The Guests What Wouldn't Leave

Recently, cousins Beth, Helaina and baby James came to stay with us. And never left. They may even still be here right now. I wouldn't know - they were the most unobtrusive, under-the-radar, chillaxin' bunch of people who ever came to visit!! We had a great time hanging out with them - and 10-week-old James even fell asleep on ol' scary Mr. Beardyface (which, of course, would be yours truly). The boys loved having all of them here, and even roped Beth into doing their Wonder Pets Save The Rat Pack skit. Of course, come picture time - we got everyone together to take a group picture...which ended up with Loch insisting a)that everyone say "burger!" instead of "cheese!"; and b) that we make a video of them saying "burger!" after pictures were taken.

"Cheese!"


"Burger!"

I think my most favorite part of the visit was having people over who enjoy Lost as much as I do. Our viewing party was the only thing that was able to entice Helaina to stay up past 8 PM. Good times, good times.

Lost Viewing Party

Lochlain was screened for Pre-K last week. He went with a teacher to play "games" (aka grueling mental and physical challenges designed to weed out inferior beings) while we filled out even more paperwork (we had to fill out paperwork to get the paperwork we had to bring with us to screening session). 5 minutes later we were all reunited and on our way to lunch at McDonald's. It was quick, well organized, and apparently (as we found out later) - a complete waste of time. It turns out the county's official pre-K program is dedicated to children who are at lesser levels of ability and affluence. That's not to say we won't get in, but I'm willing to lay 10-to-1 odds we won't. Two of Loch's classmates teamed up to host a joint birthday party (which was a clever idea) at Bounce U - and Loch and Mommy had a great time (Seanie and Daddy stayed home and napped)!!

"In a bounce hut stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade.."


There is no charge for awesomeness... or attractiveness.

Speaking of awesomeness, Seanie is really learning his letters - thanks to the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set. No, really. He helped Lochlain spell out "Batman" on the fridge this evening (with an upside down letter "V" subbed in for the first "A" when we had to move it into the second "A" position) - helping to locate both the "T" and the "M" when asked. And this past Sunday, Bean relayed to me the story of Seaniebear getting out the Vtech laptop and doing the letter game. As the laptop would ask him to type the letter, Seanie would say each time: "Hmmmm........I find it!" in his little Seanie voice - and then would proceed to tell Mommy whatever generic praise words came from the laptop - even though Mommy was sitting right across the table from him.

"Daaaaaaaa.....Bear!"

Snow Day!

First off - a very Happy Birthday to our Carter-Girl!! She is 4 today. The boys called her this evening to convey good wishes. Loch had a mini-conversation with her, with Sean pestering him to speak as well. Of course, once given the phone, all he said was "Happy Birthday Carter!" Carter's Daddy and her Aunt Feather both blog about her recent birthday doings.

We got 5 inches of snow here yesterday! So of course, schools were closed - as well as most offices. Except ours. I even had to go in early, in fact. Bean was able to work from home - and due to the fact that no one really showed up anyway, I got to leave early to go play with the boys in the snow. It was Seanie's first real experience - but not Loch's first time. We ran around alot and tried to build a snowman and have a snowball fight. The snow had melted a bit in the sun and then had started to refreeze, so it wasn't good packing snow - but we did manage to toss a few good snowballs anyway. Seanie liked it but did not love it and went back in early - but I had to really convince Loch that hot chocolate with marshmellows was a much better idea than staying outside (especially after I got snow down my backside doing snow angels).

Venturing out into the white stuff


Sean liked playing in the snow more than this picture conveys


Snow Angels (mine and Lochlain's....duh!)

Oh - and did I mention the fact that it will be 70 degrees this weekend so all the snow will be gone by then?

The boys like to go into Seaniebear's room and read - sometimes to themselves. Sometimes to each other. Sometimes one will read to the other who will be reading to themself. But it is always in the same chair.

Looks like we got ourselves some readers here, boys....

Loch is surprising us with his sponge-like absorption of phrases and songs. Yesterday, he asked for chocolate kisses, peanut butter miniatures cups and marshmellows for dessert. He then told me "It's a tall order, Daddy, but you can do it!" And now, he is singing the Gitchee Gitchee Goo song from Phineas and Ferb all over the house.




Blast From The Past: Speaking of Lochlain's previous snow experience - here is a couple of pics from his first time in the snow (from back in aught six):