*Sigh*... When is it gonna be Christmas again?

…is what Zeke said to me in a frustrated tone right before bed last night. HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY!!

At the rate we are going, this might be the last time we post in 2014 so maybe it was an appropriate comment.

You see Zeke is obsessed with Larry Boy. Positively OBSESSED. He currently owns two Larry-Copters, three sets of the Larry Boy Mr. Potato Head doll, and three Larry Mobiles -one of which we ordered off Ebay for his 4^th birthday. It has a button that you push which causes the wheels to pop off and wings to come out of the sides of the car. We have five Larry Boy figurines, three Alfreds (LarryBoy’s asparagus sidekick), one plush Larry Boy, one plush Thingamabob and one plush Ricochet (Larry Boy’s other superhero friends.) Jake and I have constructed approximately 150, 000 Larry caves out of anything from cardboard boxes (our usual medium) to Megablocks, a wooden toy barn, living room furniture or the stool the kids stand on when they brush their teeth. And sometimes we have gotten pre-tty creative. Zeke is rather specific about the design he’s going for and gets somewhat heated when our construction doesn’t turn out the way he had hoped. “That isn’t right!!!,” may often be heard soon after your best efforts have been completed. And as Jake so accurately put it to me today, “You could’ve saved yourself the time and just hit yourself in the head with a baseball bat!” We get going with the design and construction though and I end up taking it on as somewhat of a personal challenge. Zeke will play with the finished product for approximately a day and a half before he thinks it’s time for us to redesign and rebuild.

Zeke Is not only specific about the Larry cave. He defines the Larry Mobiles by how they appear in the different Larry Boy movies. Much like some people might differentiate between a ’83 and ’84 Trans Am, Zeke differentiates between the ‘Rumorweed’ and the ‘Fib’ Larry Mobiles. In recently re-watching ‘The Rumorweed’ Zeke decided that none of his Larry Mobiles were accurately enough constructed and that he needs one where the wheels pop off and not two but FOUR wings fly out of the sides of the car and of course the only way to acquire such a toy (which of course does not actually exist) is to write to Santa and include specific directions (handwritten by Zeke in the form of squiggly lines) for construction and Santa will of course get to work straight away and come Christmas it will be waiting for him under the tree. Hence the frustration last night before bed.

That aside, we returned yesterday from what is becoming our 4^th of July tradition- a trip to the Timber Ridge Lodge and Water Park at the Grand Geneva. We spend a couple of days just the four of us playing at the water park, riding the trolley, playing games at the arcade. Then we head home and do some small at home fire works (Joe Martin style!) and just hang out as a family. It was very fun.

Also-as far as this blog is concerned- we missed both kids birthdays!! Zeke turned 4. The day before his birthday was “Bie Day.” He always referred to his pacifier as his “Bie.” We told him he had to give it up before he turned 4, so he was allowed to trade it in for a toy of his choosing. At that time he was in to other things besides Larry Boy so he chose Knapford Station for his wooden Thomas tracks. For his actual birthday we had a small joint birthday get together for him and Papa Dave.

This year was Ayla’s golden birthday. 7 on the 7^th!!! She had a small get together with two of her school friends. We took them swimming at the Prairie Athletic Club and then to Rocky’s for pizza and games. We also had a family gathering on her actual birthday as well.

Zeke turned 4 and is suddenly a whole different kid. And I mean kid! He was still hanging on to some of his babyish-ness, (how’s that for a word?) but when he turned 4 it all went away and we now have a little boy on our hands! Busy and talkative and opinionated and a real pain to his big sister at times! He is still such an affectionate person. He will come up to you randomly and say, I just need to give you a hug and a kiss.” And then he will. J If he is sitting next to you he will nuzzle you and tell you how much he loves you. He still meows like a kitten fairly often, generally that is how you can tell if he is feeling happy or like snuggling.

A few other Zeke things I’d like to mention:

-His use of the word cozy. He uses it a lot and boy is it cute. “Now we are nice and cozy.” “I’ll put on my jammies and then I’ll be nice and cozy.”

-His use of the phrases “this’ll do the trick!” and “how do you think?”

“I know! This’ll do the trick! We can use this tape to help hold the door on the Larry Mobile! How do you think?!”

-He calls scissors “zizzors.”

-He is never lacking in enthusiasm. When he is really excited he gestures and claps and jumps as he is talking or describing something. Man is it great. I wish I could get a video of it to show you.

-He is also constantly drawing Larry Boy, and the Larry Mobile. Until just this last week they were literally the only things he would ever draw. He has them perfected and draws all the details. It is really very impressive for a 4 year old (following in the foot steps of big sis when it comes to drawing skills) In every set of markers we have bought him only the Larryboy colors get used.

