Sweet Brothers

Cal and Andy really are best friends. No one can make the other one laugh quite like they can.  They play together, they laugh together, and ohhhhhh BUDDY, they FIGHT together.  It's what siblings do, I know.  A friend came over the other day and was shocked at how rough these boys are together.  Actually, I think she might have been appalled.  Andy grabbed two handfuls of Cal's hair while trying to bite him and Cal shoved Andy down as hard as he could-- right into the corner of the banister...
So most days I feel like a referee.  I am breaking up one fight after the other; kissing booboos and coaching apologies (maybe I should rename this blog....??).

But then, one afternoon, after dinner, we went for a wagon ride, at the boys' request.  I heard Cal giggling as I walked along and finally turned around to see what was so funny.  And this is what I saw...

I swear to you, I had no part in this.  I was honestly, blown away by the sweetness.  Cal was looking the other way and had both arms around his brother, who was resting his head on his big brother's belly while happily sucking his fingers and holding a car.  Is this not the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

I love Cal's hands rubbing Andy's back and his head and how he pulls Andy's fingers out of his mouth so he can answer me...

At the end of the video, you can see Andy get up.  I thought he was just over the snuggle time and was ready to bolt, but he actually turned himself around to sit down in Cal's lap.  And Cal let him! And Cal wrapped his arms around his waist for the remainder of the ride!

That night at bath time, they were wild and messy (and filthy!), but they were such....brothers.  They were cracking each other up and talking in a language that only they could understand. It made my heart so happy to see these two being best friends. 

These two are going to fight a LOT more, of course, but I also know they will just get closer and closer as they grow up. And that makes me sooooooooooo happy.  I am a lucky momma, that is for sure!




 

One more car video

Just because y'all seemed to enjoy the last video so much....here is one more of my sweet nugget having a blast in the car.  Bless his heart.  Thank God he is so dang cute. 

 

quick beach trip

Despite what i wrote in my last post, I decided to be brave and take the boys to the beach-- by myself-- for the weekend.  I mean, I wasn't by myself when I got down there....my mom and dad were there and my brother and his kids were there.  I was just by myself in the car.  Which, seriously, shouldn't be a big deal.  It really shouldn't.  I have friends who do loooong road trips with their kids solo ALL the time.  But when you have a kid like Andy who just loves being in the car, it makes it challenging!

We had a soccer game on Saturday, which was going to be canceled due to Friday's rains (which were looming), and Eddie had golf plans on Sunday, so it would be just me and the boys on Sunday.  The pollen here has been just awful so our time outside is rather limited... so, I decided very last minute to just hit the road.  I threw a few things in bags and loaded up the kids and left....with tornado warnings directly behind me.  My parents have moved into the new house down there and I was itching to see it!

For the first hour of the drive, Andy did not scream once.  This was nothing short of a miracle.  I was kind of stunned, actually. 

The 3 hr, 15 min drive took just over 4 hours. We had to stop for dinner (some nutritious Happy Meals!) and then Cal said he had to peepee (thank GOD for little boys! We pulled over in a gas station and he peed in some grass so I didn't have to lug everyone in the place!).  About 45 minutes before we got to the beach, I was smacked in the head with a hamburger-- it felt great.

We arrived right about 7:00 and the kids were sooooo happy to be there with their cousins! Andy and Cal had some serious energy to burn when I let them out of the car! My dad, who called me while I was on the road and heard Andy in the background "talking", met me at my car with a big ol' glass of wine.  Daddy's know.  

We took the kids down in the basement and they rode on some toys-- just burning energy!

After the kids went down, Chris and I took the golf cart out exploring.  We had the best time together this weekend.  We never just get to hang out together and we had a ton of fun being stupid and immature while we were down. 

Golf carting...

We woke up early Saturday morning and the weather was less than desirable-- it was chilly and raining, but honestly, no one cared! Jackson and Cal did some major puddle jumping and the boys rode the plasma cars down the driveway a million times.  

Miss Catherine and RooRoo...

After the puddle jumping, everyone was wet and cold so we did a bath and got everyone in dry clothes.  The decided to get in this chest to play- ha!

Then we attempted rest time.  Jackson and Cal will eventually share a room, but for now, they are sleeping in separate rooms.  I gave Cal the iPad to help him rest.  I came up the stairs to check on him and this is what I saw.... Jackson snuck in to play on the iPad with him...

Andy took a good nap and when he woke up, everyone was enjoying a little ice cream.  Grandpa helped him...

Then we were back outside and we took the kids for a golf cart ride... Catherine and I wore our TCU together...

Me and Chris looking at the beach...

Chris and the kids, all ready to go!

We did some serious playing outside when we got back.  Chris and I raced each other down the main driveway while the kids sat on the wall observing.  Chris hooked up his computer to a speaker so we had music playing for us...

Andy and I rode the helicopter car together too-- he was in heaven with his curly hair...

Sunday we woke up to the bright sunshine! The sun was shining, but the wind was BLOWING! And it was cooooold wind! We didn't care though! We had a blast playing outside! Mom brought out a bunch of beach toys and we dug around on the driveway in the sand.  Cal built quite the castle...

Andy was showing grandpa a few things on the iPad and the other kids all gathered around to see... I love how Andy's and my dad's arms are both up.... 

It was SUCH a fun weekend at the beach and it got me so excited for this summer down there.  My mom rode home with me and helped with the boys a ton.  It didn't take as long going, thankfully...

 

ANDY: the terrible twos.

Andy turns two next month (sob, sob...), and with that age comes the terrible twos.  Both of my boys entered the "terrible twos" before they turned two.  My only hope it that Andy will pass through this phase as quickly as Cal did.

When Andy is happy, he is sooooo happy.  He is funny and laughs and is just awesome to be around! 

But, Mr. Andy has a mind of his own, and when he is mad, he is MAD.  And let me tell you, this little guy is STRONG.  Getting him into a carseat when he doesn't want to be in a carseat is close to impossible.  Literally, it is incredibly challenging to strap him in.  I have mastered the karate chop to the belly to make him bend so I can snap him in  It's not pretty.  But it is effective....for now.  

Speaking of cars....we have some serious (SERIOUS) issues in the car.  It doesn't matter if we are going 30 seconds up the road to the gym or 300 miles up the road to the beach-- Andy is screaming bloody murder the ENTIRE time.  I think (and hope and pray) that this will be resolved when he learns more words and can tell me what he wants.  Often, he doesn't know what he wants, he just wants to scream (and throw stuff).  Or, he wants something that he threw on the floor that is now out of my reach.

It makes it VERY hard to run errands or to do anything, really.  I thought maybe he didn't like his carseat, so I switched him over to Cal's.  That wasn't it.  He won't watch the DVD player and literally nothing makes him happy in the car.  It is a challenge, that is for sure.

The car is where we see the terrible two fits the most.  It is very VERY hard to stay calm when driving down the road in traffic with Andy screaming.  He actually goes through phases of fits in the car: phase one-- screaming (it's not crying-- it is flat out screaming), phase two-- screaming and hitting himself (he usually removes shoes/socks here and throws them {usually at me} and hits himself with his feet), and phase three-- screaming, hitting himself, and spitting.  Annnnnd, then we arrive at our destination-- me a flustered hot mess, Andy, covered in spit, shoeless and beet red from the tantrum he just threw.  

I always feel like people don't believe me when I tell them this, so here is a video of him, mid-fit.  If you are at work, you aren't going to want to have the volume on....

 Andy is still obsessed with his lovie, Lala.  I try to get him to leave Lala in the crib, but some mornings, there's just no prying that thing from his hand.  A friend of mine saw his lala at the gym (with him, of course) and she commented that it was the most pathetic looking thing she's ever seen.  We've tried to replace it and can't find a match! CB found one close to it and I tried to sell it as Lala, but he just laughs (with his fat little hand over this mouth) and says, "no, momma.  'snot lala!" hahaha He is a mess.

He also is still sucking his fingers.  I might have to do a whole different post on the finger sucking... not sure when we try to break that.  We tell him every time we see him doing it to take his fingers out, and he always does-- but they just wind up back in there a few minutes later.  I will ask his pediatrician at his 2 year check up her thoughts.... if y'all know of any ways to break him of this, let me know.  But part of me wants him to keep on sucking them....at least when he's in the car!

This little sweet potato has it out for his momma.... he doesn't fuss in other cars-- just mine when I am driving.... but good gracious, he is so dang sweet...so what if he wants to scream in the car?? I could eat this kid up with a spoon.

me=smitten.

(however, the terrible twos are welcome to leave at any point now...)


 

A busy Saturday

Eddie left for the Masters Thursday morning, so I had a few full days of flying solo with these two wild things. 

We had a very busy day on Saturday!

It started with some early snuggling on the couch...

t.r.o.u.b.l.e

And then I did some vacuuming while these two pretended I was chasing them with the vacuum...

Then we headed out to Cal's soccer game...

 (only got one picture of the game because Andy wasn't having a great time watching Cal run around, and once he saw me take a picture with my phone, he wanted to play with it immediately.  When the game was over and I had to repossess my phone, a pretty significant meltdown occurred.  Like, mega-meltdown. And of course, we had to park way far away and had to walk past six different fields--holding a thrashing kid in arms--to get back to our car. I was SPENT when we got everyone buckled in)

After nap time, we had Ava's birthday party! We all know how much Cal loves Ava, but it became apparent that Andy loves Ava's little sister, Abigail!

Cal got some good birthday hugs in before we had to leave early...

 I had one of our babysitters meet us at the house at 6 to keep Andy so Cal and I could head out on a date!

Our *other* babysitter, Kate, was having her senior violin recital and invited us to come.  I knew immediately that Andy wouldn't be able to handle sitting still that long, but I had a feeling Cal would, so we left Andy with a sitter and headed out.  He got to wear his favorite Superman belt and he was thrilled! (and, I should say, the babysitter who stayed with Andy took him outside and on a wagon ride so he was having WAY more fun than he would have with us!)

Cal had been pretty awful all day Saturday.  He is normally soooo well behaved and well-mannered and something about him was just...off.  He was talking back, arguing with me--about EVERYTHING, and just being difficult! Everything I said, he would respond with "why not??" For example:
me: we are about to turn here and then we will be home!
cal: why not?
another example:
me: be careful in the garage because it is slippery
cal: but why not?

you get the point-- every little thing was a debate or an argument.  And a few times I asked him to do something and he responded with "no way, Jose!!" ummmm.....seriously???

He was on my "list" around nap time.  I had to walk away and count to 10 (many different times)...phew!

SO, I was worried about taking him to this recital, and on the way there, I was thinking over and over again that I was going to regret it.

However, Cal sat on my lap, perfectly still for all 45 minutes of violin music.  Kate was absolutely stunning and she did such a fabulous job.  She is truly talented.  I saw her play way back in 6th grade when I taught her and I knew she was good then, but we were really blown away last night.

After she was done, I had several (SEVERAL) people come up to me to compliment me on how well behaved Cal was.  No one could believe a 3 year old could sit that still for that long.  Kate came right over to Cal and gave him a huge hug and we gave her a bouquet of flowers. 

We got a few pictures with our favorite girl... Cal was so happy...

There were about 50 people there and they were all watching him pose with Kate... haha

After we left the recital, I thought we should continue our date night with some frozen yogurt! Cal thought this was just the greatest thing ever.... froyo with just mommy! He chowed down on some chocolate with oreos and sprinkles.  

We were home by 8:30 and he went to bed immediately.  All of the excitement of the day wore him out!

It was a really fun and busy day and I am so thankful the weather was as nice as it was.  Now if this pollen can just all blow away.....

ahhhhh-choooo!

 

Field Trip!

 This morning, I had the pleasure of going with Cal's class on a field trip to Spences Farm!
I wasn't going to get to go.  Siblings were not allowed to join us on the trip and Thursdays Andy doesn't have school.  My mom couldn't keep him and Eddie was heading out of town for the Masters.  All of my babysitters are in high school (I know-- people think I am crazy about that one...but we LOVE them...). ANYWAY, I told his teachers that I would try to make it work, but I didn't think it would.  Then it dawned on me that Andy's school offers "drop in days" for days that you just really need your kid to go to school.  I haven't ever used these days before and after today, I am going to start using them ALL the time! It was awesome! He has his current teacher and it is only $18 for 3.5 hours! It is fabulous!
Eddie took Andy to school and I went with Cal.  He was just beside himself knowing that I was getting to go.  I told him on Tuesday night that I wasn't going to be able to go and he broke down crying saying he didn't want to go without me...so so SO glad I went today!

The owner of the farm came out to talk to the two classes all about farm life.  This farm had chickens and horses.  The man was sweet as can be, but he was VERY long-winded and talked to these kids like they were high schoolers.  I think he forgot who his audience was! He was asking the kids questions that the adults all had no idea the answer!

After listening to him talk (and talk and talk and talk...! ha!), he walked the kids over to the garden where they basically did some weeding for him. 

They carried around big buckets and filled them with the weeds they pulled.  Kids love playing in dirt and digging, so they were all thrilled! 

After filling up their buckets, the kids headed over to the chicken area...and the chickens were ready for them! They were literally lined up at the gate waiting for the kids to bring them some food.

Cal was super apprehensive about the chickens-- they were fearless and would walk right up to you.  The man also was trying to tell them that the chickens PECK at your hand when you are feeding them, but in his long winded-ness, Cal heard him say "oh no, they are biting my hand!' (when he was really saying that he had a kid once think that, but the chicken was actually pecking....) so Cal was convinced the chickens were going to eat him.

The man told the kids they could dump their buckets full of weeds for the chickens and they all did immediately! He then brought out some corn for the kids to hand-feed the chickens.  Cal loved to feed them, but he was pretty scared of them, so he had me hold the corn in my hand and they pecked out of my hand.  Cal did it once and it scared him, so from then on, he held his hand right under mine and we fed them together. 

The kids walked into the hen house to see if there were any eggs ready for collecting.  And wouldn't you know it...

CalBoy came out holding an egg!

After leaving the chicken area, we headed down to the barn to see the horses.  The man gave the kids a LOOOONNNNGGGG talk about acknowledgement and communication and on and on and on and on.... the poor kids were over listening! They wanted to see the horses!

Cal was VERY unsure of the horses when we first walked into the barn.  The staff was SUPER laid back about them.  They encouraged the kids to walk into the stalls, walk around the horses, brush them, etc.  That made ME nervous! I've always heard even the tamest of horses could kick out of nowhere! Cal was very clingy to me at this point.  We walked up to a few horses and rubbed their noses and then Cal saw some of his classmates brushing the horses.  He decided he wanted to try too...

He stunned me when he went and grabbed a helmet to ride a horse.  I thought there was NO way we would be getting our timid little guy on a horse today.   But he put that helmet on and said, "I'm ready to ride!"

And sure enough....after waiting his turn, he climbed right on up there and rode a horse! I literally was stunned.  His teachers were stunned too.  He isn't a scared-y cat kid, but he is very apprehensive about a lot of things.  Well, not today, I guess...

He had each kid get on the horse and put their arms out to the side to test their balance.  Cal was none-too-thrilled with this exercise, but he still did it and was SO SO proud once he did! Ava was cheering for him and he was just so excited and happy up there! His horse's name was TONKA... which I thought was fitting because we love a good Tonka Truck!

Again, this place is SO SO SO laid back with their horses.  They handed me a rope to walk the horse around the ring.  I am a dog girl.  Not so much a horse girl.  This thing was really leading me around the ring.  I think he knew he had an amateur on his hands- ha! I tried to take pictures while walking this thing.  Cal was ALL smiles and was just laughing away up there.

At the end of the loop, Cal said "mommy that was just great! Can we do it again, please?!" hahaha Maybe I need to get this kid some riding lessons!

After riding horses, we had to grab a quick picture of Cal and Ava...

 

 

 We left the farm and headed to pick Andy up at 12:30. His teacher said he had the BEST day and was in the best mood the entire time.  She said he was a different kid there today from his normal day there.  I am not sure what the difference was really, but she said she had so much fun with him.  He was grinning ear to ear when I picked him up and his blonde curly hair was even wilder than normal. 

The whole crew had a wonderful day and I am beyond thankful that I got to be there to see Cal ride a horse for the first time!