Better Today

Oh what a better day today was. The weather was beautiful, the kids played outside, and Jacqueline and I took the kids out for bowling and dinner.

Caleb was beyond excited to go bowling. At 1:00, I told him we'd leave for the alley at 4:00. He stood under the clock yelling, "Go clock! Go clock!" and then every hour there after he'd go back and yell at it again. It was too funny!

Caleb insisted on carrying Synclair's ball out to the lane for her when it was her turn.

Everytime Caleb put his ball onto the ramp, he'd say, "On your mark, Get set, Go!" He was really his own cheerleader.

And everyone else's too.

In a two hour period, we were able to finish one game, eat dinner, and chase after Riley, who wanted to crawl down our lane, down other people's lanes, around the alley, under people...you name it, he wanted to be there.

We had an awesome time.

Longest Day Ever

Have you ever had one of those days that the hours seem endless?? And the madness seems just as endless?? That was my day yesterday.

1. First on my list of things to do: mail out Mother's day gifts. Nope, couldn't happen because....
2. Constant down pour of torrential rain outside. I knew by the time I got two kids out of the car and into the post office, that is after finding parking in the 5 spaces available at the post office on a Saturday...I'd be soaked, the kids would be soaked, and the packages would be soaked.
3. So, I decided I'd do some laundry, which only added to the already wet floors from the humidity of the rain.
4. I couldn't put clean clothes away in Riley's room because I hadn't packed away clothes that he's outgrown. (which seems to be a weekly event and I was several weeks behind) So that task would have to wait.
5. I decided to pull out Riley's clothes and started a big pile on the floor, only to have Riley want to take a nap, so that task was put on hold.
6. So then I decided to clean out the refrigerator (which looked like it hadn't been done in 6 months) only to have Caleb standing behind me saying. " I want juice now. I'm hungry" while he's trying to push me out of the way so he can see inside the refrigerator to scope out what he wanted.
7. I finish the refrigerator and it looks so nice and white and bright and CLEAN.
8. An hour and half later, Caleb decided to take out a juice box and blow air into it (which all moms know is a terrible mistake) and juice squirted all over the refrigerator...
9. Riley wakes up from his nap and I go finish his pack up of clothes. The question now is, "Where do I store them?"
10. And then that starts the debate in my head of: "Do I really want to have another baby?" I'm kinda at that stage where I'm thinking I really like that we're going to be done with bottles and burp clothes and changing tables soon. I could actually start getting rid of baby furniture and clothes and bouncy chairs, that kinda makes me excited, but......I don't know if I'm ready to say, I don't want anymore babies.
11. So, at this point I'm trying to stuff a bag of 6-12 month clothes into the top of Riley's closet. Of course, the next time someone opens that door, the bag of clothes will probably topple out and give that person a concussion (which will probably be Shawn and I then I'll have to hear about how disorganized I am). I am disorganized though, how does one with babies be organized? Have I ever been organized? Have I ever been able to finish tasks with some success? What is success? Successful sure does have a different definition these days. Oh my gosh, I'm getting anxious just talking about it. As long as I have waited to be a mom, nothing (NOTHING) prepares you for how your life changes with kids.
12. Anyway, this is how my day went. I won't bore you with the rest of the endlessness of it, but Caleb never changed out of his PJs and then wore them to bed again, I never got a shower or combed my hair, and the laundry never got finished.

Today, we are getting out of this house!!! I don't want to be reminded of all the things that need to be done by being surrounded by them all day!!!

Godzilla Park

Last week a couple of us decided to take off to Kurihama where we had been told there are beautiful gardens and a huge Godzilla statue with a slide that comes out of his butt. We also were told that there are slides in the hill that the kids can play on and a big wooden pirate ship. This is what we found...

Beautiful flowers!

Kids fighting over which stroller they wanted to push....up hill.

This is how high we walked. Literally, it was straight up and this wasn't the top yet...

Is that a train that takes you to the top??? Why yes it is. How come we didn't take the train to the top??? Because none of us read Japanese and there was no train when we first walked in!

We get to the top of the mountain (ok, so it wasn't a mountain, but it felt like it) and we find Godzilla standing there. He's as big as life. And there is a slide that starts between his legs and comes out his tail.

Caleb thought the slide was awesome!

And then the rain started. It started out as just sprinkles and then the downpour came. We took refuge under the platform of the play area.

It was a nice adventure. It was a little disappointing for the kids because the play area is definitely for older children with it's swinging log ladders and rope entanglement escapes, but we still had a good time being with friends and being off base.

