Boys and Girls...

So yesterday Moose was talking about this little girl he plays with occasionally. He was telling the hubs, "I don't like her really much. She talks to me very much and I tell her she's not allowed. I don't like talking to her." Who knew it started so early? Girls wanting to talk, talk, talk, and boys being totally uninterested. :)

Yesterday we had a great opportunity to go to a magic show. It was a local guy that my hub's family are using for an upcoming reunion. It was totally free (and they BBQ'd for us all after. Totally unexpected!) and such a good time. I don't know how much Moose was really understanding, as he sat in the front with the other kids. But they had the whole deal. He had 3 kid assistants. They were cut in half, shoved in tiny boxes, and constantly disappearing and reappearing in other places. They also had a huge tree house like area for the kids to play on, complete with a zip-line and big swinging bridge.

Today we were at the bro-in-law's house for a short bit, and I was practicing a duet with my niece for the upcoming family reunion talent show. I didn't know how Monkey would do while I was practicing, but apparently she went to my sis-in-law without hesitation (even leaning towards her) and eventually leaned towards my 10 year old niece to be held by her. This is quite unheard of. I was so jazzed. She played with my sis-in-law and her daughter while I was playing piano and she had a blast. It was so awesome to see her happily interacting and bonding with other people.

Monkey has been such a different kid than Moose. Moose never, to this day, had separation anxiety. Not as a baby, not ever. He'll miss us if we're gone for a while (like when he spends the night at his grandparents) but has never had anything close to classic separation anxiety. Monkey on the other hand, has had it in multiple forms. Uber-attachment to the hubs, uber-attachment to me, absolute disdain for anyone who is not me or the hubs. I so love watching her bond to our other family members. When my parents were visiting back in May, she was just starting to warm up to people other than me and the hubs. They were at our home for like 3 days. It wasn't until the last night that she happily sat on my mom's lap so I could take pics with her and my parents. She's still pretty wary of people, but it's so great to see her enjoying other people. The freedom for me isn't half bad either.  :)

Sunday...

As I hoped it would be, today was a calming day. Moose and Monkey both slept in, church was tantrum free, naps happened, and it was relaxing.  We have been working on a new rewards/incentive program for good behavior with Moose. He loves fruit snacks. So I bought a box and dumped them all out into one of my handy empty peanut butter jars. (wonderful for snacks/storage. LOVE them.)  Whenever we see him do something that is a "big boy" choice, or something unexpected which we appreciate, we give him a fruit snack. We tell him we recognized whatever it was he did and appreciate him making such a good choice all on his own. The first one was prompted when I saw him putting away his legos. The bag is starting to rip underneath the zipper and I caught him shoving them through the hole instead of putting them in the right way. I told him once the bag was broken we wouldn't have another one and I wouldn't know what to do with his legos. Anyhow, this particular day I asked him to put some legos away and he went, opened the bag by the zipper and put them away. I was so pleased that he did it the right way, and wanted to make sure he really knew I saw what he did, so I gave him a fruit snack. He knows he can't ask for them, or point out his "big boy" behaviors in hopes of getting a fruit snack.

Today he was making a lot of those big boy choices and I was so pleased. He got a tootsie roll at church and on the way home, he told the hubs that he wanted to cut it in two pieces so that Monkey could have some. We were so struck by his self-motivated sharing. It was very sweet and unprompted. It's so nice to have a day like this after a few days of not so great behavior. I guess it reminds me that he is growing and maturing, even though it doesn't show every day.

We're getting ready for a wedding in a few weeks. The hub's older brother is getting married. My sister in law found a dress for Monkey to wear that matches their colors. I tried it on first thing and it fit so great! (even though it's a 3T.)  I'm going to take it up in the shoulders about an inch and she'll be wedding-ready! Now I just have to find matching fabric to make Moose a bow tie. He's the ring bearer. He's going to be so darn cute. I can't wait. I was just telling the bride-to-be that I hope he doesn't do something weird down the aisle, like shake uncontrollably or stick his tongue out and wag it at everyone. But she reassured me that they like his silliness and wouldn't mind one bit. He's never been to a wedding, let alone be in one. I'm really excited for this wonderful family event. It's going to be awesome!

Tomorrow will prove to be busy, with a trip to a magic show on the schedule. I just know that after tomorrow, Moose will want to be a magician, or be a magician for Halloween, or start making things "disappear" all over the house. As long as he remembers to make them reappear, I'll try to be a nice Mom. :)

Normalcy...

Today was relatively normal. It felt nice, considering the total hulabaloo we had yesterday. We were able to hit up the local farmer's market, leaving with a pound of sugar snap peas, and head over to Moose's buddy's house for some play time which included a little kiddy pool and fun sprinkler. The kids had a ball, which was really fun. I enjoyed my chatting time as well. This was all followed by a nice nap, me going shopping sans kids, and a fun family BBQ with some extended family. (followed by a family reunion planning session, for a giganto reunion in about 3 weeks.)

Moose's knee has practically returned to normal. The smaller areas are pretty much holding no fluids. His knee still had some, but it's drastically reduced, for which we are all very glad.

Did I mention, Monkey now barks and meows? One of those fun little things. I love hearing her do it.

Tomorrow's Sunday. Perhaps we'll have one of those really nice and relaxing Sundays that come every now and then. Perhaps.

Super Mom...

That's what I felt like today. Yesterday we were gone all day playing at a reservoir, so by the time we got home after 9 and the comp wasn't even on, the blog had to take a break. We played on the "beach", went out on the canoe and played pirates, threw rocks from the island, tried fishing (for like 2 minutes since Moose's attention span for that is very limited), BBQ'd and had an overall busy day with no naps for either kiddo.

Now fast forward to today. This morning we were heading out to another "beach" with some friends. I spent an hour getting everything ready and the last thing to do is put sunblock on Moose's legs. I go for his first leg and his knee looks kinda big and bulbous. I thought maybe they're both that way and he's just getting big and gangly, but upon comparison, the knees are most definitely not the same size. Ultimately we went to the walk-in at the doctor's office, waited an hour, finally got in to find out he's got an allergic reaction, and I'm pretty sure she said it's infected too. He has a knee the size of a softball, and 3 other spots that are retaining fluids. So after maybe another hour getting all the doctor stuff done, we head over to our favorite super wal-mart and look for his antibiotics and other drugs he'll be needing for the next 7-10 days. At this point the kids were starving, we'd all been walking around in our swimsuits and smothered in sun block.

We finally got home, finished eating (which was mostly done in the car on our way home since it was all packed in the cooler for the beach) and got the kids to bed. Poor Moose (although he's really fine and seems so unaffected by all of this) has black lines drawn around all of his swelling and red spots for comparison tomorrow. If it's not better after 24 hours we're headed back. Ooh, and he's started to get a small rash (possibly) on his chest, which is a possible strong reaction to the antibiotic. If it's still there in the morning, we're headed back to the doctor. Yay. Holy cow, right?

So after naps, the house is a complete mess, I attempted to relax but was mostly bombarded by calls (they were all good calls and I didn't mind the talking, but I never get that many in such a small period of time) and we had Moose's buddy coming over for dinner while his parents went on a date. Ultimately that was great because he is such a sweety pie, but I felt flustered because the house was a complete disaster and I was rushing around trying to get waffles ready for dinner. The hubs came home about 2 hrs late (which was also good because we really need the hours) so I did most of the playdate solo. (Which again, wasn't bad because he's such an angel.)

Considering all that happened today, it all went surprisingly well. But I feel like I should be exhausted (while I think I am mentally exhausted by it all) and I feel like I should be less non-chalant about the whole thing. I guess it's a good thing I am though, or I'd be pulling hairs out right now, right?

The hubs told me he's so glad I've been rolling with it, because otherwise I'd be super stressed by now. I guess I'm glad I'm not super stressed either. That's no fun and really gets you nowhere. Here's to hoping the swelling goes down by 2 pm tomorrow so we don't have any more doctor's visits this week.

