Harper is a "Boss".

My son, Harper, is a “Boss”. Don’t let the gorgeous face fool you.

The Urban Dictionary defines boss as: “a person who is a leader, someone who runs s*** in his/her hood or city.”

Or “Baws”, (which is the classy word we use to describe Harper): “slang term for boss. Meaning: awesome, epic, leader, etc...” (although it turns out “baws” means many things which don’t describe Harper.)

Now, to clarify, Hudson is the one who runs s*** in our house. He is clever, and also sensitive and agile. What makes Harper a “baws” is his brute strength and “no holds barred” demeanor. (Yes. I looked that up. Quite educational.)

Harper walks around our house in just a diaper, pounding his fists on his puffed chest, vocalizing anything he wants to, very loudly. He steps on (not over) anything on the floor even at this own peril. Oh, Hudson's train set that he has carefully set up? Consider it stomped. He is more mellow than Hudson in a lot of ways, but once Hudson pushes him too far, Harper will literally tackle Hudson with all his weight (which is significant) and try to sink his teeth into him (like a shark, of course), which usually results in both of them tumbling off the couch or bed and Hudson screaming, "HARPO!" Harper does not care. He is a boss.

He also dances likes a boss (he gets it from his dad). He will dance to any beat or tune, whether it's a cell phone ring or his brother pounding fiercely on a piece of furniture. He stands with legs spread wide, shaking his butty (as Hudson says). Or he swings his head around exuberantly, so much so that we have had people in the grocery store stare worryingly at him. His dancing makes me laugh, out loud, every time (isn't there an acronym for that).

The face of an angel.

Harper found one of his girl cousin's "stompers". He loves shoes.

Our boy.

Hudson English Dictionary

Help	=	Hope!
Balloon	=	Momo
Lawn Mower	=	Momo
Hudson	=	Hutsey
Francesco (character from Cars 2)	=	Puto
Tiptoe tiptoe	=	Teto teto (which he whispers very loudly when we are trying to be quiet)
Eat	=	Um mum mum or eat
Don’t eat my food, mom	=	Mom! No un mum mum.
Love you mom	=	Mishyou mom (Makes me almost cry every time)
Harper	=	Harpo or Baby Harpo
Thank you	=	Hunun (?)
I’m sorry	=	Hunun (?)
Uncle Daniel	=	Nani
Uncle Jesse Grandpa Ron	= =	Hessi Bob (David and I named my dad "Papa". Hudson combined it with "Poppy" (his great-grandpa's name) and somehow it became "Bappy" then "Bobby". Now it's just "Bob". Or "Bob!" when he really wants his attention.)
Uncle Cameron	=	Pot Pie (Hudson couldn’t say Cameron and they once ate a chicken pot pie together. Done named.)
Uncle Dan (David’s brother)	=	Nani (with an aggressive head shake that jiggles the cheeks because that’s what Dan does when he sees Hud.)
Mom	=	Mom(my)
Grammy Brooke Cramblitt (Jesse's Friend)	= =	Mommy (in his mind there is a distinct difference) Meshul B (Special B)
Dogs	=	Ooh hoo (shortened version of a dog bark. All animals are their sound, of course)
Shark	=	Argh! (Ok, maybe not always the sounds, but just their implied fierceness.)
Train	=	Choo choo
No thank you	=	No pease
Sit on the floor and play with me.	=	Come. Seat. Me.
Happy	=	Hoppy (He wants to know which animals are hoppy. Sharks are no hoppy. Sheep is hoppy (and fuffy). He also decides whether he likes someone based on if they are hoppy or no hoppy.)
To indicate lots or many	=	Fie (example: fie shnow = five snow = lots of snow)
To indicate even more	=	Fie! Fie! Fie!
It’s cold	=	Ooh hoo hoo (with a little shoulder shake)
Fluffy	=	Fuffy
Okay okay	=	Hotay hotay
Stop	=	Bop or Dop
Yellow, red, green, Milk Chocolate milk or beer On/off That Truck I see that/let me see that	= = = = = = =	Weddow, vredt, reen Moo moo tschuce (juice) Daddy tschuce (juice) Hon/Hoff "Eh": that, there, see, um, Hudson's Universal Noun "Pull": small, black toy truck and trailer, "borrowed" from the Scott's. He puts cargo in the back. Favorite toy right now. Meshe

Grammy (my mom) calls Hudson “sweetie pie”. So Hud started adding “pie” to the ends of people’s names when he was feeling especially affectionate towards them. Mommy = mommy pie. Daddy = daddy pie. Baby = baby pie.

"Before" and "After" Photos

Monday December 10, 2012

In the last couple of months my own OCDness has come to light. It’s no secret I like things clean and neat, which is not bad in and of its self, but with two Wild Boys my attempts at cleanliness can be futile.

I have become more efficient with my time and have started to let go of the lie that a clean and organized house means my life is complete. The day it started to change the boys were taking all my kitchen towels out from the drawer again and making a “train” across the living room. Up until that point it hadn’t dawned on me that the towels shouldn’t be foldedo every time they played with them I would refold them once they lost interest. I know. Crazy. (Yes, it's true. I could have nagged them to leave the towels alone, but in the spirit of choosing my battles wisely...) On this particular day I just thought, “No more.” Which in turn led me to realize it was also crazy to fold socks and underwear. Needless to say this has revolutionized the speed at which I can fold clothes. Now that is a talent to value!

In my defense the obsessive need to fold everything (aside from my personality) largely started when David and I lived in a 400 sqft. apartment and every inch of space counted. Now that we live in a place twice as big (I know. Livin’ large!) it’s time to let go. In the same week that I started getting serious about being more efficient with my time I also chose to finally start this blog. It must have been all the extra time I found myself with. Ha. I have since questioned the wisdom of this, but I do love to write. Another benefit of letting go of the small things; I don't get annoyed every time my husband destroys his whole drawer getting a pair of socks.

I would love to inspire other people in condensed living situations by how we utilize our space. I have never NOT been obsessively organized so unfortunately I won’t have any of those incredibly satisfying “before” and “after” photos. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do have some photos that inspire me in my wonderful attempt to slow down, let go of the small things (and sometimes the big), and to let the gift of  the every day with my boys sink down deeply into my soul. I hope the photos do your heart good.

Before

After 

Before

After

Before

After

Have I mentioned how awesome my boys are?

Not my day.

Yes. I do realize my posts are getting further and further part. Damn human nature. I actually wanted to write about the most precious and hilarious conversation I had with Hud last night, but as I can’t remember what it was I decided to post this video instead (taken this morning). It’s of Harper stomping on the barn of their toy nativity set to get it to play so he could shake his tail feathers.

Oh crap. Never mind. I can't get the video to play. It's not my day. Here is a photo of Grandma Jennifer  instead doing crafts with the boys. Hudson did crafts for 4 hours. I was shocked. The glitter glue certainly encouraged that. The felt trees were, "fuffy" (translation: fluffy). The snow men were, "show". There was even scissors that were Hudson's size. Harper did pretty well with it all. He did chew on the glue stick cap and figured out how to get the lid off the glitter glue, but he watched for a lot of it too. Equally surprising.