Who am I?

I was helping my mom make a comforter for my niece, Hailey. As I cut the excess batting along the edges, Chase and Aiden would tear the pieces away from the blanket. At one point, Chase looked up at me and proudly asked, "Mom, are we the 'tearers'?" I laughed and exclaimed, "Yes! Yes you are!"

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Chase was practicing his rhyming skills. Red-Fred. Flower-power. Happy-sappy. Karam would intermittenly suggest words for him to rhyme. Chase would respond, until he said, "What about Karam?" Chase promptly replied, "Yes, you can have a turn." ;)

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Karam wondered if Aiden was as proficient at rhyming as Chase, so he was asking him to rhyme different words. Aiden was too busy playing with a Transformer and took no notice of Karam. Chase, on the other hand, would rhyme whatever word Karam said. I decided to get in on the act and asked, "What rhymes with Mom?" Chase said, "Doh-doh." Ummmm NO! Thanks a lot, Chase. And I think you laughed way harder than was nescesary, Karam.

Learning curve...

I often find myself asking "why don't they LEARN?" when my boys do something repeatedly that they get in trouble for each time. Take the following for example:

My brother, Marc and his wife, Leilani and their kids, Charly and Kavika were in town visiting a couple weeks ago. They came over one morning for breakfast. (Marc makes the BEST crepes! EVER!) After playing downstairs for a while, the kids came up and informed me that they made a MESS. This was the scene that greeted me in the family room and down the hallway:




I have a big, giant stuffed Mickey Mouse. They decided it would be fun to unstuff one of Mickey's legs and play with the stuffing... AFTER dumping out every toy in their playroom. (We had even cleaned right before Marc and family arrived, so every toy was in it's place.) So, the little styrofoam balls were E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E!!! And if you know anything about little styrofoam balls, they're very static-y (?) and stick to everything.

M.E.S.S!!!!! GIANT MESS!!!

SOOOO much fun to clean up, let me tell you. :) I was not a super happy mom, I'm not going to lie. I got everything cleaned up, and made it VERY clear that this was not an activity they were to engage in again. Apparently they didn't learn because the very next day, I went into the playroom and found that they had gotten into the beads (that I had "strategically placed" behind Mickey Mouse) AGAIN. They weren't ALL out, but still, another mess. This time I put the beads in the spare bedroom, which is off-limits AND grounded them from playing in their playroom for a week as punishment! Take THAT! They'll learn from that, right?!

Fast forward to today. I had a presidency meeting this morning at my house. While our Presidency was upstairs meeting, the children played downstairs. In the playroom. The logical place for children to play. After everyone left I went downstairs to get the boys and SURPRISE!, I was greeted by millions of tiny little styrofoam beads. Again. Everywhere. Hmmmmm...

Who isn't learning here? Could it be the 3 and 4 yr olds who find playing with beads SOOOOOO much fun (really, who can blame them?!), or perhaps the MOM who keeps cleaning them up and storing them (to restuff Mickey at some point) in reach of the 3 and 4 yr olds?

I'm happy to say that I've finally learned my lesson. Three cleanups later, I put the bag of beads up. They're hidden away. I'm not even going to tell you, the reader of this blog, where they are. They're safe from all 3 and 4 yr olds. I'm feeling smarter already!

Summer-O-Fun... take 1

This may come as a surprise to some... those people who don't know us AT ALL, anyway... We went to the zoo. The news here is that we went to the Denver zoo, not the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We met our friends, the Smiths, so they could show us around the zoo in their neck of the woods (as we took a few turns escorting them around the zoo in ours... or OUR zoo as we commonly refer to it... ha, ha). They have animals that we don't have. For example, red pandas (Kristy's favorite)... Camels...

Polar bears...

Very friendly polar bears who stand on their hind legs and let us compare heights with them...

Ok, just kidding. What? You couldn't tell that was a cutout? Obviously our little ones have a way to go...

Seals...

Elephants...

Oh. Just kidding. We have elephants. I just thought this elephant was so funny. She looked like she had a little too much to drink (not the tipsy-kind-of-too-much-to-drink, just the too-much-for-your-bladder-to-hold and you have to cross your legs and hold it while looking for the nearest restroom...)

Then Aiden found a matching-shirt-twin. Actually his matching-shirt-twin found him. It was cute, the little boy came running up and just stood in front of Aiden not saying a word. He just knew that words were not necessary. And he was right. Aiden simply gasped, cheered, and hugged his instant buddy. Then their proud moms took pictures to document their little meeting. :)

And finally, we found a gorilla on the loose that turned out to be no match for my two little animal tamers... (He doesn't look happy about it!) ;)
It was a fun day. Thanks Smiths! Too bad we waited so long and only got one chance to go with you before you moved far away to Alabama. Maybe one of these days you'll be back. Or maybe there's a cool zoo down there we'll have to come check out... In the winter, of course! The Denver Zoo was hot enough for us! We miss you already!