Date Night

A lot of us hot-young-single-chicks have dates on Friday nights and I'm no exception. But my date last night was with four entertaining little rugrats. We hung out and played for awhile in their rooms. I have to spend equal amounts of time in both the room that Tanner and Travis share and then the room that Tatum and Teagan share. We read some books, talked about school, and then Teagan discovered how much fun it is to spin around in circles until you're stumbling around like a drunk person. Then they cleared the floor (so it would be free of obstacles that could cause injury when you fall) and everyone decided to try it until they were all literally falling on the floor laughing. Oh the joys of being a kid! And no I was just a spectator. My stomach couldn't handle it. I wish I'd had my camera upstairs for that one. Here's a pic I took holding the camera out in front of me and Tatum. It turned out surprisingly well, I thought.
Here's Teagan getting ready to be hauled off to bed by Dad. (Notice the penguin pj's. Even my sister has gotten caught up in my obsession. BTW Carla, save those for Mia when he outgrows them.) I know dad appreciated the break while I entertained the herd. My sis was at work and her hubby is the stay-at-home-dad. I don't know how he does it 24/7 cuz these guys are a handful. I'm trying to teach them that I can only talk to one of them at a time. Usually I'm bombarded from 4 different directions with 4 different requests or conversations.
Here's one of Travis and Tatum. Normally Travis hates his little sister. She takes great pleasure in tormenting him. I forget what she did to him when we were upstairs playing but Travis stormed out of the room and said "I hate Tatum!" He's very sensitive and also very melo-dramatic. She kinda grinned at me and said "Travis hates me." And she seemed almost happy about that. I tried to tell her how he was just mad, he doesn't really hate you. But she said "Yeah. He hates me." So it was nice that they were sitting next to each other peacefully.
My mom bought Tanner this beginning chess set. He loves it and wants to play whenever I come over. The kid is actually not bad for a 9 yr old. He's definitely learning. He also pulled out his "Big Book Of Questions & Answers" that I bought him last year to show me some stuff he found in there about China. He's excited about his new little cousin coming even though I don't think he completely understands it. Tonight he asked me why I didn't just want to have a baby in my belly. Uhhh... wasn't ready for that one. I looked up at his dad for help. I mean we didn't really want to get into the whole birds and the bees discussion at the dining room table with the other 3 sitting there. So I just said "Well for me to have a baby in my belly there'd have to be a Daddy. And I don't have one of those right now." Which I immediately regretted because in this day of modern medical technology there doesn't have to be a daddy in my life for me to have a baby in my belly. But I figured that was really too much for a 9 yr old. So I glossed over it and then said "Plus there are so many little babies in the world that don't have a mom or dad so I wanted to find one that needs a mom." He was satisfied with that. For now. That kid is just too smart for his own damn good.

This last one was a pic Tanner insisted I take to showcase his chess game. Look at that dimple. In the last pic, he was chewing his lip, deep in concentration I guess, and that dimple really popped out. His dad says he needs a haircut but I kind of like it longer now that he's getting older. I told Tanner that he should grow it out cuz that long surfer-guy hair is in style now. He looked at me and said "Yeah but there's nowhere to surf around here." He's so literal. I had a good time with my kids. They always crack me up. I'll take this kind of date on any Friday night. Check out my sister's blog for more "Tales Of The T's".