Big Game Hunter

I don't know exactly when it happened. I don't have the slightest idea why it happened, but sometime in the last couple of weeks, Ryan has become a cat stalker. If there is a cat in the room, Ryan is determined to bestow affection upon it - whether the cat likes it or not.

Grandma H.'s cat is a nice enough cat, but you have to read his body language. He thinks nothing of giving love bites - or much worse. I have dubbed him the long-haired venomous house tiger for reasons I'm not going to go into here, but Ryan will not leave the cat alone. He's been nipped and hissed at. The cat will get up and leave the room, but Ryan will not back down. Pretty soon I'm sure there will be some bandages required as a result of Ryan's determination.

You'd think it would be a little better at our house where we at least have three cats to...share the love. But no, Gus and Sadie manage to stay out of sight when Ryan is awake, leaving Sanders to bear the brunt of Ryan's attention. I have found Ryan picking the cat up around the middle and carrying him from room to room. I have found Ryan pinning the poor cat to the floor so he can pet Sanders. I have even found Ryan sitting on the poor cat!  He will not leave the cat alone!

Now Sanders is just about the most gentle cat on the planet, but he has even given Ryan one or two warning nips over the past week. There's just no place for Sanders to hide. He's a social cat and wants to be around people, so hiding under the bed is out. Sanders has tried getting on the fireplace mantel, but Ryan goes all the way upstairs and gets his stool so he can reach the cat. Sanders tries hiding on the dryer, but Ryan will pull the laundry hamper over and stand on it to reach the cat. Even sitting on my lap isn't safe since Ryan will take that as an invitation to hug and pat the cat.

Poor sweet Sanders. I hope his old bones can continue to put up with Ryan. I guess it's good that he's so tolerant, but I really wish my kid would cut the cat some slack.

Looking Sharp

We have been enjoying some June-like weather over the past week or so in central Ohio. I've had to break out some of my summer dresses already and I actually put the boys in shorts today. SHORTS! IN MARCH! Crazy times!

My mom and I took Wesley to pick out a few spring shirts and what not at the store the other day. Normally I just pick out Wesley's clothes, but I didn't want to hear that he wasn't going to wear something I had purchased, so I dragged him along.  For the most part I wasn't a bit surprised by Wesley's choices, but I was shocked when he picked out a short sleeve, plaid, button down shirt. Not that he hasn't had similar shirts in the past, but he's been on a real button avoidance lately.

We got that new shirt out yesterday morning and matched it up with a pair of shorts. Wesley took a look at himself in the mirror and said, "Hey, I'm looking pretty sharp! But can we go downstairs and fix my hair? Then I'll look really sharp!"

Like I have said before, no self-esteem issues with this kid.

He even makes a pretty good looking horse.

Rockin' the safari hat my boss brought back from a conference for him.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not suffer major mommy guilt for dressing my boys a little too warmly on a gorgeous March day.

I did not tear up when Wesley had to be disciplined for behaving like a little terror.

There is no way I had a nice glass of wine with a a fast food sandwich for dinner one night. That would just be weird.

I know I didn't spend several minutes rummaging around in the fridge looking for the bacon, only to discover it was already in my hand.

Definitely His Mommy's Boy

Wesley is definitely my kid. He looks like me and my side of the family. He's a big ham and, if I'm being really honest, he probably gets his nonstop talking from me too.  Unfortunately, he seems to have also inherited my fear of storms.

I HATE storms. When the sky gets dark and the winds start to blow, my heart rate rises and I start to feel a little panicked. I try really hard to hide my fear when the kids are around, but sometimes it's really hard.

Tonight I heard the tornado sirens go off as I was getting dinner pulled together. I am not a person who can ignore tornado sirens - especially since the house we live in has a cellar rather than a basement, meaning we have to go outside to get to it. I'm telling you, if we ever get to move I am insisting on a house with a basement - preferably a finished basement. Anyhow, the sirens were going off, so I moved to the family room and turned the news on.

Now I don't know how many of you live in central Ohio, but anytime there is a storm of any kind, or even the threat of a storm of any kind, our news teams treat it like the world is about to end on a moments notice. I was watching to track the storm and see if we needed to get shoes on and head outside and downstairs, but Wesley picked up on the anxiety of the newscasters (and probably of his mom). Within moments, Wesley was convinced that a tornado was about to come out of the sky and kill us all.

