Whaaaa

You know your little boy is growing up too fast when....

"Mom, you know those underwear I have with the things on them" (spiderman, cars etc)

'Yeah'

"Well, you can throw them away, I only need the white ones now"

What a sad, sad day. How quickly it goes from Mommy to Mom and decorated undies to whity tighties.

Fishing at the River

This weekend we went fishing by our house at the Merrimack River. It is actually termed the "Stuck Place" in our house as it is a place that Jim likes to bring the boys to in the truck to play in the mud. One winter we went down and got stuck on a patch of ice in a rut. We barely had any gas and it was cold. Jim tried to dig out and stick trees under the tires but he had to call Uncle Johnny to come help us out. Even though Jacob was maybe 2, he remembers it and refers to it as the Stuck Place.

Sometimes it is easier to refer to a place by a memory than the name. We ride at several different places and it is hard for the kids to remember which one is which. But one time Jim brought the boys to a place that has a little bridge with water flowing under. The got sticks and threw them in and watched them race to the other side. That riding place is now always referred to as Poo Sticks. Now that Joshua is a little older, he kinda whispers it to me when we are around other people. It is cute to see him a little embarrassed.

Jim was fishing for carp. He makes a wad of oatmeal into a ball and that is the bait. We have been a couple of times and have not caught anything...so I can't tell you if it actually works.

Have I mentioned enough times that my boys love mud.

Jacob likes to fish a little, climb a little.And of course, you can see where he gets it from.

When we first go there, we saw a puddle with what we first thought were polywogs, as I call them, or tadpoles. But when Jim looked closer, he said they were baby catfish. Poor things are going to die since the puddle was probably made when the river was high. We didn't have any nets to rescue them. :(

One for the Baby Book

I know I posted this on Facebook, but I need to repeat it so I have the date stored. My memory just isn't that good. I have a babybook for both boys, the first lost tooth is one of the last entries so I need to remember. And thank god my camera stores the date too because I already forgot which date it was. Time just goes by and I'm trying to keep the boys busy and fit everything in.

His teeth have been loose for a while. The two top and two bottom. But they are slow in moving. He has been wiggling and wiggling and trying to get it out with tweezers. No one pushed him to let them yank it out.

He just came up to me one morning and said "look Mom". He was so proud. I was a little freaked when I saw he had my cuticle snippers in hand.

As soon as he rinsed and spit blood, he was no longer happy about the big event. The tears started flowing. "I don't like losing a tooth, I want it back". I gave him a freeze pop to forget about it. The rest of the day was spent putting the tongue in the newly vacant space.

The boys have a tooth fairy bear. It has a little pocket for the tooth. With Joshua we usually put it in the corner of his bed by his pillow and all is good. Jacob on the other hand is a mover and shaker before he finally settles into sleep. I often find his blankets switched out and one on the floor, pillow cases off pillows, him in a variety of locations, including in a pillow case without the pillow. So we decided the top of his dresser would be a safe waiting spot for the bear.

I awoke the next morning with a green 5 dollar bill in my face with a mini jack-o-lantern smile behind it.

Missing my Girls

This is the first year in a very long time that Jeanne and the girls have not been able to come up for the summer to visit the camp. Since missing so much work for her surgery, she didn't really have much choice. We did get to see them in December...and perhaps again then.

Here are some pictures of our fun times there over the years. Wrong date...

ditto...

ditto

ditto...

The famous purse shot. This is the beach actually but who's keeping track.

One last one for the day

I brought the boys to Pawtuckaway state park this week. We haven't been at all this year. It seems time goes by on the things you used to do frequently...filled by new things. It is a great place though because it has a new bath-house, new playground, a store [with candy :) ], a little island to explore and from the picture you can see it has plenty of shore line so it doesn't appear crowded. Jacob continues to gain courage to try new water things. Today it was the handstand.

Joshua is really into the bunny ears...in almost every shot.

