Anxiety

Today I heard the water running for a long time. I asked M. what he was doing. "Just washing my hands" he replied. Ok, finish up then, stop dilly-dallying. Then I heard the water going on and off. M.! What are you doing? "I told you, I'm washing my hands" Knock it off already. What's going on with your hands? "I'm just washing the blood off." BLOOD!? I shot into the bathroom faster than Carl Lewis or whoever the fastest man in the world is these days. Turns out it was only loose tooth #4 and so little blood it didn't even qualify as a drop. Thank goodness!

Typical Monday

Here is May's 12 of 12 layout:

The journaling reads:
Just the usual weekday around here…
1. making P.’s vitamin mix
2. packing lunches
3. reading for half an hour over my own breakfast once the boys have gone to school
4. lots of errands: visit to the JCC to see if we
want to join, the library, grocery shopping
5. gotta have my Tim Horton’s tea. $1.65 may
seem a lot for some hot water and a tea bag,
but it is soooo good and since I’ve cut back
to one cup a day, I feel justified!
6. went to the BAC for the first time in 2 weeks and managed to stay on the Stairmaster for 15 minutes!
7. waiting for the school buses
8. P.’s school had a flower sale for Mother’s Day. We sent in the money and he brought home the red one on Friday. This morning the bus driver said they had one leftover and did I order 2? I said no, I didn’t think so. Well, apparently I did, so the yellow one came home today. Poor Teri, she babysat this flower the whole weekend and all of Monday, keeping it alive. I tried to give it to her but she wouldn’t take it.
9. Signed up for Stacy’s “Have More Fun” class at BPS starting in July. I can’t wait!
10. Made a quick playground visit after dinner. We’re finding the boys sleep better if we do this and now that it is light out longer, they want some outside activity.
11. laundry, it never ends
12. stayed up too late watching a movie (Unconditional Love with Kathy Bates) sometimes Netflix is a bad thing

I'm not totally happy with how it came out, I had some cropping and sizing issues and I think that big green space at the top is distracting... Maybe I'll slap a big 'ol flower there or something. Or maybe not.

Doesn't Smell New, But Looks Pretty Good

Today I decided to clean out the car. Here's what I found:

• 1.5 plastic easter eggs (1 purple, 1/2 green)
• a metal monkey bookmark
• a broken pirate eyepatch
• 1 red wool headband
• a baggie of crushed Lucky Charms cereal (no marshmallows)
• 1 plastic thingamajig
• 4 rocks
• 10 books (2 Halloween theme)
• 4 coloring books (2 Christmas theme)
• 31 crayons (26 whole, 5 broken)
• 1 colored pencil (yellow)
• 1 cardboard tag that says "Rush" (what or to where I have no idea)
• 6 bank envelopes (empty)
• 4 raisin boxes (also empty)
• at least half a box of petrified raisins scattered all over
• 3 torn paper chef's hats from Ted's Hot Dogs
• 3 donut bags (empty; 2 Tim Hortons, 1 Dunkin Donuts)
• many many sprinkles from said donuts
• 2 ATM receipts
• 3 errand lists
• 2 shopping lists
• lots of used tissues
• a bottle of eyeglass cleaner
• 3 petrified french fries (we haven't eaten these in the car in I don't remember when. Other than the dust they looked a lot like they do when you buy them. That right there is probably reason enough to stop eating them)
• 2 blankets
• a box of emergency stuff (jumper cables, flares, etc.)
• a box containing wipes, the harnesses & cup holders from the booster seats, portable potty liners, and a first aid kit)
• the diaper bag (doesn't get daily use anymore but still good to have in case of emergencies)
• 2 kid winter gloves (not matching)
• 1 pair kid mittens (matching)
• 3 baseball hats (1 adult, 2 child - too small now)
• 1 winter coat (adult)
• 1 windbreaker (adult)
• 1 tobaggan
• 1 tote bag of swim gear
• a bag of gummy worms (empty)
• 4 toy cars
• 2 kaleidoscopes
• 1 bendy plastic cat
• 1 plastic princess ring (pink)
• 2 plastic knights and thier matching horses
• 1 transformer
• 2 toy phones
• 2 toy alphabet games
• 2 drawing boards
• 1 tic-tac-toe game
• 1 broken happy meal toy
• 1 winter scarf (child)
• 1/2 box of tissues (clean)
• my sunglasses
• my wireless headset
• 3 pens (2 blue, 1 red)
• the snowbrush
• 1 flashlight (still in package)
• $2 in change ($1.45 that I spent later, .30 that I sucked up in the vacuum and .25 that I can see but can't get out)

What's in your car?

Lighten Up, People!

The boys and I went to a ceramics make & take Friday night with their cousins. Lots of fun and the woman who owns the business seems very nice. But I don't think she understands kids very well, even though she works with them a lot. She took one look at P. and announced that he could paint the cat because it was all one color and didn't have small details since he would not be able to handle them. I told her nicely that he was capable of picking the piece he wanted to paint and I was cool with imperfection. He picked a lizard. She insisted on giving him the green paint because lizards are green. He didn't want green, he asked for orange and red. I got him orange and red and she seemed surprised. M. also picked the same lizard but he wanted his to be red, black and yellow stripes with a turquoise underside. "No, " she said again, "lizards are green." I said he can do it however he likes, it's his lizard. After a few more similar exchanges, she gave up on us and started insisting that cousin's reindeer must be brown all over. Now really, what kid is going to want to paint with only brown?

Today we took the boys to a free movie at the big theatre/playhouse downtown. It was Wizard of Oz so I knew P. would sit still for it, that's his favorite movie. Come to think of it, it's one of my favorite movies. As we waited for the show to start, the man in front of us was annoyed because M. kept kicking his chair. M. insisted he wasn't, he was just swinging his legs. No matter, I said, sit cross-legged and try really hard not to swing. Throughout the movie the man kept turning around to check that M.'s feet were not near his seat. They weren't, because by this time he'd made me paranoid about it. But really. It's a free movie for kids. There are, like, 10,000 kids here. The man had 2 kids of his own, who were no doubt kicking the seats of the people in front of them. It's a free movie for kids. It's not a $200 ticket to the opera. There are kids involved. You gotta expect a little excitement, noise and dancing & singing. And yes, maybe even some leg swinging.

You Just Can't See This Stuff Coming

Last night after the boys got out of the bath I went to get their pajamas. When I got back, there they were: stark naked, movin' and groovin' to the music from their Tooth Tunes toothbrushes (the themes from Transformers & Star Wars). D. and I were practically in tears we were laughing so hard.

Before you have kids you picture all the big stuff, like learning to walk, birthday parties and going off to college. You could never imagine the little everyday moments like these, which makes them even more precious. Right now I can't think of any greater blessing than being a parent.

This is What Saturdays Look Like Here

I just joined a scrap challenge entitled "Twelve of Twelve" started by Susan. I found out about it from reading Cathy's blog. The premise is simple. On the 12th of each month, take 12 pictures of your everyday life and scrap them. Sounds fun, yes?

This is the first one I've done and I'll admit I didn't remember to take any photos until around 1:00. We're pretty laid back here on Saturdays and I've been wanting to do a layout about that for awhile, so it all worked out. Here's the layout:



And the explanation: Saturdays are all about relaxing in our house. The boys are worn out from school and I'm just plain worn out. So we spend the day (from left top to right bottom) making art, playing on the computer, going to playgrounds, having ice cream treats at our favorite local place, dog piling with Dad, reading (Quilter's Homecoming by J. Chiaverini), watching tv (Finding Nemo), logging into SparkPeople (yikes, I've used more than half my daily calories before lunch!), getting dressed at 2:21 (usually when D. gets home from work and says "you're STILL in your pajamas?!") going to dinner for spaghetti at another favorite local place, drinking a lot of tea, and reading Simple Scrapbooks before bed.


Sounds like a pretty good Saturday to me.

Stop Global Warming

This past weekend we participated in Earth Hour and turned off our lights from 8 to 9 pm. When I told the kids about it M. was all for it. "We have to stop Global Warming, Mom! Where is he? Why don't they just put him in jail?" It's funny how kids interpret things sometimes, isn't it? But now I can't get these two guys out of my head. Picturing them helps me turn off the lights and keep recycling!
(If you want to create your own superhero, go here)