Brrrrrr

It's stupid cold outside today.  So cold, I taped two pairs of Sam's old socks to Lulu's feet before I let her out this morning.  She was not a fan.  It's also cold enough the boys do not have school or daycare.  Buuuuuuuut, since I work in the HVAC industry with an emphasis on the H, I am busy. 

Travis and Alex stayed up late watching TV since they knew they didn't have to get up for anything this morning.  But little alarm clock Sam woke up all bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:04.  Which would be find, if I didn't have to answer the phone every 32 seconds.  I had to return a phone call so I asked Sam if he thought he could be quiet just for the time I was on the phone and then we could talk all we wanted as soon as I was done on the phone.  "Oh!  Yeah!  Sure Mama!  I can do that.  I'll be reeeeeeeeeeeally quiet."  Uh huh.  So I dialed.  And as the customer picked up, Sam started driving a toy truck across the kitchen table I was sitting at trying to work.  A toy truck with hard plastic bumpy wheels.  Good job being reeeeeeeeeeeally quiet kiddo.

But!  He did want to paint for a bit, so that helped.

Boys

Raising boys is wonderful and gross.  There's a lot of yelling and running, there's pee all over the bathroom and yard, you get lots of hugs, snack remnants litter your home, you get told you're pretty a lot.

Last night, Sam solidified his boy-ness.

I got a haircut last night, and the moment I walked in the door, he ran to me, hugged my legs, and immediately told me he liked my haircut.  Right before brushing his teeth, he asked to see my hair closer and as he was petting my head, he told me my haircut was very pretty.  At bedtime, they were all tucked in, the lights were off, and his sweet little face was looking up at me in the soft glow of lava lamp we use for a nightlight.  I bent down to stroke his hair and kiss his forehead.  At that exact moment he farted.  And before I could pull away, he yelled "FARTED!" right in my face.

I See You!

Public

We are getting new carpet in our house and for some reason thought it was going to be ok to take the boys with us to look at samples/get any clue about how to get this done.  These boys lose their damn minds when we go in public.  Sam is either on the floor, running to slide on the floor, or hiding.  Alex is usually "keeping an eye" on his brother, but is mostly just feeding into the entire debacle.  And as soon as we get into a store, any store, you can almost see the switch flip and it becomes embarrassingly apparent there is going to be zero listening.

The carpet store was no different.

This was the only time they weren't being COMPLETELY out of line.

This was quickly followed with Alex holding Sam by his armpits, spinning in circles, while they both had a constant stream of "Aaahahahaaahhhhhhhh" coming out of their mouths.

The Comfy

Y'all.  If you don't yet have one of these in your life, you need to reassess your priorities.  This thing is the BEST.  It's the best of both worlds of warmth.  All the convenience of a hoodie with the snuggliness of a wonderful blanket.  It is hideous, but glorious.

Alex knows.

Trapped

"Hey Mama!  Be careful of all the booty traps when you go downstairs!"

Is there a way to force him to call them "booty" traps for the rest of his life?  Also, that 4 year old has a lot of picking up to do.

Spectator

"Hey Jackie!  What has your family been up to this winter?"

Hockey is a COMMITMENT.  Good gravy.

Learning

Sam got his first car care lesson on Sunday and I got fresh oil in my truck.

A Second True Love

Alex has bonded with Lulu with the same voracity as he did with Aiden.  This kid loves his dogs.

We have an old digital camera that I let the boys use, and he brought it to me to show me he figured out how to use the timer to set up a picture.  This was the result:

And then my heart exploded.

Soltuions

Shortly after Day Light Saving Time this fall, our living room clock fell off the wall and shattered on the steps.  Whoops!  Looks like whoever reset the clock did a shit job of rehanging it.  Wait, that was me?  Ah well, I did a shit job of rehanging the clock after I diligently made sure it was turned one hour back.  No good deed goes unpunished.

After looking at the blank space every 12 minutes or so for about a week after there was no longer a clock there, I noticed a friend of mine had posted a clock for sale.  It has a lot of the colors of our interior and it is the perfect size.  I showed it Travis and he was not very enthused, but followed his viewing with his standby line when he doesn't like something I've picked out, "Your call...I don't know anything about interior decorating."  Good.  I'm gettin' it.

Since I got the clock and hung it, he frequently points out that he thinks the clock is hard to read; especially when the big hand is on one of the 15's.  E.g., at 12:15 he'll pipe up with, "Gee, I don't know if it's 12 o'clock, 12:15, 12:30, or 12:45."  He thinks he's hilarious.  I fixed the problem while he was gone on Saturday.

Daily Lesson

"Mama, do you know what rock formation is?!  It's when hot lava lands in water and that's called rock formation and that's what I learned at 4K today.  And it makes all sorts of rocks.  Like an H, an A, an M, and an S!  That spells jellyfish!"  (He happened to look up at a jellyfish he made in the middle of "spelling" whatever word he thought he was spelling.)