Brotherly love and such.

These pictures illustrate just how different the boys are. Patrick is decked out in long-sleeve pjs with a hat under a down comforter, in triple digit Fresno weather. Keith sleeps in a diaper.

My darling boys. The fair haired devil and the verbose politician.....

Tonight we were finishing up shower time and Patrick starts shrieking. "Oh man! Keith peed on my leg. Keith, that isn't fair! We were all cleaned up!"

There is nothing in this world like having a brother. You always have someone to pee on your leg.

And I'm Four, Oh Yeah....

Patrick turned four today. The morning started out a little rough... a lot of "I don't want to go to school, I want to play with my Star Wars Legos." Today was also the first day in his new classroom. I didn't get a first day of school picture, sorry, better luck tomorrow.

We haven't had sushi all summer and Patrick has been begging for it. So we tried I Love Sushi on Shaw. Patrick thought it was great that the restaurant had such a name that was so unequivocal. He decided that all of his favorite places should be renamed: I love.... "Look Mom there is an "I Love McDonald's" that we have never been to." "Mom, can we get scones at 'I Love Starbucks'?" He ordered the Sour Salmon Roll (smoked salmon, fresh salmon and lemon), the tuna roll (of course) and the Puff Daddy. His favorite was the Sour Salmon Roll, it was my favorite too.

The boys pick a present for the non-birthday boy on their birthday (Keith picked flip flops for Patrick when it was Keith's birthday in April). Patrick picked a rolling Handy Manny backpack for Keith. Keith was very happy with Patrick's pick. Patrick was also very excited about his gifts, especially the Transformers. He was less excited about the new bike. He informed us that it was wasteful because he already has a bike.

He had a great day. His buddy Andrew was back at school, he got a cool hat, he ate sushi and root beer floats, his dad played Nerf darts with him, and he got to play with his neighbor buddies. Happy birthday to my little man.

I didn't slap you, I just high-fived your face!

According to the ever helpful developmental milestone email update from www.babycenter.com , my 16 month old (week two) is learning "which tricks get a laugh...and which bring...disapproval." Keith really should start reading these updates because Mama doesn't think the high-fives to the face are very funny.... Figure it out kid.

Mr. Keith Fox

We are all about the measurements this week. Keith is 16 months old and has acquired more shoes than his mother. My child has the widest feet in the world AND they seem to grow overnight. We finally relented and made a trip to Stride Rite with both boys. Patrick wanted new shoes for school next week and Keith had one pair of what I thought were size 5 Nikes but were actually size 6. Now I know why those shoes were the only shoes that fit (kind of).

Patrick got measured first. 11.5 WIDE. His Adidas were size 11 so not too bad. Keith was measured next... 6.5 almost a 7 EXTRA WIDE. Stride Rite should just call it freakishly wide or as wide as they are long.... The kid has good balance though. So we spent all of our money on shoes and headed home happy and poor.

Yesterday was Dr. Checkup day for Keith (may your well-baby check-ups out number the sick baby). We have two issues: the wait and Keith is deathly afraid of his doctor. We were escorted into the room uncharacteristically fast but waited forever to see the doctor and forever and a day to get shots. All told we were there for an hour and 40 minutes with about 25 minutes of actual care.

The minute the doctor came in Keith started screaming. That just set the stage for the screams after the shots. He was pretty miserable all day. Kevin (God Bless Him) did his Daddy Deal and took care of Keith the rest of the day while I went to the Bay Area.

Anyway, the measurements. The first round on the height was 31 1/4 inches, but we remeasured for 31 1/2 inches (we need every quarter inch) and 25 lbs. Both are right around the 50th percentile. And that head! Let's just say his head is way overachieving at the 90th percentile.

My baby is growing into a boy! Just look at him sitting up so big with Daddy and Patrick.

So long Express Jet, I hardly knew you.

I'm sorry did the glow of my "good travel karma" hurt your eyes? So you all know that I travel... A LOT. I begrudgingly agreed to travel to The LBC (where there is indeed so much drama) last Friday.

After so many years of traveling in and out of Sacramento on Southwest, I am a travel snob. Especially prior to the 911 security matrix.... I once traveled all the way to South Carolina (or North Carolina, I can't remember) on my charm and good looks. No state issued identification necessary. The only caveat was if there was some kind of terrorist attack I would be stranded.
The point is that Southwest was (and I assume still is) easy... lots of flights in and out etc.

Traveling out of FAT (a.k.a. the Fresno Yosemite International Airport) on the other hand is a pain in the caboose. I make so many turn-around one-day trips that between the inconvenient flight times and the long security lines it is better to gas up old Eddie the Expedition and drive. That is until Express Jet came into my life. CHEAP, EASY, FLIGHTS TO SO CAL!!! Including the worst drive of all: San Diego!!! What more can a girl ask for?

Express Jet is the ONLY reason I agreed to go to Long Beach for a Friday meeting. $169 bucks and I am in, out and on with my life. The catch: the plane was scheduled to arrive at 9:47 and my meeting started at 10:00 am. The plane left at 4:00 pm and my meeting was over at... 4:00 pm.

Now, I have traveled enough to have had my share of "bad travel karma". Some of you might remember the: "I'm stranded in Dallas and I'm pregnant" incident. And certainly the more recent: we changed your connecting flight and didn't tell you debacle. I was overdue for the universe to pay it back. SO...

Express Jet delivered me to Long Beach early! I walked into the meeting (after a nasty little incident with a cabbie who was distracting me from my mission.) 7 minutes early. (By the way, Long Beach airport is portable buildings. Literally, portables. What is up with that?) I delayed my departure from the meeting as long as possible and arrived at the airport at 3:37 pm for my
4:00 pm flight. I figured (and was advised) that LAX it is not and 30 minutes would be plenty of time to make the flight. Mind you all airports advise arriving no later than 90 minutes prior to your flight, blah blah blah. I was too late to check in electronically and I feared the worst. But miraculously the flight was delayed 30 minutes. Perfect. It seriously does not get any better than that folks. Just enough time to check in, buy two more magazines, call Kevin and get on the flight.

That was the last time I will be able to fly Express Jet. They are pulling out of Fresno because of high jet fuel costs (WAH!). Here is an illustration of what that means in my life. I need to be in San Diego in November. With Express Jet the direct flight would have taken about an hour. Now if I want to fly to San Diego I will have to fly through LAX (no more direct flights) so I might as well walk.


Goodbye Express Jet. I may never see the inside of the Fresno Airport again.

Kevin and the Case of the Dead Grass

Lately the only thing growing at Serenity are boys. Everything green is brown and crunchy according to Patrick. We planted new butterfly bushes that are all dead. Our grass in the backyard has been regularly tortured by Murphy and Marley and seems to have given up the ghost. And perhaps most disturbing the front yard is struggling too! It is a bad sign when your lawn is starting to resemble the foreclosure yard.

In late Spring we had new concrete poured in the front and back. So we turned off the sprinklers....and forgot to turn them back on. It wasn't a big deal because the rain was still taking care of business. But even after they were turned back on Kevin was constantly having to test the sprinklers because the lawn was still dying.

Half a dozen triple digit days later, Kevin cracked the case. Someone had cut the wire for the sprinklers for the lawn in the front. Who would do such a thing? We don't know but we want him prosecuted!!!

So grass+water=GREEN GRASS Happy Callahans, we live happily ever after right? Wrong! On a trip to the zoo with the boys and his dad, Kevin was recounting the case of the dead grass to Pat. He told him that someone had clipped the wire. Patrick (God Bless Him) chimes in with, "Daddy, I clipped the wire. Remember yesterday (anything that isn't right now is yesterday to Patrick so he was talking about months ago) I had your clippy things and we were clipping so I clipped the wire."

Case closed. Now we just need to find out what is wrong with our gimpy tree and dead butterfly bushes.

Hello, Maslow.....We're going to need an amendment to the hierarchy

Kevin and I love the differences between our boys. Patrick never attached to any item to soothe him at night (or during the day for that matter). He loved his Clancy Bear and slept with him every night (and puked on him several times). But Patrick's love for Clancy is nothing compared to Keith's love of the SILKIES. This 8x8 square of fabric (regular fabric on one side and silky material on the other) is pure love for Keith Fox.

His first silky is actually a hand-me-down that Patrick never used (Kaidie bought it for Patrick before he was born). His second silky came from Devre and Steve last August. By November '07 he was hooked on the silky. To keep things sane we bought two more. So the inventory includes: two blue silkies from the aunties (these stay in the bed), a yellow Tigger silky for the car, and a white bear silky for Grandma's. He also has two friends that he picked out on Target trips somewhere along the way: a pink baby (with a ribbon around her neck that he has stretched enough to loop his finger and drag her through the house) and a bear with bunny ears (obviously named Bunny-Bear). His friends definately play second fiddle to the silkies but it is the culmination of the silkies, the friends and three perfect blankets that really get him in the mood for sleeping.

The rule generally is that he can't take silkies out of the bed, but his friends can come with him. The whole purpose of this rule is making life easier... First of all if he drags his silky out of bed, when he gets back in bed the silky is missing. Second, he should only have the silky for soothing not for playing. It is usually a screaming fit when the silky gets left in the crib.

So here's the thing: at some point over the last week or so Keith's cognition has started working over time. Climbing up the stairs is not a new thing. But he recently started climbing up the stairs again AND he knows how to climb back down. The difference is now he is climbing up and down those stairs with a purpose. Keith Callahan sneaks up to his room and sticks his arm into his crib to snatch a silky out!

The only thing funnier than my 16 month old smirking at me as he sneaks back down stairs with his silky? The day the silkies, the blankets and the friends all get washed. He throws me the attitude all day when I wash his stuff. Standing at the washing machine wailing, desperately making silkies out of anything laying around (Patrick's underwear, rags, a comforter). **He's trying to open the washing machine to rescue his silky in the picture.

We even took pictures with his silky when he turned one! Not because I wanted to but because he wouldn't give it up. He'll give it up someday I am sure but for now he sleeps all night (13 hours) so God bless the SILKIES.

Mommy's Little Helper (mostly)

Today was one of those days with too much to do and too little time to do it. We had a brief reprieve from birthday parties and other social obligations. A little bird (Jack Kuhtz) had made a comment earlier in the week about the state of my vehicle (the carpet was orange from cracker crumbs). Patrick was completely out of short pants(tm Kevin). And all (four) bathrooms needed to be cleaned.

The good news is Patrick made my dreams come true this week. I have been waiting for this whole "I can prepare my own food" milestone for quite some time. On Friday, amid the running late chaos of the morning, Patrick declared that he was going to have a peanut butter and honey sandwich for breakfast and he would be making it himself. By the time I got downstairs he was mid-sandwiching making, the only thing I did was help spread the peanut butter and cut the sandwich. Gold star for Patrick!

So we went into this crazy Saturday with the right attitude of partnership and perfection (AHEM). Patrick was quite helpful (stripping the sheets off his bed, vacuuming the car, cleaning the playroom, sorting laundry, cleaning windows). So here is where it all goes a little sideways. We were at the end of the day. We had cleaned the entire downstairs, taken pictures at Magic Moments and gone grocery shopping (5 minutes into the trip Patrick announces that KEITH HAD A B.M.!). We were all tired. There were only three jobs left: 1) Put away the groceries; 2) Feed and water the dogs; and 3) Showers for the boys. Patrick's job was to take care of the dogs while I unloaded the groceries. So what does he do? Climbs on the dog house and bosses his brother around for 10 minutes.

Here's the thing. I have really high expectations for the kid and he loves being my little shadow. Sometimes he references his childhood as if he is all grown-up, "when I was a little boy I....."
So we did what we do.....THE HOKEY POKEY!!!

Where a kid can be a kid.

Welcome to Our Blog

So here we are......
I am starting this blog because I love Devre and she told me that I needed to start a Blog for the family. She's blogging over at http://rossbatesllp.blogspot.com/

Now I have to be compelling and witty on a regular basis which I usually charge for so consider yourself lucky. Love to you all. Updates soon, I'm just warming up.