Stayin' wit da boyz

I left for Dallas very early in the morning on Saturday, June 5th.  I was there by 10AM and that began my 3 full days of caring for Ryder, Beau, and Shep.  Beth and Brian left for a California get-away on Friday morning and after a night spent with cousins (Ryder and Beau) and my mom (Shep), I was in charge!  I will fully admit that it was not easy.  I found myself rather exhausted on Day 2.  Caring for 3 young-ins is tough stuff!  And it didn't help that I hadn't seen them in about 5 months and wasn't familiar with their routine anymore, they had bouts of missing their mom, and I had no clue where my sister keeps ANYthing in her house.  Honestly, that may have been the most frustrating part..nothing seemed to be where it was supposed to be so getting anything done took at least 10 minutes longer because you were searching the whole house for one small thing.  But, it wasn't all bad...not at all.  I love, love, love those boys and getting to spend a few days with them was great.  I want them to know me well and vice-versa.  And they are really good boys and pretty easy for the most part.  We stayed very busy for the full 3 days!  Here's what we filled our time with:

-- Lunches at Chick-fil-a!  One with my mom and one with my NYC-turned-Dallas friend, Sarah.
-- Swimming every single day.  Easy entertainment right at the backdoor.  The boys love it.  I love it.  I especially love that Beau somehow learned to swim during the winter this year.  Weirdest thing - he couldn't swim last summer, but first time out this summer he jumped in and is swimming.  Those boys are little fishies, I tell ya!  Makes it a lot less stressful.  The scary part now is that they are both still fearless and are starting to do dives and flips and stuff.  Beau will stand right on the edge of the pool and do a full flip before landing in the water feet first.  It's quite amazing and impressive to see him fling his tiny 3-year-old body into the pool like this.  Bu it still scared the living daylights out of me every time.  Ryder can flip too, but it seems a little more controlled and less scary.

"Surfing USA", as yelled by Ryder

Shep swam with us some, but also was pretty

happy hanging out on the porch in his exersaucer.

-- Family dinner with KayKay and Buster.
-- Bed time NYC stories.  I bought the kids two new children's books all about New York City.  They know that's where I live and know small details about NYC.  My mom recently said she was reading to them and whatever book it was had a city scene picture and Beau said "that's where SuSu lives"!  So, they do have some idea of what it might be like.  But, I really want them to grow up knowing and loving NYC...it is one of my great loves, so I must share it with them!
-- Homemade gummies.  That's right, HOMEMADE!  Am I the coolest aunt or what?  Ha!  I bought a kit for this in NYC and took it with me to Dallas.  It was actually kind of like a baking/science/art project all rolled in to one.  You used dried up seaweed as part of the recipe...apparently seaweed has gelatin in it??  Anyway, whatever it is, it worked.  We ended up with some fabulous bright pink gummies and the boys loved them.

-- Picnics outside.  A post-swim lunch or dinner on the porch under the ceiling fans is always a perfect meal.
-- Meeting Anna Lee!  She's one of the boys' favorite babysitters and she took over for several hours while I went to a wedding.  She's the cutest, sweetest girl and loves my nephews so well.
-- Swim lessons!  All 3 boys were taking lessons and the lessons were being held in their pool.  Beth lent out her pool to the swim school for 2 weeks so that she could get free lessons for the boys (quite a good deal for her).  So, that meant that there were people in the backyard and pool all day long.
-- Games with Ryder!  It's so fun to play games with him these days since he kind of gets the concept.  (He does not, however, like the thought of losing.  I usually don't just let kids win, but I let Ryder win because he was so quiet all day on Monday...I think he was missing his mom).  I enjoyed the one-on-one time with him during Beau's swim lesson and later during his nap.
-- Ryder's karate class...so fun.  I sat on bleachers outside his class with the other parents, but we could see in through glass windows.  Ryder would occasionally look out to see if I was looking and give me a sweet smile or a wave...so cute!

-- If there is ever a slow minute or two in the house, the boys are sure to hit-up the costume box in their playroom.  They love to dress up and it is so funny sometimes!

Ryder in his Mogli (Jungle Book) costume, plus

a bunch of random hockey gear I brought down.

One early morning, the boys came running into

the living room where I was feeding Shep and

Beau was yelling "We're ready!  We're ready!"

Awesome undies on their heads!

What a crazy whirlwind those 3 days were.  It was fun, but I'm not sure I want to spend another vacation from work doing that!  Love those boys though, and that's all that matters :)