Feeling toasty

Charlie's new habit: Toasting waffles. Or, as he puts it, "bahffles."

It's the first thing he does every morning. Sometimes he re-toasts them.

He likes to pop them up manually because the first time he did it, they flew about two feet. Here's a little clip:

Wise words from Will

Will goes through stages sometimes where everything he says is funny to me. Here are a few:

"If he was on Survivor, he would be a villian for sure. He pushed me today. He pushed everyone today He even pushed his girlfriend...because, you know, he's got one of them."

---

"There's certain to be damage to our vehicle."

(After Scott got a little too close to a snowbank with the van."

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"Daddy! Make sure you let me know when it's time to go. I want to be ready to party."

---

"I'll share my Valentine candy. Here's the bag. Actually, maybe take some fruit snacks...they're the healthiest I got."

Zip it already

I've been a bit surprised as the mother of boys at how much they actually care about what they wear.

Will's day can be thrown for a spiral by a missing favorite hat or pair of mittens.

You can imagine how upset he was Monday morning when we realized that his winter coat had been left in the U.P. After doing a quick search of the van and closets, I got his old one from the basement.

"This jacket is SO small! I don't want to wear it."

I was sort of no-nonsense this morning and said something like, "You're right. It is small. Zip it up."

When I picked him up after school, he showed me the zipper was stuck, "This is why I never, never, never, never, never, ever, never want to wear this coat again."

"OK. You're right. Put it on now please."

I got a few glares but he eventually pulled it over his head so we could get going. He seemed to calm down when I told him that Grandma Clary had mailed his coat priority from Michigan.

At dinner, I asked Will if his teacher had asked why he had a new folder today (Charlie got his hands on the previous one and, well, you can imagine). Kind of casually, he answered, "No, she didn't ask about it. I was also relieved that no one asked about my 'new' coat either." Dramatic pause. "Because I really don't like it."

Could have fooled me.

Scott's home, Scott's home!

Scott finally made it back from Germany tonight!

I was fortunate that my mom was able to hang with us most of the week, but we're pretty excited to have him back.

Tonight, as I was tucking Will in, I suggested that we not let Daddy go on trips anymore.

"Mommy, we can't do that. It's his job. He has to give speeches...and meet people and...sometimes he has to work."

Well said.

Anyway, in the seven days, we've had a couple of interesting events:

- Charlie can now say his brother's name. Only thing is, he seems to think his brother's name is "Bo."

- Will was doing his homework and making words in the "it" family. He had to add on different consonants to make words such as "bit" "hit" and "sit." He stopped me in his tracks when he said, "git, yeah, 'git' is a word!"
No, no, no no no no. That's NOT a word. So not a word. I was careful to remain calm as I asked him to use it in a sentence. Fearing the ubiquitous "Git R Dun," I was sort of relieved when he said, "We 'git' a Wii for Christmas."

- Charlie learned more new words, some even sound like the way we say them: Apple (bapple), Puppy (buppy), Moo Moo (Finnish for Grandma and also the noises two cows might make), and Guttentaug (da-da-Dah).

- Will learned about diversity at school. He came home and told me that it's good that everyone doesn't look the same because then we'd all have to wear nametags!

And I'm glad Scott's back because I'll finally start going to sleep at a reasonably time (usually I'm cued to go to sleep by him shutting off the TV and lights). It's a good, good day.

No sleep til 10,000

My company recently offered us an insurance discount if we participated in various activities. Scott's on a stress reduction program and I'm wearing a pedometer in a quest for 10,000 steps each day.

At first, I thought 10,000 was ridiculously high. Then I hit it one day. The next day I was jogging in place while brushing my teeth. Now, I can't watch TV without marching steadily toward that five-digit finish line.


One day when I hadn't left my desk very much, I was at only 2,000 steps when we got home so I started doing laps around our first floor. Pretty soon Will was giving me guided tours around the house, Charlie following behind or up on my shoulders.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when Will asked if he could get a "thermometer" too. I had an old one and now he's doing laps around the first floor before dinner. Yesterday, I heard him tell Scott that when he jumps, he gets 34 steps at once.

He's predicting he'll get more than me every single day. Maybe, but I'm allowed to stay up later than him.

Math, exercise and friendly little mom-son competition. Can't beat it.

Grace!

Charlie has a new favorite activity: Saying Grace at meals. Every meal and snack and sometimes when we just make eye contact for a second or two too long.

It's adorable. It makes him clap and laugh and so happy that we let our dinner chill as we say God is Great, The Lord is Good to Me and Bless Us O Lord before Scott calls the whole thing off.

I got a little video of it one night. Bad angle, but his face is priceless.

Fun at the Building for Kids

Fundraiser extraordinaire

It seems like just yesterday that Will proved to have skills as a fund-raiser. At the ripe old age of six months, Will sold $200 in candles.

Of course, back then he could just rely on his looks. Nowadays, he's relying on his looks and his brother's looks .

Will is participating in the American Heart Association's Jump Rope For Heart Program and he'd like to send you all this special message:

"I would love it if the kids in the hospital don't get sicker. And I thank god for making me healthy. And I think my baby brother is very cute."

Anyway, Will's pretty excited about raising money to help kids with special hearts ... he's even set up his own personal website. http://honor.americanheart.org/goto/willtappa

He and the kids would appreciate any help you can give.

Christmas at the Flanagans'

A few pictures of the boys at the Flanagans' two days after Christmas, including another exterior shot of their cousin-in-waiting.

I Love Daddy

For those of you who have never been around for this annual photo shoot, that purple "towel" was something my mom made for my dad when I was a baby, to cover him up on his way out of the shower to getting dressed. Hard to see how that ever worked, but whatever.

On the occasion of my first Christmas, when I was about three weeks old, Mom took a picture of Dad wearing the towel and holding me. We've done it every year since, and for the past few years we've started doing it with my boys.

It's a neat tradition. But I would never wear a towel that small, even in my own home.