Little quirks

If Brandon doesn't get to talk on the phone to who ever I'm speaking to, he will scream, until his face turns purple.

Little green army men, no matter how strong Nathan believes they are, do not win the battle with the garbage disposal.

No matter how much Brandon loves Elmo, if the toy moves by itself and talks, he will scream, until his face turns purple.

My children do not understand what "wait one minute please" means.

My kids are stuck on loud 90% of the time.

Even though Nathan and Brandon love each other very much, they will fight like they are each others worst enemy.

Brandon has my dads laugh.

Nathan laughs like Brian.

Bath time is just as fun as a trip to an amusement park for Brandon.

My boys love everyone.

Kisses are wet and hugs are huge.

Nathan loves to make Brandon scream.

Nathan loves to scare me...seriously it doesn't take much, a simple "boo" will do the trick.

Popcorn is to be crammed into your mouth, not eaten one at a time.

"Yesterday, last night, tomorrow" according to Nathan, could actually mean months ago.

My boys have huge hearts, wild imaginations, big voices and sweet smiles. I wouldn't change a single thing about them.

A no melt down day

Maybe I shouldn't say that yet since the day isn't over, I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.
After Brian left for work this afternoon, I packed up the kids, my coupons, and my ever growing shopping list and headed for the grocery stores. Yes, that's right, I said stores. I hardly ever go grocery shopping with both boys by myself. I usually go "all my byself" (as Nathan says) after the boys are in bed and Brian is home from work. But today, we needed food and I just couldn't put it off until tonight. If Brandon doesn't have milk to drink, then no one is going to have a pleasant evening. So, off we went. Our first stop was Aldi's, a discount-no frills store that has great prices and pretty good produce. The boys charmed some candy out of a sweet lady. She totally fell in love with Nathan's blue eyes and Brandon's chunky cheeks. (Who doesn't?!) We finally made it out of there, no screaming, no fits, just some smiles. Thank goodness for sweet lady's with chocolate stashes in their purse's. I was starting to see the screams forming in Brandon's eyes. We get the car packed up, and headed over to Kroger's to finish out my list. I pull out a box of crackers from my huge bag and let Brandon munch on them while I played ISpy with Nathan as we looked for our groceries. To my surprise, we made it out of there pretty quick. Still no tears, no fits and no screaming! The reason why I normally don't go shopping with the boys is, Brandon screams at the top of his lungs if he doesn't get to eat everything he sees and Nathan gets cranky and impatient after 20 minutes and sometimes decides to just not listen. It is stressful and frustrating and usually someone ends up in tears. That someone is sometimes me! But today was a great day! No tears, no screams and no defiant children. That doesn't happen very often. Sigh!


Side note....
Mr. Vince Heichelbech, pay my friend for the pictures he took of you and your bride!

Zoo and School

Yesterday, Brian and I took the kids to the zoo. We love the zoo. Especially when it starts getting cool out. Hardly anyone was there, which always makes it nice, and the animals were pretty active. Plus, they had all of their Halloween decorations out. Nathan got a kick out of that, Brandon did too as long as we stayed at a distance. The kids and I got to ride the carousel. Nathan loves their carousel, instead of horses to ride, they have all different types of zoo animals. At first Brandon was excited, but once we got on I guess he thought the animals were going to eat him so he hung to my hip and tried to climb inside my skin. We've never been so close!
We also got to pet the sharks, play on the playground and chase the birds. It was a great time.

Then, last night, I got to go to our first parent-teacher conference at Nathan's school. I was so excited. I don't really know why, it's just Kindergarten, and I knew that he was doing just fine. But hearing someone else say great things about my little man was priceless! His teacher, Ms. George, say that Nathan is a "hoot" and is so much fun to have in class. He listens really well (I'm glad he listens well for someone) and is doing great. He has mastered all of his letters, numbers, sight words (is, the, like) and letter sounds. Then she told me that he kissed one of the little girls on the cheek the other day! Wha? She said he just couldn't control his emotions any longer and just had to kiss her. She laughed the entire time she told me the story but my jaw was on the floor. I don't want him kissing little girls! So, we had a talk when I got home...no kissing girls, we save kisses for family only! Oh, why does he have to grow up? It was hard enough to let him go to school and now he is kissing girls. Next he isn't going to let me kiss him in front of his friends.
Do you hear that? That's the sound of my heart breaking!

A Fall Day

What a crafty day it has been. Fall always makes we want to do crafts. So, Nathan and I tye-dyed some shirts orange and painted pumpkin faces on them. We played outside in the few leaves that have fallen. We brought some of those leaves inside to color. I have read the same three books to Brandon about a hundred times today. His top three choices are Baby's Alphabet, Peter Cottontail, and Dr. Seuss's ABC's. "Big A, Little a, what begins with A? Aunt Annie's Alligator, A..a...A." That will forever be stuck in my head! I fixed Nathan's "Super Nathan" cape, I had to buy new ties for around the neck. He has worn that cape for the past three years and it is starting to look like it too. We have also made pancakes, smoothies, and tonight after Brandon goes to bed we are going to bake Halloween cookies. In a few minutes, I'm going to bundle the kids up and we are going to walk around the neighborhood and look at all of the Halloween decorations. I love the fall. I love Halloween. I love having kids to share it all with.

Today

Today has been an incomplete day. Everything that I have started, or tried to start, has either been interrupted or not finished at all. It all started this morning. Brandon woke me during a great dream that would have been awesome to finish. I was in a hot air balloon over someplace very green. I have no idea where I was, but I would love to go there again! Then I tried to talk on the phone with a friend I haven't spoken to in a month. Nathan and Brandon did not want me on the phone, and neither did her kids. So, we decided to continue our conversation next month.
I did manage to give Nathan a shower before school, but as he walked into school, I noticed that I forgot to brush his hair and he had a cowlick. Think...Alfalfa. While Brandon was napping I did manage to work out and finish that, but then remembered that I forgot to throw dinner into the crock pot. So as I hurried to get all of that ready, Brandon woke up. Then it was time to go get Nathan from school. Once we got home, I finally finished getting dinner ready. Hopefully it will be done by the time Brian gets home. I have laundry in the dryer that needs folding, I have a child who needs to brush his teeth before bed time, and the living room looks like a toy store exploded. I could go and finish all of these tasks, but I think I would rather talk to you tonight. So, how was your day?

Spiders

Lately we have had quite a few spiders roaming our floors. Brandon is so fascinated with them, Nathan isn't. Tonight while we were picking up toys, I noticed Brandon was playing with something in the corner. I figured it was just a toy. Then he handed it to me "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" (that's what he says when he wants to give me something). I still had no idea what it was until it was in my hand and crawling up my arm. I screamed, shook my arm, and the spider fell to the floor. Nathan runs to his bedroom screaming, I'm trying to see where the spider went and Brandon is laughing so hard he is doubled over slapping his knee. I finally find the tortured spider with only a few legs still attached, Brandon was probably ripping it's legs off while he was in the corner "playing" with it. The poor spider is no longer with us though, I suppose it is in spider heaven, with all of his legs.

All is well

After school today Nathan said that he and the boy that "hurted" his feelings the other day are friends again. The other boy apologized to Nathan and Nathan told him that it was "ok." Oh what a relief. I don't have to go there and thump some little kids head. Just joking, I wouldn't seriously do that, even if the thought did cross my mind.
On the Brandon front, he had been a total cluts today. I have kissed boo-boo's all day long. He stepped on a block, I kissed his toes. He shut his hand in the door, I kissed his fingers. He got his head stuck in a sand bucket, I kissed his cheeks. He goes through these little phases about once a week. I love that my kisses fix all of his little boo-boo's and usually stops all the tears.