Minnesota Safari

We had just gotten out of Ivanhoe, on our Minnesota Safari trip, when the boys started to ask if we were in Minnesooota.  How do you explain it's going to take eight hours to get to Minnesota?  We played CDs of sing-along music most of the way.  If they knew the song they told us, "That's my favorite."  And they sang along, as if it was.  We got over half way, before they told Gramma to stop singing.  My own children used to say the same thing.  I never understood.  I think the twins wanted to be able to hear the CDs.  It's amazing that we had over seventy songs on CDs and still had to hear each one at least three times.  We borrowed Jeni's car, which had enough room for Rebecca to sit in the back next to the luggage.  She's used to it after travelling with Jim, Andrea and us in Ireland.  At least this time, she didn't have to keep yelling, "Dad, the left side."

We stopped for lunch at McDonald's.  Even I thought it was a good idea, since they have a Playland.  The boys were a little apprehensive about climbing something three levels high, but were reassured when Auntie Becca and I agreed we could go with them.  We were careful to check the age limit and found parents were welcome, too.  It is not so easy for an adult to twist and squirm their way through an opening meant for a two-year-old.  The easiest part is coming down the spiral slide.  When Grampa arrived in the Playland section with our lunches, he couldn't find any of us.  He looked around and really wondered when he saw our coats at a table, but none of us.  Finally, he located us at the top of the structure.  Fortunately, it didn't take the boys long to make friends with children a little bigger than themselves.  Soon, we watched at the bottom and saw a train coming down the slide, led by Andrew. 

The boys enjoyed their food, with no worry about how unhealthy it was.  Happy Meals now include apple slices. Baby steps!  Gramma survived the Playland and the food.  On the road, again; Happy Meal toy in hand.

 Happy Meal Toys are a hit.

What's the smell in the car? Another stop at the nearest gas station. I had to determine which child was the Pepe de PU. Asking doesn't work, because each one tells you it's the other one. We explained they may as well confess, since we were going to find out. When the car stopped, Andrew admitted it was him. When I removed him from the car, Nathan realized only the boy with the "poopie diaper" would be ejected. He told Grampa, he too had a dirty diaper and needed a change. Grampa checked and found the confession was premature. Nathan said he wanted to use the potty. Those are words that require immediate action. Grampa got into the public restroom, with a willing boy. At least, until he took one look at the condition of the restroom. He explained he needed to use a different toilet. As it turned out, there wasn't a toilet that met his needs. On the road again.

 Nap time is so relaxing.

I think I smell Pepe de PU?

Nearly to Minnesooota, there was another odor detected in the back seat.  Another emergency stop proved that Andrew had been successful again.  With no more stops, we crossed the bridge into Minnesooota.  "Where are Kevin and Amanda?" the boys wanted to know.  Then they noticed snow on the ground. They couldn't remember if they liked snow or not.  Up close it was a lot dirtier than Nathan thought it should be.

Thanksgiving morning, Aunt Becky and Amanda were getting ready to go to church to sing and play with the choir.  When the twins found out, they begged to go to church.  Church is within walking distance from Becky's, but requires leaving early in order to arrive in time with two-year olds walking.  We sat near the choir and instrumentalists, because I knew the boys would want to see Becky and Amanda.  After the first prelude, Andrew yelled, "Yay!" as he applauded loudly.  He caught on to the fact he was the only appreciative one.  After the next song, he toned it down a bit.  After each subsequent song, he continued to get softer, but never stopped his support.  I think he had the right idea.  He's strong with his "Amens," as well.

So what do the Minnesoootans do with snowballs?

I'm going to carry this snowball all the way back to Illinois.

The boys discovered they liked cranberries and Aunt Becky's cinnamon rolls, which Andrew wasn't sure he wanted to eat.  It's a difficult decision to decide between pumpkin pie, brownies and carrot cake.  They certainly eat well in Minnesooota.

Aunt Becky reads good bedtime stories.  I think she's had lots of practice.

On Friday, the ladies wanted to go shopping.  When the boys heard about it, they begged to go along.  They are their Gramma's boys.  They love going to church and shopping.  The Mall of America has a theme park that the boys enjoyed, after repeated trips up and down the escalator.  The multi-level Christmas tree was pretty impressive to look down on, too.

 Mr. Sponge Bob Square Pants lives in Minnesooota!

I think I'm ahead of my brother.

I think my brother is behind me.

I love shopping.

I need longer legs for the legos.

They should get one of these at Costco.

Later, we went to Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob's.  Dennis, Mitch and Eric were there, too, and got to meet the boys for the first time.  It was a little tough to share Amanda with Mitch and Eric, but they managed.  Becky wiped the floor with the opposition on Apples to Apples and Bob was a close second.  This is due mainly to the fact that Eric has such wierd criteria for selecting winners in each category, butt it's worth it just to play with him.

Everyone seems to know, Eric doesn't like to pick people in Apples to Apples, if he doesn't know them.  And he's too young to know most of them. 

There was a game of 500 going on in the kitchen, but Terry can't remember who was winning in the kitchen.  I assume it was not him.

Did Eric just ask, "Who's Lucille Ball?"  I'm so old.

Nathan and Andrew have a night light that starts our like a blue moon at night.  You can set a timer to turn it into a yellow sun in the morning.  Terry set the "sun" to come up a half hour later than their usual home time.  Unfortunately, in their excitement at being in Minnesooota, they didn't check the moon/sun in the morning.  The second day we could hear them talking in the morning over the monitors their parents sent.  "Nathan, do you want to come down here?"  The boys were sleeping on trundle beds; with the second bed, lowered, so if Nathan rolled out of bed, he would just slide into the lower bed.  I got up to check and found both boys sleeping on Andrew's bed.  Later we heard, "It's yellow, it's yellow!" 

Where did Grampa's bed go?

On the way home, we put a bag of books from Aunt Becky between the boys to enjoy while the CDs played another three times.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel, because Gramma didn't think she could do McDonald's again.  And Cracker Barrel has a store for my shopping boys.  We bought sock monkeys for the boys as souvenirs.  Luckily, Pepe de PU didn't show up until five minutes before we got home.

This has been a wonderful adventure. 

In the Swing of Things

Tragedy struck today.  Nathan loves to swing and could do it all day long.  To his credit, he willingly shares the swing and Gramma with Andrew.  On Nathan's third turn on the swing, the rope of the swing gave out.  Gramma was right there to prevent an injury, but Nathan was shaken by the experience.  I told him not to worry, Grampa would come up with a new dexign for the swing.  The boys and I headed upstairs to file a repair request with Grampa.  Nathan told Grampa the swing was broken and needed to be fixed.  Grampa was concerned and asked him where the swing broke.  Nathan replied, "in the basement." 

Grampa headed out to Home Depot to see what was available.  When he returned Nathan was ready to help.  Even Gramma got to help with some sawing, which she did while holding Nathan.  The new swing is approved for up to 255 pounds.  I've asked to have a porch swing installed next, for Gramma and the boys to ride together.  I also requested we look into attaching a motor to our new and improved swing.  No response has been forthcoming to either request, yet.  It took Nathan a bit of reassuring, but he finally agreed to test the new design out. 

 Grampa to the rescue.

 Are you sure this will work?

 Andrew slept through the repair and wasn't sure if he had dreamt up a new swing. 

"What's different here? 

Is it my turn?"

Gramma adds her own creative touches.  It's easy to push Nathan  while seated now.  The overturned galvanized tub is for the boys to do chipmunk lookouts.  There have been no recent sitings.

 

The boys have graduated to dusting!  It's my most hated job.  It's not difficult, but you finish and then just have to start all over.  With the boys' help, dusting is a completely different task.  It involves lifting one child for spraying the orange oil, getting him to spray only the desired surface, getting him to stop when the surface is saturated, lifting the second child for wiping, pointing out the many missed spots, rotating the spray and dust cloth between the boys as they take turns, locating something new to dust, quickly wiping the surface yourself when the boys aren't looking and repeating the entire procedure on the next piece of furniture.

 I think I see some dust!

How many bottles of this stuff does Gramma have?

 

Gramma, I need your help!  I like the chair closer.

"Gramma, you do the foot pedals."

Nathan's feet are working pretty well on their own.  If only they were longer.

Twins Feel Each Other's Pain

Nathan came to me and told me he bit his tongue.  I told him I could give him a special ice cube to suck on to make the pain go away.  He was curious about what I was going to do with the ice cube and forgot about his pain.  I asked if he still needed the ice cube and he assured me he did.  I wrapped the ice cube in a small piece of paper towel cut down to the right size.

 When Andrew wanted to know why he was sucking on the ice cube, he proudly showed his injured tongue.  You can see how much pain he was in.

 Andrew was very concerned about his brother.

 He shared Nathan's pain.

And convinced Gramma he needed an ice cube of his own.

The boys discovered Grampa has a secret staircase in his house.  There's a staircase in the garage leading to the basement.  Grampa had it blocked off when the boys were too little to do the stairs on their own.  When Rebecca moved out, yet again, the blockade was removed.  The boys wanted to know where it lead to, so we went down to see.  Their faces looked as if they had entered Santa's workroom.  Slowly, they realized it was Grampa's workroom.  They were absolutely speechless.  Once they knew the steps were there, they each made at least a dozen trips up and down.

They are very impressed by all Grampa's tools.  My Grandpa Froehle had a workspace in his garage.  I used to play in it for hours, when I was little, my favorite thing was to put a piece of wood in a vice and saw it in half.  I still have some of his tools.  I can remember him doing his magic as he fixed something.  I was so impressed that he knew what all the tools were and what to do with them.  The boys often go through Grampa's tool chest and shelves naming all of Grampa's tools. His sheet metal cutter is "blue scissors."  Andrew likes to nap with his toy drill.  The seed is planted.

The boys love to play with wrapping paper tubes.  Grampa saves them for the boys as a treat, since they don't last long.  Andrew's tube became a victim of destruction, so he took it to Grampa and asked him to fix it.  Grampa explained it couldn't be fixed.  Andrew accepted that and said, "Then we'll have to buy a new one."  This is a cultural shift. 

I still have the waffle iron Terry's mother passed to me when her children replaced hers.  I just received a new waffle maker for my birthday.  I reasoned that I can always use a second as the family grows.  We kept the same microwave for 29 years.  It was as old as Ryan Joseph.  Terry used to fix that thing over and over.  It was a challenge to keep it going.  At one point he had to remake the whole door handle because there were no parts available. 

I think it's why we're still together.  We don't replace anything.

Our children thought of Terry as someone who could fix anything.  We had a used two wheel bike with a banana seat (a classic) that had been passed from Ryan Joseph to Matthew (who learned to ride it without training wheels before turning three) to Rebecca.  It had not had an easy life.  The seat would slip down, causing the adjutable metal poles on the sides to touch the ground and spark as Rebecca flew down the streets, her hair and dresses billowing.  She brought the bike to her father and asked him to fix it.  He explained it was old, had been fixed too many times and needed to be thrown away.  She listened to him without wavering and told him, "I know you can fix it."  She went into the house and he stood there with the bike in his hands.  Thirty minutes later, he told her that the bike was ready.  He had a reputation to live up to.

 The best toys are those that allow the mind to grow.

 They also feel more natural.

Are colorful.

 And give you a sense of satisfaction.

Happy Halloween!

Gramma went to Motorola for the daycare Halloween parade.  The children were sensitive to the vibes and excitement of all the people visiting.  Most of them seemed to be in tears.  I was glad I showed up.  I don't think Daddy would have been able to carry both boys and Tisha (the little girl who decided to walk with us in the parade).  She wasn't as worried as Nathan and Andrew about being on display.  The boys' favorite part of their costume was the hat.

"Daddy, did you notice there are a lot of strange looking people around here?"

There are no individual pictures of Nathan in his costume, because he did NOT want Gramma to put him down.

I was impressed that three little girls in the boys' class were wearing pirate costumes.  We've come a long way from when my children were small and no girl would have considered wearing a pirate costume.  I look forward to the day when little boys will be able to wear the Rapunzel costume that also was popular with girls this year.  Perhaps the twins will consider it for the future.  I think they would love the long blonde braid.

Nathan (and most of the rest of the world) has never seen me in tennis shoes.  Do they still call them that?  He noticed the shoes I was wearing and told me I was wearing Grampa's shoes. I explained they weren't the kind I usually wear, but they were mine. He must have thought I was confused, because he repeated, "You're wearing Grampa's shoes." I asked Grampa to explain that I was wearing my own shoes. He, naturally, told Nathan, :"Yes, she's wearing my shoes."  Nathan remarked four more times that I was wearing Grampa's shoes.  I don't know if he was waiting for me to admit it or was just in shock.

For my birthday, I got a musical card from Richie and Jean.  Jean, knowing little boys well, thought they might enjoy it.  They were so intrigued by where the music was coming from that I thought they might try to disect it. Nathan came up with an idea for sharing the card.  Each of them could have three turns to play the music.  His turn would be first!  Nathan has learned that sharing is required and best done on your terms.

I play it 3 times.

Andrew, I play it 3 times.
That's 3 Andrew.

That was 3.  Yeah.

Then it stops.

That's 3.
It stops.

It stopped.

Open it.

Ok.

There is no video for my next story, so you'll just have to picture it yourself.  I had all I could do not to laugh and certainly didn't want to make it worse by grabbing a camera and filming it.  Andrew had a disagreement with the adults at dinner time.  We were having lasagna with garlic bread on the side.  Andrew preferred to have just garlic bread.  His father explained that wouldn't be possible.  It's so hard for a little person to understand what could be so wrong about eating what they want.  They see adults do it all the time.  Andrew wasn't going to stand for it.  He demonstrated his frustration forcibly to make us understand.  His father, quietly removed his chair from the table.  Andrew sits in a wooden high chair with the tray removed.  He was so full of determination that he started to move his chair in a series of little hops back to the table.  After scooting along for about a foot, his chair was caught in the grout on the floor between the tiles.  I worried that he would tip his chair over.  I didn't want to make the situation worse, so with my foot I discreetly nudged his chair past the grout line without his father knowing it and he continued his progress.  In the end, we all managed a compromise, but no one had dessert.  Gramma and Gampa were afraid to mention it.

Nathan, who hadn't been feeling well, had been allowed to sit on my lap for dinner, in the hope he might be able to eat something.  He watched his brother's struggles very closely and proceeded to eat very well.  He would look up and smile the most angelic smile he could muster.  The time for sharing was over, as far as he was concerned.
I remember having dinner at Terry's house when Jim was about five years old.  He was fooling around at the table and his mother had had enough of it.  "Stop it right now!" she said.  "No one thinks it's funny."  Jim looked around the table at everyone's face.  Everyone was absolutely silent.  After a moment Jim said, "Terry does," and the whole table erupted in laughter.  Table manners are acquired very slowly.  Proper etiquette is achieved when you have your own children to train.

Gramma "Ryan Josephs" the boys.

Andrew told Grampa that dish washing is his favorite thing to do.  Grampa then prepared the sinks for the boys to have some fun.  A boy has to have the right tools.  Why does this ever have to change?  I mean liking dish washing.  I know even when the boy becomes a man, he has to have the right tools for the job.  A woman would improvise and make do.

It's Halloween time and Andrew enjoys dressing and styling the pumpkin witch. This Halloween, even Grampa got involved. He helped with the engineering aspects of making three pumpkin witches stand on their own. The boys did their part by stuffing Gramma's black boots for the pumpkin witch to wear. She wouldn't think of  wearing Grampa's shoes!