One of the nifty tricks our boys play is that they take turns being a bugger.  In general, whatever phase Nic is going through, Dex will probably hit about 3 months later.  But even over smaller timescales, when one of them seems really out of sorts and is making us miserable, the other boy tends to be a paragon of virtue.  This week it appears to be Nic’s turn to be the bugger, and Dex’s turn to be awesome.

When we drove home from St. Edward’s Park, Nic fell asleep after about 2 minutes in the car.  When we first got in he was very animated and asking lots of questions, and I told him that he should just relax for a few minutes, lean his head back and close his eyes, just for a minute.  Dex apparently thought this meant both of them, even though he wasn’t particularly tired and didn’t want a nap, so he decided to close his eyes anyway.  He kept his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, but the fact that he was singing about bananas hinted that perhaps he hadn’t entirely drifted off yet.  After a few minutes he stopped playing and we tried to talk quietly on the way home.  I finally lost him around 4 minutes from our house.  It was one of those things where I looked back in the mirror once and he smiled at me, and the second time I glanced back he was asleep.  Figures.  Then I got to our house, and carried him inside and laid him down on the couch.  I went and got Nic, who now had had his 30 minute nap, and tossed him on the other couch.  I kept trying to wake Dex up (Nic was just laying there, staring at the ceiling).  Eventually Nic got up and ran off to the family room to grab the Playmobil catalogue (a gift from Malina’s mother, which the boys very much enjoy looking through, and which has me concerned that their Christmas list is going to be very long and detailed).  I told the seemingly sleeping Dexter this, reminding him that we’d only looked through one of the cataloge’s earlier and still had one to go, and with his eyes closed he promptly started talking (in a perfectly awake voice) – “Daddy, I’m gonna show you something.  You’ll see.  It’s really interesting.”  He rolled over, got up, and started running.  I think he opened his eyes about the time he got around the other couch.

When Katie got home, and realized we’d skipped snack (in my defense, lunch was a bit late, and Nic was being such a bugger that it was all I could do to stay right next to him and keep him from melting down), she went to start dinner.  Nic lost it, and I was tired, and we *almost* decided to give in to the babysitter (i.e., and episode of Thomas), but knowing what happens when the episodes are over, I rallied.  We got out Hungry Hungry Hippos, and proceeded to have a grand time.  Well, for about 2 minutes.  Then Dex had 5 marbles, I had 1, and Nic had 14, and Nic wouldn’t let us play any more – he just wanted to talk about how many marbles his Hippo had eaten.  <sigh>  I was starting to lose them again, and didn’t have much I could do (Nic had taken my last marble by now), so I decided to let the Hippo start singing.  We got a few lines into “American Pie”, just finishing the first Chorus, when Dex interrupted that he wanted to sing “Old McDonald”.  So we changed songs.  We went through a couple of normal animals, but the boys get so absurdly worked up over the chickens (the last squawk comes out like a chocked scream, and the boys go a bit nuts), that I was desperate for a diversion.  So, I started singing, “and on his farm he had a..  Rock.  E-Eye E-Eye, Oh…   With a ….  here, and a …. there, here a …, there a …., everywhere a …. ….”  And on and on, picking one inanimate object after another, all of which make no noise at all, and Dexter nearly peed himself laughing so hard.  That kids laugh, I really wish I had that as my ringtone.

After dinner, Dexter decided to shoot me.  It doesn’t matter how many times I pick him off, he just whips out the 6-shooters and lets me have it, and won’t move on until I fall to the ground and die.  This time, though, I decided to grab a grenade and blow him up.  So then he’d hold out his hands and yell, “Give me another one!”  So I’d pretend to pull the pin, set it in his hands, count to 4, and then bounce him and his brother up high and shake them with the explosion.  Over, and over again.  ”Do it again, Daddy”.  I tried frag grenades, poison gas grenades, flash grenades, tear gas grenades, laughing gas grenades – over and over again.  That kids insatiable.  I really hope he realizes that sitting on a grenade in real life wouldn’t be as funny…

Then he was going to go give Katie a hug, after she said, “I bet you can’t knock me over”.  Most of Dexter’s hugs end with this, these days, much to his delight.  He tried once, and it didn’t work.  So he backed up, and started wiggling his but and pumping his arms like he was running, and then he ran forward to tackle her.  She was laughing so hard watching him wiggle that I don’t even think he had to run into her to knock her over.

