The Quiet Game

During our late lunch this afternoon the boys started playing "The Quiet Game" against each other. Ryan said the loser should drink a half cup of lemon juice. Then he went about trying to lose the game. That boy loves lemons. Daddy saw the silly cheating going on and made up a rule that the loser would have to drink a juice of his choice. We all watched as Brett mixed together olive juice, a dash or two of green Tabasco sauce, some BBQ sauce, a little vinaigrette, and a few squirts of lemon juice. What started out as a little fun has become serious business! The house has never been so quiet. I'm pretty sure that I wasn't part of the game to begin with, but you better believe that this trap door won't be the first to open!

Update: Our house was quiet for over half an hour. A very strange, almost uncomfortable quiet, considering that all four of us were in the house, wide awake. Ryan did the best of all of us, retreating to his room and playing by himself. Finally, the pressure was too much for him. Brett and I watched Ryan come into the kitchen, dip a spoon into the glass waiting on the table, consider the taste . . . and drink it up. Todd, not wanting to be left out, sampled it as well. But it was Ryan who started and finished drinking the two tablespoons of Dad Juice. He followed it up with a loud, "Yay!" that had me and Brett busting up. Far from being the loser in this game, I think Ryan beat us all.

[Ryan said the Dad Juice really wasn't that bad, except for the taste of the BBQ sauce.]

Battleship

Last Saturday I went to a few garage sales with my sister-in-law, Donna. Donna has some great luck at garage sales. I don't go often enough to have come across a lot of great things, but I've gotten lucky a few times. I came home with two things last week from a garage sale for Todd: a Nike bat bag [maybe I'll get around to posting about his first Little League season] and the game Battleship. Todd is a game-lover, and this is a game that I remember playing a lot as a kid. I knew Todd would enjoy it.

In fact, Todd loved it. We played it as a family on Sunday--Daddy and Todd versus Mommy and Ryan. Dad couldn't keep up with the pace of the game--or couldn't keep down with the pace? Things were moving rather slowly as we were trying to let the boys be as involved in the game as possible. Brett lasted through one game, then we had to call cousin Kellie over to continue in Brett's place. After another game or so, Todd was able to play independently.

Todd came down with a fever and was feeling pretty miserable on Tuesday. However, he was not feeling too miserable for a few games of Battleship. He woke up in the morning asking to play. After he watched Wall-E he asked to play a game. Then about two-thirds of the way through Horton Hears a Who Todd asked if he could take a break from the movie to play Battleship. We don't often let the boys watch full-length movies in one sitting, especially in the middle of the day--let alone two! Sick days are the exception. So, for Todd to want to stop in the middle of the movie is saying something. [What exactly it's saying, I'm not sure. The movie wasn't so good? He was tired of laying in one spot for so long? He loves the game Battleship? Or all of the above?...I think he loves the game Battleship.]

Todd suggested that this was a perfect game to bring to Maine with his cousins. It does seem like a good travel game, with the exception of all those tiny pegs that I know would scatter all over the car or airplane. I was thrilled when I came across this as I was "researching" for this blog post. A paper version of Battleship! That really is perfect for a long car or plane ride. I don't think Todd's quite ready to play the paper version yet, but it's something I will definitely introduce him to when he is.

Two Good Things I Did For Ryan

I love it when you do something right for your kids, and you know it immediately. I don't always take the time to play super-fun, messy, or inconvenient games or activities with my kids. Last Friday Ryan asked me to play "camping" with him. He was asking me to play with his camping toys, but I went a step further and suggested we build a tent. As soon as I started getting blankets and the dining room chairs Ryan got so excited. I knew right then that constructing this tent was the best thing I could be doing with my time. Ryan had a blast playing in it on Friday. We played "camping" together, then later had some quiet reading time in the tent. When Todd came home from school he thought it looked great, and Ryan and Todd were able to enjoy it together. I kept the tent up all weekend (until Sunday night--after the kids were in bed--when I couldn't stand looking at the "mess" anymore and the boys had started losing interest).

Friday night was also the last home football game for the high school. Papa took Todd to two other football games this season, and they thoroughly enjoyed watching the games together. Ryan doesn't quite have the attention span to handle watching a full game yet; at least, not if he is expected to actually sit and watch the game. Ryan also gets tired earlier, so it is really best if he stays home. When Todd found out that this would be the last home game, he told Papa that they would be going together. Papa readily agreed.

I felt a little sorry for Ryan that this would be the third night out that Todd got, while Ryan didn't have any special one-on-one dates. So, I decided to take Ryan out for ice cream. I didn't want to go very far, so I went to a Hershey's Ice Cream less than 10 minutes away. I wanted Ryan to be able to go somewhere where he could look at a ton of different ice cream flavors and pick whatever he wanted. This was our first time here, so it was a treat for both of us. We (at least I) drooled over some of the different flavors, sampled two, and made our decision. Ryan went with chocolate chip cookie dough in a plain sugar cone (he declined the dipped-in-chocolate-and-covered-with-sprinkles sugar cone!). I went with the red velvet cake ice cream in a cup.

I don't know if Ryan regretted his choice at all. He certainly ate all his ice cream that night. But since then, he has told me we need to go back again so we (either one of us) can get the Superman ice cream. The bright red, yellow, and blue Superman ice cream is a swirl of strawberry, banana, and "blue moon" flavors. Yes, the flavor was described as "blue moon"--what is that, really?

I regretted going back into the dining room to finish our ice cream. We started eating our ice cream at the tables outside, under the protection of the outside awning and an umbrella. It had started raining earlier, and there was quite a bit of lightning (no thunder though; but enough to cause the football game to be cancelled). Ryan said the lightning was making him scared, so we went back into the (freezing) dining area inside. Unfortunately, there was a TV in the restaurant playing the Disney channel. For the rest of our date I sat there trying to make pleasant conversation with Ryan while he finished his ice cream. I found myself talking to a TV zombie who kept asking me questions about the show which I couldn't see, since my back was to it. Next time we go we can get the Superman ice cream, but we're sitting outside.

Some Things That Make Me Smile

a "NIE"-inspired post:

1.

Rather than coming to Mom when he first got out of bed, Ryan went straight into my closet and climbed into the dirty clothes basket.

2.

I'm so happy when the dogs get attention during the day from the boys, because they certainly don't get much from me.

3.

Brett had put the boys to bed while I attended a music practice. This is how I found Todd when I came home and checked on him.

I love taking photos of my sleeping beauties - such innocence and peace.

4.

Dear Todd and Ryan,

I love you. I love your sweetness which is displayed in so many unexpected moments during the day.

Dear Stephanie, a.k.a. NieNie,

Thank you for sharing your creativite talents and faith with the blogging world. And for showing us how you take care of your family in such loving and beautiful ways. You inspire us. We are looking forward to hearing your blog-voice again soon.

Dear Courtney, a.k.a. CJane,

Thank you for sharing your thoughtful and heartfelt words with us. Your love for your extended family inspires us. Your posts make me cry more often than I care to admit.

Love, Becca

Boat Ride With Daddy

When I came back from Maine, one of the things that I told Brett about was how much Todd loved going out on the little boat my dad rented for the week. Brett reminded me that we have a little boat of our own that we can cruise around in. Unfortunately, the timing never seems right-there are always things to be done at home or the weather doesn't quite cooperate. You need calm waters to make it a fun ride on Daddy's floundering boat.

I had been planning on working on the rental house yesterday afternoon, but Brett came home early and suggested a family boat ride. He said that as he was driving home over the Bridge that he noticed that the water was really calm. I was concerned that the gray clouds might produce more rain while we were out, but aside from that it was an easy decision: work--boat ride--work--boat ride. . . . I think I'll go with boat ride! [It was a good decision. As it turns out, the weather cooperated beautifully.]

The boys take advantage of the No Wake zone and lay out on the bow of the boat, looking ahead to the bridge we will be going under. Yeah! a bridge! There's even a barge and a crane right beside it! No tugboat though. Sorry, Ryan.
We did go just outside of the pass and into the Gulf. The swells were more than what we felt comfortable with in the little boat so we only stayed long enough to watch some schools of little Shoemakers (I think that's what Brett called them...) jump out of the water around us. That was one of the highlights for the boys. I just loved hearing them (the boys) laugh and laugh as they watched the fish.

Of course I tried to capture the fish on camera. . . naturally, it didn't turn out. Likewise, I tried to capture the dolphin that we saw in the bay on camera. . . naturally, those didn't turn out either. That is always one of the highlights for me - seeing how graceful the dolphin are as they swim nearby.

A surprisingly decent self-portrait.

"Surfing" on the bow in the No Wake zone. (I would have included Todd in this picture if I could actually see what I was taking a picture of. Evidently, my aim was a little off. I broke the display on my camera, and since my camera has no view finder all of my photos from July 19th on have been done by guesswork.)Pictures can be deceiving. One might assume from the following photo that Ryan enjoyed the outing far more than Todd did. Quite the contrary. Ryan tired of it and was is in no hurry to prolong the ride or make plans for another immediate boat outing. I think it is too limiting for him. You can't get out and play (or at least we didn't, since the out-going tide water wasn't the prettiest, and the jellyfish are in now). And, I think he just got kind of bored with the scenery.

Todd, on the other hand, always found things to look at. He wanted to keep going, and was disappointed when Brett turned in to the dock. What you are seeing in these photos is someone who is captivated by his surroundings. Plus, I have noticed that Todd's smile is sometimes a little slower in coming out, especially if he is too busy to pose for the camera.

Look how calm the water is!

This is kind of a goofy photo of me (I am often guilty of over-smiling), but look what Todd got when he took this photo. . . a smiling Daddy. The second one in a month!

Another highlight for the boys. When Brett saw this old sailboat he said, "Aye! I think I see an abandoned ship for us to pillage and plunder!" Although we didn't really do any pillaging and plundering, the boys (all three of them) had fun talking pirate-ese while we circled around the boat checking it out and looking at the little black snappers swimming around it.

How appropriate that this is how the boys were dressed this morning during their "imaginative play" (a.k.a. dress-up) with nary a clue what the afternoon had in store for them.

Silly Sentences

My oldest loves to play games. He is also starting to blend sounds and do other pre-reading skills. I picked up a game called Silly Sentences a few months ago. It has cardboard pieces that you use to build a sentence. There are a number of nouns, some adjectives, two prepositions (on, over), four verbs, the articles (a, the), and a bunch of periods.

Todd set it up on the dining room table yesterday afternoon and all three of us (Todd, Ryan and I) played it together. Todd was able to put together his own sentences. I put together sentences for Todd to read, and I helped Ryan choose words for his sentences. He had just made the sentence: "The scary dinosaur ate a crocodile." Then he wanted the dinosaur to do something different. So I told him about his choice of verbs: climbed, jumped, ate, and saw.

Ryan: Oh yeah. Saw, I want saw
Becca: The scary dinosaur saw a crocodile.
Ryan: No, not "saw"--"sawed."
Becca: Saw.
Ryan: No--"sawed." The scary dinosaur sawed a crocodile.
Becca: You mean "saw" like "cut with a saw"?
Ryan: [using hand motions] Yes, "sawed."

Sorry, Ryan, this game is rated G!