For the first time in three years, we did not host the neighborhood Super Bowl Party yesterday evening. Due to scheduling conflicts (it was originally supposed to be a girl’s weekend in the city for Renay, but ended up being a guy’s weekend in Wisconsin for Brian), we just didn’t have time to squeeze it in. (By the way, Renay’s weekend was rescheduled not canceled so no hard feelings from me or anything.) As the day progressed, I felt like we really needed to do something, even if it was only the 5 of us. Brian jumped on board and started cooking up some awesome chili and other treats. I made him pick a side for the game (he picked the Saints…obviously still sore about the whole Colts beating the Bears in the Super Bowl a few years back). Logan was on Brian’s team so I found a nice yellow shirt for him to wear. Aiden and I were assigned to Colts so I dressed us in blue and white. We made a board to both teach the boys about football and to keep them focused on the game. It had velcro dots along the top that attached 4 big red circles which represented downs plus a line drawn horizontally across the middle with 10 marks. Each mark had a velcro dot on it and we made a little football that traveled along to the line to represent yards gained / yards to go. When it was the Colts drive, me and Aiden controlled the board and vice versa (by the way, Brady was just goofing around and we called him the ref) Whenever the opposing team got a first down, they got to make the other ‘players’ do something funny. This was all fine and dandy when Aiden and I were making Logan and Daddy hop around like bunnies, cluck like chickens and spin around in circles, but when it was OUR turn to do silly things, Aiden crossed his arms, did his “angry face” and claimed that it wasn’t FAIR! Logan was being a total sport, doing silly dances and chanting things like “stinky Saints, stinky Saints…oh wait…I’m on the Saint’s team!…right?…I mean, Stinky Colts! Stinky Colts!” To which Aiden would reply in an angry voice “Don’t call me stinky!” We finally just gave up on the whole team concept, but still took turns controlling the board.

After staying up late and having fudge pops, once he was all tucked in his bed ready to sleep, Logan said to me, “mommy…when I woke up this morning, I didn’t even know we were having a party today! It was the most awesome night ever!”  I told him that’s one of the cool things about life…you never know what fun the day will bring AND another great thing about life is that you can create your own fun. We said we could try to create some fun every day this week…better get cracking on some ideas I guess!

Logan and Aiden decorated a sign for our mantle.

Near the end of the night, I told Logan to go get some PJs. All of his were in the wash so he decided to wear this little ensemble: his new Yoda Star wars tee shirt plus track pants. He thought that that tee shirt might be a little too cold, so he put his bulkiest sweater underneath. I was dying laughing! This is a kid who kicks off covers and sweats through most light pajamas at night. I brought him a long-sleeved white tee shirt instead, but I couldn’t resist taking a picture (and he couldn’t resist a little modeling action!)

This morning, as is typical of most mornings, Logan was in my bed when he woke up around 7. We were chatting about who-knows-what when he started telling me about his brain and sleeping.

Logan: Mommy? Did you know that even when you are sleeping, your brain is awake?

Me: Yes, I did know that!

Logan: Ya, and your brain sends pictures to your eyes!

Me: You’re right…that’s called dreaming.

Logan: I didn’t have any pictures in my eyes last night (pause)…Did you know that when I have pictures in my eyes, my whole body feels like I’m really doing stuff?!

kids explaining things is cute!

And in other news, Daddy was gone yesterday on a “boy’s weekend” with some friends. We were house-bound due to a delivery and in desperate need of an activity. I moved the dining room table, taped paper to the floor, traced the boys and let them loose with paints.

Logan and Aiden had just finished watching an episode of Zulu Patrol (I think that’s what it’s called…it was the first time I had ever seen it). They were learning about how moons are created around the different planets. Logan was painting a picture of “The Big Whack” which is how Earth’s moon was created (who says TV can’t be educational?!) My favorite part of our art activities is listening to the “story” of their creations. Logan and Aiden also spent a lot of time “making up new colors” which is pretty cool, but apparently uses up a great deal of paint!

Total set up time: 10 minutes; Total activity time: 30 minutes; Total clean up time: 20 minutes…a break-even activity I guess

Yesterday was PJ day at school. Logan’s teacher sent home a note saying that the kids could not only wear PJs, but they could also bring a blanket, sleeping bag, a pillow, a stuffed animal…etc.

