by: Gary Marcella
Chilling on our Picnic Table
The term “Navigating The Minefield” is one I coined recently for very appropriate reasons – let’s get into it. It all started when we put the kids to bed, well, put them “IN” bed, then subsequently wait an hour or so for Grady to fall asleep. After long days of working, getting the kids ready for bed, etc… both Laura and I have to make a late dinner and get to sit on the couch to relax and watch a few shows if we’re lucky enough to stay awake long enough. So when it finally comes time that we can’t physically stay awake any longer, we head to bed. Well – sometimes that means not cleaning up the toys in the hallway/living room first. I tend to “forget” to get things like a glass of water, or to, you know, lock the doors – so I have to get up quite frequently once I’ve entered the bedroom and initiated “sleep” mode. I’ve got this rule that once the kids are sleeping, no excess light outside the door should be shown as to not initiate “wake” mode for the boys. So here’s how this goes – our bedroom is directly down the hall from the boy’s room, which is on the way to the kitchen and the rest of the house – so the hallway light is deemed off-limits by my dysfunctional rules. Here is where you can see the minefield comes into play. So often I find myself shuffling my feet and literally praying I don’t break my neck on a toy, or worse, step on a corner of a stupid plastic toy that will just annoy me enough to grunt loudly and run the risk of waking up the boys. It’s a dance that could EASILY be avoided by taking 5 stupid minutes to clean, but do we do it… NOPE! Anyway – Navigating the Minefield, at least I know that if I ever do leave the door unlocked and someone were to come in – they have no idea there IS a minefield… hahahah.
And on that note – Welcome back! Its been what seems like forever since my last post, I realize most of you haven’t seen pictures of them in a while, nor had the pleasure of reading some snarky sarcastic stories from me. I’m sure you could do without one of those, but too bad – you get the good with the bad!!
Guess What?? THE BOYS ARE TWO!! We just celebrated their birthday on Sunday and the boys had such a great time with everyone, it was awesome! Mom, Dad, and Grandma all got a fence for the boy’s birthday, in turn the boys got the freedom of going outside more often (while being confined to the yard roughly the size of a large prison cell). The boys were so spoiled by everyone at the party tho, so they will have new things to play with for quite some time (and effectively supplying more mines for my hallway).
We went to the Doc today for their 2 year checkup, here’s how they measure up.
Grady (the elder): 26lb, 4oz – 34 1/4 inches tall
Logan (little bro): 30lb, 2oz – 35 1/4 inches tall
These two couldn’t be more different, from their size to their hair – different. Logan plows through everything in his path, runs and jumps everywhere, and is what only can be described as a “Bull in a China Shop”. Grady is slower in speed, much more reserved but very much “Higher Maintenance” – you can tell he’s thinking and taking everything in. Both of their vocabularies are excellent, they put together 2-3 word sentences and will parrot anything you say… ANYTHING!!! They have hijacked my iPad (“truck game” as Logan Calls it – even though he doesn’t really want to play the truck game) and Grandma’s Nook and to be honest, may be better with the things than we are!!
Below is a little video I put together of their interactions with each other – it’s quite comical at times.
