Family blog time! Yesterday I had dinner with my family (some really tasty sesame tofu). Last time I had been over there, a couple of weeks ago, Kaitlin had been working on Ollie’s new big boy bed. She and Kevin had purchased this log cabin-style bed from someone nearby and Kaitlin was repainting it and preparing it for assembly. I didn’t quite know how it was going to turn out so when I got to see it last night (Emily and Ollie brought me upstairs to show me) I was so impressed. I didn’t have my phone with me at the time so I was unable to take a picture, but next time for sure because it’s so cool! I was extremely excited when I saw it. While Kaitlin and I had a variety of themed rooms throughout our childhood, I don’t think we ever had beds quite like that so it seems very fancy to me. Both Ollie and Emily really liked it. Ollie crawled through one of the windows to get inside, didn’t even bother to take his shoes off first. And by “crawled”, I really mean he dove head first through the window. It was hilarious. Emily, on the other hand, went through the door. But first she handed me the strawberry she was eating, asked me to hold onto it for her, and then told me I could finish eating it if I wanted. How thoughtful. (I didn’t want it, though). I love those two so much.
As we were finishing dinner, Kaitlin had Ollie on her lap and Ollie stuck his finger out towards me so I pushed my cheek up against it, made a surprised noise, and said, “Did you just boop me?!” He loved it and proceeded to poke my face for the next 5 minutes as I acted shocked over and over. He even eventually started saying, “boop!” each time he touched me. It was hilarious and so extremely sweet. And then Emmy came over and was booping me from the other side. I was just a ball of laughter and love. How can I not be such a thing when surrounded by my family, especially those two kids?
Turns out Ollie, all on his own, randomly said “Noonie” to Kaitlin the other day. That’s my childhood nickname. The nickname that Kaitlin and I came up with for me when we around his age. Kaitlin couldn’t believe it and told him that that was Aunt Lauren’s name. So now we’re trying to get him to call me Noonie since “Aunt Lauren” is quite a mouthful (it’s the “L”, what can I say). I totally support him calling me Noonie or Aunt Noonie so I’m gonna encourage that every time I go over. He can say everyone else’s name but mine, come on Ollie, get it together! 😉
After dinner we all went outside and played with a parachute that my parents brought. You know that colorful round giant piece of fabric that you get to play with in elementary PE? I loved that thing so much as a kid so needless to say I had a blast playing with it yesterday. My mom put these small stuffed bears on top of the parachute and they’d go flying every time we brought the thing down. A few even hit me right in the face, we got that crazy. Once we were done with the parachute, Emily tried to pick up all 8 of the teddy bears in one go. I was impressed.
It was just a really pleasant evening. That’s what it comes down to. I sat outside with my family in the relatively cool air and I felt at peace. I watched the kids played. I chatted with Kevin about work. I pushed Emmy and Ollie on the swing. I laughed. It’s decided, I will go back there again. 😉
Just Lauren 