A teenaged girl

I think Jameson has morphed into a teenaged girl right before my eyes. He used to gladly put on the clothes I chose for him and never resisted. He didn't give too much thought to what he was wearing and let me dress him in whatever I saw fit.
Well, that all changed recently. Yesterday he literally had a 15 minute tantrum because he didn't want to wear the track pants that I picked out. Granted, he wore them for a few hours the night before when we went out for icecream but they just weren't up to his standards now. He was screaming and crying that he didn't like these pants. Couldn't tell me why he didn't like them, just didn't like them. He wanted to wear shorts. But it's chilly honey. More crying, screaming, flailing. It made him even more upset when I closed the door so he didn't have an audience for his tantrum any more. More hysterics.
I finally decided that it just wasn't worth it anymore so we headed to his room to pick out a new outfit. He chose black jogging pants. (Funny how cute they are on little kids but how wretched they are on adults.) Fine. Now he needed a new shirt because the blue and yellow striped one didn't match anymore. Picked out a grey one, good.
We got downstairs, about to put his shoes on, he decided he didn't like the pants anymore. (What was that, 2 minutes?) More crying/screaming/flailing. Sheesh. I tried to distract him by telling him he could open the garage door. Fine, that worked.
We got out of the house fully dressed. Mission accomplished.

Then we got home again. We were all playing outside when Jameson announced that he had to go pee. He is fully capable of doing this on his own so he went inside, did the deed, and came back out to join me and Stellan. Problem, he was wearing different clothes. Stinker! He was now wearing a pair of light blue plaid shorts. Still wearing the grey shirt from the morning. I was fine with this since it was getting quite warm and shorts were probably more comfortable. I asked him if he would like to change into a short sleeved shirt. More crying.
"I like these shorts."
"That's fine, you can wear them. Would you like to wear a shirt with short sleeves though?"
"I WANT THESE SHORTS!!!!!" scream/cry/flail
Ah ha! He doesn't understand what I'm saying.
"Would you like to keep long sleeves on or would you like little sleeves like mommy?"
(sniff sniff) "I want little sleeves."
"OK, go and get a new shirt with little sleeves."
He came back with a shirt with long sleeves proudly proclaiming that it was the shirt he wanted to wear. I explained that he either kept the shirt he was wearing or he could wear a new one, as long as it had "little" sleeves. I redirected him upstairs with instructions to look on the right hand side of the shirt drawer, that's where the short sleeved shirts are.
Back down he came proudly carrying a cream shirt with orange raglan sleeves. Finally, a short sleeved shirt. Didn't match but I really didn't care at that point.

During nap time (after 2 bathroom trip and and hour and a half of playing in his crib) he ended up peeing in this outfit. Sheesh.

He picked out a new long sleeved shirt and said he wanted to wear shorts. I convinced him to wear ones that actually matched (important now that we were going out in public). He freaked out because he thought they had ties. I calmly explained that I cut the ties off the last time he wore them since he now has a HUGE aversion to any pants/shorts with ties. That pleased him and he proudly put on his shorts that "actually match".

For anyone counting, that would be three outfits in the laundry. I might just have to get a job to pay for laundry detergent.

Mmm...icecream

I have to say, I think I've found a new favourite ice cream. Pumpkin! Yummy! We decided to take the kids out for a treat at a cute little ice cream place in Princeton. They have hand blended ice cream and it's positively divine. I'm always up for anything pumpkin flavoured so I figured I would try their new flavour. I fell in love. Tastes just like pumpkin pie filling with a cold and creamy twist.
James had coffee, probably my close second favourite and the boys each got vanilla. They were so cute! There were classic 80's songs playing in the shop and the kids started dancing to them. How adorable! There is also a classic trick mirror that distorts your body. (Not exactly what you want to see when you're eating ice cream!) The boys thought it was absolutely hilarious!! They wanted us to pick them up so they could see their heads stretch out. They laughed so hard. It was such a nice night out, I'm hoping there are more in our future!

The Basement

I'm always on guard whenever I go into the basement. Afterall, it's a haven for spiders and other creepy crawly things. Even though it is a finished basement, I still expect to see spiders hanging out in a corner, near the steps or just making a new home somewhere. Call me paranoid, it's just what I'm used to.
I'm my paranoia I never expected to stumble across a lizard in the basement. Yes, you read that correctly, a LIZARD!!! I was putting something away in the furnace/storage room when I looked on the floor and saw a lizard about the length of my middle finger. Truthfully, it was kind of cute but it was a lizard! In New Jersey! Sheesh. This was new to me. I can honestly say I wasn't scared but I definitely wasn't excited either. I called James down. I figure it's his job, as the man in the house, to take care of creepy crawly things, lizards included. What to do though? Well, we grabbed the vacuum. What else? I figured the dust and stuff that was already in the bag would suffocate the little bugger. Even if it was cute I didn't want it to live. Only four of us live here, that's plenty. James, the doll that he is, sucked up the little guy. It happened so quickly (I was actually able to watch, wouldn't have if it was a spider) but I can't be sure if he sucked it up or if it moved quickly and got away. I'll hope it was the former. James let the vacuum run a bit longer, just to make sure, and then swiftly took the bag outside for garbage pick up tomorrow. Good riddance!

Just a simple shower

The task was easy enough, I needed to have a shower. I don't exactly trust the kids by themselves (who can blame me?) so I decided to put them in their cribs with a stack of books to keep them occupied. I figured this would buy me enough time for a quick shower.
I had just rinsed the conditioner out of my hair when I heard little footsteps come running toward the bathroom. Hmmm....definitely not a good sign. Stellan appeared in the bathroom and then, in a very matter-of-fact manner, he said, "I got out". Well, that was obvious. Darn it, I wasn't done yet. He ran out to check on Jameson who was now screaming because he wanted to get out. Funny how the 2 year old climbed out but the 3 year old stayed put. Whatever. Stellan definitely deserves his nickname of Monkey.
Needless to say, I quickly washed up and then headed out to do damage control. I can't even have 5 minutes peace and quiet just to get clean. Sheesh.

Getting the mail

The boys were playing nicely in the basement, running their Tonka trucks back and forth (and into each other, once in a while). I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to run to the mail box (across the street, don't worry....) and get the recently delivered mail. It happened that the neighbours were out so I had to stop and meet them. (I hadn't yet met the one that I share a wall with.) We chatted for a bit, I grabbed the mail and then headed back in. (I did happen to apologize if we were a bit loud at any time. I was very relieved when she mentioned that she doesn't hear us but totally understands since she also has 2 young boys. Whew!)
I was a bit concerned because I left the boys alone longer than I had planned but I figured they would be OK since they were playing with their toy-du-jour, the trucks. I turned the corner and noticed the basement door was closed. Uh oh, I know I left it open. The first thought that crossed my mind was that they closed the door in order to hide whatever it was that they were doing downstairs. I headed to the kitchen to drop off the mail and was planning on dashing downstairs. Instead I stopped dead in my tracks and let out quite a scream. Instead of getting into trouble in the basement, the boys were now standing on the kitchen counter surrounded in cracker crumbs, bananas with bite marks and empty gum wrappers. No wonder I screamed! They had taken the newly opened bag of crackers and took random bites. The rest they dumped on the counter or threw into the family room. In the process they broke every last one of them.
There were also three bananas strewn over the counter, each with a big bite out of the middle. They weren't even peeled. I found the bits of peel lying in various places throughout the kitchen. Even if Jameson hadn't said, "Mommy, Stellan ate the bananas, I didn't", I could have quickly figured it out. Instead, Jameson was chomping on a huge wad of gum. "How many pieces of gum do you have in there sweetie?" "Only 3 Mommy!" (big grin with pink blob hanging out) Lovely.
I couldn't resist, I had to take a picture. They had fun posing (stinkers!). I cleaned up the mess and made them each eat a banana. They thought the whole ordeal was quite hilarious. They got stern warnings NEVER to walk/stand/do anything remotely similar to those actions on the counter ever again!
I will admit, the boys ended up in bed a bit earlier than normal. I needed the break. When does James get home?

Bike Ride

Wow! Essex County and Windsor definitely spoiled me when it came to riding a bike. The flat terrain made it quite easy to haul the kids in the bike trailer without working up much of a sweat. Welcome to Princeton. The rolling hills and varied terrain make it a beautiful, scenice area but it makes it a bugger to pull the kids these days. I decided to take advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather and take the boys for a bike ride. James had headed back to Windsor to pick up the car so I was on my own. The tires were recently pumped and ready to go so I thought it should be a relatively smooth ride. I headed out the driveway, down the cul-de-sac and out to the walking/running/biking path. Then I encountered the first hill. Oh my goodness!!! I couldn't make it up. I literally had to get off the bike and pull the kids up the hill. Granted the kids plus the trailer weigh over 60 pounds, but still!! Sheesh. Let me tell you, I surely appreciated the down hill trek. We continued on the bike ride for 45 minutes (only a few cries from the kids. Stellan didn't like Jameson hogging the bike trailer.). We made it home where I had to guzzle a glass of cold water and take a break. Note to self, get out and bike more often; it will get easier.

Muffins

I dutifully volunteered to make the snack for our gathering on Wednesday this week. Easy enough, told to keep it simple. Problem was, I forgot. I only remembered on Tuesday night when I went to the calendar to write in a play date for Thursday. (I LOVE playdates.) Shoot, the grocery stores were closed, would have to make due with whatever we had in the house. Decided to make banana muffins, easy enough. Made them hundreds of times, can practically do it in my sleep. Add a nice bowl of fresh grapes and it's a great little, simple snack. Darn it, no grapes, need to go shopping. Will have to do that in the morning.....with the kids! I'm a glutton for punishment!

Got through the shopping trip with few problems. Granted, there were stern warnings before heading into the store. I'm sure the tongue lashing from the other day was still fresh on their young minds. Some lovely red grapes that happened to be on sale too!

Got home, fed the kids and put them down for an early nap. Stellan slept, Jameson didn't. Both were confined to their beds regardless. I needed to make the muffins afterall.

I made 2 batches of banana muffins, one with chocolate chips, one without. Also decided to make a batch of regular chocolate chip muffins. Put both pans of banana muffins in, heated the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. I know they typically take 22 minutes in my regular stove but I'm getting used to this one so I figured to set it for 15 minutes in order to check on them, just in case. Well, good thing I did, otherwise the muffins might have spontaneously combusted. The burning smell wasn't something that had boiled over from a previous dinner (should have figured that out sooner, I hadn't used the oven yet) it was the muffins burning to a crisp. Every single muffin was severely singed on the bottom. Sheesh. Now what? I needed those muffins!!! Well, I still have the plain chocolate chip ones. I turned the oven down almost 100 degrees and watched them carefully. Much better. Time to buy an oven thermometer. 12 muffins won't cut it though. Still needed to make something else.
I frantically searched the pantry and fridge and decided on making a pasta salad. Easy enough and still a simple "snack" (OK, light meal but still....). A slight bump in the road when I went to make the dressing and realized that the vinegar was still in Windsor. Improvised, everything was fine and actually tasted quite good.
Stressful day but I got through it. Whew!