Happy Father's Day!!

to Daddy, Papa, PaGaga, and PaPaw! We had a busy day hopping around to see all our "Pa's," but we're thankful that they all live in town. Sandy and I got to sleep in on Father's Day, because the boys stayed the night over at Ba and PaGaga's. We picked up the boys and spent a little time with PaGaga before he went golfing, his favorite thing to do on Father's Day or any day! Then we ran around Dick's Sporting Goods helping Daddy pick out a new golf bag. Then off to Papa's for hamburgers and some "Slip n Slidin'" with the cousins. Connery played in the baby pool most of the time, but Kieran, Meagan and Briana went back and forth to the Slip n Slide a lot. Logan and Jeffrey played badminton with Chris and Jack, while the rest of us rested on the porch and called out to Kieran to pull his shorts up. Poor guy, he has no curves. At one point, Nana chased the kids through the yard with the hose, and Kieran's butt was just a shining! ;) (Some good country talking for you there.)

The boys gave Daddy and Papa a toy tent with a man and boy figurine. Kieran gave Sandy his the day before Father's Day, because he couldn't wait. And as Papa opened his, Kieran couldn't wait to tell him it was "for camping." We had so much fun camping over Memorial Day, and I can't wait for the boys to go with Papa, the King of Campers! Sandy's going to buy a pair of sandals with his Father's Day money, and we'll see what Papa gets.

The next night, as Sandy put the boys to bed, he told them, "Let me know if you ever need anything. And I'll help you. But sometimes I won't, because sometimes you need to do it by yourself."
Kieran said, "Yeah, because you're my Daddy."
Sandy said, "That's right, and that's what my dad did for me. Sometimes he helped me and sometimes he didn't. But I always told him when I needed something."
Kieran said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a Daddy. When I'm THIS big."

Those days will be here sooner than we know. In the meantime, Sandy's doing an amazing job teaching him how to be a Daddy. Thank you.

An Untitled Play

A short play by Mommy, inspired by Kieran
A very true story

Kieran: (walking into Mommy's bathroom) Connery keeps knocking down my tower. So I just throwed it to him.
Mommy: You threw it AT him?
Kieran: Yeah. Because he won't not keep knocking down my tower.
Mommy: Kieran, that's not how we treat our brother. (Hears a muffled cry.)
Connery: (crying offstage, muffled) Mommy!! Mommy!!
Mommy: Wait. Is that Connery crying? Is your bedroom door closed?
Kieran: Yeah. But I didn't close it on his fingers.
Mommy:(Hurrying to the bedroom) But you don't close your brother in your room. He can't get out.(Opens the door to Connery, covered in tears)
Connery: (loudly now) Mommy! Mommy!
Kieran: Gryphon, can you kiss Connery on his boo-boo?
Mommy: Where is his boo-boo? (Connery points to his head)
Kieran: On his head, where I hit him with the blocks.

Fade to black

So leave a comment with your suggestion for a title and ending. This is a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure Play. What do you do? Stand him in the corner? Explain what he did wrong, make him apologize and let it go? Let Connery hit HIM in the head with the block? (Just kidding about that last one, though we may reach that point one day...)

Need a laugh?

Clearly, K & C have plenty to go around!!



Enjoy!

Siskel & Ebert meet Jurassic Park

No, we didn't take the boys to see Jurassic Park... (Geez, that movie even scares ME!) But we do have a new tradition as of last week! One of the local movie theatres plays free kid movies a couple of times a week during the summer, and this week it was Everyone's Hero...one of Kieran's favorites. (Thanks for loaning it, Finn!) I've been excited about taking him to see it, because he's never been to the movies before! I couldn't wait to see his reaction to the big screen, the surround sound, the popcorn! haha.

They loved all those things. Well, at first, Kieran put his hands over his ears and said it was too loud (which it was) but they turned the volume down soon afterwards. Connery loved just sitting in the folding seat by himself. He got folded up in it a couple of times until I figured out a way to put my foot on it and hold it open.

