Playing outside at home

It was nice out yesterday and actually for the past few days, so we've spent lots of time outside. I love being outside and so do the kids. Although Sam would probably happily play inside with cars all day, I force him out the door and into some other activities. So what do we do?

Well, usually I suggest that we go outside to play and Matthew or Sam will go open the deck door and head out (yes, Matthew too can open the screen door to the deck). They run around the deck maybe, then head into the grass. Usually I start off in the sandbox where yesterday we made a big mountain of sand and Sam buried most of his construction trucks in it. That was after he threw all his toys out of the sandbox, saying that they were dirty. Uh, yeah...We got over playing with dirty trucks and built mountains. Matthew practices shoveling with little hand shovels and has absolutely no fear of being dirty. Sam then drove his trucks (that weren't buried) up the mountain and made big tracks in the mountain. He then stepped and jumped on it. Two days ago after playing in the sandbox for awhile, Sam said, "Mommy I pooped" and then he got out, took off his shorts and underwear and went into the house to clean up. Ugh. I grabbed Matthew and helped him clean up.

Anyway, after some sandbox time, we kick balls around, each kid generally kicks their own by themselves. Matthew in particular, is perfectly content going off and grabbing a ball, trying to throw it around or kick it around alone. Sam likes some more interaction and as he is in the "show off" stage he frequently asks for my attention. When we see an airplane flying overhead we point it out (everyone points to the sky) and talk about airplanes. Yesterday Sam said that Daddy was flying home in an airplane. I asked if the airplane would land in the yard here, and he said, "No, on the deck." Ok.

There is lots of running and jumping too. Sam likes to take a riding toy and run it across the yard to the neighbor's fence. He then runs back. And repeats. Matthew likes to try climbing on things which he really shouldn't be climbing. Like yesterday he climbed onto these little toddler chairs which are really unstable and just stood up completely on them without holding on. Goodness. He didn't flip or crash, but those chairs were quickly overturned and set aside. Matthew hasn't figured out how to set them upright yet, but when he does, he'll probably be old enough to actually climb on them. For now, he's just too little.

What else? If that doesn't take up our afternoon or morning, we got out chalk and bubbles as I posted a while ago. Or we'll take the trike to the driveway and Sam will ride from one side of the driveway to the other, each time he reaches the side he shouts "I did it!" Then he turns around and does it again.

Other times we work. We water the plants, check out the garden (e.g. the 6 raspberry plants I planted this spring), pull weeds, pick up sticks. Things like that. I guess I work, and Sam helps occasionally, and Matthew wanders around doing whatever he does. I wonder what he's thinking?

Bedtime antics

Well, Sam has some pretty strange bedtime antics. All of them are clearly to get our attention and get us to spend more time with him. Apparently delaying bedtime is a common little kid tactic, and as Sam clearly reads the books on what he's supposed to be doing at various developmental stages, he's picked up on delaying bedtime in a variety of ways. Some of his more interesting tactics include:

• getting out of bed and throwing books down the stairs
• turning on the lights and fans in all the rooms upstairs (except for Matthew's) and then slamming the doors shut
• creeping down the stairs partway and waiting there until Jason or I notice (and falling asleep there, as happened last week)

He also tries some common little kid tactics including:

• "mommy, cover me up!"
• "I need a drink"
• "I have to go pee pee"

 He also delays bedtime through conversation:
Sam: Mommy, where you going?
Me: I'm going to take a shower
Sam: Then you go to the kitchen?
Me: yes, then the kitchen
Sam: Then where? Downstairs?
Me: Maybe, maybe the basement
Sam: Not the basement, go downstairs
Me: We'll see. Good night Sam, I'll see you in the morning
Sam: Good night, I'll see you in the morning
Me: Good night (I'm walking out the room)
Sam: I'll see you in the morning (his voice is escalating...)
Me: Good night (I'm walking down the stairs)
Sam: I'll see you in the morning! (louder voice)
Me: (I don't respond)
Sam: I'll see you in the morning! I'll see you in the morning! (Screaming, frantic...Jason intervenes at this point...)

