Max is usually not the best person to play hide and seek with. If he is the counter he counts as fast as he can, while following you so he knows where you are hiding. If he is the hider, he gets in his spot, but as soon as he hears you stop counting he jumps out and gives himself away. Either way, a game of hide and seek does not take too long to play with Max.

However, today Max and I were home alone and he decided he was up for a game of hide and seek. I'm never one to turn down hide and seek so I asked if he wanted to count or hide first. Hide, of course! As I was counting I could hear him shuffling around in his bedroom and then, all of the sudden, silence. I yelled ready or not here I come, and started calling his name, which usually gets him to jump out at you and the game is done. I looked for a few minutes and could honestly not find him. I thought I had looked everywhere, but then as I passed through the bathroom for the 3rd time I noticed something....



I sat on the edge of the tub and waited to see how long he could be quiet and hide. He had to have known I was right outside his towel wall, but he stayed quiet and still for several minutes, I even had enough time to go get the camera so I could capture his face when he popped out...

Russell (finally) lost his tooth!!

The tooth fairy will come tonight. Russell is now making a special box to put his tooth in. He is concerned that if he just puts it under his pillow (like every other kid in the world) it may fall between his bed and the wall and land on Max's head, which would result in the tooth fairy not finding it, which would mean no quarter in the morning. So he decided to play it safe and make a special (really big) box to put his tiny tooth in. He also drew a picture of Spiderman on the box so any tooth robber will be scared off. He is always one step ahead of the game!

Without further ado, let me introduce you to toothless Russell....

Every kid makes butter at some point in their schooling. I remember doing this in kindergarten, and I had also found, on the kindergarten website I get my science ideas from, that they also thought kindergarten was a great age to make butter. All it takes is some heavy cream, salt (if desired), a jar with a lid and some shaking. When I announced that we were going to make butter the boys were thrilled and immediately ran to get a piece of bread, not thinking about the work they had to do in order to get this tasty butter.

I split the cream into 2 jars, handed them each a jar and let them shake it. We were having a great time! We had arms shaking, and soon whole bodies were shaking, jumping and dancing their way to fresh butter. Now, what they didn't tell me, and what I didn't remember from school, was that kids are only interested in shaking a jar of cream for about 5 min. If you have a classroom filled with 20-25 kids and each kid shakes the jar for 1-2 minutes this would be perfect. But, with only 3 people in our "class" I think you can imagine what happened. The boys shook for about 5 minutes and then I got to shake both jars for the remaining 20-30 minutes. It was well worth it though! We have delicious butter to top all our breads and we all can say we "made" it.

Max was really enjoying his time shaking the cream at first.


Russell shows the pain and hardship you have to go through in order to get freshly shaken butter.

Today was the inauguration. I'm sure that is not new news to anyone. I'm not going to tell you how excited I was and that I was glued to CNN all morning and afternoon. I'm not even going to tell you that I was moved to tear when seeing the mass of people gathering for miles in D.C. just to be able to say they were apart of this historic event, or the feeling of great hope as President Obama spoke of change that our country needs so badly.

Instead I will tell you how Russell and Maxwell responded to this historic event. (Yes, we did spend the morning and part of the afternoon in front of the T.V.. We did our school work on the living room floor, with the T.V. on...don't judge me.)

Every time Sen. Diane Feinstein stood up both boys would yell, "not her again!"

Maxwell LOVED Aretha Franklin singing. He bobbed his head along with her and when she was done gave out an enthusiastic "WOW".

Russell loved when they would show the little Obama girls. Maybe it's a crush, or maybe he thinks it's pretty neat that they are just kids and get to be there. Who knows.

Maxwell was disappointed in the people who were looking around during the prayer. He kept saying "busted!" when the camera would catch one of these "naughty" people.

The most exciting part for each of them was hearing the word DEMOCRACY. This is a topic we have been covering in school. They (especially Russell) know what this word means and really got a kick out of hearing it used in Obama's speech.

As I was explaining how Obama was being sworn in and would hold office (if all goes as planned) for 4 years and then he can chose to run again (or not) and others will have the chance to run also, yada yada yada... Russell decided this sounds like a game. He thinks it would be a great idea for us to play the game someday. HaHaHa!!

As they scanned the mass of people who had gathered I asked the boys "how do you think these people are feeling?" Each boy immediately responded that they looked happy, very happy. I think they were right.

Sure, not everyone is as enthusiastic about this new president as some. Time will tell if all this hoopla was for good reason or not. But right now, it seems change is coming and any change will be welcome.

These 2 boys are great at playing pretend. This week we played less legos and more role playing. Russell has transformed into Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, a favorite show of all in our home. Russell puts on his "Mike Rowe outfit" and comes up with dirty jobs he is going to complete. So far the dirty jobs he has come up with are: cleaning the toilet, scraping an oil rig, cleaning up after horses and combing a goat. I guess these are what a 6 year old finds repulsive. I don't know if some of these jobs would make it to the actual show, they may not be dirty enough. Maxwell loves to make sound effects that accompany these dirty jobs.

The next of our role playing is airplane pilot. Sure, every kid plays airplane pilot at some point in their lives, but it was during this time of pilot playing that the quote of the week came out. Russell had donned his pilot hat and got behind the wheel of his very own airplane. He soon realized that something was wrong and quickly announced to his crew and passengers, "Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is we are landing immediately. The bad news is we are crash landing (crash landing was said with a sense of complete terror)." Along with this we have Max yelling as if he were really going down.

Max is still Peter Pan. He just can't get enough of that boy who is never going to grow up. He has worn his costume almost daily since Halloween. At times Max will get angry if you don't refer to him as Peter. Russell even helped him make a bag full of pixie dust (TINY pieces of paper colored yellow) that he felt the need to sprinkle all over the house. Nice.

These have been a welcome change. I enjoy Spiderman, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to have a break from the web slinging and building jumping. Who knows what will come next...

When R.C. is home for supper I usually try to make a little nicer meal than I would make if it is just the boys and I. Tonight we had salmon, mashed potatoes (because Max will only eat potatoes if they are mashed), salad with homemade lemon/dill/mustard vinaigrette, and some crusty bread. It was delicious...to all but Max. Max ate his bread, and potatoes, but his fish sat untouched on his plate. Our normal coaxing didn't seem to be working, so it was time to pull out a move from my childhood, one my dad had perfected.

Here's what you do. Tell the child you don't think they can do ________ by the time you get back. No child wants to give their parent the satisfaction of knowing they can't do something, so they prove they can do this thing. The child is happy they proved their parent wrong and the parent is happy their little scheme worked.

Here's how my little scheme when down...

Me: "Max, I bet you can't make one bite of fish disappear before I turn back around." (I was facing away from him.)
I waited a few moments, giving him some extra time and thinking about how smart I was to pull this little trick out of my hat. I knew my dad would be proud as I thought back to all the times this was used on me as a child and worked beautifully.
As I turned to face Max I was surprised to see all his fish still sitting, by this time cold, on his plate. Max didn't waste much time in speaking up about my scheme.
"Well, I guess that didn't work", was all he had to say. I would expect this response from a 12 year old, not a 3 year old.

Max:1 Mom:0
What's your secret Pops?

To the 2 women standing behind me at the post office:

1. I am in fact the mother of these 2 little boys.
2. Yes, my son is wearing a costume...in public! (Heaven forbid!)
3. Yes, this boy is school age, and no he was not in school when we were at the post office.
4. I am not too young to home school or be a mother.
5. Next time you decide to talk about a person, make sure they are not standing less than 2 feet in front of you.

If you couldn't tell, I had a very....annoying (to say the least) experience at the post office today. People assume I am too young, and keeping my children from school. Even when I told them I was the mother and home school, they still felt the need to whisper (very loudly) and criticize someone (us) who they had never seen before. These people annoy me to no end.

I know, I know...stick to writing about happy go lucky, carefree days, Melissa. But, hey, days like this are also a part of life as we Saylers live it.

Friday was the perfect school day. Well, as perfect as they get in this house anyways. Everyone awoke and began the day in a good mood. Breakfast was eaten, clothes were changed and the workbooks were taken out of the cupboard. On most days, school is a fun time, and both boys enjoy doing their work, but also look forward to the end of the day when we put the books away and get the toys out. Friday was different. The workbooks stayed out longer than usual and I had to put them away while both boys cried and wanted to keep going on their work. They love their new curriculum and if given the chance, they would work through it in week, instead of the 4-5 months it is supposed to take. After hours of doing workbooks, and to stop the crying, we donned our newsie apparel, turned on our newsie CD and had a 45 minute newsie dance off (exhausting!!). After dancing nonstop, we (mainly I) were tired and decided to do some more work. We worked on word searches, crosswords, and I Spy until supper time. Their little brains were smoking by the end of the night from all the work they did, but they each said they had a really fun day. If you didn't already know...these boys are awesome!

Diligent little workers...who are also very funny.

I'm surprised people have been so interested in "the loose tooth", and you have been checking in to see if the tooth fairy has come yet. I assure you, it is still loose and it is still in the gums, lined up with all the other pearly white baby teeth. It seems to get more loose each day and the fear of eating apples and carrots has set in with Russell. You have all been so kind in reminding us that we can speed this process up by simply tying a string to his tooth and pulling. I, for one, am not too crazy about this idea. I don't think you should ever have to tie a string to a part of your body and pull. Bringing a door knob into the mix only makes it seem more strange to me. Has anyone ever gone to the doctor and he prescribed a string and door knob in order to feel better? I didn't think so. So, we are very patiently awaiting the day when this tiny little tooth releases it's roots from the gums and falls into Russell's hand. Until then, we wait...

It's back to school time for everyone in our house.

R.C. took his sack lunch and headed off to the studio and class this morning. It's back to his busy schedule. It was GREAT to have him home for a few weeks with us!!

Russell and Max got back to work this morning also. We started out by doing a bit of review and then dove right into some new topics. It's good to be back in "learning mode" after a week and a half break. During our break we did do a few science experiments. We grew rocks in a tank and chiseled away rock in order to uncover and identify several rocks and gems. I am certain we have a paleontologist and geologist in the making.







After a busy day back to school we were able to relax a bit this afternoon. Each of the boys put on their costumes (again) and we headed outside to build a snowman and have a snowball fight with the remaining snow in our back "yard". Surely running and dodging snowballs counts as gym class. Right?! Hot cocoa and an art project finished up our day. Who said school has to be boring?



(This thing on Maxwell's shoulder is Tinkerbell. Russell made it and taped it on Max. Up close it looks more like Tinkerbell.)

It's New Years Eve once again and I can not help but think of the past year. It has been a year of change for all of us in the Sayler home. At times all this change is overwhelming and I find myself thinking, "what are we thinking/doing?" But I remember that change is part of life and yes, it may be hard and scary, but it is also very very exciting.

Maxwell started out the year by being very shy and quiet. He was 2 years old and didn't say much of anything. He clung to me, needed me to sit with him until he fell asleep and was just a very quiet child. He is now talking nonstop. For those of you who can't imagine Max ever uttering a word, trust me, he talks more than Russell at times. Max is also no longer a baby. Yes, I know, he's 3 and just being 3 kicks him out of the baby category, but all "baby activities" are no longer acceptable. He does not like to have help getting dressed, he does not like to hold hands, and the days of me sitting on his bed while he falls asleep are gone. He knows he is a big boy and loves to prove it to people by jumping off big rocks, going potty on his own and carrying a full gallon of milk to the table, with no help.

Russell is, in most ways, the same old Russell he has always been (which is a good thing!). He still loves dinosaurs and Spiderman and wearing costumes on any given day. He is learning so much though! He started the year attending preschool at the public school where he had the best teacher anyone could ask for. If all teachers could be like this preschool teacher, the world would be filled with kids who WANT to go to school and love to learn. She got him started on the right track for school and that is the best thing anyone could ask for! Which brings us to Russell's big change...homeschooling. He is doing so well and seems to enjoy it. He is adding, reading, and writing sentences. He can also tell you all about the weather, time, and land masses. Russell is also very helpful around the house. He used to do nothing to contribute to a meal, but he is setting the table now and pouring drinks.

R.C. was able to quit his job in 2008 and instantly became a happier person. Yes, he was able to quit a 40 hour a week job, but he is now putting in well over 40 hours in grad school. Even with more hours "working" he is still much happier since now he doesn't have to sit on the phone all day long. R.C. finished off his first semester with straight A's!!! Let's see another 3 semesters of straight A's (I know he is more than capable of doing this)!!

As for me, well, I didn't have many monumental things happen in 2008. I have been able to carry a gallon of milk to the table for some time now. I have been able to read for a number of years, and I didn't just get straight A's. I feel like a good part of the year I spent packing boxes, unpacking boxes, sorting boxes and condensing boxes. I think I might have our home set up just right in about 2 years, just as R.C. is ready to graduate and we will move again. I also took on the task of homeschooling Russell. I am very happy with how Russell is learning, except when people ask him what he is learning. I cringe when I hear this question because each and every time it is asked Russell will answer, "I don't know". This part of homeschooling drives me nuts!

My top 2 strengths (according to the Strengths Finder test taken at Greenville College) are positivity and adaptability. These were put to the test this year and for the most part, I think I kept a fairly positive outlook on things and have adapted some what well to Rhode Island in the past few months.

Tonight we will ring in the new year with sparkling blueberry juice (for the boys) snacks and maybe a game of scrabble (exciting time, right?!). I have yet to come up with a great new years resolution. Usually I don't come up with one until about Easter time, and by then I feel it is too late to start something different, so I tell myself I will use it has my resolution for next year. I then forget about it by the next new years and I once again have nothing to declare my resolution. It's a cycle that never stops...

Late Christmas night I picked my sister, Chris, up at the airport. She decided to spend part of her Christmas break from teaching to come visit us in Rhode Island, and we were happy she did. The boys were really excited and stayed up until 11:15 PM to greet aunt Chrissy when she walked through the door. We were able to have our guest here for 5 days, but it went so fast. We tried to show her all that Providence has to offer, but I'm sure we forgot something so she will have to come back in the summer. We spent one afternoon at the beach, followed by ice cream from our favorite ice cream parlor. It was a chilly day, but very enjoyable.

Highlights:

• The beach and ice cream (as mentioned above).
• R.C. stayed home with the boys so Chris and I could shop/walk around the mall.
• A walk around our neighborhood on a 50 degree day. It was such great weather!
• A tour of downtown and RISD.
• Playing Seinfeld Scene It. I proved to the queen of all Seinfeld!
• We found a great outlet mall not too far from home.
• I treated Chris to caviar. It was delicious!! (OK, so I just led the way to the free sample of caviar at Whole Foods, where we ran in quick to grab a gallon of milk. Caviar is caviar though...and if it's free it's all the better in my book.)
• Russell scolded Chris about not recycling her pop bottle. It makes me proud!
• Maxwell was the Hi-Ho-Cherry-O champion.
  

We hope that Chris had a good trip and will spread the word so more people come visit us. Thanks for coming Chris! Enjoy your new shoes!

Here are just a few pictures of our day at the beach. Each time we go to the beach we end up bringing back half the beach in a bucket...








Also...

I'm sure you noticed that we were all in our coats, hats, scarves and mittens. It was a cool day, but lovely for a walk on the beach. A walk. Some men (boys?) decided they were going to brave the frigid ocean waters and take a dip. What a couple of crazies!! Max saw these intelligent (do you sense any sarcasm?) people and decided he wanted to get in the water also. He was very upset when I told him no. He decided that he would settle for getting as close to the water as possible, and running before it touched his boots, though.

This is the only picture I took of the swimmers...hard to make out...

This morning was Christmas morning, as if you all didn't know that. 7:30 AM rolled around and 2 little boys were standing at our bedside, just starring at me (why they always come to my side of the bed and wake me up first I just don't understand). I knew what they wanted, but thought that I could buy myself a few more minutes of sleep by telling Max he had to get his pull-up off and put his underpants on before we could go see if Santa had come. Russell was on top of things and had already helped Max get changed (what a nice big brother! On any other day he would not have done this...) so there was nothing that I could do but get up.

Santa did, in fact, come to Providence, ate all the cookies left out, and also gave the carrot to Rudolph. The presents were soon all opened and then the "playing with the toys" began. I must admit, I'm kind of a boring person when it comes to lots of new things all at once. I immediately go into "mommy mode" and want one toy out at a time. But before that can happen, I want people dressed and messes cleaned up. The boys were in luck though...daddy was in charge. I excused myself to the kitchen to get Christmas dinner made while R.C. was in charge of the boys. He allowed them to stay in their pj's (which they are STILL in. We have no company and nowhere to go so why not?) and get out all their toys at one time. I smiled and shook my head when legos were rolling under my feet in the kitchen and I was asked for batteries every 5 minutes. I now understand why mom and dad wanted to get things in the oven and a few other kitchen chores done before we attacked the presents. As a kid I never understood why we had to wait at the top of the stairs, for what seemed like eternity, while these chores were done. I now understand that once the presents are opened nothing gets done and the mess, no matter how clean you have your home the night before, just gets worse and worse. Paper and boxes are everywhere. Even if you don't have too many presents to open, the paper will take over. I find paper scraps in the bathroom and under pillows. Oh well...it happens once a year.

Russell got a robe. He really wanted one and he looks like a little bachelor in this one sipping coffee (OK...so it's juice).

Max...kind of excited about legos

The one gift they both REALLY REALLY wanted

A super cheap knight dress up set that Max loved when he saw it in the store. It is flimsy and will not protect him from his enemies, but he thinks he is tough stuff when he puts it on...

Soon the sword was used to open presents. R.C. with his nice warm hat and Max with a harmonica.

Even after all the presents, singing, reading Christmas stories and baking, I had a hard time getting in the Christmas mood. We all felt a little strange not having any other family around to visit with or share a meal with. Every other year we have spent Christmas day, and the days leading up to Christmas, with family, so having a quiet day was different. I did get a GREAT surprise when I checked the messages on my phone and I heard my uncle Kenny singing O Holy Night. When uncle Kenny sings O Holy Night he can make a grown man cry. He has been singing this song in church every Christmas since, well, I can't remember a Christmas that he hasn't sung it. I thought this year I would have to get through Christmas without hearing it, until this afternoon. Thank you Kenny!

A good and relaxing day was had by all.

My sister, Chris, is flying to Providence tonight! I am going to pick her up in just a few hours and she will stay and visit for a few days. We are all very excited, but wonder where she will put her suitcase once she gets here (she is not one to travel light...).

(this is a spoof of this blog)

We used to pay $60 for a 7 foot tree, but this year things changed...
We found a place where you can buy any Norfolk Pine for $15, so we decided to go all out. When we got our tree home we had to find a box to set it upon so that it could be seen from the window. $15 for a 3 foot tree!

~ M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S ~

You know in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy is in her house during the tornado and there is a cow, 2 men rowing in a boat, and an old woman knitting in a rocking chair, that suddenly fly by her window? Well, today as we were sitting in our warm, cozy apartment watching the boys play in the snow, and the neighbor boy shovel our driveway, we saw a person skiing. Yes, we live on a steep hill, and yes, we do have a lot of snow (that still has not stopped!!), but skiing? Really? This man was downhill skiing in the middle of the street. When you think about it, it makes sense. He will get to the bottom of this large hill faster than he would walking, and he does not have to shovel out his car. My question is...what is he going to do when he is ready to go home? Part of me wants to sit at the window all day just to see his return trip because, as far as I know, they have yet to install a ski lift in this part of the neighborhood.

Just when I started to feel like Christmas was going to come and go once again without any snow, we got some!

Yesterday afternoon it began snowing and has not stopped yet. We now have about 8 inches on the ground with more coming down. This makes me so very happy! Last night we left the curtains open after dark so we could watch the snow fall and we laughed as we listened to the snow blowers start up 15 minutes after the snow began. What good does it do to clear off your sidewalk or driveway when it is still snowing hard? You will only have to do it again! We also were able to listen (and laugh a bit) as people were getting stuck left and right on the streets around us. There was already 6 inches on the roads and still people felt the need to drive. Someone even ordered a pizza. That poor Dominos Pizza delivery person was driving by so very slow. We were smart enough to get groceries before this started so we will not have to go out for a few days. Which is good since our car is stuck in the driveway and we don't feel the need to dig it out just yet.

This morning we woke up and immediately had to listen to the question, "when can we go outside!?" Finally, after breakfast, some phone calls, and some clean up, we put on a few pairs of socks and pants and headed outside. During the spring, summer and fall we don't have a great yard. We really have no yard at all. Come winter though, when everything gets covered with snow, all of the sudden we have a great backyard. You can't see that there is no grass back there, all you see is an open snowy area perfect for running and throwing people down. We had a wonderful snow fight and R.C. had a blast tackling the boys. Soon everyone had more snow in their boots and in their pants than they would have liked, so we headed inside for tomato soup and grilled cheese.



Maybe it is the "Wisconsin" in me, but I look forward to shoveling snow. I enjoy being "stranded" in my house for a few days and I love listening to the plows go by. Having snow makes me feel ready for Christmas (sort of).

Although I love the snow, I do hate the wet clothes that come with playing in the snow. I wish these would miraculously dry, and hang themselves back up...now!

R.C. and I are going to have to learn Pig Latin. That's the only way we are going to be able to keep secrets from the boys. Spelling doesn't work at all anymore! It's Christmas time and secrets are supposed to be kept. The boys are not supposed to know everything that R.C. and I are thinking/talking about. Today in the car as we were driving to finish our Christmas shopping R.C. told me he is going to start spelling words, but omit the vowels. Great idea! What little kid can hear a mix of consonants, figure out the vowels that are missing and say the word within a minute? Russell...that's who.

As we were driving, R.C. said to me, "lws for a tlkt"?
Immediately from the backseat Russell asks, "we're going to Lowe's for a tool kit? A tool kit? Hello...are are we getting a tool kit?"
Silence from the front seat. Followed by "what are you talking about Russell? Why would we go there? A tool kit? Where did you come up with that?"
We tried to cover ourselves. But, yes Russell, there is a kids toolkit at Lowe's we thought of getting you for Christmas.

Yesterday we decorated Christmas cookies! The boys helped me make the frosting, get the sprinkles out, and then spent a good 2+ hours decorating the cookies. I thought we might spend 20 minutes before they got bored with it and wanted to move on to something different. To my surprise they loved it and barely let me decorate any. Maxwell was very particular as to how the decorating should happen. He would get annoyed if Russell did not make a tree green, a star yellow, a snowflake white and a candy cane red. Russell enjoyed teasing him by making stars red and trees yellow. The big brother in him was really shining through. After all our (their) hard decorating it was time to fill our mouths with these overly frosted, overly sprinkled cookies. They were delicious!Although we had a great time decorating, I feel I saw this happening more than it should have...

I guess if you come and eat some of our Christmas cookies, you may want to steer clear of the green ones. Actually, this happened with all the colors so everything is a gamble. Kids...you have to love them...

We may have fixed it for the time being.... So just a taste of some pictures...

I'm sure there will MANY more to come.

R.C. is officially on Christmas break! His highlight of his break so far would have to be his daily nap. For the past 4 days R.C. has curled up on the couch, put his magic blanket over him, and dozed off for a few hours in the afternoon. The boys get a good laugh out of tucking daddy in with their blankets and checking on him every 10 minutes to make sure he is still snoring (you can hear this from every room so I don't know why they think they need to have their ear right on his face to hear this). If you have been to our home and witnessed the size (if you have not been here to witness the size, imagine 4 people and tons of "stuff" put into a shoebox. It's small, but we like it) you will understand that peace and quiet is hard to come by if everyone is not asleep. We try to keep quiet for him, but even the simple sound of putting spoons back into the drawer seems loud enough to raise the dead.

I have taken advantage of having R.C. around. I was able to make an outing with just Max while R.C. and Russell went downtown to a bookstore. I was also able to school Russell while Max went downtown to the bookstore with R.C.. It was really nice to focus just on Russell during this time, but we both agreed that Max adds a bit of humor to boring geography lessons. We were all able to walk to the library together yesterday (it was 60 degrees! In December!). When the boys and I go on our weekly visit to the library the walk is usually not too leisurely. I always have a huge bag of books (the boys clean out the library when they visit!) and 2 hands to hold, so it was a treat to only hold one hand...and a bag of books. The boys are thrilled to have dad here for meals. Each morning I wake up with the boys and allow R.C. to sleep in. Nice huh!? The boys greet me with a "we want _____ for breakfast." As soon as R.C. opens the bedroom door and steps out the boys run to him a shower him with hugs and kisses. Who is a bit jealous? (Not really. It's too cute and nice to get jealous of) I have also been able to cook without the boys under my feet and now I am even able to blog before 8:00 pm.

One semester down...3 more to go.