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Ethie sat on my lap while Daddy gave him a haircut and we were covered in "Ethan hair!"...we were itchy so we took a bath...I cropped me out of this picture...it's a great one of him!!


Oh. My. Gosh. Could they be any cuter?! They are holding hands!!!


Action shot. When I first saw this picture I instantly thought the perfect caption is "STEAMROLLER!!"

*****

This is gonna be a long one...let's lead off with some Ethanisms...

"Hey dandelion, get out of here, this is for grass!"...tonight while keeping me company while I waged my personal war against weeds in our yard...I am SO happy that he doesn't like them this year because last year I had to pretend I liked the "flowers" that he brought me.

"This banana is hurting me"....huh? Liz and Gamma didn't know what to make of that one either, but it's funny....weird, but funny.

Last night I was outside waging the aforementioned war against dandelions and Ethan was with me in the backyard while Andy was doing something in the front yard. When E saw daddy come through the gate into the backyard, he looked at me, so excited he was pretty much shaking, and exclaimed, "There's my nice daddy. I must go help him!" and went running off Ethie-style, head bobbing up and down, arms at his side. I laughed until I cried.

"I remember MacKensie, she's not talking to me right now because she's in Carol's house"...I think this is the gist of it, but this sentence kept going on and on and on...We'd been talking about the little girl whose dad rents the basement of our neighbor's (Carol) house. She is probably about 7 and last year they played together...mostly through the fence of our backyard, passing crab-apples from the tree in our yard, through the fence to each other. I told him that this year he would be able to play with her more because this year he talks so much more...that's where the "she's not talking to me right now" came from.

When we came inside, Daddy was getting some stuff ready for grilling and Ethan ran into the kitchen and asked, "Do you need help with dinner?" Wow.

When we put Ethan to bed at night, we always ask him how his day was. Tonight, Andy forgot to ask him and so Ethan told him, "I had a good day. Now we will talk about my day." I think this guy is into routines!!

The two words Ethan uses that really crack me up are "because" and "actually"....the way he enunciates "actually" and the way he uses "because" in a way that doesn't make sense...it's so funny. Those seem like "grown-up" words to me...he's so smart.

*****

So, I had a great day with Dylan and Owen on Saturday. Sunday was good too...but adding a toddler to the mix was interesting.

During the morning, E was saying "no" to everything. Just being a serious turd. Just for the sake of being a turd, I think. Kristy came over at 10:30 and we got the kids ready and walked to the park. That was great...Ethan needed to burn off some energy, and I needed to talk to someone! Thanks, Kristy!! Ethan talked about you for the rest of the day. Especially about "he was super mad, because he had a big pocket"...about Mark ripping his pants!!

There was a weird drunk dude at the park which is unusual in "prestigious West Bloomington"...and he had wandered over from the church! At first I thought he was a father to one of the kids so I tried to be polite when he yelled at me about how churches weren't supposed to judge, but that church had judged him. Um...you're drunk. Don't go to church while you're drunk. Pre-noon on Sunday....crazy. Another mom called the cops, but they drove by after the dude had wandered off...very unusual for our family neighborhood.

There are two parks in the same vicinity in our neighborhood...the city park and the school park. Ethan usually insists on going to both. I had a bad parenting moment at the school park. The babies were sleeping in their stroller and KW and I were chatting away...Ethan was climbing a ladder that I knew was too high and complicated for him, but I tempted fate and decided not to hover. At the top, he slipped...almost fell through the rungs of the ladder. He caught himself, but I knew he bumped something. He was scared and started to cry. I ran over and rescued him...later in the day, a bruise formed in the corner of his eye. Great. It looks better today, but really...Daddy leaves for the weekend and Ethie gets a black eye. Nice, Mommy.

My second serious scare of the weekend happened shortly thereafter. Ethan was down for his nap...he crashed hard...on the floor, of course! Becky and Elizabeth stopped over to meet the boys. Becky was standing up and holding Owen, when I looked up from my spot on the ground and my heart stopped...Owen's legs were purple and red....so purple and red that I thought I must be seeing it wrong. I asked the girls if they thought it looked weird too and they concurred. I had taken his pants off when we got home from the park because he felt warm. Was he now too cold?! I put his pants and socks back on and laid him on the couch and pumped his legs. I kept pulling up his pant legs and checking to see if the color became normal again, and it did, before too long. But it was one of those moments where my heart was racing and I was like "Shit, it's Sunday...where can I call? Do I need to take him to the ER? Can I really fit all 3 kids safely in the Focus with all the car seats that Andy crammed in there before he left "just in case"?!" I think I'm over it now...occasionally, his feet turn blue-ish...I think he just inherited bad circulation from one of the people on both sides of our families that have it.

