Career Goals

Lately Braylon has been intrigued with the age old question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Yesterday he was sure he wanted to be a scientist. Today when I asked him what his plans were, he promptly said, "rock star!!" Yeah, I can see that.

So I turned to Blaine and said, "What do YOU want to be when you grow up, Blaine?" He didn't miss a beat. "A GRANDMA!!" Go figure that one out. We're still scratching our heads.

Mr. Freeze

Ok, so I recently blogged about Blaine's 'lovie.' Now he has upped the antie. Now for Blaine to truly enjoy his blue blankie, he must let it sit in the freezer for at least 5 min so it's nice and chilled for his lovie pleasure. Who'd have thought of that?!?! Only a 2 year old!

(This is the same 2 year old who hugs every tree goodbye when he comes out of the public library.)

Countdown Continues

Brandon is on Day 18 of 40 of his PT Clinical in Colorado City. Nearly half way! He says he really enjoys the experience and I believe it has sparked a new passion for physical therapy work that the classroom just doesn't do. Only 22 more days of the long commute!! After this, Odessa will seem like his backyard!

EBAY

Isn't EBAY just great? Here is a place you can list stuff that clutters your home and get paid for getting rid of your junk! With a little patience and a lotta luck you can potentially make a nice profit on stuff that you would otherwise let collect dust or sent of to the Goodwill. And not to mention all the new junk you can BUY to replace the old junk you sold!

Not a bad gig, I'd say.

Blaine: Devil's Angel

Blaine had a rip-roaring day. Let me preface this story by saying that Blaine is tender-hearted and usually very thoughtful. We obviously need to continue shaping his normally sweet predisposition towards being loving rather than the opposite!

This a.m. he told his SS teacher that he would have his daddy beat her up after being told to clean up his toys. Probably not a good way to score bonus points.

This evening while eating dinner with our friends, one of which who just happens to be the children's minister, Blaine overheard his daddy act surprised by a comment that was made. Instead of saying, 'oh wow,' or 'awesome,' he blurted out 'Jesus Christ!' Let me again say we have no clue where he heard this beautiful name being said in this ugly way...We did not laugh at this. However, ????

My sweet boy has a dark side... And then of course that got me to remembering that we all have a dark side. We are born into this world as sinners, like it or not. I'm not being PC, just correct. God didn't have to save us, He doesn't need us. He just wanted to and so He did. While we have some work to do with little Blaine, I'm thankful that God's not done working on me!

Lovie

Blaine has a little, tattered blue blanket that he has adopted as his 'lovie.' He has carried that with him since he was just a little guy, often getting it nasty dirty by dragging it through goodness knows what all. Right now he is in a stage where he wants to believe he doesn't need it, but still wants it often (usually more so in private). He has a bad habit during the daytime of leaving it in inappropriate places and then having to go without it for small stretches.

Last night was one of those times. He accidentally left it in Granny's van, so at bedtime, he graciously accepted the fact that he had been irresponsible and he dealt with it nicely. However, try convincing a 2 year old at 2 a.m. that lovie is not here when he wakes up crying uncontrollably for his favorite blankie. Thankfully it only took me 10 minutes to settle him down. Guess he hasn't quite outgrown it yet. And I'm sorry for anyone this offends out there, but I don't plan to make him give it up just yet either.

Marrying Man

Braylon asked me the other day, "Mom, are you and Dad already married?" Of course my response was the affirmative and I was only mildly shuddering at the thought that it is now so common that many parents aren't yet married. Then he said, "Where will I live when I get married?" I replied by saying, "I don't know, somewhere else but here." Then Braylon got a worried, sad look on his face - "No, Mom, I really want to still live here."

Cute...... But no.

Mud Pies

There is some cosmic magnetism far greater than the adult human mind can comprehend that attracts a boy to a mud puddle. Seems like with all the gizmos and gadgets and toys and what-nots out there, my boys are the happiest when you simply water down some dirt and make what I'm sure was one of the original 'toys' of old times. Mud. The old saying, "A little dirt never hurt anyone" is a little misleading at our house. I think it should rather read, "A little dirt always helps." Fun, fun!

Tumbling Twosome!

I decided that the boys needed something fun to do this summer. With Braylon's past ear troubles and current ear tubes, we ruled out swimming lessons. So I took the boys to their first night of gymnastics yesterday. They loved it! Braylon especially got into the action and loved doing the handstands, summersaults, trampoline. Blaine had a little harder time following the complicated directions, but the instructor assured us that he did fine for his first time in. Fun stuff!

Final Insult

After several days of hearing various (and innocent!) insults from little Blaine, last night was the final straw! He told me he was done living with me and that he would like to go live with Granny now.

Guess he's ready to leave the nest...

One More

Blaine has been full of 'em lately. I asked him last night, "Do you think Momma is pretty?" He matter of factly said, "No."

I then asked Braylon the same question. He said, "Yes!"

At least one of my kids has good taste (or maybe just good sense!!).

Out of the Mouth of a 2 Yr Old

You know, 2 year olds are just plain funny. Maybe it's my simplistic sense of humor coming out or it's just the wacky, odd-ball things that my kids say. Anyway, here's a few cute tid-bits from this weekend, spoken in complete toddler seriousness:

I was very sick on Friday with a stomach bug. Brandon kept them away from home as long as possible, but near the boy's bedtime they all came home. I complained to Blaine that I didn't feel good at all and he said: "It's ok Momma. It's not that sad. I take care of you, I promise. I promise I won't leave you......I'll be right back." I had to chuckle, but true to his word, he came back shortly and loved on me a while. Sweet boy!

I was dressing Blaine in a bright yellow shirt: "Momma, you dressing me like a banana today?"

I was brushing Blaine's teeth while he was staring closely at my face. After a moment of observational silence he said: "Momma, you have hair in your nose!"

Clinicals

Brandon is on Day 3 of his first clinical rotation in wound/acute care. He says that so far he has really enjoyed what he is learning and, as I hoped, seems to have a new spark in his desire to become a Physical Therapist.

1/2 a week down, 7 1/2 weeks to go. (It's too early for this countdown, I think!)

Fair Fight?

MacGyver could beat Walker or Aragorn in a fight??? WHAT?? HAHAHHAHAHA That is funny whoever voted that way. But Brandon points out that MacGyver does have a knack for thinking his way out of situations... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I'm just envisioning him coming up with a contraption to outwit Yoda and his light saber.

I also see that more people think that Yoda can win in a fight among the tough guys, but no one wants him with them on a desert island.

Descrimination, is it? Hmmm? LOL

B-Ballin' Blaine

Anyone who knows Brandon well knows his love for basketball. You may know that as a kid/teenager, Brandon would play in his front drive-way for hours every day, no matter the weather. You might know that anytime we go to a game place, Brandon parks himself in front of the basketball shooting game for the entire time we're there and often uses far more coins than the kids under the notion of, "I'm getting tickets for the boys..."

Well, Blaine has inherited 'the bug.' We ate at Mr. Gatti's pizza last night. I had a pocketful of Gattiland coins in my pocket that had come out of his allowance can. I'll be dog-gonned if that kid didn't use up the whole pocketful minus two coins on the mini-basketball hoop game. And let me say this: He's not a bad shot given that he's 2 years old! Brandon is impressed by his natural jump shot. Blaine's personal best in the 30 second game was 16 points. Remember, this was on his own. No one helped him on that round. I just stood there, jaw open, amazed.