Purim

On Friday since the weather was so horrible, I asked Susan and Sophia to watch Eli while I went to pick up Simon. Simon didn't even notice that I didn't have Eli with me when I picked him up, I guess because he's now used to Eli going to Yaya's house. When I told him where Eli was, he was very excited to go to Sophia's house too. When we were getting out of the car, Simon handed me a big pile of mushed challah (he had taken a few pieces from school and I guess mushed them together in the car) and asked me to put it in my bag so that it wouldn't get wet and ruined. It stayed dry, but everything in my bag is now full of crumbs.
While I was making Simon's lunch, we had the following conversation:
Simon: Can I have a gummy letter?
Me: Not now, you can have one after lunch.
Simon (opening the cabinet and taking out the gummy letters): Can I just hold the bag?
Me: Ok, as long as you don't eat any.
Simon: Ok, can I take them out of the bag and look at them?
Me: Ok, as long as you don't eat any.
Simon (dumping them out on the table): Here is an 'S' for Simon, an 'M' for Mommy and an 'E' for Eli...I'm going to bring all these other letters to my birthday party for all my friends.
Me: You can do that, but your birthday party isn't for a few weeks, so let's put the letters back in the bag and save them.
Simon: No, I need to leave them out in case all my friends come over.
On Saturday the weather had cleared up and it was almost 60 degrees and sunny. We went for a walk after lunch and it was so nice to be outside. We went to Griggs Park, but unfortunately it was very wet and muddy from all the rain and melting snow. David and Simon played football which resulted in a very wet and muddy Simon. Eli went in the baby swing for the first time and really liked it. We only stayed at the park for about 20 minutes, but we took a leisurely walk home so that we could enjoy the weather. When we got home, we had to deal with the first time that Simon and Eli were going to nap together in their room that they now share. Eli slept in there Friday night for the first time and Simon was so happy to have him in there. Since Eli wakes up at 6:30am, that of course means that Simon now wakes up then too which is unfortunate but hopefully Eli will start to sleep later. I wasn't sure what to do about the napping since Simon often plays a lot and makes a lot of noise before he goes to sleep, if he goes to sleep. David ended up lying down with Simon, so all 3 of them slept for a couple of hours while I started yet another cleaning project in the den. I am proud to say that it is now super-organized and Eli has his own little corner for his toys. I showed Simon where I put everything and he seemed ok with it. He did want to know why I put the race cars in the train box, but he accepted my explanation that the trains are now somewhere else so the train box is now the race car box.
After Shabbos, we rushed to get Simon and Eli into their costumes and go to shul. Simon was a fireman and Eli was a hotdog and they looked very cute. Only David and Eli actually heard the megillah because Simon had no interest in staying in shul, so I stayed out with him and chased him around the building. He had a great time playing with the other kids--I noticed that he picks on kids who are bigger than he is which is such a bad idea. He also did great in the costume parade and he very proudly announced that he is a fireman when it was his turn at the microphone.
Today we had a Purim party at Simon's school. I did not have so much fun because I had volunteered to help out and my job was to man the bowling activity. I spent all morning chasing bowling balls and setting up the pins over and over and over and over again. Julia (Andrew's little sister) kept me company for most of the time which was very flattering to me because she usually doesn't like to be very far away from her mother. David took Simon around to all the activities so I didn't really get to see him, but he said he had fun.
After lunch, Eli took a nap in the boys' room and I tried to get Simon to take a nap upstairs in my bed. Of course I fell asleep and he didn't. I had a nice 1/2 hour nap and then Ducky and Papu and Charles and Jen came for the Purim Seudah. Simon was very hyper and then crashed in front of the tv watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Who knew that that movie was still around!