Chickens in the bathroom

There are many phrases I never imagined hearing before I became a mom. One of them happened tonight...."MOMMY! THERE ARE CHICKENS IN THE BATHROOM!"

Ok, so it wasn't our bathroom. And we were at a farm. :)

We visited Sunflower Farms today for Connor's orientation for his class that begins next week. We got to meet his teacher, pet the animals, see the building they'll be in if the weather is really bad, swing on tire swings, run across the rope bridges and, Connor's favorite, eat watermelon and drink apple juice. After sitting on a tractor Connor announced he had to go potty so he ran to the teacher to ask where it was. She pointed to a slightly open door in the side of the barn and Connor ran through the doorway only to gasp, turn right around and run back out screaming "Mommy! There are chickens in the bathroom!" Before I could ask him what he was talking about (stuffed chickens, paintings of chickens, chicken sculptures??) a small black chicken was on his heels, obviously just as surprised as Connor. Thinking that was the only one he saw I looked in to make sure everything was ok only to find that a much larger chicken was underneath the sink. She didn't seem like she wanted to leave so I told Connor I'd go in there with him. He looked in for a second and then said, "I'm going to go tell the teacher there are chickens in the bathroom." Well...ok. He ran to the nearest teacher and told her but she just looked at him. He grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the bathroom, "LOOK!" She looked inside and was just as surprised...apparently this isn't a place the chickens usually hang out! She saw that the chicken was still under the sink and told Connor that he could go on and go in, the chicken wouldn't bother him. Connor looked at the teacher and looked at me. Sensing his hesitation she asked, "Would you like me to get him out?" "YES! I can't go potty with a chicken!" The teacher gently picked up the bird and asked Connor if he wanted to pet it. He quickly touched a few feathers and then said "I still have to go potty" and went inside the bathroom. :) Hilarious!

Birthday fun

We know three people with birthdays today! :) We went to a 4 year old friend's party this morning and had dinner with Papa to celebrate his milestone birthday tonight. First, here are some pictures from the Festival on Main last night in Longmont. They close down Main Street for six blocks and have a big party - music, performers, jumping castles, etc. It was lots of fun!
They had lots of great activities for kids - Connor even tried to hula hoop!


Logan loves the backpack carrier - we really need to buy one for ourselves so we can give our friends' back!


Connor liked watching the square dancers while eating oreos and drinking milk that a local nursing home was handing out to everyone


This morning we went to Karmen's birthday party! Karmen and Connor were in the Sunshine class together at his old school. It was fun to see lots of friends and his two favorite teachers! First we got a tour of the fire station...


Look at all those cute preschoolers!


Cara, Karmen (the birthday girl) and Connor


In awe of the firemen :)


Posing for a picture :)


Next the kids got to ride horses! They all brought along their bike helmets and then got a ride around the park. Connor had so much fun!






The horse trainer said Connor's a natural and recommended lessons for him. She said most boys his age don't like horses and even if they're willing to ride them they don't have very good balance. But Connor was eager to ride (so eager he nearly scared the horse!) and had great posture and balance. The trainer even tested him a bit by having him try riding with one hand on his helmet and then switch to the other hand to check his balance. He did great! I was surprised when she said boys this age don't usually like horses but it seemed to be true at the party - several of the boys wanted nothing to do with the horses! I'm not sure we'll do lessons in the near future (his schedule's pretty full as it is and lessons are expensive!) but it's always neat to see him try new things and be good at them!

Tonight we had dinner in Ward with Grandma and Papa to celebrate his birthday. Logan was a bit crazy at the restaurant (his relatively new found independence with walking means he wants to practice it ALL the time) but the food was delicious and we're all very full. Happy birthday Papa!

Today is also cousin Christopher's 4th birthday. Happy birthday Chris! We hope you had a great day!

Ha! I told you so!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070821/ap_on_hi_te/business_of_life;_ylt=As1gXiRHb7i6CoffViBNpiCs0NUE Go read that story! It's about parents registering domain names for their children as soon as their born - even deciding what to name them based on available domain names.

So, Jeremy, HA! He laughed at me when I told him I'd registered blogspot addresses for the boys! I may be crazy but at least I'm not alone!! And at least registering on blogspot is free unlike regular domains!

True, blogspot may be uncool when they're ready to enter cyberspace but if it's not then they at least have an option! Does your child have a domain name? A Facebook account? Myspace? A Second Life alter ego? :)

We're in trouble now....

