Top 10 signs my kids are obsessed with dinosaurs

10)  I keep thinking I see small wads of paper, but when I get up close it's just another tiny dinosaur.  All over the house.

9)  Will scours the bookshelf to bring me one of the few dinosaur books we have.

8)  I can get the kids into the backyard in seconds if I ask them to go check out there for dinosaurs.

7)  When asked what movie he wants to watch, Will's only response is "Dinosaurs!"  Anything from the Land Before Time series will do.

6)  Kalena's dreams often include being eaten by a dinosaur.  (This doesn't seem to bother her any.)

5)  Will's first two word sentences were: "My dinosaurs!" and "Love dinosaurs!"

4)  Kalena's refusal to jump into the pool because of the "big T-Rex" at the bottom.

3)  Will can identify a pterodactyl (and say the word).

2)  They both insist on wearing their dinosaur shirts every time they're clean.

1)  I've heard Will roar in his sleep.

Definitely obsessed.

29

Well guys, today is my birthday.  I'm now 29.  I feel like 29 snuck up on me.  Last time I checked I was turning like 27, right?  Really, everything since about 25 has been a blur of pregnancies and babies.  It doesn't seem like I should be aging if every birthday is marked by being pregnant or having a baby.

At 25 I was pregnant.  At 26 I had a baby younger than a year.  At 27 I was pregnant.  At 28 I had a baby younger than a year.  And now at 29 I'm pregnant.  So if I'm at the same place I was when I was 25, how did I get 4 years older in the meantime?!  Obviously I see the time passing with my kids, but it doesn't seem like it should apply to me.

Anyway.  We did all the celebrating already.  On Saturday Brian took the kids and I sat at the house all day watching Netflix and then he picked me up and we went out for a sushi dinner.  (Who knew that someday for my birthday all I would really want is a whole day to myself to watch TV?)  Then on Sunday we had a steak dinner and cake at my parents house.  Brian did bring us breakfast this morning, because he's a sweetheart, but other than that it's just a normal day.

So.  Here's hoping that 29 is a good year.

On Christmas day when I was 10, my mom's dad died.  And then a few days before Christmas the year I was 20 my dad's dad died.  So I used to joke that my grandmas had better be ready on Christmas the year I  turn 30.

Instead, my paternal grandma died in April.  And my maternal grandma died Sunday night.

I was fortunate enough to get to spend a week out there with my mom and my kids at the beginning of August, and I'm glad we got that time.  She will definitely be missed.  

Thoughts on a third

I've always known I wanted a big family.  As the middle of five kids I loved the atmosphere I grew up in.  I was painfully shy as a child and having sisters so close to my own age meant built in playmates which was great for me.  And now that my siblings are also having kids I love that my kids get to have so many cousins.  I was lucky enough to marry someone who also grew up in a big family and wants that as well.  (Brian has 6 siblings, for those of you who don't know.)

When Kalena was a baby, every new stage she went through made me think, "Who would only want to do this once?"  And then Will came along and I got to watch her ignore him, then adjust to him, then play with him, and now be friends with him.  They really are friends.  She loves for him to play with her, and he follows her around constantly.  She is always concerned for his needs and often ends her sentences with "And Buster too!"  If she wants a snack she makes she he gets some.  If she gets to go somewhere she makes sure we know that he wants to go too.  If he gets stuck, or hurt, or needs help she alerts me right away.  Watching them together makes me incredibly happy, and confirms to me over and over that this is what I want.  And that's why I'm thrilled that we'll be adding a third in March.

A preview of what Will would look like with facial hair

One consequence of the finger sucking is that Will often has dirt around his mouth.  He goes outside, plays in the dirt, then sticks his finger in his mouth.  I should probably be more grossed out by this than I am.  Mostly I think it's funny.  Especially today when it looked just like a little mustache.

A delicious dirt mustache.

Nap schedule revised

Man, sometimes I just gloss right over the big stuff don't I?  I totally forgot to mentioned that Will is down to one nap a day.  It all started two weeks ago Thursday when my friend invited us to story time at the library.  I've always thought my kids would enjoy story time but it happens at 10 am which was right in the middle of Will's nap.  But he's been napping for less time in the mornings and taking longer to fall asleep so I figured, "Why not?  We'll skip the nap today and see how it goes."

And it went fine.  So we did it again the next day.  And the next.  And he hasn't taken a morning nap since.  It has screwed with my afternoon schedule a little since I moved up afternoon nap to accommodate for the getting tired earlier.  Now they nap at 1 instead of 2, which means they're up at 3 instead of 4, and that extra hour between nap and Brian getting home seems VERY LONG.  But all in all it's been good.  So now I can go places in the morning!  Not that I do mind you.  But I could.

I want you to know that I take no credit whatsoever for Will taking two naps a day until almost 21 months old.  Some kids need more sleep than others.

So.  We're officially at one nap a day.

Visiting

I went to Denver last week.  It was sort of a spur of the moment trip.  I mean, I'd intended to go in September and I'd actually been planning to go this week, but then it turned out that my friend (who was the big reason I was going) was actually in town LAST week and not this week.  Good thing I found that out right?

