The Lone Ranger's on speed dial!

Connery walked into the bathroom this morning as I put on my makeup and told me that he needed to use the potty. I got a little excited but didn't want to scare him. He sat on the little plastic seat, and I helped him take off his diaper. Then his pants. Then his socks. Then his shirt. (Who knows why he wanted to be naked?) He got up a minute later, said he was finished, and I thought it must have been a false alarm. Then he sat BACK down...and drum roll please...he peed!

Kieran ran in, we all gave high fives and proceeded to call Daddy, and of course, THE LONE RANGER!!



Now I know this process could take a LONG time, but it's the beginning of the end of diapers, and that is always a wonderful thing!

Here are a couple more "boy moments" from the past couple of weeks.

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We drive into the sun each morning, and again each evening on the way home. So we hear plenty of complaining about the sun being in the boys' eyes. They both yell for us to "make the sun go away." And of course, their sunglasses are never handy on the sunniest days.

But Sandy's come up with the perfect trick for getting the boys just to live with it.

He explained to the boys that the sun gives them "power." So now they just close their eyes and get their power from the sun! Brilliant!!

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Kieran's class made a list of the things they are thankful for and hung them outside the classroom door. It warmed my heart to see Kieran's entry:
I am thankful for my Mommy and my Daddy and Gryphon and my lipe saver. I am not thankful that Connery keeps trying to bite me.

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Kieran told me that he found a parking spot while we drove through the parking lot at the mall. I figured that it was across the parking lot, so I said, Good job, and parked in a nearby spot. Kieran was SO upset! He started crying so hard that I figured something else had happened. He explained through LOTS of tears, "I found a spot for you, and you didn't park in it." I apologized and told him that he would definitely pick the spot the next time. That satisfied him, and when we got out of the car, he walked me to the spot he had chosen...just two spots away. When we walked into the mall, Momma made a comment that it broke his heart, and he said, "You broke my heart, Mommy" and started crying again. It was so innocent that I started crying, too. Now before I pull into a space, I ask, "Is this spot okay?" He always says, "That's a good one, Mommy."

Another day at the mall, he got really upset when I didn't buy him anything at the toy store. In the car, I explained, "Kieran, you don't always get what you want." And--his words of wisdom--"But I want to get what I want." Don't we all, honey, don't we all?

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Connery LOVES to aggravate Kieran, and his latest tactic is saying "Onee ME" when Kieran wants something.
Kieran asks where we're going. I say, "The Mall." He says, "Yay, the Mall!" and Connery says, "Onee ME, Thih-thih."
Kieran asks for juice. I say, "Sure." He says, "Thank you, Mommy." Connery says, "Onee ME juice."
You get the idea. And it KILLS Kieran every time. He starts crying, "Mommy, Connery says I don't get to go to the mall!" Or "Mommy, Connery says you're not my mommy, you're only his mommy." And the entire time I'm telling him not to let it bother him, that Connery only says it to aggravate him, Connery's saying "Onee ME! Onee ME!"

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He has learned all the great nursery rhyme songs.
Ba ba black sheep
Humpty dumpty
But we've noticed that a lot of the tunes are the same, so sometimes he gets the songs mixed up like this:
Patty-cake patty-cake baker's man, no more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Some new "speak"
Connery says a lot of things with an F sound. So cracker becomes facker, breakfast bar becomes veffeh far, treasure becomes fezzer, and fire truck...well, that's a tricky one.

I counted a 9 word sentence the other day--"I want Daddy get me 'racaroni' and cheese, ThihThih."

Oh, and he's sitting beside me now and just lifted his finger to announce, "I got bugger on it! Put back in my nose?" Yuck! And, yes, that's bugger, not booger. Blech.

Random Momma

It's the random things about a person that tell you all about them, so I thought it was fun when my sweet friend BookMamma tagged me to play a little "blog game."

Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).
3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
4. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and link to them. (why not…)
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. (I’ll try)
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT "MOI"-

1. I am fascinated by middle names. Names in general, actually. I love to hear how they were chosen and what they mean. And my students freak a little when I "three-name" call them.

