As Seen on TV

There's a hotly contested battle going on here in Alaska for a US Senate seat. On the right, we have Dan Sullivan and on the left, we have Mark Begich. Like all *great* politicians, they've been throwing each other under the proverbial bus for weeks. Because everything you hear on tv is true,  my kids have been able to educate themselves on the candidates. Unfortunately, we are apparently a house divided as evidenced by this conversation right after the latest "he's no good" ad aired:

W: Yeah, I'm definitely voting for Begich.
N: Not me! I'm for the other guy.
W: Why? What's wrong with Mark Begich, Natalie?
N: Wellllll, he works for Obama.
W: They all do, Nat.
N: Yeah, but he lied about it.

My kids, the future voters of 'merica. We're in good hands.

Current Events

*As I type, my kids are playing in their "spy fort" under the dining room table. We know this because

1. Jeff told them he could see them in there, to which Wyatt responded, "okay, but don't tell Mom where we are."
2. Natalie asked if they could spy on me some more (only she says, "fy", darn those tricky sounds) and when I said yes, she excitedly ran to tell Wyatt, "Mommy said we can FY on her!"
3. We can hear every bit of their conversation which has included snippets like, "Natalie, we are not cats, dogs or animals so we don't hibernate, we just sleep."

*My new favorite phrase of Natalie's is delivered when she sees trash on the ground then tells me that someone has "glittered." Ah, yes, glittering is so rude.

*Wyatt has read three books out loud to his class this past week. So proud of him!

*In the past few weeks, Natalie has mastered pumping her legs on the swing, therefore rendering me unnecessary at the park, and just last night she mastered the monkey bars. My baby girl is strong and fearless.

*Wyatt watched a little bit of Top Gun last week - his first time ever. Now I'm hearing new phrases when he has dogfights with his airplanes and seeing new drawings of tactical flying in his art. Two nights ago he demonstrated a flat spin with his Tomcat and told me that's what happened in the movie. If it involves airplanes, he's a sponge.

*Both kids are playing church league basketball through the Y and it's highly entertaining. Natalie is very interested in the water breaks and the wearing of her team shirt, but mostly stays out of the fray of the game (and there is much fray with a few boys who believe tackling is part of basketball). Wyatt is improving weekly, aided in large part by the amount of time he spends on the back patio with his new basketball goal, and manages to ignore the ceaseless flirting from one of his cute little girl teammates.

*We have one fish (swordtail) who has survived for a month. It's a record and, now that I've typed this, he'll probably float belly up too soon. For now, we're all feeling good about reducing our fish-killer reputation.

*Wyatt received the board game Othello for Christmas. It's not a well-known game but I grew up playing it and loved it. My parents realized he was probably ready for it and they were right - it's played almost daily, most often with Natalie who's okay with losing since her brother is playing with her. It's a pretty great arrangement since Wyatt enjoys playing more when he wins.

*Thursday marked our one year anniversary here in little ol' Sumter. To say that it has been better than we expected is a vast understatement. We are blessed with a great network of friends, a church that feels like home, two kids who love their schools and a sense of being connected to the community that we haven't always had. 

*Natalie is ramping up her birthday talk. To refresh your memory, she began talking about her 4th birthday only two days after her 3rd birthday and the topic has come up every few days for the past ten months. This week, her planning has begun in earnest. She's whittling her guest list, planning the cake and games and deciding where we'll have it. All of this despite me telling her she might not be having a party.

*The kids saw me looking at beach houses online last night and Wyatt wanted to know if South Carolina had beaches. I reminded him about our weekend in Myrtle Beach two months ago and he was only kind of convinced. Looks like it's time to get serious with a map since I refuse to have geographically illiterate kids.

*I have good intentions of blogging more. I'm told my audience of one will appreciate it (here's to you, Mom).

Attack of the Garments

Needless to say, there is much to update but I'll share an awesome Wyatt moment instead.

I asked him to get dressed, but he returned without a shirt and I wasn't too happy. When I asked why wasn't dressed, he got kind of defensive and said, "Mom! I tried, but there was a really strange shirt in my drawer! I put my arm in a sleeve and the other arm in the other sleeve, but when I pulled it over my head, there was a sleeve around my neck! What was that?!"

I paused, processed and replied, "Wyatt, that's called a turtleneck." Then I completely cracked up. I guess he's not a fan.

Lately

We've been living the life here lately, engaging in a wide range of activities. Natalie is really into her babies, so they got to go the park one day.

babies were carried

babies did the slide

babies had to see how big their hands are

babies used the swings

babies had to sit in time out for a little bit

on another day, babies were fed in the kitchen

and babies are always given lots of love.

Then there's Wyatt, and his ever-loving engineeringish brain. I was called to his room one day in a voice that suggested something might be wrong ("Mom! You have to come see this!") but this is all I saw when I arrived on the scene:

I was perplexed. When I asked exactly what I was looking at, he explained it to me. There were moving parts, etc. and I'm still not sure what it was BUT I do know that in his brain, it was something. So there's that. Besides, it's inherently cool because it involves a light saber and a tape measure.

A couple of weekends ago, we made a family outing to the Congaree National Park. It was pretty cool; a great diversion from our normal routine and a great chance to be in nature. That said, I'm not sure you could pay me enough to go there on a hot, humid day. It's definitely a fall/winter/spring kind of place!

Then there was our annual round of croup; this one took Wyatt out of school for four days - the first two days it was kind of nice to have him around, days three and four were less enjoyable for all of us. In the midst of it, we realized the seal bark was not going down without a fight, so we paid a visit to our doctor for a breathing treatment. Even in this get-up, he was smiling. In that moment, I was reminded that he's  a pretty great kid. He was also given a dose of prednisone in the office and when I asked him if it tasted like grapes he cracked up and said, "No! It tasted like rotten cherries!"

Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of taking a day trip with a couple of friends. It involved lots of shopping (really more looking than shopping, but it's the thrill of the hunt), some good food that we can't get around here and lots of laughing. The kids were thrilled to have an entire day with "just daddy!" They squeezed a lot into their day, including the purchase and assembly of some new rockets. Jeff then had to work on Sunday, but rockets were on Wyatt's mind. He spent a fair amount of time making his own, including a launch system. Again with that brain that's so different than mine. I love it.

rockets all lined up, ready for launch

this is his "launch system" but then post-countdown, he hopped up and tossed
the rocket toward the ceiling.

And lastly, we experienced local culture at its finest by attending the Sumter County fair yesterday. Whoo, boy, that was some people-watching. More importantly, though, it was a Saturday afternoon together.

ferris wheel - much speedier than the ones in Japan!

little drivers

they would've done this on eternal repeat if we'd let them

she couldn't wait to get in the purple car - before the ride started, another little girl
joined her and they spent the whole ride grinning at each other as they 'drove'

this ride was awesome - it flung them around the ovals of the track
and my little thrill-seekers loved it!

Of course no fair is complete without games, so both kids played the 'ping pong toss for fish' game. In all truth, Natalie and I were on a ride when Jeff agreed to let Wyatt try. He says he didn't think Wyatt would win, but as I was spinning around on a bumblebee, I looked down to see that indeed, Wyatt's ping pong ball was in a container. Of course Natalie needed to try, too. She wasn't as lucky skilled, so we cut our losses after one round and told her we'd take her to Petco to buy a fish. Well, you know one thing leads to another so now we're proud owners of a two-gallon tank complete with fake plant, tiki mask and two goldfish. Their names are Orange Flipper (Wyatt's - and he doesn't look as though he's long for this world, as most fair fish aren't) and Natalie's Fish (it's had multiple names so far: Kangaroo, Fish, Natalie and Sarah. I'm not sure what its name was at bedtime).

And now you're kind of caught up - that's life around here!

Friday Funday!

note older sister in blue, coloring. 

