"Don-tey Scare Me"

Seth was home this morning and so he woke up with Isaac and let Ezra and I sleep in. (These are my favorite mornings.)

I woke up, though, to a shrill scream and the sound of Isaac running. As I lay there, gathering my bearings, I heard Seth talking to Isaac and trying to comfort him.

  "Isaac, what's the matter? Can you show me? Are you hurt?"
  [soft crying]
  "Isaac, are you scared? Can you tell me what scared you?"
  [pointing to the front window, where Isaac had been standing]
  "Isaac, Daddy will hold you. I will protect you and keep you safe. Tell me what you saw out of the window."
  [shivering and glaring out of the window] "Don-tey scare me. Don-tey scare me."
  "A donkey scared you? A donkey? Isaac, did you see a deer?"
  "Deer. Baby horse. Don-tey scare me."

Isaac then proceeded to cling to Seth for the next few minutes and repeat "don-tey scare me" until Seth brought him to me and Isaac told me the same thing again. The best we can determine, Isaac might have seen the deer that Seth had seen earlier in the morning. He certainly saw something that scared him! And several times today Isaac has brought it up again, in random intervals. Each time he ran to me and needed me to hold him and reassure him. I'm a bit apprehensive that he'll have nightmares tonight, and remember it tomorrow.

"There's a Rattlesnake Under My Stage"

We were watching a bit of The Nutcracker and Ezra, of course, decided he wanted to start dancing. So he dressed up and started twirling around the living room, with frequent requests to "watch this move!"

He stopped, however, panting and declared he was "out of energy". When I asked him why he was out of energy, he replied "well, there was a rattlesnake under my stage and that made me have to run away!"

Caper Acres

Caper Acres was always the highlight (well, ok, second to Mimi and Pappy's pool) of a trip to Chico. Ever since I had kids, I've wanted to take them, but our last two trips to Chico have proved unsuccessful in that regard (why is the park closed on Mondays?!?!)

This trip, however, we made it happen. (Even after tears on my part, when I was convinced that we'd lost our opportunity due to a rainstorm.) And Jack and Esther tagged along too!

We had a great time, even though everything is smaller than I remember it.

Eric's Visit

I've been joking that Eric is Seth's BFF, because it makes me laugh. It's also probably true.

Seth and Eric met freshman year at TMC and were roommates sophomore through senior year of college. They were best men in each other's weddings and they even planned to get pregnant at the same time - twice (ok, maybe it wasn't actually planned, but that's how it happened).

Eric doesn't have any local sports teams to root for, so when he was a kid he picked the Cowboys as his team. But Dallas is a far trip to make for a game, so since Seth convinced him to root for the Seahawks as his #2 team in college, every other year or so Eric flies up to go to a Hawks game with Seth. This year they bought tickets for the Giants game.

Eric flew in Friday night and then Saturday we ventured to the brand new Bass Pro Shop to see what the hype was a about, got BBQ, and then the guys went to a movie. And on Sunday they of course went to the game and then Eric flew out Monday morning.

One of the many things I appreciate about Eric is how well he loves our kids. Ezra was probably just as excited as Seth to see Eric and Eric made Ezra feel as if he had come just to hang out with Ezra and Isaac. Of course, Ezra made Eric promise to bring Mommy's friend (Rachel), his friend (Jesse) and Isaac's friend (Jude) next time (which isn't that far away! January!).

Taco's Tail = Mustache

Ezra got such a kick out of pretending Taco's tail was a mustache:

Library and Puddles

Goodness, it's been rainy! So today we met our friends at the library for a few hours. All three of the kids were rather energetic (maybe they'd been stuck inside for too long?) so I don't know that it was a particularly relaxing visit. But we got some books and played with some toys.

And then Ezra and Isaac had a great time splashing in the puddles in the parking lot! Such a great time it necessitated a strip down before we got into the van.

"Ra-ra"

Isaac is talking up a storm. He can communicate very well and is very opinionated as to what he wants and when.

He says" no" now. And a million other words. Ok, it's probably around 75. Oh, plus animal sounds. He learns a good 2-3 words every day. Crazy!! I stopped trying to keep count!


He calls EzRA "Ra-ra" and I just die every time. He loves Ezra and wants to do everything Ezra does and he wants Ezra to see and do everything that he does too. On Saturday Isaac was walking in front of me and suddenly gasped and stopped short. His eyes were wide and he pointed carefully at the ground. "'lug! 'lug! Ra-ra? 'ook! 'lug!" Ezra wasn't right with us, so we had to run and find him and bring him back to see the 'lug. Isaac was so excited to show Ezra. It was so important to him!