No American Idol

I know I'm posting 2 in one day, but I forgot to do these photos of Mason's Spring Program and if I don't do it now, I won't at all. How sad that would be. Mason decided that during his Spring Program at school he would not display his talents. Yep, that's right. He didn't sing. Didn't even move his lips. He just fiddled with the end of his shirt and glared. I thought that he was in trouble. I sat there thinking of the things that could have kept him from singing: did his throat hurt? did someone hurt his feelings? did someone tell him he couldn't sing? Oh, my gosh! maybe he forgot the words and he's feeling embarrassed. I started feeling really bad for my baby up there in front of all these parents staring at him expecting him to perform and he had forgotten the words. I was sure of it. When this painful program (all my bad thoughts forming and keeping Ethan from drawing all over the guest cards with the pew pencils) was finally over, Mason walked down to me with his face all screwed up in an unrecognizable expression. I asked him what was wrong and he said nothing. I asked his teacher and she said that nothing she knew of was wrong and then said it was very normal for a child this age to simply not sing. Huh. I hadn't even thought of the simple fact that he might not have WANTED to sing. Go figure. He has a mind of his own AND he will use it at will.

Not The Time Nor The Place...or is it?

Who teaches boys these things? Fathers? Mothers? Big brothers? I certainly don't remember sitting my children down and teaching them that we need to stockpile the latest issue of Usborne's Under The Sea Search, Curious George Visits the Hospital and Bad Kitty next to the commode. A good story time moment for me is nestling my freshly bathed, pajama-clad babies (OK so maybe they're not babies anymore and maybe they don't quite "nestle" so well anymore but more accurately sprawl) into my lap while I launch into the story using all my best voices. Ethan and Mason love books so much they take at least one to bed with them each night and they have a bin in the car between them stuffed to the brim with their favorites. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go the garage in my own jammies to retrieve the favorite of the day just so it can be put under their pillow. Mason is just learning to read and it is opening up the most amazing world for him. I can see the pride in him grow as he finishes a sentence. I wonder if he feels he can conquer the world one dinosaur book at a time. I, myself, am an avid reader and could read til the sun went down then back up then down again. Alas, I haven't got that kind of uninterrupted time and so I take time in bed, on the couch, standing at the kitchen counter waiting for the pasta water to boil and ... hmmm...maybe I DID teach them!
The second picture is Ethan sitting in the laundry basket on the couch watching Scooby Doo. When Mason goes to school I let Ethan have the run of the place. He gets to eat some fruit snacks and watch his choice of show. I know, I need to put the brakes on a bit, but hey, he is the baby. Scooby Doo is the boys' favorite show right now and they are obsessed! It's really quite hilarious watching the episodes. Matt and I used to watch them and now they are just silly. I like them though because there is no shooting or hitting or anybody calling anybody stupid or dum dum. You can't lose when the bad guy is simply some one dressed up in a costume and they are sent to jail for being bad anyway!

Clubbin' It Fat Boy Style

Those of you with children (more specifically, boys) know this entry is not about me and my girls going out and dancing into the wee hours of the night with glow sticks in our teeth, but rather about the stunts our children pull after a very long hot day in the sun. Matt took Mason and Ethan out to the water fountain park and then the Butterfly house in Navarre while I did a few errands. They ran themselves ragged there and then came home and ran themselves ragged playing in the neighborhood. Topping off at 80 degrees this afternoon, things were hot and sticky and ET was ready to cyclone himself into the ground with strange energy. After dinner we pulled out the trusty best $20 we ever spent: the Monster Truck! It runs over everything, much to both boys' delight and holds a charge very well. Tonight ET's cyclonic energy was telling him that running after the monster truck with a bat would be a really super fun idea. So, he followed this two-horned advice and set out after it and with Mason at the controls it was quite hilarious. Mason would drive it around until Ethan caught up with it where he proceeded to beat it senseless with a bat like it was going to up and bite him or something. Matt and I had dinner and a show before 6 pm, FREE! I pulled out the Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches to cool them off a bit.

Funny Face

Ever felt like this after a good party? I just came across these photos and had to post. They are from a birthday party last summer and they had bounced their little guts out and were rummaging through their "doodie bags" (ET's pronunciation). They would each take something out, hold it into the air and shake it violently screaming the name of the object over and over and over again until the other pulled something out and trumped the call: Imagine..."YEAH! A BLOWER! A BLOWER! A BLOWER! A BLOWER! TOOT! TOOT! TOOT! PAARRP! PAARP! PAARRP!" Then "LOOK, LOOK, LOOK! A STICKY FROG! A STICKY FROG! A STICKY FROG! THWAAPP! THWAAPP! THWAAPP!" Then possibly "OOOOOOO! SOME CRAYONS! SOME CRAYONS! SOME CRAYONS!" This time "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! LOOK!LOOK! LOOK! COOL FUNNY BIG NOSE GLASSES!" came reverberating through car so well that THX dolby digital surround sound would be overshadowed. At this point, I knew Starbucks drive-thru was a must. As I'm driving to pick up my quadruple shot venti caramel macchiato I can see out of the corner of my eye that they have both come down so hard off their birthday party high that they have literally crashed. Mason still has his Groucho Marx glasses on and they seem to be slipping with every breath. Pulling up to the window the guy gives me my perk and I ask him if he wants to see the funniest thing ever. He gives me a puzzled look but he is young and adventurous and so he says, "Yeah, I always like a good laugh." I give him my camera and ask him to be shutter-ready when I roll down the window. I thought he was going to die! He snapped a few shots of my sleeping prince and then hollered quietly to his fellow employees that they have to see this. After letting the bored afternoon staff at Starbucks have their chuckle for the week, I rolled up my window and drove my sleeping beauties home to their beds.

Let's go fly a kite

When we went to the beach Sunday morning we weren't expecting the perfect day we ended up getting. We knew it would be a bit windy so we bought a kite and set out for the sands. It was 60 when we started and was 69 by the time we got there at 10 am and was warm in the water too. The boys had a blast building sand castles, collecting seashells, swimming in the waves with Dad since Mom doesn't go out, flying our butterfly kite "with real flapping motion" wings, eating gritty peanut butter crackers and sipping ice cold juice boxes. Ahhhh...doesn't get much better than this!

See See Oh, Playmate...

Mason and Reece are best friends. They always say that they wish they were brothers. I think to myself "Yeah, if you were brothers you might not get along as well as you do!" I keep that to myself though as I don't want to spoil their last 3 months together. It makes me so sad to know that we will be leaving soon. It's exciting and it's sad too. Most of our friends have already done us the honors of leaving us first but now it's our turn which makes it harder. I look at Mason and Reece and wonder how long it will be before they stop asking about the other. How big of an impression have they made on each others' lives? I know it's different for me. Watching them grow up together and play shapes my memory and impression that they are fast friends who enjoy wrestling, reading books (Mason more than Reece), collecting bugs, swinging on each others' swingsets and watching Scoopy Doopy Doo (yes-I spelled it the way Mason says it) together. I am curious to hear their stories of one another later on in the year. After our first or second visit!!

Wow! Time flies!

Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, haaaaaaappy anniversary! That's right. 10 years down, 100 more to go. We celebrated by going to the Macaroni Grill with the boys and ordered, what else, pizza! Matt is my one and only love and I'm looking forward to being together for the remainder of our lives. He is such a fantastic husband, father and friend. Besides, the ring he bought me is to die for! I'm posting a picture of it out of the box because Ethan snagged the box from me before I could open it and schmeared chocolate sauce all over it. That always makes a diamond ring that much better anyway.

Beach Buddies

How much more perfect can two babies get? Mason and Ben were so happy playing tackle football in the sand

We made it to the beach for our first time this year to visit the Pecks in Destin. The sun was shining, the sand was white and the ocean was that gorgeous emerald color we are so lucky to have in our sight. It was rather chilly though so I kept my cover up and pants on!

Hebebobber

I'm going to have another crack at this slideshow thing before I toss my hands up for good. Man, what a pain! I want to get some pics up of Easter and Disney so we can all see them all the time:) I have to make a note in today's entry more for myself than anything because I'll forget: Ethan said 'Mason" today and not just "Masay." I was so happy and squealing but instead of revelling in that moment, I wanted to see what OTHER words would come out new and improved. Nice Mom! Well, he didn't say "helicoptor" like we've been so dilligently teaching but stuck to the usual "hebebobber." Sometimes he adds a couple more bobbers on there for good measure. It's closer than Mason's "Gocky." What in the ham sandwich is a gocky??? Does that even remotely sound like helicoptor? I'm not 2 anymore though so hey... It still never ceases to amaze me how far they come in so short a time. Time is flying and I'm nowhere near catching up. I'm sad when i watch them recorded as babies for I miss them so much. When I look at them now though, my throat catches and my eyes burn to know that they are mine and they are growing up beautifully. I'm so fortunate to be able to stay home with them and watch them pull each other's hair and see for myself who really has the more refined uppercut. When I see Mason helping ET put on his shoes and willingly answering ET's million questions, the day's trials and tribulations disolve.