Eliot James, 6 yrs and Colin William, 4 yrs.

 

Eliot James:

31% for weight

70% for height!

He's grown 3 inches since November!

Colin William:

At a whoppin' 31.6lbs, Colin is in the 14th percentile for weight.  

56% for height.

Both boys are doing great...no concerns from the doctor which is a first in Colin's life.  They play great together and it's not uncommon for them to get lost in a pretend game for the afternoon and will come to dinner and say, "Hey.  We didn't have quiet time today." And they would be right.  If they are playing, I let them play and don't interrupt for electronic time and some times even count it as some of their school time.  I think this time that they have to play together is one of the most valuable things in life.

1st Basketball Game!

Eli's new cheese face...I remember Alison going through this same phase

Our Saturday was full of watching basketball.  I have a feeling this is just the beginning of long days of sports for this family.  The games were running behind, so we had to watch part of a game before Alison played.  It actually worked out well for us to sit on the sidelines and talk through the game with the kids.  They've only had a couple of practices where they ran through drills, but didn't really know how to actually play the game.  Ben was really excited for the kids to play basketball because it's his favorite sport, but I think I was equally excited because it's pretty much the only sport I really understand and can help them with.  

Both kids did amazingly well in their first game.  

Watching 5 and 6 year olds play basketball is one of the most entertaining spectacles in life.  It was the best!  Plus, they're pretty stinkin' cute in those uniforms.

Ben giving Eli some pointers before the game

Eli taking a shot!

It was exciting for me to see these two kids get in the game, really participate and LOVE it.  

 

This and That

Random happenings of life:

Eli put on Colin's pants, which was hilarious on several levels.

1.) He would not be convinced that they were not his pants.

2.) His tushy is still so little that he can fit into Colin's pants! 

3.) The simple fact that he thought these were perfect storm trooper pants.

Alison and Eli are both playing basketball on base.  They don't communicate what you are really committing to when you sign up; 2 practices a week and a game on Saturday would be a lot for just one kid, but I have TWO kids playing.  So Monday and Wednesday evenings, we're on base for 2+ hours and we have our first game filled Saturday tomorrow.  AND the season goes all the way until mid-August.  Positives?  We're getting a lot of bang for our buck, it gives them an air conditioned activity to do through the summer and they are both loving it.  

I anticipated having to really encourage Eli to participate, like we did with soccer, but I was wrong.  He's jumped in with both feet and done really well!  At his first practice, he ran over to get a drink of water and I whispered in his ear, "You're doing great!  I'm so proud of you!" and he said confidently, "I know." and ran off.  A little mini Ben came out of him that I haven't seen before and it was awesome.

Eli in the orange shorts

Nana sent us a Cold Stone gift card to treat everyone for birthdays.  The couple of times we've been, the boys always want cotton candy.

 

Alison on the other hand, always chooses something new and different.  I've been impressed.  They haven't been flavors that I would choose, but I like it that she's exploring new options.  This time she chose banana with white chocolate chips.

 

Minecraft got a new update which I couldn't tell you a thing about, but I can tell you that all the little people in this house have been dying to play it as much as possible.

 

I kind of like it that they can play it together.

We survived our first 120° day!  I guess it might have actually been hotter than 120°, but our thermometer was maxed out.

 

We went to small group that night and the kids still wanted to eat/play outside.  I kept calling my kids inside, but non of the other moms seemed phased.  I stopped worrying for one minute and soon found both of my boys playing on their slip n' slide with their clothes on!  I guess you gotta do what you gotta do when it's 120° and all your friends are outside.  I threw the boys in the car naked to go home and Colin fell asleep on the way home...I have no idea how.

 

Poor choices was a theme this week with these 2.  Monday night, we had basketball practice.  I told the kids to get shoes on while I started the car and pulled it out onto the drive way to cool down.  Everyone loaded up and we drove to base.  We got on to base and it hit me..."Eli, you put your basketball shoes on, right?".  His response was a sheepish "no".  I parked the car and found Colin without shoes as well and thought, "What is happening?!".  I just don't understand how they didn't even put on flip flops!  So, I carried them into the gym and they were not even phased by having to sit at practice without shoes on.  Boys.

 

Maya is 99.9% better.  She still walks a little funny down the stairs, but she is back to running around the yard and chasing balls and doing naughty puppy things like eating Legos.

 

This picture is not the best and you shouldn't take pictures while driving...but seeing dust devils completely freaks me out!  The Kansas girl inside of me is screaming, "WHY IS NO ONE ELSE FREAKING OUT AND JUST DRIVING BY?!"  

 

The public library is only a mile away from our house and it is amazing.  There's a little cafe inside that the kids have been really curious to check out.  So today, I treated them to lunch at the cafe after we stocked up on books.  I was disappointed that it's really a glorified concessions stand, but the kids thought it was awesome.  Colin asked for a chili dog, which is a novelty for these kids.  It was messy, but they all loved that chili dog.

