Colin's Writing

Colin is learning to read and write and is very excited about it. After he writes something, he will cut it out and tape it to his bedroom door.


This first sign lists the names of everyone in the house, including the cats! It says:
Ambrose Flowers S.
Simon Purr S.
Phoebe Fast S.
Nathan Martin S.
Colin Robert S.
Kristine Marie S.
Robert Wayne S.

Of course, Colin gave the cats middle names too.


The next sign says, "This is a invention. Date 2009. I like invention making invention and they ! are ! awesome!" I think he accidentally put an extra "invention" in the one sentence. And I explained the exclamation point to him for after "awesome". He decided to put some more in for extra emphasis.


I couldn't figure out the top of this note, but the bottom says, "I like this family". I like this note!

Scraps

This is what Colin makes when I give him my scrapbooking scraps! Impressive!

A "Say Anything ... " moment

Remember the movie "Say Anthing ..." with Ione Skye and John Cusack. At the beginning of the movie John's character is walking Ione's character home from a late night. He sees some broken glass and kicks it aside making sure that she doesn't step on it or anything. Remember that scene? Probably not. But I do.

Well, last Monday we had a playdate with Grace from Colin's class (another playdate with a girl -- I love those kind of playdates!). Anyway, we were walking home and Colin pointed out some glass on the ground and warned Grace of it, making sure she didn't hurt herself.

He is such a sweet kid.

Nathan and Laura

I'm doing much better about setting up playdates for Nathan. He has at least one a week now, sometimes two. This week Nathan asked to do a playdate with Laura. A side note, Laura is Eva's little sister. Colin and Eva were in the same class last year and Colin really likes Eva. It looks like the younger siblings are on a similar path.

So I emailed Laura and Eva's mom and set things up for yesterday. When we got to school, Nathan said he wanted to walk in with Laura. So we waited for Laura to get to school and they walked in hand in hand after a big hug. Nathan was so excited to see her.

The playdate went so very very well. Nice and calm ... well, except for the tornadoes in the tents. But that was short lived. Laura was excited to play with the trains that Nathan got out. I hope we do many more playdates with her.

Nathan-isms

Things that Nathan says:

"hide -n- peek" = hide -n- seek

"carry me up" = pick me up

"panana" = banana

"canola bar" = granola bar (Colin used to call it "bar bar" when he was little

And one day when we were blowing bubbles, he says, "I want to fill the whole world with bubbles".

Yeah, wouldn't that be awesome.

How to get better ...

When one of the boys are sick, they watch a lot of TV. My kids don't do naps, and TV is a mostly sure way they stay calm and rest a little. Otherwise, they are bouncing off of the walls. Having two boys, they bounce off the walls a lot, even when they are sick.

So right after school started, Nathan got sick, just a little cold that kept him home one day. Knowing that he was going to get to watch lots of TV, Nathan said, "TV will feel me better."

'Drop off' playdates

Yesterday Nathan went on a playdate. I've really been neglegent in doing playdates for Nathan. So most of Nathan's friends are Colin's friends, and most of the playdates that were scheduled this summer were with Colin's friends.

Anyway, Nathan was invited over to the house of a little boy that will be starting in his class soon. The little boy's sister used to be in Colin's class and that's how we know the family. On the way over to the playdate, Nathan told me he wanted to be "dropped off". Well, since I know the mom and wanted to hang out with her, I told Nathan that he could just pretend that I wasn't there. But the fact that he asked to be dropped off really demonstrated to me how different Nathan is from his brother. Colin hates "drop off" playdates.

Directions

Colin still has difficulty with left and right, but he totally gets North, South, East and West. It's really strange. My theory is that to him North, South, East and West make more sense because they are always the same but right and left are dependent on your prespective. Kinda like how I preferred math to english because 2+2 always equaled 4, but english has all kinds of exceptions ('a' before 'e', except after 'c', etc. etc.).

Nathan grunting

When I was pregnant with Nathan, I grunted ... a lot. It seemed like I grunted more than when I was pregnant with Colin; maybe it was because I had to take care of a toddler.

So now when Nathan is working really hard at putting the wheels on a toy, or lifting something heavy, he grunts. I mean really big exaggerated grunting sounds. It makes me wonder if it had anything to do with all the grunting that I did when he was in my belly?

Mr. Inventor

Colin is the master of inventions. He is always saying, "I'm going to make a machine that will ..." and fill in the blank with the most amazing, bizarre, and/or random thing that you can think of.

Many times, this is Colin's coping mechanism when he is angry. I was a mean mommy one time (imagine that!) and wouldn't let the boys do something. Colin was extremely upset with me and said that he was going to make a machine that was an elevator that could hold all of his friends and not me. There was more to the elevator but I can't remember all the details, it was pretty elaborate.

And just today, Colin expanded his inventions to potions. So school just started and there's a little bit of a transition involving who plays with who on the playground. Without going into all the details, one boy made Colin very angry because he was playing with Colin's usual playmate on the playground. So Colin says that he is going to make a special potion that will turn people into bugs and give it to so-and-so and then he's going to catch the bug and put it in a container.

What an imagination.

A beatle in the park

Last night was the Paul McCartney concert in Piedmont Park. I had tickets to another show and sold them so we could go to this one. The other show is a bi-annual event, and I figured that this was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

Wow, what a show. Paul did a couple of really special tributes, the first to Linda. He sang "My Love" which he also wrote for her. Second, Paul brought out an ukulele that George Harrison gave to him. During "Something", a slide show of George played behind the set.

Paul also talked about Woodstock, that yesterday was the 40th anniversary and then did a little Jimi Hendrix, very cool. The anniversary of Woodstock was further cemented when it started raining ... for a while it rained pretty hard and we held the blanket over our heads.

Nature called during the show so I headed to the porta-potties. The energy of the show continued where someone sang "Man on the Run" full volume in there. Okay it was me singing! Except I was singing "Band on the Run", a little rendition that was made popular during bootcamp elastic band workouts.

But my two favorite songs of the evening were "Hey, Jude", and "Live and Let Die" which he did back to back. I remember "Hey, Jude" from the first time I saw Paul McCartney in 1989 at Iowa State. We sat outside the stadium watching the show. During "Hey Jude", the whole stadium of fans sang and it gave me goosebumps to hear it. Last night, being one of the many singing, I wondered what it sounded like to everyone else outside of the concert venue. If the sound was as loud and as awesome as I remembered.


Then "Live and Let Die" cranked it complete with fireworks and explosions, just like the first time in Iowa. I was looking forward to it and thought I was ready but was still blown away.

The stage behind us, impressive!

Dentist

Nathan went to the dentist for the first time on August 12. However, he got a couple previews of what to expect when I went to dentist a week earlier, and Colin also had an appointment two days before Nathan's. Next time I have their appointment on the same day.

My dentist appointment was probably not the ideal time to bring Nathan. I had a full set of x-rays done and poor Nathan had to sit out in the hall in a little stool. He looked so bored.

So with all that practice, Nathan's appointment went really well. He opened his mouth really big and cooperated very well. I was very proud. And all three of us didn't have any cavities, Yeah!

Colin at his appointment:


Nathan's shoes:

Oregon Brewer's Fest

We returned from our trip to Omaha Wednesday evening, just in time to wake up early Thursday morning for the next trip to the Oregon Brewer's Fest in Portland, Oregon.

The flight was good for us, bad for the couple with 3 boys next to us. Their littlest one had an earache and cried most of the trip. Luckily, it didn't bother us too much, just grateful it wasn't my kid -- is that bad?

We took the train to downtown Portland from the airport which the kids really liked. But we couldn't check into the hotel yet so we grabbed some lunch and headed to the brew fest. At the brew fest I noticed that Bob didn't have his laptop backpack, which I also talked him out of checking in with the doorman at the hotel with the rest of our luggage. For some reason I didn't think it would be safe. Instead he forgot it at Quizno's. Should've let him check it in with the doorman. Luckily, it was still at Quizno's when Bob went back.

At the brew fest, the kids played in the sand/dirt for a while. They said they were making sand castles. Next the root beer tent where there was crafts like coloring frisbees. Then we threw the frisbees where Colin really got into it.



Dinner was at Rock Bottom, a chain brew pub. It's pretty good in the west, not so good in the east.

Friday, I ran a course that was suppose to be 10 miles. It took me 2 hours, so I'm thinking maybe a little more than 10 miles, more like 12 miles. I did get lost once but not too bad. I could see where I wanted to go, just didn't know the best way to get there.

At the brew fest, there were a couple of rough spots with the kids. They were getting bored. Bob and I would take turns hanging with the kids in this shady, grassy area by the porta-potties. At one point, a guy started talking to us -- wanted to take a picture of my Ale Smith t-shirt and started playing with the kids. Really lightened the mood a bit for us. Friday, we also saw friends of ours from Roswell Farms, Mike and Alanna. We haven't seen them in years and they live in Seattle now. And get this, the first time we went to the Oregon Brewers Fest was with them! How ironic is that!

Saturday we went to the Saturday market which is a really neat arts and crafts market, and bought some Christmas presents. I really wasn't interested in taking the kids back to the brew fest ... it was going to be so much more crowded on Saturday and they were getting bored with it. So I begrudgingly offered to take the kids to the museum across the river while he went back to the brew fest.

The route we took to the museum must have been over 2 miles, but I really wanted to walk over the "Steel Bridge" which is an amazing structure. Nothing like it really, with two decks that can move indepedently.


We finally make it to the museum, and in the free part of the museum is a steel ball run (like a marble run) called the "Gravitram". The kids were absolutely entralled with it. After watching for a while, I drugged them away to get tickets to go to the rest of the museum. Well, I forgot my wallet, so no money, so no tickets, and back to the "Gravitram". Good thing it was there! Good thing my kids are good sports too.


That night Bob and I went out to dinner with Colin (not our Colin but a beer friend from Atlanta) and Colin's girlfriend, Abby at Deschutes Brewery. Good times.

David's Wedding

My brother got married! Woo Hoo! Big excitement and celebration. Colin and Nathan were the ring bearers and Bob was a groomsman. I had the important job of mother of the ring bearers.

We flew in Friday, getting up at 5am. Bob had the special treat of flying to California the day before and returning on the red eye Thursday night. He flew in Friday morning, got a couple hours of sleep before going back to the airport again. We flew to Kansas City (fares to Omaha are outrageous!) and then drove to Omaha. First we visited with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Jerry and Great Grandma JJ before heading to Nikki's where we were staying. Bob and I had just enough time to get a teeny tiny nap in before going to the rehearsal. David was so cute, dancing down the aisle during the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner was at Godfather's Pizza where everyone had a good time. We got back to Nikki's after dark and the fireflies were out, so we caught some fireflies before getting to bed.

Saturday was just as hectic. I woke up early to go a 16 mile run. Training for the Chicago Marathon doesn't stop for anything, you know. More visits to Grandma Mary's and Grandpa Jerry's where the kids stayed the night too. Bob and I had plans to go to Misty and Heath's where most of my cousins were getting together. That was the first time in a long time that so many of us were able to get together and chat.

Sunday was the big day for David and Bernadette. I was the lead person in getting the reception hall ready but my cousin Misty had been to many receptions at the Reed Center and was a big help in telling everyone what to do. My cousin, Scott's wife, Melissa was also a major helper in getting everything done. Uncle Tom and Connie were also there and blew up the balloons. Although every time I looked over at them, they were doing something crazy like using the balloons for augmenting body parts (that was Connie not Tom!)

The wedding was beautiful, and Colin and Nathan were the perfect little ring bearers. Colin took the responsibility very seriously and stood up there very solemn the whole ceremony. Nathan was a typical 3-year-old and got a little antsy but it was all so cute. Just a little wiggling around, but still he was very good.

David and Bernadette got married in the same church that Bob and I did. During our wedding we forgot to light the candles so we had no flame for the unity candle. David kept in the tradition by forgetting the paperwork for the judge to sign after the ceremony! Fortunately, the paperwork was found after the wedding and the judge agreed to go to the reception and do the paperwork there.

