Bizarro World

When I arrived at daycare to pick up the boys last night I could tell just by looking at Dean that he was coming down with something. That kid can't hide a thing. But we had big plans last night. We had to go to our Congressman's town hall meeting. Our friend Peter is running against him and we wanted to be at the town hall meeting both to see what it was all about and also to be there for Peter who was hoping to have people asking questions of his opponent that would draw some attention to himself. Wow. Long run-on sentence. Anyway, first the boys and I met Tom at the Arby's near the high school where the town hall was to be held. There was a large woman in a wheelchair in front of us at the restaurant. I heard her complaining about the access ramps to the restaurant and various other things but was just ignoring her. Then it was our turn to order and Tom asked for 2 small roast beefs and an order of chicken tenders. The cashier asked if we wanted the 4 for $5 and Tom asked what that was. The wheelchair butted in and said that we wanted the 4 for $5 - trust her. Then she told Tom to get out of her way so she could get by. Yeah, she was a gem. Tom told the guy we just wanted the 2 roast beefs and the chicken tenders and as he was saying this a toddler in the restaurant started crying. The wheelchair yelled ENOUGH!!! at the little girl. The father of the little girl told the woman that she was just a baby. The wheelchair went on a rant that children shouldn't be out but that they should be at home and that the woman was a bad mother. Tom told the cashier that we would take our food to go. We went over to the other family that was being harassed by this terrible person and we told them it was ridiculous and they agreed and said that she was mentally ill. I don't know if this woman was mentally ill or just miserable but I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to belittle her and demean her and I wanted her to be removed from the restaurant. I wanted the police called. But I have two little boys who look at me as an example and I needed to remain calm and remove us from the situation with as little trauma as possible. And on to the town hall. It was another weird thing that I can't really put my finger on. There were strange, muttering people wandering in and I looked at Tom and said this is a weird night. He agreed and called it bizarro world. We went into the town hall and sat with Peter for a few minutes but Jack was fidgety and Dean started to feel hot so we got up to leave just after the Congressman answered the first question. When we got home I took Dean's temp and it was 100.7. He has no other symptoms - just the fever. Today, they're both running fevers with no other symptoms and the good news is that once they get motrin in their systems, their spirits really improve. I hope this is just a little virus and that it moves through the house quickly. I've got way too much going on to get sick.

Superman Clothes!

Thanks Grandma!!!

Superman Shoes!

We love you Grandma!!!

Bat-Dean

Zen moments

Superheroes ready to party at Frank's costume birthday party.
Dean enjoying his sand race car.


And Jack enjoying his tub time.

Batmen

See? They're really cute. And I did a pretty good job on those bats if I do say so myself.

By the way, the naps seemed to do the trick. They each slept almost 2 hours and their attitudes improved immensely for it.

We were supposed to have Uncle Julian and Uncle Peter over for dinner tonight for an early birthday celebration for daddy but daddy is fighting a cold and doesn't feel well so we had to postpone. So, instead of having filet mignon for dinner we had lipton cup-o-noodles and peanut butter crackers. Poor daddy. Jack helped me make dessert so we also had brownies and ice cream. Then Jack and Dean played in the front yard with the neighborhood kitty and I managed to get a little video of them. It'll be loaded up soon. The boys and I went for a walk around the block and when we got back they played together in the backyard. It was by far the best behavior we got out of them all weekend!

the trolls

Who swapped out my sweet, loving children with the tantrum-throwing, maniacal trolls that spontaneously combust at the suggestion that they may not get exactly what they want exactly when they want it which is NOW.

Lest you think I just lock them in their rooms without entertainment, here's what we've done so far this weekend:

Went to a birthday party where they got to run around with 40 other kids in an indoor playplace which was air conditioned thank-you-very-much and filled with things to climb on, in, under and over. They were fed pizza and juice and cake and ice cream. They went on a treasure hunt with a pirate - a cute girl pirate and then got their faces painted. J was spiderman and D was batman. On top of that, they got goody bags filled with toys and candy. Then, because they were so hopped up on sugar, we went to the mall where they could run around the indoor playground and burn off aforementioned evil substance. Despite all this fun, there were frequent flingings to the floor, by them - not me but don't think for an instant I wasn't tempted. Finally, we headed home the long way in an effort to get them to go to sleep. It worked but it took much longer than I anticipated and still involved some screaming. I won't mention who was doing the screaming.

And today? Well, we hit Target at 9:00am where I promised them I would buy a face painting kit so I could paint their faces like batman and spiderman. Alas, Target doesn't carry face painting kits but I saw some batman pajamas and the boys fell in love so I bought those. But, they wanted toys. And again, much floor-flinging commenced. In the car we go and I ask them if we should go somewhere else for the face painting kit and they whine yessssssss. So, off to Michael's we go. One small meltdown because D's shoelace became untied. THE HORROR!!!! But, disaster was averted and we went into the store. A quick rant about the state of customer service??? PUHLEASE people, look your customer in the eye especially when you're giving a woman with two melty downy preschoolers the bad news that you don't carry face painting kits right now because it's not the season for them. The season??? What the hell season is it that requires someone to paint their kids' faces? Isn't that birthday party season? Isn't that kinda all year long? And by the way, nobody gives a rat's @$$ that you want to take boxing lessons. What they want is to know where the freaking face paint is.
So, we head over to the party store just a mile down the road. They have face paints but no book of samples. I take it anyway with the assumption that I can wing it. Ok, so this part was probably not that fun for J and D but I had to get them out of the house because we sold the jogging stroller today and they would really lose it if we sold it while they were there. We went back home and I painted their faces - both chose batman and they looked really cute. I took a picture and I'm glad I did because shortly after we were finished Jack melted down and was put in his room in a time out where he proceeded to mash his face into his pillow. There's a lovely imprint of a bat on his pillow now. Then it was D's turn to lose it and he went in for his time out. Seriously, it was insane. We had lunch and then there was more whining - J was hungry (huh? didn't you just eat?) and wanted to eat candy, go to the park, blah blah blah. I told them we were going to go for a little ride in the car. Park, Park, Park???? We'll see. J threatens that he's going to be sad, he's going to cry. I tell him it's ok to cry and it's ok to be sad but right now he needs to try to calm down a little and find a way to be happy. He tells me he loves me and now I see he's trying so hard. 3 songs later he and D are asleep and we're pulling into our driveway. That was at 1:00pm. It's now 2:30 and they're still down. Let's hope that's all it takes.

All's quiet

Finally, after an hour and a half of struggle - J's napping. When he's 15 and trying to sleep in until noon I'll be there every 15 minutes - jumping on his bed, kicking the wall, poking him in the eye and various other places, pulling open the curtains, jumping onto the floor - I could go on and on.
Yesterday was a great day. We got up early, packed up and went to the beach. The water was beautiful, calm and clear and warm enough to be in it without a wetsuit. I've never experienced Zuma like that. We saw dolphins and even a sea lion. While T played with the boys, I went for a swim with some other Tri Team members. We swam for about 1/2 mile and then I did some bodysurfing. I dried off and went for a run but not before snapping these pics.
I really wish I had taken a picture of the water, it was so beautiful. When I got back from my run, we took the boys down to the water and let them play around. D is still afraid of the surf so he wanted me to hold him. I did and we walked out into the water a bit but everytime a wave came in he would scream and cry so I gave up. I put him back on the dry sand and he wagged his finger at the ocean. Yeah, that'll teach it.
J seemed to love the surf. He'd try to jump over the waves as they'd crash in and he learned how to plant his feet so he would stay balanced. Then we had sandwiches and cupcakes and soon it was time to go home. They were both asleep by the 3rd song and slept another hour and a half once we were home so Mommy and Daddy got to take a nap, too.
Today our friends came home from their vacation so T went to pick them up at the airport while the boys and I went to the farmer's market and Costco. They were so incredibly good at both places. So, I bought them new costumes.
For some reason the pictures aren't loading. So, I'll try to put them in a separate post.

Dance Fever!

Dancing Kids


WARNING!! It's really LOUD!
I took this video of the boys on Sunday morning.

Goodnight Kisses

Me: I need goodnight kisses.
D: I don't have any more.
T: You ran out of kisses?
D: Yes. Climbs off the bed and scoops up imaginary kisses from the floor and puts them in his mouth.
T: Did you find some on the floor?
D: Yes. Comes to me and gives me a kiss. I hug him and tell him I love him just as he wipes his mouth and flings the kiss to the floor. That was an old one. Pthhhht.