Chess, the true test of brotherhood

The boys decided, of their own accord, to play chess tonight.  Matt and I were delighted (he's holding his tongue here).  They have seemed so addicted to screens lately that this seemed to be a great turn of events.  Matt had played with them the other night, but they hadn't played each other in over a year.  This picture was toward the middle of the game.  What I couldn't capture without appearing insensitive were the tears at the end of the game, and the declaration that, "I am never playing chess with you again!" from the boy who didn't win. Sigh.

The Detectives

I am not sure how this began, but the boys have formed a detective agency, called The Detectives [lastname].  Liam now has an old briefcase from Matt, which has a coded lock on it, and they have created business cards.  This evening, they hounded Matt for $1.36, claiming he owed it to them for their find of cat vomit on the floor.  Matt protested that he himself had found the vomit, when he stepped in it, but apparently the agency charges a fee for their time regardless.  At a different point this evening, Finn lost his detective wristband (so they can identify each other) and Liam offered to find it, for a fee.  He went on for quite a while about the contract, the lawsuit, etc, but Finn declined his help.  I  then asked Liam for a card for his agency, in case I needed assistance, but he couldn't find one, so he went to Matt for help.  I'm pretty sure Matt didn't charge for this service, but I bet he could have.

Making choices

Liam let us know he was disappointed in how he did on a math quiz the other day, and on further questioning it was determined that he had rushed through the work.  We discussed taking your time and being careful to check over your work, and tried to reassure him.  I did email the teacher to check in, figuring since I hadn't heard from her it couldn't be anything serious.  As it turns out, he finished a 2 hour exam in 45 minutes and then rushed to get back to reading "Mockingjay."  I can understand; it's a very compelling book.  Nonetheless, I'm glad he has finished it before his actual STAAR exam.

My, how times change!

It has been years since I updated this blog, and I'll admit I have very nearly forgotten about it.  Until today.  Today, I received an email that Liam had commented on an old post.  Oh my goodness!  Not only has he figured out how to do these things (from school!!!) but he has been reading my old blog.  Horrors!  When I first started writing this, it was mostly to update the grandparents and to try to hold onto some of the memories of when they were so small, but I never imagined them growing up and reading it themselves.  Naturally, the most recent post is about Finn being in love, but I am sure Liam would never, ever tease Finn about this (right, Liam??!).  I need to go back and re-read this all myself to see what incriminating evidence I've left behind.  While I'm at it, I may as well update with a few more recent pictures of the boys, as well as of my newest baby, Solea.  And maybe, if Liam needs incentive to behave in the future, I can remind him that I have the ability to publish recent stories about him, too. . .. 

This is Finn and Connor, meeting Solea for the first time.  Seeing this makes me realize how much she has grown in just a few weeks.  Connor isn't really as sad as he looks, he's just super tired because we are irresponsible adults who let them stay up too late.

 This is Liam on the first day we brought Solea home.  They are already best buddies.