Mandy attended her sister's graduation on Friday. We had no babysitter for the occasion, so I took the kids after a half day of work so she could go. We had lunch at Waldo Pizza, then I put Elliot down for a nap. Both of them had already been to gymnastics, and Noah just wanted to keep going, but we had to pause for a couple of hours.
After E's nap, they told me they wanted to go to "State Line" park - a fairly new park just a few blocks away. The temperature was only 39 degrees, but they insisted that coats, hats and gloves weren't necessary. I'm a fan of natural consequences, so after much cajoling, I finally let them leave wearing only fleece jackets. I brought along a pair of E's mittens, and a couple of hats, but didn't think they'd be used.
A few minutes after we got there, Noah said he was cold, and when I asked him if he wanted E's hat and mittens - which were in my pocket - he quickly said yes. I could have saved them for Elliot, but my reasoning was the first person to realize their short-sightedness should probably be rewarded.
That left only a hat. A few minutes later, Elliot told me he was cold, so I gave him Noah's hat. A few minutes after that he said his fingers hurt, so I softened a little and offered my own gloves. Even about five sizes too big, he recognized the wisdom of taking them.
After an hour, they finally threw in the towel and suggested some hot chocolate, so we headed to the nearby mall, which had a Starbucks. We walked around the mall with our drinks, rode the escalators, visited the fish, rats and guinea pigs in PetSmart and threw some pennies in the fountain.
At home, we had dinner, read some books, played hide-and-seek, made some Lego tree ornaments and got ready for bed. As I was reading them books on Noah's bed, I asked them if they wanted to sleep together. I figured if they said yes, it could make my job easier than putting each of them down separately.
We've tried this before with mixed success. Once they went right to sleep, and slept all night without a peep, and the others they couldn't stop talking and had to be separated. It was a long shot, I thought, but I had success again. I told them I'd give them a few minutes, but they had to be very quiet and go to sleep soon after. Amazingly, or because they were tired, they listened for once. I wished I could hear what they were whispering to each other on the monitor, but it got very quiet and they fell asleep a few minutes later.
They've both been waking up at night lately, calling for us, but tonight they slept straight through. Made me think we should try this more often. Mandy made it home around 11:00, so when they woke up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, I took them to Starbucks on the Plaza for breakfast. It sounds like we take them to SB a lot, but we really don't. Any more. The barista there recognized both of them - mostly E, from when he was a chronic early morning riser - and mentioned how long it had been.
To let Mandy sleep in, we spent the next hour or so driving around looking at Christmas lights, both of them competing to see who had the best looking lights out their side of the car. I actually threatened to pull the car over at one point. Probably won't be the last time this holiday season.
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| Took my glove. |
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| String cheese for a snack. What else? |
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| Finally, with some sense. |
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| Warming up. |
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| Don't look now, but... |
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| The Lego tree ornament Noah made for Elliot |
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| Noah and Elliot sleeping |
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| Plaza Lights |
