My Heart&Soul

I'd apologize for the cheesy title, but I like it too much.

If you say so

I finally sent Sam to daycare with the appropriate outdoor wear today.  When I had him try on the hat and mittens to make sure they fit, I told him he needed these things to be ready for winter time.  He spent the rest of the evening wearing the hat, mittens, and only underwear while continually pointing out he was ready for winter time.

This morning he was equally excited to wear the hat and mittens.  Lucky for daycare I was able to wrestle him into more clothing than just underwear.  The entire drive to daycare he was again telling me he was ready for winter time, but then he also expounded on what he was going to do once it snowed.  He is really excited to make snowballs.  He's going to make all the snowballs.  And I am going to help him.  And snowballs are his favorite thing.  And snowballs are his favorite thing because they are his favorite color.  Snowballs are white and that's his favorite, "so that's the shape of that color."

Wat.

Preparing

As previously mentioned, we have been talking to Alex about Aiden dying in an effort to prepare him as much as possible for the semi truck of emotions that event will deliver.  The other night, I thought he was procrastinating coming upstairs to get ready for bed and I was getting a bit impatient.  I finally yelled down the stairs for him to come up, and he replied that he would in a sec but that he was talking to Aiden.  I looked down into the living room to see him kneeling on the floor in front of the couch with his head resting on the couch cushion next to her head while he was petting her and talking to her.  Yeah, I immediately felt like an asshole for scolding him and let him be with her as long as he wanted.

When he came upstairs, he was visibly sad and I asked what was wrong.

"I just really don't want her to die."
"I know buddy.  I am so sorry."
"Mom?  When she does die, can we have a pet funeral for her?"
~trying desparately to figure out what a pet funeral would entail~"Of course we can."
"And?  Then can you find another dog that looks exactly like her and make sure it's a girl and can we name her Aiden?"

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand then we cried.  When it happens, the death of this dog is gonna be rough.

Sticky Silver Lining

A fun thing to do when you work from home is to set up camp at the kitchen table.  And what makes it even more fun is if you sit near your younger child's chair at the table, you don't have to worry about your paper sliding around when you write.  It'll just stick right there.  Thanks last night's dinner!

Field Trip!

Daycare took the kids on a field trip yesterday to a farm near us called Busy Barns.  They have approximately a zillion things for kids to do and Sam loved it.  They have giant metal tubes the kiddos can crawl or walk through and apparently Sam took quite a liking to them.

This morning, he woke up and asked where we were going.  I said that we needed to get ready for the day, but then we would go to daycare.  "But Mama.  Where are we going?"  Uhhhh, to daycare.  I finally figured out he was asking if he was going on another field trip today. 

And It Begins

Alex is starting his second season of hockey.  Last year was just Initiation to Skate.  But this year?  This year he gets to play games.  He is a little bit excited.

"Mom.  This is fine.  It's not creepy.  I'm just gonna sleep in it."

Chef Tries A Lot

Alex is still very interested in learning how to cook.  He is getting pretty good at making scrambled eggs even though he is some sort of barbarian and won't let me season them at all.  Yesterday morning we had a quick lesson in meal prep location...as in, eggs rolls, dude...Ya gotta put them somewhere safe.

Royalty

This is Sam's new favorite way to sit to watch TV:

If you can't tell, the supports of this blanket hammock are my legs.  So basically I have to sit with my legs stretched out and my feet anchored on the ottoman.  Then I get a blanket and tuck it under my feet (it's helpful if I'm wearing shoes for extra grip) and under my thighs and butt.  Once I'm all set, Sam flops in like a seal climbing onto an ice floe, wiggles all around until he's comfy, and then begins his narration whatever show we are watching to me.  Don't mind my left foot cocked to the side from the weight of a 3 year old.  It will only break a little.

It's super fun for everyone involved.

How? Why?

How are you spending your Saturday morning? Me? I'm spending it scrubbing my dining room walls with a sponge because my children have not evolved beyond their food flinging primate ancestors.

Perspective

Some people will see a jug half full of wine bottle corks.  Some people will see a jug half empty.  Me?  I see a challenge.

Shorts

Just want to write down that Alex calls shorts, "shorts," and pants?  Yeah, he calls those "longs."  I may have mentioned that before on this here blog o' mine, but it's still going on and I never want to forget it.

We're Goin' to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Although it could be, that post title is not a reflection of my mental state; I did actually take the boys to the zoo yesterday.  The weather was gorgeous, we had nothing planned, and our local zoo is free.  Done and done.

Sam is absolutely enthralled with animals right now.  And he is incredibly expressive.  These two things combined to create an amusing trip.  He was making me (and most other adults present) laugh at every single exhibit.  He would start with an incredibly loud, "WHHHHHOOOOOOAAAAA!  Look at that animal!!!"  This announcement was usually accompanied by laughter of disbelief in what he was seeing.  Then he would go on to narrate what the animal was doing and why.

Both boys wanted to feed the goats first.  Alex enjoys this activity for approximately 9 pellets of food and then he's good.  Sam, on the other hand, thinks feeding goats is beyond hilarious.  He probably would have thrown a fit when we were leaving to tour the rest of the zoo, but he was entirely irritated with the other goats that were pushing around "his" white goat.  He only wanted to feed the one white goat.  Have you ever been to the goat feeding area of a zoo?  It is pellet fueled goat mayhem.  You cannot feed just one particular goat.  And if you do manage to get one goat more than one pellet, the other goats will get pissed and just push their way through.  And then your favorite white goat will fade into the sea of pellet grubbing goats and you will be ready to look at some meerkats.

Given his obsession with bears, our lunch with floor to ceiling windows next to our table looking into the polar bear exhibit was particularly good.  The only bummer was that the bears were napping the whole time we were eating.  Perhaps that is for the best though.  I would not have dealt well with all the chewed up hot dog flying at me while he was excitedly telling me exactly what I could see the bears doing.

He also could not get over how big the rhino was.  He kept looking at it, yelling about it being giant, and then turning to me wide eyed and mouth agape.  Sometimes asking me if I could believe how giant the rhino was.  He is a trip.

While Alex enjoyed the animals as well, I think he was happiest that I let them goof around in the play area for a while.  An activity that normally irritates me. Why why why do I want to stand here in a playground when there are prairie dogs to watch??!