When we arrived, there was a big sign out front saying it’s their anniversary (15 years I believe) so they had several things going on. This sign sported a giant dragon which I somehow missed while trying to park. Not Ethan…”Mama! Look! A dragon.” Me (not enthusiastically as I was trying to park and as per usual, he’d been talking since we left the house anyway so I barely even registered what he was telling me to look at this time): “Yes, honey.” Ethan (not amused by my lack of enthusiasm or the fact that I hadn’t actually looked): “NO, Mama! LOOK! It’s a dragon.” I have now parked so I looked, sure enough, there’s a dragon. I become slightly more animated and say, “Yes honey, it is a dragon. That’s where we are going to the Party Store.” E: “For the police to take my picture?” Doesn’t miss a beat that kid. Me: “Yep.” E: “I don’t want to the police to take my picture, I dust want to see the dragon.” Me: “How about if we see the dragon while the police take your picture? They’ll give Mama a picture card to have for you and for brother just in case we ever need it. Will that be ok?” E: “Well, ok. But I dust wanna see the dragon.” Me: “OK, we’ll get the picture, see the dragon and get stuff for brother’s birthday party.” E: “OK, we’ll get stuff for my birfday party, too.”….that’s a whole other argument we’ve been trying to explain so I just pretend I didn’t hear it this time.
Once inside we realize, there’s not only a dragon, but a whole castle. I quickly try to get the boys in a cart so I can better corral Ethan before he’s sees said castle. Yeah right, I mentioned he never misses a beat, right? Anyway, I did manage to sidetrack him long enough to say “I understand” when I tell him he has to stay with me and that I promise we’ll see everything if he just stays with me. Luckily they had small carts just big enough for Ethan to push so he was appeased into staying with me if he could push his own cart and not ride with brother. This was fine if he promised to stay with me and listen. He said “I understand” right on cue so we go to the line for Kid Print first. I’m filling out the very short form which should take 1 minute for each child since it basically has my name, their names & their weight, height & eye/hair color. I say “should” because it took about 10-15 as I kept having to tell Ethan to come back and “put that back” as this line was in the aisle with Thanksgiving decorations and near the aisle with balloons and he thought his cart needed all of these items – especially the balloons and the pilgrim hats.
Finally, I’m done and it’s time for Alex’s picture – Alex sat happy as a clam on my lap smiling right at the guys behind the camera – sadly, they were standing up so he was looking up not right at the camera. Once these guys realized the problem, this process took mere seconds. Guess with other kids they had a hard time getting the kid to look anywhere so hadn’t really expected to see someone as friendly as Alex make actual eye contact with them. Oh well. One down, one to go. Ethan can’t wait to take his picture now. He’s psyched. He sits down like a good little boy and is slightly upset that they aren’t ready yet. He doesn’t understand why they should have to enter his info in the computer before they can actually take his picture and get his finger print. Sheesh – don’t they realize he doesn’t know what patience are, much less have any? They found out … but he did manage to wait on them to catch up to where he thought they should be and finally got his picture and finger print as well. His first question? “I wanna see. Let me see.” He again had to wait a second for the printer to actually produce his card and then he got to see. He, of course, wanted to have this card but agreed it would be ok if Mama kept it so it didn’t get lost. OK, step 1 accomplished.
Now, on to the dragon and castle…well there is a castle, but no dragon. Probably because the dragon was outside on the sign. But they did have a photographer taking free pictures which we could come back in a couple weeks to pick up along with the stuff to make our very own Christmas ornament. Totally cool and I managed to get both boys in the same shot looking in basically the same direction and smiling. I should be able to see the pictures online soon to see if the picture the guy actually took, shows that. Sometimes the camera isn’t quite fast enough. Hoping this isn’t one of those times. OK, picture done, Ethan checks out the castle (which is the backdrop of his picture). “This is cool, Mom.” Me: “That’s good, honey. Let’s go over here though and find stuff from brother’s birthday party.” E: “OK & mine, too.” Alex just grins at me when I look at him and roll my eyes. It’s basically naptime for him right now so I’ve given in and let him have the paci for the duration so he’ll suck to stay awake rather than screeching to stay awake which I much prefer.
