Question...

 Nick:  Mommy, is it Christmas yet?



Nope, not yet.  I know it seems like Christmas because you and your brother are going around singing Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, and Deck the Halls, all-day-every-day,  but no, it's not Christmas yet.  You're only off by 328 days.

How To Make Sweet Tea

After two days of boys driving me crazy, the end of last night was just an amazing, fun reward for me.  Ethan had already fallen asleep on the couch, and Nick and I were in the boys room fraddling and being silly while we started to settle down for the night.  Never heard of fraddling? It's the latest hip, innovative word for showing love and spreading joy.  Check it out  here.

So, we're laying in bed, being silly, watching a Food Network show about how they make sweet tea.  I told him how they use the tea bags to make sweet tea.  And, of course, Nick says, "Those are not tea bags, those are tea BOXES!"  Well, they were... boxes of tea bags, but that led into Nick telling me how to make sweet tea.

Nick:

I know how to make sweet tea mommy. You use choco-wit milk to make sweet tea!  

     You get ext-wa water and ext-wa wheels 

            and we take our heads off....

                    take our bodies off....

At this point I was practically rolling on the floor having fun with his little recipe.  Hold on!  I've got to write this down.  So I grabbed my phone and started texting it into my note app.  And what did Nick do?  He stopped, and went back the beginning.  Then he repeated, word-for-word, IN THE SAME ORDER, the same crazy recipe!

You use choco-wit milk to make sweet tea!  

You get ext-wa water and ext-wa wheels and we take our heads off....take our bodies off.  AND we take the wegs off and toes off, and den we are     go-wing to be all gone. You make sweet tea in the arms.  So you can make sweet tea . That's what you can do it. And then you're done.  You're done.  You're done, mommy!  You're just done!!!   (Evidently I type too slowly via text!)

Anyone want some sweet tea?

Sounds like...

Nick: Mom, want to hear a funny sound?
Me: Sure.
Nick: (Blowing through a straw)

Nick: It sounds like SMOKE!!!

It's never what you think they're going to say!

The grumpies

We've all managed to catch the stomach bug that's going around, and feel yucky, to one degree or another. I won't go into the details, trust me you don't want to know.  Let's just say I woke up from a really bad nightmare yesterday to an even grosser reality.  Now your imagination is working...and it's probably worse than what you're thinking.  'Nuf said.

Today is the second day in a row for the boys to be stuck at home together, feeling not-so-great.  Yesterday, they played nicely, and just generally enjoyed (as much as you can) being sick at home in their pjs.  Today?  Not so much.

We've all three got a case of the grumpies.  Lots of arguments, taunting, and several rounds of tears.  Thankfully they come and go pretty quickly.  

Case in point?  The knock knock joke:

After a minute or two of arguing about who-knows-what...

E: KNOCK... KNOCK!!!! (In the GRUMPIEST voice imaginable.)
N: WHO's THERE??? ( In an even grumpier voice, if you can believe that...
)
E: Giant lego man.  (Not so grumpy... almost sounding like a normal human...)
N:  Giant lego man who? (Almost said with a smile in his voice...)
E: Giant lego man fell on the floor (as he throws the lego man across the room...)
Both:  Laughing together hysterically.  Go figure.

Like I said, at least the grumpies leave as quickly as they come!

UPDATE:  While writing this, I noticed a very loud lack of fighting coming from the next room.  In fact, I realized that there hadn't been any noise in there for about 30 minutes.  Hmmm..  must investigate.  Want to see what I found?  They were in the cabinet together... quietly playing their handheld games with the door closed.

I couldn't help but laugh and run for the camera.  Boys, even on the days you're driving me crazy, you always manage to make me laugh!  I love you.

Help!!!!!!!! I'm STUCK!

"Help, mommy! I'm stuck!" 
About six months ago, this wouldn't have meant anything serious, but it is obvious that we've now got a pattern going here.  Nick has gotten some part of himself stuck in some thing at least three times.  The first, definitely the worst.  Check it out:

That's a piece of wood with two holes in it.  It goes to this cool wooden top that their cousin gave the boys.  So, of course, Nick sticks his finger in the smaller hole.  And it gets stuck.  "Mommy.  I'm stuck in a bwock.  Wook at "I" finger.  You get it offa me!!"

Of course his finger swelled up as soon as he tried to pull it off. We tried to get it off with some soap and water. Well, that backfired because the wood started to swell up. His finger was turning purple. Next we tried baby oil. But the wood and the finger were swollen up enough that we couldn't even rotate the block around. Can't get the baby oil between the block and his skin. It was completely stuck in place. Did I mention that this happened 30 minutes before it was time to pick Ethan up from school? No pressure there. So, we have a finger turning blue, somewhere else we need to be, and no way to fix it. We ended up calling Grandma and Papa to come help. They held him and the block still, while I used a hacksaw to gently....slowly....carefully.... cut ( Oh man, was that nervewracking!)... through the wood. Eventually we got a slice cut into it big enough to fit in the end of a screwdriver and twist the wood apart. Whew. I definitely don't want to repeat that particular experience!


Next, he got his little hand stuck in this small fabric pocket. It was just big enough for him to get his little hand into, but when he made a fist to grab whatever was in there, he couldn't get it back out. "Help mom! I'm stuck in the bwoo (blue) couch!" At least that one was any easy fix. Just had to tell him to open that hand and he was free.


Most recently, he got himself stuck again.  He can't resist any sort of daddy related tool or item left lying around the house, and here is the result.   

Do you see the roll of duct tape?  Doesn't look too bad, but he's wedged it up past his knee, so that it won't come back off.  "Um....mom?  I need a wit-tle help pwease...I'm stuck!"

Even he is just laughing while I'm asking, "Again??  Really?!?"  At least it came off again this time without a hacksaw.  Ahh...the joys of boys!

A milestone day

January 13th, 2010

A very important day in the life of Mr. Nick.
The day...
he learned....
to use the..... (wait for it...)



REMOTE CONTROL!


Okay, now that just doesn't sound that impressive to you, maybe?  Big deal, you say?  Well, stop and think about it.  Aside from the fact that I AM EXCITED to not have stop and turn the TV on for him anymore, he's a future MAN.  Men and remotes....  like peanut butter and chocolate, right?  SO here's how it happened.  Nick comes in and asks if he can watch TV.   Sure, I say, go get mommy the remote (nothing new here).

Nick disappears, goes to look for the "car-mote" (because everything has a "ca" tacked onto the front of it, but that's another post) and then I hear, "IT WORKED!!! I pushed the ON butt-ton, and it  WORKED!!
You should have seen the excitement on his face.    You should have seen the excitement on MY face!  Now you can turn it on yourself!!  Woo-hoo...!!  

And then the realization, that, OH...My...GOSH... he can read which one is the ON button!!  WOO-HOO!!!!   Way to go Nick-O!! It really is the little things that get us moms excited.

And now I can say, when he's all grown up and channel surfing away, that THIS was the day you learned how to use the "car-mote".

Can't you just see him imagining all the future bliss of flipping from one football game to the next?