I'm not a crab!

So Genius has camp all this week, little Bruiser does not. That means that I must take Bruiser on every single errand. That's ok, most of the time he's a good kid.

But not today! Genius teased and pressed his buttons all morning until Bruiser punched him in the stomach, I am not kidding. But then Bruiser was in a bad mood. I left him in the drop-in daycare so I could work out at the gym. When I came back, they told me this toddler colored on his picture and he smacked him. OOH my. Bad mood. Bruiser's eyes were all red and tears welled up and poured over his lower lashes. "He he...h hh he colored ON MY PICTURE FOR YOU!" Ok so why didn't they just give him another piece of paper? So while I was standing at the coloring table, FINALLY one of the ladies brought him another piece of paper. He traced and colored an airplane, and then cut it out by himself? WTF? When did he learn to use scissors? He cannot grow up, sry.

Anyway, I bribed him into a good mood by telling him we were going to the craft store. I don't think he heard me correctly, because he told everyone,"Hey, we're going to the CRAP store!" OMG ok, so in the car and away from the public, I explained and spelled the word "craft" for him.

A few minutes go by, and he says,"Mommy, we're going to the CRAB store!" So I asked him, are you a crab? He says,"No Mommy, I am not a crab 'cause I don't have a shell."

No, you can't clone yourself.

So my SIL is in town this weekend. Hubby and I tried to have a few activities outside the house so the kids wouldn't hang all over her all day long. Today we went to this small theater in town. It features kids as the actors! We went to see some skits from Schoolhouse Rock. They were pretty good, except now I have the song from "The Preamble" stuck in my head. "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, yada yada yada..."

On the way home, we somehow got on the subject of who my mom is... Genius said, "Well, gramma H is your mom, right, mom?" I had to explain that, no, that's daddy's mommy, my mommy is gramma choo choo (don't ask). Genius contemplates this fact for a moment. Then he launches into his logical argument,"Oh, ok, gramma choo choo had you, then you had me, and then I had Bruiser." Um, no. Since I was driving in heavy traffic, and it's not good to choke/laugh and drive at the same time, I explained - briefly - that I ALSO had Bruiser, he did not. Bruiser is his BROTHER, not his son.

This must have bored Genius, because he said, "MOM can we get chocolate milk at Starbucks?"

So embarassing....

The other night Bruiser and I were looking at a train book before bed. Well, let's just say we've looked at this book every night for the last month and a half. And we have to look at it twice, every night.

Needless to say, it gets a little tedious. Granted, it's mostly a picture book, but I kinda get sick of seeing the same snow plow train every night, 2x. I've taken to asking Bruiser all kinds of questions so he'll talk about the pictures. I know, I know, it makes it more interesting for me, but he's getting something out of it. Or, at least I thought.

So there we are, looking through this &*((%^ book again. You're supposed to guess what kind of train goes with the question on the page. I keep guessing the wrong trains on purpose so Bruiser will learn which is a track cleaning train, etc. Sometimes we just make up questions.

Anyway, we are almost at the end of the book, and I've "guessed" wrong on each page. Mind you, Bruiser is only 4. Apropos of nothing, he turns to me and says,"Mom, you're not very smart."

The things we moms do to teach our kids....

It's been a while and confiscating sock monkeys...

I had closed my blog off to the public, because I was being really shy about letting people read about me and my two sidekicks, but I'm ok with it (for right now ;) )

Anyway, I've been hanging out on DiYScene.com lots lately, and recently won a contest on there with a buddy of mine. Part of the prize is a sock monkey from Poisonedcreations.etsy.com! I loooove my sock monkey. He loves me back.

See?



He likes turquoise, too!


Anyway, I left him sitting in the living room last night, making sure elves didn't come in the night and make a mess.

The next morning I wake up, and Genius thrusts Mr. Stripey in my face,"Mom, mooom, can I have this, can I CAN I? I'm going to call him Cutie, can I have him? I'm going to put him in my room." Nooooo! Oh well, I was afraid this might happen. Then what came next was kinda expected, you can probably guess..

Bruiser saw what Genius had, and FLIPPED OUT! Tears 'n everything! He was a bit upset, so his grammar was off,"Mooooom is not fair - I want that! I want one!" Well, that's how I feel!

So, I put him on my lap, we surfed the net until we landed at PoisonedCreations.etsy.com, and I let him pick out a sock monkey. The funny thing is, he'd choose the monkey by the avatar, and as soon as I clicked on the listing, he'd be all confused and say,"NO! That is NOT my MONKEY!"

We did this with all the monkeys available, twice. Finally, he settled on one (ok, it was the very first one he picked, anyways...but you can't argue with a 4yr old, trust me).

Maybe they'll lose interest and I can have both for myself *cackle*

It's all about the Gelt!

Last night we spent Hannukah at a friend's house. Originally a couple that wasn't Jewish, the mom decided to convert. Her husband will follow soon, she says. Anyways, her daughter and genius went to school together for two years, and then went to different schools for Kindergarten.

They hadn't seen each other for a while, so they went off to play. Her younger son and bruiser happily bounced off the walls, as they still go to the same nursery school.

Things were ok up until cookies and gelt time. Then they didn't want to be parted. My friend's daughter, Abby, decided to put on a party dress, and then come back to the play room. Apparently, according to her dad, this had quite an effect on genius. She came back in the room, and he asked her to marry him. Just when I walked in to investigate, they were playing together in the kitchen, just like a model couple, cooking dinner? together. Genius had a pink tea pot and walked towards Abby and said,"Here's your smoothie, my princess." He's five, remember? Anyway, it turns out they were playing knight and princess. No matter.

If my husband said that to me, erm, well, I can't put that online...

Surgery!

So last Friday bruiser had surgery to repair a minor hernia. I had to get up at 5am to make sure he was ready for an 8:40am surgery. Does that seem a little extreme? We had to be there at least two hours earlier.


We got to the hospital at o'dark thirty. I was told by all the nurses at his surgeon's office that there are absolutely NO toys or magazines or the like in the waiting room, so be sure to bring some stuff!

Ummmm, they were a little wrong. A whole kitchen set with puzzles, etc., existed in the corner. A T.V. hung on the wall. There was a coffee station with little snacks. No matter, I'd taken about 12 different toys, because I was afraid bruiser would be freaking out in a blank waiting room. As it turned out, a little boy his age had James and Thomas with him. Bruiser was in heaven, and ignored my proffered toys.

Once we got called to the back, bruiser was invited to sit in a toy Hummer and drink "giggle juice". This juice is a drug cocktail which makes 'em giggly and sleepy. As soon as bruiser drank it, he started to get loopy. Apparently my son has a thing for narcotics. After five minutes, I swear, he was really really enjoying himself.

Hubby showed up a few minutes before bruiser was taken to surgery. We had to wait for our bbsiter to show up for genius, so he could come. By THAT time, bruiser was throwing his stuffed elephant (they were nice enough to let me bring his favorite bedtime animals and his blankey for recovery) at my head.

I hated to see him being taken away, but luckily the OR nurses were grandmas, and bruiser was giving them wide open grins and giggling all the way down the hall.

Recovery: I was warned ahead of time, BUT it's hard to see them wake up. Some kids cry a LOT. Bruiser was screaming his head off and trying to pull out all the tubes and monitors. The recovery nurse (who tried to get us out asap, btw) said they get freaked out when they wake up and want to be exactly as they were before they got giggle juice, which also gives them amnesia. So, I had to change him back into his pajamas, take out all the monitors, etc. He also drank a whole cup of ice water and two popsicles. Then the nurse said (basically), he's had enough, take him home!

This whole week he's been pretty good, even when genius stepped on purpose, of course, on his incision on his belly. For a while genius was being very sweet to bruiser. However, the shock and worry over his surgery must have subsided, because hubby and I witnessed this little exchange last night. Bruiser had a brand new truck and was playing happily. Genius had a "magic pebble" a rock he got at the school playground.

G: Can I have the truck?
B: NO!
G: I'll give you this magic pebble, and you can make lots of wishes!
B: OK!
G: - takes truck and exits stage left.
B: OK! Daddy, you wanna make a wish? I got a magic pebble! I can make lots of wishes!

Oh dear. Well, at least everything is back to normal.

Underwear that's fun to wear!

So these last few days the boys and I have been home together. No school/activities, whatever, just fun with mom, er, sort of...

I thought we'd get out and do some fun things, but I was surprised when I was met with resistance.

On Thursday: "Mom, I'm going to rest for an hour, and then we can go out"
"No, I don't wanna change my 'jamas - no pants no shirt, no!" "Maybe we can go outside tomorrow" Yada yada yada....so Thursday nothing happened, although I did manage to do five loads of laundry.

Friday I pleaded to their gentler sides, I bribed them: "I'll take you to McDonalds (I hate that place) if you come with me to the post office!" - big cheesy smile, lots of fanfare.

"Ok, but I have to rest for a while""No change diaper - later!"
Finally - Genius let me take him in the car, but only if he didn't have to get dressed. He wore Thomas the Tank undies (which, now that I think about it, belong to his YOUNGER brother) and no shoes. We were going to drive by a post drop box, so it wasn't like we had to get out or anything.

In contrast, bruiser insisted I change his diaper and give him fresh shorts. However, he insisted on wearing the same shirt he wore/slept in yesterday. Fine. Let's get in the car!

We drop my mail off, drive through the drive-thru at McDee's, and head home. I get a message that our neighbor's dog will be alone for most of the day, and would the boys like to visit? Suddenly, genius runs upstairs, puts on shorts (backwards), grabs an old camera that uses *gasp* film - although it was currently empty- and announces he's ready! Bruiser clamps his shoes back on and tries to open the front door. What is it about boys and dogs????

We romp around with the dog for a bit, getting him and the boys tired out, and I snap photos of the "playdate" so my neighbor can see that we did in fact come over. It was pretty fun, even if I am allergic to dogs.

After about an hour, we go home. But now they don't want to go home! There are shouts of the park, some restaurant, ice cream, etc. It's so late by this time, I have no choice but to go home and make dinner. At least we got to be in the sunshine!