Potty problems

I wish I didn't have to write so often about the children's bodily elimination, but that seems to be an issue that comes up frequently in our house, so here's yet another post about the potty.

It begins with Matthew. I was getting him ready for bath and undressing him. When he was finished and before I got him into the tub, he started peeing. On the bathroom rug. Which I had just washed two days ago. Which I only wash about every two months. Can you believe this kid's timing? Again, why do I even try to keep things clean and maintained? Anyway, the rug will be washed again tonight, for the second time in two days.

While Matthew was bathing, Sam was getting himself undressed as he was going to take a bath after Matthew. He stripped and ran around naked for awhile, then went on the toilet to relieve himself. I was happy that he had taken the initiative to go without me telling him, but was unhappy by the next words that came out of his mouth. They were "I pee pee far, Mommy!" You can imagine what was going on. He sits to pee currently and he had aimed himself so that his pee pee was going across the bathroom. "Oh no, Sam, point it down!" I said. We've worked on that from day one and he usually has no problem with it, but apparently he's learned that it's fun to make his pee pee go far. Hopefully he won't repeat that stunt, although it does solve the mystery of how the wall across from the toilet in the downstairs bathroom was wet earlier today...

P.S. Sam's use of the toilet for No. 2 has not been an isolated incident!

Major milestone

Well, tonight Sam went No. 2 on the toilet. The big toilet. Without being told. Jason and I were finishing our dinner while the kids were playing when Sam went into the bathroom. Jason was concerned that he was doing something bad, but I could just barely see his head in the mirror and mentioned that maybe he was trying to do No 2 (he had just peed a few minutes earlier). Sure enough, he came out of the bathroom and exclaimed, "I went poopy!" and I excitedly went to verify his account. True. Shouts of jubilation went through the house. I am so proud of him. This is the first time he's gone on the big toilet and he went of his own accord. I am very excited. He hasn't been wearing diapers except for at night for a few weeks and it looks like hopefully we are on our way to fewer accidents and eventual potty freedom. Yea!!!! I may have only one in diapers for a few months.

Not to be outdone, Matthew is spitting out the words left and right these days. Some of his newer words include:

• "Mama!" He has said something that sounds like mama for awhile, but I was never sure he intended it in the "Mommy" sense or was just uttering sounds. But lately I've noticed that when I run upstairs to grab something quickly Matthew will run over to the gate at the bottom of the stairs and scream "Mamamamamama!" I think I can safely translate that into "Mama"
• "Neigh" He said that while pointing at the little horse riding toys at the playground the other day.
• "Kitty" There was a commercial with cats on it the other day and he excitedly pointed and said, "A keeeey" (the "t" is silent at this point). He makes his mother so proud.
• "Tractor". Ok, so this is a stretch as it sounds like "ka kar" but he definitely says this often when playing with tractors. Trying to make his Iowa roots proud. 
• Ball. He clearly says this. It's probably his favorite word these days.
• "All done". He either says "all done" or "done" at the end of his meals and shakes his hands and nods his head.
• More. A common early word for little kids. 
• He also does a little high-pitched bark when he sees dogs. It's so cute. Not really a word, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

Bubbles and chalk

On Friday morning it was pretty warm outside, so I decided we'd play in the front of the house where there was some shade. We got out the chalk and bubbles and had a lot of fun. Neither child really can figure out how to make bubbles yet, although Sam on occasion can wave his arm around fast enough to produce some bubbles. Usually, bubble juice just flies off the wand and out of the container and we end up with bubble juice covering our sidewalk. Matthew, for now, mostly enjoys chewing on the bubble wands. Regardless, we each find ways to enjoy ourselves.

Matthew's free!

