2009- Quarter 1

2009- Q1
Yes i have gotten lazy and now do only quarterly posts. Get over it. This Quarter's Top HighLight: after 2 years of trying, Andrew can not roll him tongue. It's only uphill from here.















Art
This month’s art collection covers winter, assorted odds and ends. We started off the year with a Christmas Reindeer, and then what I assume is the Chanukah or maybe Kwanza Bunny. Then we moved to Snowman-made-from-can bottoms and the Season of the Sneaker. The sneaker was actually one of Andrew’s finer pieces of work, aside from the Super Scary Hairy Orange Spider that bears some similarity to a chicken.










Pre-sleep rumble
I thought bath time was supposed to calm kids down? It seems to be the quiet before the storm. One night the underwear spontaneously flew from the drawers and landed all over the room. James bravely weathered the storm, then passed out on the floor.









Another night I hear a big THUD and come in to find the humidifier in about 10 pieces on the floor with about 2 gallons of water quickly absorbing into the carpet. After re-assembling the humidifier, with most pieces, several weeks later I entered their room, unannounced, to find them sitting on the dresser, daring each other to push it off. Little do they know that the humidifier is the only form of medication they receive when they get colds. We can thank an overzealous media for that.




One night I THOUGHT I heard them making a racket (do I sound like a parent now?) and I just opened the door, looked at them with my German Face, turned off the lights and closed the door. The boys looked stunned, then I heard Andrew say "James… we weren't doing anything?!"

Sleeping Arrangement
Can someone remind me why parents go to the effort of purchasing (or in my case swapping furniture within the family) a bed? We have 2 beds and 2 boys, yet James chooses to take over Andrew’s bed. Some how Andrew got pushed to the foot of the bed like a puppy dog.









Then James chose to act out the Monkey Jumping On The Bed book.









They soon grew bored of the bed and chose to lay out every blanket we own on the floor on the bedroom. They seem to be just as comfy sleeping on the floor….makes sense since I slept on the floor for about 4 years as a kid.











Closet Melee
I did not realize just how many clothes out children owned until they decided to clear the closet one night. Andrew thought it was great fun, until I made him stay up to SORT the hangers. After about 2 hours he passed out, and so did I. The next evening we spent 4 hours together with him handing me each and every piece of clothing and color coded hanger to put back in the closet. I thought this was punishment, but he seemed to enjoy it way too much. The closets are now on lock down. And when I asked him if he would do it again he said “It’s Mommy’s fault. You forgot to lock the closet”. I have been outsmarted by a 3 year old….again.

Career Move
If Naked Customer Service becomes a career path, Andrew is all set.








Pinball
The Pinball machine’s future looks a lot brighter now that the boys are playing. It has been removed from the Endangered Species list for the house.










Potty Time
I am happy to report that young James is giving potty training a whirl....again. He has the mechanics of it figured out, but does not understand the schedule…..as in get naked and sit on the potty before opening the plumbing pipes. I have been pee’d on more times than I care to remember.

Andrew has now decided that peeing in the corner of the bedroom makes him little brother laugh hysterically. Andrew likes to entertain, and has had repeat performances several nights in a row to mommy’s chagrin. Unfortunately our cat is not taking to Andrew marking his territory, so we have a battle of the boys raging. Is this really my life?

Roo pictures
Give a 3-year old a camera and this is what he takes pictures of.

The glaring sun picture is the ceiling fan, also known as ‘sleeping place of beanie babies’. Andrew said he tried all night to get the 2 dogs stuck up there. Good thing he did not turn on the ceiling fan and watch them fly off.

I said “Take a picture of yourself” and he photographed his feet.

I said “take a picture of your brother” and he takes a picture of his hand.

Andrew does not just think outside the box, he can’t even see the box and does not even know it exists.

Naptime
Sadly naptime for Andrew has come to an end. We no longer try to get him to nap on the weekends, but sometimes he falls asleep on the sofa in the afternoon with whatever he is playing with. This day it was the (unused) orange toilet plunger. This Home Depot $4.98 item has been a favorite over the years.





Dress code
The boys must not have gotten the memo about wearing pants. It just cuts down on the laundry.






Our Alpha Dog
At daycare Andrew has taken to sneaking up on the smaller kids in the class and roaring at them, causing them to crap their pants.

At daycare Andrew has started watching his teacher with an Eagle Eye. Whenever she turns her back, he runs and hides. When they can not find him, they have to call the office, declare a Lock Down, and his teachers and 3 directors go on a hunt for Andrew.

When Andrew is misbehaving, his teacher calls the director's office to have her come talk to him (this is new since he used to go to the Director's office which he enjoyed way too much). Once the call has been made, he goes from a spazmaniac, to a sweet little boy sitting on his cot for the pretty lady to come talk to him.

Alpha Dog has been so active at daycare that I know have monthly meetings with 2 organizations and the daycare to coral his behavior. The March meeting was spent covering “Why it is not appropriate to moon your classmates”. I see many Parent-Teacher-Principal conferences in my future.


Random Conversations

Germs
James dropped his cereal spoon on the floor. Andrew exclaims "Quick Mommy, pick it up before the germs hop on'.

Why We Need Make French Toast
One Saturday morning Andrew was explaining why I needed to make French Toast for breakfast:
"You and Daddy went to Kazakhstan to get me, then you went to Guatemala to get James, so we need to make French Toast now." Odd logic, but surprisingly accurate. We never ate French Toast before the boys.


Football
When the Eagles were playing the Cardinal in the playoffs Andrew said he saw red birds and white birds. I asked him which bird he liked more and he said "the more better birds". I'll leave it up to the reader to decide which bird that was.

Boo Boo Buddy
In a frenzy of active play James ran head on into the corner of a family room pseudo padded chair. He then headed right to the freezer to get the frozen Boo Boo Buddy. Andrew beat him to the freezer, snatched the boo boo buddy and they had this exchange:
Andrew: "Where's the hurt?"
James: Point to his forehead
Andrew: Applies boo boo buddy to his cheek for about 2 seconds then asks "All better now?"
James: "Nope"
Andrew: Applies boo buddy to his chin and then proclaims "You all better now"
James: "Ok"
They run off to play.

Black Out
Do you have any idea how hard a 2 year olds head is? One night I was leaning down to James’ forehead to give him a good night kiss and he decide to sit up uber fast to surprise me. Our foreheads slammed, I saw a bright flash of light and a head ache emerged. After recovering from the stunning I tried again to give him another kiss good night and WHAM he does it again. Another flash of light and then I blacked out for a couple seconds. Andrew watched all this and was quite concerned and said “Mommy, you need to go to Dr House.”

Fine Arts
The boys' exposure to the fine arts is limited to the Disney Channel, but has recently branched out to Nickelodean. We have maanged to escape the evils of Elmo and Barney. This is what is gobbling up our Tivo space:

• Bear And The Big Blue House
• My Friends Tigger And Pooh (includes Tigger Movie, Piglet Movie and the 1970's Pooh movie)
• Handy Manny
• Yo Gabba Gabbaa
• Mickey's Clubhouse (borders on annoying as Barney)
• Little Einsteins (ok, but sure is no Handy Manny)

Next Quarter.....the boys take Walt Disney World by storm.