All the way from Carburetor Country...

...came a surprise package for my boys. We don't know who sent it, but we sure got a big kick out of their return address.

Honestly, when we opened the box I almost cried. It was so sweet and thoughtful for someone to spoil my boys with all of these adorable cars.

The look on their faces says it all. It was one HAPPY day at our house. John turned on the Cars soundtrack, and the boys frantically grabbed their little treasures as they cruised to the music.

And Ollie loves to play with them too. He makes the cutest little car noises(jhjhjhjhjh--how does one spell car noises??), I could just die.

And whoever sent these, must know kids pretty well to put TWO McQueens in the package.

Calvin gazing at Finn

We have no idea why such kindness was bestowed on us, but we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.







We think you are pretty swell, our secret "Lightning McQueen and Friends"!

**sorry for two posts in-a-row about anonymous donors, but i just cannot sleep at night without having properly thanked them for such sweetness!!!

ThankYouThankYou

And just in case you cannot read my chicken-scratch...

Dear Anonymous Donor(if you read this blog),

Many Huge THANKS for the extremely generous gift card we got in the mail the other day. That was such an unexpected surprise blessing! We feel so undeserving but we are so very grateful and thankful. It is so rare to come across such selfless people in this world. We can't wait to be able to do something like this for someone else one day. 

We think you are an angel.

Thanks again, 

John, Davi & Boys

And not that Cars has anything to do with the gift card, but here is Finn's Thank-You card:

May God Bless You and Keep You!

look, i'm guido!

At the dinner table last night Calvin said, "Look, I'm Guido!" as he held two chicken strips in his hands, fork-lift style, just like the character Guido in the movie Cars.



there were sound effects

Yes, the movie Cars has hit our house big time. We were babysitting cousin Lukey and he brought the movie with him. The boys fell in love with the movie(same makers as Nemo, for Pete's sake!), and the rest is history. The boys begged us for the movie. John asked if he could buy the boys the flick and I answered "No" (for many reasons).

I resisted.

And resisted.

And lost.

All 3 boys pitched in for the movie. Even little Ollie had to make his financial contribution. After all, he is the biggest movie fan of us all.

 

And of course, no film critique is complete without Finn's rendering.

I am particularly fond of his Mader(MADR).

And though there are many parts of the movie I am not happy about, the end is redeeming.

And you know you are officially pregnant when you are teary-eyed at the end of an animated race-car movie! 

quirks

I love the little quirks that come with each stage of the boys' life. It's the random things that seem so unimportant or common at the time. Like when Finn used to pluralize everything. He does not do that anymore, but Calvin does. He said his cubby verse to John yesterday, "Love yours neighbor as yourself". John said "Gosh, he's not going to be doing that for much longer". It's only when you look back on these things that you realize how fleeting that little time was.

Ollie's latest quirk has been picking up jeans off of the floor and hugging them to his face. Here he is a few nights ago, just after his bath, snuggling with an old pair of jeans.

At first I wondered why on earth Ollie would snuggle with jeans, when I slaved over making him handmade blankets. Then my sister and I decided it must be related to the fact that all of those blankets were made with denim pockets and squares:

his first drum blanket



his Popeye blanket


his superhero blanket

Poor Ollie is just a bit confused by it all. He figures that any old pair of jeans is similar enough to one of this blankets:)

Finn's latest quirk occurs at the kitchen table. He eats like a ravenous wolf these days and is always making requests for more food. I ask him what he would like to eat. He responds with something like,"it start with the letter a", trying to make me guess what he wants. It kind of drives me a nuts, playing these mind games. Today he tortured me with "it starts with the letter c..." Then he ran off and delivered me this little note:

Maybe he was too scared to ask me for a cookie out loud. Either way, I was glad that I did not have to read his mind this time!

Calvin's latest quirk is hiding with Finn right before his nap time.

In the same exact hiding place every single day.

Behind the couch.

And they think it is just hysterical that I try to tag their feet with my yardstick, under the couch. I guess it's becoming our strange little ritual.





They might be weirdos, but they are my little weirdos. And I will always remember these stages with the fondest of memories.

Calvin's flippers

John made Calvin some flippers the other day.

Because every sea turtle needs a good pair of flippers, ya know.

That, and we are very fond of the silly over here!

