2 is oh so fun!

I thought we had already entered the "terrible twos" but I am learning that all that came before was just an appetizer, a small sampling of what my innocent little baby is truly capable of. We have officially started time out with Nicolas and he definitely understands when and why he is put in time out. He will sit, as long as we are close by, for as long as it takes to get the tantrum out of his system. Unfortunately we haven't determined just how long that is yet!! He has stamina, I will put it that way. So, here is an example of a typical time out: Nicolas throws something or hits someone when he is upset. That is a no no. So, he is put in time out. He cries and screams, but he sits. He is told he can get up when he says sorry to whomever he offended, usually mommy. So, he sits for a minute, is asked, "do you want to get up?" He nods yes, then is told "you can get up when you tell mommy sorry." "NOOOOOO!!!!" "Ok, then you need to keep sitting until you tell mommy sorry." (Lots of crying and screaming, often some leg kicking and lying down occurs as well.) He calms down a bit "do you want to get up?" Head nods and says "ok". "Then tell mommy sorry." "Truck?" "ok?" (Anthing to distract you so I don't have to say sorry.) Now, I know some of you are thinking, he doesn't understand sorry, just let him get up already. Well, let me tell you, he totally understands. Here is how I know. This last time he was in time out it was close to bath time and bed time so he needed to get up and get in the bath. He did give me a hug, which is part of the apology. But he still wouldn't say sorry. So, we go through bath time, jammy time, and then it is off to bed. He gets his hugs and kisses and as SOON as I had shut the door to his room to go downstairs I hear, "sorry mommy". That little stinker! So, we have a stubborn Swede on our hands. Hmm, that is so strange because no one else in this house is like that.

What the kids are saying....

I fear there is no way to keep track of all the wonderful, terrible, hilarious, and sweet things my kids say, but I am going to try!!!!

Just a minute ago Dom gets off his chair while eating dinner and announces "do you want to hear my remember verse from church?" Of course I did!!!! Then in a way only Dom can do, he acts it out "Be strong (arms up flexing), be brave (arms on hips, legs akimbo), the Lord is with you (pointing up and then at me.)" I hope he "remembers" that verse forever, it is one of the more important ones after all.

Just wanted to share. I love how a child can put a smile on your face even when your arms are elbow deep in spaghetti dishwater. Thanks Dom, I love you so much!

Chocolate milk and Jesus

Hey there. Just thought I would share some cute things the kids have said lately. The first is more sweet than funny. Anthony and Dominic learned a little about Lent at karate class last week, basically the instructor talked about sacrifice. Later on Grandma expanded to include Jesus and His sacrifice for all of us. The next day, obviously after much thought and contemplation, Anthony said to me "Mommy, I want to give up chocolate milk so Jesus doesn't feel bad." Still brings a tear to my eye. What a sweetheart.

This past weekend we went out to dinner for Auntie Erin's birthday and while we waited for our table I asked the boys what they wanted for dinner. Dominic replied "chicken hands." He obviously meant chicken fingers, but I like his version better.

And not to be left out, Nico has had his share of funny sayings lately as well. Mostly he is just talking all the time, repeating everything he hears, and it is so adorable! A couple weeks ago in Walmart we were walking down the snack aisle and all of a sudden he starts yelling and pointing "go f*%^&!" It took me a second to realize he had spotted the goldfish crackers and really wanted me to get some. He still can't quite say it correctly and whenever he does say it he usually yells it. So funny.

That's it. Hope this made you smile.

Things I've recently realized about myself, and also some cute things the kids have said

I will start with the story that is foremost in my mind because, as of late, things do not remain there long and once they are gone they are gone for good. As most of you know I am on facebook which keeps me in touch and up to date on friends and family both near and far, past and present. There are several "apps" in facebook where you can share different information; websites, videos, movies you like, and music you are listening to. What I have discovered about myself is that, well, I seem to be stuck in a musical rutt. My friends and family are posting songs from people I have never heard of! I am feeling very out of the loop at the moment. When I stopped and tried to figure out why I am so behind in music (my ipod has Third Eye Blind and Oasis on it, not to mention Frank Sinatra) I came to a few conclusions. The first conclusion was that I spend way too much time listening to talk radio than music radio, and when I do listen to music it is either my much outdated ipod or country music. Another conclusion was I just don't have the time. Keeping up with new artists and songs could be a full time job, and is for some people!!! I go to iTunes and just about pop a blood vessel when I try to navigate through new artists, artists that artists suggest, celebrity playlists, and the list goes on and on. And it is just as time consuming keeping up with artists my friends and family are suggesting. So, for now I will continue to be a country girl who occasionally puts on her "stuck in the 90's" ipod when she needs a change. Maybe when the kids are in college I will have time to catch up.

