Shh… it’s a secret.

June 20, 2009 at 9:21 am (Chatterer, Family, Little Boy on a Mission, MM)

Like most moms of small children, I took the liberty of purchasing gifts for the boys to give to MM for Father’s Day.  One day last week, Chatterer told me he was making a monkey at school for MM for Father’s Day.  I explained that I had also purchased a very nice gift for Chatterer and LBoaM to give to MM.  I told him it was a watch box for MM so MM would stop misplacing his watches.  I told Chatterer it was a secret until Sunday.

Fast forward to Saturday.  MM, Chatterer and LBoaM are playing an improvised game similar to volleyball with an inflatable football (think beach ball in the shape of a football.)  MM has a couple of pocket watches in display cases on the mantel over the fireplace.  Being a mom, I suggested he might want to put them away.  To which Chatterer said:

“But Mommy, you bought him that box to keep all of his watches in!  He should use that.”

Lesson: Never tell a 4-year old a secret.  He’s past the age of forgetting things after 24 hours.  At least I didn’t tell Chatterer about the OTHER gift.

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Well, the middle part was good.

May 11, 2009 at 9:50 am (Chatterer, Family, Little Boy on a Mission, MM)

So, you’ve likely already read about Mother’s Day early morning surprises below.  Mother’s Day at our house was anything but relaxing.  MM and the boys let me sleep in until about 9 a.m.  MM needed to mow the lawn, so I threw on some clothes and took the boys to the park.  Chatterer made a friend there named Vince and had a great time, especially when the water feature started to work.  Oh, to be four years old and think that it’s ok to run around in your underwear in the water feature.  LBoaM wanted precisely nothing to do with the water, though, and by the time it turned on was very tired.  Rather than trying to get C out of the water, I plopped L in the stroller to watch.  He enjoyed watching his brother act silly in the water for about another half hour before C came over and said “I’m done.”  Fortunately, I’d brought extra clothes for everyone, so C changed his underwear and we walked home.

After that, it was time for Mother’s Day brunch at our favorite local eatery.  Unfortunately, it took them 45 minutes to get our food and they were out of their signature special for the day, which was something I’d really looked forward to having.  Fortunately, they did manage to get C his usual cheese pizza instead of forcing him to eat something new (Heaven forbid!).  It truly turned into a circus, though, when first L and then C both had bathroom emergencies… just as the food arrived.  This happens so often that the sealed travel wipes in L’s diaper bag were dry.  I made do with Wet Ones, though.  MM took care of C’s issues.  Overall, though, brunch was good.

MM and I were both looking forward to some down time during nap time.  By now it’s 3 o’clock, both boys are down for naptime, and MM heads out to the-worst-place-in-the-world-that-we-both-hate-but-they’re-the-only-ones-that-carry-pre-sliced-apples-that-don’t-go-bad-after-two-days.  I snuggle down under my Mother’s Day gift (big person sized softest blanket ever… Inna and Anissa, you know what I mean!) to read for a little while and maybe doze off.  For a grand total of half an hour.  C wakes up a little more than an hour after he started his nap.  He wasn’t really ready to be awake, so he cuddled with me for another 20 minutes, until MM came home.  Then he was ready to go outside in the wading pool to play.

While MM was gone, I decided I’d like a glass of water with ice.  I opened the freezer to find the ice bin filled with about half an inch of water and the ice was wet.  Thought: “This isn’t good.”  Time passed.  When MM came home, I told him about it.  He said he’d noticed it earlier.  I told him I’d turned down the temperature.  Time passes.

The food in the freezer is defrosting.  The food in the refrigerator is getting warmer and warmer.  Yes, it’s true: the refrigerator is broken.  It seems to be blowing the air in the refrigerator around, but not making any effort to keep the air cold.  Enter the unexpected $250 expenditure:  MM heads to Home Depot to pick up a freezer and we move all of the truly perishable stuff to the little refrigerator we have from when MM lived in a closet studio apartment in San Diego.

Heck, at least both the boys slept well last night.  Seriously, though, it was good to spend time with the boys and MM.  The boys seemed to have a great day, and, after all, isn’t that what matters most?

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One of those months…

September 24, 2008 at 9:35 am (Chatterer, Family, MM, Pets, Toddler On a Mission)

[Note: edited to include more fun times...]

It’s a good thing we have a sense of humor, or we’d be really depressed by now.  Let’s review:

It all started when our poor PurrMonster had to be put to sleep.  Since then, ToaM has had a stomach bug and all the ickiness that implies.  Each morning this week has involved washing someone’s sheets (usually ToaM’s).  These are the everyday trials that accompany life.  And then the bigger “what the heck?!” trials show up.  PurrMonster was September 9.  Last Friday, September 19, Chatterer’s school closed unexpectedly for what I still maintain was no good reason. 

This week: Monday morning at 2 a.m., Chatterer woke up because he lost one of his slippers.  He came out of his room to get us.  This woke up Vicious Dog, who promptly went to investigate.  The trouble is that Chatterer and Vicious Dog are about the same height, and Vicious Dog usually knocks Chatterer over in his enthusiasm to lick Chatterer.  Chatterer, not wanting to get knocked over, fled to the relative safety of his room and “shut the door tight” (read: SLAMMED the door).  At exactly the same moment, MM nudged me to tell me that Chatterer was awake.  I woke up screaming.  After calming down enough to figure out that no one had been shot, I found Chatterer’s slipper for him and came back to bed.  Amazingly, ToaM slept through this chaos, but woke up at 5 a.m.

Monday morning continued and at approximately 8:15 a.m., ToaM’s school called MM to explain that ToaM was throwing up “a little.”  (My cell phone was left on all weekend and was dead.  Not that it would matter anyway… see paragraph about “Reference Attorney.”)  Five minutes later, they called and said “a lot” and “you need to come get him.”  So, ToaM and MM had a nice bonding experience at home… if you think feeding a 15-month old and then having it all come back out the front and having him put his icky hand in your hair is “bonding.”  The high chair needed to be washed and power-washed anyway, right?!  Yesterday, ToaM did it to MM again.  MM, being a true sport, actually took it upon himself to feed ToaM his nightly bottle after yesterday’s explosion at dinner.  Brave man.

Tuesday morning, Chatterer slept so well that he didn’t wake up in time to make it to the potty.  We think he missed by about 5 minutes.  More laundry.

Also Tuesday (yesterday), the refrigerator decided to stop chilling food (although the freezer still works.)  After checking around online, we pulled enough cat/dog hair out from under the refrigerator (likely blocking air circulation for the fan) to possibly knit a sweater.  The refrigerator was still not working right this morning, although maybe it’s just punishing us for not taking care of it for the last 4 years.  We are hopeful we didn’t burn out the fan or something else really expensive.

ToaM was up early again this morning, having blown out his diaper and soiled his sheets.  After determining that he was still ok to go to school, we all headed out to the driveway to load up my car.  I put the key in and heard the dreaded “click click click”.  Dead battery.

On top of all of this, I am “Reference Attorney” at work this week, which means I end up answering e-mail and phone calls from people who call us to find an attorney for any number of problems, none of which we handle.  I also spend a large amount of time educating people about what we actually do, and how “what” is not the same as “why.”  This duty is loathed by all in my office (except the new guy, who just hasn’t done it enough yet). 

On a positive note, MM is excellent at getting cars to start when they choose not to, the repair person is coming this afternoon to fix the refrigerator (and the oven, which has been broken since July, but who needs an oven in the summer?) and it’s highly unlikely school will close unexpectedly again.  ToaM seems to be improving and his personality has not displayed the ickiness displayed elsewhere in his poor little body.  Upon calling ToaM’s school, he seems to be holding food down and is taking a nap.  My turn as Reference Attorney will end sooner than usual since I traded with someone here and they’re going to take Friday’s callers/e-mailers. 

In a true sense of irony, MM called from the house where he’s waiting for the repair person.  The refrigerator is down to 38 degrees and my car started when he arrived home.  But at least the oven will get fixed!  And it’s probably a good idea to have the refrigerator checked anyway.

Here’s hoping everyone reading this is giggling at our expense.  ;-)

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Annoyance of the week.

September 19, 2008 at 8:40 pm (Chatterer, Family, MM)

Chatterer’s school closed unexpectedly today.  Not because of any threat or emergency (last year our city made national news when a wacko made threats against the local schools).  No… that would be too simple.  The school closed because… two of the three teachers in the preschool were sick and THEY DIDN’T HAVE A SUBSTITUTE TO CALL!  Additionally, about half the kids were out with the same bug.  Chatterer, however, is fine.  You might imagine I was less than pleased about the situation.

On the plus side, Chatterer and I had lunch with MM and had a nice afternoon together.

On the down side, one of the kids who is sick was having a birthday party this weekend here: http://www.bishopspumpkinfarm.com/bishops_pumpkins_contests.htm and now her party is cancelled.

On the plus side, now we can get Chatterer’s and MM’s hair cut tomorrow instead.

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How do I explain this later?!

August 31, 2008 at 3:53 pm (Chatterer, MM)

So, as mentioned in an earlier post, we grew popcorn in our backyard.  MM was out doing Manly Man things, including removing the corn.  In the process, he accidentally dug up a toad.  Not a little cute frog-like toad, a huge, bigger-than-the-palm-of-an-adult-hand toad.  MM managed to not maim or destroy the thing, and put it back in the ground.  During our “inspection” of the garden, MM made a point of taking the dirt off the toad again to show the toad to Chatterer.  Now, to the title of this post:

MM: “See, we planted a toad here, and a toad tree will grow and all sorts of little toads will sprout here.”

Never mind that at one point we had 6 toads of various sizes living in our toad house sprinkler control valve box.  Never mind that there is at least one toad living under our front walkway in a hole, and another under the overflow from the a/c unit.  We needed a toad tree.  I think MM can explain it to Chatterer later.  (Resigned sigh.)

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