Blog book?

I was talking to Holly this weekend about blogs. As you all know I LOVE to scrapbook both paper and digital, but having three kids and a full time job doesn't leave me with enough time to do this very much. So, I started this blog to record little everyday happenings that will surely be lost over time if they weren't written down (the only person with a mind like a steel trap in this family is Ashton). I know I have read somewhere that there is a company that will print your blog into a hardbound book...Does anyone know who that is and whether they are any good?

Bribery always works

This weekend we got to visit with Holly and Tyson while they were home visiting from the Cayman Islands (I know...it must be rough). It was fun to catch up with them for a little bit and of course the boys had a great time together. It sounds like a heard of elephants overhead at Ed and Sheri's house when they are all there! Holly really wanted to hold Dillon and he of course wanted nothing to do with it. He is not the most friendly child, if a stranger says hi to him, he will try to climb up you and hide if he can. Completely foreign to me as Noah and Ashton would leave with complete strangers... So, we had to bribe him with his new favorite treat Gerber fruit gummy things, once she was holding those he finally agreed to let her hold him. He quickly warmed up and even gave her kisses...sweet!

Lay down, close your eyes

On days that I work, I get up at 4:30 to get ready, put ice packs in lunches, pack backpacks and get everything ready for Troy to walk out the door with the boys. At 5:15(ish) I get Dillon out of bed to change his diaper, get him dressed and nurse him before leaving for work. This routine started when Ashton was a baby because I have to be to work at 6:00(ish) :-). This morning when I got Dillon out of bed, I kissed his forhead and he smiled in his sleep, it's moments like this that remind why I had kids and how much you can love...

Back to the point of my story, after I get Dillon dressed and nurse him I put him back in bed with Troy (who is still asleep while I have been up for over an hour getting things ready for him...must be nice). He usually is asleep and stays that way, but sometimes the minute I lay him down he pops his head right back up. I get him to lay down and then leave the room, where I usually hear Troy say "Dillon, lay down, close your eyes". And you know what? He does it. Troy may have to tell him a few times but he eventually just goes back to sleep until it is time to leave to go to Gramie's house.

I have tried this on my days off and you know what? He won't do it. Sometimes life is not fair and this is one of those points...

Cute as a button

Here are Dillon's 1 year portraits! Notice the Dennis the Menace hair in all the pictures, he has two cowlicks that meet in the back and cause that!

He is such a fun little guy. Today, Troy got home and walked past Dillon's room where he was playing. Dillon came out of his room yelling at Troy, following him down the hall. He wanted a hug and when Troy put him down he kept saying, "go, go" then he went and got his shoes and sat down to put them on. He gave Troy a very dirty look when he sat down on the couch and realized that he wasn't leaving. He wanted to go bye-bye with Daddy.

Noah got three terrific tickets in a row last week at Camp Trudaca! They give these out at the end of each day for kids that had a good day (I'm not entirely sure what you have to do to get one!) Noah has a tendency (as we all know) to not listen well...we have been working on it and he is apparently starting to "get it". I talked to Amy last week and she said they have seen a huge improvement in his behavior, I can't tell you how happy that made me!

Dillon has decided that he will eat any and all fruit, including whole apples that he will carry around and takes bites of. He also has a definite opinion about being left out of anything. Ashton was getting in the bath the other night and he had a popsicle, I guess Dillon thought that he wasn't going to get one and he attacked Ashton, yelling at him and pinching him in the neck. He also screamed most of the way home from Reno on Friday (and we went the long way around Mount Rose), and I'm pretty sure it's because Little Einsteins was playing on the DVD player instead of the Baby Einstein that he wanted to watch. Oh boy will he be fun when he turns two...

I am so offended by this...

I was reading Parents magazine yesterday and came across an article called, "What your doctor, babysitter, preschool teacher (and all the other pros in your life) really want you to know *but wouldn't dare tell you to your face". The article was pretty typical parenting magazine stuff until I got to the part by the preschool teacher, here it is:

Okay, tell us the thing you'd never say to our face.
If a parent doesn't follow my directions, I'll assume her child won't either. I give parents specific instructions - fill out these forms by this date, email instead of calling, don't put candy in your kids lunch. As soon as you break my rules, that creates an immediate bias against your child. And most teachers feel the same way.

Ouch. What else?
The six most lethal words to a teacher at the end of class: "Hi! Do you have a minute?" We hate that. Make an appointment. Likewise, don't pretend you're in my classroom to volunteer and then try to use that time to chat about your child's progress.

What's the biggest secret among teachers?
Just as you have a preferred teacher you want for your kid next year, we have preferred students we want for our classrooms. How to become a preferred family? Start each school year by sending your teacher this e-mail: "Please provide me with a wish list of ten things you would like for your classroom." She'll ask for things like Post-it notes, a chess set, a 50-cent deck of cards. When you spend maybe $20 on these items, it goes through the grapevine that you are here not just for your kid but for the entire class - that this is a family that cares about the community, whose child is probably a team player to.

I don't even know where to start with this complete piece of garbage. I don't know who this preschool teacher is, but she deserves to lose her job for these comments. Saying that you will punish my child because I forget to fill something out or god-forbid try to talk to you instead of e-mailing you is inexcusable. Your job is maintan an open communication with parents and if you have a problem with them you better darn well say it to them and keep the children out of your petty issues. As for asking if your childs preschool teacher has a minute to talk to you at the end of the day...does she think that the parent is not also tired, that they haven't work all day, that they also want to get home? If they have something to say that is important enough to delay getting home and starting dinner, baths, etc then you had better push your big self out of the way and listen to what this parent has to say. The last part really pushed me over the edge...for a couple of reasons. First of all, I will never, I repeat never, buy affection or "preferred" status for my child. I would expect that I am sending my child to a preschool where the teachers like what they do and that is why they are there, that is why they treat the children well, why they give them affection when they need it and in turn discipline them when they need it. Second, preschool's are a private business, at least here in Truckee I pay A LOT of money to send my kids to preschool. If you are in need of Post-it notes or a deck of cards, I suggest you buy it yourself. Don't ask me to provide you with tuition and then supplies on top of it, you have some nerve.

There I feel better, I think I am going to write a letter to Parents magazine about this...

Dillon is amazing

For the last two nights at bath time I have put Dillon on the toilet and he has gone potty! He seems to be watching his brothers do this before they get in the bath (we all know what happens if you don't empty your bladder before getting in a warm bath, only with two little boys it becomes a contest and giggle fest because they have to make a spectacle of it.). So the other night I decided to put him on the toilet and he went...not getting my hopes up for an easy potty training this time but he is not fighting so thats a good start!

P.S. Listen to the words of this song playing right now...a good reminder for those us of with little ones.

When I grow up...

Noah:
N: "When I grow up I am going to own a garbage shop. And I am going to have people work at my garbage shop."
D: "Really, what are going to do with a garbage shop?"
N: "I am going to invent a garbage bag that is big enough to fit a dumpster in."
D: "Oh, why would you want to throw away a dumpster?"
N: "No (followed by the sigh that indicates I am an idiot...), the garbage bag goes in the dumpster so that it doesn't get all dirty inside."
D: "Now I understand. That's actually a pretty good idea Noah."
N: Smiles because he thought of a great idea.

Ashton:
After hearing Noah's story he had to add his two cents...
A: "When I grow up I am going to be...super...super...duper(sp?)...Taylor Brook's daddy."
D: "What? Why would you want to be Taylor Brook's daddy?"
A: "NO, she will be the mom and I will be the dad."
D: "Oh, you want to marry Taylor Brook..."

This is what happens when you leave them alone..

On Monday after work I went to pick up Dillon and the boys asked if they could walk home, I could see that Troy was home so I told them sure. I stayed and talked with Mom for a while and then went home. I was pulling in the driveway and saw Troy down by the lower part of our lot and asked him where the boys were, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I don't know...with you?" I told him, "No, I told them they could walk home because you were here." We then both realized that we had two little boys up at the house with no supervision. I drove up to the house and Troy left on foot. When I got in the house, I walked to the back door and opened it where Troy was standing outside holding the hose, with two soaking wet little boys. He says, "Well, they were playing with the hose, do you want me to take it away?" I told him to let them keep it. The Dillon went out with them and got sprayed right in the chest, he took it pretty well and just kind of grunted and yelled at them. When I went outside all the way I realized the back of the house had mud all over it and that they had flooded the area where Troy has been digging to build the bbq and fireplace. When I asked them why they did that they told me "We're making Donner Lake and the Truckee River.." Oh, of course you are, well all I could see was that we now had a fantastic home for breeding mosquitos...

On Saturday Ed and Sheri came up with Brayton and Davin. It was Davin's birthday and he wanted to play with Noah. So we put the tandem bike/tag-along bike/trailer together and rode to the lake to take the boys swimming. When we got there the boys immediately spotted a floating jumpy thing that some other boys were on. It had been there the week before when we were there, I'm not sure if it just stays there or if someone has been at the park that long. Anyway, Brayton, Davin and Noah swam right out there and got on with the other kids. Ashton eventually got there once he remembered that he could swim with a life vest on. After a few minutes of getting to know the other kids they were soon wrestling on this thing and trying to throw eachother off...I asked Troy if this was what boys do when they meet new people. He looked at me and said, "Well, what else would you do? Lay in the sun?" I guess I see the point but I still don't get it...

People like you...

We have new signs in Truckee...they put up signs at the crosswalks near the hospital and the deli that alert people that they need to stop for pedestrians. Noah was talking about it and this is what he told me:
Noah: "My class wrote the police a letter and told them what they need to be working on."
Me: " Really, what do they need to be working on?"
Noah: "Making people stop at crosswalks and catching people that are driving too fast, you know like you."
Me: no words for this...
Noah: "Well, maybe people that go a little faster than you."
It's nice to know that my 7 year old thinks that I drive too fast and the police need to catch me...

Happy 4th!

We had a great fourth of July here! We started out at the deli watching the parade,which the boys always love because they throw candy to the kids!

After the parade ended we went back home and ate lunch and then went out to go crawdad fishing. The boys had never been so we decided to take them...it was very crowded at the Donner State Park. Luckily the best spot for catching crawdads was not crowded. I got the boys all set up with their wires with raw bacon and they got to work. I think Noah caught one and Ashton caught none, although he did go swimming in the river. Troy showed them how to do it and actually caught a couple of big ones that we gave to some other boys that were going to cook them that night. We think its fun to go catch them but we don't eat them so we always just let them go. Dillon sat on the shoreline and climbed the rocks that line the banks of the river. He will climb anything!

After we finished with the crawdads we took the boys down to the lake for a quick swim. I was once again amazed at how far Noah has come with his swimming skills. He jumps right in and goes, even swimming underwater. He told me that he had been swimming to the buoys at West End on beach days (I made sure he had an adult with him and he assured me that Ashley is always with him when he does it.).

We decided to try something different this year to watch the fire works. We went up to the abandoned train tunnels on Donner Summit with our friends Joe and Nicole who also have 3 boys. The trip in was fun, the boys were a little scared going in the tunnels, they look like this:

You can find the history on the tunnels here. It feels a little like being in an Indiana Jones moving driving through there. We found an escape hatch in the third tunnel that had a flat spot with a good view of the lake and parked our matching white Expeditions in the tunnel! Once we all ducked under the escape door Noah and Zayne went off exploring and found another spot down a trail that had an amazing view of the west end of Donner Lake. So we all braved the "off the beaten" path and got to the spot they found. We waited there for the fireworks to start, which included answering the question, "When will the fireworks start?" or "When will the parade start" which is what Merrick and Ashton kept saying! The question was answered with a equal number of wild answers by Joe and Troy! Luckily Nicole had bug spray in her car because there were some enormous mosquitos there...even the 40% deet didn't quite keep them away. (yes, 40% we aren't sure where that came from with that much deet but we only sprayed the boys clothes for fear of causing cancer later...)

Once the fireworks did finally start we were all watching them and I asked Dillon, "what do you see?" To which Ashton replied, "I hope he is scared." Nicole started laughing and said, "That is such a middle child thing to say!" Again, all I can do is laugh at Ashton...

We watched the fireworks from our great spot and then hiked our way out in the dark with two headlamps and headed home. On the way out of the tunnels we were following a car with two people on the roof of a subaru - only in Truckee! Traffiic was terrible on 40 but we managed to get home and fall into bed after a long day. Hope you all had a fun day too!

Dillon 1st bday party

I know I'm way behind but here are a couple of pics from Dillon's party...

Here is his cake:

He had a great time tearing the cake apart and had to have a bath afterwards! Bopa and Grandma and Grandma Dunnett were in town so they were able to come. What a blessing for Dillon to have great grandparents in his life! Noah and Ashton helped him open his presents of course!

Cakes, cakes, cakes

I was talking with a friend at work about birthday cakes and she wanted to see the birthday cakes that I have made. So, here are a few...

Elmo cake for Ashton #2

Dragon cake for Noah #3

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake Ashton #3