Buckets of Fun

In a total rookie-mom move, I filled up a bucket of water for Osten and Hamilton when the bubbles they had been playing with failed to keep their interest. For a good five minutes, they took turns with the water gun, taking aim at the bushes and the house (except for one misfire that sprayed Ann and Wells just a little). Well, five minutes passes in a flash when boys are at play, and before Ann and I knew it, Osten and Hamilton were having buckets of fun!

They laughed; they squealed; and they were soaked from head-to-toe in no time.

But I have to say that they demonstrated remarkable teamwork as they filled and refilled that bucket.

Did I mention that they were soaked from head-to-toe (leather shoes and all)?? Sigh. But of course, neither of them were wearing crocs or bathing suits. That wouldn't have been nearly as much fun!

Holy Reindeer!

One of the perks of our new neighborhood (at least for now) is all of the deer or reindeer as Osten likes to call them. You never know when you might see one, so we are always on the lookout. Here's Marci keeping watch from the front porch.

So far, we've had better luck with sightings in the backyard.

Although we didn't catch them on camera, we saw three reindeer right out our kitchen window. Osten sat on the kitchen counter, and we watched two bucks and a doe feast on our neighbor's trees. Holy reindeer, it was a real treat!

Sip Slidin' Away . . .

Hey, which way is up on this thing?

Hmm . . . this end is pretty tasty.

Sweet sippy, I think I might be onto something.

Oh, yeah. Sip slidin' away . . .

Pirates, ho!

We went to a pirate birthday party on Saturday, and Osten had lots of fun getting all dressed up in the garb. (For once, it was nice for there to be some boyish dress-up clothes, since all they have at school are dresses and tutus!)

There was even a pirate ship . . .

and the kids all took a whack at the booty buried inside.

Here's our little pirate (sans pretty much most of his gear except his sash) waiting to get some pinata loot!

We're Baaaaaack . . .

. . . and wackier than ever! It was "Wacky Day" at school last Thursday, and Osten loved dressing the part. These are his favorite suspenders, which sadly did not make it through the day in one piece. After losing the back clip while on the playground, Osten began using his suspenders as a lasso and whipping them around in circles above his head. Consequently, said suspenders were confiscated in short shrift.

Come to find out, dressing wacky makes you feel kind of wacky! In a rare moment of camera cooperation, Osten posed for quite a few pictures. Mommy was in camera heaven!

Here is Osten with his favorite girl in his class, Emma Grace. Their teachers call them the old married couple because they have a real love-hate relationship. Wacky day seemed to agree with them, and here they are raiding the leftover snacks in the afternoon.

A Mommy-Daughter Duet

When I picked up the kids from school the other day, I arrived to find Marci fast asleep in the stroller after a nice walk outside. Apparently, she had spent most of the afternoon asleep and hadn't had a drop of her bottle since lunch.

She woke up as soon as I got her out of the stroller, and I could tell that the little missus was not going to be happy driving home on an empty stomach. Luckily, it only takes us about ten minutes now to get home, but I hated to make her wait . . . and so, we debuted our mommy-daughter drinking and driving duet! While I do the driving, Marci does the drinking. It's really quite efficient, and I'm not sure why it never occurred to me sooner.

Marci seemed to get a kick out of our new schtick. She spent more time popping the bottle in and out of her mouth than actually drinking, but she was amused all the way home.

Here she is with the classic two-handed hold which she has pretty much perfected!

The Potty Chronicles: An Epic

We're hitting the potty training again. This past Saturday morning, Osten came out of his room suited up and ready for action. Here he is ... clad in his favorite muscle shirt, his big boy underwear and plastic pants (for furniture protection more than style) and his rain boots (which are fun to wear and are good for pooling any potential puddles, if you know what I mean!) Oops - I almost forgot to mention his two Curious George bandaids, which are actually covering honest-to-goodness skinned knees. Anyway, when Osten came out of his room in this get-up, I just knew that today was going to be the day. Oh, it was a day alright, but not the one for which I was hoping! And so goes another entry in "The Potty Chronicles" which apparently is an epic in the making!

After at least a half dozen unsuccessful trips to the potty in rapid succession, Osten took matters into his own hands and tried to get things moving south.

Marci, who I swear is wise beyond her years, steered clear of the potty-training attempts and kept herself busy with one of her favorite hand-me-down toys. She is getting pretty good at standing and is close to being able to balance on her feet all by herself. She is also just about ready to crawl, but hasn't quite put herself in motion yet although she is able to scoot around the room on her bottom pretty well.

And here we have a completely-unnecessary-but-adamently-insisted-upon courtesy flush. After a nearly two-hour battle of wills and at least eight unsuccessful attempts on the potty, we had an accident in the living room. Thank God for plastic pants and rain boots and most especially for a new laundry room with a big utility sink!