that was just mean...

My sweet 3 year old is officially a stinker. We knew he had it in him, but lately he has been just plain mean. Mainly to Emmitt. But mouthy to his parents. Sunday morning, before church of all things, Parker was outside on his four-wheeler. Emmitt crawled down the deck steps and stood there watching brother ride. Parker stops about 3 feet from Emmitt, looks at Bear-who says don't you dare, go around him or back up, he could see this look on Parker's face...so what does he do? He steps on the gas and completely runs Emmitt over. He kept stepping on the gas and can't go any farther because his under carriage is hung up on his brothers head! Bear actually has to pull the four-wheeler back and off of Emmitt who is gushing blood out of his lip. His tooth had gone partially through. You would think he would show some remorse but nothing. Bear is tending to Emmitt and Parker takes another spin around the yard. Bear was there to witness the whole thing, I was in the house getting ready for church. Bear rushes Emmitt in for me to clean up and goes to get Parker. Of course we are mad at Parker for deliberately running down his brother. How can he go from being so sweet with him to being so mean? Emmitt's lip will be just fine. One day he will probably do something intentionally mean to his brother and we might just sit back and let him. But what on earth has caused this nasty side of Parker? He is mean to Emmitt at daycare too, he has been talking back a lot more to us lately, getting more and more time outs and spankings...he knows how to push our buttons and we are certain he does it to get a rise out of us...which he does! Something needs to change soon or it is going to be a long summer...just when I thought it was going to be so great!?

ahhh...outside is my heaven

I am loving the nice weather. Outside every night after work with the boys has been so fun. We all know the drill when we get home...we put all the stuff in the house, get the mail, ding the wind chimes, go in the house, unpack all our stuff and the boys head outside to play. And play. And play. In the sandbox is Emmitt's favorite part. Parker loves his four-wheeler to no end.

I am starting to think I may never get another nice picture of Parker...I get the squinty-look or the scrunched-up-nose-look, or the get-the-camera-out-of-my-face-look. But I really think it is just the look of a boy who is 3 and a half.

Cruisin' on his wheeler. Last night Jillian came over for a spin. She hopped on back, wrapped her arms around him and off they went. Of course when she decided it was time to get off, he kept going as she is being dragged by one leg, trying to climb down...

Yep, eating sand as an appetizer is what this kid does best. Well maybe second. The first being climbing on anything and then half falling or jumping down. He climbs up the little 3 step slide ladder and then stands at the top of the slide, yells to get my attention and then as soon as I start mommy-stomping towards him, he sits down and rushes to go down the slide. Sometimes it is on his butt, sometimes it's head first on his belly where he gets, in his eyes, a big reward with a mouthful of sand.

As if the handfuls of sand aren't enough, he upgraded to filling the bowl with it and then drinking it. My nephew Peter actually did this too. I know every kid has tried to eat sand at one point, but Emmitt is following in Peter's footsteps by craving it and shoving it in his mouth by the fist fulls.

A little bit more balanced diet...he is loving corn on the cob. The first night I shaved it off the cob for him and he ate it, but when he was done, he squealed for the whole cob on the table. I handed it to him and he started gnawing away at it. Last night was gorgeous and we actually got to eat outside on the new deck. I didn't even have to sweep the kitchen floor, I just left all the extra food and crumbs on the deck for the birds or squirrels to eat. I am really looking forward to each day this summer to be like the last few. The kids are happy to get out and play. They are quiet when they are outside playing or I just don't hear the noise as much. They aren't driving us crazy by being in the house all the time. The evening passes so quickly that they are ready to go to bed when the time comes and they crash until morning. Amazing what fresh air and sunshine can do to your spirits...

Sisters...

The four of us girls went on a fun weekend trip. We went to a first-cousins wedding and turned it into a semi-sisters weekend. Tams and I traveled across the state of Minnesota on Friday and back over to Wisconsin to stay with Debs. Friday night I had my first real experience with the Wii and laughed my butt off to Boogie Superstar. The dancing and karokee were side splitting! Then Saturday we all headed "south" to Mankato for the wedding and a night at the Butler House Bed and Breakfast.
Shelby came along with us, played with cousins Friday night and hung out at the wedding playing games on my cell phone.

Every picture we took of each other and then viewed we all realized we don't like our fat chins. 3 out of 4 us are on a Biggest Loser Sister Challenge starting now! So in order to draw less attention to our rolls we started taking pictures pulling the fat back. Tammy and I had a blast in the car. We left Friday around 8:30 and headed to Shakopee to pick up a Curves sign from another owner. We measured the sign, we measured the car, we doubled checked and of course when we back up to the garage we all take one look at the sign and know it is not going to fit in my car. The "we" was actually me, and I was certain I measured correctly. Anyways we got it somewhat in the car, with the glass hatch open and bungee cord attached securely we took off through the metro area in rush hour traffic! We got to hear and feel the full rush hour experience. We were not thinking clearly when we headed to Target. Anybody could just open the car and take everything! We finally realized we could fold every seat down and fully close and lock the vehicle! Whew!! Thank god that we could shop with out worrying about the car contents. Then Bear had to tell us to just leave it at Debs house and we would make a separate trip to get it with the truck...here we were contemplating taking it all over Mankato with us! Duh...

The B&B had a few hat-racks around the house. Before leaving Sunday morning I brought the sister's each a hat to wear. Here is sista Tammy in a red bow hat... Sista Tracey in a yellow flowered hat...

Debs in a black veiled hat...

and the Birthday girl in a black hat with extra feathers!

Tracey and the "fedora" ahem the Boa! She could not remember the name of the feathery accessory. Yee-haw~

All weekend I basically used the "it's my birthday weekend, so..." I got to get my way (as usual they will say). After all I am the baby! AND it was my birthday weekend!

Easter 09

4 boys under 5 on a Saturday morning with a lot of egg dye. Sounds fun and busy...and it was just that! Parker "got it" this year. All around got it. He had a blast dyeing the eggs. Such concentration with the tongue out. The first 6 eggs he touched, he dropped and cracked. Oops...oops...sorry momma. Well, that's what it's all about...him having a good time. My long lost cousin that moved to town last year happened to move 2 houses down from us and has 2 boys, 5 & 3 and another on the way. They all played so well together. I took the older boy Jake and Parker to the matinee movie on Saturday too. We saw Bolt. Super cute movie and the boys were great together. Grandma Audrey trying to show Parker how to use the little spoon to fish out the eggs instead of his hands. He may still have a little green dye on his fingers.

Eating his first of four hard boiled eggs of the day. Yes four. The kids ate every bit of the egg. I was waiting for the I don't like the middle or I don't like the white part. But he ate all of it.

His blue egg he made for Emmitt. You can tell who he misses...Emma and Peter. They got eggs and other than that just Emmitt. I see how we rate. Bear had to make me an egg with my name on it. We did the norm for the rest, Happy Easter, Jesus, and of course Rotten. The Rotten egg is the one we do last with all the colors mixed together to get the ugliest egg possible. This year it turned out a brilliant deep purple. Not so rotten. That is one of Bear's family traditions that has carried on in our family.

Easter morning brought lots of excitement. Parker was running around like crazy and Emmitt followed right behind him. The boys found the bunny tracks by the back door. This is the other tradition. Bear's mom would dip her fingers in flour and make tracks all over the hardwood floor to lead you to an egg. Parker just kept squealing about more trails.

Daddy, ah-hem, the bunny put an egg in the stereo speaker and it got stuck. So he took some butter knives to get it out. Finally he got it out. Emmitt walked over to the same egg and put it back in the speaker, where I am pretty sure it still is. I love how he is wearing his All I do is Score hockey shirt from Leps on Easter morning. nice.

Emmitt repeatedly busted into all his eggs or whined until we opened them for him and proceeded to eat as much candy as he could. Handfuls of jelly beans, m&m's, more jelly beans. He hated having the grass on his fingers or on his foot. Note to self...next year, no grass.

Parker just kept saying That silly rabbit put an egg in my slipper, on my toothbrush, in your shoe....that's so silly.

Reaching for yet more candy...

Full of chocolate, sneaking an egg into the kitchen. I should mention that by the time breakfast rolled around neither of the kids ate. Then the sugar kicked in just in time for church and they were high on jelly beans acting like devils at church. We didn't get their early enough to sit in church so we sat in the over flow and watched (or attempted to) on the TV. Well other kids were wandering around, so Parker thought he could and therefore Emmitt followed. Bear is glaring at me asking through gritted teeth why are we here? I don't know...because it's Easter?! The kids are normally very well behaved at church, they are familiar with the place and know how to behave, but get them there on a special occasion and they act like they've never been there before. I actually had Parker outside of church in a time out against the building! Nice.

In their adorable Easter outfits. I will never have a frilly girly dress to buy...so I went for the matching sweater vests and Payne Stewart hats.

Dinner was wonderful this year. I hosted at our house for a total of 17. Every family brought something, so it was very easy and stress free on all of us. I love doing holidays this way. The kids all played together right up until bedtime and enjoyed the beautiful day inside and out.

Emmitt was Grandma's boy all weekend. He would crawl over to her and pronounce UP! perfectly and over course she would scoop him right up. Snuggle and relax on her lap.

spring? where are you?

My cute hubby in a mad bomber hat. Parker asked to play outside last weekend and wanted all of us to go out. So we bundled up and went out for a walk on the snow. We may be rushing spring or summer for that matter a little, but enough already...spring, where are you?

We managed to dig out as many summer toys as possible. The sand shovel, the four-wheeler and here is Emmitt just chillin in the cozy coop car. The car which is now in our house! They fight over it and refuse to take turns, they are both too big to fit in it together, although they try every.single.time to shove the other brother over and scooch in next to him. Parker gives Emmitt a ride in it, until Emmitt's foot gets stuck on the wheel and drags him under the car, which then he starts screaming as his big brother runs him over with the car and leaves track marks on his back.
We put Emmitt in these ridiculous Robeez boots that Parker had (and wore once or twice). He just can't walk in real boots, so these did the trick. He still had a hard time with walking on the snow or his depth perception is way off. He was high stepping across the snow banks and then would go down in slow motion. Smiled the whole time though.

Yes that is my kid sitting on top of our 8 foot high fence post. Mind you, his back is facing one of the busiest roads in town!

Yes, his father did it. And then proceeded to tell him to jump down...into his arms of course.

Daddy caught him...of course. And he enjoyed it!

Parker is actually sliding down a snowbank minus a sled. He realized; after he saw me wipe out and slide down the hill on my snow pants, that he didn't need a sled to go down the hill. Up and down, up and down the hill. He had a blast.

Then he decided to whip out the four-wheeler and go for a ride. We told him it won't work in the snow, only in the tiny patch of grass available. But he tried anyway and enjoyed spinning his tires. He eventually got it over to the patch of grass and just went forward and reverse back and forth in about a 4 foot area.

We all did pretty good walking on the snow. Emmitt was the phantom of the family. He could have done cart wheels out there and we would not have known that he had been there. He left no dent in the snow what so ever. Parker made a little mark with his heels. I sank slightly and Bear a little more. Bear and I were joking about how far each of us sank down...once in awhile we would sink to our hips and require help getting back out!

Can't you just hear him...come on buddy, over this way. come on Emmitt, come get me on the snow. He would wait for Emmitt to get upright again before taking off towards the play house.

The phantom snow walker in action. This was Parker's first snowsuit. I managed to get 2 years of wear out of it with Parker and I may be able to pull 2 for Emmitt too. Gotta love the orange!

The big mound of snow in the background is actually the pond and waterfall that the kids are forbidden to go anywhere near. I think we scare them enough that they make a huge loop around it when they walk back there. This summer will either be really hard to keep Emmitt away from it or really easy, but the temporary fence may need to go up for a year. Parker did really well last year with it. But with the lack of pond fish now it just seems boring to him.

Well we thought we could walk off the deck onto the snow. I was laughing and teasing about how I could walk off and Bear just sunk. I took one more big step and down I went and in the process whacked my leg on the kiddie picnic table I was standing on. So much for thinking I could walk on it all. The more we laughed the further we sank! Parker actually sank and then slid under the deck in a gap and had to be yanked out!

After all the fun outside we went in to watch a movie and have a snack. Where they basically just through puff corn crumbs all over my coffee table and called it a day!

boys...2 of them

Boys...2 of them. They are so busy these days. They always have been, but this is a different kind of busy. They play. They fight. They love each other that's for sure. They can be so sweet and so mean in a matter of minutes. It's good for them to figure things out themselves. But sometimes mom, or worse...dad, has to step in and sort them out.

Parker shows Emmitt how to do everything...his way. Which Bear is going to say is what I do to him. Which I admit I do. My way usually is best, I'm a mom. (I'm working on that by the way).

