Birthday Week

Two very special ladies are celebrating very special milestones this week. Ethan and Adam are incredibly blessed to have loving, doting, and adoring grandmas on both sides of the family. Watching the boys interact with their grandmothers fills my heart with joy. Ethan has such special relationships with both his Noni and his Grandma (I'm sure Adam does too, but Ethan's are more evident). These wonderful women are always thinking of our kids - calling to check in, worrying about them when they're sick, finding a certain toy that Ethan or Adam just "has to have", bragging about their "incredibly gifted" grandsons, etc., etc.

These women are not only second moms to Ethan and Adam, but they are the moms I look to most often for mothering advice and insight into this crazy adventure called parenting. They're always there to listen to me gripe about the kids' latest "issues" and help brainstorm strategies for dealing with them. They give me perspective and wisdom, and I always value their opinions, even if we disagree on the solution. (sorry Mom, but I stand by my swaddle. :) ) They're eternally eager to listen to us brag about the boys' latest achievements, and to "oooh" and "aaah" as if Ethan had just learned to read Latin or Adam had just returned from running a mile. These women have many, many things to be proud of accomplishing during their 60 years on earth, but personally, I think they should be most proud of being grandmothers, a role which they have perfected in every way.

Happy 60th Birthday to our wonderful moms!

Crib Antics

We never know what awaits us when we check on our boys every night, or when we go in to get them in the morning. Their sleep positions always make us chuckle, and Ethan is often proudly undressed (luckily he has yet to figure out how to take his diaper off - that would be a real treat to walk into).

Last night we checked on our sleeping polar bear cub:

And this morning, we caught our little escape artist trying to get out of his crib, chubby legs first:

They're both napping now - we'll see what we find when they wake up!

Weekend with Noni and Papi (aka Our Angels)

While Ben and I enjoyed a weekend full of SLEEP!, visiting with friends (without having to chase a toddler or pacify a baby at the same time), staying up late without consequence, and days uninterrupted by naptimes, Ethan and Adam descended upon Noni and Papi at their house in Rockport. I'm not sure that Noni and Papi had quite the relaxing weekend we did, but I am sure that Ethan and Adam had a blast. Pictures from Papi's camera illustrate the weekend's activities.

Ethan's daily (or multiple daily) walks with Papi to explore the grounds, splash in puddles, visit the ducks, and spot boats at sea:

Sometimes Noni and Adam were allowed to come along too:

Visiting the Owls Head Transportation Museum:

Walking around downtown Camden (more ducks and boats):

Playing with Mom's old toys (and an electric frying pan cover?):

Snuggling by the fire. Yes, the fire. In late June.

Taking care of Adam is hard work. Good thing Ethan was there to help Noni at bathtime:

Not only did Noni and Papi take great care of the boys, but they also completely cleaned our car (inside and out), did all the boys' laundry (and a bit of mine too), and broke Adam of his pacifier habit. They're pretty much rock stars in my book. And all this during a soggy washout of a weekend (if you need to be reminded of how fun it is to be indoors with two little boys during rainy weather, see previous posts). Next time (Ben and I are praying that there will be a next time), we promise to order up sunnier weather.

Thanks again Mom and Dad!!

Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody, Everywhere!

I was in the kitchen making dinner the other night, and heard a bunch of noise in the living room. I peeked my head around the corner to see what the boys had gotten into and saw this:

Ethan had completely cleared his table (usually this table is stacked with toys) and was scrubbing it down with a sponge. Now this wasn't a pretend job - the sponge was somehow wet and he was legitimately cleaning the table. He even gave the stools a thorough wipe-down.

I'm not sure where he learned this trick, because as those of you who have seen my house between cleanings know, I don't clean. Ever. My mom claims that I was a total neat-freak until I was 3 or 4 years old, and then one day, I woke up and decided to be a slob. I'm hoping that doesn't happen with Ethan, and that we have a teenager who cleans his room without being nagged (yeah right).

Where was Adam during all this ruckus? Well apparently Ethan had dumped everything off his table and into Adam's lap, so he was just sitting amid the mess, happy as a kid in a candy store. Hmmm...maybe he's the one we'll be nagging to clean his room.

Flying Solo

Single moms rock - that's all I can say. I often complain about doing more than my fair share around this place, but whenever Ben's gone for a few days, it reminds me that maybe he does pull a little weight too. There are just not enough arms/hands/laps/listening ears to keep everyone happy - it's a good reminder that three kids might be insanity. Thank goodness for friends and family, who made this past Ben-less weekend a lot easier (and much more fun).

After an exhausting Friday afternoon/evening with two energetic boys and one over-tired mama, I decided that I needed to call in the reserves for help and headed to Rockport Saturday morning. (In actuality, I had always been planning to head up there, but Friday night made me scurry out even quicker Saturday morning). We stopped in Brunswick on the way to say a final goodbye to the Doyles. It was a gorgeous Saturday, and the boys had fun playing in the sun and kiddie pool with several naked little ladies.

After that, we headed north to Rockport, where the boys were spoiled by Noni, Papi, and Uncle Pauly. It was great to have the extra sets of hands to help (or to rile up small children right before bed and naptimes, in Uncle Pauly's case).

As I have written about before, Ethan adores both of his grandfathers - it's really precious to watch. Here he is snuggling with Papi and Mom's old Cabbage Patch Kid, who Ethan named "Baby" (very original, I know).

We had a tearful parting when we left Rockport last night (lots of "I want Noni and Papi!" sobs all the way home). The good news is that Ethan and Adam will be shipped back up there on Thursday so Noni and Papi can spoil them rotten while Ben and I head to the Berkshires for a wedding this weekend. And then I'll get MY weekend off too.

The First of Many

This morning Ben and I had the pleasure of attending Ethan's first school "recital". Ethan participates in Kindergym at daycare every Thursday morning, and today they invited parents to come see a little demonstration. It was really adorable, and it's obvious that Ethan loves the class. As typical proud parents, we took some video of one of the dances and of Ethan getting his certificate and ribbon. A couple of funny things to note while watching these (long - sorry) videos:

1.) Ethan LOVES to bounce. You will see that he bounces long after the "bounce like a kangaroo" section, and into the part where he's supposed to be sleeping.

2.) Ethan has a little buddy (or someone who really wants to be his buddy - not sure if it's mutual). Notice the cutie in the Gap sweatshirt who keeps wanting to be right next to Ethan and hold his hand.

Between the demonstration today, and parent-teacher conferences yesterday, we have been spending lots of time at Ethan and Adam's school this week. Ethan's teachers say he is a real pleasure to have in class (which is very good to hear, considering the number of "incident" reports we still need to sign for the little rascal). He did well on his colors and shapes test - getting all the colors but brown and yellow, and identifying circles and squares with ease. His strengths are gross and fine motor skills and his favorite toys to play with are cars and carts (really?).

OK, enough bragging for now. :)

Wishful Thinking

All week, we had planned to go to the beach Friday morning. I had just gotten our beach sticker, neither of us had to work, the forecast was looking great... a perfect beach day was in order. Well, we woke up Friday morning to clouds and 50 degree temperatures. But we decided not to let that foil our plans and were determined to make it to the beach anyway. We packed up the boys, a full picnic spread, chairs, sand toys, sunscreen (just in case), etc. and went to the beach for...oh, 20 minutes. We stuffed our sandwiches down as we shivered, dug a few holes in the sand, and agreed that such an outing would be a lot more fun on a sunny day. Then we headed home to warm up.

Fauna

We have seen lots of wildlife around these parts lately. First, the beautiful...

A few weeks ago, we watched in fascination as a bird built a nest in the tree right off our back deck. About a week later, there were tiny baby birds in the nest, and we watched the mama bird repeatedly fly away and return with worms for her babies. Now that poor mama has empty nest syndrome - we found the babies out on our lawn this morning (thankfully, before Luna did - she is now on strict house arrest).

But the mama bird's not done parenting quite yet - she continues to watch over her babies and bring them breakfast.

Now onto the ugly... We found this in our garden this morning:

Yup, it's a dead snake. Gross. At least it wasn't a.) alive, or b.) in our house.

And finally, the scary (and pretty cute)... our very own polar bear:

"ROAR!"

A very sleepy polar bear, ready to hibernate.

Update

This is what happens when you release said shut-in (see previous post) into the great outdoors:

Yes, he is riding his car inside his sandbox, which is full of rainwater. I walked around the front of the house to cut some flowers (3 minutes, max), and came back to this scene. The little mischief-maker kept assuring me it was ok, since he had his rain boots on. Good thing.

Whenever things like this happen, I immediately think of Ethan's buddy Molly. Molly and Ethan are two peas in a pod when it comes to their energy level and their ability to "think outside the box". Melissa and I love sharing stories about our "spirited" toddlers, and often wonder what it would be like to have one of those kids who "sits and plays nicely". I think we may have gotten one of those with Adam, but it may be too soon to tell. Molly is getting herself a little brother or sister to torment this October, and I am hoping that he/she will be a relaxed baby too. Melissa and I go way back (14 years to be exact) and have been through many big adventures together, parenthood probably being the biggest. Melissa met each of my kids just hours after they were born, and I was honored to meet Molly on her birthday too. I am very sad to think that I won't be able to meet Doyle #2 on his/her actual birthday because the Doyles will be across (and slightly north) of the country come the middle of this month. They promise to return in 2 years, which I know will fly by, but we will certainly miss seeing them on a regular basis, and being there for the big moments. It's a good thing Molly is such a great little linguist, so she can keep us updated on her antics via phone.