Naps, Bikes and Geo Trax - Oh My!

I've taken a few photos over the last couple of days.

The first set of photos is of nap time. Nap time must be taken with blue Bean and another stuffed friend. This nap was taken with Snake. Obviously snake can't decide between taking a nap and trying to squeeze Sasha. We don't let the two munchkins nap in the same room as this doesn't appear conducive to anyone's nap. Snake seems to be a better nap companion.

We've been spending time each day outsidein hopes of wearing Sasha out. I still believe in the saying, "A tired boy is a good boy". The challenge is that Sasha rarely gets worn out. I get worn out. Nathan gets worn out. Blake gets worn out. The little Miss gets worn out but not Sasha.

We purchased a mosaic table to set in the front yard with a couple of chairs so we can watch the kiddos. Nathan decided to purchase a bottle of bubbly for last night's fun time. I think he was celebrating his four day departure from Chez Chaos on a business trip. I'm thinking that I should return to the work force. It was SO much easier than this AND my hair was usually combed, I got to wear makeup AND my clothes were nicer (oooh ... and no yucky stuff on them)!

Sasha spends outdoors time in the front yard zipping around on his bike and pulling random toys out of the garage. We've gotten the chalk out the last two days to work on his coloring skills. Sasha, like most boys I think, couldn't care any less about coloring. However, drawing on the driveway is obviously way more fun than crayons and paper. I also bought some crayons that you can use in the bath. The little Miss seems mighty proud of herself when she gets to color. I think there are just a lot of fundamental differences between little boys and little girls. Watching the differences is pretty entertaining.

Yesterday was family day so we did a lot of things that the kids (and the big kid Nathan) like. The day started with a trip to IHOP where a balloon artist created a blue dog for Sasha (now he quickly had the blue dog back to mostly a blue balloon but hey .. he had fun with it). He had chocolate chip pancakes and the little Miss had french toast and sausage. She's a sausage fan and ate most of her breakfast. Sasha, on the other hand, has so much to say and do that he loses focus on the eating part. He did manage to consume a large vat of chocolate milk. There's always time and room for that!

We then headed over to Toys R' Us. I suggested the trip to get the little Miss a car that has sound. Sasha's Mickey Mouse car which he used non-stop for a year, has long since lost it's ability to make noise (and no, I had thought about disabling it many times as it only seems to have one volume - LOUD, but it broke on it's own fortunately .. umm ... I mean unfortunately). We selected a little Mermaid car which seemed the right colors for a little girl.

While Sasha zipped around Daddy's car on his bike, the little Miss sat on her car looking irritated. Why would we continue to bring her out to this hot, buggy, yucky place when she would be FAR more comfortable inside ... preferably on someone's lap. Don't we get it? When she saw our neighbor Jill and her husband Randy making their way to our yard, she lit up. You'd have thought it was Christmas. Finally, someone that GOT her! Jill immediately picked her up and told her how cute she is. Then, in true Mia fashion, she held out her arms for Randy. She loves to work the crowd. When Jill finally put her down, she pitched a hissy fit which is also typical. She had no interest in walking to her car and I'm pretty sure she has NO interest in the car at all. She has figured out how to work the horn that plays music. She sits upon the car hitting the horn, lower lip extended into a pout wishing that we'd get a clue and take her inside. Poor thing. In our family, you have to get used to being outside.

We also bought some additional pieces for Sasha's Geo Trax. The kid LOVES this train set and even lets Sasha play sometimes :) Seriously, we bought this originally for Sasha but I really think that it's a toss up who likes it more - Nathan, Gdaddy or Sasha. The boys spent a couple hours extending the train system with the new pieces and the hand-me-down pieces we got from Jim, our Boy Scout professional. A good time was had by all! Now, Nathan has given me guidance on additional retired pieces that he wants and thinks we can find on Ebay. Too funny.

You can see that the current system takes up our entire living room. Fortunately, we don't see a need to have a 'formal' living room and wouldn't people have more fun if they got to drive their own train anyway??