Harry, You are My Son (to be read in Darth Vader's Voice)

Much to Rob's delight, Harry has become interested in a new form of transportation: Space. We have watched Harry lose himself playing "spaceship" for hours as he flies lego ships through the house. (Max also makes everything a spaceship now, with sound effects and everything.)

Then came the day I think Rob has been waiting for since we first became pregnant. We decided Harry was ready for the X-Wing Fighter! Yes, Rob has a couple bins of his old Star Wars toys (with boxes and everything, because this is Rob we are talking about.) He had been saving them just for this day.

Even though he's never seen the movie, Harry was instantly taken with the ship. Harry has been flying it around nonstop and even wants to sleep with it at night.


Like father, like son.

Wait until we get out the stormtroopers ship!

Bru-ba

Max wakes up in the morning and waits to hear Harry stir. If Harry so much as clears his throat, Max shrieks: "Bruba! Bruba!" At the park, if he can't see Harry, he toddles around calling out "Bruba!" He loves his brother, that one.

(I apologize for the darkness at the end. It showed up on my camera. The giggles you hear are from Max who jumps on bruba's bed.)

I'm writing a book, Mommy.

Harry has become very interested in the computer keyboard and pretending like he is "working."
He will run into the office, start typing on the keyboard that is not turned on, and say "Mommy, I'm working! Let's work together!"
I will say "What are you working on?'
And he says: "My book!"
Yesterday he told our babysitter that he was up late working on his book!
At Georgia's house today, he pretended to work on the book, but she interrupted him to say she had to check her email. So Harry came up to me and said "Mommy, I need to check my im-il"
"I'm going to im-il"
Georgia set him straight ("It's E-mail!") and showed him how to check it, then they both had turns emailing before Harry returned to his book.
Wow, are they ever little sponges.
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One additional quick story: Harry was watching me put on eyeliner today (not an everyday occurence for sure.) and he said: "Why are you writing on yourself?

The Return of Hello Harry...

We disappeared for the summer, we know. Mom was writing 423 pages of a book! But we're back now! The book is done. We worked until 5 AM on the day it was due, then overnighted it. The photo below shows just how thick 423 pages is -- it took 4 hours to print! I am purposefully wearing a marathon T-shirt, because that's what it was like. At one point, I wore a T-shirt with a photo of Jim McMahon from the 1985 SuperBowl Champion Chicago Bears. It was a shirt I had not worn since I was 13 and thought "Hey! Someday I'm going to write a book!" I wore the T-shirt to remind myself of that feeling so I could finish the book! Overall, we had an adventure, but it was very intense. And now I'm going to overwhelm you with photos I've been saving up of my adorable children.


So we sent the book off, then got into the car a few hours later and drove to the North Woods!


Big McKenzie Lake, you're just as awesome as I remembered you.


Harry, fishing. It was a different method than I was used to, but he caught 3 fish, each bigger than the previous one. So I'd say he was successful.


Look closely and you can see the first of the fish, although he wanted to be as far from it as possible.


Nana and Papa on a walk with the boys.

Don't call DCFS. This is Harry and Max at a bar! They allow this in Wisconsin. We're waiting for our table at the restaurant so we fired up a portable DVD player to entertain them.

One rainy day, we went to a train museum. Harry is a conductor!

He he. So is Max!

Is this what we're supposed to do? Our sweet cousin James takes a turn.

The brothers unwind from a FULL day of playing with a Thomas DVD in the cabin.

Papa is wearing Nana's hat to protect himself from the rain while grilling supper for the clan. Uncle Joe is trying to hide from this whole experience.

Wait. Are we not supposed to splash in the mud? Nobody told me!

Nana, I'm hiding!

There is a lot of aunt effort going on in this photo. Stephanie is trying to inhale all the cuteness that is Max at the moment. I am trying to do the same with James, while also trying to get him to develop a name for me. At this point, Steph and I look alike to him, so he avoids calling both of us anything. My kids have taken to calling Stephanie "Auntie" and Angie "Angie" which I think they view as a pet name for her, because it sounds enough like Auntie, but still is different. James gets Stephanie and I staring at him saying "Come to Auntie!" and he runs away. We were playing with Auntie Crys and Auntie Steph, but we'll see what takes. He will not escape the Auntie love though!

Max putting up with a photo with Auntie. :)

Vacation sleeping. He played so hard everyday and then passed out like this. Complete with giant mosquito bite on his face. I love it.

Oh, yes, I like to eat sand. It is true.

Max driving the pontoon boat.


Look at that!

This is the Mommy loon and baby loon he was pointing at. Ask Harry to do his loon call next time you see him.

A more serious driver at the wheel of the pontoon boat.

Big McKenzie Lake, we can't wait for next year!

The whole crew at the traditional breakfast at Jo Mama's Cafe, just across the street from the church our great-grandpa Steve built.