Mama's big boys

We moved Sam & Ben into a different room and took the crib sides off of their beds. They are so proud to be sleeping in their new Big Boy Room. Oh, and they lovelovelove the firetruck sheet sets their oh-so-talented mommy made for them. I found an easy tutorial here for the bottom sheet, and I just modified it a bit to make a fitted topsheet and a pillowcase to match (haven't finished those yet....). I'm on my second set of sheets for them, and it's easy, and they feel super special to be able to pick out the material themselves. Win-win!

Saturday afternoon at the Fernandes House

Picture this

What do you suppose this picture is of?

Is it:

a) modern art

b) World Championship Competition for Pick-up Sticks

c) Ben

If you answered "c" you know my kids! I'm thinking of renaming my blog "What did the boys dump out today?"

Cooked Goose

That's what we felt like, anyways, as we fed the ducks at the duck pond with our friends.

I also felt like we owned our own daycare center, with 7 kiddos between the two mommies. Quite the parade!

My heart longs for thee, oh Pacifier!

The boys chewed holes in all of their pacifiers, so we're trying (again) to call it quits. They did fine yesterday, but today's a different story. I put them down for their nap around 1:00, same as usual. Within 45 minutes, they were still jumping and screaming and giggling, so I went to check on them. Sam had moved his crib next to the changing table, and had emptied the drawer of all of the diapers and the entire box of wipes. Oh, mama was not happy.

The shenanigans continued for more than two hours. Finally, all was quiet. I gave them about 20 minutes to be sure, then I snuck in to see the damage. This is what I see:

Notice anything missing?

Yes, they had taken off their shorts as well as their diapers and deposited them on the floor. Little punks. So now I get to anticipate washing sheets after they wake up. And we get to go through the whole process again tonight. What a blessed day.

Happy 4th!

Two minutes

TWO minutes. That's seriously all it takes..... I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't hit the bookcase. That was probably next on the agenda, minute six.

I'm not generally a fan of gratuitous nudity, but this was too tempting....

Aren't they precious?
This was moments before they squeezed the entire bottle of bath wash into the tub.

Two minutes. That's all it takes.

Ice cream break

Me & the kids ventured out today to enjoy a Baskin-Robbins ice cream break. The kids couldn't believe their good luck!

Sofia had Strawberry....

Ben had Lime Daiquiri.....

And Sam chose vanilla.....

And mom had some strawberry-lime daiquiri-vanilla ice cream.....

Eve's Curse

"And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." Gen. 3:15

This verse ran through my head a few times this weekend. It was the weekend of trauma in the Fernandes house. It started out with Filipe on Friday. He knocked a glass over, instinctively tried to keep it from falling to the ground, but impaled his thumb on a piece of glass. Result: 4 stitches.

Sunday morning the fun continued with Ben. He was playing in the guest room/sewing room when he somehow got ahold of my rotary cutter, flipped down the safety guard (apparently not child-proof) and slice his index finger on it. It bled like a geyser, and for some foolish reason, I didn't take him in to get stitches. Poor little dude. It's still trying to start healing

Speaking of heels, later that morning I caught my foot under the glass door to the back porch as it was swinging shut. Result: pain, suffering, and the gnashing of teeth. Oh, and a nice-sized bruise and lump along with the gash on my heel.

I thought the party was over, until this morning Sam did a nose-dive onto the corner of a wooden puzzle in Sofia's closet.

So now I'm waiting to see what fate has in store for Sofia. I'm just hoping it won't require a visit to the ER.

Never doubt a four-year-old

As I was vacuuming Filipe's office (yes, it's time for his annual cleaning), Sofia came in from playing on the back porch.



Sofia: Mom, is it going to rain today?



Me: No.



Not an unreasonable answer, considering we live in south Texas. I don't want to give her false hopes.



Sofia: But Mom, I felt something wet fall on me! I think it's going to rain!



Me: Maybe it was bird poop.



Sofia then paused, brow wrinkled in concentration, I would guess imagining bird poop in her hair.



Sofia: Noooo!



So she leaves the office, potentially traumatize from the idea of fecal matter falling on her head.



She comes back two minutes later.



Sofia: Mom!! It IS raining! Come and see!



So we go outside, and sure enough, there are some raindrops falling on our head. Not bird poop at all. After staring at the strange sight with a look of wonder on my face (after all, we DO live in south Texas!), Sofia gives me a dirty look, and tells me as only a vindicated 4-year-old can do:



Sofia: See, I told you it was raining.



My deepest apologies.

Observation of the day

Sofia: Mom, your bum is bigger than mine.



