Summer Fun!

The weather has been beautiful lately - perfect for outdoor fun! This morning we headed out to our local brand spanking new park. It's great. They made it to be accessible for all ages and abilities, so Clara can play and have fun and I don't have to worry as much about following right behind her. She always finds something fun (and safe) to do. So here are the highlights of our morning. ~:-)


All buckled up and ready to go. Jackets on for the chilly morning air.


Clara doing what Clara does. She would be happy swinging the whole time if I didn't make her get down and go play.


Clara was glad she left the swing when she found the roller slide. She did a continuous loop of the steps and slide for about 10 minutes.


Spiderman, Spiderman. Does whatever a Spiderman does. Connor is getting very good at climbing the different ropes and rock walls and such. Once he actually tries it, he loves it!

Clara does Play-Doh

Lately, Clara has been enjoying some time as the only child while Connor is at preschool. In fact, it's probably better than being an only or the first child... she has all of Connor's cool toys to play with while he's not here to fight he for them. Score!

Clara's most recent find is Connor's Play-Doh tub. Santa brought this to enable Connor to use Play-Doh without mommy losing her mind. So far it is really working (well... I'm not losing my mind over Play-Doh anyway). Connor will set the tray top on the floor and keep the container next to him. (One must have access to every Play-Doh toy at all times!) Anyway, Clara "found" the tub a few days ago and after much whining I gave in.



She was very funny about it... she didn't like to touch it. At first she would hold it down, just barely touching it with one finger, and poke at it with whatever tool she had. Finally she advanced to picking it up, but she never did work up the courage to squish it. In the end, only the google eyes in the tub held her attention.

Can you hear the music?

The best way to shop...

Let it rain!

The baby

We have a baby in the house...

and his name is Connor! Clara has been playing with her babies a lot lately, so I am the official baby wrapper. Connor made a comment about how good I was at it and I told him about how I got my practice... wrapping him up! Connor loved being swaddled when he was a newborn. Clara hated it. Well, he immediately asked to be wrapped up. What a cute "little" baby!


Clara just sat watching Connor and I giggle like idiots. She was too busy playing mommy to play around with us.

Christmas at Our Place

This year we had Christmas at our place. It's been a lot of fun! Nana, PopPop, and Mo (aka Neil) came up from VA to visit us. I love my family (but I seriously miss my sister)! I thought I'd continue my recent blogging style and offer you a holiday in review.

Connor, Nana, and I made a gingerbread house together. It was from a kit, but I bought some extra candy to use. This was so much fun. Of course, nearly the entire thing had Connor's licked fingers stuck on it. And yes, by the end he was as hopped up on sugar as he looks.

I... ehr... Santa brought Michael a huge Toblerone. This is a source of contention in our home. Let me ask you. Exactly how long can a Toblerone sit on your counter before you have to start eating it?

Clara got all of her favorite things for Christmas. Nana and PopPop brought her pretty shoes and a purse and Santa brought a doll baby, stroller, and Elmo. She spent Christmas day literally doing laps around our house pushing the stroller. She immediately started growing a circular bruise on her forehead, the result of falling over into the stroller as she tried to load her baby into it.

My sister made these awesome dolls for Connor and Clara. I'm so glad I finally got that sewing machine to her!

Connor got lots of good inside play toys. Here he is with the dominoes Nana and PopPop brought. He can't quite do them himself (no patience), but Nana would set them up while he played and then call him over when the time came to knock them over. His eyes would just light up and of course he would immediately say "Let's set them up again!"

We've had a great Christmas! I hope you've enjoyed yours. Have a happy new year! ~:-D

A little life at our house

Just thought I'd give you a glimpse of life at our house right now. :-)

Clara continues to like "dressing up"... even if it means wearing Connor's undies on her head.

I've fallen in love with Scrabble. This was Michael's first game. He did quite well.

Clara started eating with a spoon. Good news is that she's growing... bad news is she's messy. :-)

Meet Connor, birthday party attender extraordinaire. He particularly loved his best friend T's party. He could eat the cupcakes!

What to do?

