Imaginary Allergies?

School today went a bit better. No teachers were waiting at the door for me. Well, actually, Sarah was, but only because the door has this annoying sticking habit and I had to bang on the window until they came and let me in. (Another annoying thing - does Alex say "actually" so much because I do, or is it the other way around?)

Alex and I headed to the library. We had to get new Transformer movies to watch and Magic School Bus books to read. (He is currently on a volcano, underground, geology kind of kick.) On the way Krabby was calling my name and Alex was pretending that he hadn't heard anything when I answered.

Me: Why isn't Krabby at work?
Alex: Oh, he's sick today.
Me: I'm sorry, what's wrong with him?
Alex: He's been sneezing like crazy. I think it's allergies.

(Lots of miniature crab-like sneezes from the backseat. Of course I'm just guessing what crab-like sneezes sound like.)

Alex: Krabby's girlfriend is about to have their first baby.
Me: Oh, really? What's her name?
Alex: Samanda.

We left that particular topic there. We have enough imaginary critters that I don't really want to encourage more of them, and I'm not touching the whole unwed imaginary animals subject with a ten foot pole.

Tomorrow is "T" show and tell. As he went to bed he had decided to take toast. I wonder if he'll be the only one.

Random Pieces of Our Week So Far

Krabby has gotten a job, it seems. He is working at Subway, taking orders and making sandwiches. (For those of you who don't know Krabby, he is Alex's imaginary crab friend.) It's about time he started bringing in some money. I hope Subway's management has better luck with him than I do. He causes an awful lot of trouble around here, if you believe a certain little curly-headed boy.

Yesterday was a fun day. Driving home from work, on my way to get Alex, I hit a rather large hole in the side of the road. I knew immediately there was a problem, and not just because the flagman on the construction site was looking at my car in alarm. I was out in the country so I had to drive a little before I pulled into the county airport parking lot. (It was only half a mile or so, and there wasn't a good place on the side of the road before then.) I'd managed to knock the tire off the wheel. AAA was there in less than an hour and Art got to pick up Alex. They came to the airport to get me and got to watch the tow truck load the car up. Alex was watching out of the jeep window. I was worried that he might be upset about the car so I went over to talk to him. What did he have to say to me? "Hi, Mom. Do you have my snack?" Art committed the cardinal sin of picking him up without a snack and drink in hand. Luckily, I was prepared, and got the necessary supplies out of the car before it was taken away. Mostly-happy ending: I had to have a new tire but nothing else was damaged.

The Abbott & Costello film festival is over for the time being. The movie was due back at the library yesterday. We did get to watch "Ride 'Em Cowboy" before we had to return it. Highlights: Ella Fitzgerald sang and they bottle-fed a baby pig. (I just like baby pigs.) Alex is perfecting his imitation of Costello calling Abbott (whose name was Chick in one, Chuck in another)when he's scared, "Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chuck!!!!" It's pretty good. I haven't told him yet but I got another one for him from Netflix, so we're all set for family movie night!

I got to the school this afternoon wondering what today's report might bring. I was greeted with, "This place is TORTURE!" I'm pretty sure some of the teachers would agree. I know I would working with that many preschoolers. His main complaints are they have dumb movies and they tried to serve him a sugar wafer for snack when he wanted a chocolate chip cookie. Also, Hunter, who regular readers will remember, is still following him around and trying to trip him. Alex says he is making an effort to report transgressions instead of dealing with them himself. I'm not sure how well that's working as he had "four or five" timeouts today for hitting. Art threatened to take away his Bakugan toys if we kept hearing this report. Hopefully that makes an impression.

I think it did. He helped me set the table for supper, then ate, actually ATE, not just pushed around on his plate, garlic mashed potatoes, honey ginger glazed carrots and chicken. Then he had "cinnamon" bread for dessert. I successfully mashed the bananas and mixed them in the batter unnoticed for the second time in a month. Amazing!

Speaking of baking, I have to make a cake tomorrow night. We have wonderful news in the family. Art's sister Tracy's house passed inspection by the county building inspector today. The contractor is all but finished with the repairs from the fire damage. She can start moving in now. Art's parents are gleeful over the phone. I'm sure everyone will be happy to get back to normal after six weeks of displacement (and overcrowding). Back to the cake, I don't know which building inspector gave the final okay, but he's getting a cake!

Double Double Toil and Trouble

Art got a new hobby in December 2008. He decided to embark on beer brewing. I don't drink it, so I can't swear that it's any different from the store-bought stuff. It seems like a lot more work, though. Anyway, after a good batch, then a not-so-good batch, he got around to ordering the supplies and making a new batch. I immediately saw this as a father-son bonding experience. Alex was all over it. He wanted to help Dad with his 'speriment. He was fascinated with the "potion" that Art was making. Alas, he asked many questions while Art was trying to do higher math and make notations in his special notebook. Fortunately everyone made it through. I really am not sure what Alex thinks they did. He keeps referring to the potion that is burbling away in the spare room, and he loved all of the nifty looking science experiment equipment. Art did tell him it was beer, but I think Alex would rather think of it as some sort of chemically engineered super-potion. Here are some pictures of the process.

Kindergarten tour

This week Alex, Art & I went to his soon-to-be elementary school for a tour. The tour went well. I was afraid we might have trouble because he thought it meant that he'd be starting school the next day. I told him we'd put the date on his calendar so he could keep up with it. August 17th seems like a long way off, but I'm sure it won't be.

There were about 20 of us in the group. It was funny - 8 boys, 2 girls. I wonder if all the groups were more boys. The principal told us about the school (775 kids in 4K - 5th grade) and showed us the cafeteria (Alex wanted to know why they had a stage in it), the gym, computer lab, science lab, music room, library and then the kindergarten wing. They have 6 kindergarten classrooms on one hall. They let us wander in and out of all the classrooms. It was very nice. They have "centers" or "stations" where they work on different things. There were groups doing art projects, math, reading and some computer stuff. They have the smart blackboards in all the rooms. We showed him that they have cubbies like at his school. He was excited to see a boy that he went to preschool with who is already in kindergarten.

At the end of the hall the door leads to a covered concrete area where they could add two more classrooms if they needed to. In the meantime they use it to do outdoor stuff when it's raining. It leads into the kindergarten playground. They also let us go through the first grade hall and see what they were working on. They were a little more business-like, everyone sitting at tables and working. We ended up in the school lobby where they had juice boxes and snacks. It was a nice mix, a lot of information for the parents but the kids were excited to see everything. It's a really nice school, just built in 2001. They have murals of local buildings on the walls and it's bright and airy. It's nice that all the grades have their own halls, too, so the kids don't really mix together with older ones too much.

When we left they handed out pinwheels and rubber ducks to match our nametags - "Kindergarten is just ducky". Alex refused the rubber duck on the grounds of babyish-ness. I took him back to preschool and left him telling all his compadres about kindergarten. I was hoping the rest of the day would go well and he wouldn't be too upset about being back at boring old preschool.

Unfortunately, he did tell some of the others that it was his last day and he wasn't coming back after Friday - he was going on to kindergarten. Two others in his class had gone for the tour and Gus was almost in tears, because they didn't say that HE could start kindergarten now. I have this picture in my head of Alex giving this "so long, suckers!" speech.

I got there to pick him up and while I was in the hall talking to the director I hear Ms. Sarah say, "Alex, go tell your mother how many time-outs you had today." Oh, crud. Turns out - ZERO! Not one all day. We're not sure why, but we didn't want to question him too closely. We celebrated by going to Waffle House. Alex told the waitress there that he'd had zero time-outs all day. "Oh," she said, "is that why you come in here, for days you don't have any time-outs?" (We go about every other week.) No, I explained, this had never happened before as far as I knew. Sigh.

Abbott and Costello update: We have now completed "Who Done It?," "In the Navy," "Pardon My Sarong" and "Keep 'Em Flying." We have three more to get through before the movie is due back at the library. Have no fear - Netflix delivered two more for us to watch when those are gone! And, as I suspected, there was no real ghost in the first one. Alex was a bit disappointed that there were no actual naval battles in "In the Navy." I explained it was more of a propaganda piece then history.

Who's on first? and Who has to potty?

Last night Art had a meeting, so Alex and I were headed to McDonald's. (Win-win, I get really sweet tea and he gets a toy, and, oh, yeah, a Happy Meal.) We'd made it about 10 seconds out of the school parking lot when he announced, "I have to go to the bathroom." "Can you make it to McDonald's?" "Yeah. Krabby and Froggy and Liony have to go, too."

Note: For those of you who don't know, Krabby, Froggy and Liony are some of the invisible menagerie that live with us. Krabby = a crab, Froggy = a frog, and Liony = well, Liony is an invisible robot. I have no idea why.

I thought about it for a second. "Is Mousy with us?" (Also an invisible tenant - a mouse.) From the backseat: "Yeah, but he doesn't have to potty." No word on why Mousy has the iron bladder of the bunch.

A couple of days ago Alex requested a movie from Netflix. "You know, with those two guys who are funny, and there was a mummy." It took a second for Abbott and Costello to dawn on me. I put them in our Netflix queue. I also checked our local library and requested the DVD they had. It contains 8 (!) Abbott and Costello movies on 2 discs. We may just have to buy it.

Alex is a well-known character at our library. In fact, he has his own librarian, Miss Patty. It cracks them up when he comes in asking, "Where is MY librarian?" He knows all of them now and has asked most of them to have dinner with us. So far none have taken us up on it. When we got home today they'd left a message on the answering machine that they had something on hold for us. After dinner we went to see what it was. I told him that it could be the Abbott and Costello movie and he fairly bounced into the library. At the desk he asked the ladies working, "Do-you-have-my-Abbott&Costello-movie-that-Mom-asked-you-to-get?" Very fast and all run together. They looked at me for clarification. "He wants to know if his Abbott and Costello movie is in." Why, yes, it was. "Alex, do you like Abbott and Costello?" they asked. This led to a confusing couple of minutes in which he summarized every movie of theirs he'd ever seen, thankfully without acting them out. They asked if he wanted to look for anything else. Nope, that's all we need. On the way home he sang a new song he'd written. The lyrics were:

Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Coste-eh-eh-lo
(repeat)

We managed to get halfway through "Hold That Ghost" tonight. Tommy Dorsey and his band open up the movie with the Andrews Sisters singing. He was watching the three of them. "Are they twins?" "No, just sisters." "Oh." I got him to go to bed by convincing him that the ghost wasn't real, just a bad guy with cheesecloth over his fedora. Sorry if I have spoiled the plot for any of you. Alex's favorite part so far: Costello trying to get water out of a pump, getting nothing, looking up the pump and getting soaked. My favorite part so far: they serve A & C dinner. "What is it?" "Duck." Costello dives under the table. We are a family of simple tastes. I'll let you know later if the ghost is real or not!

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Breaking Band News

Alex announced that his rock band has a new name - "Vampire Fire." He described their logo as a vampire's head with flames all around it. Me, "That sounds scary." Him, "It's supposed to be scary, Mom." The "Duh!" at the end of his reply was implied.

S is for Slinky and Strikeouts

Alex is thrilled that they are almost to "x" in the alphabet. I'm not sure why, maybe because it is the last letter in his name that they haven't studied. I'm kind of afraid that he thinks this whole education thing will be over once they have the alphabet mastered. After all, he can already count to 17. What more do you need?

Friday he took his Slinky for show and tell. Our first choice was his stuffed snake whose tongue pulls out, then the snake slithers across the floor as it winds back up. Unfortunately it is not a large snake and we could not find it in the boy's room. I'm sure it's just misfiled - he keeps it in such good order.

My boss left today for vacation and left baseball tickets for us. It wasn't raining so we headed to the baseball field. It takes all of 5 minutes to get from our house to the field. Clemson was playing NC State which may or may not have been important. It was the first ACC Conference game, or something. (Baseball is not a sport I have the attention span to watch.) It was a double header and we arrived in the fourth inning of the first game. There were a lot of people there, apparently there are a lot of die-hard baseball fans. I thought it might be emptier since spring break started today. We had to park a good ways out and slowly made our way to the seats. I think we made it through two innings. And they were fast innings. Alex professed, "I don't even like baseball. I like football. Can we go to a football game?" I tried to explain about sports seasons, but I don't think he really cared. He did say it would be better if he could actually play - he was astonished to learn that there were boys' baseball teams. I told him maybe we could think about doing that later. Hopefully, much later. We were back at the car: entire trip, one hour. I decided that was my last baseball game for a while. I'm not going to inflict sports upon someone who doesn't want to watch or play. I don't care enough about them! I didn't even get a chance to take out my crocheting.

Thursday we went to a kids' reading event at the library. The theme was pajamas and Alex was decked out in his favorite pair. College students read stories to the kids and then helped them make a craft relating to the book. I think he picked the first one just for the craft: they made trail mix and could eat it right then. The problem came up at the end, and you all know there was a problem. Alex wore his Ben 10 Alien Force pajamas. They are new and he thinks they are the coolest thing in the universe. He thought everyone would love them as much as he did. At the end of the evening they gave a prize for the "most creative" pajamas. When Michelle, the leader, announced she was ready to award the prize, Alex stood up. I asked him where he was going. "To get my prize!" Alas, he was not the winner. Luckily I was able to stop him and explain things before he got to the front of the room. He still thinks he has the coolest pajamas.