We’re in the aisle for kid stuff and absolutely nothing with a mulit-sport theme….nothing, nada, zilch. They have soccer, basketball & baseball but nothing with even the hint of a football. While Ethan was totally enthralled with Mickey Mouse at this age, Alex is totally enthralled with balls and his brother and that’s about it. Since I don’t plan on making Ethan the central point of Alex’s party, we’re going with a sports theme but since Alex’s favorite ball seems to be the football (we have several so that probably helped make up his mind), I really need at least the hint of a football on his b’day party stuff. I had gotten his party invitations at another party store so I guess I’m going to have to go there for his party stuff. Meanwhile, Ethan has found Diego stuff and Mickey Mouse stuff for “his” party and I’ve continued to tell him to put them back that his birthday isn’t until next year. We are now at the point where I start reminding him I’m going to put him in the basket of Alex’s cart if he doesn’t stop. This seems to get him to put whatever it is back on the shelf but doesn’t make the process stop. We meander over to the sports “tailgate” aisle to see if possibly they have anything useable and they do have piñatas but nothing with a football and the baseballs which are his 2nd favorite are too high for his short mother to reach. OK, so buying stuff for Alex’s party was a bust, let’s try to get Ethan out of here.
On the way out the door, we pass the castle again where I notice a huge stuffed giraffe. When I ask Ethan if he’d like that giraffe, he says “yes, Mama. He’s a good giraffe. Alex wants him, too.” So I begin filling out the entry form for the raffle to win it. Ethan proceeds to get in everyone’s way to the point where he finally loses his “my own cart” privileges. I pick him up and put him in Alex’s cart which he is none too pleased about. We then start to leave the area with the giraffe when I realize he didn’t quite understand about the giraffe. The sound he makes as the melt down almost starts causes Alex to look at him like “what’s your problem? Sheesh, do you have to do that right in my ear?” I explain that we can’t buy it. They are giving it away and I entered him and Alex both to win it and if they win, they’ll call us. Ethan (2 tears starting to trickle down his face with a crying tone to his whiney voice): “They will call me on you cell phone?” Me: “Yes, if we win, they will call Mama’s cell phone.” E: “OK. Where is you cell phone?” Me (showing him): “I have it right here.” E: “I’ll just hold it for you.” Me (laughing along with the 3 people around us that have heard this exchange): “No, Ethan. Mama will hold it. It will be fine. Let’s go meet Daddy on his break.” It always helps to give him a new destination when trying to get him away from the last spot. E: “Ok.” (as we pass the balloons on our exit) “WAIT! Mama, you fogot to get me a balloon!” They are giving free smiley face helium balloons so we get one for each kiddo. I told Ethan to hold it tight outside cause if he lets it go, we can’t get it back. E: “Ok, Mama…Owix, I dust hold you balloon, too, so you don’t wose it.” We head for the car and manage to visit Daddy briefly at work before heading home for a much needed nap. Alex’s party stuff will have to happen another day.
Today was another beautiful day. After showers this afternoon (nope, we didn’t make it to church so hadn’t gotten the showers until after naps), we let the boys play out back while Steve and I did a little yard work. Alex was quite content to swing in the swing watching the rest of us do our thing…as long as he was swinging. Each time the swing would slow down or heaven forbid, stop, he would tell us rather quickly, “hey. You forgot to swing me. Come swing me. Come on! Now, please”…in the form of “AH….screech…ah ah ah…screech ah” Ethan finally caught on to this and would go give him a push when he’d start…if he wasn’t too busy asking questions or talking to Riley & Gracie (the neighbor children) or playing with his “mococycle” (Diego big wheel). If he was too busy, we’d tell him to do it. I went to do it myself once because Ethan was taking too long and Alex isn’t great with that whole “patience” thing either. Ethan says, “No, Mama. I was going to swing Owix. I dust will do it.” I told him I’d do it this time and he could do it the next time….his response? He went over and stopped the swing and did it again himself. Apparently, he wasn’t ok with doing it next time. Next time was now.
