Me vs. Aidan

How Mom gets into the car:
Open the car door.
Get in.
Buckle seatbelt.

How Aidan gets into the car:
Open the car door.
Play with toy that was left on the floor of the car.
Say, "Hey Mom! My flip flops are still in here!"
Get into the carseat backwards.
Sing.
Turn around after Mom says to.
Start buckling buckles.
Say, "I'm gonna win!"
Say, "Mom, why do you always win buckling Gresham in? I never get to win!"
Ask for help because buckles are "too tight."
Buckle seatbelt.

How Mom gets dressed in the morning:
Pick out an outfit that is appropriate for the weather.
Put it on.

How Aidan gets dressed in the morning:
Mom says, "Go get dressed. It's cool, so wear long pants."
Take off pull-up.
Run naked through the house to put the pull-up in the trash.
Mom says, "Next time, please get dressed first, and then bring your pull-up out."
Go back to room.
Call out to Mom about which day of the week it is so that he can select the correct underwear. (They have dinosaurs and days of the week on them).
Ask how to spell that day.
Ask if it's warm enough for shorts.
Argue about the answer given.
Come out with only underwear on to ask which shirt to wear - Mom says it doesn't matter, just pick one.
Get out clothes.
Put them on the floor.
Cuddle with honeybear and blankie for a minute.
Put pants on.
Practice jumping off the step stool.
Put shirt on.

The Bible is...

Gresham has been learning in the nursery that "The Bible is true!!" We were reviewing this yesterday, and also talking about how God made him. I would say, "Who made Gresham? God made Gresham." So last night, we were showing Daddy all our progress. I told Gresham, "The Bible is..." and he said true. Then I asked him, "Who made Gresham?" and he said "Daddy!"

How Little Boys Play House

Yesterday, I had a lot of cooking to do. I got out the play food and told Aidan that he and Gresham could play restaurant while I cooked. I gave him a pad and pencil to take "orders." Aidan's first guest was someone named "Sir" who was ordering pizza. Then he told me, "another person came in who is the bad guy from Toy Story. I don't think Sir likes him, so I'm going to have to figure out where he can sit so they won't fight with each other!"

Planting Flowers!

Last Wednesday, we planted new flowers in our flower bed, trimmed the bushes, and added new mulch. This involved the boys' favorite thing - digging in the dirt!!!!

Gresham had a hard time with the fact that we wanted the dirt to stay in the flower bed.

Aidan actually did a pretty good job. He's learning, anyway.

When Gresh got tired of digging, he moved on to his new obsession - mowing!

Don't worry, Grandpa and Grandma Dees! I already have prints of these to send to you!

Gresham Happenings...

Now that Gresham is talking more (still single words mainly), we are getting a glimpse into how his little mind works!

On Friday night, I had him in the bathtub while Aidan was practicing violin in the bathroom (mommy multi-tasking). He picked up a little toy watering can and poured water out of the tub all over the bathroom floor. I told him no, and not to do it again. A few minutes later, he did it again. I told him, "Stand up! Look at this mess!" He very slowly peeked his little face over the edge of the tub and said, "Oh my!" Aidan and I both cracked up, and I figured the lesson had been lost, but he hasn't done it again!

Then tonight on the way home from church he was saying "Ready, set, go" and then screaming, except that it sounded like, "Eddy, set, go... AHHHHHH!"

What a goofy kid!

Guns!

Anyone who thinks that they can keep their little boy from playing guns has another thing coming!

Yesterday, Aidan was at the park with Grandma, and he found a stick to be his gun. It was even shaped like a gun. He brought it home and put it on the kitchen table (which is a great place to accumulate stuff, like sticks, rocks, and toys).

This morning he told me, "When I was at the park, a boy came up to me and asked, 'Is that a gun?' and I said yes. He said that he has some of those too."

BOYS!

I've been trying to add more video!

Well, I have been trying to add more video for three days now. I have one of Aidan playing his violin, but blogger keeps having errors when I try to upload it. Technology...

Video of Gresham

Here is a video of Gresham singing the Bob the Builder theme song. If you know the tune, this is a pretty impressive rendition for an 18 month old! I also got him to do some of his animal sounds. He says many words, but mostly won't do them on command.

Spring Into Nash Farm!

On Saturday, we went to "Spring Into Nash Farm," which is a free event at a historic farm in downtown Grapevine. The barn and farmhouse have been there since the late 1800's, and the city has restored the property. They even grow corn and cotton on the land. Each spring and fall, they have a day full of pony rides, games, animals to pet, etc.

I could not drag Aidan away from the coloring table, which was extremely weird. He colored a scarecrow, and did a very nice job! Later I found out that he thought that he was going to get a prize for coloring the whole thing. And I thought that he had finally decided that coloring could be fun!!!

Gresham loved every animal that we saw! We got to pet this sheep, and we also saw baby lambs that were 5 days old. Gresham also loved the tractors. I didn't know that he could say that word, but he said it over and over!

Aidan on the pony

Gresham did pretty well on the pony too!

Aidan got to rake in the garden and plant a real tomato plant!

He is so happy when he is working.

I may not be in fashion design, but...

something is seriously wrong with little boys clothing.

Today, I loaded up my children and went on a quest for summer clothing. We have already done this a few times this season. We have been to Target, Kohl's, Gap, JC Penney, Sears, etc, etc, to no avail. Aidan seems to be between the toddler boys section and the little boys section - neither really fits at this point, and he is pretty particular about fit... He wants shorts to be long, but not look like capris. All the size 5's are too big in the waist (even with most pants having an adjustable waist), but all the size 4's are too short in the legs. I told him today that we were not coming home without shorts for him (at least 2 pairs) and pajamas for Gresham. Well, that turned out to be a lie, because we returned $127 worth of clothing that I had ordered online that didn't fit, and came home with nothing.

It's not all our fault, though. If you have been shopping lately for little boys clothing, you will notice that it comes in four categories:

1. Surfer dude
2. Skater dude
3. Character clothing (like Spider Man, Sponge Bob, and all my other favorites)
4. Hick (this category mostly encompasses t-shirts - with monster trucks, dinosaurs eating people, and shirts with cute sayings like, "I'm a brat and I love it")

Even Gap, the land of prep, is not exempt from this problem. Pajamas in Gresham's size came with pirate themes (I just couldn't buy skull and crossbone jammies for my baby!), and another style that said "I love chicks" and had little pictures of baby chickens on them. Nice.

Also, most clothing, especially in the skater dude and surfer dude categories, comes with a lot of "pre-ripping." I don't need pre-ripping. Or pre-staining. I have boys that will take care of that. I need affordable clothing that will last through two boys! We saw some shorts at Target that came with paint splatters on them. That's the kind of clothing that we deem unacceptable even to donate to Goodwill, and we turn them into dust cloths or throw them out! Now, I'm all for my children looking "hip," but I just can't spend money on clothes that are already worn out.

J.C. Penney was having a great sale today, but they were out of size 5 in almost every style. There were lots of 6's and 7's. We found some blue athletic shorts that fit, but the shirts that went with them started in size 8. What's up with that??

So..... maybe we'll wear jeans all summer. Or wear the same two pairs of shorts that Aidan has over and over and over. We'll figure it out another day...

I love spring!!!

Spring is my favorite season. It's so nice to be outside again after the winter! And winter is relatively short for Texas, so I can't imagine how wonderful spring must be in other states!

On Friday, I took Aidan and Gresham to Grapevine Lake to walk on some of the trails there. I told them we were going "exploring," and Aidan packed his backpack with a snack and his flashlight "in case we found any bear caves." He was most disappointed to not get to use his flashlight!

Gresham is soooooo 18 months. In this picture, he was having a fit because he couldn't eat all of Aidan's goldfish (Gresham had his own bag, but didn't want it, and we left it in the car...).

What a day...

Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't complain, because I only have two children, and they're not very close in age, and several of my friends lead a much more hectic life with 3 or 4 children.

But... I teach violin lessons out of our house.


Today, we were going to have two lessons from 4:00 - 5:00. We do this every Wednesday. At 4:00, the mom called me to tell me that she was sitting in front of her kids' school, and that they were getting out of choir late, and she had groceries waiting in the car, so they would be very late after running home to unload those. We decided to do just one lesson instead of both.


While I was on the phone, Aidan colored on several piano keys with a pencil. What possesses him to do these things??? I asked him if he thought that he probably shouldn't be doing that, since he looked guilty when I caught him, and he said he had no idea... Don't worry, that didn't get him out of trouble!! Gresham woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the crib, and had been crying and being irrational since waking up. He cried because Aidan was having an applesauce. I offered him a yogurt, since he had applesauce at lunch. He said "unh uh." Then he laid down on the floor and threw a fit. I decided to call the mom back and cancel altogether, since I was having trouble just holding my household together. We both agreed that the kids shouldn't miss their lessons altogether, so we rescheduled for tomorrow. We hung up.

Then, I called her again to say that I forgot that I am going somewhere tomorrow. We rescheduled for this evening. We hung up.


I disciplined Aidan for writing on the piano. I let Gresham feed himself a yogurt (big mess), and then sent the boys out back to play in the sandbox. I told them they could get dirty, and then we would come in and have baths. Aidan took that to mean "get as dirty as we possibly can", and poured a shovel fun of sand/dirt over Gresham's head. It was all in his hair, and down his shirt (a onesie), and in his diaper and pants.


The lesson mom called again, and to make a long story short, we ended up deciding to go ahead and have the lessons in the afternoon. So they arrived, and the boys continued playing outside.

During the lessons, Aidan poured more dirt over Gresham and spread my pile of weeds I had pulled all over the patio and into the kitchen as well (the back door was open.)

So when Jordan arrived home (at 6:30), there was nothing to eat for dinner. I had Gresham stripped down to his diaper, which was filled with sand and poop. It was bunches of fun. I fed the boys scrambled eggs and bagels for dinner. Thankfully Jordan gave them a bath afterwards while I made our dinner (pork tenderloin that came pre-marinated and mashed potatoes). And we finally sat down to eat at 7:45!

While we were eating, Aidan read books to Gresham in his bedroom, showing me that he does actually have a sweet side under all that disobedience and little boy energy!

It's okay. I'll make it up to him when I'm old and move in with him and his family...