Worst Nightmares

I was in the shower this morning and kept hearing banging, running, and shouting sounds as they neared my bathroom door, then receded down the hallway, then returned. As I turned the shower off and reached for my towel, Zach came running in wearing his purple cape (something I made for us all to go to a birthday party where we dressed up like princes). Zach and Conner love wearing the capes and just running around the house pretending to be super heroes. So, Zach came running in, and starting jabbering to me. I asked him if he was a super hero and he said yes. Conner came up behind him at that point and corrected us saying, "No, we are Worst Nightmares!"

I said, "What?" To which Conner replied, "Zach and I are Worst Nightmares! I heard it on Mulan."

Oh me... so, then Anita and I had to explain that it wasn't GOOD to be a worst nightmare and maybe it would be better to be a super hero instead that saved people.

Zach's Bye-Bye Paci Party

For those that don't remember, when we decided it was time to take Conner's pacifier away from him, we held a "Bye Bye Paci Party". We talked about it all week and then the day after his 2 year old birthday, we took a bunch of helium balloons, tied them to the remaining pacifiers, took them in the front yard, said our farewells, and released them into the wild blue yonder.




It's Zach's turn. We held his Bye Bye Paci Party last Sunday (the day after his 2 year old birthday) and it went pretty well. Of course, Zach has been a little bit more attached than Conner was and also he's not quite as laid back as Conner was. However, all in all, it went really well. He didn't seem to mind any as we had the party. That night however, at bedtime, he did ask for paci as expected and we told him the same thing we did Conner. "Remember, we said bye-bye to the pacis today? They flew off into the sky. They're all gone." Where Conner just sort of shrugged his shoulders with a staggeringly calm measure of acceptance, Zach had a different response. Zach shook his head yes, and said "Bye Bye" in recognition that he remembered us sending the pacis away. Then, he waited about ten seconds, held out his hand and said, "zsuzsi" (his word for paci). We told him again, and he shook his head yes, said "bye bye" and then looked at us and held out his hand, "zsuzsi". It was as if he said, "Yah, I remember the party where you sent my pacis up to the sky. That was great. Good trick. Now, give me a paci so I can go to bed already." That was 5 days ago, and 4 bedtimes ago and he's done remarkably well actually. After that first night, we weren't sure how this transition was going to go. He's asked several times for it, specifically at nap time and bed time, but he's accepted it fairly well with no major breakdowns, so that is good. It looks like we are paci free, again. Now, if we could only send the diapers into the sky.


If you want to see the whole picture story in all it's glory (which you do, trust me) with running commentary by me, then click here to check it out on the forum.

Potato

No, really, it's a potato.

Ringbearers

Last night as I was tucking Zach into bed, Conner stood in the hallway and waited for me to finish. When I came out and shut Zach's door, Conner was looking up at a picture on our wall of all of us at Jennifer's wedding. He pointed to himself in the tux and said, "Zach and I are going to be ringbearers in Ashley's wedding and it is going to be SO EXCITING!"

He said it in a quiet voice because we really get on to him about being quiet once we put Zach down. Add to the fact he made these really cute hand motions as he said it to emphasize the "exciting" statement and it was just absolutely adorable. It was so funny the way he said it. Anyway, I thought it was really cute and thought I would share.



I told Anita and she said that hopefully that will mean we can actually get him in the tux. The last time he was to wear a tux for some pictures, he got very upset about it and it turned ugly. Hence the reason we have pictures of Zach in a tux from the professional photographers, and not Conner.

Laffy Taffy... ahhh, sweet Laffy Taffy.

So, last night at VBS, there was this bag of candy someone left lying on the leaders table. Anita and Christa (the vbs director) and I were standing there and figured, hey.. someone left it here, it must be okay to eat the candy from it. Well, it was a big bag of mixed candy and in it I found some Laffy Taffy. I haven't had this stuff in probably 10 years or more. I pretty much don't eat candy. At least hard candy or sugary candies. Not very often at all. I eat candies bars very occasionally, but pretty much my sweet intake consists of cookies, cakes, and ice cream. Now, those, I partake in suffciently (my waistline can contest to this). Oh man. Anyway, grape Laffy Taffy is my new favorite candy. It's SO good. Really, just crazy good.

