Okay, it's fall and I still suck at this

It's only been, oh, 6 months since I've written. But since no one reads this, who really cares?

We had a great summer. It was unseasonably cold this summer, but we did manage to get to the pool. Andrew loved it, Nicholas did not. They are going to be as different as night and... later that night.

Nicholas continues to worship the ground Andrew walks on. And Andrew tolerates him. Andrew is more interested in abusing his older brother authority and enjoys reprimanding Nicholas as often as possible. But, since Nicholas loves Andrew so much, as long as he's getting attention from Andrew, he'll do whatever he says.

We celebrated the boys' birthdays recently. Andrew is 5 and is now expecting to go to kindergarten. Every day, he asks if he can go. I tell him he has to wait a year, but he is having none of that. So, he keeps asking and I keep giving him the same answer. 5 is fun.

Nicholas turned 2. He wasn't talking much until a few weeks ago. He now repeats everything you say (note to self: stop thinking out loud) and can put 2 word sentences together. "Hiiiiiieee Mama!" "Tangya (thank you) Mama!" And always with such enthusiasm. Hilarious.

Last weekend, we went to Boston for my cousin's wedding and left the boys home with Angie, God bless her. She tried to get the boys to talk to me on the phone, but Andrew wasn't interested and Niko just said, "Meemee? Yiayia? Dada?" Seriously? Would it kill him to pretend he loves me?!

So, maybe I'll get better at this posting someday. If not, you'll hear from me by Andrew's high school graduation. Happy Fall!

Happy Easter

And, as always, I suck at keeping this updated.

This past weekend was Easter. As tradition, the week prior is spent at church. We're supposed to go Wednesday, Thursday, twice on Friday, twice on Saturday. However, in reality...

We started out strong on Wednesday. But, by Thursday, we quickly fell apart. We skipped Thursday and missed one entire service on Friday. We rallied by evening and went again Saturday morning. And again crumbled by Saturday night. I feel like I'm still ahead of the game, though. This is the most we've gone in months, so I figure we're good for another few months.

We had Easter dinner at Mom and Dad's. Mom, as always, put on a big feast. Lamb, pastistio, tiropitas, salad, etc. This year, we had a full house. Mom invited my nona and her family and Pete's nono and his family. And, of course, my in-laws. Which brings me to the point of my story.

My in-laws. I love 'em. But I don't understand 'em. Jeanne, unfortunately, was hit with a case of food poisoning, so my father-in-law came alone. Bearing gifts, of course. Ah, the gifts. Books this year, which are always a hit. However, the books themselves were questionable. For Andrew, Walter the Farting Dog. Yes, you read that right. A story about a farting dog. With graphic images and everything. And for poor sweet baby Nicholas? I Stink.

Ah, gotta love the in-laws. Andrew has been telling everyone the title of his book. Hilarious.

Bowling

After watching Andrew beat the pants off of us on Wii bowling, we thought it was time to take him to a real bowling alley. We called up Dean and Megs and our parents and went up to Buckeye Lanes last Saturday. The kids had fun. Those stinkin' balls are heavy, though, even the kids' balls. I thought Alexis was going to fall backward. Andrew got a few strikes... not as many as on the Wii, but I thought he did a great job for his first time. He told Popou that next time, he wants to go just the two of them.

And poor Nicholas. That kid is dying to play with the big kids. Thank goodness Dean and Megs are having another baby so Niko has someone to play with! He wanted to bowl as well, so I let him push one bowling ball down the lane. He wanted to chase after it, but they frown upon that stuff there.

We took some video of Andrew throwing his ball down the lane, but didn't capture the results. You'll just have believe me when I say it was a strike.

Living in Ohio

Well, winter is upon us. We've been pretty lucky so far, no real snow and the weather has stayed pretty mild. But yesterday and today have felt like winter and it'll be like this for the next 6 months. It's depressing. On the way home from school yesterday, Andrew and I had a great conversation, which pretty much went like this:

Me: "Andrew, Mommy hates the cold and snow. Let's move somewhere warm."
Andrew: "Like Florida?" (How does he know that Florida is warm anyway?)
Me: "Yes, like Florida. We could live near Nana and Papa."
Andrew: "And Mickey Mouse." (Again, how does he know this stuff? We don't talk about where Mickey lives)
Me: "Right, Mickey Mouse lives in Florida. Want to move down there?"
Andrew (adamant): "NO, Mommy. We moved to Ohio and that's where we're staying!"

Well, then.

So, when he grows up and tells me he wants to move somewhere, are we going to have this same conversation in reverse?

Happy New Year!

No, really. I am going to be better about this blog this year. It's one of my resolutions. heh. Okay, not really, but whatever. I'm going to try anyway.

Christmas is over and now we're trying to find places to put all the new toys. Where do we put the older toys? Can everything just go in the basement? Would that mean we'd have to spend time in the basement? So many questions, so little inclination to do anything about it. Right now, most of the new things are shoved in the corner of the family room. It's not pretty.

It was a good Christmas, though. Santa was very good to the boys. Andrew has a new obsession. Bakugans. How did he learn about them? I didn't even know they existed. He came home one day from school and told me all about them. I thought at first it was just his creative imagination, but then decided to google them. Sure enough, they exist. And they are a phenomena. Who knew? So, he received some of those for Christmas, which have quickly become his favorite toys.

Nicholas also received some good gifts. He is a big fan of balls, so he got a toy that pops balls out of it. He loves it, but we keep losing the stinkin' balls. And, because he likes dogs so much, he got a dog that claps and sings. He loves it. It's already starting to bug me.

Niko is growing too fast

The title says it all. What happened to my baby?? He's crawling, he has 2 bottom teeth, and, just this week, he has started pulling himself up to a standing position. What is his hurry?? I'm pretty sure he wants to keep up with his big brother, Andrew, but he's growing too fast for me. He is already 7-1/2 months old, which is hard to believe. He's going to be christened next Sunday. Dean and Megs are going to be his godparents. Megs just converted to Greek Orthodoxy, so that's exciting. Nicholas loves his baths, so hopefully, he will love this "bath" just as much.

Yeah, right.

I'm weird

And again, another Andrew-ism. Today, we were sitting here at the kitchen table, Andrew eating tomato soup and a bagel. He was acting silly, slurping his soup, when he said, "Mommy, I'm weird."

Who taught him that??