Logan was PUMPED for PJ day. He dressed in clean, fresh pajamas that he set out the night before. While we were in his room getting ready, I told him about the other items he was allowed to take. At first he wanted his bedspread, but quickly decided on his trucks & cars blanket instead since it’s smaller. He took his pillow with the case he tie-dyed during camping and then grabbed his teddy bear, Clifford.

Logan: I think I’ll take Clifford

Me: Really? Didn’t you just take him to school a couple weeks ago for “bears” week? What about Scruffy Puppy (usually his favorite)

Logan: Oh, ya…Clifford went to school already! (reaches for Scruffy…looks pensive for a moment…draws out his little dog from under the covers). I think I’ll take this guy…he’s never been anywhere! (Points one by one to the other animals): Scruffy has been to California, Oklahoma and camping! Checkers went all those places too! What about Griffin (a mouse)?

Me: Ya, he went to California with us when you were a baby

Logan: Ya! And this guy (shakes the little dog) only got to Oklahoma the DAY BEFORE we had to leave (he was in Logan’s stocking this year for Christmas) so he didn’t even get to go THERE…not really! (waves hands emphatically to really drive home the seriousness of the situation and his immediate desire to remedy “the case of the dog who never got to travel”)

What a good little daddy…fair is fair after all!

Logan, ready for school with his gear and “Jump” the puppy who has inherited an actual small-dog collar that Auntie Denna originally gave him for Checkers the cat (that’s a whole different story)

Do not ever, even for just a second, even just to ask a sales associate where to find a particular item, take your eyes off of a toddler in the makeup section…

That’s nail polish!

He does this if he gets a hold of my lip-gloss too. He takes out the applicator and paints his hair. Makes me wonder what he sees when he watches me do it.

And yes, I scrubbed his little head with nail polish remover right before bath time. And no, it didn’t all come out.

Random thought: Pottery Barn calls these “The Anywhere Chair”. I wonder if “anywhere” means “on top of another perfectly acceptable seating area” to anyone else. According to my boys, these chairs don’t go “anywhere” but right on top of the couch. Logan got new sunglasses today…in case you’re wondering.

Last week was very very tiring for all of us! We’ve been dealing with some pretty major sleeping issues with Aiden stemming from a newly-developed fear of the dark. A week ago Friday, I wondered if he might feel better being in the same room with Logan. They talk a lot about getting bunk beds and sharing a room someday. We pulled Aiden’s mattress into Logan’s room and put it on the floor. Logan was a complete doll all week about the whole thing. He would offer to cuddle Aiden, tell him stories, let him leave the light on in the room (like the one on the ceiling!) and let him have his noise machine in there as well. But Aiden would still have troubles settling down, wouldn’t let us leave him and would scream any time he woke in the night and we were gone. Things are getting better now, mostly thanks to an idea that I found on the internet while trying to “Google” our way back to some semblance of normal nights (because let’s face it, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in almost 5 years! Someone is ALWAYS up in the night). On Wednesday, after dinner and baths, we had a dark party in Logan’s room. I took three of the glow-in-the-dark stars from the ceiling, got ‘em real nice and glow-y with a flashlight, put them on the bed and called everyone in. Every light was off. I even covered the clock face with a tee shirt. The boys each sat where one of the stars had been and we played games.

Game 1: Guess the food. I brought in baggies of blueberries, strawberries, a few Doritos and cereal bars. Everyone took a bit and then we counted to 3 before yelling out our guesses. Logan won that game!

Game 2: Guess the toy. I passed around small toys and the boys had to figure out what they were. We had a little stack of legos, a small plastic sword from our pirate game, one of Aiden’s stretchy lizards and something else I can’t remember.

Game 3: Guess the animal. We took turns making animals sounds and everyone had to say the animal name. Fact: a bunny can say “moo” if he is pretending to be a cow…at least that’s what Logan told us when his bunny went moo.

Game 4: Hide the stars. This was an unplanned game, but the boys were having so much fun that they requested more “dark party”. I would have them either cover their eyes or hide in the closet while I spread the stars around the room. They would run out and look for the glow. I put them on top of daddy, in my pockets, up on the door frames and all over the furniture. We talked a lot during this game about how much fun we were all having in the dark, “right Aiden?! isn’t this so much fun?” He said it was.

