The Longest 10 Minutes

News

The good news:

The fountains of green snot have cleared up!
Antibiotics are miraculous!

The more unfortunate news:

We now have fountains of diarrhea, lots and lots of disgusting diarrhea, antibiotic-induced diarrhea.

Antibiotics are horrible!

The nasty poo has led to sleepless nights for both boys, insurmountable mountains of laundry, and one extremely raw, bleeding, pitiful hiney (poor Nosy!). Jeremy and I now both have the colds that the Boys had last week. It is no fun around here at all.

Quickie

I have a few posts I'm working on, but for now, just a quickie:

Owie spelled "kangaroo" today!

How cool is that?!

Run In

And just to make matters worse, tonight Owen ran in to a tree... ...with his face.

Poor Guy.

At least he won the race!

Snot

Well, after two more sleepless nights and even more ornery behavior, both Boys became fountains of green snot. Pretty picture, huh? Even poor No-nos's eyes were oozing the nasty stuff. It was off to the pediatrician for us this morning, where we were diagnosed with three ear infections (O has one, which he fondly refers to as his "ear polection," and Nosy has two pretty bad ones), wheezing (O) and a nasty eye infection (Noah). So I guess there was a reasonable explanation for O's behavior. Let's hope the antibiotics cure more than just his ouchie ear and congested lungs! Now if we could just find a med to keep Noah's love of heights in check...

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

What a week it's been at The House of Halpin. These Boys...What am I going to do with them?

Is it normal for a three year old to be acting all pubescent? His moods are swinging, tears are flowing, not so nice words are being directed at Mommy, demands are being rudely made, fits are resulting, bedtimes are being ignored in lieu of staying awake until all hours of the night, manners have been tossed out the window. Whew! I'm exhausted, stressed out, and completely baffled. My lovely Boy has once again gone and changed on me. Maybe he's sick? Surely there is some explanation for this drastic behavioral change. Something that can be treated with antibiotics? Because spankings are not doing the trick.

And his Brother? My nice, cuddly Baby is all of a sudden a risk-taking, no-fear, head-banging crazy man! Just a few of the places I have found him this week: teetering on the edge of our deep master bath tub, soaking wet (while I was drying Owen off, he climbed up on the edge); standing up-right on top of O's tricycle, hands waving to keep his balance (he fell right off on to his head); and rolling around underneath my car as I did some work in the garage. CRAZY! No longer is this Boy allowed to run around the house unsupervised. I am at his side every minute. I just pray no one calls CPS on us from the number of knots on his head and bruises on his body. He is a mess!

O summed it up well with his mealtime prayer tonight:
"Dear Jesus, we are having a hard time. Thank you for our supper and this fine day. Please give us wisdom in raising him every day. We are crabby about everything. Thank you. Amen."

On the other hand (Thank God there is "another hand"!), what fun my kids are! O and I have been having so much fun reading our learning library books this week. We checked out a new early math/counting book that involves making arts and crafts. We have had a blast cutting and arranging pieces, adding to and taking away from. He amazes me with his capacity to learn. We have been doing quite a bit of "playing school" lately, and we are both loving it! And Noah...His communication skills have taken off! No real words per se, but he gets his point across with such adorable little grunts and squeals. Every tasty bite he eats results in a hearty, "Mmmmmm!" And the Boys have been actually playing together, not just near each other, but actually with each other. Oh how sweet it is to hear their little voices coming from the next room as they play little boy games together.

What wonderful, crazy, mood-swingy Guys! I am so blessed to spend my days with them. And now I am off to an early bedtime so I will be ready for whatever comes at me tomorrow!

Chrysalis-ed

Incredible!! Chuckie and Duckie have both undergone "the change." This picture was taken just a few minutes before Chuck made his chrysalis, a process which O, J and I got to actually observe happen. It was amazing!! The chrysalis is so beautiful: the perfect shade of green decorated with tiny gold dots. This whole process just blows me away. What a miracle! We are so privileged to watch it all happen before our eyes. We'll have butterflies before we know it!

Mates

As in playmates,

best mates.

My three Boys, the very best of mates.

What fun times they have had playing together lately,

and what immense joy it brings me to observe.

Peek-a-boo in a tent

Chef Nosy whipped up a burger just for O

WRESTLING! The number 1 game of choice.

Taking a rest

Follow the leader

Wrestling on the couch with Daddy

Busted!

My son is hopelessly addicted...

...to toothpaste.
Is it a sign of OCD that he begs to brush 5 or 6 times a day?

Attempting a quick get-away.

Superstars!

Cousins Ally and Maddie are star performers any day, but today just happened to be their end of school musical, and we were very honored to be invited. O could hardly wait! He was so excited to watch his cousins sing, and we had heard a rumor that there may even be snacks!

Owie snagged a front row seat on the floor between Julianne's feet so he would not miss a moment of the action. He was so well behaved throughout the entire performance. And indeed there were snacks, lots of them. Yummy!

The musical was entitled "When the World Began," and Ally and Maddie sang and danced their hearts out! I am so proud of them!! Excellent performance, Girls!!