The reception was also at the same place as when Bob and I got married, the Reed Center which is also the same place that I went to Summer Day Camp when I was a little girl. After it got dark, Colin and Nathan played in the backyard where I played as a little girl. Colin and Nathan caught more fireflies that night.

While staying at my sister’s house, I noticed that she had the same eye shadow that I had. I mean out of all the million’s of different eye shadow colors out there, we have the same one. It actually was a 3-pack and it was the same color in the 3-pack that we both used. Reminded of the time I returned home from college with my long hair cut off. Only to discover that Nikki had cut her long hair too. We had no idea the other one was thinking about doing it. I guess there is just something about sisters.

Diving board

Last Thursday after swimming lessons, one of the teachers, Tyler asked Nathan if he wanted to go off of the diving board. Nathan is fearless but wouldn't do it at first but then Colin said that he wanted to do it and viola! both boys were jumping off the diving board. Colin can almost swim to the edge by himself but Nathan still needs lots of help getting to the edge of the pool.

Nathan jumping to Anna.


Nathan going in!


Colin and Tyler.


Colin's big splash.


Colin swimming to the edge.

Colin Swimming

A couple videos of Colin swimming. I am still in awe of him swimming and can't believe how far his has come since the beginning of the summer.

Here Colin is talking about the first time he swam!


In this video, Colin demonstrates how he can swim all the way to the bottom of the pool.


And this one shows Colin doing all his swimming moves like jumping in, and his freestyle strokes. I really like his trademark move at the beginning where he adjusts his googles by hitting them with the heels of his hands, classic!

Playdate at Carlton's

It started out as a regular playdate, I brought Nathan over to Carlton's when Colin was over at Edward's house at another playdate (I accidently double booked playdates). Nathan played with play-do with Carlton while I went and picked up Colin from Edward's house. When I returned with Colin, we decided to play outside for a while. Eventually the water was turned on and that's when the fun really started as you can see in the pictures.

As soon as the water was turned off, the rain started. It was like a switch was flipped. So Colin, Nathan and Carlton started doing a naked rain dance.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July in Atlanta means the Peachtree 10K Road Race which is one of the largest 10Ks in the US. 55,000 runners signed up on the internet in less than 24 hours. I heard about race numbers selling for $200. Anyway, Bob and I ran it this year. My time was 54:50 and I was very pleased with that. I typically pour the water from the water stops in my face to cool my body temperature down. I kept on getting water up my nose whenever I'd did that. Yuck.

At 4:00pm, Inman Park had a picnic at Springvale Park. It was the first neighborhood function that Bob and I took the kids and didn't have to constantly help, entertain, or just play with them. It was great! Colin and Nathan ran around with a couple of other boys and had a really good time.

Colin and Nathan fishing with their new friend, David at Springvale Park during the picnic.

The originally plan was to go home and take a little rest (aka nap) before going to the Grinnel where we were going to watch the fireworks from on top of the building. Well, we stayed really late at the picnic and just had enough time to go home, clean up and reload the keg with more beer and head back out.

On the way to the Grinnel, we past another gathering where a classmate of Nathan's was so we stopped there to chat for a bit, get some ice cream sandwiches and glow tubes for the kids. Then off to the roof top where the view of the fireworks was really something. Against my wishes, the kids even did some sparklers (I'm such a mom sometimes).

Looking on the bright side ...

Colin and Nathan are going to be the ring bearers in my brother's wedding in July. So we went to the tux shop to get their measurements. This was not something that Colin was very interested in doing. He was complaining about being cold and wanted to go home. After a while I was getting very tired of the whining and asked Colin to think of something to be grateful for. My example was that the tux place was located outside of the mall and I thought we could get to the car without going back inside where it was cold.

Colin thought for a minute and said that the longer it takes, the warmer the car will be. And then the rest of the trip went much more smoothly!

Omaha

This was an exciting trip for the boys. The last time they were in Omaha was Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa GG had lots of surprises for them. Their bedroom had a fire truck bed which they didn't fight over. Surprisingly, Colin said that it was too small for him so Nathan got to sleep in it.

Rex the Bearded Dragon also slept in their room, and that was super exciting. Rex was David's roommate's pet (along with the turtle in my room and some snakes that stayed at David's house -- Thank God!) When David's roommate moved out the pets stayed for some reason. A couple of times, my mom got Rex out to let him run around the room which the boys really thought was neat.

While in Omaha, Colin and Nathan spent the night over at their Gramma Mary's and Grampa Jerry's house while I went out with some friends and my parents. Gramma Mary was so thrilled to see them and said that they were the perfect angels while there. Colin, in fact, gave Gramma Mary the biggest compliment when he said that he wished he could draw like her.

Here are some pictures of Colin and Nathan taking Grandpa and Grandma GG's newest toy out for a spin! The little Diego Jeep was a big hit, and Colin and Nathan were very good about taking turns driving it.

Going down to the shed to see Grandpa's surprise.


Colin goes first! He was a very good driver.


Nathan is so excited, but not a very good driver. He kept taking his hands off the steering wheel.


Giving a little push up the hill.


Grandpa GG had a very cool project that he did with the boys. They built a couple of birdhouses that are now hanging in their yard. Grandpa even painted them bright colors prior to our arrival. Of course Nathan and Colin had to use the paint in the kit to decorate the birdhouses after they were built.

Nathan checking his birdhouse for birds.


Colin checking his birdhouse for birds too.

We also went to Papillion Days with my cousin, Misty and her two boys Devin and Cooper. There was a parade and carnival. Pictures are posted on facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=2031894&id=1216834030

Swim Lessons

As mentioned in the Grand Cayman post, swim lessons were in order for Colin and Nathan this summer. Colin especially needed private swim lessons to get over some of his apprehension to putting his face in the water.

I signed up Colin for two weeks of private lessons and I was skeptical if that would be enough. Colin got five 30 minute lessons last week, then Tuesday (no lessons Monday due to being sick) got in the pool and just swam!! I was shocked, I mean his face was in the water and everything. Colin was swimming!! Absolutely amazing!

At his lesson on Wednesday, I overheard him talking to his teacher, Nina. He told her that his mom said he was turning into a fish. Indeed he is, just like his mom.

"She can handle it ..."

Edward came over for a playdate and during the playdate I stubbed my toe on the door. As I was standing there, grimmacing and moaning, Colin and Edward were watching me and finally said, "It's okay, she can handle it. She's an adult."

Yup, gotta remember that.

Grand Opening Park

There is a new park in Freedom Park a short walk from our house and they were having a grand opening celebration at 10:00am. Colin suggested that we ask his friend Edward to join us at the grand opening.

The new playground was made out of recycled running shoes and plastic milk jugs. So the ribbon cutting ceremony was a little different. The ribbon consisted of a running shoes that were tied together, and City Councilman, Kwanza Hall untied one of the knots to open the playground.

The kids tried to be very patient but it was tough keeping them off of the playground until the ceremony was complete. And of course, these things are never on time! Finally, it was time to break in the playground, and what fun the boys had! Kwanza even took a turn going down the slide!

Edward and his family meet us there and then we saw another little boy from school there too. As it approached lunch time, Edward's little sister was due for a nap, so we volunteered to take Edward to lunch with us. Hunter from school and his dad also joined us at Moe's, the kids favorite place!

After lunch, we walked to Hunter's house which is very close to Moe's. And eventually walked home when Edward's mom came to pick him up. It was one of those perfect days that was so much fun for everyone! (Too bad I lost all the pictures from that day.)

Now everytime we go to that park, Nathan refers to it as the "grand opening park".

Scary Song

Bob likes to play his music for the kids. This particular song Colin and Nathan have dubbed the "scary song". It's Ozzy Osborne's "Mr. Crowley".

Mother's Day

Mother's Day dinner was at Ted's Montana Grill, my choice. However, first we flew back to Atlanta from Montreal. It was funny, not many moms and children in the airport flying on Mother's Day ... I wonder why that is??

Montreal

We flew in Wednesday night, May 6 and had dinner downstairs at the Italian restaurant. The kids were very well behaved and made me proud.

