It's All in the Eyes

Mitchell and I were playing a game tonight and his dinosaur was pretending to be mean to me so I pretended to be sad about it - I thought I was doing a pretty decent forlorn expression, but apparently Mitchell was not fooled.  He looked at me and said, "Mom, you don't look sad because you don't have sad enough eyes!"  

I get that kind of thing a lot from both my big boys - that my eyes are saying something they either like or dislike.  To be honest, I think eyes always look the same and it is the whole facial expression that shows the emotion, but my boys sometimes ask me not to have "mean eyes" or tell me they know I'm joking because I have "laughing eyes," or they know when I'm in a bad mood because of my "sad eyes."  Ben even told me once he thought I should take a nap because I had "tired eyes."  I am so glad we spend enough time together that they know me by my eyes.

A Last First

Well, my baby Jack, you have given us a last first - last first baby teeth have arrived and we are all thrilled about it! Congratulations!  We will never see this milestone of a child's life again and we are so excited (your big brothers especially) to 
watch you grow up!  His two bottom teeth have made an appearance, and what a smile he has!  Ben is very interested in the whole process and asks many questions about teeth in general, but Mitchell just loves those sharp little buggers!  He is willing to brave the dreaded slobber (we call his drool the "Jack attack") in order to stick his fingers in there to feel them all the time.  "Bite me, Jack Jack!"  Who'd of thought getting bitten would be a fun game?  

Jack, you are an adorable, happy little chub, and Mitchell, you are very very brave!

You Ate a What?

Grandma and Grandpa Norris are here in Chicago visiting us!  What a treat for us, especially for the boys who don't get to see them nearly enough.  For a special treat after dinner tonight, Grandpa took the big boys to Dairy Queen for a blizzard.  When they got back, Ben came bounding in the door looking for me, and when he found me, he said, "Mom!  It was so delicious as usual!"  When I asked him what he had, he replied, "I had a blister!"  Sounds yummy...and a bit painful!

Mitchell's Bucket List

Well, Mitchell has a few items on his bucket list already - places he has decided he must see and soon!  

1. The sea monsters in the fountain in Memorial Park here in Chicago (not sure if there are sea monsters in it, but Ben told him there are, so he must see them now.  Not sure what will happen if there are no monsters in it when we get there...)

2. Ride the ferris wheel at Navy Pier (he has ridden it before, but just saw it from the car a few days ago and now asks every day if we are going to ride the ferris wheel again)

3. Mount Rushmore (he saw "the big man faces on the mountain" on a show tonight and added that to his list of places to see)

Right before bed tonight, he reminded me that he would like to see the sea monsters, the ferris wheel, and the big man faces on the mountain again.  Is this going to be an every day thing until we start crossing some things off his list?  I'm not sure when we will get to South Dakota next...

A New Food Discovery and A New Way to Sleep

Today was the last day of our vacation and "going home" day.  The boys had to say goodbye to their "dude room," the hot tubby, their radio and TV, and the mini corn-dogs they had for dinner at two separate restaurants two nights in a row.  What is it with that town and corn-dogs?  I've never seen them on the kids menu anywhere else.  My kids have a new favorite food that I hope I've convinced them only exists in this one town.  They thought they were awesome though - they were shaped like little eggs (not on a stick like I remember them from childhood) and when dipped in ketchup, they pretended they were bloody dinosaur eggs they were eating.  Gross.  What is vacation for if not for air guitar in the dude room, sandy hot tubs, long naps, and bloody dinosaur eggs for dinner?  Doesn't get any better than that... 

Speaking of long naps, there is nothing like long hours of jumping and climbing and rolling in the sand to make a 3 and 5 - year old ready for a nap, but Mitchell still insisted he was not tired each day and was not going to close his eyes at all.  We finally made a compromise and he decided he'd just sleep with his eyes open.  Works for me!  

C'mon, Mom!

Day two of our "beach vacation" brought beautiful sunshine and perfectly warm beach weather.  While daddy stayed home with baby Jack during his morning nap, the boys and I rode our bikes down to the beach to get a jump start on the day.

I hardly had time to set my things down before the boys were pulling me off to check out the giant rocks they wanted to climb.  The beach had a jetty separating the beach from the bay and it looked tall and long even to me, so I can't imagine how it must have looked to two little boys - must have seemed pretty awesome.  I figured I'd help them climb up the the top near the sand and they'd look over the other side and that would be it, but they totally suprised me with their bravery and rock-climbing/jumping abilities!  We didn't just "check it out" a little, we climbed/jumped/ran all the way to the end. Ben was a crazy little dare-devil who never once needed a hand and never even stopped to find his footing - he just went for it.  As I occasionally had to slow down to help Mitchell make a bigger jump over a large crack between two boulders, Ben would shout back, "C'mon mom!  We've gotta make it to the end!"  And make it, we did!  By the time we got back to the beach, Matt had shown up with Jack and the guys were on to other adventures (more contests and feats of strength mostly), but I haven't had such a good time with my big boys in a long time.  Thank you for the adventure, my big boys, and well done!

 

Saved by the Hot Tub and a Party in the Dude Room

For the last few days, we have been on our "Beach vacation," as the boys call it. We have had a blast playing on the beach and just goofing around in general together with no work or other distractions. We had a great time.

We got off to a bit of a rough start though when the rain threatened to ruin our first day. It was raining when we arrived, but since it was still warm out, the boys would not be swayed in their desire to immediately play on the beach. This vacation was supposed to be about having fun and doing crazy things together, and a little rain never hurt anyone, so we decided to get a little wet and play in the sand. Playing in the sand turned into jumping off the dunes and rolling down them and all sorts of contests involving jumping, rolling, wrestling, pushing, and the like. I'm pretty sure the boys had a great time, but we got thoroughly soaked and more than a little covered in sand. Needless to say, mom was not having a great time at this point.

When we got back though, the boys and daddy all jumped in the "hot tubby" and that filled the rest of their afternoon. They had never been in a hot tub before and thought it was just the greatest thing! The little control panel to adjust jets and temperature was turned into a master computer that performed all sorts of important functions and the jets at their strongest were the coolest thing for them! When they came back in, Ben exclaimed, "Mom, those jets are so strong they blow me around and around in circles in there!"

After a wet day in the rain at the beach, and then getting blown around in circles in the hot tub, it was definately time to explore the house a bit more thoroughly. They were overjoyed to discover that not only did they get to share a big bed in their own room, but they had their own TV and a radio to "blast the tunes,"

as Ben put it. So blast the tunes, they did. They kept running back out to the living room to invite daddy to the "Dude party in our room! No mommies, the music is too loud!" It really was too loud for me, to be honest. How well they know me...