Quirks

Kids are frustrating and fun at the same time! Here are some funny pictures I’ve collected of them! Freddy thought it would be fun to bury himself in the pillows for a nap, looks cozy anyway. He hasn’t asked to do it again, but I got this great pictures. We had s’mores one night and the smoke was too much, so these two had a soloution, check it out.

Kidisms: “Mom do you know how we talk?” Stephen asked

“Uh… well….” I responded

“Let me tell you, your brain sends a …a….a….mes..a..mail to your mouth then your mouth talks.”

“Oh, is that it?” I replied

“Yeah and I get a lot of mail Mom!”

I busted up laughing! Stephen does indeed have a lot to say!

 

Firsts

So it has been a week of firsts! Stephen had his first day of kindergarten, Freddy had his first day of preschool, Theo has begun crawling, and Theo will be  baptized this Sunday! I’ve dumped a bunch of pictures from these firsts below. Stephen did great, not  sure what he did his first two days, but he managed to stay quiet with the 3 girls at his table were loud and bossy! Freddy is friends with everyone and colored and loves preschool after 1 day! Theo loves crawling and is very proud of himself, he’s come to find us if we wander off, he found the dog kennel, the dog’s water, the bathroom and toilet bowl. This crawling stuff is a success!

Funny thing I don’t remember my first day of Kindergarten. I remember a pre kindergarten meeting we all attended with our moms and when Mrs. Martin asked who would be riding the bus, I promptly raised my hand. My mom put my hand right back down, it turns out I lived too close to school to ride the bus. I was sorely disappointed. Instead I got walk to school with two great friends and we thought we were hot stuff being without our moms all the way to school! I remember random days and moments but not that first day. I wonder if Stephen will remember his first day? Here are some pictures to help him.

 

Eve

It is the eve of the big day. THE big day! Stephen starts kindergarten tomorrow! How and When did that become possible? Yesterday I was at the hospital holding a beautiful little bundle that I had no idea what to do with. The nurses would come in and ask me how I was and I’d mumble an answer. Then they’d dutifully check on baby Stephen and proceeded to change his diaper! I groggily thought ‘maybe I should do that.’ I still am not sure what I should be doing, but I know where I’ve been. And today I sit writing amidst a blender of emotions coursing through my body. I feel excitement, anxiety, nervousness, fear, jubilation, and just a touch of sadness and sentimentality. I know Stephen is so ready to be in school and take on all the responsibilities that come with this adventure. He has so much energy and some days I run out of things for him to do. It’s time and I don’t want to hold him back, but maybe savor the moments a little longer and soak in the sweetness of these first steps of childhood. Of course we are so blessed to have such great sons, and a piece of me wants to hold on to that beautiful brown eyes baby boy, and the stubborn 2 year old with a quick smile and strong opinions. Life keeps moving on and everyday has been a blessing. I am looking forward to many more blessings in the days to come.

Freddy too is moving on and up. He begins preschool on Thursday. This is pretty huge for him. Unlike Stephen, Freddy has always been at home with us, he’s never been to home daycare or a daycare facility like Stephen. This is really his first venture out of our home and into the world. Freddy’s preschool is new for us i.e. not the same one Stephen went to and they have some different proceedures. For his first day, they ask the parents to stay the whole time with their kids. I told Freddy I’d stay with him on his first day, to which he precociously responded ” no mom I can go by myself.” And he can, he too is ready to fly out of the nest a bit. I think he’ll love being with other kids his age and exploring a new place.

As if this wasn’t enough for a mother’s hear to take Theo had the audacity to begin crawling this week and I scheduled his baptism for this weekend! So many firsts! So much to celebrate and enjoy! I’ll post pictures soon!

 

Family

We have the great blessing of the boys Great Grandparents. They live in Palm Desert California. They are in their 80’s and slowing down a bit these days. They are great people and very special to us! Just in case you don’t know the story here’s what makes them so extraordinary. My Dad’s parents had 7 children. My Dad is the oldest of the 7. My Dad’s mom died of cancer when Dad was 19 and his youngest sister was just 7. After her death someone in the parish set Grandpa up on a blind date. His date had 8 children and her husband had died as well. Long story short they married and only 12 of the 15 kids ever lived at home at one time. After raising so many kids, nothing ruffles their feathers, they are kind and warm and I hope mellow out just like them.

