Here are a couple of cute videos of my boys singing from Summer 2008. We were on our way home from Huntsville Int'l Airport's Airshow. We are actually watching the Blue Angels perform as we are driving out of the airport. The boys thought we needed music to go with the planes. I love how they try to harmonize.
(In these videos, Bitty is just over 2 years old. The Boy is just a tad over 5 years old.)
Enjoy.
PS. If you are not related to them, these might not be as good. :) But I am, and I crack up every time I watch them.
Who Ya Gonna Call? Ghostbusters.
Ghostbusting has been a popular game in our home for the last week or so. The boys just watched the movie and are now busting the ghosts that have apparently taken up residence in and around our house.
Today, the boys were outside playing Ghostbusters. They would ride around in the Gator and stop to bust some ghosts. This is a sampling of their conversation.
(Bitty got back into the Gator.)
The Boy: No, Bitty, we still have to bust the ghosts.
Bitty: (running over)
The Boy: We have to go to the hot dog shop. Hurry.
Bitty: Over Here!
The Boy: No, that is not where the ghost is.
Mommy: Can't the ghost be where he wants it just this once?
The Boy: No, the ghost is over here. Hurry. The hot dog shop!
Bitty: I like hot dogs.
Mommy: ( Really? You never eat them. Never in your whole life have I gotten you to even try a hot dog or anything resembling a hot dog.)
The Boy: We aren't going to eat hot dogs. There is a ghost.
Bitty: We no eat hot dogs?
The Boys: No. GHOST!!!!!!!!!
Boys: (running and making ghostbusting sounds.)
I love having boys. They are the best!
* I do apologize for those of you that now have the Ghostbuster theme song stuck in your head. Extra points to anyone who can name the artist who sings the theme song. No fair cheating with the internet.
he might ask you for more. *
We had muffins for breakfast. My boys adore muffins. Their favorite is strawberry mini-muffins. They will easily both consume a dozen mini-muffins each. Most times we have to cut Bitty off. "More muffins, peas" he will say. After the twelfth or thirteenth muffin, I end up saying no. I sometimes wonder, how many muffins fit in a Bitty?
All this talk is making me hungry for my absolute favorite muffin...my grandma's 6-week raisin bran muffins. They are super yummy. Here is the recipe.
We are lucky. Our boys have 4 grandparents and 5 great grandparents still around to spoil them. And spoiling them is what they do best. If you think grandparents know how to spoil little ones...well, they don't hold a candle to the great grandparents in our lives.
Here is a bit about Bitty and the Boy's Great Grandparents.
1) Cookin' MaMaw and Old PaPaw are wonderful to have around. There is always ice cream at their house. Often there is a donut stick or honey bun to go with the ice cream. My fondest memory is of the boys being given ice cream, donut sticks, a pop tart, and chips at almost 11am. Then, Papaw says, "They didn't eat much lunch. I don't know why they aren't eating." I wonder why they might not be hungry for lunch. Let me think on that for awhile. MaMaw always likes to keep a Guthrie's chicken bucket on hand for Bitty's hat. PaPaw is always keeping both boys busy with learning about chickens.
2) MaMaw the Black One and PaPaw Black One are also wonderful. The boys are spoiled with Krispy Kreme doughnuts over there. (Their names are Blackmon. Bitty started calling them the Black Ones just a week or so ago.) They also love playing in her yard and in the pond out front. MaMaw loves to take the boys to the Natural History Museum where there are dinosaurs to look at and caves to explore. PaPaw will talk to the boys about everything and anything.
3) Other Grandmama was christened such because my boys already have a Grandmama (my mom) and I call my grandmother Grandmama. So, obviously, she is the other one. She has Little Debbies to eat and Uncle Edwin to play with. Uncle Edwin likes to play jokes on people.
One of our favorite library books is Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Both of my boys love it. The Boy has taken to "reading" it to me one or two (or possibly ten thousand) times a day. He gets the gist of it with the pictures and his memory.
Now, Bitty has begun to also "read" this favorite book to us. This is Bitty's version of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham.
"No like yucky ham."
"Sam Am Am"
"No like yucky ham" (repeat anywhere from twice to a gazillion times)
" Oh...I like yucky ham. Sam Am Am"
Ask anyone who knows me in the real world and they will tell you that I lose things--more often than not it is my keys. I don't know what it is about my keys, but I have a hard time keeping track of them. This has caused me so much anxiety in my life and several Benjamin Franklins. I have had to have my car keys replaced for three different vehicles. I almost lost a job because I left my keys (one of which was a master key to a very large building) at a library, but they were found and my job was saved. At least 4 times a week, I search for at least five minutes for my keys. I know. I know. I should put them in the same place each time. What fun would that be?
The boys both love toy keys. I don't know why, but they do. So, I keep two sets in the car toy box. Yesterday, Bitty was so cute and so like his mommy. He was in the back searching for his keys. "Where my keys, mommy?" " I need my keys." "Keys, keeeeyyyssss, where are you my keys?" It was so sweet and funny. I didn't know losing your keys could be linked genetically. What you say it is a learned behavior? No, way. I don't believe it.
Seriously, do you know where your keys are this morning? I really don't.
We had two birthday parties to attend this weekend. They were full of tough obstacles for our shy 5 year old.
