Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. We were fortunate enough to spend time with both of our families. We went to Chad's parents' on Friday evening. Saturday morning the boys had lot of fun flying kites with Chad and Grandpa. It was a little windy & chilly for the boys but perfect weather for flying kites. I think this was their first experience with flying kites for both of them.

We enjoyed spending time with everyone there. (We missed you Bradley, Renee, & Lucca!) Grandpa took the five grandchildren out for a tractor wagon ride after lunch. That is always one of Andrew's favorite things to do there. He often asks when he talks to Grandpa "Did you have the tractor out today?" Here are the cousins enjoying one of Grandma's delicious cookies after the ride.

Below Carson is obviously upset after being denied a second cookie!

Saturday late afternoon we left for my parents. Below the boys are enjoying coloring Easter eggs Saturday evening.

All of my family was together for Easter Sunday. We all were at church together and really enjoyed worshiping there again with wonderful singing and wonderful people (and most of my extended family!) So fun to see everyone again.

You Buckeye fans will love this...as we were driving back to Mom and Dad's after church, Chad had Carmen Ohio (Ohio State alma mater) playing. We were all singing along and at the end doing the O - Hi - O arm motions, the song ended and Carson said "Amen!" Too cute.

We attempted to take a picture with cousin Abby after church in the Easter Sunday best but Andrew was NOT in the mood, (he was a little short on sleep) we didn't get anything! Perhaps next year I will remember this and try to take a picture before church but who has time for that!!

Photo Tagged

It is Saturday morning. We were attempting to sleep in but Andrew & Carson were in our bed too early on a Saturday morning. Chad took a shower while I got the boys breakfast. We were going to go to some antique stores to look for a mirror for our new bathroom in the basement and maybe an old piece to store towels etc. in. (We didn't find anything.) I knew I should have just gotten in the shower right away but no, I decided to check email and google reader (blogs) first...

I was tagged by Sara and here are the rules...

1. Take a picture of yourself right now. No primping or preparing. Just snap a picture.
2. Load the picture onto your blog.
3. Tag three people to play. Remember, if you are tagged on another blog, we will all be heading to yours to see if you played along.
I will admit that I did cheat a little. I took my 10 year old pair of glasses off and put in my contacts. (you would think that I would have more up to date glasses since I am married to an ophthamologist! my glasses are bad, even missing a nose piece thing) Don't you just love my purple pokadot pjs! The only reason Andrew is dressed is because he spilled his cereal all over himself and the floor this morning.


So I will tag Renee, Sarah (who is probably on the beach in Florida!), & Carrie.



After our shopping trip to the antique malls (which is a little difficult with Andrew who wants to touch and explore everything!!) I went and got my haircut. Have I mentioned how much I love getting my hair cut? It is so relaxing!! It is the shortest I have had it for a while and I really like it. It will be fun to wear straight every once in a while too.

Racing

The boys are really into racing these days. They race with their toy cars, they race with Andrew driving the Gator and Carson the Big Wheel and they race while running. Often this is the conversation that follows the race, when they reach the designated finish line....

"I winned!" says Andrew.

"Me winned!" says Carson, basically because he does/says whatever Andrew does.

"NO! I winned!" says Andrew.

"You winned?" says Carson.

"Yeah." says Andrew.

"Oh. " says Carson.

They will say this at the end of each race, many times a day. One day last week, I think Carson was napping and Andrew recited this whole conversation himself after reaching his finish line!

Funny comment

Today I was chasing Carson around because he needed a diaper change. He likes to run from me and use the furniture as shields to get away from me. Funny yet not always so funny.

During the running and chasing time Andrew said "This is why I never had kids!"

WHAT??

I started laughing and asked him what he said, because I thought for sure I did not hear him correctly. But that is in deed what he said! I asked where he heard that and he said from the movie Racing Stripes. Too funny. I don't know if he really knows what he is saying but he sure used it at the correct time!

The Zoo

This week is Andrew's spring break from preschool. I knew to maintain both my and Andrew's sanity we would need to get out and do some things! :) So today I took the boys to the zoo. Today was a good day to go; partly sunny most of the time, mid 50-60's, forecast for possible rain the next few days and Chad had to work late tonight. Doing things like this by myself makes me a little nervous. But the boys really did a great job today!

This was one of our first stops...the elephants. We were told that this is Phoebe, she is due to have a baby any day. She is 22 months pregnant! Man, I thought 9 months was a long time!!

This is Connie. Andrew thought it was pretty neat that the elephant had the same name as one of the girls in his preschool class.
We were pretty lucky to see the tiger in action. He paced around his pen the entire time we were in that area. All the children loved it! Now the lions on the other hand were all laying around sleeping. Andrew found that pretty "borning".


Here are Andrew & Carson waiting for the tiger to pace on by again.

These statues throughout the zoo were lots of fun to play and pose on.