Also, I had forgotten about the little corny jokes on the wrappers.. hehe. I guess they now let people submit jokes and they just print ones that people submit to them cause all of them have a little name beside them.

Here are some Laffy Taffy jokes for your laughtastic pleasure.

Q: What's green and pecks on a tree?
A: A woody wood pickle!

Q: What makes music on your head?
A: A head band

Q: Why do some people never go bald?
A: They have a re-seeding hairline.

Q: What kind of key doesn't open a lock?
A: A mon-key.

Q: What pounds in your ear?
A: An ear drum.

Q: What bee does well in school?
A: A spelling bee.

The Cutest Peter Pan Ever!

So, isn't this just the cutest Peter Pan there has ever been? Now I know why all the fairies and mermaids and girls swoon after him in the movie! Sheesh.



And oh yah, don't forget the cutest little buzz ever too! Now, of course Conner was buzz last year, and you can't really pit one against the other. However, I'm going to pretend they are independent entities competing against the rest of the world combined.

A Few Shots of the Boys

I don't have much to write here really. I took a few snapshots of the boys a few nights back and several were really cute. Conner had on this little collared yellow shirt that just made him look like such a big kid. Zach was wearing a hard hat and watching something on TV and was very engrossed in whatever it was.


As I was taking pictures of Zach, he started rolling around on bunny and it made for some more really cute pics. Conner came waltzing in from the kitchen where he had been working on his art project (making a stop sign). He had his hands in his pockets and just came over and stood there and watched us in that laid back way he has sometimes. It was very funny. I just had to take some pictures of him in his big boy yellow shirt as well.


See the rest of the pictures on the forum here.

Pictures from the Beach

Anita and the boys went to visit Anita's parents in Brunswick, GA the last weekend in June and they had a really good time. Primarily, they played on the beach the whole time they were there. My family came back with a tan, especially Conner. He's got that classic little Oreo boy look going on when he gets in the bathtub right now. Brown top, white bottom, brown legs. It's so funny. They had a blast playing at the beach pretty much every day from what I hear. Sometimes twice a day! Even though Conner got really sick on the trip (croup the first day, and pneumonia the third day), they all managed to still have a good time and at least still get out to the beach. Poor little Conner man felt horrible for a few days in there, but he sure made up for it on the days he could get out to the beach from the looks of the pictures.

Make sure to check out all the pictures I pulled from this series on the forum.

See the rest of the pictures here.

Conner's Digging Machine

We weren't exactly sure what this machine was supposed to be, but he said it was some kind of a "Digging Machine". It certainly looked the part. In fact, it just looked really cool. We took some pictures of him with it. After a couple of shots, he couldn't help but to strike a silly face for Anita. Check out the third picture carefully.

Zach's Last Day of Swim Lessons (6/16/2006)

Zach had swim lessons this year during the same two weeks Conner did. However, Zach's were at the high school pool in the mornings again like we did the last two years. He'll go to these lessons again next year as well and then possibly move up to doing the lessons like Conner did this year at Ms. Sue's house.

Anita went with Zach every day to the pool for the lessons and Conner stayed home with me while I went started my day. The lessons were first thing in the morning (8am-9am) and so it worked out pretty well.


The biggest problem with the pool at the high school is usually temperature. The water can get kind of cold and on cold days Zach doesn't want to do anything... and I don't blame him. Last year, I was in the pool with them too and the first week of lessons was nearly unbearable. He did pretty well most days though Anita said and by the end of the two weeks, you could tell he had improved and really enjoyed being in the water...at least on his terms. He's also done really well in the pool here at the house this summer as well. He really enjoys getting out there and even is okay with going under the water.


Click here to see all of the pictures in this series on the forum.

Conner's Last Day of Swim Lessons (6/15/2006)

Here are a couple of pics from Conner's last swim lesson this year. He had a great time swimming this summer and really became a little fish. His lessons were different this year than the previous two years. Instead of having the lessons at the high school in their pool, he had them at the instructor's house. She runs a pretty big operation of swim lessons and has usually 3 or 4 lifeguards with her as her instructors working with the kids. The biggest difference is that for the older kids she doesn't allow the parents to watch the lessons. You have to wait in FRONT of the house. She does this for a reason though and that is because the kids respond better when the parent's aren't watching. You also don't have parents interfere if they have to be stern with a child or anything like that. She runs a great program and has wonderful results with the kids. The kids love it and you can tell it does them a lot of good.


Well, on the last night (of two weeks), the parents come and watch the kids and they of course show off what they've been practicing. Conner spent most of the night UNDER the water. He had a blast. He and the little boy next to him spent pretty much the entire evening dunking down under the water. In the picture, those are Conner's hands sticking out of the water.



They did quite a lot of stuff with them this year. Thankfully, this year Conner really got into it. The first year, he really enjoyed it, but last year we had some rough patches during the week of him just not really wanting to participate and do the specific tasks they wanted him to do. Of course, he was with mommy and daddy in the pool last year. Anyway, this year they got him to do all kinds of stuff and he definitely improved. Most importantly, he loves the water and isn't afraid of it. He understands it can be dangerous and has started learning about safety around the water which is excellent. Amazingly enough, he can "kind of" swim a little on his own. Not very far, but he's been practicing since swim lessons in our pool in the backyard and he is certainly getting better. He also had to float on his back, and on his front and go under the water and open his eyes under water. I don't remember all of the other tasks they had them do, but that's pretty much the basics.


Click here to see the rest of the pictures on the forum.

Playing with the Neighbor's New Dog

The girl that lives next to us has been working at an animal rescue center this summer. She brought home a puppy a couple of weeks ago to just play with him and let him run around in their yard. She was really wanting to keep him, but she was going to have to talk her parent's into it since it was kind of expensive to adopt him (she succeeded by the way). Anyway, the boys went over and played with the dog in the backyard the night she brought him home and they had a great time running around with the dog. It was a very energetic little puppy, and I think they about wore it out. It was short, with short legs and by the time they had finished chasing it/being chased by it, the poor thing was probably overheated. Cute little things though. All three of them.

Conner with His Soccer Trophy

Here are a couple of photos from 6/3/2006 - the day of Conner's last soccer game. He had a great time this season and said he definitely wants to play again, so I guess we will be playing again in the fall more than likely. After the last game, everyone went out for ice cream at McDonald's and the kids had a great time playing in the play area together. We then gave them participation trophies. Conner LOVED his trophy. He talked about it for days...and even still does, weeks later.

  

Conner's Jokes

On the way home from VBS tonight, Conner asked me, "Hey daddy, you want to hear a joke?"

"Sure" I said.

"Okay. Why do people put poo-poo diapers on their head? .....Cause people like poo-poo diapers on them heads!" *guffawing laughter ensues*

me: "Conner, I don't think that's a joke. And you don't need to be saying things like that either."

Conner: "Why"
me: ....*driving*
Conner: "Why"
me: ..
Conner: "Why"
me:....
Conner: "Why"
me:....
Conner: "Why"
me:....
Conner: "Why"

......
me: "Why what?"
Conner: "Why is it not a joke daddy?"
.......
....
...
..
.
me: "So, did you have fun at VBS tonight?"

Weekend with the Boys

Last night kicked off the first night of our church's VBS this week. Anita has been extremely busy all weekend, and the last couple of weeks, preparing for it. She is the assistant director of our VBS and they do a ton of work to put on a great week of activities. This of course means that I've got the boys so she can be up there working with everyone to set stuff up.

Zach was sick on Friday and you could tell he really didn't feel good. Anita took him to the doctor first thing Saturday morning and they diagnosed him as having Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. Here is a little information on this:

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common illness of infants and children. It is characterized by fever, sores in the mouth, and a rash with blisters. HFMD begins with a mild fever, poor appetite, malaise ("feeling sick"), and frequently a sore throat. One or 2 days after the fever begins, painful sores develop in the mouth. They begin as small red spots that blister and then often become ulcers. They are usually located on the tongue, gums, and inside of the cheeks. The skin rash develops over 1 to 2 days with flat or raised red spots, some with blisters. The rash does not itch, and it is usually located on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It may also appear on the buttocks. A person with HFMD may have only the rash or the mouth ulcers.

You can read more about it here


Anyway, he had a slight fever still Saturday morning, but he seemed to feel much better all day. He was still a little tired and slept quite a bit during the day. He had a rough night the previous night though, so part of that was just him being.. well, tired. Sunday though, he woke up and jabbered all day. The fever was gone and he was very active and crazy all day and you could tell he didn't feel bad at all anymore. Of course, since it had only been roughly 24 hours since his fever had dissipated, we needed to still keep him away from people so I kept the boys at home all day and wasn't able to help Anita any with preparations for vbs. Fortunately, they had a good turnout of volunteers this year and weren't hurting for workers. It looks like Zach will be able to go tonight and so we'll all be up at the church for VBS this evening.


It was HOT here this past weekend. With Zach being sick, I didn't want to get him out much anyway, but even if he had felt better...it was miserable and I sure didn't feel like taking the boys out much. It was unfortunate, because I would have really enjoyed getting out and doing something even if it was just playing in the yard or going to the park. We did run out yesterday afternoon though and go down the road to the grocery store and pick up a box of Drumsticks. Neither boy had had them yet, as far as I know, and Zach did quite well. Conner of course devoured his without a problem. I think it might have been Zach's first ice cream cone he's eaten by himself too... I'll have to double check that with Anita. It was the first I'd seen him eat at least. Not ice cream of course.. the kid's been eating ice cream for over a year, much to the poor parenting of his mom and dad. :)

Overall though, even with Zach being sick, we had a great weekend. We setup a huge train track on Saturday and Conner turned it into a "city" and he and Zach each took a controller and shared very well in each of them running a train around the track at the same time. I was really pleased with how well Conner shared and made sure Zach could use one of the controllers all the time. Of course, when Zach finally decided to sit near/on the track to do something else, then it was back to no-holds-barred style brothering, but hey, at least it was good while it lasted.

An Unwelcome Bedtime Visit

The night before last, Anita came home from working at the church on VBS setup pretty late. I was in the den on the computer and I heard her yell for me. I ran in to see what was going on since I could hear Conner up and crying/whimpering. And that's when I hear the rest of the story....

Anita said she walked into the living room to find Conner standing in front of the ottoman with his pants (and pull-up) down around his ankles just sort of standing there. She ran and grabbed him really quick afraid that he was about to pee, and being afraid he just DID pee on the ottoman. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. He was very disoriented and obviously had been sleepwalking and trying to go to the bathroom. She thought we were in the clear. Then, she noticed Zach's door was open. Oh, wait a minute, it hadn't been that way earlier.....

I went into Zach's room to check everything out and sure enough, right there in front of the rocking chair, there was pee all over the floor. I guess we weren't out of the clear after all. Conner managed to sleepwalk into the hallway, open Zach's door, stand there in front of the rocking chair and pee all over the floor. The only saving grace was that at least he didn't turn and pee all over Zach!

Fishing in the Pool....

....or, would you call it squirreling?

So, Anita went out to the pool a week or two ago first thing in the morning and came back in to immediately come get me. Apparently, we had a little furry dive bomber during the night. A little furry dive bomber who can't swim...at least, not forever. We had to grab some gloves and plastic bags and "squirrel" out the bobbing squirrel.

This meant of course, that we had to drain the pool....ugh. Which means we had to refill it again....ugh.

Delayed, but not forgotten

I know the posts on the blog have become irregular to the point of non-existence, but I promise they will pick back up at some point. I will try hard to get back to it something this month. Things have been quite hectic and this is one of those things that has fallen to the sides.

It will be back though and I'll make sure to try and find good stuff to post and get a bunch of pictures posted as well.