Today was a bit of shit-show. All-around. This photo will help to set the scene:
That white "sled" (as identified by Julian) is paper from the art easel. And when the rides were over, the boys ripped it all up and made snow. Then they chased each other around the house screaming. I'm all for fun and games but someone was about to get hurt and the bathwater was getting cold. I'd try to corner and reason with one guy - he'd run away - then the other (the littler, less steady one) would be halfway up the stairs, demanding supervision. It was like herding cats. (Cliches exist for a reason, people.) Meanwhile, the real cats - or one of them, at least, was busy barfing up a leaf she'd eaten. Awesome.
Here's the other thing: the spirit of this evening reflected, pretty much exactly, the goings-on of my work day. (I did not, however, snap any photos of that.)
But this post is not to complain about my day. In fact, I found it pretty amusing for most of the time it was going on. And just when I started to get a little irked and panicked that the boys would still be bouncing off the walls come midnight, I somehow convinced Jules that recycling all of the snow was the most fantastically fun game EVER. He listened. And mini-J Kai followed right behind. Semi-calm ensued.
And then there's this: Tonight, the comedy and cuteness overshadowed the chaos.
Two Julian gems:
1. On the ride home from school... Julian requested lentils for dinner. "I love them because they're Maite's favorite snack," he explained. (Maite is Jules's BFF who moved back to Italy a few months ago.) "Sure, we can make lentils, I told him." (Later, we did and he ate a big bowl. Plain and unseasoned.) "And what's your favorite snack, Jules?" Without a pause he answered: "Candy." Um... what can I say? The kid likes candy. And lentils.
2. Before the paper pull, while we're upstairs in Kai's room... Jules takes out the The Carrot Seed (which used to belong to Sophia - thanks, Lisa P!) and starts "reading" to Kai. He begins, "Harold plants a carrot seed." The boy in the book does not have a name. The boy in the book, however, was drawn by Crockett Johnson, best known for Harold and the Purple Crayon, which we read a LOT 'round here. This made me smile really big.
P.P.S: The Carrot Seed, written in 1945, is all about the power of positive thinking when everyone around you is a super-annoying naysayer. I'm buying it - in baby board book form, no less - for any friend on the cusp of taking a chance on something great when everyone else is saying, "don't do it - it'll never work." Let me know if you need one. xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment