How One Toy Becomes 70

Last week I went to Going Bonkers with 4 little boys that really are going bonkers. I love this place. I find it interesting that we as parents keep buying toy after toy for our kids when they are really at their happiest running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I made all the boys clean up all the toys before we left... I'm mean like that. Gabriel is my best picker-uper by far. I find that it works well if I give everyone a recyclable grocery sack and send them around the room to clean up. This brings me to my point. We seems to have fighting over toys all the time. But, when they are allowed to run and play with no toys everyone is blissfully happy. And, it astounds me how one simple toy can become 70. For example, I bought a fishing game for Morgan. It has a base, about 25 fish and 4 fishing poles. The heads have come off of most of them and most of the poles are in pieces. The boys like to throw all the fish in the pots and pans in the play kitchen and cook with them. Therefore, my one toy is now 70. So, let's think about this. This is just one toy of many like this. If Morgan receives a stuffed animal dressed in a shirt, pants and shoes this is not one toy. Nope, I'm immediately looking at five toys. Also known as five different opportunities to fight over something and five different opportunities to not clean something up. I can see where I'm heading with this. I'm going to give more toys away to charity and head out to Going Bonkers and Paradise Pond more often!

Morgan’s 4th Birthday

Morgan is 4 years old today!  I can’t believe that he is already 4.  That seems like such an older age since I have memories of when I was 4.  I guess that makes parenting even scarier now that I know that he will have lasting memories of the good times along with all the times that I mess up.

My birthday is in the summer and I always loved having swimming parties.  We meet up with his cousins last night for a swimming party.  It was originally intended to just be a party in the hot tub.  It ended up being a fairly cold day.  Mary and I sat on the side of the pool and watched the bright idea unfold from the kids to jump in the pool.  We just let them do it.  You know how you get so hot in the tub and then can jump back and forth from cold to hot.  The pool was in the 60s.  I’m sure that it was freezing.  I’ve attached videos to permanently memoralize my great parenting skills… hardy har har.  Still, what kid in Dallas gets an outdoor swimming party the first week of March?

Afterwards we told everyone to take showers & baths.  My new technique for still shooting the boys in the tub is to tell them to put as many toys as they can in their laps.  Privacy issue solved!

Morgan had a Batman cake last year.  Thank you Dan for picking this up.  I didn’t feel like putting together a cake this year.

This is the beginning of the tent

I made for the boys.  They have been playing in it for the past hour and calling it their bathroom.  Who knew that a bathroom has so much play appeal to preschoolers.  Here’s Andres crawling through the “door”.

I'm Not Your Friend!

I'm sooooo tired of hearing "I'm Not Your Friend!" from the two older boys. It's a constant banter around here.  I just did a little desparation research online and evidentally this is the most common taunt thrown around by 4 year olds. There's an article that teaches responses. "I'm not your toe!" So, now we are practicing how to respond when someone tells you that they are not your friend. We've gone through all the body parts now and the boys think that it is funny. The article goes on to talk about breaking the mean cycle and diffusing it with humor. I've also already been doing something like this with the name calling which is constant. I'll hear one of them call the other one something and it goes like this:


Morgan: You are a stinky face!
Gabriel: No I'm not!
Me: No, I AM a stinky face!
Morgan & Gabriel: NO! We are the stinky faces (break into fits of laughter!)

Gabriel just told me that he learned the word idiot from transformers.  Great... uggg. I'm tying to ignore the boys now calling each other idiots right now. They are also telling each other words that are bad words.  You know, the usual 4 year old cuss words: butt, shut-up and poop.  I swear, I never use these words around the house.  If anything, they should all be saying crap.  I accidentally say that all the time. 

Both boys are now pretending to have birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese.  They are hanging bead necklaces that Morgan made on Andres and pretending that they are candy.  Then, they drape a dishtowl on his head for the crown.  Legos are the birthday cake.

This picture is a month or so old. But, I'm too lazy to upload a new pic from my phone right now.

Ok Moms!  I'm open for advice.  Tricks of the trade anyone?