Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Close

As the boys and Travis were eating dinner last night, I started getting ready to go to bowling.  I put my jacket on, and the following conversation with Sam occurred:

"You leavin' Mama?"
"Yep, I'm going to bowling."
"You goin' to bowling, Mama?"
"That's right.  I'm going to bowling."

27 seconds later:
"K boys, bye!  Be good for Daddy!"
"Bye Mamaaaaaa!  Have fun at volleyball!"

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Tit for Tat

The boys swiped my paint stick stirrer thingys.  So I swiped a piece of HotWheels racetrack.  It's what I like to call mature parenting and being resourceful.

Real Smile

He does have teeth!!

Monday, March 20, 2017

Sunday Morning Conversation

Alex and I were having breakfast Sunday morning when out of the blue:
"Hey Mom?  Can a boy marry a boy?"
"Yep.
"K.  I'm probably just gonna do that then."


Snuggles.

Monday mornings are a little better with your brother, a good blanket, a granola bar, and some WildKrats.
The blur at the bottoms is Aiden's poor attempt at a photobomb.  She did succeed in knocking me over though.

This moment coupled with last night when Alex asked Sam for a hug and Sam telling Alex he loved him while hugging him helps me through the moments they can't stand it if the other is touching even a corner of their blanket.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Rides!

We were picking up an aunt and uncle at the airport on Sunday.  I took the boys with me for two reasons:
1.  There is nothing better than arriving at the airport to two insanely excited to see you children.
2.  Escalators.
So.  Many.  Escalator.  Rides.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Whispers of Sweet Nothings

One of my favorite kids' books is I Love You, Stinky Face.  It's about a mom loving her kiddo no matter what, and it is super cute.  One of the questions is if the mom would still love the child if the child was actually a "super smelly skunk" named "Stinky Face."   Sam loves this one.  Especially the following answer:
He crinkles his little nose and giggles every time.

Last night, he was intent on me giving him my ear so he could "whipper in it."  I decidedly do not like anyone touching my ears, but he's kinda cute, so I gave in.  He pushed my hair out of the way, grabbed my ear with both hands, stuck his face right on my ear, and said, "I love you stinky face."

Yep.  Almost 3 year olds can be pretty sweet sometimes.

No Pictures Please

Alex has two blankets he has held onto since he was a baby.  A blue dinosaur one and a brown elephant one.  He definitely favors the brown elephant one, much to the delight of the givers of said blanket.  He doesn't overtly have it with him often, but it is always visible in his room.  The other day, he wanted some cereal before school but of course didn't want to get dressed.  Brown elephant blanket cape it is!
Couple things about this picture:
1.  Preeeeetty sure he wasn't too pleased about having his picture taken while tired and dealing with a mouth full of Apple Jacks.
2.  99% positive that look is going to be thrown my way a lot throughout his teenage years.

Man I love this kid.

Too Cool

Sam gets really upset when the sun shines in his eyes when we're in the car.  I'll turn a corner and hear "IT'S BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!" from the backseat.  Since he has refused to keep sunglasses on, my only solution so far was to tell him I can't turn off the sun and that he should put his blanket over his eyes.  But then all I hear is, "I CAN'T SEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"  After we went through this little routine again yesterday morning, I told him I would buy new sunglasses for him so it wouldn't be an issue anymore.  He seemed on board, so I made sure to swing into Target.  And I am so glad I did.


Monday, March 6, 2017

Helpers

On Saturday, I decided to get some cleaning done.  First up was the couch.  I needed to spot clean the cushions because I am lazy in the morning, and I let Sam eat a granola bar while sitting on the couch watching TV.  Which would be fine if the little turd had mastered getting food in his mouth.  Alas, he has not, and inevitably I end up picking sticky pieces of oats off the couch which in turn leave little grease spots.  One would think I would foresee this issue and stop being lazy and letting him have the granola bars on the couch.  Yeah, ok.  I'm sure there are some moms out there that are brimming with get up and go at 6am, but this mama ain't one of 'em.  Couch granola it is.

The cushion cleaning led me to lifting the cushions up and revealing the snack treasure trove residing beneath.  So I got the vacuum and its various attachments ready for battle.  Only issue there is both boys are obsessed with vacuums.  So the second you bring it out, they want to help.  Admittedly, this is becoming to be a useful obsession when it comes to Alex because he is old enough to not totally suck at vacuuming.  The little one though?  Not so much.

He got to me first and asked if he could vacuum the couch.  Fine...I'll keep working on the granola grease spots.  But him working on the couch quickly morphed into him wanting to vacuum me.  Nothankyou.  Alex, however, was more than willing to let his brother vacuum him.  So I let those two yahoos entertain each other, and I headed to the stairs to do some spot cleaning on the carpet.  We've got a lot of spots that need cleaning.

I was about to get working on the third step when I heard, "FOOOMP!  wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" from the vacuum.  By the time I came up the steps, Alex had the vacuum off, unplugged, and had removed the canister.  Obviously, I asked what they sucked up with the vacuum.  With a grin, Alex replied, "Soooooo...I probably should have made a better choice...it was my sock.  But!  I already looked and it's not stuck in the filter and it didn't make it all the way through to the canister, so it must just be in the tube somewhere!"

Oh good!  Now we just have to search the 6 foot long tube and crevice tool!

We found it jammed up at the end of the crevice tool, and with some banging on the floor and digging around with a wooden skewer everything was right as rain.


Friday, March 3, 2017

I give up

I am not exaggerating even a little bit when I tell you that this floor was completely clean 6 minutes before I took this picture:
This is what happens when you have two kids home and you decide to use the time they are playing together to get the damn dishes dones.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

This Dog

We are all aware of Aiden's inability to sit through thunderstorms.  This is not lessening with age.  Well, that's not totally true...if she's soundly asleep and the thunder isn't too loud, she is too deaf to be woken up by it to then be skittish from the lightning.  Tuesday night that was not the case.

I came home from bowling (yes, I'm on a bowling team.  We are terrible, but we like beer and pizza and getting the hell out of the house!) and I found this:
I asked Travis about it, and was told he had to create a barricade on the steps because throughout the thunderstorm, the dog kept going upstairs and scratching at the boys' bedroom doors to alert them of the thunderstorm they were sleeping through.  Correction, Alex was sleeping through it.  Sam was still mid-lecture with his many stuffed animals.  Apparently every time Aiden scratched at his door, he yelled to Travis asking if it was the bears trying to get in his room.  This kid has a weird obsession with bears.  Anywho, Travis got tired of talking about non-existent bears and didn't want Alex to wake up, so he started putting stuff in Aiden's way.  From what I understand, this had to be a cumulative effort and she didn't stop pulling things off the steps until all of these things were in her way.  Persistent old bag.