Sally Says

"You see that Mommy? Those are the Wiggles up there in this house! I see them!"

We did other things on this short little trip to Colorado Springs, but I know what you're all waiting for most.  You want to know if Charlie loved the Wiggles concert.  Of course he did!  He's been telling everyone we meet since then, "I went to Wiggles concert.  They didn't sing Shimmy Shake.  Sam gave me a shirt."

Actually *I* bought him the shirt but I don't think he was paying attention when I changed him into it.  He was too focused on the stage.  Sam did give him a high five.  We had great seats about 10 rows back, so the boys got the full experience.  Three of the four Wiggles - Sam, Anthony and Murray came close enough for Charlie to touch. 

Tommy kind of sat back with a mildly amused big brother smile on his face for the first 10 minutes, but after that he was singing and shouting answers to questions and wooting with the rest of us.  He's been telling people, "It was kind of a concert for babies, but I still liked it." 

Charlie was in heaven, and I don't think there's anyway I can accurately describe his reaction.  He was a bit overwhelmed the whole time (a long morning at the zoo and no nap contributed) but took in every detail.  He sat with us sometimes, and sometimes in his own seat, and was completely focused on the stage at all times.  He was a good participatory audience member, clapping and yelling out answers.  He keep telling me all about each song and each little routine or act or joke.  I can't remember half of the stuff he talks about. 

The main thing that impressed him, however, was that they didn't sing Shimmy Shake.  They sang lots of his favorite songs, and he never would have even noticed, but they changed into the special costumes for Shimmy Shake without singing the song.  I think the high altitude was really getting to them so they made some last minute changes to the program.  The wardrobe change stayed in and the Beatles jokes stayed in, but for some reason they never actually sang the song.  I guess recognizing the clothes and anticipating the song but then not hearing it made a real impression on Charlie. 

I'd say his most positive reactions were to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (dark theater, lots of twinkly ceiling lights) and the songs that have lots of hand motions like Getting Strong, Rock-a-bye Your Bear and Here Comes a Bear.  He got the most excited when the Big Red Car came out.  The last song was his long-time favorite Hot Potato and I thought he was going to just die of happiness.

Not quite ready for the trip yet. Don't worry. I'll get to it eventually.

Monday was clean up after the party and packing day.  We were supposed to leave for Colorado Springs early Tuesday morning.  Unfortunately Monday ended up being the day of the NOSE.  Here's the long version of the story.

We spent most of the morning doing laundry so we'd have clean clothes to pack.  Just before Charlie's naptime, he and Tommy were playing with Tommy's pin-sculpture-thing-a-ma-bob.  Yes, that's the marketable name.  It's a handheld version of those things you often see at science centers.  It has little plastic pins, and if you press your hand or face into the pins they follow the contours of the object.

Oh bother.  Describing such things is impossible.  Here.

 

One of the pins came out and Tommy had been messing around with it and broke it in half.  The pieces were about an inch long.  Charlie came up to me with one of the pieces and said "I put this up my nose?"  I said "no," of course, and told him to put it in the trash.  Now, in hindsight, I should have taken it away from him.  We're only a few weeks into a newly-defiant phase, so it never occurred to me that he wouldn't just do what I told him to do.

The next thing I knew Charlie was rubbing his nose and had a horrified look on his face.  Yes, he'd pushed the entire one inch long plastic stick up his nostril and had lost his grip on it.  I could feel it in there, but it was too far up and too slippery for me to get it out.  I had no idea what to do and he was weepy and exhausted from his late party night, so I put him down for a nap.  He feel right asleep, so he must not have been too uncomfortable.  I called the pediatrician while he was asleep and got a late afternoon appointment for him.

The Ped. said it had to come out.  We were there for an hour and she and the nurse tried lots of things, but it didn't come out.  They tried a vacuum suction hose.  They tried tweezers.  They even had me do a CPR type mouth blow on him to see if we could shoot it out of his nose.  He loved that part.  Really.  I'm not being scarcastic.  He keeps asking for more blow-kisses.  Charlie was the best possible patient.  He thought the whole thing was a fun adventure.  Since nothing worked, we had to make an emergency appointment with the ENT for Tuesday morning.

