Impersonations

Makili has been enjoying trying to memorize books lately. Here is a clip of him telling the story of "Wallie the Walrus" which is a book written by my grandfather. Apparently my story telling involves a voice at the beginning that sounds like I'm mildly retarded, because that is how Makili recites it every time. He does do the whole book, but decided to cut it short in the middle of the story this day.

Daddy's Race

We watched Raph in a mountain bike race yesterday. They were giving out bells and Makili sat there ringing the bell for every biker that went by. But he saved his special screaming for Daddy when he crossed the finish line: "Go Daddy Go!" He was pretty disappointed that he couldn't race too! Raph was just happy to have finished!

Hanky-panky

Coralie, my Blooming Fools friend, came over the other day with her family to plant some flowers and prepare some beds. We had earlier weeded a big bed and laid plastic to keep the weeds from growing until we were ready to plant. When we went to pull it off to plant our flowers, we found FOUR snakes. Coralie called our house the nature park because the last time she came over, our resident short-tailed weasel friend who is shockingly tame, was running amuk. I can only attribute the residence of these creatures to an over-abundance of rodents. And I have never been happier about visitors! However, Makili and I have been checking on the snakes since they quickly relocated to another bed with plastic. They are definitely doing more than talking in there! If we don't get moving quickly, we're going to end up with a small snake farm here I think, and though in theory I'm into the snakes, I am really NOT into the idea of a snake farm. I'm getting shivers just thinking about it and flashing back to the time as a kid that I was looking for salamanders on a river bed, turned over a rock and found a snake nest. Ah! Yikes. Anyway, they are cool (in small numbers and from a distance while eating the rodents.)



And I just like this hat and my kids in it, even if they don't.

Birds of Prey

Our days are so full. The sun is such a nice visitor. We've spent countless hours playing in the dirt, going to the beach, biking around. I feel SO busy with everything that is going on. 15 hours a week of work has been feeling like A LOT! My boys are so cute and I am so lucky for the time that I have with them. Makili is funny kid these days, always cracking me up in one way or another. He learned to play hide-n-seek this week. It was fun.And this little chubster has a new habit of screaming constantly. I tell everyone it is like living with birds of prey. I feel like a hawk is about to swoop in and carry me off half the time. The other half the time I want to wring both their necks because Remick starts screeching and then Makili starts yelling, "You may not yell at me." And then he starts wailing and then well, the car rides haven't been so fun lately. This child is willful!
This is my family visiting me at work and the ensuing fight over the ice cream cone. I think Remick was doing his Birds of Prey impersonations on Raph's back too.

Digging

In our house, digging is definitely in the top ten activities list. I'm always digging. I'm always making Raph dig this or that up for me. And my boys certainly love digging. We had to buy Makili his own shovel earlier this year - a good shovel that was jsut his size, not a crappy plastic one that breaks constantly - because he always was trying to help us. He loves his shovel and at times really is a big helper!
And now Remick has the love of digging in the dirt too, which is awesome except when he uses the shovel as a spoon.

Slacker

Look at the cuteness. I can barely stand it. I'm also ready for more 80 degree days!

And the haircut!

Over Breakfast

Makili: When I get big, I'm going to swim and skate.

Me: Oh yeah?

Makili: Yeah. And when I get big I'm going to cook food. And I'm going to carry Remick.

Me: What else are you going to do when you get big?

Makili: I'm going to play with my cars and trucks while you're busy.

Me: Wow! You will be big! Do you think you'll have babies when you're big?

Makili: Yup.

Me: How many?

Makili: Two.

Me: Really. Are you going to have boys or girls?

Makili: I'm going to have Lightnings (like Lightning McQueen)

Me: Are you going to have a job when you're big?

Makili: yup.

Me: What kind of job are you going to have?

Makili: A yellow job.

