Wyatt

I think Wyatt would be a great farmer. The number one reason? He is wide awake at the break of dawn.

I love my son, but if he could sleep just a little longer, that’d be awesome.

Twice a week I roll out of bed to turn my computer on at my desk at quarter to six to start work…and he’s already awake. The other mornings I am out of the house at five to five to head to the gym (and thankfully he is not up quite yet) but somewhere between the time that I get home at ten to six, he wakes up. I don’t usually mind (except maybe on Saturdays) because I am already awake. So, we live, even if the sun hasn’t even peeked its little head up yet.

I think Wyatt would be a great early morning radio talk show host. The number one reason? He is a yapper.
I am fine to wake up early, but holding a conversation first thing? Not so much. If I head to the gym I put my hat on, ear phones in, and do my thing. Please don’t try and talk to me. If I start work right away, I can barely answer the “good morning” IM’s with enthusiasm. It takes me a little bit to get going. For Wyatt, who knows what rigmarole he’s talking about so early. Whatever it is, he has a lot to say. Maybe he’s telling all his little animal friends that he sleeps with about the dreams he had. Or maybe he’s trying to chirp back at the birds that sing in the tree outside his bedroom window. Maybe he knows that Dax sleeps in the bedroom next door and he’s trying to wake up his brother. Maybe he just likes to confuse the train’s choo choo sound with garbage truck. Who the heck knows?

But for sure, I think Wyatt would be a great speech pathologist. The number one reason? He has a HUGE vocabulary. Ok, maybe not huge, but I think it’s pretty impressive. It’s probably because Dax didn’t quite talking or really communicating with us until he was closer to two. Wyatt on the other hand has a lot to say. He turns 18 months in just a couple of weeks and I wanted to remember all the words he is using. Here goes…

momma
da-e (daddy)
ba ba (bottle)
wa wa (water)
boo (book)
chew (shoe)
bay- be (baby)
ba (ball)
no
bubble (he says this one really good)
side (outside)
hi
ane (plane)
choo choo
do (dog)
bye bye
ack (snack)
koo-key (ccokie)
bath
ease (please or cheese)
ou (out)
bi (bite)

Oddly, lots of his words start with B’s. Maybe when he’s a speech pathologist he can tell me why.

Girlfriends

Everyone says kids grow up way too fast. You hear it all the time when you are pregnant or with a newborn and a sweet (or kinda strange), little lady walks up and wants to touch your belly or oooh and ahhh over your little one. You can see how they are reminiscing of their grown children and how they miss their babies. I’ll admit some days I can’t imagine the day going any slower, wishing time would speed up, but ninety nine percent of the time, I totally believe that. My kids are growing up way too fast. Dax especially is on the fast track. And I wish he would stop.

There are things daily that remind me he is getting big. For instance, when he uses the word “intentionally” or “sophisticated”. Or his mannerisms look so grown up. Lately he would rather fold his arms and walk next to me rather than hold my hand because somehow he has figured it out that he looks older (and cooler) walking by himself than hand in hand with his mom. I love to hold his hand. And I’ve had to start making up stories about when he wipes off my kisses. I just tell him he is just rubbing them in more just to make my secretly breaking heart feel better. I know when he starts pre-school in the next few months I’ll hyperventilate seeing him walk up to his teachers house, wearing his back pack that is the same size as him. And even though nothing is actually in his back pack, I know he’ll want to wear it because he will feel big just because he gets to go to school. He has no problem leaving me.

All these things remind me how before I know it he is going to be all grown up and it’s all going to happen right before my eyes. But this morning….that was the kicker. I literally cried.

Last week my sweet friend dropped her 11 and 8 year old girls off to play with Dax and Wyatt while I ran up the street for a quick meeting. The boys were so happy to have friends come play and the four of them got along great. When I got home I asked how everything went and the report was great all the way around. I’ve posted before how Dax can’t remember anyone’s name. He is just horrible at it. So I knew, even after playing with these girls and swimming together afterwards, he would never, ever remember what their names were.

This morning when I was getting Dax dressed he showed me the train table in his room. Instead of train cars, tracks, bridges, wooden trees and anything else that had landed on the train table the past few days strewn all across the top in a big mess, it was set up like a perfect little train town. There was the train station in the middle with tracks going out each side, two bridges, a tunnel, a track around the mountain dotted with wooden pine trees and even a few houses around the lake. It was a way better set up than I have ever done for him. I was sure he was going to tell me how my niece had set it up for him when she was over playing, or maybe the babysitter Saturday night. No. None of those. He said, “Mom, look what my girlfriends built for me.”