Eventually we headed up to bath time, where one of the boys pooped (a tiny one) in the bath tub.  I have my guess as to who it was, but regardless, it was out of the bath and into the shower for their second wash down.  Nic was screaming, but Dex had fun with the removable shower head.  After story time, Nic was way past needing to go down, but Dex was no where near ready.  After a few minutes I went back in and got him, to let Nic to fall asleep without all the commotion.  The next day Kyla was coming to clean, so we had picked some stuff up off the floor (Dex was sleeping in his “nest” next to his bed), and that included the huge stuffed animal dog that Grandma Marilyn bought him a couple of years ago.  Dex hadn’t noticed Katie toss it on his bed, so when we were talking out he said, “Hmm, there’s a doggy on my bed.  That’s just silly.  Why did Nicky put it there?  Oh, goodness.”

Our room had the AC blasting to cool it off, so we headed to the now-empty Au Pair room and hopped up on the bed to read a story.  Dexter stopped at the foot of the bed, and said, “This is a good bed.  It’s super easy to climb up on.  I like this bed the most.”    We then started negotiating which book, and he rejected the one we’d brought upstairs, and so I offered to head downstairs to get another book, but I’d sure move a lot faster if I had a kiss, so Dex grabs my head and starts kissing really quickly, and then says, “I gave you FOUR kisses!”  So I ran out to get his book.

We all hung out on the bed while we read the stories.  When we were done, Dex thought we should stay a bit longer.  Then he leaned over and put his face right next to Katie’s, and started looking out of one eye with the other closed, and then the other, back and forth, with Katie saying, “Can you see me?  Can you see me now?  Are you there?  I can’t see you!  Oh, there you are.”  And it just kept going on, and it’s typical Dexter absurdity, so I couldn’t help but laugh at him.  Eventually he went into his bedroom, and Katie tucked him back into his nest.  He wasn’t *quite* ready to go down yet, but almost.  I heard some noises from the room, but figured he must have just gotten up to get a drink of water.  After we cleaned up downstairs we headed up to bed, and stopped to check on the boys.  I headed over to Nic, but as Katie was starting to walk around Dex’s bed to get to where he was sleeping on the floor, the dog on his bed moved causing both of us to jump.  Apparently Dex had decided that 4 nights on the floor was enough and gotten himself back into his bed, tucking himself in underneath the dog.  And predictably, scaring the crap out of us in the process.  Seriously, this kid is awesome.

I’m sitting at the coffee shop that’s in the Gold Creek church, which happens to be where the boys will be going to preschool this fall.  Well, not so much “happens to be”.  It’s not all that common for me to be skipping out on work on a Monday, finding a church, and then discovering the fortuitous presence of a coffee shop.  After growing a bit weary of the coop experience, we found the boys this preschool.  The biggest reason why we picked this one is that about half of their coop class is coming here as well.  School doesn’t start until September, of course, but they have a series of “camps” over the summer.  This week is the 4-day, 3 hour a day cooking camp.  I think it’s mostly play time and stories and recess, with a bit of smoothies and muffins thrown in on the side, but that works for us.  The whole point is for the boys to get a bit more familiar with the environment, meet some of the other kids, and get excited about coming here this fall.  So far so good.  I made the deal with them that I’d wait at the coffee shop, so here I sit.  They were a little quiet as we came inside, and a bit scared, but once they got in the room they saw a bin filled with matchbox cars and trains, so they were good.  I slipped out, and twice went back to check of the next 25 minutes, but I don’t think they’d budged.  Figures.  Afterward I promised them we’d try to make the drive down to St. Edward’s park and pretend to be pirates (I brought some brooms – figure I’ll have the swabbing the decks for a few hours until they’re tired).  I  may have over-promised to entice them into good behavior today, come to think of it…

