Presents!

Grammy and Gramps visit

"Can I have a stick to shave?"

Soap beard.

Stephen looks so much like his daddy in these pictures!

Little River Fun Run

Joe ran with Stephen in the jogging stroller this Saturday at the Little River Days Fun Run.

Stephen gets pretty chill when he's riding.

All the comforts of life: sippy, bebo.

Posing with sunglasses. Stephen had a runny nose, which explains his funny smile in many of this photos!

Afterward, Joe and Steve rode the Chu-Chu.

My little piglet and I stayed behind to watch the stroller. This is a rather unflattering picture of both of us!

Rockam and Samuel

Stephen's sleep tantrums

Around 3 a.m. this morning I was feeding Rockam when I heard Stephen shouting in his sleep: "I jus wanna brush my TEETH! I jus wanna BRUSH...MY...TEEEEETH!" He was also kicking the wall over like crazy.

Around 5:45, Joe said Stephen was yelling "I just wanna put the SHOES away!" over and over again. When he popped out of his room, he made a beeline to the shoe rack... where, befuddlingly enough for him, all the shoes were already put away.

I can only imagine that the dream scenarios that played out in Stephen's subconscious involved either Joe or I telling Stephen he was going to get a spanking for not following orders.

The very hungry Rockam

Me and the boys

Joe took this photo Saturday morning. I like it because I've got a son on each leg.

As a sidebar, one of Stephen's recent funny statements:

After a nap last week, Stephen described his dream: "I was in the BATHroom, and ... YOU were yelling, ... and ... I WUV Mommy," then he proceeded to hug me.

Stephen has been getting into trouble by standing on his frog potty to reach the bathroom sinks. He gets them both going and then uses cups and containers from his play kitchen to fill the frog potty up with water. Usually the contents get spilled in multiple rooms before the yelling starts.



"Ima fwaid of da snail"

 My oldest has been a bit of a "fraidy-steve" lately. He wanted to play in the backyard this morning, but he kept coming up with things to be spooked about... like "blue ladybugs" and "the bird with the red head" and this cute little mollusk, who was minding his own business until I spotted him climing up the foundation of the house and called Stephen over to see.

He was only willing to crouch close if I was also squatting. He wanted me to feed the snail some grass and clovers. Incidentally, I found a number of four- and five-leaf clovers in a little clump by the snail.

"We like your bed better, Mom."

"Oh, hi again!"

Sharing secrets.

Secret fist-bump.

Actually, Steve is telling Rockam "Lemme sweep just a few more minutes," over and over again; an ironic portrayal of many mornings in which Stephen is me and Rockam is Steve.

Rockam is totally in awe of his big bro.

"Gotchyer nose!"

Happy Mother's Day!

I've already been blessed all weekend for the matronly holiday :) First, I got some chocolate, which you can read about here). Next, I got a cute card. Then I got some beautiful flowers.

But enough about me, this post is actually for my two moms, and my boys' "Grammie" and "Nonna". Hopefully their cards arrived yesterday, but if not, here's a little preview of their contents: The artist at work--in his own special way.

 Trying out new techniques.

 Rock oversaw the creative direction from a nearby chair.

Great art requires some sustenance.

Park play

Stephen's buddies: Mary McQueen and Evan Couchman.

Chris's mom and sister were in town watching the McQueen girls while their parents and little bro are in Turkey.

It's hard not to want to throw the crumb rubber.

Rockam is 3 months!

My second born is usually a smiley kid, but for some reason all the shots I took to commemorate three months turned out looking pretty serious... even a bit annoyed. What do you think? He's still a cutie pie though!

Bed buds

After feeding Rockam this morning, I plopped him on Joe's pillow. Stephen came along and decided to tuck both himself and Rockam in bed. This was the result!

Sitting up, with help