Best Buds

Nils has really moved his way up on the fun-ness scale when it comes to playing with Carolena. I recently managed to see (without her noticing my presence) Carolena toss her arm around his shoulders and exclaim, "Nils, you're my best bud! Did you know that?! You're my best bud!" I think my old grinch heart grew three sizes that day.

All Aboard!

Yesterday afternoon Carolena and Nils started playing a game with a simple premise: take turns hitting one another and laughing. On the one hand (which we shall call "reason") I knew it would quickly disolve into tears and fighting. On the other hand (which we shall call "motherhood" or "survival mode") I realllly just wanted to drink my Diet Coke Diet Dr. K and zone out for a second.  Plus, at that moment they were laughing.

Shockingly, shockingly, the game ended and they each moved on to something else. I left the living room for five seconds (a mother's gotta pee sometime) and when I came back (literally like one minute later) found that Nils had a pen and was attempting to color the ottoman. Luckily, he was using the wrong end.

Not only had Sir Nils managed to get into that mischief. He had also used crayon on the couch and spread dirt from a house plant and ground it into the carpet. How did he get so much accomplished in so little time? I mean, seriously, I was tempted to not even be mad and just be impressed. That kid is an overachiever! Just finding a pen and getting to the ottoman would have been enough of a feat. Proud as my pirate side was, alas, parenting must be done. I would rather be a mother raising my children rather than just watching them grow up. He was sent to time out and then had to "help" me clean up the mess. You can see from this picture how helpful he was:

Nils was forbidden from using any writing implements for the rest of the day so Carolena decided to work on her Top Secret Father's Day Poster (that Daddy knows about because it keeps getting left on the kitchen table but he pretends to not notice because he is in fact a great dad) in the "pie-vacy" of her own room.

And mommy drank a rum and coke last night with dinner. Hello, Friday. What new adventures do you hold for us?