January 29, 2008

We ended up having our babysitter (Katy) come over for 3 hours, late Sunday afternoon. She is so good with the boys and it is nice that they get to see her for an hour on Sunday mornings, as she helps in their toddler class.

I wasn't sure how they would do when we left, since Ben cried when we dropped them at their class that morning at Church (Nick opened the door, marched right in and made himself at home - he is such an extrovert:).

When we were preparing to leave, they were sitting at the kitchen island, eating their afternoon snack. They had not been awake very long. We had to wake them from their nap at 4:00pm because we didn't want them to wake up to find us gone. Katy was sitting between them and reading to them. They really enjoy being read to while they eat and I have gotten to where I read to them a lot during snacks and meals other than dinner.

I explained to them that we were going for a little while and would be back and they were going to stay and play with Katy. They gave us a bye bye kiss and waved and blew kisses to us and did not have any problem at all. Not one tear.

I had prepared an activity for them that I thought would be fun. I filled two ice trays with water. In one of the ice trays, I put a drop of food coloring in each cube and stirred it a little. In the other, I put a little plastic man or animal in each cube. Katy let the boys play at the kitchen sink, which they love to do, and they got to play with the ice and watch it melt. The ice that had food coloring changed the color of the water in the sink as it melted and they were able to see the men and animals through the ice but not touch them until the ice melted. She said they really enjoyed it. I had read about this in a book on Saturday, when I was looking around at this teacher's supply store. It was a great activity for the boys because they seem to be fascinated with ice.

I think the boys probably had more fun than we did. We went to a movie and we did not research it beforehand. Big mistake. I hate scary movies and this one was scary to me. There was a couple in front of us who brought their little two year old boy with them to see this movie. I just couldn't believe it. I think that is the ultimate in either stupidity or selfishness or both. I was covering my eyes and ears during half of the movie and it was very loud...even when I covered my ears, I could still hear what was going on. I can't even imagine taking my kids to a movie like that. I think if our sons were to see/hear anything like that, they would be really scared and crying. This little boy did not cry and I don't think he fell asleep. Makes me wonder what they have on their TV at home in front of him. Poor kid. I felt sorry for him. As for us, we won't make that mistake again. What a waste.

Here are some recent pics:
Here is Nick, sitting in the "mail box" with Dancer-the-cat. Dancer was there first and I was surprised that he didn't jump out when Nick squeezed in next to him. Yesterday, Ben sat down in the box and couldn't get out. I'm not sure if he sat down in it on purpose or if he fell. I watched from the doorway, as Nick put out his hand to help Ben out of the box (as I had done with Nick in the past) but I don't think Ben understood what Nick was doing. I had to go rescue the boy. It was funny.


Since it has been so cold outside, I have been trying to think of an indoor way to simulate playing with cars and trucks in the dirt but I have not found a solution yet. Here I let the boys put the beans on large cookie sheets and plow them with their trucks, but it wasn't as good as playing in dirt outside. I'm still thinking about this. If you have any ideas, let me know.

The firemen and policemen are making a regular appearance at our house these days, in addition to a couple of cowboys. The boys have been having a good time with dressing up and they still like pushing their shopping carts around. They have also turned their shopping carts upside down and every which way....what is about boys taking things apart?

The boys both love to tear things (newspaper, magazines, tissues, etc.) into tiny pieces. Ben also just seems to have a knack for breaking things and tearing up books, after which he will normally look at me and say "woops" and want me to fix it. He's got the innocent destruction thing down pat.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that Ben's repeat surgery was moved out a week. He has a dr. appt. on Wednesday to see how the first one has healed and, if everything is ok (the amount of scar tissue) then he has this second (and hopefully last) surgery on Thursday. My sister and mom are planning to spend the night with us on Wednesday and take care of Nick on Thursday while we are at the hospital with Ben. I am hopeful that this time Nick will handle the separation better but we'll see. I have been praying for Ben and dreading this. I will be glad to get it over with.