Better than a Happy Meal toy!

As the kids and I were leaving the gym the other night, they were running and playing near the tennis courts and ended up running into each other and bumping foreheads pretty hard. They were both crying and as I dual-consoled, I offered up Happy Meals from McDonalds. It worked their tears turned to smiles.

Then I called Anne to tell her I was bringing home Happy Meals and she told me she had chicken nuggets and french fries in the oven already. The kids were disappointed and the crying resumed until I suggested Anne get a toy from her secret stash and give that in place of a Happy Meal toy. (note - confirmation that the toy in the happy meal is the key ingredient)

So after dinner, we unboxed a "Mystical Garden" toy. Just put the cardboard pieces into the plastic tray, add the magic liquid and in a few days, you get a beautiful garden. To my surprise, it actually worked! Here's the proof.

First saying her R's now chewable medicine

Mary Grace has a tummy ache today and Anne just confirmed a fever too, so Anne wanted to give her some medicine. Now giving Mary Grace medicine has ALWAYS been a huge problem. She often prefers to feel miserable than to take something that might taste bad.

This has been the situation for the past almost 6 years. We've tried sneaking mess into foods and drinks with very little success. We had just about given up trying until this morning.

Anne offered Mary Grace some chewable childrens Tylenol, and she took it. She even said she liked it.

Our minds have been blown!

Rrrrrrrrrrrr!

Anne mentioned that Mary Grace had a surprise for me and what a surprise it was!

She started out trying to get Mary Grace to say some words by leading the witness, but that wasn't working (the witness is way too smart for that). Once Mary Grace left the room, I learned that Mary Grace learned to say her R's!

Now we've been trying to get her to say her R's for like two years. And while she's mastered some of them, the ones that come at the end of the words like car, bar, etc. Have been elusive.

Well, TODAY is the day that's learned it. She's tossing our the "car", star", and even "guitar" like it's no big deal! She is even acting like it's no big deal!

So I had to ask, how did you learn? Did mommy work with you? Did your teacher at school help you?

Her answer? And I am not making this up, and I had to ask twice to make sure I got it right...

"my foot taught me"

Wait, what?

"I learned to say my R's from my foot."

Hmmmmm. Ok, whatever, at least she's saying them now. Yay, no speech class!

Then tonight, Anne was trying to get Mary Grace to tell me the temperature (twenty FOUR degrees), and we asked her 2 or 3 times, until she finally responded "24 dude!!!"

LOL

Sledding at Tay Lodge

Brrrr, it's a cold day outside, but we all decided to brave the cold and go sledding with the Regans. After piling on layer after layer we made our way to the car, where I realized that William looked like that kid from Christmas Story. He's nearly the right age, too. I guess it's time to forbid him from putting his tongue on a flag pole in the winter.

Anyway, we arrived at the hill to find it deserted! Very strange, but hey, we had the hill all to ourselves. Once we exited the car, we realized why; the wind up there, combined with the cold made it downright in-hospitable!

After the first few runs, we had our first case of frostbite; Joe decided he had enough, so Patrick took him to the car to warm up. His little brother Dan was tettering between being cold enough to give up and having so much fun he wanted to stay. The rest of the kids were way on the fun+stay side.

After about 45 minutes though, everyone had enough of the wind blown snow slapping us in the face and called it quits. It was our second sledding adventure this year, and while the ground conditions were better than the first, but air conditions were considerably worse.

We got home and drank hot chocolate and played mouse trap, and relaxed in the warmth of the house.

William and Daddy
Mary Grace and Catherine
Mary Mary Grace and Daddy

Chicken Pot Pie

The boys cooked Rick's surprise dinner tonight; I had seen a video recipe for Chicken Pot Pie on Wegmans.com, and decided it was to be our dinner.

Now, everytime I play a video on the laptop, the kids cluster around it to see what's going on. They sat and watched the entire recipe video. So when it came time to cooking, they both wanted to help.

Absence of excessive counter-top space meant I had to choose, and since it was William who was most persistent in asking, he had the honor of being my sous chef.

He did helpful things like poking the fork into the crust to keep it near the bowl, adding the butter, vegetables and flour for the roux, and beating the egg for brushing on the top. All in all, he was a good assistant!

