Pumpkin Autopsies

This past Saturday, we hosted the 4th Annual Pumpkin Autopsies with our small group. This was an exceptionally fun year for Ezra and Asher because they both understood more of what we were doing and wanted to be actively involved in every aspect of the carving - unlike last year where they were more interested in eating snacks and thrilled that we were having a party in the garage.

Vince told Ezra he needed to draw eyes on his pumpkin... so he started out with two minuscule dots for eyes.
Asher insisted on having a green pumpkin. Fortunately, we had a green pumpkin that Vince grew in the garden this year since the green pumpkin Asher had gotten at the pumpkin patch has since turned orange.

Obed's showing off his pumpkin here. Sure, it may look like an orange balloon to you... but when you're one, a pumpkin is a balloon is an orange is a basketball.

After Ezra understood he needed to draw more than dots for eyes for the purpose of successfully carving the squash, he did a great job of drawing a face on his pumpkin - although clearly his pumpkin face has a lazy eye.

Asher obviously has Vince's artistic drive. Not only did he insist on a green pumpkin, but he also insisted his pumpkin have 3 eyes.

The finished products.

The finished products... glowing.

Fun and Games

One thing I have yet to get used to in Nearly Canada are the wicked, windy days. Like today, for instance, we have a "high wind warning." I've lived in places that have had thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, winter storm warnings, ice warnings... but high wind? The wind gusts today are at 60 mph - which I heard on the news this morning is the equivalent of a tropical storm (minus the tropical, of course). All this to say, on days where there are high wind warnings, it is useless to play outside. The wind picks up sand and dirt and throws it in your eyes and face and it's just not fun being outside. So we find lots of creative things to do inside.

Yesterday, as I was in the kitchen, I heard the boys saying, "do another one daddy, do another one!" Then I heard Vince cackling and exclaiming, "oh! That was a close one!!" I came around the corner to find this...
Ezra and Asher are lying on the ground, mouths open like little birds. Vince is lying about 6 feet away from them, trying to roll strawberry Whoppers into their mouths. Now that's a good inside game!

I got down on the floor to take a picture of the activities and Obed thought it was time to play wrestle-mania... so he quickly hopped on my back and began pounding on me. He then proceeded to pull my hair by the handful. Then he showered me with drooly kisses. A good afternoon to stay inside out of the non-tropical, tropical storm.

Meal Time

Meal time in the Black house is a family affair as often as possible. We typically try to eat breakfast and dinner together, and then Vince joins us whenever he's working at home or on weekends for lunch. Dinner time is "mom's choice" - i.e. everyone eats what mom makes. At lunch, the boys get some choices of what they'd like to eat... do they want carrots or green peppers? Apples, grapes, or strawberries? Turkey or PB&J?

Today, Asher chose a "jow-wee and butter" sandwich (translation - peanut butter and jelly). His preferred method of consuming it is to open it up, lick off all the jelly, then lick off the peanut butter. Then finally, consider eating the bread after he's broken it into 3 million crumbly pieces.
Obed had his first sugar cookie this week. Not surprising, but he really enjoyed it. The great thing about babies is that they eat, but when they're full, they're done. They don't typically over eat - not matter how yummy the treat. He ate about 2/3 of his cookie, but then he was done and off to play.

Typically, when Vince brings his lunch to work, it consists of several snacky type items he can consume throughout the day... a bag of nuts, a banana, a box of raisins, a granola bar, etc. When he's at home for lunch, however, I think he likes to experiment with different combinations of foods. Vince loves hot and spicy things. He claims there is nothing that Cayenne pepper or jalapenos cannot improve. Today, his sandwich was cream cheese, tomatoes and jalapenos on wheat bread, which I had to insist was nasty - in spite of his insistence that it was delicious.

The boys got an extra special treat today - cheese Pringles. Vince ran errands with Ezra and Asher this morning and brought a can of Pringles home as a reward for their excellent behavior and patience with errands. Ezra was trying to be a duck... although he hasn't quite yet perfected the bill... but he's well on his way.

Hey Daddy - We Got New Boots!

