Michelle's Madness

So last night I’m sitting at the dining room table with the boys, and I started thinking about some of their differences. Sure, they have many similarities; they both love Star Wars, superheroes and Transformers. They love to play outside with their friends and go to the park. They love the same movies. And of course, everything Jacob does, Logan has to do too, because Jacob is the coolest person Logan has ever met.

But it’s their differences that are very interesting. Logan wakes up smiling; Jacob wakes up grumbling, once you finally get him to wake up. Jacob is a picky eater, whom we must convince to try new things; Logan is game to try just about anything. He even loves broccoli. Jacob is a little negotiator (I told him if my company ever wants to buy another company that I would tell them to give him a call; he asked if I was kidding him); when asked to do something, Logan will usually just say, “Okay!” and do it. (Usually.) When doing anything that is considered a competition, Logan cheers when anyone wins, while Jacob gets annoyed when he isn’t the winner. We’ve been working on this by playing Chutes and Ladders. It’s actually a great way to show him that just because he is last, it’s not impossible for him to win. Someone might land on a chute, or he might land on a ladder. His sportsmanship has been so much better this week, even last night when he did come in last. He knows that there will be another game and another chance to win. This is a huge breakthrough for him.

I remember the first time we ever played Chutes and Ladders with Jacob. Logan was too little to play, so it was just the three of us. Jacob won the first game, but when he lost the second game, he got all kinds of pissed off. To the point where we put the game away and didn’t play again for a long, long time. We played this weekend and he started to do the same thing: he won the first game, but when he was behind on the second game, he started to complain that he didn’t want to play anymore. He didn’t get too angry though, so that was a nice change from the little beast he became when he was younger. Hopefully it will just continue to get better.

The next task: teaching him to win gracefully!

A blog in (mostly) pictures

Yet another fun Christmas has passed. The boys enjoyed their loot and the grown ups enjoyed spending time together watching movies and munching.






My dad

The boys got lots of Star Wars stuff, including a Clone Trooper helmet and gun for Jacob and a General Grievous (from the Clone Wars cartoons) gun. From Santa Jacob got a scooter and Logan got a big Hot Wheels city playset, which he loves. As he is carrying it off to his room, you can see that the box is almost as big as he is.







Hanukkah gift from the in-laws for Brian and I:


YAY!


Several days later we went on a snow adventure to Reno. We found a frozen reservoir in California near the California/Nevada border and took the boys to play for a while. Then we spent the night at the Silver Legacy, which I had gotten a really good deal for online.


A good breakfast at Bubbie's house to get the day started. Yummy!



On the trip to Reno:




Mr. Cool, ready for the snow and happy to have his picture taken....


...unlike big brother, who is not as tolerant of the paparazzi




The view from our hotel room on the 21st floor (and the reflection of my camera in the window)

It's snow time!


So excited!


Logan's not so sure about this stuff






What path?






I love this guy!





It's snowball time...











Our snowman


Our snowman got cold... Jacob shared his jacket


Our snowman after some, um, modifications













My super dirty car when we got home:





Lots of fun was had by all. We learned that the buffets aren't worth the money, the "Awful Awful" burger at the Nugget Grill in Reno is tasty but not as massive as we were lead to believe, the boys like the idea of a snowball fight better than an actual snowball fight, and packing a massive backpack of snacks and stuff to do for the kids is always a good idea.