We ate out at Noodles and Co. the other day and in the middle of our meal two girls walked by with their parents. The girls were probably 6 and 8 and Connor continued watching them when they found a table and sat down to wait for their food. We noticed he was staring at them so I asked, "Are those girls cute, Connor?" His response? Without taking his eyes off them he said, "Yeeaaaahhhhhhh." Jeremy and I both laughed which snapped him back to reality for a second and he looked at us, "What are you guys laughing at?" It was hilarious :) We told him we thought he was being silly staring at the girls because he thought they were cute and he denied it all, "I don't think they're cute. Nooooo."

The weekend

On Saturday our neighborhood had a community-wide garage sale with 20 or 25 homes having sales at the same time. We walked around to a few of them but Connor couldn't wait to get back to our street and help his friends sell lemonade and cookies. He's quite the little salesman - he convinced several people to buy cookies! It was funny to see him surrounded by all the neighborhood girls :)


Most of Connor's drawings are still scribbles that all look the same to us but have specific meanings for him. However this drawing was one of the first that we saw the same things he did - it's a self portrait he called "Connor with a happy face" - it's hard to see in the thumbnail view but if you click on it to view the larger version it'll look a bit better!


We took the boys camping on Sunday. It was Logan's first time and only Connor's second. Connor has been excited about it for weeks; he's been practicing roasting marshmallows in the bathtub by piling all of his toys up to make a campfire! We got our tent all set up and then went on a hike with Grandma and Papa.

Logan in the backpack carrier we borrowed from some friends - now we want our own :)


Connor scaling a rock in the campground. Shannon, Kristina and Taylor - I have pictures of us on this rock when we were in high school! :)


Connor sitting by the Middle St. Vrain Creek


A rare picture of me on the blog :)


All smiles!


Brothers


Sitting around the campfire. We made s'mores, of course, but Connor prefers to call them "snowman sandwiches" :)

We had lots of fun, though not everything went exactly as planned. We got both boys to sleep at a decent hour but around midnight Jeremy woke me up to tell me that the air mattress he and Logan were sleeping on was losing air. We didn't want Logan sleeping on the cold ground, of course, so we tried to move him over to the mattress that Connor and I were on. He didn't like that at all! I'm sure he was scared to wake up in the dark not knowing what was going on or where he was! We couldn't get him calmed down at all so I ended up taking him home around 1 am. Connor, Jeremy and Bailey stayed and had a great rest of the night. Logan and I came home and went back to get them in the morning. Besides the unexpected trip home in the middle of the night, we all had lots of fun! Hiking is Connor's new favorite thing to do so I'm sure we'll be doing more of it. He didn't even wait until we got out of the campground to ask when we are going again!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKK!

Yes, that was me, screaming like a girl. Good thing I am one. :) Ok, so if you've known me for more than a second and a half, you know that I realllllly don't like bugs. I'd like to be one of those moms that teaches my boys that bugs are an important part of our ecosystem and that we shouldn't kill them just because we can, but I can't. Sure, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion a few weeks ago and we looked at all the bugs and I said some encouraging words as Connor reached out to touch Rosie the Tarantula, but you wouldn't catch me doing it. Those bugs were semi-ok because most of them were encased in glass. Even the bees seemed harmless flying in and out freely through a small plastic tube in the wall but see, they weren't in my space. However I vividly recall crashing my bike in a park and ride after falling off a curb because I was trying to get a bee to leave me alone (what was I, Dad, 10?). Not to mention the memory that seems to be permanently etched in Connor's brain of me calling Jeremy at work to complain that there was a gigantic spider in the living room. Yes, he was at work some 10+ miles away but...it was a spider! :) I've just never liked bugs or flying creatures and I'm sorry, but I don't think I ever will.

Getting to the point...

Yesterday morning Jeremy called me from work and started the conversation by saying "Now don't freak out, but go look out the living room window." Don't freak out???? Right... He continued, "I was waiting for Linda this morning [his coworker and carpool buddy] and I noticed something in the tree out front. It looks like the wasp nest thing you saw a few blocks over last year." Last year on one of our walks (before Logan was born), Connor and I had strolled past a house for rent and I freaked out over what I thought was a gigantic wasp nest in the tree in front of their house. I crossed over to the other side of the street and immediately called the number on the For Rent sign in the yard to tell them of this problem and I have not walked past that house since. No joke. Anyway, I looked out our front window and saw it RIGHT AWAY. How had we not noticed this monstrosity hanging just feet over our little boys' heads each day??? Before I could say much more than "Oh. My. God." Jeremy said "I've already called several people to see how to remove it and a guy is coming out to look at it this afternoon."

