Explanation

There are no pictures of E because E is in a don't take a picture of me funk.

Pics and Sayings of the Week

This is what happens when you send Kendall and Daddy to the store to pick up some donuts for a Sunday Morning lazy breakfast, you come home with a donut that is so festive the food coloring stains your face for 2 days and numerous washings!

So there were a few but this is the top Kendall conversation of the week.

Background: Kendall went with Mom Mom Mom to her house all by herself for the afternoon the other day. Mom Mom Mom and Pop Pop Pop have two donkeys, Elmo & Meghan. Ethan and I went to pick her up and to stay for dinner.

Right upon my arrival she says to me, "Mommy Elmo & Meghan were playing silly games!" I answered, "they were, what kind of silly games?" And she says to me laughing,"Elmo was biting Meghan's neck and then he jumped on her back!" I then try to hide my laughter and ask, " and what did Meghan do?" And she goes, "She kicked him right in the face!" And that is the birds and the bees Mom Mom Mom style, we'll leave it at that.

Our 4th of July

This past weekend was the 4th of July. Yet for Andy and I, it was his best friend Josh’s wedding day. The kids spent the day with my family at my Aunt and Uncle’s house at the infamous pool, and so they were in their glory. I stopped by in between the ceremony and reception for a few hours and they were having a blast, enjoying the 4th the way it is usually spent with my mom’s side of the family, picnicking and playing. My dad was in charge of the kids for a few hours while my mom worked and he passed with flying colors. My kids are enamored by my father and all that he entails so he could have had them doing chores and they would have thought that this was the greatest time ever. During my in between time there, Kendall was stung not once, but twice by bees. I have been waiting for this time to come, expecting the worst since me and some other members of my family are allergic to bees. However, Kendall passed with flying colors. She did cry. But she didn’t cry as long as I would if I were two. My aunt whipped out the first aid kit and in it was sting soother and Kendall’s favorite, boo-boo patches. I think that this attention from everyone soothed her more than anything else, and she was over it within a 10 minute span. It started to swell and I was ready to run, but then as quickly as it came on, it went in the opposite direction, and she was fine.

So on to Mommy and Daddy time. The wedding was a lot of fun, and in true Josh form, it was on the 4th of July and it was grand. In the defense of Josh, I do think that if you are going to have your wedding on the 4th of July, it has to be able to compete with that which is the 4th of July and all that it entails, and this “event”, certainly did. The ceremony was at noon in Trenton, and though it was beautiful, it was hot, since the church did not have air. All I could think of was that one of the guys is going to pass out. They were in their head to toe tuxes and if I was sweating in my sleeveless dress, they must have been sweltering. So cocktails began at 5 and the wedding party took off in their party bus for pictures and enough beer to put everyone in good spirits. The reception was in the city at Cescaphe, and let me just mention the three things that are worth mentioning since I won’t go into all the details; mojitos, yummy, dessert room, as close to heaven on earth that I have been thus far in life, and my dress, doable. I had a few dresses picked out…but it was going to be a long day so I needed one that had the two things of most importance to me when wearing a dress ALL. DAY. LONG. It kept me cool, since it was July in Northeast PA, and it covered the ladies, so this meant I could dance without being concerned that they would pop out and make America’s Funniest Home Videos wedding gag reel.

We stayed in the city that night and thank heaven for the brick size and weight of the piece of wedding cake Andy had snagged for or those mojitos would have made an encore appearance.

My husband thoroughly enjoyed all wedding activities, and why not since this wedding has been going on for a few months now with 2 bachelor parties, one that involved going on an airplane, countless phone calls, hanging out with a bunch of close friends that could probably have a book written about them, which would be even funnier from one of their wives’ prospective, the construction of a best man’s speech, and with the culmination of all of this with the actual wedding day.

Here is my best man himself at the end of this day...

"A cousin is a ready-made friend for life."

Kendall and Ethan have had some fun and recent play times with their cousins Aidan, and the twins, Molly & Brynn. We invited them up to Mom Mom Mom's farm one warm Friday to play a lot and get dirty; what Mom Mom Mom's house is for. We were able to go fishing after Mom Mom Mom dug up some worms, the only one that didn't even get a bite was the boy and cub scout...I won't mention any names.



The unlucky fisherman

He did seem to get beat up a bit though and was the only one to go home with a boo-boo patch with an actual wound under it. Kendall was and still is very concerned about this boo-boo and whenever we mention Aidan, whoops, I let the name slip, she asks me if his boo-boo is all better, we are going on about 3 weeks now since the incident.

Just this past weekend we had a picnic at my uncle Jimmy's and Aunt Eleanor's house and Kendall was in her glory because not only was Molly and Brynnie there but Marlaina, or 'Laina', as well. Despite the the showers, we had a good time and the kids, or should I say, Marlaina, Aidan, and Kendall enjoyed the sprinklers, everyone else was a scaredy cat, including the number one scaredy cat, my son Ethan.

