Family Fuller

We have done a lot of Christmas decorating but each day the boys like to add a little more. Colin did a very nice Christmas tree at school complete with sequins. Then Holden made a bunch of drawings. He likes to “wrap” his which means rolling the paper up. Then he put his “wrapped” decorations up next to Colin’s on our front door:

This afternoon I attempted to build a Gingerbread house with the boys. It was from a kit but wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. The boys restrained themselves from eating candy for awhile but suddenly the house started to colapse and as I was strugging to hold the roof on they took advantage of the situation. The next thing I know, they are picking the pieces off the roof as it’s sliding and licking and eating everything. Turned into a madhouse and a pretty ugly gingerbread house – well, really it wasn’t very attractive from the get go, but that’s what I expected

Holden and I also made some cookies this afternoon:

P.S. I swear Holden wears something other than that orange stripped shirt…just glanced through the last few posts and he is wearing it in every picture.

I came out of the shower this morning to find Holden gluing his bare feet together with a glue stick – thank god he didn’t find the crazy glue on the counter

He is currently making lunch in the kitchen. He requested to use the real stove but I nixed that right away and made him his own set up:

The boys requested haircuts. Holden said “I be very happy if you cut my hair” specifically because now he looks like Dad. I didn’t want to do it but was overruled by the boys. Holden has never had his hair buzzed. He is still super cute but I think I prefer his hair longer .

Both boys wanted to be sharks for Halloween, specifically a bonnethead hammerhead for Colin, and you can’t buy those so I had to make them. Holden is a “ate ite ark – swimming in the ater” (Great White Shark, swiming in the water)  They turned out pretty well:

Side view

Back view

Sitting at Colin’s preschool:

Showing off their costumes at school:

Attended Holden’s first preschool event tonight – the pumpkin party, so called because everyone was supposed to bring in a pumpkin to decorate (with breaks for a little Mexican buffet and ‘circle time’).

Holden was a real champ when it came time to decorate – very careful and precise about how he slopped paint on the pumpkin – looked like a masterpiece to me:

Here are some of Colins drawings. He has a whole series of sea drawings all with sharks.

Here are his coloring skills:

A drawing of Holden:

Not to short change Holden, he has become quite the artist as well.

Uncle Fletcher came to visit last Thursday and the boys had a great time (us too).  Colin must have asked me every couple hours the entire week before how long it was going to be until Fletcher got to Seattle.  Colin had lots of plans, most of which involved getting to eat food in the living room while watching baseball.  He planned on putting out chips, Skittles, and either penne or bow tie pasta (he couldn’t decide).

On Friday while Chuck was at work we entertained Fletcher, or really I should say he entertained the boys.  We went to Colin’s swim lessons and then to get Fletcher his monster meatball sub.  That night we got a baby sitter and went out to Ray’s Cafe right on the water.  It wasn’t the nicest night, but the food was fantastic.  I can’t wait to go there again.

Saturday, we got a big breakfast and then Chuck and Fletcher took Colin and Holden over to the baseball field and ran them ragged, hitting and running the bases. At the same time I had to go register for my triathlon.  I expected it to take about 2 hours, but 4 hours and many, many long lines later I finally got home and decided I needed to carbo load a bit so we went out to eat at Snappy Dragon – yum, yum.

Since the upcoming Tuesday was also Fletcher’s birthday the boys wanted to make him a cake (with lots of sprinkles).  So after stuffing ourselves at Snappy we came home to have some cake.

Later Chuck and Fletcher went out to get some drinks and I turned in early since I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning to race. Then Holden decided to wake up at 11:30 and 12:30 (Chuck wasn’t home yet) so I got up with Holden – who wasn’t sick or anything, just woke up and cried.  At that point I was quite mad, at Holden and Chuck who got home shortly thereafter.  At this point it is 1:30 and by now I can’t sleep at all because I am so mad.  At 3 AM Holden woke up again (I was still awake) then he woke up again at 3:45 when I finally brought him into bed with me.  I finally fell asleep at 4:30 AM, only to have to get up an hour later to go and race in a triathlon.  Let’s just say I was not very happy with Chuck or anybody at 6 AM when I decided I was still going to go and do it.

I ended up getting to the start about 3 minutes before my wave started.  I was exhausted but I did it anyway and well by my own standards.  18 minute swim, 10 minute transition (I wasn’t trying very hard), 42 minute bike ride, 2 minute transition and then a 34 minute run (which is good for me because I had yet to actually run 3 miles in training – I am an awful runner). 1:48 minutes all in all.  Thankfully by then Chuck had apologized many times and I had worked out all my frustrations so I was happy.

We drove home, I slept for about an hour and then we took the bus down to the Mariners vs. Yankees game.  It was a beautiful day, we had great seats, cold beers and the boys were happy.  They both stayed in their seats from the 4th inning (we got there late) until the end of the game.  Then they went down and got to run the bases on the field.  The bus ride home was not so smooth, we waited well over an hour for a bus and we were all pretty tired by then.

The next day Chuck had to go back to work and Fletcher played his 25th game of Sequence with Colin.  The there was some Lego construction and other games when I finally convinced them we should go do something.  We went to the Ballard Locks to see the salmon fish ladder but there were hardly any fish in it.  Colin had swimming lessons right after that and then we took Fletcher to the airport.  Colin asked him right away when he was going to come back…they had a great time.

Moving In Together 

Last week we made the move – we put Colin and Holden in the same bedroom.  It just kind of happened.  We only have two fans and it was really hot so I suggested Colin go sleep in Holden’s room.  He did, and did so again the next night.  Then we went camping over the weekend and of course they were together in the tent (not sleeping .  When we got home we really moved his bed in there and this week I finished up moving all of his things in to Holden’s room and all the baby stuff out of Holdens room (which is kind of sad for me.)

It has been going pretty well all said.  I do feel kind of bad for Colin because he can easily be asleep by 7:30 or 8 most nights, but Holden is all over him trying to get him to play.  Holden still takes a nap, but now he is up really late because of it, therefore so is Colin.  Holden is close to dropping his nap all together but he is just a wreck by 4 if he doesn’t take one.

I do like how there room is setup and it is nice to have them both in there together because they really like each other.  It is also great because now we have a whole other room.  We are going to move the computer upstairs and now we have an actual room for our guests to sleep in!  It is great.

Swimming Lessons 

In other news, the boys have started swimming lessons this week.  They go every day for a 1/2 hour at an outdoor pool up the road.  They are both in the same class, very beginner, because Colin won’t stick his head in the water and Holden is only 2, although he is crazy in the water. 

Well the very first day, and everyday until today Holden refused to get in the pool.  I would sit by the side with him and he would cry and not want to get in.  Colin on the other hand, was great.  Jumping in, talking to the teachers, hanging on the side, kicking and today he stuck his whole head in the water.  He was really proud of himself and even said “I wish my cousin Jacqueline could see me, she would be so proud of me.  I wish Grandpa (John Deere) was here so he could see me put my head under and I can’t wait to tell dad.”

Today, the whole class went to a different part of the pool instead of the steps and right after they left Holden jumped in and started swimming all over the place.  Hanging on the side, putting his head under…so hopefully he will be more into it next week.

The funny thing is that Colin is in a class with all 2 year olds and they pretty much don’t speak.  Colin more than makes up for it and just never stops talking…sometimes I wonder if the teachers like it or want him to settle down a bit

Reading

Colin has really been impressing me with his reading.  Now each day I have him read one book to me.  So far he has fully read “Coral Reef” and “Rivers” all by himself.  Here is a passage from Coral Reefs that he read:

A coral is a group of animals.  The animals are called polyps.  Some corals look like plants.  Some look like fingers or brains.

It is great to hear him read.  Plus his drawing has all of a sudden just taken off, much more realistic.  He sets up these very elaborate train tracks which are huge and all connected. 

The one bad thing is that he doesn’t listen and has started to realize he can lie.  I have tried to emphasize that if he lies I can’t trust him and I can’t let him do things by himself.  Hopefully that will work. 

After driving back down to Chelsea, my Dad went to pick Chuck up at the airport the next morning at 5 AM.  He had taken the red eye and didn’t get much sleep.  Once he woke up later we all hung out at the pool all afternoon, ordered a few pizzas for dinner and had a sleepover with the cousins (plus a movie and popcorn).

On Friday we went to Ann Arbor and had breakfast at Zingermanns with our friend Kristin, who we found out is pregnant with twin girls – congratulations to her. Afterwards we took a little drive around Ann Arbor and stopped off at the new Ross School of Business which is huge and very nice. Chuck just wishes he had gone there a few years later

Friday night we went over to my stepsister Christine’s house. The boys had a good time playing in the basement and we ordered thai food and got to hang out with Christine, Tim and my dad which was nice. By the time we went home there was a major thunderstorm starting and it absolutely poured the whole way home. We got to my dads, both boys were asleep and it was just pouring. We waited a few minutes to see if it would let up but it didn’t so we made a break for it. We really only had to run about 20-30 feet but got totally soaked on our way into the house. It was crazy.

