Birthday Secrets

Adin decided earlier this week that he wanted to give me five balloons for my birthday. I fully support that plan, so Joe took the boys shopping tonight. When they came home, Erik rang the doorbell and came in telling me Adin would be coming in right behind him. Then when Adin came in, he asked me to come in his room with him once he got his boots off. I agreed and then Erik couldn't wait for Adin to get his boots off so Erik dragged me to Adin's room and asked me to cover my ears! I think that's around the time I figured out something was up. So I turned on some music. I heard Adin and Erik talking about when it was time to flick the porch lights off and on. And Erik told me to be sure not to come out of Adin's room until he told me it was safe. Once it was safe, Adin took me by the hand and led me straight to Erik's room and tried to open a drawer. Erik was pretty upset but I told him I hadn't seen anything so any secrets that may be contained in the mysterious drawer are still safe. Watching the kids keep secrets is so fun!

Laundry surprise

When I was moving a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer I found lots of little bits of paper. Intrigued, I was curious what piece of paper had been washed. At the bottom of the washer I found a little notebook the boys like to use when they play police officers.

When that load was dry I was surprised to find about 10 rubber bands and paper clips at the bottom of the dryer. Erik was pretending to be a detective the other day, and I guess now his detective clothes are clean.

Water fight

Tonight, when I sent Erik to change into his pjs, he came out naked, except with a pajama shirt tied around his waist. He had the shirt part hanging in the front so that his buns were exposed. He found it very funny, and was running around for a few minutes. I went in the bathroom to supervise tooth brushing. We have a water bottle on the vanity for rinsing after brushing, and I knew there was water in it. Suddenly, it just came over me to squirt Erik's behind with the water, just as he was spitting out his toothpaste. Fortunately for me, he found it utterly hilarious. He screamed with laughter. So we had a little water fight. I stayed in the bathroom and he went in the hallway. He would dash past the open door and I tried to squirt him with water. Not the best activity for just before bed, but sometimes it's so fun to hear him laugh! I wiped the water off the floor afterward, of course. I figure it's almost like I washed the floor!

A Fistful of Dollars

The kids got valentines in the mail today with a significant amount more than one dollar. Adin's first response was to suggest bringing it with him to church on Sunday! It's so cute how he has no sense of what money could buy. Erik gets it more. We were just at Lakeshore Learning (an educational toy store) and they wanted everything they saw. I told them they could chose what to ask for for birthday presents. I'll probably let them each chose something with this Valentine's money, bring some to church and bank the rest. I'm pretty excited that they are excited about toys that don't involve superheroes!

One dollar

Last weekend I mislaid my Kindle, and for a couple days I looked for it with low intensity, sure it would turn up eventually. I kept telling the boys to keep an eye out for it, and let me know if they see it. Every time I said that, Erik would ask where I saw it last, which cracks me up. By Tues or Wed I was getting more anxious about it, and decided to put out an incentive for them. I told them whoever found it for me would get two dollars. That made quite a difference! Erik started to ask me where I saw it last, then realized he knew the answer, and asked me where the second to last place I saw it was. The three of us looked all over the family room. Then Adin decided to check the basement. On the way, Erik must have looked at the fridge and remembered seeing me put it on top to keep it away from them. He asked if it was up there. I had checked there a few times, but just by patting up there with my hand. This time I got out a chair and looked. Ta da! Erik was very excited about his two dollars, and began to mull over what to do with the money. I decided to give Adin a dollar, since he'd looked hard, as well.

On Friday I was taking Adin to the YMCA, and asked if he wanted to bring his dollar to buy a treat. "No. I want to bring it to church." Aw, how sweet. I wasn't sure if he would still want that today, but he did! He brought it along and when it was offering time, he said, "Let's do this!" He made his parents very proud today.

A fun evening

Joe went to a Timberwolves game tonight, so I was searching for something fun to do with the boys. We ended up making sugar cookies. We didn't really do much baking during the Christmas season. I baked for a cookie exchange, and my cousin Cindy bakes lots of cookies to give us, as does my mom, and Joe's mom. So I figure, why go through all that trouble at a time of year when I already have plenty to do? I love to bake, though, and want the kids to have the experience and memories, so we do some of that in January! A couple years ago we decorated gingerbread houses in January. A couple weeks ago we baked gingerbread cookies and tonight we made sugar cookies. It was very fun, and not stressful at all. As a bonus, I made them with my last pasturized egg, so I was able to snack on the leftover dough after the last pan went in the oven!

Adin has moved from asking non-stop questions, to asking non-sensical questions. Like, he'll ask me if I'm five foot seven, or 30. (He may have the mistaken impression that I'm 30 years old. I may have given him that impression.) So tonight, when he said something about wishing there were M people in the world, I thought he was being silly. (Or a divergent thinker, depending on how generous I feel.) I said, "M is not a number." He said, "But it can stand for a number." I thought, Good grief, is he talking about Roman numerals? I told him that was true but I couldn't remember what number M stands for. He said, "A thousand." We were talking about Roman numerals last week, but I can't believe he remembered.

Adin surprised Joe this morning by piping up with a comment about how the title of a book featured alliteration. He talks like a big kid, but he sure acts like a preschooler when we ask him to put on his coat and boots!

The Wedding March

Last night, I was sitting by Adin as he tried to fall asleep. Out of the blue he said to me in a desperate tone, "I don't know yet who I want to marry!" Plenty of time to decide that, my dear!