Weekend With One of My Favorite Guys

I heart little old men. Let's be honest...I heart men. But, I HEART little old men.

I figured out this weekend why... I LOVE my Grandpa. He is just so cool. I wish I could share him with every one, but I'm really gonna be selfish and keep him. But I'll expound on why I love him so much.

Grandpa Bruce isn't a lecturer. His whole life is a quiet example of happiness. I watched this weekend and hopefully learned from his example. First... enjoy your children. (As this is my New Year's Resolution, I paid attention.) Second... everyone is worthy of love, and acceptance. No matter how they live(d) there life. Third... serve others. Fourth... don't take naps in bed. You will eventually die in bed. Fifth... do not fear death, everyone is going to die. (But you do have a say in the arrangements.) Sixth... enjoy yourself. Drink enough water, have a martini (or an acceptable to your life style drink) by 4:30 pm and set out bowls of chocolate around your home. Preferably where you can easily reach them, from any sitting position. Don't limit yourself, because, sooner or later your going to die... and while you may not have any regrets, you will always regret not having had enough chocolate. (He never actually said this, but I assumed...) Seventh... Even if you are full, don't pass up a hot fudge sundae. Eighth... Just don't slow down or give up.

Maybe all of this wisdom comes with age... Maybe it's just Grandpa. I'm just infinitely thankful to know this guy. He's a rock star!

I'm Possessed...

That is the only reason I can think of this morning for my willingness to SHAVE ANDERS HEAD before bed last night!!!

It all started out innocently enough with Liam getting a little trim after his bath. Then the persistent nagging started... "I want my hair to stick up like Daddy... My turn for a hair cut... you need those buzzers to make my hair stick up like Daddy's..." So on, and etc.

So I did it. I got out the clippers and got started.

I panicked as the beautiful blond inches fell to the floor. What am I doing?!!? But I couldn't stop... (Brain and heart were screaming STOP, STOP, STOP...Hand, laughing like manic mad scientist yelling back NO. NO. NO!!!) It was like my hands were working independently.

Anders giggled all the way through. (I was COMPLETELY SURE that he would panic at the clippers and we would stop...) Laughed at his reflection in the mirror, and then announced it was time to go to bed. No thanks to the ice cream...

He was asleep before Brian got home, and I was in utter shock. I dreamed about it all night. I can't believe I did it. I'd almost rather that he asked to have his lip pierced, or a tattoo on his forehead.

I found, however, a Bergholm hiding under all of that beautiful hair. I'm not sure that he has any Johnson at all. In fact I was beginning to wonder if he is even my child when I saw THE COWLICK. The Corbin cowlick right in front, in the middle, standing straight up. I started to feel a little better after I found that.

Not much...

I probably will never be able to cut his hair again. Totally scarred for life.

What I Came Home To...

I'm always happy to see my sweet children when I've been gone from them for a while. I went to visit my Grandpa Bruce this past weekend, and came home to a very clean house, and happy and well cared for little men, who where glad to see me. I found them under the train table Monday morning playing quietly... and NOT getting into any trouble... AMAZING

Tribute to a Dead Friend

We had to put our Talulah Bunny to sleep this past week. He was a very old man and was suffering. Elleory made the very hard and grown-up decision to end his suffering, and was a total trooper and stayed with him until the very end. He was 10 years old, which the vet informed us is almost totally unheard of...Bunnies usually live to be 7 at the most. I guess it was all of Elleory's good care. We will miss him.

AAARRRR Matey...

We have a pretty hard and fast (read bendable because Mom and Dad are complete suckers...) law around the kiki. If you are in bed, asleep, you can have your kiki. Anders has always been very clever in finding the loop holes. If he doesn't make it in engineering, he'll probably be a very talented lawyer. This is the newest loop hole... "if I'm sleeping, like a pirate with one eye closed, then I can have my kiki AND watch a movie with my open eye. That way I'm 1). on the couch asleep, with one eye, and 2). entertained with the other eye open. The best of both worlds..."

