You know…

…you have played too much D&D Miniatures game with your six year old when you mention that the tree in your front yard has lost over half of its leaves overnight, and his response is “Cool!  It’s bloodied!”

Another step

Today was a big day for R…his first public performance!

He joined the children’s choir at church, and let me say, all the hassle of getting him to weekly rehearsals was so worth it to see him up there today.  He told me again and again after rehearsals that Mrs. B said he has the most gusto when he sings…and she was totally correct.  We could hear him clearly!  But I was impressed with my scatterbrained son (comes of having a scatterbrained mother ) remembering and singing all the words, focusing and not playing around up there, and I was so happy to see my often shy son getting right up there and singing his heart out.  He wouldn’t sing the song to me before today, and I will admit I was wondering how much attention he was paying in rehearsals.  His stories have been of how M giggles at everything, and the other kids do this and the other kids do that, but the only other thing he would tell me was about Mrs. B’s gusto comment.  I love to sing, but I don’t do it when anyone else can hear, because I do it very badly.  It thrills the hell out of me that my children love to sing, and have the opportunity to actually learn to do so!!

We had a moment of sheer parenting panic today.  The childrens sermon was about parties.  The parable of the king who throws a party for his son, and none of the rich so-and-so’s he invited show up, so he sends out his servants to fill the party room with whoever they can find…that’s the story they were talking about today.  Which would be fine except for one small snag on our end.  You see, we went to J’s son W’s first birthday party yesterday…which they had at Hooters.  We went, the food was good, it was fun…but I REALLY didn’t want the boys to mention this particular birthday party right up there at the front of church today. (and they didn’t! Woohoo! and whew!!).

After church, we went to lunch with G & GL, Mom & J, and T.  It was great to see everyone, and tomorrow I’m getting a knitting lesson from G while the boys are at school.  Huzzah!!!

N has a sty on his eye, and is down right now with a migraine (that we think is partially from the sty).  I hope it gets better quickly!!

Oh, and I got the results back from R’s first round of standardized tests at school.  He scored 55/56 correct on the math test, and the reading portion was a baseline, they’ll measure the results of the next test against how he did in those.  I’ve also done my first shift as a children’s librarian, volunteering at the Kindergarten library.  It was fun, and R is so excited that I’m “working” at his school.

I want to go check in on the hubby, so I’ll leave off here with a pic of R in his choir robe:

Watching summer, and an era, draw to a close

Well, this is it, folks.  This is my last night as the parent of two preschoolers.  Tomorrow morning, my firstborn will climb onto his first schoolbus and head off to the as-yet-unknown world of Kindergarten.
*Okay, so tomorrow is orientation day, and I’ll be climbing onto the bus right behind him, but still.  These are uncharted waters for me.  I still have trouble grasping the concept of being a parent to two children sometimes…now we’re adding grades into the mix!

And speaking of grades, I hope that by being unable to find one of the books on the required reading list, I haven’t irrevocably damaged his chances of success…(KIDDING!)

Today, N took the day off from work and we took a day trip to the beach.  We thought it would be a good day for it, and we were right.  There were plenty of people there but not unbelievable crowds, the weather was gorgeous, and we got amazingly good parking.  We split our day between the beach and the boardwalk and just had a nice, relaxed, fun day.  We all needed that.  We stayed a little longer than planned, and the boys both fell sound asleep in the car before we hit the turnpike home.  We put them into bed as they were when we got home, still a little sweaty and salty and sunblocky, and I’ll need to bathe them in the morning and wash their bedding, but I’m so glad we did that.

After I showered away the last of the sand and surf from myself, I tiptoed in to give them one last kiss goodnight.  And breathed deeply of the sweaty, salty, sunblocky smell of summer for the last time this year.  Tomorrow is the start of a whole new era in our lives.  Today was a pretty terrific ending to the old one.

Still catching up

So lets see…I’m caught up with the visit with L, D & IA.

My birthday…well it’s done now.  I’m 34.  Woohoo.  It was a great day though!  Had lunch and did a little shopping with Mom, M came out & a bunch of us went to dinner at Hibachi.  Fun fun!  It was R and K’s first time at Hibachi and they enjoyed it!  And so did I…so yummy!  No flaming volcano this time, hee hee.  Came back to the house for cake (and prezzies…yay!  I’ll never outgrow loving getting presents!!!)

