Wordsmiths

We had another busy weekend filled with friends and fun. We ventured out of town for a night to spend time with friends we don't get to see very often. We took the boys sledding and had a BLAST, even despite Sammy's pleas not to force him to do such a dreaded thing. :) I was so proud of how adventurous he was once he experienced the fun.

Dan and I have been clinging to a sickness for the past week that we can't seem to shake. The boys have been in mostly good spirits and making me laugh all the time. Yesterday they had the day off for Presidents' Day, so we went to see a movie and spent a relaxing day together.

Maybe it's the exhaustion I've felt lately, but I've been feeling so sad about the idea of the boys growing up. When I buy them clothes, I always find myself in the little-little boy section wishing they still fit into the cute, innocent dinosaur shirts. The big-little boy section is still foreign to me, with t-shirt prints that I don't understand. Skateboarding and video game references maybe? There is a kiddy play area at a mall close to our house that the boys have LOVED playing at since they were babies. Well now they are too big for the toys in the play area, so instead of facing that fact I just avoid the mall altogether. That happens to be where we get their hair cut, which is part of the reason they both look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. If I bring them for haircuts, they will ask to play and I will have to explain that they are too big and can never play there again and likely will start sobbing my eyes out. I wish they could stay little forever.

Speaking of haircuts, just this morning Sammy came into the bathroom and said, "Mom. PLEASE give me a haircut. I just looked in the mirror and this hair makes me look SO SILLY." I helped him comb it down a bit and promised a haircut this week.

Adding to their big-boyness has come a surge of big words. I've noticed both boys using words that I don't even hear adults use in everyday vocabulary. I have heard Elijah replacing "finishing" with "completing," "trying" with "attempting" and "keep going" with "continuing." Then yesterday I was telling the boys about a silly dream I had had about a cow who was grazing in our front yard. Sammy said, "I am visualizing a cow munching on our bushes." My five-year-old used the word "visualizing" in a sentence. This is crazy!

This coming weekend is Elijah's ninth birthday (9! wow!), so we are gearing up for that. I have jotted down a few funny things that have happened and been said in the past few days..

- Sammy has been standing next to the curb and sticking out his thumb when the bus pulls up in the morning. Hitchhiking to school at such a young age!

- Both boys, but especially Elijah, has been needing so much physical contact with me recently. He wedges himself backward into me and asks me to wrap my arms around him tightly. I try to always say yes when he asks for this.

- Yesterday we went to see The Good Dinosaur in the theater. The first few scenes were a little rough. The Dino Dad died pretty quickly and then the main dino almost drowned in a river. Sammy made his disgusted noise and loudly proclaimed, "This movie is HORRIBLE!" :) He ended up pushing through and enjoying it, for the record.


Have a great week and thanks for checking in!