We were just crossing our fingers hoping the ENT could 1) get the plastic stick out of his nose and 2) give us the all-clear to take our trip.

He was actually less than helpful.  By the time of our appointment the stick was nowhere to be seen.  I don't think he believed me that it was there at all.  He kept asking me if I'd actually SEEN him push it up his nose.  I hadn't, but I can't imagine the Ped. and her nurse would have spent an hour working on him if they hadn't been pretty sure it was there.  Maybe it came out in the night.  I don't think he could have swallowed it without choking (an inch long!) but the end result was a time-wasting late-afternoon appointment and a lot of eye-rolling. 

Oh well!  After a couple of Happy Meals and a mad car loading extravaganza we were off to see the Wiggles, the wonderful Wiggles of Oz.

I still don't know if there's a stick hiding in his face somewhere, but we're watching him for foul-smelling snot on one side and other related symptoms.

We miss them already.

I already wrote about our dinner party for our Irish friends and Tommy's anguished goodbyes.  We miss them already.  Here's just one photo that I forgot to post previously.

Even the big kids have fun with Tommy's dress up box.

Swim Meet

Ok. 

Today I can breathe.  I think it's possible I won't take a shower or leave the house all day.  We're going to eat chips and cheese and raspberries for breakfast and watch TV all day.  We might have hot dogs for lunch, if it doesn't feel like too much work.  Yes, there are suitcases to unpack and laundry to start, but it can wait until after my third cup of tea.

We're HOME and we have nothing on the calendar for at least a couple of days.  Phew!  We've had some excellent fun in the last week despite my stitches and Charlie's plastic-stick-up-the-nose drama.

Let's see if I can catch you up with all the photos we've taken.  There are stories galore as well.  Watch this space all day long for numerous photo-heavy posts.

Massive Catch Up Post #1 -  Tommy's swim meet 

It was less than a week ago, on Sunday, but it seems like it was a very long time ago.  I had our goodbye dinner for our Irish friends to shop and cook and clean for (all in less than 8 hours) so David took Tommy to the meet.  Charlie stayed home and "helped" me.

David said Tommy did really well at his first official swim meet.  Unfortunately he badly stubbed his toe as soon as he got there and broke his goggles while he was waiting for his race.  The racers had to sit completely apart from the parents, so that was interesting.  I think Tommy had more fun after his races were over.  He sat up with David after that, and they talked about all the different races and learned to read the score board and played UNO.  Tommy seemed satisfied with his experience, and that's all that really matters when you're five.

  See him?

 He's the one at the top.  This was the start of his free style race.

Free Stylin'

At the top again.  This is the start of the back stroke.

 Back Strokin'

Boy howdy, do I need a telephoto lens!

 

 Yay Tommy!

We're off to see the Wiggles, the wonderful Wiggles of Oz

Did you know Australia is sometimes called Oz?

We've had a rocky departure, but we're going.  Charlie's going to LOVE the concert.  It's in Colorado Springs tomorrow. 

Sorry this is all disjointed.  They're all waiting by the car for me.  Charlie stuck a little piece of plastic up his nose yesterday, so I've been running him to the pediatrician and the ENT guy.  They didn't actually extract the plastic, but the ENT specialist is convinced it's gone, so all righty then.  We've finally gotten the all clear to leave, so now everyone's ready to go except me.

Toodles!  I'll post pictures when I have them.

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

We're a sad group around here today.  Our good friends from Ireland moved back to the Emerald Isle today.  They came over for dinner last night with another family of friends, and we had a grand time.  I made the largest batch of guacamole I've ever made.  Charlie got to spend time with all of his favorite big kids.  Tommy got to play with his buddies, including Ben - His Favorite Six Year Old In The World.  The older kids played Guitar Hero (now with drums and a microphone for singing!) until we grown ups kicked them off so we could have a turn.  I'm not sure what the kids did after that.  There was no screaming or blood so we kind of just left them to their own devices. 

Everyone stayed until after 9, by which time Tommy and Charlie were very tired little boys.  I was expecting Tommy to completely lose it when it was time to say the final good-byes.  He did not disappoint.

Actually, it was rather spectacular in a sad sort of way.

You know that scene in A Streetcar Named Desire when Marlon Brando's anguished cries of "Stella!" echo down the street?  It was kind of like that, only more high pitched.  He cried.  He wailed.  He crumpled to the ground then lurched forward to snatch one last hug.  He shouted "Ben!  Ben!" in the most anguished way imaginable.  

Poor little guy.  He feels things so intensely.

I've already promised him we'll try to visit them in Ireland sometime.  It might take a couple years to save the money, and he's likely to hold me to the promise.  Skype and e-mail and blogs make it more likely he'll remember these friends longer than 5 year olds used to remember friends who moved away in my day - long, long, ago before the Internets.

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In other news, it looks like we're going to have two boys in completely new schools this fall.  You might remember that the preschool and mothers' day out program that Tommy and Charlie had been attended is closing.  I was rather ambivalent about finding a new place for Charlie.  He's only 2 after all, and I technically have another year before it's really necessary for me to find a place.  Finding a new place seemed a bit daunting and Charlie had been resisting drop off this spring at school anyway, so I was kind of thinking I'd just keep him home with me.  

I had signed him up for a few days of "big boy camp" at the old school this summer, thinking I might not even "make" him go since he wouldn't be returning there in the fall.  But then he was all excited about it and never cried once when I dropped him off and has been babbling on and on about his teacher and friends all month.  Ooops.  Guess he might actually miss going to school after all!

I started looking for places a few weeks ago.  Most places were already full, or only offered 5-mornings-a-week spots.  I'm not looking for child care, just a couple mornings a week of circle time, arts and crafts, musical movement, social play, etc.  I FINALLY got a call back from one place that not only had a spot open at the last minute, but it's also affordable and the kind of preschool-not-daycare program that we were looking for.  

So Charlie has a new school!  He'll start the same week Tommy starts Kindergarten.  We went by to look at it today, and it's excellent.  I feel a bit traitorous saying this, but it's actually much more professional and better equipped than their old school.  I'm a bit wary of the mandatory religious component (it's a Lutheran school) but there just aren't any non-religious preschools around that are affordable now that their old school is closed. 

He'll be in the 2-year-old preschool class Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12, and it's only 2 minutes away from Tommy's new elementary school.  The drop off should be really easy on days they both have school.  The have a music specialist who does a lesson for them once a week and even a lady who will do a bit of Spanish with them.  He could have gone into either the 2-year-old class or a multi-age class for 2s and 3s, but it sounds like the 2-year-old class has a more focused curriculum.  He's way more ready for that sort of thing than Tommy was when he started pre-school at 3 and a half.  I guess playing with an older brother and his big kid friends all the time makes a difference.

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Now we just have to start working on potty training.  I'm afraid I missed a window of opportunity this summer.  We've been so busy, I haven't even really started.  Now Charlie can tell me when he needs to pee if he happens to not have clothes on, and can successfully pee in the toilet whenever he tries, but he's got a bit of a mental block against putting it all together.  It's totally my fault. 

I've told Tommy all along that we can get a puppy when both he and Charlie are completely out of diapers and self-sufficient in the bathroom.  I only want to deal with one little fellow's bodily functions at a time.  Unfortunately, I tried convincing Charlie that he might like to wear big boy underwear so that we can get a dog.  I forgot that Charlie's a little bit afraid of dogs.  

"No!  I don't want a dog!  Dogs scare me!  I don't want big boy underwear!  No dogs!  Give me diaper please!" 

Well that was a mistake.    

Four Stitches

This will be short because it's hard to type with 9 fingers.

I cut open the pad of my left ring finger yesterday.  I was slicing a bagel when it happened, making me the most statistically boring finger slicer in the ER yesterday.  The fact that Charlie bumped me while I was cutting makes it a little less embarrassing. The fact that Charlie was sitting quietly at the kitchen table when he "bumped" me, makes it more embarrassing. 

