Hunts o' Fun.....

If I don't smell vinegar or see another hard boiled egg until next April I will be okay with that - after dying 4 sets eggs (mainly because Brooke dropped the whole container of the color eggs and CRACK....she was devastated!) having stomach rot from so many jelly beans I think we are going to wrap another holiday under our belts.....Here is some pix of the kids doing their Easter egg hunt. So while all of you were traveling back from you tropical sunny destinations the Munson's enjoyed a balmy 60 degree weather day outside (which felt like summer!) doing yard work and playing with the kids! What a holiday it was.....

Nothing says Easter like a cowboy hat and boots and some Santa Claus jammies!

Off and running......she has become the kid you have to remind "leave some for the little kids" It just seemed like yesterday someone else was saying that to their kid about Brooke.

Found it!!
Brooke's partner in crime, Luci.
Checking out the loot.

Egg-cellent times.......

Easter is in full swing over here at the Munson abode.......we spent the night coloring eggs, the bunny will be feverishly making baskets and filling eggs tonight, we will frighten our kids with a visit to the stuffed human, we will go on hunts, we will eat jellybeans and peanut butter eggs till we want to puke, we will bring an a "version" of Easter to the hospital to cheer up Grandma, and we will mow on ham with family on Sunday.....Then on Monday in a fast poof it will be forgotten except for those last remaining plastic grass strings that always seem to linger and never can fully clean them all up.......So Happy Easter folks......Here are some pix of the egg coloring and Brooke being Julia Child making (oh yup and dying) egg salad...........Is everyone excited to try our dish to pass? haha!

Say Cheese!!

Brooke discovered she enjoys herself a hard boiled egg....but they are more fun to play with than eat....

Brady loved the color transformation!
Brooke quickly getting the first dibs on colors before Brady got back.....

To Cinamon and beyond........

That coming out of the mouth of a 2 year old Brady translates into "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!" He hasn't quite mastered the "infinity" but he has however mastered Buzz Light Year's stance and we see it more often than not at inappropriate times. Such as the following.....
1. EVERY night at dinner....as he refuses to eat his meal in a continuous flow, instead he needs to take several breaks in order to pose and announce who he is.....


2. At the hair cut place as he is done and launching down off of the chair.
3. Off the counter
4. Off his bed.
5. Off any playground equipment
So the fascination with Buzz has not wavered at this point which strikes me as odd since he literally hasn't seen the movie in over a month or so.....but so be it the boy likes himself an astronaut.
So here is a recent video of him at, yup dinner time, announcing who he is and what he stands for....but more hilarity ensues, at least for me, as you hear one Brooklyn, dying for some attention as she is trying to impersonate Woody just to get in on some of the video recording action..... The viewing for time and camera space has begun! Oh yeah and I am not sure why Buzz and Woody always seem to make an appearance naked.
Enjoy

Definate By-products....

Sometimes I look at the kids and go who the heck are you?? But more often than not I see things and go, yup that is totally me or that is totally your dad...... It is true that these little creatures are a definite chip of the ol' blocks but there are those times that you go hmmmm that must be the milkman's characteristic.....which I guess makes them who they are! Just thought I would list a few to remember since the ol' memory bank will not even remember tomorrow!

Like Mom:
1. Brooke is a multi-tasker she has 101 projects going at once and feels the urgency to finish them.
2. Brooke could sit down to watch a show, however she doesn't just watch the show she is cutting up paper, she is reading a book, she is experimenting with water colors......(I'm afraid this is a little like mom/grandma Novacek)
3. Brady is the first one to throw in the towel at night and just say, I am tired, and puts up no fights about it, a kid after my own heart.
4. Brady is up and at em in the morning - he likes to cuddle, but you can talk with him immediately and he is happy as pie.
5. They love themselves a good tub.
6. Brooke could be a terror if she is pushing the hunger button, and then can be your best friend as soon as she gets food in her belly!
7. Brady could eat an endless supply of fruit.
8. Both kids love to read. (exciting news Brooke is actually starting to read she is into the dick and Jane books and i even cover up the pix to see if she is really reading the words and it is starting to happen!)
9. Brady is the worst listener and the best cuddlier.
10. Brady loves stuffed animals, as I did as a child.
11. Brooke is so not a doll girl, she will apease, but she would be happier with a marker and paper.

Like Dad:
1. Brady could sit down for a show and not move for an hour and will be concerned with nothing else.
2. Brooke needs at least 15 minutes to stretch and wake up before she is spoken to...not a morning bird what-so-ever.
3. Brooke also could stay up until midnight if need be and rock that mutha out.
4. Brooke has a SWEET TOOTH, she always knows she can work dad over to get one more treat after dinner because Chris usually jumps on board too!
5. Brady has some instinctual love for sports.
6. Brooke has a love for music, she sings songs and gets the melody immediately.
7. Brady (now I know he is two, and most will be like this) but he loves and giggles out loud every time someone falls on TV, sad to say at the ripe ol' age of 36 so does his dad.
8. Brooke has the best memory ever!


Like the Milkman:
1. Brady is the most sensitive lil' man I have ever met.
2. Brooke's feelings get hurt very easily.
3. Brady refuses to use utensils.
4. Brooke is extremely clumsy, if there is something to trip over she will trip.
5. Both kids could care less if they are covered in ink and mud.
6. Brady must have something in his mouth at all moments (hand, sleeve, toy, book) (side note we actually had to purchase a library book because Brady ATE it!
7. They are both shy in social situations that are out of their inner circle.

I'm sure some of these things will stick and some will evolve over time but it might be fun to look back and see what they were like at 5 & 2.

Brooklyn Ella - 5 years old....

Brady Christopher - 2 years old.....

Happy Birthday Hubbie

Just want to give a quick shout out to good ol' hubbie - It was his Birthday yesterday! He did what every 36 year old guy wants to do on his birthday.....Sleep in, watch sports all day while eating a big za that lays in his lap, roam freely about an empty house.......oops I mean that is what he wanted to do on his special day, but in reality it went a bit more like this......wake up to watch the kids while his wife goes for a run, manage two kids on bikes that refuse to look for cars, wear a flashing neon pin that reads "it's my birthday" that his daughter couldn't wait to give him, then pack it up to go see a live Disney Playhouse show downtown, and finally out to dinner with friends and five toddlers running around a sports bar! So it varied just a tad from the original dream, but hey - it wasn't too bad.

We were able to enjoy a dinner out the night before, so all in all, not the worse case scenario, but another birthday has come and gone and we still love you to pieces!

Brooke was very into Chris' birthday for some reason this year - she had made and wrapped a gift and had been hiding it for weeks, unknown to me what it was or where she was hiding it.... (it happened to be a 4x6 pix of her and Brady shoved in the corner of a 5x7 frame) I am still trying to figure out what she took out and where that could be......she also had requested to go out and purchase his cake and decorations and here were some funnies that came about.

me.....wow Brooke there is a lot of traffic out here today.....
Brooke.....It doesn't matter mom, we have to get this done today - Dad's birthday is more important than traffic.

Brooke......(in a loud flabbergasted voice on the way home from getting b-day treats) MOM STOP! WE FORGOT THE PINATA!
Mom.....Brooke I think dad will forgive us for not getting a pinata! oh vey!

So not sure if it was Chris day of Bliss - but it was for the kids - they enjoyed Disney

Brooke felt like she had to dress up as if she were going to the Metropolitan Museum in NYC....pick and choose your battles right?

Brady was a deer in headlights - he sat emotional less for the entire show - never removing his pupils from the stage, I think he was just taking it all in and wondering if the TV had sucked him in and now he was truly living his dream? So I can't say he was that kid singing and dancing and jumping up and down, the only emotion he showed was a fake cry at the end and a quick statement of "show back on" so I guess he liked it!

emotional less during the show and than hamming it up later at the restaurant.

At least dad got to enjoy some good ol' fashioned chocolate to end a hectic birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Chris/Dad!

Recovering........

The Munson household is in full recovery mode on many different levels:

Kids:
both recovering from fevers and the general blahs of staying in P.J.s for three days.

Me:
recovering from some major leg pain induced by running - getting olds a treat!

Chris:
Recovering from having two sick kids home in the general blahs in P.J.s for three days.

Our house:
Recovering from one creative, but extremely messy Brooke...... it is endless

• She must be painting or having piles of shaving cream to play in at all moments of the day

• You can open our freezer at any point in the day and there will be a new "experiment" sitting in a Dixie cup ready to freeze (usually colored water with some cereal and broken up spaghetti noodles)
• She has discovered food coloring and has fallen in love - little does she know it stains everything!

Our alarm clock:
recovering from it's six month hiatus now that Brady has slept past 6:30 since the daylight savings time


So hip hip hooray to healthier times ahead!

Dewy Decimal System.....

The Munson public library is in desperate need of some sort of book catalog organization system. I am not sure the Dewy is capable of handling the monstrosity that the kids have accumulated. They are EVERYWHERE and I know, books the best things around, I will agree, and I love them and both my kids love them, they are natural book worms, but the piles must stop! We recently, in honor of National Reading month, took all the books out of every nook and corner and compiled them into one large heap (you see as their preschool teacher grandma is closing in on retirement the heaps gets bigger and bigger with each visit - trust me everyone couldn't be happier about it, except our floor!) So before I got over the top anal and literally started printing up labels with 125.6 BRA and 136.89 BRO on them Brooke agreed to help organize (Brady we sort of had to keep in on the down low..... "NO MY BOOKS!") and pull together younger books that we don't really use anymore and donate them to their school. We are making progress - however now that they are laid out into a vast sea on our carpet - the kids (mainly Brady) don't want to put them away - they are playing Library, making piles and forts out of them......so the library is still under construction, but we are getting there!


