boys are back to school

now that we are past the holidays and back into a 'normal' routine, i found myself with no plans this morning while the big boys were in school. instead of taking care of a few things (or trying to), i embraced the lack of 'have tos' and spent the morning just hanging out with manning. we played, we read books, we laughed and just had fun. i think it was a really fun time for both of us. and i am a little sad to say that this might have been one of the very few times this has happened - where he has gotten 100% of my attention on his own for more than an hour.

he was really excited to see the boys again after school though. a new 'game' with the boys has been "gotcha" - it is where they chase each other around and try to catch each other in a bear hug. today manning discovered that he could 'get' mason from his carseat when mason tried to walk by. they were both delighted by this discovery.

we pretty much spent the rest of the day playing legos. (we did FINALLY get our second pleygo set. they gave us a $20 credit - we only paid $5. i think they were overwhelmed from running a groupon during the holidays and just couldn't handle the demand. we are still optimistic because the kids love getting a surprise box of legos in the mail.) what was really great is that manning is pretty good at building things too. he did wander off at one point, and things were pretty quiet, so i had to go and find him. he was sitting and playing in madelyn's room so i went to get the camera. 

and then i realized what he was playing with - lip gloss!!  he was rubbing them on his cheeks (see picture above). sigh. at least he didn't get it on anything else. it was messy though because he was 'carefully' putting the lids back on with a lot of force; the lids were pretty coated.

while i was cleaning up after dinner manning was bringing different things to play with in the kitchen. first he laid down on his belly and 'read' a book to me and then he went and got a dinosaur. he was being pretty sweet with the dinosaur and 'roaring' so, of course, i needed a video.

 my favorite part is that he is petting the dinosaur.

pretty great day with the boys. love.