What is heaven?

Last night we were driving to the playground and somehow, Papa (Anne's father) came up. We explained that Papa is in heaven now and Mary Grace asked "What is heaven"?

This was one of those interesting moments in a parents life that you both look forward to and kinda don't look forward to. How does one explain heaven to a three year old?

I looked at Anne and she started the following explanation: You were in heaven before you were in mommy's tummy, then you were in mommy's tummy, then you were born. And someday you'll go back to heaven.

Mary Grace's response was classic: "Hmm, I've never been there".

Anne came back with: You don't remember it because you were so little, but you were there.

That seemed to satisfy her curiosity for the time being, as we quickly jumped to the new subject of releasing the squirrel that I caught (the one that was eating my tomatoes) into the park behind the playground.

A nice Sunday in August.

Tonight Anne asked Mary Grace if she knew what a bookmark was for. Mary Grace responded "it's so you know which book is which". Close, but not quite. So Anne tried to explain.

Anne: "Say you're reading a book..."
Mary Grace: "You're reading a book".
Anne: " OK, for instance, when someone is reading a book blah blah blah blah..."

Maybe you had to be there, but it was cute.

We went to a neighbor's pool party this afternoon. Mary Grace (the Pisces) was all about being in the water almost the ENTIRE time, while William started out being very cautious (as is his nature). So the first time I went in, he just played near the edge of the pool, pouring water, scooping things, etc. Then I started this game where I would pretend I was going to pick him up and he would push me and I would fall backwards into the water. He really liked that game.

Then came lunch and a break from the pool. After lunch, shockingly, William wanted to go in! He held on very tightly around my neck but had a really good time as we walked around the pool, bouncing and splashing. Then as he got more comfortable, he rode an inflatable dolphin around as I held onto him. Finally he let me hold onto his hands and arms as he kicked around the pool to propel himself!

Seeing some of our neighbors kids around the same age as ours swimming while their mommy was only watching reminded us that it's probably time to re-enroll the kids in swimming lessons at the Y.

William spitting and swishing like a pro!

William has learned to spit after brushing like a pro! He even swishes his mouth out with water from a cup and then spits that out. I think that means he's now qualified for adult toothpaste (in very small quantities of course) but I'll leave that to our favorite dentist to determine. Please post the answer as a comment, Dr. Tobin.

Also, William has started trying to say "pledge of allegance" but it's nearly incomprehendable. All the syllables are there, but I couldn't make out a single word. It's so cute to hear him say it though.

Yesterday we were at Bill Grays after a trip to Seabreeze amusic park (sic) and William was acting overtired from all the excitement at the park. He wouldn't sit still, wouldn't eat anything, was overreacting to everything. Anne said to me "We've got to get him to bed; he's not right". Hearing this, William chimes in "I'm not right, Daddy. I'm not right". So funny.

No more "hmm hmm hmm - hmm hmm hmm"

Back when Mary Grace was a newborn we had a little trouble putting her to sleep at night. Of course, she only slept for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a time between feedings, but that's not the point. At some point I started humming "Lullaby and Goodnight" to her as part of the routine. It worked like a charm. I mentioned it to Anne and she started humming it to her too. That song became so ingrained in the bedtime routine that Mary Grace would not go to bed without it. It became to me a symbol of being a daddy, and some times I would even tear up while humming it.

So, the routine went on and on, and even as a two year old, she knew when she didn't get the song at bedtime and put up a fuss. As recently as this past spring, I used to pretend that I forgot the song and hum the Happy Birthday song or instead of humming I would sing the words, but Mary Grace would have no part of that. "No, not that song... the hmmm hmmm hmmm song!"

I'm sure this sort of thing will be a recurring theme as Mary Grace grows up but the first one hurts just a little. Tonight I asked her if she wanted me to sing the song and she said no, because she's a big girl now. Wait? What? - when did that happen?!

So I whispered to Mary Grace "Can I sing it for me, and you can just listen?" She reluctantly agreed, and I thought of all the wonderful nights of putting her to bed and singing that song. Nights when she was completely exhausted when she first stopped napping, nights when she had no sleep whatsoever in her eyes, warm summer nights, cool spring nights.

They all drift into the past and I'm left with that memory of holding my two year old little girl in my lap and humming Lullaby and Goodnight.

Fistfull of poop.

As we're deep into swimming season, the diaper has been somewhat optional for William. Sure, we *try* to have a diaper on William most of the time, but when he's coming out of or going into the pool, we lower our guard.

My advise to anyone in this situation is to not lower your guard.

Today, William came running into the kitchen yelling "Heea!.., Heea!.." (here.. here..) to his mommy. Looking at what it was that he wanted to give mommy was somewhat of a surprise. Of course the title gave it away. Anne quickly led him to the potty where he deposited the poop, then she proceeded to wash him up.

Mary Grace and I went to inspect and found a few more Caddyshack candy bars and a bin of train tracks that had been recently moistened. More disinfecting...

This reminds me of my brother, who once decided to pee into a can of Tinker Toys rather than walk across the hallway into the bathroom.

Mary Grace has started using a little grunt as punctuation. For example, she might say "No William, you can't play with my Disney Princesses... Emh!" or, "I don't want macaroni and cheese... Emh!". Anne and I both make eye contact and share a little chuckle each time she does it.

We're getting excited for our month of visitors from Arizona and just counting down the days!

Mr. Get Into Trouble

William is so mischievous. He loves to do things that while seemingly innocent enough, drive mommy and daddy nutty! And he does them over and over again. Here are some examples


William contemplates playing in the mulch of the flower bed while Mommy stands on the back deck warning him not to (and capturing the cute moment on camera)


William removes sand from the sandbox, pouring it on the driveway, in the swimming pool, in the flower beds and in whatever else suits him.


Mr. Sit in the water at the Firehouse #9 open house, getting his shorts, shirt and diaper soaking wet. There were other kids doing the same thing, so he gets no points for originality on this one. (LOVE the cute fireman hat though)


Mr. Make a mess of his bedroom, then flash a cute smile that gets him away with it.

As William becomes less and less of a baby and more and more of a little boy, we find ourselves wanting another baby. It must be true, our brains are wired to forget all the negative things that go along with having an infant, and only remember the positives. Still, we love watching William's personality develop and seeing the brother and sister bond developing.

Mary Grace goes rail-free

We finally decided it was time to take the front off of Mary Grace's crib last week. Lately, she's been climbing in and out at will, so it's utility was nearly completely worn out and it was becoming a safety concern.

With the ceremony of the rail removal, we also adjusted our routine. Instead of sitting in the glider and reading a book, we instead put Mary Grace into bed and read to her there.

She really enjoys not having a rail, and the "big-girl-ness" that goes along with the new bed and routine.

A few nights ago, I was reading to her in bed, and when we finished the book, I started to sing her a song. She interrupted me and started to sing me a song; "twinkle twinkle little star". So I pretended to fall asleep (snoring sound effects) with my head on her second pillow. After finishing the song, I felt a stong push against my motionless head heard Mary Grace say "Go get in your own bed Daddy". LOL

Mary Grace still fits

As a shower gift, we got this cute suede baby seat cozy. Since Mary Grace was born in the winter, we used it when we took her to her first doctor appointment. Seeing her tiny head at the top of the infant car seat cozy was too cute for the new parents, so we snapped a bunch of pictures.


Recently, we got it back after we loaned it to some neighbors. Mary Grace was asking what it was for, so I explained it to her. She then asked if she could climb in. It was a tight fit, and she had to bend her legs, but she made it in. Seeing her cute little face at the top of the cat seat cozy brought back all the memories, and I knew I had my next blog post.

NOooo...!

William has finally started to say no! Up until recently, the word "no" was not in his vocabulary :) He would just shake his head from side-to-side but didn't say anything. Then suddenly, he started saying it! No just a short "No!". This was a long drawn out "NOOooo" which can only be better explained with elipses at the end. "NOOooo...". It's really cute now, but I have a feeling that word will wear out its welcome.

Also, Mary Grace is still progressing on potty training. Getting better all the time. This morning after a successfull potty trip, William said he wanted to do it too. He sees his sister and gets the gist of it. Except he thinks he sits on the seat, gets some toilet paper and pushes it between his legs into the toilet.

So after that I figured he was ok, so I went to help Mary Grace get dressed. Afterwards, I went back into the bathroom and was greeted with a stream of pee. William made the pee-pee come! Unfortunately, it went all over the bathroom but it's a start!

Rocks rock, Princesses fly, and siblings fight.

William has taken a big interest in rocks. He usually makes a beeline for the crushed stone pile when we go to Cobbs Hill Reservoir and today, Memorial Day, he quickly found and played with the crushed rocks making up the driveway at Miller's plants in Lyons.

Mary Grace has become much more drawn to pretend games, usually with her Disney Princess figurines. In one I overheard today, Prince Charming asks each princess to dance, then somehow asks Cinderella's fairy godmother to dance. The fairy godmother is pretty psyched to be dancing with the handsome prince, so she taps her wand on each of the princesses, enabling them to fly.

Interpersonally, William is starting to show a little aggression towards his sister when she takes things from him. This usually leads Mary Grace to over cry in hopes that he'll be punished. Sometimes though, she hits him back, and it's him that over-cries, hoping that she'll be punished. To be fair, sometimes they're best friends, playing well, horsing around and being kids. And they both look forward to a hug and a kiss from each other before bedtime, which we find completely adorable.

Mary Grace's first online purchase

Mary Grace has become really attached to playing video games on the kitchen computer during William's nap. And we've found that it's a great time to catch up on some house work or get ready for dinner, since she's occupied.

A few days ago while Daddy was at work, an email arrived from Amazon.com confirming a purchase of 12 boxes of organic cereal. I assumed that Mommy had placed the order and didn't give it a second thought.

At dinner, I mentioned the purchase to Mommy and was surprised to learn that Mommy didn't place the order. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together was as easy as watching what Mary Grace did with the computer when the game didn't work correctly. She repeatedly clicked randomly around the screen. She apparently stumbled upon the Amazon One-Click purchase button on a browser that was left open.

The story has a happy ending though. I emailed Amazon and they readily volunteered to refund the full price of the purchase ($52) and keep the product. WOW, we were both shocked and will be doing lots more business with Amazon.

The cereal isn't half bad either! I'm sure we'll still have some when our Arizona visitors come this summer.

William Is Two!

William had the last of his birthday 2-year-old parties today (one for friends, one for family). We had family over to celebrate William turning two and he had a great time. His anticipation got the better of him as he started opening presents while we the adults were still eating dinner, but a little reordering of activities left him happily opening presents before blowing out candles and eating cake.

Of course, his sister was a great help (especially in terms of actually opening his presents). We've vowed to do a single party for both William and Mary Grace in the future, to alleviate that particular problem by both of them having presents to open. It will be like a mini-Christmas.

William got lots of Thomas items and lots of other other fantastic toys from all of his family and friends. Mommy made a beautiful Thomas The Tank Engine cake and a great lunch, and daddy grilled outside.

	The fantastic cake that Mommy made
	Getting ready to blow out the candles. William did a great job, probably because he had so much practice from his previous parties!
	Our beautiful children having a fun afternoon surrounded by family
	Taking survey of the upcoming excitement!
	Sweet innocent William posing pretty for the camera.

