My Heavans

Gabe and I were playing dinosaurs today.  I made my "mom dinosaur" hug his "dad dinosaur" and in response, Gabe said (in an exasperated tone):

"Oh, my heavans."

So much for the dinosaur love, I guess.

Hodge Podge

The boys and I have had some short and cute conversations lately.  Here we go:


At a birthday party this afternoon, I was playing with Zach and he said:

"Loyal sidekick, come with me.  I'm the leader."

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Zach and I were listening to the radio the other day (we usually listen to the kids' music).  All of a sudden Zach says:

"You have a beautiful voice, Mama."

And this is how the conversation went:

Me:  Oh, buddy, that's not me singing.  That's Rihanna.

Zach:  Who's Nianna?

Me:  Rihanna is a singer.

Zach:  Nianna has a beautiful voice.

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I was driving in the car with Zach the other day and he asked why an army truck was dirty (aka camouflaged).  As I launched into an explanation of camouflage, he said:

"Let's just listen to the music."

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Gabe and Henry are really forging a bond these days.  The other morning, Gabe was kissing Henry and then vigorously wiping his face.  When I asked him what he was doing, he said:

"I'm wiping the dust off.  There's lots of dust on Henry."   (huh?)

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I drove a loaner car recently, as my car needed some repairs.  We didn't have our children's music in the loaner car, so I had the radio on.  Gabe said:

"Does this car have little boys' music in it?"

And when I told him no, he was fine with it.  You mean, all of this time I could have been listening to the radio???

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Random Pictures

I went to upload our Thanksgiving pictures to the blog over the weekend and was stumped when Google told me that I'd exceeded the picture limit.  I now have to pay a (very small) monthly fee to keep posting pictures.  Yet another message from the universe telling me that I'm a crazy-picture-taking-mother.  Oh, well.

Here are some recent random shots:

Gabe ran to get his miner's light when Daddy announced that he was taking them for a walk in the woods

posing in my new t-shirt from Cambodia; thanks, Auntie Auntie

me, too; thanks, Auntie Auntie

yelling, "Cambodia"

Auntie and her boys

playing in the backyard with Daddy

trimming Auntie Auntie's Christmas tree

they had a blast and needed to show her where they placed EVERY ornament

a quick visit from Gampa; Auntie brought a cake so that we could sing Happy Birthday to him 

Stoneham Christmas Tree Lighting Party

great Santa shot!

pony rides!

he was practically falling off of the side

Polar Express ice sculpture!  Zach was amazed

Scooby Snacks

The boys - particularly Gabe - are really into watching Scooby Doo these days.  Also exciting is that one of the snacks that they get at school is "Scooby Snacks," (i.e. dog bone-shaped graham cracker cookies).  When Nabisco was dreaming up this new cookie idea, didn't they anticipate that serving a child a dog bone/dog treat snack might be confusing?

You see, last month when we picked up Henry from the groomer, they gave the boys a couple of small dog bone treats to give to him.  It was a bit chaotic at the groomer, trying to corral the boys and a small hyper dog, all while trying to pay and get out of there; so I didn't really monitor the dog treat situation.  All of a sudden, Gabe laughs out loud that Zach has eaten the dog treat.  Gabe adds that he's going to tell all of his friends at school that Zach ate a dog treat.  Nice.  Anyway, I didn't believe Gabe; I didn't want to believe him.  My pizza-only-eating child would never eat a dog treat, right?  Wrong.

I realized later that Gabe was probably right.  Zach must have thought that it was a "Scooby Snack" like at school; and yet he never said a word about how it tasted... I let Gabe pick out a treat yesterday at the grocery store, and he chose Scooby Snacks, which is what made me think about this repressed story.  And now I'm encouraging the dog-treat eating. 

Thanksgiving 2012

Jason and I hosted my parents this year for Thanksgiving dinner.  I was really excited to roast my first turkey (excited and a bit intimidated).  I found a great recipe online, followed it closely, and thankfully the turkey came out great.  It kind of feels like I'm officially a grown up now that I roasted a turkey!

We had a really nice, relaxing day with my parents.  The boys played with Nini in the backyard for over an hour while I cooked some of the side dishes.  And while we were getting the last-minute touches complete, Zach and Papa read The Polar Express in one room and Gabe and Nini read The Elf On The Shelf in another room.

Later in the evening we gathered with the Dawson's at cousin Kelley's in Melrose.  Though cousin Cameron was not there, the boys still managed to have a great time.  Hope you all had a nice holiday, too!

our 18-pound bird!

in it's "turkey bath"

 

our table

reading the Polar Express

 

reading Elf On The Shelf

and here's our turkey!

Papa doing the honors

gah!

 

and here's Zach, eating his Thanksgiving pizza

 

Like Mother, Like Son - The Thanksgiving Edition

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I can be very concrete.  And anyone who knows Gabe well, knows that he shares his mother's trait.  Little did I know just how similar we are.

You see, on one of the occasions when I visited Plymouth Plantation as a kid, I remember wrestling with the idea of the reenactment thing going on there.  All of the pilgrims were acting as if it was still the "time of pilgrims", and that really bothered me.  I remember going up to one of the "actors" and saying, "yea, but you drive home in a car, right?  You don't really live like this, you know."  (or something to that effect)  I needed this pilgrim to admit that he was just an actor; it's nuts when I look back on it.

Anyway, when I was meeting with Gabe's teacher yesterday afternoon, she mentioned how smart he is and how he really thinks at such a higher level.  Here is the example that she provided:  they've been learning a lot about Thanksgiving, the pilgrims, etc.  During one of their lessons, Miss Jenn showed the class a photo of the pilgrims.  Gabe wanted to know how there could be a photo of the pilgrims since cameras didn't exist during the time of pilgrims.  Gah!  He's my boy.

Turkey Zach

Zach came home from school with a cute turkey hat.  He also came home with a cute homemade poster that says, "I am thankful for my Nini."  Zach is such a lovebug; he loves his extended family so much!

Here are the pics:

gah!

here's a close up of his hand turkey!

Growing Up

They're getting too big.  As they were watching their morning show this morning, it struck me how just 2 years ago, they were sitting together on a wee little chair.  Now, they sit on the couch together.  My boys are growing up.



 then...

now

The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin

We've been struggling a lot lately with Gabe's fresh backtalk.  Luckily, I have a meeting with his teacher tomorrow (who's a behaviorist!); evidently she's been experiencing the same issue.  Hopefully she'll have some helpful advice. 

This morning, I asked Gabe to do something and this was his response:

***Cue the defiant, fresh tone***

"Nope.  Nope.  Nope.  I'm NOT going to do it.  Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!"

Pictures From What We've Been Up To Lately...

Here are some recent pictures of what we've been up to lately:

we visited Gampa

love that shot!

we went for a Veteran's Day walk in the woods with our friends

this is a LARGE tree that fell over in the Frankenstorm and blocked one of the walking trails

Will & Gabe

we built a fort

 we played with Dada, who's finally home from China

we gave Henry his first ever bone (lamb bone), thanks to Auntie Carole!