The boys had a few moments of Andrew wanting to go one way, Carson the other.... This time Andrew wanted to go over to the shark and stingray statues and Carson wanted to keep walking. I kept asking Carson to come. He finally sat down on this little curb and pouted. I was across the walkway and people kept walking by. I thought it was funny and grabbed the camera to take a picture of him sitting on the curb all by himself pouting, but then he decided to come join Andrew and I.
Here are the boys on the hammerhead shark statue.
We almost didn't go into the aquarium part of the zoo. The boys were both pretty tired. I had the stroller along, but it was mainly used to carry our lunch, the diaper bag... Both boys walked and walked and walked. But when I asked about going into the aquarium to see fish, they both wanted to go and I'm so glad we did. They both loved watching all the fish swim around. We spent a lot to time in there.

Here they are at the manatee exhibit.
some stingray.....
The two manatee
It was a great day. Makes me wish we lived a little closer to the zoo. That way we could go spend an hour or two there instead of trying to see everything in one day. We were all a little tired. As we walked out to the car, Carson finally gave in and got back in the stroller. Andrew said twice "My legs are exhausted!" So I pulled all our stuff out of the stroller basket and Andrew sat down in there! I wish I had taken a picture of that!!

Brotherly love 2

Here are some pictures of the boys playing nicely together with Andrew's Lightning McQueen race track. They really are becoming the best of friends and the worst of enemies all in the same day!


Here Andrew starting making this silly face and I can't recall the silly noise that went with it but of course Carson had to follow whatever Andrew was doing! (oh yeah, now I remember. They were howling like hound dogs!)

Brotherly love

For the past week or so, Andrew asks Carson every night if he will sleep in his bed tonight. Carson will tell him yes and Andrew is excited. We do our bedtime routine of books, songs, prayer in Andrew's room and once the lights go off, Carson wants to go back to his crib. Andrew gets a little upset but we have learned to tell him not to get his hopes up, that Carson might want to go to his bed.

Thursday night Carson wanted to stay in Andrew's bed after the lights were out for the first time. But Carson soon came out to the kitchen. I told him he needed to stay in bed. He went back to Andrew's bed. Soon they were both out in the kitchen, Andrew said "Carson keeps tickling me." They were sent back to bed and told to keep their hands to their selves. Carson (and probably Andrew too initially) kept picking on Andrew. Eventually we took Carson back to his crib because Andrew looked so sleepy but was not able to go to sleep since Carson was tickling, throwing his stuffed dog at Andrew, pushing his forehead against Andrew's.... (it was actually kind of funny!)

So last night we gave it another attempt. They again got out of bed (which neither of them usually do right now) and picked on each other. I went in and was going to take Carson to his crib but he got upset and said he wanted to stay there. I told them, they had one more try but they needed to be quiet and go to sleep. This is the site I saw a little while later....

Sleeping babies and children are so sweet!

I was hoping this would help Andrew stay in his own bed. Unfortunatley not, I noticied he was in the sleeping bag on the floor of our room when Carson started crying during the night. I think Carson was probably confused about where he was. I took him back to his crib and covered him up. And we all slept well the rest of the night....perhaps one day they will both sleep all night in their own beds! It might not be till Andrew is 15! :)

Interview with Andrew, 4 years old & 3 months

I saw this interview on Sara's blog and thought it would be fun to hear what Andrew had to say! I wrote down exactly what his response was. Here goes....

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Andrew James

2. What makes mom happy?
When I don't cry

3. What makes mom sad?
When I cry (I started snickering since he just reversed his answer from the previous answer and then he said) I'm pretty smart aren't I?

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
When you make funny faces

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Uuuhh - YOU! (pointing at me)

6. How old is your mom?
Umh...20 year old, cause I don't know how old you are.

7. How tall is your mom?
Uuhh, I don't know, 3 inches.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
play games with me

9. What does your mom do when you aren't around?
I don't know (which he repeated multiple times and made up a song using that phrase)

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
For the house (??maybe because I do most of the house work??)

11. What is your mom really good at?
nothing; (which was his first response for the next several questions, I think he was getting tired of thinking up responses to the questions. So I asked him these questions again at the end of the interview and his second response was ) playing toys

12. What is your mom not very good at?
nothing; (2nd response-) not carrying Daddy

13. What does your mom do for her job?
nothing; (2nd response-) dress up

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
nothing; (2nd response-) Bananas & poop (followed by uncontrollable laughter from Andrew)

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
by not putting me in time out

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
a helicopter, no I mean a helicopter girl to fly the helicopter. (one of his new favorite shows is The Incredibles, and the mom super hero, Elastagirl, flys a plane - maybe that is what he is thinking of??)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
be alone (giggling) (I guess because if we are together then we are alone??)

18. How are you and your mom the same?
I can't think of anything about that

19. How are you and your mom different?
Because your bigger and I'm little

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
because I'm very sweet

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
To stores where it is boring

Andrew is very bold

As we were leaving preschool today, we walked out into the parking lot. There was a man sitting in his truck with the window down and was smoking a cigarette.

Carson waved and said "Hi".

The man waved back and said hello.

Then Andrew said "That will make you sick!"