Steve cleaned out the shed and got all the stuff from the yard that needs to be put away for winter stored away while I cleaned out the old indoor “rabbit” cage which was really a dog cage so gave the rabbit too much freedom to push his poop out the sides all over the place. As this didn’t appeal to me, we got a real rabbit cage Friday night and I had put the dog cage outside so now cleaned it today. “Uncle” (aka, my uncle Keevin – Ethan calls him Uncle) had given us the dog cage which we thought would be perfect but didn’t realize that our rabbit was spiteful. So now it’s clean and Keevin can take it back as he may get a turkey or quail or other bird to put in it. Yeah, I thought that odd, too, but whatever floats his boat I guess.
We finished cleaning up and it started to get dark so we headed inside, or really through, the house to go grocery shopping. We didn’t plan our time quite right so ended up getting Zaxby’s chicken on the way to go grocery shopping (which Ethan has asked me for every time we’ve been out together for a week….I think he just likes to say Zaxby’s cause he likes any kind of chicken and doesn’t really favor Zaxby’s over anything else usually). By the time we got home from shopping, it was bedtime though Alex had passed out on the way home actually. In the house, bottle & sippy cup made and up to bed….mission accomplished.
I’ll backup to mention a couple of other cute details from the weekend.
- We had taken Steve dinner on Friday night. When we left, I realized I couldn’t see Alex in his mirror cause it wasn’t lined up right and I wasn’t hearing anything from him which usually meant he was asleep. So, since I couldn’t see him, I asked Ethan if he was asleep. His response: “yes Mama. He’s passed out.” I guess I say that more than I realized – as that’s usually what I say when referring to Alex going to sleep when we are out and about.
- Last night the Wizard of Oz came on TV at 8:00. Since we’d seen the play and Ethan wanted to see it again, I turned it on in his room for him to watch while going to sleep. Because Steve worked a split shift, he was off work about 9:30. About 9:25, Ethan comes in saying, “Mama, I dust don’t want to sleep in my bed. I want to sleep with you.” I told him no, he needed to sleep in his own bed. He just stood there with his puppy dog eyes looking at me. I told him to go back to bed. He slowly did…until my phone rang. It was Steve on his way home. I told him that Ethan wanted to sleep with me (keep in mine it’s 90 mins passed bedtime which I’m not angry about only because I was letting him watch the Wizard while going to sleep). Steve says “well, he could sleep on the floor” (basically saying he can sleep in our room but he and I together kick Steve out of bed so if he slept in our room, he wasn’t sleeping in our bed). I told Steve he’d have to talk to him about it cause I told him no…thinking he’d understand I was saying “united front, tell him he needs to sleep in his own bed.” Did this happen? Nope. Steve gets home, Ethan heads downstairs and comes back up saying “Mom. I going to sleep on the floor in you room. Daddy is going to get my piddow and blanket and make a bed on the floor for me to sleep. I not sleeping in my own bed tonight.” Perfect. So much for a united front but I must say, his matter of fact tone was quite cute.
- Finally, what I should have started with…Friday Alex had his follow-up with Dr. Ringley on his ear check. Left ear crystal clear, right ear a little bit of fluid but as he was walking really well and seemed really happy and otherwise healthy, she says no drugs and no tubes for now and we’ll just continue to watch him and check again at his year checkup in a few weeks. YEAH! I like the idea of no tubes before the age of 1. YIPPEE!!
- Alex has been picking up Ethan's sippy cups lately and trying to drink whatever is in them. So we got him some like Ethan's of his very own. We started these on Friday and he does ok. When we first gave it to him, he would drop it and go get Ethan's. Apparently, he didn't care that "his" now looked like Ethan's, he just wanted Ethan's. However, while at his doctor's appointment on Friday his only option was his own and that seems to have worked a bit because we are now down to formula bottles at nap and bedtime and juice sippy cups in between. Likely a formula bottle when he wakes up in the morning as well. In a few weeks, we'll even start introducing milk....he's growing up so fast!
No comments:
Post a Comment