Man Time is Over

Braden thoroughly enjoyed his "man time" with Tom during the month of August. They spent lots of days playing in the dirt.

During his break, Tom decided to dig up the front "slope" (I'd call it a yard but it just isn't). There were these hideous weeds-formerly-known-as-juniper-shrubs covering the whole thing and they had to go. My dad called one day mid-project and I told him how we were digging it up. He asked me what we were putting there instead. That is a really good question, I thought.

After a few days of digging and wrangling some stubborn roots, the weeds were gone so we started trying to come up with a plan. A retaining wall of some kind seemed like the best idea, but by this time we were running short on time before Tom started school and we also realized a wall would take a little more money than we had planned on for now (which means it will have to wait until the spring when we are hoping both time and tax-return money will be abundant). We finally settled on putting a black tarp over the whole thing. Functional? Definitely. Cheap? For sure. Attractive? Not so much.

So now that the front slope is tastefully landscaped and Tom is at school all day, Braden is stuck at home with the ladies. Sadly for Braden, "man time" has been replaced with this:

And he keeps giving me this look, the won't-you-please-entertain-me look:

He is such a good sport :) He loves to help with Keri and is constantly giving me what I call "status checks". Here are the ones I hear most often (they all start with "is"...sentences are kind of a new thing for Braden):

• "Is seepin'! [translation: Keri is sleeping]"
  
• "Is waffing! [translation: Keri is laughing]"
  
• "Is 'wake! [translation: Keri is awake]"
• And my favorite..."AHHHHH! MER!!! IS DOIN' SIT-UPS!!!" ( The first time he said this I had to check and see if Keri was actually doing sit-ups...she is a little pudgy I guess. It turns out she had SPIT up and it always fill his little eyes with panic and then he runs around trying to find a burp cloth to clean it up with.)

Thankfully Tom comes home every night and tickles and wrestles Braden for a good half hour and it seems to cure him of his Mommy-induced boredom.