Yes.  I lied to make the story of how I sliced my finger while cutting a bagel more acceptable.  But now I feel guilty, so I'm fessing up.  It seemed was worth it at the time to have all the doctors and nurses tell me "little guys can be so unpredictable!" instead of "you have to be very careful with bagels and knives or stupid accidents can happen."

I called my friend Cindy and she saved the day by bringing her kids over to play with mine while I sauntered off to the ER.  Thanks Cindy!  It ended up being a larger commitment than either of us expected because the ER was extremely busy yesterday. 

They finally called me back after three hours of waiting in the ER.  I actually enjoyed the time I spent reading my book and putting constant pressure on my finger.  It was still bleeding even after three hours.  I got four stitches (the anesthesia shot was the worst part) and a tetanus shot.  Four hours later I was home.  The boys wore solidarity band aids for me.  Poor little guys.  They were worried about me and very sweet when I came home.  Makes me feel even worse about implicating the innocent little fellow in my stupid accident story.

Now it hurts and I have 9 more days until the stitches come out.  Crime doesn't pay.

Another growth spurt

I took Tommy and Charlie to the restaurant at the aquarium after Tommy's dino camp finished for the day.  It was a bit early compared to their usual lunch time - 11:30, but they don't usually have much trouble finding an appetite. 

Tommy ordered the mini-burger kids' plate and Charlie ordered the quesadilla kids' plate.  Tommy's came with two slider-sized burgers and Charlie's was a quesadilla made with one large tortilla, folded over, and cut into three wedges.  Both came with fries.  Tommy and Charlie decided to share their lunches so they could each have a small burger and some quesadilla.  (Such spontaneous discussions and decisions make me think we're doing something right.) 

About 10 minutes after our food arrived, it was all gone.  Tommy ate one small burger, two-thirds of the quesadilla, all of his fries and about half of Charlie's fries.  And my pickle.  Then he flagged down the waiter and ordered another mini-burger plate, all on his own.  The waiter made sure it was OK with me, and I said it was,  After another 10 minutes Tommy ate two more mini-burgers and a big plate of home made potato chips, which he'd opted for instead of the fries.

That's a lot of food.

Two hours later we were home and he was asking for ice cream.  

Time to go to the grocery store and stock up!  He's already very tall - only about 14 inches shorter than me.  He pretty consistently wears a size 8 or a kids' medium.  I guess I should wait until the last minute to buy fall clothes just in case he goes up a size in the next 6 weeks.

More proof that we are the kind of parents who encourage obsessions

 

 

We ordered a used drum kit and microphone for Guitar Hero off Ebay.  Let the family jam sessions begin!  David's out of town for work, but I managed to kind of get them set up.  The boys and I spent an entire 90 minutes playing around with them last night.  I sang.  Tommy pretended to play guitar.  Charlie really, truly believed that he was playing the drums.  He announced "I rock!" after every song.  Tommy announced "That was really nice singing Mommy" after every song.  He knows exactly how to keep me from turning off the game.

This is actually turning out to be one of the best weeks of the summer, although we do miss David.  (He'll be home tonight.)  I was lying in bed Monday morning, dreading a week of early swim practices, when I decided that I should give Tommy the opportunity to re-think his swimming vs. dinosaur camp decision.  Thanks to a bit of "spin" from me, dinosaur camp won.  We're probably in the doghouse with his coach, and he won't be quite as successful at the competition Sunday without this last week of practice, but I'm not regretting the change of plans at all. 

It's been heavenly the last two days.  Tommy's loving the camp, as I knew he would, and Charlie's been so happy and well behaved both days.  We've just stayed in the museum part of town for the three hours of Tommy's camp each day.  We've sat at Starbucks chatting over coffee and juice.  We've played at the nice playground near Old Town.  He's spent time at the Natural History Museum, the Botanic Gardens and Explora.  He's gotten to have FUN, at his own pace, without having to take turns with Tommy.  I've had fun too!  It's a little taste of what our first-ever months alone together will be like - after Tommy starts Kindergarten.  It's the first week this summer that I can truly say that all three of us have enjoyed ourselves equally.  Charlie even napped both yesterday and today, giving Tommy and me time to read more Harry Potter together.  We're into book 3 now. 

