Jealous Anyone?

I have always loved to cook. What I DO NOT love is the seven day a week grind of deciding what to cook for dinner, and the inevitable dishes and pot-scrubbing that follow every meal. This is why my Dinner Group could possibly be the smartest thing I've gotten myself involved in this past year. My two neighbors, Luci & Kirsten, drop off an AMAZING dinner to my house two nights a week, and then allow me to cook for their families one night a week. 1 night of cooking = smaller grocery lists, 2 nights of great food, no dishes, and new recipes to boot. This picture is of Luci's Carbonara Pasta, which I liked so much I ate it for dinner and twice for lunch last week (the picture really doesn't do it justice). And Kirsten has introduced us to the joys of Indian Naan bread, homemade German noodles, and a fruit salad that Will says rivals his family's favorite "bionicos" in Mexico. If we ever move from our condo, the list of factors to consider for a new place will now have to include: two neighbors who will tolerate my own cooking and bring me food that is far more fabulous. It's a tough order to fill, so for now we will just eat and enjoy as long as I can keep this good thing going!

And there, I've done it, two posts in a row NOT about Ethan & Luke!

18

My baby brother had a birthday this week, so this is a post dedicated to him. Here are 18 memories & facts about Dave in honor of his 18th:

1. When Dave was about six months old my sister saw a TV commercial for a shampoo called Timote. She thought the name was funny and starting calling Dave it. For some reason the nickname stuck and the whole family called him "Timmy" for about 2 or 3 years.
2. As a toddler Dave liked to escape and undress himself. Once he combined both of these and the neighbor up the street returned him to our house after he had climbed over the backyard fence, stripped off his clothes, and started running through their front yard sprinklers. We didn't even know he was gone.
3. Dave's first sentence was "Let's Go Fly," referring to the song in Mary Poppins. He watched that video so many times the film got worn down and eventually snapped in half.
4. One Christmas Dave was so excited about getting a Power Ranger toy that he actually threw up.
5. Once Dave held my Mom hostage in the driveway by powering up the garden hose and standing between her and the front door. She finally had to charge him and get soaking wet in order to get in.
6. We once found a cassette tape in which Dave had recorded himself singing a song he made up entitled the "The Robe of Light." Apparently the new bathrobe he got for Christmas had magical superhero powers when you put it on.
7. He named his pet rat Frisby after the children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh.
8. When Dave was ten he finished off an entire adult-sized portion of Outback Steak House ribs, much to the amazement of us and our waiter.
9. Dave is amazingly well-read. He reads books for pleasure that most people would only read if forced by a teacher for school.
10. Dave has insomnia, which aids in the well-read talent.
11. Dave won the San Diego County wrestling championship as a freshman in high school.
12. On the reading comprehension section of the ACT Dave only missed one question, scoring a 35 out of a 36.
13. Dave will be a freshman at Brigham Young University this Fall. They admitted him before they even got his high school counselor recommendation.
14. Dave absolutely cannot tell you the order of the months of the year (I know this appears to be in conflict with #12 & #13, but it is true!).
15. Dave will not wear flip-flops, even to the beach and even on our vacation to Hawaii.
16. Dave and his friend Adam like to play chess on weekends for fun.
17. Dave has inherited my old Mazda Protege - but he learned to drive on the same Mazda minivan I did.
18. This past Christmas we put Ethan & Dave together in the guest room in my parents house. Ethan woke up terrified about 3 am every night because he thought Dave was "scary." But, by day he loves his "Uncle D" and can't wait to play with him while we're on our trip. He will be missed when he leaves in the Fall.

Science & Sesame Street

Yesterday was one of those wide-open days on the calendar so I decided to take the boys to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana (yep, the big black cube building you see off the freeway on the way to Disneyland). I think they are ready to make this place their second home they liked it so much. I was a little worried they would be too young for it, but when we saw the Sesame Street themed exhibit all fears were put to rest. Any Mom out there who's watched a lot of Sesame Street understands the sheer delight of two toddlers getting to see a life-size recreation of Elmo's World.
Ethan decides to make himself at home.
This was in the "Hooper's Store" section. Ethan reminded me of that horrible old TBS game show where the people have 30 seconds to fill their shopping carts with as many items as possible. (I remember always being convinced that I could go faster if given the chance to be a contestant). He was a man on a mission! Maybe he's heard the phrase "Mommy's hurrying!" one too many times when I'm trying to get the real life grocery shopping done.This picture was of a cute interactive display where a child is supposed to kick the soccer ball through the net and hit the buzzer on the back wall. Luke would have none of it. He could not understand why he couldn't also pick up, carry around, and throw this ball. I turned around for one moment and this picture below is what I saw:
By some amazing feat of will power Luke fit his entire body through a small six inch tear in the netting of this soccer goal so he could get the ball. I had to practically lay on the floor and use full body strength to wedge him back out and unleash his grip on the ball. He struggled so much that by the time I pulled him out he had little pink carpet burns on both cheeks. I am glad we provided entertainment for the other parents watching me do this. Luckily this was our only "incident" at the Science Center.
This was upstairs, where some inspired person decided to combine a bunch of play equipment with the science exhibits. I'm sure my boys understand the ocean better now that they've gone down the submarine slide 50 times each.
We ended the outing with the dinosaurs outside. What could be more fun than sliding down a Brontosaurus tail? Of course, the true success of the Science Center for me was seeing how quickly both boys fell asleep on the drive home--meaning long afternoon naps! They were happily exhausted.

