So, Will, let me start now...

In my resolve to record more of your moments, Will, I will now write a quick one.  You have a large and rapidly growing vocabulary right now.  It's astounding really.  But, of all these words you now possess, your favorite at the moment is "DAMNIT!"  And it is said with that much emphasis and gusto.  We were at Target the other day and I was getting a package of toilet paper off the shelf.  Another package fell off and you yelled, "DAMNIT!" when it hit the ground.  There was an elderly lady in the aisle and she just looked at me and said, "well, that's a big word, isn't it?"  Yes, yes it is. 

Great weekends: 2 Computer:0

So......yes, it has been another very long time since my last post.  I continually think, poor Will, there is so much record of what your sister did during her first couple years and then there's you, suffering the same plight as most second children, where there's not much record at all.  I recently found both kids' "First 1000 Days" books in which I faithfully recorded Kate's doings month by month.  And Will's I lost by month 15.  Not sure what I'll write in there but a good 6 months or so of "sorry, Will, we really did some neat stuff during your early years, I swear."  Oh well, I doubt he'll even care about such things some day.  Anyway.  This is all to say that we have had a really great past two weekends but, sandwiched in between them was the complete crashing of our desktop computer.  It was unfixable but THANKFULLY the hard drive was intact (thus saving all the photos we have never backed up and saving my behind as all Kate's preschool's financial information was on it).  We had to have the computer fixers transfer all of the data to our laptop, which we now have back so--tada--we're back in business.  Minus my posting of any photos until I figure out how to get more on here.  But, back to our really great weekends.  First, we went to Portland to spend the weekend with Grandpa Mac and "Aunt" Louise.  It did finally dawn on Kate that she can't really be an aunt because that would make Grandpa Uncle Mac, but she still calls her that and Will follows suit with "Aunt L-eeze."  We went to the zoo, which was a huge hit, especially with Will.  He kept saying, "OH WOW!" and was exuberant enough that a guy taking pictures of the elephants remarked, "Now, that's the reaction you pay for!"  We mostly had fun just hanging out at Grandpa's house, while the kids dismantled/destroyed/rearranged all his stuff.  Luckily, he's a good sport!  Ryan and I ran the Vancouver marathon while there and Ryan did well.  I, on the other hand, experienced my first DNF.  Not so good, but a story that I (might) laugh at one day.  Our second weekend o' fun was last weekend when we had a Singleton family reunion of sorts at Black Butte.  The weather was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E but it was still so much fun to see everyone and show them our neck of the woods.  Kate followed Ryan's female cousins around like a puppy, but they were also very good sports!  And, now, we're on to our third fun weekend because tomorrow Ryan and I are off to watch the Olympic Track and Field trials thanks to some FREE front row seats and Grandma Connie's willingness to watch the kids for the day!  My boss at the Athletic Club is Ashton Eaton's coach from high school so he had tickets for the full two weeks--perfect since he got to see Ashton set the world record in the decathlon!!  He has two extras for tomorrow, though, so Ryan and I get to go see the final trial day.  We've heard there they've set up a London-style pub outside the venue to get people in the Olympic mood so you can bet that Ryan and I will visit that--especially because we have to send a BIG, HUGE cheers to our fantastic English friends Kate and Jim who had their first baby girl on Thursday!!  On that note, I will sign off---and try to record more about my second child from now on.  Maybe. 

Kate's song stylings....

Time for summer!

As usual, the last week has flown by in a flurry of business in which I somehow never sat down for the 5 minutes it takes to write here--I still can't accept the infrequency with which I write, but I suppose I should because I don't know when I'll fit it in more.  Anyhow.  The past week was filled with some fun, including Kate's last day of her first year of school (very sweet and sort of sad) and many rides with the kids in the bike trailer (mainly because this is Will's new obsession, so much so that he often throws tantrums when we get home and he has to get out.  Once I gave up and let him stay outside and he stayed in for a full 30 minutes, on his own, not moving.  Not sure what point he was proving, but it was scarily Kate-esque in its stuborness), and a lot of watching of the baby fawns living in the lot across the street (Will exclaims "so cute!" each time he sees them.  Although he also said the same thing last night when he saw an ant.)   The week was also filled with some not-so-fine moments, including my grossest parenting moment ever (don't ask--yes, it was THAT BAD) and a trip with Hickory to the emergency vet hospital (fortunately, a large vet bill later, she is back with us and doing as well as she can for a 12-year-old lab).  I'm sure there was a lot of other stuff that happened in between the above, but it's a bit of a blur.  There were a lot of Will tantrums which are time-consuming in and of themselves.  He's really feeling his way into his terrible twos, but that's a post in itself.  Now it's Friday morning and Will is occupied with Dora (I think I do love her just a little bit for her ability to entertain Will) and everyone else is asleep.....ahhhh, quiet!  We're on our way to Portland today to visit Grandpa Mac and for Ryan and I to run the Vancouver Marathon.  We've held up a trip to the zoo as a fun event if the kids don't fight in the car...we'll see!  I'll try to actually take pictures since our slowly dying camera is working thanks to the new (and more expensive) batteries we bought yesterday.  Again, we'll see!

Kate AND Will quote o' the day

Well, we've now got two kids that say the darndest things!  Will is still working on the pronunciation but, to be honest, he's talking nearly as well as Kate was at his age and she was definitely verbal!  A couple days ago, Kate's teaching Will about anatomy shined through when he proudly announced, "Boys hab vieners.  Gurls hab 'ginas."  This made Kate laugh hysterically while telling him, "that's funny, bud."  So, naturally, he says it constantly now.  Not one of the first longer proclamations I thought he'd make, but there you go.  And Kate has started adding to her song list.  She does still break out the "Big Daddy Man Song" from time to time, but she told me "mommy, I'm going to sing a song for you" and proceeded to clear her throat (where she learned this, I do not know) and sing, "Get up, get up, get up and get down.  911's a joke in your town."  I believe that's some old school Public Enemy--Kate, all I can say, is that you rock!  :) Not to be outdone, Will tried to get in on the musical action today when I was making an old-school music of the 90s playlist for my spin class; he must have been listening because he's been walking around all evening saying, "O-P-P-P-P....you know me!"  Hey, he's close!

Back to it!

Have I already been back from Madison for a week??  How did that happen?  I'm not sure, but one thing I'm sure about is that I had the BEST, best time visiting Courtney and seeing Madison (although not by foot, since the marathon was canceled.)  Yes, I did say canceled.  While it was raining in Oregon, it was hot, hot in Wisconsin.  So hot that they deemed it necessary to cancel the full marathon.  I did the half instead.  While I was bummed not to run my first marathon since being pregnant with Will, I loved that I got more time with Courtney and I especially loved that about a minute after we learned the marathon was canceled, Courtney asked, "so, do you want to go on a cocktail walking tour of Madison?"  You can do a lot more fun stuff when you don't have to worry about completing 26.2 miles!  The whole trip was the perfect time away.  I haven't gotten to spend so much time with Courtney in FOREVER and it was nice to know that (of course) the kids were fine without me.  So fine that when I returned and asked Kate if she missed me, she just said, "nope."  And, really, why would she when she had Ryan and Grandma Connie, and then a trip to Yreka?  As the photo above shows, they spent the majority of time in Yreka riding around on Grandpa Bobby's tractor.  Will kept telling me about it by saying, "Tractor.  I ride it."  So it's nice to be back with my family, but it was incredibly great to have some independent sister time!!