Hide-And-Seek, Crazy Bedtimes, and some Quiet Time . . .

Do you hear that? Me either. Isn't it wonderful?!? It's called peace and quiet and it's a very rare occurrence in this house. Both hubby and Tyler are off for the MLK holiday and hubby took all 3 boys to visit his mom and help her get Christmas decorations in her attic. I am alone with 3 pets and mounds of laundry, but I'll take it.

As much as I love the quiet, it's funny how all I think of when my boys are gone is - my boys. I have been reflecting in their absence on some of the cute things they are doing these days. A couple quick examples (won't bore you endlessly with the massively cute things my kids do):

Scooter talks like a 3rd grader most days (takes after his mom like that), but he still has a few random words that don't come out just right and they are seriously adorable. My favorite is 'sibse'. I know you can't tell it by the phonetically silly way I spelled it, but this is actually 'since'. Scooter has been doing a lot more if..then reasoning lately and does a fair amount of attempting to figure a way around my 'no' answers, so I hear alot of 'sibse' which sometimes sounds more like 'sips' or 'simce'. He sounds more grown up every day and I know these simple misspeaks are on their way out the door, so I am trying to really enjoy the last couple that are lingering. I haven't corrected him once.

Riley's speech is a mess in general. I am still trying to determine if he's in the normal range or not (I strongly suspect that he is) because Tyler and Scooter had practically no pronunciation problems after 2 and we could understand them both without any major difficulty. Riley can talk very clearly one minute and then the next you can't understand a thing he says. It's cute though. Scott spent a long time on Thursday trying to figure out why Riley wanted 'two cheeses' for lunch when what he really wanted was 'grilled cheese' and the whole while he was pointing to the picture of one on the package of cheese slices. Scott said he should have gotten it, especially with the visual, but that's how it goes some days. However, Riley's two cutest things lately are how he asks for 'just a little bit', clear as a bell and so sweetly that you have a really hard time sticking to a no answer; and how he says goodbye to everything in the house when he's getting ready to leave, including kisses for random items like the comforter or the lamp. It keeps us from leaving on time, but you can't help but laugh while he's doing it. His manners are improving at rocket speed too, lots more unprompted 'please, thank-you, no-thank-you and bless you'-s from his lips - so sweet.

Tyler and I have been working on his science fair project and it's probably the first year that hasn't made me want to crawl under a rock and cry about it (I figured out that between the 3 boys I have 13 more of these to do after this one, on a countdown). He's super into his experiment and working really hard on it. I've really enjoyed our brainstorming sessions on making this thing be really awesome. Didn't know I could ever enjoy watching metal rust this much. Fairly alarmed though on how fast the metal is rusting in my tap water - almost faster than the salt water. Insert audible sigh. Anyway, Tyler's most adorable moment recently was actually when he was in tears. That probably sounds a bit sadistic, but hear me out. I am lobbying like a mad woman to the two 'men' in my life to get our Boxer, Brewer, neutered - like yesterday. The plan was to breed him, but I can't get to the breeding part without getting through some more training which is a super crazy obstacle since he has dominance issues with me. Vicious circle and I am losing my sanity being stuck in a battle of wills with a 16 month old dog every day. When I took him to the vet on Saturday, even they begged me to do it after he jumped up on a nurse's shoulders and stuck his face into hers. He's too sweet to hurt anyone intentionally, but they were very concerned about the dominance issue. Anyway, last week I told Scott & Tyler they had 3 weeks to show me that they were committed to making a difference with Brewer and to prove to me that he could improve or I was getting him snipped. I didn't say it that nice though, so Tyler broke down crying, telling me that he was just a dog, and he was just like us, and he wanted him to stay just as he was. He was so stressed out about it even though he really doesn't get what's actually involved. His tears were heart melting. Now that he's calmed down, I have explained the surgery in a bit more detail and how it won't hurt Brewer, only help him to be more of a companion dog to him, help him calm down and be able to concentrate more on the training we are trying to do with him. He's a little more settled, but still really worried about his dog. I think Scott is half-sold on the idea too, but I am still going to have to work really hard on this. I'm convinced though, especially when this morning it took me 5 full minutes of stare-down time to get him to 'sit' before I would open the door and let him outside to pee. He doesn't do that with the guys. I love Tyler's big, sensitive heart though.

