Delicious!

Uncle B sent this photo of E he took on Saturday. E was busy "cleaning up" after we made brownies. E and J were both so busy with this task it was incredibly quiet for at least 10 minutes!

Lip Bones

As J has gotten older it is wonderful that he can communicate more specifics to us when things are bothering him. I remember too well the confusion during the baby days if he seemed to not be feeling well, but it was so hard to determine just where the discomfort was coming from. Did his tummy hurt? Did he have a headache? Was he teething? Now he can usually explain just what the matter is. The other night he was not feeling so hot and so he explained, as he pulled and pinched at his beautiful, at-the-moment pouty lips,

“Mommy, my lips hurt. On the inside. Way on the inside. Mommy, the BONES of my lips hurt!”

Shining Armor Pajamas?

Backblogging - Friday Night

Our friends were over and after dinner the kids were playing when J asked "Mom, can I get my night clothes on now?" He asked a couple times and I admit I was so confused! Here was my son who is never tired, never ready for bed, never in all his four years asked to go to bed and he was asking to get ready for bed before 8:00 in the middle of some high energy play with his little friend N? So, as I sat there too dumbfounded to manage an appropriate response, he asked yet again, "Mom, can I get my night clothes on, and MY SWORD?" Ah, now THAT was my son. I can't believe I was momentarily thrown, of course he was asking for his KNIGHT clothes. Screaming dragons beware!

Here is a photo of my Knight (an old one from Halloween, his ear is healed now with just a faint scar):

Aunt Amy aka Professor Darkness

Backblogging - Thursday Night

Aunt Amy came for dinner. For those of you who don't know my much younger sis Amy, she is something! She is so fabulous I wrote a theme song for her, titled "Aunt Amy, she's MAGICAL!" (She deserved something special for the screaming dragon and the screaming monkey and any screamers she intends to gift him in the future!) So, I was telling her the story about the night J and I drove by her university -

"Look, J there is Aunt Amy's university. She is going to teach there now. When you teach at a college or university it's called being 'a professor'."

"You mean like Professor Darkness?"

and then J showed her just what "Professor Darkness" looks like:

Doesn't he bear a remarkable resemblance to Aunt Amy?!?!

Well, they both are all powerful. Although I bet Aunt Amy can outrun, outswim and outbike old Professor D. (She did do nicely in that Triathlon she completed in 2006). And, if they get too close to the Sun she can probably really smoke him, after all she survived (and completed) the "canceled" Chicago marathon this past fall in 90 degree temperatures.

If you have no idea who Professor Darkness is, he is the "bad guy" from Planet Heroes. At some point in the last year J became fascinated with "bad guys". I am still not all that comfortable with this, but I fake it I guess. It seems very important to him, and when I have tried to think of where the whole "bad guy" thing comes from I realize it is pretty prevalent in, well, most everything. Stories seem to need a protagonist and an antagonist and so "bad guys" are really just normal. And, in the world of 4 year old boys with big imaginations, heroes need people to save and villains to save them from. I, as a Mommy, am frequently called on to "be the bad guy" which basically amounts to being "it" in a game of tag except you also have to make menacing faces and scary sounds intermittently while chasing your prey, er - child. It also helps to further enhance the experience if you can hold your hands up while simultaneously curling fingers so they look more claw-like.

At first I really thought the Planet Heroes were, well, ugly. And, yes, plastic. But, they have inspired some pretty imaginative play and I am amazed at some of the things J (and E) knows about the solar system now. So, seeing how much he loves them and giving them more of a chance they have grown on me. Now I see the appeal in all their alien uglyunique-ness.

The Only Daddy

It was unseasonably warm today and we spent some time at the park.  It felt great to be outside without a winter coat on!  The kids were busy at play and I thought I was having a stolen moment with their Dad, when I heard J from above us on top of the slide,

"Be careful Mommy, don't hug Daddy too hard.  He's the only Daddy we've got."

I had been caught red-handed!

"I love swimming!"

Here is E in her swim vest and goggles, over her pajamas.  We went to cousin J's pool last Sunday and I just finally got the swim stuff put away yesterday.  They kept putting it back on to pretend.  The uncarpeted sections of floor throughout the house are made of water, and they can swim at length in these imaginary pools.  I snapped this shot late one night after J was in bed when E had asked for the x-tenth time that day to put her swim apparatus back on with a loud exclamation "I love swimming!"  If only the pool near us was properly heated.  When we took swimming lessons there last spring E's lips were often turning blue before the short 30 minute lessons ended.  Not that she minded, it was certainly a lot harder on her Dad, who perfected his "cringe face" on attempting to cross the depth threshold around his inseam (at approx. 36 inches).  The pool near cousin J's house is brand new and kept much warmer.  Sadly, it is also a 90 minute drive away!  This past Sunday was the first time E wore the goggles.  She insisted on wearing them the entire time and repeatedly announced "I have goggles on my eyes."