It's just so much nicer for Charlie and me to toodle around museums and parks all morning instead of watching Tommy swim.  Swimming has been really hard on Charlie because he gets bored and has to stay out of the water and the best part of the day for him is used up without him actually getting to do anything fun. Tommy's really enjoyed it and improved, but it's been a one-sided sort of summer because of it.  It's nice to be reminded that sometimes you have to choose daily activities that make everyone happy. 

Then there's guitar hero to play after dinner.  And a good time was had by all!

Gently lulled to sleep by the soothing sounds of Hendrix

 

 

Yes, he fell asleep on David's lap while playing guitar hero.  I promise you these were not posed at all.  (The bandaids were a placebo that Tommy gave him when he was crying about something earlier in the day.)

Fancy

David's satellite group was honored at a Sandia-wide awards banquet last night.  They really do it up fancy for this event.  We were instructed that it would be "semi-formal, black tie not required" which I took to mean that there would be a few people in tuxes.  I was right.  It wasn't quite as over-the-top fancy as I'd expected, but that was good.  Nobody was dripping with diamonds, but everyone was quite nicely turned out, and we felt perfectly dressed for the occasion.  Whew!

I kind of took the "throw lots of money at it" road to confidence building.  It's been over 10 years since I bought or wore a pair of heels and I NEVER wear make up or even blow dry my hair.  I spent the afternoon at the Mark Pardo Aveda salon getting my hair and make up done, and was very comfortable with my dress and shoe purchases.  Thank you to all my peeps who voted on the shoes.  A matching pair in burgundy shoes was also in the running, but I finally decided that a pair of shoes that cost more than my dress ought to be versatile enough to wear with multiple, future outfits.

 

They had a professional photographer there who took portraits of all the honorees and their guests.  I'm interested to see how it turns out.  Then there were hors d'oeuvres and drinks for an hour or so before they opened the ballroom for dinner.  We had seating assignments, and they mixed up the different Sandia divisions, so that we met lots of new people.  We ate dinner after the opening remarks, and then they presented the awards.  We actually know the person who got one of the two top awards.  Finally, we had dessert, coffee and dancing.  My feet were really hurting by the end (I guess wearing heels is NOT like riding a bike) so we didn't actually dance much.  David was disappointed.  Guess we'll just have to go out again sometime to make up for his disappointment!

Tommy and Charlie did great with their babysitters.  Thanks Brian and Megan!  It was their first time to have a babysitter at bedtime.  Either David or I have always been home for their bedtime.  The first thing out of Charlie's mouth when he woke up this morning was "where my babysitters go?"  Not "I missed you Mommy" or "I'm so glad you're home Mommy."  Sigh.  Guess we'll just have to go out again sometime to make up for his disappointment!

(insert gleeful laughter here)

Summer Revelations

 

Now I get it!  I may find gardenting distasteful, but these warm, ripe, fragrant tomatoes are extremely tasty.  I guess I have to admit that David was right to perservere on the whole garden thing.

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We all like to watch TV in our household, but we've never watched together.  David and I have a few shows that we both like, and we watch those alone together after the boys go to sleep.  Charlie and Tommy also like some of the same shows, and the TV is pretty much theirs before 8 pm.  More often than not, however, we have four different sets of TV tastes, and they rarely overlap. 

For the first time ever, we've found a show we can all watch together!  It's a revelation!  I can actually imagine a day when the TV stays off all day until we settle on the couch after dinner to watch one or two family shows that we all enjoy.  What is this revelatory show, you ask?

So You Think You Can Dance! 

I started watching a DVRed episode while Tommy & Charlie were in the bath.  They came to find me once they were all clean.  Charlie wandered in first, and he didn't even say a word to me.  He just floated as if mesmerized over to the TV and started dancing.  Tommy joined us a few minutes later and he started dancing too, after I explained the contest aspect of the show to him.

(Now before you call foul, I will admit that David's not acutally a huge fan, but he's willing to watch it with us.  He might not actually enjoy the SHOW but he enjoys watching the boys watch it and he enjoys mocking everyone on the show.  I'm OK with mockery being David's gateway to reality competitions.)

