Topsy-Turvey World

There are Alden-isms like crazy that both warm my heart and crack me up. Part of what makes him wonderful is his tremendous lexicon and the way in which he expresses himself. I need to keep one of those books where you write down all the quotes of your child, but I know that I could never capture their true essence nor, frankly, do I have the time. Here are a few from just the past week:

(Funny) Alden and Spencer are in the bathtub. Spencer starts crying because Alden has done something to him. I hear Joey ask, "Alden, did you do that?" Alden replies, "No, it was somebody else." Um, yes Alden. Because there are so many other people in the bathtub! Love that excuse.

(Sweet) Alden likes to listen to his songs in the car of course (one of the many reasons I am begging for that minivan with wireless headphones.) He loves the songs about super heros. I often have to scroll through the playlist finding all the super hero songs. We were doing this the other day when we came across one of his Bible songs. He says, "Stop Mommy. We can listen to that one. God is a super hero, too." Warmed my heart.

(Telling) I send Alden to school with various shaped sandwiches. He usually requests a dinosaur. He tells me he wants a dinosaur and a car this week. I told him I didn' t have a car cookie cutter but maybe he could help me find one. He says, "Okay. Next time we go to Target we can look for a car cookie cutter. We just need to go over to the cooking section and look around." I have taken him shopping way too much!

(Growing up) I bought him a shirt and put it on him the other day. It has a pattern to it. He says, "I am not wearing this. It is a girl shirt! Take it off." I told him that Finley Grace (his best girl buddy at school) would like it. He gets into the car after MDO and the first thing he says is, "Finely Grace did not like this shirt!" Wonder if the consignment shops are still taking Spring clothing.

(Expectations) I told him on Valentine morning that if he ate his pancakes he could have his Valentine surprise. His face lights up, "What is it? Is it a mini van!" Would a Scooby Doo book do?

So, this is my bathroom right now. One little rotten spot in the floor led to a total and complete gut job which strangely (long story short) led us to have to also replace all the tutor beams and stucco on the outside of the house as well as our fireplace. The tile job has led to weeks of dust and displacement as well as scaffolding on the outside of my house. Joey and I have moved to the sofa bed in the living room and the guest bathroom downstairs. The pantry door is my closet, and we no longer are able to park in our driveway. Needless to say, things are a bit topsy-turvey. Two little people are trying to stifle their Builder Bob curiosity, work around all these strange people taking over their house, and attempt to be entertained with minimal meltdowns. This means a lot of random entertainment.

The playroom has become their little home. We finally got a kid's table in there which is now the craft table and dining table for now. Idea one for random entertainment while waiting on the tile guy: dishwashing liquid + food coloring + straw = bubbles. I don't know about the rest of the world, but my kids think bubbles were one of God's greatest creations. Bought me about a full 15 minutes.

No, we were not making handprints on the stool. And, no, we were not reenacting crime scenes from Law and Order. I saw this great thing on Pinterest where you use a toilet paper roll and fashion it into a heart. Valentine's for Grandmas! While I went to get scissors to cut the toilet paper roll in half so they could each participate, Alden decided to open the paint. I sent him to get a paper towel and he came back WAY later covered in chocolate from stealing Daddy's birthday cake. (Sidebar: Our biggest problem with Alden is scaling the kitchen drawer knobs to score food.) We cleaned up and regrouped. Alden said that they were dinosaur footprints and not hearts. Fine. Spencer began to finger paint and abandoned the idea totally. We were not using finger paints. All was well with Alden until he decided the dinosaurs needed a lake in the middle of the paper. Need I say more about that.

This was the end result of craft time. FYI: Melissa and Doug paint may not always come out of clothing but it does come off of marble countertops. The only thing that doesn't is blue food coloring. Don't ask me how I know that one.

Next activity was while waiting on the plumber one day. Baking cupcakes. This sort of went well. Alden is actually not that bad at following kitchen directions. Are you waiting on the "but?" Yep, there is one. So, I misread the cupcake recipe and didn't have enough flour after all. I told the boys we would put the batter in the refrigerator and take a walk up to the Piggly Wiggly for more flour (love living in Mayberry). I get a series of phone calls from tile, countertop, etc. folks all in a small period back to back of about ten minutes. Alden goes into the fridge by scaling those shelves in the door to eat the batter, raw eggs and all, even though he knows that both are forbidden around here. Then, Spencer crawls on top of the dining room table and disassembles the entire, very large, floral arrangement. His brother joins him, on the table mind you, and they both start jumping up and down throwing flowers. The plumber said he could hear me screaming through the ceiling. What is it about TALKING ON THE PHONE and KIDS?? I thought the bad news was that I threw the batter away as punishment and didn't take the fun walk to finish the batch. Turns out, I tried to make these cupcakes the next day and it wasn't such bad news after all.

Later...I catch this. Do you see what is on the counter under the acrobat? That would be that shelf that Alden climbed. I wrote a check for $250 to the refrigerator repair man that week and hid the step stool.

The good news is that the boys think that having the bed in the living room is the most fabulous thing ever! We just find wherever to eat. These days, I don't care what they eat as long as they will eat it. I went on this whole cooking spree where I cooked the entire Jessica Seinfield cookbook of hidden veggies in yummy food. Alden ate one thing, peanut butter banana muffins, but Spencer fell for none of it. Then, I threw up my hands and said that I would cook horrible processed food that had a ton of fat like Pizza Casseroles and lots of stuff with crescent rolls. Nope. No takers. Guess who has to eat all of the leftovers? Me! Last effort was homemade mac and cheese, which they didn't eat. Joey has a theory that they eat everything better out of snack bowls. So, he got frustrated with Spencer and gave him the tupperware and sent him to the living room. The little scutter ate it! Nothing ceases to amaze me anymore.

Except the night Joey and I had a date and my mother sent me this photo. He ate CORN??!! In a HIGHCHAIR??!! From a PLATE??!!

This one cracked me up. Another day of Mom having to deal with contractors. Alden and Spencer went exploring and found all of Spencer's birthday gifts in the closet hiding until March. What are big brothers for? Helping you open them early of course! Luckily, Spencer is only turning 2, so I just put them all back in the boxes and hid them again.

Happiness! I love that just being able to go outside can make little boys so full of joy! Thank you so much 60 degree February weather!

Makes me look so forward to those spring and summer afternoons and long days of sunshine.

And for those nights we can't stand to be in our nasty turned-upside-down house, we would like to thank Barnes and Noble for having a train table and a "library" of super hero books. One of our favorite things in the world to do (even though I will continue to say I don't know why the same train table is great there and sits unused at home).

I have been feeling kind of guilty for dragging my little buddy on errands on Wednesday which is our morning together while brother is in school and he isn't. So, we have started doing Mommy/Spencer activities. Starting with the zoo. Well, the zoo train of course. Alden used to love the animals. Spencer just went around looking for all of the zoo train tracks around the grounds.

Sara and Spencer enjoyed their time together without their bigger siblings. Maybe because they got to do what they wanted for a change. I admit, it was better than a Target run:)

Speaking of Spencer alone time, Spencer got invited to his first birthday party. It was for a little girl in his Mother's Day Out class. It was at a sweet's shop which was almost cruel. Everything is there on kid's level, but they couldn't touch it until all the games were played and such. He did not understand this at all! I managed to keep him happy and entertained, but all the uncertainty was forgotten when we had "lunch." Here is what they put on his plate: ice cream, cake, chocolate covered pretzels, a cookie, Capri Sun, and one of those viles of multi-colored sugar. Seriously. This is what I saw in the backseat five minutes after the party. I foolishly woke him up for one errand thinking we would then go home for a nap. That is when it all kicked in. I have never seen him like this. The errand was the fabric store and he ran around in circles, pulled off every spool of thread he could find, pulled fabric off the walls, and unraveled a few embroidery threads I had to subsequently purchase. I mean, considering he really just hangs out most of the time, this was so funny you couldn't be angry or even frustrated. Note to self: Don't serve only sugar items at a toddler birthday party. Just sayin'.

To make up for all the boring home time, or maybe to avoid another cupcake batter/paint/dining room table/bubble fiasco, Joey and I have been filling up the weekends like crazy. This was the coolest weekend yet by far. Construction Day at the children's museum.

Diggers, cranes, firetrucks, and police cars, oh my! This is when I just love having boys. Alden's favorite by far was the police car which was the most boring. He is on a police kick and we have to go drive by the police station all the time to see the police cars. He says he wants to be a policeman when he grows up because they are super heros (yes, buddy, they are) or a chef at The Original Pancake House.

Coolest thing ever! Discover the Dinosaurs came for a visit. Alden wore his T-Rex shirt and said that he really hoped he got to see one. I am not sure which of the four of us was more excited when he, indeed, got to see a T-Rex! All of the dinosaurs moved and made roaring noises. I know I am pregnant and unbelievably emotional, but I totally teared up and fought back crying I was so excited for Alden. If Spiderman had shown up, we might have had to give him CPR.

I love that my boys have a brother to share all the excitement with. One day, they really will appreciate that.

Mr. Cool here and his lucky big brother have become accustomed to these weekends. Since they are staining hardwoods, my OB told me I would have to leave the house. We told Alden maybe we would just take a trip. He says, "Oh, boy! We are going on an airplane to see Grandpa in California!" The good news is that all those days of geography lessons with Mommy are paying off. The bad news is that we were thinking somewhere like, well, the Georgia Aquarium?

So, this is my life. We are trying to take the four month belly photo. We had a hard time getting a photo or Mom and the belly without...

the blurry vision of a couple of figures playing chase running through the photo. By the ninth or tenth time, we were laughing so hard we couldn't even take it. Do they know what is going on in the belly? Nope. Alden asked me the other day why I was getting so fat. He asked me if perhaps I had eaten too much peanut butter. Not that kind of peanut in there buddy as you will soon find out.