He caught me so off guard. He has never said that word before. He kinda took my breath away. I said, “You mean your friends who are girls.” He wasn’t having that. He said, “No, my girlfriends.” Deep breath. Deep breath. I kept telling myself he was only calling them that because he couldn’t remember their names. It surely didn’t have anything to do with him really thinking he has girlfriends, he doesn’t even know what that is. I had to drop it. I couldn’t think about it one more second.

Except I can’t stop thinking about it. One day, a lot sooner than I think it’ll be, my son is going to have girlfriends. He definitely won’t want to be my shopping buddy anymore, or have me take him out to dinner or have a special date night and rent Alvin and the Chipmunks and eat popcorn with me. He’ll be wanting to do that with a girl. A girlfriend. I know I have years to go, but this is a little overwhelming. I’m no expert on being a mother to a boy, but this has got to be one of the hardest parts of raising a son, right? Having them leave you one day? It’s breaking my heart.

I guess all's I can do for the time being is accept those flowers he picks for me with pure delight and let him build me all the castles he wants with his Mega Blocks and Legos. I’ll pick him up and hold him when he asks me to even though that’s his way of saying he has to go potty and doesn’t want to stop what he is doing to go. And when he asks, I’ll stay in his room and lay on his bed with him until he falls asleep. And don’t tell, but as long as I can get away with it, I may just do like my favorite book says and once he falls asleep, pick him up and rock him and whisper, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.

Because one day, those flowers won’t be coming to me. They’ll be going to a girlfriend. Just kill me now.

One Fish, Two Fish

Dax started swim lessons last week, one of my favorite things to watch him do. The first three days were a little rough, but by the middle of last week he was happily swimming, and starting to sport a nice little tan. He has a great little class and a wonderful teacher (even though she had to kick me out the first two days because the pool isn’t gated in and Dax was running around hysterical). But, once he settled in he remembered how much he loves being in the water and what a great swimmer he is. This is a little of what he’s been doing:

\float\-noun : something that floats in or on the surface of a fluid

\jump\-verb : to spring into the air : leap ; especially : to spring free from the ground or other base by the muscular action of feet and legs

\swim\ -verb : to propel oneself in water by natural means (as movements of the limbs, fins, or tail) b: to play in the water (as at a beach or swimming pool)

\kick-board\ -noun : a buoyant, usually small board that is used to support the arms of a swimmer, used chiefly in practicing kicking movements.

\dive\-verb : to plunge into water intentionally and especially headfirst \fish in a towel exhausted and cold after a late swim\ -noun : Dax 3 1/2 years old

Hot Dog

I think I am a bad mom. But I know without a shadow of a doubt I am definitely the mother of my son.

A few weeks ago Dax’s teacher asked him to fill out a tiny questionnaire about himself for his class. The questions started off with the typical questioner type questions: Where were you born? When is your birthday? How many brothers and/or sisters do you have? He knew all those, (except when he said “cake” for when his birthday was--silly). Then he started in with the really crazy answers. When I asked him what color his hair was he said he would be right back and ran to my mirror. He came back and answered very matter of factly, “silver.” OK, silver it is….60 years from now. When I asked him what his favorite song was he said “Do As I’m Doing” but didn't know any of the words beyond the first line, which is the same as the title.

There were a few more silly ones like that. Then came the answer of all answers....and reason number one that makes me a bad mom. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. I have never asked him this. Ever. I kinda feel like that makes me a bad mom, that I have no idea what my son wants to be when he grows up. I couldn’t wait to see what he said. And guess what he said. He wanted to be a “helper”. Wow! That’s great I thought. "You want to help people! Kinda like how daddy does at work or a policeman or fire fighter, even a teacher" I was thinking. Nope. Not even close. When I asked him “a helper of what?” he says very unwavering, “a helper of making hot dogs.”

Awesome.

If not knowing what my child wants to be when he grows up doesn’t make me a bad mom, then definitely his obsession with hot dogs does.

