the atrium is now no longer Jackson’s “safe zone”. He got adventurous last week and I looked out to find him climbing the tree

Well, if you had asked me yrs ago if I wanted boys or girls I would have said I thought God would probably give me 6 little girls because no way could I handle little boys. Ironically, I have 2 boys, that both happen to be ALL boy. And amazingly enough we are navigating our way through parenting little boys, some days quite blindly and with gas masks on but making it through nonetheless!

I hear lots of people say that boys are much easier than girls. I disagree so far. Maybe in the teenage yrs I will see this more clearly but right now they are tough. No tougher than girls but by no means easy. I feel the pressure to raise princes. Not spoiled brat princes but rather noble, God-fearing, sweet-natured, compassionate, gentle, kind, strong boys.  I want them to have good manners and for them to be a pleasure to be with. Sounds easy, right?! I will let you know when we are done about 20 yrs from now. In the midst of it I feel like it is a daily challenge. Thank goodness they have a wonderful daddy because he is able to model this so much more nobly than my naggy mom attempts to teach.

And just to give you a good laugh I will give you a tidbit from one of my morning conversations with Jackson. Disclaimer: you don’t have to read on.

As I was cleaning off one of Owen’s dirty cloth diapers Jackson asked if he could watch. Sure, whatever. So gross.

As he watched me he said, “I learned from George (curious george) that you can use warm poop to help grow your garden”

me: “Jackson, we don’t talk about bathroom things and I don’t really think George used warm poop to grow his garden.”

he argued with me for a few minutes and stayed strong in the argument that George really did teach him that. Finally he said, “no mom, not WARM poop, I said WORM poop” (as in using worms in a compost pile.)

me: “oh, well either way, we don’t talk about potty stuff”

Last week I bought myself a few new scarfs, accessories and a couple of casual dresses to wear with leggings. Now more than ever I feel the need to put on some more feminine, girly things to balance out these boys in the house. I love them to pieces but talking about WORM poop growing my garden at 7 AM just isn’t my fav way to begin my day.

I am guessing I have posted this pic before but I couldn’t resist. You can see the pleasure in his smile. He loves it!

Seth is gone this week for the Davos economic conference. It’s a big deal and huge honor for him to be in the posse. He is assigned to Geithner (sp?), the US Secretary of Treasury. He will be rubbing shoulders with some pretty impressive people. He is enjoying the work so far (he left at the crack of dawn Sunday) and will be there until sometime Friday or Saturday. I am so glad for him but really missing him too!

I got spoiled for the last couple of days because my friend Leigh came in from Germany to keep me company! She and Jackson baked a cake for me for my birthday today. Now that she is gone I am trying so hard to keep my mood in check and stay on top of these boys. I am worn out because Seth helps with SO much.

This morning Jackson came in well before wake up time and told me he was having a hard time sleeping. I went in and tried to get him back to bed. He laid on the floor and began a fit. None of my reasoning helped so finally I blurted out “it’s my birthday, I need you to wait in bed until your bunny clock says it is time to get up and then I need you to come find me and sing to me.” Silence, then he quietly climbed back into bed and whispered excitedly, “okay mom, goodnight”. When his clock went off he busted out his door and met me in the hallway. He broke out into a boisterous “Happy Birthday” tune. Made my day!

“The Napping House”?..you know the one where EVERYONE is sleeping. Well, I am seriously considering writing a sequel to the book only my title would be “The Napless House” where NO ONE is sleeping.

I don’t know if it is the excitement of Christmas and an approaching visit from grandparents but our kids are living in crazyville. Not that the house is in a state of craziness, just them. Maybe the current running through our transformer to feed Swiss current into our American-made tree lights is just getting to them. Maybe it’s that they aren’t getting to run around as much because of the snow, no better maybe it’s because of the excitement from the snow. Or maybe it’s that they are too warm in their fleece footy jammies or too cold in their footless pj’s.  You see where this is going. When one tries to figure out what causes small people to be disrupted you drive yourself INSANE. So, to preserve my own sanity I am embracing this obnoxious disruption and mustering up every ounce of strength to pray that my little boys go to bed early and sleep, WITHOUT a PEEP!

Tomorrow we go to the Embassy to meet Santa! Now THAT is for sure going to calm my kids down!