Bathtime...

So this event is so singular it will consume the blog today. But to put a sentence in for the rest of the day, it involved grocery shopping at the beautiful new Super Wal-Mart, a concert in the park with 70 and 80's cover songs, and a trip to grandma's to pick asparagus and spinach. Now, on to the real show stopper. (Prepare yourself. Those with semi-weak consistutions or easy gag reflexes [sister, you know who I'm referring to] should refrain. It's not really that bad, but gross nonetheless.)

I was giving sweet Monkey a bath tonight. It was going fine. No face plants or anything. I was sitting next to the tub. I heard one small grunt, look over and, you guessed it, the bath was over. The little miss totally poo'd in the bathtub. Fortunately it wasn't runny (I know it's TMI, but as a parent you quickly get over that when it comes to children's bodily functions.) so it was relatively easy to clean up. It all happened so fast, I didn't have a chance. Needless to say, her bath was over.

Now I have a collection of toys that need disinfecting. Joy. Guess I'll add that to my to-do list after the chocolate chip cookies. Just one of those things.

Book Day...

This morning was busy and full, with a trip to the park with some friends we haven't played with in a while. The afternoon consisted of my reading Catching Fire, book 2 of the Hunger Games Series. That pretty much took up the remaining 7 hours of my day.

A good day. Glad I was able to sit and read my book without insane fussiness or distraction. I'm sure I'll be a more attentive mom tomorrow.

Just call it a mom-sanity day. :)

Silly Moments...

Today was filled with silly moments. It had it's frustrating ones as well (crying fits before bed, over-fussiness before dinner) but was filled with laughter. Moose and Monkey are continually growing together and learning to really interact and play. I just love watching it. It's hilarious.

We had a fly in the apartment today and Moose got me obsessed with swatting it. This was over their lunch time. It was so much fun. He would shout out whenever he saw it and I would do my best to catch it. I called it a stinky fly at one point and of course he found that hilarious. From then on it was the stinky fly.

I realized today that Monkey tries to bark. She really likes animals and will point at any animal she sees. We have a Sandra Boynton book called Doggies. It is filled with pics of dogs. She brought it to me and was making her very soft "oof oof" sound. It was so darn cute. I put on 101 Dalmations (partially in an attempt to divert her attention elsewhere so I could cook.) and whenever she heard the dogs barking she would look at it and point.

In honor of the silly moments, I thought I'd share one with you from a few days ago. I actually took a pic, and since it involves no faces, I knew the hubs would be okay with me posting it on the web.

As I was getting breakfast for Monkey I noticed something non-organic or Cheerio-like in the container. So I decided to investigate.

Ta-da! Apparently Moose decided that we needed our own surprises in the cereal boxes! (Not really. He didn't know who put it in there. It was most likely him though.)

:)

Recovering still...

So I thought today would be mostly relaxing and recovering. Not quite. The kids both got up at 7:15, which is a little sleeping in for Moose and not sleeping in for Monkey. We went to church and ultimately Monkey was happy, but high maintenance and slightly goofy. Moose was a bit wild and not listening or being very obedient. Ultimately they ended up going home early, while I stayed to take care of other responsibilities. The hubs didn't really want to take them home (although I think in the end it was a good thing.) but he offered it as a consequence and then had to follow through when Moose very deliberately did not listen. They ended up going to bed at 11:30 (if they had stayed they wouldn't have gotten to bed until probably 1ish.) They were so tired still. We got them down just shortly after 7 tonight. Hopefully tomorrow can be slightly normal.

I feel like there have been dozens of funny/sweet moments that I've been meaning to blog but by the time I buckle down at night to write lately, they're completely gone. Perhaps as the days slow down this week (fingers crossed) I will be able to remember them more.

Right now I'm just looking forward to my nightly relax and cool down. And for getting my next book at the library tomorrow. Moose will be turning in his reading sheet for the Library's reading program. He got his first 5 hours finished, and has earned a prize. He wants candy. Big surprise. I just hope they have some left. As of last Tuesday they had raisinets.

