Ups and Downs

Camryn walking... Makes me laugh!

It snowed.

And the boys took full advantage of what I can only hope is the last snow of the season.

The boys dressed themselves today. In my defense, Mason was originally wearing shorts with his tank before I made him put pants on over his shorts. Some battles are just not worth fighting…

Jacob carved a maze into the snow using his lawnmower. He was slightly bummed that it had melted by the time school was over.

Mason ran around aimlessly in his winter/summer garb. He spent the day laughing because he was wearing “shorts under pants.” Get it? He did, and thought it was hilarious!

Proud mom moment? Maybe.

We were getting bids for window replacements in our house (yahoo, not really.), and I explained to the boys that they needed to park it on the couch, watch a cartoon, and keep quiet. And, for the first time in history, those two did exactly what they were told... Until I was walking the window guy out of our house when Jacob quickly (and not so quietly) announced "Mommy, Mason pooped and you need to go wipe his butt, now!" So why the proud mom moment? Because under normal circumstances, Mason would have waddled to me with trousers dropped and grab his ankles so that I could get a clear shot at the part that needs wiped. And that he kept all of that to himself makes this momma proud!

Our Two-Stepper

 

Camryn decided that 13 months—to the day—would be a good time to check out walking. For the past week we have been tricking her into clapping while standing so that she would stand without holding on to anything, and yesterday she finally unglued her feet from the floor and gained some forward progress. Not a walker yet, but Camryn can take a solid two steps before face planting, which makes this little girl grin and giggle!

They’re Baaaaaack…

The rabbits in our yard are multiplying like, well…

Which means a 24-hour petting zoo has opened up in our flower garden. This year it will be supervised…

Yep, that was gross.

So about two-ish weeks ago, our house decided to go paperless. Think Watergate amounts of paper being shredded. Because of this huge undertaking, we decided to relocate our shredder from the ick basement to our first floor. And that is where this story begins. Friday night it was discovered that about two weeks ago when said shredder was transported upstairs, our freezer--which shared an outlet with the shredder--was unplugged. Big oops. It took two weeks for us to notice this monumental detail. Imagine the worst smell ever, and then multiply it by a million or more. Caleb gagged (literally gagged) his way through a freezer full of rotten meat and what he called "3 inches of meat juice." The worst part is that our freezer sits next to the furnace so every time that thing kicked on, it pushed the smell of rotten gross through the air vents. So I did what I had to do: I whipped up a batch of boxed brownies. And then our house smelled like a very inviting dead body storage locker. The real kick in the gut was that garbage collection happened about 4 hours before all of this unfolded. Meat bag is now sitting in our front yard waiting for garbage day--or wild animals--our house has aired out, and I am contemplating a vegetarian lifestyle. Grossest thing ever!

Mason's Special Day

Today was Mason's special day at school, and Caleb took off work so that we could be Mason's guests. It was interesting to see how he acts in school--a little fidgety, and not at all shy to respond to questions. A fire truck full of fire fighters visited his class, and Mason got to demonstrate how to stop, drop, and roll. This all happened in the first 20 minutes. Everything that happened after that came from third-person accounts as I had to leave class because our darling little Camryn was inconsolable in the daycare room so I had to retrieve her. I was bummed that I missed spending time with Mr. Mason, but to make up for it Camryn and I spent the next two hours shopping for spring clothes! Mason's special day was capped off with a trip to McDonald's play place for lunch where the little booger found himself up at the top of the jungle gym screaming (literally at the top of his lungs) because he was scared. And after 15 minutes of coaxing him down, I sacrificed my dignity and snaked my way to rescue our little damsel in distress. The things you do for your kids...