The Smith Family Adventures

Elias has started shortening names of his loved ones. I don’t know where it came from. Perhaps he noticed that sometimes we call him “Eli” instead of Elias and picked it up that way. He calls Daddy “Dad” and Nana “Nan” and Baba “Bob”…..and he calls me “Mom.”

Now we’re not talking every single time here. It’s not like he completely cut the word “Mommy” from his vocabulary. I still get called Mommy quite often. But I have to say….I do not like being called Mom.

The first time he called me ‘Mom’ I said to him, “I’m Mommy.” But it did not good. I’ve never actually discouraged it because it’s not like he’s calling me by my first name or anything. But I just don’t like it.

Mom is a name that big kids call their Moms. Little kids say Mommy. Big kids say Mom. I don’t want to be Mom yet.

A little piece of my heart shrivels up and dies every time I hear him call me ‘Mom.’ I mean….I guess that is a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe I’m being overly dramatic here. But also maybe I’m just not ready for this change. I want my little boy to stay little just a bit longer.

So for now, I try to embrace it when he calls me Mom as a sign of his growth and all of the new and exciting opportunities which will come up for him in the next few years and beyond. But boy do I treasure it every time he calls me Mommy. I never know when it will be the last time.

On the final afternoon and evening of Elias and Simon’s visit with their cousins, we made sugar cookies and decorated them. I try to do this with Elias two or three times a year at least, and it was fun to do with more helping hands.

Elias and Audrey were interested through the entire process. Sonya wasn’t much impressed with the dough making or cookie cutting process, but when the time for making frosting and decorating came, she jumped right in. It was fun and cute to see all of the kids’ creations.

Here are Audrey and Elias preparing the dough for cutting. It was fun for me to work with someone who can actually roll the dough. I had to help Audrey a couple times to get the dough even, but for the most part she did a really excellent job. I have much to look forward to in just a few short years!

We made a bunch of flowers and butterflies and bunnies and eggs, but Audrey wanted to make a cookie in the shape of her hand. I thought it was such a cute idea, and I would never have thought of it. I used a knife to cut around her hand. Then, she did the same for Elias. Cute!

Look at what a mess my child can make! Flour flour everywhere!

We took a break after baking for dinner. Then we came back to make homemade frosting. Here is Audrey mixing in the color with Elias and Sonya watching on.

The three kids had a lot of fun decorating. Look at this intense focus!

Simon didn’t get to decorate, but he had fun nonetheless because I let him eat a few chocolate chips and a few butterscotch chips. What a treat!

Here is Elias decorating his hand cookie. Look at that minimal frosting. He is my child through and through.

Taste the goodness. After all the hard work, Sonya is rewarded. She actually usually doesn’t like frosting so it was fun to see her try it!

I will probably be finding sprinkles in my kitchen for months. But it was worth it as always. What a fun way to spend time together.

Friday was such a beautiful day that we just had to get outside. Elias and Simon had a fun morning at the park with their cousins. Simon climbed up and slid down all by himself a few times. Elias tried a few obstacles on the larger play structure that he had never tried before. I was proud of my boys and they had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures to prove it!

It was fun to go to the zoo with our family this week. Elias not only has a great time with his cousins, but he seems to take more risks when he is with them. During a normal zoo trip, he refuses to go through the tunnel/slide in the northwest, and refuses to climb on the lion statues. It was fun to see him get out of his shell a bit. Here was our zoo trip in a few pictures:

Can you tell he is nervous? But he is trying it…that is what is important here!

Cousin love during our stop for a picnic.

Simon and Nana clapping.

Viewing the elephants from afar during construction.

Sonya and Elias were more interested in a leaf.

Elias’ zoolander look as we stopped for a snack.

The three musketeers.

We’ve had a wonderful week around here! I think it may have been one of the best weeks of Elias’ life. He was just in heaven having his two cousins staying at our house for a spring visit. The house was so full of life and love and giggles. Auntie Erin, Audrey, and Sonya arrived last Saturday afternoon, and stayed until this morning. They left about two minutes before I took Elias to swimming. In those two minutes, the house was just so quiet. Two little boys can make a lot of noise…but four sweet little ones can make even more! It made me want to have more kids.

We had a couple bigger events which I will write about in separate posts, but we also spent a lot of time just having fun at home. The weather cooperated beautifully, and we were able to get outside quite a bit. The boys didn’t really need any time to “get to know” their cousins again. The four of them started off playing really well.

Simon spread the Dodger love:

The kids enjoyed playing in the tunnel a lot! After crawling through, Audrey came up with the “monster” idea. At one point, Elias, Audrey, and Sonya were all in the tunnel together. I thought I had gotten a picture of it, but I guess I only took video. Oh well. I was slightly worried they would trip or fall over, but listening to their giggles, it was hard to say no. Here is Elias being a monster by himself:

We played ball out in the driveway. After a bit, they got tired of it. The girls collected flowers. Elias climbed and jumped off the utility boxes in the corner of the yard, and Simon made a game of trying to run into the street. Too bad my boys can’t learn a lesson from their cousins about how to sit still for just a couple of minutes!

We had a movie night. Frozen is pretty huge right now with the girls, and we had never watched it. We got out the old stir crazy and had popcorn while watching the movie. Simon got tired of being ignored somewhere in the middle and brought every noisy toy he could think of into the room where we were watching the movie. But we made it through nonetheless. It was definitely a good movie. I enjoyed it, and it has a good message, but I don’t really see what all the hype is about.

The kids read books together too. Audrey, finishing first grade, is quite the accomplished reader for her age. Elias really enjoyed having Audrey read to him…and Simon did too!

They built forts! One morning while I was cleaning up a bit from breakfast, I was also listening to the kiddos playing together in the other room. They rigged up a set of boxes and covered it with blankets, and took turns being in the fort. Simon even got his turn eventually. Here is Sonya popping out of the fort.

Bubbles were also a fun activity we enjoyed more than once. Audrey and Elias tried many different types of bubbles, including the ones Elias got from his preschool teacher as an Easter present!

After all the bubbles were gone we let Simon play with the leftovers.

He showed us what he thought of being given an empty bottle.

It’s good for the boys to be exposed to girl things. Sparkles and princesses. Headbands. One morning the girls were trying to get Simon to wear a headband. He wasn’t having it. He took them off so fast I couldn’t even get a picture. Oh well.

It was such a great week. The cousins will be missed!