Sally Says

Charlie Quotes

Seeing this face peek over the top of my laptop makes me smile.

 

Random quotes for the day...

"Grandma's house is too far away."

"I think more fruit snacks is a great idea."

"That movie too scary for me.  It for big boys like Tommy."

"Special Agent Oso, the unique stuffed bear, is on a special assignment."

"I very, very tired.  You sing some songs?"

"I don't want bite of your toast.  It too spicy for me."

"One way or another, I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya." (Blondie!)

"Shhh.  Be very quiet.  Tommy is sleeping."

"Where Rabbit's house?  Oh, it in Hundred Acre Wood.  It too far away to visit."

"My swim class be in two days.  Daddy take me to it at inside pool."  (Um, no, sorry, you don't have a swim class.)

"I did it!  I found your book mark in your book.  Here go Mommy.  I pull it out for you."

Tommy in Trouble

You'd never guess by looking at this overwhelming cuteness that Tommy does occasionally struggle to control his temper.  He probably struggles less with it than your average 5 year old, but it's still there.

 

Now, one would never describe Tommy as mild mannered.  The boy, he is intense.  That's not a bad thing, because it means he's very good at focusing and perservering and is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about things he cares about.  He's also very sensitive, cheerful, open and confident.  He's very, very opinionated and strong-willed, but that hasn't really been difficult for us since he learned to talk, because 1) we are also very opinionated and strong-willed and 2) he is simultaneously very sensible.  As long as we explain things to him, which courtesy and respect would lead us to do anyway, we've usually golden.  As a matter of fact, Tommy has never faced a serious punishment.

Until now.

He's been threatened from time to time - "you must do X or Y will happen" - but we've never had to follow through.  I know we're lucky in this.  He's done stupid, careless things, but never on purpose.  He's always remorseful when he makes a mistake, immediately upon realizing what he's done, so we've always been able to just give him a stern talking-to and then trust that he'll never do that thing again.  He's not defiant.  He can be argumentative, but he's moderately polite about it and will back down if he sees we're serious.

Until now.

He was angry with us yesterday for sending him and Charlie inside while we were saying goodbye to some friends.  They were acting a bit out of control with the gravel and the rain-filled sandbox and we were tired of trying to reign them in, so we sent them inside.  Tommy was NOT happy about it.  Being mad is fine in our house, but you have to go to your room for it, so off he went.  But then he opened his window and started yelling for our attention.  And then he head-butted the screen and broke it.  He wasn't TRYING to break it, but that's still destructive behavior spurred by anger and NOT OK. 

David was very mad, but then David is a paragon of self control.  I was amused because Tommy inherited his temper from me and I could totally identify with wanting to smash something.  I hid my amusement, of course, because there's a difference between wanting to smash and actually doing it.  Tommy was HORRIFIED at what he'd done. 

But then he tried to say it was an accident instead of owning up to what he'd done.  We were already headed toward serious consequences territory, and that little attempted cover-up pushed us firmly over the line.

His punishment was a ban on all TV/computer for today.  Charlie still gets to watch TV at the three usual times in his daily routine, and when Charlie's watching TV Tommy has had to entertain himself in his room.  Plus, Charlie is currently napping and Tommy is having quiet time in his room instead of watching TV for his quiet time.  I didn't think there was any reason I should be punished along wtih Tommy.

It's acutally going quite well.  He's been a bit dramatic and weepy at the times when he usually gets to watch, like when he first woke up, but he's entertained himself remarkably well, without whining.  It helps that we bought him a new desk Saturday.  He's been sitting there doing legos and drawing and listening to audiobooks most of the day.

 

Don't worry my friend, the day will be over soon, and Daddy was able to fix the screen.

Harry Potter

Tommy found the Harry Potter movies on our shelves yesterday, and begged to watch the 2nd one.  I've only ever let him watch the first one, starting out with just some scenes before relenting and letting him watch the whole thing.  I told him he could not watch the second movie until he read (ie listens to me read) both the first book and the second book. 