Some of you asked for an update on the decorating. All I have to say for that is oi. Give me time. My sinuses are still protesting. After 3 sinus rinses, I feel as though I've been dragged across the Pacific Ocean.

First of all, grey is a trixy, sneaxy color to paint on one's walls. We settled for granite grey and John painted the whole great room and kitchen. I watched from the safety of my couch.

In some parts of the house, it looks good.

In other parts...hm. Is that a hint of blue or purple I see trying to break through the grey?

Then today, John tried another grey. At first John seemed to like it a lot better. Now he says it's drab. I would ask for your opinions, but since every computer moniter is different, that would not work.

And then there was the bus incident. A bright yellow bus parked itself in my kitchen for a few days.

Between the arch and my cutout squares, it really did look like a bus. Honest.

It had to go.

And you don't even want to know what happened with the blue fabric for the curtains--you can kind of see it peeking through the right square. Mainly, the scale is too small. From a distance it looks pale blue with stars. Thankfully it was dirt cheap and was not a huge loss. When I am feeling better, I will show you what I ended up using instead.

Everything is turning out different than I thought. Everything is harder, especially when I am too sick to do anything about it. But, one thing I can say. Despite all of these hang-ups, I am LOVING the new direction. It's just going to take a little time to hammer out all the kinks.

the big 20 week ultrasound

Dear Little Baby,

I got to see you yesterday,

I saw your precious little feet
and your teensy hands
I saw your stomach
and your beautiful 4 chamber heart
I saw your umbilical chord
and I saw your spine
I saw your face
and I saw you opening your mouth
I saw your "button" nose(the ultrasound tech kept saying how adorable your nose was--we will take this as a huge compliment since last time we saw her she was kicking the ultrasound probe).




But I did NOT see your gender. Even though you were apparently flashing us right and left. Nope, I held strong. I did not peek.

and I am completely overwhelmed with joy at the thought of meeting you this May.

I love you,
Mama

a very Nemo Christmas

In my entire life, I have never written a Christmas list. Never, ever. So I have no idea where Finn got the idea to make one of his own.

Translation: THESUS WUT FINN WOTS FLR KRESMES = This is what Finn wants for Christmas.

Basically, he wants a bunch of Nemo toys.

And Finn, of course, takes Calvin's list into his own hands(THE SIS WUT CALVIN WOTS...=This is what Calvin wants)

In case you cannot tell, Calvin want a bunch of sea turtles on the East Australian Current.

So my boys wanted Nemo loot for Christmas. No big surprise. Do you know how hard it is to find Nemo toys locally?

I had to get some on ebay. I was shocked to see the vicious bidding wars for stuffed Nemo toys. Hasn't Nemo been out for 5 years? I guess Nemo is still very popular. I eventually won some bids and was so excited to surprise the boys.


On Christmas Eve, my cousin's in-laws generously gave my boys some gifts, including a Nemo book. Finn carefully studied each page.

He then informed me, "We need to sew my Nemo's fin. It's not small enough", he said pointing at Nemo's lucky fin in the book. I was wondering when he was going to notice that his Nemo knock-off was not the real deal. Then Finn went on, "and Calvin's sea turtle is not the right color and has the wrong kind of shell. You need to get him a real Squirt for Christmas".

Yikes.

Here are a few other pictures from that evening. I was pretty lazy about taking shots that night.






Later that night, I gave Finn and Calvin their authentic Nemo and Squirt animals. Calvin threw his old turtle to the side and said "this is trash" and Finn promptly donated his old Nemo to Ollie. It was pretty brutal. Keep in mind that just seconds earlier, these were the boys' most treasured possessions.

And of course I saw the whole thing coming ahead of time...sort of. I just thought their knock-offs would play second fiddle. I had no idea they would be so callously discarded. Needless to say, they LOVE their new toys.




My mom got Calvin this hilarious new turtle backpack.Check out our new Crush.

Lindsay also got them some Nemo figurines and some Monster's Inc dolls.

I got Ollie some bristle blocks. Mainly for me to play with. I am obsessed with those things.






And this year, for our end-of-the-year-discount-Hallmark-Keepsake's-ornament-tradition, John found the boys a set of Nemo ornaments. Perfectly sums up our stage of life!