As soon as games were over, Brady was removed to his room while daddy told a story in the dark about the stars on the ceiling. The stars were born far away, but wanted to live with little boys. Lately, they were really sad that they couldn’t be seen at night because the lights are always on.

I can’t say that all nighttime issues have faded, but things are WAY better. We can now leave only a nightlight on and the door open to the hallway lights. Aiden doesn’t scream when he wakes up, but he does come find us. I’ve also been sitting in the room until he drifts off, but that won’t last forever…baby steps.

Last night, we made Logan’s room officially into “Logan and Aiden’s Room”. Logan gladly offered to downsize his queen bed to a twin so Aiden could be there with him and they would still have enough room to play. He is now sleeping on a daybed auntie Denna had when we were growing up. Aiden is in a bed someone from Brian’s family had as a child. It’s quite a mish-mash of furniture in the room right now, but I think bunk beds are on the horizon!

The mini man cave. Brian, brilliantly, suggested that we put the rolling drawers from the (broken) train table under the day bed for toy storage. I’m going to have to work that out sometime this coming week.

Brady was following me around today and climbed into “O-gan’s bed”. Maybe you’ll be invited to the party in the mini-man cave someday darling, but not now – crib-city for you sweetie!

Speaking of room for 2, Aiden and Brady apparently don’t even need beds! Look how nicely they fit into the living room blanket basket. It’s a stylish and affordable way to store your children…maybe I can put our gobs of blankets in Brady’s crib??

Being the mother of all boys can present a girl with a number of challenges. One must condition herself to accept certain things like rough play as an every-day occurrence, sound effects as a way of communication, a bizarre yet impressive innate ability to understand electronics, and the constant building of ships and guns when encountered with tinker toys, legos or anything else that could just as easily have turned into something more tame... One must abandon her more gentle sensibilities and embrace all that is “the boy”…plus a degree in engineering would be mighty helpful! Today alone, I was called upon to design and construct several different forms of entertainment. These, I might add, must be assembled at a break-neck speed lest the requestor lose interest and you’re left running after him (them) demanding why there is now another mess-in-progress elsewhere when you have just spent 15 minutes trying to give them what they wanted. Don’t get me wrong, even though the play time enjoyed with most of these things is far less than the time I spend putting them together, boys love their mommies…give good thank-you hugs, lots of praise for well-constructed lego ships…and the smiles are priceless.

Logan was super way-impressed with my ships today. He said, “and you always say WE build good ships! Yours is great!” Ahh…go on! Obviously I spent a little more time building the one on the left. I thought I was done, but he then asked for “a bad guy ship”…so I threw the other one together.

He wanted to be the “background” for my picture.

Brady, the current lover of trains, always stands at the basement door saying “come on mamee…come on mamee!” complete with the come-here hand motion that means he wants to play GeoTrax. The problem is that he usually destroys them when he’s done so I have to build a new one every few days from the rubble. Here is today’s creation. I take pride in my GeoTrax configurations, putting guard rails at the ends of steep drops so the trains don’t fly off, choosing the right tracks for inclines (some don’t have treads and the trains get stuck), and testing traffic patterns in both directions

And finally, we also hit the trick-tracks bin this afternoon. We have a standard configuration, but you have to carefully search through the car bin and find just the right car for each job. View the video below and you’ll see what I mean. (the Bears car doesn’t quite make the cut through the loop section of the track…) While I was building this, Logan lost interest, found a remote in the office/playroom, tested it out, discovered it was for the computer, put on the media center and started Charlie and The Chocolate Factory through our on-line Netflix. It was all I could do to drag him back to the track he BEGGED me to build.

Our membership at the Aquarium expires in Feb so we squeezed in one final trip last weekend. The kids love it there and we may renew, but we’ve discussed joining a different place next year (maybe the Museum of Science and Industry) to mix it up a bit.

We’ve been to the aquarium so many times now that Logan decided to be our guide. He grabbed a map and pointed the way to the play submarine…by far his most favorite place!

We hadn’t been to the new show so we checked it out. It was really really cool!

Sadly, the submarine area was closed for a private event until noon. We played in the penguin area and then hit the cafe for lunch to kill time. Look at the cool view from our table!

Aiden stole my camera for a minute. I guess this is a child’s view of mommy.

YEAH – the submarine is open!

The boys played here for a while until we dragged them kicking and screaming to the underwater reef…which they also love so they calmed down once we mentioned sharks and “Nemo fish”