Peanut Butter, Marshmallow, and Grits

Sasha seems to be getting up earlier and earlier every morning and it's driving me nuts! The other day, he apparently got up before my alarm. When I got up, I heard him quietly bumping around in his room. When I opened the door, I found him sitting at his table, calm as can be, with open jars of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. He was eating out of one with his left hand, and the other with his right. His clothes were completely covered in marshmallow, as was his face and the table. I wanted to be mad, but it was honestly too funny! I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was afraid to leave him alone to go get the camera. Oh well!

After he had a quick shower, we came down for breakfast. Regan bought a box of instant, flavored grits because it was on sale for 1$ or something. I hate grits, so I had no intention of eating it. Sasha usually enjoys hot breakfast cereal, so I thought he could give it a try. I made him the butter flavor because I thought it would be closest to what he was used to. Well, he hated it. He took one bite and gagged! He choked down a few more bites, but obviously hated it. I made him finish the whole bowl, though. I called it his punishment for eating peanut butter and marshmallow in the wee hours of the morning without permission. That seemed fair, right? Or maybe I was just being mean? In any case, no more grits will be eaten in this house.

Bad Parent Awards

I feel like I reached a milestone of parenthood today: I lost my child in a store!! To be fair, though, it was totally his fault.

Here's the story: Today Sasha and I were able to meet Regan at the KMCC (mall) on base for lunch. After Regan went back to work, Sasha and I went to pick up a few things for our home-preschool adventures (which I may or may not discuss here, depending on how it goes haha). As we were walking into the store, Sasha decided to run ahead of me, as he often does. No big deal...except that he didn't stop. I didn't chase him because 1) he usually stops and waits for me when he thinks I can't see him anymore and 2) I assumed he had run to the cosmetics because we always go there first to look at nail polish and the last I could see of him before he disappeared, he was about 5 feet away from there. But then of course he wasn't there, or anywhere around there. I spent about 5 minutes looking around in clothing racks thinking he was hiding from me before I got nervous enough to hit an "assistance" button and get some help. After another 5 minutes of waiting with no sign of anyone coming, I finally walked up to a register and told the cashier that my kid had run off. She was kind enough to inform me that a child had been found and she called to double check that he matched the description I gave. Sure enough, it was Sasha. He had SOMEHOW managed to get himself to the complete opposite side of the store without me spotting him.

Anyway, I went and picked him up and spent the rest of the shopping trip gripping his hand tightly and calling for him loudly whenever he wasn't within 2 feet of me. When we went to check out, the cashier looked at Sasha and said "I told you we could find her" which led me to realize that she must have been the one who found him or something. I made some joke about it and then tried not to talk about it anymore! SO EMBARRASSING!

So yeah, bad mom award pinned to my jacket now. Go me!

Happy Family of Snow!

Story time last Thursday wasn't as exciting as it had been for the last few weeks. Although, they did read like 4 extra stories because kids kept coming in late! Sasha colored a lovely St. Patrick's Day picture.

A more beautiful picture I never did see!

Friday, Regan was home from both of his jobs so we were able to have some great family-fun time! Sasha and Papa built some snowmen in our side yard.

Don't worry! Regan is hiding behind the snowman!

Can you tell which one is me??

On Friday I was also organizing our office (a massive job that still isn't done) and I suddenly had a weird pain in my hip/lower back...and it still hasn't gone away! It's very uncomfortable and I have no idea why it started or what it is. I'll probably go to the doctor tomorrow...even though I don't really want to. But I do want this pain to go away, so yeah. No other choice, really.

Other than that, it's been a quiet few days around here. Not much to report, I guess!

Snow Day!

I'm sitting next to Sasha while he takes a bath and he's laying with his ears under the water singing: "It's my bath! It's my party! It's my baby! It's my friend! It's my Papa! It's my bath! It's my snow!" He's a musical prodigy! A lyrical genius!

Today, it snowed a lot. Last week the weather was beautiful! Sunny and in the low 50s! But today it turned back into Germany. It looks like someone just took a big white blanket and dropped it over the entire country. Regan got to come home early from work so we had a fun family snow day! Sasha and Papa went sledding down the hill next to our house.

Looks like fun!

Sasha and I also painted with water colors today! It was Sasha's first time, and I had I had to keep reminding him to put the brush in the water first, then the paint, and not the other way around! 

3 of Sasha's masterpieces!

My only painting of the day. I spent hours on it.

Sasha has declared that he is done in the tub which means that I am now done with this entry! 

Sasha's Bedtime Adventures!

Sasha's bed time is 8 PM. Last night we had people over for dinner and they didn't leave until after 8:30, then we just let Sasha stay up until about 9:30..for no reason. We assumed he'd be really tired and go straight to sleep. Usually, we'll check on him every so often until he falls asleep - this can take anywhere between 30 min and 2 hrs, depending on how wound up he is and how distracted he chooses to be. Well, because our guests stayed so late last night, Regan and I both spent a couple of hours after Sasha went to bed talking with our families back in the states, which we would usually do earlier. When we finally wandered up stairs close to midnight, we realized neither of us had checked on Sasha since we put him to bed. Well, this is what we found:

Urban camping?

From this picture it may be hard to tell, but he pulled all of his blankets, pillows, and toys under his bed, then used the mattress to block himself in. He was passed out down there by the time we came in. I feel like lately he's been getting a little too creative at bed time! I have found him sleeping everywhere but his bed! I'm not really sure where this is coming from. We thought this particular set up was too funny to take down, so we just left him as he was. Of course, around 4 AM he came into our room and got in our bed. Oh well. At least he slept in until 8:30 this morning! I'm definitely not complaining about that!

Story Time

This winter has been a rather lazy one for Sasha and I. We can often be found like this:

Just a couple of brain-dead zombies

In an attempt to force us out of the house, I've been bringing Sasha to story time at the library on Ramstein AFB every week! He always has a fantastic time. Sasha loves to read, though, so I'm not really surprised. They always do 2 or 3 books and then have a craft of some kind. 2 weeks ago they made masks:

Sasha's was very fashion forward!

And then this past Thursday, all of the books were about ducks and chickens, so they made little chickens out of cups. Sasha carried his around for 2 whole days before it finally "disappeared" in the car. By that point, there wasn't much left that resembled a chicken...

They both kind of have shifty eyes...

We usually follow story time with either a) lunch with Papa at his office, or b) playing at the indoor park on Ramstein if Papa is not available. There is usually some grocery shopping mixed in somewhere, too. Basically, it's become our day to run errands. One thing I WILL NOT miss when we move back to Ohio is being 30 minutes from everything. I like having a Kroger 2 blocks away!