Like a Moth to the Flame

There must be something magical about Daddy's food. Whenever Josh makes himself a snack, lunch, whatever, and tries to eat it when it's not any sort of "mealtime", he is quickly set upon by 2 oh-so-suddenly-hungry boys:

(And yes, Josh is wearing the same clothes in all the pictures, but no, they weren't all taken on the same day. He just likes to wear the same clothes for a good week before changing them. Unless there's a major spill or spitting up involved. But these sets of pictures are actually a good 3 days apart.)

My Boom

So, 9 o'clock this morning rolled around pretty quickly today. Usually at 9 I turn on Sesame Street for the boys. Today, however, Deacon and Finn were playing so nicely in the playroom on their own, that I decided to let them continue playing. I played with my phone a little, tweeting, texting, etc, while I waited for the inevitable sound of Deacon freaking out because Finn invaded the 3 mile circle that is Deacon's personal space. It never came.

After ten minutes I checked on them, they were both happily absorbed in what they each were doing, so I decided to "tempt fate" as it were, and got out my book. I read for about 2 minutes. As soon as I turned the page in my book I heard a crash followed by Finn crying. As soon as I heard the crash I jumped up and ran to the playroom, almost knocking Deacon over since he was running out to get me.

I looked in the closet, and there was Finn, splayed out, reclining against the bookshelf, trapped under this little plastic toy bin/shelf thing we have. I will be quick to mention that the plastic shelf thing had NOT landed on Finn, the bookshelf actually caught it and was holding it just above him. Finn did, however, hit his head somewhere in all of this, I'm not sure if it was on the bookshelf, or if one of the drawers of toys opened and hit him, but he looked like this right after:

Poor baby. So I picked up the shelf, which made Finn's crying stop. I moved Finn out of the closet, closed all the shelf drawers and set it back on the ground so it wouldn't fall over again (see, the thing is really light, so if all the drawers are opened at once, which Deacon has a tendency to do, then it tips because it's front heavy). As I then scooped up Finn he said what sounded like, "Mah boom" over and over in his sad, "feel pity for me" voice. Which, is really kind of funny and cute. Mah boom. Yes sweet boy, you did go boom, huh?

Oh, he's fine by the way. By the time we left the playroom and walked to the couch he was off and playing something new. Just in case anyone was worried about him.

Hopefully I'll Have Something Better For You Tomorrow

It's just that, I have this song stuck in my head, and it's making it hard to concentrate on other things (especially since today is when I pretty much recovered from the awful food poisoning I had Thursday/Friday). And of all the songs to have stuck in one's head, I think this might be one of the stickiest. My apologies if it gets stuck in your head too. Enjoy!

I Guess This Will Do

When it's a slow news week, you have to make do with what you have. And what I have is a baby who, apparently, loves him some Mickey Mouse. Yesterday, the bigger boys plowed through their lunch. By the time I got the cantaloupe cut, their sandwiches were gone. By the time I got Finn's cantaloupe cut and jar food out, both boys were finished with their entire lunches and off to watch a video before nap time.

Usually this isn't a big deal since Finn will happily ignore the TV to eat. Yesterday, however, this was NOT the case. It had been awhile since we've watched Mickey Mouse, so I suggested they watch an episode of that. I put it on and went back to feeding Finn. However, as soon as Finn hear Mickey's voice, he REFUSED to eat (or sit still) until he could see the TV.

Crazy, right? I guess Mickey Mouse, like Murray the Monster from Sesame Street is something that Finn just cannot ignore. He sat there and watched the entire episode, entranced. While I was a little concerned that maybe he's a bit young for such enthusiastic TV watching, it was nice to be able to feed him without him getting his food everywhere. It was nice, for once, to be able to take him out of his chair looking somewhat clean, and not like this:

While this look IS adorable, and while bananas are a more natural way to make your hair look like this than hair gel is, it's not a look I like seeing after every. single. meal. So, I let him sit there and watch TV while I fed him this once. And we were all happier in the end for it.

I Don't Really Have Much To Say

There isn't too much going on here right now. We're just kind of hanging out, going through the routine of day to day life. It's really kind of nice. So, I'm just checking in, to let you know we're all still here and doing fine. We just aren't doing much that's "blog worthy" I guess. But here's a picture I took of the bigger boys watching cartoons after lunch:

They are SO best buddies.

There'll Be No Stopping Him Now

First, I want to start this post with a video. Well, the whole post is really going to be videos, but I want to start with a video I took this morning. I had gone downstairs to work on a food shopping list for Josh. Maybe 2 minutes later, I came back upstairs and found Finn doing this:

Gross, right? But what can I say, the kid LOVES water.

Finn has figured out how to work the drill, and he loves it. He likes to try to grab the drill while it's moving. At first, he would only use the one hand to do both (which doesn't work since the drill stops as soon as you let go of it), mostly because he would lose his balance if he let go of the bench with his other hand. Eventually, as his balance got better, he figured out how to grab the moving drill with his other hand. Apparently this was working, but always the thinker, Finn decided to see what would happen if he could get at the drill from another angle, and so I found him doing this:

Crazy, right? But what can I say, the kid knows no bounds now that he's mobile.

Speaking of mobile, while I had Zeke (and Deacon) at speech Saturday morning, Josh decided it would be a good time to work on Finn's "walking skills" since they had some quality one-on-one time. See, Josh is determined to see Finn's first steps before he leaves for Alabama in a few weeks. And it looks like he got his wish:

Insane, right? He hasn't taken more than 4 or so steps at a time, and it's usually from one of us to the other (therefore more videos of this might be awhile coming).

Life, as we know it, has just gotten a lot more interesting.

A Little Spring Organizing

I know it's not really spring yet, and that it's still snowing and stuff here, but I've decided to let the sunshine do it's work, in making me want to do some work. So, I started the other day by weeding out all the 3T stuff from Deacon's closet, and moving all the 4T stuff from Zeke's closet and putting it into Deacon's. Today I had Josh pull down all the random boxes of clothes I have in the garage so that I can better organize them, and set them up so that as Finn grows into them, I can have them more readily available, not to mention easier to find. Not only is the sun bringing all of this about, but so is the fact that Finn is rapidly outgrowing all of his 12month sized shirts.

Man, they really do grow quickly, huh?

Do You Have 5 Minutes?

Because if you do, I took this video of Deacon the other night, and I think you'll enjoy it. But it really is a good 4 1/2 minutes long, and while it lags in parts he does keep us cracking up (you can hear Finn laughing throughout the video - he was highly entertained by it all).

On Wednesday, we watched The Backyardigans Tale of the Might Knights. As soon as it was over, Deacon ran to the playroom, and came back out in his knight armor. He then proceeded to run around, reenacting scenes from the movie, and singing some of the songs. (My favorite part is around 1:35 when he sings "the helmet is off!")

In case you aren't familiar with the Backyardigans, or more specifically, either of the songs Deacon was singing, HERE is the Dragon Mountain song, and HERE is the Might Knights song.

Déjà Vu

After I wrote Tuesday's post, Josh and Zeke went outside and did even more work on the driveway. And since I got some good pictures, I figured I'd do another post about the state of our driveway, since it was just about finished.

As you can see, the ice at the bottom of the driveway was incredibly thick.

And yeah, we've pretty much acclamatied to Alaska weather. Josh was out there in the 33 degree weather in just a t-shirt. Of course, the sun was beating down and he was doing some hard work.

Zeke was also doing some "hard work".

When I took this picture I told Josh not to worry, that I had captured the moment he broke his back playing with the ice. (He didn't actually break his back, he didn't even get that piece of ice off the ground whole. He broke the giant chunk into smaller chunks and moved them.)

Eventually Zeke got tired of "working" and decided to play. And what better game to play when you're outside than Puddle Jumping.

By the end of Tuesday, Josh (and Zeke) had cleared most of the driveway. I asked Josh to leave that foot and a half of ice that you see by where Zeke was jumping because as the snow and stuff melts from the neighbor's yard, it trickles across our driveway. Not a big deal, except when it gets cold at night and the run-off melts and makes the driveway a slippery mess until the sun comes out again. That foot and a half or so of ice makes for some nice traction.

What doesn't make for nice traction though, is the 2 inches of snow we got this morning. That's right. After all the work the town did to clear the roads, and all the work Josh did to clear the driveway, it snowed. Again. It's not surprising since it is still March, after all, and last year it was snowing in May. It's just a little disheartening after all the spring-like weather we've been having. Also disheartening is slipping on said snow taking Zeke to the bus this morning, falling rather hard, pulling Zeke down with me. He was fine since he had his snowpants and coat and mittens on. I, on the other hand, have bruised my left knee, my left elbow, and the palm of my left hand. Sigh.

I Think It's Time

Last night, during bathtime, Zeke took hold of the washcloth and these pink sticks, and "knit Mommy a shawl".