Last week Grandma Crick and Grandpa Don stayed with us and watched the boys for a week, which went very well.  Everything gets tricky when the routine gets thrown off, and the changing of the Au Pair guard is always pretty disruptive.  Still, the boys were actually disappointed when they heard it was going to be me staying home with them today instead of their grandparents, so that’s a win, right?  Grandma and Grandpa had sent ahead a whole box of activities – books, puzzles, projects – so that the boys wouldn’t need to spend a moment bored.  It worked a little too well, I think.  On Sunday, after the grandparents were on their plane back to Michigan (well, i assume they were on the plane – I know they made it to the airport at least), the boys were a little disappointed that we were just playing with their toys with them and didn’t have something to build, or paint, or a new book to read.  Oh well, it’s a good problem to have.  The harder part was Sunday night when Katie had to cook for us again, after having the week off.  Poor girl…

So this weekend we have the cooking class, and next weekend we have a camping trip with Katie’s sorority sisters.  The boys didn’t seem terribly excited about camping, but when I told them the Ben and Kate and Abby would be there, they got very excited.  It’s a strange transition point – before now, wherever we went and whatever we did the boys wanted us to do it with them; but now, we’re just the backup plan.  Oh well…

And then we have a quiet 4th of July week, before Grandpa Loren and Grandma Zaidee come.  Then we go  to Canada for a couple of days (the boys have Passports!!!  Which, to be fair, they don’t actually need, but maybe we’ll find the chance to use them for some other countries to visit one of these days…)  And then, Michelle arrives, and we can go back to ignoring our children again, right?  It’s exhausting just thinking about it.  And the scariest thing is that I don’t think Katie’s done scheduling it all yet.  <sigh>

As many of you know, Malina’s last day in our home was Thursday, June 14th.  Her mom flew in last week, and spent some time with us and the boys.  Malina took her around to show her some of the sights, and meet some of the people who’ve been a part of Malina’s year.  Yesterday was our last day.  We gave her a parting gift, a photo book of her year with the boys and all the fun things they’ve done together.  She gave the boys some pictures she’d drawn, and each of them a Max Schnell (the German car from the Cars II movie).  We were planning on heading down to ride the Duck, then the monorail (because they are our boys, afterall), the Pacific Science Center, and then a nice good-bye dinner before dropping them off at the airport in the evening for their red-eye flight to New York City.

Well, that was the plan, but things went a little awry and we had to drop Malina off much earlier.  After we dropped Malina and her mom off at the airport later that morning, we had our fun Thursday regardless.  The boys loved the Duck tour, and the silly man driving the Duck.  When we got home, they immediately went to their legos and re-enacted the whole tour.  We had our Monorail ride, and explored some of the Pacific Science Center, before returning home for some peace and quiet.  Of course, now three of us have colds and Nic had diarrhea, but like I said, there’s always lots of poop involved, so such is life.  On Sunday, Grandma Crick and Grandpa Don arrive, and the boys are very excited.

We have quite a lot of plans over the next month or so, before our next Au Pair arrives.  Her name is Michelle, from Denmark, and she’ll be arriving on July 20th.  I’m long overdue in writing a post about her, so I will try to do that soon.  We very much hope that she’ll be as excited to be a part of our family as we are to have her join us.  I promise, Michelle, we’re not a mean family!

For now, though, it’s time for me to go to bed, and get some energy back so we can have some fun tomorrow.  Katie is headed off for the baby shower for the very-pregnant Nurse Heather, so I get the boys all to myself tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully, after some sleep, that prospect will be a little more exciting than it is terrifying.

-Joel

Monday – by now, everyone was running on back-up power.  Whereas Saturday had been sunny and warm, Monday started out colder with the threat of rain and it was funny how everyone’s mood was following the weather.  But, we had to push that all aside because our goal was to go to the fantastically large car show in downtown Everett – called Cruzin’ Colby – or something to that affect.  The boys / Nicholas – LOVE cars.  What better way to close out their birthday fun but to walk around a bunch of real “fancy” cars (that’s the term Nicholas and Dexter use for them)?  Malina got out of bed to join us in our search for “fancy” cars.

Even though it was a trial to get the boys out of the house with minimal melt downs, we got lucky in that we parked near a whole street of HERBIES!!!!!!!!!  OK, for those of you whole haven’t watch Herby the Love Bug, it’s a cheesy Disney movie based on a Volkswagen Beetle (Bug).  The boys absolutely loved that movie and call all VW Bugs – Herbies.  We walked down a whole street of Herbies and VW Vans.  Then we walked down other streets full of really cool cars.  Not being a car buff, I did recognize their names from all the matchbox cars we own.  Nicholas was in heaven.  Dexter wanted to go home.  At this point in time, he was done with his birthday weekend.

We finished walking around – and had a picture or two by cool cars.  Then it was home where the boys got a second wind and refused to go down for a nap.  Hmmmm.  We listened until about 3pm when I carried a very tired Nicholas upstairs for cat nap.  We should have put Dexter down too but didn’t.  Life was a little rocky when the wake up occurred but then we were off the Grandma Marilyn / Grandpa Carter’s house for the final birthday celebration.

Once there, the boys attacked my dad with birthday blowers.  I absolutely love this series of pictures.  The joy and fun being had is just amazing.  Then Uncle Ryan aka Uncle Too Tall, took the boys outside to run around and play with their new foam airplanes.  My cousin Ann, Robert, & Keira came over.   The rest of the presents were opened.  This might be the one and only time the boys are happy to see new clothes as a gift.  Grandma bought the boys piggy banks which total up the money as it goes in.  Two minutes or so were dedicated to putting coins in their new banks.  Ryan and I both said – if Grandma is handing out money, you take it and say thank you.  :)  The boys didn’t listen and missed out on a whole roll of nickles.  More cars from both Grandma and Ann and a gumball filled car from Ryan.  Thank you all.  Keira definitely wanted to help out in the opening of presents.  Dexter wasn’t so sure about this and watched her closely.  Nicholas was oblivious.  Their last present was a new racetrack for the bathtub.  You should have seen the look of “OH MY GOD!!!” that crossed Dexter’s face when this was opened.  All I can say is WOW.

Another one of my mom’s fantastic dinners followed.  We all sang happy birthday again to left over cake.  Finally, it was all over.

Thank you family and friends that joined us in these festivities.  It was fun and tiring all at the same time.  You are welcome to come over and play at the “Fun” house anytime…..

As you heard, we were up until midnight staging our (and grandparents Loren/Zaidee’s) BIG presents to the boys – a Playmobile doll house plus furniture & people, with farm, tow truck and mini-van.  The boys slept into 7am – unheard of.  We gave them a present upstairs (CARS 2 cars) in order to keep them busy while we got ready, then down we went.  WOW – the CARS were forgotten once they saw the doll house.  Nicholas immediately claimed the mini-van and Dexter played with the tow truck, pigs, and women in the shower.  She’s become a fan favorite because her towel comes off to reveal a black bikini and she likes to ride bikes while the mama pig takes a shower.

Because of the new toys, breakfast was a struggle.  The day before, at the end of the night, Dexter had turned to me and said “Mommy, you were wrong.  We didn’t get any more trains.”  To which I replied – wait.  More presents followed after breakfast.  Can you guess what they were?  Yep – trains.  We decided to get rid of/give to the boys, all the ones we were holding on to because I don’t know how long the Thomas fascination will hold.  The boys also got two books – one all about Trains and one all about Cars – how they work, the history, etc….  They are very cool.   Then, still asking for more, they received Michelle’s presents – two dogs (Dexter named his dog Dexter) and more Legos!  Who is Michelle?  She is our new au pair from Denmark!  Thank you Michelle!!!  We’ll introduce her in another post hopefully before she arrives.  :)  Last up was Grandma Crick and Grandpa Don’s gifts of a portable soccer goal and a inside trampoline.  Finally – they can get their jumpies out on the trampoline as opposed to the old couch.

