Awwww... He Tried, At Least!!

Summer = time outside = dirty kid feet. My two have spent a lot of time lately on the bathroom counter with their feet in the sink, cleaning up a bit before they come inside to play.

Today they were outside riding their bikes, which meant they had shoes on. Shortly after we came inside, I noticed Lil' J walking around with bare feet, the bottom of his pant legs soaking wet (yes, he put long pants on. don't ask 'cause I have no answer for that one).

Me: "Buddy, why are your pant legs wet?"

J: "It's from da water."

Me: "Um... what water?"

J: "From when I washed my feet."

Aw, what a big boy he is. (Too bad his feet were in shoes and didn't need to be washed ;)

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Ahhh... One Of The Things I've Been Waiting For :)

At the moment, my six year old is reading to my five year old. My son's relentless queries of "What does that spell? What does that spell?" are being answered by his sister, while I sit in (relative ;) peace and type this.

They're even laughing together! Reading and laughing, and having fun. (Is there a full moon?). Oh my goodness... A just told J to go get another book to read!

w00000000t !!!! (happy mommy dance).

Off to start dinner... post ya later :)
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My Denial

What happened to Grade One?

Seriously! Didn't it just begin? What do you mean there's only four weeks left? That can't be right!! What about... Christmas and Valentine's Day and Easter and Mother's Day, and... (oh). OMG.

Hang on, though... my son was JUST BORN. What do you mean he starts Kindergarten in 102 DAYS???!!!

(And yet... I'm not getting any older ;) Heh heh
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Bad Mommy

Aw, lookit that Gerber Graduates commercial mom playing dragon slayer with her little boy!!!

I suck.

OK I'm not that bad, but I'm definitely not the FUN parent. No Barbies or Hot Wheels for me. If it doesn't have some kind of educational component to it, then I'm not interested. Hmmph. So there.

Whaaat? I feed you, don't I? I teach you stuff, read to you, hug you ALL the time, clothe and bath you, find your bedroom floors when you cannot, would give life and limb for you, wipe your snot and poop, tickle you, brush your hair, floss and brush your teeth, among half a million other things. MUST I play with you too?

Of COURSE I love you, but I honestly don't feel the same way about Polly Pocket. And no, brushing Rainbow Dash's mane is NOT fun for me.

(Nor is playing Wii tanks for the 10,000th time - are you listening too, lil' bro?)

But... Huh.

Hmmm... last night we played Disney Princess Bingo, and tonight we played Trouble!! And I did Wii Table Tilt so you could watch.

I DO play after all!! I'M OK!!!

(Guess I didn't need to write this post ;)

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Niiice.

My 4 year old: "What did you say punk?" (accompanied by giggles and smiles, with his world famous cutest ever dimples).

Me: "Where on earth did you hear that?"

DS: "Spongebob!!"

I suppose it could be worse. He was saying the F word a few weeks ago. That wasn't cool.

But this "punk" thing... is it wrong of me to think it's cute? I swear I have a wound on the inside of my cheek from biting it, trying my best not to smile or laugh. Oh my FREAKIN' GOODNESS he's just the cutest thing that ever existed.

Should I stop him from saying it? Is "punk" a bad word for a four year old to say? (Is it any worse than him wanting to play "real" boxing after playing it on Wii? Oops ;)

Am I the only mother who is lost some times? And why on earth don't kids come with manuals, anyway!! Sheesh...
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Introducing A Four-Year-Old To French Immersion

My daughter is thriving in Grade 1 French Immersion, so it's only fair, I think, to give her brother the same opportunity. I recently purchased a board book, "Mon Petit Livre Bilingue" with this in mind. Basically it's one of those little kid books with pictures of common items and their names, only this book has the names in English and French.(Hey! Helpful for me, too ;)

The first time I read it, his reaction was, um, not exactly what I was looking for:

"Mama why are you weading da Fwench? Stop weading da Fwench!"

Oh great. He's adverse to it already. Pffft. (sigh)

Ah, but Maternal creativity prevailed, as it usually does (Go Moms!). Every time I encountered a word that was spelled the same in both languages (like "table"), I'd say:

"HEY!!! That's an ENGLISH word!!! Wassup wid dat!!! Gee wizakers!!!!"

...at which point he would dissolve into massive giggles and beg me to read more. (Ah ha ;)

Here's a list of some of the words we laughed over:

six
orange
triangle
rectangle
short(s)
tuque
radio
table
sofa
sandwich
pizza
xylophone
ambulance
elephant
lion

By the end of the book, he was near hysterics, and I had him convinced that they're almost the same language ;) He'll learn the differences later, obviously, but at the moment he thinks French is fun.

Good enough for now!

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Learning About The F Word Part Two

More Wii, and shouting. This time the offender is Alyssa, but instead of the Big F Nasty, she is saying "darn" (or should I say shouting it with enough force to shatter our relatively new windows).

Lil J, not wanting anything his sister does to be swept under the rug, defiantly says:

"Maw-mee!!! Lyssa said the F word!!!!"

