Quite a day

Why is it that some nights the kids will sleep for a good solid twelve hours without waking and then other nights they wake up repeatedly and get up way too early? The hours from last night to this morning were riddled with Sam fussing (presumably still uncomfortable with his new teeth coming in), and then with both boys awake and ready for the day right after 6:00! For anyone who knows me, that is WAY TOO EARLY! Despite the lack of sleep, the boys and I had a pretty eventful morning with no meltdowns.

We started off by going to the Tahoe Tiny Timbers gym time at the rec center where the boys played like mad in the tunnels, bouncy house, and with the jumbo building blocks. From there we headed to the post office to mail a couple of things, we picked up the kids' toothpaste that the boys love http://shop.weleda.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=9802 , and then we went into the little pizzeria/bar to ask a favor of Rhonda, the owner.

A few days ago Ben was playing with an old file box of Brian's. It had a nice, fitted square lid that to Ben must have resembled a pizza box. Brian moved the box out of the living room in our never-ending attempt to get everything put away and Ben was quite concerned. We mentioned to him that maybe we could ask Rhonda if she would give Ben a pizza box for his cooking collection.

I had nearly forgotten about the pizza box when the aroma of spicy sauce and fresh crust hit me. "Ben, should we go see if Rhonda will give you a pizza box?"

Ben replied with a VERY enthusiastic, "Yes!" All this time, Sam was asleep in the stroller, ruining his afternoon nap with a twenty-minute cat nap :(

As soon as we walked in the door, Ben spotted Rhonda, rushed over to her and politely asked,

"Rhonda, may I please have a little small pizza box for my cooking stuff?" She was so happy to see us, because despite our close proximity, we never get pizza but bump into her when we are out and about in the Village Center.

"Are you sure you want a small box or would you rather have a big one?" Rhonda asked Ben.

"Just a little one," he said while pointing upwards at the different sizes hanging on the wall.

"Well you need a circle too, don't you?" Rhonda replied as she handed Ben one of the cardboard backings that they use for their take-and-bake pizzas.

"We can draw a pizza on that when we get home if you want, Ben," I added.

So, with box in hand, we headed home for lunch - two slices of pizza for the boys from Rhonda! Which actually meant pizza for Mommy since Ben is rather finicky and Sam just doesn't eat much.

Ben could hardly wait to finish his lunch as I gathered an assortment of items to decorate the pizza. I grabbed markers, crayons, glue, scraps of red paper, black felt, white yarn, and green tissue paper (mostly things left over from a Christmas ornament project I didn't quite complete). While the boys finished their lunch (not the pizza), I cut the white yarn into short pieces, cut small circles from the felt, tore the green tissue paper, cut more circles from the red paper, and used the cardboard circle as a template to make more pizza shapes from an old Amazon box (shout out to Uncle Chris!).

As Sam took every book off the book shelf to read, Ben and I colored red crayon "sauce" all over the cardboard circle "crust", topped it with glue, sprinkled on the yarn "cheese", attached the black felt "olives", added the green tissue paper "peppers", and finished with the red paper "tomatoes". We waited for the pizza to "cool" while the glue dried and then, voila! A beautiful pizza for Ben!

And after that crazy, busy morning it still took an entire HOUR to get the boys down for their naps! Now Mommy needs some chocolate therapy! If only there were some in the house :(