I keep wanting to post but I am so behind that I can’t because I am behind. I want to catch up but I can’t because I am behind. Bad bad cycle.

I will attempt to capture our crazy hectic summer in one crazy hectic post.

We got a new puppy. An Airedale. His name is Aesop. As in Aesop’s Fables. I thought this was obvious. Apparently not. We have gotten the weirdest comments and stares when saying his name.

We bought a Honda Odyssey Minivan. Decked out. Leather. DVD Player. Thane loves to say…Watch Tigger. I like the freedom of moving to the back of the car at any point in time.

We drove to NYC (in the new minivan) and visited Gia and Pappou. We saw Maren. We went to Connecticut and the beach and Mystic and Fairfield.

Mara is crawling. Crawling Crawling, not just sort of crawling. A whole new world.

Mara is eating more and more, sort of. Mommy is still terrified of feeding her anything. I was not this paranoid with Thane. They have had to talk to me about it several times at school.

Our renters moved. So we thought to ourselves? Why are we renting when we have a perfectly good house? So..We moved. Again. Back to the old old house. Now to unpack.

Thane is talking more and more….Here are some gems:

A teacher from his school had a conversation with him:
Thane: “Are you Clyde’s mommy?”
Sarah: “Yes”
Thane: “Ok. How are you?”
Sarah: “Good. How are you?”
And on and on…she was apparently so impressed she told everyone, me, the teachers, everyone

Putting on his shorts the other day:
Me: “Pull up your pants”
Thane: “These are shorts, mommy”
Me: “Yes, they are, sorry”

While driving: “That’s not a silo…that’s a water tower!” (hey, it was two days in the car, each way!)

The car arrangement is as such…

Daddy drives, Mommy is in passenger seat

Thane is behind daddy, Mara is behind mommy

Location of children was based on rear facing car seat and mommy being short. Daddy driving was half a result of that and half just plain luck.

In the car, Jay and I will talk. Now that Thane can talk, he likes to be involved in the conversation. He will sometimes try to get our attention in a sometimes not so polite (but awfully funny–yes, I know we are encouraging bad behavior) manner–

“Mommy..TURN AROUND!”

I will. I will sometimes ask what he needs. Always tell him to ask nicely. I will sometimes tell him daddy and I are talking.

Sometimes he will say…

“Daddy..TURN AROUND!”

To which Daddy responds (without fail and with the same inflection each time)…

“I can’t turn around, buddy, I’m driving!”

He has said this so much, that Thane now says this as well….”Daddy, turn around… I can’t turn around… I’m driving.”

Well, yesterday at the hockey game, I was talking to one of the other hockey widows, I mean wives. Thane was next to me. He kept saying, “Mommy, turn around.” I thought he wanted to talk to me. It was not until I relayed the story to Jay later that I realized he wanted me to stop talking and start watching daddy play hockey.

As Jay said…”My two year old has a longer attention span than my wife.”

Ever continuing our status as good house guests, we invited ourselves up to the Spicers last weekend. Just for the night, anyways.

Thane and Mara got to be spoiled by not only Uncle Terry and Aunt Joann but also Aunts Jessica and Terri. Aunt Terri even brought over a REAL medal that she had Thane stand on the ottoman while she put it around his neck. He, of course, had his arms up and we gave him a round of applause.

The highlight (and I use that term literally) was when Thane took a black Sharpie and made a large line on their light couch. Of course, it was on the one cushion that could not be turned over, either. This is why even though Jay used to work for Sanford (the Sharpie company) you cannot find a single one in our house right now.

The next day, Terry took his car to drive Jay to pick something up for us (details to come later) in Indianapolis. On the way back, he got a speeding ticket.

We are never invited there again. Ever.