Feeling better

I guess Luke's head is feeling better since he's been entertaining us with his summersaults.
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Please pray for our friends Anna and Doug who are having baby #4 tomorrow. It's fun to have a new friend on the way. And, to quote Melanie Hamilton Wilkes from Gone With The Wind: "The happiest days are when babies come!"
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"Clown Hat"
Construction paper, water-based marker and packing material

Bunk Beds

The boys’ new “bunk bed”. Luke is on top. Can you just imagine how we would have a fall that resulted in such a wound?

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Since Luke has to get a modified bath, we get him in and out before the other boys get in to avoid splashes and getting his wound wet. We got him all dressed and sent Joe to the tub. While I was getting Patrick ready, I came back to see this:
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Luke is sitting where I do to give baths and he was instructing Joe on what he was going to clean next, just like I do. What a cute little imitation.

In other news, I had some take-and-break cookie dough in the fridge. I only made half of it and put the paper tray back in the fridge in a ziplock bag. Scott and I didn't sleep well the night before last and yesterday morning I heard Joe get up extra early. We just pretended to still be asleep so he wouldn't bother us. He usually just goes potty then back to bed anyway, but he must have made a special stop at the fridge. That morning, he wasn't hungry for breakfast, which was very curious to me. When I finally did go into his room (around 8), I saw the empty cookie dough tray and plastic bag. He had eaten TWELVE hunks of cookie dough! And, at 6 in the morning! I was SO grossed out. I kept waiting for him to get sick (I didn't let him sit on our bed all day so I wouldn't have to dry clean our down comforter!) but he never did. That was easily more sugar than he eats in a week!

Another way to tell them apart

Patrick and Luke were taking a very long time getting to sleep recently. Then I remembered a recommendation from a sleep book that bedrooms should be for sleep only and have no toys or other distractions. Great! I loaded up a bin full of toys and dumped them in the basement. The twins are considerably more bored than before so that makes them a little more creative and adventurous. Consequently, they started rocking the changing table so it hits the wall and jumping on their beds when they are alone in their room. We don’t know which of these activities was the culprit on Saturday, but we entered the room with Luke screaming and blood all over. He had split his forehead. The cut was only about an inch long, but it was starting to get pretty wide.

It’s tough to gage whether something needs stitches or not, but I just kind of thought it did. Plus, it was right in the middle of his forehead so the scar would be visible for the rest of his life. Instead of stitches, the doctor used “Dermabond”, which is basically superglue for skin. I was very proud of Luke. He winced a little when they were cleaning out the wound, but he did great when they were applying the Dermabond. Overall, he was a wonderful little boy the whole time we were at the doctors office.

Early the next morning, we found the dermabond film stuck to a tab of his diaper. I called around to see if they could fix it still (there’s only a limited amount of time for wounds to be able to be sealed) We got a definite “maybe” and had to head back in. It was tough to really make that decision since the roads were completely ice covered and there was a lot of flooding in the streets. I actually saw a huge SUV teetering on top of a snow bank about two feet from plummeting down a steep hill into the Milwaukee river. I hope that guy was on his way to church.

In the end, Luke ended up with Steri strips (that he’s already taken off). I guess the scar is here to stay and bigger than we want, but that’s life with a two-year-old. It feels weird as a parent to realize that your child now has a permanent scar on their body. With this one, Luke will have to look at it every day (once he’s old enough to look in a mirror)

Fwimming!

We’ve spent four Saturdays in a row going “fwimming” at our YMCA. I finally took some shots. Patrick especially loves the turtle slide. He’s kind of our wild man when it comes to trying new things. He even tried going down on his tummy and taking toys down with him (both of which are no-no’s)

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Who could resist this adorable little boy!

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Joe loves the slide, too.
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Luke enjoys the toys they keep by the side of the pool.

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Daddy and Patrick take a turn in the big pool to practice kicking and blowing bubbles. The boys love to "swim" with Daddy as he walks them around the pool.
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Joe’s favorite is the fish kickboard and standing under the big mushroom with Daddy. I didn’t get a shot of that, though.

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Our Mary statue in the back yard had disappeared in the snow. We are now at the 12th snowiest winter in Milwaukee history. We’re still 39 inches from the record (109 inches!!), but we’re only to mid-February – lots of snowy days to come.
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Someday when I’m old and gray and living in Florida with a full-head-of-hair Scott, we will be so far away from remembering the craziness of this winter, but not yet. Lately, I’ve watched earth movers moving snow from medians in the road so cars could see on-coming traffic when they turn. I have no idea where they put it. The snow mounds in store parking lots are at least a story high in some places. There are so many fewer parking spots due to shabby plowing or even good plowing without a destination for the snow. We saw the city using big loading trucks to haul snow off of a bridge in downtown.
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Today, we were expecting 6-13 inches of snow, but as luck would have it, it ended up being rain! Imagine our surprise, since it’s been weeks since the temperature has been above freezing here. Well, all of the rain caused many streets to flood. They were actually using back hoes to get the snow out of the way of the street drains. In some places, they were slopping the snow back onto the streets just to get things flowing better. What a mess. Scott had to dig out our sump pump spout which was buried under at least 2 feet of heavy slushy snow. My hero.

Indoor Fun take 2

I thought I was getting in a shower at an opportune time the other morning only to discover that the boys had climbed up on chairs and gotten into the (thankfully!!) washable markers I had put on the top shelf. Besides making a coloring page for Daddy, they colored themselves for Mommy to enjoy.

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Since it's been so snowy and cold here, we've been working on having a lot more indoor fun to keep ourselves from going nuts:

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One morning, we made a fort and the boys watched a movie inside. They thought it was pretty cool, for 20 minutes or so.

