10
February
2008
Friday the boys and I were on campus in the building where Mike works. We were stopped by a woman I didn’t know, asking if the boys were “the Bowling Twins”. I said they were and she told me that she had been joking with some faculty just that day about how interesting it was that their children were all so cute when, well… you know, they weren’t. I agreed saying “yeah it’s funny how cute they turn out when their parents aren’t.” After the woman walked away Brandon turned to me and very seriously asked me, “I’m not cute?” I assured him that he was in fact cute to which he replied, “You’re not cute mommy.”
I have to admit that he did a great job of following the gist of the conversation!
Posted: Drew & Bran, Edmonton, Family
9
February
2008
The other day the following was overheard at the Esso in Clairview. “Stop taking your brother’s teeth!” “You, you stop crying about it, he’s not really taking them it’s just pretend” “I said stop taking his teeth and give them back, now!” The poor mother had locked her kids in the car while pumping gas and was yelling at them through the window. Thankfully for the most part the kids were keeping themselves entertained except for the occasional bout of teasing (and teeth pulling?!). Normally I might have thought one of two things depending on my mood and how the kids had been that day. Either “That poor mother, she’s really keeping herself together over that and the kids are real troopers too. I hope I will be like if I ever end up in that situation.”, or “What kind of mother locks her kids in the car?”
Turns out…
…it was me!
I left the keys in the ignition so the boys could keep listening to a new CD they got at Kindermusik class. The front door has never locked before when I’ve gotten gas, but then I’ve never left the keys in the ignition either. When I went to get back into the van, all the doors were locked. I called AMA and of course got the, “Oh my goodness you’re kids are in the car!?” but they said someone would be out as soon as possible. About a half an hour later I decided to try my neighbor Jon to see if he happened to be home and had access to his car (usually Connie takes it to work). It just so happened that he was home and Connie was out of town so he had the car! He got the spare key from our house and saved the day!
Lest you are one of those thinking, “What kind of mother locks her kids in the car”, a friend sent me the following link from the automobile association in England, apparently I am not alone.
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/news/children-locked-in-cars.html
Posted: Drew & Bran, Eating Your Words, Edmonton
22
January
2008
Drew’s been having some sleeping problems lately. He seems to have a bit of insomnia. If he wakes up at night (which has been happening every night), he can’t get back to sleep. He wants us to stay and rub his back until he falls asleep, which can take FOREVER. So lately he’s been getting to come to bed with us. Not a habit we wanted to start but there you go, it happened. Probably in November it was happening pretty regularly and then when I was travelling with them and staying with different friends, Drew would usually climb into bed with me in the wee hours of the morning. Although he did really well at the grandparent’s house.
(Aside: If I were a single parent I think the boys would just be with me the whole time. It’s a lot of work to keep them in their own bed, when they’ll happily fall asleep with you.)
So now he seems to be having more issues with getting back to sleep and knows he can just come to bed with us. So we’re trying to break him of that. Last night we thought we were in for it again.
The boys have never really been attached to stuffed animals and having them in bed with them, and we haven’t pushed it. They have a couple of favorites that they like to take with them when we travel or they “rediscover’ now and then and carry around for a day or so. Last night Drewie wasn’t going to go back to sleep and he wasn’t going to let me leave. I was so tired from being awake the night before (same problem) and having an early morning that I’m not really sure how the thought came to me. Maybe it was one of those God-inspired moments, because I was certainly too tired to think clearly. But I realized that maybe he just needed something else to keep him company. I stumbled downstairs and got his favorite bear, named “Bear” and a gorilla my mom got him for Christmas. He tucked bear under his arm and “Jaba” the gorilla kept watch at the head of the bed. He also got a stern talking to about how his mommy needed to get to sleep and if she didn’t, she was going to yell a lot the next day. I left and we never heard a peep until 8am this morning! Halleluiah!!
Hopefully tonight will be as successful. 
Posted: Drew & Bran
22
January
2008
Often when two or more children are playing together they a make a bit of noise. It’s when it gets quiet that you start to worry.
Sometimes when it’s quiet the boys are actually, amazingly, just playing quietly so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and not always go running. Yesterday they were a little too quiet in the bathroom. The room where the toilet is either being flushed or water being splashed in the sink (or more recently cups of water from the sink being dumped [read that as 'splashed'] into the bathtub). Checking on them I found that they had made themselves some flouride smoothies.
Here’s the recipe if you’re interested.
Fill the bottom of a cup with toothpaste.
Add water to the top.
Drink.
Yum!
At least I know that they can squeeze they’re own paste! I think I should be teaching them to swish and spit, just in case the need for a smoothie arises again.
Posted: Drew & Bran
15
January
2008
We had some very important visitors at our house today. An Angel…and…God. First let me say, these were very welcome guests as the day for me wasn’t that great. In fact it was one of those crying days. Those days when you have two small boys who are bouncing off the walls (your own and the public ones, you know, those embarrassing ones). The boys were high energy, high maintenance today. There were lots of time outs, whining, and even a bloody lip. To top it all off, our van ends up in the shop and I’m supposed to go grocery shopping tonight! And…we’re potty training! Ugh!!
So…back to our guests. I was folding the sheets this afternoon when Bran looks up and exclaims, his face beaming, “Mommy! You’re an Angel!” And then he runs over and gives me a big hug. Awww…I felt like a million bucks. Then before I could get too caught up in the moment, he’s grabbing the sheet saying, “I wanna be an angel too!” Of course at this point, Drew runs in and wants to know what sounds like so much fun. After seeing Bran draped in a sheet, he wants to be an angel now too. Here’s how the rest of the dialogue went:
Me:”You want to be an angel too?”
A: “Yep…no…I wanna be God the Father” (Now we have been attending an Anglican church lately, but I was a little shocked).
Me:”You want to be God the Father?” (Just making sure I heard correctly)
A: “Yep…no…I wanna be Jesus!”
Me:”Okay, Bran’s an Angel, you can be Jesus”
A:”No…I’m God.”
So God and an Angel ran around our house this afternoon looking like two misfits at a toga party. But it sure gave me a much needed laugh. Where were they this evening, when I needed them? Maybe they’ll come back tomorrow.
Posted: Drew & Bran, Family
7
January
2008
I think the boys are trying to tell me something…they want to go make a snow man. Where’s Papa when you need him!?
Yesterday the boys piled rice from dinner on the top of their sippy cups, making snowmen. I thought that was pretty creative actually.
Today Bran was helping me put laundry into the laundry room. He grabbed a sheet and rolled it into a ball. He told me it was in a ball to make a snowman. He brought in two ‘balls’ of sheets for his snowman, and as I was closing the door he came running with two balloons he said were the snowman’s eyes! We stuck the balloons into the sheets and closed the door on our snowman. Hopefully he doesn’t melt on my floor.
Anyone have any creative ideas for making ‘indoor’ snowmen? It looks like the temps are dropping around here and the snow isn’t always good for rolling.
Posted: Drew & Bran
