Making room

Tonight Will picked out our dinner at the store - cheese dipping sticks, and a three-meat pizza (pepperoni, hamburger, sausage). In case you're concerned, we also had red peppers and cucumbers.

After eating for awhile - and he's in one of his eat-a-lot modes right now - Will seemed to be running out of steam. He got up, walkd toward the bathroom, and announced "I'm going to go poop now. After that I will have room in my tummy for pizza."

And sure enough, he did.

Wedding time

A few weeks ago my cousin Paul got married in Appleton, here are some pictures from the reception, which was a lot of fun for everyone. I think Andy is a good nominee for the Mugging Hall of Fame.

Fun in the car seat

Out

The many faces of Charlie

When you take as many pictures as I do, you capture some pretty funny expressions. Here's a little fun with captions:


Charlie's Verizon audition tape: "Can you hear me now?"


Charlie's hoping to be a model for iPod's next "dancing silhouette" ad. He wanted to practice with my iPod but I refused when he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't drool on it.


"Arrggh!" This is Charlie's pirate face. He makes this face when Will touches his head ... he's trying to make Will walk the plank.


Practicing his left hook. See how his face stays so sweet? No one ever sees this one coming.


"I'm innocent, I tell ya!"


Charlie and I just laugh and laugh all day long.

In the pool

While in the UP, Will and I spent about 25 hours in John and Mavis's pool, lots of fun with noodles and water wings.

Look out below

In this, Will's Summer of Inflatable Play Equipment, the latest round came at the St. Mary Magdalene parish festival in Waupaca. The boy was good and sweaty by the time he was done!

The boys are back in town

My cousin Robin came down last night for a quick trip to pick up her boys, Luke and Seth, from Wisconsin.

I love Robin. We always laugh when we're together, stay up too late and she usually brings up at least one childhood memory that I'd forgotten ages ago.

Robin has an incredibly calming quality that we needed today when we had Will, Luke, Seth and a wailing Charlie in the van. She did offer a new technique for calming Charlie down: She had Seth say a little prayer for baby Charlie ... less that 5 seconds later, he stopped crying. Who knew?

The boys had been in Wisconsin all week so we didn't have a ton of time together but Luke, Seth and Will had a pretty fun game of hide-and-seek at our house (despite Will having a nap-deprived meltdown).

Still, I can think of at least 10 places I'd like to go next time they're in town, which I hope is very, very soon.

And I'm not just saying that because Robin watched my boys so I could take a shower AND fix my hair (but that was a sweet bonus!)

Moral fiber

One day a few months back, Will saw me eating a Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 

These are the bars that my mother-in-law introduced me to along with this advice, "Make sure you drink a BIG glass of water with that." Despite their candy bar-like taste, they contain 35% of your daily fiber. 

Anyway, Will, who inherited my love of sweets, spied me eating what looked like a treat and quickly asked for a bite. 

I gave him a little piece and then explained -- in his terms -- that the fiber could wreak havoc on his digestive system so he couldn't eat any more than that. 

Will recently spotted Scott eating a Little Debbie Nutty Bar and asked what he was eating. 

When Scott went to give him a taste, Will cracked us up when he said, "No thanks. I really don't want to get the poops." 

If only we knew Photoshop better

Here are two shots of Clary with Will and Charlie. In the first, Charlie's expression is priceless, while Will looks like we just asked him to brush his teeth. In the second, Charlie appears to be passing gas and Will is expecting Skittles.

If only we knew Photoshop and could combine the boys' "good" faces ...