Emmett, Emmett, Emmett

After supper tonight my drama boy (Emmett) who already cries outrageously about everything started to cry. I thought this was due to the taunting of Ethan. So, I in large part ignored it, until he came up to me and through his screams said that his belly hurt and pointed to his right side. He continued to scream hysterically and said he needed more food to eat so his belly wouldn't hurt. As I suspected this did not help. After about 10 minutes of this drama I figured it must be something serious. Aaron was with a friend on his way back home, so I called my parents who came to grab Ethan and prepared to take Emmett to Urgent Care. As my parents pulled up, though, Emmett stopped crying and asked if the doctors would pop his belly open. Then, he said that he really put a tube too tight around his neck and his shoulder was hurting and would they take off his shoulder. I was beginning to wonder what really hurt and if we still needed to visit the doctor. Well, his face was white as a sheet, so we figured we should still go. The whole way he told me nothing hurt. Well, we still went and it turns out, nothing really did hurt (anymore). That's just the way it goes. Better to be safe than sorry and I am glad that nothing was wrong. So, we shopped at Kohl's, just got home and he pulled about exactly the same stunt ... cried that his belly hurt and said he needed more food. That is when I picked him up and handed him off to daddy!

Weekend Getaway

Aaron and I were able to sneak away this weekend together for some much needed couple time. We left around 11:00 on Friday after picking Ethan up from school. We headed to Madison and our first stop was an Indian restaurant all-you-can-eat buffet! YUMMY! I think I was most excited about that part of the trip. Everything was so good. I felt like a food critic as we both tried a bite of each thing on the buffet and talked about if we liked it or not.

We then stopped at a few bike shops and drooled over the bikes we someday will have. Then, we shopped the mall for a bit before heading to Boulders Climbing Gym. We were given a brief lesson on belaying and were left to ourselves to scale the walls. We had a great time challenging each other. Some of the "regulars" at the gym were amazing. They were like Spider Man climbing the walls with no ropes. They made it look so easy. The tape on the walls indicates different "paths" so if you choose the white tape, you can only step on and grap onto the white rocks. Aaron was successful on some of those, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it. I think the span between rocks was more set up for a man. We climbed for about an hour and a half until our hands could take no more of gripping rocks and the heat of the rope racing through our palms.



We checked into our motel and grabbed some Chipotle for supper. Yummy! It is just so fresh and delicious with that hint of cilantro in the rice! Sat. morning we went to the Whad' Ya Know Radio show where I was on National Public Radio. Everyone is asked to write a question along with your name, address, what you do. When someone tells you to write a question, of course you cannot think of one. Aaron and I talked about possibilities. I finally said to Aaron that one of the questions always racing through my head is if we should have more children or not. I was called on ... if you want to hear it, download the radio show from the day!

After the show, we grabbed Chipotle again for lunch, shopped the mall a bit and headed home. We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for supper and to play that night. It turned out to not be too much fun. They were tired and a bit irritable. They wouldn't eat for us and Emmett threw some good tantrums for us. Oh well, maybe next time!

Murals

I know that most of you have seen these murals on my kids' walls, but I am posting them for my artist cousin to see. We had a local lady paint these for us. Ethan's room is the fire fighter room and the inspiration came from a Little Golden Book.

Emmett's is a treasure map. Aaron's mom made a boat quilt that hung in the room, so we played off that theme. The artist made the main land form an "E" shape for Emmett. We used silly nick names for some of the other labels on the map.



After doing a fictitious map, Aaron wished that it had been one that could be used for educational purposes. So, the basement toy room got a more realistic treatment where we did the solar system.

Our Weekend

For Christmas we bought Ethan a Gold Mining kit. Late on Friday night the kids asked if we could do it. They are supposed to use a hammer/scraper tool to remove the "rock" and find the treasure inside the rock. The paint brush is to brush away the dust that is created from the chiseling process. Ethan lost interest after about 5 minutes, but Emmett diligently worked until the first piece of treasure was removed from the rock. He looked like a little geologist. This little kit gave me a greater appreciation of how difficult it must be to find fossils or whatnot embedded in rock. It was difficult to chip away the rock and then to know that we may have started where nothing was to be found.

Aaron has been spending the weekend transforming the family room in our basement. He made trim to go on the ledge of the knee wall and then scuffed up some hard-to-find corrugated steel. (In the picture it looks shiny, but it is not). Now that it is all in place he has some finishing touches to complete. And then we have the task of decorating! He did such a great job and it looks SO cool!