Ticklefest!

This morning has been good.  I'm a little worn out, though.  We just got done with a ticklefest.  It all started when Caleb climbed up on the couch with me.  I kept asking for kisses, so I told him I would tickle him if I didn't get one.  Well, he had to provoke me and say no.

That's when the tickles began.  I flopped him back on the couch.  I started tickling him and stealing kisses.  He has the sweetest belly laugh! 

Micah never wants to be left out of anything.  "Me too!" he said, so I sat Caleb on the floor and Micah climbed up on the couch.  He started giggling uncontrollably before I even started tickling him.  Too funny!  He got his turn of tickles, and then he said, "It's Caleb's turn again." 

I think we kept going back and forth for at least half an hour.  It was so much fun.  The boys both did well with taking their turns.  I think there should be more ticklefests in the future!

Having fun at the beach

We have had some great weather the past few days.  It was so nice we decided to take the boys to Surf Beach today.  John looked online and it said the swells were going to be pretty big. 

Micah had gotten a fishing pole for Christmas, and he wanted to use it when we went to the beach.  We also got the sand toys together, and off we went!

 

We haven't been to the beach in quite a while, because Micah had somehow gotten fearful of the waves.  We had taken him to other beaches, and as soon as he saw the waves, he wouldn't go near the beach.  Until I moved out here, I hadn't realized how loud it is at the beach, so it made a little sense to me why he would be scared.  But Micah told us he isn't scared of the beach anymore. 

 

Caleb discovered he could throw rocks into the ocean.  He sure enjoyed doing that!

 

 

 

  

Micah wanted John to bury him in the sand.  John dug a pretty big hole and had Micah stand in it.  Then he filled it up and packed it in.  It took Micah a while to be able to get out.

 

Micah wanted to be buried again.  So John did it again.  Needless to say, by the end of our time at the beach, we were all covered with sand.  But it was worth it.

 

If you look closely at Caleb's mouth, you will notice it is COVERED with sand.  I think he might have been trying to eat it.  When we got home and stripped the boys down for a bath, there was even sand in his diaper.  They were so sandy that they got their bath as soon as we got home, and still needed a bath tonight to get the last little bits of sand out of their hair and ears.

Why I love being a mommy

I know that sometimes I get caught up in things, like stress and worry.  But I watch my boys, and they have a way of lightening things up. 

Just last night we came home from dinner with friends.  We got the boys in their pajamas, and put on their slippers.  Micah had just discovered that morning that he could run into the kitchen and slide on his socks.  Talk about fun!  So tonight he and Caleb were running around the kitchen and sliding and falling down on their bottoms.  It was so funny to watch!  Caleb was having so much fun even though he hadn't perfected the art of sliding around on his slippers.  He would kind of just plop down on his bottom.  Thank goodness for diaper padding!

And I have been getting the sweetest kisses lately.  Caleb's kisses have recently been few and far between.  But  lately I'll ask for one, and he will give me one.  I love it!  Micah has been giving me multiple kisses at one time.  He thinks it's a game, and I will go with it as long as he wants. 

Both boys love to read.  They are always bringing me books to read to them.  You know how people have that way of putting their arm around a child while they are sitting together?  Well, Micah has started doing that with me.  I will read him a book, and he will reach around me.  While I'm reading he will be patting my back or playing with my hair.  I enjoy this.  It just shows how he is learning from what other people do. 

There are tons of other reasons, but those are just a few.  Oh!  Don't let me forget how they smell after their baths!  What a sweet, sweet smell.  I love my boys, and I'm thankful every day that God allowed us to have them.

Now it's time for some relaxation

It's been another busy week, so I am glad to finally have some down time to sit back and relax.  Or relax as much as  a mom of 2 rambunctious boys can, at least.

Sunday afternoon, I took my grandma to Urgent Care.  She had been sick since Tuesday, but had been putting off going to the doctor hoping she might get better.  She called and asked me to take her, so off we went.  She got in to see Dr. Little (I'm getting to know the Urgent Care staff pretty well).  She said that she wanted to give her some IV fluids since she was pretty dehydrated.  Plus they drew this huge vial of blood and the nurse personally drove it over to the lab at the hospital to have it tested.  When the results got back, they discovered that she was even more dehydrated than they thought and it was now messing with her kidney functioning.  Plus some of the levels from some medicines she was taking were at dangerously high levels due to not being flushed out of her system as a properly functioning kidney would normally do.

The decision was made to put her in the hospital for a couple of days to monitor her and get her feeling better.  So I drove her over to the hospital at 7 and stayed with her hoping to see the doctor.  I finally gave up at 9 pm.  I heard later that he came about 10 that night. 

