Priceless pout

Coates family rule #7: 

Food stays at the table

All I had to say was, "Syphr." and he knew. He stopped in his tracks and began his pouting stance. He had gotten half way across the room, he couldn't back down now. I kept repeating his name, and asking him to take his bread to the table, but he didn't budge. 

I slowly reached for the camera, and crept very slowly closer and closer, still saying, "Syphr....." He put on his defensive pouting face. Looks like Talan is rubbing off on him.

When I got too close, he panicked and ran as fast as he could, then cried when I brought him back to the table. Such a good try. I'm sure he will try again at dinner.

Day 359 and 360 of 2011 as Ashton calls it

We spent Christmas Eve with good friends,  completely frozen, and fending off kids who were trying to steal our view at National Harbor because they got there too late to get a good spot. We were waiting for a good while in the wind chill for a chance to see Santa skii before he headed off on his present delivering journey (although I'm pretty sure he probably should have already been gone by that point). Anyway, after 30 minutes of watching the Christmas characters no one really cares about slowly ride by and wave, 2 screaming 1 year olds, waves from the boats crashing on the rocks and splashing the very much polluted and nasty Potomac River on us, we scrapped the plan and headed for our cars. Santa is overrated. 

After naps for everyone, we headed down the street to have dinner with our good friend who froze with us at National Harbor, and completely stuffed ourselves full. Ashton was in heaven with both ham and shrimp on the table. He ate enough for about 4 people. 

I was worried matching footie jamas would not go over well with the older boys, but it was a huge hit. Talan said, "I ALWAYS WANTED THESE KIND OF JAMAS!" Ashton said, "AWESOME!!" Syphr didn't say anything, but he did immediately give me his jamas meaning he would like them on right then. 

I didn't get many pictures Christmas morning. I underestimated the chaos of 3 super excited kids, presents, and keeping kids contained in a present wrapping area that was visible to our webcam so Brad could see via skype. 

Santa brought us a PS3 this year, and a vinyl hopscotch on the floor. He was hoping to help me in my quest to make my house kid friendly for the winter to minimize boredom and whining. He succeeded.

Syphr got to do the honors of opening the first present of the morning. He took one little tear of paper off, saw it was something he could climb in and didn't care to know anything else. He just wanted to get in. The boys had to take the rest of the paper off because Syphr was not getting out any time soon. He now spends most of his days sitting in his Buzz Lightyear spaceship. Not moving, just sitting.

Talan got a plasma car. This has to be the most fun car around. It is propelled by turning the handle bars back and forth. All 4 of us have been caught riding on it several times a day. Love having wood floors.

Did I mention my goal to have my house like a playground for the winter? You can't have a playground without a slide. 

We all sure did miss having Brad here with us, but we are ever so grateful for Skype and its ability to make our family as complete as it can be right now. 

I love Christmas. And, I love my family.

Sometimes this laid-back kid just wants to get messy. And he will wait patiently for his opportunity to dump an entire bag of chips and smash them with delight. 

Sax man

As if it wasn't enough of a reality check that Ashton is just one grade shy of middle school, but now the reality that he is old enough to be in band, and have concerts. His first concert was really well. It took these kids a couple months to actually get most of their instruments since the school didn't provide enough (maybe they should lay off the purchase of Ipads, and add to their instrument stock. Just my opinion). That said, these kids not only learned how to play their instruments, but also learned three songs for this concert in about 6 weeks. I don't know how his music teacher did it, but she did. 

Ashton's playing has gotten much better. He rarely makes my ear drums bleed anymore which is great. Most of all, he really enjoys playing the sax. Maybe it is because he thinks his 15 year old sax playing cousin is the coolest on the planet, but whatever gets him to practice without my constant nagging.

No turning back

It is official.

I overcame my fear and hesitation over that extremely terrifying 'submit registration' button, and will be running in the DC Rock 'n Roll half marathon in March.

Can I run 13.1 consecutive miles? Absolutely not! But, I will be able to in 4 months. My goal is not to be fast, but to do something I never thought I could do. Finish.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We can't wait for Christmas around here. Unless your name is Syphr and you cried for all the photos and decoration placing, there is no better way to jump into the Christmas spirit than decorating a 4 foot palm tree, and hanging monster stockings while listening to Twisted Sisters Christmas album.

