Honesty is the best policy

Usually Scott always tells me that he thinks I look really "cute" when I first wake up in the morning. But this morning, I got the honest opinion of a two year old.
I walked into the boy's room right after I rolled out of bed. I opened the door and Ty said "Hi Mom! Wow! Your hair looks...umm...spikey!" And then came the laughter. He doubled over laughing which, of course, made Cameron laugh too. What else could I do but laugh with them (especially after I looked at my hair in the mirror!)

I feel okay about Tyler telling me that my hair looked awful this morning, because recently he has been just randomly telling me "Momma, you're pretty".

Tyler told me yesterday that he loves the baby, but not when he takes his toys.

He also just woke up from his nap and came in and told me that his fingers hurt. I said "Oh, I am so sorry. What can we do to make them feel better?" He put his finger to chin (in a thinking position) and said "I know! We should watch a movie!

Man, I love that kid.

On to Cameron....

He is walking! WALKING! I can't believe it. It almost seems impossible that I could have two toddlers. Cam LOVES pushing the little "lion" that we have...a walker that looks like a lion and has music to it when we walk with it. It was Tyler's but it hasn't been used in awhile...except now, of course, Tyler really wants to play with his lion. So there have been a few lessons on sharing....
Cameron walks up and down our complex driveway...so many times a day that I can't even count! Tyler runs along side him and helps steer the lion if it starts heading for a pole or something. They are quite the team. But man oh man...as soon as it is time to come inside or put the lion away, Cam brings out the big guns. I talking loud screams, flailing arms and legs, water works, EVERYTHING! This kid sure knows what he wants. The other day, a neighbor actually came out of her house to make sure everything was okay because of Cam's screaming when I started to put the lion away. She said it sounded like he had been seriously injured. Cam sure is quite the drama king.

Poor kid is still teething. I don't know how long those blisters/swollen gums will last but they are still blackish/purpleish in the back and I keep thinking those molars are going to pop through any day, but not yet. He is being such a champ, considering how painful that must be.
He loves to chew on everything and it is pretty cute to see him knawing on stuffed animals or other toys.
He loves his daddy and he reaches for him and snuggles right into his shoulder as soon as Scott picks him up when he gets home from work. Often times, Cam will just lay there and coo on Scott's shoulders for several minutes. These boys love their dad!

Playing Trucks

I have no words.
Nothing could accurately describe how cute Ty is when he is playing trucks.
I don't know what the headlamp is for, but he insisted on having it.

I laugh each time I look at this picture!

This is a quick snap of the boys during "Friday Pizza and Movie" night.
Ty looks forward to this all day. In fact, today he spent probably thirty minutes going through the disney movies thinking about what movie he wanted to watch for tonight. When he finally decided on Pinnochio, he HAD to call dad to see if he wanted to watch "nochio when you get home". He is such a cute little kid.
We have loved starting this fun little family tradition!

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

I have been in the family for almost a year now and I feel like it is taking you EXTRA long to figure out why I do the things I do. So I thought I would help you out. Here is a list of a few things you seem to be "misunderstanding":

*I actually LOVE having food in my hair, especially spaghetti sauce. So you don't have to wipe it off every time I get some up there.

*Do you really think that I like the whole wheat double fiber bread? YUCK! I would rather wait til eating time is over and then find some paper to eat. So next time, don't fish the paper out of my mouth; it's my lunch!

*When you take away toys like the stapler or scissors, it makes me so mad that I scream a blood curdling scream and clench my fists together and let my whole body shake. So next time you see me do that, just give me back whatever you took away.

*I want to help you clean the kitchen. That is why I am always getting into the cleaners. Nothing personal, but you could keep the kitchen floor a little bit cleaner (who throws all that food onto the floor??)

*I have a great idea about where to keep our clothes. Instead of keeping them in the drawers, lets try just having them thrown all over the floor. You keep picking them up and putting them away just after I get them all out. You have no idea how tiring it is to keep taking them all out! Next time, give it a few days and I am sure you will love my idea!

*Why do you keep closing the bathroom door??? That is my favorite place to go! And it has my favorite hiding spot: the toilet! Man, it took you so long to find the phone yesterday. And you should have seen how cool it looked in there. I don't understand why you were so upset....

*I am a pretty stubborn guy. So when you say "You may not put your hand in your dirty diaper while I am changing you" what do you think I am going to do? Next time, don't tell me what I can't do...cause you and I both know that I am not afraid to do it!

