My heroes!

We ventured out to a St. Patty's day celebration.

On stage, people were getting their heads shaved - to raise money to fight childhood cancer.

Logan BEGGED and PLEADED to be allowed to get his head shaved!

He was relentless!

 

So, of course - we finally said yes. 

I asked him later why he wanted to do it so badly...

He said....to show people there's nothing to be scared of. 

awwww...precious!

 

 

Getting some attention from the band! 

;-) 

Not to be left behind, Austin decided he would do it too.

 

Austin said it hurt!  

;-)

 

 

And not to be outdone......

 

Daddy joined in too!!

 My (cool) heroes! 

Funny Stuff

Logan is my thinker, always thinking! 

Logan:  "Mom, I'm glad I picked you as a mommy, when I was in Guatemala and they showed us pictures I said, "That one! That's the Mommy I want!  and Austin said, 'That one,' too!  So, you became our Mommy!"

~~~
Austin (While watching E.T.):  "Mommy is he getting on his bike and running away? (he sighs)  I want to do that one day!"

~~~
After football practice one day, where all the little boys were running around being little boys and not football players, Gary says, "That wasn't a very good practice today, Logan."  Logan took great offense, "Yeah, well, you didn't have a very good day at work, Dad!"

~~~
On the way to a wedding, I sidetracked into a shop to see if I could find a better outfit to wear.  I had the boys with me and I begged them not to run wild and crazy and to help Mommy find a new dress.  I grabbed several dresses off the racks and the three of us crambed into a tiny dressing room.  The third dress I tried on turned out to be one of those skin tight, body hugging dresses.  Immediately, the boys started exclaiming, "OH MOMMY - your butt looks SOOOO good in that!"  "NO - her boobies do!"  I had barely gotten the dress on and was well on my way of trying to wriggle back out of it - and the boys, squeezed onto that little teeny tiny seat provided in the room, are running their hands all over the fabric and saying how soft and pretty it is.  "Mommy, this is PERFECT!  It's sooooo soft.  And sooo colorful!  And your BUTT!  Mommy why are you taking it off?  WE LOVE that dress
Yeah - your butt.  No her boobs!"

"Oh, My Gawd!!!!  Would you two STOP!  I am NOT getting this dress.  Thank you for your comments."  I sweat my way into another two dresses.  Find one I like and wear it out.  When I step out of the dressing room, I see quite the crowd has gathered to catch an eyeful of my two little fashion connoisseurs. 

I swear - everyday, it's somthing unexpected and fun with these two!

:-)
~~~

The first day of school, Austin and Logan flew off the bus, raced home and were in the door, backpacks flown, snacks grabbed and watching tv, before I even caught up to them.  I kept trying to get them to slow down and tell me something about their day.  Logan finally stopped, looked at me, rolled his eyes and very attitud-ish said, 'Mom, we are in the first grade - it's. NOT. that. big. of. a deal."

~~~

I have found that when it is just the two of them and me, and I am trying to DO something...it is just easier to involve them then to try and get something accomplished by myself.  So..early on, they have always "helped" me - cracking eggs, mixing the batter, sewing items, stocking the pantry, hanging pictures - whatever. 

Same goes at the grocery store.  I give them items, and maybe a coupon for them to "match" and they go about the store finding their items.  Last week, at the great W*lma*t, I had them go pick up a gallon of milk.  They first came back with two 1/2 gallons.  Brilliant.  Good thinking, guys!  But, no - we need the big one.  Off they go again, and then together, lug back the big gallon jub.  And while approaching our cart, Logan says rather loudly, "Mom, I bet you didn't know you were adopting two strong boys who could do lots of heavy lifting for you.  Like, carrying stuff upstairs, doing the laundry, stocking the water bottles, doing all the recycling..."    Laughingly, I nod and try and sssh him, but he is relentless, "Did you, Mom?  Aren't you lucky you adopted us for all this work and stuff?"  Lawd - so not PC!  And yes, people were looking at us!

