Flashback Friday: Found on a Flash Drive

We found some old videos on a flash drive today, and they are perfect material for a Flashback Friday post.

They were taken in 2009, right after Lex was born, so that's my excuse for losing them for 7+ years.

Here goes:

Hakuna Matata

Lex's favorite movie right now is Lion King 1 and 1/2.  Only, he calls it "Hakuna Matata."

He loves to scream with a high pitched shriek at several key points in the movie, like when Timon and Pumbaa go over a waterfall or are in the midst of a stampede. 

He also loves the song, Hakuna Matata.  He sings it all the time.  And he knows the words pretty well.  And he understands the whole Hakuna Matata concept.

When I called him for dinner a few nights ago, he told me that he didn't want to come to the table, because he would rather play with Legos.  When I called him to dinner again after that, his response?  "Hakuna Matata, Mama!"

And now, for your enjoyment, Lex sings Hakuna Matata for you:

In which Lex gets stitches

...and no, I don't even know how many. 

It happened on Sunday afternoon, right at lunchtime.  Connor and Lex and I were upstairs in the loft, playing with Legos on the train table.  Lex said he was hungry, so I walked downstairs to make lunch.  I had only made it as far as opening the pantry door when I heard the thud, and then the scream.  I knew right away that someone had been hurt pretty bad.  It was that kind of scream.

I ran upstairs in time to see Lex standing up, and when he looked up at me I saw that he was bleeding (a lot) from his head.  So, I yelled for Kevin, got Lex a paper towel and an ice pack, and put him in the car to go to the urgent care.  As soon as I saw the gash in Lex's browline, I knew it was beyond my skill to deal with.

Have I ever mentioned to you how much I love the new children's urgent care that opened recently by our house?  We have been there before, and we were in and out so quickly that we were done before they had even completed our admittance paperwork.

We were taken care of right away, and even though we had to wait 30 minutes for some medicine to numb Lex's head before it could be stitched back up, we were done in about 45 minutes.  The worst part for Lex was when the doctor had to take off the bandaid that Daddy had put on at home.  After that, he kept asking to go home, and was really nervous when they put the numbing medicine on.  But, after that, he fell asleep in my arms during the 30 minute wait.  He woke up when I laid him back down on the hospital table to get his stitches put in, but he never opened his eyes.  He was very cooperative physically, but he screamed and cried the entire time.  It was heartbreaking, which is why no one was counting how many stitches he got.  If I had to guess, I would say that he got more than 5, but less than 10.  As soon as it was over, he was back to his regular good mood.

Since then, we have been making a big deal over letting him pick which bandaid he gets to wear.  He's been picking out different Angry Birds bandaids every day, and I think that's been enough motivation for him to let me check and clean his stitches.

I have also ascertained that Lex didn't bump his head on the top edge of the train table, as I had assumed, but he instead hit the table leg.  There are some discrepancies in the stories of my two kids as to *exactly* how it happened, but Lex was apparently standing on the chair, and then he either jumped or was pushed, and fell into the table.  Lex clearly blamed Connor, and was very angry with him the first day.  (He was also angry at me for making him get the stitches, but he seems to have gotten over that, too.)

Spooky stories and shadow puppets party

Last night, we let the boys stay up late to spend some extra quality time with Kevin.  There was a science show on tv about subatomic particles and we made popcorn.  Since it was dark, Connor went and got a flashlight.  He said, "We can tell spooky stories and do shadow puppets."  Lex said it was a good party.

Here are some of the spooky stories that Lex told us last night:

"Once upon a time there was a big castle and a princess and a big dragon came.  The end."

"There is a monster in space and he is smashing a pyramid.  It's a witch doctor.  It's not going to be good."

Short and sweet, right?

Connor's stories were much longer, although they sounded very similar.  This is how his story started:

"Once upon a time there was an evil ogre, and an emperor, and a castle, and a spaceship, and an evil finger."

Just imagine him waving his finger in front of the flashlight to make a shadow while he talked about the evil finger, and you pretty much have the whole scene down.

Lex keeps coloring on his cat. A photo essay.

P.S.  This has become a daily occurrence.  And the cat keeps coming back during art time.  I don't do a thing about it, and the marker just comes off when he washes himself.  I love washable Crayola markers for that!

Wordless Wednesday: Monkeying Around Edition

April Art Review

 by Lex, in Crayons

 by Lex, in Watercolors

 by Lex (left) and Connor (right), in Crayons and Paper Plates

We made these at a Preschool Park Ranger Program about rainbows.  Connor cut his all by himself!

 by Lex, in Watercolors

 Lex, in Watercolors

Connor never actually painted anything on paper this month.  He only ever painted himself.  Here he is, painting his leg.  On this particular day, he actually even covered the bottoms of his feet, and then he cried that I was tickling him when I washed it off!

Does everything taste like chicken?

Tonight we were at Nana and Grandpa's house, watching a Lego Hero Factory movie with the boys.  Lex came over and climbed up on my lap, which was great.  But then he started licking his hand, which was a little bit weird.  I dried his hand off and told him to stop it, but he started doing it again right away.

I thought maybe he was hungry for something, and tried to think of what he had eaten recently.  When I thought about it, it turned out that he had eaten a ton of cookies and meat in the past 24 hours, but very little else.  I figured that maybe he was licking his hand due to some vitamin deficiency or something.  So, I asked him what his hand tasted like...hoping that would give me a clue as to what to feed him next.

And he said, "Chicken."

Hummingbird Soccer

Today was the first day of spring soccer for the boys.  This is the first time that Lex has played any type of organized sport, and technically, he isn't even old enough yet.  The league is meant for 3 to 4.5 year olds.  I registered both my boys, both of whom fall just outside that age range.

Yes, I am *that* parent. 

But Connor isn't 5 yet (and he won't be before the season ends), and Lex isn't going to sit on the sidelines any longer.  He is bigger than many 3 year-olds, and he has been playing soccer with Connor at home for ages, so he has a good skill set. 

I swear I would have registered them both for appropriate age leagues if any others had been available.  But there was only one soccer group, and the ages were set at 3 to 4.5, which I deemed were close enough. 

The league coordinator called me to discuss the ages of the boys, but I didn't offer to take them out of the league, so she had me call the coach.  I told him that I would remove my child from the field if he caused a problem for anyone else at any time, which would be the case even if they were 3 to 4.5 years old.  So, he agreed to let them play as long as there were no problems.

And there weren't.  But I still felt like *that* parent.  I'm sure I will get over it.  Especially if they keep participating so well.

Seed Snow & Icing

Here in our neighborhood we are in the stage of spring where the trees are going to seed. This means that there is copious amounts of white fluffy stuff floating around in the air. As it is the first "snow" that we have had at home this year, Lex was very excited about it.

We opened the door to the backyard, and a bunch drifted into my dining room. I was not so pleased, as I had just vacuumed and swept the floors. But Lex was so happy. He said, "Snow!"

I said, "No, those are seeds."

He said, "It's seed snow."

And so he went outside to play in the "seed snow."

About five minutes later, he came back in to report: "Mommy, it's seed snow outside. It makes me so happy. I am so happy because now we can go icing down the mountain!"

I think icing means skiing. He saw the ski poles hanging in our garage recently, and when he discovered what they were for, he wanted to go skiing immediately and was very sad that we didn't have any snow. Nevermind that we don't have a mountain anywhere nearby, either.

Wordless Wednesday

Lex is Two and a Half Years Old!

Lex has officially been two-and-a-half years old since last Friday. I swear he has been getting older every day since then.

I started talking to him about potty training about a month ago. Seriously talking about doing it, you know. We got out Connor's old underpants collection. I can't believe how many pairs of 2T-3T underpants we have. Thomas the Train underpants. Wall-E underpants. Elmo. Cookie Monster. Toy Story. Nemo. Monsters, Inc. Lex picked out a nice pair of Buzz Lightyear underpants and wore them for about 10 minutes, before he declared that he was done with them. Because he was the baby. He wanted a diaper.

Then, Lex started informing me regularly that he is a baby. He is Mama's Baby. He is Daddy's Baby. He is Connor's Baby. Does he want to go potty? No, he is a baby. Does he want underpants? No, he is a baby.

But then, something happened. I think he realized that turning two-and-a-half was a big deal. Suddenly, he is okay with being a big boy. He has even told me a few times in the past few days that "I'm a big boy, Mama." I'm not pushing it with the underpants, yet, though.

In other news, Lex is as outgoing as ever. He loves making friends and always finds playmates, wherever we are. He has suddenly started having a taste for books. He used to run off after just a few pages, but now he wants to read stories over and over and over. His favorites right now are by Mo Willems. He loves the Pigeon books, and he loves Happy Pig Day!

He eats just about everything, and will try anything I put on his plate. His new favorites are carrots and celery with ranch dip. He also inhales raisins by the bowl full.

He loves coloring, painting, bubbles, soccer, stuffed animals, Legos, cars...there really isn't much he doesn't like...

...except he doesn't like to be called pet names. If you call him anything other than Lex, he will inform you that, "I'm not a stinker/snuggle bug/cutie pie. I'm Baby Lex!" If he has made up his mind to run off or otherwise cause trouble, though, he won't respond to Lex. He will only stop if you call out his full name: "Alexander Beckett!"

He also likes to pick out his own clothes. The other day he had an idea that he wanted to wear one of Connor's shirts. I couldn't talk him out of it, so we went into Connor's closet and he got a 4t-sized Buzz Lightyear shirt and we put it on him. And it fit. Insofar as t-shirts go, I guess the boys are already close enough in size to share some clothes.

Remember to Brush and Floss Regularly, so your Dental Checkups go as Smoothly as Mine

Yesterday, I had a dentist appointment. Connor didn't want to go with me, so he stayed with his Nana. Lex, on the other hand, really wanted to come with me, so I let him.

Lex and Connor have both accompanied me on dental visits before, with no problems. Usually, though, Lex is safely strapped in the stroller. On this particular day, I decided to leave the stroller in the car, as it was buried under an extra car seat, a cart load of purchases from Target (including a dozen foam swords that I didn't want to bring to Lex's attention again), books, blankets, winter coats (Ohio weather is so unpredictable in April), etc. I was being lazy, and I figured he was old enough to be let out of the stroller.

And he was. For the most part, he sat on my lap, happily watching Wizards of Waverly Place on the Disney Channel. Except when the hygienist was cleaning my teeth with something sharp, he starting bouncing around on my lap. She said to him, "Sit still, or I might poke mommy in the mouth and make her bleed."

This really didn't have any effect on Lex. It would have scared Connor half to death, so I'm glad that she hadn't said it in front of him. But Lex kept right on bouncing, so she offered him a fun character toothbrush to take home if he sat still. This was golden, so still enough he sat during that part.

Then, the hygienist wondered why he wasn't a patient at their office, as he was almost three, and they do see kids. This amuses me because I know they don't see children as young as mine, seeing as how I have to drive them to a different, pediatric, dentist all the way in Dublin. I don't say anything about it, though, as I really can't say anything at all while she cleans my teeth.

But I am not surprised at all when she can't find a fun character toothbrush for my child, even though she promised him one. Fortunately, before things can really go sour, another hygienist offers to blow up a balloon for Lex.

What color would he like?

Blue.

They don't have blue. What about red?

Red is fine.

So we hear the helium turn on. Then a loud pop and shriek.

Would orange be okay?

Yes, orange was fine.

And I treated myself to some Dairy Queen after all that.

Lions and Tigers and Dragons. Oh my!

The first thing that Lex wanted to do when we got to Phoenix was go to see animals at the zoo. So that's exactly what we did. We went to the Phoenix Zoo and saw all sorts of great animals.

The African Savannah exhibit was fabulous! It was the first thing we saw once inside the zoo, and it was a huge hill filled with African animals. You know, all the ones that wouldn't eat one another.

Also part of the African Trail was the Rhino exhibit. Lex took one look at the rhino in this enclosure and told me, "I'll be right back, Mommy." He then proceeded to climb between the rails of the fence and head straight for the rhino. Fortunately he didn't get over that concrete ledge before I stopped him. So we had a nice little chat about staying on the path and out of the animal areas.

Then, we saw lions...

...and tigers...

...and dragons!

We asked Lex what animal he wanted to see at the zoo, and he told us that he wanted to see a dragon. At first I told him that there were no dragons at the zoo, but Kevin examined the zoo map and discovered that there were, in fact, dragons at the Phoenix Zoo. So, the entire time we walked around, Lex said he wanted to go see the dragon next. And every time anyone else said "dragons" he corrected us and said, "no, there is only one dragon."

And when we finally got to the Land of the Dragons, it turned out that he was right. There was only one dragon there. And it turned out to be a very famous dragon.

On Display: Gaia

The first Komodo Dragon in the Western Hemisphere to reproduce via parthenogenesis.

We only spent one afternoon at the Phoenix Zoo, and after looking at the map, I would estimate that we saw approximately 1/3 of the animals at the zoo. That place is huge!

The Journey is Half the Fun: Part I

Kevin and I have a hard time passing by things that look interesting along the road when we are going on a trip. So, when we saw a giant candle next to the freeway on our drive to Indianapolis, we made a mental note to stop and check it out when we were on our way back home again.

This is how we ended up at the Warm Glow Candle Company store.

We smelled all of their wonderful scented candles.


