Grab the Lambie and Pass the Cookie

This weekend, we went to Saratoga for a day trip, just the kids and I. It's about two-and-a-half hours each way. The ride up was a bit of a challenge with Liam squawking and screeching and moaning and bitching. In fact, Elena finds it hilarious when I try to keep myself from blowing up at him by singing, "Mr. Scream, Mr. Scream, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo." (sung to the tune of the Mr. Clean commercial jingles). So, the ride up was dicey with SOMEONE screaming the whole way and, therefore, SOMEONE else only getting a thirty-seven minute nap.

I spent a lot of time pulling my rotator cuff trying to contort to pick up Lambie (Liam's blankey) and handing him food, toys and binkies. At one point, I begged Elena to share her animal crackers with Liam. It reminded me of the Sistine Chapel fresco of God and Adam where their fingers are just barely touching. This provided enough of a challenge to please both players of the "Pass the Cookie" game. I was thanking God I had put a really big, absorbent bib on Liam for the trip. FYI: animal crackers reduce to crumbs and paste really quickly.

It was yesterday, on a shorter road trip of only a half hour or so, that Elena invented the game we are calling "Pass the Lambie." Liam tosses his Lambie overboard and Elena immediately snatches it up. She tosses it over to him and he grabs it. They lock in a minute or two of tug-o-war and I am treated to paroxysms of laughter...until it all turns bad, as all sibling games seem to when one sibling tires of the game before the other. This one ends with Elena peeved that Lambie is continually being jettisoned onto HER library books. "Mommy!!!!!! Liam keeps throwing his Lambie on my book!!!!!!!!" Sigh...