This was the epitome of my few days with my nephews.
Last week, I had my nephews stay with me for a couple of days. Cooper is just about 9, and Carter is 6 1/2, and they are a freaking handful. When my sister-in-law dropped them off Thursday morning at 6:57 in the AM, she told them to be good or that she would just come back and get them, and that would be that. At about 9am, I texted her and asked her to come back and take them home. She just laughed a maniacal laugh, and the boys stayed with me.
By hour 3 of their stay with me, both boys were in the bathtub. The result of a tie dye adventure gone wrong. I had a tie dye kit that has three bottles of color, and you just squirt the colors onto your rubberbanded and twisted t-shirts. Carter picked up the UNcapped bottle of blue dye, and felt the need to shake it up. The dye went all over his ear, and all over his nice Under Armor work-out shirt. I should have known better and given those boys smocks to wear. We put our shirts (oh yes, I said "our". Do you think I would let those boys have tie-dye fun without me?) in bags to sit overnight.
After their bath in lavender bath salts (I don't have Mr. Bubble at home), the boys and I hopped on the 'L' to McDonald's for lunch. Those two just LOVE public transportation! After lunch, we usually hop the 'L' north a couple of stops to Marshall Field's. I refer to a lot of the free stuff we do as "adventures". The boys buy it. So, our adventure to Marshall Field's is an adventure because from the train, we take the "secret passage" right into the basement of Marshall Field's luggage department. Then we pretend we are taking a trip to Paris, and shop for luggage.
We didn't make to Marshall Field's because for some reason, Chinatown came up. Cooper told me that Chinatown was in California. I told him we have one in Chicago, too. The two of us argued, then to prove my point, we got back on 'L', and went south instead. We landed in Chinatown and did a little bit of shopping and walking around.
We headed home for dinner before walking to SummerDance. On the way to SummerDance, we did some Geocaching, and the boys LOVED it. That night SummerDance was some sort of Hungarian gypsy/folk dancing or something, so we didn't last long.
Friday morning, Cooper woke up at 5:30. Yeah, I said 5:30 in the morning. I made him stay in his room until 7. Then, we hit the ground running. We took the dog for a walk, got to wash out our tie dye shirts, had a photoshoot, and then headed to the movies. We walk to the movies too. The boys always want to take the train everywhere, and they don't understand that the trains don't go everywhere.
After the movies, we headed to Millennium Park for the symphony. They were playing Beethoven's Fifth that evening, so I thought the boys would at least recognize the music. We also discussed going back to SummerDance for Disco night. I had packed a small picnic for the symphony, so we sat and ate, and listened. Well, not really. The boys were in such a mood! They would not sit still, they would not be quiet, and they would not stop touching each other. I was so frustrated, but really, what was I to expect with two boys at the symphony? I asked the boys if their mom ever cried out of frustration. Finally, I had had enough, and told the boys we were heading to Disco night at SummerDance. Carter told me that he thought he was already listening to Disco. Oh my! Beethoven's Fifth is Disco? Priceless.
I had to get the boys home early the next morning for football equipment pick-up, but Cooper came back downtown later for his first concert. We were going to the Doobie Brothers/Chicago concert at Northerly Island, and I gave Cooper a ticket for his birthday gift. He loved it! Standing, dancing, singing... he totally got into it.
On Sunday, I think I napped the day away.