Ok, on to cute things the kids are saying. Well, the most recent was cute and sweet, at least to me. I took Nico and Dom to an indoor play-place for an hour so they could get some energy out. It is a place where you must wear socks and leave your shoes at the door. So, upon leaving I had the boys sit on the bench to put their shoes back on and there was a little girl sitting there. She was not happy about sharing "her" bench and kept saying, very loudly "my side, my side" to Nicolas, who was sitting closest to her. Dom looked over after he had put on his shoes and got in her face and said "that's my baby brother, you don't yell at him!" After I told him it wasn't nice to yell back either and to say sorry, I smiled to myself secretly. The warm fuzzies of brotherly love are still tingling in my chest and there is a tear in my eye. Dom loves Nico afterall.

The big boys started karate this week. Let me just say this blanket statement; karate has changed our lives. How you may ask? Well, let me tell you. For one thing, they are taking their classes at the YMCA, which still stresses community, Christian values, and self confidence in all their activities. So we get to their first lesson and immediately the instructor is asking them to "stand strong" (straight with hands behind backs and feet slightly apart) and say "yes sir" and "thank you" when the instructor asks them to do something or gives them something. The boys were LOVING it!!!! They had no idea what they were doing, but they were so excited to be just like the other kids who were listening and being respectful. The best part is that in this class, the first belt they earn, the white belt, is given to them my us, the parents. To receive it the boys must exhibit the tenants of Tai Kwon Do which include respect, kindness, helpfulness, love, patience, and being polite. They have a list of things they must do for an amount of time the parents choose, and then they can receive their first belt. In order to make this process easier to follow for them, and fun too, I went online and found a site that makes online goal charts for kids. So, they both made their charts with all the things they have to do in a given day, like brushing teeth, cleaning their room, not fighting, etc, AND all the things they must do to earn their belts. This has been an amazing challenge for them and they are doing so great!!!! They are being kind to each other, more helpful around the house, not throwing tantrums at the drop of a hat, and learning how to control themselves. I realize it is only the first week, but they are catching on to how much better life is when you live this way. So, thank you YMCA, thank you!!!

More cuteness, if I may. Nicolas is chattering away even as I write. He likes to go through his entire repertoire occasionally saying all the words and phrases he knows. Some of his favorites are "baby Jesus", "applesauce", "whoa, cool", "whoa", "see dat?". It is so fun to watch and listen to him pick things up. He is imitating his brothers all the time now and it just makes me smile. There is nothing cuter than a two year old imitating a 4 year old who is imitating a 6 year old. Ahh, the circle of life.

The latest

Hey all. OK, I promise no politics this time. Just some good, old fashioned stories about the kiddos. I know, so strange and unpredictable of me. I have to say, Joe and I have a hard time keeping up with all the creative, hilarious, and sometimes awful things our kids say, but we try. We had a list going for a long time but ran out of room and never added more paper. I think the addition of another child hampered our efforts at documenting even the simplest of quotes.

The first story isn't actually a quote but rather an event. My friend Lesley was over on Monday and I made the kids shells and cheese. Dom and Mack were having fun eating and sticking the noodles on the ends of their tongues or fingers. Not wanting to be outdone, Nicolas put one in each ear. Luckily Mack informed me before he shoved them too far in. Unfortunately no one saw him stick one up his nose. I looked over and he had his finger in his nose and was making a funy face. I knew right away what had happened. Let me just say, moms, be sure to have tweezers in your house. For whatever reason I had none and so I tried to think of another way to get the noodle out of his nose. He had crammed it pretty far up in there and I started having visions of it drifting into his eye cavity or having to have surgery to remove it. I tried using our battery powered nose aspirator (you suck boogers out with it) but that only shoved it further in. Eventually I took Dom and Nico to the drug store and got some tweezers. It was all to no avail, the noodle was too squishy and I couldn't get a good grip on it with the tweezers. So, I put him down for his nap with a noodle up his nose. Anthony and I even made up a nick name for him, noodle nose Nico. Joe was home by the time he woke up and took a look up his nose and said he could see the noodle and wanted a try and extracting. So, he got the tweezers and managed to work it down to a point where I could squeeze it out of his nose. I know, too much info, but it is what it is. It was bigger than I thought and I am glad it is out of there, for his and my sakes.

As long as we are talking about not so funny moments in my kids' lives, let's move on to yesterday morning. Anthony and daddy were getting ready to leave for the day and Dom was following Anthony around as usual. Let's just say that Anthony is not fond of mornings, or at least mornings where he has to get ready for school, and Dom was bugging him just a little too much. I didn't see this happen, but as Joe put it, Dom flew backward like from a scene in a movie. Anthony had pushed him out of annoyance. Daddy had to get involved and that is serious business. So far there have been no more pushing incidents that I am aware of.

