"Art"

I can remember being young, maybe not even 10, and having art contests with my sister.  We would sit in our room and draw under a time limit we agreed upon. We would not put our names on the paper, and we would swap pages. We would take them to our parents and have them judge our creations. A time in particular I remember drawing a flower. Just a flower. No grass, no sun, clouds, bees buzzing around. I can only imagine it was the circle center flower with other circles around it for petals. My sister drew something similar to Andrew's drawing below. Lots of colors, balloons and a cloud in the sky. She said it was a parade. It was pretty abstract as far as I can remember, I mean she was only 6,7... But, we took our unnamed  artwork out to our parents (to insure there was no favoritism) and were immediately given an answer. A winner. Uuum!?! They didn't even want to think about it!? I mean, wow. I am sure you can guess who won. 

Haha. I remember being so upset.

 And while I was SO impressed by Eli's turtle and sun, (Truly, I had no idea he could draw something like that) Andrew was SO proud of his page. I asked a couple times what it was. He said fish one time, Lightning McQueen another, and puppy another. I'm so thankful for the little (big) brains in their heads and the way they see the world.  The thoughts that come out of their mouths and their ideas about the way things should be/are. While my life is so far from perfect, and my kids are naughty more than nice most days, I'm so happy for these little things that make the hard/bad/discouraging/lonely/sometimes ugly times as a stay-at-home mom  bearable. 

My most profound post...ever...

I can't be the only one who gets my left hand painted and then

bam...

all of a sudden everyone in the world needs something from me.

from my hands...

I carefully do each task required with my right hand...

the left slowly drying.

not one of the "dry in 30 second" colors appeal to me.

no, my heart loves the ones that take a half day to dry.

the colors that no pinterest magic trick can instantly dry... not for me anyway.

i smirk as i hand out one zippy cup, now two.

carefully change a diaper

 wipe a butt whose owner has been yelling from the bathroom 

on the other side of the house for 3 minutes.

still, left hand looking perfect.

ding dong

someone is at the door!

slip on a pair of jeans...yoga pants have pancake batter on them

crap, index finger smudged.

open the door

"oh thanks, we've found jesus. have a nice day"

(and thanks for ruining my nail...)

rush to bathroom/operating roon to repair nail.

there. 

perfect.

I dare to begin on the right hand, one stroke in...

''i'm ready for lunch'' one tiny voice proclaims.

chicken nuggets for one,

pb&j for another.

slide on a eye patch here!

tie a bandana there...

goodbye pinky, ring, and thumb.

I try to just wipe clean but enough has dried to leave goopy remnants of 

the rubies once shining on the end of my digits. 

cotton balls and acetone,

scrub, scrub...

"there is a hair on my tongue! get it"

"WHAT IS THAT ON YOU HANDS!? AGH, I AM DYING. YOU POISON ME!"

brush baby teeth, swish with kiddy mouthwash.

all better....

natural nails today.

Blogger app

Well, after saying that blogging from my phone wasn't appealing, I decided to check and see if there was a blogger app.  Last time I checked for one was well over a year ago.  It is so awesome and easy to use.  I am eating my words.  Mmm, tasty.  

well...

So much has changed since my last post.

 For instance... We now have a fish... and a dog.

The fish was from my parents. So thoughtful, I know. But actually, I have become very attached to it. Is that weird? I don't think it's weird that the boys love it, they're kids. Kids like fish.

 But I find myself talking to it when I am feeding it... 

 I think that might be weird. 

It's kind of therapeutic watching it swim around though. 

He is a very fancy looking little red and blue Beta fish. 

There was another one, but it died shortly after arriving at the Land abode. Drew was handed the container with his fish and it was shaken violently given lots of hugs and just couldn't handle the love Drew had to offer. 

Eli had named his fish Batman and Drew named his Nemo (such originality over here). 

After Drew's fish went to fishy heaven, he continued to call Eli's fish Nemo. Eli told me one day that he was just going to change his fish's name to Nemo since Drew wouldn't understand that his fish died and it was really Batman in the tank. 

Um, is he really 3?

Then about 2 days ago Eli told me that he would be calling his fish Batman again but Drew could still call it Nemo, even though it was not Nemo.

OK, I guess he is 3. 

The sweet little puppy is a rescue from the OKC shelter. We went looking for a medium size dog, and we came home with a little mutt that weighed about 3lbs and the biggest thing about him is his ears. Thanks to the suggestion of an aunt, we named him Spock. Andrew calls him "Pocks" or "Box"... We have a hard time telling which it is.

He has been pretty easy to potty train, hallelujah. And thankfully if he does pee, he does it on the tile waiting by the door for someone to let him out. Failure on our part. 

But back to Andrew's birthday... What fun.

This was the first time EVER that we have had both sets of grandparents (or any family, my sister was here too) with us to celebrate a birthday for one of the boys. It was so wonderful. It was even more wonderful that I didn't have to buy any decorations for the party.

 Eli's (and Drew's since I used the same one) nursery was decorated in pirate theme

 and not too long after he was born my MIL found a ton of pirate party stuff on sale at Hobby Lobby and sent it to us. Each year Eli was in to something different and when Drew turned 1 I wanted something a little "cuter" and not so "big boy".

 I don't even think that the boys realized there was a party theme. I think from now on I am just going to blow up some balloons and hand them their cake. That is all they cared about anyway.

Eli has taught himself his ABCs thanks to an iPad app... I tried to teach him...really,  I did. I would sing them going down the road, at lunch, while playing. I would have him repeat back to me after each letter. He would never say them by himself. He started playing a game where Elmo teaches you the alphabet and guess what... He knows them now. 

Although, he does forget that DEFG are in there but hey... progress. 

I have to start blogging more. The kids say and do such funny and ridiculous stuff every day. I hate that I make a Facebook status, a tweet or Instagram picture the way I  "share" when I really want to blog it.  I just hardly ever turn on the computer and blogging from an iPhone or tablet are not things that really interest me. There is usually a lot more behind the quick update that I will want (and probably forget) to remember later. 

Daniel and I could have slept until 10 (it's just 9am now) this morning. We stayed up late watching Netflix. After the boys were in bed we watched an episode of Breaking Bad--we are having a hard time getting into it. After that was over we were a little depressed so we watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks (Daniel has NEVER seen this show! If you haven't it is on Netflix, you will love seeing some of your favorite stars way back when).  Our precious little Andrew came into our room sometime after midnight and got into our bed. I don't remember it but at 2 when the dog was whining to go out to pee, there he was right in between us. Then at 6 am, this little doll face is yelling "Let's watch trucks!" He is obsessed with watching Monster Jam rallies on Youtube. He's such a little hillbilly. 

After breakfast and coffee the guys started building a monster truck track. 

Watching them laughing and playing in the floor put me in a much better mood.