A World Without Little Boys

A friend was telling me tonight about a story on Nightline that suggested that in about 125,000 years, men would cease to exist, due to some defect in the Y chromosome. Women would evidently live on, as science has recently proven that it is possible to procreate using the genetic material from two women, however the result would always be girls.

At first, I was amused by this concept. Though I love my husband dearly, there are days when a world without men doesn't sound like such a terrible thing. Not trying to get rid of him for anything in this world, but the fantasy, in and of itself, could occasionally be appealing.

But then my thoughts turned to my kids. For anyone who doesn't know, I have three boys, ages 13, 2, and 1. Life without the male of the species would mean life without little boys. That would be the most horrid world that I could imagine. Occasionally, I complain about the overabundance of testosterone and the sickening balance of power in this house, but honestly I wouldn't change things for the world. Sure, I would like to buy something pink, now and then, or have a tea party with a table full of dolls, but I'll take trains and race cars, any day.

Without boys, the world would be lacking so many little things:

~ No one would pee all over my walls because they want to do it like daddy.
~ No one would hand me boogies, expecting a "thank you" in return.
~ There would be no Hot Wheels cars to slip on or Legos to step on in the dark.
~ I would never have to move furniture to set up a train track or race car set.
~ There would be no more "wet doggie" little boy smell, after coming in from outside.
~ No one would bring wildlife into the house, as if it was a rare treasure.
~ No one would try to "fix" my coffee table with daddy's hammer and screwdriver.
~ No one would crawl into my lap asking for "tisses mama"
~ No one would run to kiss me goodbye, as they headed out to the store with daddy.
~ No one would play with my hair when they were getting sleepy.
~ There would be no one to tuck in at night, or to crawl in my bed at 3 a.m.
~ There would be no one to wake me up after only 3 hours of sleep, saying they're "Hungee"

There are too many things that would be missing from my world if the male species were to disappear. I certainly would have no desire to exist without the excitement, imagination, determination, and love that go along with my little boys.

Great K'NEX Giveaway at Mommy Know How

As a mom of boys, I have seen my fair share of building toys around the house. In fact, the only thing that keeps any of my boys as entertained as building things is making those same things go. K'NEX has always been a great toy that provides both of these traits.

Let me tell you how excited I was to see the great giveaway over at Mommy Know How! She was lucky enough to have been given some of the newest K'NEX products to try out and also a couple to give away to her readers! Of course, I just had to enter...

If you want to have a chance to win, stop by her blog between now and Sunday to find out what you need to do. Take a look at the new
K'NEX models, read her review, and see how they work. Good luck!

Kids and Electronics Don't Mix

Ok, so it wasn't wine, it was actually iced tea, but you get the picture.

While the baby was distracting me, the two year old decided to climb up in my chair and knock over half a glass of tea. of course most of it went straight onto the keyboard. Lovely.

Thankfully, hubby was able to clean it up and dry it out. It actually is in better shape now than it was before the tea incident. I had no clue how much ick could collect inside a keyboard. Who knew...

However, this wasn't our only child/computer fiasco of the day. The baby decided to shove my printer off its shelf and onto the floor. I'm hoping its ok, but am a bit nervous of checking it out. Keep your fingers crossed that he didn't do any major damage.

As I just posted on my other blog, I am finally out from under a huge pile of work and deadlines, so I can get back to doing some things for me and not just things that pay. I still have plenty of paying work, but should have some time to blog and get to work on my professional website.

This week I'll be coming up with a plan for the baby's birthday. He's turning one on the 29th. I'm thinking we'll wait until the weekend after to have a small party. Weeknights aren't good for anyone around here. Anyone have any clue if they still sell Toy Story party supplies? He's really into Buzz, for some reason.

Image: Flickr - Siobhan Curran

Playdough And Hide-N-Seek

This weekend was a major working weekend for me, with lots of projects that needed to be finished and a few that I am still trying to wrap up. Even with all my work, I try to take breaks to spend time with the kids and dh when I get to a stopping point.