There was just one problem. You see, it turns out that this free movie gets filled up FAST by day cares, so they had NO seats left for us. And I had already made the mistake of telling Kieran that we were going to see Everyone's Hero. They opened another theatre and showed An Arctic Tale, which was cute, but Kieran kept reminding me that it wasn't Everyone's Hero. Even after the movie was over and we were getting into the van. He said, "But I thought we were going to watch Everyone's Hero." Somehow he wasn't buying my explanation. Maybe Surf's Up next week will make up for it. [Funny story: The boys got a little restless during the movie and I had struggled to get them to stay in their seats. Kieran needed to use the potty, so on our way back, we had a little meeting in the hallway. I said, "Boys, do you want to go back in to watch the movie?" They both said, "Yes!" "Then you have to be good and listen to Mommy, okay?" "Yes, ma'am." "And you have to SIT. DOWN." Connery sat down right there in the hallway!]

After the movie, we went for a picnic lunch at the Botanical Gardens. I always make sure to bring along sunscreen, extra juice boxes and their swim trunks, because the BG has wonderful wading pools and fountains the kids can play in. And once a week, they have a make-and-take craft for the kids. So this week, the boys planted their own begonias and picked out miniature dinosaurs to live in them! (It's all part of the fabulous Dinosaur Uproar at the BG.) The boys were so cute pouring potting soil into the pots, digging a hole, "massaging" the squared off roots...and not at all letting the dinosaurs live in their new "habitats." Are you kidding?? They wanted to play with those things! Let's see, the dinosaurs swam with them, jumped off rocks, hid in trees, jumped on the brother's heads, and even fell asleep with them in the van.

A walk through the butterfly house cooled us off. Kieran remembered the turtles from last year. Surprisingly, Connery didn't want to touch one. He's usually the daring kid, but everybody's got limits, right? And a caterpillar somehow made its way onto my toe, which made the boys giggle. (And me, too. Caterpillars are a little ticklish.)

The Boys of Summer

Can you smell the "sun-cream" over there? We've certainly been slathering it on. The days are hot and just lazy enough. I wish every day could be like today. The boys and I slept until 8, played a little hide and seek with the blankets, heard Connery say "widge-wuh-duh" (refrigerator), let the dog out, threw on some clothes and loaded up in the wagon. We live in a great quiet neighborhood that's within walking distance to the grocery store, pool, a few little shops and Kenny Mango's Coffee Shop!! They have a drive-through that's perfect on my way to school, and I've always thought, "We could walk here." Today, we proved it. Well, Mommy walked there anyway...the boys just rode along. So they weren't nearly as sweaty when we arrived.

I ordered my "regular"--a monkey-sized Chai Tea Latte--and Kieran immediately asked to play with the little plastic monkey they give whenever you order that size. (Get 10 of them, and you get a monkey-sized drink free! It's a common trick, but much more fun than a punch card, huh?) They splashed a little in the fountain, ate some breakfast, played Scrabble...and just hung out.

Then what to do?? Hmmmm...tough choice. How about load back into the wagon and walk to the neighborhood playground? Good choice. It's a little known place (with brand new equipment, oddly enough), so we had the place to ourselves. Connery amazed me with how quickly he climbed to the top of the tall slide. And Kieran climbed the monkey bars, well, like a little monkey.

Then for another tough choice...how about go home for a little Reading Rainbow and a lazy day nap? Sounds good to me! (Somehow the boys weren't as excited about the nap as I was, but that's not the point. We still snuggled up in the same bed and sang silly songs. I got about an hour's worth of sleep before the boys woke up--if they were ever asleep at all.)

A little lunch and a late afternoon shower for Mommy, and we're ready when Daddy gets home to pick us up for Kieran's t-ball game. The boys have advanced a little beyond the basics--no more shouting "First base!! No, not second! First!"--and are still so darn cute! Some popsicles and Chick-fil-A after the game, then back home for baths and bedtime.
Tomorrow we'll be really busy...swimming. And maybe getting the boys' haircut. Maybe not. We might decide to take naps instead. Or climb some monkey bars. (I could really get used to this...)

No Autographs Please

You know how all these blogs are about how cool and smart and cute the boys are? ;) Well, you know they've got to get that from somewhere...and today, I think we could all argue, they get it from Sandy!
Make sure you pick up a copy of NATURE magazine today, because Sandy's got an article in it!!

It's pretty exciting that this article has made it "mainstream" especially since it's one of the last articles he worked on before he left the NSSTC where he did research.

The official title is "An infrared ring around the magnetar SGR 1900+14" but one of the online reports has a great title: "CSI: Milky Way team works scene of dead star"

Exciting, huh?

You can buy the magazine at just about any bookstore, and there are lots of articles about it online. Here are a few links.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/uoc-cmw052808.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080528132803.htm
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/29may_magnetar.htm
http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/the_mysterious_ring_of_a_soft_gamma_repeater_magnetar_sgr_1900_14

He's had a few other articles in NATURE, actually. The abstracts are online, and you might be able to find the full articles out there, too.

Stay tuned for the post about how the boys explain Daddy's article to me!

These funny boys, v 2

I think Connery says a new word almost every day, so our Connery- speak section is going to get longer and longer... Connery-speak:
dandy--candy
bike--(That one is VERY clear.)
NoMommy. NoDaddy.--He doesn't just say, No. He says, "NoMommy" very quickly.
Off me!--That one is clear, too.
My see--I want to see.
Oth, thih-thih, oth--Watch, Kieran, watch.
Doing?--What are you doing?
teeky--stinky

Kieran-speak:
shooey--sure
fimming--swimming
teddy....t-t-t---T! (He's constantly trying to figure out what words start with.
Know what Amy starts with? F! (I guess because it's pronounced "ehf" and he thinks "Amy" has the same sound.)
My teddy bear's name is "pimple. Is that a funny word?"

One night, Kieran didn't want to go to bed, so after Sandy went downstairs, he climbed into bed with me. I asked him if Daddy told him he could lay with me, and he whispered "When daddy gets in here I will get out of your bed." It turns out that Sandy he could, but it's funny that he felt so secretive about it.

We're out of school for the summer!! We're lucky that our preschool lets us have the summer off. It saves us a lot of money and really gives me quality time with the boys while I'm off. I think they'll miss their friends and teachers at school, though, so we may stop by every now and then just to say hi or read some books or something. We might stop by on a Thursday every now and then for show and tell. Otherwise, Kieran will miss a lot of the alphabet! And this week is his favorite: K!
The past couple of weeks he took (Mr.) Incredible for I day, and The Jungle Book book for J.

Kieran was wheezing a couple of weeks ago, so our pediatrician met us at his office and prescribed some medication he has to take through a nebulizer like Connery used to use. Kieran's has a cute Nemo-looking mask, though. He is remarkably cooperative about getting "his medicine" and will even hold the mask in front of his face while he reads or play with toys. It takes about 15 minutes, so the last 5 is usually tougher, because he gets restless. One day, I even tickled him to get him to breathe it all in hard, and he never took the mask off!

He says, "No, ma'am" and "No, sir," but usually only when he knows he's in trouble. And he often mixes them up, so Sandy gets the "Yes, ma'am" a lot.

One day, we spent the day at Butler, and that night he called me "Mrs. Patel" and laughed. I asked him who calls me that, and he said "your friends" meaning my students!

A few nights ago, Philip slept over, because Mike and Susan had to be in Birmingham early the next morning. We were excited, but just a little nervous...I had flashbacks of sleepovers that ended with a call home for Momma and Daddy to pick me up. But Philip did great. He got a little spooked by Gryphon early in the night, and cried that he wanted his mommy and daddy, but after about 20 minutes of cuddling and distracting, he let that go. Bathtime was a blast for the big boys, but Connery kept trying to climb in with them. He's used to bathing with Kieran and didn't probably thought he could figure out a way for all three of them to fit in the tub. Even bedtime went smoothly. Connery fell asleep in the rocking chair, Philip laid in Connery's bed and let me read a couple of books, and Kieran finished his medicine and lay on the Spiderman blow up bed. We want to have the next sleepover during a weekend, so we can stay up late and watch movies...

One morning Kieran looked over at a beautiful magnolia tree in our neighborhood, and shouted, "Mommy, look at those eggs!" I explained that those "eggs" were really blooms, or flowers on the tree, and he said, "But they're eggs. And some of the eggs just opened up by themselves."

Kieran noticed a sore on the back of Connery's back and wanted to put a band-aid on it. While he did, he explained to Connery that he needed a band-aid for his "sword."

Sandy and I set up a swingset in the backyard yesterday, and I thought Kieran was going to lose his mind waiting for us to finish! He kept asking, "Are you finished yet? Can I ride on this now?" Connery hasn't gotten to play on it, because it rained right after he got up from his nap and is raining today. But I know it will be a daily playspot this summer. I'm excited about all the adventures we'll have while we're out of school. But if Connery doesn't stop biting and hitting, HE may spend the whole summer in the corner! *sigh*