Oh Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say

I left the room to take my contacts out and returned to the following statement from Rachel. “Aidan, tell your dad what you just told me.” Uh oh. It was the “tell your dad” tone that suggested Aidan had just repeated something that likely came from my mouth and not the “tell your dad” tone that suggested Aidan had said something especially witty or profound.

Apparently Aidan had told his mother that we needed to purchase a leash for Kellen and suggested we may want to schedule a trip to PetSmart. I tried not to laugh. I was indeed guilty of suggesting that Kellen needed a leash in a moment earlier in the day when he had darted off while I was trying to capture him and feed him lunch. Of course I should realize that a four year old may take what I say far more literally than I intended. I was quite impressed that Aidan would show concern for his father’s needs and take the time to figure out where we could go to assist me in alleviating my problem.

In my defense, I did hold Kellen’s hand for most of our visit to Target this evening allowing him to walk around “freely” like his older brother. He wasn’t satisfied sitting in the cart while observing Aidan’s greater level of freedom. I can honestly say I did not consider swinging through the pet section…not even once.

Happy Halloween

Guess What We Had For Dinner

Lessons in Giving

We’re still going strong with our Peter Fish! I discovered quickly that the devotional book that accompanies it is not exactly four year old friendly but my on the fly ability to translate adult messages into child digestible form has improved quickly. Aidan is getting the gist of the messages as we go through the stories and Kellen is even in on the act shouting “Money Fish!” as we bring it out after the story so the boys can drop in our coins.

Tonight we began sponsoring a child through Compassion International. I’ve come across the organization numerous times in the past and a few months ago we saw a presentation while visiting a local church. Rachel and I agreed that it would be a good thing to begin sponsoring with Aidan’s involvement (and later do the same with Kellen). This week we started talking about it with Aidan. He excitedly sat with me last night looking through information about the four year old boys showing honest interest in them despite giggling at some of their unfamiliar names. Tonight he asked to look again and we sought out some boys that had similar interests to him (like soccer and hide-and-seek).

We are now sponsoring young Ishbah from Haiti. Say a quick prayer for Ishbah and his family and for Aidan that this may be a significant and lasting experience for him.

Week in Review

Rachel was off all week and spent most of it with her mom and sister who visited from Iowa and Chicago. The three of them went up to Duluth for an overnight early in the week and did some shopping along the way. They hung out at our place as well spending some quality time with the boys.

I was the beneficiary of a cooking and freezing session on Thursday which made for some tasty homemade chili and some festive cupcakes. The frozen items should make for more grandiose evening meals throughout the coming weeks. My list of options will now be much more diverse when the afternoon gets away from me and I start wondering if corn dogs are going to fly as a dinner entree. I was also the recipient of a Texas Roadhouse steak dinner on Thursday night that left me feeling extra fluffy (thanks Nana!).

Friday I was given a daddy daycare holiday and actually left the house for 12 hours all by myself. I met up with my friend Scott and we shot some hoops and golfed 36 holes (o.k. that was on the PlayStation) before researching our afternoon and evening entertainment options. A “Decorate Your Own Sombrero” activity tied to some cultural events at the University of Minnesota caught our attention. We toured the entire campus corner to corner (quite literally) looking for the campus bowling alley to kill time before decorating our big hats. We ultimately came to the conclusion that all gopher students are grumpy except the international students partaking in the free bowling, soda and food that sent us scrambling for new options. Our plans were foiled by their group function and the time we would have had to fill before the sombrero action hit full tilt. We were very much looking forward to riding around the greater Minneapolis area in our sombreros.

By the end of the day, several other impromptu options were foiled including a late decision to eat ourselves silly at the Old Country Buffet. We arrived too close to the closing bell and decided we could not get our money’s worth in just 60 minutes. Incidentally we found that just because a hostesses’ name is Patience doesn’t mean she is (she was getting very edgy as we were coming to our conclusion that an hour was just not enough time to eat, sit, digest, repeat…repeat…and repeat). We did get to met Tanya, our waitress at a nearby restaurant, who claimed to have never been out of the state of Minnesota…and later told us about a trip to the Wisconsin Dells.