PS - For those of you first seeing William's new look, he took a bad fall coming up the steps while we were all heading inside to put Mary Grace on the potty. While the accident seemed minor, the damage was not. The poor little guy was very very brave as Mary Jo the dentist did her best to save the tooth, but finally, he had to lose it to assure his adult teeth weren't affected. Daddy and Mommy are still broken up about it, but William is perfectly fine. And it seems that EVERYONE has a childhood tooth story to tell us, which eases the pain (just a little).

Back from Arizona.

We recently returned from our annual vacation in Arizona. We were there for a little over a week and had fabulous weather and an all-around great time. Some of the highlights of the trip:

• Mary Grace's refusal to sleep in Arizona on the first night, demanding that we go home, then falling asleep in the hallway and being moved into her new sleeping space.
  
• Watching Mary Grace and Nate playing in Uncle Ricky's swimming pool
  
• Mary Grace's lack of fear of the water and William's unwillingness to go in above his knees.
  
• Seeing the kids playing in Uncle Jack's swimming pool for hours on-end.
  
• The easter-egg hunt at Uncle Jack's house preceded by the chocolate egg hunt.
  
• Our trip to the McCormick railroad park including a ride on the carousel, a ride on the train and playing for a LONG time at the big playground.
  
• Blowing big bubbles at uncle Ricky's house and little bubbles at Uncle Jack's house.
  
• Watching William run around in Uncle Ricky's fenced in backyard.
  
• Hot/cold therapy in the swimming pools at both places.
  
• Losing my credit card for several days, then finding it again at Target (thanks for the idea, Peggy!).
  
• Mary Grace's accident at the upscale sushi restaurant
  
• William's accident in the bathroom on the airplane (note to self; Daddy should bring a change of clothes on the plane next time)
  
• Uncle Jack's new nickname for William: Bam-Bam. (I had been calling him Hercules since he seems to enjoy carrying things that weigh more than he does)
  
• Spending lots of time with family
  
• Seeing Rosemary and Joanne and Bob (and Cuddles) again

We had a fantastic time, thanks in no small part to our awesome hosts. Thank-you, Uncle Ricky, Nate, Jon, Uncle Jack and Aunt Peggy.

	The kids in their easter best. It was sunny and probably 75-80 in this picture
	Jon and William watching TV at Uncle Ricky's house
	Mommy and all the kids getting ready for a miniature train ride
	Mary Grace in the swimming pool at Uncle Ricky's house
	Mary Grace and Daddy in the hot tub
	William having a great time in Uncle Ricky's lush green yard
	Notice the humidity level outside the pool
	William running around as Mary Grace lounged in the hot tub
	The waterfall at Uncle Jack and Aunt Peggy's house

The full set of photos (250 of them) is available on EasyShare gallery; email me if you want to see them!

Self portrait and another milestone!

On Saturday morning, Mommy went to work, so Daddy was tasked with filling up the morning with fun activities. We started with a little running and screaming (you have to see it to fully appreciate the complexities of this game), then some Dora, then we went to painting. I asked Mary Grace to paint a picture of herself...



Next came more running and screaming, then some train tracks and some play kitchen, then Mommy came home.

Later that evening, we all went out for an impromptu ice cream run. William got his normal Strawberry, Mary Grace got Vanilla with sprinkles and Mommy and Daddy shared a dark chocolate (yum).

As we were getting ready to leave, Mary Grace said she had to go peepee. Then I realized that we didn't have a diaper on her, so off to the bathroom we went!

And just like that, Mary Grace had her first successful peepee at a public restroom!

And finally a parting shot of the happy siblings!

Sledding in the backyard

We had a GREAT snowstorm this weekend. The snow advisory was over 24 hours long, which led to about a foot of snow (a little more in drifts). The snow came mostly on Saturday night, so when we woke up, it was a challenge to get the door open.

After a restless morning, I decided to go out and do an experiment. Our house backs up to what used to be the Erie Canal, so there's a big hill in the backyard that was once the bed of the canal. It's mostly unusable because it's pretty steep but I go up now and again as I keep my compost up there.

