Choot* kids

I sat down today in an attempt to capture the essence that is Reina, but as usual, time is getting away from me.  Dinner needs to be cooked, laundry put away and I'm sure Trigger needs to be scolded about something.  Glenn has spent a long weekend in Kansas turkey hunting and he's due home in a few hours and since it was his birthday yesterday, I should really have a little bit more of a celebration planned than I currently do.  BUT I'm happy that Glenn could turkey hunt.  In February, when he was still in the hospital, the doctor told Glenn that his hope was that Glenn would be 80% recovered by his birthday.  I'm so happy that he appears to be at least 80%, if not more.  Hooray!

Okay, so back to Reina.  She's been a little bit of a handful recently.  She came down with an ear infection week before last, stayed home for a few days last week, made a repeat trip to the doctor for a new antibiotic and is still fighting something off today.  I've said this before, but some kids get quiet or droopy when they don't feel well.  Reina just gets well... mean.  Her hair trigger temper becomes even shorter and while she's very affectionate and wants to snuggle a lot, in a minute it can turn to "You are giving me too many kisses mommy!"  Sigh.  *It's a good thing she's so choot (Reina's word for cute.)  It's become a part of my vernacular now.  One of Reina's most common refrains besides STOP DAT BOBO! is "I'll do it myself."  Whether it's getting dressed, putting on shoes, picking out a bandaid or taking her medicine, she insists on doing it by herself.  She's also not a big fan of delayed gratification.  Glenn brought both kids fishing poles from his trip this weekend and Reina proceeded to grab hers, match out the backdoor and want to fish.  "Iwanttofishrightnow.  Can we go to a pond after dinner?  Can we go to a pond right now?"  One of her other Reinish characteristics right now is "I like you shirt Mommy."  "I like you book Bobo."  You instead of 'your.'  It's contagious. 

Reina, modeling her Minn Twins dress from (great) Aunt Mary.  I was trying to send a picture to Aunt Mary and this was as good as it gets.  Reina adds a very Top Model quality to this picture that scares me beyond belief. 

The Force is strong in these two (below).  Saturday night the kids and I went to a benefit dinner at church.  It wasn't completely altruistic on my part.  I figured for a few bucks, someone else could feed all of us dinner and it wouldn't be McD's.  Win-win-win!  The dinner was good and there was also a pie auction.  Will kept raising his hand and bidding on apple pies, banana cream pies, chocolate pies and one tin of brownies that he was very disappointed not to get. I finally let him "win" a peach pie, but I was really the winner because neither of them liked it.  More for me!  They were distracted towards the end of the auction by taking turns wearing my sweatshirt.  Will was pretending he was a Jedi.  Reina was pretending she was me.  She had all of us in 'time out' rather quickly.  Apparently that's how I sound to her. 

 Look!  I have tulips that Reina hasn't picked yet!  She finally seems to understand that the flowers are prettier when they stay in the ground.  Except for dandelions and a few grape hyacinth that she insisted she didn't pick but no one else was there and (maybe it was the rabbits mommy?), she has left these pretty tulips alone.  We've had an usually warm but DRY Spring.  Usually these bulbs don't bloom for a few more weeks but instead of worrying about drought, I'll just enjoy the pretty flowers.  And look, smirking pirates enjoy tulips too. 

We really need to do something about the pirate outfit.  In this picture, he's wearing two shirts, plus that fleece thing, long pants and snow boots.  Luckily this was one of the cooler mornings, it was probably only about 59 degrees.  Yeah, I know.  Reina was probably a little chilly but you tell her to put a jacket on.  I dare ya.  So back to Will.  The kid has a tendency to barf when he gets overheated.  It's happened a few times now, most recently a few weeks ago when we just happened to be in the drive-thru for McD's.  We try to explain that pirates can also wear short sleeves and shorts but he's not buying it.  However, he is starting to make the correlation between being too warm and that gurgling feeling in his tummy.  Maybe in a few months, he'll be obsessed with southeastern Native Americans or Olympic swimmers or other people who around in summer-appropriate clothing.  We can only hope.  

