I Hope They Remember the Good.

Sometimes at the end of a day, after I have tucked my boys soundly in bed, thoughts and memories of the day flood back into my mind. It can be sobering at times, often I just hope and pray that the good I tried to do for them, for my family, somehow outweigh the negative things I may have said or done. Because gosh! I really to try to do good by them, even though I know I don't at times.

Today I hope that they remember the sound of my kind voice singing them lullabies to sleep...rather than the sound of my harsh yelling voice pleading with them for the billionth time to get their jammies on and brush their teeth.

Today I hope that they remember drawing a bike track with chalk on front drive in the sunshine, and then racing together on our bikes/trikes...rather than how many times I said "no, not right now" when they asked me repeatedly to hang party lanterns all throughout the house in the middle of me trying to get a decent dinner cooked and into all of our grumbling bellies.

Today I hope that they remember that I read books to them in silly voices...rather than when I asked them to just let me close my eyes for bit and not jump on my bed.

Today I hope they remember the touch of my lips kissing them on their cheeks and the feel of my hand patting them on the head...rather than the firm grip of my arms as I whisked them angrily away to time outs.

Today I hope that they realize that I am trying everyday to be patient, kind, and calm. And that even though  those qualities don't always come naturally to me, I am trying to teach myself to be those things naturally.

And even though there was yelling, impatience, frustration, annoyance, lack of energy at times today. I hope that I showed them enough good too, through my actions and my words, that I love them. That all I want is the best for them. That I don't want to be anywhere else but with them. That I am trying hard to teach them, and that I am trying hard to be a better Mom for them. That I miss them when they are not with me. That I am not perfect, but that I am trying every day to be what they need. That I adore them and could never imagine my life without them.

Girls, Babies, and Monsters.

First I must say that my boys have two main fears.

Girls, and babies. Which I am totally fine with.

Tonight at the dinner table we were talking about Valentine's Day. We talked about how Oscar gets to give a Valentine to each of the kids in his class. Then Bryan asked them if they knew anything else we do on Valentine's day.

Much to my chagrin (I prefer to not give them any ideas earlier than necessary), Bryan blurted out that "on Valentines day you kiss girls." I looked at him, eyebrows raised in surprise. The boys looked at him with faces full of utter disgust, and then they busted up laughing.

Then through the spurts of laughter Angus said, "yeah and if you don't want to kiss a girl, you can go kiss a baby." Mountains of laughter broke out  from all of our mouths.

A minute or so later Oscar added, "if there was a monster and a girl standing next to each other, I would definitely kiss the monster." Laughing filled the room again.

Friday Full of Pillows and Brotherhood

Today there was a fair amount of whining heard in our home. A bit of fighting over toys too. And some accidental smacks in the face.

But there were also lots and lots of pillows. We had about five pillow fights, leapt onto about twenty pillow towers, and jumped on the bed while having a war where pillows were our weapons. It was pillowy and fun. And maybe just a little bit tiring, for all three of us. Which is one reason why I am glad that now the pillows are being used just for two sweet little boys to sleep their sweaty heads on. Pretty soon this Mom, who washed her hair today, will use her pillow for laying her head on too.

Today there were also two happy brothers who ran around at an indoor gym, the best of friends. Big brother and littler brother laughing together, running together, looking out for one another. I hope for always.

2011 Catch Up: Socks In Crotch

This picture cracks me up every time I see it. It reminds me of the movie The Wedding Singer. When Jon Lovitz' character finishes his song he says,"That ain't no sock in my crotch."

Well in Angus's case on this particular dress up session, there actually were socks in his crotch.

2011 Catch Up: Halloween

On Halloween at Oscar's preschool they had a Pajama Day. Angus and I stayed for the first half hour (as we usually do) for circle time and popcorn. It was super fun, and Oscar was really excited to show off his new space jammies that his Grammie made for him.

 

The boys made it easy on us this past Halloween since they both requested to be Spider man. With one Spidey costume snagged from a local thrift store, and the other borrowed from a cousin, they were set! After rummaging through Bryan's mothers costume box for costumes that would fit each of us adults, Bry went as a "deviled egg,"  and I went as a ....wait for it... a fluffy white bunny. Not my finest moment, hence the lack of actual documentation of the event. However, the other trunk or treater's we saw that night know how ridiculously ridiculous I looked.

But here is an adorable pic (taken by an ugly bunny) of my two spider men and their devilishly handsome deviled egg dad. After the trunk or treat, we went trick or treating with Grammie in her neighborhood.

