Nappy, nappy

Today was not a good day for naps....on a bed. Ian fell asleep this morning in the car on the way home from the grocery store - that lasted 10 minutes. Then during his usual nap time, he fell asleep right next to his door. I couldn't open the door when he started crying about 25 minutes later because he was trying to go back to sleep - next to the door. I finally got him to roll a little to the side. I picked him up and he fell back asleep for about 30 minutes on my shoulder. Payton fell asleep in her chair. She woke up with a neck-ache. At least they napped...

Then we met Samuel and Sarah for a play date at Confluence Coffee where Jill and I got to sip hot chocolate while the kidd0s drove cars, slid down slides, and climbed places where they weren't suppose to.

Daddy's on-call tonight at the hospital. The kids are playing at camping right now while I steal some time away to blog :) Payton is usually the instigator and narrator in the pretend play and I'm amazed how Ian catches on and plays along with her. If Payton wasn't such a talker when she plays I'm sure I wouldn't have a clue as to what they are up to.

Science, Gingerbread and Camping

This week we received 3 boxes of toys from Oma and Opa. A lot of it was toys from Christmas including a Science kit and a gingerbread house to decorate. Payton wanted to do these RIGHT NOW. But we were making Valentine's cookies, so I had to delay her expectations a day. First we did the gingerbread house. Both kids loved this activity. Although I don't know what Ian enjoyed more, decorating with or eating the candies. I'm going to guess eating the candies. Payton took the pictures of the finished house.

Then Payton was ready for her science kit which included color tablets to dye water red, blue and yellow. Then she mixed the colors to make new colors. If that wasn't exciting enough, the kit included polyacrylamide crystals that expand in water and turn the color of the water! It was a very sweet kit for an almost 3 year old. We've done the experiment a couple of times this week.

Today, the kids were in a great mood. They were actually playing very nice with each other and goofing around. Ian was helping me put away the clean dishes out of the dishwasher, when he put a plastic plate in front of his eyes and said, 'I see you!' He did this about 10 times and them Payton joined in :)

Then for about half an hour, Payton and Ian played in Ian's room. They were pretending to be camping at the beach. They turned the light on and off and pretended to sleep and look at the constellations at night and then jump in the sand during the day. They put pillows on the floor that they could jump off the bed on to. They giggled and laughed - I was very impressed that they entertained each other so well for so long.

Mommy's back

My trip to Phoenix was great! I got to go to bed late, sleep in, and catch up with all my friends. The stay at Casa Reagan was delightful. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it was to have a great conversation over a beer at 3 in the afternoon :) The weather was gorgeous and the mountains were beautiful, as always.

Daddy did a great job with the kids. I think he was a little bit of an over-achiever, but he just has a hard time vegging at home. The kids were worn out after hanging out with Daddy for 4 days and I think they are still somewhat recovering. The house was a little messy, but not terrible. Other than the kitchen floor seeming to be abnormally sticky, and something brown, sweet-smelling sticky stuff in the carpet, the house wasn't in too bad of shape.

When I arrived at the airport, both Payton and Ian came running to me and jumped into my arms. Payton had loads to say. Ian tried to jump into the conversation with his one words here or there. It was nonstop about everywhere Daddy took them, including Polar bears.

We've been back to our normal schedules this week. School, the gym, playdate at a park with Samuel and Sarah - the usual. Yesterday, Payton was showing me some her new tricks. Maybe we should look into gymnastics....

Picture courtesy of Jill Pruitt ;)

Chic-Filet Toy.....

I'm 33 years old, have 11.5 years of Post-High school education and it took me 50 minutes to put together this dragon-fly. Payton lost interest about 1.2 minutes into it. 

Would have been all good except for two very important things: 

1) Due to the damage sustained by forcing multiple tabs into impossibly small slots my dragonfly will have to settle for barely standing, much less flying.

2) This "dragon-fly engineering set" was found in a Chic-Filet happy meal and marked for children 4 or more.......FOUR!! ...... ugh my ego.

(Um does anyone know what a "petiole" is? It was supposed to go into slot K.)

Daddy Cross-Cover Blogger - Day 3

Whoo-hoo! Sunday....I think....no wait.......yeah, um...I've lost all grip on date and time. 

Both the kids have stuffy noses so I don't think either slept well, but Payton talked about the zoo from when she woke up at 3am, through her poptart, through Ian's poptart, and while daddy chugged numerous mountain dews. After I packed up a lunch (proud of me mom?) and readied myself for a trip, I loaded the car DVD and we were off! Wait did I take a shower.....um did I put on a clean......well never mind. 

The day was beautiful around 71 degrees. The zoo wasn't that crowded, atleast that early and we got to a lot of the exhibits in good time. Unfortunately a lot of the bigger "North American" side animals were not out. Including the Polar bears. Oh well, I just spent the rest of the day trying to convince Payton that every other animal we came across was a Polar Bear. She would have none of it. Smart girl. 

Please notice the "African" Polar Bear behind Payton nibbling on the tree.

These "woodland" polar bears were also really close. A cool treat. 

 

All the wild animals, and one of the most fascinating things to the kids are the shiny water fountains....

Of Course we can't get through the Zoo without the play park, which is incredible and the kids have the greatest time.

 

But alas, 2 hours and the kids begin to drag and so does daddy. Payton ends up for the last 45 minutes on daddy's shoulder and Ian phasing out in the umbrella stroller. As you might expect this is what the kids looked like before I made it out of the parking lot:

Both kids woke up on the "Holy crap my neck hurts..." side of the car seat. Nothing a lot of playing in the yard couldn't solve. Beautiful evening deserves dinner on the deck!

Mommy comes home tommorow afternoon.....yeah!

I need a nap.

Spot the landing....

No children, small animals, or Dora-the-Explorer tents were hurt in the making of this blog. 

Daddy Cross-Cover Blogger- Day 2

Well I've survived another day. This kids have actually been great, energetic and non-stop, but great. 

We spent the morning debating the merrits of a poptart vs. yoghurt vs. gummi WALL-Es before we headed out to watch basketball. Reese is the young son of our friends, Bill and Robin. He had a game at a local middle school. P and I were enthralled for the first half of the game. While Ian consistently reminded us where the ball was and that it goes "in hoop, daddy!", Payton began collecting data from daddy: Why are they bouncing the ball--why dont they carry it? Why are they wearing numbers on the back? Why are we cheering for the blue team (Reese's team)? Why can't I cheer for the white team? Why do we cheer dad? What is "half-time"? And why do the teams stay separate during half time and mix all together when they play? ------ well you get the idea.

The second half was spent discovering the joys of bleachers and bouncing the basketball along the sideline.

We spent lunch with our friends, and the kids promptly fell asleep in the car. They were exhausted. After Post-nap grumpiness wore off we spent time till a late dinner at the playpark. Its a beautiful 62 degrees here in the bright sun. 

Tommorow we are heading to the zoo!

Now, where did I leave my keg of mountain dew?