Monkey

There truly is not enough space on any blog to document all of stories that Vaughn shares about monkey. Monkey is his stuffed animal who's name is monkey. It kind of reminds me as a little kid as my stuffed animal was a horse that I name horsey. So I guess that we are not the most creative when it comes to naming stuffed animals.

One would think that monkey is an average monkey nothing too fancy but if they heard of all the adventures and life stories of monkey they would be impressed. He has 18 brothers and sisters and has traveled all over the world. Pretty much anything that happens in our family monkey has done it but always one upping the situation.

The other night at Auntie Cole's rehearsal dinner I took Vaughn to the bathroom. As we were washing our hands he told me "Mom when I get home I going to make a card for monkey." I was about to say that's nice of you Vaughn for him to blurt out "Cause his Mom and Dad died." Now I know that this is not really funny but in the context of how it came out I bursted out laughing which I quickly covered my face to pretend that I was crying over this sudden news.

Oh Vaughn, really our family would be so boring without him. I have been told since then that Monkey's Mom and Dad really didn't die, they were just on vacation. He has quite the imagination...

HeeHaa

As I have said many times our Vaughn adds a level of amusement to our daily lives. Something that he has been answering questions with a lot lately is "heehaa". To a question as "How many times did you jump on the trampoline Vaughn?" would be answered with a grin from ear to ear and a LOUD "HeeHaa" that then is proceeded in him giggling. I think sometimes he does it just to make himself laugh. Not sure what it is all about but it's something that he's been doing almost all summer so I'm jotting it down here to not forget.

New ear tubes

A few months back I started to notice that Vaughn didn't seem like he could hear again. He had been talking much louder than normal and would sometimes respond to a question with a more than normally weird response. When we took him to his Kindergarten screening he failed his hearing test. So off we were to the ENT which tested his hearing again and again he failed it.

The doctor wanted to a wait a few months but we insisted that we go earlier than later. After all when a child is asking "When are we going to the doctors to get my ears fixed?" You would rather go sooner. One day I was talking to him, turned to get something from the pantry and he said to me "Mommy, when you talk to me can you wook at me?" Seriously, was he starting to read lips. According to the ENT most likely subconsciously he probably was. So thankfully he got us on his schedule a month out.

A few days before surgery we talked to Vaughn about him getting surgery on his ears so that he could hear better. He didn't seem afraid at all but did say that Monkey had to get his ears fixed too as Monkey couldn't hear either and that he would have to wear his Spiderman outfit so that he could be tough during surgery.

We thought that was more than fair so Monkey came with, which the night before Vaughn informed us that he would get his ears fixed first and Monkey was second. I just thought that was too cute. We also let him wear his Spiderman outfit but brought Spiderman PJ's just in case. Vaughn has fine with changing into his PJ's. I will say that all the nurses that Spiderman was pretty cute :)

Vaughn did great with the mask for his funny juice as they called it. He had quite a longer recovery time this time around which made me a little nervous but when he got to back to recovery he was happy to see us. Bjorn asked him if he could hear him talk better and he said "You loud Daddy." I guess that is one way of saying yes. The rest of the day Vaughn was good to go running around and happy as could be.

One would think that I was the one going in for surgery

Vaughn thought that I looked pretty silly in all of that stuff

No training wheels for this kid....

What Vaughn has added to our family is really quite hard to put into words. His cute smile, his sweet words, his oh so lovely temper and just his really crazy whacky ways don't even skim the top of who this kid is. One thing about Vaughn is he is just plain clumsy. Some of the things that he will run straight into really begins to make one think. It actually made me think that he had vision issues. Seriously, he will run into the same thing a gazillion times and you just sit there and wonder "What the heck is wrong with this kid?". I took him to the eye doctor only for the doctor to run every test on him possible to say "20/20, perfect depth perception and no color blind issues....I guess he's just a little clumsy." The saying "two left feet" might have been termed just for Vaughn. Now, please don't judge me in thinking that I am a bad Mom for saying all of this, not until you have spent at least a day with him :)

However, on this night he surprised us all as he took off on Torin's bike with maybe only trying a few times. He has never really rode a bike with training wheels, as he never really had any interest in riding a bike. He was content with his scooter last summer or his little toy motorcycle so when he got on this bike and rode off with very little ease we had some hope restored of what might become of Vaughn "Mr. Two Left Feet" Larson....I'm just kidding :)

Getting steady with Daddy's help.....

and off he goes riding away.....

We are so proud of this little guy!!!

Feeding Time

Vaughn is the classic older brother wanting to help with all the details of Bercan, well except for poopy diapers. He does have some boundaries. I had made Berc his breakfast and Vaughn asked if he could feed him. "For real Mommy, not pertend." I figured what the heck why not. If he makes a mess it will just blend into the rest of the house these days. And well I'm happy to report that Vaughn did a FABULOUS job feeding him, for real not "pertend", as he calls it. The best part about these pictures is how wide Vaughn's mouth is when he is feeding Bercan. I noticed it the first couple of times and then of course had to snap a picture of it...

Yes, this Vaughn a.k.a Spiderman. I got the costume at a garage sale for $1. I promise you he wears it more than any other piece of clothing that he has :)

Too cute for words these crazy little boys

Berc at Baseball

The other night we were at baseball and Bercan was just too cute staring out at his big brother playing baseball. This little guy really is quite lucky for the older brothers that he has as the love between them is just too sweet. It can get bitter to when one is not getting their way but the sweet for sure rids any bitterness when you see pics of this little man :)

Always such big smiles....

Crazy little look while he is literally trying to crawl up my leg

I just love this picture of him watching his big brother...

Papa Dick Smiling Down

Torin is by far our most cautious child. From the time that he was little he would see his friends going down slides and going on swings. They would say "Torin come play with us" and he would reply very politely "No thank you". It just wasn't his thing and as much as we wanted him to be at least a little more daring it just wasn't him.

There are times that we will push him to try new things but for the most part we just let it go. Last 4th of July we pushed him to go tubing as it was a tube that seated two people so Bjorn went with him. This past year we were out at our friends lake and when asked if he wanted to go tubing he said "nope". After all, he was fishing. Really, there is nothing more important than fishing to Torin.

Well this year the kids started trying waterskiing. There were 2 boys that were trying and one got up and the other one kept trying. Then a girl tried it and after she attempted and didn't get up, Torin said "I'll try". We really couldn't believe that he was going to try. We hadn't even asked him if he wanted to.

So our friends Nick and Andy helped him get into position and told him what to do. Sit back, knees to your chest and let the boat pull you. His first try he got up, went about 20 feet and fell. Both Bjorn and I couldn't believe that he actually got up on his very first try. We both looked at each other like "seriously?". We were SO proud of him. I told him that Papa Dick was so proud of him as my Dad (Papa Dick) was one of the most patience men I knew when it came to teaching us skiing. So I said try it one more time for Papa Dick and he said "Okay Mom, one more time, for Papa Dick."

Well he tried again, got up and went half way around the lake. He was pretty proud of himself too. It's always amazing to me what this kid can do. I'm so interested to see what he will do with athletics as he gets older. Hopefully something, as he obviously has some natural abilities that he got from his Daddy.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy!

A little push from behind and front and he's off...

Vaughn of course asked if he could try.

Second time trying up of his first time skiing, good form for his first time..

There he goes! We were SO proud!!!