Anne and Chris stopped by to visit and help out. Thankfully Ethan woke up while they were here, because I think he might like them more than me. While they were here, Gampa Pete stopped by too. Everyone helped juggle around Dylan, Owen, and Ethan during dinnertime which was super helpful...thanks, guys!! Gampa stayed and had dinner with me and Ethan and there were definite signs that he was running out of steam. He had taken a 3-hr nap, for Pete's sake (no pun intended), but at 7 he was just done. He was overdue for a bath, and I really felt we couldn't go one more night without one. He started to flip out, Gampa fled the scene (sometimes it's better if there are less people around, and we both knew it)...it was a fit like I have never witnessed before. It was like he was possessed, honestly. It was the only time during the weekend where I truly felt like I didn't have control of the situation...from a physical standpoint, I can't control superhuman-strength Ethan, especially when he's wet in the tub and slippery. It was the quickest bath ever...Ethan screaming at the top of his lungs with a beat-red face the whole time. While coping with the situation (I just stopped trying to reason with him and just got him cleaned, dried, in his PJs, etc), I prepped myself for babies waking up. But they slept through all of it!

He calmed down while I put on his PJs and got his pillow/blanket set up on the floor...his preference, as you know. I wasn't prepared to read books after all this, but he seemed to have collected himself and I figured he'd get worse again if I refused. So we read and snuggled and brushed teeth and then he told me with a huge grin, "I had a good day!" Ahem, were you present for the last ten minutes?!

Are all toddlers bi-polar or just mine? Today he was pleasant in every way. I don't think I've ever received so many hugs and kisses...but I just can't get the image of crazy-Ethie out of my head. What was that?! Who was that?!

*****

I can't gush enough about Dylan and Owen. I am trying to hang on to each and every bit of of babyness about them. This is the last time around...x2...so I'm soaking it up!!

They are good babies. Really good. Really. They fuss, like babies do. But typically when they are tired, hungry, wet/dirty/need something. Gamma and Liz have them napping in their cribs for almost every nap...there's the occasional cat-nap in the swing...we're all okay with that. I truly believe that they are getting the restorative sleep during naps that Dr W says they need to get. If they nap in the stroller during trips to the park or mall, no big deal...they get at least one good nap in their cribs too.

Our evenings are really getting pretty regular...the babies eat rice cereal (well, Dylan doesn't "eat", he "devours") at whatever feeding falls between 3:30 and 5. Then they have a bottle when they seem to be getting tired...which is before 6! Seriously...we can't seem to keep these babies up past 6. I follow Dr W's guidelines, because you know I love him...and that stuff works, people. But I'd love to have more evening time with them. Sometimes Andy doesn't even get home until 6...so he has no time with them in the evening...plus, I'm doing bedtime, prepping dinner on my own, after I work all day at my job. I shouldn't complain...naturally, their bedtime will get later and we will have more time with them. And, I can lay them down awake but sleepy and I rarely even hear a peep from them and then they are asleep until morning (sometimes Owen sings, which is so sweet)...does it get any better than that?! I would just love a bedtime at 7 instead of 6. One plus is that we have that time for dinner and playtime with Ethan...and only Ethan.

Several people have pointed out to me recently that Owen seems to be changing a lot. Andy even noticed after being gone just a couple of days. His facing is filling out and in one picture taken recently he even looks....chubby-faced!! Not Dylan-chubby, but a little chubby! So great. Also, his hair is really growing back since the Big Shave of 2009. Looks like he's staying dark...hurray!

Dylan's hair is growing back fast too. He has a full little tuft on the top of his head in front...and some longer hairs above his ears...both areas feel a little wiry, like they could be curly. And I see tints of the red coming back. Fun. I can't wait to see what both of them look like in a month with more hair!!