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: