Rule #5 - Ninja turtles may be cute, but they still smell like sewage

Over the next week and a half, Evan will be preoccupied with work. He's doing some overtime this week and on Sunday he leaves for TX to do a conference. James has the uncanny way of knowing, however, that it'll just be him and me at home.

Yesterday, I went to pick James up from daycare. At first he looked all adorable, playing on the teeter-totter with some other kid. When he saw me and started running my way, it was all in slow motion. I could see his hair matted on his head looking like someone had poured grease with bits of grass and sticks on him. His shirt was covered in mud spots and he had pieces of dried up grass placed in various places on (and in some places IN) his face. The smell hit me before he did. My son smelled like he had been playing in a sewer. He hugged me and started to leave while I desperately tried to get an explanation from someone about his state.

Apparently, the playground has a nice little area where the air conditioning units leak condensation onto the ground. There's a nice little puddle there and that afternoon, James got first dibs on jumping into it and taking his soaked hands and "combing" his hair. My mother would have been horrified if she had seen him. I just figured, "boys will be boys"...but the smell!!! It's probably the first time I've ever seen him and greeted him with a nice pat on the shoulder instead of a hug. (Again, call me a bad mother if you'd like, but you soooo weren't there!)

Needless to say, bath time was a blast. (You'd think I was water boarding him, the way he freaks out.) There were pieces of everything imaginable weaved into his hair and it took quite a long time to get it all out.

The whole night wasn't a bust, though. James was very talkative last night and although I only understand about a 1/4 of what he says, it was nice to think he might be telling me about his day. I know I at least was asking all the correct leading questions. I began telling James about my day and the things we would have planned for the weekend and he responded pretty well with a ("yeah?"). I must have gotten carried away though when in the middle of me telling him we would have to find him a cute outfit for pictures this month he says "Ma!" and when I say "what?", responds with a finger up his nose and says "Sshhhhh!"

So he picks his nose when he tells me to be quiet and he plays in nasty water. His hair is ALWAYS sticking up and looks like a wreck, no matter what. But despite all of that, he'll always be cute to me.