Two blogs in a row? Don’t get used to it.

Today was one of those beautiful spring days that makes you consider letting the kids skip their naps so you can soak up as much sunshine as possible before the rain comes back tomorrow.  Consider, but not do.  Maybe another day.  But now we’re done with dinner and back outside, and I’ve got the laptop on the picnic table while the kids collect teensy pieces of trash they find so they can load it in the Hot Wheels garbage truck, then dump it out at the “dump.”  Which is an arbitrary spot that’s about three inches from my left foot.  So maybe not so arbitrary after all.

Kenzi has some weird possible sickness that causes her to cough like crazy for a random half hour, usually right before we’re about to go somewhere and interact with other children.  Then after we’ve decided to stay home, she’s fine for the next few hours.  I guess it could be allergies but it’s so inconsistent that I don’t know what she could be exposed to that would cause such intermittent reactions.  Kev seems to be fine, and usually the two of them pass stuff back and forth pretty quickly so who knows if she has anything contagious.  As for myself, I have the weird achy body thing, where I take some Motrin and feel fine so I get a bunch of stuff done, then when it wears off I feel worse than before since I haven’t been resting.  I’ve decided that tonight when the kids go to bed I will lay on the couch and watch tv and ignore the mess in the house for another day.  But enough of that.

I thought I’d make a list of the top eight phases my kids are in that I hope will pass quickly.  In no particular order…

1) Kenzi – using Kevey’s bad behavior as an opportunity to point out her good behavior.  Ex: Kev tosses a piece of food on the floor. Me – “Kev, pick that up right now!  You know that is not acceptable.”  Kenzi – “Mommy, I’m not throwing my food on the ground.  That is acceptable.”

2) Keves – “I got two’s hands.”  This is his way of saying he has something in each of his hands, and he regrettably is unable to accomplish whatever we’ve requested.  Ex: Me – “Hey Kev, you need to put away your trucks before you come have lunch.” Kev – grabs a blanket or toy with both hands, steps away from the trucks and says, “I got two’s hands.”

3) Kenzi – really loud cackling.  She does it when she’s having fun, but it’s really contrived and she knows it’s obnoxious.  I once overheard her doing it in her Awana class; I was in Bernie’s office with the door closed and her class was playing some running/chasing game in the big room right outside the offices.  She did it for nearly 10 minutes straight.  Her teachers are so much more tolerant than I am.

4) Keves – pooping during naptime.  Takes quite a while to air out the room.

5) Kenzi – Disney Princesses.  Ugh.

6) Keves – “That was silly!” or “I just being silly!”  This follows some type of behavior that he knows isn’t allowed.  Ex: Me – “Put your shoes in the closet please.” Kev – runs to back door and throws them into the yard.  Me – “Keves!”  Kev – grinning. “I just being silly!”

7) Kenzi – being afraid of the vent in Kevey’s room.  She’s not afraid of any other vents in the house and I can’t pin down what happened to make her afraid of Kevey’s.  But when it comes on she runs out of the room covering her ears.  With the weather warming up I imagine we won’t see this one anymore, and maybe by next winter she’ll have forgotten about that mean ol’ vent.

8 ) Keves – Insisting that he’s snatching when he’s actually being given something.  Ex: Kev – “I can’t find Blankie.”  Kenzi – “I’ll find it for you!” Runs off, then returns with Blankie.  Hands it to Kev, who yanks it out of her hands.  Kev – looks at me with devious grin – “I snatch Blankie from Sissy!”  (Maybe he figures he doesn’t misbehave enough, so he has to create drama where there was none?)

Of course they go through some really sweet phases that never seem to last long enough.  Some of the current ones:

1) Keves – hugging me with all his might and saying “Mommy, I taking care of you.”

2) Kenzi – telling us repeatedly, “I will never stop loving you! I am always going to love you!”

3) Keves – sharing something with Kenzi and saying, “Here ya go, Sis.”

4) Kenzi – running into Kevey’s room as I tuck him in for nap, climbing in his bed, grabbing his chubby face and kissing him on the forehead.

Ok, so I can only think of four big sweet ones right now, but they more than outweigh the 8 previous ones.