They're at it again...

It's been a bit since I've posted.  Things really have changed in our lives over the last several months.  We are now living in Japan.  The husband is back on sea duty aka go-for-long-periods-of-time-without-seeing-him.  We're just getting settled and our household goods should be arriving in the next week or so.  8 months without my stuff is just about to break me!  Anyway, all this change has caused some major issues with the boys.  They're acting out, intentionally misbehaving and throwing tantrums.  It's enough to make a mother go insane!

Today, Luke decided that he didn't want to listen...at all.  As dinner was coming out, he decided to stand on the dining room table.  He tried to go streaking out back, but I caught him in time.  He kept pulling over a chair and climbing on the counter.  Once he swiped the Lysol cleaner and drenched his brother in it.  They had been playing super heroes out back and he snuck in and out in 2 seconds.  Both yesterday and today, he would get into the upper cabinet and take out the Flintstones vitamins.  I caught him with a mouthful yesterday.  I proceeded to tell him that when I was his age, I loved them too, however an entire bottle will only make your vomit colorful.  Yet he proceeded to try at least 5 times today to get to them.  And childproof cap...hahahaha, nope.  Took him 2 seconds to figure it out.  We're beyond the baby proofing and into the "Can Mommy be smarter than a 3-year old?" stage.  Jack was a pretty easy one, Luke on the other hand has got a stubborn streak the size of Alaska.

Besides all the acting out, we've had a great time interacting with the Japanese people.  (Check out my other blog Snyder family's Japanese Journey.)  We've been here 2 months and the boys are picking up the language quite quickly.  They know hello, thank you (both ways), you're welcome, counting to 5, goodbye and a couple of others.  The Japanese people just think they are the cutest little boys.  We are constantly stopped or pointed at.  Even the most stoic person will smile and wave at Luke and his "hello brigade".  We will just walk and say "konnichiwa" to everyone he passes.  We're getting ready for the monsoon season, so we have umbrellas and puddle jumping boots.

I will try to think of some more funny things, or start and keep a list to write more.  However, I am exhausted from pulling my hair out today.

Oh my little sweetie pies.

Tonight Jack asked me if I'd sleep in his bed. I think it was because Lilo sleeps with me and she was laying on his bed. So being a nice Mama, I pretended to fall asleep on the bed. My sweet little Jackie, bent over and kissed me on the cheek very gently then lightly patted it and said, "Goodnight sweet pea, I love you a whole heap of a bunch." I'm telling you what, if my heart could grow with anymore love for my boys, it would've then. The thing is, I don't think I could love them anymore. Between the cuddles and smiles, my days are full of happiness and joy. Ok, enough sappiness, let's move onto another little funny story.

Tonight after the boys went to bed, Zach and I sat down for a tv show and some oreos. It's a super special treat in our house, so I got out my glass and started to pour the milk into it. I thought it was pouring kind of chunky, so I looked into the cup and saw....Apple Jacks?!?!?! This morning when I went upstairs to get little boy clothes someone (my guess is either Jack or Luke unless the puppy mutated some fingers) put some Apple Jacks into the rest of the milk. Thankfully it was only about a glassful and when I bought the oreos tonight, I also picked up 2 gallons of milk.

Now that it's Christmas season, Jack is at the age, when he wants everything and Santa is THE MAN! At school they read the book, "Elf on a Shelf" and they named their elf, Jack Elf. Several years ago my mother sent me 3 really old elves and they were sitting on the mantle. Well, once Jack saw that it was Jack Elf, it's the most important thing in the world to him. Yesterday we were sitting around and Jack said, "What's that Jack? Oh, someone hurt your feelings? Well tell Daddy who it was and I'll fix everything." Then he patted the elf's back and shushed him saying, "Don't cry my little man it will be ok." For some reason, Jack has taken to this elf like little girls take to dolls. It's the funniest thing, but at the same time kind of scary because I can see a lot of what I say and do repeated. Thankfully, it hasn't been anything bad yet, but only time will tell! Everyday is an adventure with these boys!

Where's Tom Selleck??

Time sure is flying by quickly. Yesterday was Halloween and the boys dressed up like a bag of M&Ms and Darth Vader. So naturally today we had to watch Star Wars. In the middle of it, Jack turns and asks, "When is Tom Selleck going to show up?" Ok, first, he's not in Star Wars and second...How do you know who Tom Selleck is?? I mean, he was big when I was Jack's age so how the heck does he know his name? Then it hit me, they show his picture in Meet the Robinsons. Lately, things have been quite comical in our house.

