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By most everyone who has ever experienced any time with them, even strangers witnessing them from afar, my boys are labeled “active” (read: off-the-wall go go go non-stop movement always-into-everything constant-full-throttle-energy SPIRITED-to-the-Nth-degree). Generally I’m highly opposed to labels. But in this case, I can’t blame anyone who labels K & O this way. They are so incredibly “active” all the time that I really can’t argue with the label. They don’t ever, ever, ever seem to get tired out; their energy never seems to expire. Ever. Anyone who has spent any time with my boys — you know what I mean. The director of our daycare (who has run the place for over 17 years) told me one day that Kyle and Owen are the two most “active” children she’s ever had in her care. Seriously. And I totally believe her. I’ve often thought that we should offer some sort of prize or award to anybody who can tire them out. Think you are good with spirited kids?! O.k., try mine! Think you have a lot of energy for your age? O.k., try a day with my two boys! Think you can keep up with active children? O.k., try keeping up with mine! The challenge would be something like this: Spend a day with K & O and try to tucker them out without physically putting them in unreasonable danger. The awards and prizes would be given out based on something like this: At the end of the day did they go to sleep smoothly/easily and sleep for more than twelve hours straight? Since I’m so confident that this competition would kick the butts of the vast majority of people who tried to enter it, I would push hard for the prizes to be big, huge, amazing prizes. Like ‘all-expense-paid-vacation’ kinds of prizes. I, for one, think that anyone who could win at this game (especially anyone over the age of 30) deserves something wonderful and restorative — like a spa trip for two to someplace warm and lovely. I can count on two fingers the number of people who, to my knowledge, have actually entered this competition and won: 1) Braydon, 2) Heather. Yes, folks, we are over 30 and we’re good — darn good — at tuckering out our “Active” (with a capital “A”) kids. Last night, after a very “active” day, we brought them upstairs for bedtime at 6:30. They were in bed and asleep by 7:00. And right now it is 8:19 a.m. and they’re both still sleeping soundly. Shouldn’t we get some sort of prize for that??? Like, a really big, huge, amazing prize?

Late morning P.S. to this post — Just for the record: Owen woke up at 8:40 a.m. Kyle just kept sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. Finally, at 9:20, I let Owen go upstairs to wake up his brother. Who knows how long Ky Ky would have slept?! Just for the record: I’m still waiting for my prize…????? I feel like this is one of those games that is rigged from the start — they let you fantasize about all the great prizes you might win for participating, but nobody ever actually gets to claim anything?!

Saturday was the 2007 EASTER EGG-STRAVAGANZA at Peddler’s Village. We had gone to this last year and had a blast. This year was even better because the boys understand everything so much more. I feel like I wish they could be exactly this age forever.

After the Egg Hunt on Saturday we spent awhile walking (well, Braydon and I were walking… Kyle and Owen were running) around Peddler’s Village. The boys love to explore the winding little paths, look at the meandering streams, run over the little bridges, and check out the windmill and water wheel. At one point we went into a Gourmet Candy Shop where they sell handmade chocolates and other goodies. We let the boys pick out one special treat each. Of course they both chose the same exact thing. Of course. But I was surprised when they chose two different colors — Owen chose a treat wrapped in green foil, Kyle chose a treat wrapped in pink foil. They had absolutely no idea what was to be discovered inside, but they knew enough to know that whatever it was inside that pretty foil wrapping was going to be good good good. They each had an oreo cookie hand dipped in milk chocolate. These treats did not disappoint!

It was a gorgeous day and we finally got to spend some time outside. I have a new video camera and couldn’t resist filming as the boys played simply in the sandbox.

Note: if the video looks cut off, double click on it to watch directly on youtube.

The four of us (as Owen and Kyle say, “OUR WHOLE FAMILY!”) went to the park after daycare today. Here are some photos from Braydon’s cell phone camera…

101 Haitian migrants who had fled Haiti in a small boat were found yesterday on the shore of Florida. Read the Miami Herald article: click here. Read the Orlando Sentinal article: click here. Or, just look at these photos: click here.

Some days I feel like I suck at being a mother. Some days I feel like I’m ‘so-so’ at it. And then every once in a great while I have one of those euphoric days when after putting the boys to bed I walk/glide down the stairs thinking, “Man! I *ROCK* at being a mom!” (O.k., granted, those days are very few and far between… I could probably count on one hand the number of times in the past 2.5 years that I’ve had one of those days… but a girl’s gotta celebrate the small stuff, right?!). So, people, last night —- Last night was one of those nights.

I felt like a million bucks. ‘Why?’, you ask… Well, let me tell you why. But first, remember, like I said: a girl’s gotta celebrate the small stuff. And yes, this is really small. And sorta pathetic. But still. I rock. Sometimes.

Anyway, here is why yesterday I rocked at being a mom: Folks, its Dora Egg Hunt. Yes, Dora Egg Hunt people!!!