The day after Halloween the boys had a great time shooting their Halloween candy on their Hot wheels race track. It was pretty fun.

2011 Catch Up: Let Them Follow Their Whimsy

It is a beautiful thing indeed to watch a child follow their whimsy. It amazes me what worlds open up to them, and what realities they can create when they are allowed the space to explore.

My children's minds are incredible, all children's minds are incredible. Usually they need no ideas from me, they just come up with them on their own. My job is to then allow them to explore, to not worry about the mess being made, but to revel in their creative fun. Then, of course, I help them learn to clean up their fun properly when they are done.

On a Wednesday night (in December) they pulled out every pot in our house and began baking lots of pumpkin pies. Or at least their version of pumpkin pies which consisted of each pot being filled with one "bad guy" and then "baked" over night. They happily prepared their pies together throughout the early evening.

On Thursday morning they made a road throughout our home using nearly all the books from their bookshelf. It was so cool, and they had so much fun together. It was worth the mess, plus they were great about picking up the "road" after. As long as I helped.

On Thursday afternoon I started to clean/organize the mudroom and food storage pantry. Instantly the boys worked together to build a small city out of our food storage and empty tins and boxes. They brought in some creature's and toys and gave them all homes in their city. I worked around them and enjoyed listening to their imaginative play all the while. They were helpful in cleaning up that creation too...as long as I helped

So glad they are brothers. So glad they are friends. So glad they are mine. So glad that there are days I have the stamina and patience to indulge their imaginative exploration.

2011 Catch up: Fall Soccer

 I can't move on to posting about 2012 until I have posted some of the items I missed in 2011.

Oscar played soccer this Fall and he had a great time. He said he had fun after every game, so the season was a success! We were the coaches this year and were sort of nervous at first. Neither one of us had played soccer in years. BUT...we had a really fun time coaching the 5 year olds on our team. It turned out to be a lot less pressure than we were anticipating. The best part for us was that we got to play soccer with our own kids as well as the other cute boys on our team. It was a great experience for all four of us, and we hope it was a fun and non-competitive experience for our team members as well.

In The Crisp December Sunshine

The sun was warm on that first December afternoon.
It danced off your eyes and rested on your cheeks.
I love watching you two together.
You were meant to be brothers.
You were meant to be mine.

I chased you both through the park.
I was a monster.
I took bites of you when I caught you.
You giggled while I nibbled at your arms,
at your cheeks,
at your tummy.
You boys are delicious.

The pom-poms on your hat bounced happily as you ran ahead.
Your boots were too big but you ran strong and fast anyway.
Big brother walked with me,
and I held his warm and growing hand in mine
while we followed you down the park path
in the crisp December sunshine.

Social Success at the Indoor Gym

It is a very fulfilling feeling as a parent when you are able to anticipate your child's needs, and then meet those needs. A couple of weeks ago a was able to do just that and it felt really good.

It was nasty outside so I took the boys to an indoor gym held at a local church. I knew there would be lots of children/people there. I knew it would be loud and somewhat overwhelming in the beginning. I also know that Oscar is pretty shy initially places like that, and that this would be a major stretch for him. We went anyway.

We walked in. Bam! I could see him retreat inside himself, as he quickly became glued to my side. His familiar wide eyed observant face appeared. I could tell he was panicking inside. I leaned down and told him everything was going to be alright and that I would be right here with him the whole time. He looked at me sternly and through clenched teeth said, "I want to go home." I told him calmly that we would give this a try for 10 minutes, and after that if he wanted to leave we could.

While we looked around for a somewhat less child dense place to play, Angus tried out a few different trikes and scooters but never wandered too far from us. The kiddie basketball hoop seemed clear, so we bolted over there. I picked up a ball and started shooting some hoops. Oscar began to loosen up a bit, picked up a ball and shot some hoops too. Angus joined us in our shooting fun, and pretty soon we were having a great time together playing amidst the noisy chaos of the child filled church gym. A couple of other boys joined our game for a time too, and my boys adjusted to it and kept on playing.

When the boys got tired of basketball, the three of us decided to play with some giant mega blocks. Some of which were nearly the size of Angus' legs. It was just us at first, and we were having a ball building up a block cave so that one of the boys could crawl in it. Once inside we would cover their whole body in blocks. Then they would erupt up out of the cave, making sure every last block of the cave was kicked down. This continued on with just the three of us for a while. Then pretty soon a few more kids joined in, then a few more, and pretty soon about 10 other kids had joined in our cave building game. All the while we were in the thick of it making sure that each newcomer to our game had a turn to bust out of a block cave.

