Things I Will Never Understand About My Children

These are musings brought on by my own children, but most, if not all, will apply to other children too, I bet. That there was a sentence with four - count 'em FOUR - commas. And that there was one with two dashes. You guys are in for it.

1. Why does Jack insist on standing while eating at restaurants?
2. Why is Ryker's response to me telling him "you are a good hugger" to say "I'm good at Walgreens and I'm good at the gym"?
3. What is the fascination with cutting paper into tiny shards?
4. Why do they like the omega-3 vitamins so much? They FREAK OUT if we forget them.
5. Why does Ryker dislike changing his pull-up so much?
6. Why do they love playing in the water from the rain barrel? It's nasty.
7. Why does Ryker like sitting in Jack's carseat so much more than his own? They are exactly the same.
8. How can Jack NOT remember living in our old house, but remember the tree house that was in the backyard?
9. What is the obsession with straws?
10. How can they keep swinging the bat, trying to hit a ball, miss it 18 times in a row, and still grin as you get ready to pitch the 19th one? I'd be breaking the bat over my knee and stomping away by then.

Most Important Meal of the Day

In our house, breakfast has become quite the hot topic.

Chuck and I are trying a different way of eating. I hate the term "diet" because it implies, to me, that I'm only temporarily changing my behavior. This new Thing we are doing just varies the timing of when you consume your calories. It doesn't reduce them at all. If you're curious, you can read more here.

Chuck has already lost 20 pounds. He's only been doing this for a few months, and he's healthy and happy and gaining strength and feels great. My weight loss is coming along more slowly. But enough about me - did I mention Chuck has lost 20 pounds? He's the Incredible Shrinking Man.

As a side-note, he just sent me an article about a study that found that the mere taste of a sugary drink (Gatorade, etc.) will prompt you to perform better. You don't have to actually drink it, you just have to gargle with it. And you can't trick your mouth - it can't be calorie-free. There are receptors in your mouth that know the difference, and report back to your brain that you are about to have some CARBS and your brain says "well, then, GIDDY-UP!". Fascinating. I'm going to try walking around with a noodle in my mouth and see if that helps. Chuck thinks I'll have to rotate the noodle so my mouth doesn't get used to it.

Where was I?

Oh, breakfast...

So while Chuck and I are giving up breakfast (read the article, people), Ryker has developed a fascination with his own consumption of the Most Important Meal of the Day. Every night before bed we go through a series of statements - "Good night sweet boy....love you...sleep tight..." to which he replies "good night....sweep tight...don't forget 'bout bwek-fast."

Last night he woke up at 4:45am sobbing. I went in there and held his hand, which settled him down. He began to fall back asleep and I tried to remove my hand, which, of course, woke him back up. I said that it was the middle of the night and we needed to go to sleep. I said that Mommy and Daddy should both be sleeping. He replied "I don't want Mommy and Daddy to be sweeping. I want you make bwekfast."

Museum Mom

Jack had his first art class at the museum this past week. It was centered around crickets. He had a blast. The class is 1-4pm for a week. He got to leave school at lunchtime and come up to my museum. After his class he would wander around with me, meet my coworkers, and do other art projects in my office.

He made new friends - most notably Ross, who is the head of security for the museum. He LOVED Ross, and was fascinated by the fact that everyone in the whole museum had to follow the rules that Ross set for us. He also got to play with old friends. He loves Emily and wanted to hang with her a lot. He also loves Jill, who offices right next to me. That provided endless entertainment, as he could draw pictures and sneak into her office to drop them off, then run away, giggling, to hide somewhere.

Yesterday he had his art show, which is the culmination of his week. Parents are invited to be there. I took some liberties with that invite, and let Jack open up the guest list a bit. When it was time for the guests to go in the room and stand behind their artist, Jack's corner was crammed with me, Chuck, Emily, Lori, Jill and Mike. Mary stopped in too. Benefits of having a mom who works at the museum.

Have I said recently how lucky I am to work there? It has it's stressful moments, sure, but on the whole I love it. It's endlessly challenging, I learn every day, and I get to be around beautiful art and the people who appreciate it. And now I get to share that with my kids too.

Growing Boys

Jack is up at the museum with me every afternoon this week for an art class. He's feeling very independent and loving his new Big Boy status.

In that spirit, he has decided that he will now go into the men's restroom. I waited outside (obviously, can you IMAGINE what my male coworkers would do if I tried to stand in there waiting for him?!).

When he came back out he goes "Momma - the toilets in there are GINORMOUS! Like, Ryker could just walk right into one of them."

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about.

"You mean the ones on the wall, with no walls, that are NOT in women's bathrooms?"

"Yes! And they don't flush."

Reactive Baby

Ryker's at it again. That boy is determined to make every hair on my head go gray.

Last night we found two bug bites on the inside of his thigh. They were red and raised and then had a ring of red around them, with another ring of lighter red around those. I brought in the children's benadryl and he FREAKED OUT. My mom put that on some bug bites of his awhile back and he cried and cried. I didn't think that stuff was supposed to hurt. Apparently I'm wrong. He let us put the gel on the bites but cried for awhile and insisted on holding a washcloth. (???)

I scoured the internet after he went to bed to figure out what it could be, and Lyme disease came up as the most likely culprit. This time *I* freaked out.

At 7:59am I called the doctor to schedule an appointment. Chuck took him in. The doctor said that Lyme's is a possibility, but it's also possible that he has a skin infection of some sort. She can treat both with antibiotics, so that's what we're doing. The problem is that Ryker, we think, is allergic to the 'cillins and also cephalosporins. Those are the two major categories of drugs they use to treat these types of things. So now he has to take two different anti-biotics, one of which makes their tummies hurt.

Between bug bites, thunderstorms, tummy aches and fireworks, I don't think Ryker, or I, will get a good night's sleep for awhile. Poor monkey.

Ryker's 3rd Birthday Party

After months of awful cold, crazy rain, and some tornados, we had a wonderful day for Ryker's 3rd Birthday Party. It was gorgeous. It was over the 4th of July weekend, so we missed out on some folks but the ones that were here made Ryker feel very loved.

He loved running around with family and friends. He came back inside once every 7 minutes asking if it was time for his birthday yet - Ryker code for "is it time for cupcakes?" I'd say "nope" and he'd go "oh. okay!" and take off running again.

By a twist of fate and ironic timing, we got to welcome Chuck's cousin Maren and her daughter Julia. They live in Washington, so we rarely get to see them. The Van Nostrands are a small bunch - my brother-in-law says they reproduce like pandas - so having Chuck's brother, mom, uncle, two aunts, two cousins and a second cousin there was a rare treat.

Here's a picture of Chuck's second cousin, Julia, with Ryk and Jack. We went ahead and told them she was a cousin. No harm no foul. I think Jack's giving her a tour of our garden.

And here is a sampling of Van Nostrands, with an Emily thrown in for good measure. (She is my former coworker, whose daughter is 14 HOURS older than Ryk.)

And finally, here is the video of us singing to Ryk. My favorite part is the dramatic entrance by Miss Norma at the very end. She was one of the former daycare providers for Jack and Ryk and has known both of them since they were born.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJxvMqjg5yk
Thanks to all for making it special! Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel in September for Jackson's party.

Things I Love

Several friends have been doing Love Lists on their blogs recently so I thought I'd join in the fun...

--I love new babies! Welcome Oskar!
--I love the name Oskar Anders Karlsson.
--I love that Jack is still such a little kid that he actually asked me to ask Beth to put Oskar in an envelope and mail him here so Jack could meet him.
--I love that Jack is so mature, on the other hand, that I had a whole conversation with him this morning about the government shut-down.
--I love checking things off a to-do list.
--I love that Nicki is making me stuffed red peppers for my dinner tonight even though she SHOULD be getting her own family ready to head to the lake.
--I love that I get to be around art and smart, talented people all day.
--I love that Jack still says "bee-smorning." Please let no one correct him on that one.
--I love watching Jack help Ryker learn to do new things.
--I love that my mom helps me spend more time with my husband by taking the kiddos for us.
--I love when one of the guys I always play basketball with screams at a teammate for leaving me open. "You CAN'T LEAVE HER, man!"