Just 'Cuz

We had a visit from Crazy Uncle Andrew and Mr. Bojangles on the weekend. Mandy stayed home to clean again so the boys had some quality time on the road trip. They arrived intact and were heavy into a sword fight with the girls when I came in so they were no worse for wear!
It was a gorgeous day out but nobody wanted to come outside with me so I gave up on the rest of them and asked Mr. B if he'd go for a walk with me & he was my only taker. So I started getting ready and suddenly EVERYBODY wanted to go. So much for MY quality time!!! :0
Sweetie decided to give everyone wagon rides and insisted on pulling them almost the whole way down to the main road and back! She took a couple breaks but for the most part, she wanted to do the work. She had a bit of trouble on the hills but she really put her all into it and got through the tough spots with a bit of help from me when it got too steep.


Mr. B greatly enjoyed his cousins and they doted on him like crazy! They hovered and followed him. They searched out toys for him to play with. Lovey even shared her Baby Alive with him.
He was pretty taken with it & held it during his entire time in the wagon and found some of her parts a little intriguing!
I had a couple conversations with him and learned some interesting things!

Me: are you smart Mr. B?

Mr. B: yeah

Me: are you smarter than Daddy?

B: yeah

Me: are you smarter than Mommy?

B: yeah

Me: are you smarter than Uncle Murray?

B: yeah

Me. are you smarter than Aunt Kelly?
B: yeah

(and so on as I named every person I could think of)

Me: so you're smarter than just about everybody?

B: yeah

Me: is there anyone smarter than you??????

B: Sweetie.
I know he puts his parents through their paces on many a good day but other than waking up at 5 am Sunday morning, he didn't give anybody a lick of trouble the whole time he was here! He was all fun and games for our visit. He just went along with whatever was going on, didn't fuss over anything, played gently with everything and came when I asked him to, ate what I gave him and was a pretty impressive little boy! (noooo I am not biased!!!!!!)
On Sunday morning Andrew had his race so we had Mr B for ourselves. Murray did not get to enjoy his nephew much though. In the middle of the night Murray woke up with what he now believes to be the Norwalk virus, and spent most of the night losing his lunch. Finally around 5am I mentioned that he seemed to be having a rough night and he moaned/grunted "every TEN minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!" It sounded agonizing and while I hadn't been keeping track or timing, the schedule did indeed seem busy. (he's now fully recovered and feeling fine)
On Sunday morning however, he was obviously out of commission. Using all my supermom powers, I got all four kids in the tub! Watching them play mermaids in there was priceless! I loved how Mr. B was right into it with the girls. The hot pink bikini clad scaly chick was fine with him!

That was a pretty ambitious undertaking right there but I decided that wasn't hard enough. So, I took them all to church. We got there EARLY! The girls kept track of Mr. B (don't worry Mand, I was keeping track of them keeping track of him!) and took him by the hand & led him around as we hung up coats, went to the choir room and got ready. While the choir was practicing, they took him off to the side and put their good shoes on and kept him right with them while they waited. Then we went in to find a seat and they got toys out of my bag to entertain him while the minister did the intro/announcements etc. The only tricky part was that they all wanted to sit by him and this caused a bit of a problem but it never got out of hand. At Children's Time, they led him up front and sat beside him and then took him to Sunday School with them. He was completely unconcerned and content with their leadership! While they went to class, he played in the toy room next door. The lady in there said he played happily but never said a word as he went around the room playing with everything.

So that's pretty good right? Nah, let's ramp it up and see how much we can really take. I hit the grocery store on the way home. We desperately needed some fruit and there wasn't going to be any other opportunity that day so it was one of those now or never situations. So I figured "how hard can it be? " and we unloaded and forged our way through the shoppers to get some bananas and miscellaneous produce items. We didn't stay long, I didn't want to push my luck, but we got in and out without causing a national incident! This is the first time in 5 years that I've ever had the thought "well maybe another kid wouldn't be so bad....?" but let me tell you it was THE most fleetingest though on the face of the earth!

So yes, we had a great time and really really really enjoyed Mr Bojangles! I'm already scheming how to steal him away for a longer visit this summer :) It's not really kidnapping if you're related right???

Love you Mr. Bojangles!!!!!!!!