On our way out to the library we met Art coming in from the gym a couple of blocks from the house. We stopped and rolled down our windows and talked for a second. As he drove off Alex told me, "I REALLY like that guy." Good to hear.

News of the Weird

Alex and Art got their boomerang stuck about twenty feet up in a tree in the backyard. (Yes, "their" boomerang.) It was just barely hanging from a little branch. First they threw sticks at it, and narrowly avoided beaning each other. Then they moved on to a football, a rock, stick with string tied around it, an extended tape measure (that was really funny when it bent) and finally two pieces of 10 foot plastic conduit tied together. That was what finally got it down. Somewhere between the football and stick with string I went inside and got my camera. I took pictures for my blog. Art was a bit indignant about that. Tough - I told him he could get his own blog if he wanted to tell his side of the story! Unfortunately between the distance I had to stand back (for my own safety) and the twilight, the pictures aren't very good. The picture on the top left shows the lowest branch on the white pine - where it was stuck. The one on the top right shows Alex capering around while Art works on their tools. This one here is Alex avoiding missile throws into the tree. He took off yelling, "Take cover!"

At bedtime tonight Alex announced that he was taking hugs but not kisses. I told him that it was in the mommy manual that I had to have at least one kiss. He is very skeptical about there being an actual manual. I told him it was top-secret and he couldn't see it.

He came home yesterday and said, "There's going to be a new tree in a few days." Very proud of himself. I asked if they planted a tree. Last year they planted grass seed at school, so I thought it was some kind of project. "Yes, we dug a hole, spit in it and put an acorn in. They need water to grow." I asked WHO did this, "Me, Augustus and Peyton, on the playground." I guess if they stick to spitting in the ground and not at each other it'll be okay. Art said to be glad that they didn't find any alternate ways to water it. I'm afraid they're going to be disappointed if it doesn't sprout soon. I'll let you know if we grow a tree!

Robots, Reenactors and a Secret Recipe

Yesterday was one of our favorite competitions on campus. It wasn't basketball or baseball, but the Lego FIRST Robotics competition, middle school division. I don't remember now how we stumbled on it a few years ago but Alex is a devoted fan. We sit in the basketball arena for hours watching these teams and their robots. Alex is partial to the high schoolers, mainly because their robots are bigger and it's easier to see the action. The middle schoolers' robots are usually smaller than a bread box, and they compete on tables that are 4' x 8'. They get a kit with a battery and remote control stuff and they have to build a robot that will do a series of tasks - picking things up, moving them around, etc. They make the competition really fun, though, and all the schools really get into the spirit of things. They have names, logos and slogans for each team and wear matching t-shirts and accessories. The crowd is a hoot, too. They'll wear their team's colors and have signs, cheer for them, etc. Half of the ball court is for competition and the other half is the "pit" where each team has their table with supplies, project information and spare parts. We go through that when the action slows down. We made it until noon this year, I think so Alex could eat an overpriced hot dog. The older kids' meet will be in a few weeks and we definitely want to see that, as well.

Something new this year at the competition: reenactors wearing Star Wars' storm troopers costumes. Turns out they are reenactors. (I guess not historical reenactors, like our friends who play dress-up and do the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. Unless, of course, you believe the whole Star Wars intro: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." And, I am proud to say - I had to look that up online. I DID NOT know it by heart.) Alex was fascinated by all the storm troopers, Jedi knights, etc. It kind of freaked me out. These are not supposed to be good guys. I did get a picture of Alex with a storm trooper but there was a miscommunication between me and my phone, so it didn't come out. They were very detail-oriented, with a banner announcing that they were the 501st Squadron of the storm troopers. I will make no more comments on how they spend their free time.

Ah, my recipe for the week. Due to a overstock of bananas we had a few that were extremely ripe and I decided to make banana bread. The problem is after being his favorite food for the first 18 months to 2 years of his life, Alex decided he could not possibly eat bananas. Ever. And as far as I know, he has not. So, when Art came through to ask if I was making banana bread, I told him no, I am not. I am making Super Secret Undercover Banana Bread from my Cake Mix Doctor cookbook:

Super Secret Undercover Banana Bread (aka Ripe Banana Loaves)

1 package plain yellow cake mix
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 very ripe medium bananas, peeled and mashed
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two loaf pans and dust with flour. Shake out excess flour and set aside. Place the cake mix, brown sugar, mashed bananas, buttermilk, oil, eggs and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium for 2 minutes more, scraping the sides again if needed. The batter should be well blended and the bananas should be well pureed. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and place them in the oven.

