Remembering is not my strong suit. I am reminded of this whenever Thomas or Ryan says or does something and I immediately need to pick up my phone and hit the voice memo button to dictate what exactly was so funny, so precious or so worth remembering.
There are various ways I ask Thomas to entertain himself while I feed Ryan and put him in his crib. One afternoon, I made a generic request that Thomas play in his room while I fed Ryan. It took all of my resolve
not to jump out of the chair and place Ryan on the floor mid-feed to watch Thomas read to himself from
Go, Dog. Go!
I heard:
"Big dog, little dog. Black dog, white dog. There is a dog coming in and a dog coming out. Do you like my hat? No, I do not. There is a dog jumping into the water and two dogs swimming in the water. How do you think the dog got up on the roof? Where are the dogs going? To a dog party! To a dog party! And there is cake at this party. Do you like my hat? Yes I do, I do like your hat!"
Keeping these boys occupied all day long is rarely an easy task, especially if we stay inside all day. So I pulled from one of the few memories I have from my childhood of playing indoors. My sister and I played Barbies on the couch and pretended it was Hawaii. Mind you, I have never been to Hawaii, but that didn't stop Barbie! For two boys, I adapted the island into a pirate ship that sailed throughout the seas of our living room.
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| Ryan was in charge of the treasure |
This was great practice for our trip to the "real" pirate ship, Sea Gypsy VI, near Erica's house in Annapolis. We loaded up "Tidal Wave Thomas" and "Ripetide Ryan" and headed to the Pirates of the Chesapeake for an utterly fabulous pirate adventure.
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| Ar, matey. Welcome to Sea Gypsy VI. |
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| Pirate Poppett was outstanding with the kids |
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| Tattoos for Thomas and Erica |
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| Water cannons for spraying the bad pirate |
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| "Pirate Grog" a.k.a. root beer |
This pirate adventure had it all: tattoos and a pirate costume, a lesson in pirate speak, a treasure map hunt on the ship, a battle with Pirate Pete which included several rounds of squirting him with a water cannon which landed him the freezing bay!, finding a treasure chest and getting Thomas' own little bag of pirate booty, culminating with a sip of pirate's grog (soda). When we asked Thomas what his favorite part was, I was shocked to learn that the 15 cents worth of root beer that he drank was his quick answer. Fortunately, days later, the answer switched to shooting Pirate Pete with water.
After a great Easter visit with Aunt Erica, Drew and Charlie Dog, Thomas noted
on our car ride home, "Hey Dad? When dogs poop, they don't have to
wipe." This seemingly came out of nowhere. What I wouldn't give to be
in the mind of a child for a day.
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| Ryan got in on the Charlie dog action too! |
"Ah...payback." -excerpt from an email from Nana Wuff (my beloved mother)
Thomas loves hockey. He talks about Thomas Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and has developed quite the slapshot of his own. So I signed him up for ice skating lessons at West Point. Dad was gone on a work trip to Miami for our first skating lesson, so I loaded patient little Ryan up into the carrier and we went to watch skating lessons.
In the beginning, Thomas hardly moved an inch. He sat and watched other kids follow the teacher's directions. This is not unlike how the pirate adventure (and most other new activities) went down.
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| The "What have you gotten me into, Mama?" look |
I had heard quite enough from other moms supportively telling me that Thomas was just a watcher and would come to it on his own. This is where I imagine my mother's comment to be especially relevant, for it was likely equally painful for her to watch her daughter, a reluctant joiner, a little girl who cried and wanted to go home. But once I stopped cajoling, Thomas surprised us all and started to skate like he had on our other trips to the rink!
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| Great skates! |
And where was Ryan in all of this? Snug as a bug in the carrier, happily watching and not making one peep. He truly deserved best baby nomination.
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| Mama and Baby selfie |
And speaking of best baby, let it be remembered that Ryan, as he approaches nine months, has had his ups and downs, but he is overwhelmingly a wonderful baby. He still absolutely adores Thomas and is happy to tag along, patiently, mind you. Really sure he didn't get that from me...
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| Power tools tutorial by Thomas |
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| Patiently eating a stick while Thomas and I do yard work |
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| Creating his own Easter fun |
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| Hanging with Dad, watching Thomas at McDonald's |
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| Thomas "driving" them to soccer practice at West Point |
Ryan happily joined in on the Rice Crispie Treat party!
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| Happily hanging in the background during Earth Day activities at West Point |
As I see friends' boys who are six, eight, or thirteen, I realize the importance of remembering this crazy, frustrating, wonderful time I have with my snuggly Little Buddy and my good, happy little Ryan Man.