It is so much fun to do fun things with your kids, but the repercussions of throwing their sleep and daily schedules off, for me, is often very borderline being worth it. When they were smaller, it was never worth it, and so we often didn't do things late, or very early because it was way too much work. We liked that our kids slept well and we worked really hard to keep them on that routine. As Moose has gotten older it's been more tempting to bend the bedtimes more often, but he can still only handle it once every blue moon, or it completely throws our family out of sync. It makes us not a whole lot of fun for family gatherings/late night fun, but for me it's much more worth having kids who sleep well, don't wake up in the middle of the night, aren't cranky during the day, take their naps, etc. The more regular we keep our schedule and sleeping routine, the better they do. Our kids are extreme creatures of habit, like the hubs, but we kinda like it that way.

Recovery...

Today was a day of partial recovery. We had one more family event early this morning, so it involved waking up Monkey early. (over an hour early) On the way back, shortly before 11, she fell asleep in the car and probably had a good 1 hour nap.  Moose was able to wake up on his own, even sleeping in a bit, at 7:15.

After a quick trip to the in-laws to feed the birds and pick some spinach and asparagus, we got caught in a huge 5 minute hail storm. Then we returned home for some warm quesadillas and a nap at around 2. I didn't know if Monkey would even nap with her weird day, but her body definitely still needed the recovery from 2 days of madness and she slept til almost 5.

After some nice baths and stories, the kids are now asleep. Now it's time for the parents to recover. Tomorrow, I'm hoping, will be a nice typical Sunday, with a busy morning of church meetings and then a really relaxing rest of the day. I'm hoping it has it's usual calming effect on the kiddos. The rest of our family is still out camping, so that might make it a bit quieter for them at church. (Which might be a good thing.)

Overall, a really busy past few days. Tons of fun, lots of exhaustion. Perhaps this next week will slow down a bit? Time will tell.

What a Circus...

Yesterday the computer was never even turned on. By the time I was home and ready to relax, I was so exhausted that we basically went to bed. Here's the run down:

*Day trip to National park.
*Lots of walking (Putting and keeping Miss Monkey asleep for her nap.)
*Drove home late last night, left Moose with the grandparents to camp out in their trailer. Hubs had work the next morning, so they kept Moose overnight and brought him back this morning.
*Throwing rocks in the lake.
*Marshmallows.

And to add to it, here's today:

*Moose came home. Yay!
*Monkey slept in til 10. She didn't go down til shortly after 9, so it fit.
*Still had an afternoon nap for the kiddos. Yay!
*Visit to the circus! We only saw the first half. It included lions, tigers, bears, hula hoops, tight rope, fire, swords, contortionists, and more. Moose enjoyed parts, although I know he didn't grasp the skills or death-defyingness of it all. But it was exciting to take him nonetheless. (I'd never seen a circus before, so honestly I was probably the most excited.) They got to see elephants and miniature ponies too. What a blast!

Tomorrow morning we're up early and back to the lake for a family event. So that's why we only saw half the circus. We're going to have to wake Monkey as it is. Heck, I'm going to have to get up early too. It really feels like we're in the throws of summer now. Late nights, tons of activities. I have to admit I'm enjoying it. It gets difficult when Moose starts whining or complaining. But when he's not, I'm totally enjoying it and the less he complains, the more I want to do. We've started a discussion (inspired by my sweet sister-in-law's comments.) about gratefulness. Whenever he starts whining about wanting more we talk about being grateful for the special/fun things we were able to do. Like when we left the circus early. He started to whine about playing with the hubs when we got home. I asked him which he'd rather do, play with papa or see a circus. Obvious answer was circus. So I reminded him that's what we did, so we aren't whining about not being able to play with him. We'll see if it helps or not. It's good to learn to be grateful from an early age. I'll be home in the early afternoon, so we'll definitely get a post in tomorrow. Sorry for the break yesterday. After the many miles of walking, I was so darn tired I just wanted to lay down and not move. So I did.