Owie loves his cousins so much!

Noah made friends with a prop.

The concert-goers with the stars of the show

Thanks so much for inviting us, Ally and Maddie. You did a fantastic job!!

Experimentation

O and I checked a book out of the library all about air. The concept of air was a bit confusing (understandably so!) to O. I mean, you can't see it, feel it, taste it, smell it. How does one describe air? Thankfully, the book included a hands-on experiment to demonstrate a few of the properties of air. O and I were all set to have lab time in our kitchen!

First, we dyed a big bowl full of water. After quite a bit of deliberation, O chose yellow.

Second, we stuffed a napkin all the way down in the bottom of a glass. Owie turned it upside down to make sure it would not fall out. Great job, O!

I bet you can guess what we did next! We submerged the glass in the water upside down. O was amazed that the napkin did not get wet! He was so excited! I explained that there was air in the glass keeping the water out. Then we tipped the glass just a little, letting first one tiny air bubble and then a few more escape. Pretty soon all the air had been displaced by water and our napkin was sopping wet.

What a fun time we had learning about the wonderfulness of air! I love O's enjoyment and excitement over such simple things.

Sweet and Stormy Conversation

O was up for a bit during the storm last night. During our praying/comforting/reassuring/back patting time together (that I would not trade even for the extra hour of sleep I missed), we conversed.

Me: "Thank you, Jesus, for this wonderful rain! It is giving the grass a great drink."

O: "Gramps a drink?"

Me: "No, Sweetie, the grass a drink."

O: "Is Gramps thirsty?"

I opened his blinds so we could watch the storm together. A little ways down the street we have a street light.

O: "Even in the rain, I can see the sunshine!"

(Wow, does that have a deeper spiritual meaning that he has no idea about yet!)

Owie has also come up with several new words for things. For example, every stop sign is now called a "souse." Each time we pass a stop sign, we hear, "A souse!" proclaimed from the backseat of the car.

"Tippy feet": walking on just your heals

One last funny thing:
Today we were playing outside and Owie said, "I'm that guy that comes over to play with you, Mommy!"
And I'm so glad you do, O.

Funny, sweet, sweet Boy!

Slam Dunk

Valentine's Day in May

Woe was O.

We had planned a cousin's Valentine's Day party in February, but due to rampant illness it was cancelled and never rescheduled. About twice a week, Owie would ask me if today was our Valentine's Day party. Alas, the answer was always, "Not today, Honey." Until I decided, why not throw a belated Valentine's party?

Thus, Valentine's Day in May!

O and I decorated our front door to welcome our heart-happy guests.

Once everyone arrived, there was a mystery to be solved: The Mystery of the Naked Cupcake. We had some lovely cupcakes baked just for us by Gram-mommy, but they were bare naked! What were we to do?

Thankfully, there were some clues planted around the house to lead us to the solution.

The kids discovered icing, sprinkles and candy heart decorations to solve our problem.

The pretty Mommies of the bunch.

After a lunch of tiny pizzas with heart-shaped pepperoni, we got down to the business of "clothing" our cupcakes.

Not only had Gram-mommy made cupcakes, she also handmade a Valentine for each partier. The kids were so excited!

What a great time! A Valentine's Day party is fun any time of year!

Mum's the Word

Mother's Day finally arrived, and all of our preparation was well worth it. What a full, wonderful day!

At church, we were gifted with a professional photographer taking family photos. I do so hope ours turned out well! It is not too often we get a picture with all four of us. Hopefully I can post it soon.

After church, my parents and sis came over to celebrate Mother's Day and Auntie LouLou's birthday.

Lunch was so yummy (salads and cheese fondue), and the family time was priceless.

Yaya loved her card from Owie, but I think she loved just hanging out with the Boys even more.

We had such a relaxing time just enjoying each other.

After two grouchy Boys slept awhile, we headed to Julianne's house for a chilly dip in their new pool, a cookout, and some more great family time.

Owie testing the water.

What smart pool-planners Julianne and Rob are! The created a huge shallow step with fountains just for the little ones to splash in. Nosy loved it...so much so that at one point he decided to swim solo. Mommy performed an icy rescue jump and scooped him right up. Did Noah cry or sputter or act afraid? No, not our No-nos. He was right at home floating face down in the frigid water. At the top of my shopping list: a flotation swimsuit for our fearless Nosy-Posy.

Daddy and O braved the cold water.

The hot tub was much more comfortable!

O and Maddie swim off into the sunset.

Some of Baby Will's very first steps. We are so proud!

Noah showed off his arm to a very patient Gigi. That Boy can throw! Gigi braved many a hit on the head to play with her grandson...and she loved every minute of it!

After the delicious kabobs that Rob grilled, we tested out some of the kids' driving skills.

Ally, Mia and Will go for a spin in the Barbie car.

Noah wanted a turn so badly! A little whiplash never hurt anyone.

Our resident expert pedaler.

What a wonderful time we had celebrating our Gigi together!

Happy Mother's Day!