I love hot dogs. I really do. I have for as long as I can remember. I’ll take them a number of ways. A nice hot dog on a bun with ketchup and onions, a chilidog smothered with chili and cheese, a corn dog, a hot dog cut into bite size pieces dipped in ketchup, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, Costco hot dogs. I used to even roll a hot dog up in a quesadilla and eat it like a burrito. Boiled, BBQ-ed, microwaved, it doesn’t matter. If you lined every fast food restaurant in the world on a single street I would choose Wienerschnitzel every time. Even when I am pregnant and not supposed to eat hot dogs, I can’t help it every once in awhile. It’s a sick sick addiction.

Apparently my love for all things grinded meat has been passed on to my son because Dax loves hot dogs as much, if not more, than I do. Every morning I ask what he wants for breakfast and he says “ hot dogs”. Trust me, I have never given my kids hot dogs for breakfast, but I’d be lying if I said they haven’t had them two out of three meals a day.

So, if Dax wants to be a “helper of making hot dogs” when he grows up, then by all means I will support him 100%.

And if one day the two of us turn up missing, we just might have packed up and moved to New York to pursue our dream of owning a hot dog cart. After all, it is a 3.5 billion dollar industry.

Oh yes, I’ve researched that, and between Dax and I, we contribute very dearly to that number and the billions of hot dogs consumed by Americans.

National Hot Dog Month, we look forward to seeing you in July. Love Bryn and Dax

Invitation

We're headed to the pool this week with our lunches. Wanna come??

Kreipl Family

I’m a lucky girl. I have a wonderful family. For most of the year it’s just my small family of four…surrounded by three sisters and their families plus my parents; all within a few miles. We get to have family dinners together, birthday parties with cake and present opening, picnics in the park, swimming on summer weekends, and holidays together. No more Easter's alone, no more shopping for the smallest turkey for Thanksgiving because you are only feeding three mouths, no more Happy Birthday singing phone calls, no more invitations from our adoptive family (thank you Reed and Kat!). Now it’s perfect. Now it’s fun. It’s something I hadn’t had with my side of the family my entire married life until we moved to Arizona. Not to mention we have three of Austin’s sisters and their families along with his parents down the street as well. That’s 32 immediate family members within a few minutes drive. I know we are lucky. Really really lucky.

Except that not EVERYONE in the family is close by. And it makes me miss those who don’t live here all the more. Especially when one is your sister that you shared your mother’s womb with and have practically the exact same DNA. Kinda extreme I know, but for a twin it's true! Oh, and guess what I just learned...this will freak you out! Genetically speaking, our children are half-siblings rather than cousins. Hmmm. That gets you to thinking, but we’ll just stick to calling them cousins! But at least this scientifically biology descriptive closeness (I just made that up) gives you kinda of an idea of how close I really am with my twin! And how much I hate that we don’t live next door to each other and share a white picketed fence. Something I’m sure our husbands don’t mind the slightest.

As sad as I am not having my sister and her family near by, and as much as I miss them those other 358 days out of the year, when they come and visit, it makes those reunions all the sweeter.

Last week Jamie and her beautiful family came to Arizona. We finally got to meet their new addition Henry! The lame picture I took doesn't do this cutie justice, so you'll just have to go visit Jamie's blog to see how handsome he really is. He’s perfect and adorable in every way and is such a cute addition to their family. I loved holding him, and I love that she gets to experience all that comes with a little prince charming in the family.

We spent a few days in Payson at a super fun cabin. Even though it rained on us, we still had a lot of fun!! How can you not with 25 people under one roof!! We fought over the one and only Soduko book, played games (I’ve discovered a new favorite, Ticket to Ride anyone??), ate some yummy meals, and the guys took the kids down to the creek and fish hatchery and played horseshoes. It was a really fun few days. Dax and Wyatt loved exploring and being outside in the mountains and it was nice to take a few days off of work and hang out as a family, with everyone!
Of course, when we returned home, we were welcomed again with the 100 degree weather and played at my sister’s pool all day Saturday celebrating my dad’s birthday. Good thing the guys are troopers and braved the 82 degree water with all the kids. I don’t get in until it as at least 87. I admit it. I’m a total cold water wimp.

Jamie took some great pictures of the four of us in Payson and I am so grateful she did. We had all of 5 minutes before the downpour! Looking at these pictures reminds me how much my family means to me. I wish everyone could know Austin and the boys as well as I do. I can't put into words the love I have for all three of them. They make my life so happy and complete and this family, my entire family, would be different without any one of them. I am so glad we have these chances to get together and enjoy each other as a family.

