We're Not Twins

ka-powloween

2008-11-04T17:44:00.002-06:00

fall boys

2008-10-27T13:48:00.001-05:00

preparations

2008-10-06T19:29:00.003-05:00

summer vacation

2008-08-20T21:24:00.002-05:00

So...obviously we've been on an unprecedented hiatus the last couple of months. Regrets all around. We've just been terribly busy, so Mom and Dad have taken to posting photos on flickr.com and leaving it at that for now. They promise to do better in the future. In the meantime, if you aren't already one of our flickr friends and family, please e-mail one or both of our parents immediately and they'll add you. That's the only way you can see the many many photos of us having a grand old time this summer. Please don't be shy. They LOVE getting e-mails.

More soon!

dirt = good

2008-06-25T19:40:00.004-05:00

I know, I know, it's been a long time since that last post, but it finally warmed up here in Chicago and we've been spending all of our time outdoors trying to shake off a long, grueling winter. On top of that, we've been occupied with soccer, teeball, a short-lived foray into Taekwondo, and a visit from Grandma Lipsey and Aunt Katherine. We'll post more on all this later. Dad really ought to shell out for an EVDO-equipped laptop or a couple of iPhones for the two of us.

For now, here are a few shots of our favorite summertime activity: playing in dirt.

the graduates

2008-05-24T19:47:00.002-05:00

Zak and I received our preschool diplomas in a solemn ceremony yesterday, as reflected in this photo. After an orderly procession to our row of chairs up front, the program mostly entailed our class performing customary graduation standards, culminating with a stirring rendition of "Numbers Rock". After being given our diplomas and "I'm Special" stickers, those in attendance then enjoyed an ice cream social and playtime in the park next door. Most prestigious universities could learn a thing or two about commencement ceremonies from our preschool.

The best part is we get to do all this again next year before starting kindergarten in the fall of '09.

too cool for school

2008-05-15T11:14:00.002-05:00

Mom had to snap this shot of us before preschool this morning because, frankly, we look so very cool. Look at all the things going on at once here:

the "Kawasaki Racing" t-shirt I am wearing
the "Mom" heart t-shirt Wynston is wearing, which was bought to commemorate Mother's Day¹
not only am I holding both a bucket truck and a searchlight truck, but they also happen to be twins
the wicked shades we are both sporting, and of course
the two of us, who make any scene cool simply by being present

I know ... it's almost too much.

¹happy Mother's Day, Mom! and Grandma Betty! and Grandma Lipsey! and Grandma Pat! and Great Grandma! and Aunt Marjorie! and Aunt Moosaw!

hugging is a sport

2008-05-15T10:59:00.003-05:00

the real madrid deal

2008-04-30T11:47:00.007-05:00

Grandma Lipsey recently returned from a trip to Spain with Aunt Katherine. Among the goodies she brought back for us were these authentic Real Madrid ~~soccer~~ football jerseys. Believe it or not, this team is like the Cubs over there in terms of popularity. And they regularly win championships. Incredible.

Not shown in this photo is the name van Nistelrooy emblazoned across the backs of these jerseys, which truly represents a masterful typographic achievement on any article of size 6 boys' clothing. Apparently, when Grandma Lipsey inquired about this van Nistelrooy character, the shopkeeper and customers spent half an hour regaling her with stories of his many great achievements. Unfortunately, we can't yet pronounce his name. Once Mom and Dad get it figured out, I'm sure they'll teach us.

So now, in addition to the Cubs, the Chiefs and the Royals, we count ourselves among the legions of Real Madrid fans. Well, "legions" may be taking some liberty where the Royals are concerned, but you get the point.

and for my next trick...

2008-04-17T20:29:00.000-05:00

honesty 0; contradiction 1

2008-04-08T13:16:00.006-05:00

Here we are playing nice and quietly in a restaurant downtown a few days ago. Of course, we don't always get along this well. Case in point:

Recently Wyn and I were playing in the kitchen while Mom and Dad were in the living room. All of a sudden I started screaming. Wyn ran out of the kitchen; Mom and Dad ran in and spotted me on the floor bleeding from my lip. Neither my brother nor I would say what happened, even though it was pretty obvious. Wyn wasn't going to fess up, and I certainly wasn't going to tell on him. Finally Dad got very specific with his questioning.

"Zak, did Wynston hit you with a truck?"

I kept my mouth shut while the question hung in the air.

"No, it was a bus," Wynston answered from across the room.

Oops.

We refuse to rat each other out, but we just can't help correcting Mom and Dad. Lesson learned on both sides.

chicks, bunnies and snow

2008-03-25T18:32:00.006-05:00

Hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday! We knew it was going to be a great day when we woke up to find these giant chicks from Grandma Lipsey. Thank you Grandma! They're the perfect size for cuddling. We held them in our arms almost all day, except during our Easter egg hunt of course. We needed full use of all eight of our limbs for that.

We joined Sam, Audrey, Aunt Marjorie and Uncle Stephan for church, then headed to their place for a delicious brunch and some quality playtime. Somehow we three ended up on the TV table and got away with it.

Here I am giving Audrey a kiss goodbye. Mwah!

And here we are giving Uncle Stephan a goodbye hug attack. Sam joined in the fun.

Later in the day we went for a walk to enjoy the SNOW. On EASTER. SNOW.

Stick!

Running with a stick!

I think the Easter bunny left this ice chunk for me to find.

We especially enjoyed making worms with our eggs. By the way, there's a special guest in this picture. Can you find her? Look hard. It's Grandma Lipsey, on the phone!

fine photography by zak

2008-03-18T16:48:00.004-05:00

fine photography by wynston

2008-03-18T16:44:00.004-05:00

regaining our marbles

2008-03-18T13:07:00.006-05:00

And...we're back after our epic, week-and-a-half-long, family-wide battle with the flu. Yuck. No worries though, Wyn and I managed to keep ourselves entertained while stuck at home. In fact, we invented a new toy that we'll be marketing worldwide under the trademark "Yellow Marble Track." Also known as a tape measure pilfered from Dad's tool bucket.

Another diversion we discovered is playing "shadow puppets" with our flashlights. Daddy's hand makes an awesome dog, doesn't it?

Best of all, we received our final birthday presents: digital cameras from Grandma Lipsey! Apparently Mom and Dad were waiting for us to be in good enough moods to handle learning new technology. Anyway, they are absolutely awesome, and Wyn and I have already snapped over 300 pictures between the two of us. Notice how I like to use the digital display on the back of the camera to frame my shots, while Wynston prefers the old-fashioned viewfinder approach. Please check back soon for some of our best photos; we've given Mom and Dad plenty to choose from!

101.1 (as in degrees)

2008-03-05T17:33:00.002-06:00

Something's going around big time here. Out of 16 kids in our preschool class, we heard that only six were there today. As for me, perhaps I'm already feeling a little better than I did this morning. Or perhaps I'm just remembering something Zak yelled to me across the classroom last week when Mommy came to pick us up:

"Wynston! Your mom's here!"

Hope you and yours are feeling okay...

the 411 on turning 4

2008-03-03T12:43:00.006-06:00

Zak and I have finally recovered from all the excitement that was our 4th birthday celebration. The cake is gone, the balloons are deflated, the presents are being thoroughly enjoyed. All that's left is writing the blog. So....here goes!

One moment if you please, my mouth is full. OK. First and foremost, we had a very special visitor in town to par-tay with: Aunt Moosaw! As you can see, she was excited about it too. Here we are on Saturday morning having lunch at Egg Harbor. Yum. This was right after we had our picture taken with the Easter Bunny, but you'll have to wait a couple of weeks to see that photo. I know, I'm such a tease.

Seven of our favorite friends came over for our official party on Sunday. It was a blast!

Lunch consisted of HomeMade Pizza. This was the first time Mom and Dad let us kids in on this culinary marvel, which just opened here in Oak Park. It was pretty good, but of course it did not compare at all to dessert.

Yeah, it tasted as good as it looked. Perhaps better.

We very much enjoyed the rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" sung in our honor.

We all wore fire hats in case something went amiss during the big candle-blowing-out moment. Fortunately, though, it went off without a hitch.

Why does birthday cake taste so much better than regular cake? We must investigate both sides of this dilemma more often.

After we got all sugared up, we headed back downstairs for our traditional book exchange. Everyone was quite pleased by their fun new reading materials, even sitting still for a few moments to take a good gander.

Alright, enough of that. We all went back to jumping around like maniacs when Sam and Audrey gave us this amazing bubble machine. Thanks guys!

Even more presents suddenly appeared before us a little later. Thank you everyone! We love presents. More presents. More. More. More.

A special shout-out to Aunt Katherine, who sent us this marble contraption. Too much fun! Thank you so much to all our friends and family who shared in our big day. Love, Wyn and Zak

happy birthday to us

2008-02-25T21:25:00.001-06:00

Many more photos to come....

our morning in three photos

2008-02-14T11:37:00.001-06:00

happy v day!

2008-02-14T09:01:00.001-06:00

pink panther

2008-02-10T15:06:00.000-06:00

Museum of Contemporary Art. February 9, 2008.

only 20 shopping days left, people

2008-02-05T14:30:00.000-06:00

Mom and Dad took us to Kay's Bakery in Forest Park to pick out our birthday cake. We decided we wanted pretty much every cake in the book, including the pink My Little Pony cake and the football cake. Wynston and I don't even like football, as I demonstrated during the Super Bowl by repeatedly asking that the TV be turned OFF. Eventually, however, we settled on just one cake that we're both quite happy with. It may involve vehicles of some sort...we're not saying yet.

Of course, although we nodded our heads and said "OK!" when Mom and Dad told us about 500 times that we were just going to pick out a cake, not take one home, we failed to grasp the concept at the actual point of impact. Bottom line: we went home with a couple of cupcakes. You know, for research purposes. They were delicious.

cold(s)

2008-02-04T09:55:00.000-06:00

Apologies once again for our extended absence. The entire family has been a biohazard for the past couple of weeks. Cold germs probably don't travel through the internet tubes, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Anyway, we did get out for a bit over the weekend to enjoy the 8 inches of fresh powder on the ground. Playing in the snow at night has a special magic, doesn't it?

Here's Wynston enjoying a moment between coughs and 80-decibel throat clearing episodes.

Although I was the first to get sick, I ended up being the least affected by it. Who's been takin' his Flintstones? Uh-huh, that's right. Me.

Of course, Mom and Dad got in on the action too. We all seem to be on the mend now, so look for more posts soon! XOXO

sun of cars

2008-01-20T21:04:00.000-06:00

What do you do when you have approximately 348.75 Matchbox cars and it's -20 degrees windchill outside? Duh.

So anyway...

Part of the reason we talked Mom and Dad into letting us do this blog was so that when we started saying funny things, they could record them for posterity. But they keep forgetting. To make up for this gross oversight, here are a few gems for your enjoyment, written by Mom:

The Lazy Ladybug
One rainy day, a ladybug suddenly appeared on the floor in their room. The boys freaked. "Lazy ladybug! Lazy ladybug! Mommy! Get it! Get it out!!!! Out of our room!!!!!!!!!!!!" (We've read a book called The Lazy Ladybug about 5,000 times.) So I let it crawl onto my finger, opened the sliding glass door, and kind of flicked it onto the deck and into the rain. Expecting to be met with sweet kisses and a chorus of "my hero!!!," I turned around to find them even more hysterical. "Mommy!!!! Noooooo! The lazy ladybug needs an umbrella!!!!!!!!!"

Good Dark
Provided it's not 5 a.m., we always greet the boys when they first wake up with a happy "Good morning!!" For some reason, this phrase has carried over into the afternoon when they wake up from their naps. Recently it dawned on Wynston that this is not appropriate when they wake up and it's pitch black outside. "No, mommy, not good morning! Good dark!" he exclaimed, before pausing and tilting his head. "Good dark...that's a funny one."

Socks
As a rule the boys are amazingly good sleepers. Every couple of months, though, we encounter a rough patch. They'll burst out crying or whining several times shortly after we put them down: wanting a hug, a dropped toy, a drink, what have you. We try to nip these things in the bud early on (of course, the hug request is pretty irresistible), but a few weeks ago we got hit with a new one. Jim went to their room after a particularly fervent cry and asked what was wrong. Wynston responded, "Zak took off Wynston's socks." Sure enough, his feet were bare. "Zak," Jim asked, "did you take off Wynston's socks?" After a dramatic pause, Zak whispered, "Yeah."

Sleepy
One of the boys' all-time favorite books is Charlie & Lola's I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed. You can guess the premise. They often use the phrase as they're changing into their PJs, but after a couple of books they retire easily. One night during the Christmas holiday, we kept them out waaaay too late, and they were beyond exhausted and very crabby. As soon as we got home and walked into their room, Wynston shouted, "I AM sleepy and I WILL go to bed!"

And finally, a few Zak-and-Wyn-created words we should all add to our lexicon:

upsfundown - the act of being carried upside-down, especially up stairs
fish penis - fish sticks (this originates from hearing them referred to as "fish pieces" on TV; particularly effective when used in a quiet restaurant setting)
pinkie butter and jelly - self explanatory
snawich - yes, a sandwich, but only one that contains turkey and cheese

a very merry christmas (away version)

2008-01-07T13:43:00.000-06:00

We were very excited to travel to Kansas City for part two of our 2007 Christmas celebration. After settling in at our hotel (pronounced ho-towel), we scurried over to Grandma Pat's for a delicious family dinner. We liked her new house very much, especially since it was filled with wonderful Christmas decorations for us to play with.

The house was also filled with wonderful people to play with, like Cousin Madi and Aunt Moosaw.

We all missed Grandpa Launnie very much. But of course we enjoyed a Christmas cookie or two in his honor.

A little later, Madi read us a fabulous new book. It was riveting.

At last we were allowed to tear into the presents under the tree. The actual event definitely lived up to our expectations!

Sunday we hung out at Grandma Betty's, where we put our key learnings from May I Pet Your Dog? to excellent use.

After some dog-petting and yummy dinner-eating, we were delighted to be presented with a whole new passel of presents.

Mom and Aunt Moosaw held their first annual What's-the-most-hideous-thing-I-can-buy-for-my-sister- for-five-bucks-from-the-Marshall's-clearance-shelf gift exchange. As you can see, the results were pretty darn hideous.

This is Jo-Jo. Do not mess with Jo-Jo.

Here we are sliding down the stairs with Madi. Good times!

Before heading home, we enjoyed one last family breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Yum.

Happy New Year everyone!