Three Boys and a Girl

Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Greatest Show on Earth

Mary is our current favorite because she hooked us up with 4 tickets to see the Barnum and Baily Circus yesterday! It was my first circus ever, and of course the boys' first circus too, and it met every one of our hopes and dreams of what a circus would be. Everything was very well done - they all had amazing talent, it was all very polished and professional, things and animals were well taken care of, and there were tons of interesting things everywhere to watch and point at. Our seats were on the back row of the main level, which I thought was perfect - high enough to have a great view of everything (even the high stuff,) and not at all too far away. And the back row was nice, because the boys could stand if they wanted and not be in anyone's way, not to mention quick entry, exit, and access to food stands and bathrooms. I'll apologize in advance for all the lousy pictures - the circus isn't the easiest thing to photograph (with all its extreme lighting and lots of movement,) but it was worth taking pictures anyway to let the boys keep the memory years from now.

Seth's favorite thing was the elephants, who made several appearances. I guess they were one of my favorites too, because I took a lot of pictures of them. Pretty amazing.



Jonathan's favorite was the clowns and all the scary stuff up high - like the tight wire guys on unicycles and chairs, and the clown and girl up on incredibly high and wobbly poles doing tricks, and the guys doing tricks inside the big spining circle thing you can see in the foreground of the elephant pictures.

These guys were incredible - walking with baskets on their feet so they couldn't even see the wire, walking on the other one who was laying down on his back on the wire! Pretty amazing. And there was an amazing Asian contortionist/balance group, where they stack all on top of each other in the most unfathomable ways, a couple of human cannon balls, horses and zebras doing tricks, a hilarious jumping dog routine - these dogs could do flips, ride scooters, dance on their hind legs, you name it. And of course the beautiful tigers. He got them to do some incredible things.



Add to all of this the great live music throughout the whole show, big song and dance numbers, funny clowns, great acrobatic routines, and a whole lot of 4 and 2 year old wonder (not to mention us 27 year olds,) and it was a fabulous adventure.

John was saying how wild it is that we are at the point in life where we are doing things we remember our parents doing with us. He said it just felt so much like his dad to be "taking the kids to the circus." Fun, fun times. Thanks Mary!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Little things that make me smile

Jonathan came home from school today with his first Book Order. Remember those? Things like that still throw me for a loop, that I have a little boy in school. He told us the other day about doing the parachute game in P.E. - I guess that is a constant too because we used to do that. And the P.E. games with the little scooters you roll around on. . . did you guys do those? And he has his first field trip in a few weeks. Pretty crazy.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Dancin' Guys!

The other night after dinner John pulled out his electric guitar, which turned out to be a clear invitation to the boys to dance the evening away. While John played, they instantly became "The Dancin' Guys," (self named) and never tired till he was done. They started at the end of the hall and Jonathan announced, (like a professional announcer of someone famous,) "Here they come! The Dancin' Guys!!!!!!" That was their signal to run as fast as they could down the hall and out onto the "stage" (living room) to show us a flurry of their best moves. It was hilarious every time. I kept clapping and hooting and laughing every time they ran out. And then something would tell them their appearance was done, and they would race back down the hall, and stop at the end of the hall to announce themselves again. They tried new moves every time and got really creative. :) They were cracking me up.

One time Seth bounded up really close to me, and with wide eyes, eyebrows up, and the most intense face he could muster, said, "I Run! and I DANCE! . . .In my Heart !!" with his hand clapped over his heart. Indeed, he does. : ) I laughed for a long time and it still makes me smile. The whole evening was so fun, watching their exuberance, and the way they played and danced together, and hearing "the Dancin Guys!!!" announced well over 50 times, each time with equal excitement. It's one of their favorite games. (sorry, no pictures, we were having too much fun watching.)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

At long last.

So I'm at the stage of pregnancy now where I'm actually showing enough for people to be able to tell.

I like that.

For so long all I've gotten from anyone for my excitement in growing is, "Oh, please, you're not even showing at all." I'm sure they mean it completely as a compliment, to tell me how thin I look, but they totally miss that I'm thrilled to be poking out, even if it's just a little. And it's nice to have people acknowledge what I'm happy about. Even if other people are tiny, I like to just say that they are looking great. That means "I can tell you're showing, and you look nice." Just be happy for them if they're excited, and don't tell them the opposite of what they're happy about. Common sense right? I know they're just trying to be nice, but it's nice for me now to finally be at a point when they'll acknowledge that I'm growing. The debate over whether or not I am showing is coming to an end, and the conversation can just move on to how happy I am about it. :)

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

School Boy (whether I believe it or not)

This is after his first day of school! (His hair is coming down after being combed up handsome before school. He likes to look sharp.) And he loves the shirt Grandma Anderson! The second day of school he came out of his room "ready for school," and told me he was wearing his school shirt. I told him it was okay to wear different shirts every day to school. But he was set to stick with that one for the year. : )

And here's Seth on Jonathan's first day, because he needed a picture too. Once when we were walking home with Jonathan after school Seth said to him, "I love you home, Jonathan." Good friends.

Jonathan loves school, in every way. I'm so happy about that. He's the very youngest in the class, so I worried and wondered and prayed a lot to know if he was ready this year. And he is so ready. I'm just really glad to see him feeling so comfortable and excited and happy there.

He comes home and fills Seth and me in on the happenings of the day. It's great. By the way, this is an accurate shot of Seth - he's always got at least one or two (sometimes 5) cars in his hands. Even when he sleeps. :)

Sunday, September 02, 2007

We have a 5 year old

Jonathan's birthday was a blast, and also a bit crazy for John and me. I guess we're old now. . . We gave him a super duper cooler than ever Spider-Man bike (4 bucks at a yard sale last summer,) and the pictures show pretty well how much he loved it.

This kind of thing is super fun as a parent.

Seth cracks me up.

Jonathan was a born natural. And so proud that he could acutally do it.

I love these guys.

Jonathan also loved the very well chosen gifts from his grandparents - Thank you again! It was a perfect birthday for him. We did his cake in a cookie sheet (cooks in half the time, and also extra fun to decorate or make shapes with.)

We let the boys go to town on the frosting.

It took him about 10 GIANT blows before he finally aimed right at the candles. . .
and got them all blown out. . .

But that just makes for a whole lot of satisfaction at the end. :)

We went out for his birthday dinner to our favorite little Chinese restaurant, where the nice Chinese waiter/owner told us that in China the whole group has noodles for the birthday dinner. "Long noodles = Long life."

His favorite food is noodles anyway, so it worked out great. It was an awesome day. It's pretty cool having a 5 year old boy.