On a cold winter's day (well... nearly winter's day), there isn't much to do except head for the local children's museum. It's a cute little place with lots of things to entertain your typical rambunctious preschooler.


This is the clearest picture I got of Connor. It wasn't just the phone camera to blame for this, it was also the fact that he will not stop moving while we're there. There's always something different to do and pretend and try-out...

Clara slowed down for me a little, although she was really active herself. She really liked the fishing boat (which is where she's sitting) and had a lot of fun in the Mexican restaurant.

So far it's been a great day!

Some photos

So... I'm pretty sure you've been missing seeing photos here. I sure miss seeing them! So here are a few.

Connor has been a real goofball lately. He's so funny! He also wants to do everything Clara does... whether it's being flipped by Daddy, riding Clara's school bus... or wearing her headband!

A few days ago Clara was upset she couldn't get her kitty to ride the motorcycle. I helped put kitty on and was a little surprised when Clara rushed to climb on behind her. She played this way for about 10 minutes... an eternity for a baby.

This picture reminds me that I totally believe in the differences between boys and girls. Clara loves anything you can hug. Give Clara a baby and she will give it kisses and try to feed it. Connor didn't even notice babies... unless he needed something to throw. Now he does love to take care of them. They have a doll center at PREschool. His teacher said if he can't do a building center he heads straight for the dolls.

I had noticed that Connor was wanting to play with his blocks a lot. Each morning when I get him from his room he has usually built something. Today I built with him for a little while. I'm amazed at how much he's growing. We built a house for the little people doggy. It had to have a door and we had to figure out a way to cover the windows while doggy took a nap. I grabbed the opportunity this afternoon to take a few pictures of him creating. It was fun watching him deliberately pick out colors and shapes of blocks. My baby's growing!

Busy, busy

I don't know why though. I just feel rushed. Hmm...

Anyhow, we have been having fun here. I've been unpacking. Heh! You may be slightly confused by this, but I figured it would be a good idea to completely unpack before we move again. Mostly this involves pulling out my nick-nacks and purging some more, as well as putting our pictures on the walls. I didn't realize how much I missed our photos until I started pulling them out. I also pulled out some pictures of me that are nearly identical to Clara. It's a little creepy. You can occasionally catch a glimpse of me in Connor (I've been told our profiles are the same), but he is pretty much a little Michael. Clara is soooo me. Her teeth are even coming in with the same gap I had (although Mom says mine was artificial - chipped).

So in all this unpacking and due to the horrible state our living room is in most of the time, we decided it was time for a toy box. I generally don't like these - I have memories of friends' toy boxes filled with dirty broken toys. You could never find the toy you wanted! Well, I've gotten over this simply for the sake of not having to pick my way through our downstairs to avoid death, or at the very least a sore foot. So I packed up the kids and we headed out to Target (the known center of the shopping universe here). They didn't have the toy box in the store but they had a very nice shelf, which I needed as well. The next logical place for a toy box is that dreaded store for parents, Toys R Us. I cringed as I told Connor that was where we were headed. He let out a cheer. Fortunately for me, he was tired after not having a nap and having school, so he agreed to staying in the cart. I also had my bribe... No whining, excellent listening ears = a toy treat. He did soooo very well. We found a toy box (it matches the shelf!) and then set out looking for the perfect toy. I of course aimed for learning and pretend play toys. Connor didn't want anything to do with my $20 awesome dress up clothes sets. We moved on... then he yelled "There it is!" His perfect toy! A... huge Crayola crayon bank? Yup, that's what he wanted. You'd think it was made of gold. Kids crack me up!
Clara had fun playing with all the toys we "found" as we cleaned. She especially loved the baby doll set, which she continues to drag around the house on occasion.
Connor had a lot of fun with the box which held the kids books.


Our next big event was Six Flags Over New England. It was a lot of fun! We paired up with our friends, T's family. The boys had so much fun. We hit up the first ride we saw for kids. Unfortunately, we didn't really prep Connor like we normally do and he came ver close to bawling. Poor kid. See his super serious face?
Of course when he got off this ride he said it was soooo fun. Once again, he cracks me up!

A highlight for Connor was Wiggle World. He drove the Big Red Car with T.