We kept showing him where the storm was the worst and where we were on the map (no place near the worst of the storm), but that didn't calm him. We kept telling him that there had not been a tornado yet. No one has seen one. A tornado had NOT come out of the sky in our city tonight. I told him that I am 38 years old and there has never been a tornado in Columbus in that time. Nothing helped. He sat on the couch and stressed. And of course, since I am afraid of storms too, I didn't want to change the channel, even as I tried to downplay the whole thing to Wesley.  When the rain and hail finally hit our neighborhood, I thought he was going to pass out!

Wesley didn't calm down until 7:00 when the warning was lifted. Now he's running around the house acting like nothing was ever wrong. In the case of storms, I wish he was a little less my kid.

Walk N Roll-a-Thon

I neglected to mention that Wesley's school had their 5th Annual Walk N Roll-a-Thon last week. Around $3000 was raised for the school and kids had a great time. I just love that the school's major fundraiser isn't selling anything and promotes physical activity. That's a win-win in my book!

Jack and Wesley did their laps side by side (no surprise), with Jack's mom/my friend Pan and I cheering them on and passing out the wrist bands the kids got for each lap. The younger grades (K-2) did nine laps in their allotted time. Not too shabby guys!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone out there! I hope your day was filled with the luck of the Irish - or at least with sunshine, good food, good friends and happiness. 

I had to work today, so I didn't get as creative as I wanted to with St. Patrick's Day for the kids. I did manage to get green chocolate chip pancakes made for their St. Patrick's Day breakfast and Duane whipped up some "leprechaun milk" - white milk with food coloring. Wesley LOVED it, but Ryan didn't care for the milk. Still, I thought it was a pretty successful holiday breakfast.

I spent most of the day at the library, while Duane and boys got to hang out together, but we did have a great family dinner of corned beef and cabbage, and Irish soda bread with Grandma and Grandpa H.'s. It was so delicious and Wesley shocked us all by really liking the corned beef. He ate a ton of it! Ryan wouldn't touch it but was quite fond of the soda bread slathered with Irish butter.  We ended our meal with a green velvet cake with a green cheesecake layer in the middle. 

That's not mold on the top of the cake - Wesley and Ryan were a little heavy handed with the sprinkles.

It's also not mold on the inside of the cake, but Ryan REALLY liked the food coloring.

After dinner we moved away from anything even remotely Irish and played some baseball/tee ball in the yard. Let me tell you, I've got a couple of future sluggers in the family!

Right bat, right tee, wrong ball.

Didn't slow him down though!

This is Wesley's future trading card.

Run those bases!

All in all it was a pretty low key day - just the way I like it!

Bedtime Stories

After a really tough Wednesday evening, last night was much better and much more calm. In fact, I even let the boys cuddle in my bed with me for awhile at bedtime.  Really, snuggling with the guys in the big bed is one of my favorite things to do and I sometimes get the best stories/blog material when we are there. Take last night for example, the guys came up with four gems that I had to share.

I had the Food Network show "Chopped" on the tv when we first climbed into bed. Wesley will watch almost any cooking show with me, but both boys were pretty interested in Chopped last night because 1) one of the contestants had a blue and purple mohawk and 2) one of the secret ingredients was leftover pizza.  At one point the host said something along the lines of "These chefs will show you what you can do with leftover pizza other than reheat it in the microwave."

 I said to the boys, "That's silly, you don't reheat leftover pizza in the microwave. You eat it cold out of the fridge!" 

Wesley very seriously replied, "Mom, you don't do either of those things. You heat it in the oven so it doesn't get soggy."  LOVE that kid!!!

Now time for the potty humor.  As we were trying to fall asleep Ryan....shall we say, let one rip.  "Eww!!" I laughed. "Ryan did you just fart in my bed!?"  Ryan responded by laughing. 

"The next person that farts in this bed has to go to their own bed!" I told them.

 Ryan's response? "I fart in my own bed too. Sometimes it goes 'toot toot toot'  and sometimes it is really quiet." Wow. Thanks for sharing.

