The only time that spitting is ok.

And spit they do.

I Love Craigslist But Not Tornados

After a couple months of searching stores and checking Craigslist everyday, we finally found bunk beds! The kids are beyond excited and fighting over the top bunk like all siblings do. The nice thing is, since we still have Search's crib up in his old room we can still toss him in there if he's not staying in bed. Wonder what time he'll wake up in the morning? I decided to fit in with the locals today so I tied the new mattress to the top of our car and drove home. It was raining and I had to pull over a few times to let annoyed drivers pass the white trash mattress-topped-car. My top speed of 35 wasn't good enough on a 50 mph road.

Destroy thought he needed to pose for the camera and show off his monkey moves.
The best part about this new purchase is that it's a bed. That means they sleep in it. That means I'm done until tomorrow.Unfortunately, our bedtime routine was uprooted a bit. Out of the blue, a freak thunder storm came and went. Thunder, lighting, screaming, soothing, the whole bit. On top of that, the tornado warning goes off which freaks the kids out even more. Not to be outdone, my over-protective husband announces that we all have to huddle in mom and dad's closet for one hour because the tornado touched down about 10 minutes north of here. Our walk-in-closet is the safest room (if you can call it a room) in the house. Imagine four people in a very small space, two of them being two very tired little boys, one extremely worn out mom and one tired Dad sandwiched between two night shifts. It wasn't a pretty scene. But, we're still here. It took Destroy longer than normal to fall asleep tonight on account of the "torneedles".

Freak thunder storms in january, tornado warnings.

Welcome, to the midwest, Megan.

Va-ROOOM!

Today we made the Dinoco 400 race track and acted out the final race for the piston cup. The track was composed of Lincoln Logs, blocks, marble tower pieces and train tracks. It was complete with fueling stations in the pits and the announcers box (where Sally sat). Unfortunately Search wasn't quite so careful with his loose pants as he raced his car that the track was easily dismantled, much to Destroy's dismay. But we could fix it just as easily too!

We had to borrow a few generic cars in the absence of Chic Hicks and the King but it all worked out in the end. How does that carpet taste, Search?

Getting ready to race!

I decided to take the opportunity for some cutsie shots. Search looks so sweet and innocent! Well, looks can be deceiving! Just kidding, he really is a sweet kid.

This was the exact look on Destroy's face on Christmas eve at bedtime. He knew the only way Santa would come was if he was asleep. So he squeezed those little eyes as tight as he could and tried to wipe that endless, anxious smile off his face.

Random weirdness. Sorry.

Cars, cars, cars.

We had a fun day!

sicky and igloos

The last few days I have been feeling a little under the weather. But, I'm better now. I got a stomach ache on saturday night that lasted until yesterday. It was the worst on monday night when I was up a good chunk of the night either puking or really wanting to. So, yesterday, tuesday, I was feeling rotten; sick and really tired from lack of sleep. I took Destroy to school, came home, put on a movie for Search and went and took nap #1 in my bed. Search watched a second movie while I took nap #2 in my bed again. Then we ate lunch, Search with his mac and cheese and me with my puke bowl. After Destroy got home from school, Search went down for a nap and I took nap #3. I slept in a bed upstairs just to mix things up. And then after Search woke up, during nap #4 on the couch, I could hear the boys making mischief. Or should I say that I heard a whole lot of silence. Never a good thing. I could hear rusting sounds of fabric and little feet running up and down the stairs. After a while Destroy comes over to the couch and announces that they have made an igloo and that I should come and see it. I trudged into my bedroom to see this igloo and this is what I find:

Almost every blanket, pillow, basket liner, sheet, etc that was visible in the house piled on the up-turned papasan chair which was serving as the base of their igloo. And why not take off all our clothes while we're at it? I insisted that they put on underwear for pictures.It was a challenge to get under all of the blanket and pillows, but they managed.

