Times My Kids Were Weird

I was tempted to title this "Times My Kids Were Weird Part I" because I'm sure this is the first of many posts to come of this sort. Because part of what makes kids so stinkin' adorable is the fact that they are -- there's no better word to describe it -- downright weird sometimes.  Here are a few of my favorite weird kid moments from the summer.

The week before school started, Eli experienced a moment of anxiety as he realized he hadn't quite been practicing those reading keys his kindergarten teacher had encouraged him to study all summer the way he maybe should have been. As I suggested it might be a good idea to review a few of them, he took my advice and spent an afternoon cramming for what he deemed to be any first day of first grade prep. He dutifully wrote down every word he knew how to spell followed by all the numbers he had the patience to write out. Then he proudly put his work in his backpack, eager to show his teacher his self assigned last day of summer cram-work. 

Lincoln has discovered the joy of putting things on his head. Including headbands, goggles, and every once in a while, his favorite, a bra. 

Lincoln and Carson spent an afternoon in the stocks. 

Don't be mistaken. Half of that brown beard is dirt. Apparently tastes just as good as the chocolate half though. 

We went up to the mountains for a campfire one night. Eli never willingly stops long enough for me to take a picture of him, so I happily whipped out the camera when he shouted, "Hey, take a picture of me doing this, Mom!" and then stood like so:

Meanwhile, Carson was proudly donning not just socks and sandals, but socks and flip flops for the excursion. 

Here's another cool pose Eli was willing to have me document. 

Lincoln's favorite way to spend the afternoon:

Lincoln is one of those quiet terrors. He sneaks around silently ripping the house apart or quietly attempting to cause some sort of accidental self infliction. One morning I had to blow dry my hair, but Lincoln was running amuck, so I threw him in the empty bath with his clothes on and a few toys, just to contain him long enough for me to get my hair dry. When I got him out, he still insisted I wrap him up in a towel which made me chuckle. 

Eli is the king of make-shift toys. Eli has spent days carrying around screws, magnets, my chap stick, pretty much any knick knack he can get his hands on that isn't his, he's eager to play with it long enough to become its assumed owner. This is the day he became the assumed new owner of his dad's measuring tape and refused to put it down long enough for a picture. 

I don't often find humor in my kids' food scraps, but I did find Carson's discarded toast laughable one morning. He knows where the good stuff is. 

I had to let the toast incident slide because Carson is a boy who knows his food and knows what he wants! He can't waste stomach space on crispy toast edges when he's got 3 lunches to down a few hours later! All the boys have different preferred foods, so I'm usually ripping the whole fridge out every afternoon for lunch. Carson will see what I scoop for Lincoln and insist he needs that. Then sees what I scoop out for Eli and demands a taste of that too. By the end of lunch, he tends to have 2-3 bowls to each of the other boys' 1. He's fun to cook for because he's my most adventurous eater, but sometimes he gets a little demanding with his lunch requests.

Now let's not pretend the kids are the only ones allowed to be weird sometimes. Every once in a while they may peek their heads outside of their rooms after I've put them to bed and find me downing chocolate covered strawberries while binge watching episodes of The Bachelor, so we've all got our thing. 

Stay weird, kids.