Ok, so it was the only title I could think of. We've had a couple of days of good and bad, and nothing really ugly (except for maybe how mad I got at Jacob and Nolan - continue reading to find out!)
GOOD: Nolan has found a long lost friend -Elmo, or as he puts it "Memo"! He has never really shown any interest in Elmo until now. Connor used to LOVE Elmo and Mary, our daycare provider, made pajama pants for him when he was one that had Elmo on them. Those pants went through Jacob and Nolan has them now. This is really the extent of Nolan's Elmo. We don't even really watch Sesame Street or Elmo's World like we used to with Connor. However, the two younger troublemakers (they really are troublemakers together - we should call them Thing 1 and Thing 2 - from Cat in the Hat!) were downstairs going through our baskets of old toys and lo' and behold Nolan brings Elmo up. He hardly let him out of his sight the rest of the day. He is even sleeping with him (and he's not a soft and squishy Elmo) and in some old Elmo sleepers of Connor's as I write this! I couldn't resist the pictures!
BAD: Nolan is also getting good at pointing at us and telling us "No, No!" whenever we reprimand him or one of his brothers. He especially gets upset with us when we are scolding him. ;)
GOOD: We finally finished Connor's puzzle today! Yippee! Man, that kid loves puzzles and especially challenges. Thanks for the puzzle Grandma and Grandpa!
GOOD: We went to lunch with Grandma today at McDonald's and the boys played so well together again. Connor was amazing with Nolan, helping him with everything. I have no worries about the younger two growing up, they have a terrific big brother that will look out for them! Connor is getting his shoes on as we're leaving and says, "That was the funnest time I've had at McDonald's because I got to play with my brothers. We had so much fun!". Those are definitely words parents want to hear!!!
BAD: When we got home from lunch it was nap time. Jacob was a complete stinker, for lack of better words and for wanting to keep this G rated! Connor rarely takes a nap anymore and we have a what we call our "trick" (that sounds evil). Connor goes and lays in his bed, while I snuggle with Jacob and occupy him enough so Connor can sneak back out. It just makes things so much easier if Jacob things Connor is taking a nap also. Anyways, today Jacob decided he didn't want to take a nap. He got out a few times to tell me something, luckily he didn't see Connor, so I could at least get him back in bed. While Connor and I were doing our project (next story) Jacob comes out and sees us...has a fit, doesn't want to take a nap, and the rest you can figure out. Matt told Jacob that he couldn't play any Mario Cart today, so....skip ahead a few hours. We're at supper and Jacob starts talking about playing Mario Cart and Connor being Toad and him being pursle guy. Matt and I both tell him he can't play Mario Cart today and proceeds to tell us the whole story of why he can't play. He took no nap, got out of bed, was naughty, naughty, and daddy sad no Mario Cart. I have to give the kid credit - he sure understood why he couldn't play Mario Cart. Maybe you had to be there, and I guess you just have to know how Jacob talks. It's so serious and dramatic. Matt and I just looked at each other and laughed.
GOOD: Connor got this cool Make a Race car kit for his gift exchange at the Ebeling Christmas. We were told that Logan picked it out - thanks Logan! Great choice. It's drying at the moment. In fact, it will be very strong because according to Connor he chose to do two races on Mario Cart tonight before bed instead of paint his race car -"I want to play Mario Cart instead tonight. Because really mom, that way the glue will really dry and be strong". Good logic I guess! We started with this.
We'll show you his final product tomorrow!
GOOD and in a way BAD: I was reading a story and I must have said something like "Oh, that's so sad" because Connor asked me what was sad. I tried to tell him in a way that was easiest to understand about a woman who had to give birth to her son early (at 21 weeks) who was sick (the premature thing is a little hard to explain). The baby only lived for a brief moment. Connor looks at me and says, "That is really really sad mom." Pause. "But you know, it's good for the mom and dad that the baby was alive for a little bit at least, and not at all". What a mature thing for a little kid to say and think, amazing that he found a positive. What a sad story.
BAD and the UGLY: We just finished gluing the last piece onto the car and put it aside to dry. Jacob and Nolan were playing with their cars in the bedroom, and Connor wanted to rest for a little and watch a short show, so I decided to clean up a little in the kitchen. For a brief moment I thought that it was a little too quiet all of sudden in the bedroom, but I just kept going. Nolan comes into the kitchen about 3 minutes later to ask for some juice and this is the first thing I see.
OK. So what would you automatically assume is going on here? Let's set the story up a little bit. Santa brought the boys an Easel for Christmas and dry erase markers came with it. For the most part things have been absolutely great with this. However, today ........
I asked Nolan what was on his face and he automatically got this look like he knew something was wrong and ran into the bedroom. I followed him and found that they thought the room needed a little more black and blue in it, so they added a few of their own "lovely" touches on.......
the closet...
the bed and even the blue spider man bouncy balls under the bed...
oh yes, even the globe, the window sill, and the night stand...
Jacob's bedspread...
and the wall...
Needless to say this is where the UGLY comes in to play. I was not pretty that's for sure!
I think it was payback though. I colored on my daycare provider's wall when I was little. What the boys did was nothing compared to how pretty I made her wall. My daycare provider and mom were not very pretty either! Mom, you can get a good laugh out of this one!
I don't know about anyone else out there, but my boys could live off of peanut butter and jelly, especially Connor. In fact, because of Matt's one time doing, we now have to make Connor a bread, peanut butter, jelly, bread, jelly, peanut butter, bread (double decker) sandwich everytime. Nolan and Jacob however take their sandwich a part and eat each slice of bread. Whatever gets them to eat it I guess!
Another of my favorite things is to go check on the boys and sometimes just snuggle with them or truly just watch them for a little while. Connor is one of the deepest sleepers I know, even more than Matt. ;)
Everyone is sleeping....ahhhh.....I can sit down and relax. Wait a minute better do this first.....
That's better.
Pudding......mmmmmmmmmmm.......good!
Final product! What a race car!
Jacob doing one of his favorite things right now before we go to bed.
One of my favorite things to see and listen to.... (even Teddy, our cat likes it!)
Matt was doing some push ups and Connor decided to do some with him. Matt took off his sweatshirt because he was getting hot (he had a tshirt on underneath), and Connor wanted to be just like Dad so he took his shirt off (with nothing underneath obviously) and was showing us his muscles! Not too bad for how skinny the kid is! ;) Daddy and Connor had some good afternoon time together today.
Then we watched Horton Hears a Who. Jacob and Nolan both slept in their regular beds, but Connor had a "sleepover" in his sleeping bag on our floor. They were all out by about 9:30-10:
