The Wink

A few months ago, I promised I'd provide proof that Cody comes by his "winking-in-photographs" tendency honestly. Well, it all started back in 1995 when Anthony took what would have been a fabulous picture of the 2 of us and, according to him, "made it better." Riiiiiiiiiight.

Fast forward 9 years, and along came Cody. Here he is at 6 weeks, winking at Santa. Look how adorably Jackson is smiling. What a cooperative 2 1/2 year old he was! And there's Cody....making the photo "better."

I took this picture of my 3 boys this past April at the Arboretum. Pretty spring flowers in the background, you can actually see each of their faces, and Cody's...doing his thang.

Last summer in Vail, I got this great shot of Jackson and Cody riding their bikes early one morning. I didn't notice Cody's ocular gymnastics until after the fact.

And here, Cody was just not feeling the pumpkin patch. So, to entertain himself and irk me, he took a page from his Daddy's book and winked his way through my many photo attempts.

Now that I have this fun history lined up, I keep an eye out (pun intended) for more winks. Each one is like a little Easter Egg (you LOSTies will know what I'm talking about) that he hides in photos as a present for us to open later. He's so thoughtful. :)

And I guess now I have to be grateful that Anthony ruined made our Senior Girls' photo better, because we get that much more of a kick out of Cody's winks, knowing that he shares his Daddy's same silly sense of humor (and it should be noted that Cody had never seen Anthony's winking picture until I dug it out this past weekend). Like father, like son...seeing all the ways that my boys demonstrate the truth of that statement just never gets old. ♥♥♥

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We celebrated Grandma's birthday this weekend with party hats, balloons, and a delicious pink cake (the one that started yesterday's food coloring debacle). We had one giant candle that stood for her age. Didn't you know that one big white taper stands for 45? :)

Cody's favorite part was the balloons. He had such fun tossing them up in the air and then catching them....they fall at just the right speed for him to nab them every time.

Wait, Jacks looks a little different in this picture. Oh, I know, it's because it was taken 4 years ago! Here he is last night. Same pose, same cheeks...and yet, how much has changed!

Happy Birthday Mom! We hope this is your best year ever. XOXO

Baby Smurf

Jackson and I came home from his basketball game to find both Luke and Anthony covered in food coloring. Anthony said, "Meggie, I don't know where Luke went, but somehow this little Smurf got in here."

Apparently, while making Grandma's birthday cake, Anthony accidentally got some red food coloring on his hands and face. So as to avoid going to work on Monday with bright red splotches all over him, he went to the bathroom to wash it off. When he returned, Luke had gotten his hands on the blue food coloring and decorated both himself and the kitchen with it. And boy was he thorough! You can see he even has it on the bottoms of his feet.

Even after a bath, the child is completely blue. Hopefully it will wear off sometime in the next few...years.

NOTE: Yes, my little one does have clothes. He just prefers, like his older brothers, to wear as few as possible. And, had he been wearing clothes today, they'd be completely blue, so it's a good thing we allow our kids to practice nudism within the confines of our house, isn't it, now? Right? Huh? That's what I thought, too. Thank you.

Whipped Cream Fingerpainting

Many 4 year-olds need help with their fine motor skills: strengthening their little hands to prepare them for learning other school-related abilities like holding a pencil, tracing and then forming letters, cutting with scissors, etc. In our 4 year-old who has also experienced severe brain trauma, the area of fine motor skills is the only one where we can actually see a deficit or a weakness, and the only one that his neuropsychologist pinpointed as "below average" in comparison to other children his age.

Cody will begin Occupational Therapy in the next few months, but until then, I thought we could do a few activities at home to help develop those FM skills. So tonight (deliberately scheduled right before bath...hey, I'm no dummy), it was time for some whipped cream fingerpainting!

Luke was all over this, right from the start. Give him the opportunity to make a mess (on PURPOSE, no less), and he's first in line.

You can just see the glee. He thinks he's getting away with something...ON the table, covered in goo. He thinks it's only a matter of time until Mama loses it. Little stinker.

Then Luke ventured down to the other end of the table to help Jackson paint. At first he wasn't sure whether Jacks would be willing to share.

At Jackson's invitation, he dove right in.

Jacks tried to show Luke that the "paint" was actually pretty good to eat, too, but Luke was skeptical.

And then distracted by the fact that it was all over his legs.

Undeterred, Luke decided it was time for his America's Next Top Model impersonation.

"And I do my little turn on the catwalk..."

Ah. Now we see where he's going with this.

Target acquired.

Confident he could make an already large mess even more satisfying, Luke attempts to empty the contents of the can into an already full tray.

"Hey, this thing is broken! Mine's broken!"

Meanwhile, Jackson continued to eat the paint. Yummy!

And where was Cody, during all of this artistic, fine motor skill-developing merriment?

Playing dress-up. Apparently Bumblebee decided that whipped cream was "Ew." :)

Jackson's First Basketball Game

Jackson played his first basketball game this morning. He was very excited to get started and couldn't wait to get out there with his team, The Lightning.
See the wristbands the boys are wearing below? It's a very clever system they have for identifying who their man is (ie, for you non-basketball players, that's who they are supposed to be defending). Jackson is wearing a black sweatband, so the boy on the opposite team wearing a matching black band is his man.Practicing dribbling the ball and shooting is fun, but I don't think Jackson realized that the games would involve so much running. He was worn out by the end!Each player got a turn to do the inbounds pass and bring the ball up the floor after the other team has made a basket. Here, it's Jackson's. Our dribbling skills are a work in progress. :)I'm just so proud of him. He's the youngest kiddo on the team and the only one who hasn't played before, so he's at something of a disadvantage. But he's picking it up quickly and working hard. He won the Good Sportsmanship star for the game today (each player gets a different colored star after each game which we'll iron on to his game shirt) and said he had fun. I hope he learns to love basketball as much as his Daddy and I do, whether he continues to play over the years or not. His just giving it a shot (pun intended) has made us very proud.

Fun in the Sun

We went to Firewheel mall on Thursday to enjoy the warm weather before the weekend's cold front hit. It was sunny and breezy and the big boys had a wonderful time playing in the fountain and climbing over all the rocks.
Meanwhile, Luke preferred to sit and observe from the comfort of his stroller. However, never let it be said that he was bored. Here's one of his latest favorite games, entitled "Belly Belly Belly."

Wanna see my belly? Tee hee!
Peek-a-boo, here it is!Haha, that's all you get! Bye-bye, belly!
Cody had a little accident involving his shoes and the water...so he got some new boots at Gymboree. Think he likes 'em?
And we capped off the afternoon with a delicious cookie. I think Luke enjoyed his, although once again he's wearing more of it than could possibly have gone into his tummy, so it'd be hard to tell. Except for this:
Yeah, I think he liked it. :)

Transformation

What's going on? Someone replaced the 4 year-old little boy I know with this...young man! Not that he's not extremely handsome, but please bring back the other version of Cody immediately. I'm not ready for him to look this grown up!

See all the drama a haircut can cause?