He came...

He saw....(from a distance of at least ten feet away, I might add)

He declared "That's the largest bald faced hornet's nest I've EVER seen. It will have to be removed immediately." Great....

Apparently bald faced hornets are "good" when they're in low traffic areas since they eat other bugs. However this nest is in a high traffic area (about 8 or 9 feet up in a tree between the sidewalk and the street) not to mention that it's across the street from a park and, oh yeah, in OUR front yard! ACK! And these hornets are more deadly because they tend to sting multiple times - they have a smooth stinger so they can pull out and sting over and over again and they apparently are partial to faces.

So, Mr. Pest Control guy came back out tonight dressed in a beekeepers suit and sprayed some sort of toxic smoke into the nest several times. This angered the hornets (of course!) and he warned us to stay inside because they'd sting anything they could. Great. Of course in the middle of all this our neighbors got home and Jeremy had to run out to tell them to stay inside for the rest of the night. And then a neighbor from down the street came walking by with her dog and Jeremy ran out the door screaming STOP and completely freaking her out. Both times the neighbors moved TOWARD the nest to get a better view of what he was talking about. Geesh. What part of deadly don't you understand? :)

Mr. Pest Control again reiterated that this is the largest nest he's ever seen, he's surprised none of us had been stung and that he stopped counting dead hornets after picking up 60 of them.

"We" are supposed to check it out in the morning and if we see anything flying around to let him know so he can come back for treatment #2. If nothing is flying then someone will come remove the nest next week. Oh, and it's so big that the guy took many pictures of it and said they are going to preserve the darn thing.
Here's Connor (with the tree in the background) posing for a picture in the rain earlier this week - yes, before we knew there were deadly hornets hanging out in that tree


The nest - it's at least as big as my head. Everything I've read online says they started to build it in the spring - we play under this tree nearly every day!


A close up of the entrance including a few of the hornets

West Nile Virus infected mosquitos, bald faced hornets, what's next? We're going camping this weekend - perhaps ticks? Ugh...

Big tears :(

The day ended with big tears for almost all of us, but let's start with the good parts of our day :)

Connor went to his first day of "camp" at his new school today - a week long program to get the kids used to the routine of getting up and going to school each morning. Instead of doing much specific learning, they do a lot of arts and crafts activities and play outside. They especially encourage new students to attend so they can meet their teachers, make new friends and learn what school will be like. Connor had a lot of fun and talked all afternoon about how he wants to be the next "flag holder" (they say the Pledge of Allegiance each morning) and about how he got to be the goalie in the soccer game :)

Logan had his one year appointment this afternoon! He weighs 20 lbs 12 oz (20th percentile), is 31 inches tall (80th percentile) and his head circumference is 18 1/2" (70th percentile). He's doing well! Our doctor was happy to hear he's not taking bottles anymore and that he's eating mostly "real" food (not as much baby food, mostly our dinner cut up into small bites). The tears came during the shots, of course. He apparently remembers the room (a different room from where the exams happen) because he started fussing as soon as we walked in and started shrieking when the nurse arrived with the syringes. The nurse was actually more concerned about what Connor's reaction to Logan getting the shots might be, but he was fine! Connor has always loved doctors and nurses and hasn't really minded shots in the last couple years. He explained the whole process to Logan in the car on the way there by saying "it might hurt a little and you're probably going to cry but shots make you grow up to be big and strong like me!" Too cute :) He also helped to calm Logan down afterwards by saying "It's all over now, buddy. Now we can go home." :)