2. I love little known bands. My new favorites are the Airborne Toxic Event and The Gaslight Anthem. I found them on accident online.
3. Underwater scenes in movies or tv (heck, even on cartoons) freak me out. I have a completely involuntary response. Makes me jump and turn my head before I even realize it.
4. When I was little, I LOVED the feel of my grandpa's whiskers. He would let me rub his cheek right before he shaved in the morning.
5. My favorite board game is Parcheesi.
6. If you put all my favorite foods together, I'd have chili, a rare steak, steamed broccoli (with just a little crunch left), pasta, smoked salmon, dried mango, and my Granny's biscuits, with a spoonful of peanut butter on the side and creme brulee for dessert.

TAG - you're it! (So, yeah, I know I'm only supposed to tag 3 people, but I'm tagging 5. What are you gonna do about it? Huh? Huh? Yeah, that's what I thought.)
Shep
JennBeth
Amy W
Olivia
Angela

Ticker Feet!

That's Connery's newest phrase, Trick or Treat! Fortunately, the "Dark Vader" and Yoda got lots of treats this year, and Kieran's only "trick" is that he wouldn't wear his mask. I even added a longer piece of elastic so it could hang around his neck and lie on his chest, but he wouldn't do that either. Oh, well, right? They still looked cute.

We started the week by visiting Tate Farms, which was a blast, as usual. This year, Ba went with us, and Baby Ellie and her fan club joined us later (Auntie JennBeth, Joan and John, aka Mimi and Oppa). Kieran loved all the animals, but again we saw that Connery's tough talk stops when it comes to mingling with critters. I didn't think we'd ever pull the boys out of the corn "pool," and I can't blame them--it really does feel good. We all loved the hayride out to the pumpkin patch, and Kieran kept pointing to the pumpkins he was going to pick...and was the FIRST person off the truck! He passed right by people once the truck stopped--I think he would have climbed over them if they weren't already standing up. Connery tried to pick up the biggest pumpkins, of course, and we got some cute pics of the kids sitting among them. It was a lot of excitement and knocked both boys out once we started driving home. Connery took a FOUR hour nap!

The next night, we went Trunk or Treating at Nana and Papa's church, which was so much fun! The boys got a kick out of seeing Papa and Nana dressed up, and I've never seen the boys laugh so hard jumping on the inflatables. It was a little bizarre watching "Yoda" inside them. Meagan was a great host (she's always in charge ;), and Kieran won a cake in the cake walk. By landing on the number 3, of course.

On Halloween day, the boys' school had a Fall Fest, so they got to celebrate with their friends, work on their skills at the ring toss, and load up with spider rings and press-on tattoos. That night, they put on their Star Wars garb and "ticker feet"-ed at Ba's house first...only to discover a pregnant hillbilly bride at the door! Connery didn't know what to think and stared at her for a long time. She looked hysterical! Then we drove home so the big Darth Vader (Daddy-o) could greet the boys at the door. We hit up 5 houses in the neighborhood before the bags got so heavy the boys passed them off on us, so we came home and dumped the candy in a pile on the floor of course. All good candy this year. I think it was the first year ever that we didn't get any old Tootsie Rolls... ;)

The next night, Sandy and I planned to drive to Chattanooga for my friend Jay's wedding. Looking forward to a weekend away, we dropped the boys off at Ba's, started driving... and realized the wedding was at 3 EASTERN time. Somehow it just never occured to us. ugh! We were going to be late, so we decided to stay in town, had a nice lunch at Connor's steakhouse, and went to see a local school's production of Urinetown (one of our favorite shows--and it was absolutely adorable!!) and Jeff and Christine's Halloween party. We brainstormed costume ideas, and Sandy suggested the Graduate and Mrs. Robinson. My gut response was, "Are you saying I'm old??" He quickly recovered and said, "No, I thought you could do some theatre makeup to give yourself some lines." Close one, buddy. Congrats to Steph and Caleb for their Most Original Juno costumes. Steph got to be pregnant on Halloween again ;)

Hard to believe it's November, because the weather's been so pretty. Now we're gearing up for my heavy week of rehearsals before our one-act In the Blood, which is going to be amazing, I think. Then Thanksgiving and Christmas will be right here! Halloween opens the floodgate of holidays. Maybe that's why load up on candy. To get a sugar high to get us through! (See some October pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/amysandy/October08#...but give me a couple of weeks to put the entire month up.)