Bake the loaves until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of each comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and place them on racks to cool for 20 minutes. Invert each loaf onto a rack to cool on its side for 30 minutes or more. Slice and serve.

Note: They smell delicious. I really couldn't get away with saying there are no bananas in it if Alex was over 5. Maybe the under 5 set and those who didn't have a sense of smell.

"R" is for Revenge?

This week Alex’s class is studying R. For show and tell he took his Robin action figure (i.e., Batman & Robin). We’ve had an interesting week. There was almost no snow at our house Tuesday and we’d really been looking forward to Wednesday and kindergarten orientation. Unfortunately, Wednesday was a bust. Due to the icy weather the kindergarten open house was cancelled. I thought Alex would be upset but he took it pretty well. I told him they were going to reschedule, so he’d still get to go and see everything. He was in a good mood – until we got to school.

Those of you that think the little monkey-boy is fairly sweet should probably skip this part. We got to school and everyone was already playing and running around. The boys were building things with Legos. As I told him goodbye one of his classmates walked by, carrying a Lego tower in front of him. Alex reached out and just smashed it in two. The kid started crying and Alex would only growl, “Sorry.” I thought it was a frustration thing about having to come to school at all. I should have known better.

When I picked him up I went in to ask his teacher if he’d had a good day. Not so much. She asked if I’d ever heard him talk about Hunter. I knew there was a Hunter in the 3-year-old class but hadn’t heard anything about him from Alex. Turns out that the day went on as it started. Hunter is fairly new and there has been some trouble between him and the other boys (mostly Alex). Alex admits that he had four, maybe five, time-outs on Wednesday. He couldn’t pin it down more than that. Alex (and other witnesses!) says that Hunter called him a “baby” and tripped him. Our little darling spat on him. Lovely, no? He skipped right above time-out to visit with the school director.

When Mrs. Karen asked why he and Hunter were having such trouble, Alex replied, “Apparently, I don’t like him.” He also said that he wanted to hit him because he called him a baby and tripped him. Karen probably held it together better than I would. She pointed out that we can’t hit (or spit on) people we don’t like. She also mentioned to me that Hunter has been playing with Alex’s two best buddies and that may have caused some jealousy issues. She decided to have a class wide discussion on behavior the next day because when the spitting occurred another classmate said, “Wait to go, Alex!” Did I mention there are only two girls in Alex’s class? Neither was involved in any of the spitting, hitting, tripping or name-calling. Sigh. Maybe they need to recruit more girls.

I told Alex if we had any more trouble we would first take away TV, then Bakugan toys, and then, I just didn’t know. He asked what that meant. I told him it’d be something so horrible he wouldn’t want to think about it. I’ll keep you posted!

Q is for Quiche

Alex's class has been studying different letters every week and last week was "Q." Since his all-time favorite food is quiche, he wanted to take it for show and tell on Friday. I thought the easiest way to do that would be in miniature form. It was a little different than our usual recipe but I made them that morning and took two dozen tiny little quiches to his class. (Well, two dozen less the two that Alex and I had to "zample" as he says. You know, quality control.) They were still warm when we got there and the 3 and 4 year olds had them for morning snack. I guess they liked them - there weren't any left over to bring home.

Here's Alex's quiche recipe:

Refrigerator Pie from Alton Brown

frozen pie crust
filling of choice (we like bacon or turkey and cheese)
2 eggs
1 cup half and half
2 pinches salt
ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put filling in pie crust. Beat eggs, half and half and salt together. Pour into crust. Grind nutmeg over the pie. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. When done, let cool for 15 minutes before cutting. Alex thinks this makes 3 or 4 servings. If you have salad or soup with it, 6 or 8 servings. (Especially if you have fillings like veggies.)

In a non-food related development I re-started my early morning gym trips. I hope by putting it on here it will encourage me to keep them up. My latest allergy attacks are easing up and I have my handy-dandy inhaler now. I'm working towards getting back into my spin class three mornings a week, but I definitely have to work up to those. Of course, we're supposed to have snow all day tomorrow. Let's hope it holds off until mid-morning like the predictions say.

If I don't check in tomorrow - everyone have a Happy Dr. Seuss's birthday!