Punish Me!

Growing up, when things got really bad around the house, my mom would sometimes say, "Just wait until your dad comes home, he is going to here about this." I can tell you now that was a very effective threat, none of us wanted that to happen.

Logic would follow that when I had kids of my own, that I too could pull out that little beauty in times of distress. I'm afraid that when it comes to packing "threatening daddy" heat, some women have machine guns strapped to their backs while I have a can of silly string in my back pocket. Our daddy is just not scary--at all. Allow me to explain...

One week in primary Will was acting up and so one of the counselors said, "Will, do I need to take you to see your daddy?" No sooner had she spoke the words than his face lit up and he was out of his chair and out the door to go and find what I like to think of as his human bouncy house. When the counselor and Will found Josh, she said to him, "He isn't very afraid of you is he?" Nope.

Josh is always making up silly games to play with the kids and has certain things that he says to them all the time. Every day Josh walks in the door and the boys run and hide and wait to be found so they can race and wrestle and do all the fun things that daddy does. Well, Josh always says to the boys when he catches them (in a deep, growly voice) "I'm going to punish you!" and then proceeds to tackle them and tickle them, and whatever else causes sheer delight and glee for a 4 and 2 year old. I can tell you now that I will NEVER be able to say, "Just wait until your dad gets home..." because lately, Giggies comes up to Josh in his sweet little voice and asks, "Will you punish me, daddy?" and then stands there with a silly smile on his face waiting for his "punishment" to be handed down.

I can just see it now, our boys will be in trouble at school one day, and their teachers will tell them they'll need to be punished, and they erupt in happiness waiting to be punished. Boy, do they love their daddy, though.

Scenes From a Sunny Day

When you are forced to live like albino children, not because of a skin condition, but rather

hell-ishly long and cold winters, there aren't many days that leave you so exhausted you just crash, wherever you are. If you look closely you can see the many smears of fun scattered all up and down. He was a mess!
Blurry picture, but Will has become a wizard at the two-wheeler. It only took him a couple of tries before he could ride, but now he "flies" and every stop is a back wheel skidding hockey stop.

Hooray for the warm days--I have missed them so badly.

You Smell Like All Day

There is a saying at our house that goes, "Hey, you smell like all day". What would that mean to the outsider...I'm not sure, but to us it means you smell like somebody who has been out in the sun and the wind and the dirt, and all of those things have left their smells on you. Well, right now, I smell like all day, and after a long hibernation, it couldn't smell sweeter. My boys smell like little sticky, sweaty kids, and they have dirt smeared from top to bottom, and that is the way it was meant to be for the Brown's. We are a sun loving people, but more than that we are creatures of warmth, and today we were in our element. It was beautiful in Wisconsin. We pulled out the BBQ and now to sweeten the senses, I can add the smell of smoky hamburgers and hotdogs to my scent, and I'll tell you what, if I could figure out a way to bottle this smell and sell in during the winter time, then I know I would be rich, because these are the smells of summer. During the deep freeze of January you are sure such a smell doesn't really exist. In November you remembered it vaguely, in December you had an inkling, but by January it is gone--someone mentioned it to you in February, but this only brought anger and hurt as you tried so hard to remember but couldn't, but if I could come by with my magic summer potion and remind my fellow sun-lovers that it does exist and you will smell it again, I would be rich.
The best part about today, is that the news said that tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer. Change is a comin'!

Pin Heads

For the last month we've been dangling a big piece of bait in front of Will. Our interaction would go something like this, "Will, if you get your jammies on quickly and run up to your bed, we'll go bowling!" As the responsible parents that we are, we realized that we had carried this bribe on to the point of almost ineffective, since Will was beginning to drop his request to Heavenly Father that he could go bowling soon out of his prayers. He had given up hope :( So, I made a chart of 10 final good things he had to do to earn the big bowling party, and he successfully completed each one, so we ventured off into the land of stale cigarette smoke and funky disco ball wall paper for our first trip bowling as a family. Josh and I are tempted to quickly offer this reward again for good behavior, because we had such a good time too.

Notice the fancy footwork by Will.
This is the way we told him to do it, thinking he wouldn't be able to get it down any other way. He was frustrated with the game though, because he would end up only knocking one or two down. The first time that he did it "his way" he bowled a strike! Important lesson learned about my Will--if you let him do it his way, it almost always goes better.

As a side note: neither Josh or I had bowled since we were in highschool. I expected my own game to be a disaster, since the past is a pretty good indicator of the future. However, I can say with complete certainty that nobody was expecting the outcome of yesterday's game. I spanked him! All game long I was bowling better than him, but not dramatically enough that he couldn't pull off a miracle, and he almost did. Picture it--Josh gets up to bowl in the 10th frame and he bowls a STRIKE. (eek, I'm pulling at my shirt collar a little) he gets up for his next turn and bowls ANOTHER STRIKE (uh-oh) thankfully, the third turn was just change, no strike.

This still put me in a tough position. There is no way that I was going to get up and bowl strikes in my 10th frame, right? Well, not one but TWO STRIKES later for me, and I had more than cemented my victory. Final score: Megan 130 Josh 106. Maybe next time, Josheroo :)

Heat Wave!

What a warm day! The boys hit the pavement with coats unzipped, no less!

Unfortunately, old habits die hard, and after several months of the snow shovel being your favorite toy, it is hard to let it go, even when it is 50+ degrees.

Last year at this time we were visiting friends in Oklahoma. The temperature was much warmer and no snow, so we thought Will would love every minute of being outside. He was in the backyard playing, and what did we notice him doing? He was doing "snow angels" on the dried up grass. Our friends got a kick out of that. It was a sad reminder to me of what dramatic effects this time in Wisconsin may have on our lives...good or bad, we'll see.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer. If we can find some unlocked tennis courts with the nets up, you'll know where to find us. It's a little sad to say that if we do go play it won't be our first day out this year. A couple of weeks ago we thought we were having an exceptionally warm day, it was 20 degrees, but sunny, so off we went! The effects of this climate are far reaching, it's not just the boys who look goofy--Josh and I are just as susceptible.