The allergy monster has been running amok around here. I think I'm finally getting it under control but it's been miserable. The neighborhood is beautiful, just everything is dusted in yellow. The azaleas are towards the end of their run, and the dogwoods, too. While I love the beautiful flowers I can't wait for everything to finish blooming!
So, to catch up on my Alex stories for the past week or so. From yesterday, when we were discussing baldness for no reason:
Alex: Krabby is bald.
Me: He is? He doesn't have ANY hair?
Alex: Mom, he's a crab.
Should have seen that one coming. He also had a big announcement to make last week. He broke it to me and Art:
Alex: There's going to be some changes around here.
Art: Oh, really? Like what?
Alex: Well, first, I'm going to watch TV every night. Except when I'm bad at school. And, I'm going to floss every day.
Me: Is that all?
Alex: No, I'm going to get a baby brother, too.
Me: From where?
Alex: The doctor.
A few days later he mentioned the baby brother again.
Me: You're still getting a baby brother?
Alex: Remember, Mom?! CHANGES!
Me: Are you flossing every day?
Alex: Oh, not yet.
It turns out that Richie, a three-year-old at his school, just got a baby brother. I told Alex maybe he should see how it turned out for Richie before he rushed into anything.
In other school news yesterday they learned about "Feathered Friends" and Cade's dad brought one of their own personal chickens to meet the class. Poor bird. Alex did a great impression of it being "startled" by Noah and flapping across the room. Startled was his word, not mine. I figure it was more scared to death.
The big news around here these days is the impending visit by Mimi and Paw. Alex is doing a countdown. They are coming the day after Show and Tell, AND he gets to stay home from school two days to visit them. Way exciting!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Hard-Working Husband
I just wanted to show off Art's latest project. We'd been talking about replacing the old sliding glass doors we had, and he decided to do it a couple of weeks ago. I was a little concerned about the large whole in the house but it worked out well. He had the usual problem with our house - nothing is square, level or straight. It looks great now, though!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Magic on the Reading List
This weekend Alex discovered a box of books we stored in his closet. After a few questions on the Kate Turabian Manual of Style (aka “torture device from graduate school writing”) he moved on to the stack of Harry Potter books. While the child denies the ability to read letters, he knew that they were Harry Potter books because he “saw a commercial” about them. The day he got them out I put the one he brought to me back in the box and didn’t think much about it. Until I was getting ready for bed. That was when I noticed the Turabian book between the laundry basket and the wall. Hmm. So I put it away and started to get into bed. Then I noticed the lumps. Two more Harry Potter books were in our bed. I picked those up as well. I guess we were doing an Easter egg/hide and seek type thing with them. The next morning Alex asked if I’d found them. This is why we confiscated the real Easter eggs after the egghunts Sunday.
While Art was at a meeting Monday night Alex asked me to read the Harry Potter books to him. I thought, sure, why not? He’d never sit still for a very long book with very few pictures. The first night we read 46 pages. He never got tired! Last night I limited him to one chapter – 11 more pages. We’ll see how long he lasts.
We’ve had to do more inside activities. The air is glowing yellow with pollen. The neighborhood has been beautiful for the past week or so. First the tulips and forsythia started blooming, and the camellias were still gorgeous. Now all of the flowering trees are really coming out. The dogwoods in the neighborhood are almost at full bloom and we have some gorgeous azaleas. If only I could breathe when I was outdoors!
While Art was at a meeting Monday night Alex asked me to read the Harry Potter books to him. I thought, sure, why not? He’d never sit still for a very long book with very few pictures. The first night we read 46 pages. He never got tired! Last night I limited him to one chapter – 11 more pages. We’ll see how long he lasts.
We’ve had to do more inside activities. The air is glowing yellow with pollen. The neighborhood has been beautiful for the past week or so. First the tulips and forsythia started blooming, and the camellias were still gorgeous. Now all of the flowering trees are really coming out. The dogwoods in the neighborhood are almost at full bloom and we have some gorgeous azaleas. If only I could breathe when I was outdoors!
