Memorial Skin

On Monday evening, after a very busy day Memorial day spent celebrating Ben's birthday with family, Gabriella slumbers soundly in the arms of Grandpa T.  Nice belly, eh Dave?

It should be noted that a couple of hours before, Ella was in rare form -- being almost inconsolable (not a common occurrence for this good-natured, laid back, increasingly smiley and "chatty" baby girl).  Many thanks to her laughing Aunt S, who calmed Gabriella with her calm, patient, consistent, soothing attention and a sweet song.

-k

Ben's cake - Birthday #7

This year, Ben designed and then decorated (after Lisa frosted) his cake. Inspired by the long celebrated (in our home at least) modern Disney/Pixar classic: Cars, inspiration gave way to Ben's own creativity and passion for fun-filled, interesting environments and the end product bears little resemblance to the iconic neon sign that graced Flo's V8 Cafe in the town of Radiator Springs, located along the venerable Route 66.

 

7! That's right, Seven Years Old.

Today was Ben's 7th birthday.













Seven years since he exited the womb and entered our world.
















More than four years since he ran eagerly into the hospital room after Josiah was born, blowing past mommy and daddy as he beelined for the baby in our friend Lydia's arms, "Is this my new baby brother?!"



This morning, Josiah was up bright and early to help make breakfast in bed for his big brother. This afternoon, as Josiah and I ran errands and shopped for a gift for his brother, Sisi announced to everyone he saw, "It's my brother's birthday! We're getting him a present!"










This evening, as we celebrated with family, Ben read each birthday card (except the parts where people like his parents wrote in cursive) before opening the attached/associated gift. He blew out the candles on the V8 cake that he designed and decorated (with a bit of frosting help from Lisa). He was gracious and excited and such a delight as he enjoyed being celebrated and spoiled a bit for a day.

.Blessed.

Fishin' Hats

(from last Saturday, 5/17/2008)

Josiah has been wanting to go fishing since last fall. Today was the day for the DNR's free open fishing day for kids (and their guardians) at Ada Hayden, so we took our poles and tackle and some snacks... and the stroller... and our hats. We took all that and headed out to the park to try our luck and introduce Josiah to the joys of casting and waiting --- and waiting --- or, in Ben and Josia's case, casting and reeling in, casting and reeling in... ad infinitum. Drawing on my vast store of angling experience, I realized that I wasn't really prepared to actually CATCH any fish. The wind whipping through our neck o' the woods that day was generating whitecaps on our little recreational lake, probably not the weather (or time of day) to get luck with the hook and line.

Thanks to Lisa, who gamely hoofed it back around the North lake to visit the grill, we didn't go hungry.







Pensive fishermen comtemplate the next encounter with the waters and (perhaps) acquatic wildlife at Ada Hayden.

-kt

Lionel the Lion and Bulah the Bumble Bee

This morning we stayed home and played dress up. I was the tree fairy living in a tree castle with my baby bee and Josiah was the lion whose parents were away who came to live with us. After slumber parties and tea parties with the bee, it was time for her to take a nap in the uppermost branches (her crib). In the meantime the lion took care of the forest creatures, bringing many stuffed animals down to be fed and their wounds healed.
Later my children became frogs. Josiah and Ben were blue-eyed tree frogs off at school while the littlest tree frog slept on my lap. Josiah, still the Lion, drove the little red car to pick up the other frogs from school (imaginary since he was still the lion, and Ben was really at school).
By lunch time, he was Chester the cow, dressed in his Dalmatian costume with a cow mask we made a while back and I was Matilda the cat (no costume). We were married (pronounced dog and cat by a duck), had a wedding brunch (lunch), danced, and went on a cruise for our honeymoon. Shortly after we returned we adopted a baby butterfly (Gabriella).
Josiah is so much fun to play dress up with and I love how he includes his sister in our plays.
A while back, Josiah really wanted to play dress up and Ben wasn't in the mood and I was busy making dinner. After many pleas for us to join us he suggested a compromise. He went down and put on a costume and handed me a hat. "Here mom, let's pretend that I am a bat, and you are a fireman mom making dinner while holding a baby..."