This afternoon, during one of the breaks, I had the bright idea of dragging out the playdough. Sounds like lots of fun until you remember that the 11-month-old eats everything in sight. Needless to say, he made a snack out of a nice sized chunk of the stuff. Other than that, we had a blast with it. Mommy made snakes and bowls and all the fun generic stuff, while artistic daddy made Thomas the Tank Engine and Spongebob. Hope the kids take after him in the art department...

Tonight, I'm involved in a game of hide and seek, that the kids started without letting me know. Somehow, my digital camera has disappeared from my desk and I know that one of two little people are behind the disappearance. I've checked in all of the usual places, but so far, no luck. Anyone know where it might have gone?

Is There Anything Better Than Free Toys?!

Once again, the ladies of 5 Minutes For Mom have outdone themselves with another great promotion. Over the next two weeks, they will be giving away loads of amazing toys from well known retailers. So far, they have offered prizes from Playskool and Lego, and there is much more to come.

The competition is stiff, but it only takes a minute to enter and who knows, you might just get lucky! Swing by 5 Minutes For Mom, through the button above and find out how you can enter, too!

Hey Hey, I Wanna Be A Popstar!

I am probably way late jumping on this bandwagon, but I just came across this tonight and had to share. This is one of the best parodies I have seen in a long time!!

I Must Be Doing Something Right

About a week ago, my 13-yr-old comes to me and informs me that he "needs" a laptop. I sit back, roll my eyes, and wait for the nagging and reasoning to begin. Much to my surprise, it never does.

Since he obviously wasn't going to offer anything more, I bit the bullet and asked why he needed one. He proceeds to start rambling about his Xbox live tournaments and recording screenshots with some techy thing he has to prove game wins. As my eyes roll back into my head, he proceeds to ask me what he can do to earn the money to buy one on his own.

I honestly almost fell out of my chair!

I expected to have to deny his request and deal with sulking and moping for a few weeks, coupling with nagging and whining. Nope, all he wanted was some work to do. He doesn't want the laptop today or tomorrow, he actually wants to save and buy it himself.

Never in my life have I been more proud of my son!

Kids Do The Strangest Things

My kids are very smart for their ages. This may just be a biased mom talking, but they impress me on a daily basis with their newfound capabilities and understanding. That said, even with their budding intelligence, sometimes I wonder what ARE they thinking...

Now my oldest struggled with ADHD when he was young, but has since outgrown it and developed into a very mature and responsible young man. One of my favorite stories of the funny and strange things he did is the day he decided he wanted to water the lawn, but didn't feel like being outside. It was a warm, early spring day and I had the windows open. So he closed his door, pushed out the screen, hung the ladder from his bunk bed out the window(first story), climbed out and turned on the hose. By the time I noticed the door was closed, he was climbing back through the window, hose in hand and spraying water all over his room. I believe this was right around his fourth birthday.

The middle baby, who turned two in February, hasn't quite matched his big brother in the scheming and plotting department as yet, but I have a feeling his day is coming. His current obsession is with spices, particularly pepper. This morning's adventure took place while I was changing and dressing his brother. In about 5 minutes, while he was supposed to be watching the Wonder Pets, he managed to pepper half my house. He dragged a kitchen chair to the counter to get the pepper shaker, somehow quietly enough that I didn't hear the chair scraping the linoleum. He then peppered all the couches, and headed to the bedroom. He opened my bedroom door, which he had never managed to do before today, and peppered our bed and the pillows. I came out as he was coming back into the living room and when he saw me coming, he took off and jumped on his own bed. I knew he was up to something, and by the time I figured it out, most of the almost-full pepper was gone. I'm now washing all the sheets...And there's quite a bit of sneezing going on around here now.

The littlest has yet to do anything strange or mischievous, but I know it is only a matter of time. He has two very talented big brothers to learn from!

So what are your favorite "strange things that kids do" stories? I know mine can't be the only ones who find so many adventures!