The Tracys of Denver: April 2009

Jack is reminding me of Eban at this stage in his life. Every time he hears an airplane, he'll look up and say, "Hi Airplane!" I'm not even aware of an airplane passing overhead when he'll start yelling airplane. Jack is talking so much and repeating every thing you say with the same intonation.

He says "Goodbye Miss Quincy" and all sorts of things. "No I don't" is another favorite phrase of his. Why can't it be I love you Mama?? He also loves to do "cheers" with whatever drink he's holding and whatever drink you're holding. Eban and Jack do "cheers" almost every morning - Jack with his apple juice and Eban with his "Starbucks Coffee"...yes, yes, yes - he still asks for it every morning.

Eban repeats everything Deegan says. He's a mini-me of Deegan.

On Easter, he headed over to the Dennerlein's for dinner and had a great time. Avery and Megan both shared Eban as their "boyfriend" for the evening. He was nice about it. I was so proud of Eban as he was sitting between two beautiful girls eating when he started to get down from this "bar" chair with his appetizer plate. The girls wanted to know where he was going and he politely said, "To sit with Denny" as Dennis was sitting at a table all by himself. I thought it was so considerate of him at two and half years old! I wanted to rush over and hug and squeeze him, but I restrained myself and didn't do anything. It was so hard not to grab him and hug him to death!

The Easter egg hunt had to be confined to the basement due to weather and both the boys hunted for their designated Easter egg color. We had to help Jack, but he loved holding his basket!! The best part of the night...maybe to some it was the worst part of the night...was after our Easter egg hunt in the basement. Eban led the charge up the basement stairs, with all the kids and most of the adults in tow. Eban quickly shut the door and locked it. There were ten of us on the stairs and it felt like we were wedged in a sardine's can. Chris banged on the door and asked Eban to open it and instead, Eban squatted down to peer under the door as there was roughly an inch between the floor and the bottom of the door. At his vantage point, he could see all our eyes staring back at him and at this time we were yelling at him to open the door. You could hear him fiddle with it but he failed miserably. Thank goodness, Ryan heard our screams from the basement after roughly five minutes and he opened the door...Eban then took off screaming and sobbing as he was scared he was in trouble. He wasn't, but we had to explain there are consequences when you lock doors and he said he wouldn't do it again.

**Tonight, he locked me out on the back porch when I went out there to refill Seamus' water bowl so he obviously digs this new game of lock the adults out of the house, room, etc.**

As far as spring cleaning goes, we have made progress on our yard by planting bushes in the back yard in the red bark perimeter. Eban loved helping Eric plant the bushes and do some of the work. He even needed his winter gloves on to emulate the gloves Eric had on...so cute! We also finally painted our front door as it was a door without a finish or color. Anyone want to guess what color we painted it??

We also cleaned ALL the carpets in our house and therefore spent an entire day with grandpa at his house in Lowry. We watched movies, went on a community walk, got into all sorts of things at his house and had him exhausted by the time we left! Eban loved playing with his magnifying glass and had to examine Jack's head with it.

The weekend after Easter, I had the fabulous opportunity to go to Kansas City to visit the Rainens with Eban. The one night we are heading out, a blizzard decides to hit Denver...just my luck! We got to the airport with plenty of time and found out that our plane hadn't been cancelled, so I thought we were lucky. I asked Eban what he wanted to eat to kill some time and of course, he wanted guacamole so that could only be purchased at a bar...so we sat at an airport bar and had Sprites with chips and guacamole! What kid asks for guacamole??

Anyhoo...we boarded our plane and Eban is stoked to fly...the sleet, ice and snow are are falling and the guy next to me says, "I don't have a good feeling about this." I wanted to give him a look and let him know to whisper that as I didn't want that comment to infect my kid's thought processes...but after two hours on the tarmac, and at the de-icing station, we were informed that DIA had shut down. We taxied back to a gate for an hour and after several more hours of trying to get on another plane to K.C., we headed hom only to leave the next day. Eban was even able to sit in the pilot's seat on the way there which had him all excited as he was the pilot of the airplane!

The Rainens were a joy as usual...Eban ran around their house with so much gusto that I was tired of chasing him - I swear that kid would get a devious smile on his face and then take off running. EXHAUSTING. He loved the spiral staircase and the piano and the machine that cleaned the pool...his favorite Rainen art possession was this machine that had balls fall through it like a Plinko game...I can't even explain it but there's a video below this and you can briefly see it....we would stick a chair in front of it as it was a great babysitter. I actually could get in ten minutes of uninterrupted talk with the Rainens.

I met Piper's fiance and gave him the third degree. I can't believe she's engaged and she's telling me that it may be a New Year's wedding in Florida. Jack is in the Air Force in Oklahoma City and on Sunday, we watched the movie Transformers in which some of his friends were in. Eban slept through that movie and Jack snored through it.

Eban felt like home there and promptly stripped down every time he had the opportunity. He proudly told everyone to look at his butt after one of the streaking moments, and then he took off down a hallway. That was delightful. He's just not that shy once he knows you.

The trip was too short, but there will be a next time as he can't stop talking about Bubby. At the Kansas City airport, Eban loved going through security and told the security woman who patted me down that he wanted to do that. So a security man came over and pulled him aside and said he'd teach him the proper protocol for patting down people when they come through the security lines at the airport. He gave Eban his own set of blue, non Latex gloves that were HUGE on him and he put them on as he was taking this security lesson very seriously. He put out his arms and showed Eban how to pat down arms and Eban then patted his arms down and so forth. After the lesson was over, Eban did say thank you and he quickly turned around to the people who were smiling at him as they were going through security and he told the next person, "I PAT YOU DOWN!" At least he was able to put some smiles on people's faces!!

The plane ride home was great too...as we were walking onto the plane he promptly turnef left and walked into the cockpit. I'm scrambling to get him without throwing my purse and backpack into the aisle and the pilot was so nice and invited him to sit on his lap. I almost died as now he's getting accustomed to such nice behavior from these pilots. Both the pilot pictures are blurry because I couldn't believe I was taking them each time. Sorry about that.

Today, I bought two pairs of shoes as Seamus kindly ate all but two of my pairs of shoes...I took Eban to Cold Stone for ice cream and he wanted Cotton Candy mixed with marshmallows. Yuck, but okay...he's been a really good boy! Tomorrow night, Eban is playing with Liza and Kyle at the Boulder Theater for a sold out show. He's thrilled because they sounded really good at practice today. Saturday, I have softball practice and Saturday night, we have a date night to see Fiddler on the Rood at the Lakewood Cultural Center. One of Ryan's colleagues from Microsoft is in it and plays the role of Motel - fun!

Videos to come later tomorrow or Saturday...I'm too tired to load them at this point - you know 10:07pm on a Thursday night is WAY past my bed time!