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This post is part of the recent Lewis Fest on our blog, but it also just celebrates the differences between Parker Garvin boy #1 and #2.   When Art was Lewis's age he was sleeping in a bed with a guard rail, kinda like Lewis is now, able to get out any time he would like.  But he never did.  I think he might have been three years old or more before he would consistently just get out  of bed on his own.  Instead he would call to us from his room, "Mama!  I'm awake!" or "Covers!  Covers!"  We would try to show him how to pull his own covers up, we would tell him before he went to sleep to go ahead and get out when he was done sleeping, but no, he would stay in until we came to meet him there. Lewis, being second and also just being a different kid, is a different story.  He has been getting out of bed on his own since he was released from his crib and he has been taking care of his needs by himself, too.  He will trudge over to the bathroom, reach up to turn...

It has been brought to my attention that poor old Lew has suffered a drought of photos on the blog (sorry, ma!). So, over the next few days I plan to remedy the situation. get ready!

Lewis sleeping on the floor and Art awake, humming and laying next to Lewis.

Well, it was again around 8:30pm that I finished bedtime for the boys.  I've been trying to get them down earlier, but summer is hard!  There are so many things to do in the evening, the light and breezes are so inviting and we just end up late everynight. Tonight I was on it.  Baths at 7pm, teeth by 7:30 and books picked out, pajamas on at 7:35.  But where was Art's gackoo?*  He had missed his nap after his big trip to the State Fair today with our neighbors and a couple of big kids.  He had lots of fun, but was exhausted.  He wanted to take a nap at 5pm but I endured a huge meltdown because I wouldn't let him have two  gackoos before he was making a new marble toy, one gackoo in mouth.  I let that go, even though the gackoo is supposed to stay in the bed, just because I was able to avoid him napping so late.  We were going to have early bedtime tonight!  Or so I thought.   I swear, I could have cried.  It's a terrible feeling to be on the way to end of your "wo...

Lewis and I have been spending the better part of today together while Art's been out with our neighbors, Kathy and Linda, and their kid friends.  They went to the state fair.  Lewis and I have shared snacks, ridden on the swingset, kicked a ball high, read some of his favorite books, took a nap in his bed, watched Little Bear (which Art doesn't like), made train tracks, marble toys, and ate a few snacks.  Today I heard him correct himself when he said "Me do it... I do it, Mama."  Just a reminder that children learn language naturally by listening to us speak well. It just evolves on its own and gets more complex... and correct. Wait...Now he's about to whisper in my ear...  "Mama, I talk in your ear..."  I'm leaning over and waiting... comic timing... and then he just said, "See a Go-Go train!"  So we'll watch Thomas on youtube for a minute.

I was actually searching for the post I wrote a couple years ago when Art said he wanted to be a Mama when he grew up.  Search doesn't work so well, I guess.  But this was a fun find.  Notice the date... ----------------------------------- JULY 11, 2008 Stalling bedtime.. but it was all good. About a half hour after I put Art to bed he called out and said, "I want to talk to Mama about my day!" He did go down to bed a little early, so I figured, "Ok!" I think I got a taste of what was going through his head for the past 30 minutes. He dashed from topic to topic, from things that happened today, yesterday, and even weeks ago. It was quite wonderful. Art: We went with Maura to the restaurant. We runned. Me: Yes. We had fun with her. Art: You [He meant "I"] pushed Maura and she didn't like that. Me: No, she didn't. But you stopped pushing her. Art: We took the city bus. [Long pause] We saw sticks in the water. [That was yesterday] ...

As of Monday night, Art has said he would like to be a scientist when he grows up, so he can discover new dinosaur bones.  This is only the second time in his long 4 1/2 years that he has volunteered a vocational desire.  The last time was about two years ago, when he said he wanted to a Mama.  I asked him again today if that was still how he felt and he said yes.  He added, "Because my shovel is not really strong enough to dig the bones.  It kind of bends."

Art and Lewis spent the morning at Si and Anthony's house. Laurel, their mom, caught this funny conversation: Art: We're going to give Lewis a time-out if he hits again. Right, Si? Si: Well, I use my mom's rules. Art: Yeah, and I use MY mom's rules! Si: Well, my mom's rules are even better than your mom's rules.

A friend at work has an amazing waterside that he let us borrow yesterday (thanks, Jason !). In the morning (during the babies shower) Art and Si played on it. In the afternoon Evva and her brother Oscar came over. The slide made for amazing photos and also provided us with some lovely adult time with Evva's parents Mike and Erin. Here's a gallery of ACTION photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

A few weeks ago my friend Laurel (Si's mom) asked me for a list of things I might need for the babies which she would circulate amongst our mutual mom friends. I obliged with a detailed list of baby things and household/childcare help needs. She wrote back and said, "Perfect!" Strange response, but I was happy, nonetheless. Art's preschool teacher, Jen, invited us over to try out the new loft she had built in the preschool. Then she reneged saying she had to be somewhere, but she did have a box of things for me to use for the babies. Sounds great, I thought. We'll do the loft another time and pick up the box. Josh offered out of the blue to come over and play with the kids this morning. Weird. Usually he offers to take them to a pool or the dog park, not just putz at home. Whatever. This meant I could get my important errands done with Ben, unencumbered. We needed groceries and a new toilet for the basement. Ben said, "Let's make it a date an...

I got this email late last night from jessica: "Again, he is starting his night's sleep in our bed, but I told him I wanted him to sleep on Papa's pillow because I will need my 'giant pillow' when I get into bed later.  Well, just now I caught him, sound asleep and snuggled in the Snoogle. Thief!"  For the record, here's what a snoogle is:

I took all four kids by my lonesome to the MN zoo (Art and Lew and their friends Si and Anthony, who we watch on Tuesdays). A number of parents said, "You certainly have your hands full!" Which was true. It was fun and easy until Lewis wandered off towards the end and we couldn't find him. A very scary moment for him and his Papa. We found him further down the trail, crying with a friendly zoo person. Art was very concerned about Lewis and gave him a nice long hug, as did I. Anthony eyeing a gibbon (Well duh, that was a gibbon). After we found Lewis Art and Si easily agreed to hold onto the stroller back to the car.

The other day Devontae (my little brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters) and I went to Water Park of America (I had a couple free tickets). It's the huge beast of a building across from Mall of America. I was excited to see what the place was like, and it was entirely dissapointing. Certainly worth two free tickets but a total ripoff for the full price $26 (each!). The most fun was this huge wave machine thing that shot a 20 foot wide sheet of water up over a hump and you could surf on it in place. The slightest mistake and the board would get swept under you and then your entire body would be pushed up and over the hump in a sort of violent watery chaos. fun! Here's Devontae, and below that is a lovely photo he took of me just after I had wiped out... and here's someone else's photo with a clearer view of the ride:

We tried Art's flippers.

Jessica took this photo. Notice her large belly at bottom left....

He seems to be enjoying adjectives. He was looking at his feet one day and said, "A tiny toe, Mama!" He asks if a motorcycle he sees parked on the road is "superfast" and he likes to be pushed "superhigh" on the swing. For a while he was describing the different ways he pees. Sometimes, when he's standing up, he makes a "long pee", or just a tiny pee. When he's sitting down he may knock his knees together, feet pigeon toed, and call it "closed pee". And recently he flopped his entire body over with his arms to the floor. I asked if that was a tired pee, and he said no, "Uh-sad pee, Mama." So we have many different kinds of toes, ways of moving and ways of peeing.

Wow.  I'm really pooped today.  Tidied up the baby room, cleaned the floor and mopboards and such and got the random paint supplies and VV's (aka Good Will) stuff outta' there.  (I have a new obsession with washing painted woodwork.  Maybe it's because I don't have time or energy to  paint  the woodwork, which is what it really needs, but I'll tell you right now, the woodwork upstairs is clean.)  It's basically baby ready.  There's still stuff to be reorganized and moved about, but everything necessary is in place and ready for babies to use, including some shelves next to the changing area that are ready for the 170 diapers from the diaper service to arrive (thanks, Nan!).  And this all took me well over two hours, which included multiple breaks for catching my breath, sitting down after coming downstairs and sitting down again after going back up the stairs.  Oy.  So tonight I was super exhausted.  Just feeling like my whole body was made of lea...

Ever since Art was old enough we've played the 'blanket monster' game. Basically just covering up a Papa or a kid and saying "I'm a blanket monster and I'm going to get you!" Lately Lewis has been on a blanket monster kick. Here's the blanket monster kick:

Art spent the afternoon with Bubbe today and, in an entirely unsurprising move, they went to Value Village (VV's). If you ever try to reach Adria and she's not home, your next call should be to Value Village and have her paged. Anyway, Art came back with a fancy vest and tie (for Cait and Zach's wedding). And some flippers! he was really excited to try them so we rode bikes to the pool to try them out.

I sometimes think about how Jessica and I approach this blog. And while it captures our family life honestly and colorfully, we inevitably share less about the bad stuff, at least in pictures. I wouldn't want anyone to be misled into thinking our family is always as happy as all the lovely photos portray. You know? In fact, we're often quite miserable! I'll try and find ways to take photos of that...

Jess: "You know, the funny thing about this photo is that in a couple years it's going to be alot more crowded." Classic Mom, according the Jessica. She was ribbing mike about his comment of her being a 'bastion of negativity'.

Taken with an application on my fancy new phone .

So I was done reading books at 8:30, but forgot the bedtime snack.  We went downstairs to get pickles (since we were reading about Penny and Pickles pig and they were going past a big pickle truck so naturally, the kids wanted pickles) then I grumpily got them back upstairs for bed.  Sang some made-up dinosaur lullabies, which are the recent favorites, and said "I'm going downstairs now."  Lewis said, "Uh-not uh-coming upstairs anymore, Mama?"  and I replied that, no, I was not.  Started tidying the kitchen and Art came to the stairs saying that they were going to sit at the top of the stairs and not get back in their beds.  I said fine, just get back in bed by yourself.  I won't be coming up to tuck you in again.  So here it is, twenty minutes later.  I still hear the occasional feet stepping around in their room and I really don't know what they are doing but they are leaving me alone so I am happy.  At the very least they have learned that once I'...

Jessica just shared this video on her facebook page, it's really fun and wonderful. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&w=640&h=505]

My comfort level has gone down a big notch lately and my fatigue level has skyrocketed. I'm gaining nicely, the twins are growing really well and I weigh a good 170 pounds (!) which is really hard to carry around. I wake up with sore feet every morning and my favorite shoes are Ben's crocs (pictured below). Ben has been cleaning the kitchen, mopping the floors, carrying the laundry and anything else that's semi-heavy and basically giving me the go ahead to put my feet up at any time. Our goal is to keep these babies in there to full term. In the meantime, this is what I usually look like, or at least want to look like, after I've made dinner: The stupidest things exhaust a 170 pound woman with babies squishing her lungs.

Jessica was just taking a shower and I heard a couple frustrated grunting sounds. I asked if she was ok and she said she had been bending down to pick up a razer she had dropped (bending over to pick something up is getting to be quite an effort for her) Everything was going nice and gruntless for a while then I heard another sound of a razer dropping. "Awww, fuck it!" he said, exhausted.

Yesterday I finished painting Art and Lewis's room a fresh, light "silverleaf" grey.  It was stinky at nap time so the three of us slept in the big bed.  About an hour and half later I half-woke to the sound of chains and big tires and bump here and there.  Art's legs started stirring, then he popped up and said, 'Mama!  I hear a loader!'  We went straight to the window and Lewis sat up, too, 'Uh-see a loader, Mama...'  We quickly got on some shorts, peed-a-potty, I grabbed a sleeve of graham crackers, two fruit leathers and filled my water bottle.  Then we spent the next thirty minutes eating our snack on a neighbors lawn watching a bobcat dig up part of the street.  Nice way to wake up when you are a boy.

Don't be fooled, Lewis wasn't hurt and continued on his floppy run.

I took some photos with Jessica and her likewise pregnant sister Emily at the park near our house a couple days ago. hiding.

Sunday we joined Josh and Ashley at a massive dog park with massive quantities of dogs along the Mississippi in Minneapolis. And went swimming. Tula chomps a ball. (photo by JOSH!)

Art pushes Lewis 'ahsuper high' on our new $25 dollar craiglist swing set! (with $40 of added hardware...)

This is Art doing an 'experiment' with baking soda, vinegar, salt and dish soap. He learned if you add soap to the vinegar and then add the baking soda it makes EXTRA big bubbles. And then salt makes them go away.

Art, Lewis and I met up with preschool friend Henry and his brother, Benji and mom, Bridget the other day at the Bell Museum of Natural History. Super kid friendly and cheap. Used a library pass to get in free! Here are all four of the kids playing on the simulated bog area, with squishy underfooting. In the big Touch and Feel room the education person will take out any of the live snakes, bugs or lizards for kids to touch.  We touched a hissing cockroach.... A female tortoise.... And, to Art's great delight, a real SNAKE!