Fast forward ten (or so) years into the future

Yesterday, my BFF Heather brought her son Jackson over for a play date. Will and Jackson are having a ton of fun together and Heather and I recently discovered the joy of dropping one's son off for a play date and getting to shop for an hour solo (or in my case, with a 15-month in tow). Jackson is a little over a year older than Will and the two share a love of Buzz Lightyear, shooting at stuff and driving trucks. Back when I was pregnant with Reina, I was delighted to find out I was having a girl because I figured that she could marry Jackson and Heather and I would be legally related. So with that in mind, here's a glimpse into the future...

Reina and Jackson's first date. The good news for you Jackson, is that you get to take Reina out. The bad news is that she will be driving. Yes, and she's wearing a Cowboy's t-shirt and jeans on her date. She is my daughter after all.
Oops, we also forgot to mention that Will has to go on the date. But don't worry, he'll ride in the back. You'll hardly notice him at all.
Well, it looks like the date didn't go very well because now the two boys have ditched the girl and they are taking the truck and going off-road. Here's hoping they won't still be carrying Buzz around in 10 years. Whatever. Who needs boys when you have your own truck?!! Girl power!

Home again, home again

Vicky and I are back from our whirlwind trip to Minn. We had a good time visiting family and helping to clean and sort our grandma's house. It was definitely bittersweet. It was tough to see our Grandma's house without her in it but wonderful to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins abd cats. We hauled a uhaul trailer full of furniture, paintings and china cats back to Wyo without a single problem. We didn't dent any vehicles or run into any gas pumps. I'm pretty proud of us. Anybody need anything hauled? We can do it!

Even though I missed them all terribly, Glenn and the kids survived my absence with no problems. Thanks to both sets of grandparents, Glenn had a few extra hands around the house and everyone stayed entertained. I think both Will and Reina grew about a foot in the four days that I was gone. Reina is now taking more steps without assistance. I dare say that she'll be officially walking by the end of the month. Will's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. In the car today, he asked me if I liked to scribble, commented on the weather and proclaimed that baby didn't have to get any shots at the upcoming dr's appt.

One of the pieces of furniture that we brought back from Minnesota is this piano that sat in my grandma's living room. I believe Grandpa Dunlap bought it and I know that he loved to play it. It's a big hit in our house already. Within minutes of it being placed in the living room, Will exclaimed, "We got a panno!" Sometimes he and Reina like to play duets. Sometimes Reina likes to practice her solos. Pants, as always, are optional.

Poop

Three year old boys. So interesting. So interested in poop. Will loves to sprinkle the word "poop" into ordinary conversation.

Will: Mom, what are you eating?
Me: I'm eating a sandwich.
Will: Is it a poop sandwich?

Any hope that this is a short-lived phase?

The poop excitement continued this afternoon when I came home after picking up the kids, and a mere 3 hours before I leave for a road trip to Minnesota (sans kids!) with Aunt Vicky, to sort of discover and cause a toilet overflow that left little bits of poop and a lot of water all over the bathroor floor. Will was equal parts freaked out/excited. He kept yelling, "It's an emergency! Should I call Fireman Sam?" Yes, please do! If only a fictional fireman tv character could come over and clean up the mess for me.


That golden orb that floats in the sky came out briefly over the weekend and we all went outside to enjoy it.

Here's hoping there's sunny weather where you are. I'll be back next week with tales of our road trip and stories of how the kiddos survived with daddy and grandparents all weekend. Hopefully I will survive without them!

Reina - 15 months old!

How can it be that our girl is 15-months old already? Time is flying! She had a good check-up even though I had to bring Will along. Both kids have colds and it turns out that Will had an ear/sinus infection. I'm demanding my money back from the ear, nose and throat doctor for his latest round of ear tubes, but I digress. Reina is growing like a weed. She's now 70% in height and 100% in cuteness. Reina had to get 2 shots and I tried to warn Will that she would get upset. I told him to come stand by me but he was too busy playing with the curtain in the exam room. As soon as Reina got her shots, she started screaming (of course). As soon as Will heard Reina screaming, he started crying. Loudly. Then the following dialogue took place:


Me: Will, why are you crying?
Will: (actual tears and stunned look) Why is baby crying?!
Will: (getting panicky) Why does baby have band-aids?
Will: What happened??!!
Me: Don't worry, you don't have to get a shot. Get your jacket.
Will: (Tears start to subside) Ok. But I need a lollipop.


I mentioned in an earlier post that we had a garage sale last weekend and Will did something memorable. I won't go into great detail but to give you a brief overview, I looked up from completing a sale to see Will peeing on the driveway in full view of about 10 garage sale shoppers and came within inches of actually peeing on merchandise. (Yeah, I know. I should be thankful that he was actually out on the driveway and not inside of the garage. Hey, the kid was manners, what can I say.) It was one of those moments when time seemed to stop and in my head I'm yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo."