Recently Emmitt got a golf putting set for his birthday. Parker thinks it's his toy since Emmitt's too little to do it, mom. We try to tell Parker that Emmitt is actually sharing his birthday present with him and not the other way around. When the tables are turned and Emmitt has something of Parker's he is sure to tell Emmitt that it is his and he is sharing with him. We try to just have neutral toys and they are every body's. So far it's not really working.

Emmitt is a boy through and through. Parker is more nurturing now. But when he was one, he was all boy too. I think it's just with what we've got in the house they don't really have a choice. Other than Bebe Ella and all her doll clothes, toys, bottles, etc...But Emmitt won't as much look at many toys unless they can be turned into a hockey stick, a bat, or a golf club.
Emmitt is changing and getting easier and harder in the same breath. Easier since he is on one big nap (thanks Stephie!) a day. Easier that he is more content to play with toys now instead of just sit and look at them. Harder that he instantly gets upset and squeals like a stuck pig if he doesn't get his way immediately. Easier that he is sort of communicating to us via pointing. Harder that he won't as much speak a word or sign one for that matter, but is demanding something all the time...what we don't know unless he points at it.
For the most part, I would say they love each other and get along well. Parker tends to protect him a bit, but at the same time wants Emmitt to play some things that he just isn't big enough for. Almost daily while I am making supper (with Emmitt on my hip because I can't listen to him squeal and walk beneath my feet) Parker is outside in the backyard playing. Today he officially got all of his snow gear on with the exception that he needed help with the zipper. With the right motivation the kid can get dressed. Mornings for daycare is another story. He will so sweetly ask if Emmitt can come out and play with him too. This weekend we all bundled up and walked on the snow. Emmitt liked it for the first 20 minutes...after that? Not so much.
He can tote Emmitt from one room to another at top speeds in a laundry basket. Emmitt just goes along with it. That is until he gets dumped out of the basket because Parker wanted to do something else with it. And then I tend to scold Parker for injuring Emmitt, when really it maybe wasn't all his fault. I'm working on that too.

Parker is basically 100% recovered from the surgery. He is quietly sleeping (most nights) in his own bed. He isn't gasping for air anymore from the apnea. He speech is coming along and the nasality is either dissipating or we are getting used to it more. You can definitely understand what he is saying now. The doctor even let me check out the tubes the other day, which thankfully are still in there!

Emmitt is teething and teething and teething. I hate teething. About as much as I hate diaper rash, which they usually come together and instantly make me hate them more. He currently has 2 eye teeth that have broken the surface (on the bottom) and the top two are pushing through. I was half waiting for the huge bruises to appear on his gums, but so far we are in the clear. He is in such a clingy mommy phase that I am sort of wishing would go away. I am assured that he only does it when I am around. Even my mom said both boys act differently when I am not around. Which I know we all know that, but usually they don't act that way when people are over to witness...mine do. Emmitt is in the whiny-demanding phase. Which, come to think of it, it's a lot like when he was brand new a year ago. Can colic come back at a year old? That's almost what it is like. Screaming/whining all evening long and only wants mom. Once in awhile he'll be whining really loud, Parker will be making noise elsewhere and Bear will shout over all of it "hey hon, let's have 2 more!". I wish I had a mute button on my life some days. Thank god for wine!

The t-ball set I bought Parker as his payoff on the bribe to stay in his own bed has been broken and taped together with electrical tape (I love electrical tape) many times has been by far a great investment. The boys put on a baseball game for us at night. They put on their hats, bat balls at my walls and furniture and scream loudly when the other one hits a nice ball. It is fun. It is loud. Every once in awhile somebody takes a bat to the head.

He usually toughs it out and (thankfully) it is never the other way around...at least not on purpose. I truly think Emmitt does something like-clock his brother on the head with a bat-just to see him cry or what his reaction will be. The part I hate is that I don't scold Emmitt for doing it, but Parker would have his butt spanked or be in his room for a long time out. Why is that? Parker does know better but at what stage does Emmitt? He doesn't understand the repercussions of his actions or a time out. I may say something like; no-no Emmitt, be gentle to your brother, or that hurts-be nice. I hate that we jump on Parker right away and treat them differently. I need to work on that one too.

I hope these two continue to be friends and love each other. I think we all have to go through these phases with our siblings. The good. The bad. The ugly. Boys are different than girls that's for sure. I wonder what we would be doing at night if we had 2 girls. Nicely combing Barbie hair or fighting over which Barbie gets to where the party dress? I would be freaking out about all that frickin' plastic hair all over my carpet that's what!