Always Near

Ya know how people have audible pauses when they speak?  Yeah?  Well, Sam's audible pause is "uppy Mama."  He will be completely occupied with something and in the middle of whatever he is doing, he'll pause, and seemingly absentmindedly, and say "uppy Mama."  Sometimes, he'll actually get up and come over to me and asked to be picked up, but other times, he just says it.  Or he'll just ask for confirmation I am within earshot.  I'll be in the kitchen and he'll be in the playroom, and the following will happen:

Sam:  Mama?
Me:  Yes?
Sam:  ...
Me:  Yes, Sam?
Sam:  ...
Me:  Sam!  What do you need?
Sam:  ...
Me:  ...
Sam:  Mama?
Me:  ::slowly slipping into different levels of insanity::

It's great to be loved, but as a friend said, sometimes you can be loved too much.

But!  This whole ridiculousness does lead to some good snuggles and good pictures.

Last One

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite picture from Sam's birthday.  Those eyes, man.

But I like this one an awful lot too:

Tractor

We got Sam a new ride on tractor for his birthday.  I'll just let a picture of him explain how he feels about it:

3

Sweet Sam is 3.  And he is all sorts of the fabled "Trying Three's."  I swear he, just like every other 3 year old, is running some sort of psychological test to see just how many times he can whine, "Mamaaaaa?" before I just straight lose my shit.  Also?  The arguing.  He argued with me last night about the words on a page in a book "we" were reading.  Like consistently and persistently telling me I was reading the words incorrectly.  This was shortly after I left him in his bed with said book so I could help Alex, and about 27 seconds after I left the room, I heard him say in exasperation, "But but but...I don't know how to read."  That's right ya little shit, you don't.  So how's about you stop telling me I'm wrong?!  Hmmm?  Can we try that on for size?!

Man it's a good thing he's cute.  And oh he is cute.

Birthday Food Brunch

Awesome part of working from home after a birthday party that featured a taco bar?  Pork tacos for breakfast.

Morning Toys

Sam is obssessed with anything that can be hooked together.  This was him for a good half hour this morning:

This Bitch

Oh don't mind her...just lounging on the FRESHLY SHAMPOOED CARPET.  The carpet that I have to continually shampoo because OF HER.

A Little Pop

The walls of the common areas of our house are all different shades of brown.  Brown brown brown.  Everywhere.  I hate it.  So after a quick three years of hating it, I finally decided to make some changes.

We have a 3/4 wall between the kitchen and living room, so I decided to paint the living room side of it red:

Fine and dandy.

I decided to paint the kitchen side of the wall blue, but I wanted a brighter blue.  Travis was concerned it was going to look like toothpaste.  I told him not to worry.  About 1/3 of the way into painting, I sent him a text informing him he was right and I was wrong and I hated it.  Knowing my constant and instant rejection to change, he replied, "Maybe you just need to let it dry and let it grow on you a little.  No picutre though?"

So I sent him a picture when it was done:

He did not respond.  At all.  So after about 20 minutes of radio silence, I sent "Your lack of response is speaking volumes."  He replied, "Just letting it dry and grow on me a little."  Funny man.

Alex, on the other hand, LOVES it.  He came home from school, walked in, dramatically dropped his backpack, and slowly walked through the kitchen staring at the walls and saying, "O...M...G...omg.  OMG!"  And when I asked if those were good or bad "omg's"?  "Good.  Those are good omg's.  I love it.  It's my favorite color ever.  Good job Mom."

Friends.

You know you have some good peeps in your life when they willing pose for silly pictures for you just because you want a silly picture.

FishFace?  Thank you for showcasing Milwaukee's Public Market and your excitement for it:

MFly?  Alex did in fact find it as funny as we thought he would that you were pretending to be eaten by a dinosaur.

Cali-forn-I-A

Like I said, it was a quick trip, but we had fun.  Lots of sunshine, friends, and good drinks.  Oh yeah, and In'N'Out.  Sweet sassy molassy that place needs to start coming farther east.

And?  The view from Faction Brewery was pretty sweet:

Nothing like having DELICICOUS burgers (have I mentioned I really like In'N'Out?) and great beers with this background and awesome friends.

Long Weekend

Travis and I took a quick trip to California and the boys got to stay at Gramma and Grandpa Z's and Aunt Nicki's house.

It's really too bad they don't' enjoy spending time at those houses and with each other...

Improvement

Who needs a riding mower when you have Kid Propelled?

Rainy Days

It has been raining so many days in a row.  So.  Many.  Days.  I was so sick of being inside on Sunday, I finally said, "I can't take it.  I don't care if it's raining or not.  I'm going for a walk."  It was raining.  I did get wet.  But I couldn't be inside any longer.

The boys are also a bit squirrely.  It was pouring when we got home yesterday afternoon and both of them wanted to run in the rain...even though it was about 51 degrees.

(Please excuse Sam's excessive camouflage.  He started the day with jeans on, but needed to utilize his spare pair of pants at day care after a bathroom misjudgment.)

After a bit of running around with umbrellas, Alex got the broom out to do his "ridiculous job" of sweeping the water in the gutter to the street drains.  This has always been a self-assigned job and I am not entirely sure what he is accomplishing, but he likes it.  While he did that, Sam continued running around the driveway singing, "It raaaaaainin' on my ballella!  Fa la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Awwww yeah!

Someone had an awesome hair day yesterday...