Well? What'd you learn?

A phrase I stole from my very dear friend, Christina, "Well?  What'd you learn?" is a phrase I often find myself saying to the children when they do something that either I warned them not to do or seemed quite obvious in the first place.  Here are a few examples:

When I found Little Man dangling from the top of a window having lost his footing while standing on the window sill.  "Well?  What'd you learn?" - to which he replied "No climb on windows".  (He was only about 2 1/2 at the time)

Or when I found Peanut stuck behind the couch because he put the football helmet on after climbing into the tight space.  "Well?  What'd you learn?" - to which he replied "No helmets behind couch".

Well today while the kids were playing in the little plastic pool on the deck, Little Man put his eye right up to the spout and when the water was turned on, he got shot in the eye.  He was telling me all about it and how much it hurt.  "Well?  What'd you learn?" - to which he replied "that is what I am trying to tell you.  I learned not to put my eye up to the spout.  See Mama, you don't have to ask me what I learned I am already learned it and am telling you"

"Well?  What'd you learn?"

New York New York

I know that this blog is about my adventures with the kids but this weekend marked an important milestone for the family, it was my first adventure without the kids, ever.  It was everything that I needed in a weekend away.  I took the train up to NY on Friday morning and spent the majority of Friday walking around the city without any real destination, taking in the atmosphere and eating the best slice of pizza in the world.  Friday night was an experience in that I went to a benefit concert to see a friend perform.  Jessica Latshaw is as beautiful as she is talented and it was a joy to get to see her perform.  The highlights as I would list them would be exploring and navigating the city from Queens to the West Village with my friend, talking, walking, eating and exploring, then going to a special reserve seating at a restaurant where a chef prepared us a 5 course meal that was beyond amazing, and then accidentally running into Matthew Broderick on the street. 

Upon returning home, I was greeted by 3 little angels that were very happy to see me.  Little Man told me that even though he got to go to the Crab Shack, he still missed me a lot.  He asked me if I had a good time and when I informed him that I did have a very good time his very insightful response was "Did you have a good time because no one ate your breakfast?"  I laughed and told him that yes, part of the fun was that I got to eat all of my own breakfast.  He smiled and said, "I thought you would say that".  It's so true.  For 48 hours I could eat slowly and not share any of my food, I could go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted.  It was a heady feeling that I had long forgotten.  It was pure brilliance to sit in Central Park, listen to my music and read a book by myself.  It was rewarding to be able to sit in a diner at 3am talking with a great friend and knowing that there wouldn't be a small child bouncing me out of bed at 6am.  It was decadent to take small bites of a delicious meal and savor the experience.  There was no guilt to hurry home because I couldn't.  I was away and my babes were all in good hands with Papa Bear who took them to birthday parties, made them pancake breakfasts and let them play in the pool on the deck and apparently eat donuts (as Little Man informed me). 

It was good to be away.  It is great to be home.  What an adventure.

Vocabulary Lessons....

Today Little Man and I were working on a puzzle and when we got a particularly difficult part done I said "Well aren't we fancy".  His immediate response was "You aren't fancy, you are pretty".  Hmmm, what does that mean.  So I asked.  He proceeded to explain to me that girls are pretty and cute which means pink and purple and boys are handsome and fancy which means black, white and blue.  Honestly, I was stumped. I love how his little mind works and getting a glimpse into how he sees the world but I also don't want him to see things in such clear stereotypes or gender roles yet.  But we do tell him that he is handsome and tell Sweet Pea that she is pretty.  So what to do?  I decided to just let it go to enjoy our puzzle time and then he managed to floor me and make me proud all at once.  He looked up and said "But you don't care if we are fancy or cute as long as we are kind, right Mama?"  Oh how right he is! 

Later while working on another puzzle he got a bunch of pieces together and said "I have such a good remembery".  You have a what?  "A good remembery, you know a memory for remembering stuff"  Ah yes, he does have a great remembery, now we just need to work on that vocabulary!

And speaking of vocabulary....I must admit that Sweet Pea has added the word "ipad" to her ever expanding vocab.  I may wax poetic about keeping screen time limited in my house but when my 18 month old is saying "ipad" I figure that I am not fooling anyone, especially my kids.

Boys Birthday Party

Faisel, Sebastian, Cyrus, Riyadh, Cillian, Jackson, Logan and Alexa

I know this is a month overdue, but the boys had an excellent birthday party.  We had 6 boys come and had a moon bounce and snacks and played outside for a few hours.  The boys were so excited and happy and it was the easiest party ever.  We celebrated them turning 5 and 3 and let them be messy, loud, jumping enthusiastic boys. 

We had a very special guest, Christine, Peanut's speech therapist who we had to say goodbye to stopped by.  He was so excited that he was shaking and spent almost an hour playing with her rather than the other kids.  It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. 

The boys just had their well-visit appointments.  Peanut weighs 43 pounds and Little Man weighs 46 pounds.  There is about a 3 1/2 inch height difference between them too. I often get asked if they are twins.  Little Man got 2 shots without crying and Peanut showed off some of his new words. 

My boys are growing up before my eyes.  I wish I could keep them little forever but I am also so excited to go to the next stage of their childhood.

My Pouty Princess

The King Of Funny

Little Man has been dubbed the King of Funny by his friends in school.  And I have to say, his dry sarcastic wit (wonder where he got that from) combined with his literal view on the world and his natural comedic timing do indeed make him the King of Funny.  Here are a few examples:

We had a rental car for a while and every time I got into the back of the car to strap car seats I would hurt myself on a low hanging part of the roof.  I would hit my head on the way in or on the way out.  After a few days, Little Man sighed and asked me if I had hit my head again.  I told him that I had and he simply said "Mama, that thing you hit your head on, well it doesn't move, it is in the same place EVERY day.  Maybe you should move your head".  Then he smiled at me. 

I have had some accidents in the kitchen with knives and the cheese grater (I inherit this bad luck from my mom).  Anyway, the other day I pulled out the cheese grater and Little Man goes "Someone get the band-aids, Mama is using the cheese grater again".  Then he smiled at me.

Little Man will disappear for a while and come back dressed up in something trying to make the room laugh.  Most recently, he comes back into the room totally naked except for high heels and a police hat.  (Sadly, his baby sister is learning from him.  Today she appeared naked, having stripped off her diaper, wearing only crocs.)

Ah, my sweet King of Funny.  I love that he always wants to make people laugh and I love that he does it in his own literal, sarcastic witty way. 

(Little Man has also confessed that one of his friends also calls him the King of Crazy, but that will be another post)

Touch-A-Truck

This weekend we took the kids to an event called "Touch-A-Truck" and it was everything that a little boy could want.  Just ask Peanut...

 They played on tow trucks, garbage trucks, fire trucks, police cruisers and helicopters.  They even got to get in the cages in an animal control truck.

Little Man asked a million and a half questions of each truck driver.  I was so impressed with his intelligent and adorable questions.  He was the only kid that didn't want to just lay on the horn and try to steer the truck. He wanted to know exactly what the ladder hooks were for and how the tow trucks operated the hooks.  Peanut, well he just wanted to drive....

Sweet Pea was not impressed with the trucks and did not enjoy all of the air horns being blasted.  She spent almost all of her time snugged up into my neck with her little arms tightly gripping my shoulders.  She spiked a fever later in the day so part of it might have been that she just wasn't feeling that well.

Many large trucks in a parking lot is a dream come true for my boys.  Peanut and Little Man agreed that the boat was their favorite though...

Personally, I enjoyed all of the questions that the boys asked the firefighters. 

What a perfect family fun event.