Daddy's Home

All is well with the world now. At least for Jake and Grayson!

Payback

I figured while Jason was gone this week that the bedtimes were going to be horrible. To my suprise Grayson went out very early each night (4:00 p.m. on Monday and 6:30 Tues and Wed.) I figured I'd pay for this. I did. This morning he woke me up at 3:00 a.m. I tried to get him to go back to sleep for 30 minutes but he was ready to go (apparently all the extra sleep he had finally kicked in). So we got up so we didn't disturb Jake but less than 5 minutes after we were up Jake came out. So three cups of coffee later...I'm still sleepy! I wonder how I can coax him into a morning nap?

Where's Papaw when we need him?

The boys and I decided to go to Steak-n-Shake tonight. They ordered their usual grilled cheese with fries and a chocolate shake. Normally the only time we go to steak-n-shake Mamaw and Papaw are with us but not today. Jake said "where's Papaw when we need him". I said what do you mean. He replied "who's going to eat the cherry from my milkshake". Grayson piped in "we'll save for papaw". Papaw is lucky I convinced the boys that the cherry might not be so good to eat after two or three days. We just left them on the table.

Things that make you go hmmm...

Since Jason has been gone the boys have been sleeping in bed with me. Probably more for my comfort than theirs. I make sure to turn all the alarms on, then we lock the bedroom door and I put my hope chest against it (I know, I'm a little scaredy cat). Anyway, this morning I woke up with one of Grayson's socks on my face. Strange.

Verbs+ action verbs+ counting money=meltdown

Jake receives a homework packet every week that is due on Friday. The last two weeks they seem to have been getting harder and harder (message to parents is they are preparing them for 2nd grade and 2nd grade expects alot out of them). As Jake and I sat at the table last night doing homework he breezed through the math part (obviously does not take after mommy) but as we got to the verb parts and counting money it became clear he was not quite sure what was what. I couldn't even tell what money was what and the verbs...I mean I know an action verb is something that shows action. You would think (or at least I do) that performer is an action verb, right? Wrong, it is not an action verb and it took another mom to tell me that! Isn't a performer performing something i.e. they are doing an action? Well, after 45 minutes on just the verbs and money Jake and I had it out. He was looking to me to give him the answers and I felt he wasn't trying hard enough. It's been a long week with Jason gone and I was running out of patience. We put the homework up, he was in tears and I called Jen. Thank God, she confirmed that indeed this homeworks was HARD and she had to just give Gracie some answers because how do we expect them to know that a half dollar+a nickel+ 2 pennies= .57???? They have not even seen a half dollar (and to be honest until Jen told me it was a halfdollar I did not even know. So, after haning up with Jen, Jake and I talked and I opologized to him. I was being to hard. He tries so hard. Tutoring on Mon. and Wed. so we decided he was taking a break today. Normally Wed. is late start (8:45) but because of turoring he has to be there at 7:30 so we skipped it today. I know, I know, if he doesn't know the work doesn't it make sense to go to tutoring so why did I let him skip? He needed a break. We all need a break sometimes. We've decided that now when we are working on homework and one of us gets frustrated we each just say "take 5" and that means we leave the table and we'll meet back in 5 minutes to start again. Jake got a good night's sleep, slept in, had eggs for breakfast and was ready for school. Tonight, we'll finish our homework.

Conversation with a fly

Grayson was chasing a fly around the living room and he cornered it at the window. I left to go the bathroom and came back to find him holding an almost empty water bottle and he actually caught the fly in the bottle and put the lid on him (he takes after Jake). Here's the following conversation:

Grayson: Ha, I got you fry. Wook, (and he points to the window)now you can't go now. I pirate. AAAARRRRRGH.

FLY: I believe he died because there was still some water in the bottle:)

And no, these are not misspellings. I thought it cuter to type the way he said it rather than correct it!

Are you kidding me??????

Well Jason left for Texas yesterday morning at 9:00 a.m. (we started missing him at 9:01). The day was a bit hectic and Grayson seemed to be more wound up than usual (if that possible) and when I picked Jake up from after school tutoring the teacher said "he is a little hyper today". I asked if he wanted to take both boys home for the evening because Grayson was hyper as well and if laughed and gave me a big fat no. I said well, I'm in for a long week because their daddy left this morning and I think that's why they are acting so hyper and he said "yah, good luck with that!" I really thought the evening was going to be a alot of chaos, bickering and me ending up with a migraine crying on the phone to Jason BUT it didn't turn out that way! Grayson fell asleep on the couch at 4:00 p.m. and I actually got to have an uninterrupted phone call, spend some quality time with Jake and eat in peace. I actually got concerned around 7:00 because he still wasn't up and by 7:30 I was thinking great he's going to be up all night long I should have woke him a long time ago but he was actually snoring when I went down there and didn't even bat an eyelash as I closed the windows and turned off the t.v. so I thought well...let's see if I can just put him to bed. I turned off all the lights, put Jake in my room (the boys always sleep with me while Jason is gone) and went downstairs to grab him. He never even stirred. He actually made a couple of kissing sounds but with his eyes closed. I layed him down and we all went to sleep. Around 1:00 he wanted a drink and I thought oh, he'll stay up but he took his drink of water and went back to sleep. The next time he awoke it was still dark so I figured it was probably 4:00 a.m. and I told him to lie back down. He growled at me and asked for a drink of water and as I got up and looked at the clock I couldn't beleive it was 6:15 a.m.! That stinker had slept over 14 hours even skipping dinner. Of course he ate a bag of minimuffins in about 1 minute. I figured maybe it was from all the running outside yesterday and so after we dropped Jake off I let him out back outside to play...maybe I'll get another 4:00 p.m. bedtime!

A babysitter, a benefit, a birthday party and more!

We had a pretty busy weekend. We actually had a babysitter for Friday evening. Jason's employee Chris and his wife, Tamara, offered to come over and watch the boys on Friday evening so we could go out for dinner alone! Why would they want to do this? Well, they have 6 grown kids so maybe they just miss this stage! We did bribe the boys to behave for them in the hopes that if the boys were so good maybe they would offer again and again! It worked out great and the kids loved them. Grayson even let Tamara rock him and he gave her a kiss on the cheek (he's very stingy with his kisses).

Saturday we did some shoe shopping and got ready for a benefit Saturday night. There is a litlte girl named Emma who was diagnosed with Leukemia in November at age 9 months. For Christmas the boys (mainly Jake) decided to give up one of his gifts and we found the hot ticket item of TMX Elmo and he gave it to Emma for Christmas. We bought tickets a few weeks ago for the benefit and Jake was very excited. He always asks about her and we frequently make calls to check on Emma's progress. I'm pleased to say she is in remission (Ya Emma!).

Today we cleaned house (well, I did) and the boys all played outside. We went to a birthday party for Renee's litlte girl Kaleigh and we had TONS of fun. We just got back from getting ice cream and the boys have had their baths and are ready for bed. Jason is packing for his trip (stay tuned for lots of blogs this week while he is gone...4 whole days just the boys and I). We miss everyone and are excited to go visit next week.

Bad Daddy retraction...

In reference to the post "Bad Daddy" he insists that he did not say that. He wants it know that he said "bull crap". I don't know that it's any better but hey, I gave him the retraction.

TGIF...or is it?

Jake stayed home from school today. I had a Dr. appointment for myself this morning so I knew it was already going to be a fun day. The doctor actually almost laughed at me because I was in there because I am "exhausted" and of course the boys were running all over etc...and she looked at them and then at me and said "I would be too!". But this is more than just the run of the mill exhaustion. I'm too tired to do anything. I go to sleep at 6:30 in the evening so she decides I probably need to have some blood work done and check some things. I find out those results on Monday. Jake had his appointment for the Dr. this afternoon. They have finally put him on some allergy medicine so let's hope this does the trick. The boys just seem to be so wild today. The guy Jason works with actually told Jason the other day that he, his wife and their 17-year old step-daughter were coming over tonight to watch the boys so Jason and I could go out...I sort of him-hawed about it because well I'd really like to go out with the hubby but I don't know this couple that well and so Jason had told him no to worry about it but they insist they are. I half hope they do show up because I surely could use an hour for me and Jason. So this was probably a boring blog but I sort of needed to get my bad day out of my system.

Bad daddy...

Her's my conversation with Jake as we are driving home after I pick him up from school.

Mommy--So how was your day?

Jake--good, how was yours?

Mommy--good. What did you learn today?

Jake--nothing, how was Grayson?

Mommy-Good, he missed you.

Jake--oh, there's that thing daddy was mad at today on the way to school this morning.

Mommy--what thing?

Jake--that big white thing right there that tells you how fast your going. You can only go 20 miles per hour. Daddy says that's bullshit.

Mommy--Daddy shouldn't have said that but you don't repeat bad words. You know that's a bad word.

Jake--I forgot. Sorry

Grayson--shit.

Any wonder why my head hurts.

Stupid Phone Company

So last week I have to call our phone company, I won't name names but they know who they are, because we were supposed to have a $99 credit on our bill they failed to give us so after about 45 mintues I get that taken care of and the girl says o.k. your balance is etc...so I pay. Today I get a phone call bright and early from the company saying I am past due and due for disconnection. After about a 2 hour phone call in which I speak to five different people and come to the conclusion that there is indeed a past due amount that "their" person added wrong last Thursday when she told me my amount due (now why didn't I add myself you might ask and since I was trying to keep my 2 year-old in sight and occupied so he wouldn't destroy my house I was assuming someone who was working in customer service in the BILLING department could actually add). So as I am spending the hours on the phone today and have to do all the arithmatic figuring five times (for each person they connect me to) I finally get it taken care of and pay the $46.72 I still owed. I walk into my living room to find that Grayson has made himself a snack on my floor which was a mixture of popcorn, cereal and cheese-um chips which he so diligently smashed into the carpet. To be honest, I was really more mad at the phone company that Grayson. What was he supposed to do without my undivided attention? So I start getting it cleaned up and the phone rings. Guess who. Yup, the telephone company requiring me to pay my past due amount to avoid interruption of service. I won't tell you what I told them they could do with their service.

Frazzled Mommy?

Monday's are always a bad day for me. Jake has late tutoring and you would think since I pick him up an hour later than normal I would have plenty of time but that's not the case. Grayson always wants juice, snack or we can't find shoes or he needs to "potty weally bad" like in today's case (even though I just changed his diaper an hour ago) so as normal we are running late and I don't have time to change out of my work-out clothes(and we didn't even go to the Y today)and I realize after we walk into the school that I've forgotten to put my bra back on and am wearing flip flops caked in mud and my pony tail is pretty much non-existent . As I'm waiting for Jake I am on the ground trying to help Grayson zip up a Thomas bag and Jake and the tutor come out and the teacher looks at me and says "you look a little frazzled today...LOL". I'm still hoping that frazzled is lingo for something better like PHAT vs. Fat but more than likely it doesn't:)

Boys night out

I signed Jake up this week for the "kids night out" at the YMCA (Grayson was not yet old enough but come May he will be!). For $5 he got a hotdog, chips, drink, swam, played bingo, ran around with his friends and according to him had "the best night of his life" and being the thoughtful little boy he is he even got his little brother a little ducky at the YMCA with his money. Jen (my new friend here) picked us up and we took the kiddies over to the YMCA. I gave Jake the rules -do not leave the building with anyone other than mommy or daddy, no screaming for help in the pool unless he needs it, there's no reason for an adult to take him in a room alone (can't be too sure these days) and to have loads of fun. I gave him $5 for the snack bar. Jason had left earlier to take Grayson to McDonald's (so there would be no meltdown as Jake and I left). We dropped the kids off and of course, being Jake's first official outing I was nervous. Jen assured me he'd be fine. This was the third one for her kids. We were off to Cracker Barrel and to do some shopping and the last stop was St. Louis Bread Co. right by the YMCA where we got some coffee and sat and talked until it was time to get the kids.
We got home about 9:45 and Grayson and Jason were both asleep in our room. Jake got in his bed and waited for me to bring Grayson in (though they both have their own room they can't sleep without one another). As I put Grayson in bed, Jake tucked him in and gave him a kiss on the forehead and told him he missed him. Grayson kept right on sleeping but nuzzled close to Jake. Jason told me that Grayson looked all sad at McDonald's and barely played. He asked him what was wrong and asked if he missed Jake and Grayson said "yah". Their next stop was for an ice cream and a drive. They ended up at a gravel pit and got out to look at the mounds of gravel and Grayson thought it was "neat". Their last stop was home and some cuddle time with daddy with a few questions of "where's mama" thrown in every few minutes. This morning the boys shared a few hugs and miss you's but that was over an hour ago. Now all I hear is "give it back" and "I'm telling mommy".

Nap time...thank goodness he can't tell time

Grayson is really trying to "outgrow" his naptimes. Some days I do let him skip them only to regret it at 4:00 p.m. when he has a meltdown because because Dora didn't answer him back. Well, today I had some things to do and Jason was outside working on our fence so I told Grayson it was nap time. That led to a ten-minute meltdown. I finally convinced him to lie down with me and told him I would wake him up in five minutes. He agreed. Closed his eyes, opened them and said "five mint momma". I said I know. He fell asleep and I left to go do things I needed to get done. Thank the lord he can't tell time yet or I'd have been in big trouble when he realized he had slept two hours. He still thinks it was only five mints!)

Why I am blogging

I decided to start blogging because I want to try and remember every memory I can of my boys for when they are older. For instance a couple of months back my 2-year old painted our downstairs black as well as put beads in the toaster. I'd like to think this is not a memory I would forget but as I get older (and I'll never admit it to my hubby) I don't always remember everything now! I'd like to look back on conversations I've had with my kids like this week, my oldest, Jake, came home from school and told me they lost 5 minutes at recess because they were being loud at lunch but "he had no part in it". I found out days later that he and one of his little friends started it by having a burbing contest. When I asked Jake about this his reply was "I have no memory of that incident". I want to remember every action, every quirk they have, even their bad days. I want them to know that I cherish every moment of their lives.
So while this page is mainly for me I hope that you enjoy it!