A Portrait and two Self Portraits courtesy of Leo.

 Yes, I am a sexy beast. Thanks for noticing.

And for some reason there were about 10 different pictures of Leo's right foot.

Lately the boys are obsessed with digging a giant hole in the dirt in our back yard.

Every time they go outside they dig out a little more,

and all of the spare dirt gets put in a pile on the sidewalk and dragged into the house.

There are muddy hand prints from one end of our house to the other.

The other day I went outside and saw this:

 The boys apparently got hungry mid-dig. They took the garbage can and the fruit bowl outside and raided the oranges. Jay had eaten part of at least seven tangerines by the time I found him.

 Leo was plodding along at a much slower pace.

 All that mud is a mixture of the dirt pile and orange juice.

I might have thrown up in my mouth a little.

 At least Leo washed his hands first.

Leo and Jay have been ending up in my bed a lot lately.

In fact, I wake up with Leo snuggled up to me almost every morning.

(I started making him sleep on the ground for a while so he learned how to get in my bed without waking me up.)

The other night I was watching Dr. Who and when I went to bed I found this:

And I ended up sleeping on the futon.

Rude of them, right?

A couple of nights ago Jay didn't quite make it all the way to our room.

We woke up and found him in the hall.

My Garbage Bags are Ruining my Life

Let me start this post off with a warning:

I'm in a strange, strange mood.

And I might be slightly sleep deprived/over caffeinated.

Proceed at your own risk. . .

I hate the smell of garbage.

Obviously.

I mean, I don't know anyone who thinks,

(In a Southern accent, obviously.)

"Why, doesn't that rotting trash just smell wonderful?

I'm so glad that pleasant aroma assaulted my nasal cavities when I opened the lid on that there trash can."

But I really hate the smell of garbage.

To the point that it makes me angry.

Some times I take the trash out when it's not even full just because it smells.

So I generally buy the deodorizing trash bags.

And the trash doesn't smell so bad,

and everyone is happy.

But a few weeks ago I got a different kind.

And I don't even know what kind it is.

(And no, I won't run downstairs and check.

It's practically the middle of the night!)

All I know is that in addition to being deodorizing

it also has a smell of it's own.

Lilies or something.

And the smell is ruining my life!

(And no, I'm not being overly dramatic, alright?)

Whoever made these garbage bags

must hate the smell of garbage even more than I do.

They wanted to make darn sure the garbage,

whatever it happened to be,

would not win!

They smell so strongly that they overpower my Scentsy warmer.

(It's less than 20 feet away.)

They smell so much that if the lid on the garbage can is closed

and you open it

you're going to gag on the smell of sweet, sweet lilies.

They smell so much that if you breathe while eating your sweet and sour chicken

you will suddenly find yourself eating sweet and sour lilies.

And that makes me really sad.

Because sweet and sour lilies are not very tasty.

And I'm only on the first bag.

Of 45.

And that made me tear up a little.

Which makes me wonder if I don't just need more sleep. . .

That's all. :(

Birthday Boy

Jay Alvin turned two yesterday!

He had such a fun day (even though he didn't get any presents) and loved all the attention he got.

All day Leo kept asking when we were going to "go to Jay's birthday."

He could not even comprehend a birthday without a party.

Even though we didn't have an official party, we partied all day long.

Starting with singing "Happy Birthday" 10 times in a row.

Every time I finished Jay would say, "Again."

After 10 I cut him off and we went to the pool with some of our friends.

The we:

*Stopped by the store for some delicious (cheap) donuts.

 (He was really, really happy with all the attention.)

*Picked up a birthday balloon that Jay was a little bit terrified of.

(Every time we go to the store Jay gets very excited about the balloons, so I thought he would really like having one. Instead it totally freaked him out, He liked it as long as Leo was holding it and he could look at it without touching it.) 

 *Went to dinner on the wharf and sat at a table with a view of the bay. 

Jay's favorite part was the soda, of course.

*And finished up with treats from the candy shop next to the restaurant.

Random Happenings

Leo's fear of sleeping has been helped (a tiny bit) by the re-emergence of this little guy:

 It's a Glo Worm Leo was given when he was 6 months old.

