OMG

I am not sure what I was thinking when I allowed myself to be convinced this morning that I would participate in a craft show in less than TWO WEEKS! I can barely find time to shower? How the hell I am going to produce enough wares in TWO WEEKS is an excellent question. I think I was lured into it by the idea that I'd either be left (after two insano weeks!) with some money in my pocket or a bunch of stuff I can give as gifts. I wish I could sleep better. Like right now I should be sleeping or sewing or doing something useful. But I can't. I'm just wishing I could.

Buddies for the moment

I requested a bunch of books from the library this week which is sort of a good joke, because realistically when do I get to read books? Extra books? Cause I mostly have to read the book for my class, and then there's the book group book that never gets read, so requesting books? Ha! But a miraculous thing happened. Apparently, I accidentally requested the book-on-tape version of Siblings Without Rivalry instead of the actual book. And as I was standing there in the library to pick it up, I almost said, "No I wanted the real book." And then it dawned on me! I might actually be able to listen to a book!

So we've been listening to Siblings in the car for the last few days. Raph can't stand the women's voices, but I think it's been fairly instructive. I'm a little worried that Makili is taking it all in and will therefore be able to outsmart me, but so far I think it will be helpful. Has anyone out there read this book and found it to be helpful? I have to admit that on an emotional day, I cried a few times thinking about my own siblings. We are all so different, and have totally different strengths. I hope they know that I am proud of them, even if I can't always relate to them...

I think the book will be more helpful down the line, but right now, I have to say, Makili is pretty darn fond of Remick. If he wakes up and finds me in the living room, he's quick to ask, "Where's Remick?" Sometimes, he'll even say, "I want to play with Remick." (This of course means tackling him and smothering him with his love, but playing nonetheless.) Makili is also really into telling you that he loves things lately. He probably tells me he loves me dozens of times a day, and each time he usually follows it up with, "And I love Remick too. And I love Daddy too." (Sometimes he also throws a combination of Annma, Paka, Grammy, Opa, and tractors in there too.)

Remick for his part is also pretty fond of his brother. There are days when his whole person lights up when he sees Makili for the first time. It's like that is who he has been waiting to see! He tolerate Makili's doting so well too. Makili will be "hugging" him so that he can barely breathe and certainly can't see the toy he was just touching, and Remick will just chill out waiting for Makili to be done (which is usually when I'm yelling "space in the face!")

I can't wait to see their brotherhood develop. I hope they can continue to enjoy each other as they get older (though I'm expecting the fighting too), but right now I'm just loving that that like each other.

I forgot to mention

As a part of my recounting of yesterday I forgot to mention two small pieces of my day, which I only remembered now because my house still smells like smoke.

First, in on of my try-to-be-a-good-mom moments, I was trying to pop the popcorn that we grew this summer. It is very dry, which I know is part of the process so I stuck a cob in the microwave to see how it would taste. And I waited for the popping. It did eventually start popping. Unforuntately at about the same time, the cob started burning and filled the microwave with black smoke. We tried to eat the good bits, but they tasted too smoky.

THEN the teenage helper, Sam, (whose Dad also happens to be a fireman) was over and I was trying to make the salad for dinner. I was toasting the almonds, which frequently results in burnt almonds. Well, jsut as I noticed that they were black, and opened the door to pull them out, the whole tray burst into flames. My entire toaster was full of black smoke sneaking out the sides. Sam, worries, asked seriously, "do you want me to call my dad?" I assure her I can handle it and with over mitts proceed to carry the flaming toaster outside. It is still sitting on the back patio.

I jsut want you all to know the entirety of yesterday.

How we pass our days...

I got up this morning at six or whatever ungodly hour we get up around here. I put forth a good effort to be a good mom. I played with Makili in the "restaurant" (see below), cleaned up a bit with Makili's help, got myself a cup of coffee, gave Remick attention, etc. And then I was tired. And I realized IT WAS ONLY 9:00!

So I went to the Family Resource Center but they didn't actually have a play group this morning. They let me stay anyway until Makili had a meltdown because I wouldn't let him eat unlimited donuts (I cut him off at two munchkins. I don't think they should even put them out at a place like that to be honest). So we left and I tried to drop off my defective nursing bras at the UPS store, but I couldn't get across the bridges. The big bridge had major traffic so I tried the bypass bridge, but the bridge was up, so I gave up and turned around. Makili asked to go to the playground, so I thought I'd give "the good mom" thing another try and headed there. Unfortunately I got there and had to go to the bathroom so bad I decided I just wanted to go home, plus the whole playground was wet. So I coerced Makili into leaving and went home at which point it was ONLY 11:00 and I thought to myself "how am I ever going to make it until nap time?!"

During nap time, I taught writing to some homeschoolers down the street, which was actually fun, but right about the time we were wrapping up, my teenage helperouter showed up even though she had never called me to say whether she was able to come AND she was there an hour earlier than the previous time AND my kids were still asleep, which made her help less useful.

I used my "free" time to go running while Raph cut up the firewood, a project that never seems to end. And now it's bed time. But here are a few pictures from our days.


Makili now does this puzzle quickly without any help at all. Pretty good for a two-year-old.I was wrapping some Christmas presents this morning so I can deliver them with people and avoid the shipping and Makili was helping. He kept asking, "where's my present. Finally he went and got his lego tractor and wanted to wrap it up for himself." Slef-manipulation is a good skill.
Remick's eyes look a bit like my brother's in this picture. Raph liked watching him chew on one of his favorite toys (I'm glad noone else bought this Nadine!)
And this is Makili's new favorite thing. This box is his "restaurant." He like me to sit outside with a plate and say,, "Hey pizza man! Where's my pizza? I'm hungry!" At which point he dives through the doors and onto the ground. There is little pizza involved, but he loves the dramatic entry, you know...

I am showing this to MAkili and I realized that he no longer calls Remick "wreck" or "rick", but actually says Remick...

N-A-U-G-H-T-Y

This is actually not a picture of naughty. This picture is Makili wearing Remick's sumo wrestler costume, which made me laugh so hard I let him keep it on. Unfortunately, he thought it was a diaper (it does sort of fit like one) and had a full-on adult sized crap on the rug. And he had a meltdown too because he was so upset about it. Thankfully Raph was home that day and I didn't have to scrub the rug and the kid (just the rug!)

But Makili has been demonstrating naughty lately. Like when he stuck a pretzel nugget in Remick's mouth. Or when he dumped all the ashes from the fire (they're in a box underneath) onto the floor so that he could "dig" with his immense tractor collection. He's been a real pistol lately. He's also taken to calling Raph and I by our first names if we don't answer fast enough. He'll be in his room for nap emphatically yelling, "mom, mom, mom." Then a pause. "Blayne. Blayne. Blayne." It actually makes me laugh. I'll have to remember to write down some more of the naughties, because they are pretty funny retrospectively. (except the crap on the floor. that wasn't so funny.)

Cankles and...?

Remick definitely has some major cankles (no difference between calf and ankles, mom, sine I know you'll ask me later what that means), but Tamara pointed out last night that he doesn't have any knees. They're like little dimples instead. Is there a name for that? Thalves? Any ideas? (Yes, sleep deprivation is contributing to this post.)

Portrait of Some Serious Cheeks

My Big Guy

My guy is five months today. I've not been so good about doing updates for him like I was for Makili. I feel badly about that, but in all honesty, there are plenty of days it is a miracle I can post anything at all. So let me fill you in on where Remick's is at.

He is big. At his last appointment a month ago he weighed over 18 pounds and was over 25 inches long. And he still has a big head, though not as big as his brother. A good portion of his weight seems to be concentrated in his thighs and his cheeks, which seem to stand out with chubb.

He's got the gross motor thing figured out. He's been sitting for almost six weeks. He is far more willing than Makili was at this age to be on his belly, and seriously makes me think he might crawl soon. He also has been threatening to roll over lately. He did it once to get a really shiny bag, but otherwise just sort of does it halfway. He also likes to stand and in particular bounce. He would probably love one of those doorway bouncer things - maybe I'll see if I can find a cheap one somewhere...

As for fine motor, he's definitely still working on that. He is SUPER grabby and spends most of his day grabbing stuff (like my hair - ouch!), but isn't super good at tracking something that he is holding, though he is getting better every day. He sticks his hands in his mouth constantly, and occasionally will stick an object in his mouth, but definitely doesn't do this as a rule. I'm hopeful that he'll be like Makili and not be too into putting things in his mouth.

He still sleeps like crap, waking up every 45 minutes to 2 hours all night. Raph and I typically take shifts putting his plug (pacifier) back in, since most of the time that is all that he wants. He doesn't like a dirty diaper at night either though, so sometimes that is the cause of the fuss. During the day, he is a reliable napper, and most days I can get him to nap at the same time as Makili so that I can have a few minutes to get dinner made or blog.

He LOVES music. We noticed this from birth, but now that he goes with us to Makili's music class it is even more evident. He is completely transfixed for much of music class, though he often shrieks with excitement and flaps his arms. He flaps his arms a lot actually, when he's excited or mad. When he is really unhappy, we can often turn music on and he'll calm down. He doesn't like loud noises or being yelled at (like when Makili yells at him to stop crying in the car). Typically these things make him cry or cry harder. Sometimes he cries if Makili is crying.

Between his cat naps, Remick is a pretty happy guy. He smiles at everyone and is generally very amiable. He LOVES his brother and sometimes his whole face will light up when he hasn't seen him in a while. Makili gives Remick LOTS of attention. I probably say "space in the face" a hundred times a day. But Remick handles it quite well. Most of the time he likes it in fact.

All of sudden, Remick has been needing constant entertainment. He wants to be on the go all the time. Putting him on the floor with toys is out of the question sometimes. I wonder what has changed in his brain.

We've become pretty cozy in our little family unit. I feel very fortunate to be home with my boys and watch them grow, even if I also feel frazzled and stressed a lot of the time too. It is a hard job to be a stay-at-home mom. I like it though, and feel lucky to have the chance to play this role.

Long Lost Friends

I wanted to try to post every day this month. Oh well. I missed yesterday. We were busy. We went down to see John:Raph's best buddy from high school who was the one who dragged us to Hawaii. In fact, all of his high school best buds showed up. We hung out in a restaurant for like four hours (with both babies! ouch!) and it was great to see them.

Good ol' Gwen played tractors endlessly with Makili, which was awesome. We actually bought Makili his first lego toy (a tractor of course) for him to put together with help at the dinner table. It worked great that night, but it has been the bane of my existence ever since. I probably "fix" that tractor hundreds of times a day.Anyway, it was good to see them.

My Little Fathead's Fotoshoot

Have you ever seen such a noggin with fatter cheeks? The old man hairline adds to the cuteness too.

It starts this young?

Yesterday, our super-cute teenage buddy Sam came over to hold the babies so Raph and I could get some things done in the yard. She loves babies and was making me laugh because she'd ask me while holding Remick and playing with Makili, "do you need help with laundry or anything?" Like seriously, is she trying to make me look bad? Anyway, Makili loved having her here to play with him, and when it was time for her to leave, Makili gave her a long, sort of awkwardly long hug. Then he walked over to me with a smile and said, "Sam has boobies!" YikeS!

Seasonal Living

You know, we try to eat in season these days, as much as possible. And really we try to eat out of the garden as much as possible, to utilize the farmers' market when we can't. And though we certainly spend some dollars at Market Basket (our local grocery store), we try. I have been impressed lately how it seems like kids (or Makili specifically) seem to eat in season naturally. When blueberry season was upon us, Makili would absolutely gorge himself on them. He literally could not eat enough of them. And though I often have apples in the house (even out of season), he really wasn't overly interested in them all summer. Then suddenly apple season happened and I swear the kid has eaten a bushel of apples himself. And though we still have plenty of apples in the house, Makili seems to know that their season has passed. He has moved onto dried fruits, being totally obsessed with raisins at the moment (though he also digs the dried pears and mangoes that we are known to have at times.) And it was like that with watermelon, cantelope (though he is still packing those away), raspberries. So I guess it is the fruit.

It also seems that Makili's play seems to follow the season so naturally as well. In the spring he spent hours digging in my garden, until things started to grow and that wasn't okay anymore. Then there was the water play time, then back to the dirt again, and then toys started falling from the ground - LEAVES!! He has made it very difficult for me to rake lately, as it is as though I'm taking away his toys. And soon, he'll get the snow. Oh boy! Then we'll be eating out of the freezer and jars. Hard to believe on a sunny 65 degree day in November.

beware the apple juice

I clearly missed a father-son moment beacuse Makili just came in the bathroom where I was doing laundry and said, "I peed in the cup!" My response was "Why? (WTF?)" To which Makili replied, "Daddy tell me to pee in the cup." And sure enough there was a plastic cup full of pee waiting for me on the counter. Ew!

Fall fun with the relatives

We had a great weekend last weekend with Raph's relatives. Such gorgeous weather we've had around these parts recently.

Makili and Kane had a blast in the leaves. Makili kept asking us to rake a pile so that he could jump into them and run through them. Kane really wanted to be able to yield that rake with authority. They were very cute. I finally got the leaves raked up in our back yard today, when Makili wasn't looking, because he considers them toys put there for his disposal and would get very upset with me if I tried to rake them into the compost pile.

Anyway, loving fall...

Some recent pics.

Raph got his buddy George to help out with the shed extension project. I thought I should at least give him some credit for that.
Steeler Fans.


McCall cuteness.

Shearing Summer

I wish I could say we were on the tail end of summer, but in fact we're headed eyes wide open into winter. Around here we're still trying to savor some of the last bits of "fresh" that we can find, while spliting and stacking the wood, putting the garden to bed and hunkering down with winter projects...


I know summer is over when I got Makili's blond locks off. It breaks my heart every time, but the poor kid was constantly trying to get his hair out of his eyes, so it was time! Here he is demonstrating his pockets, which he loves.Remick demonstrating cuteness, as usual.

The last fresh flowers from the garden. Makili walked outside the other day and insisted on picking them. And I thought to myself. You're right, Makili! What am I thinking? I NEED these fresh flowers in the house, because pretty soon I won't have the luxury! So I grabbed a pair of scissors and he helped me choose which ones to pick...

On Makili's one day of sickness (it wasn't the flu - Yahoo!), he really lived it up, watching Bob the Builder on the computer, drinking unlimited amounts of juice, and eating a lollipop, a new and agonizingly slow treat left over from trick-or-treating.
And amazingly, we are STILL eating raspberries. We each eat a handful every day. That seems like a blessing.
And of course we are still eating out of the garden. We're pretty much down to broccoli, leeks, potatoes, kale, collards, and brussel sprouts. I didn't freeze enough this year or eat enough really, but there's always next year and we're just trying to suck the last marrow out of that summer sun we're already missing!

I miss my mom.

Thus It Begins

I came home from soccer last night, and soon after I did so, Makili woke up in his room. Raph went and laid down with him, since Ann had but him to bed on the futon instead of in his crib. (These grandmas are such softies!:) Remick was in our bed, so I decided to lay down with Raph and Makili for a while. I put my hand on Makili and he was sweaty and hot, even to my touch after playing soccer for an hour and a half. Raph hadn't seemed to notice and so I got up and got the thermometer - 103.4. The last six months with no sickness have been great. I'm not sure I'm ready to enter sick season again, the time of year when we can't leave home, not even over night, without the thermometer, the tylenol, the IB Profin. The worst part is that it is probably the flu, since everybody around here has the flu these days. 25% of our local high school were absent yesterday, so I supposed it was inevitable.

We took Makili and Remick to vote here in Maine last night. I've actually found myself thrust into local politics because of some school issues in our town, but the big vote last night was whether or not to uphold the same-sex marriage law that was passed here in Maine a few months ago. I know I have several friends and relatives that might feel otherwise from how Raph and I do about this issue, and you can stop reading right now if you like, but I was sorely disappointed to read this morning that the same-sex marriage law was defeated yesterday by a narrow margin. It really bums me out. Raph and I both look at it as a civil rights issue, and I don't really care what your religious beliefs are, I don't really how you can see otherwise. I'm taking a literature class right now and happen to be reading about slavery in the early days. There were many leading writers and thinkers who were ardent abolitionists, but there were also intelligent people who advocated slavery, with various rationalizations. I think the two causes are linked. I hope one day we will find laughable the idea that we even had to vote on whether or not to allow gay and lesbian couples the rights afforded to others.

I got on this morning hoping to write an update about my kiddos since I can't even keep up with the adorable cute things that come out of Makili's mouth and Remick is getting so big, so grabby, but this is what flowed from my fingers today. I'll share one little Makilism before I tackle him with kisses. We were driving in the car the other day and the sun was shining in his eyes. He said "I don't like the sun." I replied, "I love the sun. You don't like the sun in your eyes." He thought for a second and said, "I like the sun in my mouth." So I asked him what it tasted like, and without hesitation, he said, "It tastes like yellow." Hmmm.

Cause that's how my mom rolls.

I mentioned that I didn't have the picture from the big visit, and poof, a CD arrived in the mail! My mom is quick like that. Some of my favorite picture of Makendra still didn't work, but there are still a lot of nice ones!


Final beach days.Pumpkins...
Tim, the maestro chef.
Pretty Tamara.
Public Servant Jean.



Maybe time for a haircut?Good Ol' Warren.
Even Opa limped through the orchard! (Love you Dad)

REALLY happy to be there.
My seldom seen Aunt Katie and Uncle Bill. They live in Canada. A real treat to see them.
My cousin Makendra's Luke, who is four months older than Makili.
My family! Wow.
My smiley guy.
My cousin Makendra's baby, Faith, who is two weeks older than Remick.
And my cousin, Makendra