~~~
One day, Austin came into the room I was sitting to ask me a question.  After he got his answer, he turned to run out the room, but he looked back over his shoulder at me, his face lit up and he ran over to me, hugged me, kissed me, held my gaze for a minute, grinning from ear to ear and said, "Mommy, I just LOVE you to pieces!" and ran out of the room.  Melts MY heart!!  And it doesn't even matter that the room I was in was the bathroom!  ;-)

~~~ 

While Logan was brushing his teeth one night, in between brushes, he says "Mom, when I grow up I'm not gonna marry a boring wife.  I'm gonna marry a fun wife who likes to do fun stuff."  He pauses, looks at me in the mirror and says, "What I'm trying to say, Mom, is you're the boring kind of wife." And then he goes into greats peels of laughter!  Little bugger! 

 

My two little characters!

Austin, left.  Logan, right.

Fall Sports

warning: bragging ahead...

 

Logan is playing his first season of football!

When I signed him up, I thought I was signing him up for a FALL sport!

So...I was a wee bit surprised when, this SUMMER, we got an email about practive starting up in August.  ALL of August.  6pm - 8pm Monday THROUGH Friday.

Ayi-yii-yiii-yiii!!  Are you kidding me!?!

 

Thankfuly, Logan is a sports-aholic and loved every minute of it.

He wakes up talking football,

asking about his practice, his next game, etc.

This little boy breathes sports.

 

He's only six!!

He looks sooo big! 

And so intense!

 

Bragging:

Logan is a phenominal little football player.

He runs the ball.

He grabs the flags.

He understands the game.

He loves the game.

It is sooooo fun to see him in his element.

And shine.

 

But.

Truthfully, I am hoping and begging that football will not be his chosen sport.

Way too rough for this Momma.

Too many concussions and injuries.

;-)

 

Austin flat out said "No Thank you to football!"

Which is a first...

I think he realized that he signed up for baseball

because he thought it would be cool...then realized he didn't actually enjoy anything about baseball.

So, I was very proud of him for thinking it through and saying No to football.

Although, now that he has seen Logan play, he may be a little more open to it.

He likes running the drills, etc.

 

We gave him lots of options for his Fall activity, and he chose Swimming.

Not just swim lessons,  but swim team.

Austin has always been a phenominal little swimmer.

Always.

He has had practice for about three weeks and then had his first meet this weekend.

(sidenote: ohmylawd - whattheheck are these crazy events!)

 

Bragging: Austin raced in 4 heats (true story, I was calling them "heaps" til Gary gently and laughingly corrected me), he got 2nd place in one, 6th in one and we are not sure of the last one - it was a 50 (what yards?) down and back. 

Of course, my camera went out on me, he doesn't have another meetfor a month.

But it's safe to say,

swimming is his sport:

 Look at that precious face!

Getting instructions. It was a very, very confusing day!

But Austin remained focused. 

Was ready to go when we yelled at, er....directed him that it was time to swim.

 

Yay for sports and cheering on your kids.

We are trying really, really hard to hold true to one sport per child per season.

Just trying to keep it real, and not overwhelm any of us.

Which - we are...

...still overwhelmed.

 

But we are having lots of fun right now cheering on our little athletes! 

This little piggy...

Lawd have mercy!  These boys! 

 

We were jumping on the trampoline.

Discussing our plan of participating in Krispy Kreme's "National Talk Like a Pirate" day and snagging a dozen (or two) free doughnuts by dressing up as pirates.

 

Then, the bleeping, effin', overpriced, inconveniently timed ice cream truck comes through the neighborhood.

I distinctly told the boys, "No.  You are not buying ice cream from the ice cream truck."

 

 

....

 

..

 

..

 

But......Gawdigit!

They didn't listen.

 

What they DID do was

go into their room, climb to the TOP shelf,

 

grab their piggy banks down,

BREAK one open.

 

And BUY ice cream.

Actually, I think ALL of that was done by Austin.

But...Logan didn't stop him

AND when asked what he wanted, he clearly stated his ice cream preference and "allowed" Austin to purchase ice cream on his behalf. 

 

 

Soooooooo.

yeah.

There goes that trip to Krispy Kreme's for the free doughnuts.

;-(

 

And that's sort of when all hell broke loose.

I announced that the illegally purchased ice cream was going into the trash,

but Austin threw it in the backyard instead.

(That one is ALWAYS the control freak!)

;-)

 

Austin got mad,

declared me the WORST, most Horriblest mother evah!

Packed his backpack and said he was running away.

 

Logan was just simply devastated.

BEGGED for a "redo."

Apologized over and over and over.

Asked if we could talk about it.

And in between,

each time I re-stated that we were not going to be going for doughnuts,

would loose his marbles all over again.

 

 

We hadn't even had dinner yet.

I was making it through all this screaming, fit throwing and running away'ness.

Actually, half the time

I spent in the bathroom

texting my neighbor

and calling Gary.

 

Then, after I calmed down, I would come out,

work on dinner,

and then, maybe...
 go back in.

;-)

Sometimes
.....a little distance

(like a door)

makes all the difference in the world.

 

I informed the boys that dinner was going on the table.

They could eat it
or not.

They could continue their fits,

But after 20 minutes, we were going upstairs for showers and bedtime.

It was up to them if they wanted full bellies.

 

Eventually.

Eventually.

They calmed down.

And ate.

And we even had some midly normal conversations.

 

They took their showers.
Climbed into bed.

We discussed the afternoon.

The poor decisions.

That, saying all those nasty things to mom, about me, about hating me,

doesn't change the fact that I still love them.

That Mommies are built to withstand those kinds of things.

 

We discussed that all those things they were saying about themselves,

"I'm stupid.  I'm running away because you hate me."

really had no place in our lives.

That even Mommies and Daddies make bad decisions.

Bad decisions do not equal bad people.

It was an exhausting day,
after a long day of work.
 And I can only hope that a lesson was learned.
I can only hope that my
loosing it, getting as equally frustrated
doesn't scar them

...too much.

This 6 year old thing is tough.
This being a mommy thing is tough.

I declare the day a success if we survive it.
I really, really relish the happy, loving moments.
The goofiness.

I remind myself that it would have been
sooooooooooooooo easy
to have just ignored their crime
sooooooooooooooo easy
 to just go get the frickin' doughnuts.
But that
"easy"
isn't
always
best.

And I remind myself that once they fall asleep,
I can sneak into their room
and loose myself in their beautifulness.
 

 Their quiet, non-talking back, sweet, sleeping beautifulness!



1st Grade

Austin, Day 1

Logan, Day 2

(bcuz we didn't have TWO brand new Power Ranger shirts, thankfully Nonnie scoured the department stores and snagged one for her baby to wear for his "First Day" picture:

 

Austin, Day 2

jazz hands!



First grade- you can tell because they are holding up ONE finger.  Though Austin kept trying to gt a second one in there!

 

 

True story.  I sent them off on their first day with the WRONG bus number tagged on their backpacks.  The tags that the school uses to make sure they put your child on the right bus home.

"Boys, listen to me.  The FIRST thing you do at school is tell your teachers Mommy got the wrong number.  k?  K.  Have a great first day though an dhopefully we'll see you at the end of it."

 

I followed up with a call to the school, who politely laughed at me when I told them what I had done!