Leaves and Nuts

I had fully intended to write this post last night but, as frequently seems to happen, I took a horizontal position on the couch and never made it back up. Its a good thing I had the title saved into drafts, so at least its dated properly.

We had a fairly busy day today. Shortly after breakfast we headed off to the store to grab some peanut butter that was on sale. A peanut butter sale is always worth an extra trip out. Especially considering that my kids will eat peanut butter by the spoonful if they get the chance. I mean that literally, by the way. There have been a couple of times when J and B have made it down to the kitchen before anyone else (one time was the pair of them teaming up and raiding the kitchen in the middle of the night), and they will grab tablespoons and dig right in. I will find the spoons and the counter covered in peanut butter and the jar with huge divots out of it bigger than the ones Tiger Woods leaves trying to win the Masters. Peanut butter on sale = GOOD!

After pb shopping we raked and bagged the leaves, and of course had some fall fun. N was so excited. He just kept saying he wasn't going to help but that he would jump in them as soon as the piles were ready. So raking the yard turned into double the work but it was so funny to see him prepare for his dives like he was some Olympic springboard diver. He would stand there with his hands together, knees bent, looking like he was about to do a double twisting, inverted pike, and then flop into the pile with a HUGE grin on his face. I'll bet he would have done that for hours if I would have let him.

J had his first ever sleep over at a friends house. He was super pumped, and had his bag packed before breakfast. He did pretty good packing on his own too, well, except for forgetting his pj's, his tooth brush, and his sleeping bag. He got the essentials in though. Halloween candy, a book and his Baa Baa. Even at 12 he still finds comfort in the little blue sheep that my Mom and sister bought him when he was born. It just reinforces what I'm always telling them, no matter how old they are, they are always my babies.

B really enjoyed the fact that J was away tonight. Its not often that he gets to spend alone time with me, so once N was in bed, we snuggled up on the couch and watched TV for an hour. I feel bad sometimes that he seems to get the short end of the stick as far as individual time, so this was a really nice treat for both of us.

C was, well, C was pretty much MIA all day, except for feeding time. A typical day in the life of a 17 year old....out at a buddies all day (he slept over the night before) and then home just in time to eat dinner, change and head to work (the dreaded 6:30 to 2 am shift). I can tell I have a 4th boy in the house by all the missing food and the toxic waste dump that is his room, but most days, I barely seem him it seems. At least we have our weekly date to watch Modern Family together on Wednesday nights. Gives an old woman something to look forward to.

Of course because of our adventures with leaves, and N & J's hour of playing with the slugs in the garden, YUCK!!!, baths were in order tonight. N really enjoys his bath and part of that I think is the alone time with me. He will talk and talk, and I LOVE to hear whats going to come out of his mouth next. This time he asked if I could draw him a picture of the human body and write down all the proper names of body parts so that he would know what they were called. I told him that I'm not that great of a drawer, (I never really developed my skill past the stick figure stage), but that if he wanted to know what something was called, he just had to ask. So of course, being a 5 year old boy, he asked what the proper name for "nuts" was. After I caught my breath from laughing, I told him it was testicles, a pretty big word for a little guy to say at first, I soon came to realize. He now will tell anyone that he wants to try and impress, that boys have tentacles and girls do not.

I always knew that there was something fishy about boys.