What is it they say about "a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step?" I'm diving into this update with little hope of catching up completely on the events of the last few weeks, but I'll get there eventually.

We'll start a full week before Christmas with our trip to visit our favorite Santa at the local mall. This man is made for the part. A story in the local paper a few days after our visit revealed that he is an amateur actor who starts growing his beard each year in June to be ready for the kids come December. He's truly great--no rush, actually talks to the kids and either remembers them from year to year or has keen hearing to pick up names being bandied about while we wait in (a short) line. He greets them by name as they walk up.
Or at least he did for Edward. Daniel was much more hesitant, as he was with the train Santa in November. Ed was chatting away while Daniel was saying, "I don't wanna see Santa." When I got down to hold him close and Santa reached out for a "five," he warmed a bit and we managed this photo.
They both asked for trains and then had a chat with Santa about Thomas and all his various train friends. This guy knows his stuff.
On to the main event. We started a day early with a visit from Gram and PopPop with special guest, Aunt Bridget. Much merriment ensued with books and forts and games, oh my! We started with Edward's birthday celebration on Wednesday afternoon and Zingo was an instant favorite. We have played many, many games. Luckily it's as tolerable for adults as it is fun for kids, so an all-around good choice. We had some birthday cupcakes after dinner just to top things off.

On Thursday, Christmas Eve day, we moved on to the Christmas celebration with gifts for both boys. Daniel was happy to be in on the action this time around.
At nap time, our visitors left and we set about recharging for an evening with Grandma and Grandpa. This would have been a better picture if I hadn't cut off the top of Bill's head, but I think it's cute anyway.
Grandma's delicious Christmas Eve dinner was so successful that Daniel lost his shirt in the process. Red Jell-O is not really meant to be eaten by the fistful, in case you were wondering. Luckily, we had extra clothes there for just such an occasion, but I was not above letting him brave the chill for moment so we could bring you this picture.

After dinner, it was on to the presents. I knew Daniel was to receive a school bus and guessed correctly by size which package to hand him first. However, after he opened this, he had absolutely no interest in any other presents and pushed the wrapped packages away when we tried to hand them to him. Somehow Edward also became enamored of this toy and they ended up fighting over it, despite Edward's receiving many "big kid" things of his own.
Apparently I am in line for "meanest mom in the world" for telling my children that Santa comes while they are at church on Christmas morning. They didn't raise a single objection--Ed's only concern was how Santa would come down our chimney after we sealed the fireplace with insulating plastic to keep out the breeze. We said lots of people don't even have chimneys, but Santa always finds his way inside. We got up on Christmas morning, had some breakfast and headed out to 8:30 mass, which had blessedly limited attendance. Christmas Eve on the other hand is a madhouse to which you must arrive at least 30 minutes early to have any hope of a seat. Our kids can barely make it through ONE hour!

Santa did arrive while we were gone as promised, and delivered the requested trains.

This was also when the packages that had been arriving in the mail from various corners of the world were also unveiled. Books and a game from Arizona, games and a construction set from Brazil (via Amazon!), Thomas trains from Wisconsin...a joy to behold!

We spent the rest of the morning playing, though not always harmoniously or together. By now they have adapted these new favorites into their play routines, but Ed preferred to do his initial exploration solo. We keep the trains in our "library" because it has a wood floor instead of carpet, so we were able to segregate a bit with one kid on trains and the other in the living room/dining room play area to keep things civil until lunch and nap time.

After naps, we were on to the birthday extravaganza, per tradition. Grandma and Grandpa came over with even MORE gifts, which we opened before Edward's requested dinner--homemade macaroni and cheese. Culinary sophistication. I already posted a picture of Edward's cake, which was tasty, even if not beautiful. I really wonder if there is some secret to writing with icing. My handwriting is nothing special, but nothing like the serial killer scrawl I manage with an icing tube!

Edward's birthday gifts were bountiful, and many were Cars themed. We gave him the DVD with the characters he so idolizes but had never seen. It took four sittings to get through it--short attention span--but now it is often requested. He likes the two short "extras" on the DVD almost as much as the movie itself! From Grandma and Grandpa he opened a Cars play rug so he can drive his vehicles all over Radiator Springs while the movie distracts in the background.

