Joe is 9 Years Old!!!

My oldest little buddy has turned 9 today. I can not believe how much this past year has changed him! I came across photos of his 8th birthday party earlier today, and put a "side by side" from this year together:

Jojo with his 8yr cake and his 9year cake!

Last year, he was 68 pounds and 50 inches. This year, he is 94 pounds and 53.25 inches.

This year he has decided not have a birthday party. He'd rather have one friends come spend the night and go bowling with him... so, that is what we are doing. Tomorrow night, his friend Armando will be spending the night (It's Armando's very first sleep over, his mom and I are hoping we wont have a 1am phone call to go home! lol).... BUT, Joe said he wanted to have a little family dinner, "So he can still have a cake from Aunti Christina!" ha ha... and that we did.

Here are some photos from Joe's amazing 9 year cake. This year, Christina and I came up with a plan to "trick" Joe... He had requested a crazy difficult cake... a zombie, standing up. He always challenges Christina with the creations he comes up with to request in cake form.  This year, Christina made a "Gag cake"... A smaller cake with a zombie just drawn on in frosting. She called my phone and left a message that Joe would, "Accidentally hear" saying that she was not able to make the standing zombie, and she felt so bad, and she hoped Joe would understand and not have hurt feelings when she brings it... When Joe "accidentally" heard the message I "Accidentally played" while he was near me (and knew he'd listen in when he heard his name! lol).... His response was one of the sweetest things EVER. Christina and I were concerned he might cry... but, he said, "Ok, that is ok, it will still taste great!" Awwww, my sweet boy.

So, day of his party, the Danners arrive. Christina gets out of their car holding the much smaller cake...

Joe, as you can see, was still very happy to receive an Aunti Christina cake, and told her he liked the tie!  She asked him if he would hold it for a second because she forgot something in the car. Someone else held it for him after a minute and then he saw what was coming: 

His face tells the story of the awesomeness to come....

Yes, that is CAKE! (I "doctored" that last photo just for fun)... That is an almost 3 foot tall CAKE! Joe looked back at us all with excitement and a look of, "ARE YOU SEEING THIS?"

We brought the cake in, where he continued to adore it, play with it, and eventually cut into it's head to eat it all up! :) 

This year... Aunti Christina outdid herself in a big way... I'm not sure what to expect next year, since Joe tries to make it a little more challenging every time! 

Happy Birthday to my handsome, funny, brace wearing, long hair wanting, blue eyed baby boy!! I love you!

Funny Conversations....

I just put a funny conversation with the boys on my FB, and I decided it needed to be here too!.....

Joe: Mama, everybody in my class... exactly everybody has a phone, and I want a phone.
Me: Awww... as soon as you get a job!
Matthew: (From the toilet in the other room) Mama, I think I broke my neck. Every time I turn it fast it goes down.
Me: Can you still move your legs?
Matthew: Yes.
Me: Then it's not broken, just stop turning it so fast!

Yay, they are home from school... the funky conversations and inability to do anything because of "Mama....."  ...  "Mama......"  has begun! lol

I'm NOT the worst Mom!!

I haven't shared before about a club I'm in. I wont share who the other members are (Cynthia and Christina know)... It's the "Worst Mom Ever" club. I recently invited another member, who has a sweet little baby girl. :)

Anyway... as moms, things don't always go according to our awesome plans. SOMETIMES things go according to our crazy kid's plans... and "The Worst" can happen! lol  When that happens, either because of our own.... um, well, "mistakes"...or things our kids concoct, and things just go completely wrong for one reason or another... we call each other. The conversation starts with out a "hello"... it just goes directly into, "I'm the worst mom ever because....." We share our stories and have a good laugh.

Occasionally the feeling of being "The Worst Mom Ever" is a bit too real and we actually have to encourage each other about how awesome we really are... but, most of the time, it's just a comic relief for the chaos of a mom with young children! (Which I'm sure will continue as they keep growing!)

Today though.... today, I am NOT the worst mom ever!! Today, I rocked! :) You see, it's the 100th day of school and Matthew has had his project ready for over a week. He created one of those rubber band bracelets, but did it with 100 rubber bands and made it a necklace. He's been wearing it and ready for the 100th day. This morning, on the way to school, he says, "Mama, when IS the 100th day?" I said, "Today!!!!, are you wearing your necklace?"..... No, no he wasn't. The first day in over a week that the kid was NOT wearing his necklace. REALLY?  He took it like a champ, didn't cry, didn't throw a fit, just tilted his head back and leaned it on his chair in disbelief and disappointment.

I did not promise to fix it. Typically, I'm a tough love kind of mom... if it's their responsibility and they flub it up... they have to live with the outcome. He knows that about me, and to my surprise, he didn't even ask for me to bring it back to the school! (We live 10 minutes from school)

On my way home, I was thinking... about how sweet he is, about how ready he was for that day, and about how much time he put in to making a necklace with 100 rubber bands with those tiny hands of his... So, I decided I was going to get it and bring it back to him. (Of course, I have a HUGE project I'm working on and it's due to the client tonight)...

I get home. I can't FIND THE DARN THING!!! Grrrr. I'm looking, I'm praying, I'm looking again. No go. BUT, I found his bag of rubber bands. Yup, this Mama who has a huge project due.... MADE A NEW 100 Rubber Band necklace for her boy!

