Toys!

Yesterday Tyler's teacher came into my office to tell me that he was limping around dramatically and complaining of his shoes hurting his feet even with a bandaid on his heel (very telling since they love bandaids and think they cure-all). Lance was having a busy day and I couldn't really fit a trip all the way home in, so I told the teacher to just let him go shoeless until the end of the day if they weren't going outside. I didn't realize that my particular and routine -oriented little boy would not have any of that since he is certain that shoes are supposed to be worn at school and he wanted to do what he was supposed to do. For instance, last night he asked Lance to take a book into the "dance room" (what they call it from when they were little and the tv was broken so it could only play music) and Lance forgot and set it on the shelf, only to hear Tyler yelling as loud as possible for "Daddy put the book in the dance room." He would not lay down and was very upset that it wasn't where it was supposed to be and that dad had not done what he said he would. He has a very precise sense of how things should be done and gets upset if they aren't as he thinks they should be. Once the book was in the dance room and he saw that it was in its place he was fine and went to sleep shortly thereafter. Anyway, the point is that different shoes were imperative or else he was going to wear the ones that hurt his feet versus none at all.

I decided to go to Target to get some water shoes that I have been intending to get (for our beach trip and frequent Nashville Shores visits) and just let him wear those for the remainder of the day. It ended up not working out, because he couldn't be convinced that they were actually his! He did put them on once I picked him up and told him that I got them for him along with another surprise. I couldn't resist getting a cheap little toy for them once I saw what I eventually got Katie. On clearance was a disney princess toddler cd player that she can operate herself, and wear around her neck. She LOVES it. I had Lance's voice in my head when I was picking out something for Tyler (of course I couldn't just get something for Katie) and even though I saw lots of things I know he would love I knew Lance would say that we didn't need any more toys (and we don't "need" them) so I got him an inexpensive dinosaur toy (the dinosaur from the dinosaur train show) that he likes alright, but is certainly not as big a hit as the "mooskic" player. What was fun, though, was looking at all of the options and realizing that toys are about to get good (for us)! For their birthday I am going to try to convince Lance to let me get Tyler a car track or building set (he loves to take things apart and try to build real objects), and finally Barbie dolls for Katie or maybe dress-up stuff (which she absolutely loves at school). I much prefer those kinds of toys, and can't wait until they can really get the hang of those as well as corny (but oh so fun) games like Candy Land!!! We are very close to them being able to swing themselves, too - which will be a GOOD DAY! I don't mind swinging them for short stints, but Katie is obsessed and would stay in there all day demanding to go faster and more, if you would let her and that gets a bit tiresome. So, I am counting down the days until we get swings where they can touch!!!

We had a good weekend - Nashville Shores on Saturday and Sunday. We intended to just go to the Y pool on Sunday since it was overcast and threatening rain, but someone got sick in the pool and it had to be closed :(. Sunday morning we did go over to the grocery store across the street on the way to the Y and they had a free jumpy house AND the Weinermobile with games and prizes (whistles, loud whistles) which the kids really enjoyed. You can pack a lot of stuff into a day now that we have officially given up weekend naps!

The kids thought the "hot dog car" was awesome. Please excuse the way they are dressed - it isn't worth fighting with them about what "matches" and doesn't, so I just let them pick whatever they want!

Katie really liked the whistle, but apparently not shoes. We went to the Y after this and the pool incident involved a lifeguard blowing his whistle to tell everyone to get out of the pool. Needless to say the kids imitated that repeatedly, all afternoon!