No Wanna Have To

Sometimes we request something of Drew and Owen that is optional. For example, we'll suggest that they do something like take a certain toy to bed or have a drink of water. But if they protest our suggestion, we just say, "That's okay. You don't have to." Drew caught on rather quickly. Lately, if I ask him to do something and he doesn't want to do it he'll say, "No wanna have to."

Drew's been scared of a lot of things lately, too. I wondered if the boys' problems at bedtime are caused by fear of the dark or something. Their room gets pretty dark at night, but the street lights do shine in through the blinds some, so I haven't gotten them a night light yet. The other night at bedtime I asked Drew if he was scared when I turned out the light. He said, "I'm scared a garbage truck." I told him there was no garbage truck. He said, "Garbage truck bit you." I told him the garbage truck never bit anyone. He looked skeptical. Drew is also afraid of the ceiling fan in my room. I find that a little odd, because it's never on; it just sits there.

Owen has been his usual quiet self lately. He's turning into a bit of a couch potato, which worries me, but he's been sick, so I think when he gets feeling better we'll have to make sure we get out more. I need to start writing their funny sayings sooner; I think I write about Drew a lot more than Owen. Owen says funny stuff too, I just can't remember most of it.

In unrelated news: Happy Birthday, Laura!

The What Blanket?!

Bedtime has been frustrating lately. Our bedtime routine for some reason now includes a lot of screaming and tantrums. I used to do songs and prayers, and now I pretty much just walk out and shut the door. I figure if they're going to scream either way, why bother?

Tonight was not much different; I decided I'd give the boys a chance, though. See if they'd be good if I stuck around and sang some songs with them. They did okay. Before I left, Owen asked for his train blanket. It was dirty, so I asked if he wanted a Winnie the Pooh blanket. He accepted. Drew asked for a "Pooh babeck" too. I didn't have another one, so I offered him a "little guy blanket." He didn't want it, so I asked Owen if he'd like to trade. He said okay and was happy with the little guy blanket.

I handed Drew the Pooh blanket. As I left the room, Drew was still talking about the blanket:

"Pooh babeck. Poopy. Use the toilet. Pooh. Poopy babeck..." Funny kid.

Making Cook

Drew and Owen were playing nicely in the living room. I thought, Oh, I can go downstairs for a few minutes to chat with David. I guess I was down there too long. Eventually the car noises stopped and it was suspiciously quiet. David went upstairs to check things out while I checked my email. He hollered down the stairs: "You'd better come see this." I finished up my email and ran upstairs.

Drew and Owen were no longer in the living room, but were in the kitchen standing on two chairs by the stove. They had just about every cooking utensil out of the drawers. They had a pan on the stove which contained baking soda and various spices from the spice rack (luckily they can't reach the knobs to turn on the burners). The counter next to the stove was covered in baking soda and spices, as was the floor.

Drew looked up from his stirring, smiled at me and said, "Hi, Mom! I'm making cook!"

It was another one of those where I had to control my laughter. Not only so the boys wouldn't see it, but so David wouldn't see it. He didn't find it very funny. But he was nice enough to clean it up while I washed the boys' hands and changed their baking soda-covered shirts.

A Flopper?

The word "flopper" in soccer describes someone who, if they get bumped by a player on the opposite team, will throw themselves on the ground and act like they've been horribly injured. This is in hopes of being awarded a penalty kick or a free chance at a goal.

I think Drew is a flopper. I think most kids probably are. One little injury or injustice is a huge deal for them.

Drew and Owen have been getting picked on more than usual lately by their cousin. The cousin does things like crash into Drew and Owen with the four-wheeler (good thing it's not a full size four-wheeler), or push them, or run past them with his arms sticking out like airplane wings and hit them in the head. It's kind of driving me crazy, because he doesn't seem to be held accountable for his actions at all. He gets told "don't do that" and that's all. If his mom isn't in the room and he does something, I don't know what to do because he's not my kid and I think she'd get mad if I doled out some discipline. I want to give the kid a good ol' fashioned spanking, but I know his mom doesn't go for that, so I'd probably just put him in timeout, which is his usual sentence for bad behavior and obviously isn't working. But I don't feel like it's my place to do anything so I don't. (The weird thing is, the cousin doesn't act like that when his parents aren't home; he's much better behaved.)

Here's what I find interesting as far as Drew is concerned: When the cousin does something to Drew while adults are around, Drew will squawk and yell, but gets over it quickly. But when no adults are in the room and the cousin does something do him, Drew freaks out. He lays on the floor and screams and cries and hollers. Of course the cousin doesn't get in trouble because no one knows exactly what he did; he's not telling and Drew won't calm down long enough to speak--not that he can say much, anyway. So I can't figure out what Drew's motive is in making such a racket. I guess just to alert us that some injury or injustice has occurred.