When you press the tummy the face lights up and it plays songs.

 Leo calls it his baby, and it's pretty adorable. 

Also, hallelujah, he can sleep by himself again!

Ty got a motorcycle.

So he can drive to school without leaving me stranded all day.

Plus, gas is over $4 here and this baby will use a lot less.

 Do you see how excited Jay is about it?

And in only 6 or so weeks Ty will actually be able to drive it.

(He has to take a class and get his license first and there were no openings in the class until the end of April.)

We took a field trip to the local fire station with Leo's pre-school.

Leo was in heaven.

He got to try on the clothes and shoes, see the station and even sit in a ladder truck. 

 He wore his hat for two days straight (until Jay Alvin destroyed it) and was constantly saying, "Hey mom, does a fireman. . ."

(My favorite was:

L- "Does a fireman poop in the toilet?"

M- "Yep."

L- "And what else? Does he pull his underwear up?

And his pants."

M- "Yes. And flushes the toilet and washes his hands."

L- "I'll be right back."

Runs to the bathroom and washes his hands.)

Jay was less impressed. He just wanted to climb on all of the trucks.

And crunch fire hats, of course.

Jay has also started laughing at pretty much everything. 

The other day Ty was doing the listening portion of his homework and Jay thought it was hilarious.

Every time Ty played a clip of someone saying something in Arabic Jay would just giggle away.

I am feeling pretty darn good right now.

(Aside from the fact that I have a raging cold, can't breathe/smell/taste, and feel like my brains are trying to force their way out of my head via my temples.)

Why do I feel so great (aside from the aforementioned physical ailments)?

Several reasons.

1. We used our tax return to pay off all of our credit cards.

All of them.

And we still have a little left over.

And that makes my heart happy.

2. I finally got a new pair of pants.*

3. We spent several hours this afternoon soaking up the sun by the ocean on this unseasonably warm day.

It was, by far, our best beach experience since we got here.

And there were a ton of surfers in the water,

which was fun to watch.

Even though none of them got caught in a rip tide.

(Is it bad that I wanted someone to get caught in a riptide?

You know, just so I could see one in action?

I think that might be bad.)

*Long and Rambling Story About Why New Pants Got Me so Excited

Since last October I have lost nearly 43 pounds. 

(42.8 if you want to get specific.)

And that makes me really happy.

Most of my clothes are getting baggy.

I look smaller.

And both the scale and the tape measure show that I'm shrinking.

But even with all of that

I have been stuck in the same, miserable pair of pants.

They got baggy in the leg and bum,

but they just wouldn't get big enough to justify getting a smaller size.

And I was getting so, so frustrated by it.

I mean, seriously, 43 pounds.

Fall off already you stupid pants!

And while they never did get big enough to fall off,

I do officially fit into a smaller size.

Finally.

Leo is really into hiding lately. The other day he grabbed my sweater off the ground and used it to hide under. Jay wanted to play too, but he did not make a very good choice as far as camouflage goes.

Yeah, that's a bra.

Leo dresses himself these days. . .

Sleeping

We've been sick around here a couple of times now this month so we've been finding boys asleep all over the place.

This particular day Leo decided that he didn't need a nap. Since he wasn't too cranky I said he could stay up and watch a movie instead. A few minutes into it he came into the office looking for a blanket because he was cold. He grabbed a towel off the floor and made do. A few minutes later I offered him a pillow, just so he could watch TV more comfortably. He was out within 5 minutes.

A few nights ago Ty and the boys were asleep and I was watching Dr. Who on the computer. Jay was in bed with Ty and Leo was asleep in his room. I heard Leo get up and move in with Ty, and then I heard Jay fussing a little, but he stopped and I didn't think anything of it. When I went to get into bed Jay was not there, but I figured Ty had moved him back to his bed. Nope. He wasn't there either. He had wandered downstairs in the dark and made himself comfortable on the couch.

Haircuts

As soon as we found out Aunt Julie wasn't coming to our house this month I decided to give these poor boys haircuts myself.

 Jay was quite traumatized by the whole thing. Ty and I both had to climb into the bathtub any pin him down while we buzzed him.