Thank you, Dear Sister.

Aunt Kelli and Uncle Larry got the boys a basketball hoop for Christmas.  The kind that attaches to the back of a door.  That, coupled with the hardwood maple floors in their bedroom, has turned bedtime into a full-court-press basketball game.  It's 10:30 pm, and my room is on the complete opposite side of the house, one story down.  All I hear at the moment is "thump thump thump thump".

Gee.  Thanks for that, Kel.

Gorging.... on the Wii.

Santa brought the chilluns a Wii U for Christmas.  They have been playing non-stop ever since.  I'm letting them get their fill, because once school starts.... nada.  Except on weekends.  So, knock yourself out, kids, because your time is short.  I expect them to resurface sometime around January 5th. 

Tonight, at 9:45 pm, the boys came out of the basement when I told them it was bedtime.

Quinn: "BEDTIME??????"
Colby: "But I haven't eaten DINNER yet!" (pause.  Wait for it.)   "OR LUNCH!!!"

Good grief.  The Wii U Gorge-fest is super-ceding all other bodily functions.  I hope they're at least stopping long enough to use the bathroom. 

Genetic Diversity (Or Lack Thereof)

They're not all in one place all that often, so when I caught THESE seven boys hanging out together at church the other day, I had to take a picture:

Colby said "Mom, I just realized that our Sunday School class has two sets of identical twins, and one set of identical triplets!"

You JUST figured that out?  It's been that way since pre-school.  Six years ago.  But, okay.  Yes.  He just realized.

Seven boys.  Three genetic codes.

That is pretty cool.

Fiction/Nonfiction

Again, dinner table conversation last night.

Dad was telling me how after staying up late to watch a movie on Saturday, the boys had snuck their blog books (made from this blog) to bed with them and were reading them all night long.  I reminded him that he gave Quinn Mountain Dew AND coffee not too long before bedtime, and I'm sure that had something to do with the late night. 

Dad: "No, my point is, they like reading their blog books."
Colby: "Are those books published?"
Mom: "Yes."
Colby: "Like for everyone?"
Mom: "No.  You are not secretly famous.  I make one copy of each book."
Colby: "Oh."
Quinn: "You totally make us sound dumb in there."
Mom: "No I don't!  I just write down what you say!"
Quinn: "Yeah, but I don't say it with 10 exclamation points and all capital letters and stuff."
Dad: "There may be some fabrication."
Colby: "Yeah, you totally make stuff up."
Mom: "No I don't.  I write it down as soon as you say it."
Quinn: "But you make us sound so dumb!"
Mom: "Not dumb.  Funny."
Colby: "And then you write little comments on the end, like you're rolling your eyes at us or something.  Did you not know we would read them?"
Mom: "Of course.  They're written for you.  As adults.  Someday."
Rob: "So, obviously written from a skewed perspective.  Like highly editorialized non fiction."
Mom: "Of course.  It's Life With Boys, the funny things they do and say, written from MY perspective".
Rob: "Well, you could take other perspectives into account."

SHEESH.  Family.  Give it a rest.  This is not CNN.  It's a Mommy blog, not objective journalism.

WRITE YOUR OWN DANG BLOG, if you don't like it!

Back Handed Compliment

Sitting down as a family at dinner last night.

Reagan: "Mom, are you on a diet?"
Mom: "Yes."
Reagan: "Why?"
Mom: "To get skinny."
Colby: "Mom, you're plenty skinny right now."
Mom: "WOW!  Thanks, Colby-man!"
Colby: "That's not a compliment.  It's just a fact."
Mom: "Still, that's nice to hear."
Colby: "I mean, there's LOTS of people that are fatter than you."

ANNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDD there it is.  Proceed with head deflating now.

Unexpected Tooth Loss

I'm on the lookout for Reagan to lose her teeth.  After all, she's "of the age", and the tooth fairy has visited her on several occasions.  I completely forgot, though, that 10 year olds can ALSO lose teeth, and don't yet have a full set of adult teeth.  So I was caught off-guard when Quinn informed Rob and I that he'd lost a tooth.  And that he'd put it under his pillow for THREE DAYS, and yet no tooth fairy had come.

I told him the tooth fairy was inept and not to take it personally.  Reagan learned the definition of the word "inept".

The next night, Quinn put his tooth in a bag, and had his stuffed Wizard Mickey not-so-subtly hold the tooth at the end of the bed.  There was no way the tooth fairy could miss that tooth this time. 

 

OK.  Got it.

Yes.  Inept. 

Letters to Santa... Kinda

They might be 10 years old and worldly-wise, but that doesn't keep them from writing out letters to Santa.  Well, maybe not ADDRESSED to Santa.  Just vaguely written out, and subtly folded and placed in our "Santa's Mail" decoration on the fridge.  Just in case, you know. 

Update

I notice I'm blogging about the boys on here less and less frequently.  Mostly, that's because they are quickly losing the "cute little boy" stage and turning into Tweens.  Tweens are not nearly as fun as little boys, and like to be sassy instead of cute.  Not so bloggable.   

Lots of changes at 10 years old.  The biggest change I've noticed is that the boys are really developing their individuality.  This has been a long time coming - just wish it weren't quite such a painful process physically.  There's a lot of punching and fighting going on, and that's really new for us.  Tussling... yes.  We've lived with that for years.  But this new "I want to be by myself" and "get away from me" and "I don't want to look like my brother" thing.... polar opposite of the "attached at the hip"-edness that we've seen for the past 10 years.

It's good that they're growing up, and finding out who they are as young men.  It's good that they're working hard to establish an individual identity and not just "one of the twins".  Just hope that at the end of the day, they still love each other just as much as they always have.  Because as much as their Dad and I love them, no one will understand them like their own twin brother.