So there I am, struggling through a Denise Austin workout show that I taped from TV a while ago. Of COURSE on the first day I am committing myself to exercise it would have to be an “abs” workout. I can do a grand total of 0 crunches.

Little Brother was watching me with interest and concern as I moaned and groaned and talked back to the cheery, smiling, toned and trim person on the TV. He kept up this continuing patter all through the video:

“Do you want to stop, Mom? Do you want to get your drink of water? Do you like this one? Is this a good one? Can you do that one? How come you can’t do that one? SHE can do that. Is she older than you?”

YES, I know it’s too early in the morning for those. But a few minutes ago I finished making Little Brother’s oatmeal, put the bowl on the table and called him to come eat it.

He was up early this morning and almost immediately dived into the Legos to work on a fairly large-scale creation.

I called him again and said, “Your oatmeal’s on the table! Why didn’t you come eat it when I called you?”

“You didn’t call me,” he answered.

“Yes, I did,” I told him.

“But I didn’t hear you! So you didn’t call me….”

So there it is: the philosophical question of the day. If Mom calls, and the boy doesn’t hear her, did Mom actually call the boy?

Little Brother and Adventure Boy just stomped through the front door after clocking off their regular Worm Maintenance shift.

Little Brother headed to the bathroom to wash his filthy hands, announcing loudly, “We’re not doing any hard work any more.”

Little Brother and Adventure Boy are rebuilding Little Brother’s block castle–the one that lasted 4 days on the family room floor before it met an ugly fate at the hands of Cutie Pie, Queen of Demolition.

They just placed the last accent block on the roof.

“Mom, look at my castle!”

I admired it. “It looks great! I’m glad you rebuilt it the way you like it.”

I guess that wasn’t enough. “Aren’t you going to clap?”

Little Brother is sitting at the dining room table, waiting for TheDad to finish making toast so they can have breakfast. He’s keeping himself amused by singing random bits of songs he knows.

“…what do you think of that?” he sang just now.

I couldn’t think of what song he was singing, so I asked, “What do I think of what?”

“NOTHING!” he shouted in a very irritated voice. “Mom, I want some privacy!”

“You’re sitting at the dining room table singing, and you want privacy?! How much privacy do you think you’re going to get over there?”

“A LOT!”

I got all the “accessories” installed today so the bathroom is now complete. A HUGE “thank you” to my whole family for the hard work all weekend. I got to use my Power Drill! Division of labor in this house: TheDad and the kids paint, I install “accessories.”

I think the color appears more “gray” in these pictures than it actually does on the walls. “In person” this is a light blue with a gray tone to it.

Little Brother informed me a few minutes ago that he wanted a drink of water. I was heading to the kitchen to get one for him when he raced into the bathroom, grabbed a paper cup, and started to fill it.

I was happy that he was doing this for himself, so I got busy with something else.

Then he came walking very slowly into the room, clutching two fairly-squashed paper cups full of water next to his chest.

“Mom! I have a drink of water for you! See these cups that have my hands around them? One of them is for you.”

I took my battered cup of “bathroom water” from my little guy with his soaked shirt. It was the best water I’ve ever drunk.

Little Brother just said to me, “Hey Mom, guess what? When you’re a grownup, you get to do whatever you want, and play video games when you get home from work.”

I answered, “Yes, but grownups have to do other things too, besides playing video games. They can’t play video games all the time.”

Little Brother thought about that for a second. “Yeah. They can play toys, too!”

Little Brother and Adventure Boy (he came back after our errands) are running around here playing with some little toy. Adventure Boy has it at the moment. Little Brother told him, “I wish I had another one so you could have it.”

For a 5-year-old, that’s almost as generous as it gets.