Now that the boys were COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED with gifts, we saw a definite tiredness and grumpiness enter into the day.  The new toys were making the boys tired.  In fact, Joel asked Dexter what he wanted for Christmas and Dexter responding with – “Nothing.  These toys are making me tired.”  Interesting response – not one I expected – but one I could understand.  We spent Sunday at home, playing with new toys, all of us trying not get overly grumpy, and working on our sharing.

(As a side note, before I start – here I sit again, at Evergreen Hospital on 6/4 – waiting as Joel hopefully has his final arm surgery.  I definitely prefer the lighting to this little cubicle over the lighting we have at work. This seems to be the only place where I get a couple of hours to myself to fill you in on past events…..)

WOW – we did it.  All of us survived the boys 4th birthday and the weekend of overwhelming events and fun.  Joel wasn’t sure that we could pull it off but I had confidence.  Because the boys’ birthday happened to fall on Memorial Day weekend, their birthday fun spanned three days.  Thus, you will get posts detailing out what exactly happened over those three days.  I don’t believe I could have done it all in two.  We definitely needed the WHOLE weekend and I’m also glad that kids rarely remember what occurs when they are 4.  This would be a bad precedent to have to follow.

That said, the weekend before their birthday, I made Joel move furniture around with me.  I knew we would be frantically finishing up stuff before the boys’ party with friends and I wanted to level-load our preparation activities.  We needed additional floor space in order to facilitate a guest list of ~15 kids (preschool class) plus ~15 parents.  Thank goodness we already had a daycare like setting downstairs.

Tuesday night – while grocery shopping for food, the boys conned us into buying them early birthday presents – fancy matchbox cars.  On the one hand, I really like shopping at Fred Meyer because you can find everything in one shopping trip – food, clothes, toys, household goods, furniture, etc….  On the other hand, the boys know exactly where the cars are and insist on inspecting what’s available during every visit.  After you read all three posts, I do want you to know that because we bought them an early birthday present, our goal was to hold something else back.  In the end, I not sure that worked out the way we justified the early purchase.  Hindsight would tell me not to fall for that trick again.  Especially because these cars didn’t work as well as the boys had hoped and led to many tears and frustration.

On Friday night, we had the boys help us stuff gift bags for their friends.  We thought this would be a good activity, one in which the boys would learn to give something they liked (matchbox cars) away to others.  Hmmmm – once again, hindsight would be useful to have before you start an activity.  For the most part, the stuffing of bags worked.  EXCEPT for the fact that the boys expected to keep some of the cars.  Oops.  Sometimes, we suck as parents.  Duped again.  Two more early presents went to the boys.

Joel and I did such a good job of staging everything for the party and getting everything set up just right, that when the boys woke up around 6:30am the next morning wondering why their friends weren’t at the party yet, not only did we then have to find stalling tactics to keep them busy until 9:45am, we had to figure out how to keep them from playing with the staged toys.  When we saw one of their friends arrive early, I made Joel chase Kristen and Cooper down the street in order to get them in the house before 10am (when the party was to start).  Thank you Malin for the Lightning candy tins, belts, and shirts (which they look totally cute in).

Finally, everyone but two parents and 3 kids arrived (due to colds).  The house was a buzzing with activity.  Dexter kind of watched other kids for a while and did his own thing.  Occasionally he’d interact with others.  Nicky interacted much more.  The train track was a hit, as was the fishing game, pin the funnel on Thomas, throw the bean bag in the basket, books, and more.  Thank goodness I went with Joel’s suggestion of pizza at 11:15am.  It was around that time that I could feel a restlessness overcome the kids.  Everyone sat down for food, then cake.  Each boy got his own cake.  Nicholas had a monster truck jumping over cars.  Dexter had workers and construction vehicles.

Saturday also turned out to be a gloriously sunny day.  Once again – we were lucky.  I opened the deck doors after food and we all went outside.  Let the sugar kick in while the kids were running around outside.  This is when we also opened presents.  Even though we said gifts were not necessary, most everyone brought something.  The boys loved every gift, for about 20 seconds and then Nicky would turn to me and ask where was the next present.  Around 12:30pm, the parents decided they were done, and the party ended.

