The week in pictures

happy weekend everyone!

Creative control

With all the recent frustration and whining I thought they could use a creative outlet.  Maybe they just needed a new way to express themselves?   It started out lovely.  They actually painted on the paper.  Until they didn't...and began painting the floor and each other and the chalkboard side of the easel.  But I just went with it.  I forfeited all creative control to them.  I didn't say "No" (except when they tried to paint the kitchen cabinets...and the door).  And they were happy.  A full 20 minutes of pure bliss.  It was beautiful.  

The aftermath.  

Minus the 2 green monsters that had to be put in the bath for a complete scrub down.  
Oh, and I'm still finding green paint residue a week later.

The days go by

Lots of new things happening.  The boys are growing up so fast.  Only 4.5 months shy of turning 2 years old.  Somehow, it gets harder and easier at the same time. The tantrums have begun.  They've started throwing themselves around when they don't get their way.  And they always want the toy that the other is happily playing with.  And we're going through a very whiny stage. BUT they give kisses now, and hugs, and they love putting on their shoes, and they can't get enough of going down slides, and suddenly we can all walk around the meadow together, and Noodle, without fail, says "hi" to EVERYONE including any passerby within 30 ft of us and somehow it is hilarious every single time.  Looking forward to when we can all make it down the stairs in less than 10 minutes and without me carrying one down by the arm (which they happen to think is the best game ever.  Who knew?)  Also looking forward to more words and less whining.  And trips to the zoo, if it ever cools off.  

Lots of pictures from the last few weeks.  And here is a great song with a cute video I also wanted to share.  

Yup, we are rocking the themed Crocs now...and loving it

Scheming 

 Biggie makes a call - a series

Really into chairs all of a sudden

Trouble

How we got to Maine

The day started at 3:30am.  Sisterwife and I got dropped off at LAX at 5am with a baby strapped to each of us, a 4 year old, a double stroller, 2 carseats, 5 carry-on bags, 10 boarding passes, and our sanity still intact.  At 5:45am flight #1 departed for Detroit (yeah, we unintentionally cut it pretty close).  Somehow we managed to successfully load everything and everyone onto the plane.  Honestly, I have no idea how we did this.  I think I blacked out.  We must have been running on adrenaline or coffee or something.  Car seat installations 1 and 2 went flawlessly...done with a baby still strapped on me nonetheless.  Then we all settled in for the first leg of our journey. 

I had a total of 4 cups of coffee that morning which is unheard of for me seeing as after one cup I'm usually ON SPEED 

and organizing/cleaning everything in sight like a crazy person.  But I was barely hanging on.

The boys passed out as soon as we took off and slept for about 20 minutes and 

that was the end of sleeping FOR THE ENTIRE DAY.  And it was only 6:30am.  

But everyone was pretty happy. For now.

And silly.

Sisterwife and I just kept handing out various snacks for the next 4 hours. 

We had an entire bag dedicated to snacks.

Some art was created. 

A movie (okay, like 8.5 minutes of a movie) was watched.  Let's be real.

This was hilarious while it lasted...also about 8.5 minutes. 

Snacks were key and our saving grace, for this flight at least.

When we finally landed in Detroit we looked at each other and all the stuff and children surrounding us and had no idea how we were going to get off the plane.  This is when we wondered how the hell we had initially gotten everything onto that plane so seamlessly.  Like I said, we must have blacked-out.  We couldn't just wait for everybody to get off before us because we had a very short lay-over before our next flight.  So I rather loudly mentioned that MAYBE SOME VERY KIND SOUL COULD CARRY A CARSEAT OFF THE PLANE FOR US.  No one volunteered.  This was the point at which we began to question humanity. Upon exiting we somehow managed to quickly grab/carry everything and everyone except for one of the carseats.  All we could do was hope someone would grab it for us.  Thankfully, someone did!  (Shout out to that lady! She's got some good karma coming her way.)  Upon exiting the jet bridge we asked the woman at the gate how to get to C11 for our next flight.  She said, "Go that way and follow the signs," pointing to the right.  Us, "Okay well I think our plane is probably boarding do you think we have enough time?  Do we need help?  LOOK AT US FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!" Woman, looking at her watch, "Oh you have a good 10 minutes until boarding."  So we trudged off to the right.  Little did we know, we were at A65 and need to get to A25 in order cross over to terminal C through a very   l  o  n  g   tunnel.  The least that gate lady could have done was pointed us to the elevator that would have taken us up to the tram that we could have RODE to Terminal C, thus saving us about 2 gallons worth of sweat.  But no, we walked it...speed walked it as we watched the tram fly by above us.  It was probably a total of 2 miles and I am not exaggerating.  Let's be clear here: a solo athletic male with no bags could not have made that trek in 10 minutes so I have no idea what that woman was thinking telling us WE were fine.  Trust me, we were a sight to behold with the carseats and bags piled 4 feet high on top of the stroller, babies strapped to us, bags on our shoulders AND a 4 year old in tow.  My biggest regret in life is not getting a picture of that stroller.  Anyways, we did make it onto our second plane which was much smaller (only 2 seats on each side) and only allowed this seating arrangement for the boys....unless we wanted to put one of them next to a stranger but we decided against that.  There's something very funny about two 18 month olds having their own row, right?  Or maybe it's just the pajamas?

The novelty of being on a plane had worn off by this time and everyone was understandably restless, vocal, over-tired and much less keen on the snacks.  But overall, the kids did really well.  The boys did way better than I had expected especially considering the 3:30 am wake up and the lack of naps.

(tray = footrest)

Two hours later we landed in Maine!  Sisterwife and I high-fived but then quickly realized it was a tad premature.  Our journey still wasn't complete.  After my 5th & 6th carseat installation of the day (plus 1 booster seat!), we had a 45 minute drive from the airport to the house.  Here's what Jasper thought about that...

And Fancy and I were just so  T  I  R E  D....

But then we were finally there and Noodle was stunned by the sheer glory of nature....

Biggie too could not believe his eyes. 

And there we were.  Staring at the Atlantic Ocean when only 12 hours ago we had been at the Pacific.
It was quite literally a cross-country journey.  A cross-country marathon if you will.

So we picked some pole beans from Nonnie's garden.

And ate them with some lobster.  And it was lovely....

until everyone m e l t e d

                                            d

                                                  o

                                                            w 

                                                                        n.

While our sanity may have no longer been intact, we never lost our sense of humor that day.  It was crazy and absurd and exhausting....but we did it and we laughed about it and I'd probably do it all again.....well maybe a few years from now....

with a private jet.