Batter up!!!

It is "all baseball, all the time" at our house. Sam has given his heart to baseball. It even comes before food!! He will try to hurry through dinner and then say, "Bat, mama? Ball, mama?"

Anything that even remotely resembles a ball or a bat becomes "mah ball" or "mah bat." Well, that is perhaps a bit generous. In a moment of desperation, even a small pencil became a bat. Desperate times call for desperate measures, you know. (Edited to add: a potato masher just became a bat. I was crying I was laughing so hard.)

(I would be remiss if I didn't mention their "summer haircuts." They started out innocently enough - "just a trim" and that went haywire. So I just buzzed them for the summer. It's just hair and hair grows, right?)

Swinging his bat...


A boy and his mail tube bat.


I think that was a homer, little slugger!


Aaah, I have all my treasures - my bat, my cap and my ball.


Thanks for the hat, Uncle Matt!


Phewww...it's been a rough one

Bubbles and bucket shoes!

We're having a great weekend. We took the boys to spend the night at the Westin Crown Center. We took them to the Crayola Cafe (sounds neater than it was) and Fritz's restaurant - where a little train delivers your food to your table. I don't have the vocabulary to express their delight with Fritz's. It was so much fun to see them enjoying it so much. We'll be back, Fritz's!!

Last night we took them back to the T.Rex cafe with their granddad. They are still a bit young for it, but a good time was had by all. They are in for a shock when their meals next week are going to be served by boring mommy in their kitchen. I guess I could give them a little impromptu "eat your veggies" dance or something.

And then some Luke bath fun - he is our water baby. He loved the pool so much and really thought he could swim all by himself. He loves going under the water!


Bubbles are the best.


Can you see my bubble beard?


I wish I could live in the tub.


Sam found his buckets from the San Diego Zoo and voila! they became shoes. He walked a LOT in his buckets. Guess I won't need to be buying shoes anytime soon.


Taking a rest from strenuous bucket shoe walking.


Look at me go!!

Musical additions!

Wow - I am finally getting with it and have added a playlist to the blog. I hope it enhances your viewing pleasure (Mom and Dad - my faithful, and perhaps only(?) readers). I didn't select "shuffle," so if you want to hear a different song, just scroll to the bottom and click on it (Mom and Dad). The music thing is really Tony's passion, but I took my amateur crack at it.

The songs I selected and why:

My Wish by Rascal Flatts - I am not a "country music lover," but I have always loved this song. I sing it to the boys. And I use the term "sing" very loosely.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - by a Hawaiian artist named Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (who is more commonly referred to as "IZ" for obvious reasons). He had health problems and passed away in 1997 at age 38. This song is wonderful.

A New Day by Celine Dion - This is a song she wrote for her son. I listened to it for years, dreaming of the day I would have a son.

Home by Michael Buble - I am a huge Michael Buble fan and even though this song is a love song, I used to listen to it when we were waiting for Sam to come home. I cried many tears listening to this and dreaming of the day he would be here to sing it to.

Beautiful Boy by John Lennon - he wrote it for his son Sean. Tony is the biggest Beatles fan you could ever meet and we love this song and our beautiful boys.

God Blessed the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts - another country song that I listened to while we were in process. Sam and Luke, God most certainly blessed the road that led us straight to you.

Sugar Dumpling by Sam Cooke - I am a HUGE Sam Cooke fan and sing this song to the boys. It is written for his wife/girlfriend, but I still love it. I have been known to dance around the house with them in my arms singing it. Thank goodness only my mom and dad are reading this!!

Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel - the title says it all

Stand by Me by The Temptations - because I will always love and protect them

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Goats and toothbrushes...

Welcome back for some more of the minutiae that is my life.

We took the boys to the zoo today. It was such a great time - lots of animal sounds coming from them which is always enjoyable (did you know that giraffes growl? Neither did I, but Luke let me know.)

We let them feed the goats and Luke, our son who stuffs food in his mouth with both hands, was, well, quite persnickety with his goat feed rations. It was "one kernel at a time"...which frustrated the goats a great deal. (I think Luke was enjoying being the one to dole out, instead of being the "dolee"...)

They took a 3 hour nap when we got home and that is never a bad thing!


Sam not quite sure what to think and definitely not enjoying the goat slobber.


Here's your solitary kernel.


Goat moving on to more generous sources...


Goat: "Your feeding style isn't working for me."


The train!!!


Choo choooooo!


Cave boy


Loving their new toothbrushes




Life is good.

Honk! Moo! Oink!

We have a video that was made locally by a speech-language pathologist that my mother-in-law, Sheila, works with. The video is great for early language development! The boys think it is a hoot and they like to make the sounds. (www.speechparade.com)

Sam was too busy playing with "Tater" (what he calls his Mr. Potato Head) so I captured Luke.

If you are looking for a way to "jump start" speech, I highly recommend this DVD. Thanks, Sheila!

There is nothing (and I do mean nothing) more fun than spending the day with two budding chatterboxes (boys after Mommy's heart!).

Watching for my favorite parts...


Waiting patiently...


There's one!! HONK HONK!! (goose)

Mooooooooooo...

Cat!

Oink oink!

Not finished oinking...

Enough flash, Mommy

Random Thursday post

We are just having such a fun summer! Summer is definitely wayyy easier with 2 little ones than in the cold winter.

Not too much has been going on, unless you count lots of talk about bugs. Sam is really into bugs now. (can I add a sarcastic yippee?) His favorites are bees and ants. He talks about them. A lot.

A few shots of some of our shenanigans from this week.

Luke decided that the time was right to put Sam's swim trunks on his head.


Sam was playing with an old file thingy. He is so creative and finds fun everywhere.


It is hard to say no to those beautiful eyes!

Bus Driver

Sam turned over his exersaucer and when I asked him what it was, he said, "Mah bus." He "drove" his bus a lot yesterday, so thank goodness it gets good gas mileage. It's his new favorite thing! He acts like he is steering and "beep beeps" too.

He got the exersaucer when he was 8 months old from his Uncle Jerry and Aunt Jeanie, so I hope they are pleased to know it is still getting a lot of use!

Hop aboard!

Shy bus driver?

We've got a laundry (hermit) crab!

If you're feeling a bit bored this summer, run down to Wal Mart and get yourself a laundry basket! Sam and Luke had a ball with one of ours this morning. I just kept hearing "Mama?" out of the basket.


Let's get this party started...

I see you, Mama

Beautiful boy

You're pinned!

Summer smoothie fun!

I decided to make the boys a smoothie on Sunday night. I used fresh strawberries, blueberries, a banana, organic yogurt and milk. Let's just say not a drop was wasted!! They absolutely loved it. We will have a good time experimenting with different flavors this summer. Tonight I am going to try some fresh pineapple.

They loved it so much that when I got the blender out last night, Sam started pointing and whining...it seems that my smoothies are so fantastic, it's hard to wait for them to be made. Take that, Jamba Juice.

Salud!