Because really, that's all that matters to me.

Dinnertime

What do you get when your 15 month old is adamant about eating with a spoon. By himself. Unassisted. Well,

Good thing it’s summer because he eats in the nude…in his diaper of course.

You get chili smeared over his protruding belly.

Applesauce all in his hair which makes him look like a rock star with the blond Mohawk it help creates.

Cheese behind his ear. This isn’t anything except disgusting.

Banana bread crumbs stuck all over his face creating a five o’clock shadow because it’s stuck to the apple sauce that didn’t quite make it into his mouth…or hair.

And hot dogs in the flap of his diaper.

Yes, this is about as fancy of a chef I get on hot summer days with a husband who works late. Chili cheese dogs with apple sauce and banana bread. Yum.

So, what do you get? One untidy child.

And so, instead of carrying him with my arms extended to the bathroom to perform the usual “after dinner spray down” and for fear that all the hot dogs caught in the flap of his diaper will leave a nasty trail across the living room, Wyatt got a bath in the kitchen sink.

Why have I never ever done this before? With either of my boys?

Oh right, because there is usually a pile of dishes.

Seriously moms, if you haven't bathed a toddler in the sink, you should. These pictures remind me of Jamie and I at Dinkey Creek, our annual vacation spot growing up, where my mom used to give us baths in a rusted deep dish sink in the campsite's laundry room. Talk about embarrassing! But we used to love it! We couldn't have been more than four and had pig tails down to our waist. The only thing that would have made this pictures even more memorable is if Dax would have been in the sink too. Uhh, not a chance!

Maybe I’ll need to make sure those dishes are done more often.

102

102. Really? Already?

5 buckets of water and two cute boys can really make this Arizona summer crap quite tolerable....

And who knew buckets could be used in so many different ways?
Yup, that's a rap.

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was our last and final stop. How I managed to escape such a beautiful place with the least amount of pictures is beyond me. It was a little windy again and the shore excursion to the Stingray City Sandbar was cancelled. We hadn’t quite made up our minds if we were going to brave swimming with stingrays, but with it being cancelled and our minds being made up for us we didn’t have to feel like the real whimps we were probably going to turn into be.

Instead we tendered to George Town, the main entrance to the island, and found ourselves a bus tour to show us around. We drove through the West Bay of Grand Cayman, and learned a lot about the island and its people. We laughed when the tour guide told us that the island is 22 miles long, 8 miles at its widest point and a maximum elevation a whooping 79 feet. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan hit and took its toll on the Island. For months people were not allowed to leave the island, and residents who were off the island at the time that it hit, were not allowed to come back. They were without power, water, or sewer services for several months later. This little pink house was one of the only homes left untouched after Ivan moved through and withstood 170mph winds. Apparently it has lived through a number of Hurricanes and the people on the island who knew its history sought shelter under its roof while they waited Ivan to pass. Look how cute it is?
Next we went to Hell. Really, we went to Hell. Hell, Grand Cayman that is. It was hot and ugly and black, just like I imagine Hell to be. These rock formations are nothing more than short, black limestone. The story goes that Hell received its name when a local official exclaimed, “This is what Hell must look like.” Yup, my thoughts exactly.
We spent the rest of our day at Seven Mile Beach and that’s exactly what it was. Seven miles of turquoise water and white white sand. Don’t think I didn’t fill a baggy up with some of it and bring it home. We snorkeled here too and saw even more amazing fish. I loved laying on beach and listening to the waves. Total paradise---except for the sunburned legs!We had such a fabulous time on this trip. We enjoyed everything about it; the ship, the ports, the no kids around, the sun, sand and sea, and most of all, the company. We had so much fun with my sister and her husband and my parents. How do you thank someone for treating you to a trip like this? It’s impossible. Thank you a million times. We love you! We are so lucky to have you in our lives. You’re the most generous, loving parents ever. Thank you for the bottom of our hearts!

Roatan

If you’ve never heard of Roatan, don’t feel bad. I never had either and being Mrs. Geography didn’t help…but we all know that doesn’t mean anything! Come to find out, Roatan is an island part of Honduras and it was our third port of call.

Our day in Roatan started bright and early. Well, let me rephrase that, it started dark and early.