Once the kids were occupied with these new marvels, Grandpa got his chance with the coveted school bus--fun for kids of all ages. (I may be disowned for posting this photo!)

More to come on our sledding and New Year's adventures. Stay tuned to find out if I can bring us back to current before falling behind again with Daniel's birthday festivities!

So, I won't quit my day job, but this met a 4-year-old's aesthetic requirements for a "Mater and Lightning McQueen birthday cake" while also avoiding the dreaded "at least a day old and dried out bakery cake because your kid's birthday is on Christmas." I ordered the cars online and Googled "Mater cake" and "McQueen cake" for ideas on how to decorate. There were some quite elaborate designs, well beyond my limited skills. When I read in the description, "It took four hours, but it was totally worth it to see my son's face..." I knew I was on the wrong track. But I did like one person's idea of using crushed Oreos to make a road.

I remembered too late that the last time I used my cake decorating tips (e.g. Daniel's birthday, last January!) I gave up on trying to get the left over decorating icing out of the writing tip and threw it away thinking, "It's way easier to just buy a new one." Yeah. If you remember. Oh well. John unearthed in the baking cabinet an unopened tube of writing gel and it lasted just long enough (it started sputtering on the "d" in Ed, hence no "ward.")
John helped me unscrew all the Oreos and he simply could not let all that luscious cream filling go to waste. He piled it high into a super-quadruple-stuffed-steroid-Oreo, which he admirably saved for Edward to eat as his afternoon snack. I do have a spectacular photo of John with said cookie, however, and would be willing to share for the right price.

All, in all, a successful, if exhausting birthday extravaganza (complete with homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner, as requested by the birthday boy.) Now, we have to summon all of our reserve energy to power through the weekend.

The Christmas card continues to elude us. We love receiving them, but just can't seem to get it together to send them. But since this blog is something like the letters many people enclose with their cards, we'll add the family photo we finally managed to capture today and call it quits.

Merry Christmas with love from The Kenyons

We'll have lots of Christmas stories and pictures to share in the coming days.

Here is a photo of Edward after his haircut this morning. I was distracted by Daniel, and the next thing I knew, nearly all of Ed's hair was on the floor. One of his teachers stopped me as we left school today: "I can't believe you had all of Edward's hair cut off. He worked so hard to get it!" Consider it a lesson learned for his next haircut... sometime in mid to late 2010. The upside? He seems to like it.

Addendum: One good line from Daniel. He refers to everyone as "people," even singularly, so he'll point to someone and say, "That's a people, Daddy." So, when he got into the barber chair, he was not happy. At one point through his cries as he reached out wanting me to pick him up, he said of the barber standing behind him, "I don't want that people back there give me haircut!" Of course, he calmed down and was very good for much of the rest of the time, mainly because I assured him that when we were done, he would be handsome.

We took a late afternoon trip to the Children's Museum today, a brave adventure given that the museum is located at the mall. But we parked and got in with no mall hassle. As soon as we got there, Edward had to go to the bathroom (despite having just gone before leaving home.) As I headed toward the door to the women's bathroom, Edward stopped and said, "No, Mom, this is the boys' one" pointing at the other door.

Amused, I asked, "Well, how do you know it's the boys' one?"

"Because it says right there, B-O-Y," said Edward, age three years and 51 weeks.

The signs also had the standard white male and female character drawings (female denoted with triangular skirt.) Is it too much of a stretch to say he actually read the word "Boy?"

In other linguistic news, I've been meaning to chronicle some of Daniel's lexicon here. One of the funniest recent ones is that he refers to ambulances as simply "amb."
"I see amb right dere Mommy wih lights on."

Another source of endless amusement is the substitution of an "f" sound for many an "s." This list includes fwippers (slippers), fwoman (snowman), fool bus (school bus, ironically) and fweeper (sleeper), and creates a bright morning when he declares while rubbing his eyes against first light: "I eat cereal-milk in my fweeper."