-Until last week Zeke would put his Larry Boy Mr. Potato Head to bed every night. He has a little bed he made out of a shoebox with a little pillow and blanket on it that he took from Ayla’s baby doll stuff.  He would put little pajamas on Larry and then lay him in his little bed and then take the eyes out of his head (Mr. Potato Head style) because that meant his eyes were closed and he was sleeping.

-Zeke loves to swing. He will swing for hours if you let him. I’ll work in the garden or Jake will mow the lawn and all the while Zeke will be quietly swinging on the swing set at the back of the yard- happy as a clam.

-Funny thing: I starting typing this blog on Sunday. It is now a week later and Zeke has discovered Minions. They are the little yellow guys from the ‘Despicable Me’ movies. Suddenly Larry Boy is old news!! I never thought I’d see the day! How quickly things change. One thing I can say for sure is that when Zeke is in to something, he is in to it completely, like nothing else in the world exists. At Christmas it was Thomas the Tank Engine. Then for a short time it was Louie the cat (a toy he has and also the cat at Renea’s house) Then it was Larry Boy and now it seems the Minions are taking over.

And now on to Ayla.

With the end of the school year came a whole new Ayla. She was a pretty unhappy kid for a while towards the end of winter (who wasn’t though after the winter we had!) She was just having a lot of frustration and anger, lots of acting out (only at home thankfully) and arguing. But come the end of the school year we just had this totally different-much happier- kid! She changed so much so quickly. We have seen this pattern a lot throughout Ayla’s life. She struggles quite a bit for a while and then suddenly changes in big ways. The struggle seems to precede a developmental jump. Now she seems so grown up and says such grown-up things like, “I’m not being sarcastic,” or “technically...,” or "literally...," things you would not expect a 7 year old to say.

Ayla’s newest obsession is My Little Pony- Friendship is Magic. It is a show that has spun off into an entire line of toys, clothing, and games. Man is the girl into it. She eats, sleeps and breath My Little Pony. And honestly, we are so grateful. For the first time EVER Ayla has something that seems to really capture her imagination in a good way. Something that she actually likes to play on her own and asks to be left alone while playing. She draws ponies. She writes pony stories. She has perfected impersonating the voices of the different ponies (ask her to do Shutterfly or Apple Jack-pretty cute!) And especially-she talks about ponies. She talks about their eye color. (“this doll has indigo eyes but on the show her eyes are violet and I think violet is the right color of her eyes and I don’t know why the people who made the doll didn’t just make them violet like they are on the show”) about their homes, about their temperaments, about what she thinks they would do or say in certain situations. It’s like the scene in Forest Gump when Bubba is describing to Forest all the different ways to prepare shrimp and the scene keeps changing and changing but Bubba is still talking about shrimp. That’s Ayla. Only with My Little Pony.

Other thank that, Ayla is becoming quite the biker and we have enjoyed taking her on some actual long bike rides. We spend a lot of time outside as a family in general. Earlier the spring Jake set up a place to play tennis with the kids and they are both really coming along with it! Zeke got his first real bike for his birthday. Ayla got roller blades for hers. Ayla rides her scooter a lot. Zeke loves to draw with sidewalk chalk.

They both like to draw quite a bit and you will find both of them busy at work on their next masterpiece. They both like to draw with us, too. “Mom, do you want to draw a yellow minion with me?” “Mom! Do you want to draw ponies?” So we have stacks and stacks of drawings of ponies and Larry Boy and now minions too!

One thing that Ayla and Zeke spend a lot of time doing is fighting with each other. They have officially reached that age where they have enough in common (like the constant need to drive the other one completely nuts) and enough different that they go at it. All. The. Time. Zeke has become the little brother that Jake and I swore we would never have. The one who finds it an enjoyable pastime to see how many ways and how quickly he can get his sister to get annoyed and start freaking out. Man he pushes her buttons, all the while with a mischievous little grin on his face. But man does she also overreact to everything! And she corrects him and nags him constantly! He can’t sing the lyrics to a song wrong or pretend a laundry basket is a car without being hounded. “ZEEEEEKE! It’s not a car! It’s a laundry basket!” “ZEEEKE! The song doesn’t go like that! IT goes like this! ZEEEEEEEEKKKE!” Ah. Good times.

Ayla is very specific and literal in general. When I mention that we went to the Grand Geneva she will correct me with, “Mom, it’s not the Grand Geneva. It’s the Timber Ridge Lodge and Water Park at the Grand Geneva.” (which is it’s actual name as listed on it’s logo.) We are met with corrections like this all the time.

Well, enjoy this little update into out life. Make sure to scroll down for another post containing more pictures. Enjoy!