Happy happy joy joy LIGHTS!!

Tonight, after dinner, we headed out to Liz Simmons' house in the Hollywood Heights/Santa Monica neighborhood of Dallas. Every year, Simmons goes ALL OUT with her 150,000+ lights display. It is truly incredible, not only because it is so dazzling but because she recycles a lot of stuff in putting it together. Everything from some old vintage plastic owl decoration to an old mega-Skyy vodka bottle (her entire front walkway is lined with old bottles filled with Xmas lights). It is notable for both its abundance of cheer and funkiness, which somehow for me outshines all those other generic lights displays I see around town. They're nice, too, but Liz's just rocks my world. I find it impossible not to be happy there. Anyway, I posted some photos over on Facebook ... you can find them here. Mwah!

Video time

The video above is of Wilder singing some song he's learned at school. It might be hard to make out, but he's singing about the artists they've studied so far: Monet, Mondrian, Cezanne and Michelangelo. I particularly love the flourish he gives to the "Michelangeloooooo!" part, which comes near the end.

One of two videos I got of yesterday's Christmas program at W's school.

And the second video. The blurry blog of color at about the 1 minute mark is Hunter dancing on Jerry's lap. And yes, that's my child pointing repeatedly at the audience at the end, as if to say: "No, you guys! You guys, my fans, are GREAT!" Wilder is so awesome.

Oh really? Care to confirm Uncle Ty?

Me to Wilder: Where does Uncle Ty live?
W: In Uncle Ty City.
Me: And Uncle Jay?
W: In Uncle Jay World ... and Uncle Ty lives in a fashion show.

Bwaaahahahahahahaha!

Snow Day! On Jer's Birthday!!!

OK, so the use of explanation points in the title of this post might be a little overkill. But suffice to say we were all pretty excited that it was snowing on Jer's birthday yesterday shortly after we woke up, with Wilder and I both taking credit for it (at least in our own mind's, if not out loud) and with Wilder declaring that it now "must be Christmas!" for it clearly can snow on no other day. ;-)
At any rate, it was a great day for all involved, I think. I've been remiss the last few years in making Jerry feel as special as the birthday guy should feel. I think it has something to do with the fact that it's damn near impossible for me to get anything done without surgically removing a boy from the top of my head. But this year, we pulled it off.

Below are some photos, of the snow and the festivities. Enjoy. And love to all.

Didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped, but I still love the hugs.

First taste of snow.

Hmmm, it's kinda cold out here.

Wilder kept commanding me to "taste the snow, Mama. TASTE IT!"

Bundled up and ready to ... stand stiffly and wonder what the hell is going on out here?

Wilder ... so pleased.

A post-cake game of hiding under/over the coffee table.

Zee chocolate-mustacioed one!

Poking the cake. Good game.

First, a taste test.

They were supposed to look like a "4" and a "3"

Wilder, VERY excited about lit candles. And who can blame him.

The tiptoe button

Just now we were driving home from our friend Ginger's. She'd watched Hunter for me this morning while I joined Wilder at his school for the Thanksgiving party, which was fun and I'm glad I got to enjoy it without having to chase my littlest one around ... thanks G!).

Anyway, we were driving home well after Hunter's usual nap time, so he passed out in his car seat not five minutes into our drive. At some point, Wilder noticed, right as I was saying something to him.

"SHHHHH!" he commanded me, waving his hand in the air to indicate that I should shut it right then and there. Pointed at Hunter and gave me a very stern look.

"It's OK," I said. "We can talk quietly."

"No, Mama. No talking. Just drive," he whispered. And then: "And make the car tiptoe. Where's the tiptoe button???"

I love the things he says. Clever boy.

Hunter: not quite a mama's boy, but not quite not

Hunter is at that point in his developing toddlerhood where he has set preferences and clear opinions. For instance, he likes Jerry to pull him out of his crib first thing in the morning. If I go in, he gets mad, hollers, "no no no no no! PAPA!" At which point I shrug my shoulders, head back to bed and tap Jerry on the shoulder as I begin a glorious fall back into the soft contours of my mattress and pillow. This sometimes even happens when Hunter is napping during the day, when Jerry is at work, and after the bit where he hollers at me that I should not deign to live his hefty little butt from his slumber, sometimes literally telling me to "GO AWAY," I let him know he's in for a long wait and walk back out the door. He comes around eventually.

OK, so I'm kind of flippant about this, and I try to remember that sometimes the boys prefer me for other things, and also look on the bright side -- I can get an extra few winks in the morning or just lay in bed taking a little more time to wake up, which is great for an a.m. crankpot like me. But truth is, it does cause my heart to ache just a twinge when he sends me packing, demanding his papa.

Cut to this morning. Hunter woke up. Played in bed awhile. Then started calling out "Papaaa!" Jerry got up and took him out to the couch. Every morning, Hunter insists on taking his blankie, his doggy and his froggy out of his bed with him and cuddling on the couch with all three. Apparently, after he'd been up a few minutes this morning, he started gathering all of his lovies up and launched off the couch and started heading toward the hall that leads to the bedrooms.

"Where you going?" Jerry asked.

"Where's Mama?" Hunter answered, as he continued on his march.

A few seconds later, he wandered into our bedroom, calling my name. "Maaaaaaamaaaaa?" Walked over to the bed, looked up, saw me in it and demanded: "Up???" Then he crawled into bed with me, arranged all his prized possessions around me, laid his head on my chest and grinned at me.

Of course he then proceeded to roll around like a sumo wrestler, at some point butt-slamming my nose with his ample behind (we don't call him Captain Longcrack for nothing). But still, it was a sweet moment that I'll cherish.

Wilder: Helping a brother out

It never ceases to amaze me how sweet Wilder can be. We received a toy catalog in the mail a few days ago, and he's been going through page by page circling things he'd like for Santa to bring him — so much so that it's now pretty dog-eared.

But now, having searched through it exhaustively for selections for himself, he's now spent a good portion of his day finding things that Santa can bring his little brother.

We also look at the Christmas Countdown online every day, and his response is: "Oh maaaan, that's gonna take forever!"

Affirmation is sweet

There have been a number of (particularly trying) days since I started staying home with the boys back in February of this year when I wondered if I'd made the right decision by quitting my job. Today those concerns were put to rest.

Wilder just woke up from his nap. It took him quite awhile to fall to sleep, so he'd been in his room for a little over three hours. He woke up in a great mood, and was all stretches and sleepy smiles. He pointed to a toy in his bed and told me he was sorry for bringing it into bed to play.

"It's OK," I assured him. "You napped and that was the important part."

"But I missed you," I added

"I missed you too," he replied. And then he paused, and followed that up with this:

"And when I was a baby, I'd miss you all day when you went to work. I missed you so much."

"So you're glad I'm home with you now?"

"Yes, Mama. I'm glad." Big hug.

Leaves! Fall! Fun!

Me = destroyer of life

So, being a mother of boys, and specifically of two boys aged 4 and 1, I really never thought I'd hear the phrase: "You're ruining my LIFE!!" uttered. And, if I did ever hear it, I figured it would be many, many years.

Leave it to Wilder, our resident expert in drama. On the way home from school today, perhaps due to the very warm weather we're having, he asked if we had any popscicles. No, I replied. "Well," he demanded, "you need to go get some. You need to take this car to the food store RIGHT NOW AND GET SOME. Do you hear me, Mama? I WANT POPSCICLES." (Note: This very clear desire was uttered after about five minutes of him talking and me wondering what in the hell the string of words coming out of his mouth could possibly mean ...)

To which I replied: "Well, your Lordship, while it is clearly my job to grant each of your many daily wishes, we're NOT going to the store, but we ARE going home to have lunch."

Wilder: "So we're not going to the store?"

Me: "Umm. No. Correct."

Wilder: "Mama! You're ruining my life! I need popscicles and you won't get them and NOW YOU'RE RUINING MY LIFE!!"

Which was followed by about two minutes of: "Mama! It's NOT funny! Stop LAUGHING!!"

The name game

Wilder, who has renamed himself Thunder Wilder Snowman, just asked if we can rename Hunter thusly: Baby Hunter the Cat Petter. Man, this kid cracks me up sometimes.

Halloween!

