Conversation during dinner

Me to Claxton: "Tell me about class today."
Claxton: "We played and went to art."
Me: "Did you have a story today?"
Claxton: "Yes."
Me: "What was it about?"
Claxton: "A baby."
Me: "Really, who was it? And was there anyone else around?"
Claxton: "Baby Jesus, and Mary, and Joseph too. Baby Jesus was sleeping on hay. And there were animals there and they liked the hay too."
Me: "Good memory. "
Claxton: "Yeah, and there were two Joseph's."
Me (looking puzzled now): "Are you sure there were two?"
Claxton: "Yes, I'm sure. He had a rainbow coat, his brothers threw him in a hole and ripped his coat. He was very sad."
Me (remembering that he had learned that story a month or so ago): "You are right. There are two different Joseph's, but each has a different story. So, what happened to Joseph after his brothers threw him in the hole?
Claxton: "They sold him as a slave." (at least that's what I thought I heard)
Me: "Do you know what a slave is?"
Claxton: "No, Mom, not a slave. It's a sleeve."
Brian (piping in with laughter): "No, not a sleeve, that's silly. This is a sleeve. (pointing to his shirt sleeve).
Claxton (0bviously over this discussion): "Oh, that is a sleeve. Can I please be excused now?"

O'dark thirty

I admit that I have never been a morning person. I think my mom always tried to make me into one, but the truth is I'm just not wired that way. Never will be. Last week I had to make a trip to Athens and left the house at 5:45 a.m. Yikes, that was hard for me. Today, to ensure I'd be able to vote (because I was not about to take a 3 year old and a 20 month old with me and Brian had to catch an early afternoon flight, plus not knowing how long the wait would be I had to go early) the alarm went off much earlier than I ever desire. So I left the house with coffee and magazine in hand at 6:30 a.m. and was done by 8:40 a.m., plenty of time for Brian to still be able to do everything he needed to before heading to the airport. And go figure, when I left the polls there was hardly a line, so I didn't need to get up at o'dark thirty this morning after all. On the drive home I just kept telling myself how wonderful it was to stand there with all those other folks who all came out to exercise the priviledge to vote. Yep, that's what I kept telling myself. I did notice that most were dressed quite differently than me today. I in my sweats and sneakers; they in their office attire. Made me reminisce a little from what was my life just a few short years ago when I got up at o'dark thirty five days a week, just like the majority of those I know do. And I know I only have another couple of years to enjoy not having to rise so early in the morning. Being a sahm to preschoolers certainly has its perks, doesn't pay much at least monetarily speaking, but yeah for the perks!

Halloween Recap

When I was growing up we always waited until dark to go trick or treating. I guess with this thing about pushing day lights saving time until first Sunday of November has changed things a little. Anyway, we waited until it was almost dark so we didn't get started until about 7 pm. The kids were beside themselves excited. It took Julia all of about two houses for her to catch on to the program. Between Claxton's charm and her sweet innocence, the two together made out like bandits.

Ready for Top Gun

Cute as can bee!

Waiting patiently on Mom to take more pictures...

Got our lights, let's go


Oh brave one...

Julia's two favorite things are puppies and babies and can spot either of them a mile away, so when we arrived here she really thought she hit the jackpot!

Checking out the goods

Yummy!

After all the trick or treating fun was over, we called Grammy and Grandpa so they could see the kids in their costumes. Claxton confidently informed them that we would be going trick or treating again the next night!

Our Jack-O-Lanterns

We had planned to carve pumpkins last Sunday but ended up attending a neighborhood fall party and when we got home it was too late. So we pushed that project off until Monday and again something else came up. So finally last night we got around to getting our pumpkins carved.

Pigtails!

Every day when Julia gets up and we start our morning routine, it always involves her asking for a hairbow. So yesterday we tried something a little different. Here she is with her new look!

Doing a flyby

Claxton and Julia both share Brian's passion for aviation. We have quite a number of airplanes flying over our house every day with some of the new flight patterns from the main airport here, plus there are several small private airfields close to us. When we are outside they both are quick to find one when they hear it. And even when we are inside and hear one fly over at least one or both of them is shouting "airplane, airplane!". Today was a special treat for Brian, he got to go flying with one of his buddies. But what we even better is that they circled the house a few times and the kids got to wave to Daddy up in the sky. I think everyone in the neighborhood could hear them screaming "Hi Daddy. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Hi!"

Watching Dad doing a flyby!

Photo Update

Ok, it's been a while and quite honestly I've had a ton of good material to post over the past few months. Unfortunately other things seem to take precedence, or probably more accurately stated - I've just gotten really lazy. We usually make it to a pumpkin farm about an hour away, but haven't made it up there this year. So this weekend, we went to a local nursery that had several activities for the kids.

