Wednesday November 25th, 2020

 If I was ever in the running for Mother of the Year, this definitely knocked me out of contention. Camden forgot something at school, and was really mad at himself. He put his hands on his head and almost called himself stupid. He stopped short because I will not let them say that word. I was trying to calm him down and said everyone makes mistakes. No big deal, and you'll learn from this. He wasn't quite over it and I thought, wow! This is a great teaching moment! I said, "Camden, next time you feel upset with yourself, you should say something like, geeze, I sure wish I hadn't done that and it won't happen again." I turned to leave the room extremely proud of my mothering. I should have sensed the grins on my little Tilley boys behind me. Camden said, "Mom? Should I do this?" He put his hands on his head and said, "Geeze, I'm so  --- and before he could actually get the rest out, I gave him a HUGE thumbs up and said "Yes!" As I was praising him, he finished his sentence which ended with, "I'm so dumb"... Both boys fell to the ground with laughter, and I realized, once again, I had failed miserably. Now, this is a running joke with us. Several times a day they'll throw their hands to their head and say, "Mom! I'm so dumb!" (while grinning), and they say this until I give them a huge smile, thumbs up and a big YES! sigh...

I told Kellan to be careful. He replied, "I don't want to be careful. That's not what I'm known for."...

The boys have made up what they call their flower girl dance. Don't ask me how or where this originated, but it's mostly used when I'm trying to discipline them...

We were at the store, and of course Kellan asked for candy. He has been doing so well at school I caved in and let him pick some candy out. Camden looked at me incredulously and said, "Can I get something? I'm a person too!"...

So I don't know whether to be proud the boys are really growing in the Catholic faith, or question how they're growing in the Catholic faith. It never fails. On the way home from school, which takes about 20-25 minutes, one of the boys has to go potty desperately. So, the other one, to be brotherly, sings a song to make it worse. The song of choice most recently has been "Make me a channel of your PEE!"...

Tuesday November 24th, 2020

 I love my sweet innocent boys. I'm working (of course) and they are out in the living room playing football. I can hear they put Frozen 2 on in the background, and are singing along to the songs in funny voices <3

We were getting ready to leave for school and I asked the boys if they were ready to go. Kellan yelled, "Nooooooooo! I don't want to go on a trip in my favorite rocket ship and be called little Kellan-stein)...

Little Cow fell asleep on the couch. I seriously cannot carry them anymore! They're humongous! :) I was walking his sleepy little butt to bed and I asked him if he had to go potty. He hazily nodded so I led him into the bathroom. He immediately laid down on the bathroom rug. Took me about an hour to get him back on his feet...

Kellan ran to show me something on his iPad. He excitedly exclaimed, "Mom! Do you remember this game from your childhood? It's O-Bert!" He was so excited and proud, I didn't have the heart to tell him it was Q-Bert...

So Kellan has a fascination with the name Bob. He's asked me on quite a few occasions why I did not name him Bob. He is leaning toward changing his legal name to Bob Jr. as soon as he's old enough (sigh). Anyway, we were at Mass, and of course I am sobbing. Kellan nudged me and pointed to the song sheet. Sure enough the writer of the song was named Bob. Only that kid could get me to go from sobbing to hysterically laughing in a place where hysterically laughing is usually frowned upon...

Camden won the Fruit of the Spirit award for self-control. I was there and so proud. Kellan jumped up immediately and cheered when Camden's name was announced. I love that he's Camden's biggest fan!

Camden just told me he has the song, 'All the Single Ladies', in his head...What?...

Back in March when the pandemic started, we were 100% out of toilet paper and I couldn't find any anywhere. I kept telling the boys they were only allowed to go #2 at school, but then I remembered they were on remote learning. 
Me: Boys, I'm sorry but we're out of toilet paper
Camden: What do I do?!
Kellan: Use a leaf! 

I told the boys they were eating me out of house and home. Camden replied, "you know we're just trying to live, Mom, right?"...sigh...

Monday November 16th, 2020

 I made the boys Grammy's tacos last night. As they took their first bites I anxiously awaited their praise at how good they were. They were silent. I spoke up and asked them what they thought. I could see their faces trying to be polite, but honest. They said, "well, they're not Grammy's tacos, but we can call them Mom's tacos."...

At Mass yesterday, little Kellan tugged on my arm. He whispered through his mask with his big blue eyes, "Is this the punching our heart part?"...

The boys were arguing about some fact or other. Camden insisted he was right, and Kellan finally agreed. Camden yelled, "burn! Science burn!" and was so proud of himself correcting little evil science genius...

I didn't realize you could change your nick name with Siri. The boys have been doing this on my phone for years. Today, Siri calls me, "I like big butts and I cannot lie"...

I put 'hug Momma' on the boys' chore chart. Each morning they robotically come hug me just to check it off the list. Hey - I'll take what I can get...

I asked the boys to clean up the dining room. Kellan came running in at full speed to tell me it was all clean. Then he paused and said, "well, Camden did it all, but at least I'm not making excuses!"...

Quote from 11 year old Camden allergy boy - "My sinuses just don't work like they used to"...

We went to Walmart for a few things. I promise we were not in the store that long. When we were done and in the parking lot, Camden dramatically spread his arms wide and said, "I haven't seen the sunshine in years!"...

Thursday November 5th, 2020

 Camden said he was hungry. It was only about 4pm and I was still working, so I asked him to wait just a sec and I'd cook dinner. 5 minutes later, I came out of the office and saw him with a bowl of water with spaghetti noodles sticking out of it. Poor guy was so hungry he tried to cook spaghetti by himself!

I love being a boy Mom. God totally knew what he was doing! The boys were in the shower and in rare form. When they were done, they ran into my office with their little clean bare butts and sang (while slapping their clean little bare butts), "We slap our butts, We slap our butts!"...

I came around the corner and said "Hey Kellan?" He got up sighed, and said "Yeah Mom, I know the drill." Sheesh! I was just going to say I loved him...

A while back when Camden started a new flag football team, he was beyond excited. I knew where the park was that they played, but didn't know the name of it. He couldn't stand it and decided it was called 'Chicken Noodle Park."...

The boys had the best Halloween. It was so great to be in our new neighborhood. Everyone was so friendly and safely passed out candy. Their pillow cases were full of candy pretty quickly. When we got back home, they got out their camping chairs and sat in the driveway handing out candy to the last of the trick or treaters. I got my chair to sit out there with them. They both looked at me, and I could tell they wanted to be big boys and sit out there by themselves. I hid me sadness that they're growing up, took my chair and went inside, and spied on them from the kitchen window...

Speaking of butts, the boys were taking a bath. I was folding laundry and could hear them having fun and playing so well together. I came around the corner just in time to hear Camden yell, "No Kellan! We don't want our butts to be itchy!" Kellan was trying to pour soap into the tub and last time they got a little rash on their butts and Camden was trying to prevent this. Hilarious to hear this from my sensible monkey...

Kellan calls outlets 'ocelets'...