Nine is definitely fine

My mom captured this magical shot of William celebrating his ninth birthday with his family:

I meant to post the photo right away on this blog, but I'm guessing none of you are too surprised that it took me this long. :) We had piano recitals, choir programs, soccer game, meetings, and other stuff going on. Per usual for this time of year.

Style Blueprint recently ran a brilliant column about the horrorshow that May can be, and my only addition to the writer's otherwise spot-on words is this: April is just about as insane as May. Actually more so for our family, because you have to add in Easter, our church retreat at Camp NaCoMe, and William's birthday. Now that we are into the second week of May, things are finally, finally starting to settle down a little bit. Of course, I have come down with a cold because that's how I roll. Run run run at breakneck speed to get everything down, then immediately succumb to the latest virus wafting through the air with the pollen. When I was in high school and college, I often got sick at the end of the semester, after everything was done. It was my body's way of saying "You're done. Yes, you are."

Back to William turning nine. It's been a long time since this first birthday celebration:

But I will say this: he still loves cake just as much as he did then. And he is just as delightful. The beauty of William being nine is that he's becoming this wonderful person, not just a little kid. He talks about how he values kindness and being kind to other people, which just  makes my heart fill with happiness. And he does! Recently, we had a small friend stay with us overnight when his mom went into the hospital to have a baby. The little boy got sad after awhile because he was missing his mommy. William fetched the little boy a cup of ice water and sat there with him while the little boy drank the water and calmed down a little bit. Then William sat down next to him, patted him and talked so sweetly to him about what a big boy he was and what a great big brother he was going to be. (Andrew was the one who originally came and found me, and while William was helping out, he was searching for snacks for the boy, so I have to give him some credit, too.)  He read bedtime stories to both boys that night, too. 

William still tends to "sweat the small stuff" but he's learning that sometimes, you do have to learn to do something before you can be good at it. And the best part: after he learns that, he says so! This is the kid who actually thanked me after giving him a tough-love pep talk when he was struggling to ride his bike without training wheels. Still aglow from the victory of finally being able to sail down the greenway on two wheels, he sighed happily and thanked me. I think it may have even involved the words "You were right, Mom."

I love you, my sweet nine-year-old boy! 

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter from the boys!

We woke up to a beautiful blue sky this morning. We definitely don't take those for granted after our long winter! Hope you had a marvelous day.

Five, finally!

Well, I feel bad. It's been more than a month since Andrew turned five, and I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

In my defense, we had weeks of ice, snow, pneumonia, and more ice and snow. Snow drifts and ice patches on the driveway. There were days and days of bad weather, days and days of fever, stomach bugs, antibiotics, sleet, trips to the doctor and to the children's hospital, and other general unpleasantness. Then there was rain. Lots of rain. Clouds, clouds, darkness, rain. Then we had spring breaks.

Then there was the day I dragged the (sick) boys to Publix and told them they could pick out anything they wanted to eat--because I just wanted them to eat something, anything. Andrew spied the bakery counter and eagerly picked out doughnuts with chocolate frosting and sprinkles after first peering at me skeptically because he thought I'd lost my tiny little mind. Which maybe I had. But I bought the doughnuts for both boys. When we got home, I ripped open the bag and tried to hand them to the boys. They both sighed and said no, thanks, they really weren't hungry and didn't feel like eating. My sons. Did. Not. Want. To. Eat. Doughnuts. Did I mention the chocolate frosting and sprinkles? I was looking around frantically for the four horsemen of the apocalypse.They turned down doughnuts.  That's how sick they were, one of those dark late February days.

William attended one-half day of school in three weeks.

If this all sounds very stream-of-conscious, that's pretty much the way that the last two weeks of February and most of March have felt. It's been a long season, let's just put it that way.

So! Andrew turned five years old right in the midst of all this. He was five on February 24, and he couldn't be more delighted about it.

I can't quite believe it myself. Five! It seems like just the other day that William was five. We got our last book in the mail in February from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. I got the info about registering him for kindergarten, too. And he qualified for the school district's gifted program.  This is happening. Andrew is five, and there's no turning back.

For his birthday, he asked for a little toy bird that plays music. He named this little green songbird Pear, and it's his new best friend. He used some of his birthday money to buy a companion for Pear--a little blue bird that he immediately named Blueberry. David and I had never even heard of these little toys, but Andrew knew all about them and knew that's what he wanted. And sure enough, he plays with them all the time. I think I was like that about my Strawberry Shortcake dolls at about the same age.

Sadly, we had to cancel his birthday party a few days later because he woke up with a high fever on the morning of his party. He had been looking forward to it for days and days, and I felt awful about cancelling. But what could we do? You can't take a child with a 103 fever to a birthday party and expose everyone else to what we eventually determined to be walking pneumonia. He and William were still recovering the next weekend, so we didn't wind up rescheduling. I am still feeling guilty about this. I wish we could have found a way to have the party, but it was just not going to work out. Ack. Like I said, I still feel bad about this. Five is such a great age...and a great age for birthday parties, too. Ack ack ack.

So a belated happy birthday to sweet Andrew! You're five and fabulous! And you have an exciting year ahead of you.

Whoooooosh!

Hashtags like #OldSlickory and #Snowbama and #DwightDIcenhower have been popping up all over social media in Middle Tennessee this week. That's what you get when all these people are cooped up inside, drinking wine and getting creative. They've been having a little fun with the Great Presidents' Day Ice Storm that hit Nashville earlier this week. 

Yes, this is what it looks like when Elsa from "Frozen" comes to town: ice everywhere. Then a nice little sprinkling of snow on top, just to keep things interesting. 

It was sleeting heavily when I snapped this shot. Cold AND wet. Nice.

And since it's been cold, the white stuff is sticking around. The boys have been sledding pretty much every day this week.  The sole benefit of having ice is that it makes the sleds really zip along. I took about 50 videos of the boys sledding down various hills in the neighborhood. We had a few wipeouts, and a few near misses, but no one got hurt and no one cried, which makes it a whopping success in my book. 

Andrew was a little tentative at first,
but after his first whoooooosh down the hill, he was hooked.

We are staying inside today, however, because it was only about 9 degrees the last time I checked the temperature. No thanks. We don't have clothes for that. Yes, before you ask, we do have some Cabin Fever, but I think Cabin Fever is slightly preferable to frostbite. Ask me again later today, though...

William, preparing to slide down the hill
and hopefully avoid slamming into the trampoline.

My, this sleeve looks tasty!

A few weeks ago, an acquaintance mentioned on Facebook she was collecting suggestions of things that kids do that make parents wonder if they're the only ones.

For example, a parent might wonder, "Is my child the only one who...

...eats dog food right out of the dog's dish?"

...sticks beans/holly berries/erasers/beads in his nose/ears/both?"

...demands privacy when she goes to the potty but barges in on me every time I dare to shut the bathroom door?"

My contribution to this list would have to be, "Is my child the only one who chews on all the sleeves of his shirts?"

Except, well, I know that I'm not. Who knew that this was a common childhood thing for lots of kids? I didn't know until the Internet because I never did this as a kid, and David says he didn't, either.

William used to chew on the neckline of his shirts. Thankfully, he stopped. Eventually. But now Andrew has started chewing the sleeves AND the necklines of all his shirts and sweaters. It is driving me bananas. He KNOWS that this drives me crazy and that he's not supposed to do it, but he does it anyway. And somehow, the clammy damp slobbery fabric flapping around his wrists (and neck) DOESN'T EVEN BOTHER HIM.

Gah. I'm having the vapors, just typing it out. Yuck yuck yuck.

No, Andrew doesn't have any sensory or anxiety issues. In fact, he's pretty well adjusted, and he supposedly doesn't exhibit any behavioral issues in school. He is able to focus very well on projects for long periods of time, too. He just....likes to chew on his clothes.

Several people have suggested that I buy what's essentially a teething necklace for him. Another friend suggested a bracelet. Many of these products are marketed towards children with sensory disorders or other developmental issues; a brand that I've heard a lot about is Chewelry, although I'm sure there are other, cheaper, products out there that would work just as well. I'm about ready to do anything to get him to stop gnawing on the sleeves of that precious striped Hanna Andersson sweater that I love so much and hate to see being ruined. But I'm not even sure I could convince him to 1) wear a necklace or bracelet and 2) chew on said necklace or bracelet instead of the shirt!

He's my own personal version of Chewy Luis (Luis Suarez, the Uruguyan soccer player who can't seem to resist biting things....and, er, people). That's my kid: Chewy Drew. Thank goodness that he's only chomping away on his own clothes, though, and not other people and their clothes.

Someone else, wisely, said to me, "This, too, shall pass." And of course, I know this from personal experience, as William did stop. I just wish I could get Andrew to stop RIGHT NOW. Perhaps I need some sort of anti-anxiety device myself....

Merry Christmas, Y'all

Check it out! It's the Wyckoff family version of a Christmas Miracle!

It took the endless patience that only someone like Diane has to get one halfway decent Christmas family photo of the four of us. But we got one! Woohoo!

The children's Christmas Eve service at our church had just concluded, so the boys were rarin' to go. Poor David's still at the church, preparing to sing in the 5 p.m. candlelight service. A service that will be full of nice, quiet adults and youth who can sit in their seats and hold live flames. I know....I can't completely grasp it, either. It sounds like a fairy tale. 

The boys and I are fixing to go drive around look at Christmas lights while David sings. We started doing this the year that William had strep throat--we just piled in the car and drove around to look at lights while listening to Christmas music. And um, eating chicken fingers. (Look, if we're eating, we're all happy.) Hmmm, where's the best place around here to get some chicken fingers?

Hope that you have a merry and meaningful Christmas this year. 

Now with extra festive!

Can't get enough of the holiday cheer, can I?



This was taken at the Dickens of a Christmas festival in Franklin. It was probably the best picture I took all day. I may have to make some Christmas cards after all...

We are festive!

I got the obligatory visit-to-see-Santa out of the way early this holiday season, which was a good thing because Thanksgiving was late, and I feel like we're trying to jam-pack everything into a much smaller window of time. Probably because we are. Even though I've deliberately tried to curate our obligatory holiday cheer into manageable chunks, it still takes time to be festive, you know. 

Festive with Santa!

William asked Santa for a Disney Infinity video game thing. Andrew asked for--and I quote--"surprises." When asked about his response later, he said that he'd just like some surprises that he's never gotten before. Done and done. God, I love him. Thank you, my dear younger son, for making this holiday easy on your weary old mom and dad. This means we can get him anything, and it will satisfy his criteria. 

What other holiday frivolity have we indulged in thus far, you might ask? Well, let's see. Mom, Diane and I took the boys to Franklin for the Dickens of a Christmas festival last Saturday. Very fun. Very crowded, but very fun. William and Andrew sampled pickles, crawled on Civil War cannons, listened to handbells, and were, yes, festive. I took Andrew to the Walk Through Bethlehem event at Woodmont  Christian Church on Sunday afternoon. And we decorated a gingerbread house a couple of weeks ago. We just need to make some cookies now. Cookies TBD. 

Both boys have class parties this Friday, and then they'll be out of school for the two-week (ish) break. Maybe I can whip up some more holiday-themed activities during that time. Suggestions and recommendations are welcome.  

More festive! For reals! Mom didn't even have to
threaten or cajole to get this level of festivity!

Cure for a Book Hangover, Kid Edition

A few weeks ago, William read the last page of the final book in Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series. He contemplated the back cover of the book and sighed a deep, shuddery, eight-year-old-in-an-existential-crisis sigh. It was finished.

It's a phenomenon well known to intense readers. He had become deeply immersed in the series of fantasy books, recommended by my friend Erica, whose own son had enjoyed them, and finishing them gave him that sense of melancholy that hangs over us when we grudgingly finish reading a terrific book. Someone referred to it as "a book hangover," which I think is very apt.

But what to read next?

William finished the Harry Potter series over the summer and then tackled the first few books in Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Little House on the Prairie series. He also read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series and Heroes of Olympus series. He loved all of those. But he keeps putting the first Fablehaven book on my nightstand and imploring me to read it so he'll have someone to discuss it with. So that should tell you how much he enjoyed Fablehaven--he wants to hold a book club meeting with his mom.

I wanted to find him something awesome to read. Something that would lessen the book hangover. But I wasn't sure what to recommend at that point. He mentioned wanting to start reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Ring series, but David and I both remembered struggling with those books when we were young. (Heck, I struggled with them when I read them as an adult. And I'd already read books like The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.) So we suggested that perhaps he might want to wait on those for another couple of years. But in the meantime, what could he turn to?

I turned to my second favorite source of info after Dr. Google: The Facebook. "Help!" I wrote in a desperate post to my Facebook friends and their friends and the friends of their friends. "I neeeeeeeeed book recommendations for William."

And oh boy, did they deliver!

What the Facebook peeps (and their kids) suggested:

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Books by Andrew Peterson (example: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society series of books by Trenton Lee Stewart
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• Redwall series by Brian Jacques and Gary Chalk
• Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo
• 39 Clues series by Rick Riordan
• The Sisters Grimm series by by Michael Buckley and Peter Ferguson
• The Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer
• Half-Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood and Jon Klassen
• Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters
• The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
• The Unwanteds series by Lisa McMann
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland
• Keys to the Kingdom books by Garth Nix
• Gregor The Overlander and the other Underland Chronicles books by Suzanne Collins
• Peter and the Monsters books by Darren Pillsbury
• Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage and Mark Zug
• Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander
• The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon by S. S. Taylor and Katherine Roy
• The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy
• The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
• The Pendragon books by  D.J. MacHale
• The Three Investigators books by Robert Arthur
• Books by Nancy Farmer (example: Sea of Trolls Trilogy)
• Books by Madeleine L'Engle (example: A Wrinkle in Time)
• Warriors series by Erin Hunter
• Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery
• The Inheritance Cycle books by Christopher Paolini

As a book nerd, this list makes my heart sing. A long list of books to try! Even if William doesn't respond to some of them, others will surely appeal to him. If your child is looking for new reading material, you might also find some good candidates from this list.

Got any other recommendations? I'd love to add more books to this list. so please let me know.

A dark and windy Halloween

It was a dark and stormy night.

No. Make that, it was a dark and blustery night.

Oh, and it was cold too. Teeth-rattlingly cold. And blustery. Did I mention the blustery part?

But the Scary Chef and the Ninja would not be deterred. Neither wind nor cold nor dark of night would keep from making their self-appointed trick-of-treating rounds.

Not only that, but William and Andrew and Sammy trick-or-treated for more than an hour and a half during this rather extreme weather situation. Along with hundreds of other kids, of course, their parents, Chewbacca and a host of Darth Vaders, Princess Leias, and Elsas from "Frozen." Bruce and I accompanied them, and we were pretty amazed by how fast our kids could run when motivated by candy. I'm wondering if perhaps we should enter them in the Boston Marathon since they are so good at sprinting in full costume. 

I praised Andrew for saying "trick or treat" AND "thank you" when he went up to the front doors. I added, "And you were very cute, too." Andrew immediately responded, "You mean scary." And I nodded solemnly, "Yes of course." 

Not cute.

Scary. Very very scary.

Andrew, Joseph, William and Sammy.

The Scary Chef and the Ninja.

The grandmothers were not put off by the Scary Chef.

David removed his Darth Vader helmet so he wouldn't compete
with the fierce scariness that was the hallmark of the one and only Scary Chef.

  

Even ninjas love their mamas.

All in all, we had a lovely Halloween again this year. Even if we lost a few things along the trick-or-treat route, everyone seemed to have fun, and no one got frostbite. I didn't get a good picture of me wearing my giant black-and-purple tutu, which was the focal part of my 40-year-old princess get-up, but that's okay. I was able to drown my sorrow in Twix bars, and really, can you ask for more than that?

San Diego Revisited

Check out these two giddy kids on vacation, sans small people!

We went to San Diego last week and left William and Andrew at home with their grandmothers, who gamely agreed to watch them, feed them, and chauffeur them around to their many important engagements. 

Traveling without the boys was the weirdest thing. I only had to carry my own stuff. I only went to the restroom if I had to actually go to the restroom myself. There were no interruptions at mealtime or showertime or any other time. I never had to hunch over my plate to keep small hands from snatching any of my food. I was able to decide to take in a yoga class or go for a run or head down to a nearby bar for happy hour without making any other arrangements. I just went! And when I sat down to work on my laptop while David was attending a session, I never had to get up and wipe someone's tushy or fetch him a granola bar or find someone's missing shoe or referee an argument. I just...got work done. It was a little disconcerting, actually. 

Of course, we did miss the boys. We wondered what they would have thought about dipping their toes in the icy-cold Pacific.

David, right before the water washed over his feet and instantly froze his toes. Del Mar, CA.

And I feel reasonably confident that they would have looooved the food.

Shrimp burrito and fish taco at El Zarape. Oh my God, so good. University Heights, San Diego, CA.

But we knew that their grandmothers were taking good care of them. And we knew that it was good for us to get away for a little while.  David enjoyed the educational sessions that he attended, as well as seeing some old friends, and I did, too. I even ran in a race...on vacation! Aren't you proud of me? I even ran really fast (okay, so "fast" is a relative term here).

It was a really nice trip. But as always, we were glad to get home. And glad to hug and kiss Andrew and William and tell them all about our trip. As we predicted, Andrew was interested in hearing more about how we rode on a train and a trolley, while William was interested in the food. Love my boys.

Couple of quick October photos

Okay, just a couple of quick photos before I leave town for a few days.

Here's one of William and me at the new Zaxby's. Andrew was the one eagerly awaiting the opening of the place, so we took him there the day it opened. I promised William that we'd get him there soon, and so today, that's where the two of us had lunch.

At Cheekwood with Andrew a week or so ago. Love taking him there. We often take a picnic lunch at eat it by the ponds, and then I let him play Julie the Cruise Director and lead me all over the place. 

For example, he took me on a tour of the scarecrows. It wouldn't be autumn in Nashville without a visit to see the scarecrows at Cheekwood, after all.

Oh, and you know how I mentioned that the boys are both playing soccer? Guess who scored his first goal this past Saturday? This guy!

And it was even on purpose! First, I was in total disbelief, and then I was so excited that I was literally jumping up and down. A very red letter day for Andrew and his dear old unathletic mom who's never scored a goal in her entire life. 

Early October Update

How is it that I have gotten so woefully behind on this blog? Ack. Well, I did write a nice little post featuring William and Andrew on my other blog a month or so ago, if you want to go check that out sometime: The Joy of Small Stuff

What can I tell you? We've been busy this fall, per usual. Both kids are playing soccer, and William is busy with a blue streak of other activities, namely piano lessons, church choir, Scouts, and tennis lessons. Andrew gets to tag along to many of those. It can be exhausting sometimes, but they're the kind of kids who thrive on Doing Stuff.

William started the third grade, which is utterly amazing to me, given that I remember very clearly being in third grade myself. He is reading up an absolute storm. He finished the entire Harry Potter series this summer, read the first few Little House on the Prairie books, and now he's happily reading his way through a series called Fablehaven. He's my little bookworm. Er, or my not-so-little-anymore bookworm. I love love love that he's become such an enthusiastic reader.

Andrew started his....get ready....last year of preschool this fall. Gulp. I know! As one of my friends remarked in disbelief, "But he's your BABY." I KNOW. It is utterly astonishing to me, too. He loves his class, loves his new friends, loves his teachers, and is having a ball. His classroom has a bulletin board with a calendar, and a weather chart, and other information, and Andrew is recreating all those things on his own bedroom wall, next to his beloved world map.  He is also making sign-in lists for the entire house, since he signs in each morning when he gets to his classroom. So don't be surprised if you come to our house and see purple pieces of paper taped all over the place. Just sign your name, right underneath where Andrew has signed his own name. It's very important to him. He's so earnest about it, and it's so, so adorable.

It's easy to not notice incremental change, but then sometimes I look at them carefully and really notice them. And I think, "Wow, they really are getting so big!" I recently cleaned out a bunch of old clothes from Andrew's room to sell in a consignment sale, and he's already wearing clothes that William wore in kindergarten. It doesn't really seem like that long ago that William was in kindergarten, and yet....

Hope you are all having a good October! I adore autumn and Halloween and so do the boys. I'll try to get some good autumnal photos to post soon.

40 Candles

So this happened a few days ago:



Yep, I turned 29 again!



Okay, fine.

29 plus....11.

(Sheesh. You made the old lady cry. Are you happy now?)

As those of you who have seen me at all recently know, I kvetched and moaned for the better part of the month of July about turning 29 plus 11.

David took me out to dinner at a lovely local restaurant on the night before the Big Day, and at one point during the meal, I said, rather dramatically, "This is the last night of my youth!"

David calmly took another bite of his grilled catfish and said dryly, "And tomorrow morning, you're going to wake up, and you're going to be... exactly the same."

Yup. I was. I am. And my parents , especially my dad, took great delight in honoring the grand occasion. Check out the cane and the tiara that I'm wearing in the photo above. What you can't see in the photo, however, are all the "I'm 40!" and "Happy 40th Birthday" decorations and the giant massive bunch of helium-filled black balloons that filled my front hall. Mom and Dad had a lot of fun at Party City, clearly.

At any rate, here I am. A former coworker of mine posted a happy birthday message on my Facebook page and asked if I remembered the old show "thirtysomething" and how it was always about drama and how messed up people's lives were? "Now you're past all that!" James wrote cheerfully. (He's over 40 himself, so he can say these things.)

It's all a state of mind. Well, mostly. But I really can't blame 40 for the gray hairs I'm starting to get. The blame should and does rest squarely on the shoulders of the Wyckoff Brothers.

Not that I don't love them, of course.

I mean, come on. How could I not love this?



Or this, my two sweet boys and husband, gamely posing for me for yet another picture at Turner Field during our recent trip to see the Braves play?

I like my treats to be chocolate

Okay, I have to share this little anecdote, which I also recently posted on Facebook, but it still makes me giggle, so.

Some background: Twice this year, I managed to land a Groupon for the local Sushi Train restaurant, and we've taken a lunchtime field trip there to spend it. This is a guaranteed big hit. The boys love...I mean LOVE....sushi. Andrew can easily eat a dozen pieces, and William can probably put away twice that amount. They don't do raw, yet, but that's about their only limitation at this point. They also adore the concept of a place where they can pick out the little plates of sushi themselves as they cruise by on the conveyor belt. That's big-time awesome when you're eight or four years old.

At our most recent trip to Sushi Train, the boys were finally, finally hitting their limit on sushi, and I spotted a bowl of steamed salted edamame on the "train." I quickly grabbed it and began digging into it with gusto.

"Look, Andrew!" I said. "When you pop open the pods, you get some of the salt from them on the beans and they taste all salty and delicious. It's such a nice little treat."

Andrew remained unconvinced, but I guess he was trying to be as tactful as a four-year-old can possibly be.
"I like my treats to be chocolate," he said.

And suddenly it's late June

Do you ever feel like time just got away from you? No? Yeah, me neither. Never happens. 

whistles innocently

Okay, so, yes. It often does get away from me. And it did again this time. Two months have somehow passed since I last posted here. Both boys have gotten taller, eaten a metric ton of food, had haircuts, needed another haircut, performed in school programs and finished second grade (William) and three-year-old preschool (Andrew). 

William also performed in a piano recital (quite admirably, I might note, and he didn't even use any music, unlike every other kid there), and we all attended his Cub Scout Packnic when he was promoted from a Wolf Scout to a Bear Scout. Both kids finished up their soccer seasons. There's been some day camps in there, we've been to the pool and various playgrounds, and last week, we even went to Memphis for the day. 

We were busy, to put it mildly.

What else can I tell you? 

William has finished reading Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, as well as The Lost Heroes of Olympus series, and now he is deeply immersed in the 39 Clues series. He loves the show "Cosmos," and David has successfully converted him into a Doctor Who fan. He's still taking piano lessons, and he's writing his own piece of music. It's, um, interesting. (However, he knows exactly what he wants to do, and the fact that he understands how to go about doing that actually is impressive.)

Andrew is obsessed with maps. Every time he goes to the Y or preschool or anywhere with paper and crayons, he draws a map. Sometimes it's a treasure map. Sometimes it's a map of Nashville. Sometimes it's a map of our neighborhood. They all look sort of the same, except for the colors, but he is confident that he has managed to capture the essence of whichever place he's drawing. He always knows exactly where X should mark the spot and where he is. "Look!" he crows, displaying his artwork in front of him as if it was the original copy of the Declaration of Independence. "I made a map!!" And I agree that it is a marvelous  map, and he is deeply satisfied. 

They both talk incessantly, and they both ask lots of questions. Often at the same time. 

Sometimes their questions make me sit back in my chair and exhale with wonder. This morning, on the way to Westminster, Andrew asked, "So it's nighttime in heaven right now, isn't it?" as if heaven was Australia on the other side of the globe. "Hmm," I said, forgetting to change lanes. "Maybe it is." I don't know where he got that, but I kind of like it. William then chimed in, "It's probably whatever you want it to be." I like that, too. Those moments when suddenly I am challenged to stop thinking linearly are sort of magic. They shimmer there in front of me like a soap bubble, and I think, "I must remember this."

Eight is Great!

Check out my big wonderful happy kid!! William is eight today!

