My Poor Little Ones

We have snot, coughing, and more snot.  I just love this time of year.  The two little ones seem to be miserable which makes me feel so bad for them.  They have these horrible coughs that sound so giant from their little bodies.  Cade has had to miss two speech sessions this week due to the sickness.  Hopefully it gets out of here quickly and doesn't infect the rest of us.

3 Little Words

I was just telling the boys goodnight as Mitch was preparing to read them a story and Cade looked up at me and said "I love you".  That was the first time he has ever said those words and they were very clear.  I'm not going to lie, it was overwhelming to hear my son utter those three little words after spending so long not talking.

A Normal Day Around Here

So this morning Drew didn't have school.  I had great visions of the boys sleeping in and having a nice relaxing morning.  Normally on school days I end up having to wake them up but on non-school days they don't have any problems getting up early.  This morning was no different.  Drew and Cade were up much earlier than normal and I was disappointed my morning hadn't worked as I had it planned out in my head.  So, I told them they could watch cartoons in my room with me for a little bit before we went down for breakfast.  A little while later I woke again because Mace was awake.  When I got up I realized the boys were gone.  They had sneaked out without telling me and went downstairs.  As Mace and I walked down the stairs, I was scared of the make-your-own-breakfast mess I would find on the counters but I was pleasantly surprised that I found them void of any supplies.  As they sat on the couch watching cartoons I asked them what exactly they were doing coming downstairs without telling me and Cade handed me a wad of plastic.  I grabbed it and studied it a minute trying to figure out what in the world it had come from.  What exactly had they been doing?  It was strange because the bottom was full of white little crystals.  Then it hit me.  They had gotten into Mitch's candy stash.  He had an unopened box of Sour Patch Kids in the pantry and they had helped themselves to the whole thing for breakfast.  What a healthy way to start your day when you are two.  They seemed pretty proud of themselves though that they had only taken one box of candy so I guess we have that going for us.  They didn't wipe everything out.

Then a little later Drew and Cade were upstairs playing and Mace was downstairs with me.  I was cleaning up the kitchen from the actual breakfast I fed them and Mace headed into the pantry.  I was calling for him because I needed to run some dirty towels up to the laundry room and didn't want him in the pantry alone while I was gone.  He didn't come and it was pretty silent back there.  I headed back to grab him and threw all the towels on the floor and screamed when I saw what he was doing.  He was standing at the toilet with his hands inside of it.  Gross yes, but it got so much worse when I got closer.  Drew has had the tendency not to flush the toilet lately.  It's so nasty and I don't know why he all of  sudden started doing that.  So Mace had been playing in a toilet full of pee.  Nasty, nasty, NASTY!  At least he hadn't thrown a whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet again.  I would not have been very happy about fishing out a pee soaked roll of toilet paper and having a pee covered baby.

The best thing about the morning was realizing that these two incidents didn't even really strike me as crazy or out of the ordinary.  I didn't even text Mitch and let him know.  Well, I guess I did make Drew send him an apology email.  But with three active little boys in the house right now, we're constantly finding ourselves part of crazy situations like these.  I now think of these times as amusing stories to share instead of stressful situations.  The alternative of losing my mind doesn't sound all that appealing to me.

Is it Really That Time Already

I cannot believe that I just had to bundle Drew & Cade up in winter coats, hats and gloves to play outside after lunch today.  It is really cold out there!!  I still want more glorious fall days to be able to play outside and enjoy before the bitter cold temperatures of winter move in.

It Made Me Happier than I Thought it Would

I feel like in a pinch I am really bad about coming up with something quick and easy for dinner.  If I don't make up a menu for the week I'm totally lost at dinner time.  Ask Mitch; I think it drives him crazy when he asks what's for dinner and I say I have no idea.  It is especially difficult because the defrost on our microwave doesn't work.  It just cooks the meat no matter what you try.  So everything I think of I can't ever make.

Mondays are terribly busy days around here.  We get home from speech when I would normally like to be sitting down for dinner.  So, I'm working on finding quick and easy things to be able to still get a good dinner on the table for us.  I'm finding that the easiest way I'm able to accomplish this is by putting something in the crock pot so it's ready for my hungry kids right when we get home.  Over the last few months as I've made crock pot meals I've doubled the recipe and made one for dinner and put the other in the freezer for later when I need a meal.  Today as I was struggling with what I was going to do for dinner because I hadn't yet made my menu, I decided to get one of those meals out.  It was awesome.  I had no prep time at all and we're going to have a great yummy meal tonight.  It's really little things like this that make me so ridiculously happy.  It wasn't that much extra work when I froze them because I was already using all the ingredients and it made no extra dishes (big plus).  Just a bonus meal to use on a day like today when I don't have time to whip something up.  {happy sigh!!}