Personality shining through

These pictures depict my boys' personalities perfectly. They both are so funny. They will do anything to make you laugh. I'm afraid that the Eklund boys are going to be known as the "class clowns". I was kinda hoping for "most likely to succeed", but we can't be too picky with our children's futures can we??

Riley stands on his head for laughs all the time. He'll sit there until you see him and wait for you to laugh before he'll sit up.

This is Caleb's idea of trying to be cool, like he's saying, "hey there hottie, what's up?" (yeah, he's got his daddy's cool skills) Everytime he does it, I can barely keep from having to change my underwear...I laugh so hard.

It's so fun being their mom. Everyday is "America's Funniest Home Videos" right in my own living room and kitchen and bathroom and...

Month of Birthdays

April is a crazy month of birthdays so I am just going to send out a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all those who share my birth month....My dad, Riley, my brother-in-law, Sharon, Jill, the boys' babysitter, and Dawna.

What a GREAT MONTH TO BE BORN! Love to you all!

My Day at the Zoo

For my birthday, we headed out the door for a day at the Ueno Zoo, which is right outside of Tokyo. We met the Benefield family at the gate at 8:00am, but Caleb had been sitting in the car ready to go at 7:30. He kept yelling at me, "come on mom, let's go ride on the train" all morning while we were getting ready.

The weather was PERFECT!

I tried to get Caleb to give the peace sign, but he got upset with me and said, "I'm not two mommy, I three!" Hence why he's holding up three fingers.....he's so smart.

Caleb took the map and became our navigator, he's so like his dad.

The first animal we met was an elephant.

And then some sea lions.

They were splashing and jumping and chasing each other. It was really fun to watch them.

And then there was this....what is this? It looks like an enormous rodent. Caleb kept saying, "Shh, he's sleeping", but it wasn't sleeping. Oh no, it was watching us. Kinda freaked me out....

And lastly, we came upon these crazy monkeys. The one of the left kinda looks a little like me.......CRAZY!!

Fun was had by all. It was a great day to go to the zoo and an awesome day for a birthday.

We didn't walk back into our house till almost 6:30pm. Every ounce of my body was exhausted.

FYI: (In case you're wondering why Shawn isn't in any of these pictures....he was gone)

Riley's Party

Oh where has the last year gone?? It's hard to believe that Riley is a year old already. I feel like I've lost several months somewhere...

We decided to just have a couple of our friends over and have a Sesame Street BBQ party. We had some AWESOME brats (thanks Shawn) and buffalo burgers. We had 30 helium balloons with extra long streamers so that Riley could tug and pull on them (which he loved) and a pool filled with balls and balloons (it was suppose to be a Sesame Street ball pit, but it didn't come in the mail soon enough...acutally it still hasn't made it). We also put out the bounce house in the backyard. It was such a nice party, very relaxing and fun!! The house was extremely crowded, but with those we consider our extended family away from family and that was the best part!

Hey, it's his party and he can cry if he wants to!

There was only one rule to coming to the party, you had to wear a party hat. I think it reminds people that you can be like a kid in any moment of your life and everyone enjoys a party more when they can feel young.

We had an AWESOME TIME! Happy Birthday Riley! Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us, either in our backyard or far away. We love you all.

Good times

I can't seem to find time to blog as often as I'd like. By the time evening comes, the only time I really have to sit down at the computer, I'm so exhausted that I just want to veg out. Even blogging seems like too much work.

We've been doing a lot of things and I'm excited to share them with you all, but please be patient with my posts for they may be short and less consistent.

With the weather getting nice, we've been working in the yard. Our newest addition is a strawberry plant that has produced a few berries. Caleb loves picking them, but he loves eating them more.

Riley is now holding his own bottle. He's known how to for some time, but has refused to hold it until only recently.

He drives Caleb crazy getting into his juice cup. Caleb's cup is always empty and Riley always has a wet diaper...and poor Caleb is always thirsty...

Also, Riley has taken his first step(s). He stands independently all the time, but now he's taken two steps at once. I fear that walking is in his near future. I am so NOT READY for that development.

There are lots of other cool things happening around here, like Riley's birthday party and our FRG Baked Potato Bar experience, and more....I'll be getting those posts and pictures up as soon as possible. Right now, it's 11:20pm and I'm overly ready for bed.

He screams for Ice-Cream

We've discovered (Shawn discovered) that Riley really enjoys chocolate ice-cream.

And the really awesome part is, he's more than happy to serve it up himself. All he needs is the spoon and bowl of ice-cream and he's good to dip the spoon into the bowl himself. No help needed.

There is a need for help with clean-up though.

"More Please!"

"Oh, so yummy!"