So... super long post, but I guess I haven't had a meaty post in a while. I have to go clean now... I'm having a SU! event here on Saturday and this place is not fit for visitors! AH! Well, I'm off! TFL!

All better!

Well, for the moment everyone seems to be well. We'll see how long that lasts! Hehe. Clara's eye is officially clear as of this morning. I will wrestle the drops into her eyes for another 4-6 days. I'm thinking it may be more on the 4 side of things, but we'll see. Maybe she will get used to me holding her eye open and dripping something into it every six hours... right. As it is, the moment I lay her down on the changing table she starts yelling. Poor kid.

So the weather here continues to be lovely. Today hit the mid-80s. It was beautiful. It had been a touch too cool for real warm weather clothes, but that seems to be changing. I will just have to keep a light jacket out for each kid for the mornings. I really like it up here!


Connor has really grown up physically recently. He is being more daring at the playground, more like he used to be. It was funny because when he was younger he was so daring... then the fear hit. He realized he could fall and he was overly cautious. He is just now recovering and realizing he can control his body to do the weird ladders and go up the slides and such.

So, about all the drama a few days ago. Michael was unexpectedly offered the position he has wanted since he made chief. It would be a "good" career move, but it would mean 2 years of sea time. Being that this weekend marks the end of his 10th year of sea time... we were obviously planning on shore duty of some sort. We've "planned" where we're going and such, so this was a big change. It would however mean not moving from here as soon as "planned". After many days and the opinions of every person he works with, Michael decided to turn down the offer. So... all the drama turned out to be for nothing. Sorry if I worried anyone...

I guess that's all for now, I should really head to bed. I keep staying up playing Wii Sports... nothing like having to get up for babies in the morning and being tired and sore! ~:-D

I'm such a slacker! But Connor's been soooo busy (not me... I just have to escort him everywhere)! He has made friends in the neighborhood. Woohoo! Hmm... what else has gone down? Connor also gave himself a concussion. Yup! You read right. That was actually a few weeks back. Silly child was leaning in his chair and it slipped out from under him. He slid forward and banged his head on the coffee table and the chair back hit him in the back of the head. No big deal at the time. He barely cried. Fast forward an hour an a half and he starts throwing up. Nice. After calling the clinic to get their opinion (why did I waste my time - of course they said to take him to the ER to be checked), we headed to the ER. They were very nice and worked to get us out of there quickly. Connor got a CT scan (they scanned my cat! HA!) and everything was normal. It was quickly dubbed a "mild concussion" and we headed for home. We were only there for 4 hours on a Friday night. I was impressed. So anyway, Connor did sooo well with the scary CT machine. His eyes opened really wide when the table started moving, but I told him to close his eyes and relax and he did fine. I love my little dude!

Clara's be growing. She's pulling up a lot now... often to her feet on the carpet or in her crib. She still won't crawl on her knees. We have another army crawler on our hands! But no teeth yet. I think she's been teething forever!


Aside from giving himself brain damage, Connor has been fun lately. He has started to love art stuff (and I've been more inclined to let him try now that he is following directions - well mostly). He loves the easel that Sarah and Joe gave him for Christmas and he has started stamping. He has a retired set I got for him that is called Bug Builders. He likes making bugs! Of course, he likes getting inky. Every day at least once he'll say to me, "I wanna 'tamp ma!"


The next very fun thing is pretend play. Woohoo! I've been waiting for this to kick in. He runs around making up stories for Superman or Connor-boy. He takes my order for food and cooks for me continuously. Yay! I really like when he "plays guitar". Anytime he hears a good rock song (a kid version of course), he will find his drumstick, hold it tightly to his stomach and wiggle his fingers over it. Very nice. He even has a good lean when he does it. Rock star in the making. Pictured above is one of his favorite songs right now. It's called I Hog the Ground and is by none other than Steve! It's not on iTunes yet, but you know I check nearly every day! His other favorite is Move Your Feet by Music for Aardvarks. It has a great funk guitar part. We dance to that one daily.

I guess I've been long winded enough for today... I'll try to be more consistent again with my posting! ~:-)