Dear Santa

All I want for Christmas is my own Ipod! That way mom won't get so uptight about me using her MP3 player. Can you believe she "locked" it so I couldn't turn up the volume? The nerve!

Noah Won't Always Admit It

But he really does love his brother. Noah helped Oliver up onto his top bunk with the goal of making Ollie feel better. Noah knows that being in brothers room is huge to Oliver but being up on the top bunk, watching a video with brother, well that's a dream come true. Oliver was outside, on the sidewalk, watching Noah and Jackson ride their bikes. The two older boys were playing a game of bike tag and Oliver was cheering them on. Noah was it so Jackson was trying to get away and rode up onto the sidewalk (which I do NOT promote). Jackson claims to have been watching where he was going and that Oliver took a step forward and that is why Oliver got hit. Jackson swerved a little bit but still hit Oliver hard with his bike. The handle bars hit him on the side of the face and head and sent him flying backwards. If you look closely you can see the red and welted area on Oliver's face. Anyway, that is why big brother was trying to make little brother feel better. Makes a momma proud!

Drumline

When Oliver woke up from his nap yesterday Joel and Noah were gone so we sat down to have a glass of juice and surf the TV for a few minutes. I came across the last few minutes of the movie Drumline, which is the best part, and tuned it there. Oliver has always been into music, singing and dancing more than Noah ever was and loved this part of the movie. He got up and did some dancing and then started to mimic the drummers. When the movie was over he kept pointing to the TV and kept saying, "more? more?" When Joel got home I was telling him how much Oliver liked that part of the movie and while we were talking Oliver ran to his room and got his drum to show daddy what we were talking about. My future...chemistry sets for Noah and drum sets for Oliver, big bangs coming from both but for very different reasons!

Just Relaxing Today

I don't have many pictures to post, I either forgot the camera or brought it than failed to use it over the past couple of days. But here is a quick re-cap of our busy weekend: Joel took Friday off so we headed up to the Clark County Fair and spent a few hours up there. It's a great fair and Noah looks forward to it so much. Oliver did a great job of identifying the animals and telling us what sounds they made. His favorite barns, or at least I think it was his favorite, were the cattle barns. Lots of mooing going on from both toddler and animal. Noah and I went on a few rides together, my favorite one was the mini-roller coaster. When we got off the ride Noah turned to me and said, "That was a BIG first drop, it gave me heart burn!" I chuckled and said that it sometimes happens when you go on rides like that. I think we spent about 3 hours at the fair and had a great time. We came home did a quick re-charge then headed over to Christie's for some swimming and pizza. Christie and I have concluded that we shouldn't make Ben the on-duty lifeguard. The "Ben, grab him!" and the "Ben he's right there!" don't seem to register quite quickly enough. Oliver even points at him and shakes his head no when you ask him if he wants to swim with Uncle Ben. But, in Ben's defense, he is great at diving for toy-pedos at the bottom of the pool! Christie is a great hostess and we had a great time that night. She even gave Noah one of Christopher's old Lego sets which Noah is working on right now! We obviously had a great time that evening and our hostess was wonderful.

On Saturday, we got up early, packed and headed to Olympia for a family barbecue at my Aunt Cherie and Uncle Tom's place. They had all three of their daughters home and two of their grandsons there and it was wonderful to see them all. I know that my mom (because she sent me some pictures already) and my Uncle Tom were taking pictures so they need to send me disks with pictures...please?? It was so much fun getting to see everyone and, as usual, us girls sat around and made each other laugh the entire day. The men seemed to congregate and then migrate outside to form their own alliance. Little did they know that we were just to strong to be overthrown by such silliness! And thanks to my cousin Amy, I now know all that I need to know about night vision eye. My grandmother had 8 children, 3 boys and 5 girls. Below is a picture of her three sons, Carroll, Mike and Tom. Yes, they are as dangerous as they look.

Trust Me

They are not as innocent as they might appear!

"Lick"-casso

I think the title to this post says it all...

One Two Tie Your OWN Shoes

It today's world of flip-flops, slip-ons and Velcro the concept of having to tie one's shoes is foreign to many kids including Noah. With him starting first grade in September it means that he will be at school all day and have to change his shoes for gym class. Your selection of shoes and more importantly shoes on sale increases exponentially when your child can tie his own shoes. Now, I must admit that I've not pushed the learning to tie your shoes lesson because even with the goofy little songs out there it can be quite difficult to convey exactly how to do it. So I grabbed Noah a pair of my tennis shoes and we sat on the bed Sunday afternoon and went for it. I got him excited by explaining his friend, Jacob, could tie his own shoes and bribing him with a toy for his new pool if after a couple of days he could prove to me that he could tie his shoes all on his own. This morning, bright and early, me still in my pajamas and barely into my first cup of coffee, Noah comes out fully dressed with shoes on and tied ready to go to Target to pick out a new pool toy. As you can see, he did a great job.

Stinky!

I believe that potty training is just around the corner for Ollie. He is more aware of when things are about to happen plus he loves to do whatever big brother is doing. Another clue lately has been Oliver letting us know that he needs his diaper changed. He plugs his nose and says "Stinky" or "p.u." and then runs to his room. I never thought a messy diaper could be so entertaining. It makes me chuckle every time.

A Fun Night Out With A Good Friend

Our friend Chris told me about a concert that he and some of his friends were going to. I checked it out and decided that it would make a great night out with my friend Steph. To be honest, I wasn't sure about the show or the venue but figured a girls night out was worth the chance. Turns out it was awesome and please don't tell Joel but I felt guilty that he wasn't there because I know that he too would have loved it. It was three artists each with a mic and their guitar taking turns singing songs. The venue was small and very intimate and Steph and I even talked to Breanna for a minute or two about a song she had sung before the break. After we had a cocktail at a place called Mint and 820 we headed over to Mississippi Station, had some dinner then went into Mississippi Studios to see the show. It was Breanna Paletta who is the front woman for Rye Hollow, Tyler Stenson who fronts The Lander Band and Matt Vrba. Matt Vrba was an incredible guitar player and Steph pointed out that he was also an excellent story teller. I had a great time and loved spending some time with Steph away from the chaos that seems to find our homes. If you get a chance, click on the links below to hear some of the artist's music.
http://www.myspace.com/breannapaletta
http://www.myspace.com/landerband
http://www.myspace.com/mattvrba

My Apologies

I am sorry that I haven't blogged much this week. I made up for it this afternoon by sitting down and getting caught up. Enjoy! Love, Tiff

Not a Story That Mom's Normally Share

So our Oliver is turning out to be quite the tantrum thrower. He started out expressing his anger at a young age by head butting whomever or whatever was close to him. We got this under control so he tried hitting. He learned quickly that hitting will get you about as far as head butting did so he tried throwing things at us. Well, he has pretty much stopped throwing items at people but will still occasionally throw items, in other directions, when angry. The other day I did something to make him mad, I can't remember what exactly but I'm sure it wasn't nice. He was ticked and wanted to let me know, you could see him go through all the things he used to do and as he recalled each one and knew he couldn't do them he would get more and more frustrated. Finally, he spotted this little table and used it to channel his anger. He would push it around then pick up a corner or side of it and throw it back down. The louder the bang or crash the better he felt. I, in a moment of parenting splendor, laughed and reached for the camera. As you can see, he isn't happy and the table's about to take another beating. The remote on the floor, next to the table, was a casualty of the tantrum. Don't worry, I gathered myself back up, put the camera away and dealt with Oliver. We haven't had a table episode since then but I'm not holding my breath!

Noah's New Bike

Noah received a bike that his friend Jacob had outgrown - thanks Jacob! This means, of course, that Oliver cannot and will not leave it alone. If brother can ride it and have fun on it then so can he. These pictures tell a typical story around here...me warning and/or telling Oliver to leave brother's bike alone, a blurry picture of the bike falling because it was NOT left alone, Oliver crying as he crawls out from under the bike and finally Oliver not to be seen because he has run away from the scene of the crime knowing that mom and brother aren't going to be happy. Yup, pretty typical day!

Just Some Cute Pictures

Oliver playing peek-a-boo from under the fish tank and an up close shot of Noah.

Testing the Waters

The boys tried out the new pool this morning. Noah just didn't understand why I didn't want to go in with them until he got in and could barely talk. Joel filled it late Friday and it has not been warm enough to heat the water at all. Both boys were shivering almost instantly and the first swim didn't last long. Next week should bring us some nice hot days along with a warmer pool!

A Lot of Hard Work

This is the area that the old, smaller pool used to be. You can see that sod has been removed and there is string marking out the area. Joel is going to turn this area into a patio after pool season so he decided to remove sod, dirt and grade the ground under the pool so it will be ready to go at summers end. This took a few days and lots of labor but it looks great now.

Action shot of Joel nearing the end of the task.

New pool being filled...only took about 8 hours.

Daddy's little helpers!