On the way home, we stopped to pick up Connor's dinosaur from Crackpots. He brought his penguin with him to meet the dinosaur and was very excited to bring them home together. When we got home, though, disaster struck. Connor was walking inside and tripped - he managed to keep himself upright but the penguin fell onto the concrete in the garage and, as ceramic pieces tend to do, shattered into a million zillion pieces (well, ok, really about 20 pieces but to him it seemed like a million zillion). That penguin was Connor's best friend over the last month - he slept in Connor's bed, watched out the front window for Daddy to come home, watched Shrek, sat in a prominent place on the kitchen table during all meals and even took a dip in the bathtub one night. Connor fed the penguin, protected it from Logan's slobbery fingers and held on to him tightly in the car since we didn't have a penguin car seat :) So, as you can imagine, the loss was devastating. Connor is not easily upset and is not usually so attached to toys, but this penguin was special. He cried and cried and it's the first time Jeremy and I can remember him crying for something he truly cared for. He's cried the tired, whiny cry, the angry cry, the physically hurt cry but this was the first cry over an emotional loss - truly sobbing because his heart ached for that poor little penguin. Jeremy scooped up the pieces and placed them in a box which upset Connor even more. It was so sad - as if we'd just lost a pet. His reaction to it made us all tear up. We calmed him down enough to eat some dinner and distracted him for the rest of the evening by going for a bike ride and playing at the park. He prayed for the penguin in his bedtime prayers and went to sleep.

As part of our parental duties, Jeremy and I just spent the last 45 minutes painstakingly super gluing that small piece of ceramic back together and I'd have to say we did a great job. It does look a little worse for wear and will likely just collect dust now as opposed to being an active participant in Connor's daily life, but we still saved the penguin :)

Lazy Sunday

We had a great day today doing a whole lot of nothing!
Connor painted while Logan was still napping this afternoon


Looking for inspiration? No, there was an airplane :)


One of his masterpieces - he said it's "a water squirter"


To heck with the brushes...


We also went swimming at Kanemoto pool this afternoon. They made everyone get out of the water for 20 minutes when someone heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. What better to do on a break from the water than pose for the camera? :)



Logan waved and said hi to the people sitting next to us

As you can see, it was a wonderful day! Logan's official one year appointment is tomorrow - I'll post his stats when I can! :)

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman!

Remember the story of the New Zealand couple who chose the name "4Real" for their son earlier this year but the New Zealand government rejected it? Well, they've chosen a new name for the kid.....

Superman.

Read the story here or view the video of the perfectly normal looking parents here. I'm not even sure what to say about it. He's only two months old but he can already leap tall buildings in a single bound. :)

They plan to still call him 4Real as a nickname I guess...

Unreal. I mean, 4Real, Superman! Yikes....

Company picnic

Today was my company's summer picnic at Boulder Reservoir. The weather was perfect for it and we all had fun!
Connor had so much fun playing in the water and the sand


He quickly made friends with another boy named Connor


We took a break from "the beach" to eat lunch. Connor ate two whole hot dogs (where does he put them in his tiny 33 lb body?) and Logan ate a bunch of the bun :)


Connor giving Logan raspberries

Today was also the last day of swim class for the boys until September! It seems this was a week of endings for us (gymnastics, preschool, and swim class) which must mean there are lots of new beginnings over the next few weeks, right? Fall is my absolutely favorite time of year so I was excited to flip through the calendar pages and see that our favorite pumpkin patch opens in just six weeks! There are sure to be lots of "boys left in the leaves" pictures coming soon :) Tomorrow is the first weekend day in a long time that we don't have anything planned! Yay!

Crazy week!

This week has been crazy! Logan was sick on Monday and Tuesday, Connor's last gymnastics class was Tuesday, Jeremy played softball on Tuesday AND Wednesday nights, we finally made it back to the Boulder County Fair on Thursday evening and then today was Connor's last day at his current preschool. Whew!

We also got Connor all psyched up for his second trip to the dentist (and hopefully first cleaning) but they cancelled the appointment at the very last minute. Argh! This very same thing happened to us for his first appointment - we were all set to walk out the door and they called to tell us the dentist was sick and the next available time was three weeks away. What are the odds we'd have appointments scheduled, six months apart, on days he's sick? :)

Anyway, here are some pics from the last few days...
Can I ride it now, Mom?


I love the looks between the two boys :)


And some pictures from the Boulder County Fair...

Connor chased that poor tortoise around the petting zoo several times


He loved the bunnies!


Posing by the cows


Fishing with Daddy


He had to go on all the rides, of course, especially the ferris wheel since he's been asking to go from the minute they put it up! This ride was a flying saucer and each time he flew by me I could hear him singing "I'm an alien! An alien! Flying high! In the sky! I'm an alien..."


Logan is too small to go on the rides but he had great fun watching Connor go around and around and even tried to wave at him several times!


