Just Another Day in the Office

Alex got a new Nerf gun and a shooting target for Christmas.  He was doing a little shooting yesterday while I was working.  Guess who didn't like it:

And not shockingly, as soon as he realized his beloved Aiden didn't like the shooting, he stopped.  But that wasn't enough, he needed to be sure to comfort her:

Sometimes working from home isn't the easiest task.

Yaaaaaaaaawn

Christmas #1 was fantastic.  We are taking a quick breath and then gearing up for Christmas #2 this weekend in Minnesota.  Ready?  Go!

Stay Out!

I am not allowed to go to any stores from now until Christmas.

I went to Target to return something yesterday and get some allergy medicine for Alex.  $85 later, I had said medicine, a new game, a new tent, a toy dinosaur, and some other things.

Not allowed.

Current State

Nothing like leaning your head on your hand to remind you that you didn't wash your hands after changing a stinky kid.

Happy Friday!

The Good With The Bad

Sometimes to get this

You have to go through this

Business Attire

There isn't a call so important it requires pants.  Words to live by.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip

Given the frantic pace with which Sam opened his few St. Nick presents, Christmas is gonna be a little nuts this year.

(Don't mind the giant stain on the carpet behind him.  The dog and I have spoken about it...at length.)

Not So Spa-eque

Travis had his wisdom teeth pulled the day after a different, more delicate procedure, so he has been movin' pret-ty slowly and isn't allowed to lift anything.  Which obviously puts me in full caretaker mode for everyone in the house.  No prob; I got this.  And I did and do.  But it is exhausting.  I have said it before, but I do not understand how single parents do it.

Anywho, Tuesday night, the boys were occupied so I told Travis I was going to quick jump in the shower, something that was badly needed.  He agreed and I ran upstairs in eager anticipation of 10 minutes of steam filled aloneness.

Alas, I am a mother.  Aloneness is a rare gem.  A rare gem that I did not find on Tuesday night.  I was just getting a good shampoo lather on my greasy hair when WHAM!  I got hit in the face with a Nerf dart.  A Nerf dart.  To the face.  WHILE I WAS IN THE SHOWER.  I yelped out of shock and Alex's response was, "Did I get you??!"  Yes you got me!  I'm not just in here yelping for my own entertainment.  "Mom!  That was such a good shot!  I had to ricochet it off the ceiling!!!"

Good job, now leave. me. alone.

Artistic Talent for Dayz

The boys clearly have an amazing artist to look up to:

Yes I made that.  And yes I'm proud of it.  Let's see how good of a snowman YOU can make while a 7 year old is trying his damnedest to get snowballs down your back.

Perfect.

I looked at the clock and saw Alex was going to be home in about a half hour and that's when I remembered I hadn't wrapped his St. Nick presents yet!  Aaaaaaaaaaand GO!

I couldn't for the life of me remember where I put the "Santa" wrapping paper, so I grabbed a roll of paper I'm fairly certain he won't recognize.  After I got everything wrapped, I decided to hide the paper under my bed.

Any guesses as to what I found under there?  Yep!  The last two years' worth of "Santa" wrapping paper.  Ho ho d'oh!

Coming of Age

As the first snow fell, Travis began his annual grumbling about our snowblower.  It is self-propelled, which would be nice if a sloth hadn't been selected to decide at what speed the propulsion should be set.  It.  is.  so.  slow.  As in years past, Travis was lamenting how we should sell it and get a different one and so on and so forth.  Then he headed out to the garage with Alex in tow, to make sure it would start.  No time like the first snow fall to make sure the silly thing works amirite?

Anywho, about a million pull cord pulls and 7 minutes later, Travis came busting back into the house.  "Never mind!  Forget what I said!  We're keeping it!  It's EXACTLY Alex's pace!!!!"

The handing off of the snowblower torch:

And yes, I took gloves out to both of them right after I took this picture.

First Snow

I'm pretty sure Sam doesn't remember what snow is.  We got our first snow of the year yesterday, and he was definitely confused by it.  I told him to look out the window and see what was happening.  He looked, turned to me with a confused expression, and said, "Ummmm....it's drippin' outside."  I explained it was snow, but there were no light bulbs of recognition.

Then later he was outside while I was shoveling while simultaneously fighting off snowballs from the older one, and he walking around with his arms up and a look on his face like he was going to catch a horrible disease from whatever was on the ground.  I finally convinced him to walk in the snow and he seemed to enjoy it for about 32 seconds.  Then he turned to me, waved his hands, and said with zero inflection, "I'm done with this."