Saturday morning we took my dad and Sheila out for a father’s day breakfast and then it was off to the airport to fly to New York for the last leg of our trip. There were a lot of thunderstorms and our first flight was cancelled. We got a different one to LGA instead of Newark and the flight was pretty rough I have to say. Our stuff never made it to the airport so we were without luggage or car seats. Chuck’s parents sent a driver to get us and it ended up being a limo which was fun (with the borrowed carseats):

Chuck’s parents were in the process of moving to the DC area so most of their stuff was packed up but we all managed to make due and got to order a lot of NY pizza (for the last time ). We didn’t do much the next day, which was father’s day. Sorry to Chuck I didn’t have much planned, but he did get to sit and watch a movie with the boys for awhile:

The next day it was off to Block Island. We drove up and took the ferry across and right after we got there Colin started saying his throat hurt. Well that was the beginning of a week long fever/sore throat sickness and Colin was not very happy most of the time. He would be OK on the Motrin but as soon as it wore off he was a wreck. I have to say though he was a trouper and really tried hard to still go out and do things.

We did a puzzle and played lots of games, including about 10 games of Monopoly with Colin.  That is almost the only game he wanted to play.  We would play for about an hour and a half and right when things were being built he would want to quit.

We ate some meals in (more than normal because of the illness) but Chuck got his favorite fried chicken and gravy:

And even with a slight fever Colin begged to go to his favorite place, Sharky’s, where grandpa had to down two “Shark Attacks” to get them both sharks:

We went down and tried on some funny hats. Colin and Holden both liked the lobster hat:

One day we went to the coast guard beach and played for awhile. There were little kids there fishing and they caught a few flounder plus a skate. The boys thought it was very cool.

We got to celebrate Grandma’s birthday while we were there. The boys made her a cake and we decorated the dining room with balloons. They love any excuse to have a party.

And we took our traditional family photo on the front porch:

Plus an added bonus of all the guys:

Finally on the last night Dad got to go out and have his lobster. Holden was very interested:

And I think Colin even more so – Grandpa was teaching him how to crack the claw, but he wasn’t adventuresome enough to eat the lobster.

Of course after that we had to go out for one last ice cream and some fun around the ice cream store:

The next day we headed back to New York for the last time. Chuck’s parents were busy with house stuff so we spent the day around Tarrytown and then headed to the airport. We had a late flight, at 8 PM. It was delayed and didn’t leave until 10:30 PM, then it is a 6 hour flight and as we were landing the guy in front of us got seriously ill and unresponsive. We had to do a semi-emergency landing and then wait while the paramedics came on the plane and took care of him. By the time we got home it was 3 AM Seattle time so we were exhausted.

All in all it was a very fun trip, and great to see everyone but after over 3 weeks the boys were glad to be home – and so was I!

It has been awhile since we updated our blog, but we were on vacation for over 3 weeks and just got back a couple days ago. I took the boys by myself for the first two weeks and then Chuck joined us for the last week and a half.

We started on June 6th, flew to Detroit to see my dad and family in Chelsea. Here is half of my family on my dad’s side at my nephew Joe’s baseball game:

Here is my dad, “John Deere Grandpa” with Holden and then both boys on the tractor. They call him John Deere grandpa because he loves tractors and has toy John Deeres in his living room. Although he always says it would be better if he was called Farmall Grandpa since he doesn’t own any actual John Deere tractors.

We spent a few days with John Deere grandpa, including going swimming in the pool.  Holden was absolutely wild in the pool, jumping in, going under and practically swimming by himself.  He was so crazy during one 2 hour swim-a-thon he even threw up twice because of all the water he swallowed, but then he just jumped right back in.

Uncle Adam and Colin in a swimming race:

We also went out to lunch with my grandma who is 94.  She seems to be doing well and is still even driving, although I am not so sure that is a good idea anymore.  My mom came down and she, my dad, Aunt Penny and Aunt Joey, plus my cousin Taylor all went out to lunch.  It was a nice time.  Then right after we drove up to my mom’s house on Torch Lake.

We spent a week up at my Moms and the weather was nice, sunny and in the 70s. Unfortunately the water was only 60 degrees and I did manage to go swimming but only for about a minute. The boys played by the lake almost every day and also rode big wheels around the driveway.

We had a surprise visit from Uncle Ben which was great. He stayed for about 4 days and the boys loved playing with him:

Going Fishing:

Teaching Colin to play pool:

Of course Nana spoiled them with all kinds of treats and toys, and many, many games of Sorry.

Playing in the fountain on the porch:

Walking up to get ice cream:

After spending a week up north I rented a car and drove back down to my Dad’s where Chuck joined us the next day…but I will blog about that in Vacation – Part 2