Farewell Party with Silver City Friends

Silver City friends threw us a little farewell party the day before family showed up to help us move. We grilled food, watched the kids be crazy, had a few beers, and had a remarkably normal gathering. I choked up a bit as we said "hasta la vista" but otherwise it was all fun.

Adam & the kids (Anson, Simon, Rylie, Lily) checking out a huge bug we'd never seen before.

Kids in the sandbox, mostly. L-R:Lily, Simon, Sebastian, Rylie, Sylvia, Joseph

Lily & Simon riding bikes with Aaron watching

Big

Simon's getting big. I'm kind of amazed at his abilities & creativity at 2 1/2.

Getting ready for a play date with his friends Joseph & Sebastian Castello. Got a water bottle and a backpack full of extra diapers & a change of clothes...play dates are inevitably messy and wet.

Showing off his new t-shirt to remember his age/size when we left New Mexico. It's the New Mexico state flag with the zia symbol.

Riding his bike with helmet, elbow & knee pads on the north "yard" side of the house

"I'm riding backwards into the wall, Mom!"

Walking the 'Hood

Simon loves to go for walks. We don't go far and we don't go fast, but we certainly explore every little detail along the way. I suggested that we look for cool rocks and see what flowers we could find, so of course he stops to look at every rock (including landscaping full of rocks, as you see below) to claim them as "cool." We saw some mule deer in one yard, and Simon was a little startled by them. After that he seemed nervous about happening upon more deer, so we started talking about them more. I found some deer tracks a few times, so we pointed them out and explained that's what deer footprints looked like. We found lots of deer poop, and explained how that was another way we could tell where deer had been. Soon after the latter explanation, Simon requested that we "go look for more deer poop." I tried to explain that deer poop was something we came across by accident, not something we go looking for, but that's the mind of a 2 1/2 year old versus the (boring) mind of a 28-year old mom!

Cool rocks, Mom

Walking with Daddy & sleepy Anson through an alley

Stopping to check out the flowers with Mom

"Two boys up" for the last stretch home

Reading

"And Tango Makes Three" with Daddy & Anson on the couch

"Little Chicks' Mothers and All The Others" with viking Mom and Simon's hoodie

I'm Holding My Little Brother!

Simon is positively gleeful about Anson - especially when he gets to hold him. He tells us, repeatedly and ever louder, "I'm holding my little brother!" Yes, Simon, you sure are. Good job, big brother.

Grapes & Grins

In the Johnny Depp version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory there's a line by one of the grandmas that gets a laugh out of Adam every time. Randomly, she says "I love grapes." This has become a "quoteable" line in our home, so every time we have grapes Adam gets Simon to quote the line. It's funny every time...at least to Adam. :) Here's Simon loving grapes on the couch:

Grape in the belly button

Laughing...it's fun to have a big grape cluster! And to be allowed to eat on the couch - joy!

Cute stuff, Simon G.

Hoodie

As we get closer & closer to Moving Day I am doing more laundry even more promptly than I already did, because then I can pack stuff as soon as it's clean & dry again. I've been rounding up cold-weather clothes as we sweat through 90+ weather day after day. I'd recently come across a sweatshirt of Simon's in the car, so I threw it in with the next load of like colors. Simon, of course, pulled it out of the clean laundry basket before I could fold it and insisted on wearing it, zipping it up, putting the hood on, and sticking his hands in his pockets.

Hands in the pockets

THESE hands go in the pockets, Mom. Grrr...

Giggle butt. It's funny to wear a hoodie with pockets in the summer, especially with dinosaur pajama pants on bottom.

What Is It?

Hoo, boy. We are fully entrenched in a 2 1/2-year-old phase called:

"What's that?
What's that?
What's that?"

Blessings

Yesterday Simon told me he blessed his bed, and there was a small damp spot on the sheet. We figured it out pretty quickly, and it happened a few times today at the yard sale again. He'd look up suddenly and point to a person browsing and say, "he blessed."

Get it?

Sneezing=blessing, because we say "bless you" every time.

Say "Frosty!"

Today we got lunch from Wendy's. We don't do fast food very often, but Simon knows what french fries are, and he likes a frosty as much as the next person. Fortunately, Wendy's also offers a side dish of mandarin oranges, which he devoured.

Simon and I shared a small frosty, and he asked for his half in his "teddy bear cup with two handles." I complied. He ate some of it with a spoon, and dipped his fries in it a few times too (he learned that one from watching us) but mostly he just picked up the handles and drank it. Since it was lunchtime in New Mexico, it was 96 degrees and the frosty melted faster than any of us could eat it. When Simon drank it, I think the frosty puddle in his cup slid into his face. Either that, or he jumped in when we weren't looking.