Now for a nice story. I may have already told this one, but one day a few weeks ago we were going to pick Anthony up from school and as we parked the car Dom says "Thanks for the ride, pretty lady." It still makes me smile. Such a goof ball.

And let me just praise my kids for a minute. We went to the La Brea Tar Pits on Sat, which is in LA. What should have only been a 1.5 hour drive ended up being close to 2.5 hours and the kids were so great the entire time!!!! I was so proud of them.

Today

Unlike my other posts, this blog will not contain photos or stories about my family. I felt compelled to write about the inauguration and my personal feelings and thoughts. I will admit that I didn't plan on watching the inauguration today. Then I though, why? Out of spite? On principal? I did not want to be that person. While I may not agree with Obama on most of his policies, I am called as a Christian to honor my leaders. He has been entrusted to lead this country and I have to believe that he has our best interests in mind. Just because our views on how to achieve those interests differ greatly does not make him a bad person or a bad president. In so many ways I truly feel sorry for him. So much has been placed on his shoulders that it will be impossible to live up to it all. He will fail in more ways than he will succeed, as do most presidents, but in his case it will mean more for some reason. While I think the race issue is actually a non-issue, it has become THE issue. I don't care whether he is black or white, red or yellow. What I do care about is what he plans on doing while in office. However, most of the country has put their hopes and dreams in a man based on his skin color, at least in part. But that is for another post I suppose. Right now I am kind of taken up in the moment. Regardless of who is being sworn in today, it is the beginning of a new era for our country.

The media has taken it upon themselves to keep race as a focal point. Almost every person they have done close ups on this morning has been a person of color. Why? Aren't there plenty of white folks out there who are just as excited wbout Obama being sworn in today? I am fearful of the next four, and most likely 8 years. I believe so many of the problems we are facing as a nation have been caused by the exact same kinds of policies that Obama wishes to institute. But I also have to have some hope. If I sit here complaining and harping on this administration I am simply adding to the problem. I have become what I despise. If I want change I must make it myself. But how? I don't know at the moment. But I will figure it out. So as I listen to our now 44th president give his acceptance speech, I feel proud. Proud of this nation, proud that we have the ability to change our circumstances and proud that we have the freedom to speak our minds. I heard a quote recently in a movie I can't recall that said, you don't have to agree with your government, you just have to believe in it. And I do. I am blessed to live in this country, blessed to have the freedoms I do, and I believe that our government has the ability to make this country even greater. I know for so many people this is a big day and I respect that. So, let's move forward and do what we can to make things better. I think it really comes down to each person doing what they can. One man cannot change the world, but we as a nation can change things dramatically, so let's get out there and do it!! As Obama just said, the world has changed and we must change with it. But let's not change so much that we forget who we are. We are a country founded on freedom, founded on the belief that the people of this nation have the ability to make this country great, not just the president. So let's put some of our hope in Obama, but most of our hope in ourselves.

New Year

Hi all. I know it has been way too long. In an attempt to document the things our kids say and do I am posting another blog full of Dominisms and Nico cuteness.

The age of Star Wars has begun at our house. The boys all have light sabers, they have a Star Wars video game they love to play, they have seen some of the classic star wars movies as well as some of the new ones as well. They play light saber battle all the time. During one such battle Anthony and Dom come bounding into the family room and I hear Dom say" I'm going to pay you for this!" If you could have seen the serious look on his face it would have cracked you up even more. We use that one alot now.

Nico has turned into such a little talker these days. He is stringing two and three words together and the simple fact that he can communicate his wants and desires more easily makes my life so much nicer! But he is a little comic that is for sure. One of his new favorite things to do is to get one of his brothers' Buzz Lightyear toys (it is like a big action figure) and lay him down on one of our end tables. Then he goes and gets a package of diapers and brings them to the table all the while chanting "ucky biaper" which of course means "yucky diaper" which is what we say when we change him. Then he proceeds to try and put a diaper on Buzz. One of the cutest things he does now is how he answers pretty much any question. When he asks for more of anything he says "More drink, ok" and then shakes his head up and down. If he really wants to emphasize his desire he adds a "yeah" with the head nod.

Rather than being cute Anthony just amazes us with the things he knows. He can name every dinosaur and pronounce the names accurately. Not only that, he can READ all the names. He has several dinosaur books and I have to ask for his help in pronouncing the names when I read it to him. He knows more about the dinosaurs than most people and wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up. He is such a little sponge and it is so cool to watch him learn.