The next day I spent trying getting my aunt to the hospital.  My father-in-law offered to watch the boys, so that helped a lot.  I ran some errands for my aunt and my grandma, and in the process, again missed seeing the doctor.  Due to HIPAA regulations, I needed to be there when the doctor was there to be able to ask any questions about my grandma. 

The next morning, I tried to get myself and the boys ready as fast as possible so that I could get to the hospital before the doctor made his morning rounds.  I had called the nurses station, and they said they thought he wouldn't be in until around 9 or 10.  But that didn't sound right since I knew he is very busy at Sansum and would probably have patients waiting to see him there. 

I was pulling out of the drive when my aunt called to tell me that the doctor was in with my grandma.  She had been on the phone when the doctor came, so my grandma had to get off.  I was racing over hoping that I could get to him before he left the hospital.   I get there and get the boys in to the stroller.  I get all the way to the nurses station and they say he has already left for the clinic.  HOW FRUSTRATING!

My grandma was released late Tuesday morning.  She is feeling a lot better, and just wants to rest.  I got her settled at home, and I think she's just going to lay around for a while.

Well, I never got to talk to the doctor.  But I have enlisted the help of my parents, my aunts, and my uncle to make sure she starts taking better care of herself, and eating more.  Hopefully that will help.

Since I hadn't really been home in two days, the house was a shambles.  Just ask my sister-in-law.  She came over for a while, and she can attest to it.  And it was also my turn to host bunco last night.  Not really a problem, but I had to clean the house from top to bottom to get everything ready.  I just don't really enjoy cleaning, but who does? 

We were able to get it all done, and I won too!  Well, at least I broke even.  And now I plan on doing nothing for the rest of the day.  And tonight, John and the boys and I are getting to visit with some friends we haven't seen in a while.  It will be nice to catch up.

Maybe I've been watching too much CSI

I was heading to the car yesterday to go buy a Sunday newspaper, when I noticed something funny about our mailbox.  I went to take a look, and that's when I noticed that it had been zip-tied shut.  It was weird, but I didn't have time to check it out right then.  When I got home, I told John about the mailbox.  It didn't look like something the post office would do because it didn't have any USPS logo on it or anything.  But since it was Sunday, there was no urgency to fix it. 

Yesterday while I was busy getting my grandma to and from the doctor and the hospital, I had some time to think about how that happened to our mailbox.  Probably just hooligans. (Boy, I'm getting old if I'm thinking of teenagers as hooligans).  But I guess I've been watching too much CSI because I started thinking about something being put inside our mailbox and then shut.  Maybe a bomb, or a rat, or something equally spooky.

So this morning, I get all CSI-ed out.  I got my camera ready, and I was planning on wearing plastic gloves so as not to tamper the crime scene.  I wanted to document the zip tie on the mailbox in case something happened to me while opening the mailbox.  Now my imagination was working overtime.

I realized once I made it out to the mailbox that I had forgotten the plastic gloves, but I was too lazy to go back in to get them.  So pictures of the crime scene would have to suffice.  I took pictures of the mailbox and I was ready for an explosion as I opened the mailbox, so I stood to the side as I opened it.  I craned my neck over, but the mailbox was EMPTY!  What a letdown.  Kind of anti-climactic. 

Oh well, I guess that's actually better.  But I don't want my hard work to go to waste, so here are the pictures of my crime scene.  OK, Gil Grissom wouldn't like the quality of them, and I didn't have the little number thingies they put next to all their pictures, but they will just have to do.

  

My favorite Transformer

OK, now I'm getting the hang of these videos. I've been wanting to record Micah singing the Transformers theme song for a while now. He loves watching the show, and he is now singing along with it. It's a little hard to understand unless you have the words ingrained in your head like we do. The things we parents do for our kids.

Just in case you don't know all the words, here they are:

Transformers, more than meets the eye

Transformers, robots in disguise.

Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons.

Transformers. Transformers (in a deep voice)

It's too funny because he even does the deep voice.

My boy can read!!!

OK, maybe not exactly read, but he has an entire book memorized.  He loves for us to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?  to him.  The other day, he started reading it to himself.

Today, we were running errands and I let him take the book in the car with him.  He was such a good little helper reading the book to me while I drove.  You will notice in the video that he peeks at the next page to see what animal is next, but I don't care.  I just like to see him reading.  He does love to read.  And Caleb has inherited that wonderful trait, as well. 

So, without further ado, here goes:

I'm just so proud of this boy!