Sometimes Daddy Forgets

Tonight was Colette's opportunity to have a "Mommy" night. Colette likes to go to Archivers and do some scrapbooking on Friday nights, it's a little release and time for herself after sometimes long weeks.

This means that I get the opportunity to do some fun stuff with the kids. Today, Colette came to work and picked me up at about 3:30. We got home, got changed, and loaded up the bike.

I pulled the kids in the bike trailer to the "bent tree park" where they have a large sandbox. The other day Colette bought the kids some sand tools, a couple of buckets, scoops, a sifter, and some fish to put sand in and make fish impressions in the sand. We played in the sand for about an hour, then swang in the swings. After that we came home and proceeded to play in the water table, eat some dinner, play in the water table again, then upstairs to take baths.

After baths we played a bit in Lauren's room. After putting Lauren to bed, we went over to Brayton's room and played doctor. Brayton had a tummy ache, so I listened to it with the toy stethescope and kissed it so it was all better. I told Brayton that Daddy's feet were sore, so Brayton performed a little surgery and voila they were all better.

Once time to go to bed came, we did our normal snuggle time where B sits on my lap and lays his head on my shoulder. It's nice time to settle down prior to putting him in bed. We talked about the bug chart and how when he gets a sticker by not whining or screaming in bed, he will be one day closer to his big boy bed. Brayton then informed me that mommy said he could have a pillow and sheets for his big boy bed.

Finally, once that conversaion was over, Brayton said, "Daddy, you forgot to say prayers."

Well, I guess we did.

We said our prayers, and the question we always ask is "Brayton, who do you want to pray for?"

The answer is different every night, but tonight he said:

Grandpa Wayne
Grandma Coke
Georgie
Grandma Cindy
Mommy Scrapbooking

I'm glad we got to have such a fun night.

One little monkey jumping on the bed...

Lauren is becoming quite the active little girl. One day, she saw B climb up on our bed and play. Immediately she wanted to do the same. Well, over time we discovered she really liked the bounciness of the bed combined with the soft pillows that we have up there.

Now, we line up the pillows in a small perimeter on the bed and she crawls around and pounces on them. She also likes to bounce because the bed is elastic enough she gets a little extra spring when she does it.

Just about every night when I come home from work, I take Lauren upstairs with me while I change out of my work clothes. She used to sit there and watch me and play. Now, all she wants to do is be put on the bed to bounce around. I'm always worried she'll bounce right off, so I don't put her up there until I'm done changing clothes. She has no concept of falling yet. Consequently, I have to put up with a whiney little girl for the 2 minutes it takes me to change. She doesn't have much patience, I don't think many 14 month olds do.

As a follow up to this, Brayton is getting to be quite the little climber lately. He is climbing up on top of everything, even the ropes courses at the parks in town. It kind of makes me nervous.

The other thing he has been doing recently is standing on the edge of our bed, jumping up in the air and landing on his bottom on the edge only to bounce off and land on his feet on the floor. I should probably stop him from doing this, but it's quite funny to watch and he really gets a kick out of it.

This kind of stuff reminds me of the old song about 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, I just hope neither of them fall off and bonk their heads.

Feeding the Geese Part 2

A follow up to yesterday's post. This is a quick video of the kids feeding the geese at the lake by the West Des Moines Library. These have to be the tamest geese in the world. Brayton was not quick enough feeding the geese, so they kept approaching him and he would back away. I guess they were invading his space. But every time he'd back away, they would come closer and closer.

The kids really love those geese.

Update on the Big Boy Bed Chart and other items.

Well, Brayton is sleeping like a little angel tonight.

After supper, we went to the library fed the geese outside, put together some puzzels, played with the blocks and toys they have there, and read a few books. We also fed the geese with som left over hot dog buns. Lauren was crawling around trying to crawl into all the little crevaces between the book shelves. She stacked blocks, and stood up and cruised along anything she could. She's really starting to get good with her little steps.

When we got home about 7:15, we did baths and played doctor a bit. Brayton and Colette had been playing earlier today, and when I went to look into B's ear with the little doctors kit, Brayton told me there was a frog in there. Assuming Colette had told him this (later confirmed) I also told him that there was a frog in there and he doesn't want B putting his finger in his ears. He looked at me with amusement, like he wasn't sure if he should believe me or not.

After playing doctor for 15 minutes, it was time for bed. We talked about the bug chart, and discussed getting a big boy bed. He is so excited for his stickers and getting a big boy bed.

As of tonight, Brayton is going on his seventh day of going to bed without throwing a fit and will get his seventh sticker tomorrow morning. He has filled up the entire first row. Horray!