Finally an update for the month of May!!

Wow-

Talk about a busy several weeks. Nani went off to Mexico, Tutu (my mom's name from Eban, which means grandma in Hawaiian) came in, sick kids, graduation at school which kept me busy, a new boss for me...well, it's been busy!! Plus...cleaning up after Eban painted everything with sticky oatmeal...was...um... CRAZY!

When Nani was in Mexico, she lost her wallet and they only used under a hundred of dollars on her check card, but they did use her sister's credit card and racked up $90.00 of goods...I think at a gas station. She loved the beach and of course, we knew she would. She also loved swimming with the dolphins...who wouldn't?!

While she was out, Tutu was a hit with Eban. He loved having her around to play with and talk to. We went to the zoo and had a GREAT time saying hi to every animal. We had a great time watching Eban feed a "fake animal! The highlight of the zoo trip was when Eban heard the approaching sirens of a fire truck and he went bonkers yelling "FIRE TRUCK!" After it passed he signed "more" to us and then frantically signed "please." Talk about cute. Well, then his attention was quickly averted to the train whistle as the zoo has a little train and he heard the whistle so he immediately wanted the train. So Tutu bought us rides on the train and he was happy! Whew! Talk about span off attention!

One of my favorite stories is that Eban was invited to go with Ryan somewhere in the car and he was walking away and suddenly stopped. He returned to Tutu, who was sitting on the couch and grabbed her finger and lovingly looked up at Ryan and said, "Tutu go?" I guess Tutu said she was going to stay home with Jack but talk about being wrapped around someone's finger!! Tutu will be a yes woman to that boy for the rest of his life for that crafty move! :)

Jack is now finally out of the rough patch where he was sick all the time. He certainly is a smiley boy and has a great disposition but yesterday, he got clocked in the eye when Eban accidentally threw a big, blue truck at his head. We feel terrible that our almost 8 month old son has he first shiner at this age due to his brother. Of course, Eban had no clue what he had done...but I'm sure this won't be the last black eye we see out of the two of them. It's not really black, but it's red and getting bruised.

Since I last wrote, I also went on my first girl's weekend get away which was fun until Jack didn't sleep at all the second night...so I had to leave Estes Park at 4 or 5 in the morning to drive back

home as the other girls weren't getting any sleep thanks to my little monster. His friend, Morgan, was also there but maybe he pretended to be sick because of all the estrogen in the house! But it was fun...we played cards, games and just took it easy. Click on this link and you can see Morgan when she visited Jack in the hospital after he was born!

We also had our Spring Fling event at JWU in which Eban had his first snow cone, cotton candy and other carnival crap! Nani climbed a rock wall and wasn't scared...Nani and I both tried to this this jumpy thing where you can twirl in the air. Ryan just hung out and didn't do anything! Maybe next year? Well, after I did the twirly thing, I felt awful (check out the pic of my first twirl and my hat is flying off). I used to be able to twirl around and not get sick, but now, my body just doesn't allow me to do it. Middle age stinks as far as this is concerned. I'll make Ryan go on all the dizzy rides at the Six Flags when the boys get old enough to do that!

My favorite update is that Eban went to his first professional baseball game and loved it! He had a lemonade, french fries that he stole from Annick (a student at JWU) and received a "fan" in the section where we were with AmeriCorps and he promptly danced to the loud music using his "fan" as a prop. Check out the video of him whacking some poor lady in the head with it...she was a trooper about it! His favorite thing about the game was probably the walk back to the minivan when we encountered a nice Denver policewoman who let Eban see her lights and play with them.

This morning, we took a walk around 8:30am and headed over to the fire station. As we headed over the hill, we saw that the fire fighters were checking all the equipment and lights and sirens. Eban was tickled to say the least. There were loud "His" and "Hiyas" and frantic waving until we reached the station. Fireman Scott was nice enough to give us a tour of the one big rig and Eban was in heaven. As a side note, there's a bronze fire fighter statue outside of the station and Seamus was SO scared of it! He hair was bristled and low growling was heard...he's so brave!! We tied him up while we went with Eban as Scott placed him in the driver's seat and Seamus cried like a baby. So manic...but we love him anyway! Jack...well...he just sat there and eventually fell asleep.

