The Intentionally Busy Friday & Saturday

Mom and Daddy's house is awesome ... unless you're trying to keep 16 month old and his 2.5 year old brother from killing themselves. If you're trying to do that, Mom and Daddy's house is an 8,000 square foot cavern of potential calamity that requires matching your sons footstep for footstep to be sure they don't fall down a stairwell (Freddie) or jump into their beloved, slow leaking pirate sheep not realizing that "Mayme's beach" can be very hazardous to unsupervised toddlers (Jones).

Now that it's warmer and the boys are both down to one nap a day, my answer to this issue is to keep them out as much as possible. Either that or, when I'm lucky, have my sister's kids over to entertain the boys in ways I'm too old to do.

Yesterday, the kids weren't available, so the boys and I spent the morning at Cleveland Park where they have ... wait for it ... A PLAY TRAIN.

It was as big a hit as you'd expect it to be.

After a stroll further down the Swamp Rabbit Trail, we went home, and the boys napped. I thought Jones's newfound pool bravery may translate to other experiences, as well, so I asked Mom and Daddy (who's actually home, for once) if they wanted to take him and Freddie to the Fair at Heritage Park in Simpsonville. Off we went, arriving just after the gates opened at 4 p.m.

Our first stop was the Merry Go Round. Apparently, pool bravery does not, necessarily, mean park bravery. Jones screamed pretty much the entire ride. Since the little boats had a steering wheel, I thought maybe he'd enjoy that more - or at least that he'd be distracted enough by all the steering to be scared by the ride.

Wrong again.

On both rides, I kept waiting, assuming he'd settle into them, as soon as he saw that their slow circular motions weren't going to erratically toss him off or anything. He never settled in, just screamed the entire time, so we stopped at two rides, cut our losses, doled out the remaining tickets, and headed home, though Freddie, of course, could've ridden all day.

This morning, the cousins were here. That meant that, after breakfast, Payton, Lizzie Gray, and Lila joined the boys and I for a trolley ride through downtown Greenville. We told Jones it was a train (not to be confused with a merry go round or slow-going boat), and he rode for no less than an hour and fifteen minutes; he only stopped then, because we had to leave sometime. Freddie did great for the first, I don't know, 45 minutes or so. After that, he got a little restless. He still behaved well; he just wanted to be passed around from person to person.

Jones just sat there, holding on and sporadically saying, "Toot toot!" "All aBOAR...!" and "Train.Fass (fast)."

But before all that excitement, Bobo and Jojo got in some hide-and-go seek.



After the hiding and the seeking and after the riding on the trolley-train, we went back to Cleveland Park for some playtime, primarily because I needed to keep the boys occupied until nap time. Then we came home, topped off their tummies, and put them in the bed where they still are, because Mama - and company - have successfully worn them out.  All in a day's work.

Next up: some swimming to patch us through 'til bedtime.

Also, I am missing this handsome guy like CRAZY. Women whose husbands are road warriors (Mom), I applaud you for doing what, it turns out, I can NOT. I want him HOME!

As they say, "four more sleeps"...