Happy Birthday Grandma

Gabriella enjoys some smiles and funny faces with Grandma and Uncle T.

Reading with Ben

Ben has started reading board books with Gabriella in the evening. Here they are reading Gossie and Gertie while I make dinner. He made it through several books while she seemed to pay close attention to the pictures. It is so wonderful to have another reader in the house!
Later he decided to show her Josiah's butterfly umbrella. She enjoyed rocking it back and forth by tapping the handle with her hand.

Mayfest

Here are a few shots from the Mayfest celebration at Josiah's preschool last weekend. We enjoyed making crowns, going on a scavenger hunt, singing and dancing around the maypole and a delicious potluck dinner. The weather was lovely as it continued to be through the weekend.
Saturday we spent time fishing at Ada Hayden. It was the boys first time fishing and they were very excited. We didn't catch anything, but we had a few nibbles. We learned that half the fun of fishing is finding the perfect spot, and chatting quietly while you wait for the fish. The following Monday Josiah got a call that he had won a tackle box from JAX. He was so excited. "Daddy, I won a tackle box!" "What is a tackle box anyway?"

A sweet little pout

A little phone chat

Ben thoguht it would be cute to have Gabriella play with his toy phone a while. She just wanted to lick it.....

Sitting up

Ben enjoys helping Gabriella sit on the couch in the evening to look at books with us. We wedge her between the cushions a bit and she looks like a big girl.

You can call me Pumpkin Toes, or Joey, or...

This evening Josiah informed Lisa that she should no longer call him Josiah, because it makes him sad. She is to call him Pumpkin Toes, or JoJo, or Joey... but NOT Josiah.

Step back a couple of months and Josiah was often quite emphatic about being called by his given name. "My name is Jo-SI-UH!"

Fickle phases of youth.

-k

Bike to work (and school) day

This morning Ben eagerly suggested that we take the bike and tag-along (third wheel) to school. So we hustled through our morning routines, hooked up the bike and made it to school in time to beat the bell by about two minutes. Ben was excited for the change of pace and I reaped an additional 2.5 miles of exercise in addition to enjoying the time with him. Ben also ably assisted our locomotion, pedaling hard on the uphills (such as they are in Ames).

Fast forward to this evening at Josiah's preschool party. While talking to one of the other fathers, I found out that it was "Bike to Work" day. How apropos!

(For the record, this is the third day in a row I've ridden my bike to work).

Praise God for this beautiful weather!

Like a lawnmower

Around 1am this morning as Lisa made yet another trip to Gabriella's room to help her find that happy, sleepy place (it had been an unexpectedly long, baby-intensive night already), I heard the tell-tale sound of Josiah's labored, croupie breathing coming from the boys' room.

I woke him up and we launched (well, trudged) into our routine: 15 minutes in a steamy bathroom; a walk around the block in the cold, moist air; downstairs for a nebulizer treatment while watching part of a movie.

During our mini-sauna, Josiah was pretty quiet, searching for that perfect spot to lay his head on my shoulder. After we donned our coats and slippers for the round-the-block foray, Josiah, doggy blanket in tow, got pretty chatty. His voice, higher-pitched and so sincere (reminiscent of Si at two -- just imagine his voice, augmented by a low dose of helium), was fully engaged as we trekked. He observed that the moon was only half lit - and too bright to see that other part (which he has observed before as the darker, unlit shadow). I asked if he remembered the moon following Harold in Harold and the Purple Crayon and Josiah said he did, reminding me that Harold drew everything with his crayon and went into his drawings. About 3/4 of the way around the block, he informed me that the Dr. had told him to take his blanket so that it could get better too - glad we remembered "doggie" at the start.

We checked out some of the extras on The Incredibles DVD while Josiah patiently inhaled his medicine using the nebulizer and then, claiming he'd been having nightmares, Si joined us in bed. The steroids in the neb tend to wind him up a bit, so our conversation continued. He noted that his O's (long breaths out) "sound like a mower. Like a lawnmower that you use to cut the grass." Oh, and he told me that the one villain in the campy short that we watched ws the husband to another villain because their voices sounded similar.

Getting up in the middle of the night is a whole lot easier with a cuddly, insightful, bright and good-natured patient to attend to. Yet another blessing along the parenting road.

NOTE: earlier today when we were celebrating Mothers' Day at Charissa's apartment, Josiah emphatically pointed out that it was a day for Mommies, not husbands.

g'night all.
-K

Toofer Two-Fer!

Oh boy, the tooth fairy's gonna be dishing out the coin tonight :)

Last night I woke with a start to hear Ben exclaiming, "Hey! I lost my tooth!" His two top front teeth have been very loose and the right tooth, especially so. As Ben explained over breakfast this morning, he woke up in the middle of the night and was pushing his tooth (right central incisor) around with his tongue when it gave up it's final tenuous attachment to his gums and dropped -- right onto his tongue. He was quite excited to have lost tooth #5! (as you can see from his outstretched fingers below).

You might notice that the LEFT incisor was also very loose and hanging a bit to the right in the above photo. As it turns out, there was more to come... (or go?)

And with the proverbial "Two Front Teef" having executed their oral exits in such rapid succession, the loss count sits at six.

 

Picnic in the Park

 
 
 
 

Green. Green. Green. And colorful blooms to boot!

Tuesday was a beautiful Spring day. The sun shone, the outdoors beckoned. So Lisa picked up Subway sandwiches and cookies, cut up some fruit and brought the kids to Brookside for supper. Uncle Todd joined them too, and I showed up a little later to find Todd playing with Josiah on the fire engine. Ben and I hiked over to call them to supper, even as the clouds were rolling in.

But for the fickle flights of fronts, our timing could have seen us biting into our sandwiches just as a thunderstorm rolled in. Fortunately for our picnicking crew, the lead portion of the storm system blew just north of us and we only saw some minor sprinkles (a few hours later, almost and inch and a half fell in an hour). In fact, the sprinkles were so light that I wondered if it might just be spit from the very vocal squirrel scolding us from his perch, high aloft in a nearby tree. After supper, Todd departed for his small group, Lisa took Gabriella home, and I hit the fire engine and then the slides and swings with the boys. We had fun sharing the lever-powered rock shovel, then B and J spent their time hauling the rocks to the top of the slide and proving gravity -- over and over and over again.

Spring at last!

Variations on a theme

This morning I took some pictures of Gabriella having tummy time on her Boppy pillow. She likes it for a few minutes, but then that head gets so very heavy.
The photos reminded me of photos of Josiah at 3 months old in a similar pose. People ask if she looks like the boys did as babies, and I have to say I see a lot of Josiah in her. Similar noses, wrinkled brows and sweet lips, but each with their own look and face shape. My how Josiah has changed since then!
As I was taking the pictures, Josiah joined in on some cuddles with his sister, just as Ben had done with him. It seems wherever there is a baby and a camera, there is a brother joining in. She is so blessed to have her big brothers who love her like they do.

Duck!?

On Monday Josiah told me about a project that he had been working on that morning at pre-school. He said that they are making a very big duck out of wood.

“How big is it?
“This big,” he said stretching his arms out as wide as he could. “No, actually even bigger than this,” stretching out his arms and leaning as far as he could to each side in his carseat.

I was still having trouble picturing the duck. “Is the duck something you can sit in?”
“No.”
“What are you making the duck for?”
“To float in the water.”
“When it is done will you take it outside?” I asked.
“No, it's too big to take outside, so we will bring water inside.”
“What will you put the water in?”
“I think they are going to pour the water on the floor to make a little pool for the duck.”
“Oh... that sounds fun,” I said, completely baffled.

The following school day was our conference with his teachers, and when we were talking about how much Josiah enjoys hammering nails, I thought to ask them about this duck he had mentioned.

At first his teacher looked confused. But after a moment she laughed and explained that it was not a duck, but an aqueduct! The students had been sawing, sanding and nailing together an aqueduct to use outside when the whether warmed up.

An aqueduct built by 3-5 year olds -- that ought to be something else!