A Few Words From Ethan . . .

First thing this morning:

Me: Hi Ethan, Good Morning.
Ethan: Hola, Mama!

As we were leaving playgroup:

Ethan: Where's Lukey?
Me: He's coming Ethan, just get in the car.
Ethan: Mom! Don't leave our Lukey!

After lunch:

Me: Look Ethan, I got you the Finding Nemo DVD today.
Ethan: Oh, I so lucky. I love Nemo.

After flushing the toliet:

Ethan: It's all gone! Bye, Bye!

While we're playing:

Ethan: Mom, what's Lukey's name?
Me: Umm, well Lukey's name is Lukey.
Ethan: Oh. I Ethan Bollard.
Me: Yes, and Lukey is Luke Bollard.
Ethan: No, he's Lukey.

La Salsa Is Yummy

This week we discovered our "little" Luke is not so little after all. At his 18 months appointment he weighs 2 1/2 pounds more than Ethan did at his 2 year appointment--putting him in the 90th percentile in weight and height. From these pictures you can tell why--he loves to eat! While Luke was eating this lunch Ethan walked by and said, "Oh, Got Beans, Luke?" There's an understatement. Luckily we had already stripped Luke's clothes off due to some puddle jumping at the park earlier this morning. How do you like Luke's special smile in the bottom two pictures? That's our boy!

Less Than 2 Weeks!

New Camera

So we got a new camera--goodbye grainy, out of focus, red-eyed images, and hello to a new video feature where the people are actually recognizable. Will shot this on Tuesday while fiddling with the camera's new features and editing software. Listen carefully to Ethan talking to Luke at the end--he usually only uses this phrase in reference to cars or candy, so I'm glad to hear he holds Luke in such high esteem. Hopefully this works, this is my first attempt to blog a video!

Future Member of KISS?

This is what Ethan did to entertain himself while I was in the shower this morning. This was right after I told Katie last week that my kids hadn't figured out how to unscrew make-up containers yet--obviously he's mastered that skill now. It took about half a bottle of eye make-up remover and some tears to get him looking semi-normal again. I will say that if Ethan had been a girl, his eyelashes have great potential! I must go hide my mascara now.

Where The Wild Things Are

In keeping with our theme of "first visits to . . ." for these boys, we spent Thursday at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. Our favorites were the butterfly exhibit, a huge atrium filled with hundreds of free-flying butterflies, and the newly remodeled Journey Into Africa, where we got to see the lions up close. The boys must have had a pretty good time because Ethan's asked me every morning since if we're going to see the animals.

Ethan carefully studied the butterfly guide then looked up and pointed to each kind flying around. He liked to study every sign and picture in front of the exhibits. I have a feeling this will be our museum-lover kid.

Luke & Grandma Rose checking out the butterflies. One landed on Lukey and we had to explain that he could not swat/squish it.

Ethan, again studying the park guide. We couldn't get this thing away from him the whole day.

Our own little wild animal had fun "roaring" with the lion.

It's Finally Happening!

The thing that EVERYONE said when we had another boy born just 13 months after the first one . . . they've become BEST FRIENDS!

(And, it's just more fun to eat your lunch outside).

Highlights, Lowlights

When Will comes home from work each day he always asks how my day was and often I'm at a loss for just how to accurately answer that seemingly simple question. I've decided that all toddlers (meaning the two that I deal with) are bipolar because things can swing from good to bad to really bad to good again all in the space of a few hours. Yesterday was the perfect example. Things started with a normal grocery store trip: twenty minutes of good behavior, ten minutes of not so good behavior and disaster averted when I swallowed my pride and asked the bakery employee if he could please find two more free sample cookies, which bought me 10 more minutes of good behavior to finish up. Next I decided to branch out from the normal parks we visit and took the kids over to Castle Park, an enormous city park with a concrete maze of castle drawbridges surrounding a bunch of play equipment. I failed to realize that it was Spring Break week for Irvine elementary schools AND the fact that Castle Park must be included in the routine for every day care program in the city because there were seriously 100 kids there. We did okay in the beginning, sticking to the safe kiddie swings, but eventually Ethan fell in with a pack of four year olds playing hide-and-seek and Luke wanted desperately to run into the middle of the basketball team practice on the other end of the park. After 2 hours I was ready to escape the chaos, much to the disappointment of both boys. I carried Ethan & Luke to the car (no easy feat!) while being simultaneously kicked, bitten, and screamed at by both of them. This is when I always start to wonder if the two hours of enjoyment they experienced is worth the ten minutes of meltdown at the end? Anyway, they calmed down in the car, we ate lunch, and Luke went down easily for his nap. A brief moment of peace for me! I decided to use the time to start planting my newly purchased tomato plant. I found this gorgeous green pot at the gardening store and am ready to tackle a new gardening project since I've managed to keep my impetians alive for three weeks now. All is going smoothly, until I hear Luke wailing upstairs. I run up there and find that he has thrown up his entire lunch in his bed and is pointing to his soggy sheets crying, "Mess!" After transferring Luke to the bathtub, stripping his bed, and returning downstairs, I find that Ethan has done some gardening of his own and snapped off one of my tomato plant branches. I try to keep my cool and deposit him into the bathtub along with Luke. This was the "lowlight" of the day. With an entire napless afternoon ahead of us, I decided we needed a change of venue and packed both freshly-washed kids into the car to go to Grandma's house. There is nothing like a good dose of Grandma Bollard and Uncle Charlie to put both boys in a good mood, which continued into the evening when they both actually entertained themselves long enough for me to make fajitas for dinner. It's hilarious to overhear them play. Ethan has become quite the bossy older brother telling Luke to "be careful," or "move over," or "line up the trucks!" Luke takes it all in stride. Things get progressively better after Will gets home (the highlight of my day!), and by the time both boys are being tucked into bed I can honestly smile and think to myself what good little people they really are and how blessed I am to spend my days raising them, in spite of the highs and lows.