Party #1: Ashley and Brooke's Water Fun Party. They had a great water slide in the front yard, sprinklers, and baby pools. The Boy was nervous about all the gleeful girls. He only knew Ashley and she was in full birthday party swing by the time we got there. After hovering around us for almost an hour, he started getting more brave. He would run through the sprinkler as long as Bitty and he were the only ones near it. They played in the baby pool alone together. Finally, he started getting comfortable around the other kids. He climbed up the water slide and patiently told the boys and girls at the bottom to watch out. (He didn't want to slide into them. How polite!) He slid down and practically didn't come up for air...though he did come up for pizza and cake.
Party #2: Navaeh's party at Skate Odyssey. This party was full of the same problems as the first one. He was fine putting on the skates. He didn't mind falling. He is really a brave boy in some ways. He was fine rolling around on the carpet. He just didn't want to get onto the rink. I assumed it was because he was nervous about going fast or falling. Upon further conversation, I found out that he just didn't want to be out there with so many people. After missing out on the skate races and the "prize for all racers", I talked my son into going around with me. He really was fine. In fact, after the initial two or four laps, he wouldn't even hold my hand anymore.
If anyone out there has any suggestions to aid social anxiety at his age, please feel free to comment.
In stark contrast, Bitty would have gone on the water slide from minute one, except he really wants to be attached to the Boys hip. Bitty also wanted his own skates and then was furious when I skated without carrying him around with me. (Skating with a 2 year old on your hip is much harder than it sounds.)
Since the day we brought Bitty home from the hospital, The Boy has agitated him. It was common-place to hear someone say, "The Boy better watch out when Bitty gets bigger. He's going to haul off and smack him." Little by little Bitty has asserted himself.
Battle 1: March 2008
Bitty vs. The Boy
The Boy loves to dress up and pretend. On this day, he was Spiderman. He finds it amusing to have Bitty be a villain -- the Green Goblin that day. I will add here that Bitty doesn't really comprehend the pretending or the fact that there is a reason The Boy is jumping around screaming at him.
SpiderBoy found that he could make the Bitty Goblin holler if he ran up and yelled at him. Aunt Mae (aka Mommy) was in the kitchen cooking dinner. The Boy came into the kitchen crying loudly, "Bitty hit me with his hand." I looked at my precious Bitty hovering behind The Boy and said, "No hit." Then calmly explained to The Boy that scaring his brother like that was going to result in violence. "He will hit you if you do that to him," I said. Ten minutes later. The Boy is back crying even louder. "Bitty hit me with his (stuffed) monkey," The Boy cried. The somewhat amused Mommy looked at the boys and said, "Bitty, no hit." and "He will hit you with whatever he has in his hand if you do that to him again. This is your choice. Don't scare him and he will not hit you." Ten minutes later. The Boy is shrieking and holding his head as he wanders into the kitchen. "Mommy. Bitty hit me in the he- ad." (I love the way children say head with two syllables) I look up prepared to repeat the warnings to my children. What do I see? I see my ever so sweet 22month old coming around the corner with a baseball bat (albeit a plastic one). As I check The Boy's head for damage, I explain that this is just the thing that I warned him about earlier. There were no more incidents that night. The Boy had learned his lesson for the evening at least.
Winner: Bitty
The War Continues....
My BittyBoy is such a strong willed little boy. At 21 months, he is all about possession. My Mommy. My Daddy. My Milk. My Juice. You can catch my drift. On Thursday, he and I went on an errand while The Boy was in school. In the car, I was listening to some talk radio and heard him in the backseat saying, "No, my ball. NO, MY BALL." Again. And again. Well, it took me about the tenth time of him repeating this to realize that he was by himself back there. I started wondering who had his ball. I moved my rearview mirron and saw him staring at his sippy cup. (His cup's top is Curious George holding a beach ball.) He told George, "No, my ball. NO, MY BALL." And tried to pry the beach ball from little George's plastic hands.
Needless to say, George did not give the Bitty his ball back.
OK. My husband has been on a business trip for 6 days now. I know that the stress of single parenting is taking its toll because this morning I believe I may be losing my mind. Last night, bath time was not the normal joy it usually is in our house. Both my boys were very tired. The Boy, my 4 year old, was acting sick. He wanted to lay down and watch his movie that he was promised. So, I got him out and dried him off. Not being able to leave my 18 month old, Bitty, in the tub; I sent the towel wrapped Boy into the living room to start the movie on his own. Bitty played for awhile by himself. Then he wanted to get out of the tub. I got him out and dried him off. Realizing that I had forgotten to unstop the drain, I resigned myself to cleaning the bathroom after the boys were in bed. So, I left the bathroom. The later events of the night are pretty irrelevant. Except to say that the boys got to bed and I forgot my chore of cleaning the bathroom and tub. Oops.
Skip to this morning. The house was full of chaos as it is everyday that I have to take The Boy to school. My husband does this easily on the way to work. I, however, have to get everyone ready and loaded into the car. He is never there in time for breakfast on days when Mommy has to drop him off. ( I would like to note here that it scares me next year when it is actual school and he will be counted tardy for my inability to perform the morning duties efficiently.) Back to the story at hand, we go into the bathroom for the morning vitamin and tooth brushing. What do I find? The bathtub full of water? The towels everywhere? The towels are everywhere, but the bathtub is strangely only partially filled with water. This is odd because now I remember that I forgot to clean up the bathroom & tub. Here's the real challenge. There is poop in the bathtub! What?!? When did that happen? Am I that clueless of a mother? I don't think so. I have decided that those tiny elves that refuse to clean my kitchen have begun to play cruel bathroom jokes on me.
Husband returns in 5 day.