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They have also been having a great time with one of our many plastic bins. One boy hides under it (or walks with it on his head as in the picture here) while the other one “seeks.” It’s not much of a mystery where his brother could be hiding, but they love pulling off the bin to discover each other.

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This doesn’t have much to do with indoor fun, but it’s it such a cute shot of Patrick sharing mommy’s water with Luke. Something about straws that really gets kids excited to drink even the most boring things.

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Finally, we have all been loving the Y. We’re there at least 4 days a week for classes – art, “Sports for Little Ones”, swim lessons and “Wiggles and Giggles” that everyone goes to. Here is a shot of one of Joe’s first art projects from class.

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“Reindeer”

Water color, permanent marker, wooden sticks and construction paper

10 years ago today...

Ten years ago today, I was sitting at the Grotto at the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes with two school friends. Today marks the 150th anniversary of the 1st apparition to little St. Bernadette at that Grotto. I had heard that Lourdes was very touristy and not very prayerful, but since we were there in February, there were no crowds. Although it was cold, we could still enjoy the beauty of the little town and the enormous basilica. We also got to pray at the grotto and light one of the giant candles late one night. It was beautiful.

FYI - the Grotto at Notre Dame is supposed to be a 1/7 scale replica of the one at Lourdes. Click on the headline to see the webcam at the Lourdes grotto (there's also one at ND, but that's another story.)

Digging out

I feel like our house is in a Salvador Dalí painting.

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The night after the big storm, the snow slid off of our roof but continued to hold on. The picture below is from directly under our eaves in the front by the bay window. The snow pushed out parallel to the ground! It defied gravity! Only a day or so later did it begin to sag (see above picture.) If we could have only gotten the picture from underneath the huge sag over the left side of the house… But, seriously, folks, I was hanging on to the front door frame, leaning out as far as I could and praying I didn't slip into the copious amounts of snow just outside of the door. If it weren’t for the eaves, we wouldn't have been able to open the front door.

Apparently, the solution up here is to "rake" your roof to protect your gutters. Sounds like a good weekend project for Scott. I have some hot chocolate to drink. These pictures are making me cold.

Since Scott couldn't get out to go to work that day (they ended up closing the office anyway like every other business in town), he divided his time between work projects and snow-blowing and shoveling. Joe called it "Snow Mowing" which seemed pretty accurate for a little kid. I think Scott got a great workout that day since he had to do the driveway about 4 times. Of course, we couldn't even make it out for Ash Wednesday. All the churches closest to us were closed anyway. How often does that happen?

My Brother's Keeper

Last night, we put the boys to bed as usual. Luke has lately been protesting bedtime a lot – crying and whining and trying to turn on the light. This time, when we turned off the light and shut the door, we got the same reaction, but a few minutes later, we got something different. Luke was screaming and banging on the door. He was very upset. Scott went in to investigate and found that Patrick had gotten his head stuck under his bed. Luke was just alerting us to the scary situation. We were both very proud of him.

They interact so much now, and it’s precious to watch. I observed a spontaneous brotherly hug in the play structure at the Y yesterday. I also overheard an “I yuv you, Pa-srick” and “I yuv you, Yoo-key.” Truly heartwarming.

Finally, there’s a little Wiggles skit with Captain Feathersword where the Captain exclaims, “Well, blow me down!” His crew blows air in his direction, and he falls down. The boys think this is SO funny. This morning, I witnessed a good 15 minutes of non-stop non-sense. One twin requested “well, blow me down!” while the other obliged and the first fell to the ground with giggly delight only to hop up when the other one made the request and the cycle repeated.

Crash

For your viewing pleasure. We actually have never been successful at uploading video, so we're not expecting much. Hope this works!

Okay, I just checked it and it's awfully dark. I don't think I can fix that. Joe was racing from the end of the hallway to the living room where we were. (In case you couldn't tell what was going on!)

Birthday Bash

Yesterday was my birthday. Officially, it’s the second anniversary of my 29th birthday, but who’s counting. Yes, I made my own cake. Because of their allergies, I have to find dairy-free cake mixes and frostings. This is easier than it sounds, since many of the off brands have certain flavors with no dairy. It’s just a matter of reading the labels. The hard part is trying to make those products taste good. (are they bad because they’re the cheap ones or because they don’t have dairy when they probably should? Points to ponder…) The kids don’t care either way – they’re getting cake! My available combo this time was yellow cake mix with “white” flavored icing. I added some Kool-Aid mix for the color and flavor, but it was still sub-par. You couldn’t tell that to the kids, though:

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Patrick: I can’t get it in fast enough
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Joe: Cake is my FAVORITE food
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Joe wondered if I was having a party with some of our (read: his) friends over to celebrate with us. I told him that it would just be our family. We went on to discuss the difference between immediate and extended family. Later that day when Scott had him sign my card, he asked Joe what he should put in the card. Joe replied, “I love you! I hope you’re family!”
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Luke: Finger-licking good
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While I was downloading these pictures last night, I thought this one was awfully fishy. Had Scott gotten Joe to take this picture just to “remind” me of how nice it was that he did the dishes? He says, no, but I still wonder… It was wonderful to have dinner made for me and the kitchen cleaned for me – at least for one night.

So, in other disgusting and totally inappropriate news, one kid gave me a lovely birthday gift when he pooped in the tub. The worst part was that neither of us were paying attention to the water. The kids can get out of the tub on their own and come to us when we’re waiting in the other room with their towels and jammies. We didn’t notice the little treat until everyone was dried off and dressed for bed. Of course, we were totally grossed out and all of the towels and jammies went immediately into the wash. After the tub and toys got a quick coloroxing (what a marvelous product, by the way…) the kids got a second bath with much protesting. Yuck and double yuck! We’re pretty sure that Luke was the culprit, which puts the boys at one tub poo a piece.