... good mood, good reasons ...

Let me just start by congratulating the New York Yankees for winning their 27th World Series Championship. Yes, I was glued to the set for all of the post season games. My heart raced beyond safety pace for the past month and FINALLY last night they put themselves back on top!!! Sure, I had to celebrate this electric victory by myself, sitting in my recliner, ass half off the seat, texting fellow fans and quietly clapping and cheering so as not to wake up Gregg or cause panic-induced barking from Brody. BUT I couldn't care less. I almost forgot how awesome it feels to see your favorite team celebrating like the champions that they are on that home field. AMAZING. AWESOME SEASON!!!

Next, we move onto my nephew-watching today. Stacey, my sister-in-law, called yesterday for the favor. I love to watch the boys, they are fantastic. Alex is 5 and in Kindergarten, smart as a whip, creative, polite and obsessed with dinosaurs. Theo is 3 and in Pre-School, imaginative, tricky and obsessed with Batman and Robin. And Benjamin is the newly vaccinated 7 month old who has one of the sweetest smiles you'll ever see.

I arrived at 9:30 with my iced coffee and my "Yankees just won the world series" smile. The older boys had already finished breakfast and were getting ready to do some drawing in the dining room. Benjamin was being shuffled out the door for his visit to the shot doctor. Alex, Theo and I sat around the table for creative time. Alex was putting the finishing touches on a picture of Grover that he had colored half with pen and half with markers. Stunning. Theo was drawing the infamous Robin (of Batman and Robin) and made sure to remember the yellow belt around his super hero's waist. With my Bic, I whipped up some lame cartoony guy and a cloud and sun. Alex said "Hey, how'd you do that so fast??" "Ohhh, I have been drawing these guys for a long, long time" I answered. I then colored my hasty picture with typical primary colored crayons (some, which had sparkles in them!!!). 

When creative time had ceased, we moved into the living room for some good old fashioned 'what the hell kind of show is this?' television. I had never seen this particular show and Alex filled me in that we were watching PBS Sprout. Theo crawled up on the couch, in his Batman Halloween costume mind you, sucking his thumb with eyes fixated on the TV. Alex was sprinting around, in his striped pajamas, racing numerous Matchbox cars. At this moment, Theo decided that he wanted to play with these exact cars. Whining ensued. I pointed out that there are a million toys in the house and there is more than enough to go around. And that Theo was clearly watching television while Alex had his mitts on the cars. No need for fighting. Theo then switched gears and wanted to play the Muppet video game. PS3 was unhooked and I was positive that there was good reason for that. He then pointed out that there is a Lego Batman and Robin video game downstairs. So, off we went to check that scenario out. Two remote controls and 4 electronic gadgets later I decided that there wasn't enough time to figure the setup out and that brushing their teeth would be a better idea. Later, I would find out that video games are off limits until the weekend.... sneaky sneaky sneakyyyy.

Teeth brushing is easy. Alex puts Theo's toothpaste on his brush for him (the fruity one, not the "spicy" one) and they stand side by side brushing their little hearts out. Apparently Alex put the paste on a plain, old yellow toothbrush for T and he was UNhappy about that. "I want the spinny one!! Nooooo the one that spins I want that one!!! I don't want this one!!" Well, what do you know? The spinny one was right in front of my eyes. I scraped the paste off of Old Yeller and onto spinning Spiderman. Crisis averted. Next thing you know, "Mommy's home!!!"

Stacey pulled up with big, brave Ben. He had two shots and was a very good boy!! I didn't get to the face-washing or the school-clothes choosing but we had a good morning!! You can really learn a lot about these boys in such a short amount of time ... I enjoy watching them. They put me in a good mood.

As I drove away, I decided that I should take Brody somewhere 'special' today since the weather was decent. But up around the bend were dark, heavy, churning clouds that appeared rain-filled. I threw on Empire State of Mind in keeping with my "New York High" ... and followed the road home. A couple of egg whites on toast and a vitamin later - here I am ... enjoying my day with many reasons to smile. Don't bring me down!!!