He did seem to get into the hot chocolate that comes along with snowy weather though...

His brother likes that part too...

The Joys of Microwave Cooking

"Mom!  21 seconds I have a breadstick DONE from frozen!!"
"Cool."
Sung while dancing, "Oh yeah!  Uh huh!  I did that!  Oh yeah!"

Just keeps gettin' better

"Mom?  I need you to smell something for me."
"What."
"I need you to smell my shirt."
"Oooooookkkkkkk..."
sniff sniff
"Ugh!  What is that?!"
"Pee.  When I was going to the bathroom I forgot to pull my shirt up far enough."
"WHY DID YOU MAKE ME SMELL IT???"
"Because I wanted to know if the smell was still there."
"Yes!  It is!  Now go upstairs and put on a clean shirt!"
An evil cackle erupts as he runs up the stairs.

~End scene~

Better

While the boys were in the bath last night, I removed the amazing tree decorations from the previous night and rehung the lights.  Once they were out of the tub, and wearing at least underwear or a diaper so they would STOP PEEING ON THE FLOOR SAM, I had the boys help me hang the ornaments.  I think it turned out pretty darn nice.

Sam is very excited about the tree again this year...

Don't be fooled by his cuteness.  These were taken after he rammed his little shopping cart into the tree...twice...while looking at me and smiling.

Clever Boy

We borrowed a friend's trailer yesterday to get our Christmas tree.  It is super helpful this particular friend lets us use his trailer whenever we need it, buuuuuuut there is usually something in it that needs to go to the dump before we can put our stuff in it.  Yesterday was no exception.

We picked up the very full trailer and headed to the dump to unload it.  Travis was grumbling a little bit about how much was in the trailer and while I was equally annoyed, I figured looking for a bright side would be in order since we were on a fun tree shopping trip and there was no sense starting it off with yucky mindsets.  That, and both boys were listening.

So, I said, "Well, how about we think about it this way...instead of having a financial payment to make for the use of a trailer, we have a manual labor payment to make for the use of a trailer.  We don't have to pay any money for it, but we still get to use it whenever we need it."  Before Travis could agree, because of course he was going to agree with me, Alex piped up from the back seat, "Yeah!  It's symbiosis!"  Uhhhhhh, wat.  He continued, "Yeah, we get to use his trailer and he gets a clean trailer.  Everybody gets what they need.  It's symbiosis!"  I agreed that is in fact what it was and asked where he learned such an awesome word.  "Ocotonauts and Wild Kratts."

And people say TV is useless.  Ha!

The Holidays...

...they are upon us.  After a weekend of driving and a ton of great time with family we decided to get some Christmas decorating done.  First thing on the list?  Get the tree.  It only took two stops and a lot of chasing boys through stacks of trees, but we found a great one.  We set it up, but I didn't put the lights on right away so we could let the branches relax a bit.  That was too much waiting for Alex, so he asked if he put at least one strand of lights on and just a few ornaments.  Knowing I was most likely going to have to take off whatever he put on, I let him at it.  With the help of his brother and two friends, he created this masterpiece:

As Mariah aptly commented:  #nailedit.

A, B, C, J...wait.

Every Monday, Alex gets a list of 15 spelling words and every Friday, he takes a spelling test.  So, every night we go through the list.  This week's list had some doozies on it.  Barge, place, badge, space, etc.  At first I was just thinking they were doozies for a 2nd grader, but then...

One of the words was bulge.  For some reason I had it stuck in my head that bulge is actually spelled "buldge."  And I kept correcting Alex.  Like every time.  Travis even said from the living room, "Huh, I wouldn't have spelled that with a D." but I just thought he was saying that so Alex didn't feel bad about not knowing how to spell the word.

You guys.  This went on for 2 days.  I kept telling him to spell it "buldge."  Until finally last night I actually looked at the list instead of my normal glance at it to know what word to have him spell next.  And I was all, "WAIT!  NO!  I WAS WRONG!"  And then I had to start the process of unteaching it.

This may not be his most successful spelling test.

Hiiiiiiieee

It's been almost a week!  Whoops.  Not much goin' on in the Ol' Julius House.

