Music Man

For the last two days Sean has been "writing songs" about the goings-on around him. Its so sweet to hear his little voice and hear his little thoughts put to tune--

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and he politely interrupted, saying,

"Excuse me, Mommy--I wrote a song about Mommies." Here it is:
(to any musical tune, as his changes from performance to performance):
"Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy, may I have some more milk please Mommy?"

Then he was duly excused from dinner and went to play with Jamesie--only to return to the table a few minutes later to report,
"Excuse me Mommy-I wrote a song about Jamesies"  Here it is:
"Jamesie Jamesie Jamesie--No! No! No!" 

Apparently the song about Jamesies and song about Mommies share the common thread of the most frequent thing he says to each of us:  begging me for more milk and telling Jamesie "no no." 

This morning we drove Cody into work and on the way home Sean informed me, "I wrote a song about cars and trucks"  Here it is (with appropriate pronunciation):
"Ca-hs and trucks are going so fast, Ca-hs and trucks are going so fast, that means its time to say good-moyning."

Then, without announcing this song, I heard him singing:
"Twinkle twinkle little star, I know what you are, up above the sky, you are like a diamond and a square and a rectangle." 

Sean also wrote a song about Daddies, but it just goes "Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy."  Still working on creativity. 

Just for fun

Our camera was broken over Easter, and I just got this picture from a friend....enjoy:

Summer 2011 Catch-up

I realized a startling fact today--Labor Day is NEXT weekend.  Summer is over already!  When did that happen!?  Denise's wedding was right before Memorial Day, the start of the summer, and that was oh, maybe two weeks ago, so how can it be the end of summer already??  Wow, does time fly when you're sweltering in 100 degree weather.

Speaking of weather, we made it through Hurricane Irene just fine yesterday--on the beach nonetheless.  High winds and awesome waves were about all we got--Cody even got in the waves and we let Sean put his feet in the water during what was supposed to be the worst of it, which wasn't much.  (FYI, if you're following Aubrey Anne's international travels at all, she did make it through Irene in Nassau, Bahamas unscathed... we are told all is well without many more details.)  We'll be watching the coverage at it moves up the east coast tonight though, and praying for all of our cousins from Maryland to Connecticut!

Speaking of cousins, this summer was full of them, and what a wonderful bunch of cousins we have.  From seeing piles of first, second and third cousins from both my mom and dad's sides at D's wedding, to roaming the waters of Lake Ontario with a Gaggle of Galloway cousins, to spending a glorious week at the beach with Sean and James' only first cousin, Eva, we have LOVED this summer of cousins.  I'll be doing a few summer updates, but in the interest of whittling down some of the 100's of pictures to a definable category-- here are some of the boys and their cousins--of many varying degrees:

First we have my cousin Bridget (aka "Bridget Girl" by sean, to distinguish her from our friend in Charleston Bridget) trying to teach Jamesie how to walk.  This was a main goal of most of the cousins at Knobby Knoll this year.  Unfortunately, goal was not met.

Here we have Bridget Girl otherwise transporting Jamesie.  Bridget is 7.  Many parenting norms went out the window this summer at different times. 

Next, Bridget's sister Meghan takes a try with Jamesie.  Good luck, Meg.  BTW, Meghan is on the U.S. National Juniors Rowing team.  She is amazing.

We all gathered in Northern New York this year for my cousin Kaitlyn's wedding.  She was a beautiful bride, and I loved her colors (hot pink :)).

Sean and Uncle Gabriel (aka "Unc") with their friend St. Francis.  Seannie and Unc may be in seminary together one day. Sean's saving a spot for him at the Vatican. 

Jamesie wore this face much of our vacations this summer-- he didn't particularly take to being passed around.  But he's so cute.

Two Brendans! Sean Brendan and Brendan Joseph (Joseph Sean will be pictured below to complete the Trifecta).

Not a cousin, but 2 uncles.  I just loved this pic anyway.  Shortly hereafter Uncle Tom sprayed some of his "smell nice" on Jamesie, and my baby smelled like my Junior Prom the rest of the week.

Joseph Sean and Sean Brendan discussing old-man things like the weather and Sponge Bob Squarepants (aka "Bob the Sponge" to Sean).

A gaggle.

A gaggle in the water.

A 13 year old cousin!  For those of you who read this blog and were at my 16th birthday party at Fox Hills Pool (first, stop and leave a comment, I want to know who you are!), you may remember that my brother and his wife had their baby girl the very day of my Sweet Sixteen Party (August 21, 1998).  Sweet Eva.  This is that baby, becomming a teenager.  Yes, unreal.  We just got back from a week out at the beach with my mom and Pete and Miss Eva...it was awesome.  The weather was great, the cousin time was fantastic (Eva is their only first cousin so far), and Cody and I caught up on all the iCarly we missed since last year, plus some rockin new series on ABC Family. 

Rockin. 

Thanks to all who made this summer a fantastic success!  We (well, the kids and I) made a new record by taking a total of 4 week-long vacations...precisely what you need when you live in the Lowcountry in the summer.  More to come...

Defeated by three letters....

W-H-Y.  The little word has hit our family hard lately.  Of course Sean asked "why" a lot before, but ever since he turned 3 it takes up at least half of his vocabulary, and I can't keep up.  I frequently find my answers getting back to the origin of the food we're eating ("the farm"), or just back to "because that's how God made it."  I mean, several times a day we get back to Genesis. 

Yesterday on a ten minute drive home from church I fielded the following questions (not including the tangential "why's" that follow up any given answer):

"Mommy, why does a sled gliiiiide through the snow?" (mind you, it is 100 degrees here in charleston currently)
"Mommy, why do we only swish water in our mouths?"
"What does water do?"
"Mommy, why do lizards sometimes fall off of very high ladders?"
"Why don't you know?"

Two days ago we visted our new Trader Joes grocery store (yessss!), and as I zoned out looking at all the different frozen fish options, I absent mindedly was answering sean's questions.  I am pretty sure I scandalized a number of the crunchier customers who overheard our conversation:

"Mommy, can we get that sea turtle" (TJ's has a stuffed sea-turtle hidden somewhere in the store)
Ok, sure.
"Mommy, can we bring that sea turtle home?"
Maybe one day we can do that.
"Can we bring that sea turtle home for dinner?"
Sure, we can try that some day.
"Can we eat a sea turtle for dinner?"
Yeah, sure we can try that.  WAIT!  what?  no, we can't do that! 
Why can't we eat a sea turtle for dinner?

The other day Sean fell asleep for his nap while we were on my dad's boat.  Upon waking in a confused stupor, he immediately picked up where he left off, in rapid fire succession:

"Why don't we eat starfish?"
"Can we eat a crab?"
"How does a crab walk?"
"why does a crab walk with his legs?"
"How does a starfish walk?"
"Why are you 'llergic to crab?"
"Is I 'llergic to crab?"

Sometimes I just feel defeated by the questions, especially WHY.  Sometimes sean almost seems tired of it too, like he's tired of not knowing so much in the world.  As he progresses through the layers of a string of "why's" he gets this voice where he takes a big sigh, then asks in a tired monotone, "w..h...y....?"  Like, how long am I going to have to ask "why?" until I know all the answers.  Its a daunting thing growing up and realizing just how much you don't know.