He hasn't said the word since his time out yesterday, and clearly he remembers our conversation about it. I'm just not sure if he remembers which word we were talking about...
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Learning About The F Word

With Alyssa, it only happened once. As an innocent 3 year old she blurted out the F word in front of her Dad, Grandparents and me. My stunned response was:

"WHAT did you just say??!!", at the top of my lungs. I succeeded in embarrassing her beyond belief, and she hasn't said it since.

Lil' J is in time-out at the moment, for his second infraction. He said it a few moments ago while he and A were playing Wii, and I spoke to him about it. I told him that was his last warning, and if he ever said it again he'd end up in time-out.

Sure enough...

(And how do you explain it to them without actually using the word? If you call it "The F Word", how on earth do they know what word you're talking about?) Ah, such a fine line.

Hearing DH and I occasionally slip and use it is an easy one: "It's a grown up's word. Kids are NOT allowed to use it, but grown ups may." Period. No explanation necessary. Alyssa gets this, but J is a bit of um, a boundary pusher (risk taker, pot stirrer, sh*t disturber - that's my boy!).

We'll see if time-outs work. I might have to get the soap out ;)
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Room Cleaning Chaos

I just cleaned my 6 year old's room, and am still recovering (never mind a "thanks, Mom!" - I deserve a two week vacation in the Bahamas for that).

There were some things I was able to get rid of, and some things I was able to move downstairs, but for the most part, I did a lot of rearranging. She has the larger of the two kids' rooms, and by FAR the most stuff.

I bought 2x2 cube organizers (see pic below) - one for each room. I got mine at Superstore and they came in colours - I used blue and green for Joseph's and red and yellow for Alyssa. The four cube space (plus the top, which is like another shelf) made a tremendous difference in J's room, but in A's? It just cleared enough floor space to get to her dresser.

Hey at least she can get to her pajamas now without complaining ;)



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How I Frightened An Entire Field Hockey Team

Teenage boys, coming off the Field. My four year old son and I, walking home.

We had the stroller with us. Why the bleep not. It's good up to 60 lbs (50 for child and 10 in the basket), and J is about 40 1/2 pounds. Most of the time he walks anyway, which is what I want, but I am ALLERGIC to carrying crap, and this way I can toss his back pack in the stroller basket. On the odd occasion when he isn't in the mood to walk, I don't have to deal with a cranky kid. Hop in, and Mommy'll push ya.

Today I had the canopy covering the seat and the rain cover over the stroller because it had rained a bit earlier. J was up to his favourite activity of pushing it, head down, and fighting the impulse to run.

"Easy Buddy - watch where you're going. Slow down! Keep the stroller on the path."

Curved brick wall, right in his path. Running slowly, not enough to really damage the stroller, but enough to stop him and it suddenly in his tracks.

"Wall!!! Wall!!! Wall!!!" (shouts from the Field Hockey players) "Looook oooouuut!!!"

It occurred to me after the fact, after J and his pushing toy went BOUNCE off the wall, that the teenage boys had no idea that the stroller was empty....

(oops ;)
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My Son Is A Click-a-holic

Husband: "Hey, can he (4 yr old) play at the computer while you're in the shower? I have to leave for work."

Me: "Um, NO!! He clicks on stuff he's not supposed to!!"

Husband: (laughing) "Whatever. Computers are bullet proof these days."

You can see why I drink wine.

(anyway)

He (the 4 yr old, not the 44 yr old), cannot be trusted unsupervised with a mouse (computer, not rodent). Take today, for example: he started off at the kid safe site www.totlol.com and somehow, in a mere 14.2 seconds, ended up about to click "play" on a YouTube video of a man eating scorpions (and right before lunch, no less ;)

BLECH.

He has printed stuff he's not supposed to, Googled 30+ random character "words", come really close to e-mailing gibberish to people, deleted stuff, CRANKED up the PC volume... you get the idea. I could go on, but I won't.

What? Parental controls? Hmm. Hey, you know what? Maybe I should look into that.

(now I get it)
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The Joys Of The Flu

I was awoken this morning at about 4:30 by my son.

"Mama look what's on my pillow!"

He's prone to nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking (to the toilet and then back to bed, thank goodness ;) and any and all assortments of sleep disruptions imaginable. He has even had night terrors about things on his pillow (poor lil' dude).

So when he referred to said pillow, I was reluctant to get out from under the warm covers. Been there done that. I called out to him in a voice that was hopefully loud enough for him to hear down the hall but not loud enough to wake my husband sleeping next to me.

Ya right.

"MAMA!"

Ok, ok, ok, I'm up. (sigh)

There was indeed something on his pillow - vomit! Awww... poor little guy. (And EW BLECH). I changed his sheets, changed his jammies, gave him some hugs, and tucked him back in again. Ahhh!! Back to my warm cozy bed.

Not for long - round two happened about ten minutes later. So far that's been all, but now I'm faced with that scenario where the younger child is too sick to accompany the older child to school. Of course big sister is at the age where a) she LOVES school and will be mad to miss it, and b) is too young to walk the three blocks herself (some parents might allow this, but um, not this parent).

