Things I Love

1. I love that Micaiah wraps his arms tightly around my neck whenever I pick him up
2. I love when Orin tells Micaiah "No talking baby" or "Be quiet." It doesn't sound cute but it is! He gets it from when we tell him that when he's in time-out.
3. I love how excited Micaiah gets when we cluck our tongue - usually after he starts doing it first.
4. I love that Micaiah claps every time he hears Orin start singing...or any time he hears music in general.
5. I love that for the first time recently Orin was able to tell me why he was saying sorry to Micaiah after being in time out (for hitting him on the head).
6. I love how freaked out Orin gets by bugs and screams "Yucky bugs" and that recently he looked at my hairy legs and said "Ew, yucky bugs on momma's legs!"
7. I love when Orin and Micaiah are in the back seat of the car and just start cracking up for no reason as they look at each other.
8. I love that Micaiah still loves to nurse and often tries to pull my shirt down to do so.
9. I love that Orin asks to sit on the potty ALL of the time but that nothing ever happens. But he is so proud after doing it.
10. I love how both kids get SO excited when Damien gets home. I also love that sometimes Orin says "Mommy hold baby (or "Baby hold Mommy") sometimes when Damien is holding both of them.
11. I love how we can so easily convince Orin to take an nap, even when he says he doesn't want to just by building it up by saying "But don't you want your two passys and your sound machine, and big blanked (his quilt that Nina made that he loves), and Ernie & Elmo?
12. I love that 99% of the time Orin wakes up in the morning or from a nap he is in a GREAT mood! When I open the door after his nap he runs to me, gives me a hug and says "Mommy, I wake up."
13. I love that Micaiah wants everything that Orin has but that he's already learned (much of the time) just to wait until Orin drops it instead of taking it from him.
14. I love Micaiah's two bottom teeth (the only ones he has) that he's had for 4 months with no other teeth in sight.
15. I love that when Orin is done eating, even after eating tons of food, instead of saying he's done he'll say "I don't like it."
16. I love that sometimes when Orin does something he finds exciting - even if it isn't anything hard - he'll often jump up and down and say over and over "I did it, I did it, I did it, I did it!"
17. I love that I almost always get a kiss from Orin and Micaiah if I ask (even if it sometimes takes some convincing.)
18. I love how when Orin wakes up from a nap and wants me to come get him he'll yell out "Re-nae, Re-nae" as well as "Mommy, Mommy."
19. I love that Orin has been able to recognize his letters and numbers since 21 months but still doesn't get the concept of colors. We thought he was starting to know some of them because he can correctly name many of the colors but it seems he has just memorized the pages because even though he can name the items and their color, if you give him random colors he is usually wrong.

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Excuses

It sure has been a while since I've posted. I seem to blog like I do most things in my life...in spurts. I get onto something for a few days/weeks/months (like keeping my house clean) and then sort of let it go. My life (and certainly my kids) is not on any sort of schedule so things just happen as they come up. Other things I do sporadically are reading books (I've been reading "Graced Based Parenting" for about 3 months and haven't gotten that far), eating (although I eat on a little better schedule these days since my children are so darn hungry all of the time and insist on three meals per day ;-) ), fixing my hair (this gets done for about a month after I get it cut and then is in a pony tail until the next time it's cut), and plenty of other things I can't think of right now. With blogging, I also feel like I need to have something to write about...which I haven't really had recently. I'm trying to take a break from taking SO many pictures of the boys...once a week would be plenty...plus Damien keeps complaining how he has to constantly delete stuff from our hard drive since most of it is full with pictures and video. Oops :-) I'm also definitely not as open in my blogging as many people are...it's just not me to pour my heart out online where anyone could read - partially a personality flaw as well as it being something special with someone special when I share my heart. I think it also depends on my mood. So my excuses are as follows: I've been a little sick after catching Micaiah's cold. This only makes me tired and when I have time to myself I just want to lay around and watch TV. Unfortunately (or fortunately since I don't end up watching too much TV) I haven't gotten much time to myself lately. Micaiah is down to two naps and Orin is taking one pretty long one. Amazingly, they rarely overlap for more than 30 minutes. So I end up having one awake almost all of the time. It's not bad though since it keeps their amount of time together at a minimum. As much as they are starting to love playing together Orin still enjoys his alone time where there is no baby 'Caiah there to take everything he is playing with or mess up his train track. Another excuse is just the busyness of life. Most of the busyness comes from the partnership development (i.e. raising support) and what comes along with that. Writing newsletters, printing address, stuffing and sealing envelopes every three months for over two hundred people takes more time than I would have thought - granted we have definitely gotten a lot faster with it all. I've also have never written so many emails before. The busyness just makes me so thankful that I'm not working anymore. Amazingly, I've actually stayed home more in the past month than I have in years. I'm trying to do this for a few reasons: I need time to call, email and send letters out to churches, more time to actually play with the boys, spending less money (if I'm out I'm often at a store running errands and eating out), letting the boys actually have regular naps, etc... Other busyness comes from being involved with two couples Bible Studies, nursery committee, random church ministries. Wow, it makes me a little tired just thinking about it. But the best part is that life is good! I actually thrive on the busyness and I have to keep myself in check. So now that I completely forgot what I was writing about in the first place and I'll just stop where I am!

