Quick Hits

I am so far behind in blogging that I'm not even sure how to get caught up. I'll just start with some pictures (and a story or two) from this week and try, maybe (but probably not), to finally post all of the anecdotes I've been wanting to write about after the boys are in bed. I'll be honest, though: the boys and I are leaving for Nashville tomorrow morning, so I'm way more likely to pack for the trip than to catch up on my all-but-forgotten blog tonite.

1) LIBRARY TIME.

I think I've blogged before about trying to teach the boys (read: FREDDIE) to sit and listen when I'm reading. He's finally starting to want to read; he just doesn't want ME to read. He'd rather do it - and just about everything else - himself. In his defense, he's getting to where he'll sit on Jones's bed and make it through a book and, sometimes, two, but his cooperation is definitely not a slam dunk.

Partially to test how he'd do listening to someone ELSE read and partially to have something to do that wasn't within the four walls of our house, I thought we'd go to Story Time at the Waynesville Library this week. We went once last summer. The boys seemed to like it, but we haven't gone back.

So Wednesday, we went.

During the book time, the boys actually did remarkably well. They weren't perfectly silent and still, but they were close enough to perfect to make me proud of the progress they (read: FREDDIE) have made. It was the non-book time that things got a little dicey.

They did a smart board program, and the boys were just THOROUGHLY uninterested. They paid absolutely ZERO attention to the lesson on the letter V - except for when they showed a picture of a violin and Jones shouted, "Look, Mama! It's a GEE-tar!"

They preferred playing to listening to the lesson. At one point, Freddiie was on Jones's back like he was on horseback and then Jones, somehow, flipped him over and pinned him.

Honestly, Y'all. I have NO.IDEA.

I was excited, though, when Freddie wanted to take a turn to write on the whiteboard. After the story, they gave all of the kids a chance to come up and write. Jones was, not surprisingly, out from the beginning. After hesitating for a few minutes, though, Freddie walked up to the front and took his turn, which ... let's just say he didn't want to end. He didn't pitch a fit or anything, but I had to walk up and lead him away from the board, because he'd have been just as happy to stay up there indefinitely.

2) BATH TIME

3) WELCOME HOME, DADDY!

More than once this week, Jones has called Jeremy "our friend Dada." For instance, he came home Wednesday nite (bearing dinner, bless his heart!), and Jones told me, "Wow, Mama! It's our friend Dada!"

4) PLAYING AT MAYME & POP'S

Jones loves to watch his "shadder." That's what he's doing here.

These next few pictures make me think, "Ho.ly.cow. My baby boy looks so grown up!"

I thought Jones was going to smell the flowers ... and then he spit on them.

5) PLAYING OUTSIDE

It's finally getting warm enough to play outside. It's a good thing, too, because we've been holed up inside for so long that there are parts of my house we can't even walk through.

I told a friend that, if Jones ever joins a 90s alt rock band, this (below) is gonna be his album cover art.

Or one of these.

I had no idea how sad Jones looked until I put these
on my computer! I have no idea what was bothering him.
He was acting completely fine!

Two big things happened, while the boys were playing outside. The first is that Jones FINALLY mastered pedaling. Up until now, he's powered himself like Fred Flintstone. He could pedal AT MOST a few seconds at a time, but today, he was able to do it for some extended time, and I was so proud.

The second thing that happened was Freddie took a hard fall from the railroad tie onto the concrete. He didn't cry - but whimpered for a split second before sitting up and kissing his own knee (like so). "Do you need Mama to kiss it," I asked. "NO!" he responded forcefully. "I will kiss it."

Contrast that with Jones. At the park on Saturday, he must've (lightly) scraped his finger on something. He put it in my face and said, "Can you kiss it?" That Felix and Oscar thing doesn't end with the way they eat.


6) PARK

Finally, we went back to the park today for the first time in a long time. The boys had a ball. In fact, Jones wanted to swing the whole time, while Freddie preferred to slide.

Jones wore his Super Man t-shirt (handed down from my friend Stacey's boys) for the first time. When we drove by a tractor on our way to Jeremy's office after they played, Jones said, "That's a John Deere tractor!" I said, "Are you a John Deere man?" (typically, he tells me, "I a John Deere man" without even being asked), and he said, "No. I a SUPER Man."

Is my little boy all grown up?