"La, La"

Most nights during our family bible time, Ezra, Asher and daddy sit on the couch. Obed sits on my lap in the rocking chair, mostly for the sake of quiet distraction. The last several nights, however, as Obed has been sitting on my "la" (his word for lap), he has looked up, pointed to Ezra and said, "la, la." He quickly hops down, scrambles up onto the couch, and plops right on Ezra's lap. Ezra has been a very patient big brother as he has held the not-so-wee child, weighing 2/3 of Ezra's own weight. Usually when Ezra's legs start to go numb, Obed's ready to crawl down.

Springtime provides lots of opportunity to be outside... all day. It also emphasizes why the boys need a bath every night. For example...

It's as though he's always done it...

Obed

As I shared about the "boof" in the yard the other day, Obed likes to do anything and everything his big brothers are doing. In recent days, for example, he has been playing "baby" and "trip" with the big boys. He's been packing his suitcase, full of his juice cup, books and other trip essentials. He also plays crash with the cars, as well as fireman, complete with screeching sirens and fire bells ringing.

A few days back, Ezra and Asher had been disobedient and were sitting on the couch, crying and waiting for the upcoming discussion. Obed, not exactly sure what was going on, looked at his brothers, both crying and in great distress, and figured he should probably become distressed as well. So, in order to sympathize with his two older brothers, he began to scream and cry, picked up the step stool, threw it, and then collapsed into a heap on the floor, weeping. In spite of our best efforts, Vince and I dissolved into hysterical laughter. Not our strongest discipline moment... but it was sure funny!

Swimming Crowns

Ezra finished his first round of swim lessons today. What a difference 5 weeks makes! His first day of lessons, he cried the whole time, did not want to try anything the teacher asked of him, kept running up to the window where we were watching him, crying and saying "I don't want to do this!"

Today, he jumped into the water without holding onto the teacher, he lays on his back to float, and he smiles the whole time he's in the water. We are so proud of him and the progress he's made!

As a special treat, we let Ezra pick out the restaurant of his choice after lessons today to celebrate a successful finish to his first round of lessons. He chose Burger King and wanted a cheese burger (little does he know, he actually got the cheese veggie burger... shhhh). All three boys got crowns. A fun end to a rough start.

Potty Talk

Although two very different boys, there are times I wonder if Ezra and Asher are two boys with one bladder. It seems that as soon as one boy has to go potty, the other boy has to go as well.

Vince is working on a few updates in our second bathroom, which means we are down to one bathroom for a few days. It seems that just about every time Asher says, "I have to go potty," Ezra has to go as well - right away or he will explode from the pressure of his bladder. So we make due with what we have - one toilet and a large backyard.

Obed is in the stage where he is fascinated with the potty. If the boys go potty, he wants to be there watching. If the boys go potty outside, he stands right next to them, holding his shirt up so as not to get pee-pee on it.

This morning, Asher was on the potty and, of course, Ezra had to go potty right away... it was an emergency! Asher was taking a bit long, so I sent Ezra outside lest his eyes start to float and turn yellow from the back-up. Obed followed him out to the back corner of the yard and pretended to go "boof" (his word for all things potty).
Clearly, he is much relieved after standing outside, holding up his pajamas and pretending to go pee-pee.

Workman

Vince went to Menards last weekend. Asher joined him on his trip, dressed as a "workman." He traveled to Menards in his work coat, wearing goggles, carrying his screwdriver and jigsaw... you can never be too prepared.

Our Mud Plot

We have a section in our backyard set aside for a garden. We are still having nights that are freezing, such as Friday night (it was 25 when we woke up Saturday morning), so we have not planted anything yet. Our "garden plot" is more of a mud plot at this point, which has provided hours of fun for the boys this spring.

Saturday, Vince and the boys dug a big hole in the garden. Why, one might ask? Well, what's more fun than to dig a hole and then stand in it?

The cold weather, combined with teeth coming in and recovering from a cold has made Obed a bit of snot-monster. Here, he has lovely snot combined with fantastic dirt.

Yesterday, Vince dug a river in the garden for the boys, filling it with water. They even built a wind farm with the pinwheels up on the dirt mountain, just north of the garden river.

There were all sorts of heavy machines working on the river. Here, Ezra is a front-end loader driver.

Shocking, I know... Obed fell into the river.

Birthday Boy

It's hard to believe, Ezra turned 5 today! My how time does fly... I never understood it when people would say how quickly time goes - but now I get it. Five years!
The morning started with balloons and presents.

Then we had chocolate waffles with whipped cream and fresh blackberries.

The birthday activity for the day? Bowling! The shoes were an amazing fluorescent yellow and orange.

Ezra had a great time! The ball weighed about 1/4 as much as he weighs, but he enjoyed it none the less. He started out with the ball on the ramp to roll it down the alley, but then decided he'd rather roll it by himself.

Obed spent his time enjoying rides on a chair with Grammy.

He also watched contentedly as we all bowled.

Asher enjoyed about 4 frames of bowling. - which is probably about average for a 3 year old... then he declared that he did not like bowling and was all done.

Our friends, the Carrolls joined us for Ezra's bowling extravaganza as well. Henry is launching his bowling ball.

Kate, ever the ballerina, even looks like she's ballerinaing whilst bowling.

By the 6th frame, I had 4 points... but ended with a whopping 39!

Every single kid beat me... bowling is clearly not an area of giftedness for me.

We then returned to the Black abode and enjoyed a beautiful evening outside with a menu of pulled pork, vegetables with dipping sauce, baked potato wedges, and cheery cheesecake bars for dessert.

Happy birthday Ezra! You are a joy and a blessing to us.

Big Boy Bed

First his big boy hair cut, and now the transition to a big boy bed. Obed seemed to tiny in his big boy bed last night and it took him quite some time (with much help with daddy) to fall to sleep... but he is growing so quickly.

Helpers

Vince was fixing the hose today... he had lots of "helpers."

Happenings

This is what happens when a 20 month old sneaks an army guy into his seat at lunch... the army guy goes head first into a yogurt cup.
We tried to cut Obed's hair last night... he has quite possibly the thinnest hair on the face of the planet. That being said, after his haircut was getting more and more 80's mullet meets a Gregorian Monk, we decided to buzz it.

Voila.... the finished product.

We had several rainy days last week, so we ended up having a picnic in the basement.

Ezra decided we could still enjoy outside on a rainy day by looking at pictures on the computer screen of us doing things outside. I've gotta hand it to him... the kid is creative!

Maybe it's that I've never had a dog that sleeps on his back, or I don't remember any of my dogs ever doing it... but it makes me laugh every time Warnie sleeps on his back.

I don't know if you can tell... but Asher's been drinking grape juice.