Well, yesterday was a whirlwind. We started with Wyatt's orientation which was great. His teacher's name is Mrs. Patterson and she's been highly recommended, so we feel lucky that's where he landed. He is not, however, in class with anyone he knows which is a bit of a double-edged sword (I'd love to know he's going to have a good buddy in there, but I'm happy for him to have the experience of making new friends from scratch. Sing it with me: make new friends, blah, blah, blah). We began in the lunchroom with information from the principal - he's been at the school for about 20 years and is kind of revered in these parts. I think he's hilarious in both content and delivery (very southern; very, very southern) and I think I could listen to him all day. We then moved to the classroom to hear from the teacher. Mrs. Patterson asked the kids to color a picture while she talked to the parents and told them that they could turn the picture into her aide, Ms. Williams, when they finished. Wyatt was in his awestruck, quiet mode (so much so that he was afraid to get out of his chair to reach the crayons in the middle of the table, I assured him it would be okay.) and focused diligently on his coloring, which turned out to be the best approach since it became clear the coloring was a competition as Johnny's* parents had their older daughter help him color his picture. For kindergarten. On the first day. Ai yi yi.

Nat and her favorite boy, Eli.

Wyatt and I then went to get a little sweet treat before retrieving Natalie from our friends' house. Jen and I had planned to take the Wyatt's (this being the 'other Wyatt' from preschool/church), Eli and Natalie to the children's museum in Columbia for the day. Of course they all loved riding in the van together, making demands of the mommies in the van together, laughing at the showing of Lion King in said van (yay DVD player! yay Swagger Wagon!) and we made it to Columbia just in time for lunch. After reordering chicken quesadillas with nothing spicy, procuring extra food for a starving Natalie, replacing my Wyatt's drink with Sprite ("the orange soda isn't fiiiiizzzzyyy!", he said in a whining voice) and corralling my two for a single bathroom trip, I kind of felt like maybe I'd expended all my energy. But no, we powered on and had a great big day at EdVenture.

the Wyatt's who are strangely COMPLETELY unable to contain
themselves when around each other. It's so weird and utterly frustrating. But they're cute, so they've got that going for them.

The last time we went to this museum was back in early spring. Natalie remembered every bit of it, even so far as to tell me to "turn yeft around dat torner and derr's the titchen!" Sadly, the kitchen has been removed to make room for an under-3 play area. She was disheartened but not completely brought down because lo, she loves the car area.

fueling up

riding in cars with boys

And considering all the fight I get weekly in the commissary, I find it fascinating that both of my kids would've stayed all day in the mini-Piggly Wiggly, which made them say in unison "local since forever." The Pig's marketing people should know their campaign is working on my kids.

checking cheese labels?

mmm….bacon!

focused shopper

let's check that cart: four boxes of cake mix,
a gallon of chocolate milk and store brand lucky charms.
But wait - he cancelled it out with two cucumbers.
Good job!

the final run; they've observed too many people doing the
monthly stock-up at the commissary, perhaps?

natalie saying, "nice tamel! good tamel. Thanks for yetting me ride you, Tamel."

We were there for hours and apparently my index finger got tired of taking pictures with my phone. These are a couple more of my favorites, though:

look out! three-year olds in a digger.

The Wyatt's doing their best tribal drumming in front of a green screen. They LOVED this! Dancing, loud noises and all of it's being shown on tv - what's not to love?

Needless to say, I was worn out by the time we got back. The kids claimed they weren't but Natalie fell asleep mid-demand for more water and Wyatt crashed about ten minutes after lights-out. Well worth it all because they had a great time!

*this name has been changed to protect the somewhat innocent.

Pulling Their Strings

Our summer is flying by at breakneck speed (in perfect contrast to last summer, which was nearly unending as I recall) so it was time to cash in on a Living Social deal I bought in May, when I thought I'd be searching for ways to entertain the small people in my life. It turns out there's a marionette theater in Columbia, and after a puppet show in KC last winter that they loved, I figured it maybe they'd like this, too.

We had just a little time to clown around before the show started. It's amazing what fun can be had with an iPhone.

We saw Pinocchio and it was really cute. We all enjoyed the show but then the coolest part happened after it ended - the puppeteers invited everyone backstage to see their workshop, get an up-close explanation of how the marionettes work (including how they made Pinocchio's nose grow and shrink), and then every kid got a chance to use one of the theater's marionettes. Very fun! 

they were showing us how the strings worked and how they manipulated everything
from the catwalks above the stage - you can see the legs of the other puppeteer at the top of the picture.

greeting the donkeys from the isle of fun

Pinocchio (as a real boy) and Natalie waving frantically to him as we passed.

Natalie got to play with a lamb.

Wyatt had a crocodile - turns out these dudes are pretty heavy!

And because I'd hate to make our day too extraordinary, I subjected the kids to lunch at a chain restaurant (though not one we have locally and they did actually participate in picking it) before I dragged them through an inappropriate number of non-Sumter retail establishments.

It turns out these little turkeys are pretty great company!

 

Christmas in July

We had the most interesting encounter at the commissary on Tuesday and my kids are still asking about it. You see, we'd only made it about halfway through our list and had already taken a few "let me remind you about how we behave in public" moments. After one such conversation, I parked the cart out of the traffic-flow, told my little balls of energy to stand with it and absolutely, positively, not move while took five steps away from them to select the finest chicken tenders our commissary offers.

As I was perusing, a gentleman approached me and, in a quiet voice, said, "I know it's a little early, but come December I'm center court in the Sumter mall," as he stroked his white beard and chuckled. I smiled, said, "yeah, I can see how that works for you!" He gave me a jolly laugh then headed toward produce. My kids, who were actually staying with the cart just out of earshot saw the whole thing. So I took advantage of the situation and asked them if they'd seen that man talk to me. It turns out they had. So I did what anyone would and said, "did you realize that was Santa?!" Their little eyes got big and their heads were on swivels looking to see where he'd gone.

Wyatt was first to come to reality and ask why Santa was at the commissary. Again, I did what any mom who really needs some cooperation would do and said, "he's on a secret scouting trip and told me he's watching all the kids here today. Then he told me he'll be back in December. Isn't that amazing?" Natalie was in, whole-hog. Wyatt flat-out asked if he was real. So I just answered his question with a question and said, "didn't he look real?" It helped that we only caught one more glance of him before he disappeared - he was just elusive enough to make it seem like he was spying.

Natalie asked about him again this morning; Wyatt still seems to be slightly unconvinced but is teetering at the age where he will not dare to fully disbelieve, just in case the guy in shorts and a t-shirt really was Santa himself. And who knows? Maybe it was, and he was there to remind me, too.

Let's Have S'More!

I'm all out of order in reporting our days, but don't want to neglect to document the fun we have in our own backyard. Literally. Jeff got the bright idea to have a little bonfire in our fire pit on the back porch so we could roast marshmallows. Well, if you know me you know that I always have chocolate in the house, and we even had a few graham crackers, so we fired up some s'mores for the kids. They didn't fully comprehend the plan, but knew that it involved marshmallows, chocolate, fire, and some sort of good idea from Daddy so they were all in. We all traipsed outside and gathered around the fire.

Please note the glee in Jeff's eyes. He likes fire.

When I picked up my camera, she picked up her camera. Again, note the self-styled hair.

The beginning: Wyatt's face says, "yum! marshmallows" and Nat's says, "you want me to do what?"
And yes, we always roast marshmallows in vintage Mickey shirts and fancy skirts. Don't you?

Wyatt's beginning to doubt; Natalie just wants a marshmallow. Enough with all this waiting.

This is the moment when Wyatt learned that sugar is really flammable.

And this is the moment when Jeff said, "well blow it out!"

Natalie has now outsourced her roasting and is pilfering chocolate from the tray behind her.

Just had to include this one that documents our ever-present Trio blocks, and a scavenging Millie.

First bite. Yummmmm.

Natalie's over it completely. After tanking up on chocolate, she jumped ship and went for a drive.