Old McDonald Past the Farm and other greatest hits

Below, Remick is trying to stand up to get the hanging ball. He had been doing this for a solid ten minutes, and can actually stand up on his own. I expect him to walk across the room any day now. Balls, by the way, are his favorite thing at the moment. He says, "Ba!" and if you ask him to go get the ball, he will crawl around the house hunting for one. He also says "hi" and "Ma" for mom, milk, and more.

Shut the Phone; Hello!

Makili and I had some phone time fun the other day. He cracked me up. I have about 40 clips of him on the phone which are all funny, but might not be that funny to people other than us, so I chose one... And Remick was getting in on the action too...

My Little Indians

Once in a while I get to lay under the trees and look up while my kids play together joyfully nearby. Once in a while.This one will come and check in with me every so often and then scoot back to chase his brother.
Makili, for his part, has discovered the joy of running around naked in the heat, which also makes his last discovery, peeing outside, that much easier.
Isn't this teepee that someone gave us AWESOME. My boys just love to play in there and together! So cute.

What Were We Thinking?

We decided to take five kids under the age of 3 to the beach today. This involved a 3/4 mile walk to the beach, broiling sun, and suffocating heat (high of 92 today!). They handled it pretty well, but all five of the adults who attended were pretty spent (and sunburnt) by the time we got back. Kane was certainly the one who enjoyed the trip most of all. He LOVED swimming in the ocean (open Atlantic Ocean in MAY! UNBELIEVABLE and scary!). It was great fun to see them and I hope that happens a whole lot more this summer - the beach part, by which I mean easily accessible by car with lots of shade and coolers full of Annma-prepared goodies.

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.