Sam is so much a two year old it is making me nutso.  His current favorite mode of communication is scolding me, usually followed with a hitting attempt.  So that's fun.  He's still pretty cute, so I guess I'll continue to fight this battle instead of giving him to someone for Christmas.

Over on Alex's side he is showing signs of pre-pre-teen fun by claiming everything, other than the TV and his tablet, is too hard and he'll never be able to do it right.  He's the worst at everything!  He will never get it right!  Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Fun all around.

That time of year

Time for Alex's turkey decorating project!

Fall has a couple pluses

I am not a big fan of fall.  Mostly because it is a daily reminder that we are just that much closer to winter and winter is wretched.  This year has helped me a bit by providing some pretty stellar photo ops...

The trees in our neighborhood are getting big enough to drop a decent amount of leaves now.  Alex was a little excited about that yesterday afternoon:

Whoops!

A while back I bought Alex a new bike helmet.  His old one is all cracked and has holes in it.  I realize the decorative outer shell doesn't do much, if anything, by way of protecting his brains, but a cracked helmet doesn't set one's mind at ease.  So, a new helmet it was!  I bought a super cool skull one and we were good to go.  Until we weren't.

I noticed he wasn't wearing it, so I asked what was up.  He said it was pulling his hair.  What?  Whatever dude, you said you liked it, now wear your new helmet.  I let it go for a couple of weeks until it was annoying me just too much.  So I asked him again why he wasn't wearing it.  Again came the claims of hair pulling.  I told him to bring me the helmet so I could fix it.

And that's when I saw the three stickers on the inside of the helmet I hadn't noticed previously.  And all three had hair stuck to them.  Whoopsiedoodle!

For those of us keeping score...

...Sam was a monkey again last night.  And...and today at day care.  He just loves having a tail!  And when he looks up at me and says, "I wear my monkey suit?" in his little voice, there is no way I can say no.  Good thing it seems to be holding up to hand washing so far.

Love

Alex has off of school today and it is beautiful outside, so when he asked if we could take Aiden to the dog park, I could barely get my shoes on fast enough.

It was a good day.

Halloween 2016

As I said before, Alex was Batman again for Halloween.  He was cute and normal and wore his costume for trick or treating (twice) and to his school classroom party.

Sam was a monkey.  For THREE FULL DAYS.  Saturday morning, I had him try on Alex's old monkey costume to make sure it fit.  And he wouldn't let me take it off.  For three days.  He would freak out any time I changed his diaper because he thought I was going to change his clothes too.  He straight up yelled at me yesterday morning when I untied it so I could change his soggy over night diaper.  "Leave my monkey suit ON!"  Dude.  Chill out.  I'm just making sure you don't get a rash.  Geeeeez.

He was a monkey all day on Saturday.  He went to watch Alex play soccer as monkey.  He ate lunch as a monkey.  He took a nap as a monkey.  He rode his tractor around the neighborhood as a monkey.  He ran around in the neighbor's leaves as a monkey.  He ate dinner as monkey.

Travis did manage to get him into pajamas Saturday night and then in regular clothes for about 20 minutes on Sunday to go out to the barn at Gramma & Grandpa Z's.  But as soon as his feet hit the floor in the house?  "I wear my monkey suit?"  And as soon as he was back in it, he was running and jumping around, giggling and showing everyone his tail.  It was too cute to even attempt to stop.  So he got to sleep in it Sunday night.

One thing though...the monkey suit sheds.  A lot.  There is monkey fur all over the house.  And I was more than a bit taken a back when I changed his diaper for the first time after he had been wearing the suit.  Apparently it also sheds on the inside.  And that fur can get its way into a diaper.  So there I was innocently changing my 2 year old's diaper, when I was staring at a dark brown fur covered not supposed to be fur covered for many more years diaper area!

But then yesterday I picked him up from daycare and it smelled like I picked up a diaper pail.  Oh he didn't have a dirty diaper, just three days of 2 year old stank hanging out on his monkey suit.  I let him wear it for the rest of the day because even though I loathe Halloween, I myself am not a monster.  But when Travis took him to put him to bed we made confirming eye contact that pajamas were in order.  After a contested bath, he was in pajamas and asleep.  This morning I made sure to keep the monkey suit out of sight, and he didn't bring it up.  We'll see how long that lasts.

I think I'm gonna do some monkey suit hand washing today.  How in the world would I be able to say no to that cuteness??

