Wiley woke up crying in the middle of the night. He was barely awake, but explained to me, through tears, that he had a really bad dream in which I left him and the family and went to live with someone else. And that Bobby's mom and dad left him and bobby came to live with him.

This morning I talked to him about it, I think it's some baby anxiety. I explained even with a new baby he will still be loved and cared for and given lots of attention and always be my baby, too. Poor kid.

This morning Wiley and I were talking about how nice it was of York to buy Wiley a nintendo DS and how well York knows what Wiley will like. Wiley said, "ya, he rages on the outside, but he's a real sweetheart on the inside."

Wiley's been calling his butt 'my aunt petunia' or 'my sweet potato."

some highlights from our day:

As Archer was opening the batmobile gift: "Archer! You are the nerd! You are the nerd who got the batmobile!!!!"
As Archer and Wiley were opening a gift together: "This must be a good one, the best gifts come in cardboard."

Wiley and Archer were super happy with all their gifts. This year seemed to be the year of board games, we got lots of great ones, including connect 4, hedbandz, twister, battleship, and stratego, and blokus. Archer got lots of new art supplies and some pattern blocks. Wiley got stilts and some action figures. York gave Wiley a Nintendo DS (which he called a Bentendo DS for a while) and gave Archer a game boy. Despite how much they love these gifts, all day they have played with a dollar store punching balloon that has a dragon head (and, there's been a hole in the head of it all day, so they can't actually blow it up). It is actually Archer's gift, but Wiley has seriously played with it all day. It's so funny. They have been great about sharing their gifts, no fights, likely due to the blurry and probably forgotten lines of whose gift is whose.

We've read nearly all the new Shel Silverstein book, nearly all the Roal Dahl book, and most of all our other new books!

Oh! and the bestest gifts! Two new bikes for Wiley and Archer from Mimi. We'll go to the park tomorrow to practice our riding!

Archer's new thing when I really upset him is to mumble (still loud enough for everyone to hear, but not loud enough to be a shout) is, "damnit mom."

We are visiting Bobby at the beach for a few days before Christmas. Mostly we are having a good time, a few scrappy moments here and there, but overall everyone is well behaved and getting along. Today we went to the beach. The weather said it was 74, but I doubt it got that high, and with the wind and the 55 degree water, at the actual beach it was much colder. But that didn't stop anyone under 5 (or anyone over 33, by default) from going into the water to jump, splash, and sit in it. Wiley kept doing this thing where he'd shout to Archer, "let's do this thing!" then they'd slow motion run into the water. There were those jelly blubber things on the beach and Sarah showed us all how to poke them. Of course, when Archer and I scooped it up to throw it back in the water we found out that they had been poking the tentacle side, so luckily that kind doesn't sting or doesn't sting when dead. Of course, when they decided they were cold there wasn't much we could do fast enough to get them out of their wet clothes and warmed up. Wiley played a bunch of soccer with Sarah, Bobby pushed a truck around, and Archer practiced his frisbee skills--sometimes doing exceedingly well with it!

Today we made gingerbread men sugar cookies; except Archer kept calling them zombies.

archer has taken to talking about himself in the third person. "Archer did that. Archer was naughty!"

speaking of toilet seats, when Archer goes poop, he prefers to squat on the toilet, with both his feet on the seat. It's cute and I imagine a more natural way to poop.

Today was one heck of a morning. My car battery died twice. Once I jumped it, once Triple A did (thanks, grammy!) and then I called Triple A back to replace my battery. On top of that it was one of those mornings when Archer didn't want to cooperate, like he didn't want his bagel so he threw it across the room and the dog ate it. Once the dog ate it he decided he wanted his bagel and threw a fit. He didn't want to wear the clothes I brought for him, etc. There's no way I would have gotten him out the door if it weren't for Wiley. Wiley was so amazing with him. He patiently sat with Archer and turned getting dressed into a game, showing him some tricks about flipping his coat over his head and joking about putting his pants on and on and one until Archer was dressed. I was put to shame. It was so amazing to watch.

I've decided the best thing I can do is make sure the toilet seat is always up.

Today at the grocery store Wiley and Archer picked out some candy canes. They wanted to know if they could have one, I told them if they continued with their good behavior they could have one when we got to the car. So, they pushed the cart for me, loaded the groceries from the cart to the conveyer belt, and then I looked up and Wiley was helping the lady in front of us put her bags in her cart. They got their candy canes.

York took Archer to his 3 year appointment and didn't really have anything to report. I was able to look up that Archer is now 37 lbs (Wiley is 41) and 39 inches tall (Wiley was 42).

Today we saw a man panhandling. Wiley asked me what his sign said and so I read it to him, he was hungry and didn't have any money or a home. Wiley, then, had a million questions and I explained as best I could. Wiley ended with, "poor guy. That is so sad, I think I might cry." I tried to reassure him there were lots of social workers (like me!) who will help him and I told him all about the shelter he could go to for food and the families I've worked with who have lived in the shelters. He's so sensitive; he was really bothered by it for a long time.

Today, after everyone was dressed and ready for school/work, I dropped the milk bottle which exploded all over all of us and I said, "shit." Wiley looked at me and said, "that really was a time to say shit."

Well, Archer's 3. After dinner tonight, he looked at me and said, Thanks for encouraging me, mom. I hadn't encouraged him over anything recently, so it was more of a general statement and so sweet. He's so psyched to be three. For several days before his birthday he'd wake up and say, "am i still 2?" somewhat disappointedly. This morning he woke up and asked to nurse, I reminded him he's three and so no more nursing and he said, "alright." He totally scored for his birthday, from Bobby he got pastels, a star wars lunch box, and a sun catcher craft--all of which he loves. From me he got some legos, from Grammy, he got a trampoline, which he is so so happy about, and from York he got a huge collection of star wars toys--tiny little star wars toys--and many other things. He has been great about sharing them with Wiley (who said, Archer, we got everything you asked for!, as though the gifts were for both of them). I think because Archer is the second child he knows exactly what gifts are his and will remind you of that, though he really is good about sharing. He's really quite funny, though because of his introversion rarely do others get to see that side of him. He loves to wear a pair of underwear on his head and peek his eyes through the leg holes, which ends up making him look a lot like an insane version of spider man. He's very protective of Wiley, too. If Wiley is ever in trouble with York or me, then Archer will step in and say, "that's MY brother!" and something protective. He'll be a great big brother, too, and he's already figuring out where to put all his toys so the baby won't ruin them.

"If I didn't have a mom, we wouldn't be having a baby sister. Thanks mom for bringing us this joy."
-Wiley

Last night they both spent a bunch of time talking to my belly, teaching the baby about the world.
"Hi my name is Wiley, I'm your big brother"
"And I am Archer, your big brother"
Then Wiley explained the water cycle and living on planet earth and Archer taught her about cameras.

ha ha ha you'll never win

Wiley came home from school yesterday very proud of himself. He had written his first sentence! "Ha, ha, ha, you'll never win." Then he had me quiz him by giving him words to spell. He did really well and told me how good it felt to be able to do this. It goes like this, "spell POT" "puh, puh, puh, P! Oh, oh, oh, O! tuh, tuh, tuh T!" Then he "read" three books to Archer for bed time last night and tonight. And everyone he's run into he has told them "I can spell and I can read now!"
It's so cool to see how excited he is.

Wiley and Archer took their halloween gift money and decided to go to build a bear and buy a new outfit for their bears. I don't know why, especially after I made these fly outfits for them.

Archer actually ended up getting another bear (Green Green--Dago's BFF) and Wiley got an outfit.