Of a baboosh, that is. A few days ago I told Jason that I thought it was time to get rid of Matthew's baboosh. He saw one on the counter the other day and started fussing for it, so I thought his habit was going to far and decided to intervene before the situation worsened. We had been talking about it for awhile and really wanted to end their relationship before #3 arrived and now, it appears, the time was right.

However, after telling Jason that, I reconsidered. Can I stand a few nights of very poor sleep? What about napping? I can't do without Matthew's nap. I need it practically more than he does. All sorts of awful thoughts went through my mind...he'll cry at bedtime for an hour, he'll wake every hour and cry, he won't nap at all, he'll keep Sam up with his crying, we'll have two unhappy, sleep-deprived little kids on our hands. Oh dear. My resolve weakened and I thought maybe now wasn't the time, maybe later.

But later that evening after Jason had put Matthew to bed, he came into the bathroom where I was giving Sam and bath, showed me Matthew's pacifier and said, "We'll see how it goes." Too late now. I could hear Matthew screaming in his room. I hushed Sam down so our voices weren't a distraction to Matthew, but then a minutes or so later there was silence. I was incredulous. We finished up bath and Sam went to bed and we didn't hear from Matthew until the next morning at 6:30 AM.

Surely nap time will be different, I thought. He won't nap, it will be horrible, Sam won't nap, I'll go crazy and on and on went my crazy thoughts. When he started yawning yesterday morning I took him up to his bedroom, we did a quick naptime routine and while I was rocking him he desperately tried to find something to suck on. No luck. Here goes, I thought. I put him in his crib and he loudly protested...for about 10 seconds. Then I didn't hear from him for another hour.

Bedtime last night was just as successful. He cried when I left the room, I hung up his bath towel and when I had finished, he was silent. Didn't hear from him until 6:40AM. Naptime today was similar, except that he protested for about 3 seconds. Wow. No baboosh fairy needed. No sleepless nights. No missed naps and keeping Sam up too. Amazing. The kid continues to amaze me.

A yucky evening

I'm warning you, this is going to be a yucky post. Anyway, tonight I took Matthew up for his bath and then bed. I ran some water in the tub and started undressing Matthew. I peeked in his diaper and didn't see anything yucky so I took the diaper off and popped him into the tub. He started pointing at some toys that he wanted and I pulled out a bath book that we had which he started looking at. Then I noticed some black and brown specks floating in the tub. I thought maybe it was some sand that had gotten into his diaper when we were playing this afternoon, so I looked into his diaper which was lying on the floor and saw a big smear of poop. Yuck. So he had a yucky diaper and a yucky bottom, the latter of which was now in the bath tub. That explains the floaties. I grabbed him out of the tub and placed him face down over my legs and wiped down his bottom with wipes. He continued to happily look over his book. I then drained the water and cleaned the tub and started over with bath. How could I miss something like that? I really didn't see anything! Ugh.

Anyway, we had an uneventful bath otherwise and then got him into his PJs and read some books. While we were reading, Sam came into Matthew room. He smiled a little and said, "Mommy I went poop." Ok..."In the toilet?" I asked excitedly. He's not gone No 2 on the toilet since last September but we've been encouraging him to try so I thought maybe there was a breakthrough. "No, on the floor," he replied. Ok..."Where's daddy?" I asked. "In the basement playing red guys blue guys" (translation: Halo on the Xbox) was Sam's reply. Ok..."Where did you go poopy?" I asked. "I show you," Sam said. I tried to calmly rock Matthew and put him in his crib. He wasn't too happy about the abbreviated bedtime routine and cried some, but I had more pressing matters at the moment. I only hoped Sam had done his deed on the wood floor and not the carpet. We made our way downstairs and approached the bathroom and sure enough, there was Sam's present, just outside the bathroom door. Despite the yuckiness of the situation, I was somewhat encouraged for two reasons 1) it was on the wood floor and 2) it was near the bathroom. We cleaned up the mess and Sam happily flushed what he'd produced down the toilet.