On the cruise, we were traveling in and out of time zones. To make sure all the cruisers had synchronized watches and made sure to be back to the ship in time before it set sail, everyone was asked to be on “Ship Time”, which was Florida Time. Even if the country we were in was an hour behind, we still stayed on “ship time” as we adventured around. Sounds confusing? It was! If you don’t wear a watch and needed to know the time, if you asked a local, you would need to remember to add an hour or subtract an hour, sometimes two, to get the “ship time.” The cruise instructed us not to ask any locals what time it was for fear that passengers would think they still had an hour at the port when in reality the ship was ready to leave and passengers would be missing. This happened at our first port of call in Cozumel when fours boys were late and lucky for them, the captain was nice enough to wait...over an hour. We so didn't want to be those people.

Our arrival time in Roatan was 7am. Not too early. I can live with 7am. I work every day at 6 so that’s doable. Wrong. 7am was ship time. It was 5am in Roatan. It was pitch black when we left the ship. I still haven’t figured out why the cruise line would let us port in an unfamiliar country at 5 in the morning, but that’s ok. Luckily we had a nice man by the name of Lionel set up to meet us and give us a private tour of his island.

My mom had booked this tour for us before we left and we were all looking forward to it. Lionel drove us around the entire island and we got to tell him all that we wanted to do. On the agenda:

1. Sight-seeing:
With it being so early when we arrived, we did a lot sightseeing the first part of the morning. The island is beautiful and tourism is their major resource. Right now the island only has one port for cruise liners, with 3-4 ships a week. They are building a second port where they can have 3-4 ships a day. The people are really excited about that. Lionel said that everyone on the island has work if they want. If they aren’t working it’s because they are lazy. I was happy to hear that with all the economic struggles so many are facing. We saw some amazing shipwrecks, the governor's mansion and beautiful beaches as we drove around.

2. Visit an Orphanage & School
The day started to pick up a little before 7 because that is when schools start. Lionel says there are about 18 “neighborhoods” on the island and each one has a school, a lot like it is here in Arizona where we live. In addition to that there are private schools that you can send your children for $45/per month. Not bad. The private schools are where the children can learn English. Before we went to a school, we stopped at a grocery store and bought groceries for an orphanage. A man who runs one of the orphanages on the island met us and helped us shop for the things that they needed. It was fun to shop with him because he grabbed lots of mac n cheese, hot dogs, fruit, rice, and juice…all the same sorts of things that my kids eat. When we got to the orphanage, most the kids were in school but we got a tour of the house. Austin and I were really impressed because it was almost identical to the group home that he worked at in Utah for about three years. Menu boards in the kitchen, cleaning charts, big open rooms for the kids to play, a classroom, bedrooms, a huge table to eat at.

From there we went to a school. When I went to Africa my senior year in high school the kids loved getting school supplies because they couldn’t afford them. Who knew that a ballpoint pen would make a child’s day? It was one of my highlights from my Africa trip, and it was one of our highlights on this trip. Before we left we bought pens, markers, glue sticks, and scissors and Lionel took us to the school where he went as a kid. There were two classrooms and all the kids were in their cute blue and white uniforms. They were so excited to see us and have visitors. I got choked up seeing their smiling faces. They had racecar backpacks and cute braids in their hair. They were playing duck duck goose in the grass. They gave us hugs and asked to take pictures. Oh, I loved them. I could have stayed with them all day. And get this; their school was in a building literally on the sand about 20 feet from the ocean. They said on Friday’s they get to play in the water at recess. So cool!
3. Snorkeling:
Finally, our first chance to go snorkeling. We had all bought some snorkel gear before we left and had been aching to use it. Lionel dropped us off at a little scheduled beach with a little pier and a reef. We ate an awesome shrimp and lobster lunch over looking the water (seriously the best view imaginable) then dove right into the water afterwards. We swam and swam and saw amazing fish and sea life. The colors were beautiful. Turquoise, blue, purple, green, yellow, you name it. I’d only been snorkeling once and I thought I might be a little nervous, but I wasn’t in the slightest. It was incredible. What a day! Our favorite by a mile. It was so amazing to witness the everyday life of another country, associate with the people (who by the way are so humble, friendly and kind), and see another beautiful place. No dancing to post about tonight, just fun with the family. Tomorrow's adventure, the Grand Cayman.