He thought about that for most of the afternoon, and then brought the first book to me after dinner.  I was so excited!  He's a bit concerned that there aren't any pictures except the little ones for each chapter heading, but we talked a bit about how he could imagine the pictures in his head while he listened.  He sat through the first two chapters with me after dinner and THEN asked David to read chapter three to him before bed.  YES!  I think he's going to stick with it.  It probably actually helps that he's seen the first movie, because now he has mental images for all the characters and setting to go with the story. 

I'm willing to read the first two to him, and let him watch both those movies (although movie #2 is definitely scarier).  He'll have to wait at least a year in between subsequent books though.  At least that's our plan right now.  I kind of think all bets are off when he learns to read for himself.  If he decides to tackle them in a year or two when he's a better reader, then I'll let him decide for himself if they're too sad or scary.

In other book related news, Charlie spent his first night sleeping with a book in his bed last night.  He discovered a photo-illustrated picture book about a red-eyed tree frog just before bed last night.  He thought the picture of the katydid ("The frog did not eat the katydid.") was HILARIOUS.  He didn't want to let go of it, so we let him sleep with it.  Warms my heart, it does.

Sometimes Playdates Just Don't Gel

Tommy had a friend over this morning and it was a very strange playdate.  They eventually had fun playing together, but they had a very rocky start.  They just weren't gelling.  Here's the conversation that pushed me to intervene.

(By the way, Charlie's go-to pronoun is her, so don't be confused.  Tommy's friend is a boy.)

Charlie:  What her doing?

Charlie:  (Pause)  Oh, I go ask her.

Charlie:  What you doing?

Friend:  I'm playing with this transformer.

Charlie:  What you doing, Tommy?

Tommy:  Nothing.  I'm waiting.

Charlie:  Waiting?  Why? 

Tommy:  See this timer?  When it rings then it will be my turn.  I'm going to pick something we can play together.  He doesn't want to play with me right now, but Ihe'll have to when the timer rings.

Poor Tommy was sitting forlornly on his bed with the timer in his lap.  It was set for 45 minutes.  I'd heard him suggesting lots of different games, so I'm not sure that this was something Tommy could have resolved on his own.  I think the timer was a clever idea, but it was a last desperate attempt by Tommy and wasn't really going to work.  Friend wanted to play with Tommy's toys, but wasn't really interested in playing with Tommy.  Or maybe he didn't know how to play the things Tommy was suggesting.  

I had very little patience for it, so eventually I took away the timer and told them they had to go play TOGETHER or friend would have to go home.  He could borrow the toy and take it home with him if he really didn't want to play with Tommy and was ready to leave right away.  He just looked at me blankly, so I called his mother to ask if she was ready for him to come home.  Tommy just about went into hysterics.  Friend dropped the toy like a hot potato.  They were playing together by the time I was off the phone.  His mother and I decided to give them another chance, and they played nicely together for the rest of the morning.

I probably over-reacted, but sometimes the Fear of Mom is necessary to jump start things.  Luckily friend's mom is super-cool about things and didn't think I'd totally botched facilitating the playdate.

So what do you think?  Should I have let them work it out themselves?  Should I have tried harder to suggest things they could play together before calling the other mother?  Would it have been terribly rude if I'd actually sent him home?  It all worked out fine, but I'm a bit worried I was too hard on the little guy.

Quiz Show

Tommy is currently down the street swimming at a friend's house.  Charlie's asleep.  I've been just hanging out and watching a movie on Netflix.  How cool is that?  I even let Tommy walk over there by himself.

Before he was invited over to swim, Tommy decided to put together a Scooby Doo quiz game for me.  It was quite elaborate.  He drew little pictures of each member of the gang, cut them out, and put them in a bowl.  He was the host, so he shook the bowl and pulled out a picture to determine the subject for the question.  

