My Beloved Baby Boy

Tonight I was working on cleaning the kitchen and had finally resorted to barring the boys from coming in because telling Ben to put the knife back in the dishwasher and Joshy that I wouldn't answer him if he was whining, ended up proving counterproductive to my kitchen cleaning progress. We set up our leather ottoman in the doorway as a blockade. A blockade that doesn't block much of anything but serves as the line by which punishment comes if crossed. No sooner than I had turned back around to the sink do I catch Ben crawling up onto the ottoman in the corner of my eye. As I turn around and say "Ben" in my warning tone, he falls flat on his stomach and starts to fake snore. I turn back around and he proceeds to hang one leg towards the kitchen. As soon as my head turns in his direction, the leg comes back up and the fake snoring begins again. It is adorable but aggravating and entirely ornery. Every time I start the dishwasher, he comes along and changes the settings or turns it off. I think that the cycle is finished and open it up to a washer full of suds. He pretends to be sleeping and as soon as you close your eyes, he blows the air through his lips at your face to get the puttering sound along with flying spit. Or he will poke you in the eye while saying "eye" because he has learned that the excitement of him saying the right word somehow makes the eye gouging okay. His vocabulary is exploding but mostly with phrases like "no..no...bite" and "no more". That and his colors. The other day he even started to count along with Jessi when playing hide and go seek. Best of all, though, is his "sorry". He will say it in this sing song tone and gently rub your cheek. It is almost worth being hit. He knows "Bumblebee" and "Spiderman" which he sings to the Ironman theme song. Joshy could sing you the tune and correct you when you inevitably get it wrong. When the music is loud and he begins to dance, instead of moving his legs, he just moves his arms up and down like he is doing the...well that dance from the sixties where they are moving their arms up and down. All I can think of is Mash Potato but I am pretty sure that's not it. My baby is a ball of wonderful craziness embodied in the boy with his leg hanging into the kitchen pretending to sleep. I wish I had a picture that captured his precocious smile and ornery glare but somehow the times when it shows up are not the times I am thinking "take a picture" but more a "you better not put that marble in your mouth"...

Soul Glo

As I was blessed with course hair, I often use Biosilk on the ends of my hair to try and keep from getting "Monica Hair" after taking two steps outside on humid days. Joshy happened to be in the bathroom with me when I was putting it in my hair a few mornings ago and of course, asked what I was doing. After explaining, I took my almost dry hands and rubbed them through his hair so that he could be just like me. Instead of putting the biosilk up in the cabinet, I left it on the back of the toilet while I stepped out of the bathroom to grab something. Soon I had Joshy trotting after me. He was proud to show me that he had used the biosilk himself and now had 1/2 of my bottle of serum applied to his hair. It looked like Soul Glo hair from Coming to America. You could mini-toboggan down the sides and have enough left over grease on your treads to make it across a field of sand paper and tackiest of glues. He felt so fly that I couldn't break his spirits and just told him how great he looked as I talked about using only a little and ringing the oil from his hair. Never has there been greasy hair so adorable and well meant.

State Fair Part Deux

I had the opportunity to go to the state fair twice this year, the second time with some girls from work. One of them brought their daughter who was adorable and it is always fun to have a kid present because it is easier to explain away my excitement at seeing a Llama or Zebra when a kid is right there being excited too.

We stopped by the car barn to see all the cars but I was disappointed that they didn't have the Cube on display. That was the one I was most interested to see. Still, I got to see LeAnn spill funnel cake powder all down her front and that was something. What created the humor was my comment to her as we were leaving work about how she was wearing such nice clothes in comparison to me and my slumming it and how she was going to end up getting stuff on it. She of course said "What am I going to get on it?" with ridicule in her tone. So what do we call her covered in white (and some Indian Taco mind you)? Maybe case and point...

We played some games as well before the night was through. LeAnn played the horse race and I gave my best at the water squirting race (came in second - barely) but it was Kyra who who ended up scoring the loot for the evening.

The only thing that can make the State Fair better is the State Fair times 2. And let me just note that it took some impressive squatting and leaning for me to take this picture. Just saying. Don't want to keep props from being given where props are due.

State Fair

There is one reason that I look forward to the fair. That reason? The food. There is no food like fair food and no other time in the year that you find it acceptable to eat a turkey leg, Indian taco, roasted corn, cheese on a stick, root beer jug, saltwater taffy, chocolate covered cheesecake, frozen yogurt and corn dogs all in one day. Every year it's the same. Go for the food, stay for the attractions.Rumble is the mascot for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Rumble the bison. Yes, it does make that much sense. Joshy, complete with B and his ecowater crown (again, ecowater and crown - the connection is clear), got a chance to take a picture with the man sweating to death in a bison costume in 100 degree heat. Joshy was pretty excited and we got a poster of Rumble to hang in his room.

Like I said...go for the food, stay for the fun.

Ben loved his spiderman that we bought for the boys. It was almost as tall as he was but he carried that thing around the Agcropolis, sometimes even making it walk along next to him. Him and spiderman moo'd at the cows, baaaa'd at the sheep, tried to crawl into the trashcan. He is quickly learning the phrase "no..no...dirty...gross...".
Last stop of the day was the carnival rides and games. By games I mean "how much do I have to pay you so that my son wins the ball?". $10 and two balls later we were on to the kiddy rides.
It was a good day as most all State Fair days are. The boys enjoyed themselves, I got to eat my weight in Indian taco, we all laughed and my parents had an excuse to be "stylin'" in their matching straw hats...

You can't ask for anything more.

School Pictures

Look at my babies' pictures. I can just picture them telling Joshy to lean his head and every time I look at it, it just makes me laugh. I love my boys. They are both so handsome. I plan on sending some wallets out to family, so if you fall in the bucket, you should have one in the next couple of weeks.

Labor Day

For Labor Day we all spent the evening at Jess and Ross's apartment. They grilled out hamburgers and we let them while devouring Jessica's guacamole. It was like a Disney movie where all the animals are ravenously eyeing each other as they surround the last drops in the disappearing watering hole. Personally I had made the wise decision of eating those ready made chicken salad lunches where they give you a can of salad and like five crackers. At the time I wasn't hungry but by the time we made it to the guacamole, I literally could think of nothing but getting as much food into me as quickly as possible. Thinking that my jitters were from not enough sugar, I slyly grabbed a cupcake that Jess had made for dessert and took off for the bathroom. So, there I sat on the toilet, tearing my cupcake into pieces for the two little boys who had followed the blur of chocolate into the bathroom with me. It's like they have a radar. Or, you know, the sense to notice an adult running through the room with baked goods...

After dinner and my second cupcake, we all headed out to the tennis courts to just goof around. Papa was tossing tennis balls for Joshy to hit with the racket. Ben was dragging the second racket, as tall as he was, around the court with balls in hand. John and I were discovering that we are woefully bad at the game of HORSE. I think I was a HOR by the third set of shots. Jessica was pulling shots out of nowhere. Although, she has an unfair advantage in strength. She is just unnaturally strong. When she later went to return the tennis ball, what looked like a gentle swing rocketed the ball up and out of the court and into the parking lot a good 20 feet away. Her first whack at a golf ball was a 125 yard drive down the fairway. Entirely aggravating in a "I am so proud of you" sort of way.

As we were wrapping up the evening, Jess called us all to do group pictures and being in the extraordinarily good mood we all were, we all said "sure" when she thought it would be fun to take a picture of us while we simultaneously lept into the air. I say lept because it sounds more graceful and as though it involves less of those verbal assists your brain is convinced will get you just that much higher. Yes, they look amazingly synchronized and yes, Jess and Tina took ten minutes deciding on whether we bend down or jump on three. Still, I have got to say. Papa got some impressive air.

Shaken, not stirred

I have a tendency to bounce my knee up and down when sitting in a chair. I don't really realize I am doing it most of the time but every once and awhile, someone will take note of it and bring it to my attention. My leg just gets a mind of its own whenever the weight shifts to the ball of my foot. It has been that way my whole life, so it was not a shock that I do it, more of a shock of the frequency it must be done for Joshy to turn in my lap this evening and ask me to "shake him". At first I look at him having no clue what he is asking me to do, visions of shaken child syndrome and DHS in my head. He then explains that he wants me to bounce my leg up and down and shake him. So, there we sat, through a 30 minute episode of Dora, him bouncing up and down with my knee. Apparently my children have grown up so used to my bouncing leg that they actually request it. Still, letting my leg bounce for 30 minutes was far less exhausting than dancing with Ben to In the Jungle for two. Here is the video I pull on YouTube for us to dance to. Turn it up loud and sing along...

Hippo and dog -singing Song - Funny bloopers R us

Stupid medicine

I was sick on Friday and here is what I don't get. If you are sick, you are generally weaker than one who is say...well. Let's say somewhere between child strength and normal adult strength. So, what is the deal with making sick people find superhuman strength to get into those medicine packets??? Child proof is important, yes, but if I am having to bite and poke and finally resort to fingernail cutters, I think that we have rocketed past the mark of safety. I can only figure that I am being punished for buying generic. We sell it for less but you have to use a chainsaw to take it. The worst part is that I don't even feel any better. Of course the construction workers out back, whose stapler guns sound like someone popping giant size popcorn, who only stop for lunch when the next door neighbor comes home from work to practice his drums are probably not helping either. What adult has drums in his living room? Thank goodness I married a nerd. All he has is computers and those come with headphones.