To The Zoo!

This morning we met up with Amity and her passel of offspring at the zoo. With Grammy here, we just had to go at least once, right? We had so much fun. Zeke was SUPER excited and practically ran amok until I sat him down and had a little chat with him. I mean, it's one thing to be 5-7 feet in front of me, but it's a completely different thing to be on the other side of the zoo from me (he wasn't really that far from me, but you know what I'm saying). But he quickly calmed down and did a much better job staying with the pack.

The zoo had a few new baby animals on "display" including a baby musk ox, as well as the CUTEST baby polar bear ever. They only let her out of the infirmary from 11-12 and from 4-5, so we were able to see her out and about. But since she's behind bars all the time, it was hard to get a good picture, so I'm not going to waste blog space with pictures of animals. Well, I guess these animals are worth posting pictures of.

After spending 2 hours walking around and seeing all there possibly is to see there, we had some popcorn and headed home for lunch and much needed naps (even I laid down for a bit). A very good morning indeed.

Too Gross Not To Share

I'll start by saying that I do not have any pictures to go with this story, so you can rest easy about that. I'll also say now that the story involves poop so if you want to avoid that topic then feel free to read the first half about Zeke, then skip the rest. Or skip the whole post, it's okay, you won't miss much.

So, yesterday afternoon Zeke decided he wanted to go outside to play again. When Deacon got up, he decided he didn't want to go out again. When Zeke found out that Deacon didn't want to go out he was shocked. You could see it in his face. His face was all, "What?! Why NOT?! There are rocks outside. And dirt! And sticks! And balls! And dirt! And rocks! And bubbles! And dirt! And trucks! And rocks!" But Zeke went out on his own and had fun getting dirty by himself.

Since Zeke was the only one who went out yesterday afternoon, he was the only one who really needed to be washed last night. And not really wanting to do the whole "bath thing" for one kid, I decided to let him try taking a shower for the first time. He LOVED it. He stood there, in the shower, for a solid 10 minutes, fogging up the mirror and driving Finn insane. (I set up the baby gate in the bathroom door so I could poke my head out and check on the other two while staying close to Zeke in case he slipped or something. But this meant that Finn spent the entire shower time at the gate crying to get in as the little man loves him some water.) So, Zeke had his first shower and it was a huge success and I'm so excited because it'll make things a lot easier this summer.

Here's where the poop comes into play, so feel free to leave now if you want. Apparently, while I was in the bathroom with Zeke, Deacon, who before yesterday was scared of the shower and HATED even the IDEA of it, decided he wanted to take a shower as well, and as such got himself ready to go. And by ready to go I mean he took off the shirt he had on (he was still pantsless from naptime) as well as his diaper. His diaper, which he had pooped into. So, I took Zeke out of the shower and started to wonder why I was smelling poop, I mean, Zeke was clean. So I let Zeke out of the bathroom, cleaned up the bathroom, walked out of the bathroom and saw Deacon, laying on the couch naked, his bottom covered in poop, with a little turd hanging out (I told you this was gross). On the other side of the couch was his diaper, nicely folded in half, but with a giant poop ball laying on top of it that Deacon had apparently put there manually, as his fingers were covered in poop. Ahhh yes, motherhood is SO glamorous.

So, I wiped up Deacon's butt, cleaned up the couch, threw out the diaper, and showered Deacon, who handled the shower quiet well. He was as excited and in love with showering as Zeke was, but he wasn't scared anymore either. Looks like I will be able to get away with more showers and less baths than I had originally anticipated this summer. Whoo! \o/ (<---that's a guy with his hands in the air)

Life Is a Series of Tangled

There are no typos in the title of this post. Life isn't really a series of tangles right now. No, life is good (even though we all miss Daddy terribly). Life is, however, a series of scenes from the movie Tangled right now. Part of me is starting to agree with the comment Amity made the other day, about us having seen the movie too many times. But really, how many is too many when the movie is so good? And if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do so, and soon.

Amity made this comment at the park on Wednesday when I told her what happened when we got there. As soon as we had put all of our stuff on the table we were using, Zeke laid down on the grass and started singing "Just feel the grass! The dirt! Just like I dreamed they'd be!" Then he got up and ate his lunch like nothing had happened. There's also the fact that he's started saying, "Yes, Mother" to me, which I'm pretty sure he got from that movie.

Then, today, as I got out the vacuum, Zeke started running around the house singing, "I could go racing and dancing and running and splashing, when my life begins!" (Except the "when my life begins" part was incredibly mumbled since he doesn't actually know those words, but he knows the tune and how they're supposed to be sung.)

