The basket was full. Graham had already eaten one of the mini muffins. Nicolaus had eaten two muffins, a mini waffle thing, and a croissant. We’d gone a little heavy on the breakfast bakery items.

We got all the way through checkout before I realized my wallet wasn’t with me. More disturbing than the hassle of running home to get it was that it should have been in my purse. Where else would it be unless — well, unless I’d been driving all over town all day without it. Obviously crazy and impossible. Both of my kids know that the only reason they can’t drive is because you can’t drive without a license, and if there are exceptions and loopholes to that well, suddenly there are a few things we need to discuss some more.

So we rushed home and I started looking. It wasn’t on the table, it wasn’t on the couch, it wasn’t on the kitchen counter. Not on the bathroom counter, not on my bed or nightstand. Not in the pockets of the skirt I’d worn this morning until we splashed our feet in the pool and the skirt ended up soaked. Not on the table. Wait. Crap, I’ve looked on the table like four times already. But still, maybe! No.

I started to freak out. Oh my God. This is exactly why Kevin is going to one day invent a time machine and go back and warn his past self to stay the hell away from me. Or this! This is why he watches Sliders. He’s hoping there are universes out there where I am not a ditz. Just remember, Kevin: no matter how annoying it is to be with me, it is even more annoying to actually be me.

While I looked, Nicolaus drew pictures of flowers and the ocean for me. Then he made me a sign that said “WAR IS MI WALOT” on one side. On the other side is a picture of me, smiling and happy. It works like those “dishes are clean/ dishes are dirty” magnets. You flip it to the happy side whenever my wallet isn’t missing, and you flip it to the other side whenever I suck.

Then he got out the scissors and made me a spare driver’s license for in case this ever happens again. Which, honestly, I think I immediately misplaced.

We went and looked in the car again. Nope. Finally I sat down in the front passenger seat and tried to decide what to do. Should I call Kevin at work and confess that I’m a total idiot? Since we still haven’t found my keys from that other time, I decided it would be better to maybe wait. There isn’t much he could do about it anyway except freak out that someone maybe has my wallet. What good would that do?

My mom always taught us that you don’t find things by looking. You find things by thinking. It was incredibly annoying when I was a kid, but now – dang it. She’s right. So I sat there and thought for a minute. And then oh! Right! Back pocket of my pants from yesterday.

Nicolaus couldn’t wait to tell his daddy all about the funny thing with me being an idiot.

The next day, Graham had a similar experience. We were about to leave Michael’s when he yelped, “Wait! Where’s? My? Book?”

Crap. Michael’s is a butt-big store. Could be anywhere… crap crap crap. We tromped up and down every aisle. No book. Nicolaus marched up to every employee-looking adult and told them, “Hi. My little brother lost a small blue book. It’s really important. If you see it, please call my mama’s cell phone.”

But after – I don’t even know how long – the store announced that they were closing and we told Graham we’d have to leave and call about it tomorrow. He stopped walking. “No! No. We can’t leave without my book.” Then – well, he’s two. He burst into tears.

I bent down and hugged him. “Well let’s think about this. Where’s the last place you saw it? Did you put it down somewhere?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Are you sure?”

“I didn’t.”

“Like — did you put it down near the toys?”

“No! I didn’t.”

“Sweetie, we’ll tell them to call us if they find it, okay?”

Resigned, he took my hand and we headed towards the door. Then he stopped. “I DID put it down.”

“You did? Where?”

“With the noses.”

“What?”

“I put it down by the noses.”

Nicolaus jumped up and down. Oh!! Oh oh oh! We were pretending those big foam cones were our noses and it was hilarious and Graham picked up the biggest one and put it on his nose and you told us no, put those down and –

Sure enough. Floral foam aisle, stuck in the shelf with the giant green foam noses.

How bad does it suck to be 34 and still have to admit that your mother’s annoying advice was right?

