This has been one of the best days I have had in a while. What made today so great? I will tell you. I took a mental health day from work (which was very much needed and help remove my pity party hat), took my boys to daycare a little late, so we had a nice relaxing morning, rather then the fluster cluck (stolen from a co worker, our office word for "cluster fuck"), that we normally encounter. After losing my keys and being later for work than normal the day before, I can't express how nice it was to take my time to cuddle my little men before getting them dressed for the day. After taking the boys to daycare, I went home, took a shower, caught up with an old friend via Facebook chat, and went about running my errands for the day. Because I was feeling well rested for once, rather than so tired I can barely see straight, I picked up the boys from daycare and we went to the playground near our house for about two hours and my babies made a few new friends and played down in the creek behind the playground equipment. It really hit me what big boys my sons are growing up to be. After scaring the crap out of me, both babies were able to scale the curved ladders that go up to the slides and tunnels on the playground equipment. Normally we take the stairs, but apparently we're too big to take the nice, safe way now! After playing on the playground, as I mentioned we walked down to the creek and I told Alex and Daniel they could play in the creek if they took off their shoes and socks. Daniel dutifully sat down, stripped off his shoes and socks and handed them to me. Alex of course does not do things the simple way. He gave me his shit-eating grin and to my, to be honest not surprise, took his left shoe off and chucked it into the creek, and cracked up as I chased the shoe down the creek (there was just enough current to carry off a tiny, size 5 sneaker). After retrieving the shoe, I sat next to my boys as they kicked and splashed with their feet in the water. Alex, once again my trouble maker, figured out that he could walk to the top of the incline next to the creek bank and slide himself down into the water. He's my child that always has to take it a step further. Daniel was sitting at my side, leaning on me at this point. As the cute little shorts (my favorite pair of course), were slowly turning from a dark blue denim to a dark, muddy, wet mess, Daniel decided it would be a good idea to join in. I allowed this to continue because I'm a sucker for their cute little laughter (except when they're in the process of flooding my bathroom) and shorts can be washed. I eventually was able to pull them away from the water and back to the playground. After about thirty seconds Daniel told me he wanted to go to the car. After loading them up, we decided to go down the street to get some ice cream at this farm that makes their own ice cream and has a petting zoo with farm animals and a wooden playground for kids. On a side note I want to put it out there, I normally do not let my kids have a lot of junk food, especially not before dinner. I was feeling generous, well rested, and happy tonight I suppose.
At the ice cream shop we ordered our food and once again Daniel was sitting quietly in a chair waiting for his ice cream. Also once again, Alex was running around like the crazy child he is. The teenager behind the counter commented on how cute they were. I may not have sounded as funny as I intended because she didn't laugh when I said "you don't have to take them home". I meant it as a joke of course, because I do love my little boys and I may be biased, but I think they are the most amazing children ever born. Yes I am one of those mother's, My children's shit doesn't stink (actually it does quite a bit), everything they do is amazing and wonderful, except when they are in full on destruction mode. I call that being a mom. Yes, I can still see the frustrating things they do, as all children do, like when Alex got out of the bathtub last night and hung his hose over my pillow and urinated on it, or when Daniel took his pants off and defecated in the ball pit, or when Alex threw pork fried rice all over the kitchen and I busted ass in it (ahh the good times!), or certainly not last or least the other night when Alex locked himself and my keys in the car, but for the most part my babies do no wrong in my eyes. I think it's ok for a mother to be like this, as long as she doesn't brush over the areas that need improvement and lead to a lifetime of not taking responsibility for personal actions and self-destruction, because a child is raised to be so sensitive to the world around them, that they can't handle any criticism or hard times. Hard times are part of life and it is a parent's job to equip their children for these times. Ok I'll get off my soap box now and get back to my story. As for the teenager, she shall see one day. In this area, probably sooner rather than later, although I would hope better for her.
