Koala Bears are cute. Trust me on this.

We took a little mini vacation this weekend. We left on Friday for the exotic city of Columbus, Ohio and came back Saturday afternoon. We had a lot of fun on our trip. Here are the highlights.

On Friday morning we went to the Origins Game Fair which is a board game convention. I know that you are jealous. It was actually a lot of fun to see some of the new games, kids games, and freaks dressed up.

Connor especially liked the costume shop where you could buy stuff to also dress up.

Friday afternoon we visited the Columbus Science Center (COSI). It was really a nice science center and the best part of all was that because we are members of the Fort Wayne Science Museum, we got in for free. We paid $33 for our Fort Wayne Science Center membership and it would have cost us $45 to get into the museum in Columbus. It kind of made me feel sorry for the people from Columbus who pay $250 for their membership.

Connor and Sophia playing in the kids zone at COSI. 

On Saturday we went to the Columbus Zoo. The zoo was really nice, but preachy, and also amusement parkish. It was the oddest combination of ideas I've ever seen in a zoo, but it was really nice. They have lots of animals including Kola Bears which have to be hands down the cutest animals int he entire world. They are just adorable. Connor and I agreed that these bears were cute to die, an expression he coined a year or so ago. The zoo was super preachy. I think every building we went into had a video about how we could save the animals...if we wanted to. Then they would show all the extinct animals to make us feel like big jerks. It was kind of annoying after a while, but then Ben and I started to make a game out of it and it became kind of fun. This zoo also had a water park and amusement park that you could buy ride tickets for if you wanted to. Like I said, just an odd combination. 

Connor and Sophia at the zoo. 

Sophia was really tired even before we got to the zoo. After about an hour she started using sign language to say all done over and over again. As this works to get her out of her high chair, she was at a total loss as to why this wasn't working to get her out of the stroller. After a few hours she finally crashed and she wasn't waking up for anything. 

Evidently her cuteness factor increased after she fell asleep because we got a lot more of that Awww look from the people around us. If you have little kids, you know the look I'm talking about. 

All in all it was a great trip, but we were more than ready to come home on Saturday afternoon and have all day Sunday to relax from our vacation. 

The Connor Super Secret Spy Show

Connor performed a show for me tonight. It was very... involved.

Part 1: Talking on Stage. He introduced himself, thanked his best friend for being there (not me), and then went around and asked me and all the other people in the room (zero) if they had any questions. These questions were supposed to be about his life as a secret spy.

Part 2: Feeding Lion Lion and the Audience. Connor has a stuffed animal lion who is named Lion Lion. He feed the lion a number of things, including lemon coffee and lemon flavored potato chips. As a member of the audience I was also allowed to partake of these goodies.

Part 3: Talking on Stage...again. Connor preferred that these questions also be spy related, but it wasn't a requirement this time.  

Part 4: A ride in his spy car to visit the university where he received his spy degree. It was in an old building and the door was a little bit rusty, but we finally got in.

Part 5: Meeting his boss. Since his boss works on the eleventh trillion floor we had to take the elevator. He said that his boss was really nice because he would let Connor go to the store whenever he wanted to and also let him bring Lion Lion to work.

Part 6: Visiting his secret lab wherein we had the opportunity to pet a number of bugs, birds, rabbits, and fish. We didn't have to touch anything slimy, or anything we were afraid of. We were assured that his cages didn't contain sharks or sting rays, but he did have a scorpion and a tarantula. I especially enjoyed petting the Chilean Sea Bass which was his favorite fish in his whole collection.

Part 7: Going on a trip to the desert. We had to travel over water to get there, but he drove really fast so we wouldn't sink. He also brought a lot of lemonade along in his giant spy car trunk so we wouldn't get thirsty.

Then we had a snack and called it a day. This is the awesome part of being Connor's mom.

Unworthy.

In the past month I have opened our mail several times only to find money in it. I am sure this is a problem you all wish you had. We've received checks and gift cards from a number of God's Lutheran Saints around the country. These Christian men and women heard about our car trouble and sent us money to help out. Some of these people know Ben and I well - like our church family in Topeka, but others only know us through a letter now and again to say thank you for their congregational support.

It is a very humbling experience to feel the generosity of people that you barely know. Especially considering that most of these people are your average middle class working Americans. They need money just as much as we do, but they give it to us anyway. Why? Because Ben is studying to be a pastor. They love us based solely on this information. They pray for us, ask about our children, send us cookies, books, movies, and money because they know that my husband has a call to serve the church. I don't think I can mention the word humbling enough to describe this experience.

If these people did know us well, they would know how unworthy we are of their generosity. We do nothing for them, yet they do so much for us.

This generosity overwhelms us, yet still pales in comparison to that of our heavenly Father. He who actually knows our unworthiness, still sent His own Son to die on the cross for us. It is because of Christ's death that we are made worthy to God.

Chillaxin

Despite their five year difference, Connor and Sophia interact with each other quite a lot. They play together, fight together, tickle each other, take things out of each other's room, tattle on one and another, and share the occasional hug, and the even less occasional kiss.

My favorite Connor and Sophia moment is when they are chilling out and relaxing together on the couch. In the Ockree house, we call this chillaxin. It typically lasts for only an instant before Connor says something like "Ugh! Sophia quit following me. I just want to sit on the couch alone!" To which she replies "Bubba, uhuh" and laughs. Which if you've spent five minutes with Connor, you know this does not improve the situation.

Despite the fighting, squabbling, and tattling (trust me, Sophia tattles on him as well, it is just a little less intelligible), Ben and I are sure that they really love each other. 

Sophia expresses this love by trying to sit on his lap the instant he sits down on the floor. She also expresses this by trying to give him a big wet slobbery kiss now and again. 

Connor expresses his love in more subversive ways. He will occasionally call Sophia cute, explain her needs to me and Ben, laugh at her when she dances, give her some of his food, or allow her a rare hug. 

Yesterday, however, he expresses his love for his sister in a very obvious and sweet way. Sophia had been sick all day, and Connor had been at YMCA camp all day. I think that all told the two of them spent less than two hours together. Connor came inside and wanted to know where Sophia was. I explained to him that I put her in bed because she was sick and really tired. He got this sad look on his face and said "I really wish she wasn't in bed already, I didn't get to spend much time with her at all today, and I really miss her." 

This are the little things that Ben and I keep in our pocket so we can pull it out next time he complains that she is ruining everything. 

Feel free to try this at home.

When it is warm outside, there is nothing better than turning the sprinkler on and letting the kids loose. 

Connor wasted no time in developing a water game where he tried to cut the water with a styrofoam axe. It wasn't all that effective, but he seemed to be having a good time. 

This was the first time Sophia had experienced the sprinkler. She spent the first five minutes holding her binky in the spray of the water. After I took the binky away, she spent the remainder of our sprinkler time standing in almost the same exact spot making small screaming noises. Yep...pretty exciting, but since it is her first time we are going to let it slide. Just this once.  

Wow, that's really....sweet?

Connor has been coughing a little bit these past couple of days. This morning he came into our room, plopped himself down on the bed, and said "Mom, I think I may have a cough."

In typical mothering fashion, I tried to pull him into my lap. At this point he jettisons across the room and looks at me with horror. 

When I asked him what was wrong and why he didn't want me to hold him, he said that he didn't want to get me sick. I thought that was in its own confused way, really sweet. 

I assured him that it's a mom's job to hold sick kids and there was no avoiding it. Then we had a good cuddle. 

Little Elizabeth

See this?

This is Elizabeth. 

She was born on Tuesday, May 31st and still hasn't gotten to go home because she just can't seem to keep her breathing steady. Elizabeth is our niece and we kind of like her. We would really like her to get better. The doctors can't quite figure out what is going on with her little body and as a result she has been poked, prodded, scanned, and generally harassed more in her one week of life than I have in my thirty-one years. 

Please pray for her to get better and that her doctors will be given wisdom so that this little sweet girl can go home to her big loving family.

We kind of like them too. 

Baby talk

Sophia is getting to the point where I can tell that she is actually trying to tell me something when she talks to me. She says "Mama!" very adamantly and then proceeds to babble for some one or two minutes. She then looks at me very expectantly and waits for the appropriate response.

If I have not responded correctly I receive a very concerned frown that seems to be saying "I can't believe you are actually my mother." If I have said the appropriate thing back I get a single nod of the head and a big smile.

In a flash.

Today was Connor's last day of Pre-Kindergarten, which means this is his last summer before he is actually in elementary school, which means that my little baby is growing up.

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those parents who wants their children to remain an infant forever. I enjoy each new thing my kids learn and marvel at the power of their little minds.

Despite all the warnings that my life would become a blur the moment Ben and I had a baby, I just was not expecting it to be true. I knew they would start to grow up, but didn't expect it to happen so very fast.

It seems like in a flash Connor and Sophia have gone from newborn babies to little people walking around in my home.

It seems like only days ago I was calling my mom about my adorable , fussy, little baby boy. I was crying to her that my baby wouldn't quit crying, that I had no idea what I was doing, and that I was in way over my head. (Okay, so some of that happened last week too, but....)

In a flash, Connor has grown into this handsome, intelligent, fussy, wonderful, sweet boy.

Happy last day of school to my little man.

When you are just having a hard day.

Connor has been having a lot of hard days lately. These hard days typically begin at about 7:45 pm when we begin to get him ready for bed time, but I am sure it is purely coincidental.

For those of you who suffer from the same malady, Connor made a book about how not to have a hard day with a number of helpful tips.

1. Smile

2. Hug

3. Don't fight

4. Laugh

5. Say prayer

6. Count your blessings

I've also found a glass of water, a granola bar, and a "you're going to bed anyway" to be pretty useful.