Short Hiatus

I know I have been sporadic with posting lately and the topics aren't my normal funny stuff, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches and deal with what life is sending your way. I am headed with my boys to spend time with my family and attend the funeral of my Grandmother so I will be offline for a short time.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the friends and family who have sent me their love and support over the last weeks while we were going through this tough time. It means a lot and I am very grateful.


Anyway.. I was talking as I often do with a very special person in my life about my boys. My youngest, being himself, decided to thank her for something by making up his own thank you song. It was only a couple lines, but it just fit him and his personality. The boys are always doing crazy stuff that makes you look at them and just laugh. You can't help it. Gone are the days when they were little and you just thought about how cute they are and spend your time watching the same 5 kids shows over and over again. Gone are the days when they are learning to walk, or talk or head off to school for the first time. Sometimes I miss those days.. they were great times. Now though, everyday they seem to do something that amazes me and makes me realize they are becoming young men and not little boys anymore.

Sure, somedays they do things that make me question if they were dropped one too many times as kids, but for the most part they are proving themselves to be intelligent and fun guys to hang out with. I got to thinking about some of the things they did as little kids that just made me shake my head and then started wondering as they get into the teenage years and dating, driving and everything else that goes with Jr/Sr High School.. what I am going to encounter then.

I still remember clearly the time my older son (B) decided he wanted to get the younger (G) in trouble. I was watching a movie one weekend afternoon when I hear this scream followed quickly by crying and B running down the stairs with tears streaming down his face clutching his forearm. I asked what happened and he showed me. His brother had bit him.. and bit him hard on the arm. There were fairly good teeth marks and the area was all red and angry looking. I took him into the kitchen to get some ice for it and to calm him down before I tracked down G to have a "talk" with him about biting.

As we walked into the kitchen.. who is standing there but G. Hmm... B had been upstairs and came running down as soon as he screamed and the crying started and I had gotten up as soon as I heard things to see what was going on. Unless G had turned super stealth ninja on me, there was no way he sprinted past his brother to get in the kitchen without me noticing. So what was going on here? I started to look at the bite and its location. It was on the top of his arm and I was pretty sure at this point that it would line up perfectly if I moved B's arm up to his mouth. Sure as shit, the bite was self inflicted .. a story G quickly confirmed and B eventually admitted.

I just stood there shaking my head. Part of me wanted to take care of my son as he was hurt. The other part wanted to smack him upside the head for biting himself hard enough to hurt to the point where it made him cry. I just was amazed that he wanted his brother in trouble enough that he would go to such lengths.

These days they are pretty much inseperable. I mean they each have their own friends and will go play seperately sometimes, but for the most part when they are at home or even when they are going out to play, they are together. Since they are only 2 years apart, they like the same things and play well together. That doesn't mean they are not still siblings and often act like it. You know the mentality that if your sibling says that water is wet, you must insist that water is indeed dry and refuse to see reason even as he dumps a bucket of it over your head and you are suddenly very wet? They contradict each other on general principal. They will go out of their way to antagonize, bother and in generally annoy the living piss out of the other person, all while begging them to help with a chore they are doing or to play something specific with them. If you didn't have a sibling in close age range to you, you probably don't get that, but I watch it every day with no small amount of amusement. As long as they don't annoy me with it and there is no blood being spilled.. have at it.

Ever seen someone take a bite out of a stick of butter? Me either. Yet one morning I got up .. was making breakfast and got out a new stick of butter. I opened this stick of butter to find two big bite marks in it. One a little smaller than the other. I asked the kids about it and they of course denied it. It must have been the stick butter biting gremlins. That was just one of those things that you just know you are never going to understand and let it go and hope that it doesn't cause permanent brain damage. :P

Speaking of annoying kids shows.. anyone remember a show called Bananas in Pajamas? Here you go if you don't know it or have managed to drink enough chlorine to burn the images from your brain:



The boys loved this show when they were little. It was annoying and I hated it, but watched it with them just the same. B even had a Banana in Pajamas toy. The only thing with this little stuffed toy was that it was almost sinister looking. Especially in a low light situation.. like when the kids had fallen asleep in the car on our way home form somewhere. That freaky banana was like the "Chucky" of the toy fruit world I swear. It could get this look like "I know you don't like my show so I am likely going to kill you in your sleep.. be afraid.. be very afraid" We wanted to get rid of it, but he loved that thing as creepy as it was. So do we take the chance with a potentiall homicidal toy ... or deal with an upset toddler that we just stole a toy from. We decided in the end that it was likely to be less painful overall to just go ahead and take our chances with the banana than anger an already tired and cranky toddler. It's hard to explain.. but just trust me that it was creepy. Not flying monkey creepy or anything, but creepy just the same.

Speaking of riding in the car with kids. I will never forget being in the car one day with the boys, looking back in the mirror and seeing each of them eating a french fry. Why is that odd you ask? Quite simply because we were not currently eating french fries and actually hadn't had any in the car with the boys since a couple days earlier. So did the fry fairy come and answer their prayers for some warm crispy french fries? Nope. I figured they must have dropped a couple when we had them and being toddlers, they had no concept that it might not be the best idea to eat a 2 day old fry that had been sitting around in the car. We took the fries away of course and they were not happy about it. Seeing as it was lunch time anyway and we were out and about running errands we decided to get lunch and get them fresh french fries.

The boys were not old enough to have their food in the back with them yet, so they had to be handed stuff one at a time. I was watching them in the rear view to see if he was dropping fries again and found out it was much more calculated and planned out. Here is B asking for a fry and as soon as he thought no one was looking he stuck it in a spot he discovered in his car seat. Seconds later he would be asking for another one. That one he would usually eat. I watched him carefully and it was pretty much a store one, eat one pattern. I was just speechless. Here is my toddler wanting to both have as many fries now as possible, and make sure he had reserve food stores for later on the off chance we decided to stop feeding him. When we got him out of the car that day we definitely pulled about a third of a bag of fries out of his car seat!

Good times.. fun times. Nowadays its even more fun for me to spend time with them, but its very different. It never ceases to amaze me to sit down and have a discussion with them and see how much they comprehend and understand and take in stride. Things like a death in the family, changes in relationships of those around them, and the general increase in challenges they face as they get older, all bring up questions for them. Yet they ask those questions. They talk about things, take it all in stride and never cease to amaze me with how they handle it all.

So I leave you now with a video that my younger son G told me I just had to watch with him. He was so proud of himself with this link. The two of them watch it all the time now and will sing it randomly as well.