A few fun things we have been up to

One of the things I love about this age is how we can easily make an adventure out of almost anything.  For example, for lack of anything else to do one evening, Chris suggested that we ride the train to some random location, get off and have dinner, and then ride the train back home.  The boys were so excited at the prospects of riding a real train and loved watching for it on the train tracks.  They must have yelled "all aboard" about 100 times.  Once on the train, they were content sitting and playing for the (short) ride to Palo Alto where we decided to get out and have dinner.  We really did not have any restaurants in mind and we ended up being seated at kind of an upscale place with our rambunctious boys (you know you have overshot the level of the restaurant you should be eating at when they choose to hide your stroller).  As the waiter brought out the fine silverware and glassware,  we promptly moved it as far away from the boys as possible.  I was pretty anxious at first because  I was worried the boys were going to melt down or break the real glass cups we were letting them drink from.  Plus, the boys' chairs felt really far away and it seemed like I was not really able to referee their antics as well as I would have liked.  At one point Brady threw a ball of chewed up bread straight across the table and it hit me square  in the middle of the forehead.  I turned to Chris and shot him the glare of death that basically meant "what are we doing here????" and he calmly smiled at me, picked up his wine glass, clinked it with mine and said, "Honey, this is what the wine is for".  I laughed heartily and deemed that they best line of 2014.  Dinner actually worked out great!  They ate pizza, rolls, and bruschetta and Chris and I inhaled pasta so that we would be ready to go when the boys were finished.  The wait staff was awesome and in the end, it felt like we had a nice meal out.

In other fun news, we decided to take the boys to see the Circus de Soleil Amaluna show on Super Bowl Sunday.  I'm happy to say that the boys loved the show and Chris and I had a great time.  They sat patiently through the whole thing and only really got antsy at the very end.   We were pretty sure that the show would be a bit dark and may have some scary noises so we prepared the boys by talking about these things in the car on the way to the show (since we had bought our tickets only an hour before, ha!)  I told them that the loud noises meant that something exciting was going to happen so for weeks afterwards they would look at me and say "Loud, (pause) exciting" and "dark (pause) fun".  Looks like my brainwashing worked because they had a great time and showed no signs of being overwhelmed by the new experience.

One day a few weeks ago we had to travel to the doctor because Brody stuck a piece of apple up his nose.  I did not see him do it, but as I was loading Brady into his car seat, Brody told me he had an 'ouchie' and pointed to his nose.  I looked up his nostril and could clearly see a chunk of apple obstructing his nasal passage.  Since this happened in the car, I quickly reached for my car tweezers that are located in the console.  (Come one, I know I'm not the only one who keeps tweezers in the car.  The car is the best place to tweeze anything because the light is so good! (in parking lots only though friends, I'm a Mom now so no driving and tweezing).  Anyway, the apple was really far north  so I could not reach it without worrying that I would push it further up.  For lack of a better plan, drove straight to the doctor and the whole way I had to talk Brody out of putting his finger up his nose.  By the time we got to our doctor, the apple piece had disappeared.  I figured it had just passed through to his throat and he swallowed it, but since my memory of nasal anatomy is a little weak, I was somewhat worried that it may have moved into one of the smaller passages to the left of his nose and decided to have to doctor look just to be safe.  My doctor quickly calmed my fears and told me it is not possible for "objects" to move into those smaller passages (a special tidbit for all you moms out there who may have to worry about the same thing in the future).  She also gave the boys a little lecture about how it's wrong to put things in their noses or ears (at the mention of ears, I of course was thinking, 'crap, I don't know if they had even thought of that yet, thanks for putting ideas into their heads').  They seem to have gotten the message though because the other day I told the boys that I had to go to the doctor for a check-up and Brody pointed to his nose and Brady pointed to his ears and they both said "No, no, no" while waggling their fingers back and forth.  I assured them that I had not stuck anything up my nose or in my ears and I was just going for a check-up but I'm not sure they believed me. 

This age is really so much fun!  They both talk all.the.time.  and it seems that all statements start and end with Mommy.  "Mommy, green light, mommy".  Mommy, walk, no stroller, mommy".  Mommy, wheeeeeee, mommy ball, mommy, mommy mommy".  I will admit that sometimes I am not the quickest at responding to their many many statements and demands because by the end of the day I am a tad immune to the "Mommy" commands.  The other day as Brody was repeating my name in a 50 word gradual crescendo, I turned around just at the point where he was completely frustrated.  His little fists were clenched and his arms were shaking as he yelled "Mommmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy"in a long strung out British sounding yell.  All I could do was laugh, smile and answer, "yes dear" in my most June Cleaver voice.  Brady is equally frustrate-able.  I witnessed him feed the dog his toast and then throw a bunch of random air punches and lay down in defeat immediately after wards.  When I urged him to use his words instead of his hands and asked him if he was frustrated, his little lip started to quiver and he said "Rocco ate it, Rocco ate toast".  I had to choke back chuckles and say with a straight face, 'yeah buddy, you fed it to him'.  It was all I could do not to say "no duh"!  Luckily after a little explanation that it's okay to be frustrated but we don't use our hands to express that emotion, and (more importantly) Mom has lots more toast, he was happy again.

I also love how toddlers apply the little things they know to every new situation.  For example, I love that the boys think my kisses will solve every ouchie in the house, not just their own.  They make me kiss all of their boo boos as well as any boo boo Chris or the animals get.  They also cheer for me when I use the potty just like I cheer for them.   Toddlers are so funny.