Top Dog

This is a little award/prize/coupon THING Jack's teacher gave him for his birthday. I don't understand what the coupon was awarded for - It says "Top dog grapler." What does that mean? What must one DO to win an award to be a Top Dog Grapler? Whatever it is - you get a free corn dog from Sonic!

Cardboard is evil

Poor Wy had an encounter of an unwelcome kind with a cardboard box. I have no idea what his head was doing in the box but there it is...

Tiny Tidbits

Here we have the most recent Kinder craft project - the grocery bag paper kite! I have no idea if this thing works. I don't know if the Kinders tested them at recess - all I know is that they made kites and brought them home.


One of the ladies that John works with is fond of peeps. She is known for "peeping" the shop every spring and by this I mean that she buys an insane number of peeps and then hides them all over the shop. The shop crew find peeps all year long. John had the boys at the shop with him the other day and this lady gave the boys their very own peeps.


The boys were having a hard time reaching the light pull in their closet even with the mondo step stool I put in there. I finally decided to lengthen the string and run it along the door jam and hang Woody as the pull handle. The boys couldn't stop turning the light on and off for about a week. They finally settled down and I'm not so worried about them going into epileptic fits from the flickering of the light.

Remember vat day

A few weeks ago I was running errands with Wyatt. Moving through an intersection we came within centimeters of what would have been a serious collision with another car. Immediately I'm grousing about other drivers. I looked at the driver in the other car - she was also grousing and I think I saw a few cuss words. I couldn't believe how rude she was. I must have said something about it because Wyatt said something like "YEAH! She is rude, Mommy!" That is when I looked up at the stop light and realized that I was the driver who had not been paying attention because I had full on run a red light. By this point the other lady had moved on. She didn't see me apologize or acknowledge the near crash was entirely my fault. I offered a "Thank you, thank you, thank you" to God for keeping us all safe and I asked Him to bless that lady and to let her know that -I- know the whole thing was my fault and I was terribly sorry. I thought that was the end of it, but Wy brought it up 15 minutes later. He brought it up again the next day and a few days after that and almost every other day since then.

"Remember vat day when vat lady was rude, but YOU were rude and not vat lady? RIGHT?"
"Yes, Wy. I remember that day."
"Do you remember you made vuh accident and you were rude? RIGHT?"
"Yes, Wy, I was rude."
At this point he launches into a series of questions that I have to answer by re-hashing everything that happened. We end up asking God to bestow blessings on the lady who was not really rude.
This usually ends with Wyatt admonishing me about being rude.

Having been through this exchange with him so many times I'm starting to think Wyatt isn't really admonishing me about being rude but rather that he is trying to understand that we don't have to be rude. Heavy stuff for a three year old.

The down side of revisiting this incident so frequently is that I would really rather forget that I nearly caused a serious accident, which quite possibly could have injured any of the three of us and totalled one or both cars bringing on financial stress and hiked interest rates...

The up side is that Wy and I are frequently asking God to bless someone we don't know: someone who doesn't know she has well-wishers driving around Kansas City. And I think we are learning together that being rude doesn't serve anyone. Or maybe I'm putting too much into it, he is three.

So I ask God to bless the lady I almost crashed into a few weeks ago and I ask God to bless you today too.

Performance Art

Wy and I were haning out Wednesday morning. We did a little reading, a little exercize and a little snacking. After all that I decided to get ready for work. I heard Wy start singing Old MacDonald as he was heading downstairs. Suddenly I hear this repetitive expolsion of piano keys and what seems to be rap meets performance art

BANG bang BANG
Old MacDonald!
bang bang
Had a FARM
BANG BANG
E-I-E-I
Bang bang bang bang BANG BANG BANG
OHHHHHH!
BANG bang BANG
And on THIS farm
BANG BANG BANG
He had A DOG
BANG BANG BANG
E-I-E-I
Bang bang BANG
OHHHHHH!
BANG bang BANG

Of course by the time I had the camera in hand ready to snag a video for you he was done. I asked him to play his song for me again but he just draped himself over the piano bench as if he were devastated by my request.

