Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Goood, Very Bad Day

So I've highlighted on our family nightly routine in a previous post but for those that are unaware our night usually goes something like this...

1. Husband and  I come home to either an excited little cub or a frustrated one. Toddlers I am learning have serious mood swings.
2. Husband and I sit and eat dinner. The cub joins us more as a formality because he has usually eaten earlier with his Abuela. (The Husband and I are carpooling right now so we get home way too late but that's a story for another day).
3. We all spend the next hour chasing the cub through the house, kicking the ball, or dancing to Elmo.
4. Around 8 p.m. we take the cub upstairs to begin bath time. Bath time consists of more chasing the cub around the house to undress him, then the bath.
5. Cub splashes in the tub and use his toys to pour water on the bathroom floor.

6. Husband takes cub out of the tub and goes into his room to put on PJs while mommy mops the bathroom floor.
7. Cub eats Vaseline and lotion while mommy and daddy dress him for the night-don't judge us. Having a toddler has also taught us to pick our battles. Playing with sockets we are willing to fight. Eating the Vaseline...not really worth a fight.

Once the cub is dressed for bedtime we usually read a book to him. Now that he is more vocal and able to express what he wants, we usually let him pick the book. His favorite book is one titled "The Boy Who Wouldn't Share" but lately he has been enjoying my favorite childhood book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". Although the Husband and I usually try to alternate reading to him, I always read this book because one I love it and two the Husband hates reading the long books. Well, last night the cub picked the book and took it to the Husband to read. We have both been battling a cold the past the few days so needless to say the Husband's rendition of the book was lacking the fan fare the cub appreciates. He allowed the Husband to get halfway through the book when he started advancing the pages to skip ahead in the story. A few pages later he closed the book signalling his desire to end story time. The Husband reopened the book attempting to finish the story only to have the cub close the book again, and as if to make sure we understood that he had enough he then said to the book "Bye-Bye" and waved it away.

Playtime with Daddy

One of the more recent things that brings a smile to my face is watching my cub and his father play together. It is the most precious thing in the world. It's funny. When the cub was a small baby it used to frighten me to watch my husband play with the baby. I'm sure all mommies know what I'm talking about. Men don't seem to have the same worries as women do when it comes to playtime. I felt like my husband would hurl our cub into the air. My heart would literally stop beating. It didn't matter that my son was giggling hysterically and absolutely loved that he was being hurled into the air. I believe that is now why his favorite play person is daddy. My cub absolutely could care less about playing with me. That's not what mommies are for evidently. He doesn't bring me his ball to kick around with him. I can't carry him around on my shoulder.These are special for daddy. Oh and when he does give mommy some charity playtime the giggles are not the same as they are for daddy. Were talking on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being giggles for daddy, mine are a 2. If you are sensing a little bit of mommy jealousy you're right. There is a little drop of green there but it's always erased by the joy it brings me to watch the two of them. Yep one proud mommy over here.

So one of the games my cub loves to play is chase. He absolutely loves being chased around the house. It usually goes that one of us will hide behind a door or an object and once the cub is near we pop out and say boo. The cub laughs hysterically then starts running. We chase him pretending it 's difficult to keep up with him then we finally catch him and hug him, more laughing. When we release him we turn and start running (more like pretend to run) until we can hide behind a door. When he enters the room we pop out and say boo and I think you get it. I've included a clip of the family fun.