 Tommy the entertainer was immediately able to mimic each different dance style.  He didn't do the exact same steps, but the kind of dancing he did for each song was recognizably related.  It was uncanny.  Charlie loved the music and danced in his own way, but kept asking where the guitar heroes were.

Whew!  I was so afraid all that athletic swimming was going to suck the musical theater right out of the boy.  He just needed a new infusion of inspiration.  I'm going to make sure they get a chance to watch the performance parts of each episode.

Swimming!? Really? (sigh) Fine.

I guess swimming is Tommy's thing now.  I signed Tommy up for a dinosaur camp at the Natural History Museum next week.  It's all paid for and everything.  Unfortunately the last week of summer swimming ended up overlapping with the camp.  The dates changed after I enrolled Tommy in Dino Camp, but I figured I'd just let him skip the last week of swimming.  I assumed he'd rather do Dino Camp than just about anything.  I was wrong. 

I let him choose, and he chose swimming.  Since it's the last week, and the big push before the summer competition, he'll be swimming every morning at 7:45 am.  I'm not even going to complain about it, because he's really enjoying it.  I'm glad he's found something athletic that he really enjoys. 

Charlie's on the edge of being similarly obsessed.  I've kept him out of the pool all summer because I knew if I let him swim he'd expect it every time.  Yesterday was our last leisurely practice just with the littlest kids, so I tugged on my swimming suit and let Charlie join them.  He can't wait until he's old enough to join them for real. 

Next week is going to be hard.  The big kid practices are intense, so Tommy's going to be exhausted and grumpy in the afternoons.  It will be every day, instead of just Monday and Tuesday.  The practices are earlier, so our mornings will be rushed.  Charlie will be super disappointed when I won't let him swim, but we'd be in the way of all the big kids who will be getting ready to race.  Dino Camp's going to be sounding pretty good by Thursday.

Oh well.  Tommy really wants to do this.  I'll facilitate.  He's going to be really ready for the races on Sunday.

Tommy and his friend Nathan, waiting for their turn.

Nathan's mom took these great pictures for me while I was floundering in the shallow end with Charlie, trying not to look like a fish out of water (or a Sally in the water, if you know what I mean.) 

Coach Fujie works on his backstroke.

 

 And his freestyle

Good Night Tom-Tom

 

"Good night Tom-Tom.  I love you."

"Good night Charlie.  I love you too.  Sleep Well."

"Sleep well too.  See you in morning."

"See you in the morning Charlie.  Good night."

Legos, Haircuts and Names

I finally relented and bought Tommy the really big Indiana Jones Lego set he's been wanting for months and months.  We'd designated it as the prize for a reading reward chart, but have pretty much given up on the chart.  It was a mistake.  Tommy had been really into learning to read while doing so was it's own reward.  He loved mastering a new book and reading with Daddy.  Then I had to go and make that silly reward chart and it all became too overwhelming.  He just couldn't take the pressure and quit reading all together.  Oh, he perservered for quite a few weeks, but the 60 squares on the chart were just too daunting.  I'm glad I finally gave up on the chart and bought it for him.  He'll probably start wanting to practice reading again, without the giant reward chart hanging over his head.  Plus, he really, really loves these Legons.  He worked on them by himself for FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT on Sunday.  That's a lot of focus for a little guy.

 

Both boys got haircuts today.  Tommy got his usual #2 on the sides and #4 on top.  Charlie declared that he wanted his hair to be "short and fuzzy like Tommy's, not long and HOT."  I obliged, though it made me sad to let him give up his baby hair style.  The boys have such amazing double cowlicks in the back that their hair pretty much needs to be extremely short or long enough to lie down.  I guess the era of little boy buzz cuts has begun.  We really need to get David a good clipper set so he can start doing it himself. 

 

Charlie's been playing around with word jokes and nick names lately.  Tommy has now been re-named Tom-Tom.  He likes to say things like, "Oh Tom-Tom, it's your Char-Char calling you!"  When he calls me Mompy, he wants me to reciprocate by calling him Chompy.  "Hello Mompy."  "Hello Chompy."  Repeat.  He tries to make jokes by changing the names of things in little ways.  Calling Tommy "Timmy" is a joke.  Calling me "Daddy" is a joke.  Telling people that my name is Sally Ape is a joke.  It's funny to see his sense of humor develop. 

