The Buzz

The buzz around town.....


Wyatt started preschool last week. I will do a separate post about that with pictures later this week.

Shane is walking and running and CLIMBING all over the place. Last week I found him sitting on top of the dining room table playing with some artificial flowers! He thinks that he is a big kid now and refuses to let anybody help him do anything including but not limited to eating, buckling his seat belt, putting his shoes on, and taking off his diaper. What a busy little guy!

John and I attended a wedding last week for John's co-worker. My Mom came to babysit the boys since it was almost an all day affair. It was so nice to relax and not worry about the boys taking advantage of some poor teenage babysitter. Grandma reported that everybody had fun and went to bed without incident (which is almost an urban myth around these parts). We were all really sad to see Grandma go home, but very grateful that she came to help out! She also took this picture of us on the way out the door so that we have a memento from our child-free day! Thanks Grandma!


We are trying to get back into the swing of things around here after having been gone for over 5 weeks this summer! I already got flu shots for everyone, scheduled physicals, scheduled dentist visits, and am busy planning Wyatt's birthday party! Let the craziness of fall begin!

NC 2010

We returned home from Michigan last Sunday night and on Tuesday morning I packed the kiddos up and drove 9 1/2 hours to North Carolina to spend some time with Allison and her family. We only stopped one time on the way here to eat lunch and get gas! It was a great trip!

John and I have found that it is much easier to pack lunches for the kids and stop at a park to have a picnic lunch rather than do fast food when we travel. The kids can spread out on a picnic blanket on the ground and run around afterward. We use our gps feature to find nearby parks

and then we don't have to worry about the kids getting hit by cars in the rest stop parking lots.

So on the way down here I found a Retirement village with a little park and let the kids play for a bit, eat, and use our portable potty. Then the boys slept and I busted out my ipod and drove without stopping until we arrived!

We have been to a few of the local museums and parks and taken the kids swimming a lot, but my kids favorite activities so far have been dressing up in Cameron's super hero costumes. Even though my boys don't know who any of the characters are, they are really enjoying themselves. Wyatt even slept in his Buzz Lightyear costume last night.

Jonah found this costume and hasn't stopped wearing it since he saw my reaction of dismay when he came down strutting his stuff in it.

I am hoping that these boys have super powers though because my three little boys have been struck with a bug and have had super high fevers for the last 48 hours. It will take some serious strength to recover from this bad bug!

August Travel

The month of August has been a whirlwind of travel for us! The kids and I spent two weeks visiting Grandma Kathie and Grandpa Bill in Michigan. John flew in to spend the second week with us and then we all drove back together.

It was such a nice vacation for all of us. We took the kids to the beach a lot. It was hot and humid so the breeze off Lake Michigan was perfect. The kids loved playing in the sand digging holes and driving trucks and cars all over the place. Even Shane was in heaven using his newly perfected skill of walking to visit everybody on the beach.

Wyatt and Sam really enjoyed playing in the waves. They loved the feeling of getting knocked over by the surf and having the waves crash over them. They had absolutely no fear. We made them wear life jackets the whole time because the waves were about three feet tall when they came crashing in to shore and we wanted to make sure that nobody got dragged away in the under tow. The kids spent so much time in the sun that Sammy ended up turing into a blond!

We also took the kids blueberry picking a couple of times. Shane even got into the act and cleaned off any bush that you parked his stroller near! We ended up with 30 pounds of blueberries! I suspect that Sam ate almost 5 pounds all by himself!

We visited all of the favorite hot spot restaurants unique to the Grand Haven area... Fricanos, US 31 bar b q, Pronto Pup, Tip A Few, and Clover Bar. I especially loved getting frozen custard at Culvers. Wyatt and I drove by to check out the Flavor of the Day every day!

We took Wyatt, Jonah and Sam to the big Coast Guard fireworks show in the boat one night and didn't get back until almost midnight! It was so fun to see their faces when the first firework went up into the sky! Sam cheered louder than anyone around!

John took the boys Salmon fishing a few times. He took Sam and Wyatt two different times when the waves were so big that they both got sea sick and threw up in the boat. But, Grandpa and John let them tough it out and kept them out fishing until lunch time! The boys never complained about feeling bad either and came back excited and happy!

We spent almost every afternoon at Aunt Mari's pool. The boys are quickly becoming little fish in the water! I can't believe how far they came in just two weeks!

John and I especially loved being able to go out after the kids were in bed and spend some time together without any kids around since Grandma and Grandpa were willing to watch the kids for us! It was the best gift I could imagine!

We were really sad to leave. Wyatt told us that he want to live closer to Grandma and Grandpa's house so that we could see them every day! I guess that means that the kids had a good time on vacation so we can keep that on our calendar for next year! Make sure to clear your calendar for the first 2 weeks in August 2011 Grandma and Grandpa. We will be back and we can't wait!

Hello, Poison Control

I hit a parenting milestone and had to call poison control tonight. The last time I had to call poison control was in college when I accidentally drank some face wash instead of mouthwash during finals week after I had pulled an all-nighter.

This time I caught Wyatt DRINKING zyrtec right out of the bottle after he was supposed to be sleeping in bed. It went something like this...

Me: What is going on? Did you just drink that medicine?
Wyatt: I was smelling it.
Me: But did you DRINK any of it?
Wyatt: Just a little.
Me: How much is a little?
Wyatt: Just this much (holding his fingers inches apart)
In comes Daddy
John: How many times did you swallow?
Wyatt: One time.
John: Did you swallow three times?
Wyatt: No, just two times.
Me: Agggghhhh!
John: Did you pour it in anything?
Wyatt: No.
John: Did you pour it in a cup?
Wyatt: Yes, a spoon.
John: How many times did you fill the spoon?
Wyatt: One time.
John: Did you fill the spoon 5 times?
Wyatt: No, just three times.
Me: Aggghhhh! I'm calling poison control!

Poison Control guy assured me that even in the worst case scenario Wyatt would be fine and actually said "Don't stay up all night staring at him to make sure that he is still breathing in case the poison control guy was wrong.... I am not wrong!". Too funny!

So, we had a talk about how you can go to jail if you take medicine that you are not supposed to take and how Moms and Dads are the only ones that are allowed to give medicine. We also talked about how the poison control people have all of our information on file now and will report it to the police if something like that ever happens again. We tried to scare the bejezzus out of him... I think that it worked.

On the bright side the 9 hour trip home tomorrow will be nice and quiet since Wyatt will be sleeping off the effects of a Zyrtec overdose. It will be nice to be back home tomorrow night where all of our medicines are appropriately locked up in two lockable tool boxes with three digit codes. On a scale of 1 - 10 our house is childproofed to the level of Fort Knox. Can you imagine what our house is going to look like when Wyatt is a teenager? Can you say search lights, motion detectors, and alarms?

Sammy The Fish

We are still in Michigan enjoying the nice warm muggy weather and spending tons of time at Aunt Mari's pool. Sam is so comfortable in the water now that he wanted to try swimming without his life jacket on and this is what happened.....



Holy Crap! Pretty good for a 3 year old! We are looking for an agent to represent this future swimming star!