10, yes. 15, no.

This boy - I love him so very much.  I can't believe he's already eight, and every time he snuggles with me, I soak it up as much as possible because I worry that one day, he won't.

Having a sister (and no brothers), I never quite know what to expect from my ever-growing son.  We are very close, but I try hard not to baby him or smother him.  He seems to be at the age now where he's easily embarrassed.  He likes to pre-approve his pictures for my social media...  At the same time, I don't want the fact that he'll always be my first-born baby to slip away.  I don't want our closeness to disappear over time.

The other night, he came up from watching a show to snuggle me.  So as we snuggled, I asked him, "Will you still snuggle me when you're 10?"

"Yes."

"What about when you're 15?"

"No." 

So there we go.  I have at least two, but no more than six years left to snuggle him.

Good to know.

our newest addition

Don't get too excited.  This is not a post about babies...at least, not of the tiny human variety :)

Our newest addition came in the way of a teeny, tiny turtle.

Halfway through our very snowy, very chilly winter, Hannah decided that she'd like another baby turtle.  Mid-winter is not a very good time to get a new turtle, for a couple of reasons.  One, we already had a turtle in her tank that she'd raised since it was a quarter-sized baby, and bigger turtles and tiny turtles can't go together in one tank.  Two, you can't release a turtle to a new home in the middle of winter.  So we told Hannah Bear she'd have to be patient, and that once it got warm outside, we'd be able to give her turtle a new home, and only then, we could get a new baby turtle.

Hannah remembered this conversation very well, and as soon as she could wear short sleeves to school, she'd ask about getting a new turtle.  We'd explain that we needed to let the ponds warm up a bit, and she'd wait another week or two before she asked again.  Until it got to the point where she started to ask every day, and then Brad gave in and finally ordered a new baby turtle.  Just like that.
One Monday night after dinner, he called a turtle guy, and before we knew it we were expecting a special delivery the following morning.  Hannah was beyond thrilled.

This morning, we got up, had breakfast, and got ready.  As we were getting ready to go for a bike ride, I got a text from Brad:

As you can see, Hannah wasn't the only one excited about the new turtle.

We came inside and opened the package, and there he was:

(Hannah looks scared in this picture, but I can assure you, she wasn't!)

We named our new friend Key Lime, but Hannah mostly refers to him/her as Mr. Turtle, which is just as cute.  She checks on Mr. Turtle every so often, just to be sure he's okay...the way I used to check on Hannah when she was just a tiny baby.  It's adorable.

Mr. Turtle is here to stay...at least until Hannah decides she'd like to release him to a happy pond and start all over again.

Silent Sunday

Three Peas in a Pod

Never too late

The weather outside is simply beautiful.  Every time it starts to get warm and sunny outside, I imagine moving to Southern California and raising our family in sunshiny warmth, enjoying playdates on the beach and flip-flops at Christmas.  I think I'd love it - if only we could get our families to all travel with us...

Today was one of those sunny, dreamy afternoons - except that we had a dentist appointment and Hannah's tummy didn't react too well to the flouride treatment and the extra warm temperatures in our car.  Enough said about that...

So by the time we got home, Hannah was determined to lay low and Jack just wanted to relax.  Soon enough, one of his classmates came over to play, and they went in and out for a bit while Hannah watched a show in the basement.  Eventually, they settled on a game of Guess Who? and then before we knew it, it was time for Katie to go home for dinner.  Poor Hannah Bear came trudging upstairs to complain that Jack and Katie had played a game that she never gets to play with Jack without ever coming to ask if she wanted to play...and they didn't even tell her that Katie was over.

With sad, pouty eyes, Hannah explained that Jack said that Katie told him not to get her because she always screams at her.

I took a deep breath and slowly wandered into what I knew to be dangerous territory:

"Well, sometimes Jack says that Katie thinks you scream at her, so she might not want to always play if she feels like you aren't very nice to her."

Hannah just looked at me and didn't say a word.

"Do you sometimes scream at Katie when she comes over to play?" I asked.

"Well, I was going to start stopping today, but they never came to get me!" she shouted.

I tried to suppress a bit of laughter over the fact that she was going to start stopping today and asked why she yells at Katie sometimes.  Hannah explained that one time Katie got yogurt on the couch in the basement so I tried to reiterate the fact that everyone makes mistakes, and it's okay if Katie makes a mess sometimes, but I could tell that it is not okay with Hannah.

I also tried to gently explain that if Hannah is always bossing Katie around, Katie probably isn't going to want to play with her and so maybe she could try using her words instead of making Katie feel bad.

I could tell she wanted to mull that one over, so we'll see what happens the next time Jack's playmate knocks at our door.

He's got this.

When we found out that Hannah Bear was going to be a she, Brad was a little nervous about how he'd navigate the waters of being a daddy to a little girl.  He wasn't quite sure that he was ready.

I'd beg to differ.

I'm pretty sure he's got this handled.  Especially since he's her most-favorite person in the whole wide world.

She's pretty lucky.

And so am I.

Keep On

Jack might be an engineer when he grows up.  He loves to build with Legos, and not only that, but he's really, really good at it.  He builds his own creations frequently and we're often amazed by the symmetry and thoughtfulness that each one displays.  Tonight, he made a spaceship all on his own and then came upstairs to share it with us.

In order to make this spaceship, Jack had to disassemble part of another set.  His conversation with Daddy went like this:

Brad: Would Lord Business approve?

Jack: He's imaginary.

Brad: I feel like I'm channeling Lord Business...

Jack: You're channeling something that's imaginary?  Keep on doin' that.

And then Jack walked away.

*****

I think we've created a smart-alec.  Just a tiny bit.

But I suppose that means we've also created a miniature engineer.

And both of these things are perfect to us.

Nope.

I came home today after spending a few nights away at a teachers' conference.  I was so excited to get home and see Brad and the littles.  I was also excited to unpack and crawl into my own bed for a well-deserved nap.  I thought maybe we'd take the kids out for dinner tonight, but surprisingly, they opted to stay in and order Chinese.  I think they've had a busy couple of days, moving around with different family members while I was away and Daddy was at work.  Jack and Hannah like their relaxation time as much as we do, thank goodness.  I think some of their motivation to stay in was that they didn't want to have to get out of their jammies, and I don't blame them!

Tonight while we were eating dinner, Hannah pulled a piece of chicken out of her chicken fried rice and asked, "Is this guts?"

Daddy told her that people don't eat guts.

"Or animal eggs?" Hannah asked.

Brad tried to clarify - "You mean animal eggs as opposed to non-animal eggs?"

"I don't know what that means," Hannah simply stated.

"Animals are the only things that lay eggs," he told her.

A few seconds of silence went by, and then...

"Nnnnnope."

We laughed and I got up to get a piece of paper to write this whole thing down.  As I was jotting and Brad was helping me remember exact words, Hannah went into more depth:

"You just got noped."

*****

I miss them so much when I'm away.