Scroll through April

Scroll all the way through April. I did a bunch of back posts since April has been full of adventures and little time has been available to type!

Bitty Soccer Game

This was during practice before the game. He has good form and check out that tongue. It really helps get you down the field faster!

Turn around! The game is going on behind you!

He hasn't improved much in the participation category but in his last game he actually did kick the ball ONE TIME!!

Opened and Rifled through

Automatic locks on car doors are pretty nice, except when you forget to lock them. I did that on Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday morning when getting in the car to go to church I noticed that the inside of the car just didn't look right.

Everything from the glove box and other storage spaces was strewn about in the front seat. Maps, tire gauges, napkins, parking devices, sunglasses, cell phone chargers. Well, nothing was missing, not even my hidden emergency cash stash.

I'm smarter than you thief's. I don't keep anything valuable in there and I have good hiding spots.

Egg Hunt

I think the "finding" part wasn't as challenging for Steven. He got to downgrade to the toddler course because of his younger sister. SCORE!

Just let her wear her brother's brown leather sandals from last year, even if you have pretty white sandals that match her outfit so well!

All through church "are we going to get eggs?" After church "I got a TON of eggs!"

Brown eggs don't work

I was really excited to dye Easter eggs with the kids on Easter morning. So the night before I boiled the eggs and got my old egg cartons ready to hold the magnificent works of art I knew they would create.

On Sunday we dropped those fizzy dye tabs in the vinegar and let the kids put their eggs in the bowls. Turns out, brown eggs don't really take on the color so well.

Fingerprints

Update: my fingers are prettier than Tommy's, confirmed by officials at the United States Customs and Immigration Service!

We got our appointment letter from USCIS last week while we were on vacation. It stated that our appointment was not until May 11, what?!? Surely we don't have to wait that long, I thought. So I got in touch with our agency and asked if we could go early, they said it varies by office and that we could try but we might get turned away. I then decided to feed my newest obsession and post a question to the yahoo discussion boards. I asked if anyone had gone early to the office in KC and I got a reply stating that in the last three weeks another couple had gone before their appointment. They were in and out in less than 5 minutes! Whew, that was exciting to hear.

So, Tommy picked me up at lunch and we headed up north near the airport to the office to get fingerprinted. It was very cool because it is all digital. We hope to hear back in 2-8 weeks, hoping it is closer to 2 weeks! Then we will be on hyperspeed to get our Dossier completed and mailed to DC to be authenticated!

By the way, the woman who replied to my yahoo group post has a daughter named Lyla. What are the chances?!?!

My son is a classic

Recall the age-old story of the small boy standing in the outfield with his glove laying on the ground, all of a sudden dancing in circles while waving his arms in the sky. Oh, is that a butterfly that has happened by?

Now, imagine a team of 3 to 5 year olds running up and down the soccer field all glommed around the ball, indiscriminately kicking one another while one little boy sits in a patch of dirt searching for treasure. He is unaware of the game being played around him until his coach runs over, lifts him up and points to the ball and yells "run and kick it."

That's my boy, that's my Steven. It is a classic case of boy oblivious to the world around him. I love it!

Last week Steven started Bitty Soccer through the YMCA. He did pretty good for his first two practices (we had to miss one due to our vacation, maybe that is why he's a little disinterested?). He stood, rather sat, in line for his turn to kick at the goal. He listened intently, rather half-heartedly, to his coach - check that, chief (as Steven fondly calls his Coach, err Chief Craig).

All in all, I can tell he is having fun and man, that kid has a keen sense of observation. While driving to his second practice (a full week after his first), he asked me why "those girls" had "those things" on their legs. It took me a minute or two but I finally realized he was asking why some of his teammates had shin guards (they aren't required so we skipped the expense). He sees and thinks about everything and it confirms to me that he pays attention but maybe is too focused on the details rather than the bigger picture of actually playing the sport.

I was the lucky one tonight, I did get to come home with a pocket full of treasures. Too bad that broken bits of acorn and weeds aren't worth as much as watching your child with a huge smile on your face!

Dentist

Tommy took the kids to their first dentist appointment this morning. No pictures. Bummer, I missed out on seeing them in those huge, banana seat chairs with the spit sink next to it.

He did tell me they did great and got rewards! Bouncy balls, stickers and new toothbrushes. These were the fancies toothbrushes I'd ever seen - they light up and have glitter water in them like a snow globe.

At least they don't have lollipops like at the pediatrician. Why would someone you pay to take care of your health give your child unhealthy treats?

Roadtrip!

After it is all said and done, it wasn't crazy driving 500 miles, alone with the kids to spend three days in a hotel while my husband attended a work conference. We really had fun!

Day one, Wednesday: spent the day driving to Indy. We stopped in Kingdom City, MO to play at McDonald's. That's an outdoor playplace that I am going to keep in my memory banks. We ate in the car driving through STL. I wasn't interested in stopping too many times and decided to sacrfice a clean car for a shorter trip. We pulled into Inday around 6pm, just as Tommy was landing in his airplane. We met at the hotel and got ready for fun!

Day two, Thursday: Happy Birthday Lyla! We spent the day with my old roommate, Amy and her two kids, Maddie and Josh. It was really fun to reconnect with her and see her kids. We played with toys, ate lunch and took a nature walk in their subdivison. Lyla fell asleep in the car before we even got on the main road. We then picked up daddy to go find cupcakes and celebrate Lyla's day.

Day three, Friday: Tommy took some time off from his conference to visit the zoo with us. It was really fun and we enjoyed having him come with us. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold that night or we would have gone to the Indians baseball game, instead we watched it from a window in the hotel.

Day four, Saturday: We decided to hit the road and go half way home to STL. We stopped at the arch and Laclede's Landing for a bite to eat. Then we headed to our hotel where we went swimming. Lyla loved it but Steven is still a chicken. Lyla sat on the edge of the pool and would throw herself at me. Steven would just cling to Tommy's neck.



Day five, Sunday: We headed to the St. Louis Zoo right at the time it opened. We spent the morning there, ate lunch and then got to the car for the last leg of driving around 2pm. Kids slept most of the way but we totally nuts by the time we reached the outskirts of Kansas City.
I think we were all ready to be home!

Regressive behavior

A warning to women who desire to become a parent:

Do not be fooled, the father of your child will regress and exhibit childlike tendencies with regular frequency.

Case-in-point: While we were on our brief vacation to Indy and St. Louis last week Tommy had two distinct moments that made me wonder if his birth certificate was accurate.

The Indianapolis Zoo is really nice and they have several exhibits that our zoo does not have so we enjoyed the new animal adventures. Tommy especially enjoyed the interactive shark tank; he enjoyed it so much that his entire sleeve on his right arm was soaking wet for the remainder of our visit.


When we arrived in St. Louis, we immediately stopped at the Arch. It's right next to the highway, so why not (don't you just love transportation planners)? The line into the visitor's center was pretty long so we just spent a few moments outside and then wandered over to the Laclede's Landing to explore a little (read = visit a brewery). The entrance to Laclede's Landing is "underneath" the Eads Bridge which has a Metro light rail line running on it. As we were leaving, the train was pulling up to the platform above us and Tommy took off running with the stroller to get in the elevator so that Steven could see the train. Really? he's seen trains before. It is completely unncessary to risk our safety running across the street and rushing through the station to get to see a light rail train for five seconds. We get enough choo choo watching Thomas on PBS.

Sorry, honey, I really do love your sense of wonder and excitement when it comes to adventures with our kids but sometimes I have to just shrug my shoulders!

But that's upside down

I've always wondered why Yoplait yogurt containers were made the way they are. The reverse cone shape is very frustrating when you want to dig out that last bit of yogurt. Or when your two year old insists on doing it herself and gets her spoon caught up on the lip of the container resulting in sour smelling shirt all day long.

Then during our roadtrip, Steven says to me: "mommy, but I want it this way."


He's brilliant, I tell you! He intuitively knew that the container was designed incorrectly. Do I have a budding industrial engineer on my hands (oh, I hope so!)? Seems to me that if a 3.5 year old questions your product design, you should be thinking about doing something new.

And the best part about the container design is the message stamped in red under the UPC code:

"Protect Wildlife Crush Before Disposal"

Just google it, you'll get a good laugh or two.

Memories

Immediately upon taking this photo of Lyla, Tommy and I turned to each other and both started saying "do you remember that photo of Steven in Baltimore?"

The tables were turned ... I was on a work conference that week but it is funny how moments repeat themselves. And isn't it amazing how they have no fear at this age?

Remember our trip to Baltimore?

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lyla!

It isn't my style to push my favorite things onto others but what could be better than watching a movie in a comfy bed while eating pizza followed up with yummy cupcakes!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lyla!

After dinner and cupcakes, I took the kids for a short walk along the White River. It was just a gorgeous night and there were lots of people out and about in the park. Only moments from returning to the hotel the kids decided to run wild (are you surprised?) and attack a tree that had a fresh pile of mulch around it. Then, Lyla put some in her mouth. Only moments after that she looked up at me and turned green. She proceeded to loose her dinner and cupcake down the front of her birthday dress. Turns out that mulch was laced with manure ... not the best end to her second birthday but forgetting that moment, the day was a blast!

Trike-a-thon

Steven had a very successful first charity fundraiser! He raised $75 for St. Jude Children's Hospital by peddaling like a madman around the preschool's parking lot.

I had the day off work and Tommy went in late so we were able to be there to watch the kids race around in circles. I think Steven thought they were going to ride their trikes to the hospital and bring the donations to the kids. That'd be a long ride!

Thank you for your support!

Lyla even got in on the action!

Questions

Lately Steven has been asking a LOT of questions. But most of them take the form of, "what is INSERT ITEM made from?"
What are clouds made from? Water
What are carrots made from? Carrots

This morning at breakfast he asked what are Pina Coladas made from? I told him they were made from pineapples and coconuts. Then he asked if Papa Gene was going to go to the jungle and find him some coconuts. You have your assignment, Papa Gene.

(For those of you who didn't go on the beach vacation last summer, Papa Gene and Steven had a thing going about pina coladas. It was completely nonesense but really funny. I can't believe we still talk about them!)

We missed you, Zoo!

Kangaroos and Tigers and (polar) Bears, Oh my! (Lions are off exhibit due to construction so we substituted Kangaroos today.)

This weekend Tommy was at a wedding in Houston so I was in charge of activity planning for the family. When I opened the door to let Kira outside this morning and was met with a blast of hot air, I immediately knew a long-awaited trip to the zoo was in order.

We thought the zoo might be mad at us because it has been a long time since our last visit and we were starting to be known as zoo regulars. This winter just beat us down but we did manage to visit the zoo's indoor exhibits a few times. Turns out the animals did forgive us for not visiting very often this winter.

Today on the other hand, was glorious. I even made the decision to leave the stroller at home because I knew the kids needed some exercise in the warm sunshine. I didn't regret leaving it at home because both kids made it walking for the full three hours we were there. Now we did stop for a snack in the Polar Bear exhibit, then we stopped at the kangaroos for some cantaloupe, then we rode the train 1.5 times around the loop, then we stopped and ate PBJ with the elephants, and then we rode the carousel. So we did get a lot of breaks during our visit. It was such a fun morning!

It is so amazing how much a little sunshine can do for a family on a Sunday morning in April!