Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Nudist, the Jockey, and the Chatterbox

As the boys settle in to being two, all kinds of things are changing in our world. Perhaps the greatest difference between one and two is the amount of talking the kids are doing. Michael talks constantly. He says things like "Michael is a tiger, ROAR." He likes to count and identify colors. He sings songs. Most of the time he's in a great mood, but if he gets upset, he throws quite a fit complete with fake crying and tears.
Michael loves stuffed animals, and he calls his toolbox his "treasure." He loves animals, and his little people ABC zoo animals are high on the rotation of things that he plays with.
Ryan has a great fake cry. He always outdoes his brothers. He can turn red, pull out the tears, and scream so that the people in Europe can hear him. He is normally happy-go-lucky, and he is still obsessed with horses and golf. He loves to play golf and will follow James around with a club and ball trying to make James golf with him. He likes to color, talk on the phone to Daddy and Momo (he makes me call Momo almost once a day so that he can talk to her), he likes to play on the computer and the iPhone. One of my favorite things that Ryan does is come up behind me and hug me (of course during said hug, he always stands on the waistband of my pants and digs his little toenails into my backside, regardless, it's a pretty fantastic feeling to get an unsolicited hug from your boy).
James has some big shoes to fill - Grandpa's. He is such an observer. He is addicted to horse racing. He knows how to find the ap on my phone for racing, and he can do everything himself except for the betting. I'm pretty sure in the next week or so, he's going to be putting $10 on the 8 horse. As he watches his race (which he demands over and over and over again), he yells "go, go, go!" Occasionally, he will yell giddy-up, but it is very much like a strange tongue motion that sounds like pulup. When he doesn't get his way, he screams, throws himself to the ground and wallows. He likes to draw, golf, and run around naked. He rides his horse like a real jockey. He stands up on the saddle, pretends to use the whip to make his horse go, and yells "yaw."
Michael loves Daddy's shoes.
Bathtub boys. The bathtub with or without water is one of the kids favorite places to play. They are also very beauty conscious, and must use my makeup brushes occasionally to make sure they look their best. On a side note, maybe they have learned this from Aunt Faith who spends countless hours putting on mascara and lip gloss followed by countless more hours brushing her "beautiful hair."
Negotiations.
A peaceful resolution.
Another side effect of reaching two is nudity. Constant nudity. Ryan is my best stripper, Michael likes to lose the pants but keep the shirt, and James is just now coming into his own naked-wise. Every nap time or morning, Ryan does a strip tease for his brothers complete with tossing his clothes at them. Most of the time, his pants are in Michael's bed and often times the rest of his clothes (including his diaper) are laying in front of James' bed. The other day, I came in and all three of them were in various states of undress. We have taken to taping their diapers on them with packing tape. They can occasionally wiggle out of that as well. Luckily the poop incidents have been minimal.
Today, Daddy came home after being gone for 17 days. The boys were ecstatic. We sang him happy birthday, and the boys did a number on his cake complete with 41 candles to lick. I'm not sure who was happier to see Daddy, but I'm pretty sure it was me. The kids were so excited to see him that even two hours later, they were hopped up on Daddy energy and putting them to bed required negotiations more lengthy and contentious than the recent debt ceiling debates.

No comments:

Post a Comment