A little quiet coloring

Today was what we call a "home day" in our house.  That's the kids' term for days when we go literally, no where.  I suppose the fact that my boys notice the rarity of a day without playdates, preschool or errands suggests that we are a pretty busy crew.  Not too surprised there :)  The boys enjoy the occasional "home day."  They stay in their pajamas as long as they like, they create elaborate forts and games, sometimes they even get to eat their lunch on a picnic blanket in the living room.  Yep, home days can be pretty neat for a preschooler.

One thing I am especially proud of is my boys' vocabularies.  Granted, Little-Bug has very limited verbal skills at this point, but I just love listening to the way Big-Bug and Middle-Bug put their thoughts into words.  When Big-Bug gets off with a warning for a "first offense" and responds "Thanks for giving me another chance mom." or when the boys greet their daddy at the door after work and say "Hi dad! Will you be our star command!"  or my recent favorite "What the heck! Oh my gosh!  I can't believe Little-Bug was able to turn off the computer!" Sometimes they just seem so old to me when I hear them speak :)  That said....home days tend to test the limits of my listening capabilities.  One chatty (almost) five year old and one chatty three year old can be a little hard to take for 12 uninterrupted hours.  That's right, lets not forget the fact that neither of them take naps anymore, and haven't for over a year (Big-Bug even longer.)

Today I finally hit my word limit and decided to distract the chatty guys with a little quiet coloring.  I set them up at the table with coloring books, construction paper and a huge stash of crayons.  I tucked Little-Bug in for a nap, and sat myself down at the table with a cup of tea to watch my little artists work away.  Relaxing break for everyone, right?  Wrong.  Why, why oh WHY do coloring books have captions in them?  Big-Bug spent his coloring time flipping through a "jumbo" coloring book at lightening speed asking me to read every caption on every. single. page.  "Mom, mom, mom.  What does this say? Why are they getting in a space ship? What planet are they flying to? What will they find there? Did they find that car there? Look Mom! Mom, mom, mom, look they found a car? Was that already there? Did they bring it with them? Which way are they supposed to go? Mom, mom, mom, what am I supposed to on this page???"   COLOR IT!!!

Surprisingly enough, "quiet coloring" actually turned out the be the chattiest time of the entire day.  By the end I had resorted to default "I don't know I, what do you think" responses, to which he replied "Mom, you always say that." Busted!