That's it for now...I'm pretty pooped but hope to do a better job now that it's summer!

The first video is of one of our walks down to the fire station and we were lucky enough to bring the camera and catch sight of an ambulance leaving...it was very exciting for Eban. Not so much for Jack.

The second video is the crazy world of changing topics with an almost two year old. The third video is Tutu teaching him to open wide...great manners, huh? The fourth and fifth are baseball game ones...I love how he calls the police car a fire truck. I'm sure the police woman loved that!

Hi Jack

This is the cutest story.

On Friday when I picked up Eban from school, I had him in my arms and I told him to say goodbye to all his friends. There were only 5 boys and one little girl left in the class so he kindly looks at the first boy and says, "BYE JACK!" Then he looks at the next little boy and says "BYE JACK" and it continued down the line until he got to the little girl and he looked at her and only said, "BYE!"


As we walked about, we passed one of the directors of the school and he said BYE JACK to him as well. Quite friendly!


This past weekend, we stayed inside to get rid of the crud that has been continually passed from one person to the next in this household. Now, only Ryan has it but I swear I'll whomp him if he passes it back to me again! :)






Two weeks ago, Jackson had a lovely baptism and we were so delighted to have his godparents, Chad and Kara, in town. They each brought their respective loved ones and Chad even brought his parents who I fondly called the great godparents! Kara brought an awful virus with her so therefore she stayed in bed for roughly 24 hours after feeling halfway decent again. Her fiance, Rick, left her at the house so he could explore Colorado as it was his first time in the state and it was definitely an indicator as to how miserable she was!
Anyway Kara rebounded for the baptism. It was a very nice ceremony and there were some funny highlights in my opinion.

First, Ryan and Chad sat next to each other and you were supposed to sit next to your spouse. So the priest was quite confused for half of the ceremony as he would look at them. It was awesome.

Then, Eban was a total terror and Nani took him outside where he banged on the glass doors at one point - that moment is forever etched in my head as he looked like a mad gorilla banging on the doors in the hopes he could come back in and scream about things. Once he settled down, it was somewhat quiet and out of nowhere, you hear a kid scream "TRUCK" and we knew it was our little man.















After church, we came back to the house to celebrate with friends who could make it. It was wonderful to see everyone and spend some time with them. It's great to have a yard where the kids could play and not run into the street!








After everyone left, Chad and I had a great game of competitive Scrabble without any sand throwing or name calling. It got loud, but that was the tip of the excitement during the Scrabble matches. As a wise decision, Molly opted out of the game and chose to sit and watch the mayhem.

This is one of my favorite photos from the party...Eban and Dennis holding hands going around the yard...what cute little brothers they make!

Let's see - Eban is talking up a storm. His first three word sentence was I Love You. I also heard him say No Thank You today when I offered him a grilled zucchini piece. It's just so impressive to see how much he is communicating. He still loves airplanes and will point in the sky each time he hears one. He also loves the camping chairs since the party and he now exclaims that they are "HIS CHAIRS." Jack has slept through the night the past two nights...HALLELUJAH! Knock on wood.



This weekend, I'm off to "Girls Weekend" in the mountains. Lucky Jack will be the token male in the house. We are heading up to Estes for food, relaxation, and fun. I have no idea what Ryan is planning on doing with Eban but I'm sure there will be stories.


In two weeks, Nani is heading off to Mexico for vacation and Grammy Swooz is coming in from Chicago to help with the boys. She's already planning menus and what have you - I can't wait!

The Wiggles!!

Okay...now I'm the biggest fan of The Wiggles, a kid's singing group from Australia! My friend, Kristy, and her son, Dylan, Eban and I all hit the concert thanks to my friend Bill at FirsTier Bank. I emailed him last week, as he has connections at the Broomfield Event Center, and asked him if he had any decent tickets as I would be happy to purchase some for Eban.

