the week in pictures

Well, the second part of the week, anyway. We had soccer practice Thursday, then went out to dinner with my family on Friday (as you can tell, the boys were in rare form). Mike also took Max to get a haircut on Friday, but you can barely tell in these pics; I'll have to post some soon to capture the cuteness. Saturday morning, Mike and Liam had a little pre-game power struggle, which resulted in a win for Mike (shocking!) and a sulk fest for Liam (warming up for the game by kicking the ball around with his arms crossed and a giant scowl on his face). Things got better as the game progressed, and the rest of the weekend went fairly smoothly. The boys and I went to a pancake breakfast at my dad's fire station Sunday morning, where they chowed down on pancakes, sausage, and eggs, and we spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and hanging out at home. A fairly busy weekend, but we still had time to relax and unwind, which we (at least the adults) needed.

life in the vomitorium, or: it was almost a good day

Today was a big day around here. This afternoon, we took Liam to Kindergarten Round-Up, where he was tested on basic skills (he said he knew all of the answers, but I'm not surprised since they only asked the kids to identify colors, shapes, letters, and numbers) while we were tested by having to sit on stools designed for small people for an hour while listening to the many (many!) rules for school protocol. Overall, it went pretty well. I'm not at all emotional about it now, but come August 19, I may change that tune.

Later in the afternoon, we headed off to a hot and sunny soccer practice. It was a really nice day, and I should have had the foresight to (a) put the boys in shorts, (b) bring sunscreen, and (c) find some sort of large-brimmed hat to keep the sun from burning my (very sensitive) face. Luckily, I did have the foresight to bring giant bottles of ice water for the boys, which Max sipped happily as we watched practice, and Liam guzzled as often as he could sneak away from the field.

After practice, it was home for dinner. Miraculously, the boys both ate well, even Max, who usually takes two bites and then announces that he's done (and then asks for a treat, of course). Loni came over, and things seemed to be going fine ... until after baths when it was time for them to go upstairs, and Max promptly vomited all over his room and the hallway. I won't give you the details, but suffice it to say that both boys were fascinated with telling me about the consistency, color, and odor of each of the specimens, and speculating on which thing Max must have had to eat or drink to cause these effects. Ugh. So now it's 10:30 and both boys are downstairs. Liam's asleep in his sleeping bag on the floor behind me, while Max is on the couch with a towel underneath him and a bucket at the ready, still awake and whisper-singing so he doesn't get into trouble for not going to sleep. I have a feeling this may end up being a long night for the whole family...

P.S. Apparently Klaudia and Emma are also sick today, so watch out, family: I'm starting to suspect that this bug is a little something extra the kids picked up during the Easter egg hunt on Sunday!

circus forticus: now with more ... um, forticus

So the Easter Bunny brought bonus baskets to my parents' house on Sunday: one for Liam, one for Max, and one for their new sibling, who will make his or her arrival in early October. The boys are pretty excited about the prospect of having a new baby to play with. To be fair, it's Liam who is really excited and impatient. We're not really sure that Max has entirely grasped the concept. What we do know is that both boys are totally jealous of the baby's Easter gift, a sock monkey jack in the box. I'm hoping they stop fighting over who gets to play with it by the time the baby is ready to play with it ... oh, who am I kidding?

happy easter

We enjoyed a fairly low-key Easter this year. After a morning at home, we headed to my step-grandma's house for a quick meal and an egg hunt for two (which Liam and Max really appreciated!) before trekking across the driveway to my mom's house. Quite a few of my aunts and uncles made the trip in to spend the afternoon together, and everyone had fun flying kites, playing wiffle ball, going on a scavenger hunt, and, of course, hunting for eggs. There was a lot of fun stuff for the kids to do outside, and for the most part, the adults got to enjoy some time chatting and catching up inside. After the egg hunt, each kid got a prize. Liam got a book of mazes, and Max got sidewalk chalk -- both of which were perfect for them. Plus, after all the other guests left, the boys discovered that the Easter Bunny had stopped by my mom's house to leave gifts for them there, too. Liam got a set of Thomas train cars, and Max got a Diego toy. However, they both fell in love with something that wasn't even in their baskets. Luckily, we got to bring that thing home too, and I'll report on it in our next installment.

first soccer game

Liam's first soccer game was Saturday, and it went really well despite the cold, damp, windy morning. Each team was split up into two smaller groups so everyone could get a chance to play, so Liam was separated from Emma, but he did get to play with his nemesis/best friend T.R. It was a very lively game. Liam may not have been the best or fastest player on the field, but he definitely made up for it in enthusiasm. And by "enthusiasm," I mean trash talk. And overly aggressive body checks. And outright pushing. It was a little surprising, but most of the other kids were doing it too, so I guess this is normal (?) for this age group. At one point during the game, the coach made Liam and a boy from the opposing team (a boy who Liam knows from school, who is almost two years older than him) shake hands and make up for their unsportsmanlike conduct. Yikes! Anyway, Liam's group ended up tied at 2, while Emma's team clobbered the opponents 7-1. Liam had a wonderful time playing, and was exhausted and grass-stained at the end. Max had a pretty good time watching, too, though he was definitely not a fan of that cold wind.

sheepish

The boys have been to Aunt Bethany's house twice in the last few days to enjoy the wildlife. Sunday night, they admired (and brushed, and petted, and fed by hand, as you can see in the pictures) the two new sheep. Last night, they made a return trip to check out the six (!) new pigs. They were mightily impressed, from all accounts, though I have no pictures of them with the pigs to offer as proof.

lucky

I am 34 years old, and I've been told many times (and expect to hear many times over the coming days) how lucky I am to have had my grandmother in my life for so long. I absolutely know this to be true, and it's a fact that I'm hanging onto today. Gram died last night, and all day I've been reminding myself of how lucky I've been, not just that our lives have overlapped for so long, but that she was the grandmother I got. I could give you a million different examples of her bravery, compassion, and unwavering belief, but I'll save that for another time; instead, you'll just have to believe me when I say there's no better example than hers that I could follow.

This blog is, above all things, a love letter to my boys, who can't fully grasp what's going on now, so I'll tell them here now what I'll be telling them when they can understand: Your "Grandma Okie" was an extraordinary woman. I hope you will remember her, but if you don't, I'll hold the memories for you. She was kind and beautiful and funny, and yes, we were so lucky to have had her in our lives.

Gram's obituary can be found here.

atta boy, liam!

Liam has a best-friend-slash-nemesis at school. We'll call him "T.R." For months, Liam has been coming home and complaining that T.R. beats him in races "because he has faster shoes." In fact, the last time we got Liam new tennis shoes, he told everyone who would listen how excited he was that he would finally beat T.R. because his (Liam's) shoes were "super-fast catchers." And sure enough, he won a couple of races against T.R., and each time, he would come home and proudly tell us about it. But for the most part, T.R. is definitely a faster runner than Liam.

So yesterday, Liam's teacher told me that the boy has found a way to even the score: academics! For the past couple of weeks, the two boys have continued their races, but now Liam has come up with a spelling game in which they challenge each other to name the most words that start with a particular letter. Liam, being a better speller, wins almost all of these contests, which, in his mind at least, makes them even.

Funny enough, we also heard yesterday that T.R. might even be on Liam's soccer team (he missed the first practice). If so, their own personal competition should add an interesting component to the games!

first soccer practice

Liam had his first soccer practice tonight, and boy, was he excited about it. When we got there, he was a tiny bit shy, but then he recognized one of his coaches (she was a teacher at his preschool last year), and the shyness disappeared. From then on he was kicking a ball against a wall, doing the "duck walk," stretching, running, and shooting goals with all of the other (mostly bigger) kids. Whenever he had a slight break, he would turn to me (I was on the sidelines with Max, Jimmy, and Gracie, who were happily sharing Fruit Loops) and either give me a big thumbs up or yell out, "Mom, this is great!" As an added bonus, cousin Emma is on the same team, so we get to see more of Laura and family (along with the added bonus of carpooling whenever necessary). The next practice isn't until next week (normally there are two per week), but I'm sure Liam will be busy practicing his kicks out in the yard all week long!

oh, the humanity!

The boys were eating dinner last night when we heard that timeless herald of summer, the song of the ice-cream truck. I looked out the window, and could see it across a few fields in a subdivision a couple of blocks away. So the boys quickly finished their dinner, and we excitedly rushed outside to wait.


And we waited.


And we watched.


And we waited some more.

We would hear the music get louder, and jump up in anticipation, only to hear the music get softer again. It was maddening. We waited for a whole hour, until I had to come inside to work, and the ice-cream truck never came into view. And oh! I never saw two boys look so sad as Liam and Max when they realized that there would be no ice cream from the ice-cream truck.


Fortunately, our story has a happy ending. About half an hour after I started working, Loni came over to hang out with the boys, and she was quickly persuaded by their pleading little faces (and really, who wouldn't be?) to take them to DQ to get some soft serve. Now, if only those cones had guaranteed their good behavior for the rest of the evening...

just because

spring!

The weather was just beautiful this weekend, and all four of us were happy to be out in the sunshine. Saturday morning, I cleaned the inside of my car (which was pretty messy from a whole winter of little fingers smudging everywhere) while the boys rode their bikes and played with sidewalk chalk, and Mike took out all of the mesh we had put over our bulbs when we planted them to keep the squirrels from eating them. There are a lot of plants starting to sprout, which is such a fine sight after the endless cold and snow. Liam and I took the car to vacuum it, then we picked up some lunch and headed over to my Gram's house to eat with her while Mike and Max ate at home and then took a couple of much-needed naps.



