There's something a little backwards about this...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
My Un-iversary
Today would've been my 8th anniversary with my ex. So glad that's over and done with. But someone wished me a happy UN-iversary and I totally had to steal that. :)
Instead of "celebrating" that, I was much happier spending the morning with my little men, even all we did at first was go to Wal-Mart. We came home and unloaded and then we drove up to Boulder because Cheesecake Factory was having a 30 year anniversary celebration with their old school prices: $1.50 a slice.
The boys on the drive up:
I guess after taking two kids swimming yesterday my confidence was up because I took them both to a "nicer" restaurant all by myself. Usually if I'm solo-parenting we go to "not as nice" places like Atlanta Bread or Noodles or something. But Cheesecake Factory isn't exactly quick. They don't even have paper napkins or a kids menu! It went pretty well, though. I went for myself...not the boys...they don't like to eat much anyway. I ordered their spinach artichoke dip appetizer as our lunch. Easton ate maybe one chip. Dalton enjoyed dipping and eating. Mostly he wanted to dip...then he'd shudder if he got too much spinach. Oh well.
When it came time for dessert Easton said, "I want some, I ate a good chip" as his "I had a good lunch" comment. Tee hee! I let him have a few bites. And a few bites is all I got too before Easton said he had to go potty. I think he just wanted to leave. So I made him wait while I paid and had the waitress pack up the rest of my cheesecake. And THEN we went potty and left.
The boys are doing their down time now, when they get up Easton is going to do a craft again. Yesterday we made one too. Our project went from this:
To this:
To this:
And this:
While Dalton sat and had a snack and observed:
We love our "art projects" as we call them. Thanks for all the loot, JessicaOI!
After we were done we moved on...Dalton watched a TV show and E played online while I did a few chores. I noticed Dalton on the glass coffee table:
I was surprised he got up there by himself! So I had to secretly take that picture before I openly reprimanded him for the big no-no that is sitting on the glass table.
So he sat on the potty instead:
And then Easton took this picture of him sitting on me while we did our "circus games" as we call them:
We demonstrated for Daddy when he came home:
And yes I realize shorts that short are no longer in style nor appropriate for my thighs. Gravity helps them to look even shorter with me laying down...let's focus on the rest of the picture instead, shall we?
We even have a movie:
Clearly Dalton had moved on from all the stunt performing:
While Easton continued to hang and climb all over me:
It was after dinner which explains the boys' lack of clothing.
We sure have fun around here, don't we?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Pool Playdate!
Our friends Shehla, Mason, and Hunter were hosting a playdate at their community pool, we originally weren't going to go...you can't predict the weather that far in advance, but I saw it was supposed to be 95 so I asked at the last minute if we could still come.
It worked out that we could!
So this morning the boys and I drove down to join our friends and many more of their friends at the pool. Man, Molly, I don't know how you do it all day every day, but it was hard trying to be on top of two little ones. Especially in the kiddie pool. Easton is even more of a fish than the last time we went swimming--he was probably underwater more than he was above it. It seemed like the only times he'd come up would be for air! If he was more normal and just waded around I think I wouldn't have been so uptight...but it's like he's trying to see how long he can hold his breath. Not my favorite game, if that's what he's doing!
Dalton spent a lot of his time wandering around the outside of the pool. But right when we got there both boys got in...I was still trying to take off my shoes and sarong and told Easton, "if Dalton falls in, would you get him?" And right then D went under. Another mom grabbed him for me. I was quick getting to him, I knew I could be if I had to...but she beat me. Whoops! He was fine, like he always is. Didn't even have time to try to take a breath. Another time when D was walking around he slipped on the wet pavement and fell backwards. Luck was on our side again and he was fine. But eek! I didn't relax for a second...just like Molly said! :) The only time I was even comfortable enough to grab my camera was right before we were about to go!
A couple times we went into the big pool with Easton in his life jacket and D in his floatie tube. It's much easier keeping track of two that way. That's when I could relax.
We had fun, though. Towards the end Easton was getting worn out and kept having little mini fits...I couldn't figure out what set him off in the first place. Apparently he was getting too much water in his goggles. So it was time to go! And time to find some lunch.
We stopped at my new favorite McAlister's...we ate there so the boys wouldn't have to wait. Yum yum! Easton was much more pleasant after some lunch. And even more pleasant after this:
They both fell asleep on the drive home...and somehow both went back to sleep when we got home. I'm going to have to wake E here in a sec. We'll do a craft before I wake up D.
Watch me complain about bedtime tonight! :)
Together Again!
Saturday morning had Dalton up at 3 or 4 to nurse. Which I did. Gladly. Then he went back to sleep. We had decided after we got in so late Friday night that we'd be skipping the 8:00 soccer game in the morning. Easton woke up calling for me around 7:30. It was great to see him. Little Bublet wasn't too far behind.
We all cuddled in the big bed awhile before heading down to make pancakes. Easton asked for Batman pancakes. I told him I didn't know how to make those but he was pretty insistent and I hadn't seen him in awhile so I added spikey bat ears to his circle pancake and attempted to make Batman's mask out of chocolate chips "remember to leave holes for his eyes!"
It was good enough for E!
Dalton had some pancake but overall that boy has not been eating well at all since we've been back. He only wants Lil Crunchies which I refuse to give him for every meal. I'm only nursing him once in the middle of the night and that's been it. He's not too happy with the arrangement but I know he'll get over it eventually. I feel bad. But I don't think starting back to 4-5 times a day best at this point, either. So, he's stuck with his sippy:
After breakfast we told the boys we brought them some surprises. They were excited to see what I pulled from the suitcase:
We didn't go overboard with souvenirs because they don't care about having something from Vegas and we'd left them a present a day while we were gone. So, these M&M t-shirts were more for us and how cute we thought they'd look in them:
We did pick out a little something for each boy from Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay...a squeaky shark for the bath for D and some sea creatures to paint for E:
This is around when Dalton was wearing the bag and saying, "Ta da!"
The boys had some quiet time later on and afterwards we went to Casa Bonita for dinner so the boys could feel like they got to celebrate my birthday with me too. We took E to Casa Bonita for his birthday and we have not talked about it or looked at any pictures or anything since then, but he remembered all of it. And he remembered not liking it much. When we told him we were going Saturday he was saying how he wanted to just stay home and play with his kitty. He did not want to go. We told him too bad since it was for my birthday but if he didn't like it again we wouldn't go back for a long long time. He was insistent that no one sing anything to use, "Because they're not nice." He did not like when they sang him "Happy Birthday" all mariachi style in January, poor fella.
So we got there and posed our M&M's in front of the fountain outside:
Up until January I thought Casa Bonita was just a local thing...not a chain. But then AJ left me a comment about "I haven't been to a Casa Bonita in ages" and I had to look into it...apparenlty, yeah...there used to be a few other restaurants, all in places near AJ: Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock (and then one somewhere in Texas). But wow. Right now the Colorado one is the only one still open. However it appears the Tulsa one will be re-opening very soon. For those of you that care. And if you watch South Park at all they featured our Casa Bonita on it once which I thought was probably the funniest episode I ever saw, only because I grew up going to Casa Bonita like Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny... the Casa Bonita they drew for South Park is almost an exact representation of where we went Saturday.
Anyhoo...
The food at Casa Bonita is horrendous. Always has been. But it's awful. And they make everyone over the age of 2 buy a plate. So, Easton had to get a plate of stuff we knew he wouldn't touch. Jason and I opted for the vegetarian meals (which they don't put on their menu)...I can hardly stomach the "cheese" there so I certainly won't attempt their meat. Ick. Their food stinks:
But like I said in January, the food is not why you go to Casa Bonita. It's the atmosphere we were seated right near the waterfall where we could watch their pathetic little shows with stage fighting and fake guns (lovely!) and the cliff divers and the mariachi band. Neither kid was interested in the food in front of them, they kept turning to see everything:
I can't say that I blamed them a bit! We actually did get Easton and Dalton both to take some bites of chips (which those aren't even good!) and some cheese sauce enchilada. In exchange for Easton's bites, Jason would do a small trick for E which included balancing a spoon on his nose:
Dalton was amused too:
They announced that they'd be breaking the piñata so J took Easton to do that while Dalton and I paid the bill. Easton didn't get a turn to hit at the piñata but I saw him trying to get chosen. So that made me sad...he did get to get his token two pieces of candy, though:
We went through Black Bart's "haunted" cave and then into the arcade where we played a dollar's worth of games:
Then got Easton a clapper toy with 10 tickets. Good times.
Next we went behind the waterfall. I hoped my daredevil wasn't getting too many ideas...his head got wet though:
We went and watched the lamest puppet show ever and then went and found an equally lame magic show. Actually it wasn't as bad as their stupid puppet show but after seeing Lance Burton I certainly wasn't impressed. But Easton was. Which is all that mattered. In fact, he surprised us by really wanting to be one of the volunteers up on stage. He had us pretty convinced that he wanted to go up there...I kind of wanted to see what would happen if he did get picked. But like the piñata escapade, he didn't get chosen anyway.
After the magic show was over we posed by the bottom of the waterfall which was not reached by our flash:
Then we took the boys on the little rides they have on the way out. You can't tell from the pic, but maybe you can tell from E's smile that he's riding in a Batmobile!
And Dalton is in a bus:
We had them take turns on the motorcycle so we could show the pics to PawPaw (and y'all):
Still getting the hang of the "double thumbs up", I guess:
After that we called it a day...and that was the night that Easton got the boys ready for bed.
Sunday morning had Jason feeling a little overwhelmed with school. He had ignored any homework thanks to our Vegas trip and was needing to get back on track. So, being the lovely, supportive, understanding wife that I am I took the boys out to run a bunch of errands so that Jason could have some time to work on school.
First we went to Lowe's for a fan pull for Easton's room. He picked a basketball. Then we drove by Old Navy and the Dollar Tree but neither was open yet so we had to kill some time at McDonald's. I told the boys we were going and Dalton was being cranky and crying for other reasons... but Easton said, "Babes, don't worry...I'll keep an eye on you." Awwww. Which reminds me of another story I hadn't shared on the blog yet. The day before we left for Vegas Dalton was being cranky again and Easton (having me and J leaving on his mind) told Dalton, "Don't cry Dalton, we're going to have fuu-unnn (it was two syllables) and Gramoo and I will take care of you". Isn't E the sweetest???
So at Mc'Ds, I bought an iced coffee and watched them play for a bit:
Till Dalton fell down a couple of the stairs and I had to rush in the tube thingie to rescue him, but I whacked my own head on the way in. Ow ow ow! It was time to go anyway so I was making a big deal about my head and was fake crying to make the boys laugh:
Easton decided that since I'd hurt myself he needed to push the cart for me. He did a pretty good job!
We also scored and found a Spiderman puzzle and a two new Spidey books...as well as some Elmo books for D. They were happy!
While we were out we also went to return books at the library (even though they were closed), we went to make a return at Old Navy, we got gas, we went to the other Dollar Tree (didn't find what I went for at the first store), and we went to the Mexican supermarket for real tortillas. I have a thing for authentic flour tortillas. Yum. So we got two packs and bought one of the cutest cookies I'd ever seen:
All the while the boys were so well behaved reading their new books whenever we were in the car:
After all that errand running and hoping J was making good school progress at home we went to Spicy Pickle for sandwiches for J and I and Noodles for mac for the boys. Then we brought it all home. And ate. And the boys did quiet time so J could do more homework. And I got started on all those blogs you've been reading :)
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