 Once we got the potty humor out of the way we had to have some sweet time. Wesley grabbed my hand and told me very seriously, "I love you Mom. I don't just love you to Pluto and back, I love you through the whole solar system!"  Gotta love that.

Ryan wanted to declare his love for me too, so he told me, "Mommy, you are my best because you have three hairs."  WHAT?! 

"What do you mean, I have three hairs?" I asked.

 Ryan explained, "You have hair with the big orange thing and hair with the black rectangle and hair with nothing."

The sad thing is that I knew exactly what he meant. Hair with the big orange thing is when I put my hair in a tortoise shell hair clip.  Hair with the black rectangle is when I pull part of it back in a barrette and hair with nothing is when I wear it down. Nice to know Ryan notices these things. Between his hairstyle advice and Wesley's fashion advice, I should be all set.

Want to Trade?

Being a parent is full of wonderful moments - the first time your child calls you mommy or daddy, hearing your child read their first book, baking with your kids. There are some really great times to be had. And then there are days like today....

I do not want to go into a lot of detail here, but let me just say that my children (especially Wesley) behaved so badly at their grandparent's house after school that I am surprised they will ever be allowed back in the door. They behaved so poorly, that it took Grandma over ten minutes to tell me of their "adventures." They behaved so terribly that I think I saw red the entire drive home.

Needless to say, tonight has not been a fun night in the W. house. Television programs have been erased, a ban has been placed on electronics for several days, much time was spent in individual bedrooms and a letter of apology was written by my eldest son.

And the worst part? I'm still not sure it has sunk in to the boys how disgusted I am by their behavior earlier.   Sigh.....

You know, the other morning when my dad picked Ryan up from my work, he handed me a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and then left with my kid. I joked that morning that I just traded my kid for a box of donuts and that I got the better end of the deal. Tonight, that's a trade I'd be pretty happy with.

No S.W.A.K. Here

Remember signing cards or notes with S.W.A.K. - or Sealed With a Kiss?  Well, with two little boys there's none of that mushy stuff in this house!

A couple of nights ago I asked Ryan if I could please have a kiss. Ryan's idea of giving a kiss is to either kiss your hand, or to present you with a cheek so you can kiss him. On this particular night Ryan leaned a cheek towards me and I planted a little kiss on it.

As soon as my lips left his cheek, Ryan raced to the corner of the room where he proceeded to inconspicuously (so he thought) wipe the kiss off.

"Ryan!" I cried. "I know what you're doing!"

He peeked around the corner with a grin and replied, "No, you didn't see me wipe it off!"

I fake pouted and told Ryan, "Wesley never wipes my kisses off!"

Wesley happened to be sitting just a few feet away and piped in, "Well, I don't wipe them off if you remember to kiss me on the mouth. If you kiss me on the cheek or anything I wait until you can't see me to wipe it off."

*sniff sniff* Guess my mommy kisses are going to waste in this house.

Making it Up as I Go

Being a parent means that sometimes you have to get creative with the answers you give your children.  I try not to lie to the boys, but every now and then they demand an answer to a question that I have absolutely no idea how to answer.

As I mentioned about a week ago, Ryan is obsessed with the Super Hero Squad and with the Thing in particular. We were watching the show the other day when Ryan turned to me and asked, "How old is the Thing?"

Now the librarian part of me wanted nothing more than to get on the computer and find out when the Fantastic Four comic strip (of which the Thing is a part) was created but I knew that wasn't really the answer he wanted. Oh, and for those of you who care, the comic debuted in 1961. 

"Um.....I think the Thing is in his twenties," I answered, thinking that he MUST be in his twenties if he has the energy to run around smashing things and the self confidence to go without a shirt.  Not to mention the literally rock hard body. "I think he's 27."

Of course, I should have remembered that I was talking to a three year old and 27 is absolutely ancient when you are a kid. "I think he's nine!" Ryan told me confidently.  Yep, must be nine. My mistake.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not look down at my bowl of chocolate peanut butter oatmeal and suddenly realize it looked exactly like a big bowl of ground beef. That would have been a little surreal first thing in the morning.

I did not send Wesley to school with a sore throat and a cough, even though I knew it mostly likely meant I'd get a call from the nurse at some point in the day. And there's now way I heaved a big sigh and said, "I knew it would happen" when the call arrived.

