Just a regular Monday

Part. 1. The Aquarium:We headed out early to the Aquarium with Joelle, Sammy and Zachary. Everyone was in pretty good spirits. On the bus, Sammy asked a strange man, “What does my mouth look like?” He didn’t know how to answer. The whole point of going to the Aquarium in Abraham’s mind is to see the scuba divers. Luckily we saw them right away and they waved to us. That’s a bonus. Angelo was intrigued by the fish and tried squirming out of my arms at the top of the tank. He wanted in. I managed to get out of there only having to buy a softserve icecream–of which Angelo was even demanding bites–even though Abraham headed into the gift shop and asked me if I had any money. Sammy had a different approach to getting a souvenir and walked right out the door with a pink stuffed dolphin. Abraham was considering doing the same when he saw Sammy’s mom return the dolphin to the shop.Part 2. Making Villages:We came home and set up a village with the castle and the farm. We then moved on to building a pirate ship, which Abraham called a “recipe for disaster.” I thought I heard him wrong, “excuse me?” Yes, that’s what he said. Of course the ship was made out of a stack of books. The same books I had just put away after Angelo had taken each one out of the book case.Angelo spent the afternoon thoroughly examining each article of a toy box we hadn’t gotten out for a while and generally seeming pretty content for a kid who had slept only 30 minutes.Part 3. Dinner with Sharon, Romeo and Enzo:Most Monday nights Sharon, Enzo and Romeo come over for dinner. Romeo and Abraham play very well together once they have had at least 4 heated exchanges involving one person committing a wrong doing and the other demanding an apology. Often loudly They are getting pretty good at settling things though.It goes something like this:Abraham holds his arms straight out in front of him at Romeo. Romeo sees this as the aggressive action it is and swats Abraham’s hand. Abraham demands an apology from Romeo. Reluctantly, Romeo apologizes. Abraham says thank you. Then a few minutes later Abraham apologizes to Romeo too “f0r being mean.”(An aside) Abraham has been apologizing in a way that seems so earnest it makes me a little sad. “Sorry for not listening to you mom.” But I am getting the opportunity to hear some of my words repeated to me. When Abraham was having a hard time explaining to me which sweatshirt he wanted to wear and I had gone up and down the stairs three times retrieving various items, he said, “Why are you being so difficult?!”

Dinner time:


Enzo spends his time alternately following the older boys, occupying himself with toys, chasing the cats and hugging and kissing Angelo. Angelo watches it all from the safety of my lap.

Post dinner mayhem: