Saturday, January 31, 2009

Washing Machine Massage

I'm thankful to have a washing machine, but ours leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest complaint is that it lacks a rinse option, so when I wash the boys' diapers I have to run a full wash cycle three times per load, when all I really need is a pre-rinse, wash, and post-rinse. I'm sure that the excess water and electricity wasted every time I wash cloth diapers totally negates our good deed of sparing the landfills. Oh well.

Our washing machine is also somewhat unstable and shakes violently during the spin cycle. Caleb and Joshua have recently discovered that if they lean their backs against the washing machine during the spin cycle, they get a nice back massage. I always get a kick out of seeing them standing against the washing machine side by side, their little bodies trembling, with big grins plastered across their faces. I guess it just goes to show that you are never too young to appreciate a nice back rub!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Straight-talking Joshua

If Joshua doesn't like something, he will let you know it. This morning I heard the boys stirring in the bedroom so I went in the greet them. Caleb and I were snuggling on the boys' bed while Joe (who is working from home today because of the snow) came in and prematurely attempted to wrestle with a groggy Joshua. He quickly decided that Daddy's wrestling antics were interfering with his morning snuggle time with Mommy, so he pointed to the door and half-asked, half-commanded, "Daddy, go out there?" Joe dejectedly exited the room, but I assured him that he shouldn't feel that bad because it happens to the best of us. Last night while the boys were watching a few Old School Sesame Street clips, I started to sing along to one of the songs. Joshua turned to me and said, "Don't like it?" which is his way of saying, "Mommy, will you stop singing?" Another example is when we were visiting Granny and Babo over Christmas, Granny thought it would be fun to run back and forth with the boys across Aunt Nancy and Uncle Andy's porch. Joshua apparently had other ideas and did not hesitate to tell Granny to go back inside.

While we realize that Joshua needs to be taught that being so blunt can hurt people's feelings and is not always the best way to get your point across, we also admire the fact that he is a straight-talker. Combined with his bossy tendencies, we think he'll make a good political leader someday. Not necessarily the kind of politician that Americans have recently shown themselves likely to vote for, but a good one nevertheless!

Friday, January 23, 2009

No More!

While it's no secret that we're less than thrilled with our nation's most recent choice for president, we do recognize the historic nature of this year's inauguration and therefore set aside some time to watch the festivities on TV. The atmosphere in our house was pretty low key. Unlike the inaugural crowd who shamelessly booed our outgoing president, we believe that God commands us to respect our leaders, and we accordingly maintained a respectful attitude while watching Obama take office and deliver his first speech as president. So you can imagine that we were taken by surprise when, in the middle of the speech, Joshua marched right up to the TV and proclaimed, "No more! No more!" Shaking his head, he turned off the TV and reiterated, "No more!" Surprised, amused, and maybe even a little proud of our 3-year-old son, we couldn't help but laugh. And Joshua broke out into a big mischevious grin, as if he knew exactly what he had done.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Night Chocolate

It's well established by now that Caleb's a chocolate fiend, but his cravings reached an unprecedented height the week before Christmas.  Shortly before bed, Caleb wandered into the dining room and asked to see a tin perched on top of the hutch.  I obliged, primarily because I was relieved that I had finally identified what he wanted ("Want this. Want this." *aimless pointing towards the hutch* "Want thissss!").  In retrospect I should have used more prudence since the tin was full of Ghirardelli chocolate squares.  Of course, his next demands were "Want choc'late.  Want choc'late." but I firmly refused to open up one of the squares for him.

Later, while I was tucking him in bed for the night, I noticed he was still clutching a mint chocolate square. "Maybe I should take it away," I thought, but I figured that it was well sealed and that there'd be less commotion if I just let him keep it until he fell asleep.

As we all lay in bed, it wasn't long before I heard the crinkling of chocolate wrapper. I remained confident the wrapper was impenetrable, but after a minute of constant crinkling, I began to suspect otherwise.  So I leaned over to where Caleb was laying and was immediately greeted with the smell of minty chocolate.  We turned on the lights and noticed chocolate all over his hands, his face (which was also adorned with an ear-to-ear smile), and the pillow.  Although we reprimanded him as we washed him off and re-brushed his teeth, I could tell he was pretty pleased with himself.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

You're So Heavy!

For the past few months whenever I'd lift up Joshua, I'd often say "Oh Joshua, you're so heavy!", a phrase which he has come to interpret as a term of endearment. Several times Joshua has given me a hug and said "Oh Mommy, you're so heavy!" which I find amusing since I actually am quite heavy these days! He has also told Mimi that she is heavy, which is equally funny since "heavy" is probably one of the last words anyone would use to describe Mimi. Then the other day while Joshua was cuddling his (lightweight) new Curious George stuffed animal that our neighbor gave him for Christmas, he kept saying, "Oh sweet George, you're soooo heavy!"

Now we are faced with the task of trying to teach Joshua the true definition of "heavy". Until then, we can only hope that he doesn't use this unusual term of endearment in any situations where someone might actually be offended!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Christmas

This was the first year that Joshua and Caleb were aware of Christmas and were therefore able to partake of the happy anticipation that builds up to the big day. They knew that if they were good boys, they'd get such-and-such trains for Christmas. They eagerly identified Santa Claus, snowmen, Christmas trees, and reindeer decorations as we cruised through local neighborhoods admiring front yard displays. And most importantly they understood that Baby Jesus, Mary, the shepherds, and wise men were integral to Christmas, too.

With Christmas tree ornaments and other knick-knacks at every turn, Caleb and Joshua became very familiar with the concept of "decorations" and learned that while they often resembled toys, they were not to be similarly manhandled. Joshua has even taken it upon himself to repeatedly lecture the rest of us about the importance of not touching the decorations.

We celebrated Christmas day at our home in the morning, then with Mimi, Papa, Uncle Chris, and Aunt Sooja in the afternoon and evening. On Saturday we drove down to visit Granny, Babo, and Uncle Patrick for a few days. While we were down there we also got to visit with Joe's aunts, uncles, and cousins, our college roommates Aaron and Nicole and their new baby Elijah, and our friends Trent and Siobhan and their boys who were visiting from Michigan. It was so nice to see so many family and friends!

Over the course of the week, the boys became quite proficient at opening presents. Caleb continued to ask to "open presents" for quite a few days after Christmas. While Joshua cooperatively participated in the unwrapping process, he seemed far more interested in the contents of the packages. It wasn't long after he'd opened some new trains before he was already browsing the Thomas catalog selecting which ones he wanted next. The sudden influx of presents and new toys seemed to spoil the boys a bit and we had some attitude problems to conquer in the following days. While the swift passing of Christmas has been bittersweet for all of us, it's probably a good thing that Christmas only comes once a year!