ROCK CLIMBING!  We took R and K to a climbing gym.  We used to go, years ago.  I’m far too out-of-shape now to really do it but we went and taught the boys and belayed for them.  R took to it like a monkey takes to bananas.  Actually, given the rate at which the boy eats bananas & the way he took to climbing, I’m starting to wonder…teehee.  K didn’t like it quite as much, he got nervous half way up his first climb and then decided he liked the coming down part, so he’d climb up a bit and then want to come down, over and over again.  He says when we go back, he’ll try to climb higher.  And we may be going back tonight or tomorrow morning!  Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Some pics:

R:

K:

Belay On!

Not this week

No wordless Wednesday this week, I am SO far behind here!  I haven’t blogged the treehouses yet, or rock climbing, or even my birthday!

To finish up the visit with L, D & IA, we went to the museum on Wednesday — mostly to see the Mastadon skeleton (which I managed to not take any pictures of).  They had a beautiful antique carousel, which we did get to ride, and a 9/11 exhibit which I very much wanted to see and I’m shocked I didn’t cry at.  After the museum, it was back to the house for some lunch and quiet time.  L had some stuff to do, so D and I took the kids to the playground after quiet time.  Pics follow from the carousel & the playground:

Boys on the carousel:

L on the carousel:

A few of the kids at the playground:

R climbing…we’ve gotten him but good with the rock climbing!

IA on the slide:

And finally…each night we were away, we called N at bedtime and he told the boys a story over the phone.  IA was into it, too!

Catching Up part 2: R, the Tooth & the Mouse Carcass

So there we were, visiting friends out of state for a few days. R has had his two bottom front teeth loose since shortly before his birthday in June.

We put all the boys down to bed, I was fruitlessly trying to get onto the wireless network, and suddenly R comes running in with a HUGE grin on his face.

Me: What are you doing out here? You are supposed to be in bed!

R: Grin

Me: RT, you get back to bed right now!

R: Grin

Me: (suddenly noticing) Your tooth came out!! Where is it?

Turns out he had let K see the tooth, and K proceeded to drop it. We went back into the craft room, where I was sleeping on an air mattress and the boys were in sleeping bags on the floor. R ran in and grabbed K’s blanket to look for the tooth, flung the blanket up and I heard a faint “ping” somewhere in the room. The tooth had gone flying. Great. I started scanning the room for it, but quickly realized this was going to take an intensive search. Looking for a baby tooth on a pale beige carpet could easily be a stand-in for that old tired needle in the haystack adage. I picked up and shook out the boys’ pillows, blankets, stuffed animals & sleeping bags…nothing. Checked around the perimeter of the air mattress…nothing. Grabbed the flashlight to check under the dresser & behind the radiator…nothing. Used the flashlight to check under the craft drawer containers…and there was…something there. Looked a little like a mouse. A cat toy? I started to reach for it. Then I remembered the blog post, and froze. I shakily called L into the room. I think I found your missing m-o-u-s-e. I spelled it out for the benefit of the little ones in the room. L called D to deal with the carcass, and I ushered said little ones out so he could.

We decided to resume the hunt for the tooth the next day, and put the kiddos back to bed.

5 minutes later, R comes out of the room again and hands me the tooth. I asked him where he’d found it. He grinned at me. He hadn’t found it.

2 teeth in one night.

After a few more random searches of the room, I decided to wait until we’d packed up and give it one last going-over. I found the tooth before we left on Thursday morning. Our tooth fairy is a local girl, she only visits when we’re at home. Thursday night, the teeth went under the pillow. Friday morning, he found 2 gold dollar coins and a letter from his tooth fairy, who happens to be N’s tooth fairy’s daughter.

Dear R,

Hi! My name is Lily and I am your tooth fairy. My mommy, Frolic, used to be your daddy’s tooth fairy, and I am so happy to be yours!

Wow, you’ve lost two teeth at once! I’m very glad that your mommy found the first one. If you ever lose a tooth before you can put it under your pillow, don’t worry! I know when they fall out and I will be sure to visit you each time.

Make sure you take good care of your teeth! Brush them after you eat and don’t eat too many sweets!

Love,
Lily

Gotta lot of catching up to do! Part 1: K vs the Toll Booth Operator

The next few days should see a bunch of posts, since a lot has been going on lately…

I spent the better part of last week visiting L, D & IA in upstate New York.

While we were driving up there, I stopped at one of the many toll booths, handed the guy my ticket & toll money. “have a nice day” he said. “Thanks, you too” I said, and pulled away. This conversation followed:

K: Why were you so nice to that man?

Me: Why wouldn’t I be nice to him?

K: Because he’s a THIEF

Me: Wha????

K: He stole our money

Me: What? No he didn’t! I had to give him some money to pay our toll.

R: What’s a toll?

