Free Dirt Giveaway!!

Spring has sprung at the Early household. My bulbs forced their way out and have withstood the force of 2 and 4 year old boys. Fortunately, the boys haven't learned about having fresh flowers in vases around the house. That's probably because their Dad isn't big on giving Mom flowers. There's something positive in everything right? I'm not complaining. Honestly..

The dirt on the other hand was not as fortunate as the flowers. This dirt pile has been excavated on numerous occasions and redeposited in several corners of my house (inside and out.) I managed to move most of the toys out of the pile before I took the photo. Grant has been taking his time posting an ad on Craig's List for the remainder of our top soil. I want it to go away as soon as possible. (So does my carpet...) So if you know anyone in need of free dirt. Send me an email. (Oh, it's my first free giveaway.)

Quinn found a pair of sunglasses from when he was a little guy. It's amazing how they still fit. He wanted me to take a picture of him. He looks like a child model.

Or maybe not... I'm not sure what this was about. I can think about 5 or 6 different captions for this one...

"What's that on your tooth Mom?"

"How much weight did you gain during your pregnancy with me?"

"When was the last time Daddy brought you flowers?"

Chase is more apprehensive about having his picture taken. Maybe he's getting me back for the naked Valentines Day photos. His right side is the "good" side.

Quinn had a speech and language IEP last week. IEP's are meetings held to help identify if kids have a specific "disability" (if you need to call it that) and then offer the kids some sort of accommodations at school. Quinn has only had speech therapy up to this point but when he starts kindergarten, we will most likely add a few more members to the "Quinn Fan Club" like an Occupational Therapist, and a Special Education Teacher.

Some parents might feel sad thinking of their kid's first year in Kindergarten and having a team that uses labels such as "special, therapy, and disability" to describe their kid's first year of school. It was music to my ears. I've been hanging my head low every time I hear another 4 year-old rattle off a long sentence or having a conversation with his/her parents. It hurts me to see how different Quinn's speech and behavior is from his peers. I have hopes that this new team (or new members to the fan club) will help make Quinn's transition into Kindergarten a successful one.

If you would like more information on joining the Quinn and Chase Fan Club, please inquire below.

Valentines Day for Big Boys

What do women dream about for Valentines Day? How about a cute guy, with intense blue eyes, wearing nothing.... but in his hands, he holds your heart?


Yea, that's my kind of guy. He looks like Cupid without the arrow or wings. Well, we tried the wings but that's where Chase drew the line. "No Mommy, I can't wear wings." Of course he had no problem running around the house and back yard naked in the middle of winter. I feel a bit guilty...I mean it's one thing to take photos of your pets like this...but the kids!!! I'm making Brittney Spears look like Mother of the Year. I made sure to send a copy of this photo out to all our friends and family so they can continue to blackmail Chase for the rest of his life.

Grant decided on a whim to install Chase's Big Boy bed. He's smart for not consulting with me because I would have gone through my mourning ritual that I go through when I pack away more baby stuff and old clothes. The crib was the last sign that a baby resided in our home. This means our family has officially graduated into a new era of child rearing. When I saw what he was doing, I bet my tongue, sucked back the tears, and tried to hold it together. I think one of my ovaries responded by aching and trying to ovulate early.

So here's the man putting the big boy bed together.

Since we didn't plan ahead, we still had the crib in the room. Grant shoved it into the center of the room to take care of later.

The boys enjoy a fun project and they grabbed their tools and tried to help. I didn't help at all. I observed while holding a box of tissues, trying not to ovulate.

Once assembled, the kids had to test it out to make sure they could get maximum bounceage out of the bed.

They looked more like this to me as I had tears in my eyes...

I felt a little better putting the new bedding on the mattress. Chase was excited about the "crutchin site" on his bed. (A.K.A. construction site)

So that's where we are. We officially have no babies in the house. :(

Namenda...bless you!

Namenda?? What the heck is that you say... It's Quinn's latest medication we started this month. Quinn saw the neurologist last month just before Christmas and he suggested we add yet another medication to see if it would help with his speech and language development. He gave me some research on an Alzheimer's medication called "Namenda" and suggested we give it a try. The most reported side effect is.....get this......irritability.

As if we don't have enough irritable men around this house. Someone help me! I'm dying in a sea of irritable boys between the ages of 2 and 32! I'm packing the car and I'm headed for Tahoe...er further out than that. I'll be back in about 16 years. Don't leave the light on for me.

So I did what any mother in my anxious shoes would do. I researched Namenda on Google. I was a little torn because the neurologist is using this drug as an "off label" use. (meaning, the drug is not intended for children.) On the other hand, I found some interesting information from other parents who have used Namenda and had great results with it. If you're interested..read here.

http://www.talkautism.com/sponsors/autismspeaks/HelpWanted.aspx?Page=Response&id=2528

So he started Namenda in addition to the Depakote, iron supplement, carnitine, etc. I can't keep track anymore. Maybe I should use some Namenda to help me remember what all the meds are for. He's been on it for a week and I haven't noticed any differences yet, but he has been a little irritable. I have my fingers crossed that it'll pass.

On to more interesting things... I took the boys to the train museum and managed to snap this photo of Chase with his head poking up in the middle of one of the display sets.


The train museum is typically a fun place to hang out when it's cold and rainy. The boys enjoy the trains and engines, and the mom's run after them trying to corral the kiddies before they run off. Unfortunately, I got held up while walking through a train car and Quinn took off. I thought he would wait for me at the end of the train car. . . . . . I was wrong. Quinn took off and was lost. My work friend Laurie was running around searching one end of the museum while I ran the other direction dragging poor Chase behind me with a death grip on his hand.

I can't tell you the feeling or thoughts that were flashing through my brain. After 10 minutes of screaming "QUINN QUINN!!!!! QUINN!" I cornered an employee and sucked up my pride and admitted I could not find my kid. I had failed as a mother and lost track of my most precious gift....my first born son. The employee was a little old man who was about 90 years old and moved at the speed of a 105 year old man. He notified the front desk and the employees began guarding the doors and looking for Quinn. They asked me what Quinn was wearing and my mind was blank. I think I stuttered, said "I don't know" a few times and then began describing his orange shirt, jeans, and hoodie sweater when I realized that I was looking at him walking toward me with a museum employee. I dropped everything (except for Chase's hand which was purple at this point) and ran up to Quinn hugging him and crying. He was crying too and obviously a bit disoriented.

The museum employee asked me, "Is this your son?"

Was she serious? No, lady! I just enjoy running around your museum screaming at the top of my lungs "Quinn" for the hell of it to see if it'll attract a little boy.

After we returned home Chase got creative with a random pen he found laying around the house. Below is the photo shopped version...

This is with Chase's art work. Can you tell?????

Here, take a closer look. Some children draw on walls and decorate the house. Fortunately, my kids keep their art on their bodies. I'm ok with it as long as their body art washes off.

Hopefully he won't ask for a tattoo any time soon.

How to take a Christmas photo....101

It's that time of year again where I hang my picture taking abilities on a hook in the closet and attempt to put together a Christmas photo card. As you know from previous posts, it's really difficult to get a decent picture of the boys. One is looking away, the other picking his nose, or staring off into space. To throw us through a loop, Quinn has become more "huggy." This bothers Chase which in turn causes Quinn to hug Chase more. This session didn't last very long. The boys enjoyed the photo session much more than Daddy who was hired using bribes of sexual favors to stand behind me and make the boys look at the camera. (oops, TMI, I forget family reads this blog.)

Daddy: "Quinn be nice to your brother!"

Mommy: "Look at me and sit up straight!"

Lets try a few back to back! Nice work boys.

Daddy: "Quinn stop hugging Chase. He doesn't like it."

Chase: "Do you see what I have to put up with???"

Mommy: "Wait, we're not done! Come back! CHASE!!!!!

Chase: "Hold your horses, I'm back.."

Chase: "Quinn if you don't stop hugging me, I'll.........."

Chase: "That all! I'm out."

Apple Hill, Halloween, and other Happenings.

Well it looks like I figured things out and I'm able to post my pictures again. After 2 months of not being able to upload my pictures and having no working computer, I'm finally back in business and ready to update you on us. We've had lots of fun over the past 2 months. I'll start with Halloween. Quinn had a day off of school and I had the day off of work so we decided to do a craft project together. The finished result is below.


This should be labeled as the "before" picture because the kids sampled it a few times. Quinn really wanted to be a robot for Halloween. I had no clue how to make a robot costume and Had no idea what he had in mind. So with lots of help from Google, Home Depot, and some left over spray paint, we created this...

Chase being our 2nd born child had to settle for Quinn's "hand me down" costume from last year. We thought it worked out well since his nickname is "Nuggett." So here's our robot and our chicken nuggett. "Let's Go Mom, we're ready!!!!"

This is the trick-or-treat crew from left to right..Chase, Quinn, and Madeline.

This picture is proof that the boys actually can interact without fighting. Yes, there are rare moments when the stars align, and there is a blue moon when the boys are sweet to each other.

And who is this cute little monkey?

So a friend of mine laughed me off when I told her that I never get good pictures of my kids, but I get fabulous pictures of other people's kids. This picture is proof of this phenomenon. Is nose picking a stage of development for children?

With a little help from Daddy and the bribe of carmel apples, we were finally able to get one decent picture of the Apple Hill gang.

Thanks to the help of our friend Marty, we were able to get a rare family photo with "yours truly" included. :)

I found this cute little guy hanging out with a bunch of apples. I brought him home.

How could I resist?

I'm having some problems with Blogger. I'll have to update more as the site is fixed. My pictures wont fit on this site. I posted an updated video of Chase below.

Chase Can Read?

And just for your viewing pleasure, I have Chase reading "The Going to Bed Book" by Sandra Boynton.