Chinese Fortune

Chinese fortune cookie fortune as read to me by Jack:
"Now is ve time to finish up old snacks."

Um...No thanks, Buddy.

Beat that!

The Tooth Fairy can keep her money.

Jack has a loose tooth. Get this, he is NOT happy about it. He doesn't want to get "big adult teeth" and he doesn't want Tooth Fairy money. (OK - who doesn't want free money?) He was crying and telling John "I don't want big teeth. I don't want money from the Tooth Fairy to buy Hot Wheels or candy. I want you and Mommy to buy me vose fings!"
He talked to the kids at school about his tooth yesterday and told me that he is feeling only a tiny little bit better about his lose tooth because one of the girls in his class has a lose tooth too. Then he looked at me and said "Hey, Mommy? You wanna touch it?" "Um...OK. It sure is lose, buddy." When the thing falls out its going right in this cute little pillow from Aunt Shannon. Let's just hope the Tooth Fairy remembers to do her job once the tooth is in the pillow.

Bother-ation

Jack is growing out of his pants. He is again in that stage where he is too tall for the pants he has now but the next size up is too big in the waist...Anyway - John and I took the boys shopping to see if we could find any new pants for the Jack-man and while we were looking around Wy gives me the stink eye and says to me "Mommy, I'm going to pack you up and put you in my Lightning McQueen backpack where YOU WILL GET LOST. So daddy will have to cook and it will NOT be good." I have no idea where this came from, but I could tell he doesn't think Daddy is a good cook. John just looked at Wy and said "Buddy, if Mommy is lost in your backpack then we are sunk."

Jack is still playing his Libby Concerto. Almost every day he finds a few minutes to sit and play that little tune he made up. He even asked me if I wanted to hear it with four keys and proceeded to add a few more keys into the mix but still keep the same pattern.

Soccer practices start back up this Friday with weekend games soon to come. He has been looking forward to soccer ever since the fall season ended. Little guy has his birthday next week and we are inviting his classmates over for a party. Jack wanted a Spiderman party so I think they are going to become super-heroes for the afternoon. I have one of the theatre's teaching artists scheduled to come in and lead some imaginative play and games with the kids.

Wy is doing well. He likes his new day care lady and doesn't cry when we have to head out the door for her house. He even spent the weekend telling me he likes her - but he misses his Beff (Aunt Beth). I think the new lady cinched the deal a week ago when she picked up a big lot of Thomas toys on Craig's list. There are a number of trains and other things in the mix that we don't have at home. Wy of course wants to bring home the trains we don't have. I have laid down the law and said said "Absolutely not." Wy looked at me and said "Bother-ation!" I quite like "Botheration." I think I am going to work it into my daily vocabulary.

Mom and Wy are working on problems that involve thinking. Wy asks her "What becomes between numbers 5 and 7?" If mom answers correctly he tells her "Good job, Gammy!" Mom turns the tables on him and asks him what comes between 1 and 3 or A and C. A few of them he has to really think about, but he is doing a great job.
Wy: What becomes between 5 and 7? What becomes between 3 and 1?

Whenever I take the boys somewhere they both want to sit behind the me. This is not a problem if I only have one of the fellas with me. It can become a big deal when both of them were going. I quickly figured out that we could trade places every time we got out of the car (both of the boys are in boosters now.) This has solved a lot of fighting, but has also led to tearful comments like "I don't want to sit behind(gasp, gasp, gasp) nobody-y-y-y-y." Of course they save these moments for when I am in a race against time to get somewhere. I now just pick up the crying one and stick him in a booster muttering "Bother-ation."

I'm sure people in parking lots think I'm insane "Listen- your brother sat here on the way to the store so you have to sit behind nobody now and he gets to sit behind me. We will trade after we get to the bank, OK?"

The problem is a little different when the four of us go somewhere together. Whenever this happens, both the boys want to sit behind their father and it doesn't matter if he is driving or not. The only thing that changes is the comment "But I don't' wa-a-a-ant to sit behind Mo-o-o-ommy-y-y-y."

Bother-ation.

I really got nothin'

This chair is in the corner. One of Wy's favorite past-times is to crawl all over the chair like a crazy person that is until he fell behind it last week. Jack came upstairs to let me know "UM, Wy needs you to help him." Wy was trapped there whimpering and sniffling. Horrible, mean Mommy that I am I made him wait for me to get his picture before I hauled him out.

Mom got the boys a Thomas Viewfinder. Wyatt tells us what he sees in every frame. He walks around the house viewing and clicking and walking into things.

Go figure that we have Thomas Leggos... Jack has been obsessed with creating new and improved engines of every shape and size. He says "I want more! I want more! I want more!!!"


The boys have a little Thomas sleeping bag that they have taken to using at bedtime. We can't let them share it as you see here because no one gets any sleep with all the shenanigans going on.

I have been out of the office the last two weeks. I was actually supposed to put in some office hours the first week, but Jack spent the entire week fighting off a fever so I ended up staying home with him. He tested positive for the flu and by the weekend was throwing up. By this time I was feverish and sick to my stomach. John had to work and the rents were heading up to St. Joe so I made them take Wy. Jack and I spent the day on separate sofas in our respective fevered hazes. I then spent this last week (my vacation week) with a sinus infection. I told my bosses that I want a 'do over' vacation. Now that I'm finally feeling better, its right back into rehearsals. "Not fair!" I cry!

Sketchers

Jack has a little classmate that wears Sketchers and the boys swears this kid wins all the foot races because he wears Sketchers. Thankfully neither Jack nor Wy has been nagging at me to get them a pair of Sketchers. Wy has a little pair of tennis shoes that he calls Sketchers. I could have -killed- hubs the other weekend when he and Wy got into an argument about those shoes - he kept telling Wy they weren't Sketchers they were just tennis shoes. Wy was very upset by the whole thing. Thankfully, Wy doesn't believe John. He still says they are Sketchers. Is it wrong of me to just let him think I'm cool and bought him Sketchers?

It's all fun and games

until I kick Jack in the fingers.

Jack is on spring break this week. We dropped Wy off a the sitters, ran some errands and headed home for a bit before I had to go in for rehearsals. While we were home, Jack asked if we could play soccer in the back yard. I consented to play soccer even though I was wearing high heeled boots.

Things I don't understand about soccer:
1. Every time I scored a goal, I would earn 1 point but Jack would earn 2 points. If Jack scored a goal, he would earn 1 point but I didn't earn any points.
2. My goal kept changing sides. We started the game with my goal on the West fence and Jack's on the East fence. As I would approach MY goal with the ball, Jack would suddenly yell that it was not my goal.
3. I also didn't know it was fair for a player to suddenly throw their whole body on top of the ball to keep their opponent from making a kick at the ball. (This is how I wound up kicking Jack in the fingers - it was an accident as he dropped to the dirt just as I kicked, but I still bashed his fingers pretty good.)

Libby Concerto Number 1

OK - I can't believe I just did it, but I uploaded a video from my camera onto Windows Movie Maker, made a movie, uploaded it to youtube, synched that with my facebook and am now embedding the video here for you all. I realize 5th graders are doing this stuff every day, but I'm giggling hysterically because I sound like a techno geek and I did it all by myself!

Please, please ignore the fact (if you can) that the piano has not been tuned in 6 years and has some broken keys. Hopefully you can enjoy Jack's latest composition, which he named after one of the cats.

Pin the Quote on the fella

That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time for your favorite game and mine "Pin the quote on the Fella!"

If you can correctly match the man to the quote you win!

a. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. (after being told that he and our oldest cat have more to talk about now that the Vet has promoted the cat to a Senior Health Plan.)
b. Daddy likes to make up things and pretend that they are true.
c. I am ve boss of you. But don't tell Mommy, ok?
d. I will take vis piece of toy-wet paper and wipe my biig huuuge penis. Ok?