Sunday, January 23, 2011

Fruit Loops

If I use Fruit Loops as a learning experience, does that make it any less horrific as a meal choice for Logan? He recognizes green, purple, orange, and yellow fruit loops and will call them by a name that sounds vaugely like the color. Blue and red are still unknowns for him, but hey, Brody still gets blue and red confused so it may run in the genes.

Monday, January 17, 2011

MLK Day - Take 2

It's time for our second annual MLK Day video to Dada. Once again, I'm home with the kids because Shahnaz has the day off. This year my office took the day off too, so the boys and I get to play. Here's our video to Dada, who had to work today.


10 minutes of chaos

Everything was going so well last night. Brody wasn't eating dinner but that's not completely unusual. We watched the Caps for a little bit then I took the boys upstairs for baths while Jacob walked Foster. On our way up, Logan spit out a piece of chewed puppy chow (or tasty trash? The Plummers and Weavers have different names for the stuff.) It trickled down his white and blue striped button-down shirt, leaving a chocolate trail on one of his cutest shirts (a gift for Brody from GG that I've meticulously cleaned so it stays stain-free through two children). As I picked him up, the chocolate also got on my white sleeve, a shirt that moments ago I had wondered how I'd managed to keep clean for an entire day. Out of frustration, I took off Logan's shirt, telling him Logan! Chocolate stains! Jacob laughed at me and headed outside with Foster.

I took the boys upstairs and started filling the bathtub in one bathroom while I spot-treated Logan and my shirts to try to get the chocolate out in the other bathroom. Brody was beside me swishing mouthwash before he brushed his teeth and Logan was playing with books on the floor. As soon as I've finished Logan's shirt, Brody spit out the blue mouthwash, right down the front of his shirt. This is no normal mouthwash. This is the kind that stains teeth blue to show kids where to brush. I sigh and take off Brody's shirt, adding it to my pile of pre-treating.

As I am working on my shirt, Brody covers his mouth and puffs out his cheeks with wild eyes. I know this look. Brody is about to throw up. I pick him up and quickly get him to the toilet. Thankfully he makes it in time and up comes everything he ate for the day. At that point, Jacob is back and calling me to the other bathroom. Logan has wandered away and I'm afraid I know what that means. I leave Brody holding over the toilet and head back to the other bathroom. Jacob is standing in the doorway and Logan is sitting in the bathtub, which is still filling with water. As I get closer I see Logan is still wearing socks, pants, and a diaper. Jacob heard a thud as he came upstairs and found Logan, half-dressed, sitting in the bathtub.

At this point, it's time to divide and conquer. Jacob cleans up Brody and I undress Logan to give him a proper bath. In the amount of time it took to fill a bathtub our house went from quiet and happy to total chaos. It also returned to normal just a quickly. Once finished with baths, we all snuggled in the big bed to watch Wipeout, happy that everything was back to normal.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Our week of fun

I took the week off work between Christmas and New Year's and Brody, Logan, and I went on mini-adventures.

We joined the over-70s crowd for a McDonald's breakfast and had a rare experience in which we were the only non-retired people in the restaurant. We also had the only loud voices among diners contently reading newspapers and sipping coffee. I think they were happy to see us finish up and leave.

We went to the Red Box and Brody picked out a movie to watch (Toy Story 3) then watched it on the floor while eating popcorn. Brody made it through the entire movie. Logan wandered away after 30 minutes or so. I was the only one to cry when Andy went off to college.

We went to the Udvar-Hazy air and space museum and checked out the planes and space craft. Brody's favorite was the blackbird, which had a TV next to it cycling the scene from the Transformers movie when the blackbird morphs into a robot and breaks down the door of the museum. Brody kept looking back and forth from the TV to the plane, trying to figure out which button would turn the plane into a monster. Logan liked the ramps in the museum, which he ran up and down and up and down until he eventually was so tired that he laid down on the ground and waited for me to come get him.

On Friday, when Dada was home from work too we went to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History museum downtown. We should have set expectations appropriately. Brody kept asking if they were going to roar or bite him. I don't think he was expecting bones. Both boys especially liked the Discovery Zone in the museum, which lets you get hands on with the exhibits. Brody had to touch the human skeleton (a replica, not real) one last time before leaving.

Today... sigh. It's beautiful outside and would be the perfect day for Frying Pan Park but Brody finally came down with the stomach virus that's ravaging our extended family and much of the east coast. He was a trooper this morning and said that he still wanted to go to FPP, but when we got there and walked around for a few minutes, he said he needed to throw up and wanted to go back home. So it looks like the end of our fun week will conclude quietly. We're back and he's watching TV in the big bed while Logan plays with all of the new Christmas toys. They're both happy. Logan started asking about his school friends yesterday so I take that as a good sign that they've had enough of me and want to get back to their normal schedule. I'm exhausted and am ready to get back to my normal schedule too. Work is so much less strenuous!