First face painting

He was quite intrigued with the white pumpkin.

Scarce supply of pumpkins since we arrived late in the day. Julia kept calling them apples (she calls strawberries apples too, but at least they are red!)

Waiting for the hay ride.

Getting into the Olympics

We are just not big sports fans around our house. However, I've always enjoyed watching the Olympics and we're all getting into it this year. Our mantel is adorned with an Olympic flag (well, sort of, it was the kid's project at Home Depot this month). So to get into the spirit it sits on the mantel where we all can see it everyday for the next couple of weeks. Every morning Claxton is sure to remind us that the Olympic rings are on his flag. We've talked about China and where it is. We've even had our first map lesson. Brian and I are enjoying following Micheal Phelps (kind of hard not to though) and cheering him on. Claxton really likes the swimming competitions too but is also really getting into gymnastics and diving. We've been allowing him to stay up past normal bedtime to watch. This started last Friday night with the opening ceremonies. Claxton's favorite part was all of the fireworks and lighting of the torch. And that's exactly what he thought the Olympics was all about - fireworks and lighting the torch. On Saturday when we started watching the actual sports events he didn't understand and kept telling us that he wanted to watch the Olympics. After going back and forth several times we came to understand that he wanted to see the fireworks again. We had to explain the whole sports events to him and now every morning when he gets up he says "Mom, can we watch China today?" We are working on getting him to say Olympics instead of China. But that's cute and we have a good chuckle with it every morning. None the less, we are having a fun time. I'm sure there will be a sad little boy when they end in a couple of weeks. We should have ordered Chinese food for the opening ceremonies, but hadn't really put that much thought into at that time. So maybe we'll do that for the closing ceremonies.

He watched just as long as he could...

Updates, updates, updates

Ok, so it's been a while. No excuses other than time is just getting away from me. Every day I think I will spend some time working on my blog after the kids are in bed...and everyday I don't. And this past month, I've had some really good blogging material, but now that I've sit down to blog I can't remember much of what I wanted to blog about. Old age is settling in I suppose (no comments please!). Anyway, here's a rather lengthy report of all the happenings since my last post.

1. Last weekend in April - One of Brian's really good friends from college along with his wife and son came for a visit. We decided to take the kids to the aquarium and they all loved it. It was especially exciting for Julia, she couldn't stop pointing at all of the fish...and of course vocalizing her excitement as well (lots of grunting and screaming). It was rather crowded that day so the noise level was already at a high level. Thankfully no one really noticed all of her squeals...

Back at the house, Claxton and Samuel enjoyed being firemen before bedtime…

2. I finally reached my wits end with our antique washer and dryer. I mean, how efficient is it when you have to sit on the washing machine to prevent every load from becoming off balanced and thus producing an obnoxious buzzer going off? A buzzer that would wake the dead no less. Then after that great pleasurable experience you have to in fact dry your clothes 2-3 cycles before they are completely dry. Enough already. We had actually been shopping for a washer and dryer for a little while so that when the time came and ours actually kicked the bucket we would have knowledge of what's on the market these days. So, we found what we wanted on sale. Date nights just aren't what they used to be...

(Click picture for full image)

3. Mother's Day - Well, it was a low key sort of a day. I was treated to lunch at what has become one of my favorite places to dine - Five Seasons. The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home with Brian and the kids. Upon arriving home from lunch I noticed a couple of gifts waiting for me on the hearth. I was very surprised to receive two very unexpected gifts - a camera, and a pair of earrings that I've had my eye on for a few years now. I've kind of wanted a small camera I can carry in my purse for a while, but not high on the priority list, just something I thought would be nice to have. I love Brian's camera and will still continue to use it to, but it is just too bulky to carry around for play dates and things like that. Very cool. I'm so excited. And then the earrings. Ok, I admit it, I'm picky. And it's not really often that I ask for something very specific, but I had seen some earrings a while ago that I really wanted. Nothing fancy, just some silver hoop earrings. The uniqueness of them is that rather than being just round hoops, the edges are square/round, just like my wedding band. I saw some when we were in Banff a few years ago and have wanted some ever since. I actually put my order in sometime ago and was really starting to give up on this one. But just when you least expect it... And the reason it has taken so long is that Brian was searching all over and couldn't find the ones I wanted. Well, leave it to H&A, they seem to come through for us on all of our jewelry needs…or I guess more appropriately…my wants. I love them!! Thanks for searching until you found just the perfect ones.

4. We wrapped up swim lessons in mid May. We could not be more pleased with Claxton's progress this year at Dynamo Swim Schools. Claxton is jumping off the side "like Jonah" (thanks Veggie Tales), swimming six to eight feet out to Dad. Then Dad turns him around and sends him back to swim to the side of the pool. He reaches for the side and pulls himself out. We are taking a break from swim lessons over the summer and will advance to regular group classes (without Dad) in the fall. Julia will start lessons for the first time in the fall. So it looks like Dad will still be going to swim lessons for a little while longer!


5. Early to mid May Julia took her first steps. It is just so hard to believe that she has reached this stage already. Claxton was her biggest cheerleader. I had been telling him that it would happen just any day so he was keenly aware to be on the look out. In fact, he was the first to see her walk and proudly announced it to the rest of us. "Mommy, she's walking. Sweet Girl is walking!!"
Julia loves her big brother. If he's in another room, she's looking for him or calling him. And he knows her call. Right now it kind of sounds like Dai, but he knows she's trying to say his name. His usual response is "here I am, Sweet Girl". The two are really starting to enjoy each other's company and it's a whole lot of fun watching them!
She likes sitting at the bottom of the steps and kicking her feet and occasionally she's try to sneak up the stairs when were not looking. We bought beach chairs for the kids for our vacation. But in the meantime we've had them in the house and Julia really likes climbing in and out of her chair. I think she spends about fifteen minutes at a time just doing that over and over again.

6. We're spending more and more time outside these days. Claxton has become quite the little explorer. He likes exploring the edge of the wooded area of our yard. He likes pulling the bark off the trees, playing with sticks and pine cones, and checking out the different leaves (thankfully we haven't come across any poison ivy). We have a couple of small trees that he can climb on and does as often as he can. On another day, he found a caterpillar on the swing set. He is indeed all boy. And if the mail comes when we are outside, well, he must run to get it. Often times before I'm ready for him to go because he's not allowed to go by himself just yet.

First spotting of the caterpillar

Must call Dad to tell him about his find

Showing off his find...

7. Julia is quite the littler explorer in her own right. However, most of hers is done inside the house. Her favorite place to go on an adventure is in the pantry. If the door is left open and Julia is nowhere in sight, the first place to check is the pantry. 99% of the time you'll find her there. I think she might have a napkin fettish. There are napkins in a drawer she can reach and she loves to pull them out one by one, wad into a ball, then take to the trash can. She would do this all day if I would let her. So I retrieve them from the trash, spread them out to make the look like new again and put back in the drawer for her to do the next time she sneaks into the pantry. It's a fun game. Her other fun thing to do is open the Crystal Light boxes and dump the packets on the floor, pick them up and put them back in box and do it all over again...and again...and again. Another fun game - who needs expensive toys?


She's become quite the little helper too especially since she started walking. She likes to take her dirty diapers and any other trash to the trash can. She knows exactly where it's at, how to open the door and put it in…and is very proud of herself when the job is done.





8. In late May we started having two visitors show up either in the mornings while it was still cool or late in the afternoons when the temperature began to drop for the evening. Our visitors were Peter and his friend... The kids both enjoyed looking for them everyday. And for about a week, they showed up everyday.

9. The last week of the month we spent with Grammy, Grandpa, Uncle Brad, Aunt Anne, and Kyle. We really enjoyed our time together and a special highlight was being able to celebrate Kyle's birthday with him this year. Here's a glimpse at some of the things we did on our trip.

More updates coming soon, stay tuned...

Time for Touch a Truck

Last year was our first time attending this event and we knew we would be returning. Claxton is still into police cars, big trucks of any kind, and of course fire engines as much or more than he's ever been. I'm thinking he'll probably carry this passion with him for a very long time. Based on last year's experience, we knew it would be best to arrive when it opened to avoid most of the crowd so that the kids could spend a little more time on each truck checking out all of the bells and whistles (aka - buttons to press, knobs to turn, etc). There were all kinds of vehicles to explore - police cars, fire engines, school bus, UPS truck, semi trucks, trolley, and more.

Julia is old enough this year to enjoy it as well. She was quite amused with all the activity and things to see and by the way, not at all phased by the loud horns and sirens. Her favorite part was seeing a police dog (she has recently learned what a dog says and demonstrates at every chance she gets).

His favorite - driving a fire engine

Everybody has to take a turn running in the back of a semi...

Claxton and Julia waving to their fans from the big yellow school bus

Vroom, vroom!!
(This is for Unlce Brad)

Just a little too loud

He'll be cutting the grass for us real soon

Look closely at Julia's face -she had just seen the police dog