We'll Get There

Not sure what's up with me, but I haven't been exactly motivated to do...well...pretty much anything lately.  And unfortunately that has seeped into wanting to write.  Lamesauce. It'll come back; it always does.

It was Alex's birthday yesterday.  He is now 8 years old.  He's creepin' on that age range of boys when I usually just do not like them very much, so that's gonna be interesting.  I don't know, there is just something about boys from about 8 or 9 until 12 or 13 that I could leave right on the curb.  They are awkwardly tying to figure themselves out and frankly, I'm pretty sure I'm still doing that so I kinda feel like y'all are stealin' my sweet vibe.  We shall see how this all plays out now that it's my boy.

He wanted to stay home from camp yesterday since it was his birthday so it was a special occasion and he really just wanted to be with me.  Uh. Huh.  Either he is the sweetest kid in the northern hemisphere, or he totally played me, but he got to stay home.  Before I gave in, I told him if he stayed home, hanging out with me would mean going to Costco, the grocery store, meeting up with my boss, and he would have to get a haircut.  "I'm good with that." he said with a smug little smile.  So then I dropped the bomb:  he could stay home, but there were to be zero video games.  There was a slight hesitation, but he still held firm to his claim of wanting to hang out with me.  So off we went.

He went from this shaggy little boy:

To this dashing young man:

Don't mind my forehead wrinkles in that second picture.  The other night Sam sat in my lap staring at my face and tracing my wrinkles with his little finger, saying, "What are this Mama?"  Wrinkles.  "This are wrinkles?"  Yes, now learn some better grammar.  But do that after you finish laser tag, because you are so flippin' cute in the gear I just cannot take it.

Also, don't drive angry.

Annnnnnywho, Happy Birthday Sweet Alex!

Meaning of Life

When my sisters and I were kids, we would shout a non-sensicle chant out the car windows every time we were leaving our grandparents' house.  It goes a little something like this:

High! Low!  Minney minney kai chai!  Ooom cha cha cha pee wah waaaahhhhh!

We never had, and still don't have, any clue what it means, but we loved to scream it while hanging our faces out the windows of the station wagon.  And now, our kids love screaming it at our parents every time we leave their house.

Alex was just sitting at the kitchen table working on a perler race car, and out of nowhere he said, "Mom?  I think I know what 'high low minney minney kai chai' means....I'm pretty sure it means, 'We miss you and we love you.'"

That noise you heard was my heart exploding.

Dude...

...Perfect.

Dude Perfect is a YouTube channel that some guys have where they try ridiculous trick shots of any and every kind.  They clearly film the tries over and over and over and they are incredibly and extremely audibly excited when they finally hit the shot.  There is a lot of celebration to put it mildly.
It's amusing...for about 3 minutes.  It is not amusing when you are working and have an almost 8 year old (8?  When the HELL did that happen by the way?!) in the same room watching the videos back to back to back and getting as excited as these obviously incredibly intelligent gentlemen every time they actually complete whatever ridiculous trick they are attmepting.  Oh, and don't forget the hype music in the background.  Can't forget that.

It goes something like this:  "Hype music; attempt; attempt; louder hype music; attempt; 5 GROWN ASS MEN LOSING THEIR MINDS."

Good times.

Fathers' Day

I had one cooking breakfast and one doing the dishes.  Are we sure this wasn't Mothers' Day?

And then later they were all out gardening.

Great day for some baseball!

We were invited to the Brewers' game on Saturday.  We slathered up with some sunscreen and headed out to sweat our butts off.  Aside from a brand new $13 beer being knocked out of my hand by two of the children with our group, it was a good day.

 Even though it was a zillion degrees with the highest humidity possible, Blank had to come with.  And promptly needed to be washed upon arriving home.

It's Festival Season Y'all!

Our local festival is this weekend, so we took the boys last night for "wristband night."  You get unlimited rides for $15 instead of $2-3/ride.  Travis got slightly ill on the first ride.  Alex rode everything a zillon times.  Except the Zipper.  That thing is crazytown.

All of the rides for Sam are pretty much the same, just differnet vessels for the kids to sit in.  Only difference is that some go up and down while going around in circles.  Sam was quite partial to the dragons.  He rode it 4 times in a row, then went to the airplanes for two times, and then back to the dragons.  I thought he was gonna cut a little girl that got to the blue dragon before he did.  He threw in a couple times on the cars for good measure too.

The best part for me was the carnival workers weren't paying attention to the foliage when they set up the airplane ride.  So when the planes would go up, they would "fly' the kids right through a tree branch.  Sam would squeal each time and yell, "The leaves are ticklin' me Mama!"

Also, Alex doesn't like funnel cake.  Who's kid is that?

Parenting

Travis took the boys to the races on Thursday night.  At 9:30 I got the following picture and text:

"I got a slushie that says we make it 'til 10."  

I have to admit, I giggled and agreed.  I was thinking, "Meh...10 isn't the worst thing in the world."  But then 10:30 rolled on by, no Travis and kiddos.  And then at 11 when there was still no Travis and kiddos, I called and was told they were on the way home.  I was still hopeful Sam was at least asleep in the car.  Nope.  Wide awake and ready to tell me about all the race cars he saw.  Greeeeeeat.  

All I have to say is this:  The parent that keeps the 3 year old out until after 11 at the races should be the parent that has to get the 3 year old ready for daycare in the morning, Travis.

Mothers'/Fathers' Day

Daycare did a combo gift for Mothers' & Fathers' Day this year.  And once again, they knocked it out of the park.

Benjamin Buttons Style

I decided Alex is in charge of walking the dog every day during summer break.  So this morning, I sent him on his way after a couple bottle rocket launches (seriously, TinkerCrate is AMAZING) and a quick argument about the fact that he operates on a baseline assumption that I am always wrong.  Annnnywho, I still get a little bajiggidity about him walking around the neighborhood by himself.  He is just such a friendly kid, I feel like his desire to talk to people might make him an easy target.  So, before he left for the walk, I went over the whole "Don't talk to strangers" thing.

He just got back and I asked how the walk went:

-Perfect!  Aiden didn't poop at all!!  And?  Mom?  Is it ok to say "Nice day for a walk!" to a stranger?
-Yes, that's fine.
-Oh good!  Because there was this other guy walking his dog, and I said that to him.
-Yep, buddy, that is perfect.

And now I'm sitting here cracking up picturing this 8 year old saying "Nice day for a walk!" to a random adult.

No Surprise Here

It might be shocking to see Alex's last day of school picture and see a smile WITH TEETH SHOWING.  But be ye not afraid.  I made him smile that way.  This is the first picture:

Nope.

The other night, Sam was up in his crib doing his typical routine of coming up with any and every reason to not sleep.

(Tangent:  Yes, he is 3 and still in a crib.  He loves it and still has yet to try to climb out.  Why in the name of Zeus would I change that?  He is CONTAINED.  And happy about it.  He's stayin' in there as long as possible.  It might cramp his style a bit in college, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.)

So he sat in his crib talking to his stuffed animals, listing off the different things he had eaten that day, and randomly singing.  And then through the monitor we heard, "Daddy?  Can you come turn on the light and see what's on my finger?"

Ummmmm.....what?

Fun fact:  neither of us went in.  We figured there was nothing in there that could harm him, so we'd have a fun discovery in the morning.  And not shockingly, there was nothing on his finger come morning.  And he didn't seem hungry.  Coincedence?

Schooooool's Our for Summer!

Today is Alex's last day of 2nd grade.  Let's see how he's changed....

First Day:

Last Day:

Bigger feet, a couple inches taller, shaggy hair.  Yep, that's the end of the school year.

Nudist

Neither of my kids like to wear clothing.  If they had their way, they would be naked at all times. Which is fine when we are home, and lends itself to awesome photo ops:

(I know it looks like he's posing, but I just happened to catch him right before he was pointing to show me where he was going to run.)

(I still haven't found that pair of underwear.)

This hatred of clothes mixed with Sam's need to over-explain everything, has morphed into a funny little habit.  He now tells me what he wants to wear to do different activities.  But rarely is he willing to wear clothes or a complete outfit.  So I end up with a 3 year old telling me he wants to wear his pajama pants and his belly to school.  Or a completely naked 3 year old telling me he wants to "wear this" in his bath.  

Comforting

Sam likes to pretend he's a baby and pretend cry and have me pretend comfort him by holding him, patting his back, and saying, "It's ok baby.  It's ok."  I have no idea where this little game of pretend came from, but I will do anything in my power to stop him from making the horrendous fake cry sound he makes while playing it.

This has spawned a new thing.  Any time he pushes me to the point I lose my temper and scold him or yell at him, he immediately drops to the floor in the fetal position and cries.  It's still a fake cry, but not the "I'm pretending to be a baby" cry.  It's still ridiculous.  But that is not the most ridiculous part.

After he "cries" for about 13 seconds, he gets up, comes over to me, pats my leg and sometimes gives my leg a kiss, while saying, "It's ok mama baby.  It's ok."

Gee...thanks kid.