tender feelings

While I was waiting to pick Ethan up from school his teacher approached me to tell me that Ethan had to go in time out today for talking without raising his hand. She said that he started crying really hard and told her that he wanted his Mommy. My heart broke for him as I watched him walk towards me with a solemn face and swollen

eyes. I took his hand and as soon as we reached the car I stopped and held his face with both of my hands and told him that I loved him so much even if he got a time out at school. Just seemed the right thing to say.  He looked at me and told me that I didn't hear him crying :-(  This perhaps is the first time that I haven't been there to comfort him when he's been crying for me. Without taking the teachers side I very carefully told him that if everyone talked out of turn no one would be able to hear the teacher and that is probably why she wanted him to raise his hand first. I asked him who he was talking to and he said that he was talking to himself :)

my son has chosen a wife

Ethan comes in just bawling today (which happens a lot if all his friends go home) but today he is sobbing more than usual.  So I pull him into my arms and ask him why he is so upset and why Dillan decided to go home. He looks up at me with his beautiful swollen eyes and tells me that Dillan said he was going to marry Maggie.  He pauses for a second and then wails that he wants to marry Maggie.  I try to explain to him that he may not even want to marry Maggie in 20 (50) years:) to that he responds that he DOES want to marry Maggie.  so I switch tactics and explain to him that if I were Maggie I would marry him and to that he responds with another sob that he can't marry me because I'm already married.

my child's already growing a beard.

Ethan: "Mommy how do you make a beard"
Mommy: "When you're older you can grown one"
Ethan: "Mommy I made a beard like grandpa white house's (my dad who lives in a white house)"
Ethan: "No Mason, that's a mustache, this is a beard"
who knew he knew so much about facial hair :) and yes I taped it to his face ... I've never been asked to adhere a beard before to someone's face.

the non stop chatter of my Ethan

Ethan: "Daddy, we went to the store and picked out a mommy huh"
Ethan: "A long time ago"

Ethan: "Cuz we had to find a good mommy huh"
Daddy: "Yep, we had to find the best"
Ethan: "Yep"

Where did my sweet little boy go?
I see glimpses of him every now and
then, but this scowl has taken him over.
I want to be able to take a picture
of him just once without him giving me this
face as soon as he sees the camera
sigh ...

yummy marshmallow anyone?

You'll have to look close.  Ethan and Mason have been cooking smores outside pretending they are camping.

I was a little slow catching on to why they wanted little marshmallows over and over again, but

yesterday I went outside to check on them and they had stuck the little marshmallows on our sprinkler

turner.... yuck!!!! Spencer has informed me that boys will be boys ... which I don't get

that does not give them a license to get muddy right after I've put them in nice clothes

or to eat things that I seriously wonder if what they are eating will cause permanent damage!!  I'm going to

take a deep breath and enjoy this cute picture and hope their roasting days are now behind them.

mosquito bites

For those of you who haven't seen ethan's reaction to mosquito bites here is one that is a mid range one.  we've had worse and we've had better, but this should give you an accurate picture of what a mosquito bite does to ethan's face.  We seem to get them every June ... reminds me to have the mosquito repellent out and ready to use.

This picture does not do Ethan's black eye justice, but thought I'd post it anyway.  Yesterday Ethan fell up my concrete stairs and has a huge black eye.  I thought it was funny today when his teacher immediately started questioning him about it.  I think we've made the list of children to watch for abuse, so let's hope we don't have any more mosquito bites or injuries for the rest of the school year:)

We decided to go up to Echo lake today ... what a mistake:)  We paid the 10.00 to get in, drive to the beach, unpack and pack up and come home.  It literally felt like we were riding full speed on a boat, but we were just sitting on the beach:-(  However, the kids did have fun for the 10 minutes we were there. Minus the wind it really had everything that makes them happy: rocks, mud, sand, water, sticks, swimsuits and permission from Mommy to get dirty.

PTSD

Can't go back to sleep, thought I'd write about it.  I took Mason with me tonight to Young Women's  so Spencer and Ethan could do homework. Well, on the way home (Spencer and my other two boys had walked up to pick us up) we had just rounded the corner to our house and two cars were coming so I yelled ahead to my two boys on bikes that there were cars and they in no way should go into the road.  I continued to watch them to make sure they had heard me and weren't going to do their normal dash across the street on the downhill momentum (concerned about Mason the most ... Ethan is usually pretty good.) well, it looked like they had heard me and had both come to a stop when Mason darted across the street, literally 1 foot in front of this big white truck that had luckily seen him and stopped.  Mason was completely oblivious to the truck and to Spencer and I screaming for him to stop ... It was so terrible!!  We wouldn't have been able to get to him in time and he would have been hit. We were so lucky that this particular truck was going slow enough to stop and that he was paying attention, but who really wants to depend on luck when talking about your child's life.  I keep running it over and over in my mind.  I wish I would have been up there to make sure they didn't cross, I wish my punishment for him crossing had been more immediate, and I wish I could positively say this wouldn't happen again.  hmmmmmmm  I guess when I figure out the answers to these questions I'll be able to go back to sleep.