look at dat funny man daddy

That's what Alder said last week when we drove by this:

This is what we see when we are at a light, downtown Richmond, directly under I 95 each afternoon. So that means this is what everyone southbound I-95 sees too, right out their window. And no I am not gonna give my opinion on this image, or specific poster (but you can find out more if you like http://riverdistrictnews.com/tag/velvet/)...

I just think about what connections so many americans have to make about politics, human nature, our country, etc., when they see this banner posted on the side of a strip club, cruising through the commonwealth's capital.

The point of this post though, is that this moment with Alder, was another prime example of how a child can help you to "see" things. (For example, I used to dream of monkeywrenching bulldozers, but now I sort of crack a smile when I see earth-moving machinery. This will pass.) By being completely naive and innocent, a child can help you to strip meaning from things and see them only for what they are - a picture of a funny man.

Brothers

I kindly agree when people say how much Heath looks like Alder. I know it is true, but as their mom, I see so many differences. Their demeanors are certainly different!

I decided to look back at some photos of Alder at this age and now have to admit that they look a whole lot alike. It is pretty amazing. Heath still outweighs Alder by quite a bit and is wearing 9-12 month old clothes with little room to grow.

I am curious as to what you all think is different and/or similar.

This reminds that Alder's teacher told us the other day that he is enjoying a gourd 'work' where they talk about how some gourds are the same and others are similar. Most matching works they do require matching things that are exactly the same, but the gourds are not exactly the same, just similar. I should show Alder these pics and ask him if he thinks these boys are the same or similar!

Dr. Ponseti died

We are so grateful to this man we never met. Our lives and certainly Alder's life would not be the same without his nonsurgical method for treating clubfoot.
To read an article about his life and the global impact of the Ponseti method click here and/or here.

You can also click on the link to the Ponseti International website under our blog links on the right hand side of this page/post.

Life with a cute toddler and an infant on the pot

Some things Alder has been saying and doing:

1. "Me wearing my dinosaur jamamas" - these are wonderful, hand me down, glow in the dark pajamas with matching long sleeves and pants. Super cute - picture to come.

2. "I look at pictures of mine friends on the pooter pooter" - he really has excellent pronunciation of most words, but this one is just too cute to correct. I have been working on a volunteer project for his class where I took tons of pics of all the kids and printed them out to give each a little album. We have really enjoyed looking at all of these. If you care to browse the 350+ pics, you can do so here.

3. If I or Jason says something that Alder is not happy with (i.e., ____ is not available) then he will reply very serious and calm "mommy can't talk". I think this is a euphemism for "shut up!". We are working on this and certainly do not let him know we think it is funny.

4. Alder has apparently grown an inch or so because he can now (all of the sudden?) reach the counters in the kitchen and bar; we therefore are forced into a whole new level of "baby proofing" the house.

5. We starting burning wood again to warm the house and a big dump truck came to drop a cord of wood in our driveway. Alder watched with excitement and then immediately requested his toy dump truck and attempted (unsuccessfully) to place the pieces of wood in it. He also likes to take the long slender sticks (kindling) and pretend to play the fiddle while making funny sing-songy noises.

As for Heath, we started the Elimination Communication process with him about a month ago and have been truly amazed at how well things are going. He seems to REALLY be responding to our cues and we are regularly catching poops and pees. I know many of you may not believe me, but almost every time I put him on the little potty or cue him outdoors, he goes, especially this past week. It is so awesome to be communicating with an infant in this way. We did not start the process with Alder until he was 6 months old and I do not remember feeling this successful for awhile. We shall see...we learned with Alder that it is certaily an up and down process with good days/weeks and not so good days/weeks, but we are happy to be doing it and seeing progress.

Oh yes, and I ran a 10k race this past weekend. It was cold, very hilly and a super challenge! I had to walk a little from a leg cramp, but feel good about giving it a try. It got me motivated and running again and helped raise money for a good cause. Here we are before the race. Alder looks excited, doesn't he...

Topsail Island - can we go back this weekend?

We spent another memorable, long October weekend with our dear friends at the beach. What a blast. This tradition (can it be called this after only 3 years?) is one we anticipate and cherish. My mom always says that friendships get stronger when you live away from each other b/c when you do get together, you actually live and eat together during visits and then stay up late chatting. While this may be true, I must say we would prefer to do these things on a weekly rather than annual basis!

We found a great house at the end of North Topsail Island and rented it through the actual owners rather than a rental agency. I would recommend this to anyone as the owners were super responsive and friendly and the house was obviously taken care of and stocked with kids toys and books. And we felt the price was better too! We were disappointed to find the anticipated ping pong table was not there... oh well.

A glimpse of dinner preparations and chillin time.

Here I am surrounded by some of the sweetest kids I know. I think we are taking a break from the beach to eat lunch here.

Chillin on the porchLast year the weather was horrible - rainy and cold - and this year we were able to play in the warm sun and swim in the ocean as well. We spent as much time as possible on the beach, but the girls certainly beat our boys on this as we had to retire for naps to prevent melting from exhaustion.

Several months ago, Jason taught Alder how to say "put one hand right here" while he places his left hand out like he is holding the neck of the guitar, and then..."joon joon joon" while swinging the other hand to strum. We had not seen this in awhile, but I think the dads playing guitar through the weekend reminded him and he wanted to join in. This was spontaneous air guitar on the beach one morning. I love the hip cocked out to one side.

Heath also ventured out the beach and actually napped for at least an hour under this wonderful bed skirt tarp held up with shovels that we set up for him. Ingenuity when we do not own a beach umbrella!

I think he liked it!The last night we were there, a short rain storm blew threw around dinner time and afterward we headed down to the beach for sunset. Just as we were leaving, an enormous rainbow materialized and stretched from one end of the sky to the other. It was truly amazing, a double rainbow at that. We rushed down to the beach and the kids played and enjoyed watching the fishermen and beautiful colors reflecting off the water

....and of course making drip castles.

...and this last shot is sunrise the first morning. We grabbed our coffee and ventured out to get the most of our day. Man do I want to go back!!!! Thanks for a great weekend. Cant wait to see you guys again. To see more pics on Jen and family's blog click here.

Stone Mountain

Well, we are a bit behind on posting about our trip to Stone Mountain, to spend some time with Grammy, PaPa, Uncle Travis, and Aunt Ana. I have to share this pic first. Its one of those I not only love, but I also think of how funny it will be to look at it years from now. Before getting in the car, Alder HAD to have some chard from the garden, so he grabbed a handful, put it up in his seat and climbed up. Then he wanted the trains we were bringing on the trip. Its so funny to see him clutching them with this expression, and with those chard leaves tucked beside him. And Heath there in the back, unaware of just how weird things are around him at this moment. I guess its normal anyway. Anything goes.

So anyway, a couple of weeks ago we spent a way-to-short weekend in two cabins tucked in the woods near Stone Mountain State Park. Very neat. Our two were connected by a foot bridge over a little ravine, which Alder got a kick out of. Big fire pit and a pond too. Unfortunately we were not there long enough to try out all the perks.We did realize that next time we need to take more time to be there. This trip was sort of quick, but what a great place. We did get in some good time together. Hanging out around the cabins was SO nice, believe it or not (in my opinion) because it was raining. Lots of porch lounging. I was reminded of how I love the smell of dank Appalachian forest. The sound of the it too; dead silent except for rain coming through the canopy. And the way only flecks of sun flicker about on the floor, dancing from breeze above, which you can barely feel underneath. It took me back to our years in the mountains, and rekindled my hope to make it back one day. At the soonest we hope to visit again, and maybe even these cabins next fall, for another reminiscent taste of some high country.

We also spent an evening at a local general store, listening to locals pick some traditional bluegrass tunes. Guitar, banjo, mandolin, AND a great fiddle. Alder stomped and danced, inside and out on the porch. And again, this took us back to when we used to go to Todd General Store on Friday nights. No pics of this though...

The highlight, probably for everyone, was getting out of the cabins on a beautiful morning to hike up Stone Mountain. This was monumental - Alder's first real hike on his own. Well, at least mostly. He was SO SLOW, so we had to take turns piggy-backing him. So here are some pics of the hike.

Getting some acceleration from Aunt Ana.

Lots of exploring to do....So we didn't make it to the "top", but we could see the top, and we could feel like we were on top of something. Here's Mommy and Heath, who had a sweet hike riding in the sling on various Bullucks.Like on Grammy for instance.Part of the clan. Is it just me or does this shot not look like an old Pearl Jam album cover. Man we are wicked cool and casual, no?
This provided our comedy. These days anyone laying down is in trouble. So PaPa laid down to rest and Alder immediately dove onto him.... then commenced to feeding him snacks. Alder really had a blast up on that rock, running and splashing in puddles. And this is on the way back down, before stopping at the falls.No pics of the falls, but one of us looking over them. Alder was pretty enamoured with the fact that the stream just disappeared over the edge of a rock.

Thank you Bullucks for the time away from the grind to take some big breaths and change the scenery. We hope we can do it again soon.

Riding across the beautiful state of NC

We want to congratulate Jason's dad, brother and aunt Sandra for riding their bikes across North Carolina last week. Six nights in tents and seven days of riding.


Here is a link for more info about the ride: http://www.ncsports.org/nccyclemain.php

Tom and Travis celebrating...

Mr. eye contact, bumbo, and drinking veggies

As an infant, Alder always had his fists balled up and did not like us touching his hands. This was his quirky thing. Heath has a different kind of intensity - he is serious about some eye contact. He stares deeply into our eyes and wont let go. It is really neat and pretty endearing. Sometimes he will be upset and all he needs is to make eye contact and he will be fine. This and his frequent smiles make me think he might be our social kid - will be neat to see.

He is able to sit in the bumbo for short periods - you can tell he is still kind of leaning a good bit, but he seems happy! He is starting to reach a little bit, but not that much and not predictably. Pulling everything that is in his hands to his mouth...oh yes and I can see the slightest edge of a tooth poking through his lower gum. This is quite early and I think a full month ahead of Alder...not to compare every detail.

We need to get them posed together more often - too cute!

We have been meaning to make juice again lately, and finally did so this evening. Carrots, beets, celery and a splash of soymilk and an ice cube. Alder lapped it up with a satified ahhhh after each sip. Here we are tonight eating our dinner - big salad with local hard boiled eggs and homemade balsamic vinaigrette, fresh tomato sandwiches and leftover beans and rice and steamed broc for Alder. Alder said the salad dressing was spicy, but gobbled up several mouthfuls anyway. As we have said before, we feel very fortunate that he is so fond of veggies and hope this continues.

Heath is certainly focused on Alder. As in this pic as well. Yes, Alder is wearing his bicycle helmet at the dinner table. Every now and then he just wants to wear it...