Back to Full-Time Parenting

Well, we're back to full-time parenting this week.  We had a great visit with Grandad & Nana and were very sad to see them go.

They allowed me to leave the house for several hours just about EVERY day.  Todd and I got to go out on our own.  Plus, the kids were on their better behavior for most of the visit.  It was great.  Not only that, but they helped our kids learn how to ride bikes.  Henry is getting better every day with his bike.  Now, he can push off on the ground several times to get momentum before putting his feet on the pedals and get himself going.  He can go the distance of the side of our house.  It is very cute because when he gets a good length of pedaling in and finally stops (crashes), he'll get off his bike and pump his fists up in the sky.  One day, Josiah was being particularly encouraging to Henry.  Every time their bikes passed each other, Josiah would say, "Good job, Henry."  "You're doing it."  "Nice riding."  etc.  It is always so nice to hear your kids speak so kindly to each other.  It helps to make up for the times when they are not so nice to each other.  Later that same day, a very tired, unreasonable, and tantrum-throwing Josiah clocked Henry in the forehead with the bathroom door knob.

Henry wants to know when he can ride his bike with his handles backwards.

The boys were sweet with each other on our school field trip.  We visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land.  It is an off-shoot of the big museum downtown.  It was actually quite a small museum - two floors and you could stand in the middle and easily see from one end to the other.  Downstairs the boys got to see frogs on one side and geodes on the other.  Upstairs was a bit more interactive - they had hands-on things like weights & levers, learning about waves, centripetal force, sound waves, etc.  The boys liked the whisper box the best.  It was a ~6 foot diameter parabolic dish (How's that for fancy? - Todd gave me that term).  Like the parabolic microphone things they have on the sidelines at football games.  The dish had a small metal circle sticking out from the center connected to three metal arms extending to the edges of the dish.  The boys had to whisper into the small circle and the person at the other dish on the other side of the room could hear them.  It worked amazingly well.  The whispers were quite clear.  The boys were saying things like, "I love you Henry." and "You're the best."  Then another CC child came along and stood next to Henry and whispered, "You're weird."  Henry laughed and repeated it.  Thank you, older child, for teaching my kid to be rude.

Josiah made the scared face all on his own.

Henry was bored downstairs, so he took a rest.

Josiah lifting 50 lbs.

Josiah trying to light up all the light bulbs (it was VERY hard to get all 6 lit)

Since Josiah got up super early every day Grandad & Nana were here (including an impressive 4:00 a.m. on the last day they were here), we put a clock in his room with paper over the minutes, so all he can see was the hour.  He has to stay in bed until he sees the 6 (unless nature calls, of course).  The first morning, he came in our room about 4 times before the 6, but since then he's gotten better.

To keep the kids busy and distracted from Grandad & Nana going home, we put up our Christmas tree.  The kids and Todd put the ornaments on and the kids have been breaking, on average, one ornament per day since then.  Today we had one shatter, not even salvageable with glue.  The boys each drew one side of our star.  Henry chose a solid yellow for his side.  Josiah chose words for his.

It was Henry's turn to put the star on the top of the tree.  Todd did his best to hold him up (check out his face), but Henry wasn't exactly hurrying to get it on and Todd's muscles gave out.  So, Todd ended up finishing the job himself.

Playing with the nativity scene has also been a favorite past time.  Caroline actually plays with it - Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, angel, etc.  The boys get their cars and transformers and play with it like it's a hide out from whatever villan is after their character.  They launch the donkey off the roof with the car launcher.

We also made some soft pretzels (sorry Nana, but they weren't that good). The boys impressed me with their skills of rolling their dough into snakes and then forming them into pretzels.  I demonstrated it only once, and Henry just blew through all of his dough balls, forming little perfect pretzels.  They looked much better than they tasted.  Probably because the package expired in July, but the boys still liked them.

A few other pictures from our week:

Watching bacon cook.  Always a favorite pastime:

Drinking milk while wearing chemistry goggles.

Outtake from our Christmas picture.  Caroline is holding her bum saying, "That's just my gas."  Of course, this was the best picture of the boys smiling.

The boys ended the week well.  At church we had a pizza party for a family for whom our class had bought Christmas presents (single mom trying to get out on her own again).  They had a bouncy house right there next to our tables.  The boys did really well in it.  Towards the close of the party, we looked at the rules on the bounce house.  No kids under 3 allowed (broke it).  Only 4 kids in it at a time (definitely broke it).  400 lbs max in it (most likely broke it).  I would say there were 10 to 15 kids in it at any one time.  Miraculously, no major injuries.  :)