Olympic Fever

Can you buy "The Olympics" on DVD? 

Some statements we have heard since the Olympics began...

Kevin: "I'm going to swim like Michael Phelps... Mommy, can I take a bath?"

Mommy: "Kevin, the back of the couch is not the pummel-horse, honey, there are no handles."

Kevin: "WHAT?! You can go to the Olympics and jump on the trampoline?!"

From the bathroom, "Mommy, I need a towel... well, maybe two towels..."

Nolan: "Is Michael Phelps on?"

Kevin: "Watch Mommy, I can vault over the side of the couch!"

Nolan: "No, I don't want to watch a movie, can we watch the olympics?"

Nolan: "Watch Mommy, I can do a flip over."

Nolan-isms

An "upside down" - also known as a somersault. 

If you don't remember something Nolan might say that you "got for" something.

Funny Words

Here are a few recent "-isms" and funny quotes from our boys. I might be a little biased, but I think our kids are pretty funny...

Nolan on pottying: "Mommy, I twinkled!"

Kevin on Harrison Ford's latest movie: "I want to see Indian-and-a-Jones."

I've probably put this one on a blog already but it makes me laugh every time... When Nolan asks for chocolate milk (which he does for every meal) and we say he can have regular milk, he asks, "Well, can I have regular milk with chocolate in it?"

After we got home from a week at Nana's Kevin promptly parked himself on top of our couch. He looked right at home. Logan said, "Buddy you've been waiting all week to sit on the top of the couch huh?" Kevin replied, "Yeah. If I sit on top of Nana's couch she will hang me up by my toes."

More later...

I realized that it has been a month since I posted here. A lot has taken place in the last month and we have been quite busy. Here are a few snapshots of the last month:

Recently when asked his full name Nolan responded, "Noly-spinoly".

Kevin has become the biggest fan of movies he has never seen: Spider Man, Indiana Jones, Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Nolan's soccer team and Kevin's soccer team played each other at the season's Championship game. Nolan's team won... He never played a single minute in any of the games. - Kevin played in every game we were here for. When he wasn't distracted by friends or the grass, he followed the ball around on the field pretty well. - I coached Nolan's team... I'm not sure how we made it through the season.

Kevin's doctor told us at his (overdue) 5 year check that kids his age should watch only 30 minutes of TV a day. So we have severely limited the TV watching for everyone in the house. I was nervous about that but their imaginations and behavior have changed for the better. I see the benefits of it daily but I have seemed to loose hours out of the day in exchange for the changing of this tide.

We had a yard sale. When he was told that he could keep the money from the toys he sold he went crazy putting things in the "sell box". We stopped him when he tried to put his brother in the box. :) Just kidding.  But we had to stop him from putting nearly all of his toys in it. - He seems to be learning the value of earning money.

Nolan was oblivious to the concept of a yard sale and got upset when people started walking away with his toys. But pizza and a movie made up for that. 

School has been coming along slowly but surely. Nolan can count to 45 and Kevin can read simple three letter words. It is amazing to me that I have been able to teach him that. Sometimes I don't think they are paying attention at all. And then they repeat the instructions I have given them or demonstrate a skill I've tried to teach them. - They are amazing.

And today, our trip to the waterfront to tour a Navy ship was so fun! After getting out of line on a bathroom hunt we waited for about 30 minutes before being taken on the ship. Kevin was bouncy he was so excited and taken back by the sailors who greeted him. Nolan got to ring the bell in the helm of the ship. What great fun! - Then we climbed the stairs to the bridge over Saturday market and watched the Rose Festival Parade for a while. After that we ate greasy hot dogs for lunch and braved the crowded MAX line on the way home. Whew! What a great day!!

Today is the first day of vacation for us. What a great kick off. Next week we will be unplugged and as disconnected as possible. Catch you on the flip side!

Play Place Story #1

We have  been visiting my family this week and staying at my parent's house. And as we are here I have discovered that I don't challenge my children to progress in their development enough. Nolan still needs help with his shoes and going potty. Kevin doesn't tie knots for the play things he straps on and interrupts conversations all too often. While I am positive my mom doesn't intend to make me feel any certain way I am acutely aware of these inabilities through their interactions with her and so I have been contemplating ways to urge my boys to move forward a bit, become more independent. - Of course the other half of my heart longs for them to stay little, but that is irrational and impossible, so I am doing my children no favors by allowing them to remain immature, right? 

I decided to surprise them with lunch at McDonald's today. We got there and got our food and went to sit down. The place I chose for us happened to be next to a young woman (I think) who is developmentally delayed. This person is an employee of McD's and asked several questions several times in a language style commonly associated with a 2 year old. Kevin responded marvelously by answering the questions over and over and over again while eating his food as quickly as possible without being rude. I was very proud of him for his manners and kindness. 

After we ate we moved to the play place that is three "stories" tall. You parents know what I'm talkin' about, this thing had three levels, two twisty slides, three places with steering wheels, and tower at the top. "SWEET!" was Kevin's exclamation as he entered the space and Nolan tagged right along. After a little while Nolan started to cry and despite my best efforts I could not coax him down. Another mom asked if I wanted her to go get him, to which I nearly replied, "Why, do you think I'm too fat to get up there?" but I didn't. - So up I went to get him and literally drag him down (because every parent knows how ridiculously difficult it is to do anything besides), all the while telling him that if he wanted to come back up he would have to do it himself because I was not climbing back up again to get him. "Okay Mama." - And we both sat and rested when we got to the bottom. - After a few minutes he wanted to get down and go again and I reminded him, "You have to do it by yourself, Nolan. I'm not climbing in to get you again." 

"Okay Mama," and off he went.

The boys played for quite some time, 35 minutes or so and when I finally said it was time to go, Nolan happily started down the mountain... and then got stuck in the same spot as before. 

Sticking to my guns I told him he would need to slide down it just like before and he began to cry... not the whimpering "I don't want to" cry but the "I'm scared out of my mind and I can't get down" cry. 

With several other parents watching I tried for a long time to coax him down. I sent Kevin up to grab his feet and pull him down (no dice). I spoke in a very calm tone (as calm as one can sound in a super tall echoey area) and tried to get him to come down for TWENTY minutes. - I nearly decided to just sit there until he came down, but then I realized that it was drawing more attention than I care to be responsible for, and so I went in after him...again. 

Nolan has been sleeping for almost two hours and I don't know if I will wake him up. He was exhausted by the end of it, as am I.

It's time for my baby to become a kiddo. 

Spam!!!

Spam is a favorite dish of my husband and my son Kevin. They love to make it when mom isn't around because I can't stand the stuff. Usually they make it on a "man day" as they like to call it. They have particularly weird traditions for those times which I will neither understand nor divulge to protect the innocent. :) It's all good fun I'm sure, but it's weird.

Spam is also a form of irritating communication from people you neither know or have interest in. I have gotten such comments on this blog, which stinks because it's a blog where I share the lives of my boys with my friends and family so that we can all feel a little bit closer. I don't know whether someone is taking the time to log onto public blogs one at a time or whether they have a sophisticated sort of way to do it to lots of blogs all at once. I don't really care which one it is, I would just love for it to stop happening to this blog. If any of my FRIENDS out there know how to help make that happen, I would love to know. 

Spring

During a home schooling session I asked Kevin and Nolan: "How can you tell that it is spring?" 

Kevin replied, "The sun."

"What does the sun do?"

"It cares for us... and gives us light... and... it burns bugs when they come out to catch some sun."

That's my boy.