"Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself! "

Oh, YES, I quote "Dumb and Dumber." The movie. And today my brother and I exchanged texts where he tried to quote National Lampoon's Vacation and totally got it wrong. (And he usually gets it right.) The part where Aunt Edna dies and Clark says, "Even if we leave her here we get THREE DAYS at Wally World AT BEST ... AT BEST!" My brother left out the "at best" part. And that's CRITICAL. CRITICAL, I tell you.
This is what I do. Movie quotes. CRITICAL.
It's so insanely busy right now at the end of the school year that I'm tingly. TINGLY! And movie quotes seem simple. So that's what I do.
Tonight, The Short One realized that tomorrow was Tuesday and "What day is that, Mommy?" It's the Letter Y day at school. Since they're revisiting all the letters of the ABCs these last 26 days of school. And it's been an insane 26 days. What with all the REMEMBERING.
So, tomorrow's theme is Y. For YO YO. And YO YO tricks. And that bottom lip jutted out and, "I can't doooooo any Yo Yo," came out of his tired mouth.
And his big brother, who has been SUCH the recipient of the punishment these days what w/ the ATTITUDE. And the FITS. And the ANGRY 9-yr-old-ness, came to the rescue.
"You've got that Yo Yo ball. Remember? The one that comes back up automatically," he said.
And The Short One smiled thru tears. Oh, I love it when they smile thru tears. Really, really a smile thru wetness on the cheeks. And The Big One FOUND the Yo Yo ball. And he's a hero. And we love him for his attitude.
So, I'm not saying The Big One has done anything DUMB lately like the movie quote might suggest. I (might) never would say that. But, today he saved my hide and that's totally, totally cool. And redeeming.
That and the fact that he shared his "Sticky Tack" with his brother. This tells me they're doing NOTHING these last few days of school because my eldest is playing w/ POSTER paste in all his free time at school. And he actually had enough paste that he'd collected from school to share w/ his brother. The Short One thinks it's called "Sticky Taffy." And he calls it "sticky taff," for short.
And we went to Retta's birthday party on Saturday. And she gave the very best party favors ever. Individual potted flowers. And native flowers, at that. The boys and I had spent the better part of the morning at the nursery and our party favors were the best of the plants we planted that day. Pink Cosmos for Retta. They call 'em Retta's Pink Flowers. And with the love of the sprinkler and a little flower food, they're so happy. Here's to CLEVER PARTY FAVORS!! And Retta!
The Short One has become a groupie of her show. Yes. He asks me to play it daily. And he hopes I'll bake those things she and her mommy bake. So, yesterday he asked me for the first time in a long time to "cook," like she does. The way my boys have always loved to play cook. With a little corn meal here. And some old spices there. And a little water. And some food coloring. But, this time he asked to do the DISHES!
"I'm Retta, Mommy," he said.
Aspire son. Aspire.
Aspire with attitude.
And always do the dishes.

***

(We're calling Lucy the Dog "Rat Killer" today since she cornered and BARKED! at a rat the size of. LUCY! this morning. We don't think she killed it since the rat was on its back and breathing short little rat breaths and we think it winked at us, but since we suspect rodents often "do" other rodents as in "rats playing possum," we (actually, The Tall One) slung it by its tail over our fence and out of Beagle danger. We rewarded Lucy the Dog w/ a piece of bacon when really all she wanted was RAT.)