Gummy Bear-ness

Gummy Bear is going to be 4 and a half in a few short weeks. I'm having a hard time processing the fact that my baby is going into Pre-K this year. Talk to me this time next year and I'll probably be a blubbering fool. 

Gummy Bear is a sturdy, quick, high energy boy. If I had a fraction of his energy ... I'd get a lot more done. He'll happily spend an hour chasing his brother around the patio and then run around the house for an hour longer.

Gummy Bear is fascinated with all things electronic or mechanical. He loves Mario, and right now he'd happily watch Wall-E everyday if I let him. He also seems to spend a fair amount of time pondering how things work. I overheard him and Ry discussing jet planes for a good 20 minutes one evening. "And what would happen if a bird flew in the engine?" I'm afraid I'll come downstairs some morning only to find that he's disassembled every remote, cell phone and electronic device in the house. At least we'll have tech support when we're old.

While Gummy Bear spends a lot of time tormenting his brother, he also has moments of breathtaking sweetness. He brought Cheeky Monkey's lunch outside for him. He also came and comforted Cheeky when he had a diaper rash; holding his hand and kissing his cheek, murmuring, "It'll be OK, Cheeky."

Gummy Bear is one of the most independent, outgoing kids I've ever met. He'll strike up a conversation with whoever he meets and often gets frustrated when people in stores or on the street don't notice him waving them down from across the room. When he started at the new school last week, he walked in without hesitation while tossing me a "Bye, Mama." His teachers have raved about how quickly he seemed like part of the class. They also told me how very polite he is ... so maybe they're just buttering me up.

And then there's this:



Taking out all those suppressed urges to beat up his brother? I'm already envisioning his starring role on "Robot Chefs Duel Supreme ... of Doom!" Whoever he grows up to be, I'm sure enjoying him now. Also, how stinking cute is his little voice? Not ready for the growing and the aging. So. Much. Love.

Scenes from Irene

There are a lot of people up and down the Eastern sea board will are still without power, who have feet of water in their house, and whose property has been destroyed. I am extremely grateful that our Irene experience was far less extreme.

We began to get tornado warnings last night around 10 pm. Because our area doesn't have tornado sirens, neither Ry or I got much sleep last night. We spent some time in our basement with the boys around 11:30 pm and then we all slept on the first level. Ry stayed up most of the night monitoring the radio, since we lost power sometime before midnight.

When the boys got up around 7, we got up and surveyed the damage. We lost some pretty big branches. The most devastating loss of course, was part of our beautiful stockade fence. Still, I have to count ourselves pretty lucky. 

We decided to start eating the perishable food from the fridge, since the estimate from the power company about when we would get power back was 12 hours to a week. We tried to be careful about how often we opened the refrigerator door. Because Gummy Bear tends to be a stand-in-front-of-the-open-refrigerator-door-and-survey-the-offerings kind of kid, he came up with this helpful "reminder".

He seriously told me to write his name on the tape and draw a big X on it.

We have a gas stove (HURRAH!), so Ry boiled some water and made us some french-press coffee. It was wake-you-from-the-dead strong, but ooooh so good after the night we had.

I cooked up a bunch of our eggs, and Ry cooked our bacon. Mmmm. Bacon.

We kind of spent a quiet day loading the stuff we wanted to salvage from the fridge into coolers and hung out with the kiddos. When our power finally came back on 17 hours after we left it, I tossed all the food that didn't make it and thoroughly cleaned my freezer and fridge. It looks new!

So, anyway, I guess the deal is that Irene treated us pretty well. The road below is about 6 blocks from our house. It was taken at dusk with a cell phone, so sorry for the quality. Still, it's an excellent reminder that things could have been much, much worse.

Cheeky Monkey-ness

I was told tonight that someone is tired of watching the race over and over. To that person, I say, how can you tire of such joy and happiness? Still, it has been a while since I posted and in fear of being chastised again, here's a post about my Monkey.

Cheeky Monkey is quite possibly the most charming almost-2-year-old I've ever met. He's bashful and cheerful and quirky and sweet and I'm completely head over heels in love with him. 

Also, he's delicious.

Right now he is spurning utensils, even though he knows perfectly well how to use them. I've taken to feeding him breakfast in his pajamas so he doesn't ruin his day's clothing before 9 am. That happens sometimes anyway, but I try.

Apparently it tastes better this way.

While he still isn't talking a lot, his vocabulary has expanded quite a bit in the last month. He joyously pokes your eyeball while screaming "EYE!!" and has mastered the two-word phrase "More please!" Of course, please comes out a lot more like "Oui" this days, so it's a lot of fun to pretend that he's speaking French. He also has a slightly disturbing fixation on Elmo. He can find an Elmo in a wall of stuffed animals, and cheerily screams "MELMO!", each time he spots the little red monster. He can't quite distinguish the characters though, so right now, anything with googly eyes is also a MElmo.