Thursday, Bob worked all day and had dinner with the Averna folks. But before going to the office, Bob meet one of the Averna guys in the hotel and had breakfast there. They were still there when Colin, Nathan and I went to breakfast. Colin just stared and smiled so big at his dad.

After breakfast, I went out in search for groceries with the kids ... in the rain, in the borrowed stroller from the hotel. Turns out we forgot a stroller and Nathan is just not up for all the walking that we typically do on vacations just yet. Fortunately the hotel had a pink stroller that someone left and loaned it to us. I didn't mind it was pink. Neither did the kids. By the end of the weekend though I think I figured out why the stroller was left behind, it was not the best functioning stroller. But it was more functional than no stroller, so we were still grateful to have it.

The grocery store is located in a little downtown mall that had a fountain the the kids loved. We had to go to the top (4th) floor to get an aerial view of it. In the grocery store, Colin saw the croissants and had to get some. I'm thinking that's funny because when we were in Paris, Colin wouldn't eat anything from Paris. But apparently he has started eating croissants at school. Croissants were the main food for Colin during this trip.

After returning the to the hotel and packing the groceries, we went on a little adventure and checked out the pool on the top floor of the hotel. Lunch in the room, swimming in the pool, then back to the room where Colin watched cartoons in French. He didn't mind at all. Dinner in the room. All day the kids ate very well in the hotel room which is rare for them to eat good on a trip.

The next day, Friday May 7, the boys finally saw Bob. First time since breakfast the previous day. Bob asked Nathan what he saw in Montreal. Nathan's response, "Rain." We did a lot of walking in the rain the day before. Today while Bob was at work, I took the kids down to Olde Montreal and we saw some old railroad tracks that Colin thought were very cool. Of course, they had to walk along them.


Then we saw the Cirque du Soleil tents and the boys remembered them from Atlanta. I really would've like to see the show but it just didn't work out. I did take Colin and Nathan to see IMAX, Under the Sea 3D. Their first movie in a theatre. Colin loved it. Nathan not so much. Nathan thought it was scary especially when the big fish ate the little fish. I would turn Nathan's face into my chest and cover his ears when the movie started talking about the eating habits of the fish. Nathan did think that the sea lions were cute but didn't like the sharks. Maybe Nathan was a little young for this movie ... or any movie.

Friday night we went to an Irish pub for dinner where I shared a prime rib with Colin and Nathan. Once again they were so well behaved and got lots of attention. Then we got a babysitter which turned out to be our hotel maid. She didn't speak very much English but it worked out just fine. Bob and I checked out Brewtopia a brew pub. Never have I had such an awful beer! We actually left our half-finished beers on the bar. Our first clue should have been when I asked what was on cask and the bartender didn't even know that cask beer was not a style of beer. Then we went to another brewpub that was much better. At least it cleared my palate from the Strawberry Ale that I had at Brewtopia. Later that evening we were able to see Marc and Sylvie, friends of ours that live in Montreal that we met in Jamaica.

Saturday we took the kids to the BioDome and Montreal Tower. Then Bob and I went out to Diel du Soil, the most incredible brew pub in the world - 17 beers on tap where all of them (at least the ones we tried) were stellar beers!




Additional notes: Nathan made the comment, "In this world, I like Fruit Loops. In our world, I don't like Fruit Loops." He still refers to the places we go to as "other worlds". Too cute.

My facebook status included the following setiment, "Is it really eavesdropping if you don't understand teh language?" I just love listening to people talk in another language!

Big Brew

Today is the American Homebrewer's Association Big Brew Day where they encourage all brew clubs to do a group brew. There was also a video made for a competition that you can see at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYwp1VaZkkQ (the video didn't win but got a special kudos)

Colin and Nathan really got into it. Well, they really got into all the water and mud that was created with the run off. By the end they were sitting in the mud and filling their rain boots with muddy water.

Inman Park Festival - Face Painting

And what is a Festival without face painting? Colin and Nathan got theirs done. Colin got a scary one with a skull and fire on it. Nathan got a shark that was a salmon color. Very scary indeed! Danni even got a arm painting too!