Things That Keep Our House Operational (Outside Edition)

We had another beautiful day today. The kids were forced to play outside. They spent seven months begging to play outside and then the first week where it's nice out they ask to play inside. And thus, I say tough @&$! and toss them out into the cruel world. 

They played for a while with the neighbors but got bored and started moping/whining/asking to go inside. But it was 60 degrees and I wanted to stay outside. 

Back when I was a kid, we had to "rough" it. We made fun with sticks, rocks, tennis rackets and whatever primitive items we could get our hands on. So I took a page out of the 90s Kid book and showed the kids how to be entertained with basic randomness. 

So, I got a bucket. And a sponge. And some dish soap. And a hose. And combined them. I told them to "wash something". The sidewalk, the outdoor toys I don't know soap and water and sponges seemed to have endless possibilities. 

They thought it was fabulous. They actually found it "fun" to wash both family cars and the large toy dump truck. And hey, we got clean cars out of it. And they got 50 cents each (except for my kids, who get a lot more from me than 50 cents).

And Camden sucked on sponges. Soapy sponges. 

Whatever, kid. 

        

Modulated Forts

Apparently even blanket forts are modulated these days. 

The boys got this for their combined birthday present from their aunt and uncle. The idea is to make different shaped forts and throw sheets over it. It takes a LOT of work to put them together but the kids like the end result and "helping" (by throwing the connector balls all over the house and beating each other with the sticks. But hey, it keeps them happy!)

It rained today so they watched Cars 2 in their "igloo" in the living room. Which was a PERFECT distraction to being stuck inside today. Camden liked throwing himself at it and breaking it (Hulk, SMASH!) And tonight we moved it to Calen's bedroom (which took two people and fell apart going up the stairs. But we got it there) and I lined the bottom with blankets and stuffed animals, and Calen is currently still sleeping in it. 

I also found inside his little fort, a bunch of wrapping paper. Turns out he had snuck into my room and found all the presents for Camden's birthday from their godparents, brought them back into his room and unwrapped them. He has been SO mischievous lately! Ugh!

watching movies inside their fort

   

The Horrendous Fours

We didn't have terrible Two's with Calen. He was sweet and easy and perfect.

We had horrible Threes. 

Which have transformed into Horrendous Fours. 

I'm not sure why his attitude/personality always changes right around his birthday but it never seems to fail. And this year is no different. He's defiant (moreso than usual) and will outwardly say "Nope." when I ask him to do something. He's seemingly forgotten his "please" and "thank yous", shouts out demands and when he gets in trouble and I'm scolding him, he smiles this shrewd little smile. And his energy has suddenly skyrocketed so he's become generally mischievous and "wild".

Who ARE you?

Needless to say he's spent the majority of this week sitting in timeout and has had most of his toys taken away at one point or another. Since it is in fact 2013 and I can have CPS called on me if I smack the daylights out of him.

I blame his attitude on a newfound confidence thanks to his progress in speech and language developments. Or something. I need something to blame and that's it. 

And Brad and I are reeling to catch up to this round of insanity and putting a stop to it before we put him up for sale on Ebay. 

Meanwhile, I attempted to take nice spring pictures of the boys yesterday. Not to be outdone by his brother, Camden was in an especially foul mood so they didn't turn out GREAT, but they did turn out. 

    

The Short Seasons (Let's Just Skip Those Ones)

We didn't have a proper fall season. It was summer, and then it was Hurricane Sandy, and then once we came back from Sandy it was winter. No breezy sweater days, no beautiful days of orange and yellow (the leaves were green when we evacuated and were completely stripped bare once we returned), no intermission between summer and winter. Just summer. And winter. Fall took a leave (no pun intended...or was it?) of absence.

Winter was here a couple days ago. It was bare, (okay it's still bare), it was cold and cloudy, and the wind chill was unbearable. Yesterday it felt like spring. One day. 

Today, it was not spring. It was summer. Full blown four alarm summer. 80-something degrees, warm summer breeze, seagulls (SEAGULLS. Like they came out of hibernation or something), tank tops and a legitimate sunburn on my shoulders and nose. The kids were outside barefoot in shorts and tshirts playing with the hose. The hose people. And yes the water was turned on. They even made a small lake out of my front yard and stomped in it without crying that they were cold. I actually almost got overheated and had to go into the shade. 

Except there was no shade because the trees haven't bloomed yet because two days ago it was winter. 

And tomorrow? Even hotter. 

Could I be any happier? I think not.

Normally I'd be a little put out that spring isn't happening this year. I like spring. It's pretty and comfortable and generally the only time around here where we can go to the zoo without either a) freezing solid or b) melting onto the pavement. BUT, with as long and drawn out as winter has been this year, I will take summer.  

The Great Outdoors

OhEmGee. We actually went outside today. On purpose. And stayed out there for something like six hours or so. And didn't freeze to death upon exiting the house. 

I even went out without a jacket. And flip flops. ::GASP:: ::SHOCK:: ::HORROR::

And the weather report for the next week is high 60s and even low 70s. Spring is here and she is welcome to stay a while!

They were so cute together today. Also, Camden doesn't believe in shoes.

 

With Netflix By My Side

Netflix is my best buddy on days where I'm stuck in bed fighting whatever next round of Cape May Crud has infested my well-being. 

In fact I'm positive that Netflix was designed for people stuck in bed all day bored out of their wits looking for a wide variety of things to watch without having to change the discs or fill up the DVR. 

Today, while laying in bed all day, I watched a documentary on Craig's List, a classic comedy ("As Good As It Gets"), a series about a biker gang ("Sons of Anarchy"), and now a new series I just started about classic storybook fairy tales with a twist ("Once Upon A Time"). All without even moving my head off the pillow. 

Sweet, beautiful technology. 

Sick days can be pretty fun in an "I'm sick and feel like poo" kind of way. Especially since Brad was feeling better and was willing to be downstairs all day with the boys.    

PSA: Why Jersey Sucks (Volume 7: Gas Pumping)

Here's yet another Public Service Announcement as to Why Jersey Sucks.

It's illegal to pump our own gas in Jersey. 

Which pisses me off. It takes forever. I could get out of my truck, pay, fill up, get back in and drive away before they even open my tank valve. They don't even wash my windows. 

At least Oregon gas pumpers always washed my windows.

One thing Jersey gas pumpers do is top off. I don't like it when they top off my gas. I was always taught as a young driver to never top off. It can cause fires, damage your car blah blah blah. I'm not sure why the gas pumpers top off, other than to make a nice pretty even number on your receipt. Or maybe so they don't have to make odd change. After all they are lazy. (they don't wash your windows!)

A couple months ago as I was driving along the Parkway happily content in my completely functional truck (that was making no weird noises, vibrations, leaks holes fires etc) when suddenly not one but THREE warning lights appeared on my dashboard. The check-engine, and two other bizarro unidentifiable warning lights that couldn't mean anything besides the fact that the car was about to explode and plunge off the overpass like a fiery comet into the earth below. 

Today's top story: "Small comet resembling a red mid-size SUV collides into southern New Jersey suburb. First reports feared that many nearby citizens were severely burned, but further investigation found that the citizens had just spent too much time in Jersey tanning beds. And now to sports with Steve..."

So long story short, Brad took the truck to Auto Zone and had them hook it up to a computer and then Googled the error code that came up. Turns out that the errors that we're getting coincides with a sensor going awry. And that certain sensor is notorious for going awry when gas overflows in the gas tank too often...a.k.a. when asshole gas pumpers overfill your gas tanks!

The sensor will not actually affect the functioning of the vehicle. It's just annoying. And sooner or later your sensor should be replaced. And I think it will eff with emissions testing if that is coming up.

We managed to get the sensor reset so that the lights on the dash went away. But tonight I turn on the car to go grocery shopping and look who decided to show up. Sigh. 

So the moral of this story is: don't let gas pumpers top off. Or you. Don't you top off either. 

I'm sure some gearhead will inform me something or other about how this is false or incorrect or almost wrong. Whatever. I don't care. I want to blame someone and who better to blame than Jersey turds? Also, Google said it was true. Google is always right. 

Error, error error.

    

 

The Things You Say (And Do)

Calen is an early riser. 

"Early" as in like 6am every morning. Morning to me doesn't exist until at least 7:30am. But, he's always been easy in that as long as I turn on his light, he'll happily play quietly in his room until Camden (my late(er) sleeper) and I drag ourselves out of bed.

On rare occasions he gets bored and into mischief, but it's limited to upstairs thanks to a tall baby gate at the top of the stairs that is so complicated most adults can't figure it out. 

Last night, I forgot to close the gate. 

This morning Camden woke up at 9:30 like the awesome kid he is. I go into Calen's room to tell him we can go downstairs now, but I can't see him. But I can hear a very discreet munch munch munch. 

I get on my hands and knees and find Calen laying flat on his belly with a pile of Easter candy in front of him (and probably an equal amount in his mouth). He was trying to hide it in his hands and clamping his mouth shut. Then I notice he had scissors under the train table. Like the grownup sharp scissors we had in the junk drawer that I wasn't even aware he knew where we stored it. 

Me: "WHY do you have scissors?"

Calen: "To cut the wrappers off the candies."

Smart enough.

Calen: "And I need to cut off the tag to my Giant Tomato"

The "Giant Tomato" is what he named his big red beanbag chair in his room. And sure enough, half of the tag to the "giant tomato" was cut off. 

...very resourceful Calen. 

Later today at Costco we were eating our delicious Costco dinner Brad was inquiring to Calen about his mischievous endeavors this morning. Calen is very much a logical boy, and not much of a storyteller at all. But suddenly, he had quite a story to tell Daddy. He said that "Mommy came into my woom....." and then changed his voice to a raspy scary voice and said "What are you eating?!?" and then changed his voice back to his normal voice and said quietly "....candy...." and then said something else in my apparent scary mommy voice, but Brad was laughing so hard he missed the rest of it (I was using the restroom and missed this little storytelling moment).   

I have a feeling the age of Four is going to be a whole new world for us. 

 

   
       

Monster Hats and Superhero Capes

My mom is incredibly talented with crochet needles. 

I don't know the first thing about crochet. They look like chopsticks. Or is that knitting? I don't even know. But I know she crochets because she calls is crow-shitting.  My mom is rad. 

So anyways she's made the kids hats before. A dinosaur hat for Camden, a monster hat for Calen this past Christmas, and then just a couple days ago a monster hat for Camden arrived in the mail. I'd keep finding cute patterns on Etsy and tell my mom "hey, I have a project for you...." since I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to anything involving yarn, or fabric, or anything like that. 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for cute hats on kids.

So I'm pretty sure this monster hat is my favorite of all of them. It's just so damn cute. 

Parenting fact #382: Every boy should have a monster hat. 

 
It's especially cute when it is paired with a superhero cape. 

Parenting fact #383: Every boy should have a cape.