See How They Run The Place

Worried that today was going to be a bit too icky to play outside, T's mom and I agreed to meet at C.huck E. Ch.eese's today.

We got there at 10:45am...

and were the only customers there:

McColley and I played for a bit, but kept an eye out for T's car.

Eventually... they arrived:

And after not seeing each other for a week (T's grandparents were in town), there was much excitement at reuniting:

They had the complete run of the place, but preferred to play together:

And after Brayton woke up, McColley and T decided to 'race' each other.  

The only problem is that neither of them are tall enough to push their own gas pedals, which means Mommy needs to do it.

There were some lap space issues:

And before we left, I took the opportunity to capture some toddler pronunciation on film:

Growth Curve

First, the stats from Brayton's 4 Month Well Baby:

Weight:  20lbs 4oz (100%)

Length:  26 in (92%)

Head:  17.5 in  (97%)

Obviously, Brayton is staying on his growth curve... and he's into 9 month clothes.  We'll be shopping for a new car seat this weekend.

Unfortunately, my interactions with the doctor were a bit counterproductive - an example:

Dr:  I see he's not rolling over yet.

Me:  No, he is.  He's just rolling from back-to-front, but not front-to-back. 

Dr:  Oh.  Well, that's OK, he still has a month to reach that milestone... just make sure to put him on his tummy.

Umm-tay... since all he's doing - all the time - is rolling onto his tummy.  

Pretty much all of our conversation was like this, 'helpful' tips that either don't apply or completely contradict our parenting style.  Honestly though, the doctor wasn't coming from anywhere malicious or superior, she just sees a lot of kids every day and I'm sure a lot of them come with really young and inexperienced parents.  

I just take it as proof of something I read once: Doctors are there for medical advice, not parenting advice.

Beach Blanket Baby

When it's 90 degrees outside, but 75 at the beach, you will find me watching the waves:

Sure, my crazy brother and daddy would rather work than lay...

but to each their own beach, I guess:

It sure does seem to take a lot of concentration though:

I'm glad I've got a hat on since Mommy decided to have us look directly into the sun:

See... this is what I'm talking about -

communing with nature, watching the waves:

Then you have to go and be active again...

I hope the super-cold water was worth it:

Seriously, you built the castle, stood in the cold water and ruined my zen-time just to wash the castle away with the water?

And then you let McColley stomp on the remains?

What was the point of that?

I think I have sand on my hand from communing:

And now you're finding buried treasure...

which would totally make sense if McColley hadn't been the one to bury it two seconds ago:

I hope there's more communing next time.

Or that I can at least do all the destructive stuff too.

Attention! The Fluffy is Loose!

Today has been one of those days when a lack of attention to detail leads to bad results.

It started out simple enough... we went to the park.

Detail I didn't notice - the bark that was two shades darker was still SOAKING WET... and that darker shade was about 75% of the playground. Luckily the slide/climbing thing was unaffected.

Then after lunch, the cats were a bit whiny.  I noticed that their feeder had a bit of a clog and their food wasn't falling down into the bowl area.  I kicked it to try and get the food down.  Nothing happened.

Detail I didn't notice - a few days ago McColley decided to play with their water bowl.  I thought he'd just put some of their food into the water bowl... turns out he'd put some water in their food bowl too.  The food was clogged because it had dried into a big moldy cat food ball.

That smelled lovely while I cleaned it.

And then... oh... and then...

B and I were finishing up eating dinner in the living room.  McColley told us he was going to wash his hands in the kitchen.  We hear him tinkering in the kitchen after washing his hands and I look over and see him playing on the counter.  I assume he's playing with the things we keep next to the sink.

A few minutes later he comes out into the living room covered in white.

Me:  What happened?

McColley:  The fluffy got loose.

Me:  What is the fluffy?

McColley:  Come and see.

He leads us into the playroom and we see this:

An almost full bag of bread-making flour.

McColley tried to be helpful by showing B where the vacuum was:

And then I got to take him into the bathroom for a de-flouring bath:

The bath involved a deep discussion about how fluffy is an ingredient that is used in recipes and Mommy and Daddy have to help you use it.  

Parenting Lesson of the Day:  Assume NOTHING with a two-year-old in the house.

Tigers Outside

After becoming a successful roller on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon was spent at the park:

The sky was bright blue, we were all full of energy and McColley refused to have his picture taken:

Then Monday happened.

Gray - Dark - Windy - Rainy - Cold... Indoor Weather.

Monday was bad, but Tuesday was worse.

We had a fantastic thunder storm last night.  McColley enjoyed watching the lightening, but was really frightened by the thunder.  B tried to help him understand, but as two-year-olds often do, McColley reasoned out his own explanation - there were tigers outside.

He had to be re-assured that Daddy and the house would protect him. 

Today's weather was better, but it was still an indoor day.

We went a little stir-crazy... which in this house means (1) give McColley the camera:

(2) Mommy attempts self-portraiture:

Luckily, the weather is supposed to be nice by the weekend!

Rolly-polly-olly

By his third attempt, he was a master:

Amazing^4

This Month's Milestones:

-Met GGrandma McColley

-Started having 'conversations'

-Started laughing out loud

-Grabs, holds and manipulates objects

-Discovered he has toes and feet

-Recognizes immediate family

To see how amazing multiplies click here, here and here.

More things a 2-year old says

As Mommy drives off to work: "Bye bye Daddy's car." - Katharine didn't hear this as she left for work this morning.