Yesterday we hit a kid oriented carnival/festival at General Mills a collected some crafts and goodies before assisting some friends in moving furniture. We headed home when our nap deprived duo got cranky and I ultimately celebrated the end of the day by heading for bed early allowing me to catch 12 hours of sleep.

Today the run from church to the car in the parking lot included dodging sleet and snow fall. We later watched a bit of the same from the warmth of our home. It looks like consistently colder weather is starting to take hold even though the long term forecast does show a 60+ day in it. We’ll see which fronts begin winning the majority of the daily battles. The rest of our day looks to be quiet and lazy providing a mostly normal and uneventful conclusion to our Sunday.

VIDEO: Election Olympics

We finally had a moment of inspiration for a new video. This time Aidan and Kellen helped me with the stunts and two very recognizable characters joined in the fun.

VIDEO: Kellen at the Zoo

The boys hit the Minnesota Zoo today with their friend A.J. (and both sets of parents). Here are some videos of Kellen taking in the wildlife.

The Buffalo Roam

Under the Sea

PHOTOS: Minnesota Zoo

PHOTOS: Fort Deur

VIDEO: Our Mii Kingdom (Update)

After creating the last round of Miis, Aidan was asking me daily when we were going to make more. Here's our update...

VIDEO: Our Mii Kingdom

The Wii system allows you to make characters that look like cartoon versions of you for use in your games. We started yesterday with 13 friends and family members on our system. All of them have played with us and Aidan won't let you play without creating your own Mii. Today we find ourselves with substantially more than we had a day ago.

Aidan wanted to show his Uncle Dave (Aidan calls him Buv) so here it is...

Along with using your Mii to play games they show up as participants and observers in many of the games so our gaming just got a lot more interesting.

Here's the site we used to make our characters (better give credit to the creators): http://www.miicharacters.com/

Kellen at 18 Months

Here's a sampling of Kellen's recent photo shoot...

Peter Fish

Today at church we picked up our Peter Fish. The fish shaped piggy bank is accompanied by a devotional and its purpose is ultimately to collect money toward world hunger relief.

We explained to Aidan that there are kids in the world who don't have a lot of money for food and this was a way we could help them. He was anxious to get some coins in his fish and I was happy to grab a few out of the cupholder in the truck to get him started. He then asked two questions that had me smiling.

First he wondered who we could ask for money to put in our fish for the hungry kids. He thought we should start by asking our friends from church that we were having dinner with tonight. They of course have their own fish to fill.

He then asked if he could open his piggy bank and put some of his own money in the fish.

The kid who's every thought lately has been centered on acquiring bunk beds and using every last resource to get them wants to open up his personal savings for people he's never met and ask other people to help him fill his fish.

The Puck Stops Here

Last night (it is technically Sunday morning now) I was fully indoctrinated into the most essential element of the Minnesota culture. Our friend Bob took me to my first NHL hockey game. The Wild raised their division championship banner, dropped the puck on their new season and disposed of the visiting Bruins 4-3.

Here are a few photos including my very own division title replica banner. Do you think Rachel will let me hang it from the ceiling somewhere in the house?

Watching the pregame from the concourse

The opening face off from our seats (Row 15)

Down in front of the glass between periods

My freebies (calendar, ticket stub, mini banner)

I Yearbooked Myself!

My friend Dan posted some awesome retro pictures of himself yesterday (along with some top notch commentary) using Yearbookyourself.com. I'm stealing the idea as I found it wildly entertaining.

What if I had been a high schooler in a different era?

These to me look very similar to photos I've seen of family members in years gone by...

Grandpa Deur

Dad

Uncle Stuart

And what if I was graduating in the late 70s instead of just being born...

...or what if I was born a White Sox fan?


Bow ties, greasy hair, afros? Why not...

Who Needs a Handy Man?

Aidan used his Bob the Builder tools to fix everything in the house today. I guess we can relax with no need for weekend projects this week.

VIDEO: Thomas Tent

This Thomas the Train tent was a gift from my sister to Aidan two Christmases ago and it's still getting a workout. Today we had an extra passenger (A.J.) along for the ride.

