And there was this guy, too...

Let's back up to our first visitors, my boy Aidan. I think I shared these pictures on FB, but not here. Love me this baby.

Damn shame he lives so far away and his mother doesn't bring him to see his favorite Auntie more often...<sigh>...

The boys each picked a book for Baby A, and then decorated the cover.

 I picked something out for him, too, but had to amend it. It would be self-indulgent if it weren't true.

 

 Baby A was very inquisitive, and looked about and pulled hair, as babies are oft to do.

 Love saw this and backed away a little.

 He has his momma's eyes and expressions. But cuter with chubby cheeks.

  And fat baby thighs. He's crawling and standing and moving about, so I bet he loses some of the chub by the time we see him again. Too bad. That's good stuff.

The babies got sat.

Behold, our first real babysitters! Amanda and Alex from Camp Keller took on these two for a few hours that same Saturday while we went to see a movie. And it sounds like it all went really well, until bedtime. Then these two seemingly sweet and cooperative boys turn into a think tank of excuses not to sleep, and they have Camp Keller kids a run for their money. I was afraid of this, and this is why we bolted from that movie theatre to race home. But they are willing to come back and sit again, so it couldn't have been that bad, right? ;-)

Here's More Stuff

The day of overwhelming fun at Costco also had a very lunch at a Hibatchi type place. You know, the dude cooks and flips stuff and entertains you while he cooks your food?

But when we got there, the damn place didn't open till noon. PEOPLE. Don't they know our kids nap at around 1pm and we need to get home around then, and therefor they should open earlier? I hate when stores and restaurants don't plan around our nap times. So we thought hard for a minute and decided to kill the next 30 minutes at the mall merry go round.

And when we returned, we met a stampede of people going into the restaurant, but luckily the giant fish tank distracted us while we waited. And it was so neat that even once we sat down we kept turning our heads to stare at the fish.

 One of us stared. The other got a lecture from his dad that I'm pretty sure can be paraphrased into I'm paying a lot for your lunch, you better eat the food. 

 G agreed that he would indeed, eat the food.

Then our chef arrived and we were mesmerized. And, it turns out, we are afraid of the fire. It is pretty big and it was unexpected, and we said we'd go again, especially if our waitress brings us cocktail umbrellas again.

 And if we got to use the "chompers" to eat.

 

Not a bad way to spend a lunch hour.

This is Exciting

The boys have been going with us on errands since they were little. Mostly we needed to get them out of the house, and I'm pretty sure Keith worries I'll spend too much if he's not with me, so for the last 3.5 years Saturday and sometimes Sunday mornings have been errand mornings. We used to load babies into Bjorns and walk and shop and hope they would get tired so they'd nap so we could nap. Ahh, the good ole days.

Then they started talking and walking and having opinions of their own, and sometimes that is great, sometimes its downright irritating. And other times it's funny. Like this past Saturday morning, when we all went to Costco. We checked out and Keith was picking up something from the front desk while we waited. I was busy people watching and talking to the boys, but I was not really looking at them. At one point I started saying "aren't we having so much fun together?" and as I turned my head back towards them, I saw this. 

Then someone realized I was taking pictures and gave it a little extra stretch.

So funny, these two. Not sure those are faces of excitement, but we did get them lots of food samples in the warehouse, so I can't imagine why they wouldn't be excited.

Also excited: the parents. We got movie ticket at Costco for our date night later that night. Did you know you could get them there? I did not, and its apparently a lot cheaper because not much else could make Keith that happy than saving money. He's like Clark Howard.

'Nastics

We're officially doing gymnastics. Or 'nastics, if you're in the know. I had no idea if the boys would like it, honestly. Worst-case scenario is we have a little fun every Saturday morning, best case scenario is that I have pictures of the start of a long Olympic gymnastics career. Heh.

So Saturday morning, coffee in hand Keith and I watched the boys do a little tumbling and jumping. Want to see? 

Grady getting into somersault position.

Below we're on the balance beam and the trampoline.G is up, C is bouncing.

And sorry about this, lots of backlight makes it hard to get good pictures. Both boys at a bar, about to swing.  Actually, Cole is already swinging on the left, Grady is getting the lowdown on how to swing on the right. The lady on the right is grand master teacher, and I think she is very, very good.

Grady swinging. When the class was over, the teacher, Grand Master, came over and told me how good they are doing for their first class and that Cole was doing really well, and that Grady was good too but would naturally have a harder time since he's bigger, but that wow, he was strong!

Dad got bored with the action and was reading the paper.

And we ended the session with a little bouncing action. Jump Coley, jump! Next week we'll take the good lens.

Good times had by all. Things I learned: there's no such thing as too much coffee; dads, as a general rule, can watch 10 minutes of this stuff at a time before focusing on blackberries or newspapers; there is one little girl in this gymnastics class who is going to be on my nerves the entire season; there is one former gymnast mom who is on my nerves already and I need to not stand next to her again; I really wish I had learned to do a cartwheel; if I wear my blue strapless bra to gymnastics class I'll be distracted by it the whole time-that thing is worthless.

The boys seemed to have fun, and they want to go back. Success!