He often initiates a "yes I am" - "no you're not" exchange with Edward, who can not be persuaded that Daniel is only trying out words and does not mean to engage in a debate to the death over whether or not we've just driven past another "fool bus." However, he sometimes stumbles over the grammar during a heated debate with his brother, as the other morning while driving past a construction site when he shouted, "Yes I AM see the crane, Edward!"

Since I believe I am Constitutionally required to include photos with these posts, here are a few left over from the last week or so.


Here we see our genius sons attempting to put their ornament stockings on their feet.


Here we see why we're eagerly anticipating a hand-me-down sled from Gram and PopPop next week.

Here we see a favorite post-snow activity, one of the few television options they have that includes commercials. When the program is interrupted, they call to me in the kitchen (or wherever I'm accomplishing life's tasks while they're entertained) "Commercial, Mom, please hurry!" (The later after they were admonished against the use of "Hurry UP, Mom" when I delayed a moment after the call so as not to scorch our dinner. We were not amused.)

The boys had an eventful day today that involved a Christmas tree and a snowman. A quintessential December day.

First up: The snowman. Mary had a social outing today, so when the boys got up from their naps, we suited up and headed out into the surprisingly warm -- and subsequently messy -- afternoon. Edward said he wanted to build a snow firetruck complete with ladders and hoses, but settled for a plain old snowman. When we had finished with that, complete with charcoal eyes and a carrot nose, Edward declared that he was going to knock it down. My pride was too powerful, and I declared that this would not be happening. So, we built another snowman (less flashy, and given its intended purpose, intentionally more wobbly) that the boys could topple.


The results of this destruction, scattered across the back yard, were quickly adapted into a car, and then a train (see the video). I was even able to convince Daniel that an adjacent lump of snow was the back seat, so both boys actually played on it with out incident for five minutes or better.

Bookending this was the decorating of our Christmas tree. First, an admission: Our tree is crooked. It didn't look that way at the lot, but after considerable effort to get it to stand up straight in the tree stand, we took a closer look and realized that about a foot up the trunk, it takes a noticeable left turn that gives the tree a mean lean. We aimed it toward the wall and are hoping for the best. Mary put on lights while the boys napped. Daniel was first up, and as I carried him downstairs, he caught sight of it in the living room. "That's fancy, daddy!" he exclaimed. I was able to capture his second reaction on video.

After we came back inside from our snow adventure and Mary returned, she and the boys put ornaments on the tree. Yes, they actually helped, though we did have to redistribute a bit because they were clustering the ornaments in bunches along the bottom-most branches. They seemed to enjoy it, though, as with everything else, their attention was soon diverted and they moved on to something else.


Here's the video: First up, Daniel and the tree, followed by some creative use of snow piles:

We were reminded tonight of another two-year-old and the winter of 2008.
(scroll to the end of the linked post for the video)

Let's begin by saying that Pajama Week 2009 has ended. After the Thanksgiving long weekend, Edward was having trouble getting readjusted to our morning routine. He stayed in his pajamas through breakfast and when it was really getting down to the wire to get out the door, he started having a huge fit when John tried to get him dressed. Seeking the path of least resistance, I said, "Fine, just put your shoes on and wear your pajamas to school." We were out the door minutes (and many fewer tears) later.

I sent regular clothes in his backpack, figuring he'd feel silly once he got there and none of his friends were in pajamas. Oh, how wrong I was. Not only was he still in pajamas when I picked him up, he continued this pattern the entire week. Each day we tried new ideas to coax him toward normal clothes, and each day he steadfastly insisted on pajamas. One morning I said, "I bet you can't get dressed in 60" and started counting. In a Pavlovian response, unable to resist the challenge, he jumped out of his pajamas and, with John's help, was dressed in a (slow) count of 45. He appeared triumphant, but then, considering what had just transpired, he melted in a pool of tears and began pulling his clothes off. He was back in pajamas seconds later.

Finally, on Friday afternoon, I was ready to take them to a retirement party for a colleague. I told Edward there would be cake at the party, but that I would like him please to wear regular clothes. He considered, asked if he could take his pajamas in the bag, and then agreed to change. Saturday we insisted he had to wear regular clothes for our trip to the library and Sunday clothes were mandated for church. By Monday morning, the idea was fading, and he was persuaded to wear clothes with the promise that he could change to pajamas when we got home. (He didn't, but apparently the option was sufficient.)

I tried not to let it bother me. After all, parenting is about picking your battles. As long as it was just to school, I truly did not care. We all laughed about it and he went about blissfully. But when it came to appearing in the general public, I wasn't so carefree. The retirement party was to draw many people from around campus, and I was too self-conscious to bring my kid in pajamas. Why should I care if he didn't? Who can explain. I do hope he retains at least some of that PopPop-esque utter lack of self-consciousness. Life would be simpler if we never worried what other people thought of us, right?

John's birthday passed uneventfully (per his wishes) on Saturday. We did have French silk pie in place of cake, a long-standing tradition. Daniel's response to his first taste: "Mmmmm...happy!" Pretty much summed up John's day. Even though there would be no party, I felt that the 40th birthday deserved some wider recognition. I enlisted two of John's friends to help me execute a plan to create a CD with songs selected by a large group of friends (one song per friend) who are all as heavily invested in music as John. It worked perfectly--14 friends submitted songs and one of them, who is a graphic designer, created a personalized CD-sleeve. It took John a couple of minutes to figure out what it was, but when he did, he was quite pleased. It got even better the next day when John sent out a thank you email, and they all started responding with the reasons they'd selected their songs. They all held special meaning/memory between John and each friend, and John was touched that they recalled those times together--some even going all the way back to high school.

After the birthday, it was on to Christmas decorating. John says we don't have to follow that "wait until after the birthday" tradition his Mom established, but I like it. When commercialized Christmas starts before Halloween, it's nice to have your own personal benchmark for kicking off the season.

The boys helped hang ornaments on Will's tree, and loved seeing it all lit up. Edward was a bit distressed about the idea of giving these ornaments away (we ask friends to take one and hang it on their own tree, remembering Will.) But I explained that we would get a bigger tree for our own ornaments, and some of them even say "E-d-w-a-r-d" because they are his special ornaments to hang. Maybe over the weekend. I'd prefer to wait until the weekend just before Christmas, but I think all the trees will probably be gone by then. I do miss the Chicagoland availability of trees--every empty lot turns into a tree lot this time of year there. Last year, we were reduced to buying our tree at Menards. Just didn't seem very festive.
We did have one holiday experience before the birthday launch date. While visiting my parents in Evanston the weekend before Thanksgiving, we rode on the CTA Holiday Train.
It was a HUGE hit with the boys. It's a regular "el" train, but decorated "beyond the beyond" (as my Mom would say) with lights all over, inside and out, tinsel in the cars, Christmas patterned seat covers, poles wrapped in candy cane striping, and Christmas music playing on the public address system.
In the middle of the train is a flatbed car decorated as Santa's sleigh and he waves as the train pulls into each station. At the end of the line, he sat for pictures with the kids.
Daniel was totally freaked out when placed on Santa's lap, so I held him while Edward just climbed right up. After Edward got down, he realized he'd forgotten to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He was allowed a do-over, and registered his wishes (more train tracks for his wooden set, and a Mater--tow truck character from the movie Cars, which he's never seen.)
We opted not to wait 45 minutes for the holiday train to take our return trip. But even the undecorated train was a big hit with our boys. Cheap thrills for $2 per adult.
The other special thing about the weekend was our last visit with Joe and Brenda before they headed to Brazil for Joe's first posting with the Foreign Service. We are excited for them and eager to hear about their new adventures. By the time of their next visit (probably in about a year) will the boys still fit under each arm like this?
The adults extended the bon voyage until 2:30 Sunday morning, having a roaring good time, but not allowing for enough sleeping! Luckily, those who did not have a four-hour drive ahead of them, arrived at Gram and PopPop's bright and early for a trip to the park. This had the dual benefit of letting us get a bit more sleep, and exhausting the children, so that they slept all the way to the Iowa border. And, yes, it was warm enough that day, to go hatless. Can't say the same for today, as we're bracing for a blizzard, expecting at least a foot of snow by this time tomorrow.

Too tired for a full update, but we had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with only one day of travel (to Chariton, Iowa to visit John's grandparents, cousins, aunt, etc.)

Here's a recent story and (unrelated) photo for each boy:

John and I had versions of this conversation with Daniel separately tonight and each wanted to be the one to tell the other how cute it was.

D: It's dark
J/M: Yes, it is dark, Daniel.
D: Sun go ni-night?
J/M: Yes, the sun is going ni-night now.
D: Sun have paci?
J/M: (**guffaw**) well, sure, maybe the sun has a paci... (pacifier, an essential ingredient for a good night's sleep.)

P.S. Daniel loves to wear other people's shoes. These boats belong to Uncle Joe.

Getting Edward to sit still for dinner lately has been quite a challenge. He was getting dangerously close to tipping himself over with the booster seat on the chair, so we took it off. (Truth be told, we were also annoyed that he kept buckling himself in and therefore could not get down on his own. Oh, how foolish we were.) So we have these battles over keeping him in the chair and keeping the food-to-mouth cycle going. If he and Daniel start exchanging goofy phrases and giggles, it's all over.

Last night after a long day of travel and fun with cousins plus only a 20 minute car nap for Daniel (he was exhausted but somehow did not sleep for the two-hour return trip to Iowa City) even our paltry dinner of peanut butter sandwich for D and grilled cheese for E turned into a zoo. I finally declared Daniel to be done (he was just mashing it around his plate) and took him up to bed.

John stayed with Edward and tried to get him to calm down to finish eating. At one point, in desperation, John said, "Edward, why don't you just NOT TALK for a few minutes." Edward, stricken, replied, "But I LOVE to talk!" Indeed.

Side note that tonight's dinner ended with Edward's plate being dumped in the garbage after he was sent away three times with instructions to return only if he calmed down and decided he was hungry. However, he was as good as he's ever been during Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's. Perhaps it had something to do with being told six hours in advance that if he misbehaved he would not receive his much anticipated pumpkin pie.

If I thought it would work, I would serve pumpkin pie every night.

My first Wednesday night free since late August--time to catch up on my blogging! Or at least make an attempt. I started gathering the photos and realized just how far behind I really was.

Our window project was a success. We went from this:
To this:
In just a little over a week. From the inside, it looked like this:
And this:
Of those four windows you see in the original exterior, only three were in the bedroom. The one to the far left in the picture was actually in our closet, which must have been created sometime after the original construction. Since we had to change the shape of the opening anyway (the originals did not meet egress for BR) and we were not eager to pay for an unnecessary closet window, we decided to replace with just two windows and close off the openings on either end. I don't have an "after" interior shot to share as we have only a makeshift window covering at this point. We just left part of the old curtain rod and threw up a set of curtains we used to have in Edward's bedroom at the old house. Perfect length, though if they were to be a permanent fixture, we'd need more width for the proper draping effect. For now, they are doing just fine, though it's even harder to wake up on these dark mornings now that we have bedroom curtains!

After that, we had a visit from Gram and PopPop, that exhausted Daniel so much he almost fell asleep pushing his "lawn mower" around the back yard.This was doubly dangerous as Ed was taking batting practice at the time. He hadn't had the tee out for a while and suddenly was having great success at hitting some long ones.Later in the week, we dutifully carved our jack-o-lantern. It was just barely warm enough to make this a porch activity--thank goodness we kept that mess out of the kitchen! Ed was not too enthusiastic about scrubbing it before we began, but did enjoy the scooping. When I asked him if he wanted circle or triangle eyes, he replied, "Rectangle!" Hence the unorthodox design. Daniel wasn't too interested in the whole endeavor, but he did help wipe down at the end.
Halloween itself was a trying experience this year. I thought the Saturday holiday would be better--no rushing around at the end of the day trying to have dinner and trick-or-treat in the short window between John getting home and the boys' bedtime. However, with the whole day of anticipation, I think it all just spiraled out of control. With these weeks distance, I can't even quite describe the emotions, but there was quite a bit of defiance throughout the day and more than our fair share of time-outs. Edward also had his first in-store screaming meltdown, including sprawling on the floor at Menards because the people who walked in just ahead of us took the only available "vehicle cart." (Those annoying shopping carts with the molded plastic truck and steering wheel for kids.) I had to take him out of the store kicking and screaming and hold him tight while speaking softly until he could bring himself back under control. Combine that with the end of daylight savings time that same weekend, and it was definitely one of those times we were more than happy to go back to work Monday.

The kids had fun trick-or-treating through the neighborhood. I fear that this will not be a staple of their childhood though, as very few houses had lights on to welcome the kids. We left a bucket of candy on our porch while we were out and some was gone when we got back, but other than that, only two other groups rang our bell the whole night. Apparently everyone takes their kids to the mall because it's safer. I suppose that's true, but it's so antiseptic, and who needs to spend more time at the mall? We really like the opportunity to see our neighbors, and those who leave the lights on seem genuinely pleased to see the kids all dressed up. Maybe we'll have a revival in coming years. It's not like we're living in some dangerous urban war zone!

Edward was a firefighter again (I asked him about a month in advance what he wanted to be and he looked at me like I had two heads: "A firefighter." Like there's any other option? Fine with me--same costume, no hassle.) Daniel was a giraffe in a costume borrowed from cousins. This truly did delight all those who saw him. Something about that tight hood around those chubby cheeks and the dangling tail as he walked away.

Speaking of Menards, we were there to pick up materials for a home improvement project--kid level coat hooks at the front door. John had a bit more "help" than he needed, strictly speaking, but accomplished the mission, striking a blow for order in our front hall. Edward is actually very conscientious about hanging his own coat. Daniel doesn't quite have the hang of it, but at least holds his coat up to the hook in an attempt. Ed feels its very important for every hook to be used so in addition to two winter and two fall jackets, we sometimes find unusual objects hanging there, including the occasional shoe.


The weekend after Halloween was shockingly warm for Iowa November--in the 70s. We spent a lot of time out in the yard and Edward even busted out the shorts for one last hurrah.
But we've settled into a cool, rainy pattern now so this is the preferred attire:
I don't have a picture of it yet, but Edward is now the proud owner/wearer of a couple of footie sleepers with the arrival of the latest cousin hand-me-downs. It's amazing how much more eager he is to get dressed, when I offer the opportunity to wear the "new Sean clothes." In addition to the sleepers (which he would wear 24/7 if allowed) a favorite is a Lightning McQueen (from Cars) sweatshirt that has sound effects in the pocket. The push of a button creates a revving, roaring car sound. He loves it!

He's wearing it here while "reading" with Aunt Peggy. This is a relatively new book, which he has memorized and loves to show off his reading skills. The boys were quite pleased to wake up from naps on Monday to find a visitor--especially one bearing gifts of books and trucks! It was fun to share time together and have dinner, though not quite the relaxing, reflective evening gathering Aunt Peggy is accustomed to!

One last picture--quintessential fall.

I promise a real update soon (class ends tomorrow night--woo hoo!)

This afternoon, the boys discovered the joy of pulling all the cushions off the couch to romp and play. I discovered that this activity is nearly as much fun to observe as an adult as it was to participate in with my siblings back in the day.

I'm on borrowed time here as nap time is extending past the 2.5-hour mark. How does this happen on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, while yesterday's rain and gloom was met with less than 2 hours of sleeping? Oh well, it gave me time to wash windows (inside only) and hose down screens. Plus prep this short video of one of the boys' favorite new games.

This chair was my Christmas present from John (my request!) last year. A place to sit with back support at play level. I don't actually spend much time sitting in it as it now doubles as a ladder (seen here), dentist chair, and running flip toy. This last activity is not for the faint of heart (or Grandparents, apparently.)



We celebrated Will's birthday yesterday with pictures, his tree, a few more tears, and LOTS of questions. Maybe someday the boys will understand that we have as many as they do, but that there are few answers to satisfy any of us.

In the meantime, we tumble through life.