We Need Haircuts



Particularly Owen, but Jacob could use one too.

 

 

Speaking of Jacob, I had to take a picture of this as proof.  He told me he wanted to make himself a really healthy lunch so he made, AND ATE, a peanut butter, cheddar cheese, spinach and black bean sandwich.  Naturally he ate everything except the crust.

Fair Readers

Welcome.  Welcome fair readers.  I'm so relieved the four (give or take) of you have come back.  I might have given up on me by now as it's been just shy of one month since I updated last, but not you.  That's why I love my readers so much.  You are filled with stamina, patience, and empathy for the pressures of a "professional" blogger.  Thank you!  If you ever read any other blogs (as I do on occasion) I feel they are always thanking their readers with effusive praise.  That must be the key to their success.  So there you go.  Success!

I have not been idle these past few weeks.  I have read or thought about reading at least 10 books, I have influenced the resolution of approximately ... hmmm, how many days x 100ish ... 3,111 sibling spats, eaten two turkey dinners, almost completed all of my holiday shopping online, picked out and trimmed one Christmas tree aptly named Green Lantern by Jacob (um, can we say double entendre - for the record I don't think he can yet, though), and, in keeping with what I have deemed Thanksgiving tradition, took two children (it was Owen's FIRST trip! Mike came too) to Manhattan to sightsee at Toys R Us for about 3 hours, and Rockefeller Plaza for about 5 minutes, and at a pizza place on a corner, all WITHOUT a stroller.  I realize there are people with children who live in Manhattan every day, but that's their normal.  I did numerous other things, but you must be tired by now so let's get on with the show!

Thanksgiving in New York  

Cousins 2012!

 

 

A rare moment in NYC when we weren't at Toys R Us

 

Introducing:  GREEN LANTERN

 

 

We made our very first turkey for the annual Haller, etc. Family Thanksgiving Dinner

 

Henry stopped by to make gingerbread houses with us.  When you're walking about this holiday season and see a gingerbread house, however big or small, I recommend you devote a moment of appreciation to the artist who created it because these things are not facile.  On another note, moments ago I asked Mike for an example of another word for "easy" or "simple" and he said, hmmm... "facile?"  So that's basically what that word means if you didn't know (like me).  Don't feel inferior (like me), I think he's just been watching a lot of Word Girl on PBS (which, by the way, if you're not watching Word Girl, you should be, hilarious!).

And finally...

Look at all these people, above.  We are the moms to all these kids, below.

Crazy. 

That's 13 kids, AND one's missing and another one is due within the week.  Fun times at the playgroup holiday party.  Jacob & Owen are lucky ducks to have such fun friends.

Late Thirties

One day you're born and then the next thing you know it's ridiculously close to noon on your birthday and your children and husband are yelling at you from downstairs that it's time to get dressed (not that they were) and out of bed already and you're suddenly in your late thirties.  Crazy.

 

Just an hour later and voila! Anne at 444 months old, Jacob at 50.5 months old, Owen at 29 months old.

In other news...

Fortunately, Jacob did not end up being a mummy for Halloween, but he's always willing to try out a concept/costume.

Carving pumpkins. 

Owen as Curious George and Jacob as some sort of yellow super hero, maybe Wolverine (?), even though he had an awesome astronaut costume and Batman costume as options.  Me: letting go of control.

With the drama Hurricane Sandy brought we didn't know what to expect for Halloween week, but alas, Mark made it down from storm ravaged Long Island to stay with the boys so Mike and I could go on a long-planned trip.  He was a complete super hero spending FIVE days with them ALONE including a canceled school day, a canceled flight (ours coming home!), and Owen freely admitting he wasn't a good listener to Papa (2 year olds!).  Er...at least we had power.  Beyond thank you, Mark!

Calm Before the Storm

Hurricane Sandy is on her way to disrupting the comforts of our lives this week so I thought I'd write an update while we still have power.  Question:  If no one has power, does this blog even exist? 

Haven't been up to too much lately, just livin' life.  Nancy had surgery on her back a couple weeks ago (she's doing well), so Memaw came up to help out and brought her ever popular Kindle which has the ever popular Angry Birds game on it, which even two year olds can figure out how to play.

We made it to the pumpkin patch and pet some animals, jumped on haystacks, took a hayride, picked pumpkins, saw Malia Obama hanging out with friends, and picked more apples than a family of our size  would ever need.

 These days when Owen does something he's proud of he tells me to take his picture.  Hmmmm.

 

 

And, not to be outdone by the bike rides, boat rides, pirate ship adventures of yore, Anne Van took us on yet another adventure that the boys LOVED - hiking along the canal/Potomac River in Maryland.  At the start of the walk along the EASY, FLAT canal path we seriously thought we might get a couple hundred feet and then have to turn back at the rate those boys were traveling ("pick me up," "put me down," "I take a nap," "I just sit here for a while," "wah, wah, wah").  But once we got to the steep, rocky, treacherous (in the mildest sense of the word), part of the trail they turned all Sir Edmund Hillary on us and next thing you know we'd hiked for 2.5 hours!  Jacob walked the whole time and Owen did the whole trail/rocky part on his own.  Anne Van did too...thank goodness.

And now we sit and wait for the storm.  Spent the weekend eating everything we could from the freezer and fridge; laundry's done, dishwasher's running, full tanks of gas in the cars, cells charging.  Take that! 

Duet

My baby boo Owen loves to sing with me.

Results

If you're reading this post, you may be well aware (perhaps more aware than you'd ever hoped considering how much I have talked about it over the last year and in recent weeks) that we took on a large landscaping project over the last two weekends.  The grand plan was to just start over in the front yard.

If you would just like to get to the point since I may have already worn out my welcome on this topic, here's the BEFORE picture and two pictures down is the AFTER picture.  

BEFORE

Those crazy tree things by the (left) door were the BIGGEST PAIN EVER to get out.  I watched a video on You Tube prior about how to take out a small tree from your yard and the guy claimed it took him 25 minutes.  Three hours later crazy tree #1 was out and neighbors were walking by with pitiful looks on their faces or stopping by to offer their array of sharp tools to use for cutting the never-ending roots.  We showed no mercy to the second tree/bush and it was down in an hour. 
 

  
Jacob & Owen were always around to help dig, plant, back fill, water, etc.  And to drive me crazy ("Gardening isn't fun, mom"; "Why are you filling in the hole I was jumping in?"; "Where did my dirt mountain go?"; "I'll just pick up this sharp tool or this one") in the midst of the physical exhaustion, pain and impatience(?) that came with completing this project over four days.  Now, drum roll...

AFTER

 

Two trees gone, 4 shrubs moved, 13 new shrubs planted, 100 tulip bulbs planted.  Lower back pain, hand muscles sore (I didn't realize I had so many muscles in my hand), arm muscles sore, leg muscles sore.

Welcome

To the left

 To the right

I am so glad to say we are DONE!  Make sure to notice when you come to visit next. Thanks.

Fenwick 2012

Here are pictures from our beach trip to Fenwick Island I've been meaning to post.  We had such fun spending time with Nana, Papa, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Dave, Avery, Aunt Jaime, Uncle Jared, Heath, Olivia and Laila.  Great memories - playing in the ocean and sand, going on the rides at Funland, sloooooooooooow mini-golf games, celebrating Jacob's 4th birthday, getting to hang out with the twins and seeing how much they've grown, eating lots of dessert, and getting all sorts of attention from Nana and Papa (well, everyone really).  Thanks for a fantastic vacation!   

 

 

 

  

  

First Days of Preschool

Big year with both boys heading to preschool.  Jacob goes five days a week and Owen goes two.  It will be interesting to see how they process this difference in schedules.  Owen carried his school bag with him every morning this week when we dropped Jacob off at his class, only to walk back to the car with it afterwards.  Until, finally today he actually got to hang the bag up on his own hook and go to his own classroom and meet his own teacher for his first day.  He just walked right in and I saw him again an hour later and he just walked right out like "it ain't no big thang mom."  

Never one to disappoint, Jacob had a memorable start to his school year - I walked into his classroom a little early to tell his teacher he was a bit of a mess and would she still allow him to come that day?  She assumed I meant emotionally because he was a bit clingy at first, but upon closer look she saw he had a giant rash (NOT CONTAGIOUS!) all over his face, eyes, neck, and arms which developed over the weekend (source:  eczema outbreak mixed with allergic reaction to something else (?) - lovely).  Then, I explained that the day before he had jumped from one of the top stairs down to the floor in our basement.  He landed on his back, gave me a heart attack, almost bought himself a trip to the ER, and woke up quite sore the next day - which happened to be the first day of preschool, you know where they constantly sit on the floor and have to get up on their own, jump and run around on the playground, etc.  Just basic preschool activities.  Let's just say he was quite a sight.  

So the verdict?  THEY LET HIM STAY!  Yay!  

Update:  After a rigorous daily skin regimen this week, the rash/eczema are almost clear and he barely mentions his back anymore.

Jacob's 4th Birthday

I feel like we've had as many celebrations as years this child has been alive!  We had a little celebration with cousins at the beach, then another with cousins in MD, then another with playgroup pals... I guess that's only three, but still.  Jacob has definitely had a great time celebrating.  At four years old Jacob is still quite a character.  He speaks endlessly ... in particular about super heroes - who flies higher, is he good or bad, etc.; the idea of scuba diving and scuba divers; swimming; astronauts; the Bible story of David and Goliath; who are good guys, who are bad guys?; how old people are - who's the oldest? How old are you, Mr./Ms. random stranger?; he tells lengthy stories - told us just last night that the story he was telling was going to go all night - it would have if we hadn't cut him off about 10 minutes in; he can write the letters of his name (but not many others yet); he can make his own lunch; he is generally happy, optimistic, up for any adventure, and finally started liking ice cream about three weeks ago.  Also, he's really good at being a big brother - I think Owen would agree. 

 Got to celebrate with all his cousins this year, here are the NY cousins with Nana & Papa

 Raise your hand if your birthday is NOT on August 26... Owen. 

Happy birthday to Beverly and Pepaw too.  Pepaw turned SEVENTY this year!

 Mike & Jacob on his 4th birthday waiting for dessert

 I could write a whole post on this squishy water bubble thing I made for our playgroup end of summer/birthday blast.  I'll spare you that, but I got the idea from a few blogs of ideas of things to do with kids and they made it sound OH SO easy (as many bloggers tend to do I'm figuring out).  I, however, thought it was quite a little challenge to make (two tarps, taped together with duct tape, filled with water) but it was a huge success despite its tendency to leak.

Jacob and his gal, Eliza.

Here's that giant water bubble in action.