Family

Evidently that burst water main wasn't a total waste, the Mugwump loves the mud pit that it has created.


This kids sleeps every night with a book under his pillow. The rule is that he doesn't get out of bed after we put him down for the night and he is obedient to that (mostly). We will sometimes find him "reading" 30-45 minutes after we put him to bed.
Sixpence loves his big brother and imitates him. It's really cute. He insists on having a book with him at night, just like the Mugwump
Did you know that if you put chocolate pudding on a cookie sheet you can paint with it? Did you know that if you smear it on your face it takes several baths before all of the chocolate can be removed from the ears?
Icky wanted me to post a picture for Babe. I think she wanted me to post the one of her hair, but who would want to see the back of her head? I especially like this photo. There was no photoshopping involved, yet notice how she looks like one of those dogs with one green eye and one brown eye. I had never noticed that before. Actually I have no idea how that happened, because really her eyes appear to be the same color in real life. I especially like the way the flash shines off her teeth. So, Babe, if you want different pictures, I may take requests. I wonder if Dad O'Icky could come up with any good childhood pictures that would make her blush.









The week started rough with a sick mom, but by the end of the week it was warm enough to venture outside again and the whole family was feeling better. Getting out really seems to de-stress things. It was a long, cold winter where it was hard to get out due to the bitter cold. Actually the bitter cold was only a few weeks, but when it's tough to get out for several weeks the family gets a little cooped up. Yesterday we were able to go for a long walk and play at the park. It was wonderful and we're all looking forward to spring.
My wife and I also got to go on a date this week. Thanks to a gift card from some great friends we were able to go to the Olive Garden and enjoy a dinner without kids (Thanks to Icky for babysitting). I don't know if these friends know it, but we don't go out much and we REALLY appreciate the opportunity to go on our annual date. After a wonderful dinner together we went to Barnes and Nobles and looked at books. Yes, that is what we do for fun, we go look at books with no intention of buying anything. We stayed out until almost 8:30 before we were both exhausted and needed to get home and go to bed.

Family time

Grammie, I hope you made it to the new site. Please leave me a comment to show that you've been here so I can stop worrying about you. At the bottom of this post there is a thing that says, "comments" put the cursor over it so that the cursor turns into a finger and left click on comments. Then you get to a new screen and can type a message to me (that everyone else will also be able to read). When you are finished with your message, click the bubble next to anonymous and then click on the word publish and your comment will show up for the whole world to read!

















Sixpence knows that you should always wear a helmet! Or maybe someone put it on him and he can't get it off, I'm not sure.

Look at that million dollar smile on Sixpence...

and the metric tonne of mucus smeared across the Mugwump's face.

There's the Mugwump with his picture that he drew. That two body parted creature with hair all around his head is me. You may also notice that my arms and legs are really hairy... which is true, but when they all start sticking straight out like that I usually trim them. To the right of me is my bicycle. You may notice that it is a large square, that is the roof so that I don't get cold or wet while I'm riding. The two wheels are of drastically different sizes so I will have to conclude that this bike is a funny recumbent or something of the sort. The other creatures at the bottom are from The Chronicles of Narnia. I'll have to be honest and say that I don't remember which is which.

This week it finally got above freezing for awhile and we enjoyed some time outside. The boys still have runny noses, but that's OK, it hardly phases them. Sixpence was eating a chunk of apple yesterday and as is typical for 1 year olds, it spent a lot of time half in and half out of his mouth. At that point he decided to blow his nose and discovered the incredible efficiency with which he can transfer snot from his nose to his food without any delay. I wish he didn't know that. Sixpence has also learned how to make himself dizzy. He needs to learn not to do it on the tile floor, but we're still working on that. So you walk into the kitchen and there's this kid spinning around in circles as fast as he can (which isn't very fast since he is still mastering walking). Then you have to stand by to catch before his head hits the tile. Maybe we should keep that helmet on him more often.

Icky has exciting news... Two weeks ago she met this guy who made her all weak in the knees. Then a few days ago she was FORCED to fly back here so that she could put in her two weeks notice and finish up her job and get the rest of her stuff. Her man (we'll call him Babe since that is what Icky calls him, which is a rather silly nickname since he doesn't look like a talking pig) bought her a plane ticket to fly home on Valentine's day (to stay) so that they can be closer together. So Icky and Babe have made big plans for... well the rest of their lives. Oh to be young and in love. It's almost sickening to overhear her phone conversations and all the mushy stuff. What makes it worse is my wife who turns and whispers to me, "isn't that sweet?" No it's not sweet, although I enjoy the memories, I'm glad that I'm not all goofy anymore. You know what, at this stage in my life I'm quite content being old and in love.

Family

The Mugwump chose a book from the library... it was a cookbook. It was the book that he was the most excited about. This was the sloppy-joe that we made look like cars. They were pretty good. There is also a recipe for a sandwich that looks like a baseball. It takes over 2 cups of mayonnaise to cover the entire sandwich. We won't be trying that one. I don't know why The Mugwump's face looks all deformed, but the computer wouldn't download the photo of him looking halfway normal.

The Mugwump is becoming quite the builder. He built this train all by himself and it was too big to fit into one picture.

This is a castle that the Mugwump built out of Six-pence's blocks. I think this was preparatory to the snow castle in our front yard that didn't make the photo list.

With the way this kid eats and practices his mean face, I think he's going to be a linebacker for the Seahawks. Even if he never intimidates anyone.

That would be me. You will notice that all of the pictures have been indoors. That is because we haven't seen temperatures above freezing in weeks. That is what I wear to ride into school. It's interesting how 19 degrees begins to feel warm after a week or two of riding into work while it's between -2 and 5.

The cold season has hit everyone in the family except me so far. It's not too bad, just stuffy noses and a little coughing. With the cold weather and the colds, we've been doing a lot of reading and playing indoors. No pictures of Icky this week... She's back at home. I wonder what she has been up to while away. Maybe she would like to defend herself before I let loose.

The family

Really there isn't much new here. The Mugwump is nearly potty trained, which is a wonderful thing. He consistently asks to go to the bathroom and insists on doing it himself.... I just wish I knew a little more specifically what he was doing in the bathroom because I know that he doesn't know how to wipe by himself. We're moving right along though. It's often surprising what this kid hears. I swear that whenever I talk he ignores me, but today at church the guy speaking mentioned the city of Moab and the Mugwump starts yelling, "hey, I've been to Moab, Moab was fun, can we go to Moab again." Trust me, he hadn't been sitting listening to the talk, he was playing and just happened to pick that up... I wonder what else that kid hears. Oh, and the Mugwump can spell. Today during church he wrote his name on the magnadoodle that was keeping him busy and it looked like his name. Then after church he wrote his brother's name on a chalk board... he missed a couple of letters, but 5/7 isn't bad... and they were in the right order. After church we watched the birds eating from the new bird feeder that the Mugwump got for Christmas and then painted.

Six-pence is walking well. His favorite thing to do is to get on the bottom stair and make lots of noise. As soon as he knows that he has your attention, he's off to the races climbing the stairs. He knows that he's not supposed to, and therefore he knows that you will chase him up the stairs and it's a really fun game.

(Parenthetical comments are my thoughts added to Icky's story)
Icky went on a date the other day... I love how oblivious girls can be. OK, so I set her up with a guy from school so that it would be a blind date. They played phone tag for awhile and then talked on Saturday morning. The guy wanted to do a double date with his guy friend and Icky and one of her friends. Saturday Icky already had plans with a girlfriend who already had a date, so they only needed one more guy. The guy said he would get back to her (that's an odd thing to say). That was OK because Icky told him that she was late for work and told him where she worked. So apparently later that day the above mentioned guy gives Icky a call and says I think I almost ran into you at your work. Icky is surprised (come on, given the opportunity you don't think this guy would come check you out?). The guy asks, were you the one with the dark hair in the white shirt with a blue thing in your hair? Icky, again seems surprised (So, Icky, you "ran into" this guy and you haven't got the foggiest idea who he is or what he looks like, but he remembers the color of the thing in your hair? and you think it was an accident?) Anyway, the guy says that he was free that night and something "suddenly came up" with his friend who no longer was going to be in attendance. (This is a good sign Icky, this means that you passed the "check out" test. Evidently you aren't ugly or have any overly obvious personality defects because the guy will go on a "blind" date with you and will do it without his friend). Anyway they had a fun evening and Icky remains clueless about being checked out. Actually I thought it was a creative and good idea for a "check out" Since I did the setting up, this poor sap didn't have any idea how freaky or weird my sister-in-law could be. Boy I wish I had a little sister to tease mercilessly.

My wife and I are doing great... I sort of have a little time off work and have enjoyed it with the family. My wife is amazing. She teaches those boys at every opportunity and has the patients to walk a 3 year old through complex processes that I try to avoid like baking bread and cleaning up after himself. She's a saint and I don't have any idea how she ended up with a slacker like myself.