Not the exact wording but pretty darn close. We'll have to, as the supreme court, review this loop hole and make a more firm decision about the faulty far left-wing rationale. He gets this ability to rationalize from his proud Mother, who would also make a great lawyer...

Random Rambling and Stuff...

This is the "after" picture of the big hair cut in December. The before and during picture contain nudity, not appropriate for the Internet. I cut about 5 inches of length off of Anders hair and about 3 off of Liam's. I was totally traumatized. It's just now that I am able to speak of it. He looked so cute afterward, but you can't see the back. I loved his long hair, but Brian just couldn't handle it anymore. Since the initial cut he has had one more, and keeps asking me to cut it even shorter, "just like Daddy, sticking up." Liam is in desperate need of another cut... I'll get around to it. I'm just afraid that he will lose his curls. I'm just taking my time, enjoying their pretty hair.
Anders and Elleory are at a point in their relationship that they play together, building things with Lego's, Tinker Toys, Linkin Logs. Whatever builds. This is the crane they built one day during Christmas break. It worked...

Growing up my sisters and I would make "cloth-cloth bikinis" (cloth-cloth is Johnson for washcloth, which is another thing that just popped up.) in the bathtub. I guess it's genetic... The boys in their "cloth-cloth shirts". They stick them on and laugh and laugh when they fall off. It's just amazing to me what comes back from my childhood, without my urging. You can see the back of Anders mullet. Remember I cut off 5 inches... I love this hair!! It's even shorter now. Sob, sob, sob...

Had to Laugh.

I was just leaving a comment on my dear friend Heather's blog. It's Ellen interviewing this old lady...very funny. Just click on her name above to go to her site, and watch it. Pretty funny.

Anyway... the pass word to post my comment was "forinpoo". I couldn't see because I was laughing pretty hard and the tears were rolling down my face. I know, I have the maturity level of a twelve year old boy...

Destruction is Imminent

Oh... today was just one of those days.

We had a great morning, I ran, went to math groups, got home to hugs from the boys, then we went off to women's study group. The boys went to the play room, I went to learn about Isaiah. Rough subject, but we have a teacher who really L-O-V-E-S Isaiah. Today we talked about his children (sons, because daughters are never mentioned in scripture...don't get me started.) and the symbolism of their names. Isaiah's second son was named for a prophecy regarding the destruction of Israel by Assyria. Basically it boils down to this... the Lord tells Isaiah, the Assyrians are coming, I'm going to help them, they won't get Jerusalem because the king is a good man...Destruction is imminent. Oh and by the way... Please see/know your wife now and name your child after this prophecy. Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Interesting lesson... took lots of notes. I was thinking that it would make a great t-shirt for toddlers, just the Hebrew name.

The boys ask me for rolly-pollies on the way home for lunch. For those not versed in Bergholm kid, they were asking for ravioli. WOW! Not McDonald's! So we head home, I start the water to boil, and chaos ensues...

First Liam pulls a chair up to the stove to see what is going on. My new parenting philosophy is this "whatever keeps you from screaming, kid." I standing right next to him and I'm telling him HOT, HOT, HOT! (and making lemonade from scratch, because we are out of juice.) Then Anders starts in on a "project". He is going to hang up the art work from school on the fridge and he needs tape. So I'm an octopus...Here's more tape, don't touch the stove, don't touch the fruit, don't squeeze the fruit... don't throw the fruit... More tape... Oops! Tape is twisted, let me fix that...

"Mama, HOT!!!" I smell skin burning. Liam has finally touched the burner. He is NOT crying... I get him to the sink, pulling the chair behind me with my foot, he is still not crying. I turn on the water and for the first time EVER, he won't put his hand into running water. The burn is only the very tip of his finger, but it's already a blister. So I fill up a glass with cold water and he puts his hand right in.