We also got to see fireworks, which really aren't worth mentioning since they were kind of stinky, but the kids had fun with their freezer pops and glowsticks, and that is really what matters...I suppose

In many of the shots I have it is Kendall and Brynnie. They seem to have formed this bond over silliness. I remind Kendall each time we get together to also invite Molly to play with them, and the last time Kendall replied, 'Molly not want to play wit us, Mommy.' And so it seems for right now Molly cannot be bothered with the goofiness which is Kendall and Brynn together, but she is never far from the pack, choosing to play independently, close by, and you can be certain that when Molly moves on to play something better, Kendall and Brynn are right behind, she reminds me of the 'big' sister of the pack. So I think Molly might be on to something and knows to keep her safe distance from this cousin double trouble, because then she can never be blamed for what the other two get into because I think that they are going to get into plenty.

"God made us cousins, because he knew our moms couldn't handle us as sisters."

Pics and Sayings of the Week

A weekend report is coming up...but real quick here is some post of silly pics and silly Kendall sayings...

In typical Kendall and Ethan fashion they were being physically aggressive with each other and I told her that if she swatted at him again she would be in time out. Well not 2 minutes later I hear a swat followed by E crying. I grab her and put her on the step. She crosses her arms, looks at me and says,'Seriously, Mom!?!?' I quickly replied, 'Seriously Kendall,' and ran away to laugh. If she is saying this at 2 what is to follow at 4?

Picture and Silly Kendall Saying of the Week

I get so many goofy shots of my kids, and if I were to post them and blog about each of them to explain the situation behind them, I would blog all day long. I am a picture-aholic. I love to get pictures of my kids doing the funniest, cutest, messiest, and ugliest of things. So instead of blogging about it, I want to be out there experiencing it with them. You can add your own captions. I just want you to see some of my favorites if the week. If you really need to know the story behind it you can just ask...but a lot of self-explanatory.

Kendall also says a lot of silly things and I want to try and remember the funniest. So I will try to get one of those in weekly as well. When he starts to talk more I will add them also.

Here is my first shot at this new idea, and then we are off to play outside.

Kendall has been getting in a lot of trouble lately for being rough with her brother. Mainly pushing him, but she can send him flying. In a few months she will be the one running from him but for right now, she is the bully. So she has had numerous time outs and spankings when she is really rough and she is then told to say sorry to E.

Just about 10 minutes ago they were in their playroom playing and I hear Ethan start to cry. I am just about to go down the stairs when I hear Kendall's feet run over to him and then I hear her voice...'no, no, don't cry E, I sorry. don't cry E, Mommy put Kendall in timeout, I so sorry...shh...'

Breakthrough. She gets it. Sometimes I think she doesn't. But now I know that she understands the consequences that come along with bullying her brother. I don't know what happened, the crying stopped as I stood just out of sight, and the playing started up again. And not only that she secretly tried to amend a problem.

Now on to the pictures...

Animal Rescuers

So it seems as though animal rescuing runs in the family. For some reason we feel this huge responsibility to take on the full care of animals in need. There is a long history of this. Like the baby bunny that Mama Kitty caught that we nursed back to help after she bit into like the lioness she was, the baby robin that my mom mom brought back to life and rode on the handle bars of my bike for an entire summer before flying south, Snickers, the dog that nobody wanted, there are countless animals wild, domestic, and made domestic that have been taken in by our family. The latest obviously being Andy & Sylvia and now...Mr. Peeps.

My Dad found Mr. Peeps in his lawn on Friday took pity on this orphaned baby bird and it is now living in a basket, with a handmade nest of grass and leaves in my parents home. It is fed by syringe for its liquids and then we take either some sort of fruit or bread soaked in milk, tear it into a tiny piece and place it deep into its open mouth when it is hungry.I do not think if you came to stay at any of our homes, you would be treated with such lavishness unless you were an animal.

'You wanna lift birdie?'

We stayed at my parents from Saturday to Sunday, and of course Sylvia came along, I mean you can't leave a baby kitty at home. ;) The kids loved taking care of Mr. Peeps and were quite interested in what he was all about.

'Come and give me a kiss'

It didn't even phase Sylvia that this was a bird and that there should be some animosity between the two. She explored its basket, ate its food, and sat itself right next to it. You may say, well she is too young to know that she is supposed to hunt birds, but I assure she knows that she is not to like dogs. Poor Bridget got her nose scratched every time she came too close to Slyvie and a dog and cat fight would no sooner ensue.

Now you know you would take this baby cat in too...look how cute she is!

So we hope that Mr. Peeps makes it to his first flight. It is always touch and go with wild animals...but he seems like he just might.