He also wants so badly to be just like his big brother. As you may have seen in the race video in the previous post, he Fred-Flintstones it around on the tricycle nearly as fast as his brother can pedal, he's started strapping himself into his high chair and carseat, and tries to brush his own teeth. Every night, we read him the "Goodnight Moon" book. For whatever reason he's obsessed with the mush. Maybe it's because of the spoon. Every toddler knows that mush is best eaten with fingers, not spoon.

The crab? His name is MElmo.

He's finally beginning to grow out of the All-Mommy-All-The-Time phase. At our trial day at the new school last week he did beautifully. About an hour in, he gave me a kiss and told me "bye-bye." The boys officially start their new school tomorrow. While I'm happy to have found them a school that they (and I) like, it's a little bittersweet to know that my time as a stay-at-home mom may now be over forever.

It's a race!

I'm winning!

Unenlightened Ukulele Friday

One of my favorite old songs. What? Didn't you follow the lyrics to score your man?

Moving right along

We found the boys a new daycare for the fall. It's not cheap. We're spending more for 3 days there than full time at the other school we looked at. Thankfully, we can send them just 3 days a week and my mom has agreed to watch them Monday afternoons so I can go and do my clinical research. I can't rave enough about how much it rocks to have my mom here. While I'm sure the other school we looked at would have been safe and fine, I just didn't feel great about it. Now we can send them someplace I feel good about and they get to spend every Monday with Neena. Double super awesome bonus!

Gummy Bear got to spend his very first night at the grandparent's house last night. It was awesome, until he threw up at 2 am. Meanwhile, back at Casa T, Cheeky Monkey was also throwing up. Fun times. Both boys seem to be on the mend today. They still don't have much of an appetite, but are otherwise OK.

I have 2 weeks until school starts for me again. While I'm excited to be done with school, I am not looking forward to going back to school. I have to be so on top of everything during the school year. We have a strict schedule to keep. I have to make sure there are supplies for lunches. My days are often long and my reading list is longer. Still, the material is engaging and I'm excited to be a practicing RN soon. I have heard from several of my friends from last year's graduating class who have found jobs in their areas of interest, so I am hopeful for a job in Labor and Delivery at this time next year. Hope with me people!

And that's what's new in my little corner of the world. What's new in yours?

Canned

Last week we received 20 pounds of tomatoes from the farm. Now, I like tomatoes as much as the next girl (probably more) but I couldn't conceive of a way to get 20 pounds down. Since our garden is ramping up its production this week, I already have tomatoes coming out my ears. 

And so, like any good domestic housewife, I begged my mommy to help me can them. I've always been too afraid of botulism or spoilage to do it myself. As it turns out, canning is really pretty simple. Also, as it turns out, 20 pounds of tomatoes = 6 quarts of canned tomatoes.

Pretty

Now we'll have delicious farm tomatoes for stews, chilis and sauces all winter (or at least into the fall). This week, I think I'm going to make pasta sauce from my 20 pounds of tomatoes and can it. I figure I'll get fewer quarts if I make sauce and 1 quart of sauce will equal one really easy dinner.

Yum.

Ocean City Adventuring .... Aaarrrggghhh!

We've been beaching down in Ocean City, Maryland this past week. It's been great fun and I have lots of pictures. If you're my facebook friend, you've probably seen some of them. At some point I'll do a big vacation post with our whole adventure. I also got the unwelcome news this week that because of some state regulations our boys' daycare doesn't have space for Cheeky Monkey in the fall. Now I'm scrambling to find an acceptable situation for the end of August. Ry tends to be anti-nanny, which leaves us with daycare centers and in-home centers. I know we'll figure it out, but I'm not looking forward to the process.

Anyway.

This morning we hopped aboard the Duckaneer for a pirate adventure. Lemme tell you, a good time was had by all. Gummy Bear was suitably attired.

Although he did keep calling his spy glass a stethoscope.

And thar she is, the Duckaneer.

The treasure map was ever so helpfully painted on the ship.

I included this picture mostly because it's one of the cutest picture of Ry and Cheeky Monkey, EVAR!

All the l'il pirates got their mustaches and tattoos.

Confused baby pirate is confused.

When the captain was inking Gummy Bear he said "You've very large ears pirate, what's yer name?"

I think he'd make a very handsome pirate.

We enjoyed the open seas.

And then we were attacked! Of course, we had to defend the ship. Sadly for me, the attacking pirates seemed to target the women with their water cannons and I ended up a very very waterlogged pirate.

We got to see the wild ponies on Assateague Island.

And after our victory, the pirates each got a share of the treasure!

Y'arrgh!

Y'aarrggghh!

We tipped our pirate captain and first mate because they were fun but also because "pirates need tuition money." And took the bus back to our condo.

Because even pirates ride the bus.