This week I’m blogging every day as part of the Week in My Life series.
We’re all tired from going to bed late after the school’s Bingo night, so the boys surprise us by sleeping in. Daniel crawls into bed with us after 7, when we should be up anyway, so we just let him come.
When Leo comes stumbling into our room, we finally get up and I head to the kitchen to make breakfast. I haven’t even pulled out a pan when Daniel wanders in and says, “Mama, you are making my favorite dinner!” He loves knowing that food is coming—and he is always sure he’ll like it.
Because we have nowhere to go today—hurrah!—I decide to scramble eggs for the boys. I could go my whole life without eating scrambled eggs again, but my children like them, so I make them and throw in some ham and cheese.
They eat every bit, and this morning they want to talk about guns. Daniel wants to discuss how soldiers have them, and Leo marvels that policemen have families—there’s a student at his school whose father is a police officer. Then he wants to talk about how it makes God sad that people use guns to hurt people.
After breakfast Daniel wants to help me clean the kitchen. So I put him to work.
John and I have set one goal for the day: getting haircuts for everyone except me. But before we go, we spend some time enjoying a lazy Saturday morning in our new home. The boys want to color, and Leo wants Baba to make him a tie-wing fighter.
So he does.
Then they start working on another one, but it has to be two-sided. I can’t figure out how to make the other side match, and Leo is so disappointed in my effort that he starts erasing most of it.
Then I think of holding it up to the window to trace it. Leo and Daniel think this is amazing. Soon Leo and Baba are working hard on one window…
…and Daniel is taping pictures to the storm door. Who needs toys when you have paper and tape?
Then we’re off to get haircuts, but we’ve been so slow—and artistic, of course—that we realize we need to feed the boys first. So we get a quick bite to eat at a casual restaurant.
While we’re sitting at our table, I glance out the window and see a car without hubcaps.
We’ve been looking for cars without hubcaps since yesterday, so the boys are very excited.
There’s free ice cream for dessert, so I take the boys to get theirs with me, and I let them carry it back to the table. As Daniel walks in front of me, carefully carrying his cup of ice cream, he is getting big smiles from the other diners, and I think about how cute he is saying hello to everyone we pass. When we get to our table, I realize that people were smiling not just at my adorable, outgoing son, but also because my child was carrying a cup as ice cream dripped down his fingers. He’s so proud of himself, though he doesn’t actually eat the ice cream.
Then we’re off to try a new barber shop in our new neighborhood. The boys climb right up into the chairs. The lady cutting Daniel’s hair starts asking whether I want a number 4 or a number 6, and I have no idea what she’s talking about. I tell her I don’t like it too short. She does a great job—and so does the lady who cuts Leo’s.
Just for fun I ask the boys if I can take before and after shots of their hair. They don’t want to do it facing the camera, which is fine for the blog, since I don’t use their faces, but maybe not as much fun if we actually wonder what they looked like later. (Don’t worry. I get plenty of photos of their faces, too.)
So here they are before:
And here they are after:
Even with lollipops, the boys are getting antsy while John is having his hair cut by possibly the slowest barber in the world, so I decide to walk them to a nearby dollar store to pick up Halloween tablecloths for one of the school parties next week.
While we’re there we discover some Ninja costumes. As I may have mentioned a few too many times this week, Leo is really into Lego Ninjago, and this looks remarkably like one of the characters. I let him pick out a headpiece and a vest, and Daniel, I am sorry to say, picks out some plastic knife thing. So we’re $3 poorer—not counting the money for the tablecloths—but we’re happy, and Leo says he’ll go as the Red Ninjago next Halloween. That seems unlikely, but we’ll get $2 out of this outfit even if it only lasts until this Halloween. I’ll give the knife a day or two before it’s confiscated.
After we go back to meet John—who is still getting his hair cut—we head home for an afternoon of Ninjago play. Leo wants a red sword, and a light saber won’t do. So I offer red plastic hangers and the boys play for most of the afternoon with those hangers.
John assembles a small dresser for the boys’ room because one dresser can’t contain all their clothes, and Daniel offers his assistance.
John manages to get it done even with all the extra help.
I try to do a little more unpacking, and I think I finally have the linen closet organized.
Although there are many times during the afternoon when I could take one or both of the boys to the grocery store—or even go alone—I’m just so content to be home, and the boys are playing well together. And then all of a sudden it’s time to make dinner. So I throw together the most popular dinner I’ve made all week—some turkey sausages, dirty rice, cauliflower, and reheated peas and corn.
We make a happy birthday video for my nephew who turns 9 today, and we send it to him. Then we call to sing to him by phone. Leo and Daniel are very chatty with him, telling him about the Ninja costumes, and I love hearing them try to converse.
Our boys are so tired, and we tuck them into bed, knowing they’ll fall asleep quickly.
Except, whoops, there’s Daniel, standing in the dining room saying in his authoritative voice, “Mama, this is serious. I need pants. I have to have pants.” And so I put long pants on him and tuck him back into bed. And then he’s off to sleep, too.
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