After reading James Dobson's book on raising boys last year, I have tried very hard to stay relaxed and unconcerned when the boys are roughhousing in the evenings. I used to get all stressed out when they were running non-stop and louder than I could handle during a time when I just wanted to chill out in peace after a long day. Understanding more about how boys process physically though has helped me chill out in this area and just enjoy it (or run and hide in a quiet room until it's over). Scott spends time tickling, wrestling and playing with the boys almost every night in some form or another, but my favorite is when they play hide-and-seek. It's the two little one's favorite game and I love to watch it happen.

Hide-and-Go-Seek, as the kids like to call it, has a couple of weird rules in our tiny house. First, Riley needs help counting so he is usually teamed up with someone for seeking. He also has trouble keeping his eyes closed so generally he is relegated to one end of the house for counting while the hiding goes on at the other end. Second, no one is allowed to start counting until the hiding party is actually hidden. Not exactly sure how this got started, but probably has something to do with the fact that counting goes something like '1,2,3, super fast and incomprehensible numbers, 15 - Ready or Not Here I Come!' with the seekers already running to find while they are still counting. So, I hear a lot of 'Can I count yet?', 'No, Don't Count Yet' and 'You can count Now!' during these games. One last rule, the sneeze. When Scott hides and the little ones seek, he usually picks a commonly used hiding spot or a fairly obvious one, but every once in a while he will throw them off with something they hadn't thought of yet and they have a hard time locating him. When they start to lose steam and haven't 'got him' yet, you will hear a little 'Achoo' from some area of the house, giving the boys a big hint and then they are off and running again. Scooter will sometimes use the sneeze as well, but when Tyler plays he absolutely refuses to use it and will stay quiet and hiding for a really long time. He thinks the sneeze is cheating. He also can't stand it when Scooter was 'found' and then helps his dad and Riley 'find' Tyler, when Scooter saw where Tyler was hiding in the first place. Drives him crazy.

Me, I love this game! I love watching the boys get so into it and using their imagination and playing with their dad. I am more likely to sit with them to do a puzzle or read a book, but their dad is always ready to get up and do something physical with them which I know is super important to their development in more ways than one. I love hearing Riley get better and better at counting every time they play. I love watching him be so excited to go 'seek' as he passes in front of me that he does this funny walk/run/skip/hop combo thing that makes it look like his feet are moving twice as fast as they actually are. I love seeing Scooter's face when he starts to 'get' another nuance to the game or think of a new hiding spot. I love listening to him negotiate with his dad for '4 more times' instead of the 'one more' Scotty was promising. I love it when Brewer ruins Scotty's hiding place by finding it first. I even love hearing Tyler get frustrated with the little boy version of the game.

Last night, I sat watching CSI Miami in my living room, pausing every time the loud munchkins ran through the room and enjoying their enthusiasm. They were hyped up, which is normal and probably good for them, but not necessarily a good thing when it runs smack into bed time. Bed time has gotten considerably better over the last few months, but it is still challenging. Some nights, I can put Scooter and Riley to bed and they are out in 2 seconds, others they stay in their beds on their own chatting together until they go to sleep. And then there are nights like last night, where I want to pull my hair out. The constantly rising kids to get one more drink coupled with chatterbox pre-schoolers and whining because 'we just can't go to sleep if you aren't in here' is enough to make me crazy. It's my fault - I let the game go on too long and I let them stay up too late, but it was so cute. I paid the price for it and I was losing my mind.

I need to go back and reread my post from August about bedtimes so I can see how far we've come and get some perspective. I need to remember that it's a marathon not a sprint. I need to BREATHE. It's a whole lot easier than before, but it still isn't what I want it to be. I am longing for the time that I will put these two little trouble-makers to bed and they will stay there. I hope it's soon, but I think I have a few more months of work ahead of me. And on nights like last night, I know I have to remember to focus on the really adorable things my kids do instead of the annoying ones, so I don't blow my top. And then I need to pour myself a glass of wine 'sibse' I know this season isn't really going to go on forever.

God Bless!