Sunday was even warmer and sunnier. I ended up having a couple hours of work to do in the morning, but Mike and the boys made the most of their time outside. Liam made a couple of new friends, even: a boy who lives down the alley (both of our yards back up onto the alley, although our house is on the opposite side of the block from his) came down with his dog, and ended up staying to play for a couple of hours. They made up games to play on the swingset and played a few rounds of soccer. Mike kept an eye on them from the deck, where he was planting seeds for some flowers. Max and I had to go and do a little shopping, and on the way back, we drove by Laura's house and saw that all the kids were outside playing (plus Maria and Cassidy!), so we stopped and hung out there for a while. Max and Jimmy had a good time attempting to assemble a folding picnic table, and there were popsicles all around. What could be better on a warm, sunny day?


Sunday night, my mom and Loni stopped by for a visit before they went out to dinner -- with my dad and brother in Washington D.C. at the National Fire Academy, it was the perfect opportunity for them eat Chinese food (which my dad hates) and enjoy some mother-daughter time. As for us, we enjoyed a feast! Mike made corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage, and we definitely did it justice. Both boys had worked up quite an appetite with our outdoor adventures. Also, they worked off plenty of steam, so they went up to bed and crashed shortly after dinner, which gave the grown-ups time to actually sit together and watch a whole movie (a rare occurrence). Based on that alone, I would call the weekend a definite success!

parks update

As promised, I took Max for a walk to the park yesterday before we picked Liam up from school, and I realized that it was most likely the first time Max had ever gone to the park by himself. I mean, of course I was there, but that's just not the same as having a big brother there to direct the play and keep things fun. I'm pretty sure the visit was a big disappointment to Max. He kept looking around as if to say, "Okay, I went down the slide. What am I supposed to do now?"

We took Liam to the park plenty of times before Max was born, and after Max was born but before he was big enough to actually play at the park instead of just sit in the stroller and watch. And it never seemed like Liam had any trouble at all finding ways to entertain himself. I guess it really illustrated for me the difference between first- and second-born. Max did mostly the same stuff he'd done at the same park the day before, including jumping off the bottom of the slide into the pit of mud, but without his brother there to whoop and holler with him and egg him on (a process that definitely works both ways these days) there was just something missing.

in the mucky mud

It's like a compulsion with me these days: If the weather is even halfway decent, I have to take the boys outside somewhere. We're so sick of being bottled up inside the house! Yesterday, it was about 45 degrees (heat wave), so Liam hopped on his bike and Max hopped into the stroller, and we set off for the nearest playground (at the elementary school). Unfortunately, when we got there, we found it filled with kids in an after-school program. Big kids. Who wouldn't let Max climb up the slide, and wouldn't let Liam go down the slide (he managed to climb up). We were there for about three minutes, then I made the executive decision to make the trek to the second-closest playground (at a former school that's now a community center). On the plus side, there weren't any other kids there, so the boys got to play freely. On the minus side, it was a giant mud pit. But having gone all that way just to play, the boys were determined to make the most of it. So they slid, and they swung, and they teeter-tottered until they couldn't teeter-totter anymore. And they whooped and hollered.


And Max discovered that disembarking from the bottom of the slide was much more fun if he stood up and jumped off -- splat! -- into the mud every time. By the time we got home, the boys were tired and exhilarated and starving -- they inhaled their dinner in record time! Today, it promises to be even warmer, but unfortunately, Liam picked this morning to throw a huge fit before school, and his consequence is that he doesn't get to go to the park tonight. Luckily for Max, today is his day at home with Mike, so I should be able to take him to the park for a little while by himself before we go pick up Liam. There's always a downside, right?

a rocky start to the weekend

We kicked the weekend off with a visit to our local library to enjoy a presentation on space rocks and fossils. The boys (or at least Max) may have been a bit too young to fully appreciate them, but they certainly enjoyed touching and examining all the specimens. In Max's case, he enjoyed it a little too much -- I had to stop him from banging one of the more fragile specimens on the table. Our cousin Cole is doing a school project on fossils, so we were able to meet him, Janis, and Cassidy at the library and enjoy some family fun, while learning some things along the way. After the presentation, the boys visited the library's playroom, where Max did puzzles and Liam played with the dolls in the big dollhouse. And by "played with the dolls," I mean, "set the dolls up in various scenarios, and then yelled 'Fire!' and attempted to get the whole family out of the house before they were consumed." What can we say? The kid's got a passion for fire safety. And if he thought that was fun, he'll be *really* thrilled when he gets the "Fireman Sam" poster that Mike ordered for him a couple of weeks ago (it's coming from the UK, apparently by slow boat).