I drove to the school, interrupted his class to "Borrow Him for a Second" and showed him the new necklace. I showed him how he can count by 5's using the green bands. He said, "But Mama, I was supposed to count to the 100, not you." lol I said, "Well, you did, but I couldn't find YOURS!" He smiled and said, "It was in Chewbaca's head. LOL... Grrr, why didn't I look THERE??

He gave me a big hug (just about knocked me on the ground) and he proudly walked back into his classroom and right up to his teacher to turn in his project!

Today... no matter what else happens... I AM NOT the worst mom ever!! (I know, I know, I don't need e-mails encouraging me... I'm never ACTUALLY the worst mom ever!... well, "never" might be a little strong. LOLOL)

Now... hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work I go!!

Hamster Balls...

The Boys were in the back of the car watching "Bolt" and had a funny conversation:
Matthew: Hey Joe, don't you want to be a hamster so you can go in a ball like that?
Joe: No, I want a human sized ball.
Joe: (after a pause) But how would we go to the bathroom?
Matthew: Just Go.
Joe: But, if you pee'd in there your whole life it would fill up and you couldn't breath.
Both: Giggled.
#lifewithboys

What is that STENCH???

I spent the day today, loathing being inside my own home because it STUNK so BAD! Now, my house is not a super clean masterpiece... it has it's piles and even some dirty dishes or laundry... but never left long enough or dirty enough for the kind of stench that was pouring into my nostrils every time I entered the door!

While we were home today, I was working past a migraine and trying to figure out the origin of the rank smell. I cleaned the gecko's cake, checked for hidden dirty clothes from my boys, did some cleaning... even checked the water in the Christmas Tree (Yes, it's 1/11 and the tree is not down yet... I already told you it isn't a masterpiece around here! lol). Nothing. WHAT ON EARTH!

As I was putting the boys to bed tonight, I remembered one spot that I have found hidden dirty clothes before. When I moved the container that was blocking that spot, I gasped. THIS is what I found:

It was on it's side, tucked under some dirty clothes. *sigh* I called for Joe, because it was his dirty laundry on top. Matthew spoke up, "Mama, I did it." WHAT? He proceeded to tell me, "I accidentally put a hole in the top of the milk with my nail and I thought I would be in trouble so I hid it." WHAT? Ugh... You can see the little tiny hole I circled at the top. Luckily, the hole was on the UP side of the milk as it sat on my carpet!

The milk had been in their room for about a WEEK! Yeah, a week. Joe has been into pouring cereal for them and even a glass of milk here or there for Matthew. So, I figured the missing milk container was from that. 

*Sigh again*

This week old milk stunk SO BADLY and enough that the WHOLE HOUSE reaked. 

Just one more adventure on my list with these boys. Goodness Gracious... On to the next fun!...

Joe & The Newt...

Joe was so cute this morning. He went outside before school to bounce his Tennis ball against the wall "Wall Ball." (it's a great new joy, thump, thump, thump... lol)... I'm glad he's going outside to do something that uses energy though!

Anyway... THIS morning, he went out the back door, only to come RUNNING back in exclaiming, "MAMA, MAMA, You HAVE TO come outside NOW! There is one of those red belly lizard things!"

ha ha ha... A newt was walking around in the backyard. Joe was SO excited and looked to me for the "ok" to touch it. I told him it was safe, they don't bite, they walk really slow, but they are delicate and he needs to be gentle. He was more than happy to swoop it right up!

I love these photos. I love the joy he has in exploring, I love that his hands still say "little boy"... as I know that is a treasure that will soon be gone. I love that it's me he still runs to, to share his finds... I know that can also change as the "too cool" years come and friends take over that place.

I just loved this:

Knives & Bloody Gums...

I just typed out my Facebook status... but decided it is something I want to have in the blog. This has been a doozy of a day around here......

Raising boys is... insane! Today, I have had to confiscate a knife they took from my drawer (which I found out because of the perfect slash holes in Matthew's shirt... which of course "came from falling on the rocks") [he even dramatized the fall for me and said, "Maybe that's what happened."]... Then, as the last hour of sunlight is upon us and they are playing outside... I hear a blood curdling scream from Joe. Wouldn't ya know it, Matthew smacked him in the mouth with a piece of wood that has rusty nails in it. Great. Fantastic. Bleeding Gums. [they thought it would be fun to sword fight, but it somehow got out of hand]

They used the knife to slash holes in Pop's hose... so, they will be giving all of their "savings" to go towards a new hose. Lucky for them, they just went and had a little shopping trip yesterday and each bought something they enjoy with their money. They were both given punishments that I tried to make memorable, but wont discuss here! LOL Not only did they take what was not theirs, they ruined my knife and Pop's hose and lied to me about it... You've heard of an angry "Mama Bear" when someone is messing with her cubs.... well, in my house, an angry Mama bear also shows up when she's been lied to! lol

It's 5:02pm, 2 hours and 28 minutes left until bedtime... on this day, I'm just praying they make it to bed before the hospital... goodness gracious!

New Years at the Beach...

Aaron and I knew the boys needed to get out and burn off some energy. We thought Bodega would be a great place for it. Little did we know, a LOT of people thought the same thing! We found our favorite "hiking beach" and explored together. I wasn't going to bust out the camera, but when the boys held hands... that went right out the window! I loved capturing the adventure...