I’ve posted before about how Owen and Kyle greet Chinese people in Chinese (click here for example). Yesterday, they again amazed me (and, I must admit, shocked me!) with their linguistic dexterity and ethnic differentiation. I was dropping them off at daycare. Kyle was already unbuckled and was climbing out of the car. I was working on getting Owen out of his carseat. An older gentleman was walking along the sidewalk in front of the car. He was dark skinned and appeared to be Hispanic. I didn’t think anything of it, hardly even noticed the man, until suddenly, both boys start shouting to the man at the top of their lungs– “¡Hola!” The man stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face our car. The boys yelled it even louder — “¡Hola! ¡Hola! ¡Hola!” The man, absolutely delighted, face glowing, and eyes twinkling, waved and shouted back, “¡Hola!” Kyle and Owen, now smiling and absolutely delighted too, jumped out of the car and ran up to the man. Owen, looking right up at him, then says, “Buenos días!” And the man was beside himself with delight — “Buenos días!” he said back, smiling ear-to-ear. And with that K & O were off and running and skipping and jumping to the daycare door. I waved goodbye to the man and ran after the boys. Once inside the toddler room I asked the staff about this — “Have you ever seen them do that?” I said. “Yes!!!” they all said, “All the time!” They explained that when the boys are playing outside and they see this man walk by (he lives in the complex where the daycare center is located), they run to the play-yard fence and shout “¡Hola!” and “Buenos días!” back-and-forth with him. They said that the boys also do this with other Hispanic folks who they see walking on the sidewalk. I said, “Who taught them that?” And the daycare teachers said, “We thought you taught them that????” “No, I haven’t taught them that!” O.k., Kyle and Owen have definately have watched their fair share of Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go videos… I mean, they’ve been exposed to some real basic preliminary spanish in those videos (just like millions of other American toddlers obsessed with Dora and Diego have been). And they have a couple of teachers at daycare who speak spanish. But I had never before witnessed them actually identify an Hispanic-looking person and say “¡Hola!” until yesterday. One thing is for certain: from the look on his face, I think it is safe to say that it definately made that guy on the sidewalk’s day (oh, and it made my day too!).

If truth be told, every single day is jam-packed with fun and funniness. Yes, there is also lots of drama and “terrific-two” tantrums and time-outs-for-naughty-behavior and utter-parental-exhaustion. Just this afternoon Braydon and I were talking outside while we watched the boys play in the yard and I said, “Doesn’t it just feel like every day is a wild roller-coaster ride of emotion?” And he said, “YES!!! It does!” But overall, I can honestly say that the peaks of the roller-coaster ride — all the fun and funniness (all the joy and love and laughter) — far outweighs all that other stuff we experience in the valleys of every-day-life. I count us as incredibly lucky and incredibly blessed. Here are just three of the fun things from this weekend:

1) Awhile ago Braydon bought the boys little toy airplanes that they can make fly (click here for that post). Within just a couple days of Owen mastering the flying of these planes, Kyle had mastered it too. We have three planes total, so all three boys can play. Owen, Kyle, and Braydon all love to play with these planes. They play with these airplanes every day for extended periods of time — both inside and out. The latest is that Braydon came up with the great idea to fly the planes up and down the stairs inside the house. He sits on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and shoots the planes up (often hitting the ceiling, a plant, or one of the boys). They all laugh hysterically. Then Kyle and Owen retrieve the planes, stand up on stools, and shoot them back down to Braydon (often hitting the ceiling, a plant, or their Papi). They all laugh hysterically. Then Braydon shoots them back up to K & O. They’ll do this over and over and over. It is really fun to watch because they are all three really playing together, and they are all three really doing something together they each individually enjoy.

2) Lately we’ve been noticing how much Kyle loves to look at himself. He will situate himself in front of any mirror or reflective window he can, and watch himself do stuff. He’ll do this while playing all of his instruments, or he’ll do this while playing with a toy truck, or he’ll just dance/hop/spin solo in front of a mirror. He is completely unselfconscious about it. Which is so endearing! And he is totally unaware that Braydon and I realize his love of watching himself. The latest is that he has discovered that if he situates himself just so on the stairs he can see himself in a small mirror that hangs on the wall of the downstairs foyer. Numerous times a day he goes to the stairs and watches himself do stuff — especially playing instruments. He just pops off to the stairs to watch himself from time to time. He has no idea we are watching him watch himself. Here he is drumming on the stairs — you can see him looking at himself in the mirror and he’s got the drum tilted just so — so that he can see himself hit it with the drumstick. He was so engrossed with this watching-of-himself that he did not even notice me walk right in front of him and take the picture. 😉

3) Owen and Kyle are both pretty good eaters, but they eat really differently in terms of how they pace themselves during any given meal. Kyle has always just powered through his food. He sits down, shovels it in, and then is off and running. Owen, on the other hand, likes to sit at the table for long periods of time. He doesn’t rush it. He wiggles and squirms and chats it up with whomever else is at the table, and he plays with his food and gets distracted and nibbles and fools around, and eventually eats it all. K & O both eat about the same quantity of food but Owen takes literally about five times as long to eat his. This leaves lots of time for Owen to discuss deep ideas one-on-one with Braydon and I at the table. The latest is that Owen is starting to understand that the food he eats goes down his throat, into his belly (well, he says/insists that the food goes “into his belly button”), and that the food makes us strong/healthy. At one point this weekend Kyle was long done with his meal and was off and playing. Braydon and I were done too, but we were still sitting at the table with Owen — who had barely even gotten started on his food. I was telling Owen that he needs to eat his food so he will “have big strong muscles just like Papi!” He loved this idea. He’d take one small bite of food, chew it, and swallow it, and then pull up his shirt sleeve for us to look at his muscles. He was absolutely 100% convinced that each bite he ate made his muscle bigger. “See it?!! See it Mommy? See it Papi?!” And he’d be so proud to show us his muscles. That meal took even longer than usual for Owen to finish. ;0 But it was a very fun meal.