Draining....

(After saving Jeff from a full day of watching all three kids... with Ivey who decided to resist any attempt Jeff made to get her to take a bottle... )

Jeff decided to go out and cut grass. Asa ran after him. Let's flash back to earlier in the season when Jeff tried to crank up his lawn mower only to realize that his battery was dead. Now, Jeff went out with Asa to cut some grass and Asa jumped up on the mower. "I get out here EVERY MORNING and turn your key and pretend to drive your lawn mower!"

Guess Jeff needs to keep his key in another location.

Animal Control

I know it goes without saying, but our boys are quite different. They think differently, they play differently, they have different likes and dislikes. Lately, we have noticed that Asa is constantly asking for us to play with him. Sometimes, we do. But a lot of times adult life gets in the way... or we are just fed up with being told that we are playing with Legos the wrong way. Jeff attributed his requests with a lack of attention from us... but this weekend he decided that Asa's increase in needy-ness is attributed more to his brother's lack of interest than ours. Most of the time, Addison doesn't like to play with Asa. Asa will want to play with Legos or play house or make art projects or play outside... Addison isn't interested. Addison is interested in, well, the number one thing he is interested is electronics- t.v., video games, computer games. We keep a reign on his t.v. and game allowance, which leaves him playing with his army men or running around the house, hiding behind doors, shooting us with nerf guns. Or moping around looking bored. If Asa doesn't want to play Battleship, army, checkers or chess... then Addison would rather sit in a chair by himself than play Asa's games.

While I was at a photo shoot, Jeff worked to get the two playing together. He asked them if they wanted to take turns playing what the other wanted to play. Asa jumped at the idea. No dice. Addison said he would rather just not play. Finally, after a lot of coercing on Jeff's part, they agreed that Asa would play Battleship with Addison and then Addison would play 'house' aka 'kitty' with Asa (basically just any pretend play that allows him to be the kitty in a scenario).

The game of battleship was a frustrating one for Addison, who pays very close attention, marking each of his selections with a peg. Asa, who has a hard time paying attention to games like this... especially ones that he really has no interest in in the first place, kept forgetting to mark Addison's selection, or else he would misread the grids. When I came home from my photo session, Addison's ships were spread out across the board, untouched by red pegs. Asa's board was a different story. He had grouped all of his ships into the lower left corner of the board... and dropped hints to Addison as to their whereabouts. Needless to say, it was like shooting fish in a barrell.

After the game, Addison slumped to go play 'kitty'. After a while, I heard Asa whining, "I don't like the way you play kitty!" I looked in and saw Asa with a blue fuzzy scarf tied around his neck for a leash (because every kitty has a leash) and Addison had in his hand a Lego creation that looked something like the Y of a slingshot. Closer investigation revealed that Addison had made a Lego taser (not knowing that this invention had a name, he called it the electric shocker thing). Addison was using said taser on the unarmed kitty, who was lying helpless on the floor. Sporadically, Addison would have to wait for it to recharge, stating that the longer it charges the more shock the kitty would get.... leading to Asa's whines about the injustice and lack of quality in the 'play' that he was getting from Addison.

The Things I Can Do

Over the past week, Ivey has been working hard! I guess it's the new tooth that has motivated her to be a big girl. A few days ago she started getting up on her knees. She's working those abs and prepping for a future take off.

As if that weren't enough, she also started sitting up this week! She can hold herself quite well!

Two of the reasons I can't vacuum...

For the past two weeks, if not more, Asa has been working on a train track masterpiece which takes up the majority of the floor in his room. He has created the above-ground system from his Geotracks, large Legos and TinkerToys. It is so impressive that it has won me over and has survived room cleanings. It's like the Wilbur of toy messes... with a little Charolette, uh, Asa, providing the appropriate pull on the heartstrings in order to save it from its demise over and over. Okay, so that was a little dramatic, and unlike Wilbur, this track is going to have to go at some point.

\

In the same respect, Addison has been constructing an elaborate army on the rug in the upstairs foyer. This has been going on for 6 weeks or more (ever since Jeff's coworker gave him 2 huge boxes of leftover figurines from when his buddy closed his Comic Book Shop). Every two weeks or so I have him clean it all up so I can vacuum... and then that afternoon the troops are redeployed. The regular army men have had to call on backup from the random nerdy comic book shop guys and the Star Wars cast. Just like his brother, Addison seems to enjoy the setup more than the actual "play".

Mom may be a bit eggcentric

So, today, frazzled after 2 days of rain and Jeff being out of town, I decided it would be a good idea to teach the boys how to do pysanky. I pulled out containers of materials that they didn't even know existed and learned that mommy did crafts that they had no idea about... that involved FIRE! I taught them the general idea, but it was so hard for them to grasp the fact that the dyes must be done in order of light to dark, and there is no "going back". They would assure me that they did not want yellow only because they were focusing on the part that they wanted to work on RIGHT THEN. In pysanky, you have to think ahead and work in pieces... first, put wax on the areas to be kept white, then dye it a light color, put wax on the places to be kept that color and dye it again, and so on... They did better than I expected! Drawing on an egg with a tiny kistka of wax that you heat over a candle isn't easy even for adults.

Practice, practice, practice

1st Tooth!

Ivey cut her first tooth today! She's been very drooly and gnawing on everything in sight, but no really fussy. I knew she was close, but now you can feel it! Hooray for the big girl!

TGIF? Not really.

If I had known what my weekend would be like, I would have appreciated the week more. I found out yesterday that Jeff was going out of town today... to be gone until Sunday. My initial thought is always to head for the hills and go hang out with friends and parents, but t-ball pictures right in the middle of Saturday afternoon makes that pretty much impossible. So, I will be home on a very very rainy 3 day weekend (did I mention today was a teacher work day?).

The day was dragging on, we had exhausted our tolerance for the Imagination Movers, and the rain slowed to a medium drizzle. It's over 50 degrees out there, so I figured there was no real harm in sending the cooped up boys out for a good puddle-jump. I think it did us all a world of good!

Ivey finds her spaztic brother quite amusing...

To be read in the voice of the Rocky and Bullwinkle narrator: "This is a Stick Up" or "A Load of Bull"

We ate at our regular BBQ joint for dinner tonight. Kids eat free Monday through Wednesday, so that's where we usually end up after a long Tuesday of school, violin, t-ball, and handbells. Tonight, we met the Hannahs (Kaeden's et al.) and the Ordons. The adults talked and the kids talked loudly and made a mess with the ketchup. At one point, Addison looked up at the t.v., which was showing "Cops" on mute.

"Hey! That guy is stuck to the wall!" He yelled.

We looked up to see a man spread out with his hands up on the wall, being frisked.

"He's stuck to the wall and that police man is trying to help him get unstuck!"

~~

Earlier today, Asa was working on his Heart House and was singing the B.I.B.L.E.. The stopped and ran into the living room to tell me that "bible" is a compound word. I explained that it wasn't but he insisted.

"Bull is a word"!

"Yes, but "bi" isn't" I replied.

"umm... yes it is! When you BUY something!"

I guess maybe he should be singing the B.U.Y.B.U.L.L..

5 Months Old!

This past weekend, Ivey turned 5 months old! I can't believe we are well on our way to crawling and sitting up and eating food with a spoon. Everyone says it and it's so true- it goes by too fast.

Open for Business

Last week, we had to buy a new hot water heater. It seems that if you buy a hot water heater, you get a huge fabulous cardboard box for FREE! Asa claimed this box and instantly hatched a plan to open a business in it. He decorated it with hearts, wrote Asa's Heart House on top, and went to work for them next week making as many paper hearts as he could. He hired Addison for temporary help, who traded 3 hours of helping make hearts for 3 hours of playing army. There were big hearts, medium hearts, little hearts and skinny hearts, as well as various cards (which happen to already to addressed to and from people, so I think it limits his sales a little).

He had to wait until the snow melted off of the porch before he could paint his box (as his landlord did not allow painting in the house). Three days ago, he painted the inside various shades of Crayola Washable Paint and was ready to open his shop. Now, for the past three days we have had a little boy sitting in a box in the living room sporadically shouting "Open for Business!" I purchased a medium sized heart for the price of 5 pecans (shelled, of course). Jeff bought a small one for 4.

I remember roaming around my grandparents' house digging up weeds and plants and potting them into plastic containers and having a plant sale. I sold plants from my grandmother's yard in pots that I confiscated from her porch back to her. What a deal. I know Asa, like I, has grand plans of making big bucks off of his business.

I won't tell him that dreams of making it rich are no longer acceptable in our country. To make a large profit has been demonized. Perhaps I should explain to him that he needs to aspire to make just enough money to be live comfortably while giving a large portion of his money to his brother, who is sitting on the couch watching Scooby Doo... to make it fair and all. Maybe if Asa didn't have to pay such high business taxes he could hire more heart makers... ya think?

Letting him on to the recent shift would only do two things:

1. make Asa realize that aspiring to make it big isn't worth the negative views of others and higher tax burden and

2. make Addison realize that he can keep on sitting there with his personalized TiVo menu.

Instead, I will just continue on supporting the fresh hope for the American dream and hope that by the time my son is a successful Greeting Card manufacturer this wealth envy socialist ideology will come to an end long before he has to see it. Or, he could always move his Heart House to Ireland.

The Evolution of Birthdays

I have heard a few times today, "Happy Birthday! What are you going to do today?". Each time I gave the same answer... dentist appointment, grocery store, pick up the boys from school, go to violin practice, handbell practice, and then probably go to our usual "kids eat free on Tuesdays" BBQ place. Last night I got very little sleep because Ivey screamed like crazy. I thought she was hungry, no... I got her back to sleep a few times... and it wasn't until 7:00am that I realized the poor girl had pooped (which she NEVER does at night) and it was particularly acidic and gave her an instant horrible rash. In between my various domestic duties today will be a all out diaper rash assault including baking soda soaks, diaper changes on the hour, etc. I will be cleaning my house, which looks particularly rough after 2 days of being snowed in. (Speaking of the snow, I did not leave the house yesterday, which meant that my van was buried under a ton of snow. I mentioned to the boys that I needed to go out and get it off before we can leave for school and Asa informed me that he tried to do just that yesterday... with a shovel... a full sized shovel... an old heavy rusty one with a wooden handle. Luckily, he couldn't get all the way through the snow and only left two large scratches across the hood... it could have been much worse!)

In the old days, birthdays meant a nice dinner, a night out, maybe even a party. These days, parties are left for Thomas the Train cakes or Nemo napkins or a monkey piñata hanging from a tree. I would like to have a little break to celebrate, but it is just not the year for it. Instead, I will think ahead 25 years to a birthday where going to dinner alone with Jeff is commonplace and I beg my very busy children to come along and fill the table with 90 decibles of chatter. This birthday, I get 90 decibles without even asking... to top it off it comes with a baby to hold, a game of Transformer Chess to play, a yard full of snow, and a little boy who would love my help cutting a cardboard box with a butter knife.

Just Like Daddy... Foot in Mouth

Ivey has found her feet! She doesn't even try to get them until they are all exposed and then she is perfectly content working to grab the wiggly things! She also LOVES bath time. We took a video tonight or her kicking like crazy in the water. It's like she is the agitator in the center of the washing machine. I'll have to post it when I have the energy!

I am not quite sure how I'm going to manage this, but in the Spring, Addison will be playing tee-ball, Asa will be in Karate, they will both still be in violin, and Ivey will be... well... eating every few hours. I am hoping to be able to locate some sort of teleportation device before all of these activities commence.

Friends and Family

Ellen and I share a lot of things... we have similar recipes, similar tastes, similar child-rearing ideals, and similar roots. Although these connections are apparent in many ways, there is no better visual evidence of this than by the paintings that hang on our walls. You see, my grandmother and her grandmother were very much alike. The two of them enjoyed art, taking painting classes together. I remember walking through her grandparents' house at my bridal shower. I was shocked to see a painting, a still life, of a basket of fruit, tea kettle, and a picture of a cat. I was completely taken aback... this was the picture that my grandmother painted forever ago. The angle, perspective and style differed, but this was the same picture as the one that I have looked at since I was a baby, hanging on my grandparents' wall. Now, it hangs on my wall, as Ellen's hangs on the wall in her home.

Ivey and Anna wake up and look around their room at the same still life... and hear the same stories of their grandmothers who painted them. MamaNet's paintings are so very special to me, but so is the memories and connections that they remind me of every time I look at them.

Fun With Numbers

While driving the boys home from a trip to visit Anna and Bennett, Addison piped up and asked me, "Mom, what comes after a brock?"
"A what?" I asked.
"A brock. What comes after a brock?" he repeated.
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
"A BROCK. It's a number. What's after it?" He was getting aggravated.
"Addison, I have no earthly idea what comes after a brock because I have no idea what one is." I explained.
"Daddy says it's a number."
At this point, I decided to call Jeff and get to the bottom of this mystery.

After laying out the situation, Jeff erupted into laughter.

It seems that over a week ago, Addison was in one of his very talkative moods. He was asking tons of questions, and Jeff was getting exasperated. at the end of Addison's tirade of verbiage, he was inquiring about numbers. He asked, "What's bigger than hundreds?" Jeff answered with "thousands". Then, Addison wanted to know what was bigger than thousands. "Millions" Jeff answered. Addison wouldn't stop. "What's bigger than millions?" "Billions" Jeff replied. At this point, Jeff was done talking. "What's bigger than billions?" Addison continued. "Barack". Jeff didn't expect Addison to recall this conversation, nor did he expect the boy to believe him.