You can bet that I'll find a way to include that little anecdote in a toast at his wedding.


We did have a short but firm conversation afterwards that we DO NOT PEE IN PUBLIC.


Okay, this post is supposed to be all about Reina and her fabulous 15 months. She's growing up! She's still working on the whole walking thing but she's getting better. She'll take a few steps and then fall into your lap or grab onto your leg but she's getting braver. Reina's starting add more words to her repertoire and she'll nod her head for "yes" or shake it virgorously for "no. She's a little shyer than Will was but once she warms up she's friendly and charming and will eagerly bring you a book to read or a shoe to put on her foot. She's our happy girl!


Look at those big blue eyes and perfect skin! It reminds me that I need moisturizer. And maybe botox. Scary baby!

Yup, today is May 12

And we have more snow! I'm not sure what the accumulation was at our house but locations in the county reported anything from 6 to 10 inches. I think we were somewhere in the middle. We didn't get a snow day out of it but lots and lots of moisture. Most importantly, the nest full of baby birds is still there and all four are safe and accounted for. (Yes, this is an area of big concern at the Pauley household and it's not just me! Glenn's worries about them, too. Seriously!)

Long week

It's been a long week without a blog post! It was my first week back to work full-time and there's not as much time to blog when I have to be working all day! Everybody adjusted pretty well to the new schedule. I think it's safe to say that I'm the one having the most trouble. I really appreciated the opportunity to work part-time for the past year. The extra time that I had to spend with both kiddos really meant a lot to me. But I also enjoy my job so we are on to the next chapter ...

We packed a lot of activities into last week. We hosted a garage sale and sold a bunch of stuff and Will did something that I'll write about in my next blog entry. We celebrated Aunt Vicky's birthday with a big dinner at Red Lobster. Yum! We had our first parent-teacher conference with Will's Montessori teachers. She was very complimentary and said that he's right where they expect him to be. We already knew this but he's very interested in the hands-on activities (in Montessori, they call it "practical life") so they are trying to steer him to more of the educational work (alphabet, counting, etc.). He can recognize his name when he sees it written down and you can tell that he tries to write it himself. His teacher described him as a 'bull in the china shop' in that he'll plow over things/people to get from point A to point B. But she also said that he's sweet and chatty. That's our boy!

This picture is from a Cinco de Mayo festival that we attended at Grandma Hansen's school on Friday. It was obstacle course and Will held up the line while he worked hard to put the bar back on the cones after he knocked it off. So conscientious!

The weather was nice enough today to get outside and breath in some fresh air. By this evening, it was cold again and we have snow in the forecast for the week (it's May 9!!). Reina tried out the trike while wearing shorty-shorts and no shoes. Can you tell that she wore pigtails to church but they fell out during nap?

Over the last few weeks, Reina has discovered blue dog. She's not as daredevil-y as Will was at this age but she does like to practice climbing on and off and it keeps her busy.

Here's a similar picture of W.

Like I mentioned earlier, we hosted a garage sale yesterday. It was cold but we persevered and sold some stuff and took the rest to storage. One of my friends sold a bunch of stuff too so she brought her twin boys (age 2) over and Glenn watched all 4 kids while we sold baby clothes, books, knick-knacks and one old dishwasher. Well, we didn't sell the dishwasher... anyone need one? It runs well, it's just a little loud. We'll take the best offer!

So, Glenn's babysitting strategy involved the television at times and it worked for 3 of the 4 kids.

In honor of Mother's Day, here's a (unflattering) picture of Will and his mom. I had a great day!

This post is for the birds

Over the weekend, we peeked into the nest currently housed in our Christmas wreath (see my last post) and there's a couple of naked baby birds hanging out in there. We didn't linger too long because we didn't want to stress the mom out but you can see the little red bald thing in this picture. It's a good thing we didn't have this nest when I was pregnant. I couldn't handle seeing/hearing/being told about animals in any sort of distress and Glenn would have had to restrain me from setting up a portable heater and wind break out in front of our garage to keep these little chiclets warm. Meet Flap-Flap. The marketing geniuses at our local home improvement store (Sutherlands - not the bigger chains, have to give a plug to the littler guys) display these wierd but colorful birds at toddler eye level. So when you make a quick trip in there on a Saturday morning to buy a handful of nuts and bolts, you come out with a new yard ornament christened Flap Flap by the 3-yr old. He's also Will's signature color - ORANGE!We're all a little grumpy around the Pauley household. Some of us don't like the fact that it's still 30 degrees and Spring is nowhere in sight. Others of us are so tired of listening to the wind howl that we are starting to go a little crazy! A few of us really object to getting our picture taken on a Sunday morning to show off a church outfit that's too cute. How dare we! The nerve!! And then some of us just cry because other (small) people are crying and it seems to be the best way to get mom's attention. Guess what? It works!