I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked Connor up from his last day in the Sunshine class today. He's not exactly a crier so I didn't think he'd be in tears about leaving his teachers or friends but I wasn't sure how he'd react. He was really excited about the gifts from his two teachers, Rola and Kim, especially the small tin of m&ms! They made a really cute box for him with pictures of all his Sunshine friends on the outside. :) He hugged all his favorite teachers and as we walked out of the building with all the stuff he'd accumulated there over the last year plus he didn't seem phased at all. Once we got in the car I asked if he was going to miss Ms Rola or his friends and he said "No, but they're going to miss me. They're going to cry." I said "Oh, they are? But you're not sad?" His reply was "No, I'm excited to go to my new school. I'm a big boy now. Ok I get a new backpack now?" How grown up of him! I thought maybe he just didn't get it that it was the last day and that he wouldn't be going back there on Monday, but he said the same thing to Daddy when he got home and talked all about his new school while we were picking out a new backpack tonight :)

Go Connor!

I forgot to add to the weekend update our proud parent moment of the day! A female police officer was who was helping to check out car seats asked for our address for a form she had to fill out. I said the numbers and as I paused for her to write them down Connor filled in the street, city and state. Her jaw dropped a bit and she looked at me for confirmation that it was right. It was! She asked him for his phone number and he got a bit shy (so unlike him but he could tell he was in the spotlight) so I helped him with the area code and he did the rest! She was so surprised at this point that she thought she'd keep going, asking him for my name, Daddy's name, how old his brother is and how old he is. He got them all right and was on a roll so he spelled his first name for her even though she didn't need to know it for the form. She was truly shocked and told me that she visits classrooms of 1st and 2nd graders and tells them how important it is to know all that information and the majority of them don't. Yay us!

Teaching him that info was really just a happy accident! He loves to hear stories about himself and things he's done whether it's from when he was a baby or just a recap of what he did that day. One day when I couldn't decide on an event to tell the story about I was just filling time by saying "Once upon a time there was a little boy named Connor. He lived at (address) with his Mommy and Daddy and baby Logan. One day..." After telling the story that day I realized that I should add that and more info like it to the stories since I was repeating them so often. He picked up the address really quickly so I started adding the phone number and his birthdate. I told the police officer about it and she thought it was a great idea!

Weekend Update

After swim classes on Saturday we went to the Teddy Bear Clinic at Longmont United Hospital. They had a great setup with lots of fun stuff to see and do both inside and outside the hopsital. Each kid got a paper bear to wear around their neck and got the bear stamped at each station they went to - first inside the Pediatric area of the hospital where they got to see how much they weigh and how tall they are, then on to the doctor to diagnose their teddy bear's ailments, then on to surgery where two nice little old ladies stitched up any wounds. That was followed by a quick trip to a real pediatric hospital room to see the bed and/or crib setup, but the focus in that room remained on the brownies and teddy grahams lined up on the bedside table! :) Next we went outside to meet a couple police officers who talked about the importance of bike helmets and then we got to see the inside of an ambulance and a fire truck. We also got our car seats checked out! The highlight of the day for Connor was the ambulance since we've been reading a book about them and he now considers himself an expert. He told the paramedic all about it! Our car seats were both installed properly and the guy was happy to see that we still had Logan rear facing :) We also learned more about when Connor should change seats again (when he's over 4 and closer to 40 lbs).

Connor telling the doctor that Curious George has a sore throat

The doctor listened to Curious George's heart and lungs and then gave him a shot followed up by a happy face band-aid. He wasn't quite sure what to do for the sore throat so he wrapped the poor monkey's throat in white tape which Connor accepted as a prefectly fine solution to the problem :) The ladies in surgery didn't know what to do for Curious George so they tied ribbons around each of his arms. These ribbons have fallen off several times over the last 24 hours but Connor insists that we tie them back on so that Curious George will heal properly. He really bought into the whole thing! He fed Curious George lunch right after we got home and then told him to take it easy for the rest of the day :) Too cute!
Here are Connor and Curious George waiting patiently for Logan to be weighed. Logan's official one year appointment isn't until next week but he's about 21 lbs! :)


Connor talking to the paramedic in the ambulance


He found money in the fire truck! :)


The whole event was really fun for Connor and we all learned a little something :)

A couple pictures from today...

Logan sitting in Connor's lawn chair - he got up there all by himself!


Laughing in the sandbox