Can It Be? Nik is Three!

I am suddenly realizing that the old sayings are quite true:

"They grow up before you know it."

&

"It happens over night."

Here is my growing little man who suddenly turned three years old.

Nikolas is all about trains at this stage of his life, so our family came over and we had a train party. I had been wanting to make a train cake for Nik but was thinking that it would be alot of work and I wasn't quite sure how to do it. After checking out a few websites I decided it didn't seem too difficult and started the process. It was alot of fun and when Nik saw it in the morning he gasped and said, "TRAIN! My train?!" Yep, it's your train Nik:) His excitement for it made staying up until 2am the night before and then waking up with the WORST EVER upper back pain from bending over and making frosting squishes all over, worth it! I also enjoyed an evening out with my friend, Jodi, and painted this plate at Ceramicafe. It turned out better than I was expecting as I am NOT a talented drawer but for some reason I can make a pretty decent train. Nikolas, of course, loved it and was excited to eat his train cake on his train plate with his train fork while drinking milk in his train cup!
I have an idea of what this three year old might be wishing for. More trains!

Everyone gave him wonderful gifts and he was excited with each one. We kept having to remind him that he had more presents to open. Uncle John and cousin Morgan are looking on as Nik opens his gift from Morgan: 3D Sidewalk chalk! Now if only the sun would stay out long enough for us to use it.

Then we continued a tradition that my sister started us on by imprinting my boys handprints on each birthday. Here is number three!


Nikolas has grown in so many ways this past year. He almost seems like an entirely different person. One year ago he was still only saying 2-3 word phrases, was in the midst of potty training, cried bloody murder everytime I left him with anyone else but ME, and needed help with almost everything. Now, he talks nonstop, has been fully potty trained for the last 10 months, willingly walks into his 2's & 3's Sunday School class and doesn't need my help for hardly anything! Truly, he has started to become my little helper and I am really enjoying it and looking forward to his help even more as he grows.

So That's Why It Was So Quiet

I had left the boys in the family room while I was making dinner and as I worked I could hear Lukas chattering away about something. After a few minutes I realized that the chattering had stopped, completely. "Hmmm, that's weird.", I thought as I walked into the room. I soon discovered the reason was because Luke's mouth had been full of chocolate and he was working on opening the next one.

When he saw me coming towards him he gave me this look:

Really, who can blame the little guy, I mean, chocolate is good.
I, also, am a chocolate fan and with the sales and coupons lately have been purchasing a few here and there, so our little M&M dispenser has been in use this past week. Lukas hadn't really known what an M&M was but apparently had been silently observing Nikolas getting a little bowl of them for a treat every so often. Well, today he found half of a plastic easter egg and walked over to the counter under the M&M dispenser and pointed up at it with his little egg bowl while looking at me and grunting. I'd say he has figured it out:)

Lukas Has Caught The Climbing Bug

This is a climbing bug:

and Lukas has caught it! It just makes a climbing mama's heart flutter with excitement, and I don't mean the overprotective, scared they are going to hurt themselves heart flutter. Oh no, I mean the "looking to the future and seeing my boys and myself going on climbing trips to Utah" type of heart fluttering.

He has started to want to climb everything;

the dishwasher

the table

Even the chimney !

I'm thinking 5.15c. Dave, Tymun, Sam? What do you guys think?

Hmmm, these things must be broke, I can't seem to get off the ground....

The other day I was outside puttering around when I started hearing some hollering from loud boy (that would be Lukas). I looked to see him at the top of the slide, proud as could be. Considering he is still totally unstable while walking I am not so sure this is the safest thing for him to be doing over concrete, but he is related to his mama. I have been known to glide up a vertical (or overhanging) rock face, get back on the ground and then trip over a tree root.

It's a talent.

Can I just say that I love this picture? :)And this one!I think it is safe to say that I have myself an outdoor adventure boy.

Woohoo!!!

One Tired Little Boy

Nikolas has been feeling ill the last two days and has been doing a whole lot of this:

He doesn't ever just lie on the couch and fall asleep, which is so unlike his father:), so it is a sure sign of illness when it happens. Poor little man, he has thrown up the last two mornings and hasn't wanted to eat anything for two days. That prompted me to try to make chicken noodle soup for the first time ever.
Yep, first time ever. I know, what have I been waiting for? For some reason, there has always seemed to be something mysterious about making chicken noodle soup. I don't know why as my mom used to make it from scratch, and I do mean scratch. We butchered our own chickens and she made her own pasta. I remember sitting at the picnic table with my sister and mom while we plucked chicken feathers off of the dead birdies. I also remember coming home from school and finding noodles hanging all around the kitchen to dry. I don't know anyone who makes their own noodles now, do you?
Well, I had turkey(not chicken but close enough) breasts thawed and all the ingredients so I looked up allrecipes.com and found an easy looking recipe. I'm sure some of you seasoned cooks are thinking, "Recipe?! Why would you need a recipe?" Well let me share a little about myself.