Three Things I Learned About Krabby This Week
1) His girlfriend’s middle name is Sally
2) He wears Power Ranger underwear (I hear – can’t see since he is invisible AND imaginary)
3) He did so well at his job at Subway that they sent Alex a letter telling him that Krabby had made such a good sandwich that they gave him an extra day off
Again, he must be much better at work than he is at home because there he gets blamed for a lot of things.
2) He wears Power Ranger underwear (I hear – can’t see since he is invisible AND imaginary)
3) He did so well at his job at Subway that they sent Alex a letter telling him that Krabby had made such a good sandwich that they gave him an extra day off
Again, he must be much better at work than he is at home because there he gets blamed for a lot of things.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Alex's Alternate Uses for Easter Grass
Mimi sent Alex an Easter box full of treats and a pair of red Crocs. (His annual pair, I think we're on his third.) She used lime green Easter grass as packing material. Here is what he's done with it so far:
Use 1: pom-poms. Alex woke me up yesterday morning, standing in my bedroom door, both hands full of Easter grass. "Go, Clemson!" Shake, shake, shake. "Oh, look, Mom, I left a trail from the living room." I bet you did.
Use 2: bug cemetery. I was in the back of the house this morning when I heard a large THUD. "Alex, what was that?" "Oh, I just killed a bug." Okay. When I came into the living room a few minutes later there was a pile of Easter grass on the wood floor. "What's that?" Alex said, "Oh, that's where I killed the bug." Art joined us at that point. "Where is the bug?" I asked. "Oh, it's under the grass," Alex explained. Huh? "Mom, it's his century." I was puzzled, "Century?" "Yeah, he's dead, it's his century." Art got it. "Is it his cemetery?" Alex was very pleased, "Yes, it's his cemetery." After that, I threw the Easter grass away.
Use 1: pom-poms. Alex woke me up yesterday morning, standing in my bedroom door, both hands full of Easter grass. "Go, Clemson!" Shake, shake, shake. "Oh, look, Mom, I left a trail from the living room." I bet you did.
Use 2: bug cemetery. I was in the back of the house this morning when I heard a large THUD. "Alex, what was that?" "Oh, I just killed a bug." Okay. When I came into the living room a few minutes later there was a pile of Easter grass on the wood floor. "What's that?" Alex said, "Oh, that's where I killed the bug." Art joined us at that point. "Where is the bug?" I asked. "Oh, it's under the grass," Alex explained. Huh? "Mom, it's his century." I was puzzled, "Century?" "Yeah, he's dead, it's his century." Art got it. "Is it his cemetery?" Alex was very pleased, "Yes, it's his cemetery." After that, I threw the Easter grass away.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Safety Day & Egg-speriments
I have no idea what they really call it, but every year on Good Friday the local police have a big event for kids. They have police cars, boats, helicopters, etc., basically every sort of police vehicle you can imagine. There are fire trucks, ambulances, bounce houses, canine police units and much, much more. Alex has been a couple of times and I invited our niece and her son and daughter to go with us.
I had the day off so we slept in. I asked Alex what he would like for breakfast: "Waffles, eggs and bacon." No. How about biscuits, eggs and bacon? That would work, too. He recently discovered fried eggs. He saw their picture on the Waffle House menu and insisted we try some. He loved them. Well. I have never fried an egg. They always looked disgusting to me. The only way I usually will eat them is scrambled. That is my favorite form. I asked if he wanted a fried egg. Of course he did. What to do? I got the handy Better Homes & Garden red plaid cookbook down. It is my go-to guide when I need basic cooking information. And I do mean basic. It had a recipe for fried eggs! Hooray! Apparently I did not follow it correctly. The first one went into the trash. This depressed me to no end, especially since Angel's daughter Evelyn (age 7) can do this procedure ALONE. Evelyn, may I come learn how you do this?