Anyway, after we got our ice cream and sat outside on the playground and ate it, we headed over to the animals to say hi before leaving. We started at the miniature horses, or as Daniel calls them "the neigh neighs", and I taught them how to hold their hands out flat to feed the horses grass. On a side note, the horses kind of reminded me of Alex and Daniel when their is food in front of them and only one eating utensil and plate is present. By this I mean that the horses were trying to knock each other out of the way to get the handful of grass. I can't say for sure, but they may have picked this up from observing Alex and Daniel five minutes earlier, pushing each other out of the way to get a bite of ice cream off the spoon, as if we didn't have more then enough for three people. After discovering how much the "horseys", Alex's term for horses, liked the grass, he ran over to the baby cows and stuck a handful of grass into the feeding bins, and also picked the food out of the bins and was trying to feed the calves the way we did the horses. Very cute, but he jumped about ten feet in the air, as one of the calves started to lick him with it's tongue. He backed up a bit, and so the calf started to lick my arm, as I was petting him and was the closest thing to lick I suppose. Alex became immediately upset by this, and stepped in to save his mommy from being raped by a cow tongue. "NO, NO, NO, mommy, mommy, while waving his little arms at the calf". Glad to know I can count on him in a time of need! In the process of "saving mommy", the calf calmly flicked it's tail and licked Alex. This time Alex laughed, but said "ow". If you have never had the opportunity to be slobbered on by a cow, they have extremely rough tongues and this one was no exception. What did Alex do? "No bad moo cow!", then he mooed at the calf. So funny and cute.
After this we went to visit the goats and totally unprovoked Daniel says, "bad goat". They then saw a little bunny rabbit. One thing about my kids. They love rabbits and have repeatedly told me they want a rabbit. The watch Peter Rabbit at daycare, and so every rabbit they see is "Peter Rabbit". Seeing this rabbit immediately distracted them from the goats and they bent down and were saying "hi Peter Rabbit"! Over and over. My kids are so sweet and cute. I then announced that it was time to wash our hands and go home for dinner. This did not sit well. Let me tell you. Have you ever tried to wrench two, two year olds away from a petting zoo by yourself? It's an experience best avoided. After I finally got them away from the animals (after they went around and said good night and good bye to every animal there), we headed towards the car. We had to pass the building where they serve the ice cream on the way to the car. This induced another mini meltdown as I refused to take my kids inside for round two of ice cream. I finally was able to haul them to the car and we made our way home.
Once at home, I ran the bath water for them, as they said they wanted bath time before dinner. They have a new thing where they want to be in and out, and in and out, of the bath tub. Flooding the floor more with each rotation of in and out. Due to this behavior a new rule was created. If you get out once you get a reminder to say in or else, and if you get out again your done, bath time is over. They have a hard time with this and the past two nights have been spent with them being removed from the tub early and pitching a fit over being taken out of the tub. I was able to pretty quickly squash tonight's tantrum because I had soup on the stove. I got a huge family sized can thinking there would be leftovers for my lunch tomorrow. Did that happen? Nope. Did I even eat any of it? Nope again. My two babies ate an entire huge can of soup, all by themselves, every last noodle, and every bite of chicken. Another reminder of how big they are getting. These are my babies that were 4 lbs. and some change when they were born, and wouldn't gain weight at first because they refused to eat and just wanted to sleep all the time. I seem to be getting more and more reminders on a daily basis of how quickly my sons are going to grow up.
After dinner, I got them cleaned up and down from their booster chairs, forgetting the screen door was open. They immediately ran out of the door and down the back deck steps. Not normally a big deal, but I happened to be walking around in a big t shirt, wearing no pants. Thanks to a new found ability to think on my feet, and not be forced to streak through my back yard with no pants on, I grabbed the container of bubbles and bribed them back on the deck with bubbles. This worked for about five minutes and they tried to take off again. Finally forced to chase them down pantless, (thankfully they didn't make it out of my yard), they were absolutely furious when I brought them inside and locked the door. Glass door included. See my sons have this solution to the issue of screens in doors. When a screen is blocking the exit, just tear the screen out. My front door had a screen door as well as the main door. Notice I said had, not has. It was a victim of tornados Alex and Daniel. Hurricanes Alex and Daniel if there happens to be water involved. Why let a flimsy piece of screen block the entrance to the world if you want to escape is the take my kids seem to have on screen doors. At this point I wrangled Alex to the bathroom to brush his teeth. I then went to search for Daniel, who was hidden in the bookcase cabinet in his room. I smelled something before I saw it. No, not poop in case you were thinking this is another poop story. Not poop, but white nail polish spilled all over the inside of the cabinet, and my son covered in nail polish. I swear I got a buzz from the smell the second I opened the cabinet door. Nail polish stinks normally and has a strong smell. It's even more powerful when it's quite literally poured out of the bottle. At that, I decided that we had a really good day, and it was time to quit before I got any further behind. I picked Daniel up and stuck him in bed, despite the protests from him. I then got Alex and resisted the cries of "noooooooo, mommy's bed", and put him in his bed. I then decided to sit down and write.
