Terrible pictures of me and my beautiful kids.

Ben went to the cottage with Josh and Devonte to have a “special time” and Art, Lewis and I had a special time at the zoo. We really did have a good time! I was trying to snag my sister or mom or another friend to join us but it actually worked out well this way. Art doesn’t have a lot of patience for animal watching at the zoo – he’s only 3 1/2 for God’s sake! So we could move on quickly. And Lewis could keep trudging ahead.

Art was great at running after Lewis and trying to keep him from escaping. Lewis was great at walking really fast and getting away from us. He walked/ran through the whole Tropics Trail. We also saw the brown bear in the Grizzly Trail (he was sleeping) and some otters and we went through the butterfuly tent. We got our picture taken by another single parent out there (a dad with a anti-stroller toddler) and hung out at the fountains for a while (see blown-out-but-lovely-moment picture below.) We also spent a good deal of time going through the tunnels near the pink flamingos. (See video.)

Later at home, after Lewis’s nap and while Art was taking his nap, Lewis demonstrated his brute strength and overturned the coffee table. Like in the Duran Duran video or something! He is SUPER strong!

(Still figuring out this video thing. I actually don’t know how to upload, I guess, but I’ll get it tonight or tomorrow….)

Have I mentioned Amazing Man?

Since Art doesn’t watch a whole lot of T.V., and has never really seen commercials or anything but public television, he only knows his superheros from his friends. I’m actually excited to watch Superman with him some day. He saw a little bit of it several months ago and he was fascinated by how the Caped Crusader could fly. Anyway, Art has invented his own superhero – Amazing Man! Amazing Man can do anything wants because he’s amazing! That’s what Art said. And the villian in Art’s scenerios? The Bad Man. The Bad Man does only things that are bad, because he’s The Bad Man. And that’s how it goes. You should see the show sometime. It’s really exciting.

Arthur loves Nanna (from the archives)

This morning.

–Sent from my handheld device.–

Art likes glue.

Well, my mom thought that last post was the saddest thing she ever read but fear not!!!! Art is not a sad case. He just had a sad moment.Today we had a lovely time doing “projects”. Art loves doing anything with glue or scissors. He likes to use tools. So he made a… something with pom poms and googly eyes and lots of glue. yesterday he did spun art with the salad spinner.I love to see Art do amy art since it’s so rate fir him. I just love to see what he decides to create- where he chooses to place things,what colors he uses. While he was gluing the pom poms I decided to see what he would do with something representational. I cut out a monster type shape and said he could give it some eyes and hair, maybe a mouth…. He gave it two eyes! And a LOT of hair. And then he got distracted by stickers and just started focusing on peeling backings
off and stacking them. But it was a nice little moment of art with Art.Meanwhile Lewis was stabbing a sheet of paper with crayons. Pictures to come soon!!

Art had alittle bit of a hard time.

Today I brought Art to a “ballet” class at one of our local parks. I thought it might be a fun thing, and it’s just another opportunity for Art to realize he can have fun without me. Anyway, it was not smooth sailing. At first he had his usual shyness, which was no big deal. He didn’t follow me out or anything, but as soon as the kids were asked about their favorite animals Art started to cry. They made some animal sounds and it got kind of loud. Art doesn’t too well with loud sounds, especially when he’s feeling stressed. That happened a couple more times. The room would get just a little loud and I could see his shoulders pull up and his cheeks turn red (I was watching from the door and his back was to me.) I tell you, the other kids looked really confused and the teacher tried to pat his knee or rub his back to calm him down. Then they all got up to do something and I don’t remember what it was but he crumbled again, and this time he just chanted “I want Mama! I want Mama!” I ran in and pulled him out.

While I was holding him he said, while sobbing, “I want to tell you two things. They made loud sounds and I didn’t like that and I wanted you look through the window for a long time and you didn’t and that made me saaaaaaaaaad!” We stayed in the lobby for a while until the class came out like a choo choo train to get drinks of water. Suddenly Art said, “Maybe I could try again!” (I think he really wanted to use the drinking fountain. He loves drinking fountains.) He went back into the class and made a circle “pizza” stretch with their legs, reaching out in front of them to put on their favorite toppings. Art said, “But, Mama likes mushrooms on her pizza!” They did that for a while and then she passed around some tap shoes. Before the shoes even got to Art he started crying again. He came out and said class was too long.

It was too long for Art, mostly because he didn’t get a nap today, but it wasn’t that unusual for Art to react to things that way. One of the other moms asked me how old he was and when she learned he was three and a half she was surprised. She thought he was five, since he’s so tall. And that’s why I think things will be hard for Art. Not only is he sensitive to loud sounds and a total mama’s boy, but he’s big for his age and looks like he should be able to handle more than he really can.

Date night.

Tonight Jess and I had our first date in months and months. It was really fun and nice to spend time together, eat tasty food, and be entertained at a movie. We went to Blackbird Cafe on 50th and Bryant and had a delicious dinner (jess had a pulled Hoisin pork sandwich with kim chee, I had piece of halibut with pesto and wild rice. both were great). Then we went to see Star Trek, an entirely entertaining and fun movie. Jessica’s cousin Amy watched Art and Lew (and also took this photo). Everything went really smooth. Thanks so much Amy!