Sometimes, as a parent, there are those golden moments where I think, "man, this is my moment to SHINE!" Today was one of those days. The boys are in need of some new shoes, so we went on the hunt for some. Currently, Asher is wearing a size 8 tennis shoes and Ezra is in a 9. After the lady at JC Penney's measured their feet, she informed me that Ezra would need a 10 1/2 - 11 and Asher would need a 9 1/2 - 10. Wow... I missed a size and a half. Well, really, a size and a half or two. That's parenting at its best! How in the world does that happen? Maybe I should look into the ancient practice of foot-binding, because apparently that's the approach I'm taking with my kids. Whoops.

Vince is out of town for a few days, so Grandma came up to visit and help out with the boys. Today Grandma bought the boys new Lightening McQueen rain boots - so as to break the curse of the bound feet of her grandsons. Asher walked around for several minutes saying that he needed to show daddy his new boots. Ezra asked if we could send daddy a picture of their new boots... great idea Ezra!

Here is attempt one at getting the boys to pose for a picture. Ezra is smiling a goofy smile. Asher is talking.
Attempt 2. Grandma thought the boys could pose with their boots up on the garbage truck to display their new kickers. This move, however, requires balance... which neither boy (especially one) has.

Attempt 3: The boys fall on the ground while trying to balance a foot on the garbage truck.
At this point, Ezra and Asher decided what daddy really needed was a close-up of the new boots. This seemed like a positive idea since it required no posed smiles, no balancing, and no standing still. Really, a win, win... win.

So here you go daddy... your up-close and personal view of the new McQueen boots.

Boys Nap Round 2.0

Vince has had a very busy few months, so his Sunday afternoon naps with Asher have not been as frequent since he's had to work late many afternoons after church. When Asher found out Vince was headed out of town this past week, he was quite sad to realize that once again, his daddy-Asher nap time would not happen on Sunday. Vince, always looking to serve his boys, acquiesced and agreed to the tedious task of taking the weekly Sunday afternoon daddy-Asher nap on Friday, before he jetted down south for the week. Asher thought it important that Curious George also join the boy's rest time.

Earning His Keep

Obed has decided now that he is one, he should start earning his keep in the Black house. So, in the last two days that we've had beautiful weather, Obed has worked very hard to make sure he is contributing to family chores. For instance, he decided that working in the garden was a good way to help out. He particularly liked moving dirt from the garden to the wagon... back to the garden... to the wagon... into his mouth... oh wait, he didn't like the part where he tried to taste the dirt. The boy loves to play in the dirt. I need to talk with him, however, and teach him that a more helpful chore would be learning to do his laundry after he plays in the dirt.
He also thought he'd help out around the yard. The rake was a little hard to maneuver for his untrained hands, so the toddler sized snow shovel was a good option. Although he didn't have much success with actually picking up any leaves, he greatly enjoyed sliding the snow shovel back and forth over the leaves, stopping to occasionally taste a leaf or the snow shovel handle - both of which, he decided, were not as tasty as say, applesauce.

Coach Grandma and Soccer Men

It was a beautiful day here in Nearly Canada. It was about 60 degrees and sunny - a great day to be outside and play soccer. Grandma Black is visiting for about a week, so the boys decided today that Grandma got to be the coach. I was designated as the "watcher" - the one who watches the boys play soccer and watches as Grandma coaches. At one point, I tried to jump in and kick the ball around with Ezra. I was quickly reprimanded by Ezra for a few reasons. First off, because "watchers do not play soccer." Secondly, because coach Grandma didn't tell me I could play.

As the designated watcher, I sat and did my job quite well - I watched the boys play and occasionally clapped and cheered (again, another job of the watcher). I decided to put on my sunglasses since the sun was quite bright. Ezra and Asher decided they too needed their sunglasses. Ezra chose his parade sunglasses. Asher wore his regular sunglasses... up-side-down, as always. Note as well that Ezra has on his shin guards - under his jeans. At one point, as he was sliding across the grass in his jeans, he exclaimed, "mom, I sure am glad I have my jeans on. That way my shin guards don't get dirty!" That's true son... because I'd much rather clean grass stains off of jeans than off shin guards that were made to be stained.

