Whew! I get out the door without crushing any bones. We are only running 5 minutes late as opposed to our usual fifteen, Alex has her enormous bed-head tangle combed out before noon for once, and Max is actually wearing a new shirt today without one once of protest. (Who is this child I think to myself?)

Usually we discuss traffic patterns on the way to school. Max is obsessed with knowing what all of the signs say and what they mean. So while I'm explaining what it means to yield and why sometimes you can make a right turn on red and sometimes you can't, Alex is bouncing back and forth in her car seat to the current song on the radio. I especially like the times when they are both rockin' out to the song on the radio...but more often than not they're telling me to turn it off because they don't like it. Occasionally there is a fight between them about whether the windows should be rolled down or up. I always win that one.

But today, today is different. Max is blowing his nose (into a tissue-hallelujah!) and all of the sudden he exclaims that his booger is ORANGE. I check it out at the red light. It's sort of orangish, but I don't want to burst any bubbles we're riding on so I agree with him. Then he blows again and gets more out and cries, "MOM, LOOK AT THIS ONE! THIS IS THE COOLEST BOOGER I EVER GOT OUT!" Alex agrees because he's showing her, "YA, Max. IT IS!"

So.. I felt I should record it... as with all of his firsts and special occasions: today Max blew the coolest booger ever.

stellar parenting

This week has sucked. I've been riddled with some achy, snotty, you-just-feel-like-crap all over, preschool plague, then ended up with the most disgusting case of pink-eye EVER, and just this morning - as I was running out of the house - I slammed my finger in the door! I slammed it so hard I actually heard the bone crunch!!!!

Do you know what hurts worse than natural childbirth? Fracturing your GDMF fingertip.

Do you know how many new words my children learned this morning when they witnessed my grace? Well, at least five. That's how many I heard repeated in the car on the way to school.

I am both intrigued and very afraid of what may come out the next time they hurt themselves.

'Tis the Season

The garden treats have arrived. Our first asparagus harvest was about a week ago and even with all the frost we've been having, we've still managed to save them and have a couple of meals. The best part is watching Max and Alex munch happily away...

Bath Time

Bath time tends to get a bit edgy when your little sister has a slight habit of shitting logs almost half the size of her body length into the tub. Such was the case a couple of weeks ago and Max has definitely not forgotten the incident. Tonight they were both taking a bath and Max had his goggles on so that he could see underwater and play. (I usually put so much water in the baths that it's like a small swimming pool for them. I know it's bad, but I remember taking baths in England when I was little in only 2 inches of cold water and it really sucked. So I go extremely overboard in making bath time enjoyable for my little prince and princess.)

ANYWAY, Max was underwater checking out the scene when all of the sudden he bolted out of the water exclaiming, "MOMMY, ALEX IS POOPING IN THE BATHTUB! GET ME OUT! QUICK, HURRY! GET ME OUT! Apparently he was too panicked to remember that he can actually get out himself. Alex was looking at him like, "WHAT?! I did? WHAT???" So I assessed the water and found a brown, toy dog (one of those animal figurines) lying close to her bottom. I laughed and told Max and he gave a big sigh of relief. Then he went back to patrolling the waters.

I cannot blame him one bit.

Bedtime

Me: Goodnight, Max. I love you so much.

Max: I love you so much too, Mommy. I hope you don't ever die. (holding back tears)

Me: Me too. I will try my very best to stay healthy and safe. (Honestly, I don't know what to say to that. I mean, I can't promise him that I won't...)
You know you're the most special boy in the whole world to me. (Usually then he just keeps whispering that last sentence to himself over and over in pieces: the WHOLE world, the whole world, most special boy...)

Tonight he said: Mommy, you're my favorite girl. You're my favorite Mommy.
*deep, sweet, sigh*

Me: I had lots of fun swimming with you today. You did such a great job!

Max: Ya, I did actually.

Me: Ya. You were almost doing summersaults under water. That was so cool.

Max: Ya. It was.

Me: Goodnight, sweetheart.

Max: Goodnight.

And he settled into my arm and fell asleep. He still falls asleep the same way he used to as a baby... nestled in and under my right arm.

I have to admit, there are nights I get tired of the bedtime routine. With baths and teeth brushing and reading it takes a good hour and a half if not two hours every night. But I always love being there with him when his little body relaxes and his breathing gets heavy and he falls gently into sleep. It's sacred to me.

Alex likes to wrap up in her special blanket. She calls it her B. Lately, after I turn the lights out, she likes to turn her 'turtle' on. (It has different colored lights inside it and the shell part has all of these holes shaped like stars so that the entire room becomes filled with all of these bright little stars. She likes to go through the different colors: for orange she says Max, blue is always Daddy, and green is her color when I lye beside her. Then she tries to catch all of the stars. After that, she usually talks to her stuffed-animal posse who keep her company throughout the night.

(I had no idea how many stuffed animals there were EVERYWHERE until I had Alex. She LOVES them-Max could give a rat's ass about 'em-but she always finds them in every store we go to and she falls instantly in love. Last week I had to get a leak fixed in one of the car tires so I went to Big-O. They had a couple of those Little-O thingawhatevers all over the place. She was carrying three within seconds saying, "have them, Mommy." Needless to say we came home with one. I'd like to say it's because they were free, but I'm known to lay down a couple of bucks for those suckers just to avoid the scene. Hence the ever-growing-posse.)

She'll reach for her favorite-of-the-day and tuck it under and turn away from me and fall fast asleep. She used to like to fall asleep on my chest, but she's done with that. She's never been much of a snuggler. Sometimes she'll just cover herself and said favorite-animal-of-the-day entirely in her blanket and fall asleep... She sounds like an angel.

The kids are both taking a nap right now. It's strange when the house is this quiet - it's such a rare occurrence these days. I didn't quite know what to do with myself so I made this wreath from the grasses we had out front. ( I pruned and cut our xeric front landscape last weekend. ) I could have done so many things with this quiet time. I could have: washed the hand prints off the windows and sliding glass door, emptied the dishwasher, washed the dishes piled in the sink, mopped the floors, started some laundry, folded some laundry, made dinner, worked on raising donations for teacher appreciation week, called to make appointments I've been meaning to make for weeks, called friends, called my family, cleaned the bathrooms, downloaded some more music, read some blogs, read one of my new books, dusted, watered the plants, searched for all of the missing toys and very important game pieces, picked up all of the other toys and very-important-absolutely-necessary-to-play game pieces that are lying all over the floor and put them away, put all of Dans' clothes lying all over the bedroom floor away, plucked my eyebrows, made some tea, and even taken a nap myself. But no, I had this queer calling to be crafty... and then to blog about it.

This is what happens when you're sitting on top of the dryer (while your mom folds laundry) and your brother slides the pillow he's been landing on (after launching off the washer) next to the dryer and tells you to try it too and jump.

He looks like he's having fun so you say, "OKAY, MAX!", and off you go (while your mother is in the next room putting clothes away, of course) - only the dry rack is in the way and you end up partially landing on it. Next thing you know, your brother is telling you how sorry he is and how much it looked like THAT hurt! This is what happens a lot when you do what your brother says...