As I'm typing this, my "get the kids up" timer is ringing. What to do??

a) I could just let them both sleep, and tell her the truth when she eventually wakes up.

PROS: it's the truth.
CONS: ooh-eee she be MAAAD at me, and her brother ("But Mommy I WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL!!")

b) I could go into her room and take her temperature, and tell her she has a fever.

PROS: She'd roll back over and go to sleep.
CONS: It's lying (which I'm not keen on, except for fun stuff like Santa & the Tooth Fairy)

Hmmm. But then again, she might really, actually and truly have a fever (ohhh, wouldn't that be handy ;)

Parenting is weird sometimes.

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Kindergarten Readiness

Ok, Lil' J - you're up next!

Hmm. Is my giggly, silly, march to the beat of his own drummer son really ready for The Big K this fall? His father was expressing doubt last night, which started me thinking about the whole thing.

It's difficult for me to really tell, because at the age that he is now (4 1/2), his sister was reading and writing simple (4-6 word) sentences. I know that's a little ahead of the curve as far as early language skills (btw, to compensate she was behind socially - she had much anxiety and shyness, which thankfully she's outgrown). It leaves me with the inability to judge J's preparedness, because he's not quite as advanced as his sister, so acck! He must not be ready, right?

Wrong!! (yippee).

Here are a couple of handy checklists I found, to which I was able to answer "yes, yes, yes," repeatedly for J. I guess he won't have to repeat preschool after all ;-)

http://www.nvsd44.bc.ca/sites/pdf/12/12-160-1815.pdf

http://www.vbschools.com/kindergarten/checklist.pdf

Phew!!
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A Picture Of Sea Monkeys

Disclaimer: at less than two weeks old, they're barely big enough to be seen by my nasty pocket point & shoot wanna be a camera when it grows up one day.

Anyhoo, here's a corner of J's tank (his are bigger than A's - not sure why). They're about 1 mm long, and swim like mad!!! You can see them from 3 or 4 feet away now - you don't have to press your nose up against the plastic tank and hold your breath anymore ;-)

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Unique (Sounds Better Than Nuts)

Lil' J is about to climb on the Smart Cycle (have I mentioned how much I love that thing?)

"Mommy, why are dere handles and a seat dere?"

(really??? you're 4 1/2)

Me: "Um, well, the handles are for your hands and the seat is where you sit."
Lil J: "Oh. What are the pedals for?"
Me (biting the inside of my cheek): "That's where your feet go."
Lil J: "Oh. Fanks!!!"

Climbs aboard, starts pedalling.

Now, I'm pretty sure he was either a) asking me something else altogether that he doesn't yet have the means to express, b) asking just to see what I'd say, or c) playing around.

I may never know, but in the meantime being around to hear the nuggets that come out of his mouth is one of the biggest perks of being a stay at home Mom :-)
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Still Nuts

Lucky for him he's cute (my son, for those who haven't read the previous post). He just came and asked for a cookie, to which I replied "after dinner, maybe".

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "So Bud, waddya want for dinner?"
Lil' J: "A cookie!!"
Me: "Uh, nope. Pick something healthy."
Lil' J, grinning deviously: "A nut!"

And yes, he cracked himself one, ate it, and came back asking for the cookie.
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My Son Is Nuts

OK not really. But at the age of 4 1/2, he can use a nutcracker as well as an adult.

(Yowza!!!)

"Boy" strength showing up early, I guess. I think part of it might be that he applies all of his wee brute strength with no regard to where the pieces fly, whereas when I crack a nut I try to be tidy and hold back a bit.

The end result is that lately he's been eating lots and lots and lots of nuts, which leaves him open to the inevitable comments of "hey, you are what you eat, you know!".

On the plus side, nuts are pretty darn good for you, and while I've been munching on my secret stash of leftover chocolate covered almonds, he's been eating them sans-crap, right out of the shell.

Mommy approved!!
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Parenting Tip #3,482

Never (unless you have money to throw away), leave your pump dispenser of Joico K-Pak Leave-In Protectant on the counter, or your four-year-old could mistake it for hand soap, and decide to clean the sink for you.

sigh.

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lol Here's One More:

Just now:

Me: Hey! Get out from behind the TV, please.

J: But Mommy!!! I can do anyfing I want!! And you always can't!!

Glad we got that straight ;-)
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Coversation With Lil' J

Yesterday, walking to school to pick up Alyssa, talking to himself:

Normal voice: Hi Grass!!

Squeaky voice: Hi Joe!!

Normal voice: Grass, why are you so slippery?

Squeaky voice: Because of da snow!

Normal voice: Can I walk on you?

Squeaky voice: OK! It doesn't hurt!

(Well that's good at least...)
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Riding Smart Cycle, with the dinosaurs cartridge:

J: "Mama look!!! Look at da Dinosaur!!!"

Me: "Oh, it's so big!"

J: "Ya!! Isso big it can even fit in my tummy!!!"

(Hmmm. Maybe he needs breakfast).
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