The Shirt

And so the battle begins.

Brooklyn got a new shirt as a gift from one of our friends a few weeks ago. And it's been sitting in her drawer ever since. I've pulled it out a couple of times for her to wear and she refuses. I don't generally care what my kids wear and I let them pick out their own clothes most of the time. But I do feel that as a mother I have a duty to step in every now and then. For instance, when Abby wants to wear the same outfit for the 3rd time in one week - and I haven't had a chance to wash it yet.

Or when Brooklyn decides she doesn't need to wear the brand new shirt that just weeks ago she liked.

Anyway, just the other day I decided I was ready for battle. I knew that Brooklyn didn't want to wear her new shirt and I knew she was going to just have to. We are not wasteful people! I got it out and told Brooklyn to close her eyes and I would put her shirt on and it would be a surprise when she opened them (wink, wink).

Brooklyn was all up for it until she realized that her shirt wasn't going over her head. And she knows she only has one shirt with buttons.

The "I don't want to wear this shirt fit began" but I was ready for it.

Fine, I told her. You don't have to wear it. But you will have to wear it tomorrow. She agreed to that readily enough (you know, instant gratification), but began telling me all about why she doesn't like this shirt. It looks like Dad's shirts (Darren's polo shirts). It has green in it and Brooklyn hates the color green (which is true - she won't even eat out of the green cereal bowl). It has a collar and only boys shirts have colors. On and on.

I stopped listening and just reminded her that tomorrow she was going to wear it. Fine.

Well, I had been prepping her all night about wearing that shirt the next day (which is cute by the way) and she really was fine with. That morning she was still fine with it. I was shocked. Smiling to myself about how ingenius I was we headed to Brooklyns room to get dressed.

Did I mention that Abby was already getting dressed? In a pink, glittery, butterfly shirt. Brooklyn took one look at Abby's overall shiny pink outfit and resolved to tears. "Abby's going to look more beautifuller than me!" Over and over.

I didn't care. Maybe Brooklyn gets her stubborn streak from me? Hard to say.

Finally she threw herself on the bed and angrily said "Fine! But you'd better pick out an ugly skirt for me to wear with my ugly shirt. At least I'll match!"

And so I did. And she looked cute.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of!

And mud. Lots of it!

I read somewhere recently that children who have experienced many different kinds of textures, aka mud, in the first 18 months of life have a higher IQ than children who did not.

So I let Jace have at it. Ok, not really. I mean, I really did read about the said study but that isn't why I let him play in the mud. He just did it. He was only squishing it around at first, and although I was cringing, I thought it was probably good hands-on play. I was naive enough to think he could handle playing in it cleanly for longer than 10 seconds. I blinked and this is what I got. Jace shampooing his hair with mud. I didn't even know he could shampoo his hair. See! Getting smarter already!

And then he showed me how he could climb up a ladder and go down a slide without any help. I didn't know he could do that either! I can just see his IQ rising!

This is Jace hollering out of sheer joy. And why not? It was a good day to be a boy!

Now that it's officially October, I'd like to go back and touch on a few things we did in August! Every year (last year excluded, a little something called a newborn!) we go with Darren's family to their cabin in Island Park. Here's what went down!

This is where you'll find the longest, fattest, nastiest trout ever! Which would make any acclaimed fisherman's mouth water. However, these particular trout happen to not be up for bait. They are in a safe area of No Wading, Swimming, or Fishing. But they will hang around and wait for you to throw food to them.

Which is just what we were doing here. Although on this particular day there were some very ferocious seagulls hanging around fighting for the fish food. I don't know that the fish even had a chance at it!

We never stop bug hunting even if we are on vacation. We found some very beautiful moths that we tamed. And accidentally smashed a few too........

We had a few (or maybe several) battles of will.

We went 4 wheeling. Jace's favorite activity. Every time a 4 wheeler drove up he actually lost his breath and started hyperventilating. How's that for excitement! He definitely knows which toys are for boys! And, yes, about the helmet. They don't make one small enough for a one year old. But the boys didn't go far.

The girls also loved 4 wheeling. There are some things you just can't get enough of!

The cousins loved playing together. If they weren't swinging outside they could be found playing many different kinds of games inside. The men did lots of fishing, the women did lots of talking/reading/kid watching.

We also made it into Yellowstone for pizza and the Playmill one night. We saw Beauty and The Beast and the girls really loved it. I have to say that so far this one was my favorite. We go nearly every year so we've seen quite a few of them.

We had a lake trip planned but the day we had picked out for the lake ended up being about 50 degree weather. No thanks. We opted out.

And that brought our cabin trip to a close! Until next year!