The Daily Happenings

Now that the weather has turned cool once again, we are spending much more time inside. It's funny how toys go through cycles. Trains were pretty much a thing of the past all summer... but now that the wicked windy weather is here and it makes 37 degrees feel like 21 degrees, our outside activities are limited. Every day, Ezra requests that we build a "sweet train set." A round track will not do... it must have multiple bridges, tunnels, exits and entrances... it's quite the architectural feat to accomplish such sweet tracks. It takes much practice and a good knowledge of train-Lego combinations.
Asher recently came down with a bug of sorts. He was happy and playing well all day, and then he hit a wall - pretty suddenly. He started crying, saying he was tired and cold and just lay down on the floor and cuddled with a stuffed animal. I took his temperature and it was 101. He wanted to wear a hat to warm himself up. The night he was sick, he licked the butter off his bread for dinner - and that's all he ate. If that doesn't scream nutrition, I really don't know what does!

Obed's also been having some tough days as of late. He's still trying to cut his molars, although on a positive note, he's finally cut his eye teeth, giving him a grand total of 6 teeth. It's quite impressive what a child can "chew" with his front 6 teeth. The most recent chewing feat was a crouton... although it took quite some time to crunch it down to a swallow-able size.

On top of teething, he's also got a cold, making him quite the grump. Most days, he's fine as long as I am holding him. If I have the gall, however, to set him down, he's quite distressed. He lets me know of his discontent by standing on his knees, arms up in the air, grunting for me to pick him up. If that doesn't work, he screams while doing the same move. Finally, when he sees his clear attempts at communication are being ignored, he crawls to my legs, pulls himself up to standing, and bangs on my legs all while screaming and banging his head against my thighs until I give in and pick him up. He didn't think it funny at all that I chose this moment to take a picture.

Lots of Socks

Twelve... this is the number of pairs of socks that Asher and Obed went through - in two days. Asher and Obed have developed a very different, but certain affection for socks. Obed's affection involves putting socks in his mouth and crawling around the house. Why? Well, why not I suppose. Asher will pull his sock basket down off its shelf and has yet to learn the discipline of putting it back up. Then, Obed will crawl into Asher's room, select socks from the basket, and crawl around the house with socks in his mouth.

Asher enjoys being barefoot about 98% of the time. He is almost always walking around sans socks or shoes. If he should decide, however, to wear a pair of socks, he has decided that it needs to be a clean pair - every time he decides he'd like to wear a pair of socks... for 27 seconds. He's done well in that when he's done wearing the socks, he goes to put them in the laundry basket, at which point it becomes difficult to discern which socks are really actually dirty, which are just stained and look dirty, and which are the ones he has worn for 27 seconds. Fortunately, socks are not a large laundry item... so washing them by the dozens is not a huge task.

Say It Ain't So!

I guess the forecasters were right... we awoke this morning to "pre-winter" in Nearly Canada. Although difficult to see in this picture, it's snowing rather large, wet flakes. You'll also notice the naked trees as well. Not a leaf left on the trees in our front yard. Old Man Winter is starting to stir.

On a positive note, should we get an early deep-freeze and the pipes in the house freeze, there is a port-a-potty across the street, so we'll not be without plumbing. See, there's always a silver lining.

Multipurpose

The boys continue to find many uses for their favorite play items. In addition to being football men, they have also enjoyed "kating" (skating in Asher terminology) in the living room this week. Their slippers are their skates (Asher's are classy, rubber lined, light up slippers - which really, is a bonus for him because the rubber keeps him from slipping), and their fire helmets are their hockey-men hats so when they fall, their heads don't get hurt (according to Ezra).
Asher said he was bowing down when he was doing this move. I interpret this one of two ways. He is either doing a pirouette of sorts as he is skating. Or, Vince has taught the boys when they go down a slide or do a cool jump, to put their hands up in the air, do a super-arch in their backs, and say, "ta daaa" when they're done (like the Olympic gymnasts do after a vault or some other performance).
You may think that the boys are still hockey-men in this photo, but they are, in fact, firemen. How can one tell? Well, there is the clear addition of the fire coats. They are no longer wearing their skates, but rather, Asher has on fire boots. Ezra has his fire-radio and Asher, who is the fire chief, is on the phone learning about a fire (clearly his conversation is concerning - which you can tell by the concentration on his face).

When the boys were done being firemen and hockey-men, Obed got in on the action. He was a hockey-skater-fire-slipper-eater man.

Football Men

Last week after small group, one of the guys from our group went downstairs to catch the end of the football game before he headed home. Vince went down with him, so of course, Ezra and Asher trailed too. After watching the football game, the boys have been all about football.... tackle football - not touch, flag or tickle - but tackle. Ezra knows that the football men wear helmets so their heads don't get hurt when they "crash into one another." Being a rule follower, Ezra figured they too needed helmets so their heads don't get hurt when they crash into one another. So this week, instead of soccer, the boys are playing tackle football in the back yard. Sure, their helmets may look rather bike-ish - but really, when protecting one's head, at least in the minds of my boys, a helmet is a helmet.
On a side note, Ezra was sure to tell me that they don't tackle each other near the dog poops. Thanks son, I'm glad to know that.

Ezra Jude, Ezra Jude, I Love You!

Ezra is almost 4 1/2 and has a fun and quirky personality. He brings us much laughter as he learns about life and living. Every day, he reminds me that when he turns 5, he gets to go to kindergarten. I think he's going to be disappointed on May 11th, when he realizes that kindergarten doesn't start the second he turns 5, but rather, in the Fall of his 5th year.

Ezra loves to play soccer. Last week Grandma sent a box full of goodies, including some shin guards - or as Ezra calls them - his shinder guards. He wears them almost constantly... you never know when there might be a pick up game of soccer, and it's always best to be prepared.

Last week I was giving Obed a bottle and I needed to attend to Asher's needs. Ezra loves to be a helper. He said, "I can help mommy." So I sat Obed down on Ezra's lap and he fed Obed his bottle while I helped Asher finish up his business.

Yesterday we were getting ready to head out the door for church, and Ezra was running behind. When he finally came out of his room, he said he was ready. We look around and he's got his tools in his "tool belt" - which rather than having a belt that holds tools, I guess he thought a tool belt was actually a belt made out of tools. Ezra thought there might be some work to do at church and so he thought his tools a necessary part of heading out the door.

New PJ's

Thanks Grandma for the new PJ's!

The Zoo

Forecasters are telling us that we are probably enjoying our last full week of beautiful weather. Sure, we'll have a few nice days here and there yet to come, but as far as a full week of 70 degree weather - probably not likely. I am quickly reminded of our first year here in Nearly, Canada. It was October 12 and we got over a foot of snow and lost power for 48 hours. Yikes! All this to say, we are taking every opportunity to soak up this amazing weather before it is gone for another 7 months!

Today, we headed to the zoo. For the size of town we live in, the zoo (or le zoo for you French readers) is remarkably nice. Obed has just recently realized there are actually animals at the zoo and is quite intrigued with them. He points at the animals and then grunts (which is his barking noise). Apparently all animals are some sort of dog.
For Ezra and Asher, the animals are really not the highlight of the zoo. Sure, they're nice to look at... but why waste your time with animals when there are things to do like stand on wrought iron fences?

One of their favorite zoo things to do is the "roundy thingy."
Another zoo highlight is that if there are enough quarters to be found, they each get to keep a quarter in their pocket and pick the "activity" on which they would like to use their quarter. Here, Ezra is being a very kind big brother and helping Asher fish his quarter out of his pocket in order to feed the goats.

Asher inherited my gift of concentration... the tongue falls out when really concentrating.
I think the boy's absolute favorite activity at the zoo, however, would have to be the cheap, plastic, falling-apart, moldy, Fisher Price barn (which makes so much sense). They like to play "driveway" at this nasty little barn. You know - a driveway is where you go when you want to order food at a restaurant but not go into eat. You go through the driveway. Obed is ordering a chocolate shake and paying with the acorn he found on the ground.

Ezra is the "taker" as he says... the one who takes the money. Asher is the "teller" - the one who tells the person at the driveway what he wants to eat.
Another favorite activity at the zoo is finding acorns. The boys like to fill their pockets with acorns and then throw them to all the animals. I guess they figure since squirrels eat acorns, why not giraffes, gibbons, alligators, pelicans - acorns are apparently the animal kingdom's new super food.

This was my attempt at getting a picture of all three boys at once - you know, to commemorate one of our last nice days until May. Here, all three are technically looking at the camera. Sure, Ezra is puckering and Asher looks like his eyes are closed - but really, he's smiling.

Attempt 2 - my personal favorite. Asher looks bored, Obed's watching Ezra and the hay he has pilfered from the baby animal barn. Ezra's batting Obed on the head with said hay.
Attempt 3 - 2/3 looking at the camera.

Attempt 4 - a total wash. Ezra thought he saw the peacock and was scared it might all of a sudden attack him. But in case you were worried - it wasn't the peacock after all - just a sparrow.