Who ARE You?

This is the daily, hourly question around this house. Depending on what's happening, you could get quite a variety of answers.

From Joshua:
I'm Dave!
I'm Goliath (knock me down!)
I'm Jonah
I'm a BIG fish!
I'm Bob the Tomato
I...AM...THAT...HERO! Call me "Larry Boy!"
I'm Joshua David Hines
I'm Tigger!
I'm a spider

Caleb is generally just:
Larry the Cucumber
Pooh or
A Big Fish

As it would seem, the boys have quite vivid imaginations. They love to act out the stories they hear. This morning they were playing with Play-Doh and LIttle People (a favorite combo) and were acting out the story of Joseph and his special coat.

The staging area for most of their play is the brown couch in our family room, which we inherited with our other house. It was not in fabulous condition at the time, and is certainly not better now! Because of this, the boys are allowed to jump, run, plop and generally smash into it. It is the springboard for their imagination. :)

Caleb's Room Makeover

Despite the long silence, we did actually finally make a decision on what to do about Caleb's room. I gave in and bought a gallon of orange paint, so he now has one orange wall (although he is apparently a little distressed that the border covers some of the orange). The rest of the room is two nice shades of blue, with a sports border through the middle. We are very pleased with how it turned out and it definitely looks much nicer than it did before.
A reminder of how it looked before.
The boys hanging out on Caleb's bed right after we put the room back together.
The Orange Wall that makes Caleb so happy.

Climbers in Training

On Wednesday, we enjoyed the nice warm "typical" Virginia in November weather...70 degrees...that's normal, right? by taking a family outing to Great Falls Park. The boys had an absolute blast...at least when there were rocks to be climbed. Apparently, Philip (an avid rock climber in days of old) has two little "up and coming" climbers. The bigger the rock, the better. Caleb and Philip at a point they climbed out to.

Joshua just getting warmed up right after we got there.
Maybe next time cousin Forest can join in the fun too. He's still only 9 months old.
Philip and I actually got engaged at Great Falls Park 5.5 years ago. I felt almost as good that day as I did on Wednesday. I had mono and it was about 100 degrees...yuck!


Here's the whole family. Lots of Hines boys...'bout time for a girl, don't you all think?

Sick, Sick, Sick!

Blech...what a week (or 10 days) this has been! First Joshua was a little sick, then Caleb got a little sick, then Joshua got pink eye, then I fell off the "sick cliff" and had one of the worst cases of cold or flu (whatever it was) I have ever had. Six days later, I am still not back to normal, but I think I have finally turned the corner and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Wowzers. The good news is that despite the fact I was nearly single handedly (or would that be single-nosedly?) keeping Kleenix in business, I never completely lost my sense of taste, so I could sort of enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, but I am still largely eating jello and bland stuff. But hey, great way to not gain weight over a holiday! Philip's family has been here since Tuesday and it was such a bummer to be sick while having company. Additionally, I have essentially lost my voice, so I have to whisper to communicate. That's a challenge when trying to handle a rowdy two year old! :) Despite all the sickness (which also included Joshua randomly breaking out in some allergic reaction every afternoon after his nap for several days and Caleb getting a mild ear infection), it was a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful time with family. Below is Caleb enjoying Puzzle Time with Grandpa and Uncle Paul.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Before another day passes, I must announce that Caleb turned 4 last week on the 13th. We had a fun little family celebration and Philip was able to stay home for the day to spend extra time with the boys. The reason for the delay in the post is that the next day Caleb came down with what seems to have been a minor-ish version of the flu (maybe a cold, who knows), which he then graciously passed on to me. I have basically been in bed since Sunday and probably lost about 5 pounds as my diet has consisted of toast, cheerios and pretzels for three days now. Fun times. I am hoping to be able to eat by Thursday! How much a bummer would that be not to...

Caleb got new bath crayons for his birthday and was so excited...let the bathtub art begin!

"There are Those Who Can't Be Frosted"

You would think this post might have to do with Caleb's birthday cake since his birthday is tomorrow, but it's not. Now, everyone knows that kids are notorious for misquoting things. I was sitting here minding my own business and Caleb comes up to me and says "there are those who can't be frosted!" I have to admit, I burst out laughing. He was trying to sing a VeggieTales song with the line "there are those who can't be trusted". Eh, trusted, frosted. What's the difference?

Last night the theological questions continued:
1. If God never sleeps, how did Jesus sleep when he was a baby?
2. When talking about the 10 commandments, specifically the one that says "do not covet", he asked, "what if Grandma gives me something for kids that Aunt Deborah doesn't use anymore since she's an adult? Is that ok?"
3. Why did Jesus get lost (When he stayed in the temple)?
4. When the Egyptians who were chasing Moses got hit with the water from the Red Sea, did they all go to Heaven? Why not?
5. Since God sees everything, if we lose something He knows where it is, right?
6. Why was Queen Esther scared to go see the King?

And others which I can't remember. I told Philip we're going to be in trouble by the time this kid is 7...I am going to be out of answers!

Joshua - the VeggieTales Singer

Here is Joshua this morning, in his usual position while the VeggieTales songs are playing. Hopefully you can hear him singing.

Boys Bath Before and After Pics

This is how the bathroom looked when we bought the house. This is the "beautiful" color that was also in Caleb's room and our dining room. Below is how it looks now. We painted a nice bright blue, but I must say my favorite part is the movable Nemo stickers from Lowes. They were inexpensive and made all the difference in how "finished" the bathroom looks! You can also see my attempts to fill Caleb's need for orange, with the bath mat and his towel. He still says he doesn't like the bathroom, but I think he secretly does. Joshua, on the hand, openly admits he loves it and wants to touch the stickers every time he goes in there!

Philip's 30th Birthday!

Yesterday was the big day...Philip turned 30! I think I can see some new wrinkles on him today...just kidding. :) Philip's official comment about turning 30 is "feels a lot like 29 1/2!" We had a fun party for him last night. I think the adults managed to out number the kids...maybe. We had about 8 toddler boys and one girl. As you can imagine, calm and quiet are not two words to describe this party, but it was actually a happy chaos. We loaded Philip's "picture cake" with 30 candles, so it looked like a flaming torch. We all actually ate trifle, which you can kinda see in one of the pictures below. Boy was it yummy...amazing what you can do with a leftover iced german chocolate cake! Mmmmm.
The family of one of Philip's co-workers...and the trifle!
Two ladies from our couples small group, Ramona and Martha.

Chinese Puzzle Boy

I guess when you're working on a new, hard puzzle it helps to put your thinking cap on. At least, this is what Caleb tried earlier this week. He is sporting the hat his Grandpa and Grandma brought him from China, complete with a not-quite-matching black braid. I guess the hat didn't work though because he gave up on this puzzle and moved on to another one, which he did successfully complete. :)

The Indiscriminating Eater....Sort Of

While we apparently can't get Joshua to eat normal things like mashed potatoes, rice and sandwich bread on a regular basis, he seems to have a less discriminating palate when it comes to the truly odd. For example, while I can't seem to locate the photographic evidence to back this up, while we were on our beach trip we went out to dinner one night. Joshua is still working on his "being content while not eating at the table" skills, so in an attempt to distract him, we offered him one of the lemon slices from someone's cup. We all expected him to taste it, make a "yuck" face and then proceed to play with it. Here is what actually happened: he tasted it, decided it was good, and proceeded to eat the whole thing...including the peel! Then ask for another one. Convinced this must be a fluke, we gave him another one. Same thing. "More..." So, we gave him one more, and then he asked for another one. At that point, the sensible mom in me said "no more lemon slices until we see the long term effects of those!" Which, fortunately, turned out to be none.

Then, a few weeks ago, we were at a Pumpkin Carving Party and someone, for whatever reason, gave Josh a chunk of raw pumpkin. You can guess what happened next. He thought it was great and asked for another!


Yesterday, I was making mashed potatoes (which of course Joshua wouldn't eat at dinner time) and a raw potato chunk fell on the floor. Joshua picked it up and I said "please don't eat that. Raw potatoes taste gross". Apparently, they don't to Joshua! He then gave Caleb a bite and he liked it too! I don't know what the world is coming too...

On top we have Joshua taking a bite... and then Caleb after trying it too!