Boy will be boys?

Let's just say if you were to run into Sam today you would not say he was the cutest kid you had ever seen. As a matter of fact, you might immediately pass judgment on the person who let him out of the house looking the way he does. Let me explain.

Last weekend we decided to treat the kids to our first (and perhaps last) trip to the infamous Chuck E Cheese's. The boys were both so excited and could hardly contain themselves that morning as if they even knew what was to come. By the way they were acting one would think they had been there numerous times. How did they know of this Chuck E Cheese?...are all kids just born knowing? So, off we go packed up and ready for yet another day of family fun. The kids had been bugging me for a piece of gum all morning, so I broke down and gave each of them a piece when we got in the car. No big deal, both of them have chewed gum before and they each knew the rules...keep it in your mouth...no swallowing etc. Just about when we are getting on the highway headed toward Louisville, I look to the backseat and see Sam's gum imbedded in the front part of his hair. After I assess the situation and determine that the gum is not coming out on its own, we decide to pull into a hotel and ask them for scissors. The truth be told, I made Joel go in. And being the good husand he is, he gladly obliged. I can only imagine the look on the face of the person working in the hotel when Joel told them why we needed to borrow the scissors. I'm sure if they had children they understood. Joel not being trained as a hairstylist just cut the gum out with absolutly no regard to how the hair might look afterward. That would be reason number 1 as to why he looks so bad today.

And then there is reason 2. Even though they are boys, I try to dress them in cute clothes when they go out in public. So for today, I had picked out some adorable khacki firefighter overalls for Sam with a matching shirt to go underneath. I can't do anything at this point about the hair, so I have to work with what I got. Up until this point, both of the boys will usually wear what I pick out with no objection. That was not the case this morning. I am talking full out tantrum to the point he took the overalls off and refused to put them back on. Fine, I tell Joel just put some jeans on him. Joel did not pick out the jeans that I would have picked out, as a matter of fact they were a bit tight and also a bit short. But he had clothes on and we were running late so off we went.

Let me say I thought one of the "perks" of having boys was not having fights over hair and clothing. I have obviously proven that theory wrong.

The making of the Valentine's

So last weekend in my quest to be "supermom", I had the bright idea that as a family project we would make homemade valentines. Many of you will likely ask "why?" Which looking back in retrospect is the same question I now ask myself. Sure, we could have spent $2.99 on Dora valentines, but then we would have robbed ourselves of the opportunity to make memories, and boy was it memorable.

After spending a half hour in Michael's saying "don't touch, come here, the next time you do that" well you get the picture...we left on our mission with $17 worth of supplies. Did I mention that the Dora valentines were $2.99?

So in my mind I had envisioned this organized scene of the family sitting around the kitchen table making our valentines and making some great memories. That lasted less than five minutes. The first thing that Sam did was open the entire bag of 150 foam hearts and of course threw them everywhere. Joel was actually cutting out the valentines, and was deeply engrossed doing a mighty fine job. Jack was proceeding to eat the glitter glue as well as smear it on the kitchen table. After trying to regain control I began to see I was getting nowhere. They needed a break. So off we sent them to their rooms to "rest", while Joel and I finished the valentines. And I do have to say they turned out marvelous...with very little help from the kids.

I believe I was more excited than Jack for him to take the homemade valentines to school and also eager to see what kind of other original valentines he was going to receive...I was shocked to see there was not one homemade card but instead all your normal store bought valentines. The kids could have cared less about the time and thought that went into our homemade treasures, butwere most impressed instead with the candy that accompanied each one.

"Mom I've got tape in my nose"

"Mom I've got tape in my nose", Sam states nonchalantly from the backseat of the car. Honestly with as many crazy things that the boys have done it has to be something major to get a reaction. I did turn around and atleast look at his nose. It appeared a little red , so when we stopped to get gas I had Joel take a look (just a side-note that was my first mistake having Joel look for anything is a gurantee that it won't be found). "Nope, don't see anything"...and so we thought that was the end of that. A few minutes go by and Sam exclaims that he got it out of his nose...so we truly thought that was the end of that.

Fast forward to the next day as we are all sitting of the couch hanging out and Sam sneezes very forcefully. Well out came the wad of tape..and it was actually a pretty decent size piece of tape. He had not complained or uttered a comment except for the orginal statement of "Mom I've got tape in my nose."

He had gotten the tape off of mask that the boys had made at the Mardi Gras celebration we went to at church. They had a great time running around and pretending to be monsters. Needless to say, the next time and I am sure there will be a next time that I hear one of the boys say they have something in their nose..I suppose I will have to check it out for myself.

That story reminds me of the time our toilet became mysteriously stopped up. Joel had tried everything he knew to do and was unable to fix it. This went on for about a week and finally we broke down and called a plumber. I had remembered a few days before finding Jack who at the time was 2 standing inside the toilet but did not realize he had shoved a bottle of liquid amoxocillin up into the toilet. Unfortunately, that again was not the last time Jack and now Sam had tried to put items in the toilet.

My first entry

So enough is enough! I have no more excuses. The time has come. I have definitely done my children a disservice by not documenting all of the crazy things they have done. And boy have they done some crazy things! So why not start a blog ? Surely noone else but family will be remotley interested in our lives..but atleast I will have documented some of our most crazy times so that we can look back someday and laugh.


Here is a little background to catch everyone up...

Jack is 3 soon to be 4 and is very full of life. Right now his imagination is running wild, so he might be playing hide and seek or pretending to cook a gourmet meal. He is enrolled in a 2 day a week pre-school program at St. James and just absolutely loves it. He loves making arts and crafts...and he never forgets to make two of whatever..one for for his side-kick Sam.

Sam is Jack's 2 year old brother and he is really starting to embrace the terrible two's. Up until recently he was so sweet and gentle and a great listener...and then he turned into the maniac he is now. He attends a Mother's Day Out program where he gets lots of attention and snacks of course. One thing about Sam, he loves to eat...he is always good for a snack and is always waiting of his next meal.

And I'm the mom of these two crazy guys and I love it more than anything. I do work part-time, so they get some one on one time with their dad on the days when I work. Our life is hectic, crazy and very loud...but I wouldn’t have it any other way.