Two minutes

TWO minutes. That's seriously all it takes..... I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't hit the bookcase. That was probably next on the agenda, minute six.

I'm not generally a fan of gratuitous nudity, but this was too tempting....

Aren't they precious?
This was moments before they squeezed the entire bottle of bath wash into the tub.

Two minutes. That's all it takes.

Never give up hope

Sofia has never been the girlie-girl. She rarely plays dress up, despite having some lovely frocks to do so, she loves to rough-and-tumble with her daddy, have races with her friends, and fights with her brothers. So it is no surprise that taming her wild-child hair is consistently a source of friction for us. Ever since before she could speak, she has resisted all forms of hair management. We have been taking baby step, trying to acclimate her to looking domesticated. First, we convinced her to let us put barrettes in. Then, about a year later, the pony tail ("kitty tail" to her) was introduced. But she has been fiercely opposed to braiding her hair. I do not know why. I cannot think of a traumatic moment that may have scarred her memory. And we have tried every technique, every possible person, from older "girlfriends" to Aunties, to Grandma. NO ONE has been able to convince her even to try it.

This week, we have had highs in the 100s, and her hair has been completely unmanageable. I have tried barrettes, kitty tails, everything. Nothing could keep it under control. Finally I told her that she could either let me braid her hair, or we were going to cut it off. At least I gave her a choice!

Tearfully she submitted to the braids. I did one on each side, and she was CUTE!!!! Of course, I wasn't allowed to take pictures. But at least we made that step, though by force.

Well, today as we were getting dressed she ASKED for a braid! Anyone who knows Sofia realized how monumental this is. Not only did I not have to force her, she asked for it, and she LET ME TAKE HER PICTURE!!

This may be the most stubborn child I have. No amount of coercion, bribing, pleading, tearful weeping or threatening can make her do something she doesn't want to. But then, BOOM! out of the blue she will do it, pretending all the while it was her own idea.

Without further ado, here is my braided beauty:

Ice cream break

Me & the kids ventured out today to enjoy a Baskin-Robbins ice cream break. The kids couldn't believe their good luck!

Sofia had Strawberry....

Ben had Lime Daiquiri.....

And Sam chose vanilla.....

And mom had some strawberry-lime daiquiri-vanilla ice cream.....

Never doubt a four-year-old

As I was vacuuming Filipe's office (yes, it's time for his annual cleaning), Sofia came in from playing on the back porch.



Sofia: Mom, is it going to rain today?



Me: No.



Not an unreasonable answer, considering we live in south Texas. I don't want to give her false hopes.



Sofia: But Mom, I felt something wet fall on me! I think it's going to rain!



Me: Maybe it was bird poop.



Sofia then paused, brow wrinkled in concentration, I would guess imagining bird poop in her hair.



Sofia: Noooo!



So she leaves the office, potentially traumatize from the idea of fecal matter falling on her head.



She comes back two minutes later.



Sofia: Mom!! It IS raining! Come and see!



So we go outside, and sure enough, there are some raindrops falling on our head. Not bird poop at all. After staring at the strange sight with a look of wonder on my face (after all, we DO live in south Texas!), Sofia gives me a dirty look, and tells me as only a vindicated 4-year-old can do:



Sofia: See, I told you it was raining.



My deepest apologies.

Observation of the day

Sofia: Mom, your bum is bigger than mine.



Thanks, Sofia. Thank you.

Where's that Cookies 'n Cream ice cream?

Confused yet?

Our shaggy boys got cut today.

Here are my sweeties before

Sam:
Ben:
Now here's the boys after Sam has been cut. Makes it easier to tell them apart, does it?

Here's the fellas after:

And I don't mind telling you it's now rather tricky for ME to tell them apart! I have done several double-takes. I guess I have to make sure they're always wearing different colors. So for those of you who have trouble figuring out who's who, good luck!

playing catch-up

Obviously it's been a while since my last post.... so I'm going to do a superspeed catchup post that will contain a few highlights of the past week and a half.

First off:

My father-in-law and husband started a remodel in my garage. We got rid of the old kitchen cabinets that looked like they were useful and a clever use of un-needed cabinetry, but were in fact a huge waste of space. They then built me some lovely floor-to-ceiling shelves so I can keep all my garage goodies in boxes and out of the way. Happy! That completes phase 1.

I also had a lovely girl's night out with my girls from church.... that is, after I found the place. I have the worst sense of direction God could have given me. If there is an option to go left or right, no matter which I choose, I should have gone the other way. It doesn't fail. My friend, Dear Abby, diagnosed it one time for a writer (not me), it's called Directional Dyslexia. A serious (okay, not) condition. Anyways, a little shopping center 20 minutes from my house took me very close to 1 1/2 to find.... after driving all over several sides of San Antonio.

I got there 15 minutes before the shops closed, but was still on time for our reservations at Bin 555, a lovely restaurant where we dined on the porch. For dessert I had s'mores--can you believe it? After feeling like a grown-up, eating miniature goat-cheese grilled sandwiches with tomato marmalade sauce, naan flat bread with hummus, and pommes frites (haha!) I have campfire dessert. But it was good, and it came with live fire! And although much of our conversation centered around our children's and pets' body fluids (my apologies to the people sitting at the next table), it was a much-needed connection with other moms pretending to be adults for a while.

The next day I headed up to Michigan where my sister graduated from Andrew's University with a BA in Communication & Spanish, after which I traveled down to my parents' house in Kalona for a little R&R. There's so much I didn't do there, I don't even know where to start. Let's say I had a fantastic time being 17 again. No kids. No husband. No responsibilities. No curfew. No cooking. Lots of Lazy. I went through a bunch of old memory boxes in the attic.... man, was I really that much of a drama queen in high school? How immature! Oh, right. I was in high school. And although it was good to get away, it was awesome to get back to my babies & my hubby. Dorothy had it right--there's no place like home.

I was pretty sure the kids would be devastated with their mommy gone. This is how bad it was:

So I think Daddy buying them a pool helped. But I guess there was also a little of this going on:

So that made me feel a little better (isn't that terrible?).

I got back late Tuesday night, then Wednesday Filipe reminded me we have to get the kids' Brazilian passports for our August trip. That requires a trip to Houston, which is where the closest Brazilian Consulate is located. So I packed up our bags, and we left town after the boys' nap. The trip normally wouldn't be all that dramatic, if it weren't for the fact that our portable DVD player mysteriously stopped working. And brilliant mommy didn't bring alternative entertainment. So they made some entertainment of their own.

We stayed the night at a hotel, then in the morning Filipe went to a couple of hospitals to get some work done while we were there, and I took the kids to Hermann Park. The boys almost posed. Sofia was having a "day."

And don't be fooled by the cloudy atmosphere.... it had to have been 99% humidity--it was awful! And that was at 9am! I had rivers of sweat running down five minutes into this adventure, which is why we stopped by the fountains next.

We went to the playscapes next, and I did manage to sneak in a picture of Sofia. Boy, did she give me one dirty look afterwards.

And last, but not least, cooking for Friday night worship. I made Prosage (fake sausage for all of you non-veggies out there) cheese muffins, Chunky Apple and Raisin Bread, Banana bread with chocolate chips, and Taco Turnovers for dinner. Oh, yum. This batch of recipes was a good one!

So now you're all caught up, I think. Maybe I can stay on top of it better now. Next adventure: Guadelupe River for Mother's Day!

Naked-love Sandwich

Ben does not tolerate shirts with buttons on them. Simply refuses to wear them. Odd, I know. But Filipe's mom is visiting this week, and she wasn't aware of this particular quirk of his. So this morning, she got him dressed in a nice red striped polo. How she managed to get it over his head without him noticing the buttons is beyond me. But by this afternoon, the jig was up. He pulled down the collar in the front, got a good look, and scolded most fiercely, "No buttons!" He would not desist until the offending shirt was removed. Since it is pretty warm today, I took it off, and told him he could be a naked boy for the rest of the day. Who needs more laundry, right? Well, as soon as Sam saw the freedoms Benny was enjoying, he staged his own protest. So off his shirt came.

The key to this next part is that the boys are not frequently shirtless. Really, only when we go to the indoor pool at our gym.



Those bare-chested lads ran their hands over their milky white tummies, looked at their mirror images (each other) and giggled. They ran toward each other and gave eachother a nice bear hug, rubbing their shiney little bellies against eachother, giggling like schoolgirls the whole time.



