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I had some compliments on our carved pumpkins, but I can barely take any credit. Dave did most of the the cutting, cleaning and scooping. And cleanup. Luke did the actual design and carving on his and I did the carving on mine. But all the credit goes to Dave.
Luke’s is on the left on top of the cooler and mine is on the right. Dave did both of the lower pumpkins. The grim reaper was from a stencil and he did his own alien design.
They look even better in the dark!
>Then:
Now:
>We had 2 snow days last week, and it was sort of silly if you ask me. I mean, since when does 18 inches of snow stop Coloradans from going to work and school? For 2 days?! My work was sort of closed for part of the time. I had to work from home because school was canceled, and the daycare was closed. So when my work said people could go home for the day, what was I supposed to do? I worked on and off and I played outside and shoveled. We went sledding once on Wednesday and once on Thursday.
On Wednesday we walked to the sledding hill near our house, and on Thursday, we rode bikes to a hill slightly farther away.
The hill within walking distance is really steep and dangerous, and my rule is that one parent (Dave) drags the sled to the top with the kids, making sure they don’t get knocked down on the way up, while the other parent (me) waits at the bottom and prays that they make it down safely. At the hill a little farther away, Luke can just sled with his friends all he wants, while one parent (Dave) sleds with Jack while the other parent (me) socializes with other parents at the top of the hill.
A couple more differences between the two days…
Posses of 18-21 year olds:
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| From Blog pix |
Vs. Toddlers in Inner Tubes
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| From Blog pix |
40’s chillin in the snow:
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| From Blog pix |
Vs. Kids drinking hot chocolate:
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| From Blog pix |
Crazies in One Piece Snowsuits from the 80’s… and yes, there is someone hitting a jump on a kayak in the background:
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| From Blog pix |
Vs… Ok, yeah, I have nothing to contrast with that.
But hey – how cute can you get:
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| From Blog pix |
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I just started to upload pumpkin patch pictures, and snowstorm day 1, and snowstorm day 2, and Halloween and everything in between. And I thought, “Wow! I have a lot of material for my blog!” and then I thought, “Good thing! It’s November and I am planning to blog every day in November!”
So I thought I would start with the most random picture, and the big announcement that you can look forward to 30 days in a row of posts here, so yea!
Oh, and one Jack story. We have started the 6 month period of the year where he has a runny nose, and I had wrestled him onto my lap so I could wipe his nose and apply some lotion. He was kicking and writhing and yelling, “Down, Down!” and then he segued right from an angry, “DOWN!” into a laughing, “down down baby, Elmo do karate”, and it worked. I started laughing and let him down.
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Last night I was working on Halloween costumes to the best of my ability with a house full of kids with cabin fever who would neither put on nor take off costumes at my command. I gave up and started working on my own costume. But no one would let me sit and sew, or if they did, they wanted to eat parts of my costume, so I gave up on the pants and started working on the top.
Without getting into all the gory details, let’s just say that while I was ironing a design that included “e=mc2” onto the front of my shirt, I ended up with the reverse of e=mc2 on the back of the shirt. But you can barely see where the design bled through, because I also took a bunch of paint off the end table where I was ironing and that is now also on the back of the shirt.
I suppose a cardigan could rescue my costume. But I just don’t know if I can pull off “Smarty Pants” anymore.
>Question: What happens when you forget to bring diapers, repeatedly, to the daycare?
Answer: They use the spare diapers, and when your baby has a blowout, they send him home in floral leggings.
Sound familiar? This has happened before.
>No, that isn’t the intro to my swine flu post. Not yet, it’s too soon.
Dave has been out of town for, a month? I don’t know I lost track. But Jack was talking to him on the phone last night, and I heard Jack say, “I love you.” It sounds like, “I nuv you” henceforth referred to as INU. Then he starting saying stuff like, “Dwandma?” and I think he was confused because he couldn’t tell whether to talk to Dave or to the navigational system in Dave’s rental car. I had to get to the bottom of the INU because it’s just so sweet and I am tracking unprompted INUs. Sure, he’ll say it in response but it’s the random INUs that are the best. I mean, when he says them to ME they are the best. I assume. It’s only happened once.
So when I got back on the phone…
Me: I heard Jack say he loves you.
Dave: That’s because I said it to him first.
Me: Oh, because today Jack held up the Little People Farmer and the Little People Pig and then said, “I nuv you” and then he said, “tiss” and he had them kiss.
Dave: Aww, cute. We must be modeling loving behavior for him.
Me: Who’s the pig?
Dave: What?
Me: Who’s the pig?
Dave: What?
Me: I said the FARMER was kissing a P I G!
Dave: I thought you said the farmer was kissing his wife.
Me: We don’t have a farmer’s wife little people person.
Dave: What? Sorry… I? Can’t hear…You’re breaking up… I love you!
Sure.
>Thinking backwards in chronological order, the signs I missed are thus:
1.) We had so much time to get to the bus that Jack and Luke and I all walked. Jack has never walked to the bus, there is no time for his meandering style. I only walk occasionally. Usually it’s a jog, sometimes a sprint. We left the house 2 minutes early today. Two. Whole. Minutes.
2.) Luke was watching a little TV with his hat, and coat and backpack on before we left. Usually, our race to the bus involves a sort of relay where the baton is in the form of Luke’s backpack and half of his outerwear, that I try to assemble on him as we are running.
3.) I flipped through a magazine for a bit once everyone was ready. Really.
And what did these three signs not tell me? Then did not tell me that I had forgotten something.
Dave is halfway through his 8 day business trip, and this morning I was about 44 hours into what I thought was a 24 hour illness. I did manage to eat something for breakfast, and I was as excited about that as someone who has had 5 crackers and a banana in 2 days can be. At lunch I decided to attempt some peanut butter on a cracker.
But the peanut butter was mysteriously not on the counter. It was… in the cabinet? That doesn’t sound right. That must mean I… I… OMG What did I pack for Luke’s lunch? Think! Think! OK, Milk. A cupcake. Half an apple. Ok, that’s all I’ve got.
And then our morning frantic freakout happened at 11:30 instead of 7:25. OMGIneedtomakea sandwichthebreadisn’tdefrostedpopitinthetoasterandgetpantsonJack. JackhaspantsneedsshoesthebreadisupmakethesandwhichwearealmostoutofhoneyOMG. Pause. Would it occur to Luke to get the hot lunch? Nohe’llcomehomestarvingandangryandcrabbyandmissinghisdadfinishthesandwhich.
ThrowshoesandajacketonJackgrabthekeysandcellphonerunoutthedoor.
I didn’t know when lunchtime really is, so we ended up getting to school 10 minutes ahead of time. Jack and I sat on a bench and smiled at people for 9 minutes after I finished tying his shoes and buttoning his jacket. Then we met the first graders as they came in, and we sat with Luke while he ate some of his lunch.
It was delightful.
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You know you are the mom of boys when you are reading the target weekly ad and you say, “Why would they have the slogon ‘Optimus Price’ and not use a picture of Optimis Prime?”
And then it gets even better! Luke said, “Do you know who that is?”
And I said, “Yes. Bumblebee.”
Note to readers: We have not seen the Transformers Movie. I know all this from the action figures and the books and the old cartoons. But if you want to call me MetaMegan Fox, that is fine, we look a lot alike.
MetaMegan 