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New Music

As many of you know, Orin LOVES music! We love to have it on at home or in the car. Most of the time it's just in the background as we talk and play. And since we live in such a huge city and drive far to church, play group, lunch with daddy, etc., we spend probably 7 hours in the car each week. Damien and I were definitely sick of listening to the same few CDs we've had since Orin was born. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of great kids music out there. And we had heard our Veggie Tales, Sesamee Street and Kids Bible Song CDs way too many times. We do have some great classical music we put on as well and a couple of other intersting kids CDs, but we were ready for something new. And it's amazing how few CDs you can find at Target and Walmart. So Damien went on a mission to find some good kids music. Surprisinly, (at least to me) there is some out there. "If You Ever Seen an Owl" is by a band called The Terrible Two's. It's great and we just love the creativity of the songs. The lyrics are fun as is the music. There is one song that Orin just cracks up to every time it comes on. "New Orleans Playground" is another CD he found. It so reminds us of home! Various artists sing songs, many of which we heard growing up. It's great. We also really want our kids to grow up with an appreciation of the culture of our home city. (On a side note, one of the songs has the word "Ax" (instead of Ask). One of the first times we were listening to the music at home, Orin ran to one of his puzzles and pulled out the letter "X". For some reason I think he missed the meaning.) Another CD called "For the Kids" is a compilation of various popular artists signing different kids songs - some old, some new. Lastly, we got the Soundtrack to the film "Curious George". Thanks uncle Doug and Aunt Crystal for introducing us to it! Damien and I are definitely enjoying the new music...at least for now until we get sick of it too! But it's nice to have CDs that are high quality musically and fun for the kids.

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A Few More

The kids often enjoy snacks right before bedtime - and I'm open to anything that might help them sleep in as late as possible in the morning! :-)


Orin singing "Jesus Loves Me." He's our little star. I'll post more of these later.


Orin sometimes likes to read in our bed before going into his room to sing and pray.


One of the first times Micaiah pulled to a stand in Mid-June.

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Daddy & Micaiah Playing

Ok, I'm attempting my first video, so here goes!

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New Hangout

In a small house you have to be creative. Lately, we've had to be creative getting the kids to bed. If we put both boys down at the same time it usually doesn't work. Even though Micaiah usually cries a tiny bit, for no more than a few seconds, we still can't put him down with Orin. If Orin hears Micaiah cry he starts sobbing himself, usually standing up on the bed and saying "Baby Sad". Even though Micaiah would normally stop pretty fast, because Orin is now crying Micaiah will cry louder. All of this to say, we can't put them down at the same time. So lately we've been putting Micaiah down, letting him fall to sleep and then putting Orin down 10 minutes later. Unfortunately, a couple of times Micaiah wasn't completely asleep and started crying when we walked in. But now my little genius baby seems to have figured out our process. The last couple of nights we've put Micaiah down, he doesn't make a peep for 30 minutes but when we go to put Orin down Micaiah sits up wide awake. I really think he knows that we'll be coming in again and just waits for it. So we've been taking Micaiah out and putting him in the pack-n-play in our den/bedroom. But while we let him go to sleep, there is really no where for us to be. He can stand up in the pack-n-play so he'll just laugh or cry at us. So the last two nights Damien and I waited in the bathroom. I think it's our new hangout spot. Last night we were in there for probably about 1 1/2 hours. We just started talking and the time flew. We even ate some pie. :-) It's actually not a bad place to be -there is no distraction of TV or computer - it was pretty fun. At the end our backs were killing us from sitting on the toilet and step-stool, but I have a feeling we might be meeting there again tonight!

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Random Pics

Here are some pictures of the boys playing...oh, and one of Orin and mommy too.

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Uncle Aaron & Aunt Erin's Visit

It was so nice to have Aaron and Erin here for a while. Before Erin came in we dragged Aaron He came down to Masanutten with us. around with us for a couple of weeks.


We went rock climbing at Great Falls Park (he and Joel went twice), went to the park, hung out at his hotel - which Orin loved - and ate at Chevy's twice!

It was also nice to have Erin in town and spend some more time getting to know her. They graciously babysat for us while we went to dinner and a movie. We saw Once which was great!