With the house quiet once more, Malina gave her present to the boys.  More Legos!  Thank you Malina.  Nicholas insisted that I come up and stay for his nap.  Of course I fell asleep on the floor of their bedroom for a good 20 minutes before rejoining Dexter and Joel downstairs.  The boys played with their new toys the rest of the day while we tried to restore order to our home.

That night – Joel and I stayed up until midnight, prepping our gifts for the boys. After many a moment of going back and forth – knowing that we totally overdid their presents and thinking of holding back some before deciding to just go for it, Joel turned to me and said, doesn’t this feel like Christmas?

Ah Mother’s Day.  A day when all moms get to relax – right?  This year, Mother’s Day occurred 6 days after Joel had arm surgery.  He planned that well, didn’t he?

Anyway, knowing I would be on the hook for doing everything on Mother’s Day, I set my expectations realistically.  All I wanted to do, was to sleep in – past 6:00 am, which is when Nicholas’s internal clock goes off.  AND Joel came through for me.  I actually stayed in bed until 7am.  By the time I got downstairs, waffles were made, boys were eating, and all was peaceful and calm.  At least I think that is how it happened.  The boys gave me fantastic broaches made in preschool and lovely picture they drew with Malina.

Joel and boys made these fantastic stepping stones for my northwest garden using pictures of us.

They are very cool.  In the end, I got to relax for an hour before it was time to do the dishes, run the laundry, referee the boys, and prep our burger inspired feast for my mom, dad & brother, whom we had invited over for Mother’s day.

This brings us to the excitement of the day.  We almost blew up our grill.  About an hour before my family showed up, Joel and I remembered we forgot to check to see if the grill was clean.  You see, in my mind, my husband is suppose to run the grill.  That is what my dad did.  Joel is not a big fan of meat so grilling becomes my job, unless I have another Aussie au pair, in which case I would hand over the grilling to her.  That said, I don’t know much about how to grill.  When Laura (Aussie) was our au pair, she showed me how to clean a grill with beer.  I have to say, it works great.  No one ever mentioned cleaning out the grease trap.  (a little foreshadowing here)  Anyway, I could have sworn I cleaned it before we stowed it away for the winter.  Nope – that was not the case.  I have never seen so much mold in my life.  It looked like my (Joel’s) grill had grown hair.  Yes – very disgusting.

What comes next is what Paul Harvey would call “the rest of the story”.  I told Joel to light it up.  We’d burn off that mold.  It was all going very well.  Clouds of white smoke filled the air.  No one died which proves it wasn’t toxic mold.  I’m at the kitchen sink washing fruit for a fruit salad when all of a sudden I notice the white smoke has gone black.  That’s funny – I think to myself.  Then I take a closer look.  The bottom of the grill is on fire.  That doesn’t look good.  I yell for Joel.  He’s talking to his mom on the phone.  He steps outside to look.  He abruptly hangs up on his mom – telling her the grill is on fire.  He wonders aloud at what he should use to put it out.  He didn’t want to use our fire extinguisher.  Beer comes to mind.  I tell Joel “put it out with beer.  It’s worked for me.”  He goes to get a beer (sorry Don, it was the last MGD – but it was for a good cause).  What I didn’t think of at the time, and I’m not sure if this thought crossed Joel’s mind either, is that there was a full propane tank right next to the fire.  There was a 1/2 tank under the fire.  Joel turned this off promptly but we did let the fire go a little longer than it should (slight temporal incongruity in Katie’s recollection – I shut off the gas before making the beer run – wouldn’t want Loren to think I was *that* stupid).  The grill and thus propane tanks are right near the house.  We were very lucky that day in that the beer worked beautifully at putting out the fire and that nothing exploded.

Needless to say, the bottom of our grill is completely warped now and needs to be banged out if it is to be worked again.  I know to clean the grill trap.  And, beer put out a grease fire.

That was my explosive Mother’s Day.  The rest of the day went well.  Burgers were grilled inside.  Bellies were filled.  People had a good time and I was a busy mother.  Joel can’t wait for the day he can outsource Mother’s Day.

I hope all you moms out there had a very happy day too with a little less danger than we had.  Please feel free to share your best mom’s day story with us.