When it was time to clean up and go, I was surprised and very pleased that my children were really sad to leave. They nearly fought me to the door.

I am glad that we pushed through the initial shell shock of the crowded gym. It was a success for Oscar and Angus, and I felt really happy that I was able to be right there with them to help it be a success. I was also reminded at how attractive fun is. When people seeing us enjoying ourselves and having a genuinely good time they want to join in too. Instead of being too nervous or afraid to try something, focus on something you want to do and do it! Have fun with it and pretty soon others might want to join in the fun you created too. Most likely you will forget that you were nervous or afraid at all. I hope that is something I can contiue to help Oscar and Angus learn.

The Joy of Gift Giving

My boys spent the majority of the morning piling my bed high with all the pillows in our home. Then they took all their "pets" (stuffed animals) and placed them in their fort with them. They were even so kind as to put the tiny pet animals in little sleeping bags (my socks).

Then they found and empty shoe box. Now they are taking turns filling the box with toys and trinkets and giving gifts to one another. There is pure excitement on their faces as they pull the familiar toys from the tissue paper. I love listening to their exclamations, "Oh I really wanted this!" or "I have always wanted one of these!". A couple gift exchanges ago, they are on about the 6th one now, Oscar pulled out a pair of underwear that was so gingerly placed there by his brother. Angus was hysterical. They both laughed a guttural laugh as Oscar then sling- shotted the undies across my bedroom. Kid laughter is some of the best kind of music around.

Angus' underwear gift reminded my of some of my gift giving days from yester year. I know one year I took a spoon half full of cookie dough, I had licked the other have of it off,  and put it in a box. I wrapped the box in Christmas paper, addressed it to Julia and put it under the tree. I know there was something else in there too. Julia do you remember what it was? Underwear? A dirty Sock? A booger encrusted tissue? Anyhow, I can still remember the pure elation I felt as she opened my trick gift. The look of confused disappointment on her face sent me into a tizzy of triumphant laughter. Horrible, right?

It was awesome...for me at least. I am pretty sure she would have liked something other than a sucked on spoon with dried up cookie dough on it for Christmas.

Oh the joys of gift giving.

Snapshots

These boys love to dress up as super heroes

and play legos and trains,





 help their daddy make awesome looking pancakes,

 and pee on rocks instead of in toilets.



Smells Like Roses.

Angus loves to ask me to tell stories about us all when we were younger. He especially likes me to tell funny stories about us while I push him on our front tire swing. The most recent story I told the boys was about how I used to play fart tricks on my sister Julia when we were younger.

So a few nights ago as I was giving Oscar kisses and tucking him in his bed he said, “Mom could you put your head by my bum for a second?” Playing along, I placed my head near his little behind. At the exact moment my head reached his bum, he ripped a huge one! All four of us cracked up, there was no other option but to. His timing was impeccable, and it was hilarious.


Wait. Back up. Have I not shared my glorious fart tricks of yester-year before? Well, this will be a treat!

When Julia was about six and I was about eight years old we shared a room. Her bed was along one wall, and mine along another. As we were lying in bed just about to drift off to sleep I would say excitedly, "Julia, oh my gosh. You have got to come and smell this. I farted and it smells like ROSES in my bed! I don't know why or how, but seriously my farts smell like the sweetest roses ever!"

And she would, like the loyal and gullible little sis that she was, climb out of her warm bed and step lightly over to mine. Just as she would lean her head in to smell the sweet fragrance of the rose promised to her, I would fling the covers open releasing the putrid odor of five or six bottled up farts.

My farts. Trick farts. Stinky farts.

She would shriek in disgusted disbelief and scurry back to her bed. I would laugh uncontrollably at the success of my flatulent farce.

I was a very good older sister. I did my best to torment her.

The best part about this whole toot scheme was that it wasn’t just a one time gig. It went on night after night. Sometimes I would even get her to come and “smell the roses” twice in the same night! I felt pretty proud of myself on those evenings. Of course, she would protest saying she did not believe me. That she wasn’t going to fall for that trick anymore. But I persisted, and she kept coming over to get a whiff of my rosy smelling SBD’s (silent but deadlies).