Brooke is starting to get into the reading thing - she is "required" to read 15 minutes or more every night and then has to turn in a coupon verifying she did - in order for her to win tix to a minor league baseball game and have a school party - so she is full force - case in point - she told me tonight "the boys in our class are really falling behind, the girls are reading a lot more"

Also her teacher, bless her heart, has instituted a "NO TV day" one day each week to promote reading -Brooke isn't as into this contest per say, but I think it is something to strive for....however one of them is on a Tuesday when Chris has them home - we will see how that pans out :)


So in honor of National reading month I will turn off this darn computer and honker down with some educational reading, US magazine.....I swear there ARE articles in it, inspiring, captivating, intriguing articles!

Plugging away.....

Not too much to report......Just getting through the "tease" season if you will - one day dry and mildly pleasant, the next day whipping winds and snow on the ground. Kids are doing good, staying busy doing what ever they can.

Brady's new found obsession is crawling up onto the kitchen counter emptying out the entire cup cabinet and announcing that he is having a "cup sale" It is a pretty regular routine after dinner each night.....so we must continue to fill each glass with water, put a straw in each one and do 10 loads in the dishwasher each night because all our glasses are dirty!

Here is the man getting ready for the big sale - perhaps the garage sales are rubbing off on him already!

Even though Brooke is "in charge" of pouring the water somehow more water ends up on the counter or the floor than the cups!

Even Dad likes to get in on the action.....

Both kids are very into Buzz light year at the moment and each night they scream at the top of their lungs "to infinity and beyond" as they jump off one couch and fly around the family room. Here is the same event happening but at some gym into a foam pit!

That's it with the kids - Chris on the other hand has been officially banned from EBAY as he has spent an exuberant amount of energy searching for the next "gotta have" sports collectible. The item Du jour? an old pair of sweaty, smelly gloves that must omit their odors in our house if you ask the wife of said item. Now if you asked Chris they are autographed Stevie Y gloves that he wore in some important game and they are the coolest things in the world and would love to have a conversation with you about them.

That's it folks like I said just plugging along.....

Searching......

Mom and Dad clear the guest room I am immediately looking into booking a flight :)

I go out for a run on a Saturday morning and next thing you know I come back with Andy Rooney's eyebrows..........

Reasons I feel ancient lately.....

#1. My immune system is that of an Aid's patient. Three weeks in a row I have had some sort of illness....this weeks disease du jour.....common head cold/cough.

#2. When my daughter asks me "Was mickey mouse in black and white when you were a kid?"

#3. When taking Brooke out to the movies for V-day she turns to me and says "Did they even
have movie theatres in the olden days when you were a kid?"

#4. The fact that I have been in bed by 9 p.m. the past two nights.

#5. Brooke discussing the the Mickey mouse song with Brady "Brady they didn't have hot dog hot dog hot diggity dog.....way back when it used to be something like M-I-C (see you real soon) K-E-Y (why because we like you) M-O-U-S-E

#6. Brooke sounding flabbergasted when we told her cartoons used to only be on Saturday morning......

#7. Meeting with my financial advisor this morning, reviewing policies and plans and hearing him tell me the year I would be 65 and it not sounding that far away.......(excuse me while I swallow the puke that just came up as I typed that) yikes!

Perhaps a calgon bath in the fountain will come my way!

Update

Finally got my camera working again - scroll down for some skiing pix.....

Feel the burn.....

There is that moment after a good hard workout that you feel your body burn and tingle from your muscles going overboard and it secretly feels good like hey I did my body good today......

Then there is the burn that you feel from being hunched over in a half fold for the greater part of two days as you ski with a two and five year old. It is a FIREY burn that you feel in your quads from snow plowing backwards all day. The burn and and ACHE that you feel in your bicep from having an iron clad grasp on your little ones as they brave the chair lifts with no fear. The burn and THROB you feel in your shoulders as you continually lift them off of the chair lift in a stricken panic for them not to wipe out and be terrified of the moving benches for life.......somehow it STILL secretly feels good because I am doing something I love and my kids are loving it too!

This Burn I speak of Chris and I felt front and center this weekend - We took the kids up to Boyne Skiing with Tom & Jenn and the kids. It was a blast (minus the burn) The kids did great and who knew they made such adorable skis for two year olds. The plan wasn't even to take Brady skiing, I brought a sled for him to dink around on while everyone was giving it a whirl, but while in the rental place - we both gave a look like "when in Rome......do what the Romans do!" So we rented skis for the two turkey balls and it was so fun to all be doing the SAME activity! Brooke was a bit timid at first - I think the size of the hills scared her at first (or at least from what she has skied on before), but she quickly gained some confidence as she had to keep up with her cool, older Cousins.....by the end of the weekend she was unassisted and starting to make turns and slowly making her pizza slice!......Brady was a bit of a surprise as well - more so in the fact he went for it with gusto....... he had no fear, which I guess is the point of doing things when your young and don't know any better..... Here were a few of his catch phrases.....

• When getting off the chair lift immediately yelling "MARK SET GO!"
• "mommy race Brookie" "Fast"
• "ski bumps again" (these rolling hills you could go over to create more speed!)
• "Ski with mommy...... daddy hit head" (refer to video clip below!)
  

So when I returned back to work on Monday and immediately had therapy on my back, neck and shoulder I thought it was all worth it - every second of the burn - the kids LOVED it and skied from sun up until sun down both days! It was great to have them giggling and laughing with cousins from so much fun. We had fantastic weather for February in Michigan, we had a great condo on the hill that accommodated lunch breaks and naps easily. I can only hope they will request this vacation again as I foresee it getting easier every year! And hopefully we can convince Brady that "no, Mellow will not EAT you!

Instructor Alexis on the case!

Along with the Iron Clad grip I also safety pinned our hats together so he wouldn't fall!

Instructor Tom (hmmm do you see a trend she will listen to anyone as an instructor as long as their name doesn't start with Mom or Dad.....)

The Novacek Clan.....

Brady testing the waters on the "magic carpet"

Picture on the hill in front of the condo.....Brady still trying to figure out how to stand and walk in ski boots!

Here are those cute adorable "little" skis!

Here is the video I mentioned and the reason Brady skiied the remainder with Mom.....

Here is Brady Bugs taking a run in at night....





Brooke getting on the chairlift with Tom and Lexi.


Brooke making it alone.....

Milkaholic.....

Hi My name is Brady Christopher Munson and I am an Milkaholic!
Welcome Brady.....
Some kids have blankets, binky's, stuffed animals or a snuggie of some sort - my kids security blanket is a plastic sippy cup of white creamy goodness...... It has always been this way....when he wakes up it is the first thing he asks for, if he gets hurt its the first thing that will calm him down, if he is stricken or uncomfortable in any sort of situation he will turn to you and ask "white milk please" and I write it like that because he does specify - it must be white. He doesn't cross over to the dark side of the chocolate milk (I don't blame him - I think it is gross too!) But we must break him of this habit I don't mind that he drinks it but I want him to know there are other comforts out there (frango mints, resses peanut butter cups, a worn in blanket, a bubble bath, a bowl full of Parmesan noodles....) I digress....I am just saying why always the moo juice? I guess I am most conflicted with it at night - it is like a shot of NyQuil for him a few gulps at 8:00 and this kid is out like a light - who wants to give that up?? But I suppose we have to worry about potty training this little guy soon and that will only make the battle bigger.

So I am looking for "sponsors" for Brady - any 2-4 year olds out there who have been through the "program" who can lend some support would be great. He will only call upon you when in trouble and I find him sneaking into the fridge at odd hours or frantically doing the milk "sign" with his hands as he shakes from withdrawal - your help will be appreciated!

In other news the little nugger is adorably cute and hilarious lately we are really enjoying actual conversations with him now and couldn't be happier! His latest and greatest is to come into our room (sometimes earlier than I want) and say "come cuddle me" I mean come on - who is going to turn that down - so off I go hand in hand back to his bed or on the couch downstairs where we spoon/cuddle/wiggle/kiss for about 1/2 hour and then he just turns to me when he has had enough and says....yup you guessed it

"WHITE MILK PLEASE!"

The dark clouds are parting.....

and I can finally see some light.....After a bout with the stomach flu for two weeks in a row I am finally feeling a bit of energy and an actual zip in my step and I really all owe it to my new friend Amodium AD.... Why has no one ever mentioned this "magic" pill to me before? Well it is forever etched in my brain - It would have been nice to be introduced to this fine fella about 3 days ago.... not to bore you with the gross and mundane details .......
In other news....
The dark clouds are REALLY parting the sun actually was shining so much today that I drew my blinds at work (haha) this was in between the random snow flurries, but really we are having some bouts with 35 degrees and I am not lying "top down....summer in the city...." it's practically spring break here! Who am I kidding it is just the same ol same ol so this is what we have been doing to plow through the winter and not go completely stir crazy.......

We help each other get dressed in some ridiculous outfits....
We get the band back together again....
We climb MT. Everest (well at least to him...)
And look down upon all the lil people once we summit.....
We snack on chunks of dirty snowplowed ice....
We try to ignore who is really playing on Superbowl Sunday and pretend it "could" happen someday....
We take in the sites with dad....
Just living the dream folks .....living the dream.