Not ok

From a young age, we worked with the boys on apologizing and accepting apologies. We may not have worked hard enough on the acceptance part.

Scene 1:
Aidan and Owen, in the front yard playing football. Aidan tackles Owen with too much force, Owen crumples. Owen's sobs get louder and louder; Aidan's grin doesn't subside. I finally intervene. First I hug Owen, then I pull Aidan close. I make him apologize, and I explain to Owen that this is football, albeit from now on one-hand touch football. They have to "hug it out" and Aidan says he's sorry. Owen's response? "It's not ok."

Scene 2:
A few minutes later, still in the front yard. Aidan decides to roll down the hill. Owen decides to do the same. Of course, OF COURSE, they crash into each other. Owen was more to blame, so I tell him he needs to apologize. Aidan's response? "It's not ok."

Scene 3:
Bedtime with Henry. He's giving me 100 kisses, and I brush some hair out of my face. I accidentally scrape Henry's cheek in the process. "Sorry," I say. Henry's response? "It's not ok." But he continues with the kisses.

Silly boys. They really don't harbor grudges, despite how it sounds.

Bad mama

Who: Henry D, talking (shouting) to me.
When: 12:30 A.M.
Where: Upstairs

Henry stumbled out of bed the other night, crying and shouting. I ran to him and scooped him up. He yelled at me, "Why you leave me in that room!!" Poor baby had a nightmare.

Then I slept with him the rest of the night.

This and that

Aidan's fear of weather has subsided over the past few weeks. In fact, he's been discussing barometric pressure with us, and seems calmed by the fact that there is a scientific way to prove the weather will, in fact, be safe. He gave a presentation to his class about different forms of moisture, and about barometric pressure. Who knows? Maybe a little additional knowledge was helpful in this case. It's not always the case, though. He won't even acknowledge the existence of his own ear wax, he's so squeamish about anything related to the body. More knowledge does not seem to reassure him there.

I took Henry to his church program yesterday, and as I was signing him in, he danced into the room. Really. He pranced on his toes, wiggled his hips side to side, and raised his arms above his head. No clingy goodbyes from him. He seems really happy there, and I love hearing about the friends he's making. He's so good with their names...better than I am, I think.

After I dropped Henry off, Owen and I had a few hours before he had to go to school. We went to Kohl's and Target in search of the perfect Christmas ornament for Owen. He was determined to get one yesterday. Why? No idea. He thought he wanted an ornament from Kohl's that was the earth, but decided to check out the options at Target before fully committing. So we went to my second home, and sure enough, he found an ornament he liked there. It's a Nascar car. His choice is intriguing, as we don't watch racing. I didn't have any expectations, though, since Owen is full of surprises. It was really nice just hanging out with him.

I feel like I haven't been home much the past two days. Yesterday was a fun day, but I was gone a lot, and today I have my early childhood committee meetings. Those are fun too, but I'm hoping to be around a little more tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo is kicking my butt

So let's see. Friday night we took the boys to a new hot dog place a few miles from our house. When we were in South Carolina this past summer, we ate at this place, and we all liked it so much that we had to eat there three more times during our one-week stay. Well, the place near our house didn't really compare, so we won't need to go back there three times in the next week.

Not only do I feel like I do way too much laundry, I also feel like I grocery shop way too much. So I had everyone come with me on a Friday night and we loaded up the cart together. Can you get enough of this excitement??

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner, and getting ready was an all day event. Well, not really. Andy took Oce to a friend's house for part of the day, and then he and Aidan did more birthday returns and shopping. I did get an outdoor run in, because I do believe it may be possible to fall asleep while running on the treadmill. Running outside is waaaaay better. The boys did help with cleanup, and for now at least, we have an organized basement. Will it stay that way until Santa comes? Stay tuned!

Our dinner was a success...funny to me though is that we have to have people come over at 4:00 so everybody can go home by 7:30. But everybody ate, some people ate more, we had fun conversations, and the meltdowns didn't start until the evening was almost over. Success! On tap for today is football and maybe a little shopping. Oh, and I have gotten a request for chex mix. Should be a mellow, fun day.

Yo mama...

I took Owen and his friend E to the bus at noon. When we got to the bus stop, the air reeked of cow poop, which is not a normal occurrence. The boys decided it really was dog poop that they smelled. I yelled "Bye boys!" from across the street, and E responded by saying, "Bye dog poop!" I didn't really think anything of it, but it really pissed Owen off. He shoved E, hard, and gave him a really nasty look. Then he looked at me with this combination of still being angry and something else... almost like he wished I hadn't had to hear that.

Better not talk bad about Owen's mama.

Soon he'll have a starring role in The Big Lebowski part II

Owen was discussing his bowling prowess. "Mom, did you know? One time I knocked down eight pins and then the ninth pin fell over because it fainted from my awesomeness."

So long ago

Aidan was reading a book about dinosaurs last night. He asked me, "Mom, can you believe dinosaurs were alive 65 million years ago?' I said no, that that amount of time is difficult to comprehend. He agreed. "Yeah, because I thought they were alive, like, 300 years ago."