Guest blogger: King of the castle, master of his domain

Hello world, it's Zookeeper A. You knew they couldn't keep me down forever.

It has been a while since I made an appearance here. Let's be more specific........I wrote the inaugural entry into this thing you people read, and this is #3. I truly am a model of consistency.

So what's new 'round here? Plenty.

First, the star attraction(s). The terrible twosome continue to enhance their skills. They already had bow-staff skills and num-chuck skills, but now they can both feed themselves their bottles. If you have survived having twins yourself, I know hearing that probably takes you to a happy place. For those of you who were never traumatized, take my word that this is sweet relief.



The critters also ventured out to a festive gathering at our neighbor's house on Saturday ever so briefly. It seems that a crowded house and a well developed pelt may lead to overheating. Who knew?

Now the big boy. You all know that E has lots of skills. The girls won't stand a chance with this one, especially now that he has Trick or Treating skills. That's not to say that everything was easy here. Like I said, we went to a neighborhood gathering next door. E is super comfortable there. He would happily spend whole days there "helping" neighbor J water the flowers and running around her yard with the local cubs. Halloween appeared to be a different case. The mommy/daddy cling was in full effect and efforts to separate were met with screaming Spidey. We survived long enough for him to realize these were just our friends and everything was fine.

Trick or Treating was explained many times. Many discussions of the process and procedures. I don't think 2+2 equaled 4 until the first time the kids gingerly approached a door and propositioned a friendly neighbor. Then, euphoria. Wait....Daddy...she gave us candy! Time to run full sprint to the next house. Lather, rinse, repeat. Repeat. Repeat.


The craziest part? They didn't even really seem that interested in eating the candy. The thrill of the hunt.



We have lives too, although they are not nearly as dynamic and evolving as our pack. I did however take a new job recently, so the busy life has become busier. But, about a year ago we tagged 2009 as being "The year of survival". If this is surviving, thriving is going to be pretty fantastic.

Pumpkins and Elephants

Because it's so hard to find the time to blog...two blogs turn into one.
Next on tap: Ethan's pumpkin train ride. Stay tuned...

First up: Ethan and his elephants. His "guys" as he calls them.
Left to right is Horton, Africa (originally named by Ethan), Ernie (originally named by Andy), & the big man himself.


Next up: Last Sunday's project...buying and carving the pumpkins. We bought 5 mini pumpkins from Byerly's since the past couple weekends were either too cold or too busy for a trip to the apple orchard, which is where we typically pick our pumpkins. Our 6th pumpkin was the pumpkin that Ethan selected on his pumpkin train ride a few weekends ago. It was the biggest, and the best for carving out Ellie the cat.

I decided to just do the first letter of each of our names on each pumpkin...5 carving-size pumpkins would probably take up our entire front steps! In a few years I'm sure that Andy and I will forfeit our pumpkins so that the boys can have bigger ones to carve faces in...but until then, I think these turned out pretty cute. I only cut myself two or three times with the utility knife to cut the skins off the pumpkin and make our letters, so I'm calling it a success! Thankfully, Andy is a remarkable carver and he did Ellie cat and the slits in the letters so oxygen could get in to the candles.


Check it out! Mommy is in a picture!!

Ethan: Halloween preview

Spiderman, Spiderman. Does whatever a spider can.

I love the built-in muscles!!

Ethan has a fall party at preschool this Thursday and all the kids can wear their costumes...without masks. Actually, I'm surprised we got him to wear the mask at all when we did our practice run last night!

This year will be Ethan's first year of trick or treating!! Our neighbors are having everyone over on Halloween at 5pm. Not sure if Andy or I will accompany the trick or treating group, but one of us will do that, and the other will put D & Owen to bed (at least we will have an hour prior to bedtime at the party so they can wear their costumes....monkey and lion) and hand out candy. I'm thinking about dressing up. One of our friends from college used to have a Halloween party each year...and even though I don't drink wine out of a bag anymore (from within the box!), I really miss dressing up!

First haircuts!

Owen and Dylan were getting a little hairy.

All my babies were born with lots of hair...just like their Mommy.

I've got quite the volume in this picture. And um, could my Mom get any more gorgeous?! Wow!

Ethan on Day 2

Dylan & Owen at 3 weeks

But then they began to get male infantile baldness worthy of Nelson's Baby Toupees around 4 months old...so we shaved them.

Ethan pre-shave

Dylan & Owen pre-shave...Owen is rocking a serious receding hairline in this pic!

Ethan cleanly buzzed. And OMG, look at those rosy red cheeks! I want to pinch you!

Owen and Dylan no longer looking ridiculous...and pretty cute in their little buzz-cuts!

Before long, their hair began to grow back to stay and I was loving running my fingers through Owen's thick dark hair, and playing with the little curls that grew above Dylan's ears. But recently, it began to get less cute and stylin' and more unkempt and shaggy. We're big fans of the home haircut (not for me, but for the boys, sure!), but Andy wasn't sure he could trim the bottom while keeping some of the length on the top and not make it look like a reverse mullet, so we opted for the Kid's Hair "salon".

I made appointments for this past Saturday morning. We had lots of things we wanted to accomplish that day, so Andy suggested we divide and conquer. I quickly called "not it" on the haircuts. Let's face it, Andy's braver than me with taking the kids anywhere on his own...so he didn't have any issues with it and quickly offered to draw the short straw and take D & Owen in for their first haircuts on his own. He even brought a camera...and took pictures...and got their first haircut certificates and "hairs". I'm a lucky lady, I know.

So, with no more ado....

Before:Mr Owen

Dylan and his tongue

During:

Owen looks a little red-faced so I suspect there might have been tears, but he looks like he likes getting his hair "did" here!

Apparently Dylan did not want to part with his curly locks....neither did I. Thankfully, they'll grow back!

And....After:

Owen's hair is no longer obstructing his vision...hurray!

And Dylan is looking SO much like his big brother, Ethan. What is with that pointy tongue?! Always sticking out!

They look so old to me now...real BIG boy haircuts!! They were a success. And turned out much better than Ethan's first official haircut.

Lloyd Christmas, anybody? Lesson learned. Spend the extra cash on the kids' hair "salon" instead of choosing the nearby women's salon that specializes in blue hair dye, if you catch my drift.

You know you've really arrived when...

you start covering your furniture in vinyl....

I purchased toddler booster seats for Dylan and Owen last night. A few years ago when we bought this dining room set with off-white fabric on the chairs, I wasn't thinking about how dirty it would get when we had kids. So I found these sweet chair seat protectors at Bed Bath & Beyond this morning. And now it smells like shower curtain in my dining room...but it's worth the ease in clean up! Red sauce, here they come!

The house already looks more spacious without those two gigantic highchairs blocking our natural light from the picture window.

Dylan says, "Hey, what's on your tray?"

Oh fun...they can see out the window from their chairs...meals with a view!

I'm loving these little green trays...they snap right off and they both fit in the drying rack at the same time...with other items too! The highchair trays were bulky and odd-shaped and were a serious pain to clean...which is why I left them dirty so much. Hey, a Cheerio from today is just as good tomorrow!

**Look at those haircuts!! Will post before and after pics soon.

Rollin'

This picture cracks me up....

10 months

Ethan & Owen

Dylan on the move. Next time I'll set the camera to the setting for sports or something...he is FAST! He reminds me of somebody else when they were 10 months old....oh, tear.

ROAR!!!

Owen is as sweet as a lamb, and roars like a lion.

I meant to post last week...on Thursday...but you know, time gets away from me.

Last Thursday, my BABIES were 10 months old. Suddenly, their babyhood is slipping away from me, and fast. Officially, they aren't toddlers until 12 months, but it doesn't feel like there are any babies in this house anymore. We have boys....toddler (and preschool!) boys!! Some things get easier as they grow up, and I appreciate that, but all of sudden their first year is going WAY too fast for me. Earlier in the year, it was all, "I can't wait until x month because then they'll probably sleep through the night", "I can't wait until x month because then they will smile and laugh", "I can't wait until x month because then they will be able to play with Ethan"...and now I'm trying to flashback to those middle-of-the-night feedings because then they were so little and it was just me and them, in the quiet, snuggling over a bottle in the middle of the night...and I miss it.

Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE this stage. I love the giggles, the hugs, the absolute amazement in their expressions when they discover something new.

Dylan is a cruising crawler. He has been pulling himself up for awhile too, and every so often, he'll free stand. I'm sure he'll walk before his first birthday, if not yet this month. He is super physical, wants to climb up everything, pull on everything...he has super-human strength...for a 10-month old.

Owen is still army-crawling, but he's incredibly fast...like a snake, really. He's so limber and graceful. He gives the best hugs. He's comfortable doing his own thing when his brothers are demanding more attention...but then he'll slither his way over to you and pull himself up and give you the biggest hug...he's too sweet.

Both of them are SO vocal. Yelling, singing, babbling...and Owen roars...it's awesome, and fitting because he's going to be a lion for Halloween. Dylan is going to be a monkey.

Ethan is enjoying preschool and got his school pictures back today. Gramma Leslie and I were skeptical that they would turn out well. Not that Ethan isn't incredible handsome, but when asked to smile for a picture, he gets kinda goofy. I thought we'd get some crazy smirk, but the pictures were just wonderful! He's even smiling in the class picture. Just as Gramma and I were admiring the pictures and I commented on how I was going to keep all 10 pages for the $70, Ethan spilled on them. Gramma kept me very calm, and we dabbed them off and let them dry flat and I think they are saved!