Two Vitamin Men & Brian Mow the Lawn

This was the scene in our yard Wednesday when I arrived home from work. I pulled in the driveway laughing out loud in my car. What a hoot! And what the neighbors must think! (click to enlarge)

Two notes:

1. The boys have absolutely no idea what Spider Man is. The year they were 3, their Christmas present from Braydon and I was a huge box of dress-up clothes. Included in it were a bunch of Halloween costumes that I had bought on clearance after Halloween that fall, including two Spider Man costumes. I knew they'd love the costumes, even though I knew they had absolutely no clue what Spider Man was. They did love those costumes (because they are slick, close-fitting, whole-body costumes... what's not to love?!), and those costumes have gotten a lot of use! One day, at a playdate at a friend's house that same winter, they saw a toy Spider Man and recognized it from their costumes. They noticed their friend referring to it as "Spider Man," but they interpreted what they heard as "Vitamin Man." Since then, a year-and-a-half-later, they still --cluelessly-- call Spider Man "Vitamin Man." Whenever they wear the costumes they run around saying, "I'm Vitamin Man!" And of course, we have never corrected them.
2. The boys continue to be fascinated (verging on obsessed) with mowing. The toy lawnmowers that we bought them the summer they were 2 are still two of their most-loved toys (they pretend to mow almost daily...even in the depths of winter). They also continue to be fascinated (verging on obsessed) with our lawncare guys. Our lawn is huge and we made a decision when we were deciding whether or not to buy this house that we would have to factor in lawncare if we were to do it. It would take Braydon all weekend to mow, and we don't want to prioritize our time that way. We did buy the house, and we've had someone mow ever since. But the boys wish wish wish that Braydon did the mowing. And they've always been absolutely enthralled with whoever else does mow. We are on our 4th lawncare guy (the first one triple and quadruple billed us on multiple occassions and we believe that although he claimed "it was his wife's mistake" it was actually on purpose; the second one sometimes didn't show up because he was sometimes in jail [seriously]; and the third one just didn't do the work he was supposed to do way too often). The latest in our lawncare guys is Brian. The boys, of course, love him. And so far --knock on wood-- he is working out great. He seems to take the two responsibilities that he has here seriously: #1) to act appropriately as hero/role model/BIG MAN --at least while he's on our property-- as K & O follow him around endlessly for the entire time he's here, and #2) to mow our lawn. I can only imagine the stories he must tell about us at the bar at the end of the day. But at least while he's here he seems to take it in stride while scenes like the one above play out.

P.S. to this post... Thursday (the day after the photo was taken) as Margie was getting ready to go home she told me that she was having a problem that day with Owen spitting. Spitting?!?! Yes, spitting. She said that he had been spitting on the ground left and right, that she had to tell him multiple times not to do it, and that he had kept on doing it despite the fact that she had repeatedly told him that it was "disgusting." Owen, standing right there in the driveway with us as Margie was telling me this, then proceeded to spit onto the ground right in front of us to demonstrate. "OH MY GOSH!!!! OWEN?!?!" I said... and then something along the lines of, "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!!! WHERE THE HECK DID YOU LEARN THAT FROM?????" With a look of sheer innocence on his face, he looked me right in the eyes and said, "That's what Brian does Mommy." Well, that cleared it up instantly. I turned to Margie and said, "Brian is the mowing guy." "Ohhhhhhhhhh..." she said, relieved to finally understand what was at the root of it, "it's chew!!!!" "No," said Owen, "it's spit!!!!!" "Whatever it is," I said, "it is not o.k.," and then he rode off on his bike and nobody has seen him spit since. I'm sure Brian will hear all about it from Owen when he comes to mow next week.