Hooked on phonics...

The Day I learned my son could read. 

Tyson's been trying his hardest to read for months. Typically he's just been recognizing and remembering words. One day we were eating lunch and he kept staring at our kitchen counter where Jason left his water glass. Then he says this...

"mom, what's big as beer?"

Me: (looking behind me to find the glass). "We're in Wisconsin honey. Nothing's as big as beer." 

The Pink Finger

A couple of days ago, Nolan woke up with the dreaded pink eye.

Slightly different than the 'stink eye' we're used to. (see Nolan's stink eye face below)

("what you talkin' bout Willis?")

Cure for pink eye = easy. Trying to explain to his 4 year old brother that we cannot leave the house or have friends over to play = impossible. 

At one point, Tyson stuck his finger directly into Nolan's pink eye just to make sure it was really irritated. I responded with a speech on 'that's how germs spread, you must wash hands, blah blah. I must have sounded really scary because Tyson immediately ran to the bathroom yelling, "OH NO, NOW I'M GONNA GET THE PINK FINGER!"

As a parent I had two choices at that point. I could've A) calmed him down and explained that there isn't such a disease or B) used his fears to manipulate him into learning excellent hand washing skills. 

Obviously I took the high road...

Ha, I kid. Manipulation is the foundation of good parenting, no?

Wordless Wednesday

A girl and her camera

There once was a girl who bought a new camera. Two years later, she finally started to figure out how to use it without the comfort of an automatic setting. Said girl went to California and attempted to take loads of pictures in hopes to get better at this camera business. Girl dropped her camera and appeared to have lost almost all of the vacation pictures. She. was. pissed. and sad. and scared. but mostly pissed. Girl seeks professional help (camera help. not therapy help). One trip to the Camera Company and a couple of weeks cured the injured memory card (camera was diagnosed with an "angry autofocus" but otherwise ok). Girl has not had time to edit pictures but will provide a sample of some fun things encountered in Cali. Girl will now stop talking in third person. Enjoy. 

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Last week Tyson turned 4. FOUR! 

By some great coincidence, we happened to be in California celebrating Jason's great great aunt's 100th birthday so of course we went to Disney. 

Let me just say that flying with two small children is not for the weak. In fact, I think spoon feeding pureed foods to an infant on your lap during turbulence should be considered an olympic sport. That along with carrying said children + luggage+ carseats (that were wrapped in garbage bags and duct tape...cuz we're classy like that). Even with all of the stress of traveling, I am so glad we went. It was so much fun to celebrate 100th birthday with a gaggle of family and even more fun to celebrate a 4th birthday with Mickey Mouse. 

Tyson was so excited to meet Mickey that he decided to dress like him. The second he put the hat and gloves on he started telling everyone we walked past that he was in fact, Mickey and kept giving everyone he saw a high five. It. Was. Awesome. 

Nolan thought this was hilarious. 

WTH?

In case anyone was wondering what the hell happened to me. 

Here's how I've been spending my time. 

I promise I'll be back. 

Just as soon as I can safely remove the earplugs. 

schedule schmedule

By the time Tyson had reached the 5 month mark, he was incredibly familiar with cameras and photo sessions already. We were very diligent about getting every milestone captured on film. (Super surprising that he remains in constant need of attention right?). Then poor Nolan came along and 5 months passed and Jason and I looked at each other and thought, hey maybe we should hang some pictures up of that new kid of ours. Except there weren't any.

Even the pictures I took myself were limited. Luckily my great friend and neighbor happens to be a photographer (Heather Rae Photography) and was kind enough to squish us in to her busy schedule. Now I finally will have something to put in Nolan's baby book. Thank goodness my boys look almost identical so if Nolan ever asks us about himself as a newborn baby, we can just point to Tyson's pictures. "You see this kid? You looked exactly like that."