 

Photos from last week's playdate

Charlie already thought Jack was the bee's knees, but then he played Guitar Hero with Charlie.  Now I have to answer the question "Where's Jack?" 28 times a day.  Almost-teenagers who like to play with my toddler are very useful to have around.

 

Here are all the little (and not-so-little) boys from Wednesday.  Sister Molly stayed inside with us grown-up girls because there were way too many boys outside for her.

 

And of course, the ladies who lunch...

 

Another Busy Week

Whew!  This week is almost over.  Now I understand how people can feel like a summer just flies by.  The key is to actually DO STUFF.  We've certainly been doing stuff this week!

We always had very empty summers when I was a kid.  My mom was often super busy, but Ben and I spent a lot of days entertaining ourselves and watching Monkees marathons on TV.  I remember saying that I really liked not having anything to do day after day, but I was pretty bored and lonely and ready for school to start by the end of summer. 

This summer is an experiment to see how much scheduling is the right balance for us.  If you ask Tommy, he'll always say he wants to stay home, but he gets pretty grumpy if we do that day after day.  Charlie absolutely hates days at home with nothing to do.  Tommy's been really excited about the stuff we've planned for him, and seems to be enjoying himself.  We have to watch it carefully so that he doesn't get too over-extended though.  There's a pretty fine line between happily occupied and exhausted for him.

The days that Charlie naps are great.  We run around all morning with the day's planned activities and then all have some quiet time in the afternoon.  He's still toying with giving up his nap though, so we can't count on it every day.  Well, I still try to count on it and then get really mad (internally) when it doesn't happen, but that's my problem, not his.  On days when I make is a obvious battle of wills - "You will nap or else!" - things just fall to pieces.  If I don't seem to care about the nap and keep them really busy in the morning it just happens without a fuss.  Of course it's the days that I really need some down time that I get uptight about it and Charlie has excellent Mommy-reading skills.  He doesn't nap on those days.

So here's what we did this week.  It was fun and busy, but I'm ready for the weekend.

Monday - swimming 8:30-10:30 (includes driving time - it's about 25 min away).  I can't remember what we did the rest of the day.  I know Charlie didn't nap, but I'm not sure what we did.  Hmm.  Guess my daily activity memory only goes back three days.

Tuesday - We tried an extra swim practice 7:15-9:30.  It was a bit of a disaster, probably because the earlier schedule made Tommy less hungry for breakfast beforehand.  Tommy ate everything in sight once he stopped crying at the end of practice then watched TV in a catatonic state until lunch.  Charlie and I cleaned house.  Little Gym Camp for Tommy 1-4 (didn't know about the extra swim practice when I paid for the camp).  Charlie didn't take a real nap but zonked out when we drove to pick up Tommy and slept until dinner.

Wednesday - regular swimming 8:30-10:30.  Swing by grocery store to pick up company lunch food on the way home.  Really fun playdate with 2 families of friends at our house 11-1 :30.  They all skedaddled at 1:30 so I could try to give Charlie a nap.  It worked!  Once he was asleep I sent Tommy over to join our friends who had regrouped at one friend's pool.  I rested while Charlie napped.  He woke up at 4:30 and we joined Tommy & friends so Charlie could swim for a little while too.

Thursday - Yay!  No swimming!  Tommy and Charlie both had COGS school camp 9-12.  I did the grocery shopping, picked up a new book at the library and read for an hour before picking them up.  The afternoon was a bit of a disaster because Charlie didn't nap.  It was one of those days when I was really counting on a nap, so they pretty much watched movies all afternoon while I read and grumbled about the lack of nap.

Today - Charlie has toddler Little Gym for an hour at 9:15.  David's taking him, and Tommy's going too because Noah's little brother is in Charlie's class.  They play and run around in costumes and entertain (ie bother) the staff while their baby brothers have their class.  I have a hair cut appointment at 9:15.  The carpet cleaners are coming this afternoon, so no nap for Charlie even if he wanted one.  Then there's the bi-weekly free summer reading program show/performance at the library at 3 pm.  It's a good thing David's off today!

