Walk

We took advantage of the spring thaw and went for a walk to the beach...first trip walking there this year.  The weather was still a bit chilly, but the sun was out and the snow was melting.  Tamlin had been hoping to see our neighbor boy, Liam, for the past few weeks so we stopped by his house to invite him along.  Liam is almost a year and a half older then Tamlin, but the two boys play really well with each other.  I led this gang of boys down to the water...slowly as the boys insisted on riding their toys.  Jude is getting much better at the blue plasma car.  Tamlin and Liam rode their scooters...though Liam's scooter had some mechanical problems mid-trip.  I had the fore-thought to pull the wagon, just in case little legs got tired (and they did).

The road was rough with many potholes formed from the winter/ snow / plow cycles.  The upside was that the holes were full of muddy water, perfect for jumping into and running scooters into...which the boys all did...repeatedly.  

Oh those boys...

Imaginations were rampant...scooters kept running out of gas, or having rocket boosters, or participating in races or needing tires replaced.  Both big boys were soaked to the thigh just from the walk to the beach.

 The beach looks quite different now than it did last summer or fall.  Here's the breakwall and the frozen water all around it. 

The rock here lies about 6 feet or so into the water when at high tide.  Tamlin called the rock his pirate hide-a-way.  The frozen water let the boys walk right up to the rock...which they thought was pretty awesome.

 Again, the boys found the biggest piles of snow to attempt to climb and they found where the snow was soft enough to sink into.  These sink-holes were deemed their "traps" to keep all the bad-guys at bay from their "hide-out."  So, after playing on the frozen beach, both boys were now wet up to the hips.  Jude hates to be cold. He was quite a bit more cautious in the snow and avoided getting wet.

After the beach, we rolled up to the playground for a little bit.  Jude loves the swing, but there were huge puddles under them.  I could lift Jude over the puddle and into the swing.  Tamlin and Liam attempted to board the swings...can you guess the outcome?  Liam ended up soaked through and through.  Tamlin didn't fall into the puddles, but was very bummed not to swing.  The two boys tried the playground too...However, Liam's a bit big/old for the slide and Tamlin is a bit young/small for hanging from the monkey bars.  They realized they had more fun together riding the scooters.

We slowly made our way home...wetter, muddier,...after having poked a dead squirrel...redder in cheeks...and happy.  The boys slept well that evening.

Temper Tantrums - choosing battles

Oh Jude. He is firmly in the tantrum age.  I can see already that Jude will butt heads against Brian and me well into his future.  Jude has quite the pig-headed stubbornness about him, that the rest of us lack.

The latest battle of wills is over dinner.  If Jude had his way, he would never eat dinner and live on breakfast and lunch.  I try to insist that he eats something off his plate at dinner.  Brian insists that he eat dinner, especially if it is something scrumptious that he has prepared.  We don't make separate dinner for the boys.  Jude refuses the food often, which upsets Brian as well. Of late, Jude may place a bite in his mouth, but then promptly down a glass of juice in an attempt to wash it out.  And he cries.  Cries!  If he doesn't want it, he doesn't want anyone else eating any of it either. If you take the food away, he cries!  If we attempt to cut up the food after he has seen it on his plate, he cries! Cries!  I so want a quiet dinner, but then I have Jude go to his room where he works himself into a fit.  Usually, he cries for awhile in the room but will come back out eventually stating that he is happy again.  However, some nights it escalates.   This time, Jude cried when he tried the food, cried when we cut it up, cried in his room, cried some more, cried so much he threw up on himself...cried in the shower for clean up (which he hates).   It is hard to know that he is throwing a fit over something you had started...but I know he won't starve for not eating a dinner.
Sigh.
I know Tamlin went through a picky phase, but he never went this far with his refusals.  Now, Tamlin is much better at eating, though his table manners are still quite horrid.
Sigh.
We'll keep plowing forward with a dear stubborn boy.

ghostbuster RIP

Alas,  Harold Ramis has just passed away.  He was Dr. Egon Spengler in the movie...the nerdy ghostbuster.  Ramis also helped to write the movie...and others, but Ghostbusters is my favorite.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies:

Dr. Egon Spengler: Sorry, Venkman, I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.

Dr. Egon Spengler: I feel like the floor of a taxi cab.


Janine Melnitz: You're very handy, I can tell. I bet you like to read a lot, too.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Print is dead.
Janine Melnitz: Oh, that's very fascinating to me. I read a lot myself. Some people think I'm too intellectual but I think it's a fabulous way to spend your spare time. I also play raquetball. Do you have any hobbies?
Dr. Egon Spengler: I collect spores, molds, and fungus.


Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

Memory Monday - Scholastic Books

I remember receiving the Scholastic fliers back in grade school.  It was six pages of book and sticker possibilities!   I would poor over the with a pen in hand...repeatedly reading and re-reading the descriptions.  Mom would have us circle the books we really REALLY wanted.  Oh,what to choose?!  Then, I would have to dutifully bring in the envelope with the money to teacher, often no knowing what mom had ultimately chose to purchase.  It seemed like a million years before the order finally arrived and I had a stack of books handed to me to take home.  This was such an awesome little thing to enjoy, especially for a young avid reader.

Thankfully, Scholastic books has withstood the test of time and is still going strong! 

 Now Tamlin brings home the eight page flier...

 I gave him the pen to circle his favorites...He can't read the descriptions, but discerns the content of the book by the pictures.

 He was favoring truck, ninja, and shark books...and even a few to circle for Jude.

 Jude gets fliers too from school.  He had just as much fun participating in this ritual.

 I want this one, momma!  It is Legos!

Tamlin very nicely helped Jude by circling the ones he pointed to.

Now I don't have to trust Tamlin to take in the money in an envelope.  Instead, I order directly online (the internet is marvelous).  However, there is still a 2-3 week lag, so the books appear in Tamlin's bag at school long after he has forgotten that he wanted them.  It is hard to keep a spending limit, but I do appreciate how frequent the fliers come.  The boys' interests change frequently and this is one way to keep them engaged in learning how to read.  Yeah Scholastic!

Puzzles

Jude is currently really into puzzles.  I remember that Tamlin went through this phase to at about this age.  We have a series of 4 puzzles in a box, each with 12 pieces.  Tam's favorite was the firetruck.  Jude's favorite is the train.  He has gotten so good at this little puzzle that he can pick out the train pieces amidst the chaos of all the pieces spread across the floor.  Once the puzzle has been solved, Jude pushes it around the floor making train sounds.  Toot! Toot! 

We'll be getting out the slightly harder/ bigger puzzles soon to keep pushing his little noggin to keep on expanding.