The care and feeding of boys

So I haven't posted since Friday - my friend M has been in town with her son C and we have been running up and down the road all weekend. Both of us are going to have to go back to work just to get some rest. We've had a great time, though, and the boys have been amazingly good playing together and getting along well. A few notes from the weekend regarding the boys:

It’s all fun until something goes horribly awry

Friday night, M and I met some of my other friends at a charity wine-tasting event and then went out for dinner afterward. One of the teachers from Monkey Man’s school, Miss T, was kind enough to come stay with MM and M’s son C while we went out. When we got back, she regaled us with tales about how wonderful the boys were, how nicely they played together, all the fun things that they did…and one of the favorite things that they did was hurl these little stretchy rubber lizards, snakes, and frogs at the walls until they stuck and eventually came down. Good, clean fun, right?

Until yesterday. The boys entertained themselves with the Lizard Game until we were all ready to head out for the morning…and the stupid things stuck to the wall. When we got back last night after dinner, many of them were still stuck to the wall. You can imagine what happened next…I went to pull them down, and they had left these greasy stains on the wall in perfect little snake and lizard patterns.

M and I tried in vain to scrub the stains off, but no dice. Crappy builder-grade Duron paint – if you ever have the chance to upgrade to a better paint, DO IT. I can't emphasize this enough. Save yourself the heartache. In all honesty it’s a very good thing though, because the movers had damaged the wall a year ago and we had never gotten around to touching it up – so this is the perfect excuse to repaint the wall at last plus do some additional touching up around some of the corners and entryways.

I was convinced that Joey was going to kill me when he got home, but he just laughed it off and said, “Hey, at least they weren’t outside playing with the chainsaw, right?” I guess he has a good point.

*****

Dance Fever

Today’s plan was to take the boys to see the movie Cars since the weather forecast was predicting scattered thunderstorms. (Side vent – why is it that the weatherman can be consistently wrong and still keep his job?) We headed toward the movie theater when Monkey Man announced that he was hungry, so M and I consulted and decided to go to MM’s favorite place, the Japanese steakhouse (also known as our second home).

M was pretty excited to take C since he had never been to a Japanese steakhouse – I think he was a little surprised by the large shooting fireball that the chef starts off the show with, but he settled in and was a total champ. We all chowed down and kept laughing about the cheesy 80’s music being piped into the dining area…let’s just say that one of the better groups was the Pet Shop Boys, if that gives you any indication.

The boys finished eating, and since the restaurant was totally empty except for our table, we watched the two of them dancing up a storm to the music. The two of them were laughing so hard they could barely talk. Then we started playing Freeze Dance with them, and as they danced and danced M and I looked at each other and I said, “Too bad we didn’t think of this trick yesterday to keep them entertained.” Of course, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun at home instead of in a public place, but I digress.

*****

How to wear them out so you can have a cocktail

By 4:30 this afternoon and three solid days of togetherness, the Mommies needed a break and I’m sure the boys needed a break from us too. So we sent them out to my little Redneck Sandbox with all of their little trucks and some Little Tikes lawn tools. Eventually, they found the Little Tikes golf set in the garage and the clubs were miraculously transformed into swords, guns, and lo and behold, golf clubs. Yes, shocking, I know.

After convincing them that playing swords wasn’t the best of ideas, we talked them into playing lumberjacks and running around the yard trying to chop trees down with their plastic golf clubs. You should have see the two of them running around the yard, wailing away at the trees with all of their might. Monkey Man was so exhausted that he could barely walk back into the house under his own steam.

*****

So it’s been fun this weekend – the boys have been great together, M and I have had a wonderful time hanging out, and the boys were both in bed by 8:30 tonight. Ah, paradise. Not to mention the fact that M helped me transform Monkey Man's playroom from a crap pile of trashy McDonald's Happy Meal toys into a wonderful sanctuary of cleanliness and organization. I think heaven may have sent her here to rescue me from being overtaken by the 9 Furbies we found in there lurking about.