Open mouth, stress kid out, insert foot, close mouth.

It was a little colder than I was anticipating this morning...and it made for an interesting drive to the bus stop.  I might have gotten out of the car and put my warm hands on the frosted windshield in an attempt to be able to see.

That's purely speculative, of course.

After the boys got on the bus, I could have sworn I heard the Hallelujah Chorus, but it might have been my imagination.  I went back inside the apartment, and wrestled with the extremely dead Christmas tree because it was trash day.  I had an opaque trail of pine needles from the spot it stood to the door and all the way down the stairs.  I'm still finding pieces of pine needles stuck in my clothes at 10:00 at night.

I went to go spend some more time with two of the sweetest little ones this morning while their mom went to a meeting.  We read the Frances books, and "Oliver Who Would Not Sleep" which reminds me of B when he was 4-5.  We also read a couple of books about cars, and then watched a Tinkerbell movie.  I had just put lunch (Nutella sandwich and chips for her, cheese nachos for him) on the table when their mom walked in the door.  I love how excited those two get when their parents come home.  They aren't awake when they get home very often, but it's just absolutely precious.

After babysitting, I came home and stared at the pine needles...but ended up googling wedding dresses and sending dozens of emails back and forth between the bride and myself.  I dreamt about wedding dresses last night.  Not my own (HA!), but there were hundreds of them.  I emailed her one last time tonight, with the subject, "Make. Me. Stop."

The boys got home just as I finished vacuuming, and B had some exciting news!

Please ignore the gum, and thank me for having him remove it from the open space where his tooth was.  He lost this tooth that's, literally, been hanging on for well over a week.  He was eating a clementine at lunch, and it popped right out!  On one hand, I'm super excited because he's getting so big, and I equate that to also gaining responsibility and maturity.  (I know...what color is the sky in my world, right?)  On the other hand, he's my little.  He's so adorable when he's being a little, check that: a SWEET little.  Losing his baby teeth makes him not as much of a little. 

After school, the boys and I went to play with friends.  Well, they played with friends, I had grown-up talk time with a dear friend.  We are so alike, it's unreal...and it's always such a joy to talk to her.  Our boys get along really well, too, which is an added bonus.  Today, there were lots of thumps and bumps coming from upstairs in the playroom, but there was only one complaint about someone being a pain in the 2 hours we were over there.  I'd call that a major success story.  After we left, N asked if he could go back over there tomorrow.  We know they won't be on the same baseball team this spring, but you don't HAVE to be on the same team to practice on your own, so I hope we'll be seeing more of them.  They're kind of awesome.

I had a heart to heart with N on the way home from basketball practice tonight.  He gets so discouraged during practice, primarily because the kids on his team are pretty inexperienced but think they're awesome, so they end up being ball hogs.  I counted how many times N was wide open with a clear shot on Saturday at the game, and it was literally almost 20 times in a 32 minute game.  He got the ball twice.  He's frustrated, I'm frustrated, and I know his coach is frustrated...he just doesn't verbalize his frustration well, nor does he utilize the 1 hour of practice time they're given per week wisely.

That said, I asked N if he'd rather play basketball or baseball because, in the near future, he needs to pick one.  My heart sunk when he said he thought he might want to play basketball so he can get better.  I told him he was an awesome baseball player, and he'd been so versatile last season.  He agreed, but said he thought he had more room for improvement in basketball.  I know I asked him, but sheesh!  How do you tell your kid, "I asked you, but I really just wanted you to say baseball, even if it is more expensive...so baseball.  Let's go with that."

Now he's stressing about picking one, and I told him not to worry about it...that we'd revisit it after he'd played spring ball and fall ball again.  I think he's probably leaning towards basketball because he's playing it right now, he can play it at school with his friends at recess, and he claims to be trying to save me some money since basketball is less expensive.  It just makes me wonder why I opened my mouth to begin with. 

I'm so good at that...

Now, I'm going to go curl up in my bed with a steamy cup of Twinings Peppermint Tea, compliments of my Keurig, and stare off into space before I go to sleep.

Or, maybe I'll read my Kindle.  Whatever works.

Aubs