Anyway, the kids and I drove up on Wednesday and arrived at my sister's empty house.  Empty because her daughter had taken a tumble down the stairs just about 30 minutes before we got there and she bit a giant gash in her tongue and that necessitated a trip to the emergency room.  WHOOPS.  Also, I'm a little concerned that my visits to her house may be jinxed since Patrick did something similar to his tongue when my mom and I were visiting back when Eli was a baby.  Or maybe her kids just have razor sharp teeth.

SO.  Thursday I got to see my good friend (and college roommate) Laura!  She lives in California now, but usually does recruiting at Mines during the career fair, and since Denver is WAY closer than California I try to come visit her when she's there.  I tried to talk Kari into coming down to visit too, since she actually lived with us my senior year of college so she's friends with Laura too.  But she decided Kirsta's house would be too packed for her to stay there (it would have been 4 adults and 6 kids in a 3 bedroom house) so she opted out.  But Laura thought it would be fun to see her too, so in the end we met up with her in Colorado Springs on Friday (halfway between where Kari lives and where Kirsta lives) and had lunch together and caught up.  And I'm pretty sure this story is boring you all to tears at this point.  I'm just writing it all to say-- I wish we all lived closer together and see each other more often because once a year is just not enough.

Now if you've stuck it out this long, I'll give you some highlights of the trip.

Patrick and Kalena play together SO WELL.  They may be some mutant strain of three year old because they are well behaved, even when together.

Kalena went to Joy School (Kirsta was hosting) with Patrick and another little boy and cried real actual tears when Kirsta told her she couldn't come next time.  Because it'll be on Tuesday and we're already home, not because Kirsta wanted to kick her out or anything.  Maybe time to think about some form of preschool hmm?

It was the general consensus that Will is possibly the cutest kid on the face of the earth.

Kirsta and Joe recently got a bunny and Will?  Is terrified of it.  Kalena wanted it out all the time, you know, to chase and generally harass, but we had to limit that since Will just freaked out when the rabbit was around.  I guess no pets around here for awhile.

That's about it.  And I don't even have any pictures to reward you for all your reading because I DIDN'T TAKE ANY.  No pictures of the kids with their cousins.  I probably need my mom license revoked.

It'll probably be a parking lot by next week

So, the house next door to us was torn down today.  Don't worry, this was not unexpected.  As I've mentioned, we live like a block from the college here.  And the college is currently in the process of procuring the surrounding land in order to do expansions.  Starting with our street.

Anyway, we knew that these particular neighbors had sold their house to the college a while back so we were just waiting for it to be torn down.  This is the third house on our block to be torn down in the last six months.  The other two lots are now parking.

The kids were fascinated.  Construction equipment!  Right outside the window!  It's better than TV!  And then when Brian came home and took the kids outside to get a better look, the guy was nice enough to let them play driver.  They were thrilled.

Don't let Will's indifferent expression fool you.  He was heartbroken when Brian got him out.  HEARTBROKEN.

So yeah.  This morning we had a house next door and this evening it looks like this:

It all started innocently enough

I had some plans to take the kids to the park with a friend today.  But then it rained, so I figured we'd take them to McDonalds or something and let them play at the play area.  And then she cancelled because her husband took the car, but at that point I had it in my head that we were going somewhere.  I knew if we didn't that it would make my afternoon be like a hundred million hours long.  (Did you know it is possible for the 3 hours between 11 am and 2 pm to last for one hundred million hours?  I assure you, it is.)

Anyway, I knew my kids would enjoy it, friends or no, so we packed up and went.  I was surprised to see how busy the play area was when we got there, considering a) it wasn't even noon yet, and b) it's a school day.  As I looked around it was apparent that it was all kids kindergarten age and under, which made sense, since they wouldn't need to be in school.  I actually thought that was nice, because older kids can sometimes be careless around the little ones and this way Will wouldn't be getting trampled.  So the kids ate and then got down to play.  Kalena was enjoying the craziness and Will seemed surprisingly unfazed by how many kids were there.  In fact he was brave enough that he started following Kalena up the tunnels, something he's never done before.  I THINK WE ALL KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING NOW.

Oh yes, he got stuck at the VERY top, too scared to go anywhere.  I sent Kalena up after him a couple times, but you know, she's 3.  She didn't find him, or if she did he wouldn't follow her.  And it's not like she's big enough to physically move him.  In fact, I looked around to see if there was an older kid I could send up there after him to bring him down.  But ha ha! NOPE.  The very thing I was glad for when we first got there now back to bite me.

In the end I had to go up there myself and get him.  And I made some observations while I was doing this.  1) It is HOT in those tunnels.  No wonder the kids are always running back to their table for something to drink.  2) The tunnels are really not made for people my size.  I'm not tall, but I hit my knees, and elbows, and head.  Not so much fun.  3) The slide they have at our McDonalds?  Does SO MANY TURNS.  I thought I was going to throw up by the end.  That said, I am SO glad they have a slide to the very top so that I didn't actually have to carry Will all the way back down.  That would have just been extra awful.

Apparently there is a reason for the minimum age of 3 on these things.