Take a Good Look

After we found the tick on Makili, which by the way has shown no sign of Lyme - no fever, no bullseye, etc, I decided it was time to cut the hair. It has also been in his eyes. It is a constant dilemma for me because I absolutely love his hair long, even though I'm a bad mom and half the time he has a giant gnarley patch in the back. In fact, he'd have this all the time if Raph weren't involved. But I just don't know where to go with it after it goes in his eyes, because I'm against the bangs thing. So anyway, this was the last look at long hair.And this is the face he makes at me ALL the time when he tells me, "I'm silly!" Some of the things he find silly, I don't find so silly, like hitting his brother with a block, etc., but most of the time we see eye to eye. I love the look in his eye when he sees me doing something out of the ordinary and it finally registers that I'm playing. Then he breaks into a huge grin and says, "you're silly!"

He's been awfully joyful lately (when he isn't whining for us to buy him more Lightning McQueens) and I'm pretty much in love with him.

I was a good mom yesterday

I don't know why I've been so fatigued lately, but I have. Some days I just can't wait for nap time so I can join in, and oh boy, when nap time isn't synchronized, it puts a hurtin on me. Yesterday, though, I woke up with zest! The night before we had taken an outing to the thrift store because the weather was crappy and I needed to get out of the house. Makili desperately wanted to buy this plastic barn, and I said no, that we could make one. The whole way home he started listing all the thing that we were going to make - a barn, a garage, a tow truck, a mommy, a daddy, and remick, a Makili, trees, etc. I was a little confused by his list, and finally Raph asked him how he was going to make these things. Without hesitation he answered, "I'm going to make them out of dough with Mommy." I couldn't believe that he remembered making gingerbread houses 5 months ago, especially since he didn't see particularly interested at the time. So of course that went on today's agenda.

We did make cookies (though I didn't have the energy for full blown garages and houses), which always feels like an accomplishment. He was zealously enthusiastic with the cookie cutters. And we went for a hike in the woods. We made houses (of sticks) for the animals with bowls (acorn caps) of food (berries). He loved this and we did it over and over again. He also LOVED the bridges and stairs on the hike, sticking his fingers in holes in the ground, and finding the fiddleheads. It was so lovely outside.

At home, the three of us sat in the dandelions, Makili and I braided them into a crown for Remick, while he sat there eating them. Yesterday was a good day.




As a side note, despite taking all of his clothes of after our hike and checking him for ticks, we found one biting him this morning. Bummer. It wasn't engorged, so now we're watching for symptoms. Yuck.

Blooming Fools

I have been unbelievably busy lately. I have a new job as the Market Manager for two local farmers' markets which officially starts on Saturday, though there has been plenty of work already. I'm "working" on a local micro-farm once a week (though I get paid in vegetable). I'm still busy with the Master Gardener class and the required volunteer hours involved. I still have exchange students and am still looking for more families, and I have a gazillion things to do in the garden, though there are already lots of things growing - greens, peas, carrots, onions, scallions, broccoli, caulflower, cabbage, garlic, and brussel sprouts. My boys are full of energy, which can't be ignored. AND I'm starting a wee cut-flower business called Blooming Fools, cause there is definitely some fool involved in this. It is an exciting and overwhelming time! Now that I've listed it all out, I realize why I feel overwhelmed!

Look Out! Here He Comes!

Remick is growing and changing faster than I can keep up with so I need to capture a bit of the here and now with my feisty little man.

Communication –

Remick uses four signs: milk, more, eat, and all done. He signs them constantly, all day and has been doing so for about six weeks. He loves being able to communicate with us and is SO mad if I tell him no when he asks for milk (like because he just nursed for an hour or something). In fact, I might go as far as to say that he yells at me. He also tries to “answer” the phone, and loves to play games with me like give me something and have me give it back, or throw something out of the shopping cart over and over or sort the blocks together. He loves to figure out interactions.

Eating –

Remick eats: bananas, grapes, potatoes, apples, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, beans, peas, asparagus, blackberries, canteloupe, watermelon, and a few small pieces of Annma’s bread. It is impossible to feed this kid enough. He wants to eat all the time and whatever anyone else is eating. He grazes under Makili pretty much all the time, so there are quite a few foods that ought to be on the above list, but aren’t. It has really put some fire under my under-fired-up vacuuming urges. Larry fed him chocolate cake crumbs which he loved apparently?

Moving –

I thought Remick was going to start walking soon, but then he found the speed switch on the crawling and really cranked it up and now he’s so damn fast he doesn’t have much reason to want to walk. Though since he started standing unassisted, you never know? I love to see him crawl really fast, though, with his body moving like a snake, from side to side. And now that it has been warmer and he has been without pants, he cracks me up trying to avoid putting him knees down. He crawls on his feet and hands or with one knee and the other toes. It’s pretty funny.

Sleeping –

Raph and I have been sleeping in Makili’s room for a while now in part because we have an air filter in there which really mutes all the other noises in the house, for example, Remick’s need to wake and cry for a minute every hour. In fact, the air filter does such a good job, I only know that this happens because every time we sleep somewhere else, he miss the damn air filter. I’m exaggerating, though when he was an infant, he actually did wake every damn hour. If he had his way, I think he seriously would like to get up every 3-4 hours and be nursed back to sleep. BUT, he’s doing well in other ways. We are pretty much getting to the point where we can read him a book, give him the pacifier and set him in his crib, turn off the light and shut the door, and he goes to sleep on his own! That seems like a pretty impressive accomplishment.

Personality –

Feisty. Willful. Affectionate. Social. Curious. When Makili was a baby, if I told him no, he would cry. Remick just looks at me and laughs and then continues right on doing whatever I tell him not to. I’m already worried about what his adolescence is going to look like. He loves to climb stairs, eat dirt, pull my earrings, chase Makili. He is so lovey-dovey though. He melts into a big pile of smiles any time anybody (other than me) looks at him. It’s quite cute. I call him my stinky Buddha lately, though I also call him stinkerinker. He’s still a chubby babe and I could eat him up if he’d ever hold still long enough for nibble. He has no time for diaper changes. He has quite a temper and gets super mad when you hold him down for diaper changes.

A first

I've been meaning to write an update for Remick for a long time, and hopefully I'll get to it real soon, but I saw him do something for the first time today. He stood unassisted! For like 20-30 seconds! Cool huh?

Worker Bees and a garage sale!

These pictures are actually from a few weeks ago, but it's the same idea, and I forgot the card reader to download the pictures. We've been up at Ann and Larry's this week (while Raph is on vacation) cleaning out the garage! What a collection! And it could just go on and on. For locals, there will be a highly exciting garage sale on Saturday from 8-12. We'll make you a great deal, I promise!!!!

TIRED

Today was a long day. Makili sprayed Remick with the hose and soaked him and laughed. At naptime (when he wasn't even pretending to sleep, he ripped up a book. I thought maybe he needed some extra attention, so when Raph got home, I took him to the beach. He wouldn't stop throwing rocks at me, so I made him leave about 10 minutes after we got there. Good times. Then i had a meeting for my new job (Portsmouth farmers' market manager) and I was asked to be there for 1.5 hours. FOUR hours later! I'm excited and overwhelmed by the job (and life in general at the moment). And tomorrow the high is forecasted to be 41 degrees. Ugh.

Rudy Elwin Young

I had a REALLY hard time narrowing it down to 15 pictures! There is nothing like meeting a new baby! And seeing a new mom! Makes me so nostalgic.

For the record, MAkili LOVED "baby Rudy" and asked if we could buy him and bring him home.

Any resemblance?

This is Remick.This is my grandmother, Cynthia (Chita) Cate Beal.

What do you think?

When I Came Home

We went for our first bike ride of the season. It was short and a little cold (I wished I'd have had gloves), but it was lovely. The weather has been so great lately and it has been such a nice thing to be outside together digging in the garden, going for walks, digging in the garden, and eating meals outside. Really lovely.

Pittsburgh as seen from my camera...