Munching with the Bunny

Well, I got my head screwed on right today and we showed up at the community center on the right day and the right time for "Munchin' with the Bunny." It was cute little program. We arrived to find coloring sheets and sippy cups where you can color your own inserts. Ryan wasn't too interested in that, but any time you put crayons in front of Wesley, he's a happy kid.

After art, came the "munchin" portion of the evening. They had a kid friendly snack buffet with the ever popular jello jigglers. Wesley actually ate two of them! He almost never has two of anything.

Wesley pretty much lost interest with the program after that, but for Ryan, the fun was just beginning. It was time for the Easter Bunny to make an appearance! As soon as the Bunny walked into the room Ryan was mesmerized. He kept saying "Bunny! Bunny!" and trying to cut the line and rush up to him.

We went to dye some eggs and let the line get a little smaller. Both boys were pretty infatuateded with that process. Of course, they both wanted to do it all themselves. Ryan dyed one egg, then carried it around for the rest of the evening, insisting it was a ball. Wesley would have been content to dye eggs the rest of the night!

Then came the moment that made Ryan's night - it was time for his very own personal visit with the Easter Bunny. Ryan was fearless. He walked right up the Bunny, turned around and waited to be picked up. He sat so nicely while his picture was taken. We took him off the Easter Bunny's lap and tried to move him on to something else, but it was a lost cause. The boy became an Easter Bunny stalker. He followed the bunny around, he sat on its lap every chance he got, I think he think he would have brought the darn thing home if I would have let him!

We wrapped up the night with a little playground time - the boys needed some time to run off that sugar!

Not Me Monday

I did not show up for a program at the community center a full week early. Nope. Never happened. And if it did I know I didn't spend at least 15 minutes apologizing to my mom since she had rearranged her evening to go with us.

There's no way Duane caught Wesley attempting to hide a partially eaten cup of Jello in his toy box.

I did not respond to Wesley's threat to go live with Grandma for year by offering to help him pack.

I most certainly do not get incredibly excited and happy when the boys come to visit me at work. And I know I don't take the opportunity to show them off to who ever happens to be around.

Ryan did not find a lost sippy cup that appeared to contain brown cottage cheese. That would have been WAY too gross!

I did not use the "five second" rule after accidentally dropping Wesley's sandwich on the kitchen floor. Not me!

Honor Thy Mother!

Somebody better start schooling Ryan on the commandments! I have now offically been mocked by a 20 month old! I've lost my voice again and Wesley was sitting in the other room writing some words. He was asking me how to spell something, so I was stage whispering my answers. Every time I whispered a letter, Ryan would repeat it in a whisper. I didn't think your kids started making fun of you until they were tweenagers.

Egg-actly Right

What a great day this has been! I mean, sure it's had it's up and down moments, but that's life with kids. Overall though, this is one of those days I wish I could repeat.

The day started off on the right foot when both the kids got up before the alarm. We had a nice leisurely breakfast, then headed off to preschool. Mother Nature tried to put a wrench in the plans for today. I walked outside expecting the dusting of snow that was forecast and instead found the car covered in snow and the doors iced shut. Annoying yes, but nothing the scraper couldn't handle.

We dropped Wesley off at preschool, then Ryan and I snuck off for a little special one-on-one time. We went to the community center to swim! Part of me felt like such a snake for going swimming without Wesley, but there is just no way I could handle them both by myself. Ryan and I had a great time. We were the only people in the kid area and had a blast. He is a stubborn little kid though. He wanted to play with the water basketball hoop and when I told him no, he climbed out of the pool and started to go over by himself! We were in the 'lazy river' Ryan wanted a full sized inner tube (which he would slide right out of) and threw a fit when I tried to put him in the baby inner tube. So we just skipped that.

We had a good 45 minute swim then left to go to Panera for a mid morning snack and to order some hot cross buns for Easter. Even that was kind of fun. Ryan was in such a good mood and he loved picking at a muffin with me. Of course, there was that moment when he dropped a full cup of milk all over the floor, but even that didn't bother me too much. Well, it didn't bother me until he started trying to lick it up!

After our snack, Ryan and I picked Wesley up then we all stopped by Duane's work for a quick visit. Wesley wanted to tell Daddy the good news - that he got all his stickers every day this week! But at the last minute he decided to play a little joke and took the stickers off his chart today so it looked like he didn't get any. Yeah, real funny kid.

We had a pretty uneventful afternoon. I baked a cake and Ryan played with the oven mits. What's really funny is I think he was trying to use them as baseball gloves because once he had them on he kept saying "baseball" and trying to pick up a little white plastic golf ball. So cute.

The big event of the day took place this evening at the community center - an Easter egg hunt! Actually since it was pretty cold and there was still a little snow on the ground, it was an Easter egg trail. I was so impressed by how well it was organized. Ryan did a fabulous job.

Once we completed the egg trail, Wesley's attitude started to tank. He didn't want to do the craft and he refused to sit with the Easter Bunny. Ryan didn't really want to sit with the Bunny (see picture below) but after the camera was put away he touched the Bunny's ears and even gave him five.

By the time we went into the gym for some playtime Wesley was skating on VERY thin ice. He had demanded candy and copped one heck of an attitude. He decided to sit and pout that he wanted to go home, so we let him. Ryan had a great time playing and eventually Grandma and Grandpa P. (who went with us) managed to coax Wesley out of his fit.

In fact, Wesley had such a big turnaround in his attitude that we decided to extend the evening by going to get ice cream. Let me tell you, my boys can sure put away some ice cream! But it was a great end to a sweet day.

Practice Makes Perfect

Friday night is the Easter egg hunt at the community center (yes, I'm sure of the date this time) Ryan used the warm weather today to get in a little hunting practice at Grandma and Grandpa P.'s.

Almost Perfect

Ever have one of those evening where everything goes EXACTLY as it should? I wanted to take the boys to a program at the community center at 6:00 this evening. I left work at 5:00 and got to Grandma and Grandpa H.'s around 5:10. Grandma had dinner ready to go, so we sat down to eat right away. At 5:40, we put shoes and coats on and got in the car. The boys were in great moods, and we pulled into the community center parking lot at 5:55 - only to discover that the program wasn't scheduled for tonight!!! ARGH!! We were so close to perfection!

Not Me Monday

I did not have to force myself to blog a couple of times this week by reminding myself that I'm doing this for the kids. And I certainly didn't snap at them to leave me alone while I worked on it!

I know I didn't ask Duane to get the Easter decorations out when I was pretty sure I wouldn't have time to touch them for several days. And there's no way I asked him right after he cleaned up the house.

I don't dread getting Wesley up in the morning because he's terrible to wake up and we end up yelling at each other before we leave the house. I mean, would I really be silly enough to engage in a battle of the wills with a preschooler?

I certainly don't worry that I'm not going to be able to stand my sons when they are teenagers.

There is no way I have been giving serious thought to taking my four-year-old to a Weird Al Yankovich concert this summer.

I did not practically beg Wesley to watch "The Princess and the Frog" just so I'd have an excuse to watch it again.

Weakened by the Weekend (Again)

One of these weeks I will learn not to try and cram so much into the weekend. Really. After Friday night's adventures, this weekend has not slowed down one little bit.

When we got home Friday night, we discovered a message from Aunt Susan saying she wanted to play with her camera and could the boys act as subjects on Saturday morning. I'm never one to pass up an opportunity to hang out with Sus (or to have the boys pictures taken) so we met her at a park at 9:30 in the morning. I won't lie and say the boys were the most cooperative of subjects, but at least they had fun running all over the place. Here a couple of pictures I took:

After the park we went home, had a little lunch, watched a little TV, then headed to a birthday party in Marysville. The party was in a church gym and there were plenty of basketballs around - which means Ryan was a very happy boy.

By the time we got home, it was bedtime for the boys. Today has been pretty much the same. We got up early and went to church, grabbed a bite of lunch, then went swimming at the community center. Now I am BEAT and all I want to do is sleep on the couch while Duane watches basketball. If Ryan would actually take a nap, I might be able to do that.

Family Fun Night

Last night after a less than relaxing dinner with the boys and my in-laws (the boys were WOUND!), we went to Family Fun Night. We recently splurged with our tax refund and bought a family membership at the community center in the suburb where I work.

There was open gym and family swimming. We passed on the swimming (maybe we'll go tomorrow) but headed into the gym set up for preschoolers and toddlers. Wesley spent several minutes tearing around the room exclaiming how much fun it all was. He tried the slide and the see-saw and the balls and just ran until his little heart was content. Ryan played on the slide for a few minutes, then discovered the basketballs and hoops. He spent most of the time we were there getting Duane to shoot baskets with him.

I also discovered what will be a minor hazard of having a membership there. I know so many people in that community, at least by sight. In the preschool/toddler gym alone I recognized three families from the library, plus another woman I went to middle school with. She and I chatted for a while. It was a little strange that we both recognized each other at the same time.

There was a beautiful little blond girl there that attached herself to me. She played instruments with me and the boys, played on the slide and wanted to show me all the things she could do. It was very sweet. I don't think she could have cared less about the boys, as long as I talked to her. I talked to her mom for a little bit, but Blondie didn't like it my attention was elsewhere. I did learn she was 2. When we were leaving, Wesley - as Cooper the Cat - went over to Blondie and told her he loved her, which surprised the heck out of me, since he barely said two words to her all night. But like I said, she was beautiful!

We plan to go back to community center for swimming, a craft and snack with the Easter Bunny, and an Easter Egg hunt - all taking place this week! I have a feeling this membership may be a very good thing.

This and That

Last night we put an alarm clock in Wesley's bedroom. I am so tired of he and I fighting every morning when it's time to get up. We hoped that if the alarm clock was waking him instead of Mommy, maybe we could get the morning started off on the right foot. I had an old alarm clock that plays a bunch of Disney songs, so that's what we moved into his room. I told him that when he heard the music play, it would be time to get out of bed.

The alarm went off at 7:00 this morning (I was in the room in case it scared him). Wesley sat up with a big smile on his face. I showed him how to turn the alarm off and he said, "Mommy, you never have to wake me up ever again!" Here's hoping!

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We've had a run of warm weather this week and it has really made the boys happy. They are both little outdoors men - although I'm not sure where that comes from because Duane and I are more of the couch potato variety. Anyhow, warmer weather means short sleeves which could be a big problem for Ryan. He HATES short sleeves. When you put a onsie on him under his clothes, he pulls on the sleeves and cries until you get his long sleeved shirt on. Today I dressed him in jeans and a t-shirt. He just about had a fit until I put a button up shirt over it.

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Warm weather also means that the boys want to be outside every waking moment - especially Ryan. Today we pulled into Grandma and Grandpa H's driveway at 7:45 AM. Wesley walked up the porch steps to the front door, but Ryan walked straight to the garage door and pointed. He knew all the outside toys were in there. When I told him we weren't playing outside just then, he laid down on the driveway by the garage door and refused to move. I had to let Wesley in the house, drop their stuff and go out to get Ryan. I have never met such a stubborn little kid! What are we going to do when the weather turns cold again next week?

Batter Up

Duane broke out a t-ball set for the boys tonight. Boy, did they like it! Wesley does OK tossing the ball and hitting it with the bat, but the tee was just what Ryan needed. He was very careful about putting the ball on it.

Of course, it's all fun and games until someone throws a bat at his big brother's head. Then it's time to go inside!

Might As Well Jump!

Ryan has a new baby trick. He jumps! Well, he thinks he jumps. Ryan will crouch down in a deep knee bend with his hands touching the floor, then suddenly stand upright with his hands over his head like "ta-da!" And in his world, that's jumping. Good enough for Mommy.

Coming Soon to a Library Near You (Maybe)

Wesley REALLY didn’t want to get up and get moving yesterday. Big surprise. All weekend he woke up on his own at 7:00, but once the work week starts, I have to drag him out of bed at that time. Sigh.

Anyhow, Wesley asked if he could just stay home by himself instead of going anywhere. I told him no because he was just a little boy and if I left him home by himself, I’d get into a LOT of trouble and maybe even go to jail. He frowned for a moment then he said, “I know! I could go to work with you!” I had to tell him that no, he couldn't because I had to do work and wouldn't be able to play with him or read to him. I offered to I’d ask Grandpa to bring him to the library later, but Wesley sighed a big sigh and said, “No. Grandpa doesn’t know where the library is.” Yeah right, kid.

Wesley may not have gone to the library, but he did spend a lot of time working on another book with Grandma P. I think it might be his best one yet. He drew an animal for each letter of the alphabet and Grandma wrote out the text - except for the sentence for letter X. Wesley did that one all by himself. Maybe I'll be buying books for the library written by my boy someday.

Birthday Recap

We spent a big chunk of the weekend celebrating Uncle Kirk's birthday. Saturday night we went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa P. to celebrate.

Wesley spent at least an hour Saturday morning making stickered wrapping paper for Kirk's present. He was so excited for Uncle Kirk to open it that he gave to Kirk before he was even done eating.

When Wesley finished eating (read: picking at his food) he walked over to the bar - which was thankfully empty - and started flirting with the girl who was the bartender that night.

We went back to Grandma and Grandpa P.'s afterwards, where Ryan got some serious snuggles.

My little pirate.

Sunday afternoon and evening, we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa H. and Cathy, Sho and Kei.

Ryan was all about Grandma's homemade hot fudge sauce. As soon as we spooned some on his ice cream he said, "MMMMMMMM!!" and he hadn't even tasted it yet!

Cathy brought some balloons and a pump, which kept the boys busy.

Aunt Susan worked to fashion swords, animals and flowers out of the balloons.

Working with Wesley to fashion a "Grabber"

Look out! Kei and Wesley are armed and dangerous!

But it looks like Wesley's the one who got grabbed.

Grandpa H. defends himself.

And now, the lovey pictures.......

Carr, Wesley and Fiona

Uncle Kirk and Ryan

Grandma H. and Ryan

Mommy and Wesley

Cathy and Sho

Cathy and Kei