September 13 Two then Three kiddos

Tuesday:  I met Miss Jen and Cal over at Mayflower this morning to pick Erin up from preschool. I would like to take them to a playground on the way to my house (on nice weather days), but usually Cal is so tired that he takes a nap in my car as we drive to my house. But not today! Callaghan was fully awake and enjoying books and kids' music during the whole 30 minute drive to my house.

I set up the garage on my coffee table this morning, securing it with painters' tape, making little roads, etc. Callaghan was thoroughly delighted with the whole thing. He put cars through the wash, raced them down the curvy elevated road and was busy for a very long time trying each and every car. I have a LOT of cars and trucks. This little guy LOVES cars and trucks!

Erin played with the garage too, but not as enthusiastically as Cal. After all, she has played with it tons of times before.

Erin, without Aidan, is very much her own person here on Tuesdays. She wanders about cooking with all of my fake food and utensils, drawing pictures, and exploring. 

Emma came out to visit for a little bit and dressed kitty-cat Belle up in her puffy dress to everyone's delight. Erin thought it was the greatest ... and Belle? She put up with it quite well actually!

Cal is relentless with Belle. Fearless. Aggressive. Miss Belle can only take SO much from this little person, so I have to watch them carefully.

There was a few times were Belle gave little Cal pause (or should I saw "paws" with "claws!") but Cal was quick enough to steer clear ...

[However, Dylan reminded me later that night about Cal's bleeding disorder that I had completely forgotten about ... so I need to be super more careful in the future when Cal plays with Belle!]

Erin loves to bounce on my bed or ... just lie down and pretend to take naps.

Belle was getting squashed and about 2 seconds after I snapped the picture (below) she hightailed it out of there ... with Cal in hot pursuit!

He introduced "Fernando" our little stuffed fox to Belle. She was completely unimpressed. Cal chased her around the house with Fernando for a little while but then he was getting really really sleepy ...

I placed him in my rocking chair and turned a video on--the first one was a cute little 25-minute thing of children's songs: Humpty-Dumpty and the like--but he still wasn't sleeping; so Erin suggested we watch a "Thomas the Train" video. Finally, our little guy drifted off to sleep ...

Erin was thoroughly bored with Thomas the train and requested we turn it off: "This video NEVER ends, grandma!" was her comment. Look at her expression!

We called over to Kaity's house to see if she could come with us to Altitude today. YES! We picked her up at 4:00 and jumped for the next hour or so.

Erin practically worships Kaity, so Erin was thrilled to be able to play with her for awhile today.

Little Cal loves balls of any kind. He is a serious little basketball player too--never undeterred by how far short he falls of making an actual basket! He just keeps at it.

NOTE:  Little Cal got hurt today at Altitude. Here is what happened. He was running on the trampolines, the small ones that form a large rectangle, and a bigger person jumped on the same trampoline he was on and sent him bouncing ... and then he landed not so gently. He cried real tears and would not be comforted, so I took him to the side tables and offered him some gummy snacks--which he refused! Cuddling helped, and he finally was able to eat his snack. I told Dylan and Kelly about this when I took the kiddos home.

LATER:  I heard from Dylan on Wednesday and he told me Cal is not putting any weight on his right foot. They took him for X-rays and he has no broken bones (good news), but still is not walking on that leg. 

NOTE TO SELF:  Callaghan is a rough little kid and likes to play hard with the rest of the kids. But I need to remember about this blood disorder that he has as well as being a little bit more protective of him at Altitude.