I Jinxed It!

It seems that since I promised Easter pictures in my last post my boys somehow knew that they must thwart all attempts for me to get one good posed shot of them together, both looking at the camera, with reasonably pleasant looks on their faces (is that too much to ask?). The combination of getting out the door for 9:00 am church and all the extra sugar in their systems didn't help my cause. Anyway, here's a look at our candid Easter 2007 moments. We spent most of the day celebrating with my parents and extended family in San Diego.
My Mom knows how to set a beautiful table. Tulips are my favorite! And no, the bunnies are actually plastic and did not melt all over her table runner.
Not sure where Luke's shoes went and there was no way Ethan was going to look up from the book we gave him trying to keep him still on the window seat in hopes of a picture.
In keeping with his personality, Ethan meticulously placed the candy one by one in his basket during the egg hunt.
Why carry your basket with you can wheel it around in a wagon? Maybe his back was starting to hurt from lugging all that chocolate around? How resourceful.
This was the Easter highlight for my boys--a new basketball hoop in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard. Luke spent his time dunking the ball instead of hunting for eggs.
When Luke finally did spot an egg, aka a "ball", he threw it above his head over and over again.

Ghosts of Easter Past

Easter 2005
Ethan at 7 months

Easter 2006
Luke at 6 months and Ethan at 18 months

Stay tuned for Easter 2007 pics! My favorite time of year to get the kids all dressed up!

Piano Man

Among my Dad's many talents is the ability to play the piano beautifully. When I was five we moved into a house with a large living room and initially all that was in it was the piano. My sister Danielle and I were thrilled because this became our "dance room." Dad would play and play and Danielle and I, dressed in our girly nightgowns, would twirl, leap, and run circles around each other. It really was too bad when my parents put furniture in that room--a couch and a coffee table make doing a row of cartwheels more difficult, but we managed anyway. We used the arm of the couch as a jumping board of sorts to catapult ourselves through the air--very gracefully, of course. But, better than the dancing, were the nights when Dad would play after we had gone to bed and I would lay there and strain to listen until the classical music eventually lulled me to sleep. Each piece in his repertoire became completely imprinted in my mind in this way over the years. I remember being absolutely stunned the first time I heard one of "my Dad's" pieces being played over the intercom of a department store because I truly thought no else had ever played them but him, they had become so personal to me. Now it's a complete joy to watch my boys respond to Dad's magic in the same way Danielle and I did--by running crazily around their living room, or in Luke's case actually trying to play the piano with him. Maybe the musical talent has skipped a generation and we will have someone to follow in Dad's footsteps.

Tools of the Trade

I do not profess to be an extremely tidy housekeeper, but I'm pretty pleased by the discovery of these two products to help me out. Febreeze air freshener spray in Linen & Sky scent (thank you, Tori!) and the Swiffer Sweeper Vac.

Boring post, I know, but some of you may be thanking me later!

Happy Shower, Heidi!

I just returned from a weekend getaway to Provo with Will's mom, Christy. We wanted to help celebrate the upcoming arrival of Ben & Heidi's baby by attending Heidi's shower. Luke was my sidekick for the weekend, while Will & Ethan had some one-on-one time back in Irvine. It's always nostalgic to return to the place I went to college, met my husband, and spent a semester as a newlywed . . . so many memories come back to me every time I return (I must be getting old and sappy!). As usual, Luke made his presence memorable by throwing up in my lap while Heidi opened her gifts and dumping a cup of apple juice in my lap on the flight home, but overall he was a good little traveler. It was nice to have a change of pace and enjoy some time with the family. We're looking forward to this Summer when both of Will's brothers will start jobs in California and live closer to us. It will be a new generation of Bollard boys running around together.

Here's some of the Bollard cousins: Brooke, Katie, Molly, Candace and Courtney.














We also spent time visiting with Will's Grandmother, Marilyn. Lukey had a blast teasing her cat with a ball of string.