Even after all those kids, they still like seeing the babies. So whenever we are able to make the trek, we make a point to visit with Grandma and Grandpa LeBrun. 4 generations together! We enjoyed a light lunch and lots of compliments. The big boys even went swimming in Grandma’s pool! Here are the pictures of our lovely afternoon together!

 

Jedi Training!

Disneyland has a great ‘attraction’ or more like show with a lot of audience participation. Several times a day they host “Jedi Training” for young kids. We tried several times on our trip but coordinating our timing was a bit of a trick. On our last day in Disneyland we split up so Michael and the boys could go early to the “Tomorrowland Terrace” and get a seat for training. Theo fell asleep so Mom and Dad took Theo and his stroller to wander around and let him finish his nap. I joined Stephen and Freddy and Mike. After much anticipation and waiting the Jedi knights appeared. The chose kids at random out of the crowd for the training. Mike held Stephen up and they passed over him the first time. The second pass through the crowd Stephen got picked. We asked Freddy if he was interested, but he said no. Stephen wasted no time picking out a Jedi robe and training light saber. The kids were told where to stand and the training began. They learned how to ‘activate’ and ‘deactivate’ their light sabers. They learned left and right slashes, and most importantly they learned to duck! The Jedi instructors even quizzed the student on why it was important to duck, to keep your head! I couldn’t help but think how fun this was to watch Stephen play along with the Jedi instructors and what great photo opportunities. At this point Freddy decided he wanted to go up, but there wasn’t any more room for him. He was a little sad but content to be held. The instructors reviewed that the force is only to be used for knowledge and defense and never in attack. (mom’s around the terrace sighed with some relief)

But this is a Disney production and more was to come..

“There’s a disturbance in the force!” said the lead Jedi knight

cue star wars music dun dun dun don dun and in walk in two storm troopers and the stage begins rise.

The Jedi instructors quickly move the trainees off to one side and  the stage reaches is zenith, with both Darth Vader and Darth Mal!!!!! Out they strut in all their evil glory, their theme song playing, smoke wafting about and some frightened and elated young Jedi trainees! After some trash talk from Vader the trainees were ready to try out their new skills.

Stephen was in the line to match wits with Darth Mal. Darth Mal was right in front of us and would leer at the crowd and hiss. Freddy took 3 giant steps back towards us. I told Freddy he was safe and could make a mean face back, but he stuck close to mom and dad. Stephen’s turn came up and he was ready, right left, duck, and Darth Mal was defeated by Stephen! Darth Mal continued to battle other young trainees but to no avail. At one point another young trainee used the force against the storm troopers. With his hand left hand outstretched and using the force he pushed the storm trooper back, with his right hand outstretched and using the force he pushed the storm trooper back. And concentrating really hard he used both  hands and pushed back both storm troopers at the same time!

Darth Vader and Darth Mal quickly realized their error, walked back to their stage and decended out of the arena. Our young trainee became an genuine Padawan!

Yes we came home with two light sabers, but no major injuries from them yet, just lots of pretend play!

 

Disneyland

My parents have been itching to visit Disneyland since the day Stephen was born and if we still lived in California, it would have happened already. The whole concept of Disney is that it’s built for everyone, but we kinda wanted our kids to remember it. This year was THE year to go. Stephen and Freddy are at great ages and the right heights to enjoy most of Disney. My parents were beside themselves with anticipation and a little annoyed, it seemed, to have to wait to tell the kids until we were at the airport. Our fear was that there would be no sleep until we arrived and then how much fun would we’ve had? So in the days leading up to our big trip, it became harder and harder to not say anything about where we were going. We referred to our vacation at the beach and all the fun stuff we would do at the beach until we talked about the beach ad naseum. (In fact, it was I who slipped up in front of the kids, but thankfully mom caught my mistake and redirected the conversation.) The boys were excited to go to the beach and could no doubt feel our excitement for what was in store.

The big moment had arrived and mom and dad worked out some little something or another. We didn’t really know but we had our cameras ready. Dad pulled out an envelope and pretended to look inside.