Each and every type was Lex's favorite. And I was very proud of him, because he didn't try to eat any of the candles, even though some of them smelled like food. I guess he has finally learned his lesson.

Sidebar: Did I ever tell you about our last few trips to Bath & Body Works? Lex tried to eat a bunch of candles and soap around Christmas time. Nana and I were opening the various bottles to sniff, and Lex kept trying to stick his tongue in them. Then, a few weeks later, I was in the store again with just Connor and Lex. Connor remembered opening the bottles with Nana and I, so he opened a bottle of Chocolate Mint hand soap. By the time I saw what they were doing, Lex was sitting in the stroller, covered in Chocolate Mint hand soap. I basically had to give him a bath in the little sink that they always have Bath & Body Works stores. Then I had to wipe down the stroller and buy the remainder of the bottle of hand soap. Oddly enough, it still hasn't run out, even though we have had it for months and it wasn't even full when we brought it home. It's the never-ending Chocolate Mint soap. End Sidebar.

Connor's favorite were the Fruit Punch candles. He picked out just one little candle and a candle holder to put it in. Then, he decided to put it right on the kitchen island when we got home so that everyone could enjoy it at the same time. So sweet, that one is. The little guy and the Fruit Punch candle.

Kevin picked out Orange Stardust. I chose Lemon Verbena. They go really well together in the spa candle-garden holder that we have in our master bathroom.

Moral of the story? Stop and smell the candles!

Wordless Wednesday

Lex is Going to Get Glasses

...but probably not for a while. Maybe another year.

I took Lex to the pediatric eye doctor today to have an exam. You see, he's got a freckle in the blue part of his eye, so the regular pediatrician thought it would be a good idea to have that checked out by a specialist.

So, we went. And he has a freckle in the blue part of his left eye. It's a little brown spot, and it's no big deal. It isn't causing him any problems. It probably never will.

But, we did discover that he needs glasses. He can see just fine when he uses both of his eyes, but when you cover one of them up, his vision is blurry. This means that he really doesn't need glasses for his day-to-day life as a two-year old. But, he is going to need glasses as he gets older. I think right now the official plan is to wait until he is three years old to get him his first pair.

I'm not entirely sure why they recommended waiting until Lex is three when having glasses now would better his vision now, except for the fact that I doubt he would keep them on his face right now.

Is This My Baby?

All of the sudden he looks so much like a two-year old toddler and not a baby so much any more.

WHAT HAPPENED?!

Here he is this weekend, wearing earmuffs because his rocket is "going to be loud." Very funny.

And later, wearing his Woody hat and Buzz pajamas. He plays with his hair when he is tired. He always falls asleep with his hand in his hair. Sometimes he wakes up with the front of his hair sticking straight up because he rubbed it for so long. It looks like an Elvis pompadour.

Lex is currently 2 years and 4 months old, which is how old Connor was when Lex was born. I think having that knowledge is what is making me look at him as a big boy now, instead of a baby. This is the age when Connor became the big boy, since Lex arrived to be the baby. In a way, though, Lex will always be the baby. Even though he is getting to be a very big boy.

Photos by Lex. Age 2.

Remember when I took these two boys of mine to the Franklin Park Conservatory for Valentine's Eve?

Well, Lex walked around with that camera for hours, happily snapping photos the way that he has seen me do so many, many, many times. Without further ado, I present here some of his better work.

Well, shoot. Lex couldn't have taken this photo...because he is in it! This is Lex and I waiting for Connor to bring his toy camera downstairs so that we could leave to go to the Franklin Park Conservatory. So, fine. This photo is by Connor. Age 4. And that coat makes me look fat, huh?

And now, without further ado, I present Photos by Lex. Age 2.

Orchids in White. And Pink.

Mommy's Backside.

Lunch. At a Tall Table.

Glass. Orchids.
(Please do not touch the art.)

Train stopping for Three Little Pigs.

The View from Up Here.

Now I See that the Only Reason
I Got to Use this Toy Camera
was Because Connor got a Better Camera.

or

Hand-Me-Downs.

Lex has a new favorite cereal

TRIX! Lex picked out a box of Trix cereal at Target last weekend, and he thinks it's the best thing since Nutella.

He has Trix for breakfast and snacks, and second breakfast, and even last night, for dinner.

This morning, he had a nice bowl of Trix for breakfast. After breakfast, I cleaned up the kitchen and headed upstairs to get dressed for the day. (You know, because it is not okay to run errands in your jammies.)

Anywho, I came back downstairs approximately 10 minutes later to find this:






P.S. Deja Vu? Anyone?