Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

If anyone would have told me I'd enjoy raising boys this much, I would never have believed them. When the girls were small, we used to trade babysitting with another family in Logan. They had two little boys. Every time we watched them, they were these crazy maniacs, jumping off our furniture, running around, and making these horrible vrooming noises. (Mind you this was before Hailey was mobile enough for us to realize she was quite similar to a wild ADD boy). After they left, Dave and I would always say how glad we were we had such nice, calm girls. Haha. Jokes on us there. We still hoped to have some boys, someday, but I was terrified of raising them. I did not envision it going well at all. Fast forward seven years and I just can't get enough. I love that everything is a possible vehicle of some sort. The world is broken down into fast cars, good guys, and bad guys. I love that they don't care if I can find the right shoes to match. Heck their shoes don't even have to match. Neither do their clothes. If they have a fight, they each get in a few good punches and it's over. No hour long crying jags, hair pulling and scratching. And it's so much easier to keep track of a fleet of Kachow cars then 200 pairs of tiny earrings. I love that I am the center of the universe in their eyes. For now at least. They are just so sweet and funny, and almost transparent in their feelings. I don't have to guess and wonder what storm is brewing beneath the surface. Now I realize some people may chalk that up to my girls perched on tweendom, but my girls have been complicated drama queens since 10 months.
Some of my favorite things the boys have done lately:

- Greg eating a hamburger, "mom are these seeds on my bun?" Yes. "So can you plant them?" His little eyes getting that mischievous twinkle when he thinks he's got a great idea. "Greg what do you think will grow if you plant that" Gives me his big blue eye trick "a hamburger tree?"

-Watching Wipe Out one night a Victoria's Secret commercial came on. Connor jumps off the couch, points at the TV and yells "I need dat!" Over and over. Second time he sees it, he runs up to the TV and starts hitting it while yelling "I need dat" I thought it was some weird TV fluke. Maybe he likes the sparkly bras. The next day at the mall, he was pushing his stroller and totally veered into the Victoria's Secret when we passed it. I had to fight the kid out of the store. I can only imagine what people thought when they see me dragging a 3 year old boy out of the Vickies, dragging his stroller behind him screaming "no need dat one! Need it!" Meanwhile my 3 other children are standing outside, staring at us, mortified, either of the thought of going in that store, or the scene we were making. Probably both.

-Connor is one of those dirt magnet kids. Stick him and Greg in the same pile of dirt, Greg will come back fairly clean, and Connor will be head to toe covered. And somehow always sticky. I was stripping him down to throw him in the tub one day and he was fighting all the way. I asked why he didn't want to take a bath, he loves the water. He yells "no wanna be clean" Such a boy.

-My kids have a habit of streaking around the house after they bathe. Kenzie is the only kid with an ounce of modesty. We have a very large window in the front of our house facing the street. One night, Greg was doing his naked dance for all the neighborhood to see. I said "Greg put some clothes on. The neighbors can see your butt". Greg - "good I want them to"

-Greg "Pew that stinks"- Me "what does"- Greg "my butt" (hysterical laughter follows)

-My boys have learned that mommy is the real pushover of the house. They are honing their skills of getting women to do anything for them. Connor has discovered that we are all super thrilled with any intelligible 3 or 4 word sentence. He's combined his powers of persuasion with impressing us with speech. When he wants something he says " Can hi peeees? Peas mommy?" Combined with puppy dog eyes and it's pretty hard to say no.

-If Connor has to pee and he's outside, or someone is in the bathroom, he runs to a tree and pees on it. It's no longer surprising to see him speed out the door, dragging his beloved blankie, to drop his drawers. Unfortunately he has chosen a tree closest to the street, on our property line. He drops his pants to his ankles and turns him butt to the street.

-We have been waging an ongoing war against the ant hills in our backyard. Greg was asking where the ants go when they die. I said I don't know heaven I guess (I mean they're ants). Just like we will to live with Heavenly Father. Greg "But what about how we're meteors?" Um meteors (I think I'm failing in the Family home evening department) "Yeah how else are we gonna see space". I tried to explain things to him, but he got so sad about not being a meteor zooming around space, I gave him an abbreviated version.

Now don't get me wrong. I love my girls. But they have never had that same raw power over my heart like these boys. I just hope I out grow it before they get married.