See? He said it's pink and red and green, and I just love it.

So now I wonder if maybe he is ready to learn how to knit for real? (I am going to teach my boys how to knit at some point in their lives. At least I think I am. I guess we'll see how it goes.) Or maybe he just enjoys acting out what he sees happening around the house? Either way, I think it's fun he's "knitting".

A Work In Progress

Starting last week (essentially), Josh has been coming home from work super early (a little after 11am yesterday and today, for example). With the weather being so nice, and the sun shining so warmly on our driveway, Josh took the initiative last week and spent an hour a day chipping and scraping away at the inches of ice covering our driveway. Of course, with the time change this past weekend, things have slowed a little since they sun doesn't hit the driveway as long as it was the week before, but it's still coming along.

Yesterday, he managed to get all of the stuff in the road up and a bit more from the right side, some of the pieces actually being 6 inches thick. Of course, yesterday he also had Zeke out there with him, telling him what to do. Today, while Zeke was getting dressed, he was telling me (again) about how he was out there with Josh, "shovelling" and picking up pieces of ice. At the end of his story he said, "I like helping Daddy."

Aaaand...that's all I have to say about that, soooo...um...The End!

It Was A Good Week

This past week Zeke was home on Spring Break. It was a good week. We didn't do too much out of the ordinary, but it was nice sleeping in an extra 20 minutes every day and just having him home (when he wasn't aggravating Deacon that is). The weather recently has been gorgeous too. The days start out cold, in the single digits usually, but by the end of the afternoon, it'll be up in the mid to high 30's. It's like spring. And it's sunny. SOOOO wonderfully sunny. But once the sun is gone, it cools of really quickly. So quickly in fact, that a friend came over for dinner Tuesday night. In the hour and a half she was here the top step froze and she fell down the stairs. (She's fine...she milked it the rest of the night while we were at Bible study...but she's fine.)

Tuesday was also the day we had a new friend come over to play. Zeke has made friends with this sweet boy at church. They are in the same Sunday school class, and they both are in the same class on Wednesday nights. Last week we sat behind them in church, while Zeke sat with them. So, Tuesday morning, this boy, his little brother (20 months old), and his mom came over and hung out with us for a good hour and a half. Zeke was SO excited, he told Josh all about it when Josh got home from work, as well as my friend when she showed up for dinner. He can't wait for their next playdate (which sadly, most likely won't be until school is over in May).

(I didn't take any pictures during the playdate, so this is a picture from today actually, of the 2 boys not mentioned in the above story.)

Monday, Wednesday and Thursday were normal days, so not much to say about them. Friday, Josh came home from work super early, like 9:15am early, so we all took a trip to Target. We did a little shopping, ate a little lunch, and really had a fun time. At Target, Zeke finally got a chance to spend his birthday money and so he got a nice, big, talking, Spider-man toy. (And since Deacon's birthday is coming up soon enough we let him get a "matching" Iron Man toy.) Poor Zeke had to wait until after his nap though to play with his Spider-man, and I'm pretty sure he spent the whole time sitting in his room just waiting. As soon as I opened his door he jumped up said, "I play Spider-man now?" and was out the door and up the stairs.

On Saturday, Zeke's speech was cancelled, so that didn't happen either. But it was okay because Zeke had a birthday party to go to. A boy in the other preschool class at his school turned 5 this weekend and invited Zeke to his party. This is kind of a big deal as it was the first school friend birthday party he's ever gone to (he got invited to another one earlier this year but couldn't make it). It's an even bigger deal since I didn't stay. I dropped him off at 3 and picked him up at 5, and he had a blast. The boy's dad very sweetly invited Deacon to stay too, but Deacon was at home in bed. Sigh. My little boy is growing up so fast.

Also on Saturday, this happened:

Yep. Since Finn is everywhere and into everything all at once, a gate had to be put up to stop him from going into the kitchen when we're trying to cook or do the dishes. Of course, none of our gates were wide enough to span the entire space that is the "entryway" to the kitchen, so Josh had to move his nightstand there. Eventually I'll hang some artwork on it so it's not so...um...there.

Sunday was church and naps and hanging out. Just how we like our Sundays. And that was our Spring Break. All in all, a really good week.

Just Call Me "Knitty McKnitterson"

If you remember back at then end of January, when I wrote the post on the shawls (and hats) I had made up to that point, you might remember I mentioned that I had started work on 2 new shawls. Well, two weeks ago I finished the first one, and on Monday I finished the second one. (I also made another hat during this time, but it's a gift so I can't say any more about it...yet.)