A quick post of photos from yesterday's pumpkin carving party and neighborhood Halloween party. I wish I'd got some of them trick-or-treating, but I was pretty worn out by the end of the day. It was a pretty successful holiday. Wilder approached the candy-harvesting with even more enthusiasm than last year, sprinting from each house to my side, holding out the sweet treats that had just been gifted him and hollering "Look, Mama, look! Look what they GAVE MEEEEEE!" after each house, right up to the last one. I think he just couldn't believe each and every total stranger was giving him something he clutched so dearly to his heart.

And it was so fun to see wee little Hunter toddling up to the doors, well behind Wilder and our friends' son, Micah. He was carrying his big old plastic pumpkin bucket with aplomb. He didn't make it quite as late as the bigger boys, but he held his own.

Anyway, the photos. Hope everyone had a very, very happy Halloween 2009.

Hunter inspect some Halloween-themed lawn art.

I think this might have been the only pic I got of him with his hat on.

Skelly Boy!

Wilder gets a turn on the rope swing. Weeeee!

More animatronic lawn art. Such a cool decorated house.

Vampire Jer and Skelly Boy.

The family headed down for the neighborhood party.

Earlier in the day, at the pumpkin carving/brunch party, Wilder and Lea go head to head.

Kris and her starry-eyed Jack.

Hunter takes a contemplative break.

Hunter pointing out something high in the sky to Papa.

Lea plays ball!

Wilder paints a wee pumpkin.

Wilder turns 4

Wow, I've been pretty remiss in posting lately. Sorry. October is always a crazy month for us, what with Wilder's birthday and Halloween and all the requisite parties, costuming and what not that goes along with it. That and the fact that at least three members of the family have pretty much had stuffy noses and coughing lungs for four or five weeks now. 'Tis the season!

Anyway, thought I'd jump on here today and at least post some photos. This first batch is from Wilder's birthday party last weekend. We had it at a park and it went pretty smoothly. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I did get some video that I'm hoping to use to learn a video-editing suite before his 5th birthday. I set reasonable goals these days, you see.

Wilder had a GREAT time with his friends. One thing that amazed me and differed from all his previous birthdays was the rapidity with which he dispensed opening the gifts. Everyone pretty much brought gifts bags and he'd tear the tissue paper out, remove the gift, exclaim his happiness, set said-gift down and move on to the next. It was like watching gift-opening set to Benny Hill music. He also managed to spittle all over his cake while blowing out his candles, leaving many of the adults to lay stake to pieces of cake near the back. Silly grown-ups.

Anyway, it was a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who shared it with us. Now, some photos:

Wilder pairs the newly acquired Woody to his old Buzz. Very happy reunion.

Stomp Rocket. Coolest gift ever.

The cake, courtesy of Tom Thumb.

Proud parents of a 4-year-old.

Jerry grilling. The Dallas Parks and Rec department told me there were grills at this park. Yeah ... never trust Dallas city employees to provide you with accurate information. Jerry had to hightail it around East Dallas for 45 minutes hunting this little thing down.

The fastest gift-opening session known to man. Very fun.

Arden, our friend Carmen and Michael's little girl, and little sister to Wilder's best friend Owen.

Hunter with our good friend Kristen.

Tennessee trip photos

Will write more later about the trip, but here are some photos I've posted on Facebook. Love to all, k.

One tough son of a gun (sort of)

Hunter had his 18-month checkup today. Everything went smoothly, and his stats are so close to Wilder's at the same age, that I now know I should go ahead and start a savings plan solely for things like bread, milk and whatever else it is that teenage boys consume with wild abandon to make them grow and help their frontal lobes develop into something resembling a non-window-licking individual. Anyway, here they are -- I record these only for us. No one else cares, but I like to remember how giant my babies are, so that when I'm 75 and my back aches and they don't visit me, I can remind them how I carted their mutantly huge heinies around for a few years. You know, load my mama barrels up with guilt-trip and fire away.

So:

WEIGHT: 27 lbs, 11.5 oz.
HEIGHT: 34.5 inches
HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE (I have NO idea why we note this): 49 cm

Anyway, the best part of the doctor story is when Hunter got his shots. The office was unusually busy and backed up today, so we had to wait a fair amount of time, and after the doctor came in, it was probably another 20 minutes before the nurse came in with the flu shot and three other vaccinations. Of course, the waiting was hurting. I hate knowing that my kid's about to go through some serious pain, and I was anxious to get it over with.

