Learn To Stop To Smell The Flowers

Amid the many, many crazy, clueless parental moments are more important "aha!" moments when you know that you're (amazingly) onto something!  And the most important of these "aha" moments don't come through LeapFrog products or Hooked on Phonics programs-they simply come by allowing ourselves and our kids to just BE.

While in Yellowstone, Rocky and I both were amazed at how so many people drove through the park as fast as they could go (we had to pull over A LOT) or walk along the boardwalks and trails without ever looking around them.  They seemed to want to hurry, hurry to the next "point of interest" in their field guide, snap their picture, and hurry, hurry home to catalog their novel trip in their scrapbooks and scratch another thing off their bucket lists.  It is pitiful, really, how much of Yellowstone they didn't have to miss if they could just slow down.

We do a lot of "novel" things with our kids. They get the popular toys that they really only love for about a week, get to go to Alive @ 5 just to play on the bouncy slides, and Billy REALLY REALLY wants to fly on a plane to Disneyland. Some things are admittedly done just to say they have done them.

However, our kids are turning out a lot like me and Rocky.  At Silverwood, Alexa seemed to enjoy smelling the flowers just as much as riding the rides (the photo below is in our backyard-however she ALWAYS stops to smell the flowers!)  Billy will just as soon tell you HOW a geyser works than that he actually got to see one.  Or about the chipmunk that climbed up the ledge at Firehole Falls. Or how he gets to watch his turtle in the yard, and that she is afraid of everything.  The things they remember and most excitedly re-tell are the simple things they pick up just by slowing down and paying attention when they are playing or going on a walk.

I love that they can find joy wherever they are.  This simplicity is something that will always be a part of who they are and something that will hopefully help them be happy no matter what path their lives may take!

**Tonight we took the kids to Uncle Steve's science classroom.  Let me say Billy was full of enthusiasm.  Uncle Steve has SO many books with volcanoes, friendly turtles, frog guts, and dead snakes in jars!  Alexa especially loved the turtles.  Later we went to dinner at the Cattleman's Cafe and Uncle Steve asked Billy if he wanted a treat (chocolate cowboy boot) and he got so excited he almost looked like he was having a seizure!  Even the waitress and neighboring table couldn't help but catch his enthusiasm!

How To Get Your Family To Paint Your House For You

Oh no!  Uncle Mike had emergency heart surgery on Thursday.  He is doing well, but had planned on painting his house this weekend.  Since everybody was in town we all pitched in to get it (almost) done.  Billy was super-excited to go to Mike and Cathy's, like always.  He greeted Mike with a great big hug (like always) when he got home from the hospital and picking up the paint (after Cathy ordered 5X what they needed!) 

Alexa, on the other hand, has never shared Billy's enthusiasm for Uncle Mike.  Nope.  She responds to him as if he is from Mars.  Apparently having heart surgery is reason enough for Alexa to give him a break, however.  Today she warmed right up to him (ok-so maybe she wasn't totally sure who's lap she was sitting on). 

They also got to spend time with Shell, JT, Mike and Mandy-possibly the funnest "aunts" & "uncles".  Too bad they live so far away.

Just Shopping With Mom

Billy and I got to spend the day together shopping for the preschool while Grandma Susanne and Grandma Barbara watched Alexa.  We had the most wonderful time!  We played air hockey, found a Power Ranger costume, found a ride-on dinosaur for $7, and even got little sister a  Radio Flyer tricycle!  We laughed a ton!  I can't wait for some more one-on-one time.

*The title comes from Mercer Mayer's Little Critter book.  Billy loves Mercer Mayer, Dr. Seuss, and Berenstain Bears.

The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider

For the last couple of weeks we have had a giant spiderweb outside our window.  Billy really wants to watch the spider, but unfortunately it stays well hidden until dark.  Last night I video-taped him for Billy, but today a fly got caught in the web and the spider ran right down to eat him up!  Lucky Billy got to watch this HUGE spider catch the fly, roll it up, and haul it back into it's corner.  It's so cool when kids get to witness nature first hand.  Always the scientist, Billy now knows how a spider can't see well, but feels the bugs in the web and how it kills them.

And so later we made spiders to hang on a spider web in the preschool/playroom:

Also notable: Yesterday we were asking Billy if he'd ever seen the Flinstones.  He replied: "No, I haven't.  Awww, I'm so ashamed!"

Alexa learned to do somersaults!

Vote For Bob!

