Wednesday, March 19, 2008

St. Patrick's Day, Ice Cream. and Kids

It's been a good few days. For St. Patrick's Day we made an entirely green meal: fried eggs, pan-toasted buttered pita, boiled potatoes, broccoli, milk, and angel food cake with cream cheese icing all liberally altered with food dye. The guys loved it. We also played a game all day which involved saying "St. Patrick's Day!" whenever you saw a shamrock or other St. Patrick's Day themed item. Since we went to Stew Leonard's, we saw a lot of of them. We also got ice cream.















Tuesday was busy. It always is, but this week it was exceptionally busy. We went to the Scholastic book sale with Stephanie and her kids and got a number of things for the guys and for the gift closet. After that we picked up our neighbor's daughter from school and went over to our friends' farm to see the new babies. They had lots of kids, lambs, and chicks. Ryan liked petting and being petted by the goats, but I think Ethan's favorite part was when he got to climb on the dirt pile that's been built up from clearing and grading the new road.




It was drizzling when we got to the farm, then it started to snow. The sun was out even while it was snowing. The snow stopped,and the sky cleared. The sunset was absolutely amazing. The building is the brand new chicken palace that Mark just finished building.
















Today we dyed eggs using rubber bands, scotch tape, and stickers as resists. Those worked really well. We mostly used white eggs, but tried 3 brown ones just to see how they'd turn out. They came out really nice, I thought. I need to get some photos of them before they turn into deviled eggs and egg salad this weekend.

I'm glad it's rained the past few Wednesdays. It gives me an extra incentive to be in the house. Even if I don't always accomplish all the things I want to get done, I do get to spend more time with Ethan and Ryan without the pressure of knowing that we have to be someplace at a specific time.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Spies and switched identities

Ryan was going to play Candyland with Jeanne after dinner, but when I asked Ethan if he wanted to come with me to take the dog for a walk, Ryan immediately said "I want to go!" I warned him that if he went with me Candyland was out of the question tonight. He didn't care.

We donned some warm jackets and set off. He skipped along next to me offering me his theories about why the birds were being so noisy. I have to admit that I never considered that they were complaining because it was much early to go to bed. I also never thought that they might be having dinner and telling each other what they did during the day. I suggested that they might be saying good night to each other, but Ryan explained that birds only say good night after the sunlight is completely gone.

Ryan wanted to walk through the school parking lot and along a curving street toward the park. I don't generally walk along that street because the trees and bushes aren't well maintained. He pointed out the sidewalks were not clean and that "whoever works in these buildings needs to have a clean up day because all the garbage lying around is rude." I couldn't agree more. He suggested we pick it up as we walk, but soon realized taht there was more garbage than we could carry and that there aren't any rubbish bins in which to put the trash we had picked up.

After a few blocks, a couple turned from a side street onto the street we walking along. "Shhhh," Ryan told me, "See those guys up there? Those guys are spies for real."

"Really? How can you tell?"

"Because Ba, they're wearing blue shirts and dark pants. All the spies wear that."

"Oh, OK. How do you know that's what spies wear?"

"Because I'm a spy!" You can't argue with that.

The couple turned off, and we turned back toward the house. Ryan announced that he was cold. He wouldn't wear a hat or gloves when we left the house,so this didn't surprise me. "Would you like my hat?" What a silly questions. About a block later he was wearing my gloves as well.

He held out his hands, my gloves dangling off them, and announced, "I am Mister Ba."

I laughed. "You are Ryan and I am Ba."

"No sir. You are wrong. You are Ryan, and I am Ba. See?" He held out his hands again.

I tapped the top of his head. "I am bigger, and you are littler. I am Ba, and you are Ryan."

He came right next to me. "OK. Stop please." I stopped. He put his little foot next to mine. He looked caught out.

"See? Your foot is smaller. You are Ryan."

"No way!" He ran ahead and stopped near the dog. "Make him stand still please." I had the dog stand still. "See?" He put his foot next to Croydon's. "My foot is bigger. I am Mister Ba!" He danced ahead of me. "I am big and I can do anything and I can cross the street all by myself!"

"Not yet," I tell him. "you still need my hand."

He considered this as we approached a busier street. "OK," he said at last. He took my hand. We crossed the street. Halfway across he grinned at me. "I am holding your hand. I am Ba and you are Ryan."

"I am holding your hand."

"No no no! I am holding your hand." We walk another block. "How long until we get home?"

"Only three more blocks. Do you want to jump up and be my backpack guy?"

"OK Ba."

"I thought you were Ba."

"No. I decided that you're big enough to be Ba." I pulled him onto my back. We walked toward home. "Ba?"

"What love?"

"Will you always be my Ba?"

"Yup. Will you always be my Ryan?"

"Uh-huh. You can have your hat now."

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Cupcakes on a Tuesday

Tuesday's are typically our busiest day. Ryan has gymnastics at 9:30am. Ethan has home school Kung Fu 11:00am. While Ethan is in Kung Fu, Ryan plays with the other kids who aren't taking Kung Fu. Esther and I get to string beads and talk with the other mommies. After Kung Fu, we usually have a play date with other people from the class. Then Ethan has his gymnastics class at 4:00pm.

Today, after Kung Fu, we and Stephanie went to a fabric store in Cheshire and spent far too much money on fabric for three table cloths and some fabric we're not sure how we're going to use. Probably it'll be kitchen curtains. After that we got to go home and be in the house for a while. It felt decadent since we don't usually go home in the middle of a Tuesday. I got to make cupcakes with Ryan. Ryan loves making things with my big blue friend (AKA a Kitchen Aid). He wanted to make cookies as well, but after walking the dog and cleaning up from cupcakes it was time to make dinner.

It's going to rain tomorrow, and we're going to have a rain day and stay in the house. I see cookies in our Wednesday.