and I never swabbed a poop deck!

So, we were prepping for vacation and Jack's greatest joy? Getting to mop 'for the VERY first time, I'm so excited!' We call it 'swabbing the deck' to get in the pirate-y mode, but hopefully his future wife will thank me ;-) And I'm on vacation, so I can be lazy, right? We're missing friends something fierce, already, and when they saw this picture of fun with Grayson the other day, they thought it had to go on this post - Jack's chatter last nite was filled with all the names of all the friends we left behind....we miss you all!

Veggietales' The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

Cranky, cranky, make a pest a pet

All-in-all, it was a very beautiful day - we're working to make some rough moments smooth. Here are the highlights ;-)

I've started giving the boys credit for all the chores they do without complaint - for every ten checks they earn, we'll do a treat like the movies. Jack was a few shy for tomorrow's movie and decided he could wash the dishes (yes, I have an instructional video LOL)
We went to an exotic animal show at the library today - it was cool...

....a close-up, just in case you missed the pest on Jack's arm - it's a tarantula :eww: He actually volunteered, brave little thing! We saw lots of creepy, slimy things - oh, boyjoy!

After swim lessons which went great, I asked who did a good job and got this response ;-)

They had an exceptional day with lessons, a minor miracle given that Harry was very upset about something that happened before the lesson and Jack had his back - I left them both mopey and in tears, only to come back to happy, smiling boys who had learned several new skills and earned ribbons! (Look at those clouds reflected in the van windows)

Tho the pic's not great, that sign to their left shows that they are both well on their way to 4 feet tall - eek!

You can't really see it, but Harry had christened most of his face

Jack lost his scoop, so we shared - you can see his tear and his skinned nose if you look closely

Happy week!

Age of Electric's Cranky

A mans good word and a hand shake are all you need

This week has been a good one for us on a lot of levels, largely because things like this happened:

The other morning, Harry woke before Jack and before I was ready for him to ;-) He hadn't done his screen-time chores but I told him I'd let him watch while I showered and Jack slept if he promised to do them asap. He looked me in the eye and shook "deal" - with no prompting or reminders, he got himself dressed and made his bed as soon as Jack woke up. I found two dressed, beds-made boys....which started a very pleasant day for us!

A slightly shocking one because of things like this:

Jack: Mommy, guess what?

M: What?

Jack: I'm going to marry K, and she's going to marry me!

M: Really? What makes you want to marry her?

Jack: She's my best friend.
(a little aside, both Dean and I responded to him separately that was the reason M&D married :wub:)

A funny week because of things like this:

Miss Lisa: Jack & K, are we bothering you with our music lesson?

J: No thank you, we can hear just fine



Alabama's Down Home

You're My Best Friend

Today was a beautiful day, and Jack mentioned a few times that Harry is his best friend (we've had several chats about the fact that he can be his brother AND his friend, so glad he's come around)

They got their new Puzzle Buzz mags yesterday and haven't put them down, but this was my favorite moment so far
"Drink all this water up so you can grow!" says Jack as Harry supervises the morning watering

Harry took a turn at it, with CHEESE, please!

Jack giving Harry a little push (those aren't post-eye-surgery glasses; they were free at the grocery and they LOVE them!)

Queen

04/18/09 Harry: I want to be a singer at the Sidney Opera House, where they have wonderful music! (the Nemo Leapster taught him this) Jack: I love to read everything in the whole world! (it's true, it's been hard to keep him in books lately)

a heart speaks louder than a color can

The boys finished their Valentine's this morning, then I realized we hadn't done any for their teachers, so we finished those this afternoon - it should be a nice little party tomorrow!

Harry used the class list to make sure he didn't miss anyone

(Casey, they aren't *that* good :wink:)


Harry was a huge help last nite, completely setting the table for the first time on his own (Jack and Dean were playing in the other room, and it was a great chance for him to show his stuff!)

And here's Harry's colorful heart snowman from today's library story time.

First, he drew the happy and sad faces, which sort of remind me of the thespian masks.

As I've mentioned, he loves the Garmin and has been studying all aspects of it lately. Here, he drew each type of road that we see (paraphrasing): grey is small road, purple is our route, orange is a regular road, and red is a BiG road (ours usually represents a highway and shows as two lines)

Ben Harper's Jah Work

2/12/09 Harry: Mommy, Jack is being VERY generous today. Jack: I didn't want Harry to be sad, and I wanted him to have a long turn!

Santa's Got A Brand New Bag - Tricky Tuesday

This is a trick stolen from a twin mom friend, Jackie, and put to good use at our house over the last few years. We started having the boys clean up their toys about the time they could drag them but were struggling to get them to clean things up in a timely manner when we asked. Jackie told us about her trick:



Set an acceptable amount of time and agree to what 'clean' looks like.

Tell them how long they have to clean it all up (we use 5 minutes)

Anything not cleaned up goes in the bag (could go to trash, donations, whatever you choose)





The theory is to tell them calmly, not have to remind them thruout that time (de-stressing bonus for you), and calmly pick up all the toys that are not in place when time is up....sometimes it works better than others, but they will really move when we start walking to the cabinet that holds the garbage bags.



Thanx to Jackie for a great idea that has really worked at our house!

Twice As Worth It

I found this old video of Jack (10/07) giving a washcloth folding demo and thought it was worth the crick you may get in your neck from watching it sideways (I couldn't figure out how to rotate it ??