Birth Announcement Rejects

I found a great family-centered online business to make birth announcements for Anson. They gave some suggestions for a photo shoot of baby, and how to include an older sibling. I took about 250 pictures within a few hours - waiting for waking/sleeping to occur - and most of them were cute. Here are a few, however, that didn't make the cut and will NOT be on the birth announcements we send out.

Tia Melissa Love

Yesterday Adam shared the following little story with me:

Simon found a photo of my sister, his "Tia Melissa," and held it up to Adam. "This is Tia. She will play with me."

Yes, I'm sure she will. I wonder if on some level he realizes that we are going to see her in less than two weeks?

Green Van, Black Music

On Adam's "to-do" list for the weekend was "clean out the van." He had arranged to sell it to another local contractor a month or more ago, but needed it to keep working till it got closer to move time. We're leaving in two weeks. Yikes! So the van goes to its new owner on Monday, and Adam recruited Simon to help clean it out today.

The lawn: full of stuff to pass on or pack, and a dumpster for the rest of it.

Simon & Adam came inside to get a drink of water and I asked how it was going. Simon started talking energetically about "that black music" they were listening to. What? In true Simon fashion he then said, "oh THAT black music." I still didn't get it. We do have neighbors who regularly have their car parked in the driveway with loud music & bass thumping, but nothing about that situation would be "black" as far as I could tell. Then Adam told me what they were listening to...something he'd pulled out of the van.

Oh...THAT black music.

Black speakers, anyway, where the music came from. Good call, kiddo.

Red Dragon, Digression and Ice Cream (Cone)

Simon likes to explore the house while I'm sitting & nursing Anson... i.e. unavailable to follow him and see what he's into. A few days ago he came out of our bedroom carrying this shirt of mine, that had been on a pile of clothes I was sorting to pack. He was so excited about the red dragon picture on it that he just lit up when I asked if he wanted to wear it. He didn't take it off for the rest of the day...and actually wore it like a nightshirt at quiet time. It only came off after ice cream spilled on it.

Red Dragon Hobbies is a hobby shop in Otisville, Michigan. Or it was 12 years ago - I don't know if it still is. When I was a junior or senior in high school some friends & I ventured out to find the shop...I'm not sure why. It seemed to be completely in the middle of nowhere (ever heard of Otisville, MI? Me neither.) and wasn't even that big as far as hobby shops go. But that group of friends certainly had a penchant for peculiar adventures, so off we went. I think I bought some dice for playing D&D (not that I needed more, but they get to be a fun & cheap addiction when you're gaming) and then one of the guys found this shirt. I thought it was the ugliest shirt I'd seen, and he said "that's the point. It's great." or something akin to that sentiment. So I bought it. And I wore it. A lot. Still do, in fact. It's probably my mom's least favorite thing I own & wear, but somehow the sheer ugliness of the shirt itself and the oddness of the situation of my obtaining it made me love it all the more. This was also the same group of geeky gamer guy friends that were my escape from the typical teen "image" in high school. I remember deliberately wearing the ugliest things I could find at 2nd-hand shops and combining them into really ugly clashing outfit combos...just to see if they'd act any differently with me. It was a test to me...did they like me less if I was ugly? Nope. They treated me exactly the same regardless. That was the best gift transmitted by a group of high school friends, and these guys had it figured out. But I digress...this is my son's blog, not my own. I will end my digression simply by saying how glad I am that Simon loves my ugly shirt as much as I do, and maybe I can somehow pass on the legacy of unconditional friendship and image-blind love through its ugliness on another generation.

After dinner we had ice cream cones. Well, Adam and I had them. Simon insisted on the cone being "clean" and the ice cream being in a bowl. This is him showing off the cone:

the ice cream:

and the nibbled-on cone with a little ice cream in the bottom that he gleefully "scooped" himself...with his spoon, from his bowl, and dropped into the cone:

Brother Lovin'

Simon really loves Anson. Really. Sometimes we still have challenges with communicating how to be gentle ALL the time, and not to pester him when he's nursing, but Simon really loves having this new little brother around. First thing when he wakes up: "where's Anson?" Before bed, he insists on giving Anson good-night kisses too. When Anson's on the bed, Simon climbs up and puts his arm around him and says "aw, that's a nice hug for Anson" (obviously "parrotting" what he's heard us say.) He brings me burp cloths and diapers and announces that they are for baby Anson. He also tries to bring Anson toys and snacks that he can't handle yet, but the spirit of love is very strong with this brother!

If Anson's up on Daddy, so is Simon. Does this count as "two boys up?"