Sunday Fun

A couple of Sunday's ago, I found myself entertaining the troops by myself.  Though tomorrow starts March, we received another snow storm and it seems as if winter has started afresh, mentally, I don't anticipate it to go away any time soon.

Since the outdoors being battered by snow and wind, we headed downstairs and I played with the kids.  I really did- it doesn't come naturally to me.  First, Max lined up all the dinosaurs - T-Rex to Pterodactyl (Max lines up everything that he plays with from cars, to trains to dinosaurs).  We took turns being different dinosaurs and basically wrestling.  Next, we played Pokemon-  Ella and Max gathered all the balls they could find, and Max told me which Pokemon I was- we threw our balls to release our Pokemon, and then we fought Pokemon battles (looks very similar to Wrestling).  

Madeline build a wonderful town with couch cushions and blankets, and hosted us all.  

It was fun to sit beside and across from my children and to be part of their play.   Ella and Max are either playing together or fighting about whose toy it is.  

No front teeth to be found. Madeline is so patient with Max and Sam, I know she would prefer playing games, or doing crafts.  The boys love to play with her.  She's almost always going around the house on all fours- as a horse.  Somehow, she figured out the loudest way to bring her legs down with each gallop, and I keep telling her we need to get felt hooves on that horse.

Sam loves to undo anything- games that we are playing, laundry detergent, Max's lines of toys, and so forth. He talks quite a bit, he said his first sentence a few weeks ago:  I hiding from you.  We do not have a safe choice for him at the table, as he always manages to get on top of the table.   He loves for everyone to come home, I will often distract him momentarily from climbing or taking apart to look out the window for Ella, Madeline, or Dad.

How could I forget....

That these two boys cannot be left alone?  I thought 5 minutes could be spared to change my clothes, but I could sense as I pulled on my pants that I'd made a mistake.

Need I say more?

Max can barely contain his glee

In the hair and ears.  

Of course it was right as I was walking out the door to my tennis lessons.  Getting the camera to take pictures helped me keep it in perspective.  I dusted Max off, changed Sam's clothes, put them in the car, and off we went.  "Where we going Mom, to tennis lessons"?  Max asked, in complete innocence.  I told the sitter not to mind the dirt in Sam's ears and hair.  I have been thinking about what a natural consequence of this would be.  The only natural consequences are for me, because I left them unattended.

Below are a few of Ella and Madeline:

Boy's haircuts

Last week, we gave the boys haircuts.  Also, Sam has started going to nursery.  Maybe it's the combination of these two factors, but lot's of people have been mixing them up and telling me they look very similar.  

FYI- The haircuts worked fine as long as the one who wasn't cutting hair fed a steady stream of M & M's to whichever boy was getting the cut.

Car conversations and so forth

When dealing with two rambunctious boys ages 17 months and 34 months, I use a technique called Separate and Diffuse to combat their technique called "Separate and Disseminate".  A classic example of this is when it's "Time to Leave".  During a Minnesota winter, this entails, socks, boots, coat, hat, and scarf.  The need to separate the boys became clear early on.  I would wrestle one boy into his accessories, and start on the other boy, only to have the first boy run away and distribute his articles, included socks and shoes, all through the house.  If it was Max, he would be laughing hysterically, "I hide from you mommy", which meant I'd find him in the living room, under all the couch cushions, which would also be all over the floor.

Now, I've wised up.  I grab one boy, suit him up and take him out to the car (this only works if I buckle the boy securely in his car seat).  Then I return inside and find the other boy, suit him up and keep him inside with me while I do a 5 minute pick up.  

Sam riding his rocking horse

Sam getting ready to pull the "stand up with no hands while rocking" stunt

Yesterday, I followed protocol as usual, and when I went outside to buckle Max in his car-seat (he was second this time), I saw that Sam had been crying.  "Sammy, why are you crying buddy", I asked.  Max, from the back, replied for him, "He miss his Daddy, You miss Daddy, Sammy? I miss Daddy, too".  In reality, Sam was crying because he had been by himself in the car for 3 minutes, but Max's interpretation was instructive to me.  I had a conversation with Max about how he missed his daddy.  

There really is not another scene that's quite like when Ryan get's home from work.  The moment the kids here the garage opening, there's hiding, and schemes, and excitement.  Sam, who is usually restrained by his high chair, resorts to yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy".  You can tell Ryan is well-loved by all around here.

This week has found us busy selling Girl Scout cookies.  Madeline, Ella and I went out early Saturday morning and sold in our neighborhood.  Ella was so intent on helping her sister sell the cookies, that she purchased the first box from Madeline.  She also asked her teachers at school if they wanted to buy some cookies (something that Madeline hasn't worked up the courage to do yet), and sold a package to her teacher.  

How does he manage to create a sense that he is utterly disengaged?

The boys play group was canceled last week, and I was excited to have a little extra time to catch up on the endless tasks, but decided to make play dough, which then required me to play play dough with the boys.  It took up more of my time, but was worth it.  Sam tasted every color of play dough, just in case one of them would turn out to taste as good as it looked.  Max had me do a stegosaurus mold with every color we had because he like created a dinosaur out of a blob.  

I had to remind myself that my main job was growing children and not the other odd tasks that tend to consume life.  Once I ok'ed that with my task oriented personality it was very fun.