In the past few weeks, we have so many things going on, there needs to be two of me.
The kids had their pictures taken by Teresa VanVooren. They are amazing!! It's hard to decide which ones to get. I'm thinking of taking down the pictures I have on the wall that goes upstairs and replace them with pictures from this shoot. Any one in the Kansas City area should really give her a call. We met her at a beautiful park and she many different pictures of the kids in various areas of the park.
Last weekend, Amy and Jon went with their friends Dave and Micci for their annual "get out of town and ditch the kids" weekend. Mom and dad watched the boys, (along with help from Noelle) Friday night, the kids and I watched the boys Saturday night and mom and dad watched them again on Sunday night.
The kids and I took the boys to Deanna Rose Farm on Sunday. I wish I had known about this place when the kids were little. There is so much to do there. All of the kids fed the big goats feed from their hands, (it was fun to watch the boys do that) and fed the baby goats milk from bottles.
The boys are definitely at that "what can I do in public to make you look bad" age. This was very evident when we were leaving this lovely 1901 school house. Each of the kids had used one of the little chalk boards and chalk that students would have used in school at that time. When it was time to go, Jack grabbed Noelle's hand and they headed out the door. Michael had left just ahead of Jack and Noelle. I go to take Riley's hand so we can follow the others and let the next group have their turn in the school.Quickly, Riley pulls his hand away. I reach back take his hand we have this exchange:
- Loving Aunt Erin: "Riley, you have to hold my hand"
- Riley: "No, I hold Michael's hand"
- L.A.E.: "Riley, Michael's outside, you have to hold my hand"
- Riley pulls his hand away again, I grab it.
- L.A.E.: "Riley, you have to hold my hand. You can hold Michael's when we get outside"
- Riley makes attempts to pull his hand away again, but can't get his hand away.
- Riley: "You're hurting me"
- L.A.E.: "Come on Riley"
- Riley: "No hurt Riley, Ewin. Owie, OWie, OWIE"
- L.A.E.: "You're ok Riley, let's go" (I feel the eyes of 15 people looking at me)
- At this point, Riley is turning into a noodle, one leg starts to drag, he is now yelling "OWIE EWIN, OWIE, OWIE EWIN" at the top of his lungs with tears.
I could not get out to the building fast enough to find Michael. Riley quickly got over his "owie" due to the fact our next stop was the big white barn where everyone had ice cream. I believe that Riley has learned two things from that exchange:
- if you embarrass the adult you are with you get what you want
- ice cream makes everything better
I know those are not the appropriate things to teach a soon to be three year old, but you know what, I'm the aunt. My job is to spoil, spoil, spoil.