Now Addison wanted to know what comes after "a Barack".
A depression?

Addison's Video Game Reviews

Anyone who knows him knows that Addison. loves. to. talk. He especially loves to talk about Star Wars and video games. If you can get a video game ABOUT Star Wars, then hold on to your ears, you are in for a treat. I have tried to explain the the poor kid that Mommy is just not interested in Star Wars or video game dialogue. I cannot help him figure out the character's middle name who was in the background of some scene in episode III, nor can I sing the background music that was going on during a totally non-essential random scene. But, you know what? There are people out there who do talk about, ask and know such things. For them, I give them "Addison's Video Game Reviews".

A Mother's Night

I am up late tonight to finish up some sewing. It is very late and every busy little body is snug in bed. Jeff, as usual, has dozed off in the middle of a really good show and will probably remain there all night. I am in the dining room, fabric strewn on the backs of chairs and the soft glow of the machine. I am ironing straps and the smell reminds me of my grandmother's house. I have ironed many straps and this was the first time this memory came to mind. I remember her calling me to her sewing room to try on a freshly ironed dress, or shirt, or pair of pants. I keep ironing.

I am listening to the Grateful Dead, singing along to ripple. Then, it shuffles to Janis Joplin's version of Summertime. I realize that, although I am tired, I am enjoying this time. I think of my mother. Here I am in the middle of the night, all alone in a house full of sleeping children, sewing and listening to music. My feet are cold from standing on the hardwood floors of an old house, no subfloor, no insulation. Although I have no memory of it myself, I know for a fact that my mother played this exact role in this exact scene years ago, with Hal and I dreaming in our beds. This thought makes me smile. Then I notice the pin cushion. Her pin cushion. If it could, I bet it would enjoy nights like this as much as I do.

Stress Relief.

Jeff didn't come home from work today. In his place was a big ball of stress in a Jeff suit. Work had him all keyed up and nothing was able to make him relax. Although I had a lot to do once the kids went to bed, I sat on the couch beside him and watched some TV. As we watched some fairly entertaining and definitely mindless show, we heard the boys upstairs. They went to bed an hour ago, yet we heard them banging around and talking. At one point they went to get a cup of water from the bathroom. I was worried it was for some creative and/or sinister purpose, but Jeff assured me it was probably for consumption purposes only. Either he believed that or he really didn't want to get off the couch.

A while later, I heard little footsteps on the stairs. We paused the TV and asked who was there. As soon as he heard that the tones of our voices were safe, he sped up to a chipper sprint into the living room. He stood there with a big grin on his face. His zip-up one piece footy pajamas were stuffed full of blankets. He looked hilarious. Jeff and I lost it. We laughed until tears fell from our eyes and our sides literally hurt. He had stuffed two blankets into size 5T pajamas. Instead of being all in the front, he did an excellent job of distributing the bulk all around. He didn't look like a kid with a pillow under his shirt. He looked obese. He looked... hilarious.

Once we pulled it together, we made him do a turn so we could check out all angles of his handy-work and sent him back to bed.

Much needed comic relief.

It came at a good time since just a few hours earlier he got in serious trouble, complete with a spankin' from Daddy, for pushing his brother's head under the bathwater. No joke. I know I've said it before, but I don't know how boys survive to ever become men.

From an attempted drowning and major discipline session to an oomp-loompa kid with two blankets in his pj's in 2.5 hours. That's parenthood for ya.

Baby It's Cold Outside.

The weather has been just ridiculous. It was 19 degrees this morning. 19 degrees. Don't we live in Georgia? I am ready for Spring.

Needless to say, we've stayed indoors today. I didn't want to venture out to the grocery store or run errands. Instead, we just hung out at home and did our favorite things...

Asa grabbed his Thomas the Train carrier and put it on the table. He asked for the large tablet of paper and his markers. He sat forever, drawing every detail. I was unaware of exactly what he was drawing until he was finished. I was very impressed. My little artist. (He says he likes it when people call him that.) I taught him the term "still life".

Addison was able to play Nintendo today. He played his Star Wars Lego game and the Blast Works game that Hal gave him for Christmas. I allowed him to be lost in his video game world and he was very thankful. I bet he'll want it to be miserably cold more often.

Ivey and I played her favorite game of me looking down at her and touching her face with my hair. She kicked her legs and squealed, looking up at my head to tell me to do it again. Soon enough, she will just say "More, Mommy!" But, for now, she says it clear enough with her eyes and hyper little legs.