I've Been Tagged!

In all my time in blog-world, I've never been tagged before. Is this the internet equivalent to being the last one picked for kickball? But now, thanks to my friend Lauren (Noah's mom, to you frequent readers), I have made the cut. I am supposed to write six little-known facts about myself. Oh, the pressure!

1. I think McDonald's has the best tasting water anywhere. Not the bottled water. I mean the stuff you get when you ask for a cup of water to go with your Big Mac. Yum. And it's consistently the best, no matter what McDonald's you hit.

2. I love Oxford. As in, the university in England (yes, I know it's supposed to be called Great Britain. England has a Romantic ring to it, though). I visited briefly when I backpacked there with my cousin Chris during college. It confirmed my suspicion that Oxford is a wonderful, beautiful, mysterious place full of spires and learning.

3. I think the theory of redemptive analogies might just be the very coolest thing in the world. The idea is that God has woven the story of Jesus and His redeeming work into every culture through their stories, traditions, culture, songs, history, etc. There are many stories of missionaries being able to better tell an unreached people group about the Lord when they see and use this hidden key. Doesn't that just show God's creativity, power, and heart for the nations?!

4. On a less serious note, over 50% of my dreams at night take place at the Lake House, the big piece of property where I grew up that had four houses built on it (I lived in three of them), tons of aunts, uncles, and cousins around, great climbing trees, and was on Lake Howell, which is beautiful. I would love to live there again, but unfortunately, I think it would sell for well over a million now.

5. I would like to hike the Appalachian Trail someday.

6. I used to be on an award-winning puppet team. Yes, puppet team. And yes, to win awards, we had to compete. Puppet competitions. Now you know why I wasn't chosen first for kickball. :)

I tag Lisa, who doesn't post nearly enough, Annie, just because she's cool, and Shannon, whom I hope to see very soon!

Now, for those of you who check this blog just for the pictures, let me accommodate:

Here is my kitchen elf, and my kitchen elf-in-training:



Some outside fun:




My silly big boy in the little boy's toy:


Just because it's cute (thanks for the picture, Papa):


Last week, the boys and I took a long walk one evening when Jeremy was away playing drums at a church for some friends. We ended up being so close to 7-11 that we decided to stop in a get a slurpee to share. So I poured some into Iain's sippy cup, gave him a straw, and off we went, walking home, enjoyig our treat. The only problem? The slurpee was RED and Iain decided it tasted better when eaten with his hands. Straw shmaw. Cory, meanwhile, felt left out but was mollified with something to chew that didn't contain red dye and sugar.




Check back soon for some more posts. I've got a lot of catching up to do!

We're Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo

It's been a looong week and a half, with Jeremy working day and night, Iain coming down with a cold, and my family going to Peace Valley in Tenn for Memorial Day (that part only made the time long because I wanted to be there, too!!). Everyone was getting cranky and we needed some fun. What is a mother of two young boys to do?

Pack some peanut butter and jelly and head for the hills. Or in this case, the zoo.

Even in his mopey coldishness, Iain LOVED the zoo. He's been talking about it nonstop ever since. We got a year-long family pass, so we'll be going often - tomorrow, in fact, for Jeremy's birthday.

I took lots of pictures, so you can feel like you were there with us, minus the mosquitoes and sticky heat.

The iguana and Safari Joe :)


Every time Iain talks about this alligator, he adds that it was "sleepin'!"


On the boardwalk (My favorite part. This is how Florida should look, if you add in some big oak trees! And it was so much cooler to be away from the asphalt and in the shade!)


Why was this here?


Adorable!



Iain is saying "oh, wow!' about the fake dinosaur. He said it ALL day. So funny! I love this newly talking stage.


Cory kept kicking the back of Iain's seat, making Iain laugh.


He also decided we were doing a pretty shoddy job navigating the zoo.



I don't hve any good pictures of the elephant, but that was Iain's favorite! He really wanted to touch it and kept yelling "reeeeech!" and stretching toward it. But alas, he couldn't reach it. So he contented himself with talking about its trunk.

About here is where we ran into Steve D. who was our (4-H group's) contact for volunteering there. (He introduced us to the term "traffic-related road mortality" too, which we always used to think was hilarious and affected.) So he got to meet the boys, told us about the splash park in detail, and reminded me that he expected to see the boys volunteering in a couple of years, to which I agreed. Nothing like cleaning out an elephant moat to instill the value of hard work in a youngster!

But I digress.
Here's the intrepid animal-watcher:



We ended the day with some fun at the newly-installed splash park. It had animals squirting water, fountains, shower-like-things, etc. It took Iain a few minutes to warm up to it, but then he was ready to go!





The water turns on and off, I guess to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, it also makes it hard to navigate without getting soaked. I had Cory in the front-pack and was standing in front of the giant frog helping Iain with something when it decided to turn on, spitting a cold stream of water right at us. We were both soaked; Cory was startled and not at all happy. He screamed, poor guy! Luckily for him, I had brought him a spare onesie. Unlukily for me, I hadn't packed a change of clothes for myself.

Then it was out to the picnic tables for some yummy pb&j, or "pum" as Iain calls it (for plum, because once we had plum jelly. Now all jelly is pum.). There's nothing better after a hard day's play!


Doesn't he just steal your heart? Look at that grin!



We went home tired but happier. A good day.