The end of this story may seem a little stressful, but I still consider it a pretty awesome day, as I got to spend extra time with my boys and get things accomplished. I think the being off work thing makes it impossible to not have a good day. I have been scheming all day how I could possibly afford to stay home with my boys and be a stay at home mommy for the most part, and send Alex and Daniel to daycare maybe twice a week so I could get things accomplished. I could defiantly have days like this every day. Alex and Daniel are growing up way too fast to be away from them every day, all day. Do I know that it is totally impractical to think this way? Why yes, but a girl can dream right? Sigh. Oh well, maybe eventually. Read my blog and make it famous, (as if it were that good), and maybe I can. Well off to the shower and bed for this girl!
Over and Out
Erica
At the ice cream shop we ordered our food and once again Daniel was sitting quietly in a chair waiting for his ice cream. Also once again, Alex was running around like the crazy child he is. The teenager behind the counter commented on how cute they were. I may not have sounded as funny as I intended because she didn't laugh when I said "you don't have to take them home". I meant it as a joke of course, because I do love my little boys and I may be biased, but I think they are the most amazing children ever born. Yes I am one of those mother's, My children's shit doesn't stink (actually it does quite a bit), everything they do is amazing and wonderful, except when they are in full on destruction mode. I call that being a mom. Yes, I can still see the frustrating things they do, as all children do, like when Alex got out of the bathtub last night and hung his hose over my pillow and urinated on it, or when Daniel took his pants off and defecated in the ball pit, or when Alex threw pork fried rice all over the kitchen and I busted ass in it (ahh the good times!), or certainly not last or least the other night when Alex locked himself and my keys in the car, but for the most part my babies do no wrong in my eyes. I think it's ok for a mother to be like this, as long as she doesn't brush over the areas that need improvement and lead to a lifetime of not taking responsibility for personal actions and self-destruction, because a child is raised to be so sensitive to the world around them, that they can't handle any criticism or hard times. Hard times are part of life and it is a parent's job to equip their children for these times. Ok I'll get off my soap box now and get back to my story. As for the teenager, she shall see one day. In this area, probably sooner rather than later, although I would hope better for her.
Anyway, after we got our ice cream and sat outside on the playground and ate it, we headed over to the animals to say hi before leaving. We started at the miniature horses, or as Daniel calls them "the neigh neighs", and I taught them how to hold their hands out flat to feed the horses grass. On a side note, the horses kind of reminded me of Alex and Daniel when their is food in front of them and only one eating utensil and plate is present. By this I mean that the horses were trying to knock each other out of the way to get the handful of grass. I can't say for sure, but they may have picked this up from observing Alex and Daniel five minutes earlier, pushing each other out of the way to get a bite of ice cream off the spoon, as if we didn't have more then enough for three people. After discovering how much the "horseys", Alex's term for horses, liked the grass, he ran over to the baby cows and stuck a handful of grass into the feeding bins, and also picked the food out of the bins and was trying to feed the calves the way we did the horses. Very cute, but he jumped about ten feet in the air, as one of the calves started to lick him with it's tongue. He backed up a bit, and so the calf started to lick my arm, as I was petting him and was the closest thing to lick I suppose. Alex became immediately upset by this, and stepped in to save his mommy from being raped by a cow tongue. "NO, NO, NO, mommy, mommy, while waving his little arms at the calf". Glad to know I can count on him in a time of need! In the process of "saving mommy", the calf calmly flicked it's tail and licked Alex. This time Alex laughed, but said "ow". If you have never had the opportunity to be slobbered on by a cow, they have extremely rough tongues and this one was no exception. What did Alex do? "No bad moo cow!", then he mooed at the calf. So funny and cute.
After this we went to visit the goats and totally unprovoked Daniel says, "bad goat". They then saw a little bunny rabbit. One thing about my kids. They love rabbits and have repeatedly told me they want a rabbit. The watch Peter Rabbit at daycare, and so every rabbit they see is "Peter Rabbit". Seeing this rabbit immediately distracted them from the goats and they bent down and were saying "hi Peter Rabbit"! Over and over. My kids are so sweet and cute. I then announced that it was time to wash our hands and go home for dinner. This did not sit well. Let me tell you. Have you ever tried to wrench two, two year olds away from a petting zoo by yourself? It's an experience best avoided. After I finally got them away from the animals (after they went around and said good night and good bye to every animal there), we headed towards the car. We had to pass the building where they serve the ice cream on the way to the car. This induced another mini meltdown as I refused to take my kids inside for round two of ice cream. I finally was able to haul them to the car and we made our way home.
Once at home, I ran the bath water for them, as they said they wanted bath time before dinner. They have a new thing where they want to be in and out, and in and out, of the bath tub. Flooding the floor more with each rotation of in and out. Due to this behavior a new rule was created. If you get out once you get a reminder to say in or else, and if you get out again your done, bath time is over. They have a hard time with this and the past two nights have been spent with them being removed from the tub early and pitching a fit over being taken out of the tub. I was able to pretty quickly squash tonight's tantrum because I had soup on the stove. I got a huge family sized can thinking there would be leftovers for my lunch tomorrow. Did that happen? Nope. Did I even eat any of it? Nope again. My two babies ate an entire huge can of soup, all by themselves, every last noodle, and every bite of chicken. Another reminder of how big they are getting. These are my babies that were 4 lbs. and some change when they were born, and wouldn't gain weight at first because they refused to eat and just wanted to sleep all the time. I seem to be getting more and more reminders on a daily basis of how quickly my sons are going to grow up.
After dinner, I got them cleaned up and down from their booster chairs, forgetting the screen door was open. They immediately ran out of the door and down the back deck steps. Not normally a big deal, but I happened to be walking around in a big t shirt, wearing no pants. Thanks to a new found ability to think on my feet, and not be forced to streak through my back yard with no pants on, I grabbed the container of bubbles and bribed them back on the deck with bubbles. This worked for about five minutes and they tried to take off again. Finally forced to chase them down pantless, (thankfully they didn't make it out of my yard), they were absolutely furious when I brought them inside and locked the door. Glass door included. See my sons have this solution to the issue of screens in doors. When a screen is blocking the exit, just tear the screen out. My front door had a screen door as well as the main door. Notice I said had, not has. It was a victim of tornados Alex and Daniel. Hurricanes Alex and Daniel if there happens to be water involved. Why let a flimsy piece of screen block the entrance to the world if you want to escape is the take my kids seem to have on screen doors. At this point I wrangled Alex to the bathroom to brush his teeth. I then went to search for Daniel, who was hidden in the bookcase cabinet in his room. I smelled something before I saw it. No, not poop in case you were thinking this is another poop story. Not poop, but white nail polish spilled all over the inside of the cabinet, and my son covered in nail polish. I swear I got a buzz from the smell the second I opened the cabinet door. Nail polish stinks normally and has a strong smell. It's even more powerful when it's quite literally poured out of the bottle. At that, I decided that we had a really good day, and it was time to quit before I got any further behind. I picked Daniel up and stuck him in bed, despite the protests from him. I then got Alex and resisted the cries of "noooooooo, mommy's bed", and put him in his bed. I then decided to sit down and write.
The end of this story may seem a little stressful, but I still consider it a pretty awesome day, as I got to spend extra time with my boys and get things accomplished. I think the being off work thing makes it impossible to not have a good day. I have been scheming all day how I could possibly afford to stay home with my boys and be a stay at home mommy for the most part, and send Alex and Daniel to daycare maybe twice a week so I could get things accomplished. I could defiantly have days like this every day. Alex and Daniel are growing up way too fast to be away from them every day, all day. Do I know that it is totally impractical to think this way? Why yes, but a girl can dream right? Sigh. Oh well, maybe eventually. Read my blog and make it famous, (as if it were that good), and maybe I can. Well off to the shower and bed for this girl!
Over and Out
Erica
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