Saturday night we let all 3 kids stay up to catch fireflies. Lightning bugs. Whatever.
My kids go to bed early. Mostly because they wake up early and I am...ahem...sick of them by 7:00 at night. So Saturday was a real stretch. Michael was up at 5:30, Lily at 5:45, and Andrew at 6. It doesn't get dark enough for fireflies until around 9pm. By the time the kids were in bed, I was also ready for bed...my normal bedtime is between 9:30-10 pm. I was mentally spent. And then Sunday morning, Michael was up at 5:45, Lily at 6, and Andrew at 6:30. Lordy...what am I going to do when they stay up later than me? No peace and alone time!
I digress.
Catching fireflies was fantastic. It was Michael's first time, and he was ecstatic. Maybe as excited as seeing Thomas for the first time. Seriously. Jumping up and down, screeching when the one in his hand flashed for the first time, running about with general giddiness and hyperactivity. It only took him a few seconds to start catching them on his own. It was a joy to watch him and one of those times where Jeff and I catch each others' eyes and grin as if to say, "Oh, yes. THIS is why we keep them alive."
Andrew was over-tired and uncharacteristically rough with his siblings. Not physically rough...that's totally normal. Just constantly expressing his dominance over them. "Wow, Michael, you caught one. Well, I've caught 5 already." and "Gee, Lily, you aren't very good at seeing them. I am having no problem catching them." Grrrrrr.
Lily was...well, she was Lily. Of our 3, she gets the crankiest when she is sleep deprived and she is just generally over dramatic. She was screaming when she wasn't seeing them and catching them as quickly as Andrew. She was screaming when she realized that catching them meant they would touch her skin. She was screaming as she tried to explain to us that the flashing light would burn her skin...even as we tried to reasonably show her that her brothers were not getting hurt. She screamed a lot. But then Jeff tricked her into holding one, and she was delighted and shocked that it just tickled her. And then she happily bubbled around catching fireflies, naming them, and having conversations with them...in her totally charming and endearing Lily manner.
We should do things like this more. There were so many cute moments. Like when Michael stepped out into our super long grass and said, "Oh! This grass is too deep!"
The next day we took all 3 kids to the movies...for the first time ever. Well, the first time all together. We went at 11 am on Sunday...and the total cost was $44. That's just tickets! I totally smuggled in treats. So this may well be the LAST time we take all 3 kids together to the movies. Cars 2 was a clever and amazing movie. Not a KID movie, per se, but a great movie. When many of your jokes are in the subtitles or regarding crummy cars from the 70s and 80s, I'd say you are not even trying to appeal to the children.
It was a nice weekend. And hard to believe that next weekend we'll be sitting on the beach in South Carolina. Kiawah, here we come!!!
4 comments:
Sounds like fun! Have a great time at the beach!!
I'm glad to hear that someone else's children are early risers too, no matter what time they go to bed. If my kids stay up until 10p.m. because we are at a friend's house, they still wake up at 6a.m....learn to sleep in already!!!!
Thank goodness the cheapo theaters in our area are actually decent or our kids would never see the inside of a movie theater. The ones in La Habra were scary...as in don't sit next to the homeless man and I hope my car is still there when we get out scary.
Have a great time in Kiawah!
What great fun!! It cost us $36 for our Cars 2 experience but we left Chloe at home (a good decision for many reasons!). I don't know how you manage such early mornings- all 3 were up today at 6:15 and Mike got up with them first...I am SO not a morning person! God bless you for having 3 early risers...but I wonder what they will be like in their teen years?
Ok, let me just gloat and say that for 3 tickets to the Sunday morning matinee, it was $18. N wanted to hang out with her cousin at Mamaw's house and M is too young. But even if they had come, we still would have maxed out at $28. Although if N had come she would have demanded food, and G didn't.
I so love your blog because you don't gloss over how annoying your kiddos are or can be, which makes me feel tremendously better about how annoying my children are.
Post a Comment