An act of true heroics

So both of my kids are afraid of the vacuum. They just now are getting to the point where they can be in the same room and be ok with it. Usually they are crying hysterically. This morning I was vacuuming and Graham was sitting on a couch at one end of the living room, and I was almost finished, but was vacuuming near the foyer, where one of Graham's beloved toys happened to be sitting. I wasn't going vacuum the foyer on account of it being linoleum, but Graham dashed across the living room, while the vacuum was still on, and grabbed baby tad, and ran back to the couch. What a brave little boy to rescue baby Tad.

So I turned my back for one minute this morning and I look back and Graham has a stamper in his mouth, sucking on it like a paci. He was quite blue. Then he was really sad when I took the stamp away after he kept on putting it back in his mouth.

The top says that it's made in China, so at least I don't have to worry about any toxins in the ink. I mean, it's all on the up and up over there in China when it comes to kid's toys, isn't it?

Nate's first day of Preschool

Getting ready to go into school on his first day. (Making a goofy face.)

This year we have Nate at a preschool down the road from our house. He only goes 2 afternoons a week, which I think will be just right. He starts Kindergarten next year, and in the state of MD it is mandatory all-day Kindergarten. Mostly I think that is so not necessary, and the kids probably are not ready to go to school for that long at that age, but the lazy mom in me that hates to live according to schedules is kind of glad that I don't have to be home in the middle of the day every day.

Anyway, so we put him in preschool this year to help get him used to the idea of school. He seems to like it so far, but he's only gone twice. So there he is, my baby starting "school."Looking in at the fish pond after his first day.

Coming out of the school. He was pretty happy. Graham loves to go and pick him up. The first day he just about ran inside the school, but we're supposed to wait outside. Now when we leave the school to go home from dropping him off, Graham points to the empty car seat and says Nate. Then when I wake him up to go and pick Nate up, as we leave he says, Nate. It's a good thing he's napping while Nate's at school. He would miss his brother a lot.

Our latest Adventures

Well, at this point in time, I don't really know what I have blogged about and what I haven't. And I'm too lazy to go back and find out. So here it goes.

For my birthday we were going to go down the ocean, as they say round these parts, but as it turns out Tropical Storm Danny was off the coast that day, so we didn't think it would work out to go, so we just kind of hung out that day, and went to dinner later in the day and went to see kittens. Oh, and I think we took the kids to see Night at the Museum 2 that morning.

Anyway, the following Saturday we decided to brave the Labor Day crowds and go to Ocean City. I am so glad we did. It took us a while to get down there on Saturday morning, but that was because we made a few pit stops, and had to stop once to clean up throw up. (Can we ever take a trip without cleaning up throw up?) There really was no traffic. We found a place to park without any issues, and then we found a place to set up camp. It wasn't too crowded at all. It got warm enough to enjoy the water. At first Graham would not touch the water, but they both enjoyed digging in the sand, but by the end of the day you could not keep Graham from running straight into the waves. We had a lot of fun. We drove home that evening, and it was a lot of time in the car for the day, but a fun day none the less.

Then on Labor Day Monday we went to this new water park in Leesburg. It was cloudy and drizzly for most of the time, and a bit chilly, but we had fun anyway. We decided to go because life is not always about sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes you have to have fun in the rain. And it was a good time. Both of the kids enjoyed themselves until they got too chilly to play anymore. Then we went over to Jesse's parents house with cousin Meckenzie, and they played their hearts out over there. So it was a fun time that day too.

We're excited for the cooler weather to be here now. Lots of park days now. We still plan on making it over to the MD Zoo sometime in the next weeks. And then comes fall. Mmmmmm..... fall. Pumpkin patches, corn mazes, Halloween, pants, jackets. Lovely times.

Ta Daaa!

These days Graham's favorite thing to say is ta da! He is actually starting to talk a lot, and mimic words, but his favorite thing to say is still ta da. He says is for just about everything. Today he got the lid back onto a marker, and he looked at me, raised his arms and said ta da! This morning we were at the grocery store. He was in one of those big plastic carts where there is a steering wheel. He climbed up to be standing on the seat, put his hands in the air, and said ta da! (And promptly got a seat belt on.)

The other night Graham woke me up with his hysterical crying. I walk into his room to see what was going on, and as my eyes adjusted to things in the dark I saw that things did not look right. Pretty soon I realized that his face was covered in blood. I have only seen bloody noses like that in the movies. So we finally got him calmed down, and that helped to stop the blood flow, but he didn't want to go back to bed, and the nurse told me to keep him close to me. So he and I sat downstairs and watched a movie. At one point, the light in our foyer went out, it's just something that it does due to loose wires or something. Anyway, Graham got up and said uh oh! Then he went over to the stairs and tried to get the light to come back on, and stay on. After he finished, he ran back over to where I was lying on the couch, climbed up, and you guessed it, threw his hands in the air and said ta da! (The picture taken was after we had gotten things to stop, and wiped his face a little bit. Hope you don't get squeamish at the sight of blood.)

Quote of the day

So Jesse and I were talking about going places, and costs and stuff, and I said that Graham was probably still free at the zoo, and Nate says, "No, Graham's not free- he's one!" Maybe he's never noticed that he's the only one in the family that says "free" instead of "three."

My Police Thing

So today, we were at Target, in celebration of me getting my car back after a week in the shop. Anyway, while there, Nate spotted this sweet Hello Kitty chapstick with attached keychain. Anyway, he had to have it.
So today the shorts that he has on don't have a pocket. He found that he was able to tuck the chapstick into this waistband and it would stay there. Well, then he wanted to put it right in the back of his pants. He then informed me that it was his "police thing." So I predict that either Nate will grow up to be the kind of police man who keeps his gun in his back waistband, or he'll become a thug.