The Smith Family Adventures

Our welcome mat and some footprints in the dust that is settling.

We had a fine layer of yellow dust covering the hallway outside our front door this morning. Just as Nathan was getting ready to leave for work, we heard lots of running around outside. When he opened the front door, he was greeted with a cloud of dust so thick, he thought the building was on fire. After a few minutes, the dust started to settle, and Nathan took a few pictures.

It turns out the young men who live across from us decided it would be a good idea to play with the fire extinguisher. We’ve had a few problems with them before

Here you can still see some dust in the air in the hallway.

now…including one incident where they continually banged on our front door when I was home alone with Elias, and threatened to steal our Christmas wreath…but that story is for another time.

Anyway, the firemen showed up along with the police. One of the boys got arrested for disorderly conduct. Not much harm done except for the huge mess! And please pray that nothing will catch on fire…because I will have to run all the way up to the third floor or down to the first for a fire extinguisher until ours is replaced. No candles for us until it is!

None of us had gotten much time outside on this beautiful day for one reason or another. As sunset approached, that was a tragedy I just could not live with! I sent Elias and Nathan out for some fresh air in the beautiful weather while I nursed Simon. Then, I headed out to find them a few minutes later.

It was fun taking a walk out with Simon. The wetlands behind our place is so alive right now. Trees are budding. Birds are singing. I could feel them calling us outside. Simon was wide eyed and looking all around. I could just see the wonder and interest. I could imagine his little brain starting to process all the new sights. It was quite fun.

We weren’t able to catch up with Elias and Daddy until the very end of the walk, but we took a fun family photo outside, and I snapped a picture of all my boys walking together. Here’s to many more similar evenings!

Simon watched Elias and Mommy build this tower.

This afternoon during play time Elias and I built a house out of duplos. Then Elias decided that we needed to use all of the blocks to build a tower. We worked on it together. Then, after it was finished, he wanted to take a picture of it. I helped him take this picture of the house/tower. He was very proud of it, but then wanted to knock it over. I convinced him to wait until Daddy saw it first. Elias did wait to show it to Daddy, but not even five seconds after Daddy saw it, Elias had knocked it down. I guess that’s the most fun part, right?

After Daddy got home and settled in, I decided Simon needed some tummy time. Similar to (pretty much) all babies, he is not a big fan of tummy time. Today I decided to prop him up a bit on the boppy pillow to see if he enjoyed it any more than being flat. Elias always liked being propped up on the boppy, but we didn’t start that until he was three or four months old so I didn’t know how Simon would take to it at 6 weeks. He did like it better than being flat on his tummy, but he only lasted for a few minutes. Here are some cute pictures of his tummy time:

Mom, this again? Get me off of here!

Simon peeking up over the pillow

Just hanging out

Today I witnessed some cute examples of brother love. It was encouraging since Elias’ first reactions to Simon were mostly negative. Although Elias doesn’t want to touch Simon, and doesn’t often want to be near him, he looks out for his little brother. He tells me things like “Mommy, Simon wants his pacifier.” or “Mommy, Simon is happy.” or “Mommy feed Simon.” or “Simon, look at this rattle!” or “I will choose his diaper.” or “Don’t cry Simon. It’ll be ok.”

And we have gotten to a point where Elias doesn’t often choose to be near Simon, but he tolerates it. He cuddles up to me to read a story even if I am holding Simon. (One of my favorite things…cuddling and reading with both boys at the same time!) He even occasionally kisses Simon on the head.

The first thing I witnessed this morning was during breakfast. I had put Simon down to rest on the floor where he could see us while we ate, but he fell asleep. Elias and I ate breakfast together, and Simon slept near us. After breakfast when I let Elias down from the table, I left Simon where he was so that I could do the dishes while he still slept. Elias ran to get Simon’s stuffed animal (Elias named it “popcorn”). “Mommy, he wants popcorn next to him. Here Simon.” Even though Simon did not know popcorn was there, I thought it was so cute and thoughtful that I took a picture of popcorn where Elias had left him.

Later in the day, when I was feeding Simon, I overheard Elias reading to himself. He was reading a book about being a big brother that my friend Jenny bought for him. The text of the page he was on says something like, “Daddy loves me. Mommy loves me. I am special because I am me.” What Elias said was, “Daddy loves me. Mommy loves me. Simon loves me.” That made me smile inside and out.

In other news, I got both boys out of the house and all the way over to the other side of town on short notice and we were on time in order to sign for the closing of our refinance. I think that is worth bragging about…even if it has nothing to do with the rest of this post.

Last night we went for a big dinner gathering at Auntie Kristy’s and Uncle Scott’s house. Almost as soon as we walked in, Uncle Scott pulled out some “noodles” and had a good ol’ fashioned sword fight with Elias. Baba, and even Peggy (Auntie Kristy’s mom) joined in the fun for a time.

At home, when Elias swings stuff around it is usually aimed at “playing” with the cats. So…we don’t let him do it much. But he had a blast sword fighting and no one got hurt!

Sometimes you just need an Uncle to play with and have some good ol’ “boy” fun.