Sunday, February 28, 2010

Perdament

Lately, Austin has been using the word "perdament" frequently. It tickles me a little, knowing that he is trying to say permanent.

One day last week, he came home with some paint on his shirt (from art class). He told me, "this is perdament, but could you try to get it out?" I almost thought "why try?" But I did, I worked on it, and actually used an old toothbrush on it. Most of it came out. The few specks that are still there he will never notice.

Now, I thought that he may have thought that his teacher said the word this way and that was why he pronounced it like that---until this morning.

Yesterday, Mike helped his friend move into a house they just bought. This morning, while getting ready for church, we were talking about the house, and how we thought this house would be our starter home, but that changed and we are still here. Austin came up and said something about this being our "perdament" home. I really thought he understood this word using it correctly in different situations, until he asked, "what does perdament mean?"

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Thinking Of His Mom

I was at the boys school today, and one of the teachers came up to talk to me. She said that she had gotten her hair cut, and Austin had noticed. She asked him, "do you like my hair cut?" Austin replied, "yeah, now you look like my mom!"

How sweet is that??

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Chef-In The Making

Austin has decided that he wants to learn how to cook. I am thrilled with this idea! Not only is it an important life skill, but that also means I can give him more responsibility. I told him I would teach him to cook, but he had to show me he was ready by helping me with the clean up. Up to this point he would "help" me by dumping ingredients in a bowl and helping to stir, then he would be off to play-until it was taste testing time. Now, he wants to do it all!

One day last week, he decided that he wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast, but HE wanted to do it. He cracked the eggs in a bowl, looked for shell (he didn't have any), scrambled them, then poured them into the skillet, and stirred them (I was, of course, looking over his shoulder the entire time!) . He acted like these were the best eggs he'd ever had!

Today is Tuesday. At our house, Tuesday is pancake day. Today, I did not make the pancakes, I just supervised. He mixed up the batter, and poured it on the griddle, then flipped them.

He did a really good job. Austin was very thoughtful, and remembered that Adam likes "baby" pancakes, so he made him 4. And he only touched the griddle with his finger once.


The pancakes turned out great! The ones that I had were done and everything (that was my biggest fear, they would all be raw in the middle). Good job, Austin!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Lucy

I thought Adam had moved on from Lucy. I thought he had, but he apparently has not.

The other day I was in his room with him, and he started to talk about painting the room for the baby. My immediate response was, "What baby?!?" He told me that it was for his baby, then added on, "I am married, you know." I just said, "one day..."

Today at supper he was talking about being pregnant. I said, "Adam, you will never be pregnant. Only girls can, and you are a boy." Again, he replied, "I'm married you know."

I do find it comforting that he realizes that marriage is a BIG factor in this baby business. Even so, it is starting to worry me that he thinks about it so very much! (Poor Lucy has no idea!)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Helen Keller & Gliding

I have to say, living with my boys I really never know what to expect.

In school, Austin's class is learning about famous American. This evening at supper, we were talking about Helen Keller, who they are currently studying. Adam decided that they wanted to "experience" what it was like to be both deaf and blind. He covered his ears and I would cover his eyes. Austin did this for a bit, but Adam did it again and again, having me say things to see if he could hear me. Somehow, I think that the 30 seconds that he was doing this was a bit different than the years Helen Keller did!

As I was cleaning up the kitchen, Adam came in with a blanket and said he wanted to glide. I rubber banded the corners to his wrists and ankles. He jumped around a bit and said that he could feel the air, so it must work. I just hope he doesn't try it out of a plane!
This is Adam with his gliding apparatus.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I find interesting...

That Austin put forth so much thought to pick out the colors for his room. That he helped to decide where furniture should go in his "new" room, and to decide to keep only the lower bunk-rather than a top AND bottom bunk. And that he loves to do is homework at his desk. But I find it interesting that he would prefer to sleep on Adam's top bunk. Take a moment and re-read the previous sentence-he decided not to keep his top bunk! However, Adam's is where he wants to sleep. Since this "new" room is not being slept in, Adam is taking advantage. During the school week he sleeps in Austin's bed, and on weekends he gets a sleeping bag out and sleeps on the floor.

In addition to that, Adam finally has his bed so that it does not cover the window (so he will be safe in case of fire), I guess since Austin is sleeping in that room, it will keep him safe. :)

20 years from now it won't matter who slept in what room. But, right now, I'm here thinking that we have given them their own space, and they get to do it the way they want, and then they switch.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

I Did It!

I know this blog is called "Moments with my boys" and usually the posts are about the boys. However, this one is about me! Being snowed in and not much going on for the past 9 days, I needed something to do. I had a pattern to try to make a baby hooded cape. I decided this was as good a time as any to get this going. I did not have baby weight yarn, so I had to make some adjustments. To be totally honest, there is a stitch that I don't know that is suppose to be on the trim, but I skipped that. I guess if I really wanted to I could go back and do it later.

Here is a picture of the cape.


To show the hood a little better, I got out one of my trusty dolls.

The pattern called for a pom-pom at the end. I forget how to make
them so I made something else up.

So, I did it! What on earth do I do with it now?

Friday, February 12, 2010

My Tropical Retreat

Adam drew this picture of the beach for me.


There is a palm tree, sun, waves, a sand castle. There are birds, and even bugs (with really big wings-yikes!). There is nice green grass, and even a canoe. To the left of the page you can see a dolphin jumping out of the water. The purple blotch near the sand castle is my towel...waiting for me. If only I knew where to get my plane ticket for, I'd be there!

Sometimes my brain get tired...

Sometimes, after the boys are in bed, I sit down and I'm so glad that I can have a bit of quiet time. Yesterday was one of those days.

Yesterday morning Adam had a Dr. appointment. Since they were out of school, Mike stayed with Austin. I loved having some one on one time with Adam, but he really did make me think the entire time! On the way to the office, he was describing some game that we were going to play in the car. We were suppose to look for icicles on houses, find 2 in a row, but not say "look!" to the other person. (HUH?) I really did not understand, so I think he played, and I watched the road! :)

Once we were in the office, the nurse wanted to see Adam's eczema. (Let me say here that Adam is not one bit shy about letting people know what he is thinking. He has already told the Dr. how to wash his hands!) Adam made sure to tell the nurse (Teresa, my cousin) that it has holes and it hurts, she in NOT to touch it, she may only look at it. (Thank goodness, she has boys and understands all this!) We were finally able to let her see the spots. Before she left the room she took his pulse on his wrist. Then showed him what she was feeling. Adam was intrigued! He started to ask me if he had little hearts everywhere in his body. I tried to explain that, "No, you only have one heart, but you can feel the pulses through some of the veins." The Dr. came in and heard us talking about this. She sat there and talked to Adam about the circulatory system for about 5 minutes! She was telling him about the little tubes all over your body that carry the blood, and how they were kind of like the hose at the kitchen sink. She went on to look at his eczema. She explained to Adam that she was giving him some cream, and it may sting when I put it on for a few days, but it will help his skin heal. I asked, "About how many days till it is healed to where it won't sting." Adam looked at me and said, "8-10" The Dr. chuckled and asked, "Why do you come? You could just send him. It should be about 7 days" He really wasn't too far off! When the appointment was over, she was leaving the room, she said the Adam, "I don't know what you will do one day, but it will be something great!"

As we were walking out, the nurse (my cousin) said something to me and I told her how he wanted to practice opening the window. The Dr. heard this and said, "Good Luck!" (This Dr. has 2 girls, I'm pretty sure her life with 2 girls is a lot different than mine with boys!)

*************************************
Last night, I was reading a devotion with the boys. It was basically saying that if we accept Jesus, God does not see our sins, he just sees Jesus. Adam started telling me something, but all I heard was "...God did not send his son." WHAT?!?! I said, "Adam you know who God's son is." He said, "Yes, it's baby Jesus. But some people don't think that he is God's son. They just think he is a statue or something." I said, "Yes, and that is very sad isn't it."