As for this weekend, David's mostly taking boy duty.  We have a semi-formal awards banquet to go to next weekend (the 18th) and it's going to take a lot of running around for me to get myself presentable for it.  We've lined up a babysitter (thanks Brian & Megan!) and I've found a dress.  I'll get a haircut today and have a nail appointment on Thursday.  I have to shop for shoes and jewelery this weekend...not that I'm complaining.

Seriously Rocking

Charlie expects to play guitar hero every night after dinner.  It's a date, an appointment, a necessity.  He asks throughout the day, but grudgingly accepts that he's going to have to wait until after dinner.

His favorite songs are...

• No Sleep 'til Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys
• Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
• One Way or Another by Blondie
• American Woman by The Guess Who
• Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz
• Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne
• Heartbreaker by Pat Benetar
• La Bamba by Los Lobos

I keep trying to get a picture that shows just how happy he is to play it, but he's just too serious about the whole thing.  So here are pictures from two different nights that show what we do after dinner.  When Charlie's not playing himself he dances in front of the TV (blocking our view).  He carefully mimics the actions of the musicians, playing air guitar and punching his fist into the air.  Tommy tends to watch for a while, then wander off to his room. 

 

 

 

Life's Getting in the Way Again

No time for transitional paragraphs!

Charlie and Tommy bonked their foreheads together this morning.  Charlie was trying to tell me about it.  He said, "I bumped my two-head on Tommy's five-head."  In Charlie's mind, four must not have seemed to be the appropriate number for a two-year-old or a five-year-old.

We went to a really fun pool party BBQ on the Fourth of July.  The boys swam like crazy.  After the first round of swimming, we changed them both into dry clothes thinking it would be more comfortable.  An hour or so later, they opened the pool again so the kids could swim some more.  As soon as Tommy saw the cover coming off the pool, he stripped off all his clothes and scrambled for his wet swimming suit.  He didn't care that there was a crowd full of strangers sitting around!  He wanted to get in the water as quickly as possible!  It never even occurred to him that he really shouldn't be buck naked in front of everyone.  Guess we need to have a conversation about inappropriate settings for naked time.

Tommy lost his third baby tooth today.  He asked me to pull it out and stood calmly while I did.  I never would have been that brave as a child.  He has two of his 6-year molars in the back of his mouth, behind his baby molars, so he has a total of four grown up teeth already.

Misc. Stuff

A conversation from this morning...

Me:  Are you feeling a bit grumpy this morning Charlie?

Charlie:  No, I not grumpy.  I not a Care Bear.  I just Charlie.

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We finally bought a kiddie pool for the back yard.  Seems like we're pretty hard on them, so we have to buy a new one every couple of years.  Charlie's been loving it, especially since he can't swim while Tommy has his swim lessons.  Charlie gets REALLY cold though.  He doesn't have much body fat to keep him warm.  Tommy practices snorkeling and splashes around.  He doesn't seem to think of it as too babyish this year.  We'll see what he thinks next year.

 This isn't a great picture, and I'm sure I'll get better ones as the summer continues, but I wanted you to see Charlie's Eye of the Tiger dance.  He punches the air with the rhythm and really rocks out.

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Tommy actually LOVED his day with out TV on Monday.  It was supposed to be a punishment, but on Tuesday morning he declared that thought they day was much more fun without TV.  He said, "I don't think saying No TV is an appropriate punishment for me any more.  I like days without TV because then I have lots of time to do things in my room.  You'll have to think of something else next time I get in trouble."  All righty then!  He's actually been going into his room for some quiet time after lunch.  He settled himself into his bed with a book-on-CD  yesterday afternoon when it was time for Charlie's nap.  By the time I came out of Charlie's room (with Charlie who was absolutely NOT NAPPING) Tommy was alseep.  One out of two boys sleeping in the afternoon isn't too bad, I guess.

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They've actually grown a lot closer this summer, because they've spent more time together.  Charlie's really going to miss Tommy when he starts Kindergarden.