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Owen Shares His Ice Cream Sandwich With Cooper

“Favorites” — Everyday I ask the boys what their favorite part of the day was. Tonight Kyle said his favorite part was: “When Papi held me jumping so big in the swimming pool in the deeper.” (The boys call the deep end of the pool “the deeper.”) Tonight Owen’s favorite was “When we went with my nanny Alex to Annabelle’s house.” (Alex now takes the boys to our neighbors’ house every Wednesday morning for a playdate with their friend Annabelle and Annabelle’s nanny Sonya.)

Quote of the Day — Owen: “Annabelle’s nanny Sonya has brown skin! Just like me! And Cooper has brown skin just like me too!!!”

Well – the boys are very much car lovers – just like their Papi! Here is a (not quite) exhaustive list of all the cars they boys know. And when I mean know – I mean they accurately identify these cars almost 100% of the time – when driving down the road.

These are not in the order of how important these cars are to them. I’ll just say that right now there are two cars near and dear to their hearts – first and foremost (and we don’t know why) is Chrysler’s PT Cruiser; which they love to shout at the top of their lungs as we drive down the road.

They are also particularly partial to (and we do understand this) the Mini Cooper/s; which again, they never hesitate to shout at the top of their lungs.

VW Passat wagon aka “The blue car”

VW Bug “VW BUG!!!!”

Mercedes e320 “Kathy’s car”

MINI Cooper aka “Just like Mor Mor’s!!!”
Toyota Rav-4 aka “Charlie’s Car

Volvo S40 “The white car”

Volvo V70 aka “Mor Far’s car”
Acura MDX aka “Our old black car”
Chrysler PT Cruiser aka “a PPPTTTT CRUISERRR!!

Honda Odyssey aka “Sandy’s Car”

Honda Pilot aka “Alex’s or Jackson’s car”

Hummer H2 “HUMMER is broken!”
BMW X5 aka “Matthew’s car”
Subaru Outback aka “Wah’s car”

Suzuki Grand Vitara aka “The rental car”

We were up all night with Kyle who had a fever. He spikes fevers really high — last night our highest reading was 104.9 at 4:30 a.m. (and that’s with an ear thermometer, which they say is always a degree or two lower than the real temperature?!)… Even though Kyle has always had high fevers when he’s sick it is still scary. Braydon had him at the clinic when it opened first thing this morning. He’s on an antibiotic and on the mend. We’re sure he’ll be just fine, but it is super hard on our whole family when one of us is sick (and wow doesn’t one of us getting sick just make us realize how close to the edge of everything falling apart we are living???!!!; It is hard to manage it all on a good day, let alone a sick day). Today was a tough day. But more than any of us, Owen HATES it when Kyle’s sick. He loses his best-friend-playmate for the day… all of our plans for family fun get thrown out the window… and worst of all… his twin brother gets tons of attention which just drives him (understandably) nuts. Kyle is very demanding when he is sick. He demands constant attention and requires that he is held (usually by me) 24 x 7. That alone is very hard on Owen. And Owen lets us know it. Anyway, while Braydon and Kyle were at the clinic this morning I was at home with Owen. We’ve been working on two big things lately and this morning — with the one-on-one time — Owen mastered them both. Owen was so proud to show off: 1] how well he can put his moisturizer lotion on and rub it fully into his skin all by himself (photo above), and 2] how he can zipper his own vest all by himself (photo below). We also went to the grocery store together this morning — just Owen and I. And although I have no photos to show it, I can attest that at the grocery store he was so proud to show off: 3] how when out and about without his twin brother side-kick he can still charm the socks off of many of the shoppers all by himself (and what a joy to go grocery shopping with just one three year old instead of two!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

P.S. About the first photo— “Barack the Vote. Obama 2008.” — It is a tough call, but I’m pretty sure I’m standing behind Obama for the next election. However, I’m VERY sure, knowing my boys, that they would definately vote Barack all the way if they could.

Today was a beautiful, beautiful summer day. Not too hot, and perfectly blue sky. We went to the Delaware Water Gap (click here) and hiked for two hours in the woods. We saw several beautiful waterfalls along the way. Doing this kind of thing as a family is K & O’s absolute favorite way to spend their time. They are almost always happy, almost all the time. But when we’re exploring new places (especially outside) the boys are unbelievably happy. As always, click on any photo to enlarge.

Sadly, at the last minute, our friends Jessica and Paul and baby Sammy had to cancel on coming to visit us for the weekend. We were feeling really down about that today. But we decided that we’re going to try to make the most of this very rare opportunity to have a weekend alone at home just the four of us. We started the weekend off with a *bang* this evening: we had our first real WHOLE FAMILY COOKING TOGETHER EXPERIENCE… We made pizza. It was crazy. It was messy. It was fun.

Our Summer Nanny, Alex, has been away for the past week on a vacation. I have been home with the boys. I have tried to keep up with some work during their nap times and after they go to bed at night, but for the most part I’ve been a stay-at-home-mama for the week (well, except that I’m carrying around the mind-numbing-weight of the constant-stress-and-anxiety-of-letting-far-too-much-slip-between-the-cracks-work-wise). At this point in my life I honestly cannot imagine doing just one thing: working or staying home. If nothing else, a week like the past one is a good reminder for me that I truly love and embrace the identity and the reality of being a Working Mother. And I also truly love and embrace the identity and the reality of us being a Two Career Family. I’m glad to have that reminder from time to time because sometimes in the craze of it all that is hard to remember. Anyhoo………… This past week I’ve done a lot of the things that I think stay-at-home moms do: I’ve run a lot of errands with the boys (the grocery store, the dry cleaner, the pool store, etc.), had a lot of playdates with the boys and friends (Jackson, Noah, Joy Lin, etc.), and spent a lot of quality down-time/at-home-time with the boys doing just regular-nothing-special stuff. We also went to McDonalds for lunch one day and to the Waffle House for breakfast one day. We went to their favorite park, and we spent a lot of time in our backyard and our swimming pool. We have had a great time together and tomorrow Alex comes back.

P.S. — Oh, and I potty trained them this week too. 😉