A quiet walk

Tonight both kids were in bed a little after 7. Sam skipped a nap today (although he read in his room for an hour this afternoon) as he was excited to visit Grammy and Papa for dinner tonight. I tried a few times to get Sam to go to sleep, but after Matthew awoke from his nap around 2, there was no way Sam was going to sleep. So they both got up, Matthew had a short nap, Sam had none.

On the car ride home from Grammy and Papa's, (around 6:45PM) Matthew made a noise and Jason said, "I guess Matthew hasn't fallen asleep." I looked back and said, "Yeah, but Sam has." Sam's head was cocked to the side and he was asleep. I rubbed his leg and shook him a bit, but he was completely out. We got home and took the kids to bed. Sam awoke in the transition and we read a few stories, sang our songs and he quickly was asleep. Which meant that both kids were asleep by 7:30ish which is extremely rare. I came downstairs and wondered what to do with myself. I'm not used to this much time in the evening. Since it was a very nice evening, probably the nicest it was all day I decided to go for a walk.

I haven't walked for a long time by myself, without the kids. I started out and wondered what to do with my hands and arms. I didn't have a stroller to hold onto. I briefly thought about pushing an empty stroller, but then thought that would be really weird. So I walked by myself, hands and arms swinging by my side. It was a very quiet walk too. I didn't narrate what types of vehicles we were passing or point out things like birds singing, frogs croaking and fire sirens. I didn't point out airplanes flying overhead or choo choo trains going over the tracks. I didn't hear Sam asking "What's that, Mommy?" or saying, "I want to drive that someday, Mommy," when he sees a vehicle that he likes. I didn't hear Matthew babbling or making growling noises whenever he sees an animal--any animal. Instead I enjoyed the birds singing and wind blowing by myself, but it wasn't quite the same.

I didn't stop at all either. I didn't stop to show the kids an animal--like the ducks or geese we usually see, or the huge catfish/bullheads we saw the other day when we were walking around a local lake. We went walking early one day this week and in a shallow area of a local lake there were hundreds of sunfish swimming around and maybe six or eight 15-18 inch catfish/bullheads (I wasn't close enough to tell what they were) slithering below the surface of the water, their backs barely skimming the surface, leaving a snaking line through the water. I picked up Sam and exclaimed, "Holy cow, look at those huge fish!" and we all enjoyed the sight. I didn't stop at any of the playgrounds I passed tonight (there were 3 of them). I didn't stop to pick up dropped water bottles, snack cups or Hot Wheels. There was none of that tonight, just walking, uninterrupted, getting some exercise.

While I got some good exercise tonight and was able to do what I wanted, when I wanted, uninterrupted, I did rather miss my walking companions. Even if they are 1 and 2 years old with limited vocabularies (at least for Matthew, but he's only one!), they bring a lot of fun to a kind of mundane activity and open my eyes to the world in different ways. Fortunately I think I have a few more years of walking with kids, especially with another on the way...although I don't know how I will go walking with 3 kids. Maybe Sam can jog alongside me...he always seems to have plenty of energy and this would give him a positive outlet.

Shhhhh, Sam's sleeping

I've mentioned numerous times how we've had trouble with Sam going to bed at night. We've tried all sorts of things to get him to keep his lights turned off, stay in bed and go to sleep. Anyway, most recently, Sam has decided that he likes to sleep with his door wide open. We gladly obliged, hoping this might do the trick to keep him in bed. Counter-intuitive, right? But we're willing to try anything. So we go through his bedtime routine and then when we're all done we leave and leave his door wide open. He used to get up shortly after that and turn on the hallway light, preferring to sleep with the hallway light on. We'd turn it off, but somehow it would end up turned on again before the morning. Jason rigged the light switches so he can no longer turn on the hallway light as he was waking frequently during the night to turn it on (like at 3AM) and I think the extra light was throwing off his sleep cycles.

Anyway, we leave his door wide open now and usually he stays in bed pretty well. He sometimes gets up once when his music shuts off (after 30 minutes) and asks to have it turned on again, but other than that he's been pretty good. The benefit of leaving his door wide open is that when Jason and I go to bed, we can sneak a peek at how he fell asleep and look at the little guy sleeping. He's so peaceful and cute and it's just not often that we get to see him asleep anymore, he's not like an infant who sleeps anywhere, anytime. Often times I wish I could take a picture of him, but fear the flash would wake him. I'll try to describe some of my favorite sleeping positions that we've seen him in and you'll have to use your imagination to fill in the rest.

One night Jason and I peeked in on him to find him lying face up, but his face and chest were covered completely by the open Cars, Trucks and Things that Go book which is a rather large book. He had apparently fallen asleep while reading and didn't bother to put the book down. Last night he again was reading that book when he fell asleep, but this time he was lying on his side and the open book was over his upper body like a blanket. BaaBaa was just barely holding onto the mattress with the blanket attached to him, otherwise the rest of BaaBaa's body was teetering over the edge. Another night Sam was lying face down. And I mean face down. I could not see his face, it was buried in the mattress. His head was in the upper corner of his mattress, his body was at an angle and his feet and shins were dangling over the side of the bed. It reminded me of the Wicked Witch's feet sticking out from under Dorothy's house in the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, except that Sam's feet were facing down. That time I put my hand on his back to make sure he was breathing as I just couldn't see how it was possible with his feet buried in his mattress. Other times, Sam is lying tranquilly on his side or back, clutching BaaBaa's feet and legs. It's a joy to get to see him and Jason and I have made it part of our bedtime routines to peek at him before we go to bed. We come into our room stifling giggles (or laughs...Jason doesn't giggle) or saying, "Awwwww, did you see Sam? He's so cute!" or things like that. We'll have to peek in on Matthew more often too as I'm sure it would be just as fun. 

Matthew's sick

I was going to write about Sam's sleeping habits yesterday evening, but unfortunately I was stuck at the ER with Matthew and couldn't post anything. So that will have to wait for another day. Anyway, yesterday Matthew was kind of irritable, ate very little and woke up from his afternoon nap with a fever and was very lethargic. Since Sam was sick over the weekend, I thought maybe he caught what Sam had, but their symptoms were different, other than the fever. Not wanting to take any chances while Jason was out of town for work I decided to take him to the doctor to get him checked out.

Our appointment was at 5:30PM and he had some blood tests and was examined but nothing was found other than elevated white blood cell levels and the symptoms I described already. Because of the WBC levels we had to then go to the ER for more tests. Ugh. Sam was at Ken and Cheri's and it ended up that he was going to spend the night there. He didn't have PJs and only a clean T-shirt as he dirtied a pair of shorts and a pair of pants (still potty training...).

So we made it to the ER a little after 7PM. Waited until a little after 8PM to be seen and then Matthew was poked and prodded by various strangers which resulted in much crying. Even when the doctors would listen to his chest with a stethoscope he would lose it. I told him it was only going to get much worse (more blood draws, urine extraction :-(, taking rectal temperature, getting an IV) but he still insisted on crying whenever someone could come into the exam room. Poor kid. Having stranger anxiety is not conducive to a visit to the doctor. Especially when you feel sick. Especially when it's well past your bedtime.

Anyway, the last test was a chest x-ray and Matthew had to be strapped to the table, all his limbs were strapped down in addition to his torso. And I had to leave the room because I'm pregnant. I wasn't thinking anything of it until the technician asked if there was a chance I was pregnant. Uh, yes, I'm completely pregnant. So I had to leave the room listening to my little Matthew being tortured by being restrained and having x-rays taken.

Various results kept on coming back as negative until finally around 11PM the doctor said the chest Xray showed that Matthew had pneumonia. Well, we had an answer and could go home with instructions for taking care of the little guy. We got home around midnight and had a restless night. Matthew was not himself much today, just wanted to be held and didn't eat much, until around 5PM when he started walking around, bouncing from toy to toy and talking and laughing. He didn't even want to go to bed at his normal time, although he clearly didn't get much sleep last night.

The only good thing out of the ordeal was that I got to hold Matthew so much. He likes to be held some these days, but it seems that is becoming less and less. He's just on the go so much when he's himself. But from when he woke up from his nap yesterday afternoon around 3, until we got home around midnight, with the exception of when I was driving and the short times when he had bursts of energy, I held Matthew. So it was probably around 6 or 7 hours yesterday afternoon/evening. The silver lining to the gray cloud of illness.

Wardrobe

After hitting some garage sales this weekend Girl Kirchhoff is well on her way to having a fully stocked wardrobe for the first year of her life. The first place I stopped belonged to an obviously well clothed little girl, so it was exactly what I was looking for. A lot of the stuff still had tags on it and I spent $10 and got 17 pieces of clothing, most of which were one-piece outfits. So cute. Cheri also went shopping and got some clothes for the little one. Jason commented that she already had more clothes than the boys. I told him to get used to it. The boys didn't get totally left out, they each got two shirts as well as some books. We've read Sam's books over and over and both donned a "new" shirt today. Jason and I ended up with nothing, which is typical now that we're parents, right? The little clothes are washed and folded and in the closet...we're just now sure what room will be her's, though.

Want some soup?

I usually don't post twice in a day, but couldn't pass up writing about this one. So tonight we had hot dogs and ate at the island. Jason and I were talking after dinner while the kids were playing. Actually, Sam was washing his hands (which takes a very long time...) and Matthew was bouncing all over the place. He went to the ottoman, paused for a second, wandered by my chair through the kitchen, to Sam in the bathroom. Then to the laundry room, back to the ottoman, past my chair, pausing for a second or two at some drawers in the kitchen (which is not unusual), and back on to the bathroom. He never stopped anywhere for more than 1-2 seconds. After talking a minute or so with Jason I started suspecting something nefarious was occurring with Matthew. What tipped me off? Well, he hadn't emerged from the bathroom and was quiet. I wandered over to the bathroom not prepared for what I would see. Well, Matthew had my soup ladle and was ladling toilet water out of the toilet onto the floor...and from the looks of the floor, it was clear he had already ladled a good deal of toilet water out of the toilet. I let out a huge gasp and grabbed Matthew and his soup ladle. Jason disgustedly shouted, "Throw it out! Throw it away!" but I quickly threw it into the dishwasher. Jason can be so dramatic about anything related to elimination of bodily wastes. Anyway, I set Matthew down and he resumed his wandering, or rather strutting, because he really seemed to be walking prouder after his bathroom activities. Jason and I stifled laughs after the shock of what had occurred and really didn't know what to do. How do you reprimand a 1 year old? I told him "No" and removed him from the situation, but he's at that age that he consequences and the like just don't make sense to him and are ineffective. Anyway, we've had a fun evening and invite you all over for soup sometime.

The stare down

When I was a teacher I learned to master "The Look". Now, I didn't give the look often, nor can I produce it unprovoked, so don't ask. Now that I have children, The Look has taken on new meaning and importance. Unfortunately, I think the kids are too young to really get it (and be scared, intimidated, etc), but at times I do try to pull it out of my bag of tricks and see what happens.

So I tried it on Matthew last night. I mentioned that he has a habit of dropping his food on the floor. Ugh. Our floors are such a mess. I go through periods where I mop around the kids' chairs after every meal, then I'll go a week without mopping anywhere, preferring to do a touch up job with a wash cloth instead. Anyway, we were on to dessert last night. I made some blueberry cheesecake pie (with Sam's help...he put the blueberries in the pie) and gave Matthew some of it. First of all, he hates being fed too off of a spoon or fork. He tries to grab it and feed himself and if you don't let him grab it, he flails his arms around and if he's lucky he ends up knocking the spoon out of my hand and it goes onto the floor. Ugh again.

So he didn't want me to feed him so I put a few bits of cheesecake on his tray. He then started picking them up and dropping them on the floor. I sternly said, "Matthew don't" and gave him The Look. I was fully expecting that he'd start crying or something like that as I was quite stern. But he just stared me right back. We had a stare down. Eye to eye. We were both resolved not to give in. After a few seconds of a stare down a little smirk formed on Matthew's face, then a full out smile. Argh. It clearly didn't have its intended effect. But it did show me that Matthew is one tough kid. As if I didn't already know that. I can't imagine what his resolve and perseverance is going to be like in 10 or 15 years. Goodness.

Some tid bits

Oh, Sam was quite funny today. This afternoon I was planting a few flowers in a planter when he said he was going to get a flower to plant too. We were on the deck and he wandered into the house. I wondered what he was talking about, but he shortly arrived on the deck with a plant that he had uprooted from a planter in the front of the house. He was so proud of himself.

Then later he was taking a very long time washing his hands after dinner. Jason called out to him, "Sam?" and Sam answered, "Yes, dear?" I never call Jason "Dear" so that's something he's apparently caught onto from his father.

After his bath we went to the main level and Sam asked, "Perhaps we go to the basement?" What two-year old says "Perhaps"??? Are you kidding me? I asked him what he said and he responded, "Perhaps we go to the basement?" Oh my goodness.

We eventually did go to the basement for a few minutes before bedtime and Jason played Halo on the XBox. Sam got his controller and played too. Sam's controller doesn't have batteries, but he doesn't seem to care. Jason kept telling him what buttons to push and he obliged and enjoyed their video game together.

After dinner activities

After dinner is one of my favorite times of the day. For one, Jason is home. Secondly, the kids and Jason play together, freeing me to enjoy their interactions and catch up on some knitting or just rest while watching the Kirchhoff Men show. And they put on quite a show. I can't believe the energy the kids have at the end of the day, and Jason sure brings it out of them.

Tonight, for example, we all went to the basement after dinner. Sam opted for the basement for our evening playtime rather than outside as we had already spent hours outside playing in the beautiful weather. So we went downstairs. Jason crawled around on all fours for awhile with one child or the other on his back. Sam ran circles (really, he did) and tried throwing a beach ball up to the ceiling. Over and over and over. And then Sam could come over to the couch and jump off of it. And then he'd tackle Jason. And then there'd be tickling. And laughing. And squealing. And more running around in circles. And jumping. And just crazy displays of energy. And then Jason did push ups with Sam on his back.

Matthew is quite energetic too. Jason at times tries to chase after him and he squeals with delight and tries to walk/run away from Jason as fast as his little legs will take him and his sense of balance will allow him. Sometimes he gets caught, then there is much tickling and laughing. And then Matthew walks over to the beach ball. Then he walks over to the John Deere. Then he walks over to the stairs, goes up a few and comes back down. Then he walks over to the fireplace. He is constantly on the move. Never still for more than a second or two, and that second or two is only spent regaining his balance after a fall. While I was making dinner Matthew was on the far side of the table so I couldn't really see him very well, but I did know that he was still for a few minutes which is totally out of character for Matthew. Some thoughts flew through my mind: What did he get into? Is he choking? Is he otherwise hurt? Why is he so still? Turns out he was reading.

Anyway, back to our evening activities. A few times Jason ran in the basement bathroom to try to squeeze in a few minutes of work while the kids were playing and Matthew ran over to the bathroom door, yelled "Da Da!" and ran away, teasing Jason to follow. He obliged once or twice much to Matthew's delight. Oh such happiness. I know it sounds corny, but everyone is so happy during their playtime. The kids are laughing and squealing, Jason gets to act like a kid again, and I'm getting a nice respite before the frenzy of baths and bedtime routines.