Wordless Wednesday

Brothers

I'm an only child. I grew up socially maladjusted and lonely, and though I never yearned for a sibling I'd be lying if there wasn't a part of me that thought my childhood would have been easier if I'd had a brother or sister.

 

It was because I never felt strongly about having a sibling myself that I didn't immediately feel the need to have a second child after I had The Boy. I'm sooooo glad the urge to have a second grew on me, not just for the sake of having The Little Boy in my life, but because I've not only got two little boys to call my own but I also get to watch them be brothers to each other. Even now, when they're wee, it's really special watching them together.

 

Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

We had a quiet one at our house with my mom and stepdad.

I started working on the meal on Monday. I had been doing most of my prep in the mornings, while The Boy was at school. But I had to pick up the pace on Wednesday so The Boy was my sous chef, sitting in his helper chair. Well, mostly sitting in his helper chair. When narrating my way through the chopping of herbs I got the brilliant idea to let him smell them.

"Thyme smells pretty." He said. Then, "sage smells wet."

"Sage DOES smell wet," I said. Then I gave him the bare stems to smell and he acted like I'd given him a present.

It was one of those all-too-infrequent moments when I remind myself that MOST things are still new to my big boy.

So after a loooottt of chopping, mixing, sauteeing and baking we settled into a lovely dinner. I didn't take any pictures of the food itself, but here are some of us. None of us all together though :(

 

Sunday Out With Grandpa

A few Sundays ago it was actually cool outside. I got to wear my favorite scarf that I bought for 15 Euros 10 years ago, The Boy wore a toasty Union Jack hoodie which embarasses the hell out of Hubs, The Little Boy wore a fuzzy bear suit for the one and only time since he's already outrown it, and Hubs wore the same paper-thin hoodie he'd wear in a blizzard.

 

We met my dad for coffee. Hubs and I sipped our coffee while Grandpa ran around after The Boy. 

 

And after that we went back to our shorts and short sleeved tees.

I've Forgotten More Than You'll Know

The other day The Boy and I were playing with his Peter Rabbit hand puppet, known as Easter Peta Bunny, and I sang to him what I remembered of a puppet song we learned at Gymboree - something he lurrrved for the two and a half years he attended but that he aged out of at three.

He looked at me and smiledas I sang, but there wasn't a glimmer of recognition on his perfect little face.

"Do you remember dancing to that at Gymboree?" I asked him.

"No." He giggled.

"Do you remember Gymboree at all?" I asked further.

"Noooo..." He giggled again, grabbing Peta Bunny and resting his head on my shoulder.

I Am Not A Martha

Or Nigella, or Giada, or whomever happens to be your favorite domestic goddess person.

The Boy's school had a bake sale thing this past week. I made two kinds of cookies - chocolate chip and pumpkin oatmeal raisin - and was feeling pretty proud of myself that I managed to get some baking in and do my part for school spirit despite Hubs being away.

I spent the morning before the sale while The Boy was at school making the chocolate chip cookies then the afternoon making the pumpkin oatmeal ones, that also happen to be vegan(extra hippy housewife points for that at school), then popped them in some disposable storage things and labled them with a Sharpie.

Upon arrival at the sale I noticed two things - that at last half of the suff was store bought, so yay me  for actually baking stuff, and that the stuff that was homemade was conveyed in pretty little baskets decorated with fabric and ribbons and stuff.

The old me would have rolled her eyes and scoffed at the tweeness of it all, but the new me... the me that is a mom and wants more than anything for her boys to see her as good at her job of being a mom felt like a hack. I mean, there was really nothing wrong with the inexpert presentation of my cookies, but it seemed a bit half-assed. And I'm embarassed to say that I'm embarassed, but I am. Sort of.

Rookie mistake that I'll try my hardest to learn from.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Grandma

Hubs was out of town this week for work. My mom came to stay with us to help with the boys and make sure I stayed sort of sane. There were a few hiccups - The Boy fought getting read for school, The Little Boy objected to me taking The Boy to school or spending too much time in the kitchen, and bedtime was a hot damn mess - but it overall it went well and it meant a lot to Grandma to spend so much time with the boys.

So since she asked, here are some pictures of Grandma with her grandbabies during our Hubsless adventure.

3 Months Old

The Little Boy is three months old. He giggles, kicks, practices standing, likes playing the "thumb game" with Daddy(where he holds onto Hubs' thumbs then lets go and falls back onto the bed), smiles when he sees his big brother, isn't quite aware of Cat yet, and still thinks that I am the coolest thing ever. Unless I'm upside down, then he doesn't recognize me. 

 

Sunday on a Thursday

It's been a busy week so I haven't yet had the chance to post these cute pics of our Sunday morning walk to the park.

 

We left the house around 10, so just before it heated up too much to be enjoyable. The Boy wore part of his Halloween costume on his head and The Little Boy scrunched up his little face whenever he was met with direct sunlight. The Boy, who likes to collect outdoors things, found part of a pine tree that resembled the business end of a broom and carried it with him for most of the day.

 

He also found a stick. Sticks are his favorite as they can be used as swords. Pens too, but he's going through a knight phase so sticks are usually swords these days.

The Little Boy, who was wearing Chucks for the first time ever, enjoyed sitting with Hubs and The Boy on the grass.

Then it was time to go home, for The Little Boy to nap and for me to read the Sunday New York Times... in actual hard copy form. I subscribed to the Sunday edition and this was the first week it was delivered. I feel like such a grown up!

Halloweeeeen

Yesterday was Halloween and it was kind of meh. The Boy picked out his costume himself this year, he went as a train engineer; practiced saying 'trick or treat,' though he said it as 'trick or treat, candy!'; and we had planned for him to do lots of trick or treating.

The trick or treating part was only partially successful. First, we were going to take him to the big shindig in our town on Saturday where the kiddos can trick or treat at all the businesses. Sadly, I was struck down with food poisoning so it was left to Hubs. All he did was walk The Boy through the crowds, take a picture on a street corner and call it a day. Hmph.

So yesterday we dressed him up again to go to school.

 

And sent him on his way. His awesome preschool was taking all the kids trick or treating nearby. We had to sign his first ever permission slip, I'm a dork so found this very exciting, and transfer his car seat to the car that would be taking him, because of that I stayed home with the baby. I sent Hubs off with instructions to take lots of pictures of The Boy playing with his little buddies, all of them dressed up and anxious to show off their costumes.

 

 

Instead I got one picture of The Boy standing by the gate.

 

 

 

 

Again, hmph.

 

'No worries,' I told myself, 'we've still got trick or treating to do tonight.' But then The Boy fought his nap until after 5pm and slept right through prime trick or treating time.

 

 

Sooooo... that was it. Not good, not bad, just meh. But we do have candy, lots and lots of candy, to get through.