Quote of the Day

So David and Danny are playing in the tub, and they are pretending to put new tires on various vehicles, like - of course - Luigi does in the movie Cars. David makes this adorable "Pizz! Pizz!" sound that is the air compressor thing that attaches the tires to the body - or something like that - I don't really know what happens. But you know, the tire-attaching sound.

Anyway, so I hear David say: "Pizz pizz! Pizz pizz! Danny, do you want new tires too?"

And Danny replies, "No, I don't have tires (tone of voice = DUH DAD)! I have arms and legs and penises!"

Amazing.

A Day at the Beach

I wish I had had my camera with me at the beach, but the "after" pictures will have to suffice.

Dan and I spent a much-needed morning just the two of us this past weekend. He wanted to go to the playground, and so we gathered our toys and held hands the entire way.

But once we got to our playground (which is right on the ocean), he wanted to go to the beach itself. Since Matty's come, we haven't been able to just waltz down to the beach very easily, and we've both missed it. So I said OK, even though we had no bathing suits, or towels, or even swimmy diapers.

But, as totally unprepared as we were, we had a ball. We saw dolphins, the waves were spectacular, and we ran around in the waves and built a nice big sand castle/pool.

Danny was wearing jeans, and soon, the jeans became waterlogged and sandy. So he asked to take them off. Then the shirt came off. Now, do the math here: diaper + ocean = ridiculous saggy butt. Of course, he didn't care one whit, but I felt like a welfare mother, and told him that once the diaper literally fell off from the sagging, we had to go home.

So run run run, dig dig dig, splash splash splash, and finally, the diaper falls right off: plop!

"Time to go home," I say.

"But I don't want to go home," says Dan.

Hmmm. OK. So the jeans go back on - all sandy and wet and soggy and just how uncomfortable can a piece of clothing possibly be? He doesn't care. It's the greatest day of his life.

But these jeans are falling right down his bottom. Right down. People are taking pictures, laughing, it's a thing at the beach. I almost set up the bucket to take money.

Eventually, it really is time to go home. On the way we get a bag of popcorn.

And here, I present you with the "After" shots, that only hint at the ridiculousness (and joy) of our day.

I love you, kid.




And then, the reverse. This is how we walked home - literally - this is not staged.

Well....OK!

I came out of the kitchen today to find this scene:

Matty's First Word: Mommy!

PSYCHE! The second one forsakes me as well.

Matty's first word is: Kitty!!

You can hear him saying it, as he's first pointing at the kitty on the cover, as I'm saying YES YES really loud.

(Sorry my voice is so loud - I'm using my cell phone to record and it picks up my voice because it's closer. Also, yes, you do hear in my voice that we're all sick again. Hooray!)

Who Needs a Dog?

(No offense, Matty)

Mattyyyyyy!!

So They All Rolled Over and One Fell Out...

Opening Bids Start at $500

I mean, I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

We had quite a day. After our trip to Midlothian where Danny got to paint with his Aunt Elizabeth, Danny talked about "painting" every single day. We finally broke down and got an easel, which came this afternoon.

But what came first this morning via the USPS was the finger paints. We broke those out first.





Pretty fun, and you can tell how delightful it FEELS.

So then we broke out the easel, which is TOTALLY AWESOME.

Danny took to the paints in a way I wasn't quite expecting.

I know every parent does this, and you can taunt me, but here are his masterpieces:

His first:



The second piece, clearly experimenting with Minimalism:



Here is "Danny" - I helped with this, but he did a lot:



and here is Mommy and Daddy - I only did the circles for the head!!!



AND, I'm the tall one!! Ha! He's not just good with color, he's excellent with perspective!

Then Matty stepped in and put the finishing touches on a few pieces...



Here is a watercolor the boys "collaborated" on:



Considering only two paintbrushes (with non-toxic paint) went in mouths, I'd say this art stuff is a rousing success!

Trip to the Playground

So we ventured out in our double-wide to the the playground on the beach for the first time this year. It was, in a word - hilarious. Danny kicks back but Matty - he's the hilarious one - he sits forward, hand on the rail thing, turned slightly towards Danny, having a BALL. And then I introduced snacks onto the tray, and forget it. Pretty quickly, there became "Danny's tray" and "Matty's tray" - with Danny very graciously ensuring that Matty's tray stayed full of blueberries.

See for yourself!







The dudes also enjoyed tandem swinging. Watch Matty swinging himself - awesome!

Picnic!

Nobody Gets Him Going Like His Brother

To Tide You Over

I turn away and this happens - thus why the vacuum cleaner is practically an appendage these days.



And say hello to Mr. Tongue. (How does it do that??)



And check out the crazy hair. I think he might be a curly-head like his Mom. Sweet guy.

Well, Whaddya Know

So just when I was convinced Danny would be wearing diapers in college, today I am doing my thing at the table and I hear, "I'm going to pee on the potty!"

And lo and behold, he had pulled down his pants and his diaper all by himself, and was doing just that!

This could be a one-off, but hey, I'd say this is progress!

Midlothian

Fortunately, Nana took some great shots of the boys hanging out in Midlothian.







We showed up to the most beautiful snow-covered trees you've ever seen. Boy, I wish we had pictures of that.

Nana and Papa gave the boys a really neato Thomas the train Lionel set that provided hours of fun. By the end of the first day, Danny was operating in both forward and reverse with no problem.



Then, while we were sleeping, Santa came to visit, and brought quite a bounty.

Aunt Elizabeth is working at the Children's Museum of Richmond, and we stopped by to check it out - and holy smokes it is awesome. We made a mobile, and a painting, and rode the crazy jungle train about eleventy thousand times. I wish we could have gone every day!

We also had a delicious breakfast with Great Grandaddy at Brandermill Woods, where the boys charmed all the ladies.

Check out the robes Nana got for the boys - they are super soft, perfectly matched to Matty's eyes!

The Getalong Gang Reunited

I'm really lucky to have an amazing group of ladies (and now spouses and childrens) from Delaware that manages to get together in some iteration every year.

We were supposed to host at our house (at a "pop-up cafe" called The Road Hazzard - oh I'm so clever), but the Flu #2 did us in. Fortunately, the newest spot on Old Lancaster Pike called Casa Maguire found an opening for 15 last minute, and we were saved!

David was writhing around in misery all morning, so he didn't make it over, but in attendance were Linnea, Mark and their kids Collin and Annika; Colleen, Shanen and their daughter Caroline; and Heather, Pete and Lucia. And Mr. and Mrs. Maguire.

Mrs. Maguire held court at the kids' table so the adults could try and eat...







To steal a quote: What is Lucia thinking?? Haha.

Thank God Pete took some pictures!

Back "Sneest"

As many of you know, this trip back East was, well, "health-challenged," shall we say?

Matty caught RSV at some point the first week we were there, and started coughing the last day we were up at the cabin for Thanksgiving. Two days later, he's wheezing and having trouble breathing, and we were at the Emergency Clinic getting antibiotic shots and nebulizer treatments. It was pretty scary.

Then, the entire household pretty quickly caught whatever Matty had and it lasted...officially...FOREVER. (Mister Bob, amirite?)

Then, a few days before Christmas, Danny got the flu, most likely from the kids room at the Hockessin Athletic Club. At first it didn't seem so bad - although he was throwing up, he seemed mostly just cuddly and tired and wanting to watch Cars on repeat. (Wait, isn't that any day that ends in "Y"?) But then two days later, John and Lala were really sick (so violently sick, in fact, that I honest-to-God thought John was stabbing somebody - just for a quick second - in the basement.) Then, penultimately, David was felled on Christmas Eve. Every single person in the house was laid up in bed, miserable, except for Matty, me and Danny a little bit.

Awesome!

I honestly think I willed myself not to get sick, because if I went down, there would be NO ONE able to take care of Matty. And nobody able to try and get Christmas together for Danny. It was pretty sad, actually, but we made it work. We set out cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer, and hoped Santa would come.



All things considered, Christmas was really nice. (Even though Danny threw up right after opening his presents from Santa...yes, he really did.)


And then, I finally came down with it Christmas night. We didn't make it to Virginia on Christmas Day as we usually do, unfortunately, since I was in the middle of it, and David hadn't eaten in over 48 hours. The next day was supposed to be the Snowpocalypse 2010, but we packed our 87 bags into the Subaru and soldiered on, eager to see Nana with everybody worried that we were going to be in a ditch on 95. Of course, there wasn't even a quarter inch of accumulation on any road we traveled. Thanks a lot for the panic, Weather Channel!!

We almost made it through Virginia unscathed, but considering we should just wear signs that say "any bug within 100 miles, come on over!!" Danny caught something on the last day that has now christened Matty and me too.

So yeah, three illnesses within 2 months. Awesome!

It was so bad, I even took a video. Forgive the diaper - it was hard enough to get Danny to wear that, I promise. "I want to be nnnNAAKed BABY!!"

Longwood Gardens

On a cold, blustery, snowy day in December - somewhere between Evil Flu #1 and Evil Flu #2, we went to our local treasure - Longwood Gardens - with Pops. It was so cold that the amazing fountain/lights show was frozen over and not working - boo! I've never seen that happen before, ever!

Anyway, both kids were delighted by the new indoor kids garden, which is truly magical. They have all kinds of dancing fountains, crazy sculptures and a huge dragon that Danny visited 100 times.









And both were also delighted by the outdoor garden train.

Look who it is! That guy is everywhere.



It was a lot of fun, but boy, it was cooooooooooold!!