walking through the whole house now, as proud as can be.

In fact he and I went to Echo yesterday and I couldn't keep my hands on him

He was so busy playing with kids and toddling towards things.

But the thing he has been toddling towards most these days? THE POTTY.

We've had him pooping on the potty for a while now - everynight before he goes to bed he gets stories on the potty, just like his brother use to. Call it coincidence or timing or whatever you want but we've saved lots of diapers and messes that way.

Reid's taken it to another level. Now that he's motoring on his own, he's walking into the bathroom, turning in front of the potty and waiting for us to drop his drawers. I've been home with him for the past 2 days and both days he's led me to the potty multiple times and peed. This morning he led David there to do his business. And he doesn't sit on there forever - he sits until he's done and then he stands up - sometimes only a minute, other times longer.

His potty mouth might be delayed but he's got the potty walk down!

'Morning Sunshine

2010-10-23T08:44:00.003-04:00

So these ideas really do work...

Spencer drew me a sunshine lastnight so I made him a sunshine this morning. He devoured it and then asked for seconds.

He wasn't the only one.