Life, to me, is pretty much black and white. If there is a recipe, I follow it. If someone says, "I don't measure, I just guesstimate" I run and hide. I guess I like instructions. and rules. Plus, I have no idea how ingredients work together, so when I see a recipe that calls for oil, I would never think to replace that with something like applesauce. With a lot of coaching from friends like Kate and Sheri, I am beginning to let creativity into my kitchen, but it is a long and painfully slow process. Probably more painful for those who have to eat my new found creativity, like my cousin Katie, who just had a bowl of my chicken (turkey) noodle soup. Sorry Katie, the turkey was totally dry:( I promise, every once in a while, I make something really good:)

Mama's Little Chef

Little Lukas needed something to occupy his time while I was making dinner one night, so I decided I could spare a quarter cup of flour and let him make something as well.
He immediately started mixing that flour together and hollering at it something fierce too.
And then the mess began........
but really, did I actually think I wouldn't have a mess to clean up?
And doesn't he look adorable with flour on his nose and lips? So cute:)
Either he was pushing all the flour under the fridge, pulling it out from under the fridge after dumping it under, or he saw an ant and was trying to squish it (as mama has been doing alot lately, the curse of spring). Whatever he was doing was fine with me as the whole flour mixing episode kept him busy well after dinner was ready.
I'm going to have to log this inexpensive activity away for future use.

Making Friends

Before I married and moved out at 21 I had lived on 18 acres surrounded by trees and fields with no neighbors close by, so it has been strange for me to live in a neighborhood as an adult. There is so little privacy, I can hear my neighbors talking on the phone when they are outside, the street is so close to the house, we constantly have solicitors coming to the door to sell us new siding or windows who inevitably come at naptime and make so much noise they wake my boys up. I long for a time when perhaps Tone' and I can move somewhere with even a couple acres surrounding us so I can send my boys outside to play and not have to worry about them being squished by a car if they wander 20 feet from the house. I would also love to have a place with even a single tree that they can climb and build a fort in and hang a swing from. I would love to have room to raise chickens and goats, plant a large garden, leave my curtains open and not have passers by looking in on me in my pajamas and so much more.

There is one positive that comes from living in a neighborhood, however, and that is the unlikely relationships that can spring from living so near to people. One such unlikely relationship is that of our neighbor, Mr. B, and my boys. Last summer Nikolas really started to get to know him and the whole summer long Nik was a constant shadow to Mr. B as he tinkered around his house and garage. Nik had figured out how to unlock the screen doors and escape last summer and so I would often be running outside in a panic thinking he had run off down the street, but nearly always, I would find him squatting next to Mr. B as they worked on one project or another. With the weather being abnormally cold for a longer time this year, we hadn't seen much of Mr. B since the fall, but today the sun was shining and the temperature was pleasant so I let Lukas go outside to wander while Nikolas was napping. Soon Mr. B came out to change his tires on his truck and he noticed little Lukas walking around. Lukas was only a crawling baby in the fall so he was like a new little person to Mr. B. Mr. B tried to talk to him, but in shy Lukas fashion, he stuck his lower lip out, lowered his head and stared at the ground. Mr. B understood and soon he was busy turning the handle on the jack and raising the truck off the ground. This caught Luke's attention and soon his curiosity overcame his shyness and he slowly made his way over to the truck and squatted down in that cute little toddler pose and just watched in wonder.
Then he became a little bold and started "talking" and reaching for the lug nut wrench (right name?).

Mr. B thought he was too cute and started talking to him again and showing him what he was doing. Lukas stayed in that one spot for the next 20 minutes, just watching and listening and beginning to develope a relationship.

What is especially touching to me about Mr. B and his relationship with my boys is that Tone' grew up in the house we live in and Mr. B had been there from when Tone' was Nik's age. How fun that he watched Tone' grow up and now he is watching Tone's children grow up as well.

So if I must live in a neighborhood, I couldn't have picked better neighbors than Mr. B and the many other wonderful people just a few steps away.

