temper tantrum

Beau and I came home from dropping off Reed and Blue at school. We actually didn't come directly home, I did stop at a few places first just to torture myself because Beau was so pleasant and charming at each stop (not really). By the time we got home he was so tired. I carried him in and he was crying because he wanted me to put him down then he was crying because he wanted me to hold him. So as he if flailing around and crying I take off his shoes and socks. When I did this he stops crying and looks at me and says "ahhhh" then smiles his goofy proud grin. I smile back thinking he was through with his tantrum. The second I smiled he realized that he wasn't done and went back to flailing and crying. It was hilarious! He must be a creature of habit because he always says "ahhh" every time we take off his shoes, even a temper tantrum couldn't stop him from his ritual.

hans and leia

Colby had a work Halloween party on Friday night. He went as Hans Solo and I as Princess Leia, very fitting seeing as our boys were Star Wars characters also.
Highlights of the evening:
1. The place was decked out in Halloween decor. My boys were thrilled. The house was set up on a hill and the walkway was lined with pumpkins on both sides. Beau loved this because he could give each pumpkin a little push and watch it roll down the hill. I tried to keep up with him but every time I was halfway up with a rescued pumpkin, another was rolling past me.
2. Reed enjoyed the hay ride. The ride took us past a little ranch house and Reed was so excited because it looked like Cy and Dakota's house except this house was bigger and a different color (those were his exact words). With those differences, I'm not sure why he thought it looked like Cy and Dakota's except for maybe the horses walking around it.
3. They gave prizes to all the kids who had on costumes and not just dinky prizes. Blue scored! He comes running up to me with a package the size of him. In it was three squirt guns and one mega blaster. I don't know how he finagled such a prize but he was pleased with himself.
Low lights:
Colby and I did NOT dress up as Hans Solo and Princess Leia but you could imagine.

the force was with me

Tonight we went to the Halloween carnival at Reed's school. Sounds like fun, right?...until I tell you that Colby was out of town so I put costumes on the kids with just a little bit of frustration- Blue was crying because I had to wake him up and we all know that is not easy; and if you look close enough in the picture you can see that I underestimated Beau's size when purchasing his costume and we had to improvise. Then once we got to the carnival I had to hold Beau the entire time to keep him from running in the opposite direction. Not only did I hold Beau but I also held Reed's and Blue's light sabers while they played games and got their face painted. Luckily we arrived right when it started and we didn't have to wait in any lines as I noticed a lot of other people were having to do as we were leaving. In forty minutes we had played all the games, got their faces painted, listened to a Halloween story, and picked out prizes. It definitely was not as bad as I was expecting. A night spent in the company of Anikan, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader, I must have had the force with me.

lickety-split

This time of year brings dry skin and chapped lips. Both of which Blue gets worse than most kids. Today we were at Reed's taekwondo class and Blue told me that his lips were hurting. I didn't have any chapstick handy so I told him I would put some on when we got home and not to lick his lips. He didn't skip a beat and said, "I didn't, Beau did." While Beau does give slobbery kisses, I don't think this is what Blue meant. He wasn't even in trouble but Blue is so used to hearing me tell him not to do certain things that his first impulse is to blame someone else.

broken promises

My latest attempt to pass the time between drop offs and pick ups is refinishing furniture- well, sanding, painting, then distressing. I have been sanding by hand for the past few weeks which is very time consuming. Colby kept telling me he had a palm sander that I could use but it was in our storage unit. So, on a regular basis I would ask him to get it for me since he has the only key to our unit. Returning home without a palm sander, he would always reply, "I forgot, sorry." Broken promise after broken promise. Today I finally stopped playing the martyr and bought my very own power tool. Yes, a palm sander. Talk about empowering! I love it! I spent an hour and a half today on my latest project. What I accomplished in that time would have taken me a couple of days to do. I have a renewed motivation- it is too bad they don't make power tools to help you clean your house.

are you gonna eat that

My boys go through these eating spurts like most children, I assume. Today was the start of one of Blue's. This morning he wakes up at 6:00 asking for breakfast. I tell him to give me five minutes. At 6:45 I finally get up and ask him what he wants. He says, "What are my awshuns?" Awshuns in rubberish (Blue's language) means options (Giving options is a favorite among Reed and Blue). I ramble off a few names of cereal boxes in our pantry. "And what else?" I give a few more awshuns. He finally decides on a yogurt. He promptly eats this and asks if he can have a snack. At 7:00 in the morning, are you kidding?! I told him he needed to eat something else for breakfast. He decided on a bowl of cereal. By the time I took him to school around 8:45 he was telling me he was hungry again, this time asking for a corndog. Colby was actually in the car with me when this was going on and offered Blue McDonalds instead. En route to preschool Blue finished a little over three quarters of his sausage mcgriddle.

When I picked Blue up from preschool at 12:00, he asked me where his cake was. What cake? He told me, "You know, the one I was eating before." Oh, the sausage mcgriddle from three hours ago. I had already thrown it out. Imagine his disappointment when I told him I threw it out. Blue had intended on polishing it off when he got back in the car from preschool. Poor kid, he was probably daydreaming about the sausage mcgriddle during preschool.

camo in a concrete jungle

Chea and Wayne and girls came up a couple of weeks ago to visit. My boys love it when Chea's girls come to visit. Here is an example: The morning our visitors were to arrive Colby and Reed went bear hunting. Not more than two hours after leaving the house, the boys were back and I asked why they were home so early. Reed did not want to miss Taryn when she got to our house.
Not only do I like to take advantage of the babysitting from my nieces, I also like to take advantage of Chea's skills whenever she is around...so with just a few minutes notice we decided to do a family photo shoot. What we would possibly wear to give a cohesive look but was already in our closets? Camouflage, of course. I called Colby at work and told him to meet us downtown for a family picture. His response- Didn't we just do a family picture? Boy, was he excited. Thankfully he showed up anyway. Chea worked her magic and got some great shots. Thanks Chea!