Not that Kind of Lottery

The boys "won" the lottery to be in the three day a week preschool class next year (MWF instead of T-Th).  I think they'll be happy with that, although Mattie right now is back to crying at preschool (and in fact, the teacher doesn't want us to do parent of the day on Tuesday because she thinks that will make it harder for him to adjust.  I don't buy that, but I guess we'll go with it.)

In other news, I'm traveling for work.  I can't complain about the amazing weather here in San Diego, but I also can't wait to get back to my boys today!  (Too bad I'll arrive after the twins should be asleep.)

Boys and the Bubbles

The boys had fun playing with their bubble-makers today!

Crazy Restaurant

Over the weekend, Daniel and Matthew were entertained for at least a half-hour playing Crazy Restaurant.  They'd put the toy tomatoes in the play ice maker, Nora would ask for some water with ice, they'd turn the ice maker to put out the tomato, bring it to Nora, and she'd say, "What kind of crazy restaurant is this??"  (Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.)

P.S.  Alas, Matthew seems to have caught Daniel's tummy bug -- poor Daniel was sick on Saturday night and a bit on Sunday night as well, but we thought it might have just been a bad reaction to some fast food.  This morning, Mattie threw up twice (earning him a ticket out of preschool for the morning, which he did not mind a bit), but then was perfectly fine until tonight, when he threw up his milk right before bed (of course, on the night that Mike is out of town for work).  He doesn't seem out of sorts otherwise, fortunately.  

Butterfly

The train ride passes by mirrors!

It was a double-bonus museum weekend for the boys!  Matthew was very excited to go to what he now also calls the dinosaur museum.  :)  As usual, the train ride was the main event, and the boys were excited to get to hand their tickets to the conductor.  (After doing so, James then took off to the train without us!  Good thing you don't have to go through security at this station.)

Jamesie's butterfly

The other high point was that purely by chance, we ended up in the Butterfly House when they were doing a butterfly release.  Now, I imagined that they would have some big container of butterflies and they would open it up and a cloud of butterflies would come flying out, but no, that's not how it works.  They bring out a box with netting around it, and then take each butterfly out individually.  They set it on someone's hand or arms, and then after a few seconds or a minute or two, the butterfly launches.  It wasn't too crowded, so each of the boys got their own butterfly -- and they were great about following the "don't touch it" rule.  It was really neat!

Lap Dog

Daniel wanted Abby to sit on his lap. As you might guess, that didn't last long. :)

More Marbles

(I know, too many photos, sorry!)  The cousins had a blast at Marbles today (along with half of Raleigh; it was rainy weather, so the place was packed!)

The ball room was a hit, like before, but they also explored some new sections. Mattie spent quite a long time playing with the play hose and hanging in the doghouse. (Meanwhile, James had found a net in the play fishtank, and was roaming around the room scooping up balls with it.) Later in the afternoon, even though I tried to whisk Mattie by the water play area before he saw it, he zeroed in on it and ended up playing there with some orange boats for probably 45 minutes, and couldn't have been happier.  (And oh well, a wet shirt isn't the end of the world!)  Jamesie liked the market area with the play vegetables, and also the oversized building blocks.  And Daniel enjoyed the fire truck and the water, too. 

(It's kind of funny that some of the things they spent a lot of time playing with are exactly like the kinds of things they have at home!)

Mattie also really liked sitting in one of the play cars (though he was disappointed to find out that it didn't move around like the ones at preschool).  But he made me sit in the backseat, and informed me that he was in the driver's seat.  (Heh!)  I asked where we were going, and he said, "To Grandma's house."  And then he handed me back some imaginary milky, and then poured me a refill.  ("I'm taking care of you!")  Too cute. 

And Abby Too

The boys were very excited to hear that Cousin Daniel was coming to visit this weekend! Mattie was telling me how he would share his trains with Daniel, and then at dinner he said that he would share his juice with Daniel ("I'm going to save him some!"), and that Daniel would help him vacuum. Awww.

The World According to Mattie Bear, II

At dinner tonight, Mattie said, "This is a good meal!"  Mike replied, "Thank you, Matthew!"  But then Mattie continued, "I made it for everyone.  By myself.  While you were at work."  (Ah, wouldn't that be nice!)

Mattie's preschool teacher told me that she asked him whether he cried when he got his owie, and he said yes.  Then she asked him if his mommy cried when he got his owie, and he laughed at her -- he didn't understand why mommy would cry from his owie.  (Oh, child, if only you knew.)

One of the funny things that Matthew does sometimes is to self-servingly attribute mental states to other people:  "Daddy wants to vacuum the rug!"  "Jamesie doesn't want a turn."  "You're not hungry." (I think he knows it's just wishful thinking.)

Mattie built a "sleeping castle" out of his blankets and pillows on the floor the other night.  When I picked them up to put them in his crib, he said, "Why you being mean to the sleeping castle?"

[This photo is actually from a couple of days ago, so his cut here looks worse than it does now -- and the redness is actually from where the stitches were coming out, rather than from the cut itself.]

He's Got Your Number

Jamesie got to go to preschool in Mommy's car the other day (since Matthew was at the doctor for another look at his cut.)  That night at dinner, I asked how his day was, and he told me all about how he rode in the blue car, and ate his Cheerios, and then Matthew came to preschool! 

James usually rides in a rear-facing seat, but the one in my car is front facing, so I think he enjoyed the new view.  :)  He was such a good boy -- it was fun to have some one-on-one time with him. 

Pooka Button

I didn't think we'd be people who handed over an expensive technological device to toddlers, but here we are. We followed in the grandparents' footsteps and got an iPad.  One of the main reasons was to use the FaceTime video chatting feature with family, and that's actually been really cool -- the boys have gotten to see some of their Colorado cousins in action! 

Of course, the boys love their toddler games -- we have the same ones that Grandma has on her iPad (Zoo Train and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox -- what's not to love?), plus a drawing one.  (This is the problem with FaceTime -- the boys get bored with just talking after a few minutes and want to "play the monkey game.")

James in particular is crazy about the iPad.  When he wants to play, he says, "I want to push a button."  Except that it comes out "pooka button", which I think is so cute.  (But, Mike insisted that we be responsible parents of our hearing-impaired child and emphasize how to say it correctly, so now James is getting the "sh" sound in there.) He's good at the games, too!

But he occasionally gets a little like Gollum with his Precious (sorry to those of you who are not Lord of the Rings fans) -- he'll push Mattie away, and generally want it all to himself.  Mattie has actually been pretty tolerant about this, although the other morning we let them play for a couple minutes before preschool, and Matthew looked at me and said rather sternly, "Jamesie wants to be a good boy and share!" as if he wanted to make sure that I enforced that!  (Which we do.  And also hide away the iPad when it's not time for them to play with it.) 

Soccer Ball

We took James's new soccer ball (thanks, Auntie Nora & Uncle Adrian!) to the park today. He enjoyed it! (Some other kids borrowed it while James was playing on other parts of the playground, and had a great time with it, too. We figured that was only fair, since usually James is the one who adopts any unattended ball in the area.)

I've noticed that the world seems full of sharp edges and pointy things ever since Mattie got his stitches. Mike was running around with the boys in rose garden (brick pathways, with lots of raised brick corners), and I "encouraged" them to go run in the grass instead!

Our neighbors invited us and some other friends over for a chili dinner tonight. The boys were very good, and despite being the only little ones there, entertained themselves well without damaging (as far as we know) Lakshmi's house. :) Their game for the early part of the evening was playing with a huge exercise ball, and for the later part of the evening they were each carrying around a pillow and laying down on different parts of the floor to "go night-nights." We stayed until past the boys' usual bedtime (they'd had a late nap), but then James announced that we wanted to go ride-rides in the red car, and marched over to have his shoes put on and headed for the door. So we took that as our cue, even though we ended up missing some of the entertainment for the evening -- photos from our friends' trips to Spain and Peru. Yes, so the boys are not only curtailing our travel, but are even limiting our ability to live vicariously through the travels of others! :) (That's okay, they're worth it.)

The Good Kind of Roller Coaster

Mike wants to get a playset for the backyard, so that the boys will have more to do outside without having to drive somewhere.  So we went to a couple of sales places today to get an idea of what's out there.  (They were conveniently located near each other!)

At the first place, Matthew and James especially enjoyed the "roller coaster" (second and third pictures).  I have to admit, it was pretty cool, though I wonder who would have enough space to have it in their house!

The first place also had a lot of playsets set up indoors -- on a concrete floor.   (You can see a bit of it in the third picture.) That strikes me as a concussion and lawsuit waiting to happen.  Fortunately, even though it was a kind of chilly day, it was sunny and nice enough to be outdoors, so the boys did not mind at all playing on the outside versions.

After playing for a while at the second place, Mattie was getting tired, and decided just to play with the rocks.  Mike commented that we could save a lot of money if we just got a wheelbarrow of gravel for the backyard.  :)

TGIF

 Busy week!  On Tuesday, James went for his regular follow-up appointment with the surgeon.  (Weigh in at 23 lbs, 5 oz; okay but not great.)  The surgeon is fine with taking out the G-tube but wanted to wait until the cold & flu season is over, so that will probably happen in 3-4 months.  (Wow!)  We're also supposed to try to wean him off the Immodium, which he's been on twice a day.  Mike has already dropped it down to once a day with no apparent problems.  If that process goes well, they want to wean him off the cholystyremine next.  But he's staying on Prevacid and (alas) the special formula (Elecare) for now. 

James has actually been eating pretty well (by James standards) this week -- let's hope that continues!

We ended up keeping the boys home from preschool on Tuesday; they hadn't slept well at all on Monday night. (Matthew probably was bothered by the stitches -- he kept crying in his sleep and woke up for real twice.  There was no apparent reason for James deciding to get up at 3 AM!) They were being awful when we were trying to get them ready for school, so we figured they might just be too tired for it.  Grandma was here visiting, so they were happy to stay and play with her (and perked up amazingly well after we weren't trying to get them dressed!  Hmm....)

They missed school again on Thursday due to their doctor's appointments. Mattie had a follow-up to look at his incision.  I foolishly thought it would be quick, but no, we spent an hour waiting.  But as we expected, the doctor confirmed that it's healing up fine.  After the stitches are out, he'll have to wear sunscreen on the scar daily for a year!  (Or hats, etc.) 

Jamesie saw the ear doctor (he and Mike arrived just a few minutes before Mattie and I left), and he got some more gunk out of James's ears.  We're supposed to continue alternating ear drops and a powder medicine. 

Mike moved the boys' picnic table into the kitchen, and they have been quite delighted to play with play-doh on it instead of just getting play-doh in their high chairs.  Grandma also brought a bunch of cookie cutters for use with the play-doh, and those have been a big hit, too. 

The Morning After

Matthew was an adorable and happy boy this morning. He woke up once in the middle of the night with a full diaper and a little whimpering, but some milk and mommy time put him back to sleep. He woke up at 7:30 and was having breakfast by 8 AM. He was showing no signs of a traumatic Sunday at the hospital. James was in a typically good mood as well.