So the nurse comes in and, as always, asks me to hold my kids arms and hold him down. I hate it, too, when they basically ask me to be their heavy. I know it's impractical, but I wish doctor's offices would employ someone else to do this. Anyway, I've got him pinned and she picks up the first needle and sticks it into his thigh ...

Hunter looks at me like: "What the hell?" but does not cry. Second needle ...

Another look, this one says: "Dammit now! That HURT!!" Still no tears. Third needle ...

The boy just turns a bright shade of red and his eyes go wide. I think he's more pissed than in pain. Fourth needle ...

"Whhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" The tears finally come, but c'mon! My kid is pretty friggin' tough, no? I mean, jabbed three times and nothing but righteous indignation? That's some seriously thick skin!

So, here's the kicker. On our way out, Hunter wants to walk instead of being held. He's still wimpering a little, but mostly over it. Until we pass the doctor. When he sees her, he affects a limp. I mean, it's so obvious he's faking it, it's comical. The doctor notices it and calls him a drama queen.

So much for the stoic reputation, little dude.

Pictures from yesterday and today

Just a few quick photos from the past couple of days. After hitting about 90 yesterday, a cold front hit today and we're having much cooler temps. Just in time for the first day of fall. Please enjoy the pics. Hope everyone is doing well. Hope to be writing more soon ... just kind of crazy around here lately. xo, k.

My future little WWF champ

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Funniest thing ... Wilder had been talking about his grandparents all day today. For example, sample conversation frome earlier today:

Wilder: "Where's my grandpa?"
Mom: "Which one? The tall one or the surly one?"
Wilder: "Surly one. Heh heh heh."
Mom: "He's in Arizona."
Wilder: "Let's go there."

Anyway, so this went on a few times today, until it finally hit me: IT'S GRANDPARENT'S DAY! So, on that note, here's a short video we put together for all of our wonderful grandparents in Arizona, Tennessee and Florida ... We love you all, even you surly ones. :-)

Some recent photos

A few pics, from Wilder's first day of school and today, Labor Day:

First Day of School + Labor Day 2009

A recent lunchtime chat

School starts tomorrow -- sneef -- and a few photos

Wilder starts pre-school tomorrow. We're totally prepared for this new ruffle in our morning routine: the clothes are laid out, the backpack is packed, the forms are signed, supplies packed and all I have to do is hit "brew" on the coffee pot in the mornings.

So yep, everything is pretty much ready. Except for maybe my heart. It seems like just yesterday my baby boy was born and I was holding his squishy little body in my arms and he was squishing up his eyes, gazing into mine, as if to say, "Oh, so you're the lady who's been carrying me around bitching for all of eternity." I know it's cliche as hell, but it just goes too fast. I know that if you multiply these last lightning-quick almost-four years by just four, he'll be driving a car, getting ready to graduate from high school, with his little brother not far behind him. There is nothing to prepare your heart for how quickly time flies and how fleeting it seems that they're in your nest. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through the drop-off and orientation in the morning without shedding a few tears. I'm hoping I can hold it all together until I get in the car and then get a good cry on the way home.

All that said, I AM looking forward to more alone time with Hunter. He doesn't know it yet, but he's my workout partner. A few weeks ago, I got this crazy notion in my head that I was going to run a half-marathon in December. Now I've bought the new shoes, the new jogging stroller and all but paid my entry fee, which I'll probably do this week. So yes, little H and I will be at the lake three days a week (at least), pounding the pavement. Hunter LOVES the new stroller (it has an iPod hookup so he gets to jam), so he'll enjoy it. I, however, am truly scared at how my body will respond. Keep my knees and hips in your prayers.

Enough rambling. Below are some photos from the last couple weeks. Enjoy and love to all.


The boys had just woken up from their nap and were cuddling on the couch. They really do seem to adore each other and it makes my heart sing to see things like this.


Posing with the new jogging stroller at the park. I call this Wilder's "Blue Steel." (From the movie "Zoolander.")


Flying down the slide with unadulterated joy. This kid hasn't met an adrenaline-enhancing experience yet that he hasn't enjoyed full throttle. I fear I might be holding my breath for the rest of my lfie.


One more cuddling pic, just for good measure.


There is no food that Hunter does not love rubbing over his face and head. It just so happens that oatmeal is the hardest to remove.