When the Joke Goes Too Far

Yesterday morning we, as a family, went out and ran some errands.  Our first stop was the market for fresh rolls for dinner.  Josh ran in on his own, as all we needed was rolls.  As we were sitting in the car waiting for him to come back Zeke said, "This is taking too long.  Let's leave."  I looked back at him and asked, "What? And leave Daddy here by himself?" Zeke smiled real big and said, "Yeah. He can stay here forever."  So I said how that would make me sad because I would miss Daddy, and then Deacon piped up that he would miss Daddy too.  Then Zeke started cracking up saying that he was "only making a joke."  Silly boy.

Fast forward an hour or so.  After the market Josh dropped me off at the grocery store, and then went on to a home improvement store with the 3 boys.  They finished their shopping before I finished mine, so the boys found themselves once again, sitting in a parking lot, waiting on a parent.

Zeke thought this would be a great time to "make his joke" again. So, once again he said, "This is taking too long, let's leave."  But instead of talking it through with him like I did, Josh just said, "Okay" and started to move the car.  When relating the story to me Josh said, "He went from laughing to straight unhinged in 0 seconds."  Apparently when Josh started moving the car, Zeke immediately started crying because he thought Josh would actually leave me there.  Sweet boy.

A few minutes later I came out of the store (Josh had just moved the car from the back of the parking lot to next to the store).  Now I understand why Zeke was waving rather enthusiastically at me from the car when he saw me.  So I loaded the groceries into the back of the car, and walked away to return the shopping cart, at which point Josh said, "Okay! We've got all the food, let's go!" and started inching the car forward.  This time, both Zeke AND Deacon started crying.  Smooth Josh.

When I got in the car, Josh was cracking up and told me what all had just gone down.  So I looked back at Zeke's tear-stained face, and took his hand, and assured him that Daddy would never do something so dumb as to leave me anywhere.  He felt better then, but still clutched my hand for a good portion of the ride home.

Go Deacon! Go Deacon! GO!

For your viewing pleasure, here is a video I took the other night of Deacon (and eventually Finn) getting his groove on.  I apologize for the shaky shooting in the beginning, I wanted to get as much as I could, but I needed to get up from the table to get all of him in the screen.



This kid certainly keeps things interesting and keeps us WELL entertained.

I'm Going to Show Off a Little

As most of you know, Mother's Day was this past Sunday.  My Mother's Day was very nice.  I woke up, opened my gifts from my boys, went to chapel, did some shopping (ALONE!), and the rest of the day was like any other Sunday.  So, it was great.  Since I don't have much to say about my day, I wanted to share some pictures of the sweet loot I got.

Each of the boys made me a card at school (I'll spare you those pictures, but they were very sweet), and they each made something with their pictures in it.  Zeke made a flower and Deacon made a frame.

I like the hands as leaves idea in Zeke's flower, but sadly, they didn't trace his whole hand (or he cut off part of the bottom), so it's not exactly accurate.  But it's very sweet and I love it all the same.

Deacon also made me a decoupage candle holder.  It has a neat little paper on the one side that says, "You Light Up My Life" then it has his name, then "Happy Mother's Day 2012".

Now, for the stuff Josh bought.  He did really well y'all.  These last 2 gifts were both bought in Korea, while he was there last week. The first, from him, was this beautiful jewelry box.

The design is done in mother-of-pearls.  Fancy, right?

The other gift, "from the boys", is a necklace.  I LOVE this thing.  It is purple on one side (amethyst):

and green on the other (peridot):

BUT, that's not all.  Besides being double sided, the necklace OPENS so you can wear it as teardrops:

Pretty sweet, right?!:

So yeah, I had a pretty good Mother's Day.  It was nice spending it with my boys (all 4 of them), as well as getting out on my own for an hour or so.  I love my 3 little men, and am truly blessed to have them call me "Mom".

I Saw It With My Own Two Eyes

As we were sitting at the bus stop this morning, a dump truck pulling a backhoe drove by.  Zeke was excited by the sight of it, but not excited with the noise it made (he has some sensitive ears).

As we watched it drive past, commenting on the noise it made, we heard "snap, snap, snappity snap snap snap." (That might be a little exaggerated.) The first snap was the backhoe hitting a tree branch, which caused us all to look up and watch as the rest of the snaps occured - the backhoe snapped the wires that hung across the street!

It was the craziest thing.  As the dump truck pulled over, I called the Picatinney Police Department, figuring they should know what was going on.  The guy who answered was pretty funny.  When I finished telling him what happened, he was like:

As I repeated the story, he sounded a little more panicked as he turned to the guy sitting next to him and said, "Hey, send [Phil] down to this street right now.  We have WIRES DOWN!"  I repeat, we have WIRES DOWN.  He didn't repeat it.  That was a joke.  But so then he asked me for my name and asked me to wait at the bus stop until the officer could get there to take my statement.  I said okay, but was a little concerned as I left Finn and Deacon home with Curious George as a babysitter.

So here's a crazier part - when Zeke's bus driver rolled up to get the boys, she said, "What's with all the wires down?  There's some here, and there are some back down the street."  See video above for our reaction.  Apparently this guy must've snapped other wires on his drive, but didn't realize.  Oh New Jersey.

