The art of booger smearing

My little poo flinger (Baylor) has decided that poo flinging is no longer a sport in which he will participate in. Instead he has focused all of his efforts on booger smearing. I'm sure he has passed all knowledge of poo flinging on to his little bro for future reference.

Now the art of booger smearing takes a keen mind and a stealth hand. Here are a few tips from Baylor:

1. Act like you're giving mom a hug and then ever so gently smear a booger on her pants where she can't find it until the lady behind her in the checkout line politely points out the mass of goo on her leg.

2. Pretend like you're really interested in the pictures in a book and point....with a booger on the end of your finger, then promptly smear. Repeat if necessary.

3. When laying in your bed when you are supposed to be sleeping, use boogers as magic markers on the wall. Although they don't show up very well, the texture is perfect.

4. My all time favorite....brother booger smearing. Little brothers make great moving targets for boogers. Extra points if you pretend to hug them and wipe it in their hair.

Now that I have completely gross all of you out.....I bid you adieu. Here's to a fun and booger free weekend!

Here we go again...

I hate germs. I also hate the fact that my children are sick 87.6% of the "cold and flu" season. We had about four days of health and BAM! Brody is sick again. I'm thinking it's a fluke....I'm HOPING it's a fluke. We had a slight fever and a random puke this morning. He's hungry and thirsty and just acting clingy and tired, but so far no more puke. Did I mention how much I hate puke.....

I do.

Tons.

Here's to fluke puke.

I wanted him to be quiet...

I mean, C'mon....this is totally what I would do if I wanted my little brother to shut his trap. Baylor looks so proud....Brody on the other hand has other thoughts running through his head. I love these boys.

Distracted

As a mother, wife and fabulous lady (tooting my own horn here, deal with it) I have to admit that I think I have a slight case of ADD.....really. I walk into a room and.....oooohhh something shiny!

Wait, where was I?

This week I have once again failed to be a good mother according to my scale because I have been so distracted by getting ready for the art open house (tomorrow at Diane's house by the way!) and playing in two different bands. I'm doing what I love both music and art are high on my list but I am ignoring what I love most, my children and husband. The housework and cleaning is always distracting as well and the ever so popular what to have for dinner! I wouldn't classify it as ignoring, there are a few different types of ignoring:

1. Tuning out....like when your children say your name 1359 times in the course of one hour and you tune them out...intentionally. This also might work for husbands, but they catch on pretty quickly!

2. Ignoring by choice. I do this one a lot and pretend I didn't hear it (often because I really didn't hear it, I'm going deaf) Lonnie can attest to this as well.

3. Attention deficit ignoring...this I can't help, I just do it. I walk into a room with the intent to do something and come out doing five other things that caught my attention while I walked into that room.

So after the chaos of one week is over and we start with another, my goal is to quit intentionally ignoring and start spending some intentional play time with my kids!

Use your words not your hands

We have entered into a new stage with Baylor and it involves throwing punches. Every time I turn around or leave the boys to play by themselves, the punches start flying. Not just punches mind you, there are scratches and pile drivers and full nelsons. Our hopes and dream of raising a runner have quickly turned towards professional wrestling. We are trying to teach him that he needs to use his words first, rather than his fists. He prefers the fists. He has a temper like his dear mother, feisty and furious. Now Brody man doesn't get off that easy. He too, has developed quite the love for screaming and punching but most of the time it is out of self defense. Some of the time I let them duke it out but more often than none, it was Baylor who threw the first punch and needs to be disciplined. I can't say that I was a calm child, just ask my brother. I used him for a punching bag more often than I'm sure he'd like to remember. Sorry buddy.

A wha? Huh?

What a marvelous weekend I had! I left on Friday for the US Open brass band championships in St.Charles. A few band members and myself hopped in the Suburban pulling our trailer and followed a very brave handful of people in a 1970 Starcraft RV. The RV was older than half the people inside and we strapped a pair of horns on the font for added hilarity. The RV has been a brass band tradition for longer than I have been a member and will continue to get strange looks and laughs until it dies....which could be any day now.

Here are a few of the band members that braved riding and hanging out in the RV over the weekend.

We played our hearts out but had a disappointing finish. It only makes us want to work harder next year. I was sick, lost my voice and cashed in early that night....just call me party pooper. I did however get a little taste of the good stuff. My friend Jen from Cary, IL took me on a wine tasting, cupcake eating culture experience. She taught my redneck self about different wines and we window shopped around Geneva. It was marvelous.

Brody man is better but Baylor has a cold now. I am still recovering with a nasty cough and pubescent male sounding voice....it's excellent. I'm sure this will be the first of many bouts with crud this winter.

Surgery Smergery

We finished out our week of Dr's visits today with the urologist to confirm that Brody probably has a small hernia and will need a two hour surgery to fix the hydroceles in his little testes (there's that word again...I guess I can't avoid it, I live with three males) The surgery is scheduled for December 16th and was the earliest we could get in. It's an outpatient procedure and he said it was tougher on the parents than the child. I'm not thrilled but I hope this will fix things! We are not traveling for Christmas this year either, so that will make it a bit easier and less stressful! The Doctor also questioned why the sent us to the ER (I do too!) and why the heck they tried to put a catheter in his wee wee. That is probably the source of all the pain, rather than the ping pong ball sized testes.

The poor little dude still has some weird virus and isn't tolerating his antibiotics very well as he spewed all over me, the chair and the floor this morning. He was put on a very strong antibiotic so I'm certain is was because he didn't have any food in his stomach yet. He's still very tired and whiney but the fever has broken (as of this morning!) All of this mess comes at the most inconvenience time as well....like any time is convenient! I am leaving for the weekend for our big brass band competition in St. Charles, Illinois. We have been working so hard on this music and I hate leaving behind a sick little boy. I'm hoping he will continue to get better as the weekend goes on. It's supposed to be beautiful out so my dream is to come home to a clean house, healthy kids and lawn free of leaves (are you reading this honey? :) No, I'm just thankful to be able to get away for a while....alone, even though it makes me sad to leave!