Anatomy of a grocery shopping trip

1)  Arrive at store early-ish so as to obtain one of those monstrous race car shopping carts that will hold and kind of entertain both kids and aforementioned groceries.

2)  Immediately head to the bakery to obtain free cookies, all the while being judged by the bakers for feeding the children cookies early in the morning.  Little do they know, these children have been up for hours and have had a somewhat nutritious breakfast prior to the sugary cookie consumption that are not witnessing.

3)  Referee cookie eating.

4)  Pick out produce while negotiating with children who want to buy everything, and touch everything and well, taste everything.

5)  Keep track of list and coupons.

6)  At aisle 3, reassure children we will stop and see the lobster swimming in their super nasty tank at aisle 14.

7)  Try to match list with coupons.

8)  Remove items from cart the boys think they "need".

9)  Let boys out of cart because they are bored, and now threatening spankings if they do not quit wrestling, running, etc up and down the aisles. 

10)  Put boys back in the cart and referee the fighting.

11)  Child #1 hits child #2 with box of crackers on the head, child #2 picks up a can of mushrooms and whacks child #1 on the head in retaliation.....drama ensues.

12)  Carry the wailing child while pushing the monstrous cart, thinking well at least I am getting a workout in, right?

13)  Give up on the remainder of the coupons, figure out what I have to have this week and proceed with shopping.

14)  Check out...while the checker continues to tell me how cute my kids are.  Really, did she not here the chaos that was the last hour with these two? 

Snuck up on some love

I walked in from getting the mail a few days ago to this......

and then they started posing it up and I couldn't resist these....

I always tell people that they get along really well, when they are not trying to maim each other.

THINGS I WOULD TELL MY KIDS IF I WERE THEIR SIBLING AND NOT THEIR PARENT

Totally stole this idea from http://www.texanmama.com/ but I wholly and completely identify with what she is trying to express.

1)  When Mama asks you to put something in your closet, the playroom, my room etc, what she means is for it to be put IN ITS PLACE in that room, not for you to walk in the appointed room and chunk the object in and run.

2)  The crazy nuts timeframe in which she is preparing dinner is NOT the time to request a snack.

3)  Her sewing machine is that, HERS.  Grubby little boys hands have no business touching it.  She shares EVERYTHING else with us (papa, her lap, her bed, her bathtime, her sleep, food, energy, quiet), let her have this little thing.

4)  Those random hugs, snuggles, sweet moments with Mama make her day EVERY SINGLE TIME.  So do it MORE!

5)  You know what toys go in which bins so putting them up the first time you are asked wins you GIANT brownie points in her book.

6)  Getting dressed is a NON-NEGOTIABLE.  As hard as I have tried to escape the house unclothed it has yet to happen.  So just get dressed and quit making a circus of the event.

Versatility

The boys got to pick out some foam swords at Target yesterday and in the last few hours I have discovered that foam swords have many functions, for example:

*  A bat

* A magic wand

* An umbrella

* An elephant trunk

I just wish I had some appliances that could be so versatile, like a washer that dried and ironed/steamed?

Supers Everywhere

You know, the cute Thomas the Train phase goes WAY TOO FAST! 

In recent months Captain America, Spiderman, Kung Fu Panda, Wolverine, Jackie Chan and The Incredible Hulk have dominated play time (and dinner time) around this joint. 

We have shields made from cardboard, the boys can shoot "spider-webs" with amazing accuracy and I am quickly learning the names of all these folks along with their place....good guy or bad guy.

Picture Day

We recently had picture day at preschool so I decided to attempt a few snaps of them since they were looking more handsome than normal...or so I thought until they started acting silly.

A few lot of the outtakes...

How we roll

We took advantage of what will likely be the last of this gorgeous fall weather we have been having and split a bunch of firewood, raked leaves, built an additional compost bin and giggled our way through an impromptu game of sonotube rolling.

Simple Pleasures

I never cease to be amazed at how satisfied these boys can be by the most mundane tasks.

Last weekend we cleaned up and tilled the garden so there is fresh soft newly dug up dirt everywhere.  They loved watching Willie till but they have really enjoyed digging in the soft dirt, so much so that I actually got to mow a bit without any help yesterday....which NEVER happens.

These guys love helping me fold laundry, I hate folding laundry but they LOVE it.  They are starting to put up their own socks and underwear..which is REALLY nice.

