First sign of spring

We woke to the sound of wild wind blowing. Mark was talking about the wind chimes when he woke up. Nathan slept late! After breakfast, Mark asked to get out the playdoh.


I think both boys were both making cookies.


Once the sun came out and the clouds blew away, we went outside for a walk and some playtime. We discovered the first flower in our yard! I had never seen this one come up before (at least I don't remember it.)



The kids still love digging and swinging...

Silly firemen

Today we have been pretending to go to Gram's house. I have been assigned the role of "Gram." Pretending to be a loving grandmother has been a real attitude-improver for me! We've done a little of this and a little of that today...tidying the kitchen, washing clothes, going to the grocery store, playing outside...and the boys just so happen to be dressed identically in their favorite firemen sweatshirts.

All Tuckered Out, Green String & The Makings of A Fight

I suppose Mark finally reached his physical limits yesterday afternoon. We had been to and from Great Grandma's house in the morning, the library before lunch, and outside for most of the afternoon. We were reading library books and waiting for Daddy to come home when Mark leaned over toward the pillow and started snoring.


Truly, I do not know that Mark has EVER fallen asleep like that in the middle of something, even when he's sick! He was a bit of a grumpy bear to wake up for dinner, but perked right up once he had some food in his tummy again.

This morning we were playing before Nathan's first dentist appointment. He asked if we could get down the yarn, so we opened up the little plastic container that holds the remains of a $1 pack of yarn I bought four years ago. He and Mark had it all over the floor and were pretending to be squirrels in no time.


The dentist appointment went wonderfully, peacefully well. We went to our family dentist and my hygienist cleaned his teeth. Nathan's attitude was so positive and brave - and I am praising God for answering prayer about that. He was completely cooperative and in good spirits the whole time. I enjoyed having a "date" with him, too. I want to do that more often with both of the boys. I need alone time with them, and it was amazing to see how the whole tone changed when Nathan wasn't competing for my attention.

The pictures you see here are what I describe as "the storm brewing." There was a mess on the floor, the kids hadn't taken naps, and they had just finished helping me put together a quiche for tonight's dinner. Mark had accidentally dumped all of the pretend food on the kitchen floor. That's an army truck plowing through it.


I was trying to wash dishes so the mess didn't continue to pile up.


The boys took the pretend food into the den to play on the couch, and that lasted for about 1.5 minutes before there was screaming and wrestling and general discontent. I can see it in their faces in this picture.


At that point, they both went to their rooms to cool down. I made the executive decision to clean up the mess myself so we could go outside while dinner was in the oven. It was worth it not to have another obstacle between us and the great outdoors! Turns out it was a good choice...we all relaxed in the afternoon sun and even took a walk after dinner. Nathan has been riding his bicycle when we go on walks...yet another way he's growing up right in front of me.

A day to love

Happy Valentine's Day! We had sunshine and warm weather, and spent most of the day outside enjoying the beauty of it all.

We opened valentines right after breakfast. Mark had fun with the "maze puzzle."


I believe Nathan's favorite part was getting to use his scissors to open this puzzle.


The boys had a lot of fun assembling and hanging heart-shaped bird feeders. (Thank you for sending our supplies, Gram!)



We got into sidewalk chalk and good old dirt, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Stuff of Life

I have set the little artists in my home free to enjoy their crayons, glue sticks and safety scissors at their own pleasure. Yes, we finally have an "art table" in the den. They like it a lot, especially the cutting part. Mark is so pleased with himself every time he makes a cut in a piece of paper.


So far, so good, except for the fact that Mark has been doing some taste-testing. I found him nibbling on an almond nut (we had been playing with nuts earlier) and his teeth were caked in green. I thought for a minute he had eaten a rotten almond! Then I put two and two together and figured he'd eaten a green crayon and was starting in on the nut.

At that point, I sent the boys up to their rooms for quiet time. Mark has given up his nap except for about once or twice a week. He's been pretty good about playing with his toys quietly if he's not going to nap, but today he was back to his old tricks. When I opened Mark's door, I saw that every drawer was open, and all of his bed toys and blankets were on top of the changing table. The evidence suggests that he had been climbing again.


As we were putting away his clothes and toys, he looks up at me and smiles and says, "Mama, I get my bathing suits out. Maybe go swimming?" Oh, Mark. So, we all got downstairs, and after cleaning up the mess we'd left from this morning, I started shooting a video of the boys at the art table. While I was filming, I saw that Mark was (once again) eating a crayon. I stopped the video, started to question my judgment, and packed up the crayons, at least for right now. We put on socks, shoes, jackets and hats, and headed outside.


They are much happier out in the great outdoors.


Always.

Pictures from the park

Here are some shots from our visit to Reedy Creek Nature Preserve on Sunday afternoon.

Breakfast by Candlelight

My new winter tradition is to burn candles on Saturday morning while Greg makes breakfast. We usually listen to some music, too.


This seems to have distracted the children from running around and screaming and getting into fights before 8:00 a.m. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out a good way to enjoy candles with children in the room. This is the way! Here they are helping to set the table.


Yesterday was cold and rainy. We spent the day cleaning house and horsing around. Nathan wanted to build this cushion tower. He climbed up and rocked around on it for a while.


Mark tried it but got frustrated when he toppled off. Later in the day, we had "tickle time." It had been a long time coming. There was lots of laughing and rolling and begging for more.

After we put the kids to bed, I took note of the contents of my pockets. I was carrying half a plastic fish head that always finds its way into Mark's mouth, a pair of fingernail clippers, and some pieces of scotch tape. The night before, the inventory included some tiny rubber wheels (also one of Mark's favorites for nibbling), a plastic banana, and some band-aids, which leads me to explaining the scrapes and bandages on the boys' heads.


On Monday, I let Nathan wear his boots (it was kind of drizzling that day.) We were playing outside and I was chasing him, when his feet came out from under him and he landed head-first on the driveway. Big scrape, big tears. Big fear of the whole process of cleaning and bandaging the scrape. Even bigger fear of having the bandages changed the next morning, when I realized I had used some that were too small to adequately cover the wound. Oh my. Thank goodness for Daddy and his calm, reasonable nature. And thank goodness the scrapes have now healed enough for band-aids to be taken off. We were down to one little tiny square one as of last night. Nathan came to our room early this morning, shining his "buzz light." He climbed up on the bed and said, "Mama, I just wanted to show you something. I figured out a way to get that little band-aid off all by myself." Praise the Lord.

Now, Mark's turn. We were doing some singing and dancing in the living room yesterday afternoon. Mark was spinning around and landed his head on the corner of the coffee table. Not a lot of drama, but a little bit of blood. All is well. He recovers quickly. Quickly enough to want to dance all around the den with me last night, while Nathan and Greg played Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys on their guitars. He said, "Take my hand, Mommy!" and proceeded to spin me around and around, jumping as he went. Full of joy.

Since last time

We had beautiful weather last weekend. We spent a good bit of time soaking up the sunshine.


I've tried hard to get the boys outside a little bit each day this week because they love being out there so much. I always liked playing outside as a child, and I still love being outdoors even in the winter.

I don't have the pictures to prove it, but this has been the week of playing with the "stomp rocket" and riding the tricycle. I have to get in the habit of grabbing the camera when we head outside!

We also had a day when we played with some leftover dry oatmeal.


I let them scoop and pour, and hide little dinosaurs in it.


They are cozy in their beds right now and I'm listening to some freezing rain come down while I wait for Greg to get home from teaching his class. It's been a good week and I'm surprised tomorrow is Friday!