3 Fun Things From This Weekend

If truth be told, every single day is jam-packed with fun and funniness. Yes, there is also lots of drama and "terrific-two" tantrums and time-outs-for-naughty-behavior and utter-parental-exhaustion. Just this afternoon Braydon and I were talking outside while we watched the boys play in the yard and I said, "Doesn't it just feel like every day is a wild roller-coaster ride of emotion?" And he said, "YES!!! It does!" But overall, I can honestly say that the peaks of the roller-coaster ride -- all the fun and funniness (all the joy and love and laughter) -- far outweighs all that other stuff we experience in the valleys of every-day-life. I count us as incredibly lucky and incredibly blessed. Here are just three of the fun things from this weekend:

1) Awhile ago Braydon bought the boys little toy airplanes that they can make fly (click here for that post). Within just a couple days of Owen mastering the flying of these planes, Kyle had mastered it too. We have three planes total, so all three boys can play. Owen, Kyle, and Braydon all love to play with these planes. They play with these airplanes every day for extended periods of time -- both inside and out. The latest is that Braydon came up with the great idea to fly the planes up and down the stairs inside the house. He sits on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and shoots the planes up (often hitting the ceiling, a plant, or one of the boys). They all laugh hysterically. Then Kyle and Owen retrieve the planes, stand up on stools, and shoot them back down to Braydon (often hitting the ceiling, a plant, or their Papi). They all laugh hysterically. Then Braydon shoots them back up to K & O. They'll do this over and over and over. It is really fun to watch because they are all three really playing together, and they are all three really doing something together they each individually enjoy.

2) Lately we've been noticing how much Kyle loves to look at himself. He will situate himself in front of any mirror or reflective window he can, and watch himself do stuff. He'll do this while playing all of his instruments, or he'll do this while playing with a toy truck, or he'll just dance/hop/spin solo in front of a mirror. He is completely unselfconscious about it. Which is so endearing! And he is totally unaware that Braydon and I realize his love of watching himself. The latest is that he has discovered that if he situates himself just so on the stairs he can see himself in a small mirror that hangs on the wall of the downstairs foyer. Numerous times a day he goes to the stairs and watches himself do stuff --- especially playing instruments. He just pops off to the stairs to watch himself from time to time. He has no idea we are watching him watch himself. Here he is drumming on the stairs -- you can see him looking at himself in the mirror and he's got the drum tilted just so -- so that he can see himself hit it with the drumstick. He was so engrossed with this watching-of-himself that he did not even notice me walk right in front of him and take the picture. ;-)

3) Owen and Kyle are both pretty good eaters, but they eat really differently in terms of how they pace themselves during any given meal. Kyle has always just powered through his food. He sits down, shovels it in, and then is off and running. Owen, on the other hand, likes to sit at the table for long periods of time. He doesn't rush it. He wiggles and squirms and chats it up with whomever else is at the table, and he plays with his food and gets distracted and nibbles and fools around, and eventually eats it all. K & O both eat about the same quantity of food but Owen takes literally about five times as long to eat his. This leaves lots of time for Owen to discuss deep ideas one-on-one with Braydon and I at the table. The latest is that Owen is starting to understand that the food he eats goes down his throat, into his belly (well, he says/insists that the food goes "into his belly button"), and that the food makes us strong/healthy. At one point this weekend Kyle was long done with his meal and was off and playing. Braydon and I were done too, but we were still sitting at the table with Owen -- who had barely even gotten started on his food. I was telling Owen that he needs to eat his food so he will "have big strong muscles just like Papi!" He loved this idea. He'd take one small bite of food, chew it, and swallow it, and then pull up his shirt sleeve for us to look at his muscles. He was absolutely 100% convinced that each bite he ate made his muscle bigger. "See it?!! See it Mommy? See it Papi?!" And he'd be so proud to show us his muscles. That meal took even longer than usual for Owen to finish. ;0 But it was a very fun meal.