June Cleaver Nirvana

I love that my third child is so self-sufficient that he puts himself into time-out. It is survival of the fittest around here and he is evolving toward being the fittest. If he is like this before his second birthday, what do I have to look forward to at age 3, 8, or when he is a teenager (shudder)?

Today I was planning on taking the boys to see the trains at Northpark Mall. Ryan was hounding me all morning to invite his friend, Lucy. After awhile I admitted to him I wasn't feeling to positive about handling 4 kids at the mall and without pause he said, "mom, it would be like you only had one kid." Intrigued, I asked, "how do you figure that?" and he replied, "Well, Lucy and I know the rules and we could make sure that Reid follows them so all you would have to worry about is the baby." If only it was that simple! Lucky for Ryan and the rest of us, when I called Lucy's mom she was within a minute of our house on her way to Northpark. So, a grand day of trains, food and shopping was had by all. I even got to try on a few party dresses at Neiman's which was fun with 5 kids--the eyerolls we received were priceless!

Northpark has the most interesting attraction for kids as seen on the right. It is a planter that is very slick and the kids use it as a slide. The kids absolutely love it and who are we to spoil the fun?

By the way, if you are looking for good mall Christmas decorations (as you know I am) Northpark would finish pretty high on the list.