"It's Not Nice to Eat People"

The title of this post was an observation made by Noah the other day. I started laughing so hard. He was looking at an animal book and then as he looked at each page he would say things like, "You should never eat me, Tiger."

More Noah:

Last week I was in the family room while the boys were playing in the bedroom. Noah came down and was talking to me when we heard Sam let out a cry. Noah gasped very dramatically and said, "He's in trouble! I shouldn't have left him alone!" and ran back to the bedroom to rescue his baby brother.

He also said to me recently while we were playing together, "Mom, I love hanging out with my girl!"

Oral Hygiene is Very Important

I came into the bathroom yesterday to find Sam sitting in the sink, happily "brushing" his teeth.

He had climbed up and gotten his (well, actually it was Noah's - ew) toothbrush out of the cabinet. Note to self: move the stool from in front of the sink.

At least he put the toothbrush away when he was finished.


Also, I think Sam's orange shorts are too big around the waist.

Happy Mother's Day!

I am very lucky this year that I got to spend Mother's Day with my mom (yes, I am in California again!). Happy Mother's Day to an amazing mom, and one of my very best friends.

And although they really have no clue about the significance of today, my boys must have sensed something because they were quite delightful all day. I'm a very lucky mommy.

Cystic Fibrosis Awareness

I have a friend whose kids, Maddie and Max, have cystic fibrosis. May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness month. You can learn more about it, and how you can help, here.

I Had a Dream

The dream I had last night may not be quite as inspirational as that of Martin Luther King, Jr., but it was entertaining nonetheless. And I will just preempt any questions by saying that no, it doesn't make sense; no, i have no idea what it might mean if anything; and yes, I do fear that I will one day end up in the loony bin.

I dreamt that my family and my friend's family lived together in this huge mansion (which was a tiny dump on the outside and then magically became an enormous, elegant mansion on the inside - a la Harry Potter). For some reason we also lived with several characters from Days of our Lives. Anyway... in my dream my friend's husband took one of their daughters to the doctor because her ear was hurting. He waffled about the necessity of a doctor visit but I insisted that the child get antibiotics whether she needed them or not. Somehow, the doctor's visit ended with the little girl needing an appendectomy. However, when she called to talk to her mom from the hospital, she had become her older sister. Nobody batted an eye at this surprising change of events, by the way. So, yes, this dream made absolutely no sense whatsoever (and there was an entire subplot involving the Days of our Lives characters, which I will not bore you with). But I informed my friend this morning that, just in case I'm psychic, she should probably pay close attention if any of her daughters start complaining of an earache or a stomach ache. Ben's response to this dream of mine was, "You are a sad, strange little woman."

Moving on... a little bit ago Noah was having some quiet time in his bedroom. After awhile he called for me, saying, "Mom! Can you come change my diaper? I'm stinking you out of this place again!" And I must agree with my sister: if he is old enough to put that sentence together, he really ought to be pooping in the freaking toilet. Agreed 100%. Unfortunately, a certain 3-year-old is still not on board with the idea.

Elephants and Singing Toes

I'm sure I've mentioned before that my Noah can be rather bossy. I'm also sure that I've recounted how he often needs reminding of the fact that he is not the mom. And you are all aware of his recent insistence on being called "elephant" (because he "is not Noah anymore," and he has "turned into an elephant"). These three little tidbits converged the other day when I was attempting to get Noah dressed in the morning. I tried to put his shirt on when he suddenly decided he wanted to do it himself. Noah grabbed the shirt from me and said, "NO!! I can do it. Mama, you are NOT the elephant!"

I am not the only one who is on the receiving end of Noah's bossiness (although I do tend to bear the brunt of it). The other night he and Ben were watching a show together on the couch. When the theme song started playing, Ben started tapping the beat with his foot. That did not fly with Noah who ordered, "Daddy, stop singing with your toes."

What are we going to do with this kid?

Boating

Yesterday we went boating with our next door neighbors - Dave, Jamie, and Brynlee:

We had such a great time. The weather was overcast in the morning and it looked like it might rain, but we went anyway and it ended up being a beautiful day. The wind made the water a little bit choppy but we managed to find a fairly calm spot for skiing.

Dave, Jamie and I did a few rounds of waterskiing. Afterward, Ben told me that every time I fell or let go of the rope, Noah would say, "Let's go rescue her!"

Other than skiing we just enjoyed being on the water, driving around the lake and eating lunch on the boat.

Toward the end of our boating excursion the rocking of the water lulled Sam right to sleep - while he was cluctching his sandwich. He ended up being so zonked that not even the water that splashed over the side of the boat directly onto his face could wake him up.

Thanks to our friends for such a fun day on their boat!

Baby Bookworm

Today My Heart Stopped

Today the boys and I went to the zoo today our neighbor Jamie and her little girl. After looking at the animals we stopped by the playground area to let the kids play for a bit. When it was time to go Noah asked for a couple more minutes so I said okay and started getting Sam in the stroller. And then Noah was just gone. The playground there isn't that big so I wasn't worried at first and just assumed he was crawling through the tunnels. But I watched kids go in and out of the tunnels and Noah wasn't there. I looked all around the playground and couldn't find him. I started getting a little anxious so I left Sam with Jamie and walked all around the playground. No sign of him. It was really crowded at the zoo today (dozens and dozens of school field trips were there) so my calls for Noah could barely be heard at all. At this point I'm so worried that I start to cry and I left the playground area to search around, fearing that Noah left when he heard me say it was time to go the first time. I saw a zoo worker and said, "Sir, I can't find my son." I was totally crying now as I described Noah to him. By this time, several other parents had seen the panic on my face and were helping to search around and the zoo guy was really great. He just kept saying, "Don't worry, we always find our kids here." He radioed in that there was a lost child (and I started imagining myself pleading on the evening news for the safe return of my little boy) and told me to stay at the playground. Just then, one of the moms at the playground said "I found him!" and a teary Noah came running over to me. I have never squeezed that child so hard in my life. He had been in one of the tunnels on the play structure the whole time. There were so many kids there that the poor thing had just been laying in the tunnel crying while kids crawled over him but neither of us could hear the other. And since I saw the same kids go in and then out of the tunnels I had assumed he wasn't in there. Phew. The whole episode probably lasted 5 minutes but it felt like forever and I really don't think my heart beat once the whole time.