M is for... magic and mornings

I'm not a big brand-name person. In fact, I'm not much of a brand-name person at all. If there is a store-brand alternative, I buy it 99 times out of 100. And then I usually do without for the other 1 time.

But there are a few (rare) exceptions, one of them being these:
Baldy has proven himself usefull yet again this week. His latest feat? Taking crayon off walls.

Yes, my friends, Alan has discovered writing utensils and he loves them.

One of our kitchen drawers has been named "Dale's Craft Drawer" and holds most of Dale's art stupplies.

The Craft Drawer may have to disappear. Temporarily, at least.

Yesterday afternoon I suddenly noticed the tell-tale sound of silence (there's an oxy-moron for you) and immediately headed off to investigate.

Alan had found the finger paint.

And unscrewed the lid, all by himself.

Dale wasn't far behind me, and it all looked like great fun to him, so I got out more paper and went with it. Anything that fills time and doesn't involve the tv, computer, or whining is a winner in my book.

Here are the boys this morning, Dale learning how to make "M"s and Alan doing his thing. Hmmmm....do I wanna be a lefty......?
....or a righty?
We have watched his left and right preference change back and forth constantly over the last week or so. I keep forgetting to notice when he's eating. Based on my memory, I think it'd be hard to tell. It's all hands on deck when it comes to eating time, you know?

And speaking of preferences, the boys seem to have a new one.

We are early risers now. As in 6am. I woke them up around 5:30 Monday for our trip to Dallas, and they have kept it up all week. Yesterday Alan woke up around ten 'till 6. I went in to him and laid him back down and I went back to bed. I had barely had time to lay down and think that he might actually be going back to sleep, when the moaning and wailing commences.

But not from Alan.

From Dale.

I head in to his room and hand him his bunny from the floor. All while he is moaning and wailing. I manage to make out that he is in some kind of pain. It's source?

"My chin hurts! On the inside!!" he wails.

You've got to be kidding me.

And from the room next door?

I hear, "Day, Day!" This is Alan's word for 'Dale' which I find (not-humorously) ironic.

And yes, at that point, "Day" had begun.

Ah well. The flip side? I find I get a lot more done when I get an early start to the day. That combined with Baldy's recent emergence from under the kitchen sink, and things just might start looking kind of spiffy around here!

P.S. Dale's chin is fine.

P.P.S. I didn't get a thing from the Mr. Clean people to write this post. Although that would be really cool.