Nothing could get me to bust up laughing more than the high pitched squeal of a tormented Julia. I know, I know. I was so mean. But don’t worry, after a while she wised up and realized that my farts always smelled gross. I don’t think she experienced any brain damage from the extreme gas inhalation either. And she still likes me despite my antics. Love you Julia, my dear friend, my dear sister, my dear fart sniffer.

Now we are continuing the fun of fart tricks with our boys, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 
However sweet rose smelling farts might be nice once in a while

Pictures From August.

These pictures of the boys were taken back at the very end of August. We spent the morning catching frogs in the back yard. The afternoon was spent with Oscar's preschool class at a park. Oscar and Angus sure love to be silly and make crazy faces at the camera. So it is no wonder I got a cross-eyed picture and a tongue sticking out picture as we picnicked at the park before class. I am lucky to spend my days with these two. They really are some of my most favorite people to be with.

 

 

Friday Blabble.

A few things;

• My boys are mad about Lego's. All three of them. It is a freestyle Lego party nearly every day around our home. They come up with some cool creative creations. Here is one Oscar constructed a while back.

• There are so many flies in our house recently. So Reece and I have become a fly fighting duo. I stealthily try to swat at them with a damp dish rag. And when I actually do make a kill and the fly drops to the ground, Reece is right there to gobble it up. I get the sport and satisfaction of hunting down the dirty bug, and Reece comes in and cleans up the mess for me. I know I sound heartless, but come on. I am talking about annoying disgusting flies here, not hummingbirds!

• I was so relieved to hear a faint chorus of crickets tonight on my evening walk with Reece. They provide such a comforting sound for me. The last couple of evenings have been so wet and cold I could scarcely hear them at all. I am already missing the warmth of the summer evenings and the loud choir of crickets. Oh how bittersweet the changing of the seasons can be. Unless of course we are saying goodbye to winter. I am rarely sad about saying goodbye to winter.

• I had two spidey men running around my house today.  I love having them around. Thanks for the extra costume Aunt Rachael. Just me and my spider-boys, playing games, digging in the sand box and eating Hulk noodles for lunch. Hulk noodles = pasta tossed with pesto. They seem to like pesto better when I tell them that it is really squished up Hulk guts.

 

• Also! Yesterday Bryan lovingly informed me that occasionally I have typos and/or grammatical errors here on my blog. My reply to him was, “Yup. I am sure I do.” I don’t catch every writing error. If that bugs you, I am sorry. I am human, not a grammar machine. Nor do I have the time to triple and quadruple check my posts. I am lucky to just publish a post.



Good Monday, Good Brothers.

Pictures taken on Oscar first day of preschool.
I guess I need to blog about that too!

My ears were full of happy little boy noises today.

Those are perfect sounds.
I could hear them from nearly every point in our house, and in our yard.
Sweet music.
It is a beautiful thing to see and hear your children wholeheartedly and genuinely enjoy the company of one
another.

These brothers were busy;
Storming the castle together with dinosaurs, ogres, and bad guys,
Building and then dismembering monsters on the rug,
Creating traffic jams with cars on the front two steps,
Decorating our gnarly clinker bricks shiny little vehicles,
Laughing at sneaky surprise farts,
Racing across Grammies lawn while pelting each other with “cannons” (grapes picked from the vine that grows over the fence),
Filling their plastic garden cart full of water, and then pouring it repeatedly on each others head.
Somersaulting off of the ottoman in your pj's.
Good brothers.
Good friends.
Good day.

Critter Cube.

 A bundt pan +

 lots of little plastic creatures +

water +

a few hours in the freezer =

A really fun and cold activity for my boys

 on a hot summer afternoon.

And it was all their idea!
Pictures taken back in mid-August.

Swimming, swimmingly.

 

Pictures from our swimming lessons in early July with Ms. Kate.

She was awesome.

The pool is closing for the season. Hmph. We will miss it until next summer. Many of our mornings, and afternoons have been spent in the usual and expected quiet of "our pool." We love it there. Oscar and Angus have both learned so much in the water this summer. Lots of progress has been made. Progress is good.

Aside from my watchful eye, Oscar doesn't need me near him at the pool anymore. He swims! He swims, and it is a beautiful thing to watch. He straightens his legs, he points his toes, and he kicks. He loves his goggles, and his flippers. His arms are long and strong as they push the chlorinated water around. Angus throws the torpedo's, the weighted seahorses, the sting-rays. Oscar dives for them, and retrieves them with out help. He does "butt-jumps", cannon-balls, pencil-jumps, super-man dives, and starfish jumps etc., and then swims back to the side of the pool and climbs out to do it all again. He can swim the width of the pool without help, and we are working on breathing with our head to the side.We are proud of you Oscar! You are swimming so well.

Angus is also doing swimmingly (corny I know, but I couldn't resist). He jumps into me in the pool without abandon, mimicking all the above-mentioned jumps that his big brother does. He loves to swim around in the water while I steady him with my hands on his belly and his back. He is not afraid to put the back of his head in the water. He loves for me to throw him up into the air and then catch him as he splashes back down into the pool. Blowing bubbles is fun for him to do. You are doing so well Angus!

We have had SO much fun together swimming. It has been great. Now on to progress with bike riding!

O and A.

Angus loves for me to lay with him at nap time and at bedtime. He loves to snuggle right in next to me, always taking my hand and interlocking his fingers with mine. Sometimes he lays his soft and fuzzy head on top of our interlocked hands. He wiggles and squirms a lot before he falls asleep, if he falls asleep. But he always finds my hand to hold. There are times when he wraps his arm around me and gently pats and rubs my back. Then he squints his eyes tightly like he is trying to force the sleep to come. Sometimes, it works. He is sweet and I still love to smell his breath.  I mean it, too. When he opens his mouth wide enough, I like to sneak my nose in between his lips before they close. Just like I did when he was a baby, and he is certainly not a baby anymore. His breath smells lovely to me, even in the morning. Despite all his late night screaming, I can not go too long without him nearby. His arms are at the perfect 2 and a 1/2 year old plumpness, I love to squeeze them gently from his shoulders all the way down to his finger tips.

Oscar and I like to wink at each other. He is getting pretty good at it too. Rarely do both of his eyes close during winking anymore. He is becoming a proficient one-eyed-winker. Yesterday I was a parent helper at his pre-school. I got to be in the classroom with him the WHOLE time. It was awesome to be there and observe the goings on and interactions between the children, and the teacher. Any time our eyes would meet we would wink at each other. It made me feel pretty special. Not many things can lift your spirits like winking across the school-room with a cute blue-eyed boy. He still let's me kiss him on the cheek and on the lips. I am grateful for that. There have been increasingly more times that he non-chalantly wipes my kisses off of his cheek. But he is usually very discreet about it, so as to not crush my sensitive "mom" feelings. I always tell him that "mom kisses give you super powers, so don't wipe them off." I hope he remembers that, becuase I know there is truth in it.

Ogre Pinata. Finally!

Bryan (and Oscar) worked super hard on this Ogre pinata for Oscar's birthday. It was a lot of work, and took a lot of time. BUT it was really inexpensive to do, and they had so much fun creating it, painting it, and then destroying it. This may just become a birthday tradition...maybe.

I love this shot of Oscar the artist.
Such a typical concentrated face for him.

My family and Bryan's Mom joined us in our front yard for the pinata smashing, and ogre cake devouring. Then as dusk hit we lit off some fireworks in the street. It was one of those extremely pleasant, verging on magical summer evenings. Not many things in life beat a warm and soft sunny eve, having fun with people you love. We must do this again.

Before the boys went to bed that night, we did our annual birthday height measuring on the pantry door. 5 years old and just over 44 inches tall.

We love you our Oscar-bot.

Oscar Talks Colors

Julia was over at our house. Angus had just woken from a nap. The four of us (Me, Julia, Oscar, Angus) were hanging out with him on his bed, when some how we got on the topic of colors and why we like them.

Oscar said that black was his favorite color, and then gray. He likes them because they are creepy and scary. That kid loves monsters, bugs, and freaky creatures.

Here are his reasons why he likes some of the other colors.

Red: He says he super, SUPER likes the color red because it is the color of BLOOD.
Purple: At first he said he did not like purple any more. But! When I told him that purple was the color of bruises a grin glazed over his face and he chanted, "Oh yes, I like purple."
Pink: The color of a SUNBURN. Painful.
White: The color of fangs, sharp teeth and eyeballs.

We were hurrying to go catch frogs at a local pond, so we did not get to the rest of the colors.

However I do remember him say he loves green. Probably because it is the color of boogers, ooze, and some kinds of poop.

Having boys is incredibly amusing. Especially for a "lady" who finds all sorts of potty humor unbearably funny.

Poop. Pee Pee. Throw up. HA HA HA HA HA!