I did not learn the hard way not to show your 6 year old a cool new book you checked out of the library for him half an hour before you need to leave for a hockey game - especially if he hasn't eaten dinner yet.

I did not feel like Super Mom for a little while after I made chocolate chip pancakes to freeze for the boys breakfasts instead of buying the Eggo ones (like we've been doing for who knows how long)

What Time is It?

"Springing forward" with daylight savings hasn't been too much of a pain for me the last couple of years and this year seems to be no exception. The boys have been waking up between 6:30 - 7:00 every morning for the last week, so at least this way they are getting up at a more manageable time.  Of course, tomorrow morning might be a little rough, but we'll see.

Another good thing about setting the clocks forward? Well, I work today, so it means I'll essentially be done with work an hour earlier  - and don't tell me it means I go in earlier too, I'm ignoring that part.

Of course, there is the added benefit of more daylight in the evenings and since I'm completely solar powered, this is a very very good thing. 

Add in the warmer weather that's supposed to roll in this week and I just might be a very happy camper!

One of Those Nights

Duane is busy giving the kids their baths and instead of getting changed for exercising, I am sitting back with a glass of wine. It's just been one of those evenings. You know, one of those evenings when:

• one son refuses to eat a single thing on his plate while the other one nearly cleans his plate then vomits.

• the son who lost his dinner, stood inside the bathroom, yet let loose on the kitchen floor instead of the toilet

• you go to two stores with the kids and one child has to go to bathroom at each store.

• your children tell you that you are mean

• one child actually tells you that if you were nicer to him, he'd give you a hug. Never mind that the reason you weren't nice was because he was beating on his brother.

• you look around at the dirty house and are starting not to care about the way it looks

• you actually considering calling your parents and begging them to take your children for the night.

Big Day

Ryan had a very big day today. He had his second swim class today and did a fantastic job. At the end of class, the teacher asked the kids if anyone wanted to go down the big twisty slide. Only three kids said they did and Ryan was one of them. Ryan went down the slide with his teacher and loved it. Then she asked the three if anyone wanted to go again, and Ryan was the only one that said yes. In fact, he went down the slide twice more, each time by himself, with his teacher waiting at the bottom for him. I'm so proud!

We went to another hockey game as a family tonight. Ryan couldn't wait to go and wanted to wear his foam finger and his cap. The game itself was the best we've been to in awhile, but Wesley is still feeling not quite up to par, and as I said, Ryan had a big day. Need proof that Ryan was a busy guy today? Check out these pictures of him from the first period of the game.

Going....

Going....

Gone...

Sawing logs, do not disturb.

The guys sitting around us were getting a big kick out of Ryan sleeping at the game, all decked out in his hockey stuff. Of course, we all had a good laugh at Ryan's expense when the Jackets scored and the horn blared and the crowd roared and the cannon fired. Poor Ryan was instantly awake with wide eyes and a wee bit of terror.  But it didn't keep him from dozing off a second time. Needless to say, we left during the second period. Big day for a little guy.

Little Romeo Part 2

Apparently Wesley isn't the only young W. male that has a girlfriend. And no, I'm not talking about Duane. ;-)  There's a little girl in Ryan's JumpBunch class that has stolen his heart. How did she manage to break through to Mr. Strong and Silent? Well, last week he wanted a particular color ball and they were all gone. She gave him hers and true 3 year old love was born. Awww.....isn't it cute?

Little Romeo

Wesley is a handsome boy. Yes, I know I'm his mom and I'm supposed to say that, but it really is true. He's a cutie.

He has never lacked a girlfriend either. During his first year of preschool there was E. Last year there was C. This year there is a girl in his class, L., who has such a crush on Wesley that even their teacher has noticed it. We also hear a lot about M. too.

This morning when Wesley was getting dressed I commented of how nice his shirt looked on him. "You look quite handsome today Wesley," I said. "L and M are going to see you and giggle 'Hi Wesley' in goofy voices."

"Probably A too," Wesley answered. "She says she loves me and wants me to kiss her and for us to get married."

WHAT?!?!?

"Well, DID you kiss her?" I asked, praying for the answer to be no.

"No," he said. "And I told her I haven't decided who I'm going to marry yet because I have a lot of other girlfriends that aren't even in our class."

