We Take Requests...

... and this one is for Grandma Leslie.

Enjoy!

– L.

Keeping Watch O'er My Flock By Night

It's been a long week without much sleep, but we had some fun tonight before bed at least.

– Oh hi everyone. It's me Seth. We is about to get a little silly over here.
I'm just getting warmed up and maybe being a shepherd.

– Or maybe Virgin Mary. I'm pretty keen on grils* after all.

– Now I is shepherd again and I is working this look big time.

– Oh hi everyone. It's me Nate. I also work on some kind of look here...

–... at least until Mommy ask me to smile. So I does. Really BIG too!

– Of course there is the unsolicited, but obligatory nose-picking shot.
(No photo session is complete without one!)

– Sometimes though I just like to just goof around when I think no one is looking.

– Like now. You all not looking, right?

– So... you think we take it easy on Mommy tonight?

– Not a chance, 'bro. I think this grin says it all. 

Once again, sleep has been hard to come by over here, and we are full up on almost 3 year old independence and attitude but we still manage to have a good bit of fun here and there and I love nights like these with my boys.

- L.

* "Grils" is not a typo. It's what you call a girl if you are Seth and I can only imagine he means it with the deepest respect since he's fairly gril crazy. I'm a gril and I'm proud to be one. If you're a gril, I hope you are too.

The Day The Internet Lied

I bought a pomegranate two days ago and decided to serve it up with breakfast this morning after I read about an online tutorial on how to de-seed a pomegranate in under a minute. It sounded impossible, but the video looked credible so I gave it a try.

I don't want to give away the ending, but even the boys looked suspicious.

I got the rest of their breakfast fruit ready and had our pomegranate, spoon and bowl on standby in the background. 

Then I cut it in half. It was messy, but that was to be expected. Pomegranates are like that after all.

While my sons were busy with the rest of their breakfast fruit, I got busy with the pomegranate – but it didn't matter whether I tapped, bashed or worked out my frustrations on it I didn't seem to yield much in the way of actual fruit. 

I did succeed in splitting the pomegranate into several pieces (see above) during the "big show", but most of the seeds in the bowl were hand extracted. In case the bowl looks a bit empty, the rest were already on the plates since the boys were fairly excited about whatever I was doing at this point and wanted to "try pomegranate now!". 

In the end, a good time was had by two boys at least. 

– I make "art" on face and table everyone!

– I make a big mess which always make me happy.

– Still, I pony up with proper smile for camera.

- L.

PS. Some people I communicate with online give this technique at least a 6.5 out of 10 – and some swear by it – but I give it a big stinkeroo 1 at best. At least everyone agreed that it can't be done in a minute.

Dark But Sometimes Light

I was chatting with my boys over breakfast this morning as we do every morning and the topic of babies came up as it does from time to time since they have a new baby cousin. I said they were babies once upon a time and lived in Mommy's tummy before they were born.

Jokingly I asked them if they remembered before they were born and they both said "yes".

So I asked them what it was like in Mommy's tummy.

"Dark".
"But sometimes light".

I asked them if they remembered what they did in Mommy's tummy.

"Kicking".
"Hiccups. And Seth."

I asked them if they heard anything.

"Mommy. Daddy was not there."
"Thump noise. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

I don't know what to make of it really, but I'm posting it because this has to be the most incredible conversation I've ever had in my entire life.

- L.

PS. Nate did not literally say "whoosh" but rather made a whooshing sound that sounded like a heartbeat – or at least what would pass for what I used to hear when we had a good doppler and a nice technician who let us listen in.

PPS. This post seems incomplete without a picture and as it happens I have a picture that I love but was never quite sure how to work into a post, especially since it was taken last summer and the window of opportunity kind of came and went. I colored my hair a little. And I got smooches.

What Love Looks Like

Sometimes love is making a play-doh poop out of nothing more than primary colors when that is what your boys would rather see more than anything else you could possibly create.

– I makes applause hands for reasonable interpretation.

– Must touch it!

- L.

PS "Touch it!" was the watchword of the day. In future news... the time my boys tell someone Mommy made a poop on the kitchen table. I'm 100% sure it will happen even if I don't know where or when.

PPS. If you're wondering how I pulled off this masterpiece please note that you too can create a reasonable light brown poop color out of 2.5 parts yellow and roughly 1 part blue and 1 part red. Mix well and add "texture" as necessary. 

Hallowe'en: The Bizarro World Edition

On this lazy, reasonably rainy Friday my boys decided the thing they would most like to do is put on each other's costumes so I waited for a break in the rain and that's just what we did.

Things started off with some of those patented Nate "smiles"...

– I is smiling right now everyone...

–... and still smiling here (believes it or not).

... and a bit of a startled look from Seth. I think he forgot he was playing police officer, but he quickly got back into character which happened to be about the same time Nate noticed the ball and chain. 

And despite an attempt at an "innocent" look from Nate...

... Seth was determined to get his man. 

I'm still feeling confident about my casting on Hallowe'en night, but I'll give full credit to Seth for knowing exactly what to do with those handcuffs. 

– Gotcha bro'.

– Er, yes... I suppose you does.

– Of course you know if we join forces maybe we get through

'dis gate and make a break for it.

– Shhh! As you point out that other time, mommy can hear us.

We maybe wait until she not looking, OK?

• • • • • • • 

Four more things:

1. I could not choose between this photo of Nate and this one of Seth...

– Is time to get your swoon on cuties!

... not even if I had a million years to do it. Truth be told, they both make me swoon a little.

2. My boys had a great time Hallowe'en night. After the last two years (here and here) I wasn't sure how they'd react, but in the end we went up and down a very long block of houses. Total time out trick-or-treating was just over an hour and their costumes were greatly admired by all. I had bought a bag originally to use as a prop/loot sack that I didn't end up using in photos or as a loot sack per se, but M. and I took it along in case their pumpkin buckets got "too full".

Their buckets were "too full" after the first half dozen houses so the sack came in handy to at least periodically collect all the loot. Every time we did a bucket dump, Nate would declare "go get more now!" so clearly I trained them well. 

3. When I say I trained them well, I mean I trained them really, really well. We came home with almost more than we could carry. 

I'm not sure this photo does it justice, but we got a lot of loot.

4. Lastly – and on a different note – I am still in awe (and not in a good way) of the photos taken of the flooding in lower Manhattan which isn't even where the worst of Hurricane Sandy struck in the US. Geographically speaking though they are our closest neighbor. I can't complain about getting a little bit wet while we were out trick-or-treating. Our power remained on, we had heat and light and good things to eat. Some people didn't and still don't.

If you are in Canada and are in a position to help out, please consider a donation via the Canadian Red Cross as they appear to have the best access to disaster relief in the US from here and are accepting donations specifically for relief there.

Once again we are the lucky ones and despite the rainy weather and a lot of indoor time with two toddlers who would have rather been outside (but not in the rain) the gravity of this disaster is not lost on me. I made sure we had extra water and could live off the canned goods we had stored. Our power stayed on and in the end none of it was necessary. I cannot imagine having to evacuate our home with my boys in tow or the effect it might have had on them if such measures should have become necessary. Our biggest hardship was trick-or-treating in the rain where everyone's hair got a bit wet. $5 or $10 or whatever you've got... if you've got it, please give it.

- L.