Of course, by the time I grabbed my camera, Sofia wanted in on the action. So here we have our naked-love sandwich.

Cheapest Mama on the Planet

My kids have been begging for a pool. So I got them one.

Cradle Roll Memory Verse

TRANSLATION: "Children, obey your parents in everything."

Fun AFTER the rain

As much as the kids love rain, I think they love after the rain more. And after they're done playing in the after-rain mud (making pancakes & waffles today, they tell me), they get to play in more rain--this time in the shower.

9-1-1

Well, I've aged about 5 years in the last 45 minutes. After the boys woke up from their nap, I put on their socks and shoes and sent them to the backyard to play. I then put on Sofia's socks & shoes, and went out with her.

The boys were gone. Really gone.

I ran over to the side of the house to check the gate, but it was closed. I thought maybe they snuck inside and are eating toothpaste somewhere upstairs. Did a quick check in all the usual hang-outs, but with no luck.

By this time I'm really starting to panic. I think maybe they somehow got the gate open, went out front, then closed the gate, so I run out front and do a quick scan up and down the street. No toddlers running and giggling with glee. I run back out to the backyard--still nothing. I grab the phone and dial 9-1-1 as I'm re-checking all the rooms inside.

After giving the operator my information, she dispatches a police officer and I stand outside, pacing furiously. I stare at the face of each driver going by in their car, trying to see if they are looking at me like they know I've lost my children. I'm sure someone has seen two little boys running down the sidewalk, and can tell me where they are. But no one slows down, no one brings my boys home. I can't leave the house, because I have Sofia there, and just in case the boys really are hiding somewhere in the house or in the back. I do sprint across the street and up the other street, checking likely places the boys would be, but I can't see any sign of them.

It seems like forever before the police officer arrives. She takes a description of the boys, and tells me that she will be there day & night until they are found. They will send up the helicopter immediately, because of the age of the boys. I'm relieved and panicked at the same time. A helicopter? Day & NIGHT?? But she goes to call the info in, and I run back to the house to do another check. I send Sofia up to check their favorite hiding spots, because by this time she's feeling scared and needs a distraction. I run out back again to do one last check.

After I had called 911, I called Filipe, who was driving home from Houston. He had mentioned checking to see if they had crawled through the fence somehow. So when I went out for my last check, I had that in mind. I checked the outdoor shed, behind the shed, and by the garden. That's when I noticed one of their Tonka dump trucks sitting in the back corner of the yard. Right next to one plank of fence that was pulled slightly out. I ran over there and shoved the two loose planks aside.

There were my two boys, sitting in our behind-us neighbor's yard. Apparently, they have a Barbie ride-on jeep that the boys thought was very cool. I had to do the "count to three" trick twice before they reluctantly scooted through the fence. As Sam passed through, he looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said, "No time out Sammy. No time out." Don't count on it, kid.

I hauled those boys out to the front porch and sat them down, and went down to the police officer to let her know I found them before they sent up the helicopters. She came over to take a look at them just as another police officer arrived. The boys were very excited to see the police cars. Me, not so much. But we told the other officer the story of where they were, and they took my information down and left. As they got back into their cars, Sofia looked at me with disappointment and said, "oh... I thought we were going to get to ride in the police cars." Not unless they're taking me to Child Protective Services, I thought.

So that was my adventure for today. My heart is just now returning to normal, whatever that is. So the moral of this story is The toys are always more fun on the other side of the fence.

The End.

Messy fun

Had a good time at a birthday party today... what perfect weather! I had planned to take more pictures, but alas, was too busy chasing Sam and Ben. And I mean that literally. Little monkeys.

That's what it's all about!

We had a playdate at my friend Kim's house today. She had knee surgery and has been housebound for a while, which explains why she was so happy to see us.... at this point, she would have welcomed Dick Cheney!

Well, after a great time, we had to go home. The boys had been behaving so nicely all morning, but the minute they knew we were leaving, the facade was broken. They went crazy cute, running all over, laying on the floor giggling.

Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and my dear friend Kim was good enough to catch the antics on film. Thanks. So. Much.

Ha!

Here's my boys, being so good....

Then the good times begin....

And what you can't see is that none of us are wearing shoes--I gave up!!