To Celebrate

To celebrate Jesse's being on Winter Break for a little over a week, I'm going to share what Kellan did a few weeks ago.

I was folding laundry in my room and Kellan came downstairs. He climbed up on Jesse's desk chair and started fiddling around, so I told him to get down. He said, "But, Mom, I'm doing my homework." Then he put his head in his hands and said, "This is SO HARD! I HATE THIS!"

Jesse thinks Kellan is repeating what I say when I work. I think Kellan is repeating what Jesse says when he's doing his chemistry.

Fun Times

I saw my good friend from high school today. She had a baby six months ago, and she looks great. Her baby is cute. Unfortunately Kellan has higher standards, because he told my friend that her baby was ugly, and he asked her if she was going to have another baby, because she had a "big belly."

Kellan

I'm not sure if I've mentioned how Kellan says embarrassing things in stores, but here are some of the things he's said recently:

"Mom! Look at that creepy person!" as the "creepy person" walked right next to us.

"Mom, that's a gross man!" as a woman walked by.

"Mom, wow! That man is really OLD!" The guy was probably 60 or 65.

And while he was accompanying me visiting teaching, "Mom, they do NOT pick up their clothes in the bathroom!", and at a different house, "Mom, this house is so dirty!" Both times, the people I VT heard. You would think that our house is immaculate, to hear him talk. Obviously, from the pictures below, I don't fight the losing battle that cleaning my windows is.

You can't really tell from the pic when it's small, but they have matching forehead bruises. They totally ran into each other. It was pretty funny.

And Noelle loves our cats. She will go and sit right next to them--sometimes on them--and pet them/manhandle them. They'll put up with it for a second, and then move. She'll follow right behind them, and sit next to them again. It's really cute to watch.

A deer was in the backyard eating our crabapples. The kids were thrilled to watch it.

Finally, Ian loves kindergarten. He loves his teacher, and draws pictures of her. They're not very flattering. Here's an example of  a person Ian drew. I think it's folded because he wanted to send it to Grandma Karen, but then changed his mind. She's probably sleeping better at night without it in her house.

Kellan and Ian are obsessed with finding "clubs", "knives", and "spears" when they play outside. They're always sticks. Sometimes I'll recognize what had before been a "knife" being used as a "spear." They get upset when I won't let them keep them inside.

Ian saw the jack outside and decided his Fisher Price car needed a tuneup.

First day of school!

Tour of the fire station. They LOVED it. I never knew that you could just call up and they would let you do a tour.

This Will Change Your Life

Go here and make this recipe.

Then, go here and make this recipe. But you should also read this. (I used fresh lime zest and refrigerated our oil, knowing that it would be eaten well before 2 weeks were up. You can also make half a recipe.)

Then, go in the kitchen and make a salad and put Craisins and feta on it. Drizzle the oil and vinegar over it. And then eat it. It's so good. The oil can also be drizzled over cooked fish. Delish.

We were all watching Tangled, and we were near the end, when Rapunzel is crying over Eugene. Kellan said, "Mom, is he going to die?", and I said, "No, Kellan, watch, she is going to save him." He paused for a second, and then said, "How? Does she have a big Band-Aid?"

And now I'm going to get on a soapbox about how all the Pixar and DreamWorks movies are PG. What's up with that? Let's see more G movies!

I Laughed. And Then He Cried.

Yesterday Kellan was climbing a tree. And got his head stuck between two branches.

He needs whiskers, like cats. If his whiskers can fit through, so can his head.

Six Years And Counting!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Didn't we look like little tiny babies back then?

Coming Clean

Jesse wrote the post about his garden. It's not mine. I helped with the starts, but Jesse is the laborer. I told him next time he posts something to make sure he is logged in on his own account, or else everyone will think it is my post.

Here's something odd about my second-born child. Kellan likes to pretend he is a cat, or a horse, or any kind of animal. When he is in character, though, he'll say things like, "Um...meow...I need lunch, Momma Cat." or "Neigh! I have to go potty, Momma Horse! Neigh!"

A few nights ago, Kellan woke up in the middle of the night, and in turn woke me up by screaming "Momma Cat! Momma Cat!" Even in my sleepy tired state, I knew it was odd.

Conversations

Ian: Mom, Peter Pan has a knife. Did you know that?

Me: Um...yeah, I did know that.

Kellan: How did you know that? Did you go to his house?

No matter how many times I have told my kids that the movie they're watching is fake, they just don't get it.

The Garden

Happy Birthday, Ian!

One day, my creations will be the exact hue that I envision them. For now, though, at least our teeth weren't green after eating the cake.