So we took some jumping pictures while the camera was out. Yes, I know Destroy is skinny and those are not tattoos or bruises on his tummy, they are stamps from school. His teachers were wondering why the heck he stamping his stomach. But it all stems from the time I used to take Destroy to Gymboree before Search was born when he was 16-17 months old. They used to give them stamps on their tummys after class was over and somehow he still remembers this.

Search figured out to assemble his fingers to make different numbers and now tells everyone that he's two and a half. We had a family clean-up party when Daddy got home.

My Favorites

My favorites from the last couple of weeks:

1. In primary
Song leader: What song should we sing?
Destroy: The Hokey Pokey!
Song Leader laughing: Uh, that's not really a church song
Destroy: Why not? That's what it's all about!

2. We see Search randomly "flying" around the house on a broomstick pretending he's a witch.

3. Apparently, I'm supposed to be learning some life lessons from my 4 year old.
- While sewing one day, "Mom, you need to stop doing that because it's frustrating you."
-While cleaning the bathroom one day, "Mom, you can't do everything by yourself!" He proceeds to grab and Clorox wipe and help me clean the floor.
-One day, Destroy had been making a series of bad choices. I told him that he needed to grow up and act his age. To this he replied, "I'll grow up when you grow up". If that doesn't put you in your place, I don't know what does.

4. Search uses bar stools to get whatever he wants from places that he can't reach. I can hear the screeching of the barstools from other rooms in the house and I know that he's doing something he shouldn't. He pulls the stool over, get the cereal down from the pantry, moves the bar stool again to get a bowl out of the cupboard. He also has a fascination with Destroy's art projects that he brings home from school. Destroy had made an especially pretty turkey with beads glued on as the feathers. I put it up at the top of the fridge so that Search couldn't reach it. As I come into the kitchen one day after hearing some screeching I see Search shoving the beads into his mouth as fast as possible while standing on the barstool that he had moved. I think I may devise a plan of bolting those stools in their rightful place.

5. Yesterday while at Wendy's Destroy saw a bald guy.
Destroy: "What happened to your hair?"
Old guy: "I don't know. One day it just stopped growing in."
Destroy: "No, I think it all blew away in the wind."
Old guy laughing: "Maybe so!"

Picture Perfect

Why is it that children always behave better for other people than they do for their parents? I, for example, would never be able to capture shots like these with my own camera. But, hey, go to the Target portrait studio, bring on the feather-tickle-wand-thing and they are good to go! It amazes me that two very rowdy, rambunctious little boys can produce pictures like these (with the exception of Search's hair, but that's my fault). But they do! Every time we go! Aren't they cute? maybe I'm a bit biased;)

Painting the House

In my opinion, the best thing that has come from buying our treadmill has been the box that it came in. To the boys, it was an instant playhouse, car garage, hunting lodge, kitty cage, the list goes on. Yesterday we decided to make it an official house and paint it. Destroy made a sign that says, "No bears allowed". Aaron left his mark as "No soliciting" and mine said, "home sweet home". Jeremy accidentally drew on the wrong walls and left his mark in Destroy's bedroom. But thank goodness for washable markers and paint! All the paint came off the ground, out of the carpet, clothes and everything that sits in the garage that is about 2.5 feet tall.We only bought the three primary colors so the boys got to mix and experiment and memorize which colors would make which after they were mixed together. Here is Destroy mixing.

They had a lot of fun painting the house,And the car,


and their faces.
Daddy's white coat looked just like a blank canvas just waiting for little fingers to break it in, but Daddy is still faster!

After a while we just skipped the mixing bowls and squirted the paint on straight from the bottles.
When it started to rain, I opted to keep it an oil painting and not a watercolor so we drug it into the garage!

Eat My Wake!

Search and Destroy are half-way through their 8 weeks of swimming lessons. They have them once a week and they are in different classes. Destroy has his own class and Search and I do a class together. It's been kind of hard on Destroy because they won't allow parents in the pool room. But, with a little bribery (I know, I can't believe that I'm bribing my child to go swimming, either), he has done well. And Search too.
I force Search under the water a little more than he would like, but he hasn't died yet.
He loves floating around by himself because he knows I won't subject him to submersion.
Search can touch the bottom when he jumps in!
Destroy is gradually learning to paddle around by himself, but has a hard time keeping himself horizontal rather than vertical.
Search and Destroy like to play this fun game in the locker room where they lock each other in the lockers and won't let the other out until they are literally screaming to have to door opened. Well, as Destroy was exiting one of the lockers, he accidentally caught his nose on the edge and ripped it a little. So it was bleeding pretty good right before his lesson started. I was trying not to laugh as I consoled him, because he had just, well, caught his nose on a locker, but he was fine. Anyway, he had to tell everyone about it. The lifeguard, his teacher, kids, parents, who ever would listen. Destroy thinks everyone is his friend and does not hesitate to talk to whom ever he wants. I actually pity people sometimes. Here he is telling his entire class before he got in the water.

Funny phrases and homemade words

Some of my favorite lines the last few days:

Mom: "Search, please don't hit your brother."
Search hits his brother.
Mom: "Ok, Search, time-out". I pick him up and take him to his room.
Search: "I'm going to put you on a time-out".
Mom: "You can't, I'm the Mommy."
Search: "Yes I can. I'm the Search (insert real name here)!"


On the way home from the store Destroy was having a tantrum.
Mom: "Change your attitude, Destroy, or you're not watching a movie today."
A few more minutes of whimpering, then the whining stops.
Destroy: "Mom! My attitude is gone!"

My mom and I went to Target the other day to buy stuff to organize the boys' art stuff. Apparently Search heard the word "organize". So the whole way home we heard, "organize, organize, organize" varying in pitch and intensity from the back seat. It made me think about what a strange word it is, especially when he made it into a song and wouldn't stop singing it.

Destroy has recently become enamoured with "Little Einsteins". It's a cute little show that teaches a variety of things. Included are musical terms such as staccato, diminuendo, allegro, etc. I noticed Destroy doing the pee pee dance while watching one of the videos and told him I would help him go to the bathroom really quick so he could get back to his movie. While we are zipping him up he says, "Hurry up, Mom or I'll miss the crescendo!"

Does your child ever use homemade words? I wish I would have written them down, but Destroy makes up words all the time. He has recently added a substitute word for "stupid", which he is not allowed to say, to his vocabulary. It's sounds something like, "stukedadie". Yes, among others are "chutty", "tash tash", "pencinal", and "go go". Nancy, do you remember any others? I am able to figure out what some of them mean, but others I think he uses just to perplex me.

My Love/Hate Relationship

Have you ever bought something for hundreds of dollars that you absolutely hate? Well, I have. Our very own Nordictrack treadmill. We've been thinking of getting a treadmill for a while now because running outside here is the pits. In the summer it's too hot and muggy and it's just way too cold in the winter. So my mom called me the other day telling me that there was a sale at Sears for treadmills. On top of that, she said they would give us our Christmas early this year and pay for it. How could we resist? So, thanks, Mom for the treadmill. I hate running on it but how else am I going to keep up with my after-the-kids-go-to-bed-sweets-binging? It calls to me every other day but I pretend not to hear it until it's really yelling. We put it up in the loft so I can run and keep an eye on the kids while they watch a movie. It's also nice to have the freedom to shed clothes at will. And the treadmill is complete with a built in fan, and a grade function so that you can run up a really steep hill if you want. But I don't. I'm good for two flat miles in twenty minutes and no more. And that's about all the boys are good for too. Aaron usually runs twice what I do, in half the time and tells me that I need to step it up and run more and faster. Why? I'm perfectly content running 10 minute miles. Besides, I hate the treadmill and I don't want to spend any more time on it that I have to. 2 miles, 20 minutes. That's it.
Of course the boys have to "run" on it too after I'm done. But mostly they like to repeatedly lay on it and get shoved off the end. It's a series of giggles, more giggles and then someone usually ends up injured.

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?

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!

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.