Tanks, Choppers & Babies + Ketchup makes everything better ...

Corey has a wooden model airplane that the boys constantly want to play with, but are only actually allowed to on occasion, under very strict supervision. They, of course, have several airplanes and helicopters of their own to play with, but they like daddy's because it is so life-like (as well as mostly off limits.) Anyhow, this week, they have been begging pretty much non-stop to see dad's plane, so Corey and I decided to get each of them a new plane so as to distract their attention. After looking at numerous options, the boys decided on a war combo pack that included a tank, a helicopter, a humvee and various military men. Oh my goodness, Riley fell IN LOVE with the " 'copter" as he calls it and has yet to leave it out of his sight! Here's a few pics of him with it. He even took it to bed with him at nap time and at bed time! In the bottom picture, Gage is pointing to an actual helicopter flying in the sky while Riley looks on -- his own trusty 'copter still in hand. The boys definitely take after their daddy in their love of flight! The tank brought about some confusion for Gage and several giggles from me. Each time Corey or I would try to show the boys what the tank could do, Gage would look around all confused and say "my tank" while wandering around the house. It took me a few minutes, but I finally figured out what was going on. He was looking for Tank. At the boys' daycare, Gloria has a black lab that she has aptly named Tank. Gage has dubbed him "my Tank." Thus his initial confusion. Poor kid thought we were hiding a dog somewhere from him! I think he finally understood we were talking about the toy, but the confused look never quite went away when we uttered the word tank = )

We also had a nice visit with Shawn, Kari, and their sweet baby Patrick. What a cutie! He has changed so much since we saw him last. He has the plumpest little cheeks and softest hair. I love babies! It is almost surreal thinking that our big guys were that little only a short time ago. It is so different hanging out with Shawn and Kari now that we have kids. There are so many things that I wanted to catch up on and chat about, but many conversations were stopped short as either Corey or I were off chasing one of our rascals. It is such a huge contrast the difference between a 3 month old vs 1 1/2 & 2 1/2 year olds! Patrick was such a good boy during our visit, just chilling and taking in the new sights and sounds. I wish I could say the same for ours! Actually, they were pretty well-behaved for the most part, just very into checking out EVERYTHING in sight. Poor Patrick was given a display of Riley's other current passion -- dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Riley's dinosaur roar was a little more than he could take. The poor little guy got scared out of his wits! I felt so bad!!! Luckily, his mommy was able to calm him down pretty quickly. Oh, and Shawn and Kari's tall staircase was a huge hit, the boys' loved climbing up and down and up and down -- and of course, Gage eventually had to try to jump down part of it. Three whole stairs at once even! Riley was so thrilled with it, he even took a picture of it!

Now, on to the ketchup. We're very lucky that our kids will eat almost anything you put in front of them and eat it heartily. In the off chance there is something they are not too sure about, if you give them some ketchup to dip it in, they'll usually go ahead and slug it down. Many things they like just fine by themselves, they'll still request a ketchup dipper, just because they really like ketchup - especially Gage. For dinner the other evening, the kids were having chicken, potatoes, and green beans. All 3 items were dipped in ketchup by both boys. Then, since they were being so good, I gave them some M&M's while I was cleaning up. Lo and behold, I look over and they are both giggling and dipping their M&M's in ketchup! What? I can understand most of the other stuff, but desecrating chocolate like that ... that's just wrong in my opinion. But, no matter how many times I tried to tell them that what they were doing was gross, they would just giggle harder and keep on dipping. Boys!