Because Liam's on a chair, automatically means Anders need to join him, so the pushing ensues and the GLASS glass falls into the sink breaking the dishes it falls on. LOVELY... Crying kids, burnt finger, pasta on the stove... So I clean up the glass debris. Drain the pasta, serve lunch... Calm...

"I need POOH!" Liam starts in. So seeing that he is done eating his lunch, I turn on Pooh. The VCR heads need to be cleaned. I start digging around for the tape, find it and proceed to clean the heads. Liam is screaming at this point "POOH! NO OTHER MOVIE! POOH..." Finally the heads are clean (after two runs of the cleaner.) and I hear right behind me, gag, gag, gag, splat. Anders has been choking on a rolly-poly, and has thankfully gotten it up, along with most of his lunch.

"My juice comed out!" Sob, sob, sob... and he had tried to catch it with his hands. Then he notices that it's on his hands and the flapping starts. The slow motion "NOOOO" starts out of my mouth and I'm running for towels, wet wipes, anything... Flap, flap, flap... Barf everywhere.

I get that mess cleaned up...Anders calmed down, and changed into clean clothes, and realize Liam is way too quiet.

He is completely asleep right in front of the TV. Just inches from the place were Anders just puked. Maybe five minutes into POOH.

I put Liam in bed, carried Anders and Pooh into my bedroom, (with barf bowl) put Pooh into my TV, and crawled into my bed next to him. I pulled the covers over my head and took a nap. Anders watched Pooh.

38 minutes from the time we walked through the door.

Maher-shalal-hash-baz...

Proud Mama...

Here's the story, and sadly because you don't get the facial expressions and sound effects, it might just come across gross instead of hilarious.

Liam is a long waker. He likes to sit in his bed for a while after waking up in the morning or from a nap. He just hangs out...inventories all of his crib stuff. "Four green blankets, still here. Blaaah the sock martian, got him. One, two, three kiki's... they all still suck fine. Better put one by the wall, and one under my pillow, in case I need it for later." The post-resting ritual can go on for upwards of twenty minutes.

I was sitting on Anders bed yesterday waiting him out, just chatting with my little men, Anders was jumping on the bed, and Liam was just sitting in his crib. My attention was split between them as Anders would say "look Mama!" and do a belly flop, or sit down. Liam was just looking around, patting his blankets... picking his nose... Out of the corner of my eye I see the finger go up the nose, and quick as a flash, go into the mouth. And yes... he got a pretty big one...

"Liam, yucky... don't eat your boogers! kkahhgggahh." (Gag, gag, gag.)

"UUUMMM, Yummy sammie. MMMMM. Slurp."

(I wish I could make "slurp" sound like it did coming out of his mouth. Imagine soup... l o n g strands of spaghetti...sssllluuurrrppp. But more of the sucking sound. This particular sound is a preschool sound. One that is used with the pretend food in the pretend kitchen. His teachers use it to encourage less mouthing of toys and more pretend eating.)

Anyway back to the story... How could I do anything but laugh? He had that LOOK OF LOVE on his face, and his come back was priceless.

So, he has had the positive response to the negative behavior, and will probably be one of THOSE men that pick their noses in their car for the rest of his life. Oh well, I guess truth be told we all still pick our noses.

At least I have a story to share with the entire world. I will definitely tell his kids about it. Probably break it out at his wedding too...

Good News! A little Halloween in February!!!

I recommend books to others frequently. I've been telling everyone I know about The Graveyard Book since October. I need to STRESS to everyone who, strangely, still have not read it, it's time... It just won the 88th Newbery Medal.... Like you need another reason to enjoy the book.

Congratulations Neil Gaiman, (I say this like I know him.) It's a wonderfully delightful book.

Plus, It will be a movie soon, and I'm sure you all know about my book before the movie O.C.D. thing. I'm not taking anybody who hasn't read the book first. Sorry!

ALSO... Coraline comes out on Friday, which means you still have time to read THAT book before you RUN, (not walk) to see that movie.

Enjoy both.