Snapshots

No, not actual photos. Instead, let me give you a mental image of some of our more interesting moments.

One morning last week, at the ungodly hour of 5:15 (sleeping in vanished shortly after the jet lag from our west coast trip wore off), I hear the stampeding of little feet into the bathroom. Then a brief scuffle over who had to pee first. Followed almost immediately by, "MOM! Kemper's peeing on the floor!" And you thought your alarm clock was bad....

The weather has been mild here this week, so the boys have spent a fair amount of time playing outside. They're finally old enough that they'll stay in the back yard instead of wandering down the driveway and into the street, so I just leave the back door open so I can hear them. Usually they ride their bikes, play in the sandbox, build airports (or so they say), etc. Well, the other day I was working on dinner when I heard the sound of raucous laughter coming from the yard. They were clearly having a great time. The cackling continued for quite some time. It suddenly occurred to me that I should probably see what was so darn funny. Yep, you guessed it - they were definitely up to no good. Our neighbors have some tomato plants that hang over onto our side of the fence, and the kids had picked a couple of partially ripe tomatoes to throw at the house. Repeatedly. The back wall of the house was covered in tomato pulp.

And no matter how hard I try, I can't get them to stop climbing the back porch railing and hanging from the clothesline.

On the other hand, I was able to give away their outdoor playhouse without incident. They decided they wanted to give it to someone younger who really wanted it, and so far there has been no regret as far as I can tell. I'm pleased, since they weren't playing in it anymore. No, they were climbing up onto the roof, making me eternally nervous. At least this worked out well for all of us.