Another Day at the Park

These are from, you guessed it, another day at the park. Do those kids look too big to be mine, or what?

Dates

The boys and I went to the free matinee at the movie theater on Sunday. Ethan sat enthralled, carefully balancing his popcorn on his lap and trying not to get closed up in the seat. Evan played around in the aisle with the other too-little-but-their-mothers-and-siblings dragged-them-along-anyway kids. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to learn that Ethan is old enough for a real movie before springing for a $7 ticket sometime.

Last week we ate lunch at an adorable little restaurant in Broken Bow. Ethan and I used to eat there after my doctor appointments the summer I was pregnant with Evan. It doesn't look child-friendly and the first time we went I was concerned about what kind of damage my 22-month-old would do, but Ethan sat there like a little gentlemen and we talked and I was amazed at what a cool little person he was becoming. That summer, I worried so much about what life would be like with two boys and I was sure that the baby was going to ruin this awesome thing I had going with Ethan.

Sometimes it is just as insane as I had imagined.

Mostly it is a hundred, million, kajillion times better.

To Tessa

Ethan's latest obsession is pirates. We read a book about Pirate Pete 15 or 20 times per day and any flat surface can become a ship merely by jumping around on it and screaming "arrgh", then knocking each other down. So when http://www.diapers.com/, the awesomest website EVER, included a pirate accessories kit in the Halloween costumes (already?!) section, I couldn't resist ordering 3 sets. (One for each of them to destroy now, and one to save for Ethan to wear on Halloween. Unless he is so totally over pirates by then, and on to... I don't know, woolly mammoths.) The package arrived today and Ethan was ecstatic. "Thank you so much, Mom. This is just what I always wanted!" he enthused. Evan was ecstatic, too, but he didn't know why until they were both decked out in "standard pirate issue wear" according to Ethan. (According to the Pirate Pete book, the line is 'standard issue pirate wear.' For a complete listing, ask Ethan. Do not under any circumstances subject yourself or your family to the book.) Ethan wanted to call Tessa and tell her "to come to my house and see my pirate standard wear" and after a long, detailed conversation (he told her he had an eye patch, and she worried that he had an actual eye injury...probably thinking immediately of Evan) she texted me a request for a pirate blog with pictures. Even though I just told her that I can't figure out anything on the new camera. So here's all I got:

Aargghh!