4 Boys for a Morning

Today Kyndal had asked me to watch Kaiser and Porter while she had a morning hair appointment.  I figured it would be a fun distraction for my boys.  But as the day grew closer I was getting a little nervous about Koen having to just be stuck here for a morning surrounded by toddlers.  He can often be helpful in that scenario, but he can also get super silly and then the little ones feed off of that and it's basically pandemonium.  Then I had a fabulous brainstorm.  We could all go to the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library instead!  So, I asked Kyndal about that and she loved the idea.  We met there this morning at 10:15am.  My boys took right off and started to play and after a quick chat, Kyndal slipped out and I was left with 4 boys under 5 in my care, but thankfully amidst a safe and very fun atmosphere.  It went very well.  Porter was a little sad at first, but he totally rose to the occasion and just seemed to settle by the strength of his will and then he was perfectly happy and content.  Koen did very well sticking to the rules and only had one real time out to settle down.  Kaiser was great as well.  Tavin was a little dramatic if his favorite toys were used by others, but other than that, he was perfectly happy to just roam around and ride around on/with the different favorites he found.  Here are some pictures of us keeping very, very busy! 


In the beginning there were very few kids there as you can see, but that quickly changed.  Most kids were great at playing alongside each other, there were a few strong-willed boys there, but Koen navigated it quite well (Tavin I have to watch out for, I saw him push a little boy!).

Check out Tav's hilarious face!  And as you can see, Porter was just fine with me hanging out with him (made me so happy!).  Also, Porter is the son of a blogger, so he's used to having to smile for pictures as you can tell.

 The Braly boys concentrating...Kaiser working with dinos and Porter working on a puzzle.

 Koen pulled over from his super fast trike racing to help Tavin with his odometer.

Koen and Kaiser spent quite a bit of time in the castle.  They are such cute buddies.  Koen came up with all sorts of ideas for them to play.  Some ideas Kaiser liked and went along with and others he told Koen, "no."  I was proud of him for not being overpowered by a bigger boy.

 Toolman Kaiser hard at work!

Tavin finally got out of the toy car and found a school bus and some Little People to play with, of course.  A favorite at home, so why wouldn't he want to play with it here where there are dozens of new things to choose from!

Kaiser spotted the craft section very soon after we first arrived, but for the first hour or so it was packed with other kids.  He kept asking to go in, but I kept saying we had to wait.  Finally, around 11:15am we headed in to do crafts.  The boys were all very excited.  Porter was a champ.  He sat in this chair doing Play-Doh for at least 30 minutes.  So cute!  (Don't worry, Kyndal, that's not a random glass of milk I gave him, it's a toy from the kitchen area).

Is that a spaceman working with Play-Doh?  Yep, Koen wasn't ready to part with the Astronaut uniform when we went into the craft area.  

Check out Tav's puffy cheeks.  I don't know what was up with him this morning, but he had his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk in concentration or consternation all morning! 

 The little guys eventually moved on to coloring (but soon went back to Play-Doh).

 And the big boys moved on to painting.  They loved it.

Koen was so impressed by the craft area with all its supplies.  He is really enjoying exploring his creative side these past few months.  I love it.  Such a great activity.  Here he is posing (facing the wrong way though) next to his painting.

Around noon I got the boys set up for lunch.  They are all great eaters and blew through their meal so that they could get back to playing ASAP.

The only shot I got after lunch was of Tavin on the trike.  He figured it out right before lunch and basically spent the rest of the time at the PTLL riding the trike around and around and around.  

Kyndal got back around 1pm.  I couldn't believe how quickly the time had gone.  And I love the PTLL.  It was such a great spot to keep all 4 of these guys entertained and active.  It was also a little confidence boost for me.  I have days where I wonder how I'll manage with 3.  Well, today, at least for a day, I got by with 4.  Not only that, another mom this morning actually said, "you make it look so easy!"  Well, thanks for the vote of confidence.  It will go far, or at least until my number 3 gets here and I'm navigating this day in and day out!  Great hanging with you this morning, Kaiser and Porter.  The boys had a blast with you!