Gross

I haven't had a whole lot of time to write lately, things have just been kind of busy and I've started going back to the gym. The time I used to spend parked on my butt in front of the TV blogging I now spend walking on a treadmill. In front of a TV still, but hey, at least I'm off my rear end and doing something. The gym is my new favorite place to watch TV. After the boys go to bed, I can catch whatever show I like and get some exercise at the same time. The treadmills at the gym are almost all equipped with a TV that you can plug your headphones into and they get cable. Perfect for TV junkies like me who never miss cheesy shows like Dancing with the Stars. I haven't lost squat yet, but at least I can say I'm trying.

Enough about me. My boys have done some noteworthy and funny/disgusting things lately. First the noteworthy. This week our sitter decorated her house, inside and out, for Halloween. Collin is extremely excited about Halloween. He's fascinated by the decorations and costumes. All he wants to read at bedtime right now are books about Halloween. So this morning as we opened the gate to go inside Collin pointed to a sign hanging there and said "Look Mom! That says Trick-OR-Treat!" Sure enough, that is exactly what the sign said so I asked how he knew that. "My Dad told me." The sign has been up exactly 3 days and his Dad has neither taken him nor picked him up from daycare so there is no way he could have read the sign to Collin. However, the books we've been reading are all about Halloween and there are plenty of references to trick or treating in them. I can only conclude that he is beginning to recognize words that have value to him. I thought it was pretty cool.

Now for the disgusting. I was cooking dinner Monday night when Collin asked me if I could go downstairs so I wasn't watching him. No, he hasn't figured out that he's not supposed to tell me when he's going to do something wrong so at least I get fair warning. "What is it it that you don't want me to see you do?" I asked. "I want to eat some butter." he replied. I explained that we eat butter on bread, not plain and I thought that was the end of it. A few minutes later Tim walked in the door, Nicholas demanded attention and things got pretty chaotic for a bit. Then I went back to fixing dinner. It was time to add the butter and as I reached for the stick I'd gotten out of the fridge I realized it wasn't where I'd left it. "Where's the stick of butter I got out to use?" I asked not really expecting a reply. A little voice piped up "I have it Mom". I looked in the living room, I looked in the dining room, no Collin. "Collin? Where are you buddy?" "I'm under the table Mom, eating butter." Sure enough as he's telling me this, he climbs out from under the table and hands me the stick of butter with several bites gnawed off one end. "I only got a couple of bites" he complained. GROSS!!! Thankfully, the stick of butter was left over from another recipe and it was about a tablespoon more than I needed so I cut the chewed end off and threw it away and used the rest. I know, some of you are saying that's the gross part of this story.

And the really, really gross. I have a thing about clean teeth. I brush my teeth religiously twice a day no matter what. My husband makes fun of me for my obsession with brushing my teeth. Apparently I've passed this on to my children, sort of. They LOVE their toothbrushes. As soon as Nick gets up in the morning, he heads to the bathroom, climbs up on the stool and reaches for his toothbrush. He'll play with it endlessly if I let him. The other night after bath time was over I let the boys play with their toothbrushes while I remade Collin's bed. I walked by the bathroom just in time to see both boys playing with their toothbrushes.....IN THE TOILET!! GROSS!!!!! I had an extra toothbrush for Nick but not for Collin. The only thing I could find was this cheap red toothbrush that is far to big for my mouth. I wasn't about to let him get away with not brushing his teeth until I could get to the store to get a new one so the next morning I got out the gigantic red toothbrush, opened it up and gave it to him. You'd have thought he won the lottery he was so excited about the stupid thing. Oddly enough, he doesn't really seem to have much trouble brushing his teeth with it either. Although he's still complaining that I took the other toothbrush away and sees nothing wrong with putting in the toilet. EWWWW!!