A Matter of Size

So I was looking through some old pictures today and I came across this one. It it one of the few we have of the boys together when Search was younger. This picture is not only adorable but it's really funny. Why? Because Search's head is now bigger than Destroy's. In fact Search is just about the same size as his brother in every aspect except for his height. Their feet are almost the same size, the wear the same size shirt and even the same size pull-up (yes, Destroy still wears pull-ups to bed).

Car Games

We spent a lot of time in the car. Since Indy is such a huge city and so spread out, it takes us at least 20 minutes to get anywhere (except preschool and the grocery store, thank goodness). To escape the boredom of the car rides, the boys and I have devised a couple of car games to make the time go by faster.

1. "I Spy". Everyone knows this game but we are just getting to the point of fully understanding how the game is played. The problem that we still have is that we are still a little bit slow. So instead of picking the yellow highway sign that is about to pass in 3 seconds, I have to pick things that will be visible for longer than 10 or 15 seconds so that little searching eyes have time to find them. Destroy's I Spy questions have changed from, "I see a tree that's green" (uh, a tree? Yes! You're right, Mom!) to "I spy something green". So he's getting the concept. Search is good at searching but still a little young to play.

2. "What are You Doing?" This is how the game is played. While sitting in the car, the boys ask me what I'm doing. In reply I am supposed to think of wacky, off-the-wall answers such as roasting marshmallows, jumping our of an airplane or doing the laundry. The boys giggle with delight at my answers and have recently started playing it themselves. When I ask them what they are doing they answer in wacky terms as well. I've heard, "eating hot dogs", "going to the museum" and "going down a water slide". I love hearing their answers because it lets me see into their creative little minds.

3."The Rhyme Game". Destroy is at a great age because he is learning all sorts of academic things. He has recently learned about rhyming and is randomly coming up with words that rhyme. In the car I give him a word. Take pool for example. Then I give him a multiple choice answer such as a) car b) cool c) dog. He usually answers correctly and he loves being quizzed. Now I can just give him a word and he comes up with a word that rhymes with it all by himself. The other night I decided to bust out a two-syllable word. I gave him the word "water". He thought about it for a while and I was about to answer thinking it was too hard for him, when he replied "daughter rhymes with water". I guess he really does understand this rhyming thing.

What car games do you play?

Blogging Reloaded

Just as Neo finally sees the world as the matrix that it is, I see the world in blogging. Instead of seeing vertical lines of random letters, I see great photo ops and try to remember funny stories. A flower is not just a flower anymore and pictures of the kids have a purpose now. And why else would I take pictures of my dishes?
Well, I don't know the answer to that one either. I just thought it looked cool. It seems that I take my camera with me everywhere now hoping for a blogging moment to pop out at me. It's a little pathetic really. My dear husband doesn't say anything out loud but we've been married long enough for me to know his thoughts. I'm a little coo-coo. So, for now, until I find a new hobby, you'll have to deal with my strange, long-winded posts.

Happy Birthday to my Dearest Mother and Papa, too!

I love my mom. She is honestly the greatest mom in the whole world. The last person she thinks about is herself because she is always trying to make everyone else as comfortable and happy as possible. She's such a great example of serving others and putting others before yourself. She is also very creative, artistic, a great cook and fun to talk to on the phone. Which is all I get to do with her most of the time! Love you, Mom and we hope you have a great day! She's holding Wes at 2 months in this pic. You like the afro?
Happy Birthday to Papa, too! I love going to Papa's house because he and Amoo always grow amazing gardens with loads of yummy food. I leave their house with a full tummy of blueberries, carrots, onions, and whatever else is growing. He's very knowledgeable about mechanics so he can always answer my car questions. We wished we lived closer, but soon enough! Happy birthday!

Camping with Turkeys on the Run

Aaron and I have always been outdoorsy people. The first summer we were married we acquired backpacks and did some backpacking in Bryce and lots of hiking around Utah while we were there. We even took Destroy backpacking when he was 8 months old for three days. We always talked about how we would go camping with our kids, but I was a bit hesitant because I don't sleep well camping as it is, and with a child kicking me in the back every 10 minutes, I wasn't so excited. But I got over my fear of one bad night sleep (you can tell I deeply value my sleep) and we went camping. Aaron somehow rigged getting two days off in a row so we headed out to Turkey Run campground west of Indy.

We went hiking as soon as we got there.

I couldn't resist. The little boys following Dad's footsteps. Ahhhh...

Have I mentioned that Destroy has a new thing for drawing. Oh yes, he draws every chance he gets. Luckily this phase hit right before he started preschool. Anyways, this was him the entire hike. You can pick out various marks from the trail on his shins due to his lack of attentiveness to hiking and more to his notebook and pen. He even adopted our camera case for his obsessions and slung it over his shoulder while he hiked.
It's it beautiful? I reminded us of the gorges in Oregon.
Love the colors. Destroy pointed out that he thought that the rocks were bleeding.

Poking the minnows by the trickle.
Search running across the suspension bridge. It was all fun and games until Daddy started jumping on it. They didn't like that.A millipede. Ew. Destroy tried putting it in his pocket, but that never works. I usually find odd critters at the bottom of the washing machine and I usually cannot determine which kind of critter it was. Feel free to vomit now.
Some cool rays of light.
Eating breakfast. It's only 8 am and we already need a bath! We took our little propane-powered camp stove and had french toast, bacon and eggs. Camping is a great excuse to eat unhealthy food. For dinner we had hot dogs followed by smores. The boys were wondering what we had done with their parents.

The next day we packed our snacks and went on a little canoe trip. The boys had fun looking at the tons of catfish but mostly eating snacks.The best shot we could get. Pretty pathetic.
They have a bunch of covered bridges out there too. There's some kind of covered bridge festival there too, but I'm not that into covered bridges, or bridges in general for the matter, so I think we'll pass. But we had fun and the kids didn't kick me in the back too many times during the night! Destroy didn't want to leave so we told him we'd do it again soon!

At loss for words

Well, I'm not really at loss for words. I'm never at loss for words. I just can't form words describing my exhilaration of my children feasting on broccoli. And liking it. A vegetable. Wow.

I made some pretty yummy ranch dressing the other day, a Boyce recipe. Last night the boys wanted to have a picnic. So I packed up a dinner consisting of sandwiches for the boys, grapes, apples, and some broccoli and carrots with ranch for me. To my complete surprise, as soon as I opened my container, the boys wanted what I had (well, that's not the surprise). The surprise was that they actually chewed, and swallowed broccoli. A green item that much resembles a tree, as we call them in our house.

Maybe it was the fact that it was my dinner, maybe it was the fact that we were on a picnic, maybe it was the fact that they smothered them in ranch dressing. But the fact that they ate and liked it is the only thing that matters to me. And even if they never eat it again, which is very likely, I will cherish this day forever. If I had a journal, I'd write about it in there too.

First corn, then bananas, now broccoli and carrots. I never thought this day will come. Maybe there's still hope for green beans, potatoes, squash and even spinach!

Name change

Well, Christi, you finally made me do it. I've been wanting to change names on our blog for a while because of security reasons but I just thought about the pain it would entail having to go back through the 50 odd blogs and change all the names. But, Christi, if you can do it, so can I. From now on our second born will be known as Search and the first born will be known as Destroy. I am still thinking on names for Mom and Dad, but since most blogs do not include us (the writers), I have a little bit of time. I am currently going back through and changing all the old blogs.

I'm Blaming Bananas

See the look on his face? This is the look of constipation at it's best. Let me preface this story by saying that Destroy has a new found love of bananas. I am very happy that he has decided to include bananas on his small repertoire of foods to eat. BUT, I am blaming the fact that my son has an intense dislike of preschool on his new discovery of bananas.

Two days before preschool started Destroy asked for a banana. And then another. In my excitement for his approval of a food that does not contain high amounts of sodium, high fructose corn syrup or that doesn't come in a wrapper, I gave him a second banana. That was a mistake because he spent most of Monday night and all of Tuesday morning before school sitting on the toilet and screaming from constipation. Conveniently, I had just run out of suppositories and we didn't have any prune juice so Destroy was going to have to do this naturally. I tried counting, breathing and pushing with him but it just wasn't coming out! Man, I could totally be a midwife after this experience. Oh, except for the fact that I failed.

So, we go to school, and he is miserable, not feeling well and at this point did not want anything to do with preschool. Looking back, I shouldn't have taken him, but it was the first day and I didn't want him to miss it. So, I leave him screaming at the school, hearing him body slam the door, feeling like the worst mom. About an hour later I get a call from the office. She tells me that he's still screaming full force and that she's worried that he might break every blood vessel in his face. How comforting! I knew that they were going out to the playground soon so I told her to call me back if he didn't calm down after that. After that, he was fine.

So, this has been (is still because entering the third week of school he still cries when I leave him) quite the experience for us. Destroy has never been in as structured an environment as preschool before, except for maybe primary (which I don't count because he gets up and comes into relief society whenever he wants). He doesn't like to follow rules, he doesn't like resistance (like the teachers who won't let him do what he wants), and he doesn't like to sit still. He is an independent free-spirit and he likes to be in control. So, it's been a challenge, but I think he's getting the hang of it! Luckily the teachers are awesome and are so willing to work with us.

Anyways, here are some funny bits of conversation that we have had with Destroy about preschool:

Mom: "Destroy, you'll have so much more fun at school. Jeremy and I are going home to clean. Honestly, do you really want to clean the toilets?"
Destroy: "But I don't want to go!"
Then as we are walking up to school going against parent traffic walking the other way who had already dropped their kids off he shouts,
"But, Mom! I want to go clean toilets! I want to clean toilets!"


Mom: "So, Destroy are you pumped for preschool tomorrow?"
Destroy: "Can you come with me?"
Mom: "No, they won't let me." (And they really won't)
Destroy: "Could you grow down into a little girl and come with me?"


I thought maybe recounting my experiences at preschool when I was a little girl would help him feel better. So I told him about a time I had trouble during singing time at preschool. His reaction:
"If I was Nana, I would never have made you go."


One day when I picked him up the teacher said:
"We've had quite a day with Destroy. He just hides under the table, he's slapping kids, he's run out of the building a couple of times, locked himself in the bathroom stall, you know stuff like that. He was a real handful today." My kid? Handful? Those words don't belong in the same sentence!


Mom: "Destroy, your teacher told me that you were hitting kids today."
Destroy: "Yeah, I wanted you to call the school."
Mom: "So why were you hitting?"
Destroy: "Because I wanted the school to call you."
Mom: "Ah."


After starting preschool, he hasn't wanted to go to sunbeams either. Last week I told him he could either go to sunbeams and have fun or come to my boring class, not talk, not play with toys, sit on my lap and not move.
Destroy: "I want to be boring".

Yesterday:
Destroy: "Mom, do I have preschool today?"
Mom: "No, not until next week."
Destroy: "But, Mom! I want to go to preschool!"
Mom: "Buddy, I think you're confused."

Some good has come of this, though! He has learned how to write his name already, sing the hokey pokey, and demonstrate words that rhyme. And he even knows how to spill his entire juicebox in his lunch bag and not tell anyone! And of course Search and I get 4 hours, Destroy free, three times a week to ourselves. Those four hours go really fast when your worried sick and Search can't figure out what to do when Destroy isn't there so he follows you around like a dog. In those four hours two things are always within reach. My phone and my son whose only playmate has gone off to school.

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

After much searching I was able to find a couple of sweet pictures. Trust me, I had to pick and choose because there were some pretty good ones. But, Jordan, I didn't want to embarrass you! I scanned them and wallah! Here we are in college. We look so young! I guess two little boys gives you a few years, huh? Where were we in the second picture? I think that's my Dad's truck but I can't remember where we were. Snowbird?
Anyways, hope you had a great day! And a great year!
PS: Sorry it's a few days late!

DVDs, Sleeping and Pillowcases

Little Handful wanted to look at the new DVDs from the library. Mr. Independence decided he could do it himself so he just decided to move the table instead of ask Mom. It's only twice his weight. No big deal!

Which reminds me of another story. When Search was a newborn, making Destroy around 19-20 months, I was in the back of our little apartment nursing. I hear Destroy calling to me about something he wanted but I couldn't figure out what it was. Being cemented to the chair by the nursing baby, I couldn't go see what he wanted. He just kept saying something that sounded like "sickas!". I had no idea what he was talking about. So I told him I'd help him when I was Search was done. Next I hear some thudding, "sickas!", more thudding, grunting, "sickas!", bumping, grunting. I am wondering what in the world he is doing when he finally enters the room pulling the solid wood piano bench. I had recently started teaching piano to the cute Maher girls and I kept their reward stickers in the piano bench. He just wanted the stickers.

Ok, one more story. Yesterday while Destroy was at school (more to come on that subject) I turned on Cars for Search while I took a shower. A certain older brother refuses to let Search watch Mater so when Search gets a chance, he likes to watch it.
So, I get out of the shower and I can hear the distant chatter of the movie. Although, it doesn't sound much like Cars, it sounds more like Piglet. I come out into the living room and Search has successfully opened the TV cabinet (supposedly locked), ejected Cars, opened Winnie the Pooh and put it in the DVD player. I find him back on the couch with all traces of evidence back in their original spots, except of course the fact that there is a different movie playing.
Search likes to sleep. We like Search to sleep too.
Grandma Layer sent adorable Halloween pillowcases for the boys. Instead of putting them on pillows (gosh that's too ordinary) they like to wear them and pretend they are ghosts or stand in them and jump around like they are potato sacks. And they like to be hugging ghosts too. They like hugging. It's so cute.

A walk through the park

Aren't they precious? And I didn't have to prompt them to hold hands or anything ;)

What, my water's not good enough?

We have a little neighbor girl who is about 6. She comes around our house every so often when there aren't bigger, better kids to play with. I feel bad for Destroy because he gets the shaft from her a lot when she sees someone else she wants to play with and ditches him.

The other day when her friends were all otherwise occupied, she came to play in our backyard with the boys. After a few minutes of playing she and Destroy came to me asking for a drink of water. So I go in the house and fill up cups of water for them. We have one of those sink water purifiers by Aquapure or some company which is a separate faucet that sits next to the main faucet that runs purified water for drinking.

I go outside and give them each a cup. My boys greedily drink up their water but the little neighbor girl eyes me warily and asks,

"Is this tap water?" I reply by saying that no, it's purified water from a separate faucet than the one the tap water comes from. She looks at me again and proceeds to plug her nose and take a couple of sips. I snort as I assure her that it's not tap water and that it really is purified. I couldn't believe that she was plugging her nose.

"I only drink bottled water" she says, hands me the cup and runs off.

Tagged again!

OK, so a while ago Jordan tagged me. Today I got tagged again which is perfectly OK with me because a) I love doing these little questionnaires (so I'll try to be more creative this time, and b) I didn't do it right the first time so now I can make up for it.

4 jobs I've had:
1. worked for my dad (dentist) from the time I was like 12, sometimes cleaning the office windows, sometimes assisting on emergencies. Or just being there when it was only he and the patient so that no one could accuse him of anything, uh, immoral.
2. little sister to two older brothers. I'll show you the scars.
3. house cleaner, economist, policewoman, cook, gardener, chauffeur, sliver plucker etc., AKA mom.
4. Worked at the State Hospital with the at-risk youth. Boys. The day I started one of the therapists, a 250 pound Samoan male, got his jaw broken by one of the boys. I was just a tad nervous for a couple of weeks but after a while I got used to it.

4 movies I could watch over and over:
I really don't think I could watch any movie over and over.

4 places I've lived
1. Oregon
2. Orange County
3. Indiana
4. Insanity (OK, well close enough)

4 favorite TV/reality shows
1. The Cosby Show
2. Gilmore Girls
3. 24
4. Lost

4 favorite foods:
1. cream cheese
2. butter
3. sugar
4. anything with those in it.

4 websites I visit daily
1. blogspot
2. email
3. CNN
4. online banking (OK, not everyday)

4 hobbies I enjoy:
1. reading
2. playing sports but not watching them on TV
3. sewing stuff
4. organizing

4 friends I tag:
1. Brooke Hinckley
2. Alli
3. Mica
4. Aisha

*Nancy, I'm pulling the p. card out for you this time*