What I find interesting about this is, I remember being about Adam's age and not realizing that not everyone believed the same thing as me. I figured, I went to church so everyone must go to church. I believe in God, so everyone must believe in God. It wasn't until I was older that I finally realized, not everyone did and believed what I did.

**************************************
When I pray with boys, I let them say a prayer then I say one in addition too theirs. Usually theirs consists of "Thank you for this day. Thank you for a loving family. Thank you for a loving Mommy. Amen" But last night, Austin threw a new one in. He said, "Thank you for this day. Thank you for a loving family. And thank you for taking care of our sins." I was glad to hear this new addition to his prayer.

************************************
I have been having to define a lot of words for Austin lately. It is really hard to do this, when I know the definition, I know how to use the words, and yet I have to try to put it in terms to help a child understand the word. Some of the words that I have tried to define are: banned, trapeze, perish and condemn. (the last 2 are from his memory work) He always seems to understand the meaning after I describe it too him, but sometimes I have to stop and think-How am I going to define this for him??

******************************
The boys are learning John 3:16-17 for the memory work. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life......." For a week or so, Adam would get mixed up on the everlasting life part, and instead say "have a happy day!" I thought that was a pretty interesting mix-up. It is a happy day when you receive everlasting life!

***********************
It is no wonder to me why I feel that my brain is tired in the evening. Thus, the reason I'm writing this in the morning rather than the evening. However, I love it! I never know what is going to be said next, or how they are going to interpret something. My boys really do keep me on my toes.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Practice Makes Perfect

Adam's class went of a field trip to the fire station in December. On that field trip the fire fighters told the children to have their bedroom windows accessible in case of a fire. I have heard this before. Adam has a very small bedroom and he also has bunk beds. The beds fit best across the window. I have thought of the beds blocking the window many times, but would just pray that the Lord would protect us, and moved on. After Adam heard this bit of advice, he would often say to us, "I need to be able to get to my window." Yes, I agreed, we did need to do something about that. Well, today was the day. Mike and I rearranged his room so that the window was easily accessible in the event of a fire.

This afternoon, I walked by Adam's room and he has his blinds pulled up and is fiddling with his window. I asked him what he was doing. He replied, "practicing in case of fire. I wasn't going to jump out." Let me say he chose a day to practice when there are inches of snow on the ground, windy (so the snow is blowing!) and it is a balmy 28 degrees out (Aunt Helen, I think that is -2 C for you). I told him I did not think this was the best day to be practicing.

He is right, again, he should know how to open the windows. I think we will do it on a warmer day!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Oh, the things boys say...

Having been totally cooped up this past weekend, I noted some things that I thought might be interesting to post.

~We have some really HUGE Lego blocks. Mike mentioned to Matt, not too long ago, that they will probably inherit them soon. However, while we were cooped up, Adam got these blocks out and started to build. He built a house, complete with carpet (a scrap from having the bedrooms done). We may end up keeping these a little longer.

~A few weeks ago, Mike and I went out for a date. My parents kept the boys. When we went back to pick the boys up, Mom told me that she bathed them for me (I'm always thankful for that!) But, as she was getting Adam ready for his bath, he told her, "I am not suppose to have a bath every night. I'm going to get grounded for having a bath!" I must say, he is right, he is not suppose to have a bath every night. He has eczema really bad on his legs, so the Dr. told me not to bathe him every night (which can cause even drier skin), but it was a bath night. On the other hand, I would not ground him for this. In fact, I have never "grounded" him. I'm not sure where he came up with this word. But, he apparently understood it, and used it correctly--but he doesn't need to worry about that, for a bath!

~I noticed lately that Adam will sometimes come up to me and say, "Mommy, I want to ask Austin (or Daddy) a question." I will say, "go right ahead" (often with a giggle). The other day he asked me if he could ask Daddy something, and I asked him why he felt he needed to ask permission. I said he could feel free to ask Daddy whatever he needed to. He said, "You and Daddy are married, so I ask you if it's okay." I would have never put that together! and not sure how that fits with Austin, but that's okay.

~Our school system has this new way of notifying you of changes in the regular school day. They have a recording that will call and tell let us know of a delay or cancellation. Today, the phone rang and Austin answered it. He hung up and told Mike that the telemarketer told him school was cancelled. Wouldn't that be nice, if the telemarketers called to inform you of important things like that, rather than try to sell you things?

~Adam had a little pimple on his chin over the weekend. We started to talk about what a pimple is and about pores. Adam pipes up and says,"I know what pores are, they are sometimes as big a ditches." What?!? I'm not sure where that came from!

~Lately, when Adam has an idea (which is quite often) he will snap his fingers, click his tongue, then point his finger. Then he continues to say "I got an idea!" Most often, I get it with the snap, click and point, but it's good of him to tell me that is what he is thinking! :)

~Mike and the boys went to the Wal-Mart pharmacy. Austin came home and said he found the funniest medicine. I, honestly, could not figure out what kind of medicine would be funny. He said, "...they have a medicine called...GAS-X!" Then he proceeded to tell me what this medicine does. It really is humorous to see what these boys find as funny!

~Austin has had a bit of a cough lately. This morning I was asking him if he had any other symptoms, other than the cough. Adam said, "I know, Austin roll over on your tummy." Austin obliged him. Adam put his ear to Austin's back and said, "Yep, he is still breathing. I can hear it." Adam has some different medical ideas, it would be funny to see if he becomes a Dr. one day!

~It is cold here. We have a lot of snow on the ground, and I am very often cold. These past few days, I have not really cared what I served for dinner, as long as I have hot tea to drink, I am fine. I had to giggle today as I drank my tea-I don't know why I remember this-(sometimes my mind goes from one thing to the next), but I enjoyed the memory. A few winters ago, Austin would come to me and ask for coffee and mushrooms. I didn't understand at first, but most of that winter that is what he called hot chocolate and marshmallows. I don't think many would enjoy the coffee and mushrooms.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Favorite Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Yesterday, I took some cookies over to our neighbor that cleared our driveway. Today, they asked for the recipe. I have found that posting recipes is much more convenient than sitting and writing it out (maybe I have gotten lazy). But this way, others can see the recipes that we enjoy.
Favorite Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

cream together:
1 cup margarine (I usually cut this back a little)
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Add, beating until fluffy:
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. water

Sift together and add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Stir in:
2 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I usually do about 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips and 1/2 cup m&m's)

Drop onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Snow news

The boys went out to play in the snow this morning. I got a few pictures to show how deep the snow was.

Austin in about his knees in snow.

Adam must be standing at a different place, because it does not look at deep where he is.

Adam shoveled our sidewalk.

He really worked hard on this, and he did a really good job!
The snow plow still has not come down our street. I'm wondering if they will have school on Monday--if our street isn't plowed, how many others aren't?

Adam and I baked a batch of cookies. They are some of my favorites, and apparently some of the boys as well. Every time I turned around it seemed that some were missing from where they were cooling....how does that happen?

I did get the upstairs cleaned up, for the most part. I still need to do some work to get Adam's room back to how it was, but I am almost done. I was going to take a picture of the rooms nice and clean. The boys in the living room putting together Lego sets and actually having room to do things like that, but I couldn't due to the fact that my camera broke after we took the pictures of the boys in the snow.

Well, at least my house is clean. Now, I am ready for spring!

Snow

We have had more snow this winter, than we have had in many years. We are now in the middle of a pretty big storm. It started to snow Friday morning, and snowed all day. I heard Mike say that more is coming for today.

Mike shoveled our driveway twice yesterday. He helped the neighbor man shovel his once. But, it really did not take long until you could not tell that it had been shoveled. As we were getting ready for supper we heard a noise in our driveway. It was our neighbor with a snow blower. He, and another neighbor man did several driveways on our street. (They really would not have needed to do our driveway, but I wonder if they got this machine for Christmas and just wanted to use it! :) They really were snow angels yesterday!

However, when I got up this morning, you could not tell at all that the driveway had been cleared. This is the same section that Jeff had cleared for us.

Then I looked at our step to our front porch. They were not there! The snow was level with the porch. (Mike and Austin had shoveled that out as well.)

I guess if it is going to snow, it is a good thing that I have some cleaning to do.

Friday, February 5, 2010

The worst of the worst...

...but I have to say, things are getting much better!

Yesterday, I was on the phone, and someone came to my door. It was the guy who has been taking care of our carpet order. He said he tried to call, but my phone was busy, so he decided to stop by to tell me that the installer would be there in just a few minutes. My first thought was, "YIKES!!" We still had a dresser to move out of one room, and a mattress and box springs out of the other. I moved as much as I could until he got there. He was a really good sport about it all and helped me move big items.

I was very limited as to what I could do while he was there, because I could not get anywhere to do anything. So I grabbed a book and read.

Here were the conditions of my house:


This was the living room. If you look closly you can see a small space in the middle of the floor. That is where I sat to read!


This is the kitchen. It has been a make shift clost for some time now. I am so glad to have our clothes back in the closet!


Here is Adam's room. He has been so patient with us, since we have had to use his bedroom for storage. I am finally working on getting his space back for him.


This is Mike's dresser in the bathroom. Thanks goodness we put the second bathroom in several years ago!



The desk is in the dining room. Which means the table was moved out. Everything was out of order!


This is a glimpse into our bedroom. It's not done, but much closer. My Dad and my Uncle are going to try to put in bi-fold doors on the closet. I am finally done with those panel doors!!


Austin's new room! We only had time to set up the lower bed of the bunk beds. We still have some work to do.


We moved the desk into his room. We had been noticing that it took him a long time to do his homework at the table, because Adam would be playing, and I would be in the kitchen, and there was just too much going on. He really liked to do his math in his quiet room. He was a bit disappointed that I had to call his spelling words with him at the table, but I had to multi-task, and could not go sit in his room for that time. I'm just pleased that he likes his new space.


The house is not perfectly cleaned up yet, but it is coming along.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Huge Hole

We now have a huge hole at our house. It is not in the flooring, clothing, or anything else you might expect. It is in Austin's mouth!


In May of 2007, Austin was jumping on the trampoline at my parents house. I'm still not sure how this happened, but he came in the house with his lateral incisors (yes, I had to look that name up) was out. Somehow, it got trapped in the netting of the trampoline and was pulled out.

Austin has had a loose tooth for some time now (the front tooth). I have been encouraging him to wiggle and try to get it out. He wanted to be gentle with it--his plan did not work with my plan. Tonight we were eating dinner at my parents house. Usually, Mom and I (and Carol and Lana--if they are here, tonight they were not) are the last ones at the table. What I do most often, it prop my feet on the chair next to me and relax as we talk. Tonight, after Austin was done eating, he went UNDER the table. I was just getting ready to tell him to get out from under there as I was moving my feet to the chair next me, when BUMP, I bumped Austin's face with my foot. **please note that it was a gentle bump, and he was not hurt!** However, the bump was just enough to get the tooth out! Austin has enjoyed telling everyone at the house that, "Mommy, accidentally kicked my tooth out!" I am so glad that he adds the word accidentally!

I never imagined that his tooth would come out as a result of my foot!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Proud of his Daddy

Austin brought home a paper the other day about the Caldecott awards. They were to list a book that they thought should be recommended for the award. Austin voted for Tyler. How sweet that he voted for his Dad's book! However, I don't think he will get it...this year.

I said I wouldn't...

...but I did.

A few days ago, Carol called me and asked if I was taking my boys to the polar bear swim at the local pool. I said, "There is no way I am going if there is snow on the ground!" Sunday came, and we had been cooped up in the house since Friday. Carol called again, and I decided we would go. The water was not terribly warm, but the boys were moving, so they did not notice. They served Hot Chocolate, and snow cones (I had the boys get the snow cones as we were leaving-they had clothes on, coats on and ate most of it in the warmth of our own home). The boys had a really good time. I'm glad that I did end up taking them--it is still hard for me believe I had my swimsuit on with several inches of snow on the ground. That just does not go together!