Thanks, Sofia. Thank you.

Where's that Cookies 'n Cream ice cream?

My husband, the Chef

Our friend Audrey is having a birthday party tonight, and Filipe won the Rock-Paper-Scissors game and got to be the family representative there. Since she is Brazilian (as is Filipe, duh), we are contributing some Brazilian goodies to the spread. Filipe came home while the kids and I were at another friend's 4th birthday pool party and started cooking. He left as we got home. And this is what I come home to.



Add to this scene of loveliness the smell of the deep fryer.....

How is it that I lose out on the party AND get the stinky, dirty kitchen? Well, like my mom would say, "Life's not fair. Get over it." So, I'll clean up the mess, then treat myself to some cookies 'n cream ice cream from the freezer. That sounds fair.

Mother's Day '09

I did get the required breakfast-in-bed treatment today, but then it was off to Guadalupe River State Park for some family fun!

playing catch-up

Obviously it's been a while since my last post.... so I'm going to do a superspeed catchup post that will contain a few highlights of the past week and a half.

First off:

My father-in-law and husband started a remodel in my garage. We got rid of the old kitchen cabinets that looked like they were useful and a clever use of un-needed cabinetry, but were in fact a huge waste of space. They then built me some lovely floor-to-ceiling shelves so I can keep all my garage goodies in boxes and out of the way. Happy! That completes phase 1.

I also had a lovely girl's night out with my girls from church.... that is, after I found the place. I have the worst sense of direction God could have given me. If there is an option to go left or right, no matter which I choose, I should have gone the other way. It doesn't fail. My friend, Dear Abby, diagnosed it one time for a writer (not me), it's called Directional Dyslexia. A serious (okay, not) condition. Anyways, a little shopping center 20 minutes from my house took me very close to 1 1/2 to find.... after driving all over several sides of San Antonio.

I got there 15 minutes before the shops closed, but was still on time for our reservations at Bin 555, a lovely restaurant where we dined on the porch. For dessert I had s'mores--can you believe it? After feeling like a grown-up, eating miniature goat-cheese grilled sandwiches with tomato marmalade sauce, naan flat bread with hummus, and pommes frites (haha!) I have campfire dessert. But it was good, and it came with live fire! And although much of our conversation centered around our children's and pets' body fluids (my apologies to the people sitting at the next table), it was a much-needed connection with other moms pretending to be adults for a while.

The next day I headed up to Michigan where my sister graduated from Andrew's University with a BA in Communication & Spanish, after which I traveled down to my parents' house in Kalona for a little R&R. There's so much I didn't do there, I don't even know where to start. Let's say I had a fantastic time being 17 again. No kids. No husband. No responsibilities. No curfew. No cooking. Lots of Lazy. I went through a bunch of old memory boxes in the attic.... man, was I really that much of a drama queen in high school? How immature! Oh, right. I was in high school. And although it was good to get away, it was awesome to get back to my babies & my hubby. Dorothy had it right--there's no place like home.

I was pretty sure the kids would be devastated with their mommy gone. This is how bad it was:

So I think Daddy buying them a pool helped. But I guess there was also a little of this going on:

So that made me feel a little better (isn't that terrible?).

I got back late Tuesday night, then Wednesday Filipe reminded me we have to get the kids' Brazilian passports for our August trip. That requires a trip to Houston, which is where the closest Brazilian Consulate is located. So I packed up our bags, and we left town after the boys' nap. The trip normally wouldn't be all that dramatic, if it weren't for the fact that our portable DVD player mysteriously stopped working. And brilliant mommy didn't bring alternative entertainment. So they made some entertainment of their own.

We stayed the night at a hotel, then in the morning Filipe went to a couple of hospitals to get some work done while we were there, and I took the kids to Hermann Park. The boys almost posed. Sofia was having a "day."

And don't be fooled by the cloudy atmosphere.... it had to have been 99% humidity--it was awful! And that was at 9am! I had rivers of sweat running down five minutes into this adventure, which is why we stopped by the fountains next.

We went to the playscapes next, and I did manage to sneak in a picture of Sofia. Boy, did she give me one dirty look afterwards.

And last, but not least, cooking for Friday night worship. I made Prosage (fake sausage for all of you non-veggies out there) cheese muffins, Chunky Apple and Raisin Bread, Banana bread with chocolate chips, and Taco Turnovers for dinner. Oh, yum. This batch of recipes was a good one!

So now you're all caught up, I think. Maybe I can stay on top of it better now. Next adventure: Guadelupe River for Mother's Day!