It reminds me of how often we went to movies before kids and how seldom we do it now. Not a huge sacrifice but it does make me wish that Damien and I could go on dates more often. Aaron and Erin also let us tag along when they went downtown one day.

We went to the Natural History Museum and then ate dinner at Union Station. It is another reminder of how wonderful it is to have family around! Orin was sad when he left and I have a feeling he's going to understand more and more the meaning of goodbyes.

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"Oh, no, I need a diaper!"

These were Orin's first words after going pee-pee on the potty for the first time. I am in no way planning to potty train him now, but he often begs to sit on the potty. I usually say no since he just sits there and it's more of a pain than anything. He just never had the concept of what is supposed to happen, even though he's seen Damien and I do it. After his bath last night he asked Damien to put him on so he did. Damien decided to pour water on him just to see what would happen. I was in the other room and hear Orin saying "Oh, no!" I went in to see what was going on - Damien was telling it was ok and to stay on the toilet so it wouldn't go everywhere. Orin just kept saying "I need a diaper, I need a diaper" and was somewhat freaked out. Even after he stopped peeing he was saying he wanted a diaper. But we kept trying to tell him how great it was and that mommy and daddy don't wear diapers. He finally got excited once we let him flush the toilet and we all said "Bye, bye, pee-pee." Of course, then Orin wanted to keep flushing it and said it every time he did. Now we have a rule that Orin can only flush the toilet if he puts something in it. :-)

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I just wanted to make a note...

...of the fact that Orin ate his first penny on Wednesday at 10:15pm (while visiting uncle Aaron in his not-so-child-proof hotel room) and it came out in his poop around 11:45am on Friday. :-) I wasn't too worried about until I decided to look it up on the Internet and read that you should "worry" about it...or at least call the Doctor. Interesting enough, I was reading about it about 10minutes before it came out. Copper was be pretty strong because it was completely in tact! :-)

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A Day At the Lake

After having such a blast on vacation renting a pontoon, Joel, Aaron, Erin and us decided to do it ourselves. We went rented a pontoon on Lake Anna. which is about 1 1/2 south of us. It was nice day.













The water was perfect - not too hot, not too cold. We had a great time just driving around looking at the lake and swimming in 15 feet deep water. Orin and Micaiah had a blast too. We had sandwiches, cookies, and watermelon.













It always makes me a little nervous when we're in lake water because it's not very clear and my mind starts to go places I don't want it to. We made sure to keep a close eye on them, especially Micaiah who kept trying to climb out of his tube.













About 30 minutes before we had to have the boat back, the sky got very dark and it began thundering and lightening. We decided to start heading back. Before we got going it started to POUR! One of those crazy summer storms where it goes from nothing to pouring in a minute. It was raining so hard and such big rain it was stinging us badly.












The boys started crying because it hurt and poor Joel tried to drive the boat when he couldn't see 5 feet in front of him and his face was getting hammered with rain. We tried to shield the boys with towels but it was even stinging through it. We thought if Joel just stopped that the rain wouldn't feel so hard but it did, so we kept going. We finally made it back. Micaiah had actually fallen asleep but poor Orin was somewhat traumatized. He held tight to Damien as we ran to a shelter. For about 20 minutes after he cried every time it thundered. And when we asked him later if he wanted to go back on the boat he just said, "All done boat." I think the worst part of it was that all of our stuff got SOAKED. But it was actually a pretty funny experience and we were laughing about it as it happened and afterward. These are the things that makes vacations memorable!

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My Daughter

Since Orin was born, more often than not, people think he is a girl. I think it's the hair! (ha, ha) Actually, it happened just as often before his hair got long. It truly doesn't bother me when people get it wrong and I usually don't correct them so that they don't feel bad. Last Friday I think I had the funniest confusion so far. I took Orin to get his hair cut..well, trimmed. I'm always a little nervous because Damien would be very sad - as would I - if they cut all of his hair off. So on Friday, as usual, I stressed that I just wanted just a trim and maybe a little layers. I told her we like it long but that he is a boy so to keep that in mind. The woman who was cutting his hair was an older Hispanic woman. She seemed to understand and began cutting away. She put in "Bob the Builder" (Orin's new favorite show) and Orin did well. As she finished, having done exactly what I asked, she started digging through her drawer. Normally, at Cartoon Cuts, they give the kids a lolly pop when they are done so that is what I thought she was looking for. Suddenly she pulls out a little butterfly hair clip and puts it into his hair.















Then she smiled says to him "You're very pretty". I was a little shocked and somewhat confused, especially since I had told her that he was a boy. But by the time I realized what had happened it was too late so I just smiled and said "Yep". I didn't have the heart to tell her that he wasn't a girl. I guess she didn't understand English as well as I thought. So we paid and left with it still in his hair. He actually kept it in until we got home. Luckily I got a few pictures.

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