Eavesdropping Mom....

The boys are on Spring Break right now, so it's no school all week. Thankfully, we have some wonderful friends who have stepped up and helped in the daycare of the boys while I'm at work. Today, they went to our neighbors, Chris & Erin's house. It was a beautiful day, so they were able to be outside most of the day. Even after I got home, they remained outside playing. I called them in at 5:00 tonight, to be greeted by a distinct little boys smell - a combination of cold sweat and mud. Being outside was heaven for them - especially after the long and terrible winter keeping them inside for so long.

On their way down the hall to the showers, both of them were very chatty about the good day they had. Christopher couldn't take the smile off his face! I love listening in to their conversations, just to hear how they interact with each other. Usually, they're making jokes, being silly, or just making random conversation. Tonight, I was extremely blessed by their conversation.

Somehow, the subject of being cool was brought up. Jake asked Chris, "Do you think I'm cool?"

Chris promptly replied, "Yeah, I think you're cool. Even though we fight sometimes, I still think you're a good brother. I'd love you even if you were a nerd, 'cuz it doesn't matter what's on the outside, just the inside."

Jake seemed very satisfied with the answer from his brother, because he replied with an "I love you too".

And then they went on to singing songs about bodily functions - all with sound effects.

Daylight Savings

Michael and I are in constant amazement over our boys. They have the same upbringing, same rules, same parents, and yet they are so different. One area that their differences are really shown is how they get up in the morning. Jake, being the night-owl, is content to sleep in as long as we let him. Chris, on the other hand, is a morning glory. He even jokes that sleeping in for him is waking up at 6:35 instead of his usual 6:30. His natural clock just wakes him up at the same time every morning. He wakes up happy, and ready for his day. (Oh how I wish I was like that!)

Since we had Daylight Savings this past weekend, Chris' natural 6:30 is now 7:30. With his school schedule, waking up at 7:30 still allows him plenty of time to start his day. Monday morning, when my alarm clock went off at 7:00, I immediately went into Jake's room to start my morning ritual of nagging him until he's up and getting ready for school. Chris is in the other room, sound asleep the whole time. 7:30 rolls around, and Chris woke up, got dressed, and went downstairs to eat his breakfast while watching cartoons before school. Jake, at this point, had also gone downstairs to catch half a show before leaving for school. Seeing Jake, Chris was surprised, "What are you doing up at 6:30?"

"It's 7:30." Jake replied.

"Mom!" traveled all the way up the stairs and down the hall to my room. He was genuinely concerned that he had overslept! I explained to Chris that twice a year, we change our clocks. In the fall, we set it back and hour, and in the spring, we set it ahead an hour.

"Why do we have to do that?! When did you make that rule?" he inquired.

"Everybody does it" I answered him, with a chuckle at the thought that I would have come up with a rule that would take an hour of sleep away from the precious little I get already.

"Even at school?" he asked.

"Even at school." I answered. "It's a law that everybody has to change clocks. You'll like that it doesn't get dark as quick in the evenings now."

Those of you who know Christopher well, know that he is a man of few words, and calls it like he sees it. In response to my hopes that the prospect of more daylight after school would somehow make that hour shift easier for him, he simply said:

"Well, that's the dumbest law I ever heard of!" and went back to his cartoon.