Early Audition Video for America's Got Talent 2028

During our travels in the last few months, S began channeling his inner singer and regaled us with from-the-gut versions of every two-year-old's favorite tune, "Meet Me in St. Louis." I kept trying to catch him at it, and he finally acquiesced. P wasn't so feeling so hot, so he didn't chime in as he usually does, but S more than made up for him (note especially the "I'M a big boy. I'M a big boy." he throws in at the end). I can't watch this without laughing so hard I cry. And yes, this was unscripted. S is ready for stardom, I think!

S Birthday Flashback: Twice is Nice

When our S had a birthday at the end of April, we unintentionally ended up with two birthday sweets, one a chocolate cake left over from dinner out the day before (in truth, a freebie calorie-and-preservative-laden concoction from the Colonel. Hey, KFC is good for families with toddlers!) and one--or twelve--semi-homemade cupcakes, complete with sprinkles of many colors. Birthdays at the Olson homestead tend to be big excuses for dessert overload--what can I say?

As a result of the deux bon bons, we mostly P also ended up singing "Happy Birthday" twice to S, once for lunch dinner and once for dinner supper. Coincidentally, in the past few months, S has really taken to music and has sung the world's most well-known song innumerable times, including to his brother three times on his birthday and to me, today, as I tried to take a nap on the couch. There's just no holdin' 'em.

Anyway, on S's big day, doubles were especially appropriate, as the "big boy" turned two. Enjoy the serenades in his honor, particularly 1) how much P wants to "help" S with the candles, 2) how S grins as we sing 3) and valiantly tries to blow out the candles with intense "fffffffff"s, and 4) how he's wearing different shirts, which occurred due to a combo of cake and outside fun with the new tee ball set and garden digging tools (not used at the same time...I don't think). We love our "big" little guy!

She Laughs -- On Camera!

Yesterday we held our last dinner for youth from our church. During Lent, every Wednesday, the confirmands have come over for dinner with our family and then watched portions of The Passion with Papa's commentary (while I clean up and read to our three littles, who won't be ready for that kind of visual depiction of Christ's suffering and crucifixion for a long time). Then we all go to Lenten service. As much as I would get slightly stressed out about the cleaning and cooking required for these days, they truly have been special, and Papa and I both hope we can continue to do this in the years to come.

Yesterday we had an additional bonus. After dinner, the big kids and the little kids were hanging out for a few minutes. Taylor, who as the resident young man attracts most of our sons' attention, was making S laugh--and C, who was being alternately held by Katie and Makayla, was mesmerized by their antics and starting laughing! And we caught it on tape! Please forgive our rough camera work.

And that's S laughing in the background, saying "Do that again." Baby AND little boy laughs--great combination!

Brotherly love for Little Sister

Brothers, Together

It's been so fun in the last few weeks to see how P and S have grown and changed toward each other. They've always played well together (other than the typical "You take my toy when I want it and I'll sit on you"); now that S is learning new words every day, though, their relationship has progressed to actual conversations between them. Few things are as heart-warming for Mommy to hear than P going down the hall saying, "Do you want to play with this truck, S?" and S saying, "Yes. Tanks." :) I tried to capture one of their exchanges here, and it didn't quite work (you can hear P say, "Can I come in?" and S say, "Yeah," which is about it), but you might get a feel for what we increasingly hear every day.

And in other S linguistic news: his latest amazing comment has been "Christmas tree. Fall down. Naughty." You can probably guess why he's said that.

P.S. FYI: These videos seem to only work in Safari or Google Chrome, and not in Internet Explorer.