Mini Me: Just Rolling Along

So, Alden gets in trouble for repeatedly pounding the keys on the computer. I told him he needed to learn to listen. His new phrase is, "Mommy, don't be mad at me," when he gets into trouble. So, a few minutes later he comes over and lays his head on the chair and says, "Mommy, I need you to listen." I am thinking he is mocking me again because he loves to throw my punishment right back at me. Then he says, "Mommy listen to me. Mommy, I don't think you know how much I love you. I love you very, very much and you do not need to get mad at me. " Yep. He wasn't really in trouble anymore...until he started pounding the face of the iPad repeatedly even though he was told not to. After that, he just went and got his flashlight to look for bugs.

Another Alden moment of the day. I wanted to run to get a few things early this morning before the big storms hit. He did not want to go to the grocery store. We passed by Whole Foods because we needed a Target run. He cried and screamed that he wanted to go to the grocery store. We get to Target. He does not want to go to Target and screams. We get in Target and he is excited about the chocolate bunnies and the avocados for Daddy. We don't buy some cartoon character mac and cheese. He screams again that he wants mac and cheese. He screams because Spencer is touching him. The whole store is gawking at us as we pass until finally he has had enough and he says,"Baby Spencer. Stop it. I am in a bad mood!" Well, at least that explains it.

Speaking of grocery, here is our first attempt at being in the cart together. Joey has driven me crazy since he got his iPhone. He won't take photos with our real camera now and only them on the phone so I never actually get to see them. So, we don't have our kids in sweaters and coats in the middle of April. This is just the first time I have seen this photo.

Ditto for this one. This was also a funny story. Alden demanded that he wear his fireman outfit and his froggy rain boots to dinner one night. This is the first time he had done this so it just wasn't worth a fight. It just so happened that a real fireman was having a party for his daughter. It was a very exciting moment for Fireman Alden.

The whole Lucy obsession is really out of control around here. Spencer opened that cage and let her out and crawled in so many times that I finally moved it to the dining room. It took about 15 minutes for him to realize that it is in the dining room. So, now, he just climbs the stairs and goes into the dining room to get into the cage. It does happen less frequently, so I am trying to decide which is worse: keeping the cage closed more often or having to keep him off the stairs and the cage. Alden felt like her crate was not "homey" enough. He made us keep her framed photo and a few other animals on top just to keep her company. We feed her treats, give her puzzle pieces, and occasionally hang the stray coat hanger from the top.

More stair climbing. Why did we buy a house with stairs in every room!

Another form of climbing which is also not so good. Alden has this habit of climbing up on the counters and stealing food. We don't keep him from eating food, so I don't know why he feels he has to steal it. He uses the high chair to catapult himself to all places we don't want him to go in the kitchen. The problem is that he takes one bite out of the fruit and puts it back. Caught red handed.

Last weekend was the most anticipated event of 2011 so far. A Day Out with Thomas the Train. That is a huge smile on Alden's face! He was even more excited that he got to with "my buddy Ben." He even seemed super excited that Spencer was coming along.

Meeting Sir Topham Hat. Another big smile! Baby Spencer is feeding Sir Topham Hat a Mum Mum cracker. It cracks him up to feed other people his food. Didn't know Joey was such a big fan. This does get me excited thinking about that eventual trip to Disney World. If this was that exciting for him, I don't know what in the world he would do with all of the Disney characters.

Wouldn't you know that when we went home to debrief our day the best part was a train ride on the "little train." Now, we rode on an actual steam engine passenger train, went tot he petting zoo, the bouncy house, the gift shop of Thomas O'Rama, and the giant playroom of every Thomas table and train you could imagine. He liked the little kiddy train. Well, just like the zoo train. It always comes back to the zoo as the one place that makes him the happiest. Jack Hanna people. One day. Jack Hanna.

Loves stamps! And the apex of happiness would be a table of Thomas stamps. We stamped for a very long time. We took our stamp sheet to school to show our teachers. As a matter of fact, stamps are popular no matter where you are. The people at Gymboree are brilliant. The only way they can get all of the little cherubs to peacefully exit the play area at the end of class is to tell them they are getting a clown stamp. Works 100% of the time, and my child always asks for his stamp on his belly. It is all about the visual sign that you played well with others and now are deserving of an distinguished prize. I wonder if I got a stamp at the end of the day for being a good mom if it would make all of my stress go away and my life ultimately fulfilled?

It always amazes me that no matter how many trains we buy or train parts we buy or how big the train tracks in our room become, it is always more fun to play trains at the shoe store,or Ben's house, or the book store, or the Thomas day.

We started swim lessons. Not going so well. He is terrified of the pool and terrified of the water. We went through three rounds of swim between birth and twenty-one months as well as beach trips and lake trips. This shocked me. I think it is because they have this policy that you are supposed to dump your kid in the pool with a strange person and leave them there so that they "trust their instructor." The theory is that if you are there they will be paying more attention to you the parent. I am flabbergasted I bought into this theory. I may have scarred him for life in the process. There is a lady with a bunch of tatoos and piercings which he has never seen and your mom makes you get in a pool with her when you can't swim and appears to be leaving you there. So....we try to rectify this situation. Joey and I took him to the pool the next week together and all four of us got in to swim. This was okay. So, Daddy went with us the next lesson and got in the pool. With the help of Daddy and a toy dinosaur, we convinced him that it was safe to get in the water with this lady, but since it was maybe 60-something degrees outside in an outdoor pool (the water is heated) his little teeth literally started chattering and his lips slightly blue and he asked if he could please go home after about 20 minutes. Now, I can't even get him to put on the swim suit without, "I don't want to go to swim with that lady! I don't want to go to the Y!" Might take all summer to overcome my parental faux pas. I can hear it now when I am fifty, "Remember when I was 2 and you made me get in the pool with that strange lady and tried to leave me there? I have always hated the water since..."

I have been wanting to take Spencer to a real swing. The park is a very hard thing to do these days and I haven't been brave enough yet. Spencer can't do anything but swing and Alden hates to swing. Even in my dreams Alden would not stand there and watch Spencer swing. So, basically the park for Spencer would be sitting in his stroller and watching his brother play. Luckily, we happened upon a swing in Helen's yard while visiting her lemonade stand.

Mamma Helen loved pushing Spencer in the swing.

Yep, their house is way more fun than ours.

We spend a lot of outside time outside of our house since we have a grass square to play with and some rocks to fall on and get stitches and some rusty gates to give us tetanus and a city bus that barrels down the street. The wagon has made the Botanical Gardens a huge hit. Alden loved riding in the wagon the first few times. It's a workout, but fun for everyone. Now, the wagon is almost the same caliber as the stroller. He is only happy in the wagon if he gets tired walking. BUT, he loves to pull Spencer. So, let him do the leg work for me, you know? He will be taking out the trash and cutting the lawn before you know it. Wait...these are Daddy's jobs. Let's teach him to do laundry and cook dinner.