Life with Boys

I always find random stuff around my house.  And these things aren't just accidentally left there!  It's almost as if they were strategically placed as decor, like it's there new place of rest.  Rather than continue to get irritated, I figured I'd start documenting my boys' efforts at decorating MY home.

Here we have the kitchen table centerpiece, thank you Cameron.



And here in the chest of dog toys, you will find Colton's "treasure box inside Mommy's treasure box".

This is Jason's ball that the tball team signed.  My guess would be Colton's efforts??  Surely it wasn't Jason....

This pic is hard to see, if you can see it at all.  But right in the middle of the wall, in MY room, is a bb pellet.  That's right, someone named Cameron had an airsoft and BB war IN MY HOUSE, IN  MY ROOM!  Yeah, they knew I was not happy. 

This is Colton's bow and arrow, made from Mom's hangers.  Do you know how many hangers I have thrown away because I thought he was tanking on his clothes to get them down?  I probably could've saved myself some hangers had I just let him keep the first few.  You can also find this "toy" hanging on the bookcase door knobs in the living area.

Itchy, Itchy

This past Saturday we were up at the preschool getting started on the new playground.  At some point I must have sat down in a bed of chiggers.  I woke up Sunday morning covered in spots!  At first Jason flipped and stripped the bed thinking we had bed bugs.  I knew this wasn't the case because I wash the linens often and we have a matress cover.  After determining they were officially chiggers, I began to cry.  I had scratch all.night.long.  They hurt so bad!  This is my back and only what you CAN see.  They are all over my stomach, chest, butt, lady area and the tops of my legs.  Some spots are just mutlitple chigger bites.

Of course I did all the recommended home treatments - took a bleach bath water, put Chigger medicine on, put anti-scratch cortizone cream on.  You name a home remedy, I've tried it!  Upon further investigation, none of that works.  I also learned that there are not live chigger bugs in my body.  Such a nasty myth!!  All I can do is ride it out which can take weeks.  I'm on day 3 of this and am miserable.  Almost nothing works for the itching except Benadryl which is not ideal to take when your kids are home.  That stuff knocks me out cold.

A lesson learned - spray bug spray EVERYWHERE!  My torso area is the only place I didn't spray.  I just never thought to lift up my shirts and spray underneath :(

Really?

If this is any indication of our summer, starting next week, go ahead and ignore my insanity.  I will have been banging my head on the wall wondering what I've done wrong.  It's like a flashback to when Colton was 2, except those fits were worse and lasted for 3 more hours.  Try that 4 times a day!

This particular fit started while Colton was unloading the dishwasher and Courtnie asked to use his watercolors he brought home from school today.  I guess this wasn't acceptable to him, who knew?  He was throwing this fit for about 5 minutes before I started recording and it lasted another 10 or so after I left.  When he was done, he got up, walked out, got himself something to drink and went to play outside.   I need to learn how to get over his fits as fast as he does!  Maybe I could learn something from this afterall?!

PS - If you have 1 or even 2 children, do not judge me or him.  I believe every parent should be blessed with a child who is difficult, head strong and unwilling to take no for an answer.  Only then will you truly learn from your children the meaning of humble, acceptance, forgiveness and unconditional love.




ETA: He told Jason, "I messed up on my paper and didn't want to get another piece and waste Mommy's paper."  After a long discussion, we've all come to an agreement that it's okay to mess up and not okay to throw a fit.  Thinking maybe the lack of structure in class today has messed him up a bit.