growing a boy

My boy Liam must be in training to become a big boy. He's been sleeping like a champ, and eating almost as much as Owen. This morning for breakfast he had a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries (which turns the oatmeal purple in case you were wondering what color his oatmeal is compared to Owen); two slices of cheese, a cup of OJ, half of my breakfast cereal, and a sippy cup of milk. That was all at one sitting! He's been down for a nap now for more than two hours, he must know that in two weeks he'll be two years old and ... a ... big boy!

Pink Oatmeal...explained

So this thing we do - "painting" the oatmeal is Owens' newest thing. He used to eat it all the time, but then got out of the habit. When I re-introduced it a month ago he was not into it at all so I got creative. First I added honey and cinnamon. All I got was the "head turn" (you know, where they turns up their nose). I took it away, did some mommy magic, and voila - pink oatmeal. Since then he's had every color in the rainbow and he eats up every last bite.

Pink Oatmeal

Click here to view these pictures larger

idle hands (this was accidentally left in "drafts" Oops)

I made two phone calls this afternoon. One was to REI to check a gift card balance, and the other was to FedEx to track my Bodum Chambord coffee press. I realize neither was vitally important, but it was on my mind and I thought I could take a few minutes to do these things.
What Owen and Liam did while I was on the phone:

Owen: tore the July page off the desk calendar and wrote my chores on the back for me. (there is a back story to this: I made a chore chart for him and posted it on the wall in the kitchen. It's a calendar grid with happy faces for the days he does his chores, and sad faces when he doesn't. Chores are getting dressed in the morning, picking up his toys at the end of the day, and setting the table). Now I have a chore chart too, including sweeping the floor, washing the dishes, watering the (non-existent) garden, and washing the clothes). He then proceeded to use up a roll of tape to affix my chore chart to the wall. Finally he locked the bathroom door from the outside with the lights on.

Liam: pounded on the wall with his plastic hammer; took the keys out of the drawer and jammed them into the sliding door track; reaaranged the contents of the desk drawer; and lost the cap to the glitter glue.

Was it worth it? Maybe in 6-8 weeks when the coffee press arrives.