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.

morning parade

This morning the boys were up at 7 am, which is early for them. I am so thankful they are not early birds because I am not. I like the idea of getting up at 6:00 and going for a run (!), or making fresh smoothies, or even just getting online (as opposed to waiting until 10:00 at night). I think about how nice the fresh morning air would feel, how pretty the rising sun would look coming through the windows, how much I could get done while the boys sleep.
Sadly, as much as I would like to be this person, I'm not because I LOVE sleep. So I love that my boys don't get up until 8 am, or even later sometimes. Today though, they were up at 7:00. I woke up to cries of "Moooommmmyyy." "Mmmmmoooooommmmmyyyyyy". So I went into their room hoping to quiet Owen before he woke Liam, but no luck. "Look Mommy, see? His eyes are open. Liam's awake!" And he was. I tried to take them back to bed with me and get them to maybe go back to sleep. Of course that was wishful thinking. And then Daddy stepped up and earned double good husband points. He got up and told the boys to come on out and leave Mommy alone. Yay! what a good Daddy!!! As they walked out the door I sleepily watched them, and thought what a nice parade: Handsome, rumpled Daddy in tshirt and shorts, elf-size Liam in colorful striped jammies, and sleep tousled Owen in cowboy pj top and red underwear - all heading away from me and another hour of sleep.