Setting Standards

I went upstairs to change yesterday and came back to my desk to find this:

I asked him what he was doing, and he let me know he was creating a behavior chart for Sam since Sam had been so naughty earlier in the morning.  Very serious business.

At first glance, it was a pretty standard chart.

But then he showed me the flip side of the chart.  The side he thought we should be using for that day since Sam had a pretty good stint of kicking me while I was trying to get him dressed...

Apparently things can get worse than bad.

:)

A boy and his best friend Aiden:

Self-Help?

This is the book Alex brought home from the library this week:

Not sure if this is a self reflection moment or a statement on my parenting.

When?

When when when WHEN will my son stop cutting his shirts?  Seriously.  When?  When will this phase be done?  'Cause I'm ready for it to be over.

Yesterday he came home and took off his sweatshirt to reveal an inch and a half slice in the front hem of his shirt that he has worn TWICE.  Twice.  As in this was the second time he wore it since I bought it.  Are you kidding me dude??!

As soon as I spotted it, I asked what that was all about.

"Well...when we were on our hike in the woods, my shirt got caught on a bra....nah, I cut it.  Sorry Mom."
"Why?!  Why did you cut your shirt again?"
"'Cause I wanted to see what was inside."

Oh you wanted to see what was inside your shirt?!  It's cotton!  The same as on the freaking outside!!

After I settled a bit, I realized that he had stopped himself mid-lie, and he had chosen the truth.  This is a monumental step for Mr. Alex.  So, I was a good mom, and I told him that while I was very frustrated he cut his shirt again, I was happy he chose to tell the truth about it.  I even managed to unclenched my teeth while I said it!

Zoo Trip

It was unseasonably warm here this past weekend and we took advantage with a trip to the zoo yesterday.  Travis's brother and his family met us there and we enjoyed every drop of sunshine we could.

Sam was very excited to go; which he expressed by repeatedly telling Travis, Alex, and I that we were going to see the animals.  A fact all of us were aware of before Sam got stuck on repeat.  I wish I would have had the quickness to get a picture of the look on Alex's face after Sam told him for the zillionth time we were going to see the animals.  It was a mixture of trying to be a good big brother feigning excitement and pure confusion of how this small child couldn't seem to remember he had just uttered that phrase mere seconds ago.  "Alex.  Alex.  ALEX!  We going to see da animals.  We going to see da animals Alex.  Alex.  We going to see da animals."  And as soon as Alex would acknowledge him, Sam would switch his laser beam of obvious statements to either Travis or me.  It was quite a car ride.

Anyway, both boys love the zoo.  Alex definitely liked it more for the plethora of Pokemon to catch, but Sam was more into the animals.  He was particularly taken by the giraffes.  They were inside the giraffe house, so we were closer to them than if they were outside.  As soon as he saw one, he let out a loud, gruff, "That's a BIG one!"  We stood in there watching the two giraffes for at least ten minutes and Sam just kept saying, "He's so pretty!"  He loved them.

The only thing I think he loved more than the giraffes was the caterpillar his aunt found.  Who needs a zoo full of exotic animals when one of your awesome aunts is holding a fuzzy caterpillar??

He is Batman

Alex goes in streaks with what he wants to be for Halloween it seems. We are on the 4th Halloween that he has had input on what he wants to dress up as.  The first two years he was Handy Manny.  Last year he switched it up and was Batman.  This year?  Batman once again.

There is a mask/cape combo that goes with the outfit, but I couldn't get him to stand still once that was in place.  This kid's smile is just too much.

Masochist

Last night Sam was laying on the kitchen floor playing with a train.  I heard all sorts of giggling and looked over.  He was laying there with his face on the floor saying, "Oh no!  Oh no!  Train's gonna get me!  CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"  And then he would run the train into his own nose and laugh and laugh.  I think there's somethin' wrong with this one.

Organizer

Alex called me into the bathroom last night to show me something.  That's always a fun call to answer.  But this time, it didn't include anything disgusting.  He had reorganized the items on the counter so "we don't have such a mess."

Ummmmm.....thanks?  Yeeeeah...that looks much better than the way I had it.

Good Lookin' Out

A while back our grocery store had some weird sale on Tabasco sauce and we ended up with 6 bottles for the price of one.  I don't remember the details, but suffice it to say, we're good on the ol' standard hot sauce.

