Just like Daddy

The other night Oliver came up to me while I was getting dinner ready and told me that he needed a nail set in order to finish the work he was doing. A nail set?! Really? I had no idea what a nail set was until I met Davis - with all the projects we've done around the house I've gotten to know our nail set very well, but I am over 30 - Oliver is not quite 2! For those who are not familiar with a nail set here is a definition:

"A nail set is a small metal tool that looks much like an icepick. When you hammer finish nails into wood, you often cannot hit the nail the last quarter-inch or so into the wood or you will damage the surface of the wood. The tip of the nail set is placed on the head of the finish nail. Finish nails usually have a small dent on their heads to allow for placement of a nail set. A hammer then hits the blunt end of the nail set, driving the finish nail the rest of the way into the wood."

While I wanted to support my little carpenter I was not ready to give him a small, relatively sharp piece of metal that, as pointed out in the definition above, resembles an ice pick. So I did what any wonderful mother would do - I told Oliver to wait until daddy got home from work and daddy would help him find the nail set. Thankfully Davis is an incredibly resourceful and talented father - within minutes of being home Davis made Oliver his very own nail set. The two of them spent the rest of the evening doing work, with their nail sets, around the house.

Note that both boys are holding their nail sets and hammers in the picture above.

Oliver has also started to take on some other daddy-like habits - most notably Oliver has started to wear "hot pants." I am almost embarrassed to admit it, my two boys love their hot pants.

I learned about Davis' hot pants soon after we met. Davis headed to the pool for a swim and pulled out a Speedo and declared them his hot pants. Hmmm. A good number of people were introduced to the hot pants the morning after our wedding. We got up and decided to head down to the Coconut Grove to help with the clean up. I got dressed and took the road down to the house. Davis on the other hand put on his hot pants and swam down to the Coconut Grove. After emerging from the water he spent a good couple hours cleaning up - wearing only his hot pants. If you could have seen my sister's face when she woke up to the sight...

As Davis' training for the Channel Swim is taking up more and more of his time, he is spending more and more of his time in his hot pants - given the reason, I am supportive of Davis' hot pants.

Oliver's hot pants are a bit different- however they are equally as small as Davis'. Oliver's hot pants are pajama shorts that are several sizes too small. I've tried to put them away several times, but each time I do Oliver cries and cries and then yells: "Mommy! Hot pants! Hot pants!," over and over again. It used to be that he just wanted to wear the hot pants to bed, but they have started to make an appearance during the day now too. Oliver picks out his clothes and I must say some of the combinations of late have been very interesting. I wish I had a picture of him in his too small shirt (read crop top), hot pants, and sneakers - I didn't get a picture of that, but I did capture these moments: