Soybean Harvest begins and Parent Teacher Conferences

The weather has finally cooperated enough to start harvesting soybeans.  The last few days have involved getting equipment ready.

Ben on a tractor 

Ben got himself dressed.  He was proud of his outfit and wanted me to take a picture.

Ben and Cody in the combine while it was in the shop

Alex playing with his toy

Cleaning off the combine

Grandpa started welding something.  Alex got a bit spooked.

Ben helping dig the old stuff out

  

Ben

Finally in the field in the combine.  Ben.

Alex

Cody is in town for parent-teacher conferences.  Ben's teacher said he is incredibly stubborn.  Definitely not a shocker for us.  Alex's teacher said he is a very sweet and thoughtful kiddo.  I think there's a pretty big difference in teaching styles that led to those different feedback types.  Alex is definitely stubborn and Ben is definitely also sweet and thoughtful.  Both teachers said the one in their class has a hilarious inner monologue that they say out loud sort of like narrating their day.  I hadn't noticed, but both teachers got a kick out of it.  Otherwise, the kids are doing well.  They know all of their letter sounds and 

Hanging out on the farm

Well, we are about 2 months into our farm transition time.  The kids are enjoying school, as far as I can tell.  They mostly tell me what they had for lunch and then ask if it is snack time yet.  Food is priority 1 for their little brains.  I'm doing what I can to learn the ropes around here while also trying to stay out of the way and trying to keep the kids from "helping" their way into a dangerous situation.  Cody will join us when he can.  Things aren't going exactly according to plan, but they are going.

We have had many fun, and some "fun," adventures.  My poor mother in law has had to spend weeks explaining everything to me like I'm a little kid.  What is that?  Why is that there? What does that do?  Why do we do that?  Should I close this?  Are we allowed to touch that? I have two 5-year-olds, so I know how those questions wear on your soul, even when you really want to teach someone else.  I'd say she has successfully got me from not at all knowledgeable about how things out here work to mostly not knowledgeable about how things out here work.  I'd call that a win.

When we first arrived, there were 5ish kittens.  Grandpa LOVES kittens.  They get lots of love and milk replacer.  He likes cats significantly less.  They get food and shelter, but they are not adored quite like the kittens.

Ben has shorter hair and Alex has longer hair in all the pics in this post.

The boys really enjoyed the kittens.

These kittens were eventually moved by the mama cat.  We still have some kittens running around.

The boys tried to take a selfie together.  Priceless. Their arms are not quite long enough to get both in the frame.

There was a little cowboy gun/gun holster set on clearance at Dollar General for like $2.  It was one of the best $2 I've ever spent on toys for them.  The clicking of the gun started to drive me insane, but they had lots of fun.  Here are their tough guy poses.

Shooting the bad guys off the back of the pickup.

Alex taking another selfie.

Ben's fossil rock.  He loves LOVES rocks now.  I found this one for him.  He loved it so much.  He took it to show and tell and it broke in his backpack.  We were pretty bummed.  Luckily there are lots of rocks with fossils around here.

We managed to go to the drag races one weekend when Cody was visiting.  This was Alex, again taking selfies, in the stands waiting for Grandpa to race.  He likes taking selfies.

Ben wearing Cody's shirt.

The boys like to climb this.  The cat climbs with them.

This gate has shocked me twice.  The first time it got me, I was with my mother in law.  It was completely unexpected.  The passenger's job is gates, so I had plenty of successful gate operation success.  She laughed so hard she snorted.  At least that's how I remember it.  I laughed too, but apparently, it is funnier when someone else gets it.  

The second time it happened, I had gloves on and I was expecting it.  There is a little plastic shield on the handle that is supposed to protect your hand from hitting the metal hook that is electrified.  The protective ring is gone on this handle.  I was warned about why it happened after the first time.  I thought I was being soooo careful.  I opened it without incident.  I felt brave and proud.  When I went to hook it back up, it got me again.  I will beat you someday, gate.

From my first real solo assignment.  I was sent to give some of the cattle salt and mineral.  They love when you come to deliver mineral.  They run over and stand there watching you impatiently.  

A friendlier gate.  It has never hurt me.

Playing pirates, beating eachother with sticks.

A giant purple ball.  Ben in the black shirt.  Alex wants it.  

Alex wrestling for it.

They both lost it.

Back to chasing it.  Really we had a lot of fun with this ball.  I wrestled around with them.  We played soccer and kickball, then we used heads to headbutt the ball.  Another great $2 spent.

More cowboy guns.

We're having fun.

Summer

I've done a not so great job of updating the blog.  I'd like to say I'll do better, but who knows.  Here are some pics since June.

Playing with a stray-ish cat.  I might've mentioned it before.  They called it Radar and had a lot of fun with it.  I haven't seen it since June/July though.

Ben

They don't nap anymore unless things get really, really crazy.  This was one of those few times.  Alex likes to sleep tucked in to a fitted sheet.

The boys befriend adults quickly.  Here they are walking our neighbor back to her house.

Ben.  We played with a wide variety of water guns this year

Lots of fun

Painting.  Alex left in stripes Ben right

The chain fell off Alex's bike.  Ben said, "I have an idea!" and went to grab a wrench to fix it. 

When we moved, the connections became weak on their dome/rocket ship.  Now it doesn't stay together well.  They almost have more fun with it like this.  Ben in the red jacket.

Since they spent so much time at the pool, I thought they might like something to help them float.  They did not enjoy it.  Ben

Alex

Ben

Cody took them to the farm for harvest in June.  They left with beautiful heads of wonderful hair.  They came home like this.  Buzzed heads.  Not trimmed or cleaned up.  All their hair was gone.  I was not amused.  Ben.

 Ben.  He dressed himself.  Looks pretty bitchin if you ask me.  (I'm having formatting problems, so who knows how it will look.  I'm going to keep at it though.)

Cody said their hair was cut because girls have long hair.  Long hair is for girls.  GIRLS. If you look at the pics before the hair cut pic you will see they didn't actually look anything like girls.  Whatever.  To express my objection to that reasoning, I bought them pink wigs.  Of course. HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR GIRLS NOW?  It backfired because it was really, really cute.  Cody even wore the wig for a while and it was very cute on him as well.  I stand by the fact that hair that is a few inches long is not girl hair. By the way, they are 3.  There really isn't girl hair or boy hair yet.  Just hair.  Anyway, this is Ben.

 

Alex

 

They very much like taking pictures with my camera.  I'll probably have to buy them their own at some point.  The pictures are actually pretty ok.  Lots of flowers, half sky/half up the nose, their feet, my feet, etc.  

 You can tell Ben has just peed because he always leaves his shirt tucked in to his pants after he pees.  

I'm still fighting them peeing outside.  It sounds like no big deal.  "Oh yeah, just use the grass."  No.  That's why Ben dropped his pants to pee in front of a set of bleachers full of families trying to watch a childrens pedal pull competition at our county fair. Not our finest hour.

 

Airing up the tire of their car.  They work on a lot of things together.  They have super active imaginations.  Ben blue shirt. 

 

Alex pink shirt.  (Pink shirts are probably for girls also.)

 

Alex stacking a bunch of hats on his head.

Ben on that fateful pedal pull day.  See the red and white necklace?  It is a pedal pull medal.  Long story short, when trying to recover from him dropping his pants, I ended up alone with 2 melting down 3 year olds rolling around in the grass in front of bleachers full of spectators.  One of the medal giving ladies saw my predicament and came to try to help by offering them medals.  It worked. Thank you kind woman.  It was getting ugly. It was Ben's prized possession for weeks.  Here he is proudly displaying it.  This is my favorite picture of him.

They are getting really good on their bikes by the way.  They can both ride without training wheels.  They don't usually want to, but they can.  We spend a lot of time on bikes.

 

Fighting over something.  Alex, in orange, grabbed Ben's head and rubbed his head on it really hard.  That'll show him.

Someone is building a house down the street.  One of the concrete guys honked at the boys when he drove by to deliver his load.  Ben thought it was the coolest thing ever, so he desperately waved at every truck that went by hoping someone else would honk.  Nobody did.  His first real disappointment in life.

 

I had a couple of super heroes battle in my cart one day.  Alex orange.

 

I was shopping at a store with trees out front.  There was this really tall tree with fruit on it.  I was so proud of this giant tree in its tiny bucket and was worried about it never finding a home. The season was ending and everything was clearanced out. So I pestered Cody until he agreed to help me.  It looked tall, but it didn't look THAT tall.  It went from the very back of the van all the way to on the dash board.  Cody told me it was too big.  He loved every time I got stabbed by the tree when he hit a bump.  Sucker.  I love getting hit by trees.  Welcome to the family baby crab apple.

 

Ben.  They kept grabbing the trunk and shaking it so it hit me more.  They thought it was funny.  So did Cody.  (I put the bulk of the top on me so it wouldn't bother Cody, the driver.)

 

Alex with an army man in the tree

 

It's really hard to decide where to put a tree.  Looks good to me. Alex on the left.  They "helped" dig.  They wouldn't stop "helping" no matter how many times we asked.  Very "helpful" boys.  It's all fun and games until someone gets hit with a shovel.

 

Ben.  Must've peed.  His shirt is tucked in.  He started digging for worms.  Found one.

 

Ben on the right with a worm.  Alex on the left with a shovel.

 

Alex enjoying a chip.

 

Ben gave himself a mustache.

 

Alex on the left in white Ben on right in blue blanket

Alex and his awesome overalls.  The blue things are skulls.  Awesome. Ben has a pair too. Of course.

 

Looks like they are having a good time together!  Ben driving

 

Not.  

 The boys are now potty trained.  After a horrible, horrible week of battling wills, they finally started pooping in the toilet.  (It took a lot of crying a lot of begging and a lot of Starburst candy, which they now call poop candy.  You're welcome Starburst.)  We still occasionally have a wet night.  I have been dealing with this by sneaking in after they are alseep and putting a diaper or pull up on them.  I'm like a really horrible tooth fairy.  A diaper fairy.  He fell asleep dressed in costume, so this is what we ended up with.  Alex.

 

Alex again in costume.  They spend a lot of time dressed in costumes.

 

This is their imagination shack now.  It is a bakery, a doctor's office, a school.  Whatever they come up with.  Ben in the solid color shirt.

 

Ben picked some peppers.  Then I pickled them.  Almost like the rhyme.

 

Ben black.  Holding hands walking by a lake looking at construction equipment tearing up a road.  This is at a park.  We go to parks a lot.

A mural

 

Alex playing with the elastic in his adjustable waist pants.  They are too thin for their pants.  The elastic is pulled as tight as I can get it but their pants still fall down.

Ben in this shirt for the  next set of pics

Alex in this shirt

 

They pretty much only wear what they want now.  It leads to weird outfits sometimes.  They love these vests.  Alex in darker pants

 

Yet another park on another day.  Lot of parks lots of vests.  Ben green shirt under vest

 

Alex.  The water of this fountain is looking a little yucky.  They were amazed by all the coins in there and they were very concerned that someone lost their change.

 

My biker gang.

 

Alex

They like to watch tv upside down like this.  I do mean frequently/almost always.  Not that they did this once or twice.  Weirdos.  Ben maybe

 

Alex trying to count on his fingers.  To appreciate this you have to take a step back and talk about Cody.  He physically can't make the normal sign for 3 by bending the thumb and pinky together.  He makes an "ok" sign by putting his pointer finger and thumb together.  So I caught Alex counting on his fingers by going 1. pointer up 2. pinky up also 3. middle finger up also.  So thumb and ring finger down.  Where did he get that?  That's weird.  I tried to take a picture but I was laughing too hard.

Here is one and two.

 

Since the boys loved the one car so much, my parents bought them a 2nd one.  Now they can zoom around the house chasing each other.  Hours and hours of fun.  Or rather 45 minutes until the battery dies and needs 18 hours to recharge.  Still.  Lots of fun.

 

Ben in front Alex behind

 

Alex

 

Ben

 

Putting dirt in their storage area.  Not sure why, but they kept moving dirt between the cars.  Imaginations.  They have them and I don't.  Ben blue

Changing the oil