More Iain-isms

-The request to read a book has morphed from "Read! Read!" into "Read-ee, read-ee." Not sure why. :)

-The other day at lunch, Iain began counting the potato chips on his plate, without any help from us. We sat and listened, amazed, as our 20-month-old counted to seven all by himself!

-He used to call himself "Eeen." Now he it's "Eee-ahn."

-Still liking to identify colors, Iain now says "boo-wan" for "blue one" when he sees something blue. "Geeen-wan" is the same, but other colors are still only "pink" or "Leh-low."

-On a related note, if there are two things being noted, Iain says "two-wans." Of course. There are two ones.

-My goodness, this boy repeats everything. Yikes! I just told him to "go ahead" and he walked off saying "go ded." Yesterday he learned "ya-wel-com" which, of course, is what you reply to "thank you" (which, by the way, he still won't say).

-It's cool to know what he's thinking now, to follow his train of thought. For example, we were sitting at the table eating strawberries (or "tah-beh"), which ALWAYS reminds him of his buddy Noah. I know this because he looks thoughtfully at his "tah-beh," then yells "No-Aah" and then asks "Comin'?"

-Speaking of comin', certain words are always -ing words. For example, Iain always says "laying down." I know, it should be "lying down." We'll get there.

- "Dada" is now "da-dat," a combination of Dad and that, with the accent on the second syllable.

-"Pillow" is pronounced "peee-low." So it makes perfect sense to call a hill a "Hee-low."

- Iain is very tonal. For example, he always says "nu wan" (for new one) with the "nu" very high-pitched and the "wan" very low. I wonder if he'd be good at Thai or Mandarin.

- "No-wan" should not be misinterpreted as "no-one." Instead, it means "another one." Silly you to think otherwise.

-We seem to have a new word every day that makes Iain crack up for no apparent reason. Once it was "big." Another time it was "loopy." But "dizzy" (pronounced "dee-zee") works every time. So does anything that rhymes with it.

-"Pin-in' " is a popular pastime at our house. As the name implies, it involves spinning while yelling "pin-in' " until one falls down, often crashing into things on the way down. Much laughter ensues, along with yells of "dee-zee!" See above.

-Iain is very good at memorizing lines from books, especially ones that rhyme. How else could you explain the fact that my one-and-a-half year old knows the word "trellis"?

-Any question with the word "where" in it, is promptly answered with "da-way." (that way)

-And whenever Iain gets in trouble (gasp! You mean he gets in trouble? The little angel??), he tearfully says "sorr-eeee" in such a plaintive voice it breaks my heart!

-Last but not least, I was feeding Cory in the new room and noticed that it had gotten very quiet in the rest of the house. Not a good sign. I called, "Iain, where are you?" and heard his sweet voice reply "sleepin'." He was on Cory's sleeping blanket on the couch:

Oh the Temptation!

When I was little - okay, up until my sisters and I flat-out refused to humor my mother anymore - my mother used to dress the four of us up in matching outfits. She liked our family pictures to be coordinated, to the extreme. We had the polkadot year. The floppy hat year. The poufy-bang decade (yes, that was the 80s). Yikes. We went way past the age where it was acceptable to match. And we knew it. That, friends, shows our true filial love. We may have swallowed our pride to give my mother cute Easter pictures every year, but inside we were plotting. We knew we'd never make our kids match each other.

But my boys are so cute.

And these outfits were providential (Cory's used to be Iain's, and Iain's was found at Goodwill).

And they're just too cute.







So, the amended promise: We'll never make our kids match when they're old enough to know better.

Do you think Iain minds?

The Many Faces of Iain

Happy Mother's Day!

We love you, Grammy!



We love you, Yaya!



We love you, Nan!



We love you, Nona!

Tennessee Trip

In April, we went via plane to Tennessee for a surprise birthday party for Nan. Boy-oh-boy did Iain love the plane... and everything about it. He loved walking through the airport pulling Nona's suitcase.



He loved looking at the planes through the window.



He loved the ride - sitting on Dad's lap and then falling asleep on the way up and back! (Cory did too, which was lovely for us and for our fellow travellers.)

He loved reading books while we waited for the rental car, and to depart both ways. And a sweet airprt-worker-lady came and talked to us for a while about how clearly he was enjoying his books. She recognized good old Dr. Seuss and had to come check out who the adorable fellows were who were reading him (all three!).



But oh, when we made it to Tennessee and Iain saw the delighful chaos that is his second-cousins... he was over the moon. He played, played, played.



He thought himself quite too old to be watched closely by his mommy when all his buddies were allowed to roam free (in my defense, the youngest besides Iain is four), and just took off with them. It was all I could do to keep tabs on the little guy for the rest of the weekend. Every time I turned around: "Where'd Iain go?" "Oh, he's off with ___________ (fill-in-the-blank with the name of a feisty younger cousin). I think they are ___________ (fill in the blank with a fun place to be)." And I'd set off to find him. Sure enough, he'd be having some kind of fun being a big kid, not missing me in the least. My boy is growing up. The true meaning of the phrase "bittersweet."

For Jenna

Does he look a little like a monk to you?

Jenna, normally sane and fairly mellow, has an irrational fear of monks. I tried to find a name for that fear, but the only results I got were about the tv show Monk - a story about a detective who is afraid of everything. I wonder... would Jenna be afraid of him because his name is Monk, though he isn't one?