Billy and Alexa are already training to be little Democrats!  OK-that wasn't the point, and I hope they have their own strong political opinions some day.  But they did get to spend the morning waving and blowing kisses (that would be Alexa) and yelling "I'm 4 year old! and Vote for Bob!" to the crowd from Bob Brastrup's float entry in the Potato Festival parade in Manhattan.  I unfortunately forgot my camera, but they looked pretty cute sitting in the back of the flashy red Mustang convertible!  Billy was a little bummed, however, that Bob didn't bring the speech and drama bus.

More importantly, they had fun eating junk food and playing on the bouncy slides!  I'm glad Bob could include us.

The day didn't end there.  We came home and watched a movie on volcanoes, did volcano/skateboard stunts in the living room, shot up the yard with the potato gun, and mixed magic potions that turned Billy into all sorts of wild creatures (including Skippyjon Jones, of course). 

I'm pooped!

Yellow-Smoke-Town

This week we took the kids to Yellowstone (or Yellow-Smoke-Town, as Billy referred to it) for two days.  I'm amazed at the level of enthusiasm and the number of discoveries these two made in such a short time.

Billy's favorites were Old Faithful and Spasm Geyser (below).  He'll tell you that Yellowstone was created by a volcano and germs (the bacteria that colors the springs).  He's now on a volcano kick-I'm thinking a trip to Pompeii is in order!  He also was excited to camp, which we did in a cabin on Hebgen Lake outside West Yellowstone.  Sitting on his own little bed he looked at us and said "I just can't believe we're really here!"  I'm envious of his absolute passion for living in the moment and the world around him.  I hope he never outgrows it!

Alexa had a fantastic time herself.  She just LOVED her backpack rides with Daddy, and entertained the thousands of people we saw with repeated renditions of La Bumba and Batman.  She also got a kick out of the buffalo-her new word-of-the-week.  Speaking of words, we were in the cabin and we were writing Billy's name on a dry erase board.  We were spelling "Hamilton" and as I said H-A-M-I- she piped up before us "L!"  After some "NO WAY" glances between Rocky and I, I continued spelling "T" and again, she pipes up "O".  Alexa the sponge.  Soaks up everything she hears!  So, her biggest crowd-pleaser now is saying "O" and waiting for everyone to laugh at her little joke!

And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.

So before this blog gets off on too much of an all-fun-and-games note, let's make this clear.  Everyday has moments.  Stressful, "I want a golden goose NOW" moments.  Luckily, most end like today's and make all of those moments totally worth it!

This afternoon Rocky and I were playing with the kids at a playground when we decided it was time to head to Burger King.  Horrible, right?  What kid would want to go there?  Not Billy, as you can see.  He'd be content climbing high enough on the gyms to scare himself silly all night long.  So after coaxing him down from the giant caterpillar with nothing less than bribery and a round of counting to ten and deep breaths, we were headed to the car.  No raised voices (aside from the serious solo performance atop the caterpillar) and a V-line (or is it B-line?) for the car.  Success.  Then Billy steers off course into the trees.  No-I thought this was going so well.  I asked what he was doing, and he said he needed to breathe.  OK - he's calming himself down-that's good!  And he can't breathe without the leaves, he says! 

Touche!  And I was worried he was sabotaging our caterpillar crisis intervention efforts.  He's too smart for my own good!  I'll have to give him a little silk leaf to carry in his pocket so he'll always have a ready supply of oxygen when he needs to calm down.

The Adventure Begins. . .

Online, anyway.  For our family it started years ago.  Many of my children's adventures are recorded through the countless photographs yet to be printed and patiently waiting on my hard drive for some form of tangible life.  Some are in their baby books.  None, however, are recorded in the two blank journals I bought for them and intended to write in weekly so one day they can read the stories of their childhoods.  Hopefully, thanks to a friend's idea, this will turn good intentions to a reality.

And hopefully, if you are a friend or family and you are wondering "How are the kids?" you'll find a much better answer here than simply "Great!" which you will most likely hear from me!

So, this is Billy:

He's four.  And when he grows up, he's going to be a scientist.  Just ask him; he'll tell you and everyone around all about it!  He loves Spiderman and Power Rangers.  He can tell you exactly what happens to that piece of food you just ate (and usually likes to explain the nitty-gritty details at the dinner table, of course).  He's amazing-you'll see.

This is Alexa:

She, above all, loves her brother.  She's one.  She sniffs every flower she sees, climbs everything she can, blows kisses, talks a lot, and (my favorite) sings the theme song to Batman.  Really, she does!  She too is amazing!

So these are my amaznig kids, and here I can record their amazing story.