"Train!… Ride!… Tunnel!… Sound!… LOUD!"

I was blessed with some awfully cooperative kids tonight while I suffered with my dragging cold.  I got sick several days ago and thought I was on the tail end, but the last couple nights I've been so beat – and so glad when Ben would get home from work.  Then today I felt crappy and Ben was called away for an overnight assignment.  Man, I wanted to call a babysitter or someone, anyone, to be Mom for the day!  But instead my kids just stayed cool.  Lewis and I took a nap in my bed, which usually guarantees  a nice long snooze.  (When I first asked him if he would go up for nap in my bed he said no, like every good toddler.  Then he said, "Gackoo!  BIG!" for big bed.) Then Art and Lewis played without me while I cooked chicken soup and hung out with my sister in the kitchen.  I was able to hustle the kids to the Y for Art's swim lesson with minimal resistance, get them out of the Y and back to the car pretty easily and home to the finished soup for several bowls.  No, really, I had three bowls of soup.  Then we watched a nature show, read some books and they were down.  

From today’s paper:

Saving the Peeps: Pioneer Press reporter Jim Ragsdale and photographer Ben Garvin are taking a stand for the Peeps. No longer will they sit idly by as the annual Peeps Diorama contest depicts these harmless peeps as murderers, victims of gruesome beheadings and even as cannibals. In a series of investigative videos that launch today, Ragsdale and Garvin will expose this abuse, speak to peep experts about how to fight it and gain a deeper appreciation of these gentle creatures.

I will be posting more videos here next week!

Art’s attention span for watching animals is very long. We sat here for more than twenty minutes. Before that he was watching otters for at least ten. We actually had to encourage him to move on for Lewis’s sake.

As requested by my sister, Emily, I will explain what Lewis is hugging. It is a bear cub statue/toy. I believe this hug was spontaneous. – jess

Today after leaving the Y from swimming Art and Lew got distracted with the nearby garden. They just doddled around in the woodchips and bushes for about 20 minutes. It was really fun to not be in a hurry and to let them explore things at their own pace. Lewis ate snow and watched Art as he made up little games and rules about the berries on the ground. He eventually lined them up on a rock for some reason.

And yesterday Art and I stopped at the egret’s nest on the way home to doddle. He found rocks and leaves to throw and eventually just wanted to sit and watch the trickling water for a long time.

Saturday in our early childhood class the parents go into another room to talk about being parents. As we were leaving Arthur asked Lewis if he needed help washing his hands before snack. Even before we had two kids I always loved the idea that having a second child would be a chance for Art to have a friend. And they are certainly that. But I also love that Art looks out for Lewis. He’ll lean and ask Lewis a question softly and extra clear, he’ll hold his hand or give him random hugs. Art often advises me and Jessica how best to remedy Lew’s crying, and his advice is often hilarious and sometimes right.

It’s also true that we don’t blog and are less interested in sharing all those times they argue and cry or what not–it’s not all utopia. But it really is terrific to be there and see those moments when Arthur really sees his brother as his little brother who might need a little help. It’s unbearably sweet.