As soon as it went into the oven, he started asking if it was ready every 30 seconds. He went on and on about how good it smelled and how he couldn't wait to try it. He even sat at the table waiting for it for a good 10 minutes before it was ready.

When it was finally ready, I gave him a nice big scoop and he ate it all up, except for the crust; he didn't care for that. Mary Grace took one taste and picked out some of the chicken, then opted out. Anne and I loved it. Thankfully, the recipe made enough for two, so I'll be making up another one in a few days.

The joys of comfort food in the dead of winter.

And for our distant relatives, here's a few recent photos.

Judgement Day, 2010

On the way to the mall to see Santa I turned to the back seat and reminded the kids that it was judgement day. I explained, when Santa asks "Have you been good?" will you answer Yes or No? If you answer Yes, and Santa saw you being bad, then you will have lied to Santa. If you answer No, Santa might not bring you everything you wanted.

William states "I'm going to tell Santa that Mary Grace has been naughty and that she keeps on kissing me!". A few seconds later, Mary Grace says "William! If you don't tell Santa that, I'll never ever kiss you again!".

William, of course, responded with "OK".

We got a good laugh out of that. So, on the Big Man's lap, the kids responded to the question "Have you been good?" with "We've been mostly good". That was a reasonable answer I thought. Future politicians?

We're all looking to Santa's visit this year and scrambling to get ready in time. Feeling the pressure of a short December as a result of our vacation to Arizona.

Look at my cool new sneekers!

William has been saying some very funny stuff lately. Notable:

William: Daddy, look at my new sneakers!
Daddy: Wow, where did those come from?
William: From a box.
--
William: Abby Shadow (our "cat") is curious about humanoids.
--
William: Mommy, I was using a permanent marker and I didn't get any on me! None at all! Well, I did get some on me..

First sledding of the season and a tired little boy.

This morning the kids were very excited to go out and play in the freshly fallen snow. I had some chores to do outside as our vacation precluded me from finishing my winterizing, so it worked out perfectly.

The kids made a mess of the driveway trying to shovel the snow, and I put away the deck furniture, emptied the lawnmower of gas and took out the snow blower. Mary Grace quickly tired of the snow as she usually does; I think she just goes out for a little while so she can earn her cup of hot cocoa!

William wanted to go sledding, so I dragged him in the sled down to BF-Joe's house and back. On the way back he remarked that he wanted to go down the hill at Cobbs Hill Park. Since we were already bundled up, I loaded the sleds into the car and off we went.

The sledding wasn't great and we only stayed for 1/2 hour, but we had the place to ourselves and unlike last year, William didn't require me to tow him back up every time. Tummy sledding yielded the best results in the un-frozen ground and few inches of snow.

Tonight, the little angel showed his exhaustion by first getting into bed without my prompting, them falling asleep while I read a Christmas book all about Santa and the North Pole. Sometimes that boy can be a challenge, but other times he's the most wonderful and precious thing in the whole world!

Love you William.

Farewell Arizona

On the eve of our departure, I wanted to note some of the highlights for future memories, so here goes.

William's nightly ritual of falling asleep in front of the TV. I think he fell asleep on every person's lap at least once, and tonight the final night, he fell asleep next to Mary Grace on the floor watching Happy Feet. He seemed to really enjoy going to sleep in this way, but sadly, it won't continue once we return home.

Mary Grace's "thing" was playing with Nate. He teased her daily, and the loved every minute of it. She asked me to help her hide her lovie and blankie one afternoon because she didn't want Nate to get it. They played and played and wrestled and teased and played some more. It was wonderful to see.

The kids loved seeing all the pretty Christmas lights in the desert, and they also loved echoing Anne's early observation "that snowman looks silly in the desert", and applying that to everything; "Christmas lights look silly in the desert!"

They got to play with Jon's huge Lego collection, dominos, Uno, checkers, hot wheels racetrack, Connect-4 and finally Monopoly. Monopoly was a bust, but Uno was a big winner.

We saw beautiful sunsets every evening, swam in toasty hot tubs, shopped, ate out and saw beautiful sights. But for the last few days, Mary Grace has been telling us that she wanted to go home because she missed school. She's drawn some beautiful pictures of her getting on the school bus and I think she got a little Teary-eyed wishing she was back home.

One last long day of travel tomorrow and we'll be back to snow and cold and home. Hold on kids, here we go!

Williams first car ride

Another night where William fell asleep on the couch before 8:00pm. The little angel just can't seem to adjust to Arizona time. So there he sleeps on the couch with his blue blankie wrapped around him as the rest of the family plays and talks all around him.

Today we went to the McCormick Stillman Train Park for a carousel ride, a miniature train ride and some ice cream. We played legos for a long time this morning while Mommy went shopping.

The day before Thanksgiving we went to a local kid play park called Crackerjack. We started playing miniature golf, then progressed to young kids go carts and indoor games.

first car ride

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, we decided to spend our Thanksgiving in Arizona. So far the trip has been great; fine weather, lots of fun activities, and cactai. We're looking forward to a trip to an old west town, the Phoenix Zoo, and Ikea!

William and BFF Joe

Nobody has bonded more with William than our neighbor Joe. He's the guy that William wants to play with all the time, and William is Joe's go-to guy as well.

This week he got to go to the Sandbox (local indoor playground) with Joe and had a fantastic time. They have a fantastic time whenever they're together.

Oh, and William has yet to master Joe's name. He still calls him "Jophes", instead of "Joseph". What's in a name though?

Hope they stay close always!

We had a nice Halloween weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we went to Strong Museum for their trick-or-treating event. Lots of costumes, halloween activities, prizes, etc. Then we went to Jines for dinner (kids in costume).

Sunday afternoon was kind of low-key, but we did get a leaf maze raked into the backyard. It's one of the kids favorite activities. I rake paths in the leaves and the kids run through trying to get the best time.

Sunday evening we had a neighborhood pre-trick-or-treating pizza party with all the usual suspects (all the kids under 8 in the neighborhood) and the parents. The magical beer wagon makes an appearance and we all head out for candy gathering together.

This year, unlike past years, the weather turned sour and we got graupeledupon. That led to a general consensus that it would be best to abandon trick or treating, so after about an hour, we threw in the towel.

Heading into the house, Mary Grace started crying somewhat hysterically, complaining that she couldn't feel her hands! Yeah, it was THAT cold. So we put the poor thing on the heat duct and let her warm up, and all was good.

After a little inventory effort Mary Grace decided she wanted to go out for another round, so at 7:45, we went back out into the cold rain. We got 3 houses in when she stumbled, fell out of her rain boot and with a soaking wet foot, demanded to be carried back home. Looking back, it was quite entertaining :)

Here's some data to slow down your computers




Oh, also, William claims that he was throwing up out of his butt today. I guess he was feeling left out of the stomach bug loop. :)

No fun being a parent sometimes

Tonight, Anne and I drew a line in the sand on Mary Grace's refusal to eat vegetables. We had a roasted turkey breast with mashed potatoes and gravy and steamed carrots with butter. Mary Grace refused to eat anything except for the turkey.

So we told her no desert (homemade cinnamon buns; her favorite) unless she ate 3 tastes of a carrot or mashed potatoes. She refused. So we bartered down to 1 taste of carrot or potato. No way. So no desert.

She was very upset when the three of us sat down to desert and she started complaining about her tummy hurting. I figured it was some sort of a plot to get a cinnamon bun, but we held firm.

So she went to be hungry, but with the expectation that she would get cinnamon buns for breakfast. We felt terrible, but it gets worse...

At 10:30pm we heard her coughing and went to check on her and she was throwing up.

So not only did we hold back her favorite desert from her, but we ignored her complaints that her tummy hurt when it turns out that it very likely really did hurt.

:(

Slugger

Forgive me, Lisenas. I'm not a big baseball fan and I never played baseball except for family picnics. I'll try to encourage William as best I can, but I'll need your help to have him carry on in the tradition of Nate and Jon! :)

Here's a few pics of a little practice we had in the yard. We had a lot of fun!

Daddy is a jerk.

Anne conveyed this story to me yesterday.

She was driving with the kids in the back seat, going to Midtown. Somehow she ended up in the wrong lane and was having trouble getting over to the right because one car was essentially pacing her.

She she mutters "come on, I have to get over, J E R K". (spelled out)

Imagine the angelic voices coming from the back seat.

"Mommy what does J E R K spell?" - Mary Grace
"Oh nevermind..." - Mommy
"J E R K spells Jerk! Mommy what does jerk mean?" - Mary Grace
"Eh, um. Jerk means silly..." - Mommy
"Oh, so Daddy is a jerk!" - Mary Grace
"Well..." - Mommy

I wasn't even there!

