My Silly Boys

A Great Bubble Formula

Another great recipe from The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions. 

• 2 1/2 qts. water
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup liquid dish detergent

Mix water and syrup together until completely blended, stir in dish detergent. 

Beau's First Birthday

In my 15 month blog break there were a few things that happened. Beau turned one, for example. I realized that if I keep waiting until I have time to correct the white balance on these they will never get posted, so up they go! Thanks for being such a delightful and entertaining part of our family, Beau! We love you sooooooooo much! 

Magic Muck

This was a hoot! It's incredibly simple and easy to do.  Start with 1/3 cup of water, add a few drops of food coloring, and then slowly shake in 3/4 cup of corn starch.  Let it stand for a couple of minutes so that the starch absorbs as much water as it can. Don't stir the mixture. Now pour it into your hand and start to play with it. When you apply pressure the goop sets into a hard form but when you release the pressure it reverts to liquid.  Just make sure to put down paper before you begin because this concoction is bound to make a mess! 

Beau is 18 Months

I feel so bad that the last Beau post was 15 months ago! The joke about all the pictures in the family album being of the first born applies to the family blog as well. Beau, if you've grown up and you are looking for your baby pictures go to Instagram, you are there, I swear!

• Beau has a blanky! For the first year of his life he was Mr. Independent, but being a toddler isn't easy so Beau chose the fuzzy (now more nubby) brown blanket that Anita gave him to be his companion and his comfort. He especially likes chewing on the corners. 
• Beau is well over the 99% in height and weight. And probably head circumference but they failed to record it on our last visit. 
• He loves to make a mess. It isn't just that he is so intent on what he is doing that he doesn't notice he is making a mess - he actually, deliberately, wreaks havoc for a good time. He squirts milk on the couch, pees in the back yard, rips up paper, squeezes tubed yogurt onto the kitchen floor, shatters coffee cups, etc. 
• Beau still loves water. He spent a lot of time this summer either in the swimming pool or splashing in his water play table. Now that it is too cool for that he is taking a lot more baths. 
• Beau is a late talker with some of the other quirks that we saw with Remy so he is getting therapy through Nevada Early Intervention.  He failed his Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers so we will be following up on that. 
• Beau has the best laugh in the world.  Between his beautiful eyes and his infectious laughter he charms everyone into forgetting all about the mess. 
• Beau's farvorite rhymes are Ride A Pony Into Town and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  
• Beau's favorite shows are Bubble Guppies, Backyardigans, Team Umizoomi, and Paw Patrol.
• Beau's favorite book is The Ultimate Book of Vehicles. 
• Beau LOVES to make Mommo laugh by jumping up and down. He puts on a show for her whenever she comes over.  
• Beau is followed around a good portion of the day by his adoring older brother, who loves to make him laugh and tries to snuggle with him, though Beau is usually too busy for snuggling.  
• He is sort of like a cat. He will snuggle, but it has to be on his terms.  

The Moon

One of the most memorable things about this autumn of 2015 has been the moon. In September there was the much anticipated (but mostly cloud-obscured) Supermoon, Blood Moon eclipse. Maybe that is what initially got our attention on the moon, but the moon has been glorious all fall. We've had a lot of clear nights for moon gazing and in October we had some really fantastic, blazing bright moonsets. For the moment I'm limited to my camera's telescopic lens if I want to get a closer look at the moon but I hope to buy a telescope some time in the next couple of years!

Feeding Birds

We are homeschooling Remy now (that's a story for another post) and I'm constantly looking for ways to make our home environment a wonderful one for learning. As the brilliant educator Charlotte Mason wrote, "Education is an atmosphere." I have found that bird feeders are an excellent and inexpensive way to teach children to observe and appreciate the creatures that live in our neighborhood but which we might not otherwise notice.  And it's been a lot of fun for me as well! Here are some of our recent visitors: 

Halloween

Beau is 3 Months Old!

Slow down, baby boy! I feel like he is aging twice as quickly as his big brother did! Here is a snapshot of Beau at three months:

• He loves to take showers and prefers them to baths.
• He loves to be held, especially up high with his chest against your shoulder so that he can see what's going on.
• He doesn't want to miss a thing. He can be sound asleep but he hears my bed creak or Remy ask a question and his eyes pop open.
• He is very vocal. He likes to shout and grunt and whine and generally let us know when things aren't up to his standards. 
• He is as mesmerized by the TV as Remy was at his age.
• He has started to handle and play with toys (play meaning jostle them around and maybe chew on them a bit.)
• He seems to be teething but I don't see any teeth yet.
• He is very curious about people and loves to be talked to. His serious expression will transform into a gorgeous smile when someone takes the time to talk to him.  
• Some of his favorite things: Remy's baby talk, Mommo's voice, Daddy's "jiggle-jiggle" game.  
• He has lost all of the hair he was born with except for a big patch along his neck that we call his mullet.
• He has a funny laugh. It's not like Remy's gasping laugh, it's more like a barking laugh.  
• He's is getting really good at holding his head up but he still can't sit up.  
• He rolled over onto his belly for the first time today. Better to lick the blanket he was lying on.  It's all about motivation.  
• He has a bashful streak. He tends to duck his chin and look at you from under his eyelashes with a slow, sweet smile on his face. It's killer.  

Summer!

Summer is really here! Last weekend temperatures reached the triple digits, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, and the following weekend we check in to Green Valley Ranch for our family stay-cation. I ordered new sandals and some age-appropriate, post-baby-waist appropriate shorts. I feel equipped and ready to go!

The beginning of a new season points me back to my words for this year: faith, focus and patience.

Beau is already helping me a ton with all three! He keeps me so grounded in the moment (focus) because his needs are basic, primal and immediate. He also helps me with patience because that boy takes AGES to eat. We just sit there, doing very little, and I have to quite the nervous energy and just be at peace with my sweet boy. As for faith, a new life, and all the what-ifs that go with it, requires faith. Faith that God has a plan for Beau, that He can be leaned on through the anxieties and the parental fumblings, and that He will sustain.

First swim of 2014

Green Valley Ranch

He's Here!

• Beau David Cangelosi 
• Born 4/22/14 
• 2:28 am 
• 9 lbs. 9 oz 20 in.

Almost Four

• Remy still uses a binky...but not for long! The Baba (pacifier) Fairy is coming and she's going to leave Remy a very noisy toy helicopter in exchange for a bucket full of binkies. Say a prayer for us!
• We are doting on Remy these days while he is still an only child. It's so hard to imagine that soon we will all be sharing our lives and our love with a new baby. It's a little scary, but I think Remy is as ready as a nearly-four year old can be!
• Remy's refusal to wear short sleeve shirts has been overcome. The key, as usual, was bribery! He wore a short sleeve shirt to school and came home to a new Optimus Prime (see pic below.)  The next day when we went to put him in short sleeves he dredged up the tears and asked in his most pitiful voice "transformer?" (Or maybe he said "robot?")  He's so onto us.  
• Remy is losing his fingernails. It's a gruesome after effect of his encounter with Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease last month.  He is taking it a lot better than I would. He occasionally asks for a band-aid but five minutes later decides that the band-aid is bigger pain in the butt than the warped, dangling fingernail.  
• Remy's favorite show these days is The Magic Schoolbus.  
• His favorite reward to get at school is a shiny, beaded necklace. We have a truly impressive collection. 
• His favorite books at the moment are Hotwheels early readers. 
• His favorite toys are Rescue Bots and Hotwheels.  
• Favorite foods: Eggo waffles, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Taco Bell or Cafe Rio quesadillas.  
• Current catch phrase: "I a baby! Goo-goo, gaa-gaa!"