 

Today, during our school time, I asked Alison to write a paragraph about some fun things she would like to do this summer.  She wrote "Some fun things to do this summer would be swimming, go to San Diego and go to China."  Clearly getting away from the heat is on her brain.  I'm with her!  I'm trying to convince Ben to plan a trip to Flagstaff in August, just so I can have some cooler days to look forward to.

Update on Maya

This was Maya, last Saturday, the day before she was let out:

When we brought Maya home Monday night, she could barely move.

I was up at 4 am, Tuesday morning with her.  I carried her outside to potty and sat in the living room with her, feeding her by hand.  Ben and I debated about whether to take it slow feeding her (like you would if you had the stomach bug) or to feed her as much as we could.  I chose to feed her as much as I could and it seemed to help.  I even made her scrambled eggs and gave her a couple of cans of tuna.  Yes, she's a tad bit spoiled.  All day Tuesday, I had to carry her everywhere and she slept a lot.  I gave her bath; she had dirt caked into her fur and had a couple of wounds on her paw that needed to be cleaned up.  I also covered her paws in ointment.

This is her walking Tuesday: 

She walked gingerly, with a limp and would just lay down when she was tried.

Wednesday she was trying to walk more and even would go up the stairs, but had to be carried down.

She was starting to look more like herself and her paws looked so much better!  She started to perk up and chew on her bone.

This is her walking on Wednesday (video courtesy of Alison):

By Thursday she was almost walking normal.  She still slept a ton, but was trying to play again.

One of the hardest things about this ordeal has been helping the kids understand what is going on.  They assume that Maya is home and everything is back to normal and want to jump on her and play with her.  They would try to get her to chase them or do tricks and would be so confused when she just laid there.

Saturday, she started going down the stairs again, but it's pretty obvious that it still hurts her.  She also attempted running and was wanting to play.  She had enough energy to dig up a sprinkler hose and chew off part of Eli's Minecraft book, so I'd say her puppiness is coming back.

We kind of joked that Maya came back a perfect puppy.  Obviously perfect puppies don't dig up sprinkler systems, but somehow, when she got back, all of the commands we were working on with her clicked.  The week before she was lost, she had several random "anxious" accidents in the house.  But when she came back, even when she could barely walk, she would hobble over to the back door and ring the bell to be let out.  It was the one time that I expected her to have an accident and somehow she would make it to the edge of the grass to potty.  She also miraculously got the command "drop it" and would easily give up anything we told her to drop.

I still have the image of finding her etched in my brain, but am so thankful to see her healing and most of all, am thankful that it happened last weekend and not this weekend when it's 120 and Ben's out of town!  This story would be far different if it were.

Colin's birthday, pt. 2

 We've also never been bowling, so we thought that would be something special for Colin's birthday party.

Ben teaching the kids the ropes of bowling

Colin kept saying, "I'm 4 years old now, I can do all things myself."  

So excited to be bowling by himself...daddy trying to help...

Eli was equally excited about Colin's birthday because he knew the toys would be just as fun for him.  He wore this cape the entire evening.

Bowling was so much fun!

We came home and had dessert.  Colin loves M&M's, so I made M&M cookie bars and wrote a 4 with whipped cream.

Then it was time to play and get ready to look at the stars.

  

We let the kids stay up late so they could see the stars and it was so fun to see their excitement.

The first few days of 4 have already brought a whole new spunk, but I'm looking forward to seeing what this year brings in Colin's life.

Happy Birthday Colin William! pt. 1

Colin is 4!

I had cinnamon rolls all ready to go for our early morning party and Alison and Eli waited so patiently for Colin to wake up.  

Colin collapsed on the floor when I tried to take a picture of breakfast

I'll give an update on Maya later, but you can see she's was still looking pretty rough the morning of Colin's birthday.  I kept food and water by her at all times because she was too weak to get up and walk over to her food spot.  I was thankful to be taking care of her and not mourning the loss of her on Colin's birthday...and she's doing much better today, but that's for later. 

We had planned to go to the camel farm with our friends, the White's, but it was closed when we got there.  Colin was disappointed, but we played at Castle Park for a little bit with our friends to make up for it.

Tolson and Colin

 We spent the afternoon taking care of Maya and playing.  The boys made up some game that involved running around the house with Lego guns.

The first thing Colin said when he got up was, "Where's my birthday shirt?".   Alison asked if she could make his shirt and he LOVED it.  After lunch, they all decorated a shirt for fun.

 

Eli's pictures are never just a picture; they are always a story and it's always an adventure what you're going to hear.

I gave Maya a bath and Colin wanted a bath too.

When daddy got home, it was time to party!

Every time we go the library, Colin asks if I will please buy him a telescope (they have some by the kid's books).  One thing I love about Arizona is being able to see the stars so clearly just from our backyard and stargazing is something we definitely want to do with our kids. 

Alison very thoughtfully, bought Colin walkie talkies.

He also got an astronaut helmet, a building set and superhero costumes.

The party was just starting, so stay tuned.