Pictures and Stuff

Drew and Owen have been driving me nuts lately. In their defense, our schedules have been out of whack and their naptime has been almost nonexistent for a couple days. Yesterday, Dave got home from work around noon (he went to work at midnight). I decided the best way to be quiet so he could sleep was for the boys and I to head to the inlaws'. We were getting ready to go, and I asked Owen to do something to expidite the process (I don't remember what; probably get his jacket for me or put a toy away). He yelled, "No!" and ran away. Again I directed him, in a slightly sterner voice, to do what I asked. He turned to me and yelled, "I said, 'No!'" I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing. It caught me so off guard I found it funny, but I don't need him thinking he can talk to me like that. After one more slightly threatening request by me, he finally did what I had originally asked. Usually, after the first time he says 'No,' I say, 'Yes' sorta threateningly and he does what I ask. Usually.

We hung out at the inlaws' house until about 4:30, just playing and watching TV. It was kinda nice and relaxing for me (even though I came home to chores that had been neglected). Then we went to Golden Corral to eat. The boys went to bed at their normal time (after 9 pm), and slept 'til almost 11 am the next day.

Drew and Owen have been cracking me up lately, too. The other day we were having a snack of "Marshmarble Mabeys" (that's Drewese for Marshmallow Mateys). Owen, who rarely clears his own dishes without being told about five times, said, "Drew. Take a plate sink." Drew said, "No." Owen said, "Yeeesss" sorta threateningly. Drew just looked at him like, whatever, then cleared his dishes.

Samantha with [her] Great Grandma Archibald.




David and me at Cocoa Beach.


Top: David and me at Clearwater Beach. (I love what humidity does for my hair. It looked twice as thick in Florida as it does in Idaho--pretty sad, huh?) Bottom: The sunset at Clearwater Beach.





Left: David and me in the little race cars at Magic Kingdom. Right: Sunset at Cinderella's Castle.




The "Believe" show at Sea World. It was pretty cool, but too short.




We went on a ride called "Rhino Rally" at Busch Gardens. It took us on a little "safari" and, even though part of the ride was closed for maintenence, it did not disappoint because I got to see rhinos!

House For Sale...

Does anyone want to buy a big brown house in fabulous Pocatello? I think we'd like to sell ours and move to Florida. We had sooo much fun! It is good to be back, but only cause I missed my kids (it took a day or two, but I really did miss them). I'm not looking forward to tending to those piles of laundry that need to be done, but at least some of it includes clothes I didn't have when I left home.

Here's how our vacation went down:

Sunday: Got out of church to find 4 inches of snow on the ground, and snow still swirling out of the sky. A friend in church said he drove from Boise to Pocatello that day and it took like nine hours. We decided to drive to Boise that night, just in case it took us the same amount of time. Luckily, the roads outside Pocatello were clear. We stopped in at my Grandma's house on the way so she could meet Samantha, then drove on to David's cousin's to leave Samantha there for the week. We stayed the night at David's sister's house in Boise.

Monday: Headed to the airport. Got there plenty early. Only six people in line ahead of us, so we thought it would be a breeze to get through. Those six people were headed through Chicago, just like we were, and the Chicago O'Hare airport was closed because of storms. So after about an hour, they re-routed us through Salt Lake City and then on to Orlando. Got to Orlando about 11 pm local time, took about 2 hours to find our hotel, which was in Kissimmee (we learned it's pronounced kis-SIM-mee; we'd been pronouncing it KISS-i-mee), normally only 30 minutes from the airport. Turns out every street there has three different names, depending on who you talk to.

Tuesday: Spent the morning catching up on sleep and learning our way around. Headed down to Tampa in the afternoon, then on to Clearwater Beach. The water was so warm! And it was clear, just like the name implies, which was fun; we could see big schools of tiny fish swimming around. We watched some kids breakdancing on the sidewalk. I'm more convinced than ever that it's something I want to learn.

Wednesday: Went to Sea World. We had so much fun, and loved the shows they had. There was a whale and dolphin show that also featured platform divers (made me wish I'd been better at diving). We of course saw the Shamu show, which was really good (too short, I thought). And we went on a couple little rides. After Sea World closed, we went out to dinner--Thai food! Yum!

Thursday: Loved Sea World so much, we took advantage of the free bounce-back. We didn't get to see everything on Wednesday, so we saw the rest when we went back. We stayed for a few hours. Went to Cocoa Beach in the afternoon (this is where I'd like to live). Almost got in a wreck on the way; somewhere around Cape Canaveral, some dude darted out across the highway in front of 60 mph traffic, causing all the cars to slam on their brakes. There were all kinds of cars parked on the side of the road. We didn't know what was going on, so we kept driving. Got to the beach and heard a countdown on the radio. Looked up in the sky and there was a space shuttle, tearing through the sky. Rented some surf boards from a little shop. Surfing is a lot harder than I remember. I'd only done it once before, and only got up once, but I couldn't do it at all this time. Ate at Ron Jon Surf Grill on the way back to the hotel. Had a scallop wrap with capers. I love capers!

Friday: Went to Busch Gardens. This was probably one of my favorite days (tied with going to Cocoa Beach). Busch Gardens wasn't crowded at all. They had four rides, and we were able to ride each of them with little to no wait. Sometimes we even got to stay on the ride for the next round. We went on one of the water rides and got absolutely drenched. The lady sitting across from us had on a poncho, but even without it she wouldn't have gotten wet at all. She just sat there and laughed at us. We had to buy new clothes, 'cause it wasn't quite warm enough outside to dry ours. Ate at Waffle House on the way back to the hotel. There's a Waffle House every other block down there. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it was a fun experience, anyway.

Saturday: Went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. The disappointment of the year. Shoulda gone to Epcot like everyone said. Tomorrowland was pretty cool; the Carousel of Progress was amazing, showing all the progress that's been made in the last century. I liked Mickey's PhilharMagic Orchestra, too--cute little 3-D show. And of course we went on the Small World ride. The whole time I kept thinking, this would be way better if the kids were here. But they weren't, so it was a little bit boring. Went to CityWalk at Universal Studios. Ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Elvis Room (thought of you, Ace)! CityWalk was really cool. It was a little like Mardi Gras. But without girls lifting their shirts up. Of course, we didn't go there during Spring Break, so who knows what it'll be like then... Actually, the whole town seems really family oriented. I don't think I even heard a cuss word our entire vacation.

Sunday: Slept in (I always feel like we pack so much into our vacations that I don't get to rest, so I made sure we did on our last full day there). Bummed around Orlando and Kissimmee looking at shops and stuff. Went back to the hotel packed up, napped a little, then went back to CityWalk in the evening. Checked out all the shops, including the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I didn't realise such a place actually existed. It was loads of fun. Didn't eat there, though. Ate at Black Angus Steakhouse on the way back to the hotel. It was delicious.

Monday: Got up early and headed to the airport to return the rental car. Flew from Orlando to Washington D.C., then to Chicago, then to Boise. Got to Boise about 8:30 pm. Went to David's sister's to get our car, then to David's cousin's to get Samantha. Got back to Pocatello about 1:45 am. I woke the boys up to say hi. Drew was a little confused, then when he realised it was me, he let out a little sob and held his arms out to me. It made me feel loved.

It's weird to be back doing the whole mom/housewife routine. I gotta start planning meals and cooking and cleaning and all that craziness now. Hope it doesn't take me too long to get back into the swing of things!

Hairy Ol' Me

I remember the first time I ever shaved my legs; I was in fourth grade. There was a girl in my class who seemed a little more mature than the rest of us, and she shaved her legs (and probably her moustache, too) so lots of the other girls in the class thought it would be cool to start too. My friend Sarah and I would have slumber parties during which we'd put on makeup, fix our hair and shave our legs. We were so grown up.

For some reason Sarah and I thought we had to keep the leg-shaving a secret, so I wore pants a lot that year. One night my mom was giving me a pedicure* when she discovered my lovely hairless legs. She didn't get mad. She just issued the following warning: "You'll have to keep this up, you know." I just laughed it off: "I know. I don't care. I like shaving." See, when I was nine years old, I had a hard time imagining being 25 (+1), having three kids and no extra time for things like shaving my legs. Or plucking my eyebrows (something else you have to keep up; no one warned me about that one).

So here I am all hairy. I guess I'd better take some time Saturday or Sunday night to shave and pluck because we're going to (da-da-DAAA!) Florida!! Hooray! We leave Monday morning and aren't coming back 'til the following Monday. I'm soooo excited, but a little nervous. The kids aren't coming with us. I have no doubt they'll be in good hands while we're gone, but I have this little anxiousness in the back of my head that says, "What if something happens to David and me?" I'm trying not to think about it too much.

Who knows if I'll be able to do another post between now and then; laundry beckons. So if you don't hear from me for a while, that's where I am.