Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I'll apologize ahead of time for what you will read next

I debated whether or not to write this next entry... it's funny and humiliating in that kind of way in that you will want to cover your mouth, gasp, and giggle a little.

Last Wednesday Gabe, Sam, and I went to the zoo with Blake and Marin (little Quentin came along too).  The weather was perfect so we couldn't resist spending the day outdoors.

While sitting down having lunch there was this nice man, an employee of the zoo, cleaning up the picnic area. The boys were playing with him and he was teasing them back. Marin and I chatted and ate our lunch not really noticing what the boys were doing. UNTIL I heard Gabe yelling, "MR. BROWNIE!!!  COME AND GET ME MR. BROWNIE!!"  My ears perked up when I heard that because it sounded awful strange. "Gabe come here... why are you calling him Mr. Brownie?"  Gabe's reply, "Because he has brown skin."

"No no no.  We don't call people by the color of their skin. Do we call Daddy Mr. Whitey?"

Gabe - "No."

Me - "Please don't call him that anymore."

Gabe continues to YELL "MR BROWNIE!"  The only way I could get him to stop was to yell back, "STOP GABE!!"

I was mortified to say the least. Yes, the man was brown as Gabe observed, but it is not like Gabe hasn't seen someone with brown skin before.

Then, to top that off about 3 minutes later Gabe says, "Mom I just saw a ninja!!"  Very loudly of course. He was referring to the woman wearing a burqa. It was a good day for explaining ethnic differences.

Aye, aye, aye. I don't think there is much more I can say about that!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

At least I didn't know them

Yesterday we went to Longwood Gardens - it was a perfectly beautiful fall day. I'll write more about that later.

As we passed a large sculpted plant in the shape of a dog Mike remarked that the dog had bushy eyebrows. Ben replied, "Yeah, just like me and mom have bushy eyebrows."

Of course at that moment a small wedding party passed by and heard every word because Ben doesn't exactly speak quietly.

I said, "Oh thanks Ben, that's just great."

Mike said, "Just what you want to hear eh?"

The wedding party chuckled. At least I didn't know any of them. Of course I had to ask Mike a little later, "Are my eyebrows bushy?" Let me reassure you... my eyebrows are nothing like the furry caterpillars I had in highschool. I could put Brooke Shields to shame!

Friday, October 8, 2010

What happenend to the day, the month, the year?

Making the transition from mom of 2 boys to 3 boys has been interesting to say the least. During the summer Sam was in that hazy, not quite aware of what is going on around him phase... or maybe that was me. Now that he is 5 months old (gone by waaay too fast) and Ben is in school and Gabe is in preschool I honestly don't know what happens with my days.

I spend a lot of time feeding Sam, cleaning up spit up, bowel explosions and nose aspirations. Oh yeah and laundry, laundry, laundry.

I do manage to get in some gym time - about one hour if I am lucky and everyone is healthy.  But by the time night time rolls around, I am exhausted!!

When the boys went back to school I was excited because I thought I would have a little time to do some paintings, or write a little bit more. Instead I have about 1 1/2 hours after I drop Gabe off at preschool, get Sam down for a nap and then that precious bit of time seems to be over before it started.

I always thought that as a mom I would have enough time to do at least some of the things that I wanted to do, but now I am worried that I am on that freight train of life filled with shuttling kids back and forth, fixing meals, doing laundry, keeping the house tidy, etc. etc.

However it is not all business. Last night Mike and the boys spent about a half hour wrestling and throwing eachother around. I held Sam up so he could have a front row seat to all the rollicking fun. It was cute to see how enthralled he was by all the action. I can just see him in about one year, running and throwing himself on top of the boy pile.

It's funny though how the things I love about having boys - the enthusiasm, the jubilance, the silliness, the noise... it's also the stuff that drives me crazy too. I love them to pieces though.

Anyway, just wanted to write about stuff going on in our house these days.

Let them eat dog food

Dinner time is always a time of joy and a time of tears. We have managed to establish a silly ritual in which the boys seem to think that their food can only be consumed once they have determined how many bites to take - mom or dad being the one that sets the number. Usually 15 to 20 bites. It drives me crazy that dinner has become a countdown. Along with the counting there is usually some grumbling and complaining about certain ingredients.

I spend about 30 to 60 minutes preparing dinners because I really enjoy food and I like to cook. I refuse to be a short order cook. I make one meal and if you don't like it... well that leads me to the best part.

I bought a can of dog food - we don't have any dogs. I put the can of dog food in the middle of the table and I said, "I spend some time making this meal for you and I am tired of the counting and complaining. If you don't like what I make then you are welcome to eat the dog food because anything that I make is inevitably better than dog food and I am tired of you treating the meal that I make for you like it is dog food."  That night I received accolades for the meal I made.

The dog food currently sits in my pantry and on an evening that I make something a little different I bring it out just to remind them that anything I make is better than dog food... at least I hope it is.