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.