Meet my son, Harry Potter

Ashton has always enjoyed reading, but it wasn't until the middle of September that he became obsessed. Six months ago, if I asked him to go read for a while and give the playstation a break, he would have a woe is me episode. He liked reading, once he was actually reading, but would not do it voluntarily.  Literature lazy is what I call it.

As of September, when he picked up the first Harry Potter book, I can now call him a bookworm. He rarely removes his nose from his book, and lots of times I have to actually ask him to stop reading. It is all he wants to do. The playstation has taken a backseat, and really he hasn't even asked to play. I began to love this new found hobby of his as he is flying through the 7 book series. Then came the backlash.

I say backlash only because I'm pretty sure Ashton actually thinks he is Harry Potter.

I wish I had been writing all of these down, but a minimum of 4 times a day Ashton compares something to, or references Harry Potter.  It started off every now and then, but these days, as he is half way through the last book of the series, it is extreme.

Here are a few things that have happened over the past few months that show his extreme love for all things Harry Potter. Just so you know I'm not crazy:

He was asked to write an essay over Thanksgiving break about something he was most thankful for. He thought for a while, and decided to make a list of his top 5 things he is most appreciative of, then narrow down that list. I can see why it was a hard choice.


1. Harry Potter
2. JK Rowling (author of Harry Potter)
3. Mary GrandPre (illustrator of Harry Potter)
4. Family
5. friends

I guess I should just be happy family made the list. He ended up choosing books, because then he could write about all of the top 3 things. 


Daily, Ashton casts spells. The only one I know is 'Avada Kedavra' which has been Avada Kedavra'd from being used inour house as it is the killing curse. He has tried several times to recreate the spells in Harry Potter, only to have them be unsuccessful in real life...yet he keeps trying.


He spent at least an hour writing his own Parseltongue (snake language). He then spoke this language for the rest of the day. Everyone went to bed early that day.


Ashton was recently elected to student council, which we are super proud about. Only he claims he has really been elected into the Ministry of Magic. 


Often, he makes attempts to pass his Harry Potter robes off as a jacket. It has not yet worked. 


His Christmas list was about 5 pages long, and 98% of the things he wrote down were Harry Potter things. 


While at his last ortho appointment, he came into the waiting room threw up his hands and shouted "GRIFFANDOR!". I was puzzled, as were the other people in the waiting room. Then he explained he had chosen Harry Potter's griffandor house colors of red and yellow for his braces. Since he has planned out which house colors he will represent next. I believe the order is Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, then Slytherin.


Last night we were watching Deal or No Deal, and it happened to be celebrity week. The celebrity of the night was Cedric the Entertainer. When he came on screen Ashton said, "Well...he's going to die." It took me a really long time to figure out what he was talking about and how he even knows who Cedric the Entertainer is. Finally I figured out Cedric is the name of a Harry Potter character who kicks the bucket. 


In the past 3 months, Ashton has read a total of 3,613 pages and will be much closer to the 4,000 page mark once he is done with this 7th book.  He now says any book less than 800 pages is an easy read. 

Ashton thought he was hilarious when he gave lego Voldemort bunny ears. 

While I will never complain of Ashton's love and enthusiasm for books, I do hope that the next series he chooses and somewhat of a smaller backlash.

Sigh...

It is slightly alarming to see a refill of Talan's medications handed to me through the CVS pharmacy window in multiple bags. It is even slightly more alarming that this supply, minus the Epi Pens, will only last us about 6 months. 

Good thing we have insurance!

Okay then...

Someone apparently found the camera on my iPad. 

And, judging by all the pictures of the floor, ceiling, and small fingers, I'm guessing that someone also taught the 4 year old how to use the camera. Excellent. 

Holiday Trilogy

Thanksgiving was a special day for 3 reasons this year. 

1. It was obviously Thanksgiving. One of the few days a year where there are no limits to my fat, sugar, or carbohydrate consumption. 
2. Brad's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. Not only was his birthday on his all time favorite holiday, but he also turned the big 30. I had great plans of over-exaggerating...i mean celebrating his age, as he is half way to 60, but the Army thought it best to send him to the sandbox to party with the camels. Instead he ran a 5k which he renamed, The Brad Coates Birthday Fun Run, and missed the last piece of pumpkin pie at chow time. I guess I should start learning how to make pumpkin pie before his 2 week visit in the spring. 
3. Young Syphr turned 18 months old. 

Likes:

• baths
• destroying
• running
• being outside
• binkas
• wearing shoes
• watching Caillou
• Songs: If you're happy and you know it, and ring around the rosie
• milk
• chicken nuggets, veggie chips, crackers, bananas, pop tarts and strawberries. Those are the things I am positive he will eat at any time of the day. Everything else is a gamble. 

Dislikes:

• when brothers pester, but they better start watching out. Syphr fights back. 
• diaper changes
• car rides longer than 25 minutes
• strangers
• inhalers, spacers and nebulizers. Any medicines used to improve his asthma, which we aren't allowed to call asthma until he turns around 7 or has multiple recurring trips to the ER. For now we will just call it an occasional narrowing of his airways resulting in difficulty breathing, and slight to moderate wheezing, which we treat with an inhaler and nebulizer....but its not asthma. Got to love doctors and their insane logic.

Talents:

• putting on his own boots.
• saying: mama, dada, bye-bye, hi, yeah, no, yay, la-la, vroom, ball, uh-oh, knock-knock. While his word usage is not huge at this point, he makes sure to get his point across. When he wants more milk he brings me his cup and shouts MAMA...MAMA...MAMA. When he is tired, or sad, he sticks his finger in his mouth, meaning he wants his binka. When he is ready for bed he shakes the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and shouts, MAMA! 
• throwing fits. He's become great at throwing himself back when he is in my arms, when I'm least expecting it, diving on the floor to cry, and screaming while running straight into the wall. 
• growing super awesome curls on 75% of his head. I hope they stick around. 
• jumping
• going up and down stairs safely 
• doing chores: he is a great duster, and occasional dishwasher unloading helper. 

We are so happy to have this little guy in our family. He has the sweetest and most cuddly personality, and despite my rant of his tantrums, he's incredibly mellow....as long as you don't cross him the wrong way. He loves his brothers, and wants to do everything and be in everything they are. Its been so fun, thus far, to watch his personality grow and we can't wait to see how different he will be in another 6 months. 

How do you wear a hat?

According to Talan:

This is how not awesome guys wear a hat, but sometimes daddy wears his hat like this.

This is how cool and awesome guys wear a hat. I wear my hat like that because I am cool and awesome.....AND fast.

This is a not cool guy. You just should not wear a flip side hat.

This is an awesome hat guy.

One day Syphr is going to get big and come after you Talan

That day is today.

Talan took the basketball away from Syphr one too many times. 

At first Talan thought it was funny. Then Syphr wouldn't get up. Syphr was not crying, but screaming at the top of his lungs and focusing all his energy on pressing down as hard as he could so Tal couldn't get up. 

                                       

Talan then started to realize it is not fun with a toddler sitting on your face. He tried to push Syphr off, but  as I personally know each morning when Syphr wakes me up by sitting on my face, he is freakishly strong.

In nearly full panic mode, Talan pushes his body in a circle with his feet. Syphr enjoys the ride.

Then he added a full body roll to his pivot which landed him with success. I think Syphr feels justified, and Talan hasn't gotten in his bubble in the last 10 minutes. Success all around.

Brace-face

Today, Ashton traded his spacing torture device which lived on the roof of his mouth for the past few months, for some starter braces which might also be classified as a torture device. 

Here is what Ashton has to say about his braces:

"They feel horrible. They feel really really horrible on my teeth. They squeeze them and then they pop my teeth out sometimes. The end."

Okay, maybe I should ask him again when his mouth isn't sore.

Happy Halloween!

Field Trip!!!

Today Talan had his very first field trip of his school career to the pumpkin patch. Even better his best friend Benson, who is in the same class, was able to tag along with us. Even better than that was the fact that it rained last night making our trip super muddy. 

The boys must not have fully understood what a field trip was, because every time they saw someone from their class, and most especially when they saw their teacher, Mrs. Rivera, walking around they became practically unglued with excitement. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" "DID YOU KNOW I WAS GOING TO COME HERE TODAY TOO?" Those were a few of the things they shouted at their friends while jumping up and down and squealing as though they were teenage girls at the midnight showing of the new Twilight movie.  

I've decided pumpkin patches in Virginia and Kansas are quite different. There was no corn maze, although I'm sure if you want to spend more time in the car with two 4 year olds and a 17 month old whose most favorite thing is to make the craziest noises they can think of over and over and over, you could probably find one. Pumpkins were neatly contained in large bins instead of having to wander in the fields to find the pumpkin calling your name. The hay ride contained no actual hay making it more of a tractor pull. I don't think these boys cared. They had such a blast. Too bad Ashton had school. No fun!