And I'm really into this reading thing....lots and lots of books under my belt :)

Heart attack...please and thank you

Two weekends ago Jim and I took two vehicles to the camp...and therefore two on the way home. The boys wanted to ride home with Jim and I needed to get back to get ready for Joshua's party. Jim said they were going to stop at the Franconia Notch Boulder fields on the way home. I wasn't thrilled because they are scary as heck. We have done them with Jeffrey when he was younger but I have avoided them up until now with the boys especially since they can be impulsive in their movements. The last thing I want to do is watch my kids plummet off a boulder or into a 20 feet crevace. I prayed for rain on the way home since the skies were ominous and it was pouring by the time we got to the notches. PHEW!

Not so lucky this weekend...Jim said something sassy to me (Of course I can't remember what it was) and so I retorted..."that's ok, I didn't secretly wish for rain last weekend on the way home either". So what do you think we did on the way home??? Right when we pulled in it started sprinkling. Jim said, "you've got to be kidding me", "the rain won't come through the trees anyway".

So we climbed the trail to the boulder field line (that was the good thing about the rain, it made the rocks slippery and we didn't climb on them, just up to them).

And yes...the rain did get through the trees :)

And every muscle has been hurting since then!

Mud Rally

Last weekend was the annual ATV Rodeo that we go to in Northern NH. The boys love to go to watch the mud runs and always hold out hope that there will be a kids pit someday. The kid events they have are pretty lame and are usually over by the time we get there. The boys did get to participate in the radar run. It is a straight run that you go all out on and have your speed read by the radar gun. I was concerned about them knowing when to stop so we showed them the sign that was where they should slow down. I think Joshua slowed down too early because he got clocked at 21 mph and Jacob got 26 mph...I'm thinking Joshua thinks they need to switch machines.

I'm thinking before we know it, the boys will be a part of this club...hopefully the hats are not a prerequisite.

In the past the pits have been largely water. Last year it was mud and a rounded path instead of straight. Jim did it last year not avoided it this year since it cost him some money to fix the damage from the mud getting in everywhere. Kind of like when you go to the beach and find sand in crevaces you didn't know you had.

Some brave girls tried it too. Many of them needed assistance getting out...not just the girls by the way.
This is the boys as we were getting ready to go ride on the trails there.
PS- The moon looked really cool when we got to the camp. Any tips on how to capture the beauty on camera because this really doesn't do it justice. I tried the night landscape setting but that didn't do much.

Joshua's Birthday Party

Monday was Joshua's birthday and party. He only invited a few boys, four of them came. We got baseball themed party things and I had games planned for the themes. At this age...don't bother planning. Especially with boys...they are not as into my creative ideas as I am. We were going to play homerun derby and a dizzy bat race with twist...but we didn't get those in. It was a warm one, so after one water relay they were HOT.

They more more interested in dunking their head in a bucket of water than playing my games.

My back up game became a replacement. It was great because of the heat...melt two ice cubes anyway except putting them in your mouth.

It doubled as tub time :)

At one point when they started body slamming in the living room and I saw two of them suit up with the boxing gloves....I decided it was time for cookie and ice cream. Joshua wanted the huge cookie instead of a cake. It sure was yummy.

Party favors...I thought the popcorn boxes were a fun idea for the goodie bag.Happy Birthday to you Joshua!

New Toy

Let me preface this post by stating that I do know that my boys are very fortunate to have the things they do and that I work daily to help them understand that despite their constant interest in having more. They are a product of their environment. I had to laugh real loud on the inside last night when Jim told Jacob that he didn't want to hear about any more things that he wanted since he just got a new four wheeler. Hello....welcome to my world. Every night Jim is on Craig's List looking for things he wants. They see and hear him...so it is a work in progress.

That said, Jacob got his first new four wheeler. He has been so patient and never asked or complained. He has seen Joshua get two in his life and was just happy to get Joshua's old one. He has been riding it happy as can be. Last year the tire fell off on the trail. Jim fixed it temporarily but we new it would not be safe for him to drive that on the trails we go on. So this is his new toy. He was chomping at the bit to get it all muddy, which he got to do this weekend. This weekend coming up is the annual ATV Jamboree that we always go to. He really wants to bring it through a mud pit there. We tried to explain to him that his machine would be totally sunk in that mud...which is really muddy water.