Eddie's Cleaning Up

A few evenings ago, Eddie built a long, straight line for his trains. At bedtime I asked him to clean it up. The picture is post-cleanup request. When questioned, he told me he just unhooked each piece of track so he would know how to rebuild it in the morning. :)

All the Little Live Things

I've known the South is infamous for big bugs for four years now, but it's only been in the past month that I have learned that some things here are very, very small. While walking home from the bus stop in the rain, Ben had to step over 20 or so little, tiny frogs that were all over the sidewalk. He said they were about the size of a dime. I wished I could have seen them. A day or two later, we spotted these same little frogs in the grass in front of our house. Now just about every time we are outside we can find them. They range from the size of a dime to the size of a nickel. Eddie and Peter love to chase them with their finger in order to touch them. I am always so scared Peter is going to squish one inadvertently. Thankfully, this hasn't happened yet. Florida is definitely a fun place for a child to grow up because of all the little (and big) live things!

Peter's Games

I recently moved our games to the floor of our hall closet, making it easier for Eddie and Peter to get their own games. Daily I question the sanity of this decision as I see the hundreds of games pieces strewn across the floor. Peter is the real culprit. He loves to play games by himself and gets all the games out at some point each day. Peter's favorite game is Candy Land. He will play it alone but prefers for us to play with him. He loves to play with the "guys" (the game pieces) on and off the board. When he plays on the board, he walks the guys around the path and has them pretend to eat candy. If we are trying to really play the game, he will pick cards with us and name the color (though he's usually wrong about the color). He doesn't move his guy, though. He just continuously picks cards.
Peter plays Memory by himself. He picks two cards straight from the box, and says "not a match" then says what each card is a picture of. I don't know what he would do if he got a match because he's never gotten one! Right before taking this picture, I said "Peter" to get him to look up. He looked up, said "Say cheese!", and gave this cheesy smile! I love this kid of mine!!

Creegan

Around November 9 our newest little boy will be joining the family, Creegan. I'm officially at the half way point right now. I feel like I have been pregnant forever, but I can't believe how soon my life will completely change. I am happy, though. I have never been this calm about a new baby. It will be hard, but we are already an established family; we'll be okay. Eddie and Peter, especially Eddie, are super excited about this new little baby. And Eddie and Peter play well together and can entertain themselves. I feel so honored to be the mom of three little boys. I only have two concerns about having sons: circumcision (I feel awful doing it and they are so miserable afterwards!) and losing them when they are all grown up and married (wife's family of origin tends to get precedence).

Here's how we came up with Creegan's name. Ben mentioned, since he is so into music, that it would be neat to name a child after something musically meaningful to him. The summer Ben and I worked together we shared a lot of music with each other. I really took to the band Barenaked Ladies that Ben introduced me to. We went to their first concert together that summer. We went to all of their concerts before we had children. We even traveled so we could go to multiple shows. Anyway, Creeggan is the last name of one of the band members (there actually used to be two band members with this last name). When Ben mentioned he wanted to name a child after something to do with music, I began thinking about BNL. I thought of Creeggan and instantly fell in love with it as a name. Ben loved it, too. We decided two g's, though adorable, seemed a little much, so we are using Creegan. Jim Creeggan, of BNL, has a beautiful voice and writes beautiful songs. I especially love "Peterborough and the Kawarthas" from the Barenaked Ladies are Me album. It's a sweet song about a father leaving his little boy. I put Eddie to sleep with this album, so it's especially sweet to me. Go to this site to hear a sample http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000H1RG2M/ref=pd_krex_listen_dp_img?ie=UTF8&refTagSuffix=dp_img

I love you already, Creegan! I am so happy I am your Mama! See you soon!

Aquarium Visit

We recently discovered there's an aquarium less than an hour from our house. We went to check it out on Memorial Day, I believe. It's tiny (sea life lives in glorified bathtubs), but the price was low.
Eddie and Peter were able to tame a wild dolphin.
The most fun I had was watching these tiny crabs run for their lives every time we approached their box. P and E are huge to them!!
I love this pic! Right before I snapped it, a "bud" (bug) flew up Peter's nose.
The most exciting residents of the aquarium.
Peter loves to walk on paths (be they a particular color of tile, a painted line, or a particular stripe in a carpet). He likes us all to walk with him. It looks like Peter is following Eddie in this picture, but Peter began this path. Eddie rushed ahead to be first. Peter didn't mind because he wanted to walk the entire path, while Eddie skipped the beginning. Makes a great new header pic, I think!