The fish "in" the water

So we have been invaded by the heat and what else is there to do but get wet? We did this by having the kids swim in our neighbors kiddie pool, ( i have yet to get to target and snag one of our own), simply filling buckets and having them play in it, squirting them with the hose while we water flowers, and then finally going to my aunt and uncle's pool on Sunday. The only effect the heat has had on the kids is that they are tired at the end of the day and sleep well. So for that I say, Welcome Summer!

In typical Ethan fashion, he was a little unsure about the big pool. He is going through an, I hate Baths, stage and so I knew that the pool would be quite the same. In his defense, he was working on an ear infection on Sunday and so I must say perhaps that he was weary all around and not just about the pool. He took a big nap Sunday afternoon in our cousin Ryan's room and so for the most part he didn't get in the pool that much.

We had Kendall's best friend Sarah with us that day, we were watching her as her parents were at a wedding. So we had two 2 year olds in the pool that day to keep track of, and they both did great and stayed in the pool most of the day.

Kendall took to the water like a fish. I wasn't sure yet what kind of floating device I was going to get her yet and there was a pair of swimmies left over from the previous year from someone and I thought, well I will put these on her so she gets used to the idea of having some type of floaty on her and not just holding on us the entire time. So we slipped the swimmies on and off she went. She was swimming all by herself for the most part. The only time she required assistance was when she wanted to go 'real fast' to the side to jump out and go off the diving board or down the slide.

My aunt and uncle have a cool slide to go down and Kendall went down the first time with me, the second time with me helping her to sit down and send her to the person waiting to catch her, and then after that she climbed the stairs herself and went down on her own with a person waiting to catch her. I am not so sure I want her to sliding off without someone there to catch her. As for jumping off the diving board, she thinks she is jumping off, typically someone stands on the board with her and holds her by the arms and drops her into the pool to another person, and then she insists on swimming to the side all by herself.

So it looks like Kendall will be swimming solely with swimmies this summer unless we see a need at some point for something more.

Invasion of the Kittens

So one day last week, I am sitting at my kitchen table sipping my coffee, listening to the kids play when I hear 'uh Meliss', did you hear the kitten?' It's my neighbor Michele at my window telling me that there is a kitten in the garden and she is too afraid to go and pick it up. Me, being the sucker for lost and abandoned animals go and grab it. Sure it is a little upset, I would be too. It has been left behind by its mother, or dropped of in some foreign place and there is humans grabbing at it. I bring it in, call Mom Mom. It is a cute little black fur ball, a boy, and I can't have a boy cat in here. History has proved that when there is a dominant female cat in the house and a boy cat is presented there is spraying mania. So Mom Mom being just as much a sucker as I am instructs me to bring it over. So we pack it up and bring over the cat. Kendall is in love with this little kitten, we go through some names like Frankie, Inky, Scout, and then Mom Mom says, how about Andy? Kendall says, yeah, Andy-boy. She had not liked any of the other names, but Andy-Boy stuck. We told her that Andy was Daddy's name, so she occasionally will call the kitten, Daddy. Andy-Boy, in Mom Mom Mom's Garden

Side Note story, upon knowing Daddy's name was Andy, Kendall referred to him as Andy numerous times throughout the day. We were in Target that evening shopping and Andy was down one aisle and we were down another and Kendall asks, 'Where's Andy?' I try to cover for her and say, 'Andy the cat is at Mom Mom Mom's Kendall,' and then the human Andy comes around the corner and she says,'There he is!' And then throughout the evening she referred to Daddy as Andy every now and then much to Andy's agitation. However, it has quickly been forgotten.

So now we have this Andy cat safe and sound at Mom Mom's we go and visit it on Friday and Kendall rocks the kitten and feeds it and is just in love with it, so cute.

I am at my parents on Sunday get a phone call from Andy that Michele my neighbor wants to talk to me. She informs me that there is two kittens hiding under her grill. Great. So I feel a sense of sympathy for them, but know that they will most likely run away. So when I get home that evening, little Emily lets me know that just one of the kittens ran away and there is still one under there. So I get Mike, Michele's hubby, to lift the grill and I scoop up the kitten. It is hollering, scratching, and is super pissed and scared. I wrap it up in my shirt and take it in to my house much to Lily's extreme anger, she is hissing growling and charging me. I lift up the kitten and find it is a girl, and so she can stay the night, in my bathroom to go to the shelter in the morning. I name her Sylvia sticking to my old lady cat names, Sylvia was a person on the show Andy was watching that night as well.