*I love playing with Tyler. He is such a great brother. He is getting much better about sharing and playing with me. But do you think you could ask him to stop body-slamming me? That is usually where things start to go south....

*When you put me in my crib and I cry and pound on the wall, that means that I don't want to take a nap. Please just come in and get me and then give me 100% of your attention and don't even think of setting me down and keep bouncing or swinging me so that I don't have enough time to think about how tired I am. Is that too much to ask?

*Oh yeah, and one more thing. I am tired of trying to squeeze into six month clothing just because you don't want to do the laundry!

This is just a short list and once you master these things I will give you a new list. Keep up the good work!

Love,
Cameron

Cruel Crows and Chocolate Thunder

So this post contains two hilarious stories....maybe they won't be so funny once I write them, but they were incredibly funny when they happened.

First, Ty has really taken a liking to chasing the crows at the park we go to. We generally go to a school playground and so there is a big open field and he runs like crazy and chases all the crows away. On Friday, he was doing just that! This kid can run longer than I have ever imagined is possible. It is more like sprints. He sees a few crows gathered near each other and he runs as fas as he can to make them fly away. Then he laughs really hard and takes a little rest to let them land somewhere...and off he goes to chase them away again. Anyway, on Friday there was one particular crow that wouldn't really "fly" away, he would just run away or barely come off the ground and land 10 or 15 ft from where he was before. Ty kept running at him to make him really take off and fly away, but he just wouldn't do it. Ty chased him all the way across the field, across the playground, and finally the bird flew up on top of one of the buildings. The crow sat on top of the building right at the very edge as if to taunt Tyler...and that is exactly how Tyler felt. He kept jumping and waving his hands at him to try to scare him. Then he started yelling "Boo, Crow!" Nothing worked. It was exactly at this point that I remembered thinking, I bet this crow is getting pretty annoyed that Ty won't leave him alone. I hope he doesn't do anything mean to him....Ty was standing right exactly underneath him and the crow turned around and went to the bathroom....alot! LUCKILY...very luckily, Ty had just turned to me to ask me for help in scaring the crow and he took one tiny step away so it just missed his head....I mean, barely missed his head! Ty looked down and saw what happened and exclaimed "Hey! He went potty on me!" It was really funny...and really mean of the crow...and then really funny again!

Next story....Scott and I went to dinner last night (thanks to our friends Jen and Luke who came over to watch the kids) and we had so much fun. I always end up feeling like a 12 yr old girl who can't stop giggling when I go on dates with Scotty. Anyway, at the end of our dinner our waiter came over and said, "Can I interest you in some dessert? Perhaps some cheesecake or some chocolate thunder?" I don't know what came over me, but without thinking I said "Oh, that's okay. He's (pointing to Scott) my chocolate thunder!" Scott just gave me a confused look and then we both just started laughing so hard. I could not stop the tears from coming...oh man it was so funny. The waiter just said "I'll go get the check" and let us laugh our little hearts out! Then, walking out to the car, I was still ready to fall over from laughter at any moment, Scott proudly said "I have always wanted a girl to publicly announce that I was her chocolate thunder. So thanks, honey!"
Well, baby....you truly are my chocolate thunder!!

Just Saying "Hello"

Yesterday, I was out walking around our property and cleaning up the laundry room as part of our job here. Cameron was taking a nap and Ty was just walking around with me, helping me pick up trash, and just talking to himself. I love hearing what he pretends to do and be...Anyway, I was wiping down the washing machines and I heard him say "Well, hello bug. Hi there bug" and start talking to this "bug" which I assumed was imaginary since he had been talking to himself all along. But when I looked over, I saw he was talking to a cockroach. It was flipped over on his back and was wiggling his legs desperately to flip over...which made him look all the more disgusting. Of course I squealed then told Ty that we don't talk to cockroaches. I think that lesson is almost as important as not talking to strangers!

Name Calling

Tyler has just recently made the connection that mom and dad also go by Rachel and Scott. He was so funny the other day because he was trying to tell Scott that Cameron was awake in his crib, and he was standing right at Scott's leg and kind of pulling on his pants and saying "Dad, baby is awake. Dad....dad..." and then suddenly "SCOTT! Baby is awake, Scott!" Scott just totally started laughing. I didn't know that he knew our names!
He has also insisted that I call him "cheetah" for a whole afternoon. When I slipped and said "Ty, will you put your books away?", he promptly corrected me and said "No, mom. I not Ty. I'n cheetah. Cheetah put the books away!"
I'm okay with that...as long as the books get put away!!