Jesse's mom sent Ian a Transformers toy, which he absolutely loves. This picture doesn't quite capture the excitement that he felt, though. He also kept the card he sent him and tried to stash it in his underwear drawer.

The Beginning of the End

Today Ian turned five years old. I can't believe how old he is. I can't believe that he can start kindergarten. I kind of feel like this is the beginning of the end for me. It's fun being a mom of young kids--hard, tiring, sometimes mind numbing, but also fun. We can do whatever we want, whenever we want. The only schedule is the schedule we decide to have, and we can go on all sorts of adventures.

Then, when they start school, life just gets really busy. You have concerts and parent teacher conferences and sports and fundraisers....I'm not ready for all of that. I'm not ready for Ian to come home telling me the new words he's learned from the kids in his class. I'm definitely not ready for him to be disappointed and hurt by the things other kids do.

This is kind of ironic, because ever since my grandparents passed away (my grandma when I was pregnant with Ian and my grandpa when I was pregnant with Kellan), I realized that life is all about change. It's not supposed to be still. Everything is always changing, and one of the things we have to learn in this life is how to deal with change.  Part of life and change is death and dying. Part of change is sending your little boy to school and giving up part of the influence you have over him. It's easy (or easier), though, to give up your grandparents when they're old and uncomfortable, and all they want to do is rest. It's hard when you look at your little boy and think about all the things he hasn't learned yet, and all the ways he could be hurt. And--if I'm completely honest with myself--it's hard to come to grips with the reality that as his world expands, my importance diminishes a little.

Sorry for the downer. I love change! I do! Yay for change! I'm probably going to keep Ian back from kindergarten this year because I can't handle it!

Here's something funny he said the other day:

We were driving past a field where excavators and bulldozers were working, and Ian said, "Hey, mom! Do you think they're digging up pirate treasure or dinosaur bones?" He was super excited about the prospect of either one (who wouldn't be? those are both way more exciting than what they were doing.), that I just played along. I said definitely pirate treasure, because most of the dinosaur bones are in Montana or Utah. Which totally made sense to him.

Baja Black Beans, Corn, and Rice

Hey, if you want an absolutely delicious, healthy, vegetarian, light summer dinner, go to http://www.food.com/recipe/baja-black-beans-corn-and-rice-55768.

I add 1/4 tsp. cumin, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, and make sure to add plenty of lime juice and cilantro. It's delicious, and eaten over brown rice is super filling. It's my favorite vegetarian dish. If I have leftover rotisserie chicken I don't know what to do with, I'll throw that in, too. Don't heat it up--eat it cool.

Happy Friday!

Summer Fun

Hey, have you ever tried toasting your banana bread? It's super good.

Here's some pics of when we went to my uncle's house one afternoon.

I think Ian's allergic to horses. This is the second time we've gone, and both times his eyes became all swollen and don't go down for a day. His only dream is to become a cowboy, so...we'll see how that goes.

And Noelle enjoying her food:

And Noelle refusing to take naps all day and falling asleep in her highchair:

Pockets

Me: Two pacifiers (both needing sterilization), chapstick, kleenex, car keys, credit card, two Legos, and three bullet casings.

Ian: 64 cents, more bullet casings, Ross's Ipod, three rocks, and a stick.

Kellan: One bruised and long-dead earthworm.

I think the contents of our pockets reveal a lot about our personalities.

It's a sad fact that Ian and Kellan judge how cool I am by if I can ride a pedal bike or not. Maybe I sounded too eager to wow them, but they totally didn't believe me when I said I could.

I just went to a wedding over Memorial Day weekend. When I got back I asked my sweet little angels if they had missed me, and Ian said, "I don't miss you as much as I miss Joel's dog!" What sweetheart. He's going to wow many a date with those kinds of sentiments.

Delish.

Last week I accidentally threw away my retainer. I wasn't sure I had, though, so I put off digging through the garbage in hope that it would turn up somewhere else. Today I had to face the reality that garbage day is tomorrow, so I pulled on some gloves and dug through that garbage can. It was awesome. I won't go into details. If I had $200 spare bucks laying around, I would have abandoned the mission bought a new one.

Bleach was used. Promises to never remove it when I am not in an appropriate place were made. And I had to ask myself: What did I learn in middle school, if not how to keep track of a retainer?

V-Day

I always hated Valentine's Day until I got married. And if I had more time we would go on an exploration of the deep inner emotions of my psyche. I don't even know if what I typed makes sense.

Here's the pictures I took of us and the kids. People I know who are photographically inclined, don't judge. It was bright, I had no help, and I am not good at taking pictures. I put them in a frame for Jesse, and I was excited to give them to him.