PHOTOS / VIDEO: Tubby Time

We are in the midst of our man-tastic week with Rachel away on business in Buffalo. Yesterday we headed to Culver's for their $1 customer appreciation burgers. The locals were treated to Kellen pumping his fist and exclaiming "yummy chicken!", "yummy french fries!" and "yummy ice cream!". All was calm and relaxed until Aidan announced he needed to visit the little boys room in the midst of dinner. About a year ago the three of us hit McDonald's without additional adult supervision and he announced this same thing three times in one sitting so yesterday was a breeze.

We took a very relaxed approach to dinner and bath time this evening. Aidan and I casually ate our homemade pizza and I decided not to stress over keeping Kellen clean. A little pizza sauce in the hair...no problem. Trying to chug his applesauce from the bowl and painting his face with it...enjoy! We simply moved tubby time up to wash away the dinner. Often we are rushing through bath time coming home from errands or making it a quick step in the bed time routine. Tonight we did bubbles and I let them hang out and enjoy extended time in the water. Tubby time is one of the highlights of Kellen's day so we stretched it out.

Tomorrow and Friday our friend A.J. is spending the day with us. He hung out with us last Friday and the boys played very well together. They even napped at the same time without incident giving daddy daycare a quiet reprieve.

Rub a dub, dub...

...three "men" in the tub.

Tubby Time the Movie

(Kellen is still a little confused when I use the photo camera for videos)

P.J.'s!

Another Bunk Bed Update

Every night I lay with Aidan for two minutes before wishing him a good night and leaving him to fall asleep.

Tonight his suddenly one-tracked mind went back to the issue of bunk beds...yet again.

AIDAN: "Dad, where's my yellow coat?"

ME: "In the closet...why?"

AIDAN: "Don't forget to use that money for my bunk beds (see "Bunk Bed Update" and "Bunk Beds" for the back story)."

What spurred this sudden (but recently frequent) thought of bunk beds?

We were looking up at the glow in the dark stars (four of them) we stuck to the top of his closet frame after he discovered them in a drawer last week. He informed me that when he gets bunk beds he will be that much closer to the stars when laying in his top bunk.

VIDEOS: Weekend In Iowa

We traveled to Iowa for cousin Chandra's wedding this weekend and were able to see some immediate and extended family which always makes for a great time. We stayed with brother Ryan and sister-in-law Chassity and discovered that their new house is awesome for Hide and Seek (Aidan's already anticipating returning to play).

Their backyard was looking very Fall-ish this morning as the boys were playing. Here are a few videos and photos (posted below).

PHOTOS: Feeling Like Fall

Got Milk?

How much does Kellen love his milk? He fell asleep en route to the wedding Saturday and had such a strong grip on his cup that we couldn't get it out of his mouth.

Bunk Bed Update

In order to deflect the recent barrage of bunk bed questions that have been coming from Aidan, Rachel first told him that we were not able to make such a purchase until Kellen was older and then suggested that we need to save up before his sleeping experience gets more vertical.

How did it work?

As we headed for Cedar Falls this weekend Aidan suggested we should avoid eating too much so we could save money for his bunk beds. Later in the weekend he found $3 in his coat pocket and asked that we add it to the bunk bed fund.

I guess he’s getting the concept of budgeting and saving for the finer things in life.

Trix ARE for Kids!

We did some shopping last night and Aidan's bladder needed some relief with about three aisles of grocery shopping to go. When we returned to the refrigerated section to reconnect with Rachel and Kellen, my four (and a half) year old yogurt enthusiast nearly had a breakdown. His mother had chosen the wrong package of Trix yogurt. Knowing that "it's not a big deal" was not going to cut it during what was evident to be a very big deal, I grabbed the package Rachel had chosen and wheeled him to the back of the store to let him pick out the one he wanted.

When we got there he quickly pointed to the one he preferred and we headed back. Once we re-reconnect with the other two he asked me, "what flavor did we get dad?". Turns out his nearness to tears had nothing to do with the flavor of the product but was all about the big yellow "WIN $10,000 INSTANTLY" emblazoned on the packaging. How could I not know this was decision making factor number one when his first question upon receiving his yogurt at the lunch table is always "any cash dad?"? He was most interested in striking it rich in the dairy foods aisle.

We're still not sure how we'll break the news to him if we do score some cash and it is negated by the fact that his mother is a General Mills employee.

Silly Rabbit, cash is for kids!