Now, this was a first as I'm usually trying to mooch a golf game out of him or a beer and this time, I said I was willing to pay and he kindly replied that he would happily give us four tickets.

Well...lo and behold, we are in box seats with mac n cheese, chicken fingers, uncrustables, french fries, juice and water, and coloring books!! They even had beer for the parents! I LOVE THEM!

So anyway, the kids ran around, ate, and when the show started - it was like magic. All these kids were enthralled and I was too...watching the whole thing!

Anyway, we finally got home around 9pm so let's see how long Eban sleeps...but man alive...I love the Wiggles and FirsTier Bank!

Cars, Trucks, and Buses

Eban LOVES cars, buses, trucks, boats, trains and any other type of machinery. He gets so excited to see these things and just goes bonkers. It's so funny.

What's interesting is the fact that he is continuing to develop favorites. His favorite movie is and has been "Cars", the cartoon from Disney. We are trying to get him interested in other movies, but they simply don't hold his interest like Cars does.

A couple of weeks ago, Hayden came over at 6:00 in the morning so when Nani woke up she saw that I had three kids!! It was crazy, but Eban was very helpful when I had to feed Hayden. I loved watching Eban get up on a chair and feed Hayden like a baby - which he currently loves to act out...he likes to pretend he's a baby.

After I fed all the kids - the older boys scooted around on the bikes we had and Hayden wanted to play with Seamus. Hayden's mom is afraid of dogs, so I'm sure it gives her comfort to know that she's dropping her kid off at a house with one of the largest breeds of dogs.

Jackson has been great! After the crud went through the house for roughly two weeks or so, Jackson had a much better time sleeping during the night. In fact, last night, he slept from 8:30pm until 5:45am without getting up. The first time that happens, it really catches you off guard as if something is wrong and you go in and check on them to make sure they are breathing and that they have covers on them. so some treat that was...I was up anyway checking on the boys even though they both slept through the night! Jackson had his 6 month check up and he is in the 97th percentile for weight (23 pounds) and height which is large, said the doctor. He said to give him water in the middle of the night and not milk so he doesn't put on more fat. He said there's nothing to worry about because he's porportionate, but basically we have a little chunker. Eban was the same way and when he started growing and walking, he lost a lot of the baby fat. Maybe the water in the middle of the night propelled Jack to sleep through the night as he wanted milk, but received water instead and what a let down for him!

Yesterday, Eban and I played with sidewalk chalk on the back porch and he loved this new activity. He also loved to cradle the chalk in his arms and run around the yard. It was cute...even Seamus joined in on the running around the yard which had Eban in hysterics.

New games for Eban include when we say, "Ready, Set", he will yell "GO!" You can see that in the below video from two weeks ago. Here's another video which I never uploaded which shows him waving hi to the bus which passes our house every weekday morning. If you look closely, the bus driver is waving by sticking his arm out the window. Rain or shine, the bus driver always opens the window and waves to Eban. He is definitely on the holiday gift bag recipient list and I don't even know his name...but he is so sweet to wave every day to Eban.

I'm leaving in an hour to go see the Wiggles - live in concert. Should be fun as this will be our first kiddie concert even though we saw our first rock concert - Michael Franti and Spearhead -when Eban was only 5 months old...don't worry, we didn't take him to a real concert. It was a family concert with family activities.

This weekend, Jackson will get christened and his godparents - Chad Smith and Kara Rakowski - are coming out for the ceremony. Will keep you posted!

Ohhh...if you want to hear about the story about the little bully in church who is 1 1/2 years old and beats up the other kids, let me know and I'll share that with you. She's got a great right hook! When you sign up once a month to help care for all the toddlers when their parents are in church...it's an eye-opening treat. It's literally insane some days in the toddler room.

Love, Me

READY, SET, GOOOOOOOOOOO

YEAH...THE BUS!