Me: We have to pay to use certain roads. Those are tolls.

R: Well when we stop driving on the road, do they give it back?

Me: No, we just have to pay it in order to drive on the road.

K: See? He’s a thief!

Me: (sigh) No, he is not a thief, he’s just doing his job.

Part 2 will be: R, the tooth and the mouse carcass.

Wordless Wednesday 7-30-08

Big Day for R

Today, R gained yet another milestone.  He got his first library card!  Huzzah!!

He’s very proud of himself and excited to be able to check out his own books.

He wasted no time:

Now I’m off to get working.  We’re having company for dinner tonight & the house looks like a tornado passed through it.

Why I’m the worst mom ever

…or, why we now own a remote control WALL-E robot.

So R’s sixth birthday was on the 26th of June. Sixth. I have a six-year-old. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that idea…

A few days before his birthday we got the card in the mail. The one from Geoffrey, the Toys-R-Us giraffe. The one that comes with a three dollar gift card. When K got his birthday card and gift card, we went to TRU and bought…well, a three dollar item. (actually a $2.99 item & a pack of gummy worms because you had to spend three dollars in order to use the card. Seriously.) I brought R in on his birthday fully intending to do the same.

We wander the aisles of the toy store, looking at this, looking at that, me rejecting item after item due to price or other concerns (nothing based on a show or movie they can’t watch, nothing that encourages fighting, nothing that is so babyish he will soon lose all interest in it.)

Don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware that the choices of items you can get in TRU for three dollars or less is miniscule, and not all that interesting. A couple of matchbox cars, maybe some sidewalk chalk or bubbles, very little else…) I was prepared to drop a few more dollars on top of the gift card for something he would enjoy.

To the father walking by with his little one and laughing at me as I called them out of the power wheels aisle, saying to them “Guys come here, because I know you are going to ask for every single one of those cars, and you know I am going to say no every single time.” I know you were laughing because you’ve been there, done that. No hard feelings, really!

To the parents by the action figures who laughed at me when I sighed and said “No, you can’t have the incredible hulk bashing hands, because I’ve already told you three hundred times today that you can’t have anything with fighting.” I’m sure you’ve had the kind of days we have, where they are just at each others throats all day and I’m at the end of my wits thinking of what to do to diffuse the whole situation. (Those days have, thankfully, really decreased in frequency since I stopped letting them watch Code Lyoko and Ben 10, and I have to thank N for standing by me with this even though he disagrees with my policy and really wants to let them watch those again.)

The laughs were sympathetic, we’ve been right there with you types of laughs. I know they were. Right about then is when I called N and whined “Please, save me. I’m in TRU with the boys trying to spend R’s gift card, and everything here is expensive or violent or babyish, or all three combined, and I don’t know what to do.” N replied by telling me we didn’t really need to spend the gift card today. Um, yes we do, because we are here in the store, he has the card in his pocket, he’s holding a happy birthday from Geoffrey balloon, wearing a crown on his head, and has been wished a happy birthday over the loudspeaker and by half the staff of the store. There is no way we can walk out of this store empty handed now.

And N saved me. He reminded me that R received some birthday money from his great-grandparents, who are the awesome.

We continued to wander the aisles, I continued to say no to R’s increasingly half-hearted “can I get this?” requests…and then suddenly it happens. He sees WALL-E sitting there on the shelf, arms outstretched in his box. “MOM!” I hear. Is that actual excitement in his voice? “Look at THIS! It’s WALL-E!” K is actually jumping up and down from excitement too. (or maybe he just had to pee…) “Look, R, look, Mom..it has a remote control!” R is looking it over. There is actual happiness in his eyes (as opposed to just wanting to get something because his friend has one, like the Geotrax he had been looking at). He doesn’t know yet that he will be going to see WALL-E on Saturday as a birthday gift from his grandparents…but I do. He’s been seeing commercials for months on the Disney Channel. He likes WALL-E. He really, really likes him. I have some reservations…Roboraptor was a big hit at Christmas but has been hanging out in the playroom largely unused for some months now. But those brown six-year-old eyes are looking at me. And those little robot eyes are looking at me. R reaches through the hole in the plastic and pushes a button. “WwwwaaaAAAAAlleeeeee” And I see the box where it says “ages 6 and up”. I’m tired of saying “no” to everything.

And so I cave.

And WALL-E came home with us.

So K got a little pack of plastic bathtub boats for his birthday, and R got a remote-control robot. Nah, there’s no future therapy going on for that one…I’m sure.

And when we got home, Roboraptor even came out to play with WALL-E.  He’s a popular little guy.