Monday I get up, tend to Sylvia who is now warming up to me, and then call the shelter to find that they are closed on Mondays. Lucky for Sylvia she has one more day for me to get attached to her. So I leave a message. We take Sylvia in and out of my bathroom throughout the day and it is chaos when it happens. Kendall is screaming bc she wants to hold it, Ethan is whining bc that is what he does, Lily is going berserk, and I am ready to pull my hair out. So exasperated we end the day with human Andy coming home to bond with the kitty and to see just how much Kendall loves this kitten. She calls it Sylviwa and is very concerned for its well being. She is so interested in the care of this kitten, making sure it is fed and taken to the potty. So slowly my aversion to keeping it is melting. And then Andy says to Kendall, don't you think we should just keep her?

Next day, no one returns my call from the shelter. I lavish Lily with attention and she starts to respond to this kitten, giving it space, not hissing as much, watching it play, and letting it approach her. The kids seem better with it too, giving her her space and being a little more understanding that it is a baby. So it looks like Sylvie might be here to stay, everyone is growing attached to her and so far she has been a good cat. She has been doing her business in the litter box and will meow when she is near Lily's to go ( it is too high of an entrance for her to jump in), goes into my bathroom to sleep on the blankets i have in there for her when she has had too much, and pretty much does her own thing. She is a goofy little kitten that races around the house. She has pretty much told us that she will keep us since when we are outside playing she will come out and play in the garden and not run away. I was a little concerned about the costs that come along with a kitten in its first year, but after some research found that I can get these all done at a low cost, with the exception of front declaw....I know, I know, but it as to be done. Lily still 'claws' on furniture to this day and she doesn't have claws, it is instinctual.

So without further ado I introduce to you Kendall's cat, Sylvia, Sylvie for short.

Kendall holding her new little friend, Slyviwa, notice Lily in the background of the first one...my poor baby

Catch Up Part Two

So May just flew by and now we are just into June, crazy. By the way, Happy 30th Anniversary to Mom & Dad! In the final weeks of May we celebrated Memorial Day the way you are supposed to with picnics, family, & friends. We were at my parents for most of the weekend. My sister Michelle had gotten a moon bounce from her work and so that was the highlight of Kendall's every waking moment. She was really good about it. When she was asked to take a break from jumping, she did without a tantrum. Unreal. Of course now whenever we arrive at my parents she tells me she is going to go on the moon bounce and I have to tell her over and over again that Aunt Michelle took it back to the store for other kids to use. We will have to get it again this summer.

We invited more family over on Sunday and Kendall was able to play with Molly and Brynn for a little bit before they were off to another picnic. My 71 year old Mom Mom even got in on the moon bounce action with Kendall. Ethan on the other hand was terrified of the thing, in typical Ethan fashion. I knew it before it even went up that he would be scared of it. That is our E, but I am finding out that his hesitation to try something new mirrors his father's, so once the fear is conquered they end up having a blast. But we could not convince Ethan that the moon bounce was fun.
On the actual Memorial Day we went to another picnic at our friend's Jake & Trista. Kendall always has fun over there and usually plays hard with the kids. Ethan now on the move was able to play with the kids also. He preferred to sit in the little car most of the day and eat and eat. He is a picnic connoisseur.

Ethan 'crashing' amidst a busy weekend.

Kendall has also been loving going to Sunday School now if I could only say the same about her brother. Ethan HATES going to the nursery despite loads of kids and toys to play with. He will become so distraught that I usually have to go and get him. I have since signed up for one week a month in the nursery and my parents already do another, so that is 2 weeks out of a month that he will stay there. The other two he is with us. However, I must admit, he does behave, he is usually sound asleep by the time the offering plate going down our pew. Kendall just loves it though, she will talk about it all week and on Saturday night just loves going to bed with the promise of Sunday School in the morning. 'I go see my friends at church, mom?' So this is so very reassuring to me, a love of church and some good friends there is so important. She loves to tell me about the lesson as much as she can get out of it at 2, and she also loves to tell me what she did with each of her friends. This past week they asked each of the kids what they wanted to be when the grew up and Kendall responded, 'a crocodile.' To each his own. Ethan will be in her classroom next year at this time, and will have hopefully grown out of this separation anxiety. Until then...


Right now he is attempting to climb into my lap since I must have been absent to long for him.

This past weekend we spent some time at home, it felt good to not be running around. We bbq'd with the neighbors, and the kids had a lot of fun. Kendall loves playing with her friends Sarah & Emily outside, and Ethan can usually be found following along. At the bbq on Friday night Emily whipped out of her dress ups some fake teeth. Kendall thought this was hilarious.





Ethan is quickly learning new words, one syllable, if you ask him to say a two syllable word he gets angry. Yesterday I asked him where some body parts where and he was able to point to them. His personal favorite is his tongue.

His favorite thing to do is whine and cry about everything. It's a lot of fun. I am sure it is over communication frustration but just the same it is as annoying to him as it is to me. But he is my little boy, and everyone knows my bottom line when it comes to Ethan...and that is just that, he is my little boy.

I promise you E, this soon shall pass.