My big kid and other April events

Another week gone by...  Last Tuesday I woke up at the crack of dawn (4:45 a.m.) to go stand in line and register Will for kindergarten.  Crazy, I know.  The school in our neighborhood is overcrowded so parents of incoming kindergartners line up EARLY to try to secure a spot. I arrived by 5:00 a.m. and I was 12th in line.  We won't find out officially until after May 4th, but I'm hopeful that he'll get spot. He seems to be getting more excited about the idea of going to a 'big kids' school.  The incoming kindergartners are invited to lunch at the big school in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to taking him there and looking around. 

I say this every week, but Will is just growing up so fast.  We had dinner with friends this weekend and they had a small Lego set that their girls' weren't interested in so they gave it to Will.  When we came home, he immediately opened up the box and following the instructions, put this little vehicle together all by himself.   I was very impressed. I'm thinking that I need to pull out the instructions from the Christmas castle and see if he can put that back together solo.  

Will and his Lego creation

I can't remember if I wrote this down already (and I'm too lazy to go and look back) but Glenn was cleared to start exercising a few weeks ago.  He was really looking forward to it and eased back into lifting weights and doing some cardio.  Well on Easter Sunday he decided to try and go jogging and this is the result:  leg stretches in the hallway to try to stretch out the back muscle that he pulled while jumping back into exercise.  I couldn't resist snapping this picture.  It was payback for me having to put his socks and shoes on him every day.  Luckily all of the weird stretches and REST are paying off and he's feeling better.  Just in time for turkey hunting! 

So speaking of things that really hurt, I ran another half marathon on Sunday in Denver.  Originally, the whole gang was going to go down with me and we were going to make a weekend out of it.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn't looking great, so Glenn and the kiddos stayed home and I drove down and raced with some friends.  When I came back home, I found these two signs on the front door.  Glenn wrote down Will's inspiring comments-  "I hope you win!!  I want to cheer for you!!"  I'm pretty sure that's Glenn's fine drawing but Will did write his name.      

Reina's version:  "Congratulations!!  Watch cartoons and ride a horse!"  Yeah, apparently Reina's inspirational poster was more of a command or a wish-list for herself rather than motivational for other people, but I appreciated the sentiment.  As for me, I didn't break any landspeed records but just like all of the other times, I didn't break any bones either and I feel pretty happy with my accomplishment. 

A 3-yr old or a 13-yr old? And Easter.

 Let's talk about Reina for a minute, shall we? This little blondie has a lot going on. Three is just so..... very three. She has opinions (strong ones at that) about EVERYTHING. From her snack to what she's going to wear and how her hair should look and beyond, this girl tells us how she feels. Last weekend at Target, she gave me the silent treatment because she didn't the underwear I was picking out. For myself. Don't I have at least another decade before I embarrass my children with my undergarment choices? I see in her a desperate grasping for some level of control because as the youngest, she probably does get lost in the shuffle sometimes. So we try to let her pick the movie (not Will's pirate movie) or what's for dinner (mac & cheese and hot dogs) and give her some say but I don't know that it always makes a difference.  Today, Glenn asked her if he could have one of her chocolate Easter eggs and she said, "maybe tomorrow." 


I asked her to show me 'mad' .... I think that's a little mild for 'mad.' Where's the screeching and lashing out and stomping of feet?   

This was 'sad'.... again a little mild.  'Sad' usually involves a loud wail followed by a crumpling to the ground. 

   

Oh, here's mad!  This is "Stop taking my picture and I want to go to the grocery store with you RIGHT NOW."

Today is Easter Sunday and we had a really nice day.  Yes, there was some crying (see picture below) but there was some nice family time, a lovely church service, lots of ham, chocolate and naps.  It was a good day.  We had a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  This is one of those rare Wyoming springs where it was actually warm enough and not snow-covered to do it and the kids had a lot of fun.  Trigger even found an egg or two.  Are jelly beans bad for dogs? 

Headed out for the Easter egg hunt.  Reina did not want to go because she was busy watching cah-toons.  She perked up once she realized there were eggs involved. 



This wasn't Will's Easter Sunday outfit.  That only lasted about 30.5 seconds after we walked in the door after church.  He quickly shed it for his outfit of choice.  Yes, pirates do participate in egg hunts. 



