Let's go skiing!

I know a missed a week posting, but between a ski trip to Sugarloaf and the Superbowl, last weekend was pretty full. While the Superbowl didn't turn out like we had hoped, our ski weekend went even better than we could have imagined. First, Mudgie was SO excited to get to the cabin and see his friend Eric (who's about 11 years old) and the trains in the basement, that he stayed up for the whole 4.5 hour car ride. Luckily, both Eric and the trains lived up to Mudgie's hype, and Mudgie had a GREAT time playing with them both all weekend long.

On Saturday, Mudgie went to his first ski lesson. We did a lot of discussing it beforehand, and just like we talked about, I dropped him off and he went happily away with his teacher. He spent 2.5 hours in ski school, and during that time we took Aaron out to the slopes. We have these little skis that go right on his snow boots, and while he was a little unsure about it all, he gave us 3 good runs (1 on the magic carpet and 2 on the ski lift) before he'd had enough. Then we played in the lodge and had a snack while we waited for Mudgie to be done. Mudgie was just coming inside when we went to pick him up, and again, there were no tears! He was so proud of himself, and his teacher said that he did really well. I was SO proud of him for going with the flow, but after all that adventure everyone was ready for some lunch and a nap. We went back to the cabin, where they boys took a blissful 3 hour nap, and I curled up with a book. That night we did some sledding, and after Aaron went to bed, Mudgie took a dip in the hot tub with us! Sunday was filled with more train playing and snow fun (since there isn't any of the white stuff at home), and then home we went.

Mudgie did so well skiing that weekend that we made a playdate with his friend Talia to do another lesson the following weekend. So on Saturday, we met Talia and her parents at the local ski hill for a private lesson for the two of them. The drop off went really well, and we proceeded into the lodge to watch them from inside. I think having the 2 of them was a bit much for the instructor, as they both require a LOT of help at this point. However, they both did really well, and at the end of the lesson, they both rode up the magic carpet and skied down the bunny hill to the waiting moms at the bottom. Again, I was SO proud of him!

Mudgie is growing up so fast, and that is very evident with his recent behavior. While he does a lot of really great things these days, the things that seem to stick out are the not-so-nice additions to his repertoire. He has starting to "hold his love hostage," for example telling us he won't love us if we don't do x for him. He has also started telling lies, like telling us he didn't go pee when we ask him to try, even though we hear him go. He hates when we make him try to pee before we leave the house, so I'm sure he thinks that if he tells us he didn't go it's like he was right and he didn't need to go, but letting him lie sets a bad precedent, so we are really trying to nip that one in the bud.

Aaron's vocabulary has exploded over the past week, and he's added more word combo phrases to his repertoire. Now instead of whining and crying while saying, "baba (bottle), baba," he'll say, " I want baba. I want baba." Great! He's teething (again, ugh!), so he's been a bit more whiny then usual. He also does a lot of really cute things, like at daycare how he knows that after nap time is snack time then outside play time. Since he loves outside play time, when he's done with snack, he'll get himself down from the table, go to the cubbies, and deliver shoes to all his friends. And since he's an accessory guy, he knows which shoes belong to which friend! He also give great hugs and kisses to apologize after doing something wrong, which is more often than he should since he seems to have no impulse control when he's mad and will hit and push whoever took his toy or told him "no." Luckily he doesn't hit hard, and he knows it's wrong, so if you even mention a time-out after he's done it, he'll usually go put himself in time-out!

I think my favorite part of this weekend was when the boys and I were out in Western Mass visiting with Grampy Michael. Mudgie asked to watch Beauty and the Beast, and was laying in one of Grampy's chair, head on one armrest, feet over the other. Aaron decided he wanted to sit up there too, and both boys were cuddled up in the chair, sucking their thumb/fingers, and playing with their belly button (and each other's). SO cute. Those are times when everything is right in the world.