Saturday night we sat outside while the sun went down. The little bit of wind was perfect. Kevin and the boys ran around catching fireflies, while I sat on a metal swing and watched them and thought about the wonderful stereotypes of summertime fun. While they caught and named and tried to make a pet out of insects, I worked on my sewing. Because — right? But no really, I did. A couple of weeks ago my crazy Oklahoma friend Kathryn suggested that I make play food for Graham’s little kitchen out of felt. She was sort of joking, because A) I don’t have enough free time for personal hygiene, much less new hobbies and B) I can’t sew worth a crap.

But once she said it, the idea wouldn’t go away. I bought seven dollars worth of synthetic craft store felt and embroidery floss, and started carrying it with me everywhere. So far I’ve made:
2 slices of bread
3 slices of lunch meat
1 slice of bacon which looks a little like poop
1 piece of romaine lettuce
1 tomato slice
3 pickle slices
1 slice of cheese
3 pancakes
1 sugar snap pea w/beans
1 strawberry

I’m working on some cookies now. Graham honestly doesn’t seem very interested in playing with the toy food, but he is fascinated by the idea of me making toy food. “Mama, now can you make another trawberry?”

No, sweetie. Strawberries are a perfect whore to make. Can I interest you in another pancake?

So I’ve been feeling domestic.

And! Last week I expanded the daily laundry concept and applied it to the rest of the apartment. Toys, floors, dishes, beds, etc. And the darndest thing — our place stayed sort of clean. When our home isn’t all messy, a lot of background stress disappears, along with the nagging feeling that I suck. It’s nice.

It’s nice too because most weekends my entire goal is: Clean this fucking place up.

But not this weekend! This weekend my entire goal has been to take a shower and wash my hair. Look at me, Miss Ambitious.

Oh and the other goal was to purchase gift on Saturday and attend Nicolaus’ friend’s bounce-house birthday party on Sunday. Do you see what comes of having friends? Now do you see??

The party wasn’t horrible, actually. First, it was really impressive to watch Nicolaus run and jump and climb and bounce like a human child. Only a year ago he refused to go into those obviously dangerous bounce thingies. Today he did come find me a few times to express safety and structural integrity concerns, but mostly he ran around like a wild man. Neat. Graham meanwhile, walked in and was Home. Whatever planet he is from (did I tell you? He keeps saying “I am! from a different planet.“) most certainly has bouncey things. And a lot of yellow. And pizza.

Then we came home and all felt very hungover and cranky, but also proud because we had done such a normal suburbanite thing with our weekend. Look at us!

Kevin and Nicolaus decided that what we need? Is Capsella. Lucky thing Kevin has a Capsella set. So they drove to our little store room and brought home Capsella, a bag of legos and a large model of the Millennium Falcon. I took a nap while they all did whatever boys do with all of those things, and woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm outside, and also the melodious sound of everyone griping at everyone else.

The boys went to bed early. Jumping in a giant yellow room is exhausting work. And now it’s time for a new week to start.

So here’s what we tried:
1. Shaking vigorously
2. Tapping the side
3. Olive oil
4. A long paintbrush with super sticky tape on the end
5. Fire
6. Ice
7. Tapping the side some more
8. Air pump

Here’s what the guy at the brass instrument repair shop tried:
1. Drop a small weight in behind the marble, shake it twice

Pop! Marble. No charge for the repair even.

Nicolaus loved seeing the brass shop. My dad has the exact same setup for violin/cello type repairs, and this was exactly the same and exactly different at the same time. “Excuse me? What happened to that instrument?”

The guys were incredibly nice and patient. They even threw in a quick bugle lesson, answered his questions, and showed him what bugles looked like 350 years ago.

Graham meanwhile yawned and rested his head on my shoulder and tried to ignore the great dane that was sniffing his toes.
He fell asleep as soon as we were back in the car, despite the triumphant bugle music being played just one carseat over.

When he woke up, we were at his favorite place on earth: the pizza buffet. The bugle came with us into the restaurant, because you never know when you might need to make a really loud, continuous tone. We chatted and ate the entire universe of pizza and salad and dessert, then came home and watched Frontier House.

Both boys are 100% onboard with Kevin’s plan to someday go live exactly like the people in Frontier House. Nicolaus is planning the log cabin we’ll build, and Graham woke up in the middle of the night sobbing, “I want to stay with my daddy! I want to be in the woods!!”

I’m fucked.

Actually I’d agree to it if we could live in the woods and also have wireless internet and a freezer full of pre-cooked meals. Oh and! Garbage disposal. Washer and drier would be good too, even though my sons assure me that in the woods there won’t be much laundry to do because none of the men wear shirts.

In the interest of me having time to shower before everyone wakes up, this post will not come full circle.

They’re driving you crazy lately. It’s okay, I know.

You like things in life that are simple, quiet, mellow, funny, organized, and meaningful.
Everything that little bitty kids do is complicated, noisy, boisterous, dramatic, messy, and pointless.

They dump things on the floor. They fight for no reason. They pretend not to hear us, or each other, or the very laws of physics. They climb and jump on the furniture. They spin while they talk. They are full speed, full volume, full energy, FULL ON. Sometimes the excitement goes until late into the night, and sometimes starts way too early in the morning.

So why do you love them so much? Why are you hugging Graham right this second while I type? Why do you check the weather every weekend to see if you can take Nicolaus fishing, even though he’s going to be an ungrateful grump afterwards? It’s hot outside, you burn easily — you don’t have to teach them to swim or take them to check on the vegetable garden on the roof before work.

I wish there was a way to get to my point without sounding so negative. But my POINT, are you still with me? My point is that you are amazing and awesome because you still want to spend time with us. You arrange everything around spending time with your boys. You have pretty much given up studio art because jewelry studios aren’t safe places for your kids. Yeah, you could have a locked studio but then you’d be locked away from us for hours every day. No good. You’re looking for a job closer to home so you won’t have to leave as early or get home as late, and in the meantime you jump at every chance to come home early so you can have dinner with us outside and read them stories before bed. Why? We are so obnoxious to be with.
All I can figure is, that is some seriously awesome love right there.

And/or my parents paid you to marry me, and are continuing to funnel money into your secret account. Either way, thank you.

This part is from Nicolaus…
A poem about my Daddy
One day he was walking in the woods
and he saw a snake.
He picked it up.
It was alive. It looked like corn underneath it, and he realized
that a cornsnake would attract all the other animals to it.
Because if you see a cornsnake you suspect that there might be lots of food.
He knew it would attract whole families of corn eaters: deer and squirrels and even chipmunks, with small innocent-looking bodies.
It could also attract carnivorous birds that might enjoy eating a cornsnake.
And all these animals in one place were going to attract – what?
Hunters.
So he did the best thing.
He picked up the snake and he brought it home,
to save all the other animals.
And then we bought a farm with cornfields,
and he went back to the woods and caught all of the cornsnakes,
brought them home, and let them go on our farm
where they ate all the mice and lived in the corn.

Nicolaus is trying hard not to be a jerk. We had a few explosive moments yesterday, but nothing too terrible. My favorite was “GRAHAM. You are FIRED from the Roman Empire. Permanently.”

And then Graham cried because he didn’t want to get fire on him.

Graham is trying to say the letter S. But it’s not easy, you know. He’s also trying to test his brother’s resolve not to lose his temper.

Kevin is trying to get up earlier so he can work on his newest tea infuser for an hour or two before work. It’s Repousse which is French for “Yo. Hammer time.”

Our apartment sounds like this: Tap! Tap! Taptaptaptaptap! Tap! “Wahhhhhh I don’t want to get fired!” Tap tap tap tap.

I am trying to focus on science art, and to figure out the best ways to promote my work. Yesterday I re-worked my site to reflect that focus, and I’m nerdishly excited about choosing a direction. I am also trying to keep up with laundry, but I skipped a day and it all went to hell just like that. Now I have a load in the dryer that needs away-putting and a load in the washer which is clean + wet + I suck because if it doesn’t get dry soon it will stink and it’s not like people are going to stop getting other clothes dirty in the meantime.