Here is the second one I finished, which I actually started first:

And here is the first one I finished, which I actually started second:

This one was a riot. See, I decided to make this one horizontally, but since I've never done one like that before I decided to make it up on my own instead of looking online for similar patterns. So I did some math based on other shawls I've made with the same type of yarn, and figured out how many stitches across it should have needed. Well, something somewhere went wrong and when I finished the shawl, and took it off the needles it measured 4 inches shy of 10 FEET long. See?

And oh, how we all did laugh.

To fix it I just sewed (with my sewing machine) up and down each side, to make it the lenght I wanted it to be and the cut the ends off and let them hang to make a fringe. It does look lovely now, but it really was a sight when it was first "finished".

Now, for anyone who might be curious, I am working on another shawl with a pattern that requires more concentration then I care to give my knitting projects so it might be awhile before it's finished. I am also working on a new blanket for Deacon since I never really made him one (I did make him one, but it was very small and a poor effort on my part - most unlike the ones I made for Zeke and Finn), as well as a "granny hexagon" blanket that I started a long time ago. Hey, I need something to do while I watch tv and movies with my menfolk. Right?

Iditarod 2011

This past Saturday, Josh took the bigger boys to the Iditarod start, while I stayed home with Finn (because it was too cold for Finn [and me] to be out there is why). They had a great time. Besides splitting a reindeer dog (you know, a hot dog made out of reindeer), they got to see some of the dogs and racers start,

they got to see Izzy the Immunization Dog, and play with one of those face things (which was too big),

they went to the train station,

and to the ice sculpture display.

As you can tell by their faces, it was cold out there, but oh so much fun.

Oh, and the best part for me, besides getting to spend a morning with my sweet bug-a-boo, is the sah-weet boots Josh got for me while they were there. Apparently this once place was having a ridiculous sale and so Josh bought me some rabbit fur boots.

Aren't they lovely? They're rabbit fur and suede on the outside and wool and fleece on the inside. They are so warm and soft and while I didn't know I wanted them, I love them. And Josh says he feels better now that his wife won't be leaving Alaska without any fur.

So, a good Saturday morning all around.

February Photo Dump

I have a bunch of pictures on my computer from February that I guess I had intended on writing posts for, but now I think I'm just going to dump them all into one post so we can move on and write about whatever March brings us. And now, in no particular order, the rest of February:

This is my hunk, hoisting a hunk of ice he chipped off of our driveway on day.

Deacon worked so hard on decorating this chair. When he was finished he started singing to it. "O Christmas house, o Christmas house, something, something, something." (to the tune of O Christmas Tree)

If you thought Finn couldn't get any cuter, you should see him in a cowboy hat.

My couch got tagged one day. Thankfully he used the eraser end of the pencil and not the lead end.

Me and my boys. Not to mention further evidence that 3 kids is enough for me.

This gorgeous boy (sob! the hair!) was pretending that water tower was a megaphone. He's so clever and imaginative.

Ahh, a nice warm fire on a cold winter day.

Poor baby was having a rough time waking up this morning.

Finn decided he wanted to be "fancy" one day so I dressed him up. Eventually we did get pants on too.

On the 17th, Josh took Zeke to work with him. Since this is the last photo, I'll write a little more about that. A few weeks earlier, Josh had taken Zeke in for his 5 year check up. The original plan was for me to bring in the other boys, get Zeke from Josh's office, then take them all to the dentist. But the dentist wasn't there, so Josh took Zeke to work for a few minutes while he checked to make sure they wouldn't need him for the next half hour or so, then brought Zeke to school. Well, Zeke talked about going to work with Daddy for the rest of the day. He was so excited. So, when Zeke had off for parent/teacher conferences Josh took Zeke in to work again, this time for more then 10 minutes. They both had a great time and did a bunch of stuff.

Like sit on a stuffed musk ox that's hanging out in the building Josh works in. Good times.

And that wraps up the rest of our February. Good times, indeed.

Wow, Ten Months Already

Finn is 10 months old today. That's so crazy. Here's a little bit of what the little man has been up to lately.

On February 16th, Finn had two new teeth break through. For awhile it was tough getting a good picture of them, hence the reason I didn't post about it 2 weeks ago when it happened. But now they are there and easy to see. And easy to grind apparently. It's been funny watching him as they came in and he started to realize they were there.

Finn is still quite the happy baby, but he will make this face if he feels he isn't getting enough attention/being held enough/just wants some sympathy.

I'm not sure it really works out well for him most of the time.

No sooner did I write this post about how Finn interrupts my time with Deacon, then he decided to up his game by figuring out where I don't want him to be/climb up on, then go ahead and be/climb there. This forces me to get up and walk away from Deacon, so I can pick Finn up and place him down somewhere else. And repeat. Poor Deacon. (Of course, if Deacon would just start using the toilet we wouldn't have this problem, but that's another post entirely.) Finn's diaper changing time has also started taking longer to get through as he no longer likes to lay nicely while I'm changing him. Finn likes to take this time to demonstrate what a fantastic and wiggly contortionist he is. Thus, wrangling him into a diaper has become a challenge in and of itself.

Also challenging now, is trying to get Finn to eat a decent dinner. Ever since he got sick a few weeks ago, he has been a bear to try and feed at dinner time. He doesn't seem to like the jar baby food anymore so we're lucky if we can get 5 spoons of it him. He winds up wearing most of it. On top of that, he's become so fickle about solid foods. Last week he LOVED macaroni and cheese. This week, he wants absolutely nothing to do with it. Last week he loved beef vegetable soup (drained, so he just ate the meat and veggie chunks). This week, all he'll eat is the meat. As per Linda's suggestion yesterday I gave him a piece of toast, which he devoured. But who knows how long that will last for? All he seems to want at dinner are frozen peas and his baby puffs. Not really a substantial meal, if you ask me.

But what makes dinner even more fun, if you can even believe that it does, in fact, get more fun, is that he has started pulling his hair when he's had enough of what we're trying to give him. This is good "fun" because by this point his hands are usually covered with food and drool and what's-it, all of which then wind up in his hair and on his head and all over his face. I think he does this because he LOVES bathtime so much, he figures if he gets dirty enough at dinner we'll be forced to give him a bath. (That's probably not the case at all, but it makes it all a little more endearing.)

Finn drools. A lot.

Finn squeals quite appropriately when you "tackle" him and "wrestle" with him on the floor.

Finn is also a pretty vocal baby. Besides "cat", Finn says "Dadadadada" for "daddy" and "mum" for "mom" (he likes to pretend he's British sometimes...but who doesn't?). He also says "baa baa" for "bottle" and "bah bah" for "banana". They're very similar, but it's definitely two different "a" sounds, just like the sounds they make in the words they are in. Umm...did that sentence make sense? I know you know what I mean.

Moving on (quickly). Finn loves to be where his brother are, even if they don't always enjoy having him there. He is everywhere at once, and knee deep into everything. He keeps us on our toes for sure. Much like Zeke at this age, Finn enjoys a good snuggle. Much like Deacon (still), Finn loves his blankie.

This makes me feel good since I made it.

You know what else makes me (and let's face it, everyone else) feel good?

This kid and his fabulous smile. It really has been a good 10 months.

And It Only Took 2 Hours!

They cleaned up the roads today. And by "cleaned up" I mean they brought out the big plows and got up INCHES of ice from all over the place. I know they do this every year, but it really is a fascinating process to watch.

See, it actually started one day last week when something came through and widened the roads by getting all the plowed snow off of the roads and onto our yards (yay). I'm not sure who did it since I was at speech with Zeke, but when we came home it was a noticable difference. Today though, it started with an initial plowing which left burms like this at the end of everyone's driveways.

After that, the big guy (who I think is responsible for widening the roads) came through and cleared all the driveways. Once the driveways were clear, this guy came through and just plowed the heck out of the street.

Leaving, of course, a new burm. A bigger burm. So, the first big guy came through again, and cleared all the driveways. In doing this, by the way, we all now have 4 foot walls of snow at the ends of where our yards are hidden under 2 1/2 feet of snow.

Finally, once the big guys were done, one more truck went up and down the street, clearing out all the driveways the rest of the way, and cleaning up all the extra snow and stuff that got left on the street. All told, it did take about 2 hours.

My favorite part of all this is that now we have about a good 6 inche drop at the end of our driveway. I'm not sure if any of the pictures really do it any justice, but it's about 4-5 inches of ice, topped with 1-1 1/2 inches of "snow" (really a snow/ice mixture).

At least the roads look great. Oh, and if anyone's as fascinated by this as I am, there are more pictures on flickr (which you can get to by clicking on any of the above pictures). I just couldn't help myself.