My first question was about Velma.  He said, "In the sea monster episode, Velma said they were visiting a) the Great Hair Reef b) the Great Wall Reef or c) the Great Barrier Reef.  I blurted out the answer (c) and was then chastized for not waiting for the thinking countdown.  "One Scooby Doo, Two Scooby Doo, Three Scooby Doo, Four Scooby Doo, Five Scooby Doo, And your answer is?"  Needless to say, I got it right.

He was so funny.  He took the whole thing quite seriously, and tried to make me watch illuminating scenes from his DVDs when I got a question wrong.  He spent a lot of time on the pictures and managed to come up with interesting questions for each character.

And people say TV rots your brain. 

Grief

A friend died last night.  She was biking in the evening, was struck by a car, and died.  I am so sad for her husband and little children.

She was more of an aquaintance than an actual friend, but she and I were headed towards friendship.  She was going to come to tea with me and my friends this weekend.  Now we'll never know if we could have become close.

Opportunities lost are the saddest things.  She had no idea that yesterday was the last day she would spend with her children.  So go hug your loved ones right now, and spend today as if it could potentially be your last.  No complaining.  No grumpiness.  No impatience.  Just enjoy the day.

I'm certainly going to.

Happy Father's Day

This is what I had to say good bye to early Saturday morning.

 

I think Tommy and Charlie both really missed me, but it was good for them to have a weekend alone with Daddy.  It was only a little more than 24 hours, after all.  As usual, Tommy was more dramatic in showing that he missed me.  He'd have fun with David for a few hours then remember I was gone and cry a little bit before being distracted again.  He needed to call me at bedtime for his lullaby.  When I did get home he just grinned, said "Hi Mom!" and asked me if I got him any presents.  Once I was home, then the drama was over, and that was that.

Charlie just kept it all in while I was gone, acting like he didn't even miss me.  He did great with David, and didn't seem to be thrown off by my absence at all.  He was napping when I got home Sunday.  (Of course he took naps for DAVID!)  When I went in to wake him up he burst into tears and it took a long time for me to calm him down.  He said things like "Don't go to work ever again Mommy" and "I missed you" over and over.  He woke up in the middle of the night last night, worried that I'd gone away again, but seems to be fine today.

I found a good apartment complex for my mom, so the trip was a success.  I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home yesterday though.  The bed & breakfast was lovely, but I didn't actually enjoy my evening alone very much, probably because I was too keyed up and worn out from all the driving and a seriously packed afternoon of apartment hunting.  Sunday morning was nicer.  I was still tired because I didn't sleep all that well, but I got to wake up on my own and didn't have to jump out of bed to take care of anyone.  I stayed in bed with my book for a couple hours until it was time to go downstairs for a very nice breakfast that I didn't have to cook for myself.  I'd say that made it all worthwhile.

I did, in fact, bring the boys some small presents.  I didn't think about it until I was almost home though, so I was limited to what I could find at a touristy travel center off the Interstate in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico.  I got Tommy some fireworks sparklers.  It was not actually as good an idea as you would think as five-year-olds and fireworks aren't a very safe or sensible combination.  He loved them though, and nobody's gotten hurt yet, so I guess that's all that matters.  I bought Charlie a sack full of agates and other rocks.  He's very into those rock bins that every tourist spot in Albuquerque seems to have.  David had just told him no when he asked for some rocks at the aquarium Sunday morning, so I was his best friend ever when I pulled them out of my bag.

 

We took David out to dinner last night for Father's Day.  He doesn't get very into holidays like that, so he didn't mind that it wasn't a bigger deal.  He was very happy to spend the weekend alone with the boys doing boy stuff, so that was what made it a memorable Father's Day for him.  At least that's what he tells me.

Not abandoned

I'm going away for the weekend.  My mom needs someone to look over apartments and rental houses in Canyon (just south of Amarillo) and I volunteered.  She was kind enough to book a nice bed and breakfast for me.  This is going to be my first night away from Charlie, and the first night I've been away from Tommy since Charlie was born.  I'm sure they'll be fine with David, but they'll miss me.  I'll miss them too.  Hopefully David will be able to keep the tears at bay.  I plan to very much enjoy an evening alone with a good book.  I'll be back in time for Father's Day dinner.

 By the way, Charlie did get to play with his new marble run after we picked up Tommy.  It's magnetic and goes on the fridge.  That way they can block the fridge when I'm trying to make dinner and leave marbles all over the kitchen floor for me to trip on.  :)  They love it.

Humility

Charlie is having a banner week for craziness induced by not-napping.  Tommy's loving the Explora camp, but it was not the smartest thing I ever planned.  I'm afraid Charlie will never nap again.

The only nap he's had all week was an hour in the car yesterday.  I drove straight home, parked the car in the driveway and left the AC on.  Actually, I fell asleep after about 20 minutes myself, so if you drove past our house yesterday you would have seen a running car in the driveway with Charlie and I fast asleep inside it.

Today we had a major battle of will, and he won.  I managed to keep him awake in the car, thinking that I might be able to get him to sleep in his bed that way.  He would not nap.  I should have known it was a lost cause when he announced "I don't want to nap today."  We tried for an hour.  I sang.  I cajoled.  I threatened.  I pretended to sleep.  I promised him the moon.  Nothing worked.

I was so mad when we finally gave up, because my giving up just makes it more likely he'll resist tomorrow and the next day and the next day.  He's tired but I just couldn't get the stars to align and make it happen.

The worst part is that I pitched a little fit about him not napping.  I hate losing power struggles, so I actually try to avoid them as much as possible.  "Fine!  Don't nap.  I don't care.  But no marble set!  No TV!  No playing at Explora!  Because you didn't nap!"  I stomped around and glared at him and pretty much acted like a two year old.  He was a bit upset because he knew I was mad, but kind of shrugged his shoulders and went off to play by himself while I cooled off.  After about a 10 minute silence I calmed my temper and asked him if he wanted some grapes.  He looked up with a big grin on his face, ran over to me and said, "You happy now?  You all done pouting?  No nap for Charlie!  No marble set, no TV, no Explora.  We read something instead.  You happy now.  I happy too."

Guess I was pouting.  And yes, I was all done.

Sigh.  Some weeks are really hard.

Anatomy of a Day

Yesterday...

6:00

Tommy wakes up because he needs to use the bathroom.  His door wakes Charlie up, who wakes me up.  Tommy complains that we're keeping him from going back to sleep.  Boys watch TV while I have a cup of tea and check my e-mail.

6:30 

I start cleaning up.  The house cleaners come every other Wednesday so I need to get everything un-cluttered and all the laundry put away.

7:00

TV off for breakfast.  Eggs and toast for the boys; cereal for me. 

7:30

Shower.  Get everyone dressed.  Clean up the stuff the boys messed up while I was in the shower.  Read books to Charlie when he asks.  Pack Tommy's bag for swimming.

8:30

Leave for swimming.  Very loud singing in the car.

9:00

Tommy swims.  I entertain Charlie.  All is going well until the life guard tells me I can't let him walk in and out of and around the pool building.  Gnash my teeth and take him to the car to watch Wonder Pets on the iPod.  After 20 minutes, see that a different life guard is on duty.  Whine to new life guard and get permission to let Charlie enterain himself by walking around.

10:00

Return to freshly cleaned home.  Make everyone go outside as soon as we get home.  Hose off the patio when Charlie spills all the bubbles.  Eventually turn on both hoses so they can entertain themselves while I IM with Beth.  Call them inside when they start getting shouty.  Get everyone dry and dressed.

11:15

Let Tommy watch TV.  He's pretty tired from swimming.  I put away the laundry that was in the dryer.  Charlie toodles around getting into stuff.

11:45

Lunch.  Burrito filling on top of salad for Tommy and me.  Pasta and meatballs for Charlie.  

12:15 

Get everyone ready to leave for Explora.

12:40

Arrive at Explora early, hoping to trick Charlie into thinking he's already played there before taking him home for a nap.

1:00

Sign Tommy into his class.  Let Charlie play some more.

1:15

Load a happy Charlie into the car and head home.  

1:35

Charlie is asleep.  The plan is to drive back to Explora and let Charlie nap in the car while I read.  When Charlie wakes up we'll go back inside and play until Tommy's class is done.  The drive home was just a nap-inducing fake out. 

1:45  

Stupidly decide to stop for a drive-thru coffe.  Instead of quietly getting my coffee I ask the window guy (young, college-age, asked me about my book) to put my phone back together for me.  I had dropped it at Explora.  It was thwarting me and I was worried Explora might try to contact me in an emergency.  We chat for too long and too loudly.  Charlie wakes up crying and will not go back to sleep.

2:00

Take very awake Charlie to the Natural History museum (across the street from Explora.)  Do the museum thing.

2:45

Change a diaper desperately in need of immediate attention in the trunk of the car.  Go back inside museum for a snack.  End up buying two snacks because Charlie devoured the first one in record time.

3:10

Head over to Explora.  Play with various ball dropping ramp thingies with a very tired Charlie.  It's hot in there.

4:00

Sign out Tommy from class.  Let both boys convince me that playing for a few more minutes is a good idea.

4:10

Realize that it was a bad idea.  Carry screaming, exhausted Charlie out to the car.  He didn't like other kids touching the thing he was playing with.  Tell Tommy that he should seriously think about being quiet for a few minutes because protesting our quick exit while Charlie is screaming is not going to get a reasonable response from me.

4:25

Tell Tommy things are now calm enough for me to listen to what he has to say.  He tells me it wasn't very nice of me to make Charlie leave Explora.  I laugh and don't even bother trying to explain.

4:40

Home!  Immediately pass out popsicles and turn on the TV.  Listen to message saying David won't be home until late.  Start writing this.

5:15

Cook dinner

5:30

We eat dinner - mac & cheese and peppers for the boys, tuna sandwich for me. 

5:45

Time to play.  Wish Daddy was home to do this part because Charlie is CRAZY.

7:00

Daddy's home!  Bath, then books, then bed.  Day is done.

I Wore Them Out

The first week of our normal, non-traveling summer started today.  I have two weeks that might be slightly over-scheduled and this is one of them.  I've never signed Tommy up for 1/2 day camps at the different fun, educational places in town before this summer.  I think I've managed to spread stuff out pretty well, but I forgot to take into account how much swimming wear him out.  He has swimming Monday and Wednesday mornings - only 45 minutes at a time - until mid-July.  This week he also has a week of camp at Explora in the afternoons.  He loved his first day of swimming and loved the Explora camp, but is exhausted.

My grand plan to drop Tommy off and then have Charlie nap while Tommy was at Explora totally backfired.  Charlie hasn't been to Explora in at least a year, so he got all excited when he saw the place.  Then I tried to make him go immediately home after signing Tommy in.  He was not amused.  When he calmed down, I promised him that if he took a good nap in his bed we'd go back to Explora to play and pick up Tommy as soon as he woke up.  He went right to sleep muttering about Explora.  He woke up after just 10 minutes all excited to leave.  I should have known better.  He toodled around for 90 minutes at Explora while we waited for the class to end and was pretty much asleep on his feet and crazy-manic for the last half hour of it.

Guess we'll do it all again tomorrow! (Minus the swimming, thankfully)

Random Tidbits

It's the last day of vacation for us.  David goes back to work tomorrow.  Tommy's being a BEAR about it, which is kind of silly because he might as well enjoy this last day instead of pouting and grumping it away.

Charlie asked to Skype with Grammy Dancy Nancy this morning.  We'll just wait until she wakes up.  He just made up that funny little name on the spot, and I'm sure he's forgotten it by now.  He's been playing around with rhyming lately, which is interesting because Tommy still can't figure out what rhyming is.  Tommy thinks he knows what rhyming is, but what he actually does most often is alliteration.  Charlie thinks rhyming makes a good joke.  "Would you like a pear?"  "Scare pear!  Hahahahahaha!"

It just occured to me last night that I can have a margarita or an ice-cold cider anytime I want now that Charlie's done nursing.  I need to get on that!  I'm seriously out of the habit of enjoying a little something with dinner after six years of either being pregnant or nursing (minus a 2 month break in 2006).

David and I decided to start a healthy-living campaign when we returned home from our trip.  I had the clever idea for us to assign a daily grade to each other for motivation.  This was officially my WORST IDEA EVER.  Do you have any idea what my gut reaction is to getting anything less than an A+ from David after a day without chocolate?  It's not something either of us ever want to experience again.  We'll try to eat healthier and exercise more without the grading system, thank you very much. 

Tommy has figured out that our Irish friends are moving back to Ireland later in the summer.  He is now officially distraught.  We'll probably see them at least a few more times before they move, but he's likely to burst into tears at the end of every visit.  Poor little guy.  He's been having a hard time handling changes and good byes the last few weeks.

So let's not tell him that the boys' preschool is closing at the end of summer.  He's finished pre-school, so it shouldn't affect him.  If he figures out that his wonderful teachers won't be teaching little kids or Charlie next fall...well, it will just destroy him.  It is sad, but I'm not really surprised.  They just didn't have the enrollment and too many families left the school because of the way necessary changes were undiplomatically handled.  I had been considering pulling Charlie out and giving him a year home with me before he starts official pre-school, so now that decision has been made for me.  We'll see if I feel like I need to find a new mother's day out program for Charlie later in the year.  I have no idea what it will be like with Tommy in Kindergarten all day, every day.  It might be a great opportunity for Charlie and me to enjoy each other, or he might be desperate for more social outlets than I can give him with playdates and outings.

Vacation Slide Show (WORKS!)

This is my first attempt to embed a photo slideshow into the blog, so comment if you have trouble viewing it.

Tommy's Trip

Tommy's favorite part of the trip was getting to play with lots of good friends, old and new.  He played Dinosapien with Grandma Sylvia in the woods around the farm.  He was Tommy Eno and Charlie was the bad guy (by choice).  He was a bit worried about making friends with the reunion kids, but all the kids warmed up to each other eventually. 

 

He was quite homesick the last time we took a trip, so I was kind of dreading his reaction this time.  He's old enough to actually have memories of previous trips now, and that seemed to make a difference.  As long as everything fit into his family trip paradigm he stayed happy.  He is in charge of pulling Cokes out  of the cooler for Daddy.  The DVD player goes on top of the cooler and he is completely able to load their DVDs and navigate the menus by himself.  He understands that we often have to let Charlie watch whatever he wants instead of having the boys take turns fairly because Charlie's less able to entertain himself in the car.  He's very patient and kind with Charlie when they're trapped in the back seat of the car together.  He knows that he'll have his own pillow and Chester Cheetah wherever he's asked to sleep.  He knows that he'll get lots and lots of time with Daddy during trips, and that makes being away from home very worthwhile.

He spent a LOT of time in the water and in the sun.  He got quite tan and exhausted each day.  We were careful about sunscreen (shown above) so I don't think he ever got an actual sunburn, but he definitely over-did it some days with the heat and the sun and the exercise.  On Sunday he went out to swim in the pool with David at 1:30, moved to the lake for jumping off the floating dock at 3:00 and didn't stop swimming until after 5:00.  That's a lot of time in the water.

"I will use my mind control on you.  You WILL let me swim some more.  I am NOT worn out yet."

 

He was absolutely exhausted Sunday night.  Then he threw up in the middle of the night.  At the time I thought it was just too much swimming, sun and hot dogs for dinner.  He was still tired in the morning, but ate a good breakfast.  I asked him if he wanted to go boating and inner tubing with Daddy (as he had planned) or tour the magnificent Bridal Caves with Charlie and me.  I was seriously selling the caves.  Luckily for us all he said "I've had too much sun.  I choose the cool, dark caves for today."  Good boy.

 

It turned out to be an even better choice than I'd expected.  He LOVED the caves.  Of course he did.  He always loves natural history and biology stuff.  He and Lily (above) were really into it.  They shone their flashlights all around and were very excited when the guide pointed out a bat and forged ahead at the front of the group while I followed along behind trying to keep Charlie from tumbling into a cravasse or beaning himself on a low-hanging rock. 

I bought him a DVD about caves and he watched it as soon as we got back to the cabin.  When the credits rolled at the end he immediately fell asleep and napped for two hours.  He ended up throwing up again Monday night, but was all done being sick after that.  Charlie's descent into yuck came next, but we don't really want to talk about that.

 

Tommy had a great time.  He made new friends and is glad to know that we'll all want to get together again sometime.  One night the older kids made a club that every kid could join IF they ate one of the wild berries they found under a bush.  Tommy proudly joined (making me really worried when he started throwing up that night) and called out for "club meetings" even when nobody was interested.  We've had a little talk about eating wild berries without telling a grown up and including everyone even without "dares" but I'm still glad he got to feel a part of the group.  That was kind of the turning point for him with the older kids, and he was so sad to say good-bye. 

Charlie's Trip

(I'll write about Tommy's trip in a separate post.)

Charlie went through a gigantic transformation on this trip.  He is now 100% weaned, sleeping in a big boy bed all the time, sleeping with a pillow and regular covers instead of on top of a fitted sheet with footie pajamas, and really interested in peeing in the toilet.  Whew.  The changes were all his own idea.  I was pretty surprised that he weaned himself this week and probably wouldn't have chosen to stop cold-turkey while vacationing (ouchie for me), but he was ready.  Yay!  Looking back, he actually chose to do it at exactly the same age Tommy did - two years, three months.   

Charlie only had one bad experience on the trip.  We stayed in a motel the first night of the trip and it was an older motel with concrete stairs on the outside of the building.  He scared us to death by falling down the stairs.  Luckily Tommy was a 6 or 7 stairs ahead of him and CAUGHT HIM.  I hate to think how badly he could have been hurt if Tommy hadn't saved the day.

He loved being away from home and didn't really get homesick or discombobulated the way Tommy and I do.  He really liked sleeping next to Tommy in his inflatable bed, and the boys had their own room both at Grandma's and at the lake.  He napped and went to sleep at bedtime without a fuss, even when there were lots of distractions. 

 

He swam like a fish and wore David out jumping off the side of the pool into David's arms over and over.  He much preferred the "inside pool" because he's skinny enough to get really cold quickly in the outside pool.  There were two playgrounds at the resort, one just across the street from our cabin, so he spent a lot of time playing at the playground with his friends.

He loved all our friends and their kids.  He especially loved the big girls, Lily and Emma.  The first words out of his mouth each morning when he woke up were "Where Lily go?  I go find her."  The girls didn't mind him tagging along most of the time so I had a couple little babysitters-in-training.

He called our cabin "Kevin."  It took me a day or so to figure out that he wasn't talking about our friend Kevin, but was in fact trying to say the word cabin.  We all got a kick out of the way he'd ask to go back to Kevin whenever he was tired.

There were two other two year old boys in our group, Peter and Henry.  Charlie has been asking for Sweet Pea all day.  That's what Henry's mother Beth calls Henry.  Charlie and Henry had a nice morning watching Blue's Clues on the bed one day when they both needed a bit of a break from all the action.  Peter had his Elly and Charlie had his blanket and they were both quite content to just sit and veg.

 

On the last night, he had a bit of a comedy of errors with his dinner.  He chose to have a hot dog and when I was getting his plate I asked him if he wanted a bun.  He said no, so I took him outside with his plate an settled him into his seat.  About five minutes later he found me and said "I changed my mind."  I had no idea what he was talking about.  He got his characteristic exasperated look on his face and wandered off.  Another five minutes later, he returned and asked "I have bun please?"  I figured he'd already eaten his hot dog, and he likes to eat buns plain, so I handed him one.  He wandered off.  Two minutes later he returned and asked for another bun.  I asked him what happened to his first bun and he said "It broke." Then he let out a big sigh, grabbed my hand, and said "come with me."  As we were walking to his table we stepped over his first bun, broken in half, and it all clicked. 

He had changed his mind about wanting his hot dog in a bun!  He'd been trying to get a bun and put his hot dog into it all that time.  I asked him if that was what was goin on, and he grinned and said "yes, yes, I changed my mind, come WITH me."  We got to his table and his plate was gone.  I asked Tommy where Charlie's hot dog was, and Tommy said Daddy told him to throw it away since Charlie didn't seem interested in eating it.  Charlie stood there holding bun with his bottom lip quivering.  I quickly got him a new hot dog (the 2nd to last on on the table), PUT IT IN THE BUN, put some ketchup on it, and gave it to him.  He devoured it in about 2.5 seconds.  Poor baby just wanted a hot dog in a bun.

Charlie had a great time.  He played and ran and laughed and swam and climbed and had a great time, but is very happy to be home.

We're Home!

We had a wonderful time on our vacation.  It was great to see many of our college friends and I have lots of stories to tell.  I'm too wiped out to do it right now though. 

We'd intended to take 2 days to drive home but Charlie started throwing up 30 minutes into the drive yesterday.  We caught vomit in every available towel and even bought some shirts 3 for $10 to catch more when we ran out of towels.  It didn't occur to me until a few hours after the purchase that I could have used an entire suitcase full of dirty clothes for this instead of buying something.  Our trunk is filled with vomity towels and clothes and our car STINKS.  Guess we'll be washing and disinfecting stuff today. 

He's fine now, but we needed to get him HOME.  We drove 16 hours and got home around midnight.

And walked in to a colony of ants that had firmly settled into our house while we were away.  David's off buying ant traps and food since I don't know what food in our cupboards hasn't been touched by ants.

Sigh.  It's good to be home but we miss the water and our friends and the relaxation of vacation.  At least nobody's throwing up...yet.

Connection Likely to Disappear Any Moment (updated with photo)

Quick!  A photo!  Before this wimpy LAN kicks me off.  We're having even more fun than we could have possibly imagined.  Here's our grand group photo, minus Max and his family who were thwarted by two simultaneous diaper blow-outs and massively exhausted kiddos.  We're going to try to PhotoShop Max into the photo later.

Yay!  I did it!

Kansas Photo Extravaganzaa

We're off to the Lake of the Ozarks after a relaxing few days with David's parents.  Here are all the photos!

 Tommy & Grandpa Mel

 With Grandma

No more complaining that I never put pictures of myself on here (at least for a few weeks).

 Epps as far as the eye can see

 Younger Epps

 

 

A small photo study of a small boy

 Devouring snow cones and nachos at 10 AM at the excellent Sedgwick County Zoo.  We didn't feed them enough for a snack despite our best efforts, so we ended up having to leave after seeing more tears and meltdowns than animals.

 Tommy's walking stick is coming with us to the lake.

 Sometimes this is the best ou can do for a group picture.

 Grandma Sylvia

Mother and son

Oklahoma Natural History Museum

The resort we're going to for our reunion is a very long way away, so we're doing the drive in stages.  Stage one was Albuquerque to Norman, OK, our college town.  We always like to stop and look around and eat at our favorite Norman restuarant.  Seeing the dinosaurs at the Sam Noble Natural History Museum is a must for Tommy. 

Unfortunately, I only realized how very serious my mom was about the job interview she had last week at West Texas A&M in Canyon, TX about 45 minutes after we passed Amarillo.  She's taken the job so we'll definitely have to swing through Canyon on our drive home.  We'll want to see where my mom will start her new professional life as a TEXAN college professor.  It's only four hours away from Albuquerque, so we'll get to see her a lot more often.

Anyway, here are the Oklahoma pictures.  We're at David's parents' place in Kansas right now.  I'll post the picture from here later today.  It's nice having wireless Internet and a laptop in the middle of rural Kansas.  Very civilized.