Snipits

Lucas: Well, if you couldn't tell, Lucas is obsessed - OBSESSED - with animals. Partially due to an Animal Atlas movie I bought him a while back, and partially because of his favorite show ever, Wild Kratts on PBS. He is officially smarter than me at 4 years and 10 months of age. He can name practically every animal at the zoo. When Lisa took him to the zoo in ABQ, he would follow the map and make sure to hit every single animal. One day when I went with them I was impressed when he taught me all about the klipspringer and about 20 other animals, too. He can tell you the name of the animals, from which continent they reside, as well as if they are an herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore.
Ever since we got back from ABQ we've been playing animal games where he acts out all the different animals at the zoo and I am visiting the zoo. It can go on for hours.... really. We made some cool charts of animals using a sticker book Lisa bought him.
He's reading like a champ. And he comprehends what he is reading, too. He impresses me daily. He is currently enjoying Amelia Bedelia and some other fun books. I currently enjoy hearing him yell things like, "Mom, what does S-H-U-T-T-E-R-S spell?"
The other day Ben took Lucas to the library, when they got there they realized Lucas didn't have any shoes. Yep, my kid was wandering around shoeless in the library. Nice.
The next day we forgot his shoes when we went to church, so Ben had to head home. Then last week I went to an audition and forgot his shoes. Ben met me there to watch the kids and took him to HEB and bought him $1 flip flops. They now stay in the car. I think I'll put his crocs in the car because he can actually walk in those.
Lucas has a genuine thirst for knowledge. If we would let him, he would sit on the computer all day looking different things up on Google. He loves it - he's so curious. Which may be a bit annoying at times, but it's also the reason he learns so much.
Funny stuff he says:
"I hope the seeds are having a good time!" re: the recently planted seeds in the garden.
"Mom, if I had four stomachs I would have one fore pizza, one for hot dogs, one for hamburgers and one for ice cream." The poor Proboscis monkey has 4 stomachs, you know.
Ben tried to get Lucas to check out a Pinnocchio DVD from the library, "No, I want this mammal movie instead."

Evan: Holy cuteness! Evan is walking like a champ now days. He's got curves in all the right places and makes some other babies his age feel like light weights. Evan is also very curious and loves to get into things to investigate. He loves playing outside... especially in my plants, where he can make a most glorious mess. Evan talks more than Lucas did at this age. He mimics a lot of things we say. The day we left for ABQ, he said "Bye, Dada" as Ben was leaving. It was awesome.
Evan is so happy and sweet most of the time. He loves to chase a ball around the tile floor or open and close doors... and open and close and open and close.
Occasionally he will say thank you or I love you. But he says uh-oh, and no, no, no, no a lot - like every time he's doing something naughty.

Ben: This guy has been so incredibly busy lately. He's been working his bum off at work, and doing freelance at home. He's also working on his bike rack sculpture. Working with the city is a pain. Its been three years almost... Hopefully he will finish soon. He's got to work with engineers, sculptors, and more city people. He also needs to ask for more $$. At this rate he won't take any of it home, but at least there will be a piece of Ben artwork downtown forever.
Last weekend we sent Ben, Chris, and Clay on a trip to the "man spa" for Fathers Day. They pelted each other with paintballs for 5 hours. Ben came home the most colorful of the boys - outside his clothes and inside. He has the most amazing bruises. And a huge gash on his knee because I sent him in holy jeans. Oops.

Me: Let's see... I started running again in February. I try to go about three times a week now. It helps that I bought this incredibly cute pair of running shoes. I got them at Marshall's for only $30! And cute shoes make you run faster, you know.
I've had a few fun jobs this year. You might see my hands in something for Dell, you might see my whole self in a brochure for kid's insulin. I'll let you know if I ever see either of them. I just found out today I booked another job for Dell - it was the audition last week, where I forgot Lucas's shoes. I had totally forgotten about it because the audition was so annoying - lots of waiting and it was hot. But, I'm glad the effort was worth it.
Usually you'll find me around the house pretending I'm at the zoo, changing diapers, or cooking something awesome... or mediocre. Love my boys.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to....

This dad:

who could obviously kick your butt in a dance off.

And to this dad:


who raised this cool dad:

I hope you all have the best Father's Day ever... which, I know, is a ridiculous thing to say, being that you are all at home, as opposed to traveling the world, doing the daily grind and working really really hard. But, hey, it's about the little things in life, right? Maybe you'll receive something hand-made by a kid today. Or maybe you'll get a yummy breakfast or dinner. Or maybe you'll have some cool battle scars from your Father's Day present... But, for sure, you will be told by your kids how appreciated and loved you are. Thanks for all you do, Dads, for the sacrifices you make for your kids, and for doing it with a smile. Even though, they're/we're complete pains in the bums. You're the best!

"We love you, Dad" - Lucas and Evan, despite what was said at bedtime last night by one tired boy who stayed up until 10:30 playing Angry Birds with his father :)

Good Luck, Maddie!!

Today our sweet MDR (MadDogRiffic) is going under so she can have a pesky cyst removed.
Good luck, Maddie! We love you!!!

