Whose kid are you anyway?

Yesterday the boys and I got to spend the afternoon hanging out with our favorite person - Uncle Willie.  We fed and watered him, helped him with a few projects (ie floated him some money) and took him to football practice.

To fulfill his part of the deal, he had to go to the "Ghetto Mall" with me to look for a little kid tie at the tie store.

side note:  does every community have a ghetto mall?  You know - the place that in your childhood may have been hip and cool (my ghetto mall had the first Gap store in the state when I was 12 - and when the Gap was super cool) but now as an adult, you feel like you might catch a disease while walking around.

Anyway - as we were walking into the mall Uncle Willie was carrying the Chick.  While carrying the Chick he said to me, "You know, everyone here is going to look at us and think that I'm  your kid and that the boys are your kids too."

I said, "I know Willie.  People have been thinking your my kid since you were born.  Is that okay?"

He said, "Yes, it's okay.  As long as they don't think I'm your husband."

No one is going to think that - I'm pretty sure he's safe on that one.

Anyway.....

We walk into the toy store and one boy goes with me to look at the rainbow wall of ties and the other boy is with Willie when....

wait for it.....

the lady at the tie store says to Willie, "Wow.  There is quite an age gap between you two boys."

Willie looks at me with an "I told you so" glimmer in his eye and I say to the clerk, "They aren't brothers.  The big one is the Uncle and the little one is the nephew."

She didn't get it.  I then had to explain that he was my brother, born when I was 17 years old and that people confuse him for my son all the time.

But he's my brother.  I'd take him for my son any day though.  Because if my boys turn out have as good as their Uncle, I'll know I've done something right.

When there isn't anything else to post about....

just put cute pictures of your kids on your blog.

Right?

We were invited to go boating on Monday night.  The sky was a bit ominous, the Chick a bit sick (yeah, more ear infections) and the water a bit choppy.

That however didn't stop us from having a great time and didn't stop me from trying to keep my one year old from jumping ship into the Reservoir - because he was that excited to see a giant swimming pool.

This one's for you, Pioneers

Yesterday I tweeted that Pioneer day is great. Any excuse to eat BBQ hamburgers and overload on chips, dips, cupcakes and homemade root beer is okay in my book.

I love homemade root beer. It's impossible for me to drink the beverage in any other form but homemade but man, brewed at home it's the best.

We decided to make the most of our day by packing it full of events.

Breakfast with Grandparents
A visit to the farm with Grandparents
bravely riding a horse strapped to a contraption to make it walk in a circle
DUCKS!
Diet cokes (2 visits to 2 different gas stations were in order. One to start the day and one to end the day)
Grocery store for the first time in 2 weeks
Cupcake frosting and rice krispie treat making
One year old gagging and puking several times. Too many boogers sliding down his throat. We had to say goodbye to a beloved twisty blanket and t-shirt because of the mess but mom managed to stay clean. Awesome!
Family parties
Playing in the water
Pushing the bubble lawn mower
Eating good food
Hanging out with family
Playing with cousins
Playing with baby molly
Watching baby molly poop her pants and get mad
Trying to hold baby molly - having her scream at me - calming her down and being friends again
Rides home with sleepy babies who don't want to go to bed. Not ever. They aren't tired!
Bath time and screaming time
Bathroom accident for the three year old time (He was too distracted watching fireworks out the window)
Putting sleepy boys to bed and praying that they'll both sleep all night (They did! Yes!)
Mom and dad arguing the night away because, well,

It was a holiday. What else were we supposed to do!

My boy and me

You wouldn't know it from the pictures, but this beautiful, handsome, wonderful, smart and funny little boy and I don't get along too well lately.  We may be too much a like - both first borns and stubborn and strong-willed, for our own good.

We battle it out daily.

I'm exhausted.  It's hard work learning from a three year old and trying to teach him to be a good boy all the time (he hasn't stomped off and slammed a door for two weeks or spit at me either so that's some progress).

Even though we've had some rough patches, the joy we find in each other hopefully outweighs the fact that my patience is limited and he is, generally, bored with me. A little over a week ago we got a deal on a new computer that we couldn't pass up. We've been looking for a "kick around" machine that isn't a work computer and isn't in the basement. We found one and *gulp* bought a MAC. No one in the house really knows how to use it but we're learning.

And, photo booth may just be the thing that saves my boy and me from using our super powers against each other.

Swimming

My grandma put a swimming pool in her backyard when I was two or three.  I grew up with my own private swimming pool.  I love that pool.  I loved swimming with my cousins as a kid.

Some of the best memories of my life have revolved around my grandma's swimming pool.  There were countless days when I would show up with two diet cokes, chat with my grandma and then spend my entire afternoon lounging about in her backyard -with a giant swimming pool all to myself.

As a little girl, every Wednesday, grandma would do "Open Plunge".  For a couple of hours she'd let all the neighborhood kids come and swim.  My mom and grandma would stand at the gate and check out every kid, ask them if they knew how to swim and if they had a towel, and put every single girls hair up in a pony tail if they didn't come with one already in place.

Open Plunge freaked me out.  While the entire neighborhood was swimming outside, I was sitting inside.  Either on the washing machine looking out the window or at the kitchen table, unwrapping and eating dozens of mini reses peanut butter cups.  Grandma's house was like a candy factory, too.

As soon as the last kid was out of the pool and out of the yard, I walked out the back door, took off my shoes and jumped in the pool.  By this time I'd had my suit on for hours, just waiting for my chance.

Now, my kids get to swim in their own private pool.  Still at my grandmas house a couple times a week all summer long.  They are little and already spoiled with the beauty of having a pool all to themselves.  Today it was just me and the boys (Uncles Willie and James included).  I've had the Chick in the pool a few times - with crowds - and he's been tentative and shy and cried his way out of the pool, onto a lap with a fistful of pretzels.

Today though - the daredevil came out.  It seems that my boy is a lot like his mama.  He wants his privacy and the entire pool with as few swim mates as possible.  Today he blew bubbles, and kicked and swam and jumped in and walked off the stairs straight into the beautiful blue chlorine heaven.