Laundry x 2

I love my washer and dryer. I realized recently that I don't actually do any laundry; my washing machine does!!! Hooray for technology!

You know when you can hardly step a foot into your walk-in laundry room for the piles of dirty clothes that it is time to do some serious laundry. This is one of the many tasks that is made more exciting with the help of a two-year-old. I love twos! Love them!

This morning as I attempted to empty the hampers full of soiled clothing Drew was helping me. He wanted to hand me clothes that were already sorted, and he found that the best way to do that was to climb inside of the sorter. That way he could hand me clothes from all three compartments. He happened to choose to climb into the section that had the clothes that I really wanted to wash at the time, but since he was on top of those, they were his least favorite articles to pull out and hand to me.

And because speed is the name of the game...it was only four hours later that the first load of washed clothes was making it into the dryer (hey, license plates that have been expired for a month must get their renewals, preschoolers must be picked up, and we all needed to eat and nap). Drew was once again by my side. He sat on the bench next to the dryer as I loaded. I enjoyed his comments. "That's mine dressed" as he recognized a familiar shirt, "That's mine jammies", and a very excited "That's mine blue blanket!" Blue is Drew's favorite color. From the time he was one the plain blue fleece blankets were the only acceptable crib covers to his liking, and it remains so to this day. All of them happened to be with the dirty clothes, and getting him to use some other covers for naptime was no easy task today. "Yes, Drew, that is your blue blanket. The washing machine got it all clean and now we're going to put it in the dryer to get dry so you can sleep with it tonight." "Ooohhh, wow! That's gweat! Oh my goodness! Awesome! Good job, dryer" That last comment came as he patted the dryer door. Quick to follow was a toot. "'Scuz me." A minute later, another toot followed by a most sincere "oh, 'scuz me!" How can two not be my most favorite age?

A side note on sleeping: my definition of success today was that ALL FOUR BODIES in our house slept simultaneously during quiet time. That hasn't happened for at least a month. Never mind that Camden was nestled on one of my arms, at least I was lying down and in my own bed! Glorious naps! I haven't had one in about a week.

It took me a few days to finish this post. This photo is what I found in my laundry room yesterday morning. AGH! I knew I had lots of clothes to clean, but some of them looked familiar, as if I had folded them quite recently. Upon further inspection, I had. I got to inspect and figure out what clothes HAD been folded and which ones were dirty. Inspector Mom deduced the following: there was an empty laundry basket turned upside down. There were once-folded clothes on the floor. The contents of the diaper bag were strewn everywhere. And Drew had told me a few minutes previously that he had gotten his own piece of gum. When will I learn that phrase likely means trouble? Yes, I still love twos! But at this point I was ready to put out a plea for someone to come fix my doors (the pantry door, the laundry door, and the door into the hallway towards the laundry/half bath area). None of them latch properly, so until they can those handy child-doorknob-proof handles won't work. My personal handyman is busy being handy with a fussy baby in the evenings. Help!

A manly post, and a racecar poster

One of the greatest things - one of my childhood friends and I connected on Facebook. He races a 911 Porsche as a hobby. He let me know he and his dad were going to come up to Utah to race on the Miller Speedway, and invited us to tag along.









Jacob and Drew and I ran out to the track to see Brian race - what a blast! While there we also saw a bunch of Cobras! What a treat! To enhance the picture, Jacob thought it would be a good idea if they lifted their shirt to expose their bellies.

Jacob was most excited about the poster he got to bring home - a picture of a silver 427 Cobra. Beauty! Drew liked running up and down the bleachers.

We saw a number of beauties, including this race-worthy Viper. Incidentally, there was also a nice Z4 running around, which gave me no shortage of great ideas.

It was loud, hot, fun - we only wish we could have stayed longer, and that we had plans to go again.

The Disney princess reinvented

No, I'm not trying to be Walter Wick. This set-up is just as I found it after Drew finished playing one day. It brought a good laugh.

I just overheard a play conversation that Jacob was having. "Oh, hi, princess, how are you today? I'm a transformer!" It takes me back to the days of playing with my nephew, Craig. I was all the Barbies, and he was all the He-men. It worked.

Happy Birthday to me!

It's not even my birthday yet and we're already celebrating. I feel like Tyler, who celebrates his entire birthday month!

Tyler surprised me and took me to look at a used canoe. He wanted to buy it for me for my birthday. It broke the birthday & Christmas budget but what an investment for family fun! I couldn't ask for anything better. We tried it out yesterday at the local pond. I had a funny stirring in my heart, seeing a canoe on top of our van. That was such a familiar sight during my childhood; I can't quite express how it felt to see my little family with our own canoe. I'll borrow a Martha Stewart phrase and say it's a good thing.


It's not the Brandywine, but this isn't too bad for our neck of the woods. Here's to lots more canoeing family fun!

Bursting at the seams

Literally, he is. I was reading a book to Jacob about caterpillars. They grow fast and shed their skin, and I thought of Camden. I know it's normal for babies to have their skin peel as they grow (at least it's been normal for all of mine), but Camden seems to "shed" several skins a week. The scale at the doctor's this week revealed that he is a whopping eleven pounds!


The thinker: a common pose
for Camden.






















What physique! From the looks of this pose it appears that he has been hanging around with Todd from Tyler's office.

Sharing

Who says two year olds don't know how to share? Drew is great at sharing! He shares the girls' clothes and jewelry. They actually dolled him up and he wore this all day long. He was put-out when I pulled the hairband out of his hair (the ponytail/twist combination had undone itself). And when the skirt fell down he insisted that I fix his "dress".














He shares Jacob's suit coat. Hannah got him dressed for church and put this on him. He does look rather handsome, I must say, even if it's a bit big. He got lots of comments on it at church (because of course he insisted on wearing it the whole day).













He especially likes to "share" with Camden -- his swing, his car seat, and his pacifier. Sharing the latter resulted in sharing his fever of 102 degrees this week. We're grateful that it was shared five days after Camden turned one month old so that he did not have to be admitted to the hospital. I'm glad it's just a fever. My heart goes out to those that undergo all the testing, time in medical waiting rooms, etc. for serious health challenges. I could endure our taste of that with a smile this weekend since I knew we were just going through the formalities of taking care of our little guy.

Aye-yi-yi

It's been a long day for lots of reasons. I won't tire you with the list (speaking of tired, a nap would be nice). But this was funny. After getting a tiny breather when the boys were playing nicely outside, they came back in again. Jacob requested "Mom, can I go jump at the [neighbor]'s tramp?" There was too much going on and I didn't even want to think about tracking down the 2 year old that was sure to follow. I gave my answer several times but if there's one thing my children get from their dad it is the ability to keep trying until you get what you want. Oh wait, or do they get that from me? At one point I sighed "aye-yi-yi" (how do you even spell that?). "Aye-yi-yi?" Jacob questioned. "What does that mean, yes?" How can you not laugh at that!?!

And now Jacob's being a great helper by wiping milk off of Camden's mouth and entertaining him with a motherese version of "aye-yi-yi". I think I'm going to hear that exclamation for a nice long time to come.