He is not afraid!

Three Quarters

For some time now (possibly years) we have felt that we need to restrict Andrew's TV watching time. He would like the TV on with his shows at all times, if we would let him. And he doesn't always sit and watch the show, he is often playing or doing other things but likes to have the TV on. Plus it is nice to let him watch a show while I shower or exercise or cook and know what he is up to - nothing, he's watching the show.

A week ago, Chad suggested three quarters. Andrew would be given three quarters each morning. He could watch three half hour shows. If he wanted to watch a movie that would be two quarters. He also has the option of putting one or all of the quarters in his piggy bank and give up watching a show or two.

I liked the idea....I didn't like that I would be the one enforcing this. I thought for sure Andrew would throw a big fit. He has proven me wrong.

I told him about the three quarters a little over a week ago. He seemed really excited about it! I thought, well that excitement will end once we actually put the three quarters in to practice! But no, he has handled it very well. He brings me a quarter or two depending on what he wants to watch. And he knows once his quarters are gone, no more shows for the day. Before when he would ask to watch a show and I felt like he had watched enough for the day, he would get upset. He doesn't now.

He has not chosen to put any of this daily three quarters in his bank yet, perhaps he will someday.

I gave in

and joined Facebook. I have heard lots of people talk about Facebook but I just didn't get it, and still don't completely. I joined on Saturday. I have had fun catching up with people that I haven't talked to in a long time. I enjoy seeing the pictures they post of themselves and their families and friends.

This will most likely become another thing for me to do to pass time on the computer when I could be doing more productive things. But for right now, the boys and I are heading out for a walk on this beautiful sunny day!

"It's an alien."

Today when we pulled into the preschool parking lot, Andrew said "Look Mom. It's an alien!" I really had no idea what he was talking about. He said he wanted to show me. So after I got them both out of the car, he walked back down to a white pickup truck with red and blue details (it was a business truck) and it had a cover over the truck bed.

Again he said "It's an alien." I was not following this. But we had been over at a friend's house and her son is really into space stuff right now, so I thought he might have told Andrew something about aliens. I just said that it was a truck. But he kept saying it. Then he said it didn't have any seats in back. And then said it was an alien to take people away when they are sick.

Then it clicked. "Oh, you mean an ambulance?"

"Yeah, an ambulance."

Well, gotta go wake up Carson so I can go pick up Andrew from school. Maybe we will see the 'alien' again.

Andrew's attempt at reading

We received a package yesterday with this label on it. The package came while Andrew was a preschool. He was really excited when he saw it setting in our entryway. He loves getting packages. He said "Mom! There is a sticker with a penguin on it, with a red line through the penguin and it says 'No Penguins allowed!' " I just thought that was too funny.

It was actually some stain that Chad had ordered to stain the doors for the basement. The crew is finished with their portion for now. They framed the walls, did the plumbing and electrical, dry walled, taped and mudded the walls. They finished this up on Tues. I believe. They were all very nice, friendly to the boys and did great work, but it is nice to not have them in the house as well! :) Now Chad will paint the walls and complete the bathroom flooring. The crew will come back to install the toilet and sink, hang the doors, and finish off the light fixtures. Chad plans on laying a cork floor in the office space and putting up the trim throughout.

I knew it would be a dusty mess in the basement, but I wasn't prepared for how dusty the upstairs would be! One day I was sitting at the kitchen table and looked over at the island. I could see this fresh layer of dust and these two perfect circles on the island. The circles were from the boys snack bowls and they had only been there for a few hours. Gross! We are really excited about the basement and can't wait to have it complete and enjoy the new space.

Musical Beds

Last night we asked the boys if they wanted to sleep together in Andrew's double bed. They both seemed excited about this.

So we got their pajamas on, they brushed their teeth, and I read them books in Andrew's room. I turned out the lights and we sang some songs. I was getting ready to leave the room, when Carson sat straight up in Andrew's bed and said "No me Andrew's bed, me my bed."

To this Andrew became really upset and cried "I don't like sleeping alone!" Yes, almost a year later, Andrew is still having sleep issues. He goes to sleep fine (usually) in his room but then at some point ends up in our room on the floor in a sleeping bag. But the good thing is, sometimes we don't even know when he came in our room; he is just there in the morning. It started out as him being scared during the night and probably still is sometimes but I also think it has just become a habit!

I took Carson back to his crib so he could sleep in his own bed.

I was really kind of hoping that they would both sleep well together. That they would both sleep all night in that bed. Maybe someday. At least Carson is sleeping well these days, except when he is cold because he somehow becomes uncovered. All we do is cover him up and he is quiet again. Tonight I put on his fleece elephant Halloween costume over his pajamas! Maybe that will keep him toasty warm.

Mr. Competition

Andrew is a pretty competitive little guy. Everything is a race to him. Or who is the tallest, strongest, fastest....

Yesterday after going to the bathroom he said, "Do you think my poop is going to catch up to the other poop?"

He always has to be the winner! I wonder where this competitive spirit comes from? :)