Mason's Awesome Faux-hawk

This week is Red Ribbon week at school and the kids have a dress-up theme for each day. It's been fun. Monday was sports jersey day, Tuesday was tie-dye (which led to our first attempt at tie-dying a t-shirt. It was messy and fun, and successful!), Wednesday they wore red, and today is crazy hair day.

Mason wanted a mohawk, so I did my best to punk him out good! We used some super-hold gel that felt like elmer's glue and the hair dryer to make it stand up as much as possible. It's a little droopy, but he still looks pretty darn cute!! Now I have to go wash his favorite jammies for pajama day tomorrow. I wonder if I can declare it pajama day for me as well?

Mom, You're Embarrassing Me!

You know when you have kids that one day they're going to find you incredibly embarrassing. Even when they're itty-bitty and think that you hung the moon, you know that the day will come when that will all change. I knew it would happen with Mason, I just didn't think it would happen when he was six! But lately, Mom's not quite as cool as she used to be.

It was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago when we were coming home from soccer practice. Mason suddenly piped up from the backseat, "Mom, I don't like it when you talk to the other moms at soccer practice." I asked him why. "Because I just don't. It makes me feel weird. You're too loud when you say 'hey' and it makes me kind of feel like I hate you." Ouch. So I asked him what he thought I should be doing. "Nothing. You should just sit there and watch me and not talk to anybody." I told him that just wasn't going to happen. I tried to explain that I get precious little time to talk to other moms, and like it or not, I'll be taking every opportunity I get to have a real conversation. He wasn't thrilled with that, but he didn't say anything more.

Until this Saturday. We were at the soccer fields and this time it was a game. I was cheering for his team- nothing out of the ordinary, just "Go Michael! Good job, Robert," etc. But then I get, "Mom, I don't like it when you cheer." Dang, man, slap a muzzle on me and sit me in the corner why don't you! I had to fight the childish urge to cheer for everyone else, but stay quiet as a mouse when he was on the field- since it's embarrassing and all. (Though I admit to chilidishly responding, "Well, I don't like it when you do cartwheels on the field!) I kept cheering, but only when they did something really great like score a goal. Now, I did jump out of my chair and yell, "YES!!!! Go Mason!!!" when he scored a goal, but that was pure reflex.

The good thing is, even though we're in the beginning stages of finding your parents utterly humiliating, we're still only at the beginning. He still loves us for the most part. He came off the field after scoring two awesome goals and hugged me and sat in my lap. So thankfully, we've got a ways to go before he refuses to acknowledge me in public. But even when he gets to that stage, I'll still be there, cheering him on- even if it embarrasses him to death!

The So-Called "Twin Bond"

Lately I've been pondering the mythical "twin bond"- whether it actually exists and if my boys have it. It's hard to say. I wouldn't say from watching them on a day to day basis that they have some deep, psychological connection. For the most part, they each kind of do their own thing. They have remarkably different temperaments. Will is an outgoing charmer. He's busy and into everything and usually has a smile on his face. Hays is quieter and more self contained. He's moodier than Will, but he can also entertain himself for remarkable periods of time. He'll spend 30 minutes running his Hotwheels up and down the window sill, during which time Will will have dismantled the kitchen, escaped out the back door and hot wired the car.

But just when I think they couldn't be more different, I notice odd connections. Pooping for one. I swear to God, 9 times out of 10 they poop within five minutes of each other. (I don't know if that's a psychological connection or weird coincidence. Probably TMI either way...) And when they're sitting on the couch together, they usually wind up sitting side by side, leaning on each other, even if they start at opposite ends. But while those things certainly don't prove the idea of a twin bond, there's no denying they're connected.

I rarely go anywhere with just one boy, but when I do, he's always looking for his brother. The other day I took Hays to the store with me and left Will and Mason home with Nana. Even though he was very excited about a trip to the store "jus' Haysie and Mama" he still asked "Where Will?" as I was buckling him into the car. As we were walking into the store, he was looking around calling, "Wiiiiiiiilllllll!" And as soon as we left he told me, "Go home see Will!" Now, I don't know if this is due to the fact that they're twins, or just a natural result of being together all the time, but they definitely don't like it when the other one is not around.

Twin bond or just plain old brother bond, it puts a long standing worry to rest. When they were born and then spent the next five months separated, I worried that untold damage was being done to their special twin relationship. I was afraid that they would never have the closeness that twins are supposed to share. But I don't worry about that any more. When I watch them work together to get into something they're not supposed to, I know that regardless of how different they are, they're still two peas in a pod!!

Back to School and other Fall Fun

Can't have Halloween without a tombstone or two!!

Pumpkin gravyard, perhaps?

Lovely pumpkin/leaf/gourd thingie

Our Halloween display!

My very festive fall leaf garland and wreath

The twins finally went back to school this week! It was glorious. They haven't been in two weeks, and I was oh so ready for them to go back. They'd settled in really well at school and had gotten to the point that there were no tears when I left. I wondered if we'd have to start all over after after our two week sabbatical, but luckily that was not the case. They were very excited when I told them Tuesday morning that they were going to school. It went something like this:

Me: Boys, guess what? You get to go to school today!

Twins: Yay, school!! Miss Angie! Miss Diane!

Me: Yes, you get to see Miss Angie and Miss Diane! School is awesome!

Hays: School awesome!!

And it was indeed awesome when they ran into their classroom, hugged their teachers, and said, "Bye mom!" without a single tear!! And I had, for the first time in two weeks, three quiet hours to myself. Of course, I wasted it by coming home and mucking out the playroom, but at least we're down two giant bags of broken toys and junk!

Now we're counting down to Halloween. We've got our front porch decorated, and Mason's got his costume (Mario of Super Mario Brothers). The twins almost have costumes. I decided that I wasn't going to shell out $40 or so for crappy costumes that they'd probably refuse to wear anyway, so I have to make costumes. Will is going to be a fireman. He's wearing a fireman raincoat that was Mason's when he was little and a red plastic fire chief hat that currently resides in the dress-up box in our playroom. Cost for his costume- $0. Hays is going to be a dalmatian. I've got to get a white sweatshirt and sweatpants for him, but I already have black felt to make spots and puppy ears. Cost for his costume- less than $10. That I can live with! Our town has Halloween festivities downtown where all the merchants pass out candy. Since our little guys are a bit too young for trick-or-treating, this daytime celebration is perfect for them. I'm planning to use cardboard to decorate their little wagon like a firetruck and use that to pull them around downtown. We'll see how it works- I don't really have a whole lot of confidence in my artistic ability to pull of anything that even remotely resembles a firetruck, but it's worth a shot.

Mason's True Colors Revealed....

My favorite monster

Seriously, how freaky is this???

We roasted marshmallows Saturday night after we finished decorating the front porch for Halloween. Our neighbors, Charlotte and Diane, came over to roast marshmallows with us. Charlotte brought her very cool, and very realistic, horns. Mason was very excited to wear them, and they really brought out his inner demon!!

Coughing, Coughing, and More Coughing

It's been a looooooong week around here. Will's been getting progressively better. He feels better and has more energy each day. The problem is that he still has a horrible, racking cough that strikes him several times a day. At it's best, it's incredibly annoying. At it's worst, it chokes him to the point that he's gagging and his lips are blue. Obviously, it's scary and upsetting to him, and he just cries, "Mommy, mommy" until it's over. Just imagine how frustrating it is to hold your coughing, gasping baby over and over each day, knowing that there's not a damn thing you can do to help him. It's awful, and it's been happening all hours of the day and night for the last seven days. It's maddening and exhausting.

And as if the coughing fits weren't enough, it's been an endless cycle of medicine and nebulizer treatments (or as we call them, hose noses) I swear, every time I turn around it's time to force another spoonful of antibiotics, or steroids, or cough medicine down his throat. And if I'm not doing that, I'm fighting with him to keep the mask on while I administer yet another hose nose. All of this punctuated by incessant coughing! It's enough to make a mom lose her mind!!!

I just keep telling myself that it won't last forever, and doing it at home beats doing it in the hospital. But it's very little consolation when you're by yourself, day in and day out, trying to be the nurse and the mommy and the cook and the housekeeper. (though from the current state of things, it would appear that the housekeeper took the week off. But hey, something's gotta give!) Hopefully we've only got a few more days of it sounding like the tuberculosis ward around here. I'm not sure I can take it for more than a few more days, so I'm crossing my fingers really hard.

My New Blog

After thinking about it for a while, I started a new blog. It's called "What Cameron's Cooking..." and as the title would lead you to believe, it's all about what I'm cooking on any given day. I love to cook and collect awesome recipes. I especially love to cook for my friends and family. Since many of you are too far away to come for dinner, I'm sharing the recipes I love. So now, not only can you read about all the craziness of daily life, you can feel like you're sitting at our dinner table (minus the twins throwing food at you). There's a handy dandy link to your right, click on it and join us for dinner!