I decided to try to make a sled run using all the snow that fell. The biggest challenge (besides getting up a snowy hill) was the stone retaining wall at the bottom. I piled lots of snow there and tested it a few times, then went and got the kids. Here's the results, as seen from the third floor window:



And from the back deck:



We had such a great time that we invited some of the neighbors over later for a little more sledding. A few came and we did several runs, followed by hot chocolate inside. It was a great time. Wish you were here.

A little father-son time

It's a very infrequent occasion that William and I have some time to ourselves, so when Anne planned a princess tea party for Mary Grace and her neighborhood friends for this afternoon, I jumped at the chance to take William to the Strong Museum.

We're members there, so we go there a lot, but usually with both kids. And since Mary Grace is the older, she usually dictates the activities and William usually goes along with it. When he doesn't go along, it becomes a problem because there's inevitably a scene involving screaming and crying.

So today, William got to lead. I let him walk and run wherever he wanted to go and I just followed behind him with the stroller. He played with the drag-race hotwheel car thing for a while, then went to the trains, then to Wegmans, then to Sesame Street, then to the sand box. Over two hours of pure enjoyment later, we made our way back to the car.

He had a great time leading for a change, and I had a great time watching and bonding and giving him 100% of my attention, rather than the usual 50% (or less).

As we pulled in the driveway, William started to doze off. I turned the car off once we reached the backyard and I watched him fall asleep in the rear view mirror. Watching those heavy eyelids gradually win out over his efforts to stay awake was touching. I had a big smile on my face as I watched him directly now. Then his eyes half-opened to see me smiling at him and I got the best reward ever... A beautiful dreamy smile as my boy fell back asleep.

Thank you William. You make it all worthwhile.

My little girl is turning three!

It's like an episode of Star Trek (probably TNG), where time is a vortex and it goes by faster and faster every year. Admittedly, the last few years have seen a lot of action; two births, a death, and a job change.

But the most amazing thing is that my little girl is turning three tomorrow. Looking at baby photos of her makes it seem like yesterday when she was a newborn. Remembering the afternoon she was born, waking up for middle of the night feedings, holding her and singing until she fell asleep, long neighborhood walks in the stroller, taking her to the playground when she could barely walk, making her a snowman.

Remembering all of the memories from each day until today still doesn't make the time from her birth to tomorrow seem any longer. My angel has gone from an infant to a three-year old in the wink of an eye. And that brings a tear to my eye.

Happy Birthday Mary Grace, we love you so much!

Ma Ma Ma .... Moon

In an effort to get William to say the word moon tonight, I relied on a tactic that worked well with Mary Grace, but William is proving to be a bigger challenge.

I pointed to the moon in the book Goodnight Moon, and I said "Moon". "Can you say moon?". To which William replied "deeee". So I said "No, Mooooon". "Deeeeee". LOL

So at this point, I remembered that he can say his M's, and will repeat "mamama". So I said "Ma Ma Ma Moon". His response? Classic: "Ma Ma Ma Deeee".

Nice try daddy, but I'm not going to say that word!

Wiliam's new words

At bedtime last night, I was reading The Very Quiet Cricket to William and as we got to the page with the bumblebee, I pointed to it and asked William if he could say bumblebee, and he did! Well kinda. "Bumbabee", but hearing him try to say that was cause enough for a celebration. Mommy came in and he said it again for her!

He's also started saying "eat", while making the sign-language sign for eat. (thank you Baby Einstein).

Rainbow outfit

Daddy is home sick today, so while Mommy was taking a shower I helped get Mary Grace dressed. She picked out her rainbow pants then decided to wear her rainbow shirt (which believe it or not was not purchased as a set; we inherited the shirt). Anyway, she looked so cute I had to take a picture.

Of course, William wanted in on the pictures too, so here's the result of our little impromptu photo shoot.