If you're drowsy after, I bet Grandma will loan you the dino-tent. Tell Garrett hi for us!

Albuquerque Turkeys

The boys and I recently spent two weeks in Albuquerque. Lucas had the time of his life! See, he's kind of spoiled when he visits... He's got these aunts, you see, that love him and spoil him to no end. Lisa takes him on adventures all over the land (and this time was extra-special b/c she didn't have to go to work since she's getting ready to move to Hawaii). They went to the zoo four times and the aquarium once. (That equals one animal adventure every 2.8 days).
Carrie and Maddie have him over for sleepovers and play and read with him for hours on end. We lucked out that Maddie got out of school while we were there so she got to come on some fun adventures with us. Carrie and Maddie even brought over a Zumba DVD one night and Lucas thought that was pretty rad. I'm pretty amazing, too, you know.
Rob and Andi have these cool kids who come up to play or let us come down to play with them. Lucas had a lot of fun playing with the kids and with all their cool animal toys!
Tina was getting ready to head to Africa while we were in town. Lucas was uber-excited to talk to her about all the animals she might see. He is happily awaiting photographic evidence of her trip. She's there now and having a great time.
Then there's Grandma and Grandpa who bend over backwards to make us happy. It's fun to see my dad playing farm with Lucas or holding Evan while he watches the news. Grandma put Lucas in great swim lessons while we were in town. Lucas learned a lot from Mr. Gerald during his short 20 minute lessons, and we are trying to practice more now that we're back to our pool. My poor mom works so hard while we're in town. I hope she's taking lots of naps now that we're gone.
I took Lucas and Maddie to paint at Art Attack and to the tram/ski lift, got to see some good friends from UNM, and had an allergic reaction to a facial. Then all my skin fell off because it's so dry there. Thanks, Albuquerque. Your sunsets are pretty great, though.

Without further ado, I present the Albuquerque Turkeys:

A few extras:
We almost missed our flight out of Austin. I must have read the monitor wrong and headed to the wrong gate. I discovered my mistake and decided to take the kids to the bathroom before going to the right gate. Luckily the bathroom was right across from the gate. I looked over and saw that the gate was empty. We ditched the bathroom idea and instead were the last to board the flight to Dallas, where we sat for two hours while they worked on our plane.

While we were in town we got to experience the disgusting smoke from the AZ fires that ominously rolls into town before sunset each night. Thanks, Arizona. Really, it's been horribly devastating. As of today it's 18% contained.

Evan learned to walk while we were gone. He's totally walking all over the place now like a champ.

We planted the garden in the back. Lucas kept saying, "I hope the seeds are having a good time!" Even after a week he was still thinking about those little seeds. And apparently they did have a good time, because by the time we left there were plants sprouting up.

Ben stayed busy while were were gone. He was working late hours at work, then even later hours at home because he hearts me. I'll post a pic of his project soon.

Kiddie Triathlon

Today was the annual Kiddie Triathlon that our friends put together. It was in our neighborhood, where the kids first ran around a retention pond, then biked around the block, then swam in the pool (and not the pond thankfully).

Lucas was pretty excited - he wanted to run fast like a cheetah and swim like a shark (thanks to his swim lessons he had in ABQ-post coming soon). As far as the biking, Lucas hasn't learned to ride a bike. He has been more interested in picking grass to put in the back of his trike, then pedaling the trike. And the bike we have is a little big, but we got it out last night to practice and he tried really hard. He put forth a good effort and was pleased with himself, but we knew today would be hard.

Lucas did a great job on the run. He ran the whole way with me and was a total trooper. His little pale face was bright pink when he hopped on his bike and headed off with Ben. He was so cute. I got ready to get in the pool with him while he rode his bike. And he took a while... finally Lucas and Ben came around the corner, I gave him some water and he ran to the pool with me. He did a great job in the water practicing his pulls and kicking to the wall and back. He was a happy boy when he finished.

He was even happier when he dug through the cool loot in his goodie bag. Thanks, Jamie and Sandra for all your hard work!

Update: Ben just told me what happened while they were on the bike ride. First of all, Ben took him on the long route, which I wasn't planning on doing. So, he started out leading the pack, then Ocean zoomed by and Lucas said, "Good job, Ocean!" Kids kept passing Lukie, and Ben was worried that Lucas was going to be upset. All the sudden, Lucas said, "I hope Jamie is taking good care of Evan." (Evan was still asleep when we left and Jamie R. was really nice and stayed home with him). How sweet that he was thinking of Evan while he was working so hard on his bike. And finally, Lucas said, "I wonder how many kids are behind me still... I might be the last one." Ben said, he might be, but Lucas was ok with that.... he must have known he would still have the chance to swim like a shark. Love that kid.
Also, they just got back from the library. Lucas came home with five educational videos. Ben suggested "Pinocchio", but Lucas said, "No, I want the one about mammals instead." He's so funny. And obsessed with animals right now, fyi.

When we got home Evan had some fun of his own in the water. He's so cute.