Today I picked up two ottomans to go in the living room. Well, we were watching Wipe Out and the boys automatically thought, "Hey they're jumping on red balls, so we'll jump on the red ottomans." Oh I love how little boy minds work! So Jack jumped from one to the couch and was safe. Then up comes Luke thinking he's just as big as his big brother, um not yet honey, not yet. So he takes off for the couch and just basically walks off the side and catches only his face on the couch. Zach and I immediately busted out laughing. He wasn't hurt, but it was no more than 5-6 inches away! So this white boy can't jump, not at all!

Nobody informed me of all the fun to be had with little adventurous boys! We currently have one Papa with a bruised foot and one little boy with a shiner.

Where does the time go???

So I'm going to get a little sappy here, then I'll tell the funny stories. Last night after bathtime (directly after dinner thanks to Luke bathing in dirt cake) we went into Luke's room to play. We were in there for well over an hour playing trains, and other fun things. Then all of a sudden, I just looked, honestly looked at my boys. I couldn't believe how big they've gotten. Between Jack writing "Happy Birthday Papa" on a banner and Luke knocking on the doors of the Sesame Street characters before pushing the button to open the doors, I was in awe. It seems like yesterday I was in Hawaii, giving birth to Jack and now he's able to clearly carry on a full conversation with you. Luke is now starting to comprehend what you ask him to do and carry out tasks. I have to admit, my boys weren't babies for long. They were early crawlers and early walkers. Now Luke at almost 20 months old is very interested in the potty and can open up the baby gates. Thankfully, they love to cuddle and don't mind giving their Mama some hugs and kisses. I know it won't last forever, so I'm soaking it up while I can. Thanks for my ramble, it just really hit me last night and I took a picture in my mind of how cool it was that both Zach and I were on the floor playing with the boys. Now for the funny bits...

Zach and I have really tried to clean our mouths up. As two sailors, we used language like sailors and sadly, sometimes we slip. The other day Zach dropped the bacon out of the fridge and little Jack said, "Oh F*@K!". So we sat him down and had the conversation that it's a bad word sometimes adults use, but it should never come out of Jack's mouth again. If he hears an adult say it, they he is allowed to tell them that it's not a nice word. And if Jack ever said it again, he'd get his mouth washed out with soap...Mama has a stock of bars in her room. Thankfully that was this weekend and we haven't heard it again. Papa swears he said "fudge" but I'll let you be the judge:) That same day we were doing something in the living room, when another word just popped out of his mouth. He said, "S&!T". Zach and I both looked at each other and since this sometimes slips out of my mouth, I got the honors of repeating the above. We've tried really hard since we've had kids to watch our mouths, but sometimes it just slips. I know we're not the only influences, they here it while we're out, etc. But my sweet innocent little boy (insert sarcastic laugh) should not be saying these words. Oh these boys sure keep my on my toes!

The things that come out of their mouth!

I'm in total awe of how fast my boys are growing up. We sure do have our rough patches, but the incredible stuff is what makes life interesting. Some of the things that come out of Jack's mouth just make my head spin.

The other day, we were out watering the garden, and Jack called me a "big fat ugly ogre". Way to boost a girl's self esteem little boy! I've been thinking a lot lately about him going to school and how impressionable little girls are. I don't want my sons to be one of the mean little boys who may say something off hand, but it would truly effect how a little girl will look at herself. So I told him we don't say mean things like that to girls. We only tell them that "girls are pretty". Fast forward a couple of days and he had told me to shut up. Now he has been warned that we don't use that in our house, and if he said it again, he'd be taking a bite of soap. So I asked him what he said and he quickly answered, "Girls are pretty". Oh little boy, I hope you remember that.

Just yesterday while sitting in the van, we were talking about what he wants to be when he grows up. He told me, "A doctor, a daddy, a mommy...". I replied, "Jack, honey, you can't be a mommy because only girls can be mommies." He thought for a second and told me, "Well, I'll be the daddy and Brenna will be the mommy. Brenna and I will get married because you're supposed to marry your best friend." Oh Jack, I hope that this is true and you do marry your best girl friend. It makes life so much more fun!

I've been slacking on blogging, but I will try to pick it up. We've been really busy with Jack starting preschool, MOPS starting back up and me becoming an Usborne book consultant. Hopefully things will start to get a schedule soon.

When all else fails, use duct tape.