Raking leaves is their most favorite fall activity and we have spent many hours in recent weeks raking and playing in the fallen fun.

Strawberry Pickin'

A few days...weeks...months ago my little monkeys and I met some friends for some strawberry picking and had an awesome time.  I am almost positive they ate as many strawberries in the field as we brought home...and we brought home A LOT!!!

Dude

My brother Matthew would have celebrated his 30th birthday today.  It is weird to think of him as an adult, he will always be a long lanky goofy kid in my mind.  He is missed by so many.

A few of the things that conjure up images of him.

His love of Elvis and Kramer from Seinfield.
His devotion to Blue Bell ice cream.
His fun loving laid back attitude about everything.
The way he sliced through the water while swimming.
His constant primping when it came to his hair.
His ability to laugh and smile almost constantly.
The totally bodacious surfer beach bum persona that was so HIM.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about you little brother.

Sleeping double in a single bed.....

So, we started an experiment a few weeks ago and let the boys sleep together in Matthew's twin bed for the night...guess what...it worked out AMAZINGLY well.  For the last 6 days they have slept together at night and periodically even napping together.  They are both sleeping longer thank the lord and seem to enjoy it.  In fact tonight when getting ready for bed Matthew told me that baby needs to sleep with me.  It warms my heart to see my little boys loving each other and seeing them snuggled up to each other in bed...well.....priceless.

Kimber gets up around 2 or 3 most mornings but does not cry, he just pads into our room and climbs in bed with us.  Gotta start working on curbing this but for now, I am enjoying a tiny little bit more sleep!

Storytime

Each week we visit the library and participate in toddler story time. Matthew actively participates and enjoys going and singing songs and listening to Ms. Maggie read us books.

A few days ago I walk into the living room and find Matthew sitting in his rocking chair "reading" a book to Kimber. He is even holding it out to the side and showing Kimber the pictures. It made me smile immediately and realize how much he is growing....and learning from what we DO.

Happy Half Birthday My Little Monkey

I admit it is hard for me to believe we met you 6 months ago. You are growing so very quickly (please slow down). Every single day my baby is slipping away. I confess that it is so fun to watch you grow, change and learn with every passing hour. You are almost crawling and quite good at doing to army crawl to get where you want to go. We are finally seeing spring and you love being outside and watching brother play. It seems within seconds of me putting you down in the center of the blanket you are at the edge trying to taste pine needles, grass and mulch. You will eat anything I give you but seem to really love baked sweet potatoes, frozen peaches and nectarines, rice cakes and bananas. You are doing pretty well at sleeping in your crib, at least for the first part of the night. If you had your way Mama would hold you all night long but you are transitioning well. I love you more with each passing day...keep up the good work little buddy!

You are Mr. Bear hanging out.

You REALLY get into eating....especially frozen peaches!!

Your most favorite chew toy.

Getting a driving lesson from brother.

Exploring the green stuff.

Hanging out with brother on the blanket.

And this one won the prize for my favorite picture this month.

Twins

We get told all of the time how much our boys look alike and I agree wholeheartedly. In the following pictures each boy was within a month of each other.....

Can you tell which one is which?

Brotherly Love

Motherhood has been a journey filled with a multitude of emotions for me. Bringing another little Riggle into the family has added a new level to this experience.

I absolutely love watching my two little men interact. At this stage it is mostly Kimber staring at Matthew with such adoration. I know, I know, they will eventually be fighting over every little thing but for now, this makes me happy....and a wee tiny bit proud. Lately Matthew has started showing Kimber "how" to play. Whenever I make Kimber a pallet on the floor to roll around on Matthew is not far behind with his menagerie of trucks, tractors and trains. I was putting up some laundry last week and came back in to find Kimber, who I left in his exersaucer, has had the entire bin of baby toys poured into/onto the saucer with him....talk about sensory overload. Matthew, of course pointed at Kimber and his pile of toys and said "baby play". I have to admit I was a little worried how Matthew would react when we brought Kimber home and I have been very pleasantly surprised. He is nothing but sweet to his brother, such a little helper for me and all around his usual sweet self.

They were both sick with ear infections here but still hanging out.

My three sweet boys!

Instruction....

Help Mom.......I can barely see over this pile.

Christmas Day...2009