The Hannig Home

Do you see Ben's friend?

Yesterday I was trying to get Luke to clean up his toys in the living room.  He said to me, "Mom, I'm the messer.  You're the cleaner."

Just an email I sent to Paul today.  I figured I would capture it here for Benny. June 29, 2012 Nikki Hannig 1:38 PM (1 minute ago) to  Paul i was in luke's room with him (getting him from a time out) and I heard benny yelling "DAAA!  DAAA!" over and over again so I thought, "hmm, maybe Paul is home."  i came out and he was standing at the new door, just yelling for you.  It's so stinkin cute.

If you haven't read my previous blog, read that first. For those of you who have: After I posted my last blog, I got up from the computer and went to tell Paul Thank you  again for his selfless trip to Walmart at 3am to get me D batteries for our little fan so the hum could lull me to sleep and peace could be kept in the Hannig home.  Paul accepted my thanks and then pointed out that I was sound asleep by the time he came home.  OOPS!  So while he drove the 20 miles to Willmar at 3am, sleepily gathered supplies at Walmart (he was the only person in the entire store), and drove 20 more miles all the way home (round trip he was gone an hour - until 4am) I SLEPT LIKE A BABY THE ENTIRE TIME IN OUR COMFY BED.

Tonight as I was lying with Luke in his bed, getting ready to pray, I said " Luke, we are so blessed to have this wonderful house, this comfy bed we're lying on.  Do you know that some people don't have houses and have to sleep outside?"   He didn't give much of a response, so I continued.  " What if we didn't have this house and you had to sleep outside?"   Luke responded, " We could move my bed outside, Momma."   Good answer.  " Okay, so Luke, some people don't have BEDS either.  Can you imagine?"   And Luke thought a bit, then said, "Well, I guess we'd have to move the couches outside..."   Good thinking once again.  I then asked him to imagine for a minute that we had no house, no bed, no couch, and just a few blankets we could pile up to make a comfy bed outside.  Luke said, "Where is my blanket, Momma?  Can you get it?"   So that was the end of that conversation! I got his blanket and said a qui

Luke has two plastic guns from his grandma Marcy.  Today, he thought Ben should have a gun of his own.  He said we should give Ben a Bebe gun, like Joe's.  He said, Benny should have a Bebe gun b/c they are for babies.  I realized after he said it again he was saying we needed a "Baby" gun like Joe's - b/c they are for Babies.  He motioned me out to the garage to see where Joe's baby gun is located.  I wonder if Luke would have eventually realized the irony in the baby gun being 100 times bigger than his own.  Chances are he would have determined he was more well-suited to carry the baby gun  even though it was for babies like Ben.

In just the past few days I've become ever more aware of the craziness of life with two little boys.  Life is a steady hum of crazy these days, with some extreme craziness thrown in here or there, but for the most part it's a 'steady crazy.'  It has become a part of the Hannig normal, you could say.  Two boys driving their toy cars on the floors and saying 'vroom VROOM' or shooting guns in each other's faces (guns could be an actual plastic gun, or it could be made out of a bendy straw, a plastic toy drill, a hockey stick, etc.), or a shoving match over a toothbrush or wanted toy.  Now that Ben is mobile, he and Luke are often taking off in opposite directions, squealing and screaming, making their mom choose whichever is the child in the most danger who needs saving.  The Spicer grocery store (Jahnke's) is their playground.  I cannot contain them in the shopping cart (Ben is able to get himself out) and so they run around, dive on the floor (Luke), lie

Tonight we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Hannig at Sibley State Park.  Dave has a sabbatical  for a month and they decided to get a pop-up camper and give it a whirl.  So, we were actually just visiting the campers, not camping ourselves.  Luke and Ben loved it....so I think there might be a future in camping for our family.  Here are a few pictures.  Joe was there as well.

So tired after celebrating Mother's day in Richmond I looked back through the past few weeks of pictures on my camera and realized there are a few sweet pictures to share.  Instead of writing an individual blog post for each experience, I am going to just share the pictures and let the pictures tell the stories.  Enjoy! Boating on Green Lake with Pete and Eryn! Wave, Benny! And Lukey too.  The boys love their uncle Pete. The Hemker Zoo in Freeport, MN on Memorial Day with the Dold's. More zoo...very hot so we stripped Benny down. Mom was not in tune with Benny's needs on this particular afternoon b/c he obviously needed to nap so badly that he found a blankie and laid down under the kitchen table to sleep. Benny just being cute. Benny obsessed with watching Pete mow the lawn.  He sat here forever...drooling. A toy car in hand....just what a little boy should have at all times. Can you see Pete way down by the road on the

A few weeks ago Paul and I were doing our Insanity dvd workout and one of the exercises was frog jumps.  Luke started to jump, too, and said "I'm jumping - like a hoppergrass ."  We hadn't seen or talked about a grasshopper for over a year, so I was surprised he even remembered what they were.  Close enough, right?  Hoppergrass, grasshopper, what's the difference? Then yesterday he pointed to something on the top of the fridge and said, " Mom, give me that scratcherback."   (I corrected his sentence, "Did you mean to say, Mom give me that scratcherback, PLEASE?") and then I giggled and told him it is a back scratcher.  He continued to call it a scratcherback as he was giving me instruction on how to use it.

These boys grow up in front of our eyes.  It's a little scary when I actually SEE and FEEL them growing in my arms.  I was putting Luke to bed last night and looked at the picture on his nightstand.  It is a picture of Luke and me kissing when I was in the hospital after having Ben.  That was just one year ago, but in the picture Luke looks SO little and young.  He now seems like a giant in comparison, a young boy, talking in full sentences, reasoning, using logic to argue or prove his point, comprehending complicated things, articulating his feelings, etc.  Ugh, this is what EVERYONE says will happen.  They will grow up before your eyes.  They are big in a blink of an eye.  It's happening right in front of our eyes. Just a few months ago I wrote about Luke's struggle to be alone without me, his anxiety when we go to MOPS or the gym.  He would cry hysterically and ask me to stay with him.  Well, he is warming up to people and surprising his mom and dad quite a bit!  The

Yesterday at the dinner table Luke said to me, "Mom, good thing you got that fence up so the army worms can't eat your tomato plants."   Wow, that is a big long adult-like sentence.  He just turned three.  He was really concentrating as he was getting it out, too. (The fence is actually to keep the deer out...the army worms can't be stopped...) Lately, he has also been saying to me, "Mom, I said to you...." and then he will fill in the sentence with something he has told me in the past.  So for example, he will say, "Mom, I said to you we should go to Shannon's on the boat."  A few minutes before he had told me that we should do that.  Sometimes it is something he said days ago or hours ago, but often it is minutes, or even seconds.  He will say something and then a few seconds later he will say, "Mom, I just said to you we should buy the blue lawn chair for Benny at the hardware 'dore."   And I will respond, "Yep, I reme