As many know, I have 2 little boys who like to take diapers off. When Jack was a baby (as I've written before) we had many a poop messes. Now Luke is at the stage where he doesn't want to wear a diaper, period. Sneaky kid thinks his parents are dumb! We didn't even mess around with "what to do" because we've been there and done it! So today, I'm going to make this blog about the different ways that were suggested and we've tried to keep a diaper on our crazy children:)

1. Put on a onesie. If you child is as creative and smart as my boys, they'll reach up underneath the bottom snaps, take off the diaper and keep the onesie fully intact! That's right ladies and gentlemen, I have 2 Baby Houdinis!


2. Put pants on the kid. Again, my boys are just too smart and independent for this one. They just take them off!

3. Put the diaper on backwards. Because todays diapers are contoured, this is a bad idea. It's rather difficult to change a toddler let alone have them lay on their belly and let you strap a new diaper to them!

4. Duct tape the tabs. This worked great for us for several weeks with both boys. However, they are little stinkers and figured out how to pull it off. With Jack we decided to combine #3 and #4 for a while and it worked for a bit. He figured out that you can just rip the sides and off comes the diaper. Maybe because that's the way we took them off. Monkey see, monkey do.

5. 360 degrees of duct tape. Now this is my favorite. Who doesn't like to put a ring of tape around their kid, making sure that it's not too tight or touches their skin. If that's not bad enough the dang tape will stick to itself. This does seem to be the most effective, yet a royal pain in the ass.

So if you see a little blonde headed boy running around with a duct taped diaper...he's mine! You may ask yourself, "Robin, why are you doing yet another poop post?" Well my dear readers, if you misplaced your duct tape for a day and had to change/clean crib not once but twice in one day I think you'd be rather pissed and need to vent. Not to mention all the times he took off his diaper in the living room. Last night, Luke took off his diaper and before I could reach him he peed in the diaper. He was standing up and peeing into his diaper laying on the floor! All I'll say is the boy needs to really work on his aim. We are sitting on the potty, but haven't had any results in the last week. But we will continue to try as long as he's willing to try. Oh little boys, the stories I'll have for you! Paybacks are, well, going to be fun for me:)

Bloody boys

When Jack was about 8 months old he climbed out of his crib and landed face first on the uncarpeted floor. Being a first time Mom at the time, I was scared. I didn't know that little kids' noses are really hard to break because their bones are soft til about 2. So we made an ER trip. That was my first experience with a little boy having a bloody nose, or bloody anything for that matter.

Well, now a days I don't just have to worry about one nut. Why oh why would God only give me one crazy kid. I already know how to deal with it, so he added another. Nowadays, I'm a pro. A couple of months ago, Luke and Jack were "measuring" with the tape measurer, when it was snapped closed. It sliced Luke's little finger right at the knuckle. It had filled up a papertowel and finally the bleeding stopped with some ice cubes. I knew he would rip it open again because it was pretty deep and come on, he's a Snyder boy! I knew a trip to the hospital was stupid, so I looked around and couldn't find what I needed, so I called up my friend, got what I needed came back and applied the miracle cure...SUPER GLUE! That's right, I super glued his cut closed after I cleaned it with peroxide. I know crazy mom, but I knew what would happen if I didn't.

This evening, Luke being a big boy, climbed on the couch. I can't tell you how many times we've yelled at the boys to not climb on the couch. Jack is known to do somersaults off the arm of the couch, they both like to climb over and dangle. Tonight Luke climbed over the back and just fell to the ground. Normally, he would just get up, go around and try again (unless he got caught by the mean Mommy!). This time however he started crying. Since we were webcamming with my Mom, Zach picked him up and brought him over to me. We're sitting there minding our own business when the boy opens his mouth and blood starts pouring out of his mouth! Since we're now pros at this, I quickly checked to make sure his teeth were ok and it was just something small. Zach walked into the kitchen, got some papertowels and ice. Turns out the kid bit his tongue on impact. He now has two little gashes on the top of his tongue. After sucking on an ice cube for 2 minutes, he's up and playing. I'm now so good, that the only blood is a dime size on my shirt.

The best advice anyone has given me about raising kids came from my Mother-in-law. Before Jack was born she told me that "babies bounce". That simple. I won't tell you how much I've repeated this to myself over the years! Kids are amazing. When they fall, your reaction (gasp, freak out, etc) usually scare them more than the actual fall. If you've been around me with the boys, I usually tell them to brush it off. I do my freak out inside because if I'm acting like a crazy person, who's in charge? (Sorry for the little parenting tip, but I've had a couple of people ask me why my boys don't cry unless they're really hurt.)

I'm hoping to start blogging more often, but if I wrote down every insane thing my boys did, I would be sitting at the computer all day everyday because it's never ending.