I'm not sure if I should be proud or slightly terrified.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not freak out when I noticed that I weigh a bit more since I started exercising even though my clothes are fitting better. That would have been silly.

I was not more nervous about Ryan starting swim class than he was. And it couldn't have been because Wesley has not exactly excelled at learning to swim.

There is no way I let Ryan dine on chips and salsa on Saturday night, followed by a dinner of croutons at a church potluck on Sunday. Nope. Didn't happen.

I would never call my oldest son a baby stalker for following around a baby at church and trying to get the baby to laugh.

The Sort of Super Hero Squad

Ryan's newest obsession is "The Super Hero Squad"

The obsession started when Ryan picked out his big boy underpants and chose "The Super Hero Squad." It has grown as I brought home books from the library and Duane started recording the show on TV.

Like any fan, Ryan has a favorite member of the squad. His favorite is "Thing." Ryan wants to wear his "Thing" underpants everyday and looks for "Thing" in each book and show. Ryan seems to like Thing's smile and the fact that he is made of rocks. The problem is that "Thing" is a minor character in the Super Hero Squad and does not make a bunch of appearances.  And have you ever tried to find a "Thing" child size t-shirt? It's pretty rough. And of course, since he is a minor character, he isn't on very many of the toys.

So Ryan has picked a second favorite - the Hulk. Of course, when Ryan says "Hulk" it sounds a lot like "Hawk", which probably ticks off "Hawkman" since doesn't even appear on Ryan's super hero radar.

This morning Ryan, Wesley and Daddy were sitting on the couch watching the Super Hero Squad.  In this particular episode, Hulk was holding a golden fractal (don't ask) and it caused him to turn into a baby.  Ryan exclaimed, "I like Hulk because he 'nacked 'em with his golden 'nana and turned into a baby!"  Translation: I like Hulk because he smacked them with his golden banana and turned into a baby!"

A couple of minutes later it was time for the heroes to "hero up" and Hulk flexed his muscles in a typical bodybuilder pose. When he did that, the building behind him exploded. "Wow!" said Ryan. "He tooted and building 'sploded!"  Translation: He passed gas and the building exploded.

Guess we all have our special super powers. I just didn't realize flatulence could be considered one. I suppose now I know why Ryan likes Hulk.

Trying Again

Yesterday was Ryan's first swim class. Yes, you read that right. We have signed Ryan up for swim class - not that three years of swim classes did Wesley any good, but apparently I just don't learn. That saying about stupidity being doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results had been going through my head in the days leading up to the class. And do you know what? It wasn't that bad.

We have a couple of things working in our favor when it comes to Ryan learning to swim: 1) he's pretty fearless 2) he was practically swimming at the end of last summer 3) he's on this "big boy" kick and believes that big boys can put their faces in the water and 4) he has seen the super cool water slide at the hotel we'll be staying at late in the summer and I told him he can't go down it unless he learns to swim.

I'm not saying he took to the water like a fish today. After all, it has been at least five months since he's been in the water, but overall he did really well. Yes, he climbed out of the water to wipe his face off a few times, but he also practiced shaking the water off his hands and then wiping his eyes with them without getting out of the water. He blew bubbles in the water and even laid down on his back in the very shallow end to practice kicking.  Wesley STILL won't lay his head back in the water, so I'll call it a success.

I'm just hoping the momentum gets going with this class, and he really takes off. I'm not looking for an Olympic swimmer here, but a child who can go underwater and down water slides with me would be really cool!

Career Change

Don't worry - I'm not the one changing careers.  I'm very happy in my corner of the universe ordering books, thank you very much.

The big career change has to do with Wesley. He has decided that he no longer wants to be an animal rescuer when he grows up. What's his new vocational calling?  Super hero!  In fact he told me, "When I grow up, this town will FINALLY have a super hero!"  

What will Wesley's super hero alter ego be? He will be Anything Man - the hero who can turn into anything! Ryan has decided he will grow up to a super hero as well. He'll be Anything Man's trusted sidekick - Ranger! 

Good to know the city will one day be in Team Brother's capable super hero hands. Here they are showing off their super hero moves. I'm not sure what those moves actually accomplish, but they look almost impressive.