We Survived the First Full Week of School!!

This week was the first full week of school for the boys.  It was also the first week for Alex to go to school all day and then have speech therapy and occupational therapy after school.  His schedule is keeping us busy but it is now officially Friday.  Logan has made it through the week and Alex is three hours away from hitting that mark.  We have had to talk to teachers about different things, we've already received the snack bag, and are slowly getting out of the summer schedule and getting into a school schedule.  We have also experienced the fun (and grossness) of another child's apple juice leaking all over every one of the students' lunch bags. Alex is always a little hesitant to go into the gym with his class (and the rest of the school) in the mornings. He keeps thinking of random things he just "has" to tell me. Yesterday we stood at the entrance to the gym -- Alex sat his lunch bag on the floor beside his foot and said, "Wait, mom, one more thing."  I said, "What?"  He said, "The next time you go to the store you need to get more things for piggies in a blanket.  I really liked them and want to bring them in my lunch again sometime."  I finally asked him why he didn't want to go to the gym.  He told me it was loud in there and the PE teacher was always yelling at the older kids and blowing his whistle.  "That whistle is really loud and hurts my ears," he said. So, we read Gym Teacher From The Black Lagoon, which is about a boy (with a big imagination) who thinks the gym teacher is a monster from the black lagoon but at the end of the story learns that he is really a nice man.  After reading we talked about the gym teacher and I told Alex that it was loud in the gym because everything echoes in there and the teacher has to talk very loudly and sometimes shout to be heard over all the children in the gym.  I explained that he only uses his whistle when the older children aren't listening and it is the only way to get their attention.  I said, "You take your books and sit nicely and look at your books and you won't have anything to worry about."  He smiled and nodded and although he wasn't in a huge hurry to leave this morning it did seem to go a little better.  Other than having to sit in the gym in the mornings before walking to his class, Alex really enjoys kindergarten.  Logan really seems to enjoy Pre-K as well and even got to pick a prize out of the treasure chest today for being good all week.

I wanted to share some pictures from this week--not from school, but from home.

Logan using his hammer to "fix" the Rock'em Sock'em Robots!

Alex and Jacob watching a baseball game together!

Logan wearing one of Jacob's ties.  He asked Jacob if he could wear a tie so Jacob put it on him. It was so cute!

Here is Logan's cool pose while wearing Jacob's tie.

Alex relaxing on the couch and playing the harmonica for Godzilla and Brainstorm (from Ben 10)

I love this picture!

The boys were watching cartoons on the computer -- Jacob walked in and found them sitting together and Alex had his arm around Logan.  It was adorable!

Logan on Monday afternoon.  We have started a routine of eating lunch together and then watching Yo Gabba Gabba.  He didn't feel great on Monday (he was congested and had a sore throat) and he eventually asked if he could pick a movie and watch it in our room on our bed.  About ten minutes later I found him like this.

Alex after school one day this week.  He is still getting used to his crazy schedule!  On the bright side, he still asks Jacob to go outside and play flag football or baseball when he gets home from work!

Logan having lunch today.  "It's Friday!"

Information Day

It has been raining off and on today.  It was nice this morning while I was drinking my coffee (although Jacob told me while we were having lunch that it started pouring about the time he stepped out of the car to walk to his office this morning).  It is raining again as I type this.  Today has been busy and my two little boys are making the first day of school seem like a wonderful thing.  Every one talks about how it is a bittersweet moment--taking your children to the first day of school and leaving them.  My boys have been bouncing off the walls, fighting, and just being down-right crazy.  People will make excuses for them, but the truth is--summer vacation has come to an end and it IS time for school to start again.  I will miss them while they're at school and I will think about them on their first day, especially Alex who will spend his first full day at school on Thursday.  We've bought the school supplies, we have back packs, the boys have new shoes, new clothes, Alex has a lunch bag and Thermos.  We are officially ready for school.  Jacob took off work for a couple of hours (or so) this morning and we took the boys to the school for information day.  We went to the office and asked where we needed to go.  The classrooms are always being moved for some reason and I had no idea where either of the boys' classes were.  We asked the office and they said that they hadn't assigned the kindergarteners to teachers yet because they had so many kindergarteners that they had to hire more teachers.  We didn't get to meet Alex's teacher or see his class because no one knows what class he is going to be in.  We did, however, get to see Mrs. Cook, who was Alex's Pre-K teacher last year--she is teaching Kindergarten this year and got a hug from Alex.

We then walked down the halls until we found the Pre-K classroom.  Logan was excited about the classroom.  He kept pointing to things and saying, "Look, mommy!"  or "I want to play with that thing."  His teacher seems young and appeared to be a little nervous, but she was great with the kids and Logan liked her--but there are very few people Logan doesn't like! Logan seems excited about school--Alex doesn't seem to care either way, so hopefully day one will go well!

We had lunch with Jacob today before he went back to work--that is always a nice treat. We then ran some errands which included returning books to the library (and getting more, of course).  We were leaving the library and the boys always like to push the OPEN buttons to automatically open the doors.  They waited patiently for other people to come through and then when there was a gap Alex pushed the button.  The doors slowly opened outward and a man wearing a wife-beater shirt had jogged up from his car (it was sprinkling so I assume he thought he'd melt?) When the doors opened he looked down at the boys with an annoyed expression, looked at the doors, sighed loudly and then pushed his way by the boys, forcing them to get as close to the doors as they could to let the man by.  The man was also nice enough to give me a dirty look--how dare a woman and two little boys get in his way.  Jeez.  As he passed Logan said, "Hey, watch it mister!  I'm walking here."  As we were walking to the car I asked Logan where he had heard that.  He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know.  TV maybe?"  Ha.

We have been practicing name writing this week and yesterday I packed Alex's lunch in his lunch bag so he could practice eating lunch from it--learning where everything is, how to open things, what goes in the trash and what comes home.  He thought it was cool once he figured out where everything was--we will try it again tomorrow.  I am glad we invested in a lunch bag for Alex--we received the school menu for August today and out of the two weeks of lunches this month there are only three days Alex wants to eat what the cafeteria is serving. I also packed Logan's lunch in a brown paper sack so he could join his brother and not feel left out--he will only be going to school for half a day so he will get to eat lunch with me!
Here are some photos of the boys eating lunch and Alex taking a test run with his new lunch bag.

He doesn't look excited here, but he was excited about eating out of his lunch bag.  He said it was "cool"--I think he was giving me a sad face here because I didn't pack ranch in his bag to dip his potato chips in.  He's a picky eater--a picky eater who thinks everything should be dipped in either ranch or ketchup--depending on what it is, of course! Ha.

Logan got to pick out a Thermos when Alex got one.  Here Logan is having a sack lunch with his brother.  He thought it was pretty cool, but doesn't understand why Alex gets to eat at school and he doesn't get to.

Lunch buddies!  They both took a drink from their Thermos at the same time! 

Here the boys are after a busy day (which isn't over, yet).  While we were at the school we kept hearing, "Hi, Alex."  Alex would wave or just say "hi" and then either ignore the child or just act goofy.  It was funny, but he seemed to know all the children in the school.  Hopefully Kindergarten will be a lot of fun for him--and I'm sure Logan will love Pre-K.

The Glamorous Side of Motherhood

Yes, that title is meant to be dripping with sarcasm.  This weekend has been a fun one--we have spent a lot of time outside playing different sports with the boys, went to the park, let the boys play on the Slip N Slide while we grilled, and watched a cheesy 1966 Batman movie for movie night with the boys.

There are some things that happened this weekend that didn't seem so funny at the time they happened, but seem funny to me now when I think about them.  I decided to sarcastically give this blog a title with the words "glamorous" and "motherhood" together. I'm not even sure if it's possible for these two words to be put together without being sarcastic.

Last weekend, while the boys were at their grandparents', I took the time to paint my nails.  It was nice--Jacob and I were watching television and I sat and painted my nails.  It was very relaxing.  Well, now, a week later, my poor nails look horrible.  I keep thinking, "I really need to redo those" but something always seems to come up and I forget about them. The boys have both been nice enough this weekend to point our my nails and tell me they are "messed up" or look "bad."  ha. So, the term glamorous doesn't really apply in this mother's world. 

Messed up nail polish on my fingernails is only the beginning of some of the "not-so-glamorous" things that have happened this weekend. We took the boys to a park near our home that has a playground, tennis court, basketball court, and a small baseball field.  We went to the baseball field first to play baseball because there is rarely a day that we don't play baseball--especially the boys. We were playing and having a good time.  Jacob and Alex were on a team and Alex pitched for a while and then we switched so Alex and Jacob could hit.  Logan tried pitching to Jacob and after awhile Jacob said, "Logan, why don't you let momma pitch to daddy?"  Logan said, "Okay," and handed me the ball.  Now, thinking back on it, I'm assuming Jacob wanted to try and hit the ball as hard as he could.  So, I pitched the ball to Jacob and he hit it.  He hit it hard.  I saw the ball coming but couldn't get out of the way fast enough.  Suddenly, I felt a sting and heard Jacob laughing.  You know, it's like when some one trips and falls and you can't help but laugh--as you're laughing you ask if the person is okay.  Jacob was laughing because when he hit the ball it shot right towards me and hit me on the breast.  I walked around mumbling not-so-nice things and holding my chest while Jacob asked repeatedly if I was ago--while laughing.  Let me just say--it hurt! Alex walked up and asked what had happened because he didn't see it. By this point I was trying not to cry--I'm playing baseball with a bunch of boys and you don't cry.  Remember Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own said, "There's no crying in baseball!" My boys should be proud of me because I did NOT cry--but, man did it hurt! After that we decided to put the baseball stuff in the car and let the boys play on the playground for a while. 

Last night the boys had been asleep for a while and Jacob and I were watching TV when I heard Logan crying. I hurried to the boys' room because I didn't want him to wake up Alex.  I tried to get him to calm down, but it wasn't working so I took him into the living room and sat down with him.  I sat on the couch and pulled him up onto my lap facing me.  He kept crying and I finally asked, "Do you need to go potty?"  This may seem like an odd question to ask when your child is sitting on your lap sobbing, but 98% of the time if Logan wakes up crying it is because he needs to go potty.  I walk him to the bathroom and help him go potty because he's half asleep and quite honestly, I would rather help him go potty than to have him fall face first into the toilet because he isn't quite awake yet.  I keep asking him if he needs to go potty but he doesn't answer, he just keeps crying. Suddenly he looks right at me with this "I'm so sorry" expression and I feel it--warmness. Wet warmness all over my legs. He stopped crying and just sat there looking at me with a sad expression.  I said, "Did you just pee pee on me?"  He shook his head "no" and continued to frown.  I said, "Well, it felt like you did."  He just frowned.  I said, "Hop down and let's go clean ourselves up."  He slid off my lap and stood there uncomfortably because, well, his pants were wet too. I stood up and the entire front of my shorts were wet and it was even on my shirt. I have noticed that when it comes to parenthood and you AND your child are both dirty or covered in the same thing--as a parent you always put your child first.  So, of course, I cleaned Logan up first and he sat with Jacob while I cleaned myself up.  Jacob eventually carried him back to bed and a small amount of normalcy returned to our home for a while.  Ha.

It is NEVER boring around here--that is for sure! Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Our Crazy Little Home (And Why We Love It)!

This week I did a lot of cleaning--I was thinking about how the kitchen is the only room in the house that I find boring. I decided to pull out a bunch of our old stuff we have kept from the 80s and 90s, stuff we have from the 70s and even things that were given to me that were made YEARS and YEARS ago. After I finished the kitchen I decided to take some pictures and post them on a blog for people to see some of the cool things we have--and I guess, see how weird we are.  I have friends who have seen pictures of certain rooms/things in our home and made comments about wanting to see our house because it sounds interesting.  We love art and have tried to incorporate it into our home--I think it shows. 
I hope you enjoy these! :)

We'll start in the kitchen!  I hung some old pot holders that were given to me from my mom.  I want to say my great-grandmother made some of them, if not all of them. I framed two pictures of fish that the boys colored with markers, we hung our "Cotton Ball" painting in the kitchen, and you can't forget the straw bouquet!  (The door leads to the utility room).

Above the cabinets on both walls we have old games, tins, Thermoses, glasses, toys, and cool watches from the 90s that have that interesting 90s vibe.  We have an old Tomato can wrapper that Jacob's parents gave me from an antique store they visited, an old monkey money bank that was Jacob's, and an old Pluto glass and Care Bears glass.

Here are two masks the boys painted, old Raggedy Ann & Andy and Campbells Soup pot holders, and (of course) the I LOVE LUCY clock.

Old pot holders given to me by my mom

Craziness, craziness--right?  A fish in a frame painted by Logan, a cool and crazy kite made by Logan, a Father's Day poem for Jacob from Alex, old pictures and other fun things.  Oh, below the spice rack is a round thing with a picture of a baby on it.  It is a music box from Germany that my mother bought before I was born.  It still plays music and every so often one of the boys will walk by and pull the string so it will start playing.

Our dining area!  We love this dining area! It's easy to clean and so fun!

The boys' chalkboard in the hallway outside their bedroom (complete with a cow Alex made at school last year).  They draw on it almost every day--they will draw villains and super heroes on it and have them battle--which ends in some one getting erased.  They have a lot of fun with it!

Now entering the living room.  This is the wall directly above Jacob's guitars.  We switch out our vinyls on the shelves to display them, have old tins, Jacob's guitar cords, and pictures we took in Boston and Cambridge.

Here are two of Jacob's guitars, the microphone, amps, speakers, and of course, Alex's keyboard that he plays quite often while singing into the microphone--He always talks about RUSH and how the lead singer sings into the mic while he plays his keyboard.  We love it!

The fireplace, which we never use and is therefore full of candles (which we DO use), photos of the boys and us, and a pair of baby shoes that the boys wore when they were babies.  There is also the ASTLEY LANE sign and Alex's star from school last year.

Our love seat with pictures of Boston and Cambridge hanging above it.  It was a beautiful place and we got quite a few great pictures!

There isn't anything too exciting about this picture--it's Jacob's chair (remember that story?), more pictures of the boys, and our mailbox.  Yes, a mailbox.  A mailbox covered in old stamps.  Why?  Because it holds our remote controls for the TV, DVD player, etc.  The boys love it!

THE shelf.  It holds some of our favorite books, board games, movies, and most of my cook books. It also holds our record player, our vinyls, and the yellow box with the RUSH sticker on it holds childrens books on vinyl that the boys listen too.

The boys' room!  Here are their beds and the names above their beds made out of ceiling tiles.

The boys comic book rack, Spider-Man table they use as a Lego table, comic book covers on the wall, masks, and tin signs.  There is also a Batman basketball goal and some Spider-Man shelves.  They seem really happy with their room.  Alex's bed also has a cave or club house (as the boys call it) beneath it that the boys can go into!

And now for the playroom!  Here is the V-8 Engine Jacob plans to work on with the boys in a few years--and the dart board.  (We have rubber-tipped darts for the boys to use.)

The boys' little TV, some of their books, and their ottoman full of balls--and some Star Wars toys, of course!

The boys' art table in the play room

Art supplies and the boys' Rail Road crossing money bank! When the boys drop change into the bank the lights flash and there is a train whistle--they are always looking for change for the money bank!

Jacob's old arcade game which now belongs to the boys and lives in their play room.

The boys' space ship (with the stick pony falling onto it).  They have a lot of fun with this as well.

The boys' bathroom, complete with paintings and artwork they have made

One of the walls in the boys' bathroom.  This is the shirt and hoody the boys wore when we brought Logan home from the hospital. Alex was barely 16 months old when we came home and I swore I'd keep these little shirts.  There are also pictures of the boys when Logan was about 3 months old and Alex was about 19 months old--and who can forget the canvases with Alex's hand prints at 19 months old and Logan's foot prints at 3 and a 1/2 months old.

This is the little shelf where the boys' rags for baths and washing their faces are kept--we also have the flushable wipes because, well, I think it speaks for itself--ha ha.  We have this dry erase board that the boys draw on--and from time to time ask me to draw or write things on it.

A is for Alex and L is for Logan!  Here is a picture of the boys from a couple of years ago.  It is one of my favorite pictures of them--it hangs above the sink in their bathroom.  The red thing hanging from the ceiling is a gourd that the boys painted.

Our bedroom.  Nothing fancy (fancy gets broken pretty quickly in this house!), but it's comfortable enough.  In the background, to the right, you can see a gun--it was Jacob's grandfather's from WWII. 

Our entertainment center in our room, along with all the boys X-Box games, other games and game systems, Jacob's third and final guitar, and of course, a 4-year-old boy who likes to hang around.

This is Jacob's horror movie collection (well, part of it) and another old picture of the boys.  It, too, is one of my favorite pictures of them. We also have two framed paintings, one by Alex and one by Logan--Logan's is the one that looks like a human heart--LOL

Our bed--again nothing fancy, but we are happy with it for now.

I hope those of you who have asked to see our house (or pictures of it) because you have heard about certain things we have enjoyed the pictures. We are happy with our fun little home and have really enjoyed getting it where it is today. 
Until next time . . .