Saturday, In The Park

I think it was the 4th of April.

Not wanting to do anything too involved before I had to leave to handle my part of hostess duties for the big hunt, Bryant and I decided to take the boys down to the park on the Old Navy Base. The boys absolutely adore this place, and unfortunately, Bryant hasn't had too many opportunities to join us there, so this was a special day. Of course, R and B were ecstatic to have their daddy joining us on an "adventure", and we made the most of our limited time there. First we visited The Big Blue Playground. (I capitalize it because it is THAT important around our house.) The boys showed Daddy all the wonderful things about one of their favorite playgrounds. Bennett even took a twirl in the spinning seat, and Reeves climbed higher than he ever has on the rope structure. I think they were both showing off.
After that, we headed over to the other side of the park where they have the fountain. It was warm, so when Reeves asked if he could run through the water, we acquiesced. I did think to remove his shirt so that we could put at least one piece of dry clothing on him for the ride home - on the open golf cart. Before we knew it, Bennett was soaked too. Once he's halfway there, why not let him go all the way. He would be warmer running around in it than with me holding him.Oh well. At least we had brought a blanket so we could wrap them up. They loved it! And stayed in it, running back and forth, batting at the streams of water, and covering up the jets with their crocs much longer than Bryant or I would have guessed. Reeves did eventually admit that he was getting cold, so we headed back to the golf cart, stripped them both down and wrapped them up in the blanket - and Daddy's undershirt which he removed to at least partially clothe a naked Benny Boy. It was a pretty classy scene.
I can't wait till the weather warms up for good (although I definitely will miss a few cool days here and there). In this coastal town, it opens up a whole new wealth of fun possibilities when your plans for the day can include, "Bring bathing suit."

At Least He'll Have Good Benefits

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"

Here's my little Benny, practicing to be a mailman. Who knew he would make a career choice so early.

Maybe I Could Have Parked a Little Closer to The Curb

Yesterday started out as a pretty good day. We were going to the playground at 11:00, so we didn't do anything other than mess around the house in the morning. The boys played great together. Reeves was super sweet to both me and Benny. He shared his toys, always said "please" when he was supposed to, did what I asked him to. We talked about going to the playground, and he remembered that it was Moultrie Playground. He was excited to play in the sand there and pointed out to me that this is not the playground with the brontosaurus dinosaur. That's Hambry Playground. We left to go and the boys were happily chatting away in the backseat, even holding hands at times.

I was so pleased and happy.

Then we parked and the mask came off. Reeves started screaming that he didn't want me to take his seatbelt off!! He wanted to go home!! He wanted to stay in the car!! Fine. I got Bennett and our lunch out, locked the doors, and headed to the playground. After depositing lunch and the younger child with friends and waiting what would be a more than sufficient time for the older one to calm down, I went back to get him. I swear to you, at this point I was thinking that Rosemary had a better baby than I did. I could hear him as I was approaching the car. Seriously. Who did he think was listening? So I got him out, threw him over my shoulder and carried him inside the fence. I promptly laid him down in his unmitigated wailing state to join more pleasant people. I figured he would get over it soon enough. Well, "soon enough" ended up being a good 15 or 20 minutes. I had no idea he could possibly hold out so long. But, once he decided he was over it, he proceeded to have a wonderful time playing with all his friends, and blessedly wearing himself out in the process. Although there was one point where something happened to make him mad and he told me that he just wanted to go home and be a baby. Whatever, dude.

For the rest of the day, he returned to his old congenial self. On Wednesdays, he has choir and then he spends that night with the Bairs. Benny and I usually eat dinner out there and head home around 7:00. And here's where this precious angel totally (almost) made up for his horrendous behavior earlier in the day. Benny has his blue blankets that he adores. He must have at least one to go to sleep. (We have four identical ones.) Anyway, Judy called me around 8:30 to tell me that Reeves had told her she had to call Mommy because he had found Bennett's blue blanket and he needed it to go to sleep. She said he was very worried about it. He got on the phone and told me, "Mommy, you bogot Bennett's boo bwanket." I assured him that it was ok because I had an extra one at home, and he was already asleep with it. "But Reeves, Bennett is very lucky to have a big brother like you who looks out for him like that."

Benny and the Shoes

As soon as this boy gets up, he heads straight to the shoe basket and pulls out his blue crocs for us to put on him. It's not that he doesn't like being barefoot, it's just that I think he has an insatiable love for these shoes. He never pulled out the Scooter Reds for us to put on him, he's not all that concerned with socks, he just wants his crocs. If we don't put them on him, he carries them around, silently, until one of us finally gives in.

Of course, there is also the obsession he has with other people's shoes. He loves, loves, loves to walk around the house in Daddy's shoes. Occasionally he'll put on mine, but he usually goes only for Daddy's. Maybe he likes that they're roomier. Then there are the ties. When Bryant walks in the door, that is the first thing to go, thanks to Bennett's Tie Removal Service. This used to be Reeves' job, but I guess by the time you're three, you're way too old for silly things like that.

He Stole My Heart With This One

Reeves has recently been asking a lot of questions about dying (or "diving" as he calls it). I'm not sure what has prompted this, but we've been having some rather deep conversations about it. Maybe I'm too black and white, or maybe I have a bit too much of my father in me, but I have talked to Reeves about this subject rather truthfully. I haven't sugar coated anything about it. There's no chance he'll ever think that someone who has died is just "sleeping". He knows that people who die go to heaven to live with God and Jesus. He seems OK with this. He also wants to know why people die, specifically, "Why did Mama die?" Mama is Judy's mother who died in 2000 at the age of 99. That was an easy one. I told him that sometimes when people get really old, their bodies "just poop out". (This, ironically, is also the term we use when any flashlight or battery operated toy doesn't work also.) So far I haven't had to go any further into it. I haven't had to address why some young people die, or why some people die in tragic accidents.

The other night on the way home from the country, he was very concerned with the fact that Mama had died. He eventually worked himself up into getting upset that all his grandparents were going to die, and Mommy and Daddy were going to die, and he'll be left here all alone with nobody to play with. I explained to him that that wasn't going to happen for a long time. He would be all grown up with a family of his own by then. (Let's pray for good health.) This seemed to pacify him, along with the knowledge that all those people whom we love who die are up in heaven and God and Jesus are taking care of them. Luckily, we arrived home shortly after that, and his attention was directed elsewhere.

Yesterday, on the way home from the CML, he asked me about the sick sea turtles they were taking care of on the shrimp boat. Apparently there was a little girl there who convinced them this needed to be done. After explaining to him all about veteranarians and how they are doctors who take care of sick animals, he asked me if animals ever die. I told him that yes, sometimes even vets can't save an animals life. This of course prompted him to mention Mama again. But then he also talked about Poppa, my grandfather who died last year. I honestly didn't think he'd even remember him. Then, just as we were approaching our house, he said, "Momma, I'm going to be like Superman and fly up to heaven and save Mama and Poppa and Gammy's friend that died." He was with Mom when she found out about Henrietta but had never mentioned it until just then. I am consistently amazed at just how big these little people's hearts can be.

The Children's Museum - Revisited

OK, so maybe in my last post about the CML my frustration should have been directed more towards the pressing-the-limits-of-the-fire-code-capacity throngs of hellions than actually at the CML itself. I have since then visited it a number of times when it has been occupied by about a 97th of the poeple there, and it is really quite an enjoyable place. It's the perfect place to go on these days when the thermometer is just a little bit low to take the children to a playground to let them enjoy nature's beauty. And even though the weather was beautiful today (hardly a cloud in sight), this is actually the best day to go to the CML because not everyone else in the tricounty area has decided to take theor children there. The crowd was thin at best. Perfect for us.

As soon as we got there, we went into the "gardens" and ate lunch. I use this term loosely because, at this time of year, it was hard to distinguish between the gardens and the parking lot. The boys were all well behaved, and with a little sugary prodding, even waited around for the slower ones to finish. (And miracle of miracles, Reeves was not the last to finish!) Of course, we worked our way through the ball room to the water room, still my least favorite room in the place, but other than Bennett and Pinckney dumping a couple of boatfuls of water on themselves, the boys and their clothes all remained happily unsoaked. In natural progression, we moved on to the shrimp boat, my favorite room. It is incredibly fun for the children and requires the least amount of parental supervision. Love it! B and P gave it the old college try and then decided they would rather grocery shop. So CFS stayed with the older ones, and I followed the littles into the Publix. And herein lies the key to having a truly enjoyable experience at the CML. You MUST go with another adult if you are bringing a number of children who fall into different age ranges. Inevitably, your four year old is not going to want to do the same things your 18 month old is, and unless you have the freedom to leave one or the other with someone else, you are certainly going to make at least one, if not both, of your children extremely unhappy. Although, you could have a day like Bennett where you pretty much just wanted to sample each room for six minutes before either moving on or going back. Needless to say, while P was shopping, I was playing Pong with B and his shopping carts. At one point, being now fully discouraged that he could not simply bowl me over with his miniature cart laden with plastic fruit and loaves of bread, my brilliant child decided to crawl under my legs and try to drag his cart through. One of these days, Alice! Anyway, the Toddler Room thankfully solved pretty much all his problems. Caroline shortly arrived to tend to Soup, while the oldest two continued to man the shrimp ship. This is where I am so proud of the way we have all raised and trained our children thus far in their short little lives. At this point, Bennett was DUN. When I went to check on R and F, I could hear him crying. They still wanted to play on the boat (I think the wellies they put on really drew them in), and they had done so well all day and have proved themselves worthy of relatively unsupervised play in the past, that I left them to play while I dealt with Bennett. I was so proud of both of them. There was not one scuffle, not one cross word. They were blissfully lost in their world of make believe adventures on the high seas, catching shrimp and taking care of sick turtles. Even when Caroline and I came out and gave them the five minute warning, they happily obliged and made the most of those last moments of play, a marked improvement to falling on the floor and crying that it is almost time to go home, wasting what little time they had left.

And as the final cap to a great playdate, when I returned to my car, there was not a ticket on it, even though my meter had expired. Thank you, Jodie, for convincing me to get this membership, and thank you, Caroline, for joining me and mine today.

Bennett at 18 Months

Benny Boy, what can I say? It’s not that I don’t want to do monthly updates for you like I did (occasionally) for Reeves, it’s just that I’m not working now, and as such, don’t find myself with a lot of free time sitting in front of a computer trying to find something to do to make it look like I’m working. That being said, today you are 18 months old, and, as difficult as it is to pull myself away from my bonbons and stories, here I am, at the computer in a desperate attempt to make sure I don’t let this precious time pass without documenting all the amazing things you are doing at this stage in your life.
First, I must say that you are one of the happiest children I have ever seen. You are almost always smiling or laughing. For the most part, you are instantly in love with whomever you meet, although you have recently been showing signs of shyness. Sometimes you curl yourself into me when someone new arrives, but I know this is a stage, and it doesn’t take long for you to warm right up to anyone. Your blue eyes shine with a perfect contentment and glee. It’s usually your eyes that draw people in. They are the first thing anyone comments on – they’re so big and so blue. And poor Reeves when it comes to this. He has made it no secret that blue is his favorite color, and while he loves your eyes, he also points out to us that his eyes are blue too. Most times we try to correct him, but sometimes it’s just not worth the meltdown. I hope you don’t use this against him later on.
Speaking of Reeves, he is by far your favorite person. Oh, you love Daddy and me, and you take a special delight in Lolly and Grandaddy, but you adore Reeves. When I come to get you up from bedtime or a nap, you are not necessarily super happy, but as soon as I say, “Let’s go find Reeves!”, you start jumping up and down in the crib, clambering at me to get you out. Heaven forbid I should have to change your diaper. Those are precious seconds where I am keeping you from your brother, not that you calm down and let me do it very quickly. I’m hoping that you really get the whole cause and effect thing down by 19 months, because it’s a little frustrating at times.
On the verbal front, you are far exceeding your brother when he was this age. Your words include, “Mama, Dada, Lala, juice, ball, book, shoes, choo-choo, ketchup (which you actually pronounce “babup”, but we know what you mean), and stop.” And I must expand a little here on your favorite word, “Stop!” I hadn’t realized what you were saying until Lolly pointed it out. It was a noise you always made when I changed your diaper or wiped your face and hands. It is more like a sing-song than actually saying the word. “Staaaaaaaaap!” How I didn’t realize that you were saying “stop” is beyond me, but I now totally hear it from you. You use it a lot during said diaper changes because you loathe having your waste cleaned off of you. You’re lucky I love you so much because honestly, I really only want to change you once or twice a day. It’s not a quick process like it was with Reeves. It is usually an all out battle involving lots of flipping you back over, lots of saving you from throwing yourself off the table, lots of using my elbow to hold you down, and occasionally hanging you upside down by your ankle when you have successfully made the dive towards the floor. “One day,” I keep telling myself, “One day you won’t fight me on this.”
Bennett, you are growing up so much faster than we could have ever imagined. On the playground, you pretty much keep up with the older boys. There is almost nothing you won’t try at least once. You climb up to the highest slides all by yourself, and come shooting down them without so much as even holding onto my finger. You take the knock downs and bumps like a man and have even started giving some of them back in kind. Just yesterday, you fell off a little structure at Moultrie. None of us saw it, but when I came running over and scooped you up, you curled yourself into me like you haven’t done since you were an infant. I just knew something was terribly wrong. But, after about 15 minutes of Mommy time, you were back down, ready to go. I checked all the obvious appendages and made sure of your balance, but you were fine. And you climbed right back on that horse and showed him who’s boss. Whoa would be so proud.
As tough as you are, I cannot overlook your sweet side. You have finally started to give real hugs. You wrap your arms around our necks and squeeze with all your might. Sometimes you grab our cheeks and pull them in close for a kiss. I randomly find you patting Reeves on the back, and I’m certain it’s “just because you love him.” You have also recently taking quite a liking to baby Campbell. Other than trying to poke his eyes out a couple of times, you are very gentle with him. (I wonder if we can convince Daddy that you need a baby brother or sister. Doubt it!) I love seeing this tender side of you while knowing that you can also take pretty much what anybody can dish out on you. It’s kind of like seeing a big football player holding his newborn after a game.
Sweet Benny, I promise to do better in writing down and sharing these memories of you so that you will have them forever. There is so much more to say even now, but I just can’t get my mind to conjure up and put into words just how gooey in love we are with you. You have brought so much happiness into all of our lives. We love you more than you’ll ever know and count our blessings that we are so lucky God gave you to us. Happy 18 months!

I'm Sure They'll Make Me Pay For This Someday...

But hopefully not before I can get it into at least one of their rehearsal dinner photo montages.

But honestly, matching pajamas AND matching, goofy, bair cub hats? How could I resist? And, yes, Reeves wasn't a huge fan, but Bennett loved it.

He later went around sporting Daddy's big ole socks. Good idea on the carpet, not so great on the hardwoods. Good thing he's tough and flexible. Gotta love the drool. (Will these molars never make their appearance?!?)

"Is Anybody Out There?"

I'm sitting here at my computer, and I have just jumped because I thought someone was breaking into my house.

Nope.

It's just Bennett rattling his cage. Apparently he's awake now and ready to get out. I think I'll toss him a metal coffee cup for effect and tell him to keep it down in there.

Conversations with Reeves

Going out the door for school in the morning...

Me: Reeves, please put your shoes on.

Reeves starts to put his shoes on without putting on his socks.

[Sidebar: This was one of those below freezing mornings we had recently.]

Me: Reeves, you need to put your socks on first. Your feet will freeze right off out there today!

Reeves: No they won't. My bones will hold them on.

Driving in the car the other day...

Reeves: Mommy, earth starts with "o".

Me: No it doesn't. Earth starts with "e".

Reeves: No, Mommy, earth starts with "o" because it's big and round.

When he goes down for a nap or bedtime:

Reeves: Mommy, will you lie with me for a little bit?

Me: OK, for about five minutes.

Reeves: How about for 49 minutes?

Apparently "Amam Mama" means night night time. "Flippo" means wake up time. And "Flippo, Floppo" means wake up and play time.

Glenn Beck - My Hero

Unfortunately for my boys, they don't get to listen to too much happy children's music as we are driving around town. Our radio is pretty much set only on 94.3 - talk radio - CONSERVATIVE talk radio. Glenn Beck comes on from 9-12 weekdays. Luckily, this tends to be the time we most spend in the car, so this is the guy we most listen to. I pretty much agree with just about everything he says. He is very conservative. He believes is God and acknowledges the importance of being strong in your faith. Recently he has been advertising his book The Christmas Sweater. He also mentioned that he was going to be in town signing books on Dec 16.
Naturally, I called Bryant that afternoon and told him to meet us there. The line was not too long and it moved relatively quickly. I had really wanted to get a picture of Glenn with the boys, but they had asked you not to because it would really slow things down. I understood that, but I had still told myself that I would sneak one in. But as in most situations, I chickened out when the time came. Still, I'm so glad we were able to do this as a family, and I can only hope that our boys share our same conservative views when they grow up. Heaven knows, I'm doing all I can to build a good foundation for that right now.
When we got home, we got our only family picture in front of the Christmas tree. It's amazing what a little tripod and a timer on a camera can do. I think the boys just liked watching me run back and jump into place over and over again. There were lots of outtakes, and Reeves even proved he's turning into quite the little photographer himself.

Family Day

Family Days are a wonderful tradition that our group of friends has tried to begin so that we know that at least once a month all the children and parents will get together. It is mainly for the dads, since the moms and the babes are together a lot. (It keeps us sane.) It's amazing to watch our growing brood interact with each other when the dads are around. While they are content to go and play by themselves and pretty much leave us alone, when the dads are there, they really want them to be involved.
There were plenty of leaves to keep them occupied. They would build themselves big piles and promptly destroy them, simultaneously being showered in a downpour of leaves.
It was a perfect day for going on lots of adventures, eating yummy hot dogs cooked over the fire, collecting hickory nuts, collecting dinosaur bones, and driving all over on the golf carts. The children loved having smores and getting them all over themselves. A few of us even ventured out over the marsh all the way to the ICW. This trip was extra exciting because there was a sailboat that had run aground across the river. This, of course, prompted all kinds of questions from curious little minds. "What's it doing there?" "How did it get up there?" "Is it going to be there forever?" I think if they had had a row boat, they all would have gone over to check it out.
After everyone left, we stayed in The Back to clean up and let the boys run out the last of their energy. Reeves showed Bennet the ins and outs of his blue jeep, and they even got some good bounce time in on the home made joggling board. Daddy is a good bouncer.
We are looking forward to our next Family Day. It won't be long before we're once again turning Family Days into Family Boat Days. We can't wait! Thank you to everyone who came out. You all made it a wonderful, memorable day!