As I mentioned last week, Reina is quite good at finding stuff to cram in her Easter basket.  She also refuses to give the plastic eggs back this time around. 

After the egg hunt, we dyed a bunch of eggs which was great fun for the 5 and under set and slightly fun for the rest of us who had to clean up the mess.  Uncle Matt and Aunt Vicky joined us for Easter lunch of ham and more ham.  Afterwards we napped and ate as much Easter candy as our stomachs would allow (okay, maybe that was just me).  It was a really nice weekend. 

In totally unrelated news, Trigger got a bath a few weeks ago.  I had to take a picture of him being subdued and submissive and all that good dog stuff because outside of the bathtub, it RARELY happens.  He is starting to chill out every so slightly.  He's my reliable jogging partner and I've found that he'll start to get a little tired after about 10 miles or so.  Too bad I can't run that every day. 

Easter Egg Hunts, Fishing and Baby Chickens!

First things first. We had a good day on Thursday and I never had time to blog about it. Glenn had his pic line removed and received clearance from the doctor to return to work full-time. I've never seen anyone so happy to go back to work full-time. Glenn's doing really well. He's getting some flexibility back in his elbow and he'll continue with physical therapy for a little while longer. He doesn't have to see the rest of the doctors for another month and that's just to follow-up on his progress. He's still a little tired but frankly, who isn't! So Thursday was a good day.

We had a great weekend. Our region is having an usually warm and dry March. While I miss all the moisture, it has been nice to get outside. On Saturday we went to an Easter Egg hunt at Glenn's office. The kiddos were divided into age groups so Glenn went off with Will and I stayed with Reina. She loves putting stuff in buckets so the egg hunt was right up her alley. Reina won one of the grand prizes because she found a special egg. Okay, I actually found it but I pointed her towards it. I wasn't helicopter parenting at the Easter Egg Hunt! Just pointing out eggs..... Her grand prize was a new basket filled with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Two more of her favorite things! And the basket is yellow - her favorite color! She was more excited than she looks in this picture. Will had a good time, too. His basket was so very heavy, obviously. Oh, I forgot another Reina story. Once the hunt was over, we all gathered back in the office to look at all of the loot and more importantly, empty the eggs of all of the contents and give them (the empty shells) back to the egg hunt organizers for next year. Reina was none too pleased about this turn of events. She wanted to keep the eggs, didn't really care about the candy, and started down the road of the giant-3-yr-temper-tantrum but then changed her mind. Maybe it was all of the chocolate, I don't know. So for her Easter basket, I'm thinking of just filling it with a bunch of empty eggs and keeping the chocolate for myself. Sound like a plan?

One more Easter Egg Hunt/Reina story that also involves Will slightly. One of Glenn's co-workers dressed up as the Easter Bunny. Will was pretty interested and walked over to talk to him. Reina? Nope, none of it. "Where's that big bunny? What's he doing? I don't like that guy." Even after the hunt was over, she kept scanning the crowd to see if he was making a repeat performance.

Saturday afternoon, Glenn and Will went fishing with our friends and Reina and I stayed home to nap and do chores. I didn't want Reina to go fishing because without a nap, she's a bit of a terror. Ironically, she chose that afternoon to nap for about 15 minutes so I didn't have my long, lazy afternoon to get chores done (watch mindless television that Glenn teases me about). Anyway, Glenn and Will went fishing and Will CAUGHT HIS FIRST FISH and had a great time. On the way home, Will asked Glenn if they could go fishing again the next day and Glenn almost cried. Glenn said that Will squealed the whole time the fish was being reeled back to shore. I hope he keeps that trait up for the rest of his fishing career.

Today after church, we drove over to our local farm & ranch supply store to buy some stuff for Trigger AND to look at all of the baby chickens and turkeys and guinea fowl. It's too bad these cute little fluff balls grow into actual poultry. Both Reina and Will were very interested in the animals and this picture makes me giggle. They look so innocent but I know that if I turned my back for a minute, either one or the both of them would crawl into that hot box and be snuggling baby chickens immediately. Who us? Yes, you.