Chillin' at Chuck E Cheese... 

Chillin' at Chuck E Cheese...

Forgot to do an entry last night...

Yesterday we went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch because it's been too hot to go outside very often, so the kids needed to expend some energy. Connor's favorite thing to do at CEC is "Chuck E's sketchbook," where you pose for a picture and then it prints in a pencil sketch. He did one for me, one for Grandmom and one for Mammam, all with different "poses". It was hilarious, but so cute that he was so proud of being able to do it all by himself. We barely see him when we're there; he's always darting off to another game.
We got super excited, watching Rory interact with Chuck E, because we can really tell he's going to enjoy meeting the characters at Disney. He kept running up to Chuck E saying "give me five, Chuck E! Give me a hug!" Then all of the kids did a little conga line behind the mouse and Ror was first in line; he had so much fun.
Riley Kate doesn't really have a blast at CEC, because there's not much for her to do, but she liked watching the little show and bobbing her head around to the music.

Then during the afternoon Connor wanted to play his favorite game-- "Mammam and Pappap." He's always Pappap, I'm always Mammam. It's the same every time. I say, "So, Pappap, what should we do today?" and he replies, "The same thing we like to do every day, Mammam-- sit and talk about how much we love our boy, Connor, and how he's our favorite boy ever. And then you can cook me some dinner." I often wonder if he really believes that Mammam and Pappap pretty much just spend their lives talking about what a great boy he is. Well, I guess from the fuss they make over him when he visits, it's understandable that he'd get that impression.

Ror has started playing the really repetitive pretend games too. One of them is "I got a surprise for you," which entails him saying to whomever he's playing with, "I got a surprise for you.... It's.... KATIE!" And then the recipient has to say, "WOW, KATIE is here? What a GREAT surprise!" Then he says, "You want to play with her?" And the other person is supposed to say, "Well, we can BOTH play with her." Then it starts over. The other game, we're not sure what it's about. He puts a baseball card, library card, or any rectangular piece of cardboard in his pocket and says, "Gueeeessssss what?.... I got a ticket!" Then repeat, repeat, repeat. We have no idea what it's about. We THINK maybe he saw some sort of Willy Wonka commercial and it has something to do with the golden ticket. That, or he's trying to tell me that Dad got a speeding ticket that I don't know about-- just kidding!

Riley Kate played the drama pretty high yesterday, even for her. Chris was getting out of the shower and she came into the bathroom (she tries to come in anytime the door is even a smidge open, because she wants to put her hands in the toilet), so before she could even get near the toilet, he said, "Riley Katie, OUT!" She immediately dropped to the floor, flailing and sobbing, "No, Daddy, NOOOOO!" Later I was sitting on the playroom floor holding Rory and she stood in front of screaming, "NO! ME! NONONONONO!" When I didn't immediately put Ror down, she dropped to the floor. Her tantrums are very soap-opera like; she puts the back of her hand to her head and limply falls to the floor, followed by sort of flopping around like a fish. I'm hoping it's just a phase, but the boys never really did anything like this. I found myself in the bookstore yesterday perusing titles like "Raising your Spirited Child," "The Strong-Willed Child" and even "Reviving Ophelia," thinking maybe she's just loudly expressing her feminine identity in a house full of masculinity. Didn't find anything that looked like it would relate to her, though, so I went home empty-handed and renewed my resolve to wait it out and see if she grows out of it.

Well, I'm off to get all of my work done before our guests arrive!