"I don't want you to take a shower because you're my best friend!" - Doesn't something seem wrong with this statement?

Things a 2-year old says

"Daddy, I tried to go poo, but the poo is hard to do."

"Mommy, Brady's my best friend.  Don't take him back to the hospital."

Sprunging Spring

It finally turned beautiful around here, so we seized our opportunity and went to the park!

We met up with T and her mom and the kids played for a while before being beckoned out to the 'woods'.

Of course, danger called:

T's mom broke the branch into smaller sticks and told them that they could 'fish':

Which turned into a Pirate Show:

When the show was over, it was time to dig for a tea party:

We finally convinced them that a real tea party with real food would be more fun and went back to T's house.

Eventually we had to come home, but McColley wanted to play baseball in the front yard.

His stance could use a little work:

On a side note - remember our 'gardening' last summer?

One of the plants is back!  It's a miracle!

I wonder if it will actually flower this year?

Working Birthday

So, yesterday was B's birthday.  The bad thing about it falling on a Wednesday was the fact that we both had to work.  And then McColley had swim class.

So... we celebrated by going out to dinner at 6:30pm.  We went to a really good seafood restaurant that we'd never been to before.

We were home by 8pm and B opened his presents.  I got him the seventh season of W.est Wing.  McColley got him some new board shorts and Brayton got him some shirts.

After opening presents, we ate birthday cake.  He got an ice cream cake from Co.ld St.one.  It was really good.

He also got several phone calls from assorted family members wishing him a Happy Birthday.

Which leads me to this... the only picture I took of B's birthday this year:

He was getting birthday wishes from his parents.

After that picture the camera died. It was a fun birthday, even if it was a bit subdued. Unfortunately, B's birthday this year fell in the middle of an insanely busy time.

At least he wasn't moving across continents on his birthday like his big brother!

Brayton Laughs

E.aster Pa.rade

The Ea.ster B.unny visited our house this morning and left both boys a 'basket':

We managed to get everyone dressed and out the door for church.  We still ended up being the last people to arrive at the service, but the upside was that we got to sit in front of a stained glass window.

McColley was fascinated by the colors:

It ended up being a beautiful day although a bit windy:

When we got home, the E.aster B.unny had hidden our eggs outside (as requested).

McColley used his shovel to help find the eggs:

Brayton got in on the action too:

The funniest thing is that McColley totally missed the four eggs sitting in the window sills.

We had to point them out to him:

Being the procrastinator that I am, I bought the boys' outfits last night.  The upside is that they were on a really good sale.

And adorable:

When Brayton went down for his nap, it was time to make our East.er Bonnets:

However, we did have on incident of 'catnapping'... Keira tried to eat my ribbons:

Once our bonnets were decorated, we had to download 'E.aster Para.de' (the song) for our parade.  

McColley was so excited about his bonnet that he refused to take it off while B got the song:

Didn't our bonnets turn out beautiful:

When Brayton woke up he had to try his bonnet on.

There was a bit of a size issue:

So we decided he should wear his 'Gangsta Style':


By the time the parade started we were back in PJs... spit-up will do that to you.

We paraded from the playroom to the master bedroom.

With a dance break:

McColley decorated his whole bonnet all by himself:

Post-Parade we took a little rest to recover from all the excitement:

Our parade was topped off by B making a wonderful pork chop dinner.  That was followed immediately by actually watching 'E.aster Parade' (the movie).

However, I was the only one to make it to the end.  There's always next year!

Eas.ter Preview

In a classic Maguire move, last night B told me about an Ea.ster Egg Hunt and Lunch being hosted by some of his co-workers today.

So this morning, just after finishing our breakfast and while still in our pj's, I asked B what time the event started.  He thought noon but he went to find the e-mail with the official time.

It started at 11... we found the e-mail at 10:50.

We got to the event at noon.

Luckily, they had held off on the hunt, so McColley got to participate:

And Brayton got passed around:

After all the eggs had been found, the kids posed for pictures:

We hung out for a bit more and then decided to go to Mu.seum Square.  One of the three museums has already closed due to building problems, but the other two are closing at the end of June because of budget cuts.  We got to the two open ones (they were very interesting).

The boys sat together for about two seconds at the second museum so I could get this picture:

Being our usual slacker selves... we waited until the verrrrryyyyyy end of the day to dye our eggs.

McColley helped B while Brayton supervised:

McColley did a good job helping pull the eggs out - although he had a bit of trouble dropping them into the dye cups:

Now the Ea.ster Bunny just needs to hide them... outside (as ordered by McColley).  Here's hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow!

Moving To Togetherness

Ring-a-ding!!!

Umm.....

This dog is bigger than my house!

We got invited to an Ea.ster party today at another mom's house.  She has three huge dogs, but they are gentle giants, and McColley LOVED watching them - just no touching.

McColley started out slow, playing by himself while watching the other kids.

Brayton loved watching McColley:

Besides the playhouses, there was a 'Pirate Ship' that McColley made himself captain of:

And from his vantage point he could see that a beautiful British lass needed help to push her car - just the reason to start playing with her:

And after getting her safely home, McColley offered to take the car to the mechanic:

Once he'd escaped the Lure of the Lass, he fell under the Spell of the Big Boy:

The older kids, but ESPECIALLY 'Baseball Boy', helped McColley try the trampoline for the first time:

McColley lasted for about two bounces, but that was just long enough for Brayton to take notes: