Sleeping Teams

One of the probably strangest things to come out of our trip was the idea of "sleeping teams".
The first night we started with all of the children in one hotel bed and Jim and me in the other. Shortly after the lights went out Josie switched beds to be between mommy and daddy.

The second night we started with all three children in one bed and Jim and me in the other. Some time around 2am Doug had something upsetting him and I actually brought him to our bed.

The third night about the time I finished saying "Josie stay in your own space" since Doug and Andy were complaining...I felt Josie pushing in between Jim and I. Then Doug swapped beds and Jim went to sleep with Andy where there was more room and suddenly we had sleeping teams.

Each night the idea was that each bed would get points so that it was a contest. The bed with the first person to fall asleep would get points. The bed with the person who slept the longest in the morning would get points. Did we actually keep points? No...but it all sounds good to 4 year olds.

Now that we are home the kids are complaining that they want to be on sleeping teams again. Last night we tried to convince Doug and Andy that they had moved up to the more challenging "synchronized sleeping" competition where they were each in their own bed.

Update (to get you up-to-date)

We went on a trip to visit Jim's sister and her family. The kids did pretty well in the car (having movies helps) but we did discover that Doug does much better sitting next to Josie than Andy does (or perhaps Josie does much better sitting next to Doug...it is a two way street).

The kids had a good time playing with their cousin Sam. Nana and Pop came at the same time so it was nice to have so many people together. We had fun visiting. We went swimming while we were there. We went to an indoor play place with lots of bouncy toys. We played at a playground.

Ironically, one of the most popular things with my children was the hotel rooms. We had a hotel room on the way there and the way back, and we stayed in an extended stay place while we were there. Josie kept saying that it was "like a house" and Andy just wanted everyone to come see our hotel room. We drove until we could drive no more on the way back so the two chain hotels were full at the exit we got off at. We ended up in a suite at a local place that was "unique" but Doug thought it was beautiful. I'm not quite sure on the era but it had to be 1960's to 1970's as it was completely wood paneling walls, had a large walk-in-closet, and a kitchen area that had saloon doors at the entrance.

Phrases that fill my days

Here are some of the things my children constantly say:

• What? (mostly Andy and Josie)
• Why? (all three use this...and I do occasionally fall into the "because I said so" answer)
• I can't wait for my own coffee (Josie)
• I'm doing my work (Andy)
• You do it for me mom (Andy & Doug)
• I do it MYSELF! (Josie & Andy)
• I want to watch TV (Doug & Josie)

Development

Hmmm...I do not know that it is a good developmental milestone that I was trying to get some information out of Doug tonight and Andy was telling him not to say anything while mom was in the room.

My babies are growing up and I don't know that they are so innocent anymore....

Beware of the Inja!

We watched something that had ninja's in it (Don't worry...it was a humorous thing not scary). So Andy went running back to his room and came out with a pair of pants on his head and an upside-down shirt pulled over his legs and torso.
He spent the next hour running around claiming that he was "An Inja!"

Did I think to pull out my camera?
Yes...about two seconds before he decided to take off his costume.

Things that make me happy!

Here is a randomly ordered list of things that make me happy:

• My family
• The smell of my almond scented shampoo
• Listening to funny podcasts
• Good stories (movies or books)
• Warm chocolate (both smelling it and eating it)
• Seeing that I have accomplished things
• When my children give me a full body hug
• Laughing & being silly with friends and family
• When my children play with my hair while I am carrying them or they are sitting on my lap
• Remembering that in all things there is hope (it sometimes just takes some thinking outside the box).

Art

Every so often Andy goes on an art binge. He will find the art supplies and just want to use them. It is helpful to have a bunch of scrap paper on hand because he will tend towards a few marks on a sheet of paper and he's done and moving on to the next one.
This afternoon it was the watercolors. Of course when he wants to do it then so do the other children. This turned out to be a good thing as there was a thunder storm this afternoon and with all of the lightening and clouds the satellite TV was (and is) having issues (first difficulty getting reception during the storm, then a pinkish picture after the storm, and Jim is now trouble-shooting sound issues with customer service).
Anyway, I had a delightful time water coloring with them. Josie was particularly content painting for quite awhile. She happily filled up several papers with small blobs of color that made no particular picture. Doug actually produced two humanoid "monsters" with bodies and legs and eyes. Andy...it was hard to tell what he was making. It had something to do with his "flower business" and it also involved gluing strips of paper on to the edges of his paper.

The Sleep Monster

Andy had a late nap yesterday and was having trouble going to sleep at night. So he and I did a bunch of chatting while I was trying to give him a chance to get sleepy. It turns out that he hides under his covers and that he is hiding from a sleep monster...sort of.
Apparently the sleep monster is nice. He eats meat. And he fights off bad monsters. So apparently it is really the bad monsters the sleep monster is going to fight that Andy is trying not to see when he is under the covers.

I asked him if someone had told him about the sleep monster or if he had figured it out on his own. He said that he saw the sleep monster and just knew.

Girls, Girls, Girls

We had a new fast food restaurant with an indoor play area open up recently in our town. The kids have been begging to go to it and we went yesterday afternoon. We ate and then let the kids play for awhile on the play equipment. Two girls came along who looked to be about the same age as Andy and Doug. They latched on to my boys (or my boys latched on to them...I'm not sure which happened first) rather quickly. Andy kept referring to "my new friends" and they would hold hands going up the steps and going down the slide. They seemed happiest when they all ended up in a heap at the bottom of the slide.

Many of Andy's good friends (and Doug's too for that matter) from preschool last year were girls. I will be most interested to see who they talk about this coming year.

Oh, and don't ask the name of the girls. My boys never bothered to ask.

Fig Pie

I have been searching for recipes to do with our fresh figs from the backyard. Not wanting to spend hot hours in the kitchen making jam, preserves, or pickled figs we have been freezing the figs in a single layer on a cookie sheet and then bagging them. At the moment we have more than 120 pounds in the freezer.

We have been eating some fresh figs and sharing some. I also have been looking for recipes. The big catch on recipes is that so many ask for dried figs. However, I have found some recipes and I decided to make a fig pie.
I'll be the first to admit that I am a lazy cook, so I did not want a recipe that required me to much to the figs ahead of time (which is also the draw back to making many cookies because you have to have already made jam with the figs). I did not peel the figs like it said to, but instead just quartered the figs. The recipe I used can be found at Fresh Fig Pie.

It made a great breakfast.