“Uh-oh boys, we have a little problem.”

“What problem, Pa?” the boys asked.

“Well this says” looking at his paperwork “we can’t go to the beach house until Friday. Why don’t you go talk to Mimi.”

Stephen grabbed the envelope from Pa and looked inside, to see if he could spot some mistake although not being able to read himself, the paperwork was no help. Freddy was already standing by Mimi and Stephen walked over.

“Well boys, since we can’t go the beach” Mimi exclaimed “Let’s go to Disneyland!” And she proudly pulled out 3 red Mickey Mouse t-shirts purchased just for this momentus occasion. Well that did it, Stephen fell apart crying. Not tears of joy, but tears of sadness because this is not what he expected, and he wanted to go to the beach house. Isn’t that all we’d talked about for weeks and weeks? Playing in the waves and digging for sand crabs? What about the beach.

Daddy swooped in to save the day and held Stephen while he walked around and explained to Stephen that yes we would still go to the beach, and play in the waves and dig for sand crabs, but today and the next couple of days we would spend at the happiest place on earth. It took a little convincing but Stephen was slowly coming around. He agreed to go to Disneyland, but he was not wearing that red t-shirt!  Freddy was game to go to the happiest place on earth, and he put on the cool red t-shirt. Theo slept through the whole exchange.

Once we arrived in California, the kids were pretty excited to go, and finally willing to wear the matching red t-shirts. Enjoy the pics~

 

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th with family. Michael had to work this year, but I can’t complain as he is a firefighter. Stephen and Freddy spent part of the day with Aunt Mary and Uncle Ed at the Parker festival where they got their faces painted and enjoyed some Italian ice. I think Stephen’s art work was that of a skeleton and Freddy’s was supposed to be a bat. I thought it was so funny that Freddy kept telling me that they put fire in his eyes. Whether the face painter knew it or not,  it was very apropos for Freddy to ‘have fire in his eyes’ as that seems to be the case with him daily!

Mom and Dad came down to our house, Mary and Ed and Liz brought the boys back from parker and we grilled up some burgers and hot dogs and were more than a little afraid that we’d get rained out. But the rain stopped just before dark and just in time to celebrate with some fireworks.

 

Kid funnies!

Mom: he’s not that big on those  snacks Freddy.

Freddy: no mom he’s just small!

(What was I thinking? I meant he didn’t like that snack but Freddy took it literally!)

A story another auntie told me: 

It was time for Dance class so Leah’s mom told her to get her leotards on. Leah went to get her leotards on and told her friend, also going to dance class, to get ready “come on Deanne, put your deann-atards on”!

Kids are so literal!

 

Spring Fling 2009

We had our annual Spring Fling! None of the minors got themselves a beer this year, food was good and the company divine! Several ladder balls were thrown into the trees but thankfully we has some tall firefighters here to help out! 

 

Camping 2009

Being very brave and adventurous  we went camping with a 5 and 1/2 month old! We went back to Wellington Lake, a stocked private lake near Bailey, Colorado. We camped with our friends the Bertram’s and had a blast. The kids all played together and since we brought a bunch of toys for the kids to play with, they didn’t play with them! The boys got to go out on a boat and  do some fishing with their dads. We ate smores, drew pictures in the dirt, and even made camping donuts! Theo did well too, he had some trouble sleeping through the night, even though at home he had been sleeping fairly well. It was very windy on Friday night and the tarp made a lot of noise flapping around. The big boys seemed to sleep right through it, but Theo woke several times. Nonetheless we made the best of it and of course Theo got a big nap! Mom was too busy talking to take a nap. The wind kicked up again and the boaters had to come in and in fact it got so windy the boat  had to head to shore. The Bertrams headed home on  Saturday afternoon, and we planned to stay the night now that the wind was dying down. Mike caught 3 keepers and Stephen and Freddy helped him clean the fish. I was grossed out and kept my distance. As the day wore on I was very tired, and talked to Mike about Theo and I heading home, when Freddy burned his hand. Mike took it as a sign and we packed up to come home. It all worked out because everyone had a good night’s sleep and we had plenty of time to clean up and put away our camping gear. We hope to go back one more time this summer!