A Day With Aunt Kellie

On Wednesday the boys and I drove up to see my sister, Kellie, and her family in Tacoma. We made it just in time to watch my nephew, Zachary, wrestle. Nik was very excited to see Zach and wanted to sit right by him on the bleachers in between matches. Lukas just wanted to roll around on the sweaty, disgusting mats and lick them. Mmmmmm. Zach did very well and won his first match in seconds. His second match was a bit tougher as the opponent outweighed him by 15 pounds, but he fought hard and gave the guy a good workout.
The next morning Kellie and I took the boys on the LINK (train) downtown to go to the Children's Museum. As most of you know, Nik is obsessed with trains, so this was super cool!

It was a beautiful, cold day.

Waiting for the train.

Luke eyeballing everyone on the train. He has become quite leery of strangers and if anyone looks at him he sticks out his lower lip and puts his head down and pouts. It really is cute:)

They had fun crawling through tunnels and hanging "fish" up to dry at a Native American camp.

Then we went to the "store" where Lukas sorted fruit and had fun pushing the grocery basket all over. Nik had fun playing cashier and screaming at the little girl who took "his" money. The mamas had to break that one up.

Aunt Kellie helping him make a heat impression with his hand.

Then Nik donned an apron and painted away. He was very focused and seemed to be concentrating hard on his picture, this one in particular. Funny, it looked just like all the other 7 paintings he did, but apparently, to him, there was something special.

It is always fun to go to Kellies as she is really good at seeking out interesting and inexpensive activities for us to do. I need her to plan my fun outings here in Portland as I never seem to be able to find anything that is both interesting and inexpensive.

Don't Call Child Services!

I was showing my brother-in-law, Bill, some of my posts on this blog and as he looked at my sidebar he read aloud:
"Things I would be doing if I weren't wipping little bottoms."
He laughed kind of nervously and Tone' and I laughed too, and then I realized he said, "whipping" and not wiping!
I quickly said, "wiping little bottoms", not whipping.

Not that I don't spank, (because I do, though not in the manner typically though of. Go here to read thoughts on this highly controversial subject), but I just don't want anyone to think that all I do all day is whip their little bottoms.

Phew! Now that that is all cleared up! Isn't language fun? What a difference a letter or two makes.

I'm (Not) A Cowboy

FYI: these pictures are from last summer, but I am trapped up in Issaquah for the weekend and have no picture file and no way to download more pictures so I thought I needed to post something for all my dedicated fans out there. Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately, I'm sure i will get with it soon:)

Nikolas received red cowboy boots for our trip to Oklahoma last summer and he thought they were the coolest thing. He spent a bit of time admiring them.
Yep, these are my red boots. I know, I'm cool.

Tone' started singing the song: "Dead or Alive" by ? (sorry Tone', I am so music illiterate) and Nik memorized it with him, except with some minor changes.

Tone': "I'm a cowboy,"

Nik: "No cowboy!"

Tone': "on a steel horse I ride"

Nik: "No steel horse!"

Tone': "I'm wanted"

Nik: "No wanted!"

Tone': "dead or alive"

Nik: "No dead or alive!"

That is how the song goes everytime and everytime Tone' and I laugh. It's probably mean to antagonize our child, but boy is it funny!

Get Off The Road, Here Comes Lukas!

Our little Lukas has suddenly become interested in all things possessing wheels. He wants to try everything that big brother Nikolas does and will keep lifting his chunky little leg up as high as it will go to try and get on a trike or a ride on toy. It is absolutely too cute to watch:)

Now that the weather has been showing signs of improvement we have been spending more time outside and Lukas has been loving it. Even when it is chilly outside and the sun is setting and everyone is cold he will kick and scream and arch his back when I bring him inside.

Lukas is definitely showing signs of being a little athlete like his brother, and perhaps his parents as well:) He pulled himself up on this three wheeled scooter all by himself and stood there balancing and willing it to move. I took pity on the little guy and scooted him all over the place. He was grinning wildly:)

Good thing Nikolas received a bike for Christmas as I think Lukas is planning a takeover of little RED.

And thanks to a boy Nik met at a park who gave him the little red scooter, and to his Uncle Billy who gave Nik this blue scooter, there shouldn't be any arguing over scooters, and yet, I can already hear Nik saying, "I want blue one!" "No, I want red one!" depending on which one Luke is on. Maybe Luke will be the easy going one and not care which one he has.

Wouldn't that be nice?