Yesterday morning, Travis was making a bloody mary and he grabbed a new bottle out of the pantry.  I said there was an open one already and he let me know he used it up, but not to worry, we were still sittin' pretty with 3 more bottles.  Alex was sitting at the table during this conversation and froze mid-cereal bite to tell me we shouldn't have any Tabasco in the house.  Ummmmm....what.

"Mom.  Why do we have Tabasco in the house?!"
"Uh...because it's delicious."
"Well, we shouldn't have that in the house.  It's not good for you!"
"What on Earth are you talking about?"
"Mom.  That's the stuff that's in cigarettes."

Another Spa Treatment

This is now what Sam does with bananas:

He won't eat them anymore.  All he wants to do is peel them and squish them on his face and arms...and the table...and his hands...and the dog if she would just sit still long enough.

Healthy as a Horse

I was downstairs at my desk and heard a roucous upstairs...

"Whatcha doin' bud?"
"Takin' my temperature."
"....why?"
"Just cause."

I heard the tell tale beeping of the thermometer and then:

"Mom?  What am I supposed to be at?"
Knowing he's taking it under his arm and it will be at least 1 degree low: "Eh, around 97 something."
"Ummmmm...I'm at about 7."
"Bring it here."
"See?  6.56"
"You're holding it upside down.  It says 95.9.  You're fine."

Buzzing Silver Lining

The only thing good about the mosquitos that are still flying their biting littls asses around in October?  They are super slow and easy to squish.  I think no mosquitos is one of maybe 5 things I like about winter.

And Now There Are Two to Judge Me

Sam was at the table having a snack while I was getting dinner ready.  I happened to be enjoying a delicious Diet Coke at the time, the carbonation got the best of me, and I let out a little burp.  From the table I hear a sweet tiny voice:  "scuse you Mama."

Uh huh.  Yes, please do excuse me for my gaseous indiscretion, Sir.

This from the one who at least once a day enters a room and announces, "I pooped again Mama!"

Sick Day

Sam is sick today.  Sad for him, but good for some picutres!
First up:  The Desk of a Working From Home Mom with Child Home

His nap today would only happen if he was sitting on my lap.  I tried putting him down once he was completely asleep...no dice.  But!  That did give me a golden opportunity to get a good shot of his Flinstone foot!

Happy Friday!

Couple of Pictures

Yesterday was a good picture day.

Samisms

Couple things Sam says that I don't want to forget:

"Nolgabar" - Granola Bar
"Mickey Mouse Hubclouse" - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Converted Critic

Alex is still very into watching cooking shows; Chopped Junior in particular.  I love the creativity it sparks in him and his new manner of talking about food cracks me up.

I made fried rice a couple weeks ago and I put water chestnuts in it.  Alex tried them, but decided he didn't care for them.  Fine.  Fried rice was requested again, so I made it yesterday and again I put water chestnuts in it because...well, because I like them so he can deal!  He decided to try them again which is great, but I had taken the time to pick them all out of his serving.  No good deed goes unpunished.  Anywho, he tasted one and put this out there:

"Ya know?  I do like water chestnuts!  The taste is very mild but they give a good crunch to each bite."

Thank you Julia Child.

So Many Uses

Sunday was my nephew's birthday celebration in Glenveiw.  We had a great time, but I didn't do a very good job of planning out the timing of our return to ensure the boys weren't starving mid trip back.  So, a McDonald's stop had to happen.

Normally I am not too keen on McDonald's for obvious reasons.  But.  This time?  The Happy Meal toys are Justice League based.  You guys.  I have TWO BatMan mask/glasses.  

My life is now complete.

Late Lunch

Soooooo, I had time to work out before Alex got home from school.

But I was hungry since I hadn't eaten lunch.

And then I remembered there was some chicken in the fridge that needed to be cooked.

...

So I made Bisquick chicken tenders instead of working out.  At least I baked them instead of frying them?

Another DaVinci

Here is some art from Sam:

Two things:
1.  What in the world is that?
2.  Why is it so excited to see me?

Rainstorm...of AWWWWW's

What's better than running around in a downpour?

Having an awesome Grandpa who'll go out there with you.

Definitely, maybe.

I'm like 99% sure she loves her life.  That or she is going to murder us in our sleep.  Could go either way, really.

Portrait of a Mother

I call this, "Honey, I love you and I will sit here while you take my picture, but your brother is running around naked like a strung out lunatic and he's going to pee on Gramma and Grandpa Z's really nice carpet at any moment so please hurry up.  Yes, I love you and I will smile."

Gimmee

I am at a point that I would like to be allowed to bank all the time I spend picking up Nerf darts for use at a later date.  I'm not sure what I want to do with that time, but I'm guessing it will involve wine.  Great big buckets of wine.

Clever Boy

Sam's teacher does a lot of the daily activities in Spanish.  Alex and I were discussing if he remembered any Spanish; colors in particular.  I asked if he remembered what red was, and said "rojo" when he couldn't remember.  And that was when I realized I didn't know if he could roll his r's.  So I asked him.  His answer?

"Hmmm, no I can't roll my r's...but I can roll my eyes."

Yes, sassy pants, I'm aware.

Makin' Moves

As I innocently sat at my desk yesterday, I heard the tell tale "ding!" indicating I had a new email.  I eagerly looked up, and saw it was an email from Alex's teacher...and the subject line was just "Alex."  My hand froze hovering over the left click as my stomach fell through the basement below me.  All I could think was, "It's already starting."  I took a deep breath and opened the email.

And this is what I saw:

"Hey Julius Family!  

I just wanted to reach out and say how happy I am to have Alex in class!  I love how hard of a worker he is and how helpful he is to other students!  

In the morning during our circle time I love hearing all of Alex's stories.  He loves to participate and is always so respectful when he does!  He is also really great at asking his peers questions about their stories which shows me how great of a listener he is! 

Thanks again for all you do and tell Alex to keep up the great work! 

 Have a great night!"

First:  Holy exclamation points Batman!

Second:  Huuuuuuuuuh, what that's now?  Can you say that into my good ear?  Are you sure you have the right Alex?

I am not even joking when I tell you I had to actively hold back tears while I sat here rereading it and beaming with pride.  I know it's only the first month of school, but man.  That was an awesome email to get.

When Alex got home, I told him I got an email from his teacher and asked if he wanted to read it.  He looked a little scared and said, "Nooooo, you read it."  So I did, and I got to watch the pride of doing well spread across his face as I read.  It was pretty awesome.

I told him how proud I was of him and how happy it made me feel that he was being an all around good kid in class.  He said he really likes circle time when everyone gets to tell stories.  I bet you do buddy!  I gently asked if he was making sure he was telling stories that were true and his reply just about knocked the wind out of me.

"Oh yes I am!  I don't really like lying anymore."

Oh really?  Do tell me more.

"Yeah, if you lie a lot people won't trust you anymore and then nobody will want to be your friend."

Ya don't say!  Hey, that sounds awfully familiar...you know...like pretty much verbatim what I was trying to drill into your head for the better part of last year!

But insted of that response, I whole heartedly agreed with him and told him that was a very good thing to remember and that I am incredibly happy he is donig so well.

Never Again

When we moved into our house, I was not super pumped about the slightly off white carpet throughout every room other than downstairs.  Why was I leery?  At the time we had a 4 year old, a dog, and a baby on the way.  We have done our best to keep it not too disgustingly stained, but dang.

Shortly after we got our furniture set up how we wanted in the living room, I put an area rug in front of the couch.  Welp it's lookin' like we will ALWAYS have an area rug in front of the couch (or at least the appearance of one) until we spring for new carpet.

This is after I used the carpet cleaner:

Oh What a Difference a Year Makes

Alex volunteered to mow the lawn yesterday.  After Travis and I picked ourselves up off the floor, I headed out to supervise this adventure.  I have to say, he did great!  I did have to stand at the end of each row for a while to keep him headed in a straight line, and his "pattern" was definitely not the neat diagonal lines his dad prefers, but all in all, he did a good job.

I walked with him while he did one big border loop around the lot line to give him a guideline so he didn't mow random lines into the neighbors' yeards and at the end of that loop, he let the mower turn off so he could do a quick shake out on his hands.  He said he wanted to keep going so I told him I would start the mower back up for him.  Nope.  No need Mom.  He did it.  He is now big enough to pull start the mower.

Just for comparison's sake, this was last year at this time when he wanted to mow:

  And this is this year:

Too bad he hasn't really grown at all in the past year, amirite?

Toys

Ever since Alex smashed his brand new remote control car, we have been in a cycle of him asking for a new toy which leads to a discussion of how he hasn't been doing such a bang up job showing me he can respect the things and toys we already have and that leading to him trying to tell me he does respect our toys! and he will show me if he can just get whatever new toy it is that he wants.  'Round and 'round we go.

Sunday, we were supposed to go shopping for a birthday present for one of his friends.  Before we even started getting ready to go, I asked him if he was going to be able to deal with the trip fit free since there was no way we were getting anything fun for him.  Of course he can!  Why would I ask such a silly question?!  Buuuuuuuut, since we're going to already be there, isn't there any chance he could get something small.  No.  And that dented plastic baseball bat is a great example of why.  He quickly realized this was not a battle he was going to win, and let it go.

About 10 minutes later, he asked me if I remember the Geode kit his cousin got for Christmas.  I said that I did and he said, "Well, I was thinking...with that you're supposed to demolish it, so maybe that would be a good thing for me to get since I really like demolishing things."

Always thinkin' this one.

Peaches

Chin Drippin' Peaches are in season at Brennan's and Grandma Z is nice enough to share with us so we don't have to drive clear across town to get some of them.  Alex and Sam are borderline addicted to them.  But the manner in which Sam eats them makes me think we need to change the name to Elbow Drippin' Peaches.

Yes, that is a PUDDLE of peach juice on the table.  Not seen?  The PUDDLE of peach juice on his shorts, his legs, his chair, and the floor.

Too Short for My Taste

Sam needed a haircut according to some people.  Those people would not include me.  I was all excited because he was just starting to get little curls in the back again.  I had to go out of town on Thursday, and Friday afternoon, I got this picture from Travis:

My thoughts exactly little man.  It is so short!  Travis actually apologized and claimed he told the lady cutting his hair that I like it longer so she shouldn't take too much off but by the time he saw how short she had gone on one side, there was no way to not just let her finish.  Mmmhmmm.

But then Travis took the boys to the races on Friday night and I got this picture:

Cute pictures make up for short haircuts.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still not over it (shocking), but I'll get there.

Disappearing Act

I had people visiting.  And then Sam had a mysterious fever so he had to stay home with me yesterday.  And now I'm catching up on some work and getting ready to go to Minnesota for a trade show.  I'll be back, I promise.

Super Fun Times

Ya know what's super fun?  I will tell you...

Your child hands you a toy and its remote that no longer work.  You assume the batteries are dead because every battery is always dead forever and ever.  You find the tiniest screwdriver in the house so you can unscrew the battery compartment cover on both the toy and the remote.  You throw away the batteries and replace them with fancy rechargeable ones because Mother Earth.  You screw both battery compartment covers back on, and try the toy.  Nothing.  So you unscrew both battery compartment covers again, and take the batteries out.  Maybe they weren't charged after their last use?  Yes, surely that is why we are having this malfunction.  So you charge all the batteries.  In the mean time, you don't want to lose the battery compartment covers or the unreasonably small screws that hold them in place, so you screw them back on while the toy and remote are still lacking portable power cells.  (Oh, and in case you were wondering?  The screws on these toys must be made of cesium.  These suckers strip at first touch of anything other than the soft flesh of tiny fingers that are supposedly trying to get them undone.)  The batteries charge.  You unscrew both battery compartment covers, put the batteries back in, you screw the remote battery compartment cover back on, and as you are screwing the toy's battery compartment cover back on?  That is when you see THE FUCKING ON/OFF SWITCH ON THE TOY.

And that moment right there is when you lose any shred of sanity you had bouncing around in your brain.

Multiuse

This is how Sam uses the large Nerf gun darts.

He puts them on one by one, and then sings the "No More Monkeys Jumpin' On The Bed" song while pulling them off each finger.

I have a video of it, but it won't load onto this post, so here's a link.

I can't lie, this is way better than when the darts are flying at my head.

First Day of Second Grade

Today is the day.  The first day of school.  The first day of 2nd grade.  Alex is so excited.  Like so excited, he decided it would be best to sleep in his clothes so he could "just wake up and boom.  I'm ready."

He was a bit sleepy this morning, and once I finally got him aware of the fact it was morning, he asked how long he had until we had to head out to the bus stop.  I told him he had 15 minutes before we had to leave the house.  He whipped off his sheet, sat up, and said, "Well, we better head out there then."  Ummmm, no.  I am not standing at the bus stop for 20 minutes dude.  Relax.

And now the moment we've all been waiting for....the annual in front of the garage door picture: