Heading home & the other side of the family

On Sunday morning, we began the LOOOOOOOONG drive home. We headed to Scott's brother Brian's house in Mississippi and spent Sunday night there. It's about 3 hours away from my parents'. The boys got to see Maw-Maw Lin & Paw-Paw Bip (Scott's parents) and their cousins & run around "in the country" all afternoon. They had more pool time & Kristy's (my sister-in-law) dad took them driving on a "mule", which is like a small truck for working on the farm. William got to actually sit on Paw-Paw Doug's (Kristy's daddy) lap & drive it. We went down to one of Mr. Doug's friend's farms & the boys got to feed some donkeys and geese and then they got to see the new baby cows eat. Of course, my camera was buried in the van, so bad mommy didn't get any pics of this mini-visit either. Kristy took a few pics of William driving the mule, so I'll post them if I can get more copies. I managed to forget mine right on her counter since we practically ran out of their house at 6AM so my boys wouldn't wake up the whole house. They were so excited to get home & see Daddy that they were up by 4:45. The rest of the drive home was never-ending for all of us, but we made it, thanks to lots of caffeine & two very long naps! I've sworn off driving more than 4-5 hours by myself with 2 kids for at least a year :-)

Pool Days

It got up into the 80's while we were here, so the boys were excited to play in Nana's blow-up pool. Oh, the splashin' that went on!

pool days

William's first fish!

William's first fish

Grandpa Sam is a big fisherman & one of the things William looks forward to when we head home to Louisiana is going fishing with Grandpa Sam. First, they catch their own worms in the backyard. Then, they head to one of the ponds around town for a little fishing time. This time, William managed to catch not one, but two fish. They were very little & had to be thrown back, but he was pretty excited. He even threw them back himself. Check out the pic of him reeling it in! **Be sure to click on the pic**

Zoo Trip

Zoo of Acadiana

Today, we went to the Zoo of Acadiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. It's privately owned & pretty impressive. The boys got to see a panther, leopards, way more bird varieties than I've ever seen in one zoo, a wallabee (which is a small kangaroo)--and they have a baby kangaroo which isn't on exhibit yet, zebras, alligators of course, & LOTS more animals. We took a train ride & got to see the zebras running wild with antelopes & two very silly monkeys who were quite good at catching grapes. Our train conductor stopped the train & threw the monkeys some grapes, which they very nonchalantly caught & popped in their mouths. The boys (and the grown-ups!) thought this was pretty funny. If you look very closely at the picture of the tree, you can see one of the furry monkeys hanging by his tail. **Be sure to click the pic**

Grandpa Sam & Daniel

For those of you who've never met Grandpa Sam, he has a huge, fluffy moustache. When I was teeny, a favorite game was "neck", where he would tickle our necks with it. The game has been passed onto my kids & it's a favorite with him & Daniel. Aren't these sweet????

Visiting relatives

On Monday, we took off for Baton Rouge to see Aunt Catherine & my Aunt Sarah. We did a little shopping & then headed to Aunt Sarah's for the evening. The boys ran themselves ragged playing with Biscuit & Snickers (Aunt Sarah's dogs) while we ran ourselves ragged trying to keep them out of the swimming pool. We got to see Uncle Jim & both of Aunt Sarah's boys. Ben was nice enough to avert a catastrophe & get William & Daniel some "Skinnles" (see Easter morning post for further explanation) since Mommy & Nana forgot to bring the massive amount of candy that the Easter bunny dropped off!

In the morning, we headed to Mama Sue's for the day. The boys were very well-behaved at her house & Daniel took to her right away. He kept bringing her stuff to show her. Although, I think the highlight of the day was Aunt Sarah teaching Daniel to say "YUUUUUCK!" William still likes to ask Daniel what Aunt Sarah says & they both dissolve into giggles & shout it out.

We ended up at Aunt Laura's for the night, where the boys again ran themselves ragged chasing Zoe (Aunt Laura's dog) & we ran ourselves ragged trying to keep them out of the swimming pool. (Sound familiar?)

On Wednesday, we headed back to Nana's. I was a bad Mommy & didn't pull my camera out on this entire mini-trip, apparently, so no photos, but it was still lots of fun.

Happy Easter!

Here are the kiddos on Easter morning. Too much candy--"Skinnles" (aka Skittles) for William & "beans" (of the jelly variety) for Daniel. Wish you could see how cute they looked in their Easter clothes, but they were done with behaving by this time! Be sure to click the picture for more.

Easter morning 2008

William's antics

So, William's favorite new game is "elevator". He finds a closet (any one will do, trust me!) & proceeds to push the "button" on the wall, wait a minute for it to "ding", climb inside & close the door..... Well, you get the idea. Here are a couple of snaps of him in one of the storage closets in Mom's house. He even got Uncle David (aka "Uncle Knucklehead") to join him in there. Wish I'da gotten a picture of all 6+ feet of HIM squeezed in there!

He also developed a game that is exclusive to Mom's house. He loved to shake the string mop she'd hung up to dry, call it a car wash, & pronounce himself "washed". YUUUUCK!, as Aunt Sarah would say ;-)

Lotsa fun!

general LA pics

Here are just some pics of the boys running around my parents' house. Mom & Dad have a huge yard & the boys had a blast burning off some energy chasing the dog, the cat, & whatever else crossed their path. Daddy's riding lawnmower gave them some entertainment, too! They had popsicles almost every day & you can see from the pics that they were totally engrossed. I couldn't even get them to look my way. Be sure to click on the picture of William to see the rest of them.

Good Friday

Happy Good Friday! We made it to Louisiana all in one piece. The boys did wonderfully for the first 8 hours, but the last 4 made up for it ;-) Amazingly, we only had one major melt-down, tho. It just happened to be in public at a McDonald's. After I carted Daniel out over my shoulder like a kicking, screaming sack of potatoes as William & everyone inside the McDonald's watched in wide-eyed wonder, we continued to Nana & Grandpa Sam's pretty much without incident. The kids were VERY glad to get out of the car & play with the puppy dogs. They crashed immediately & were very happy to get up this morning & see some live crawfish!! Here are a few shots of a true Louisiana crawfish boil--sun, spicy crawfish, & lots of beer.

Happy Early Easter

So, the kids & I are headed down to Louisiana tomorrow for Easter & to see Nana & Grandpa Sam. We'll be boiling crawfish (first induction for the kids into a FABULOUS Cajun tradition!) & seeing lots of our relatives. We just wanted to wish everyone a happy early Easter since we'll be out of commission for almost 2 weeks. Look for lots of pics when we get back & wish us luck. 12 hours plus 2 kiddos might equal one crazy Mommy!
This is the cross that William made at pre-school. He's quite proud of it. Isn't it beautiful?!?!?!

Daniel and Maddie

So, Phil & Katie's girls sent us their newest pic in the form of a fridge magnet as well as a BEAUTIFUL picture that Claire drew. Claire's picture is in a place of honor on our fridge. Check her out--she managed to write William's name and my name on her picture. What a smartie! And, Daniel was SOOOOOO excited to see his Maddie. He ran around the house with the magnet for about 20 minutes saying, "Ma-dee" before I managed to distract him & get it away. (That's what he's saying in the video, in case he's hard to understand.) Thank goodness those magnets are pretty durable.
 

These pics are from our walk around the neighborhood this morning. William rode his "motorcycle" & Daniel pranced around excitedly & pointed out every puppy dog & bird in the neighborhood. Apparently, every dog is now "Nuna", his name for Luna, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever who lives next door to us. Should we get our kiddos a dog??????

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House projects

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So, we finally managed to get the curtains hung in the dining room and our downstairs bath painted & decorated. And, we only had to patch holes around ONE of the three windows in the dining room. A big improvement from the last time we hung curtains :-) There was no shouting involved (okay, let's be honest--there was, but it was very minimal!) & Scott & I managed to stay married through it all. Hopefully, the upstairs goes as smoothly.

Basement Fun

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Today started out overcast & it was supposed to rain, so we stayed indoors & had some basement time. It's much brighter down there than it looks in these pics!! Daniel had fun on "Chocolate the bouncing horse", as William likes to call him. The frown is simply because I disturbed his fun for a picture. He also likes to build with blocks these days & then knock them down while he says "may, may, make a messsssss". William's favorite thing to do is run over to whatever it is Daniel is heading for & snatch it away before Daniel can get his grubby little hands on it! He also loves his school bus, as you can see from the pics. The weather is beautiful right now (maybe they're wrong about the snow for tomorrow, too!) and the high is 60, so we'll probably be headed to the park again after naps. Right now, the boys are enjoying grilled cheese sandwiches:

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Park Days

 
 
 
 

Our high today was 67. Hard to believe snow showers are forecasted for Sat AM (again!!). We took advantage of the warm weather to go to the park with Abby, William & Daniel's friend. Abby & her mom & dad were stationed in DC with Corey & Dawn, so they put us in touch with Abby, Brooke, and Brad when we moved here. Abby & William love to play together & Abby loves to "mother" Daniel. This is the boys' new favorite park because it has two mountains (according to William, at least!)--the big mountain & the other mountain. William says he can climb "whichEVER one he WANTS!

Alphabet crazy!!

So, here is a quick example of what Daniel does all day while William runs around like a crazy man & plays with his trains. Can you say "alphabet-obsessed"? I figure it's payback for wanting William to learn his letters when he was younger. Daniel knows all of them now, so there is no fooling him with the wrong one when he's asking for a specific one. If he says "Gee, need Gee" (his word for "g"--combo of the name & the sound it makes), you'd better come up with the g pretty quick or it will be meltdown city!! (Don't know WHERE he gets his temper & determination from!) And, considering that the letters are approximately an inch by an inch & a half, they get lost pretty quickly. Scott's & my mission in the evenings is to locate all 26 so that little Daniel can have the one he wants in the morning! Phew, the trials of parenting ;-)



***Promise William videos to come. I found some older ones of him singing his ABC song & "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" on our older camera the other day, so as soon as I load them, I'll post!

Heart tests

Daniel's heart is fine!!!





Today we visited our beloved Dr. Coble (again!) b/c Daniel has been having episodes where his heart & his fingertips turn blue. The doctor wanted to run tests, of course, so we talked about how his heart sounds & how the doctor wanted to take a picture of his heart. After an echocardiogram (pic of his heart in motion) and a chest x-ray, they have pronounced him A-okay. This is what Daniel learned today: