Giving Up On Dreams...

I had such a great afternoon with Mitchell today! After putting Jack to bed, I normally find or create a non-mom-involved activity to keep him busy for a while so I can have a selfish moment or two. Say what you will, I think it is good for him to be on his own a bit, inventing things to do, using his creativity, and learning to play alone. That is not always an easy lesson to learn for a middle child.

But today, I felt like spending some extra time with my middle child so, after putting Jack down for a much-needed nap, we snuggled up under a quilt on the couch with hot chocolate and coffee and just... talked. Not often one to elaborate on his own personal thoughts, today was a rarity in that he was a fountain of Mitchell thoughts! It was such a rare glimpse into the world of Mitchell!

After a while, he started talking about school, and without really meaning to (if I had asked him to do this, he would have clammed up and not said a word...) he began telling me all he has been learning in school.

He showed off his knowledge of shapes and obscure colors; days of the week, months of the year, and seasons; letters of the week and their sounds; and finally, his favorite, counting. He loves to count. He counts everything: goldfish snacks and grapes, buttons on my dashboard, coats on the coatrack, kids on the playground, plates on the table, forks in the drawer... you get it. He counts everything. It's almost a little OCD sometimes.

So he wanted to show off his counting to me. This kid is good for a 4-year-old! He got all the way to 139 (skipping 13 both times, of course... weird kid...) when he paused, saying, "Mom, am I almost to a billion?"

I smiled and told him he was nowhere close.

He though about continuing for a second and decided, "Well, this is taking a long time. I know how to count higher but I'm tired of doing this. Let's count my cars instead!"

I wonder if he will ever realize his dream of actually counting to a billion...

I'm Right Here!

Jack and I get to spend some time alone together on school mornings. While sometimes I have no idea what to do with him during this time, sometimes it turns out so nice that I wish I could wait just a little longer to go pick Mitchell up at school.

We had a morning like this one day last week. The sun was shining so I brought a cup of coffee out to the front porch to watch Jack run around in the yard. He was having such a great time and being so good that I kinda forgot about him for a few minutes. When I looked up, he was nowhere to be seen!

Knowing he could not have gone far, I called for him and heard a faint, "I'm right here!" coming from the yard. I followed the sound and called for him again: "I'm right here!" Now the sound appeared to be coming from a large bush and group of trees. This is what I could see:

I see grass, trees, and bushes, but no Jack.

Now that he knew I was hunting him down, he just put his "I'm right here!" on constant repeat for me. I ducked down and lifted the branches of the low tree to see my little boy climbing the branches. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Riding cycle!" He found a low branch to swing one leg over and was having so much fun on his motorcycle that I had to actually crawl in there a while later and physically drag him off in order to make it to school in time to pick up Mitchell.

I do love that he has learned how to say "I'm right here!" and it comes in quite handy when I lose him. Perhaps I should be embarassed that I lose him enough for him to learn that phrase...

Nummy Treats

While I am not against kids drinking juice and eating treats, I admit that I don't really have them in my house. I don't ever buy juice for two reasons: 1. it makes my kids hate water, and 2. Matt will drink it all before the rest of us even get a chance. I don't keep baked goods or chocolate of any kind in the house for only one reason: mom will gobble it down in mass quantities until it is gone and before anyone else even gets to see it.

So while I feel badly sometimes that I don't have a chocolate chip cookie or M&M on hand for my boys at opportune moments, it really is better for us all and it is one area that I feel I do well with. My kids drink a lot of water and think a cookie is one of the most special treats there is.

So imagine a world where a toddler rarely has a sip of juice and only gets chocolate for special occasions (poor kid!) Now imagine this same kid has a week of his life where everywhere he goes, people are giving him juice and cookies and donuts and treats of all kinds!

For the first week of school, I went to more "getting to know you" activities and functions than ever before. That's great. Helpful even. What isn't great is the spread each and every one provided my innocent toddler: tables and tables of treats, just there for the taking! Jack. was. in heaven! He even developed a new word to describe his delight: nummy treats!

No longer is water what he wants when thirsty; he will first whine for a good, solid ten minutes for juice before collapsing in dehydration and finally reverting to the dreaded water. Grapes and yogurt are no longer dessert in his mind. He learned that treats such as donuts and muffins exist!

Jack is still a great eater. He still loves yogurt and grapes. I still don't keep juice or chocolate in the house, (or Nutella anymore either! I will eat it by the spoonful! Delicious...) but Jack has learned what a "nummy treat" is now and there is no going back. It ends up working well for me, though. I now have a great excuse to stop at Starbucks on the way home from the gym after dropping my big boys off at school. Jack and I sometimes just need our fix of "nummy treats!"

My Special Date

Did I mention Ben and I are HUGE Shrek fans?  Well, we are, and on our way home from the gym the other day, we saw a sign on a taxi for Shrek the musical.  Ben spotted that and said, "Mom, did you see that Shrek taxi?  It had a real Shrek on it!  What's up with that?"  When I told him it was sign for a real, live Shrek musical, he was a bit incredulous.  For the next few days, he could not get it out of his head, and he kept me informed of this: "Mom, I really just can't get that Shrek musical out of my head!  It's really stuck there!"  

Well, I knew this would be something he would really love and enjoy, so I got us tickets last weekend and we had a special date - just the two of us.  He was so incredibly excited on the way in, LOVED the entire show (he was literally on the edge of his seat most of the show, laughing and whispering and clapping/chearing when appropriate), and made it back to the train ride home before his excitement and constant chatter gave out to sleepiness and he crashed on my lap.  What a great night.  I will let the pictures fill in the gaps for what I have left out.