Final Fling at Seabreeze Amusement Park

This year, as in past years, Chris Lori and Sarah came to visit for the Seabreeze Final Fling weekend. It's the weekend after Labor Day where the park reopens for one last time, mostly for season pass holders and their friends and family.

Arriving at around 2, we made our way immediately to the Tilt-A-Whirl, Mary Grace's favorite ride. William hasn't been very interested in this one but decided to give it a go since we had special guests. Here's a few good shots from the designated non-rider, Anne.




The rest of the day was filled with lots of exciting rides, patient kids as the others rode adult rides, fun at the park and lazy river and unhappy kids who may be outgrowing the kiddy car ride.



I will always remember the first time we put Mary Grace on that ride and the excitement on her little face. Same goes for William, but seeing them ride together is just priceless :)

The best part of the day (for William) was when he wanted to play the spray the water into the fish-mouth game. You know where you have a squirt gun that shoots water into a little hole, and whomever's fish gets to the top first wins? Well William was so determined and focused that he won! We were all so proud of him, and he even got to pick out his own prize; a blue stuffed-animal clown fish.

Daddy's Macaroni and cheese...

Anne was busy reorganizing Mary Grace's room tonight and William comes into the kitchen where I was cooking, saying he's hungry. Mary Grace chimes in "I'm hungry too".

I respond "how about macaroni and cheese?"

"Yeah!"

So I make it up. Elbows, 2 slices american cheese, milk and butter. Same recipe as Anne uses (minus a Jessica Sienfeld sneaky vege addition).

William eats about half, then states "This is the worst macaroni and cheese EVER!" We all chuckled over that as he ate a slice of my homemade bread instead.

Thankfully, Mary Grace ate hers up.

First day of Kindergarten for Mary Grace

We've been prepping Mary Grace all summer about going into Kindergarten and she's been very excited for it. This week it finally happened!

Her first day of school was September 7, and the bus was to arrive at 7:44am. She had already gone into school to meet her teacher and see her new classroom the week before school. Uniforms were all purchased, supplies all delivered, lunch and snacks packed. All that remained was sending my baby girl away on a bus.

Mary Grace, of course, approached school with no apprehension or fear. Just a great big smile and hugs for William. It probably helped that she knew that her a few of her neighbor friends would also be riding the bus, but for the first time she did remarkably well.

In fact, we could barely keep her off the bus!




Just to make Mom feel better, Anne followed the bus to school and took this nice photo as proof that she did in fact arrive at school. Whew!



Once Mary Grace got in she had a great first day of school and even got back on the bus and came home. Bonus!

Niagara Falls; the conclusion

After a fun and very full day, we packed everything up in the car, including a big bonus; our niece/cousin Sarah took up our offer to come stay for the weekend! It was a little cramped in the back seat with Sarah sandwiched between the two kids seats, but off we were. For about 5 minutes.

We had just started the movie (Babe, on the iPad), when we heard an odd noise coming from the back seat, following by Sarah SCREAMING "OH MY GOD, HE's THROWING UP!". Poor William was hurling all over himself. Emergency pull over into a parking lot and two more hurls leading to a little boy COVERED in stinky yuck.

Anne jumps to the rescue, removing William from the seat and getting his clothes off. I called for reinforcements (Chris and Lori) and we headed back to Chris and Lori's to start the cleanup effort. Bath, laundry, seat hose-down and car cleanup behind us, we set off again just over an hour later. William slept on my lap in the back seat all the way home.

Thankfully, whatever made him sick was not longlasting, as he woke the next morning perfectly healthy. It was a beautiful weekend for us and we took advantage of a few Rochester institutions; Saturday afternoon we spent at the pool at Midtown and Sunday afternoon at Strong Museum. Both were loads of fun for all involved. Sadly, Monday was Sarah's return trip back to Buffalo. Anne met Chris half way in Batavia where they had dinner.

The kids are looking forward to our upcoming overnight guests next weekend for Seabreeze Friends and Family day as well as the Clothesline Art festival at the MAG.

Finally, tomorrow is an ultra-exciting day, Mary Grace's first day of kindergarten! She'll be riding the school bus for the first time ever. Blog forthcoming.