Hunting for Buried Treasure

I know it's time to vacuum under my couches, TV stand, and other furniture when the Lego box hits the half-full mark.  It’s not my favorite chore since it involves this pregnant lady crawling and laying on the floor to peer under furniture, a fair amount of dust and carpet fuzz and the vacuum. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it!

I’m sitting here  surveying my findings from tonight’s work and thought I’d share the final tally:

10 toy cars (yes, 10...and he didn't notice they were missing)

48 Legos  (that's a full starter package from the store!)

2 Little People  (not my children, the PlaySkool type)

3 pieces of Little People furniture(ditto)

4 balls

2 golf balls  (I blame these on Soldier Boy)

2 books

2 Lincoln Logs

3 fake food items

2 books

1 toy train

2 foam blocks

Bunny Girl’s pink sunsuit    (I have no explanation for this one)

Household 6’s missing croc  (Thank goodness, I've been missing my crocs!)

1 box of alphabet flashcards

1 dirty sock

1 unopened bag of animal crackers (Again...no explanation. At least they were still sealed.)

1 IR flag  (Only in an Army family)

1 name tape (ditto)

Fireworks Magic

We received an invitation from friends to go to the fireworks display here on post this week.  Apparently, our post hasn’t done any kind of Independence Day celebration in about ten years. They decided to change that this year and throw a huge celebration that EVERYONE was excited about.  Everyone except me, of course. 

Go ahead, call me Scrooge and get it over with.  It’s not that I don’t love our country or anything silly like that, I just don’t love Independence Day celebrations.  They’ve always been  hot and crowded. And I’ve spent four times longer in the car leaving the fireworks displays than I did actually watching the display.  It’s just never been worth it to me and I was sure it would be even more miserable now that I had two munchkins to cart around that would likely get tired and grumpy long before we made it home.

Soldier Boy was pretty excited about the outing, despite my objections to it. We packed up and headed over to the park around 7pm. I figured it would be busy already but the temperature starts dropping around 7pm and I was not up for sitting in the heat any longer than necessary.  We met up with friends and staked out a patch of grass for our chairs, picnic blankets, coolers and strollers.  (Bob the Beast was along for the adventure, of course.) 

The local symphony orchestra was set up and began the first half of their concert shortly after we arrived.  We all stood for the playing of the National Anthem and covered our hearts with our hands.  I gestured to Monster Boy to do the same since I’ve been trying to teach him how.  The little man gave me a funny look, turned back towards the orchestra and brought his little arm up in a perfect salute!  My heart about melted as he stood there patiently saluting during the entire song.  I desperately wanted to snap a photo of him, but I didn’t dare be that irreverent during the National Anthem.  It doesn’t matter though, that image is burned into my mind forever. 

We had a pretty large group – four families with a combined kid count of 14!  Yes, do the math; the Hooah family only contributed two to the mix!   Needless to say, the area near our chairs and blankets was pretty active with kids running, jumping, dancing and digging in the dirt.  Monster Boy did all of the above.  Bunny Girl surprised us all and was really into the orchestra.  She stood in the middle of the blanket most of the evening and just danced by herself to the music.  As the sun set and it got later, kids started slowing down or getting more wound up, as in Monster Boy’s case.

The fireworks started with Bunny Girl snuggled on my lap, exhausted but still entranced by the orchestra.  Monster Boy was still running with his friends. Surprisingly, neither one was scared by the explosions.  Bunny Girl snuggled and stared with wide eyes.  Monster Boy watched with his buddies for a while and then came over to snuggle with me.  I didn’t have room for both kiddos and the belly in my chair, so I stretched out on the blanket with each one snuggled to my side. 

It was at that moment that it hit me:  WORTH IT!  It didn’t matter how hot it was earlier, how crowded the park was or how long it took us to get home.  The joy and peace I had laying on that blanket with my babies, seeing the awesome display of fireworks through their eyes for the first time and having whispered conversations about how cool the fireworks were was totally, 100% worth it.

Love, Hamburger Style.

We took the kids out to eat the other night. Predictably, the meal we ordered for the kids to share was not what Monster Boy felt like eating at that particular moment.  So, I did what all good parents do: I told him,“too bad” and calmly enjoy my food while we pretended to ignore his sulking.  As luck would have it, he got over his snit pretty quick that evening and decided to impress us by wolfing down all of his veggies and most of his chicken. After this impressive about face, he strategically took aim at his father’s big, juicy hamburger, which was apparently what he wanted all along.  He said to his father “Daddy, Tink I can have a bite of you buuuguer?”  After Monster Boy’s impressive dinner performance, Soldier Boy couldn’t say no and shared his giant burger. He cut a piece off, bun, tomatoes lettuce and all, and set it on Monster Boy’s plate.  Monster Boy leaned over to Soldier, pressed his face against his shoulder and laid a huge wet kiss on him, followed by a biiiiig hug and he exclaimed, “Oh wow! Thank you, Daddy! Thank you! Daddy yoves me because he sss-ared his buuguer with me!”  

Who know that a few bites of leftover hamburger would generate that much enthusiasm or love?  For those of you that have read Gary Chapman’s“The Five Love Languages” or “The Five Love Languages of Children,” I’ve long suspected that Monster Boy is a “Gifts,” just like his mommy. This has only confirmed it!  Side Note: If you haven’t read these books, I definitely recommend them. It’s a great way to frame how you show your love and appreciation to those you hold dear!