Do I have to?

The real question is “Do I have to make a gingerbread house this year?” I think I ask this to myself every year and I still continue to make them.  A couple of years ago though I put one aside and kept telling the kids I would make it and never did. So Brayden found one in our storage room the other night and brought it up and I immediately opened it so that I wouldn’t put it off any longer!  Little did I know that it wreaked and was totally stale!  I tried to use it anyway, I mean who cares?  It’s just the kids that eat it and it’s really only for show right?  Wrong!  The icing would not loosen up and the gingerbread was so stinky it made all the candy stink too! 

So today at the grocery store we bought another one, again, to finally get it over with!  The kids get all excited about it while I am the one that is doing it…then once it’s all done and they’ve eaten half the candy anyway, I find that I”m the only one left at the table decorating this stupid thing!  Anyway, this is what we ended up with and everybody was less than excited to thank me for my efforts…I really don’t blame them.

   

Here are the kids tonight playing at the computer…this was #3 of the pictures taken, and a quick pic of the family room almost decorated.

And last but certainly not least, Brayden is turning 6 tomorrow!  What a cutie hey?  He is pretty excited about it…and he’s getting an extra present than I thought!  They were playing hide n’ seek tonight and Drew thought B was hiding in the storage room of all places…you know, the classic Christmas present hiding place??? Well Drew came up with a look on his face of pure guilt.  He didn’t want to tell me what he found because he thought I would get mad, so I acted nonchalant of course!  He saw a Lego city and said he SWORE it was the only thing he saw…hmm…hopefully he’s right because otherwise he might just figure out a huge secret this year if you know what I mean!  Anyway, needless to say I think B will be getting some Lego tomorrow amongst his other fancy gifts! Now, let me see if I can find some other little pics of B since he was a baby…don’t get freaked out…he can be mistaken for Lotti!

His most current pic was from today when he received his gigantic cookie from Nana! I was telling him tonight all about when he was born and how I was in so much pain I had to get medicine to numb my legs and bum so I couldn’t feel him pushing out.  Then I told him about how it was Nana and I in the delivery room because his FATHER decided to go to Ottawa for the week even though I was one week away from my due date!  (No, he’ll never live that down)  I told him how as soon as he was born the doctor placed him on my chest and he was all gooey from being inside my tummy, so they rubbed towels on him to clean him off, but that he smelled so good I kissed him anyways:)  Then about his first bath and how when he looked up at me I said “I will call him Brayden, because he looks like a Brayden” (He really liked that part).  Brayden always says that when Dad met him for the first time , he was already home in his crib!

 

I seriously love this kid to death and would do anything for him.  He literally melts my heart every time he cries as he is by far the most sensitive soul on this earth!  If you have ever seen Harry Potter you'll remember that “Ron” has this face that completely melts when he is upset right?  Well that is Brayden’s face exactly and we put 2 and 2 together recently while on our girl’s trip and took the time to do a Harry Potter marathon!  Jeni was nice enough to send me a pic of B a couple of years ago on Christmas morning doing the “Ron” or “melt” face…(nevermind my computer is so slow tonight I can’t get it!)

The last story I’ll tell was earlier this week at dinner time.  I really love the random teaching moments that you get to experience at the dinner table in my house!  So Drew took off one of his silly bands and started winding it into shapes on his fingers for Brayden.  First he was looping the band together until it formed what looked like a penis and 2 balls and then he said “Look Brayden, a boy!” (by the way, his face was totally serious).  This intrigued me and I continued to watch.  Then he twisted the band once to resemble two circles and said “Look, a girl”!  Hmm, I thought…does this kid really know what he is doing and teaching??? So I simply said “Drew, why is that a boy and that a girl?”

“I don’t know” was the reply.  So I said…”Ok, tell me, what is the main difference between boys and girls?”

After a brief pause he says in all seriousness…”Girls are more patient?”  I had to hold back here and put on my most serious face and pleasantly say “Well yes…but what else?”

“I don’t know” he says.  So I said…”Ok, pretend a boy and girl are standing side by side with no clothes on…what is the difference then?”

Brayden pipes up at this point and says “PRIVATES!”  Now we’re getting somewhere!!!  So I finally showed Brayden and Drew with the same silly band exactly what he had just shown Brayden and he finally SAW it in a different view.  He was a little embarrassed and said he wouldn’t do that again.  But I told him I was just happy to let him in on a little secret that somebody else forgot to tell him:) 

Without a doubt, these kids will learn EVERYTHING that I learned in school even if I don’t want them too. Let’s just hope they continue to bring it home to the dinner table!