But all's well that ends well.  The boys were fine.  The police showed up.  We didn't lose power or phone or anything, so who knows what those wires do.  And I have a fun story to tell here.

Three Twos

Here are pictures of all 3 boys at the age of 2.  You know, just for fun.

Zeke (30 lbs 2 oz, 35 1/2"):

Deacon (28 lbs, 34 3/4"):

And Finn (29 lbs 10 oz, 34 1/2"):

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

So, Finn's birthday is May 5th, which is also Cinco de Mayo.  We don't really "celebrate" that holiday, but I did use it as the theme for the food I served at Finn's bithday party this year.  Usually he does like my chicken enchiladas, but I figured he wouldn't eat much with everything that would be going on around him, so I planned food that I wanted to eat.

With Finn's birthday falling on a weekend day this year, we were able to have a party for the little man with all 6 of his grandparents, 2 (out of 4) of his aunts, and 1 (out of 2) of his uncles.  It was a nice day and I, for one, had a good time.  Unfortunately, Josh wasn't there as he is currently in Korea, but we had fun without him. (This picture was made for him by his Aunt Kirsten [aka Tante] - we hung it on the front door for decoration.)

Everyone arrived around 3:30, we all hung out for a bit until dinner was ready. Besides chicken enchiladas I had a little "taco bar" set up and some Spanish rice.  I'm sure that's not all exactly "Cinco de Mayo food" but I was happy with it, and I think it worked for everyone.  We even had a "kids table".  Juuuust kidding Bobby and Kirsten!

After dinner Finn (with the help of his brothers) opened his presents.  He got so many cool things.  Thank you (again) to everyone for all of his gifts.

Then it was cake time!  And by cake I mean cupcakes (which Finn only eats the frosting off of right now).

Along with the cupcakes I asked a friend of mine here to make some Mickey Mouse themed cookies for the party and she did an AMAZING job.  These cookies were so stinkin cute and tasted to stinkin good.  So thank you (again) Heather, if you're reading this.

After dessert it was time for people to leave, to clean up and to put 3 exhausted boys into bed.  All in all, a very good day for a very sweet boy.

Mr. Finn!

You guys.  My baby boy turned 2 this past Saturday.  How did this happen? HOW could we have gotten here so quickly?! I admit, it makes me a little sad to think about this.  NOT sad enough to consider having another baby or anything, but a little sad all the same.  But then I think about what a fun kid Finn is and I'm not so sad anymore.

Finn is, also kind of sadly, losing his baby fat and so his cheeks and belly are thinning out a bit. A number of women have commented on how sad that makes them feel as well.  Finn has slowed down a bit in the amount of food he eats, but that's normal for his age, so I don't think it's a big deal if he eats 2 pear slices and 2 crackers for lunch.  He's still growing and the pediatrican said he looks great is doing great.  She also said he has perfect ears - whatever that means. And while we're on the topic of his growing, the sweet boy weighs 29 pounds 10 ounces (75% for his age), and is 34 1/2 inches tall (50% for his age).

Finn, mostly, is a joy to be around.  He is talking up a storm and it's really fun to hear as both of his older brothers were a little delayed at this age.  His "no" usually means "yes" unless accompanied by head shaking, in which case it definitely means "no". He loves to watch TV - mostly PBS shows, but he LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  He knows how to work an iPhone/iPad/etc with skill and ease. He has to do everything himself. He can be a bit stubborn and whoooo boy can he give you a look if you try to interfere without his asking.  Or tell him no.  He really doesn't like being told no.  But what 2 year old does?  I'll have to try to get a picture of the face he makes when I anger him and he's not sure what to do besides stare me down.  It's really kind of funny.

Finn also LOVES his brothers.  He likes to play with them, read with them (Finn REALLY enjoys books), follow them around, annoy them, bother them, eat with them, color with them (my LEFT-handed boy could color all day) - Finn's life is one big game of Monkey See, Monkey Do.  He loves going to chapel/PWOC and hanging out in the nursery with the CDC (Child Development Center) workers who take care of him there.  In fact, the CDC workers all love him too, and he is like a rock star when we walk through the actual CDC to take Deacon to school every day. All the ladies saying, "Hi Finn!" as we pass by them.  And he just struts past like, "That's right, I'm cool."

Did I mention how much he l-o-v-e-s LOVES water? Whether it be in the tub, in the shower, in the pool, in the ocean, falling from the sky, in the sink, spilled on the floor, in a puddle in the middle of a parking lot, or in a rock outside Deacon's school (as pictured below), Finn will find and play in and thoroughly enjoy water.

And that is pretty much it for Finn's 2 year wrap-up.  I love you Little Man, and I cannot wait to see what fun and interesting things you add to this next year.

Testing, Testing

So I'm here trying out this new layout, seeing how it goes.  This won't really be a post about anything, just me, here, figuring out how to work this new layout that I REALLY don't like so far.  It's weird.

Also weird is this kid:

Yes, that is his Handy Manny tool box that he made me buckle in next to him. Hey, you gotta keep those tools safe, right?

Blah, blah, blah.  Words, words, words.  Still not feeling it.  But I guess I'm stuck since I don't feel up to figuring out moving to somewhere else - yet.

Of course, it'll all look the same to you guys, it's just writing/setting up/etc that's different, so this really only affects me.  Sigh.