Deacon, is also caught up in it. The other evening he found a comb and started brushing my hair. As he brushed, he recited random lines from the movie. Zeke ran around in the background singing, "And then I brush, and brush, and brush and brush my hair!" Deacon also loves a good animal sidekick, and the chameleon from Tangled is no exception. Only, because Flynn calls the chameleon a frog on more then one occasion, and since he's not as familiar with chameleons as he is with frogs, Deacon likes to hop about pretending he is a frog. He's getting really good at it too.

Add to all of this the fact that Deacon requests I sing the songs from the movie a lot (at least, the segments of each song that I know - which really isn't very much). I have to work on learning more words to each song. Maybe if we watch it a few more times! Also, I set up the castle again at the boys' request. Only, it's not a castle anymore, it's now Rapunzel's tower.

They've also assigned "roles" to each of us. Zeke is Rapunzel, Deacon insists on being Mother Goethel, Josh and I are the king and queen, which leaves Finn to be Flynn. Zeke tried hard to convince Deacon to be Flynn, but Deacon just wouldn't hear of it. And finally, Zeke, who usually loves having his haircut because he likes to keep it short, has decided he doesn't want his haircut anymore because he wants it to be long like Flynn Rider's.

Oh! And the main "force" behind my cutting my hair the other week was that after watching Tangled the first time (or two), as well as Mulan, Zeke became insistant that I get my hair cut as well. Such funny kids with their funny whims. At least it's a movie that I love to watch over and over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again too.

*here's a link to the song zeke sings the different parts to TANGLED
the grass the dirt is at about the 55 second mark
running and splashing etc is at about the 1minute 15 second mark*

We Laugh In the Face of Danger!

I am truly loving the weather we've been having. Spending hours outdoors each day has been wonderful. Take yesterday, for example.

Yesterday morning we went to the park for 2 whole hours. We stopped at McDs to pick up some lunch, then met some friends for fun. The big boys played and ran and jumped and rolled to their hearts content. Even Finn was great the entire time. You'd never know it was getting further and further past naptime (Finn usually gets a little cranky as his nap time approaches). And of course, 2 hours of running around a park meant 2 hours of solid nap time for all the boys. And, while we're on the topic of the park, I must say that I am impressed with all 3 of my boys who kept their baseball caps on the entire time we were there. Finn removed his a few times, but left it alone for awhile whenever I put it back on. They played so well with the other kids too. Zeke made up a game where a little girl would slide down the slide (with her mom's help - she was 19 months old) and slide into Zeke. Zeke would then "fly" off the slide and roll on the ground, causing the little girl to crack up. The girl's dad had a poodle with him, which he let Deacon and Finn pet (and Zeke when it was time for them to leave, ending his game with the little girl). It was such a good time.

As we were leaving for the park yesterday, we saw the baby moose on the side of the road, at the end of our street. As we turned the corner, Zeke got worried, and asked where the momma moose was. I assured him she was close by (and lest you're worried too, we spotted her right after we turned).

This pair have really been going about the neighborhood. This morning, as I came back in from putting out the garbage (at 6:30) I looked out the front window and there they were, right across the street. I'm wondering now where they were while I was out there, and how close I might have come to being seen as a threat and thusly attacked by Momma Moose herself. Not that she seems the attacking sort, of course.

That didn't stop Josh from freaking out when I texted him this picture last night though:

See, the boys were out back (at this point they were on the deck blowing bubbles) making all kinds of noise, as boys outside are wont to do. Oh, who am I kidding, boys will make all kinds of noise regardless of where they are. So, as the boys blew bubbles, Momma Moose came to the fence to check out what was going on. I'm pretty sure she was just assessing the situation. Zeke saw the moose and asked first if it could talk (thank you Disney), then asked if it could wave to him. I thought it was very cute, so I sent a text to Josh, with the above picture. Apparently Josh's immediate reaction upon opening the text and seeing the picture was "My kids are going to die." Puh-lease! I know moose can be fast and all, but I'm pretty sure I would have been able to grab both boys and get them safely inside (and probably out of sight downstairs or something) before Momma Moose could break through the fence, run across the yard, make her way up the stairs (I'm not even certain she'd fit up them with that big butt of her), and get at the kids.

Danger? Hah! I laugh in the face of danger. Hahahahahahahahahaaaa!

And of course, what would a great day be without a great bathtime?

I guess we've entered the season of almost daily baths. It's a tiring thought, but when I think about what it means (that the day was gorgeous and the boys spent a good part of it outside) I think it's totally worth it. We can do baths every night if means every day is like this.