Cure for Mr. Crankypants...

Here's a funny story...
Last night, Oliver was in a HORRIBLE mood. He wasn't feeling well and was Mr. Crankypants. Nothing, I mean, nothing would make him happy and he was just upset over everything. NO FUN.

Well, it was dinner time and he refused to sit down and eat. He was being impossible, so I decided to try to distract him. I asked Miles and Oliver if they wanted to have a picnic UNDER the dinner table. Well, I'll be darned... it worked! They instantly grabbed their plates of food and ate happily under the table with me.

And, Oliver was in a good mood the rest of the night.

Who knew dining ala under table would do the trick! :) Score one for mommy!

Honest Abe...

Miles is so honest and we know we have to appreciate it while it lasts.
It's just the sweetest thing ever. This is one of many examples...

This week, (in an effort to avoid the constant struggle to get them dressed 10 minutes before we leave the house) we got a tip from our friend Kelly to implement a rule that the boys cannot watch TV in the morning until they get dressed. So far it's worked out great. (Thanks Kelly!)

Well, this morning when the boys woke up, I asked them if they wanted to go watch TV and as we headed to the family room, Miles stopped and said "We have to get dressed first mommy"!

HA... DUH - mommy and thank you Honest Miles! He's such a great kid!

Is it really February??

Wow... it's been a long time since I've blogged!
We had a very fun Christmas - we spent a week in Carlsbad and it was a very nice getaway. We took the boys to Legoland, San Diego, and had lots of down time which was very nice.

January was a blur - work has been very busy for both me and Derek... and somehow it's February.

Miles is four and a half years old and not a day goes by that I don't stop to think how big he has gotten. He's learning SO much at school - he's writing and learning how to read. And, we just registered him for Kindergarten in the fall. I am very excited for him, but it's bittersweet for sure. I do think he's ready and it will be good for him to be at a new school with new friends and faces. He's been at Layla's since he was 7 months old - almost 4 years! Layla has been amazing and we look forward to Oliver being there for a few more years until he starts kinder. :)

Little Oliver is getting bigger by the day and his speech is growing by the day too! Not only is he talking up a storm (and by that, I mean he literally talks ALL the time)... but he talks very passionately (a polite way of saying that he shouts often). Oliver is definitely not shy and I think he likes to be the funny one in the family - he's going to be interesting when he starts school. He's still a total daddy's boy (and recently starting calling him daddy-o) but at least he doesn't call him mamma anymore. He's very funny when we try to get him to try something new to eat. He says "I don't want that... it's too yummy!" LOL. I think he has the word yummy and yucky mixed up. LOL.

Some pics from the past few months...

Christmas tree jammies

Just a sweet pic of Miles and Oliver in their jammies next to the tree.

Looking back...

Awww.... such special memories... Miles's first Christmas, 2005.
Living in San Francisco on Oak Street.

This is ONE SAD LOOKING TREE... LOL
And, look at those cheeks on Miles!


Of course there is a story behind that tree... I sent Derek over to the tree lot in SF while Miles and I waited in the car... and that is what he came back with! I am sure you can imagine my SHOCK with that tiny, sad looking tree! LOL!

Even funnier... Miles' first babysitter, Wilma, came by our house to drop off a Christmas present and asked "Where is your Christmas tree?" and I had to move out of the way so she could see it. We were cracking up! Sad little tree.

Tis the season...

{Miles giving Santa a high five at the Los Gatos holiday parade}

{The house in lights}

{Christmas tree with a crooked star on top}

Sweet and sour

A few tales about Miles... sweet and sour

Sweet:
Miles has three stuffed dogs...

{Left to right: Little brother, big brother, nose doggy}

(1) Nose-doggy: his favorite dog. My friend Lara gave it to him before he was born and he really started to like nose-doggy when he was around 1 or so. We realized that when we took his pacifier away, he started sucking on nose-doggies nose at night... hence the name "nose doggy". (And due to said sucking, poor nose doggy has undergone some pretty bad sewing jobs by yours truly and he's just a sad looking guy.)

{A close up of nose doggy}

(2) Big brother: this is a bigger sized version of nose doggy which I ordered when we lose nose doggy and I figured we needed a back up. Well, he turned out being bigger than nose doggy... hence the name big brother.
(3) Little brother: another attempt to find a back up for nose doggy but he's not quite the same... and he was named little brother.

Now to the sweet part... up until a few weeks ago, Miles would sleep with all 3 dogs and a gigantic monkey that Uncle Kevin gave Oliver. And when he would get up in the morning, all 4 stuffed animals would go where ever Miles went. Well, Miles decided that I should sleep with big brother and little brother at night. At first, he said that I could sleep with them for 5 nights, but he's now decided that I get to sleep with them forever. It really warms my heart that he's sharing his little doggy friends with me. Nice guy.

Now to sour:
Yesterday, Derek picked the boys up from school/daycare and Layla said that Miles had a very bad day. She said he was very confrontational and was using the word "S-T-U-P-I-D" very often. Hmmmm... this is not my Miles. He's usually very well behaved, so I can only assume he was tired, not feeling well, or just testing some boundaries. Either way, I wanted to nip it in the bud. So, I told Miles that if I get another report like that from Layla, he is going to lose his Advent calendar (which has chocolates) for good. I know, kinda extreme... but he is obsessed with his Advent calendar right now. This morning, I reminded him about the consequence for any bad behavior at school. I said "you will lose your Advent calendar" And said "And Oliver too" (LOL) I pretty much said something along the lines of... Ummm... no buddy, Oliver is not going to lose his if YOU are bad. Nice try though.