Stuck Indoors

It has been a rainy week here.  We don't have small spring showers, we have massive downpours with thunder and lightning.  I enjoy the storms, but I think we're getting a little stir crazy some days.  After church today, the boys and I went to play in the driveway.  I rode to the end of the driveway on my scooter, and could barely make it back to the garage unsoaked as it started to rain exponentially harder with each passing half-second.  The boys have had numerous injuries this week due to running, wrestling, and jumping off of furniture.  It can be very hard to be sympathetic when one of the boys comes up crying because he injured himself jumping off of the arm of a chair.  "Was that a good decision?"  I remember doing the same thing myself as a child, so I understand the fun of jumping off of furniture, but it's still in the "unacceptable behavior" column.  Plus, when I did it, I remember myself being much more graceful in my landings than the boys.  :)

With all the running around indoors, Henry works up a sweat rather quickly.  He does not like having a "wet" head, so he often takes the kitchen towel and rubs it over his head to dry it.  When he's done, he puts it back on the refrigerator handle.  This just serves as a warning for anyone visiting us.  Use the paper towels after you wash your hands.  We've used all our kitchen towels up this week on sweaty heads, instead of drying dishes.  In fact, our dishwasher is still broken and we get the gut feeling that it's not going to get fixed before we move out.

One big indoor activity has been the boys' tent.  It's the old go-to rainy day game.  We put up sheets to cover bottom bunk and then that's the "tent."  We had a few (pretend) picnics on the living room floor.  The boys even slept in the tent one night.  Well, Josiah slept.  Henry came to our room around midnight and that was the end of his camping experience.  Even Caroline slept in it for one of her naps.

With all the rain we're not getting enough of the kids' energy out, so I think it has affected their sleep.  Henry and Caroline have woken up just about every night and have come to visit us at varying times.  One night, as I was carrying a sleeping Henry back to his bed, I stepped on something in the hallway.  It felt like laundry on the floor, but I usually do not keep piles of laundry in the middle of the hallway.  Turning on the light, I discover Caroline sleeping on the hall floor with blanket in hand.  I have no idea how long she'd been there, and she didn't even flinch when I stepped on/near her.

While staying indoors, we've also played a few more card games.  Uno has been the game of choice for the boys and I.  Henry wants to be the dealer most of the time, but he has a lot to learn about dealing cards.  I hand him the shuffled cards in a nice stack.  He always manages to put it in his lap which makes them spread out everywhere (because we play on our bed).  Then he picks up a card, looks at it first (to make sure it isn't a card he wants), and then hands it to Josiah or I.  Over and over again.  Then he takes requests.  Josiah always wants a "Wild" card or two, so Henry will go searching for it.  Of course, Henry wants "Wild" cards and "Skip" cards.  Then he gives me the regular number cards.  Because of this, I play to win.  No let-the-kids'-win-to-boost-their-confidence playing around here.

Our last indoor activity was to make pigeon books in the style of Mo Willems.  The boys love all the Mo Willems books and Josiah suggested we each make a "Don't Let the Pigeon..." book.  Josiah's was "Don't Let the Pigeon Eat the Donut!"  Henry's was "Don't Let the Pigeon Eat the Hot Dog!"  I made one as well called "Don't Let the Pigeon Drink Coffee!"  I thought I had made a cute book with decent illustrations, (insert Todd rolling his eyes), but then we watched an "Interview with Mo Willems" in which he said he wants all the main characters in his books to be easily drawn by a 5-year old.  So, that popped my bubble.

"Don't Let the Pigeon eat the Donut"

"I bone" - Josiah thinks this is very funny...

"Author (backwards) Henry" pigeon with a hot dog

fat pigeon after eating the hot dog

last page

Henry had a very observant Saturday.  While sitting on the couch reading to the boys, Henry reached over and put his fingers around Josiah's arm.  He said, "You have skinny arms Josiah." Then reaching to his own body, he said, "Mine are wide."  So, we paused at that point and talked about how God made each of us differently with different sized bodies and we're all special in our own way.  At dinner, Henry observed to Todd, "Daddy you don't have any hair." (to which Todd will say it is because his hairdresser shaves it all off).  I got out of the room quickly at that point before he could make any astute observations about me.

Caroline is talking, talking, talking.  I can usually pick out a few key words to figure out where she's going, but she's talking in complete sentences that only she understands.  My favorite new word from her is "boys."  I call the boys the collective, "boys," all the time and she has definitely picked up on it.  She will ask me all the time, "Où boys?" She likes to throw a little French in there.  She has somehow picked up on making funny faces as well.  The type in which she pulls the skin of her cheeks down to make her eyes look funny.  Then she makes an "uhhhhhhhhh" sound.  She finds it all hilarious.

Caroline has shown us she has the gift of finding each and every playground in the Houston area.  While we drive around, she will sit in her seat and say, "Playground! I play?" She says this at every school we pass, every jungle gym she notices in people's yards, every swing, every slide, every pool that has a slide, even if she just sees what appears to be the top of a playground in the back of someone's yard, she will still shout out, "Playground! I play?"  Last night she and I took a walk around the block and at every house she pointed to it and said, "Who's dat?" To which I'd reply, "That's our neighbor."  And she'd walk towards the front door, "I go?"  Clearly, stranger danger is a topic of conversation that she could use a little of.

We are getting excited about the impending visit of Aunt Claire again and a future trip back to Virginia.  Lots of exciting things ahead!