I mean, look how grown up he looks. Eight years old. Somehow eight just seems so much older than seven, doesn't it? I'm not sure why. I remember thinking that when I turned eight back in...oh Lord, do I want to even admit what year that was? 

So it wouldn't be a birthday without an "eeee, look at the new baby!" photo. This is one from when William was 13 days old. Looking back at his earliest photos, he was a little jaundiced there for awhile. But it went away fairly quickly, leaving him looking pink and marvelous. Man, it's almost hard to believe he was very that small. But I was there, so I can say for sure that he was. 

And here's another photo from this morning. I managed to cook a hot breakfast for the boys AND take birthday photos AND still get William to school on time. Booyah! I've learned something in eight years. (And that is...it's much easier to get out the door in the morning when at least one of your kids can pretty much do everything for himself.)

Little brother wanted in on the act, and it was his idea to hold up eight fingers. Of course, he isn't actually holding up eight fingers in the photo--but William is, so there you go.

William has requested bacon and eggs and waffles for his birthday dinner, and I figured, hey, that's as good as anything. So we'll break out the breakfast-for-dinner food here in a little while and then eat cake. Bacon and cake. It doesn't get much better than that. 

A few more Easter photos

Another set of Easter photos from the Wyckoff brothers!

Check it out. They're clean. They're smiling. Their hair has been combed. There are no milk mustaches. They're looking at the camera. Even the background (my tree!) is pretty. I love the big-time miracle that we celebrate on Easter, but I have to say that I also love these little domestic miracles, too.

Whenever they drive me crazy, y'all remind me that they can be as sweet as pie, too.  

Oh, and if you're wondering why someone is always holding Andrew or holding onto him in every photo, it's because it's the only way to get a family photo that includes him. He'll take off, otherwise. In fact, not long after these photos, he darted off to run around under the giant magnolia trees in front of the church and came back dirty and bleeding. Yup. This is why I carry around band-aids in every bag I own.

Happy Easter from our house to yours. 

Happy Easter

Nothing says Happy Easter like two boys wearing their Easter baskets on their heads, right? Well, then, it's a good thing I've got you covered!



Or hey, if you need more, how about blissfully rolling around in the grass?



We're all about the authentic here.

Happy Fourth Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew is now officially four years and two weeks old.

"But, but, but....he's your BABY!" a friend gasped the other day. "How is he FOUR?"

I know. I KNOW.

He's 41 inches tall and nearly 39 pounds. He is eager to hit the 40 pound mark so he can use a booster seat. This works out well for us when we're trying to coax him to drink some milk or eat more vegetables: "Don't you want to be 40 pounds, Andrew?"

We've been talking a lot about the days and weeks surrounding his birth recently. We've had a radically cold winter this year, and four years ago, we had a lot of snow and ice, so there's that parallel. I also remember watching the Winter Olympics from my position as a beached whale on our family room sofa, with my huge belly in front of me as I waited impatiently to go into labor. This year, we also watched the Winter Olympics in the family room, but this time, Andrew was playing with his toys on the floor and asking what those people in those funny suits and masks were doing (skeleton, maybe? Or luge? What's the difference, anyway?)

At any rate, Andrew really is four. We had a big birthday party for him at the YMCA on February 23, and we invited all his pals. He had a blast. They put up a giant bouncey house, so he bounced and played, and then we had cake and ice cream. The perfect kind of party for rowdy four year olds.

Side note about the birthday cake. Andrew insisted on ordering a chocolate cake with white icing and red flowers. So that's what he got. I asked him if he would rather have a cake with Monsters Inc. characters or maybe Thomas the Tank Engine. Nope. He went with the red flowers. We showed him the cake at the beginning of the party, and I asked him if that's what he wanted. He beamed and said, "Oh YES!"

They also wore birthday hats, as Andrew insisted that birthday hats were imperative to the success of his fourth birthday party.

And you know...he was on to something. All the kids were all about putting on birthday hats. Even, ahem, his big brother.

Now that Andrew is officially four, he is also finally a Soccer Player. His first practice was last Friday afternoon, and his first game was Saturday morning. It was a hoot. He was so proud of having his own uniform (red! his favorite color, Mommy!) and getting to be on a team.

He mostly just trotted around after the other kids on the field during the game. But I mean, come on. It was his first game. He's only four years old! Funny how four can be so Big one moment and so Little the next, huh?

Anyway. Happy belated birthday to the Doodlebug. We love you so much!