Who needs words

... when you have expressions like this:

This is my favorite. We see this one a lot.

Brennan is at that age where he doesn't have all the words he needs to express himself and his deepest wants and desires, so he gets frustrated very easily (also very frustrating for some of the adults). And he doesn't leave much to our imagination. He has become quite adept at communicating his frustration, even if he can't tell us what it is he's upset about. Sometimes it's really hard to take him seriously with those faces and it's all I can do not to laugh and really hurt his feelings.

Unfortunately he uses more than his face to express his frustration sometimes. I'm talking head-butting, hitting, kicking, throwing things. I don't think we had to deal with this much with Kaelyn since she was such an early and proficient talker (which raises other problems all together). Plus she had our 100% undivided attention at the time. I may have to go back and re-read my positive discipline books to figure out exactly how to deal with this. And pray that it's just a phase which he'll outgrow once he learns how to say more words.

He really is usually such a sweet and silly boy.

Let the games begin

In honor of the Opening Ceremonies tonight I thought I'd whip up a quick Olympic post.

The last summer Olympics was quite eventful for us since our baby girl was born in the middle of them. I don't remember much about who won what in my baby daze. Though I'm sure Michael Phelps won a few golds. But I do remember being somewhat grateful for the Olympics that year. It gave us something entertaining to watch through my entire night of labor and subsequent nights of feeding. And Matt even willingly got up with me for night time feedings so he could see the end of the US basketball game. I'm sure he could tell you better if they won or not.

So this year we've been trying to explain what the Olympics are to Kaelyn. I don't think she quite gets it yet but she did have fun making this Olympic paper chain. I think her favorite part may have been scrolling through all the Olympic Ring images I pulled up on Google.

It was kind of a slow (we were working on patterns) and sticky (someone likes to go a little overboard with the glue stick) process. But she liked it so much she kept asking to do more chains. So we made a red, white and blue one for the American flag. And she would have done more after that if we hadn't had to clean up so I could get dinner started.

Hung very appropriately over Big Ben.

The other day when we were talking about the Olympics being in London she asked if we were going to go. Unfortunately not Kaelyn, but hopefully we can go to London some day. And she didn't believe us when we were watching the news and told her Brian Williams was in London. Have I mentioned yet that she's a bit obsessed with Brian Williams? Yes. Every evening she wants to know, "What's Brian Williams telling us?" She thinks he looks like Pop. And now they're on a first name basis. Last night she came up to me and said, "Brian told us half the country is in a drought."

That girl is something else.

Maybe she'll win a gold medal some day. For cuteness. Or the most questions asked in a day. One of the two.

Childhood memories

I just had to share this video. I didn't catch the best of it on camera but it reminded me so much of playing in the sprinkler when I was little. Not sure mom ever let us do it in our pajamas though.

Tried to get a few good pictures too.

A fun way to spend the morning.

Runs in the family

Looks like there may be a chance at least one of the kids will be an engineer when they grow up. Just like their Pop.

Bren has been really into building towers lately.  He can usually get them about 4 blocks high before they fall over. He might help himself out a little if he'd move his towers to a hard, flat surface. I guess the boy likes a good challenge.

So focused.

He was quite pleased with himself. He often claps for himself too.

I think it's about to tumble!

And of course Kaelyn is not one to be left out. She started building little "castles" with him the other day and then was inspired when she looked at the side of the block box.

"Look Mama! You can build one with ALL the blocks!"

And that's exactly what she proceeded to do.

She was concentrating very hard.

Make sure you check out the background of this one.

And here is the finished product. Quite an impressive castle if you ask me.

3 wheelin'

Get off the roads. Kaelyn's riding on her own.

Of course we have to stop for a water break every 3 feet.

She had to wear pants with her skirt on a 90+ day, in case she got cold you know. Plus, her shoes are more comfortable on the wrong feet.

Brennan and Rudy came along for the ride.

Check out that sweaty head. This calls for popsicles.

Who needs the beach

...when you have this in your backyard?

They didn't really like the giraffe sprinkler, but it sure made a fun tunnel to crawl under.

Even better when you add the slide.

It actually came with a blow-up slide (see in the background) which did not function quite as expected. Thanks to some friends for loaning us this cool pirate ship slide.

Bren is afraid to actually go down the slide into the pool after a little mishap where he landed on his back under water. But he likes to sit at the top and pretend he's going to go down.

They both like to sit at the top and steer the ship (which has led to a few discussions about sharing). Kaelyn frequently takes us to St. Martin on her pirate ship.

To hide, or not to hide

I recently (ie. 3 months ago) read an article in one of my parenting magazines about whether or not we should hide, or sneak, veggies into food for our kids. Basically I'm of the opinion that it's ok, but not always. I've been finding it very difficult to get either of the kids to eat veggies lately. Actually, Brennan will eat just about any fruit or vegetable as long as it's pureed and in a pouch. So, I do still feed him those little pouches occasionally but those things are flippin' expensive. I used to be able to count on Kaelyn eating carrots or cucumbers dipped in ranch, but not anymore. I don't know, maybe she just got sick of them. If I serve them she'll usually eat one and then claim she doesn't have to eat any more.

The truth is, vegetables are an afterthought for me. Not because I dislike them. I just put all my time and effort into the main dish of the meal. So I usually end up just throwing a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave to serve along with whatever else I made. This is a reason I love casseroles and one dish meals. But I can only eat so many casseroles. And the kids are pretty skilled at eating around anything green. Actually, Brennan's pretty skilled at not eating anything I cook period. But that's another story.

So I think if I have to sneak veggies in occasionally it's not the end of the world. I love the garden delight pastas for this reason and V8 Fusion juice. I feel a somewhat better knowing they've at least gotten a little veggie nutrition.

I've experimented with some "green" smoothies lately. And the kids love them. They're basically just some greek yogurt, a bunch of frozen fruit (Bren needs some help eating more fruit too, other than bananas that is), a splash of juice and then shove the rest of the blender full of spinach. Oh, and I add a little flaxseed or wheat germ too just to try to squeeze in as much nutrition as I can while I'm at it.

And I love how neat and clean they are while eating them.

He was sad it was all gone.

Begging for more. And if you're curious, no, those green stains did not come out. Now he gets to eat smoothies naked since he refuses to wear a bib.

Now I'm not exactly trying to "hide" the fact that I'm putting spinach in there. I mean the kids are usually up on chairs "helping" me make them. So there's really no chance I could hide it even if I wanted. Besides, I don't want to be caught hiding something. Then I'll lose their trust and they'll really think there's something wrong with vegetables and it'll be even harder to get them to try them. I also don't always come right out and tell Kaelyn all the vegetables in a dish, but if she asks what something is I tell her the truth.

I also recently discovered, after repeated failures trying to get the kids to eat avocado (yum!), Brennan loves it as long as I mash it up and put a splash of lime juice in it. I swear he would have eaten a whole avocado the other night if I hadn't eaten some of it first. Kaelyn wouldn't touch it though. But maybe I'll try adding some to my green smoothies next time.

On the other hand, I want them to actually like vegetables eventually. I'm not too worried right now because I know I wasn't fond of many veggies as a kid either. In fact, I recall many tension filled spaghetti dinners growing up because I never wanted the sauce on my pasta but my dad insisted I eat the sauce. And now I love the sauce! So I do need to work on some more yummy veggie recipes and then get over the hurdle of them actually putting it in their mouths. Our general rule with Kaelyn is that she has to at least try a bite of new food before she decides if she likes it or not. This actually paid off with an asparagus recipe I tried back at Easter. She actually couldn't get enough of it and now she'll eat asparagus. Woohoo!

If anyone has any good - and easy - vegetable recipes send them my way.