Howdy, Iron Man

This town ain't big enough for the both of us!
Last weekend we went to our friends' housewarming party way down in San Jose. They had an 8 year old boy there and Gabriel and Ephraim had so much fun playing in the dirt and rocks in the backyard.

"Howdy, ma'am!" Gabriel has been having fun dressing up lately. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a..." is a popular phrase. This week it has been cowboy!

We recently watched the Pixar movie "Ratatouille." So when grandma came over with zucchini from grandpa's garden in addition to the zucchini I had just bought from the store, we made Ratatouille like they did in the movie. It was a yummy experiment!! We had the leftovers as Ratatouille pizza and then as Ratatouille soup (yeah, the kids don't like zucchini much).

As a motivation to stop throwing tantrums as I drop him off at the YMCA, I got a tiny Iron Man lego set. So after Day Camp on Friday he got to open it up. I had no idea it would be such a big hit!! I guess he's finally old enough for Legos!! (Now to find them in storage ...) He has so much fun playing with it and was really good at following the directions. The next day he took the pieces apart and was building something else.

Cute Expressions

Cool bathtub hair-dos!

On one of our recent super-hot days, I looked up "rainy day crafts" and found one where you cut up egg cartons as individual flowers and poke pipe-cleaners as stems. It was fun! Gabriel didn't want to pose for me. He never does, it's hard to get pictures of him. Ephraim is a darling though! (Like his "smelling the flowers" expression?)

Before:

After:
(I'm actually very disappointed. I've always wanted diamond stud earrings. The earring posts are actually three-times as thick as normal earrings and have screw-ends to secure them on. They hurt too much to wear. I'm thinking--once my ears heal--I'll have to wear some heavy earrings to stretch my ear holes more?! I barely got them in to wear home from the store and I was in tears as I tried to rip them off. ouch ouch!)

Funny story:
I went to clean up their room before bed and came back to find that Gabriel had opened the Cheerios container and both boys were happily stuffing hand-fulls into their mouth. We cleaned up and I put Gabriel to bed. A few minutes later, I heard Ephraim in the kitchen again. Thinking he got into the Cheerios, I didn't rush over. I soon found out that he had opened the rice container (looks similar) and had a mouthful of uncooked rice in his mouth!!! Yeah, he didn't like that much and gave me a puzzled face as he tried to spit it out ("why doesn't this taste like Cheerios, mom?").

Gabriel has been having so much fun at the YMCA Day Camp. He went swimming on Monday, to a local water park on Tuesday, and to a Wildcats baseball game today. He doesn't want to go home when I pick him up, and Ephraim and I get the whole day to play together. I really miss Gabriel sometimes, but it is wonderful overall!

Moving

Ephraim did something cute so I scooped him up and kissed him. He wiped off my kisses (nothing new) and said "germs, eeeew!" What?! My son thinks I'm giving him germs when I kiss him, I'm so sad. Paul was right there, so I complained to Paul that my babies won't let me kiss them anymore. So Ephraim runs over to the toybox and grabs the baby doll and hands it to me!

Gabriel has been talking about how he wants to be a superhero when he grows up. This evening, he points to the wall and screams "spider!" Before I can even react, he says, "I'll get it," and grabs a shoe from the pile by the door, and smashes the shoe against the wall. Wow, my hero! I am comforted to know that I will have a spider smasher in the family.

Just as a point of family record, Paul got his new apartment keys this last Wednesday and we spent most of yesterday moving boxes in 104 degrees Sacramento weather. Whew! Thank goodness for air conditioning. We made a significant dent in the storage garage and emptied a closet in our current apartment. I think we'll rent a small moving truck next weekend and get the furniture that won't fit in my van. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, our bid got accepted on the house in Pinole. The boys and I went with Dad and Mike to inspect it on Friday. I am so excited. There is so much space (1820 sqft) in the four bedrooms/two bathrooms and I am already arranging toys in the huge playroom. There is a brick planter along the front of the house that I hope to fill with some of dad's fertile dirt/compost and plant herbs there--mint and rosemary for sure. Lots of good things to come, focusing on the positive.

Gabriel-isms

Just wanted to record some cute stuff Gabriel says:

The other day, he was playing with dinosaurs and said he was looking for "dinosaur apostles"!! It cracked me up, and I corrected him with "fossils" but he continued to say "dinosaur apostles" the rest of the day.

Gabriel's new big number is: "80-50." This works for "80-50 stormtroppers are coming!" or "80-50 cookies please!"
 

**And I'll add a quote from Ephraim (of course I laughed at this so he told everyone at the pool last night): 

"E-um two-half (holding up two fingers), Gay-Gee five (holding up four fingers because his birthday is next month but he's still only four), mom (pointing with one finger) old!"

Change is in the Air

Gabriel likes making faces.

We visited the Children's Museum again. Here's my fireman and doctor.

We got out the paints and had lots of fun! The first day we used brushes. Gabriel painted my portrait.

The next day we used fingerpaints. Ephraim doesn't like to get dirty. He complains at a few water drops spilled on his shirt, crumbs on his fingers from a slice of bread, etc. When he got paint on his fingers from the paintbrush, I showed him that paint all over his hands was okay and even fun. He had a blast!! I got several great handprint masterpieces from both kids!

Ephraim still naps most days. So sweet.

We visited Grandma and Grandpa McMillan and enjoyed fresh raspberries and mulberries.

 

 Gabriel poses as Link (from Zelda).

Ephraim loves giving me great big CHEESE smiles.

End of Soccer, Start of Summer

We had our last soccer practice and game last week.

 

Ephraim has been making cute faces for the camera lately. I wish I could post them all.
Peek-A-Boo!!

 

 Happy brothers!

We went to the Children's Museum in Rancho Cordova. It was very small, but they had fun playing in the grocery store and in the water.

 

 

 Smile!!

Friends and Family

It's the little things that count, one day at a time. Here is Ephraim asleep in a drawer. He falls asleep most afternoons. I like it better when he doesn't nap though so that he goes to bed at a decent time (8:30pm instead of 9:30 or later!).

We visited our good friends back in San Jose twice in one week. It was great to see them again and they played together so well! We even went to our old favorite park together.

On the Saturday of Mother's Day, we went to a mini family reunion. My dad's four cousins flew in from different states, and my mom, the kids, and I met them about 45 minutes north of us. It was very convenient for us and wonderful seeing people I hadn't seen in 20+ years. We used to get together with them every Christmas and Mother's Day, so it was kinda surreal to see them on Mother's Day weekend again... only I have kids now instead of being one of the kids! Kathy has a gorgeous backyard which was perfect for the boys. Here they are enjoying the hammock.

The boys are getting along so much better now. Gabriel still finds ways of tormenting his younger brother but there are more and more times of sweet cooperation at play.