I tried winging it with the second and it at least looked correct. Don't know how it tasted but he ate it all. The frozen biscuits and pre-cooked bacon worked out as well. And, yes, I know how bad that sounds for my reputation as a chef.
On to Safety Day! We packed up the kids in their carseats in the backseat of my car. The fire trucks were the first thing we saw, and the boys got to climb inside to have their picture made.
Will is almost 4 and his favorite things in the world are "hoppitys". Three-year-old translation: helicopters. He has expressed a desire to own one along with his Nana (Art's sister Tracy) in which he will "drive" them wherever he wants to go. So a major draw of Safety Day was the possibility of seeing a helicopter. We lucked out, there was not one, not two but THREE. The first was a police helicopter that we got to see but not get in. The EMTs at the hospital helicopter let Will and Gracie get in the passenger part and have their picture made. Alex wasn't so sure about getting inside but did get close enough to have his picture made with the others.
The boys also were measured and got new bicycle helmets, as well as everyone getting yo-yo's that light up, coloring books and stickers. It was a great day except for the heat. We left after a couple of hours because it was too hot and I was already a little sunburned.
Alex and I wrapped up the afternoon with a movie. We went to see "How To Train Your Dragon" and highly recommend it. The movie was a bribe. In the hierarchy of preschoolers Alex is king of the hill and Will and Gracie are "babies." I promised if he played nice and didn't cause any commotion I'd take him to the movie. It worked out. Now I'm going to take my pink self to the couch for the rest of the evening. It's been a long day!
I had the day off so we slept in. I asked Alex what he would like for breakfast: "Waffles, eggs and bacon." No. How about biscuits, eggs and bacon? That would work, too. He recently discovered fried eggs. He saw their picture on the Waffle House menu and insisted we try some. He loved them. Well. I have never fried an egg. They always looked disgusting to me. The only way I usually will eat them is scrambled. That is my favorite form. I asked if he wanted a fried egg. Of course he did. What to do? I got the handy Better Homes & Garden red plaid cookbook down. It is my go-to guide when I need basic cooking information. And I do mean basic. It had a recipe for fried eggs! Hooray! Apparently I did not follow it correctly. The first one went into the trash. This depressed me to no end, especially since Angel's daughter Evelyn (age 7) can do this procedure ALONE. Evelyn, may I come learn how you do this?
I tried winging it with the second and it at least looked correct. Don't know how it tasted but he ate it all. The frozen biscuits and pre-cooked bacon worked out as well. And, yes, I know how bad that sounds for my reputation as a chef.
On to Safety Day! We packed up the kids in their carseats in the backseat of my car. The fire trucks were the first thing we saw, and the boys got to climb inside to have their picture made.
Will is almost 4 and his favorite things in the world are "hoppitys". Three-year-old translation: helicopters. He has expressed a desire to own one along with his Nana (Art's sister Tracy) in which he will "drive" them wherever he wants to go. So a major draw of Safety Day was the possibility of seeing a helicopter. We lucked out, there was not one, not two but THREE. The first was a police helicopter that we got to see but not get in. The EMTs at the hospital helicopter let Will and Gracie get in the passenger part and have their picture made. Alex wasn't so sure about getting inside but did get close enough to have his picture made with the others.
The boys also were measured and got new bicycle helmets, as well as everyone getting yo-yo's that light up, coloring books and stickers. It was a great day except for the heat. We left after a couple of hours because it was too hot and I was already a little sunburned.
Alex and I wrapped up the afternoon with a movie. We went to see "How To Train Your Dragon" and highly recommend it. The movie was a bribe. In the hierarchy of preschoolers Alex is king of the hill and Will and Gracie are "babies." I promised if he played nice and didn't cause any commotion I'd take him to the movie. It worked out. Now I'm going to take my pink self to the couch for the rest of the evening. It's been a long day!
Catching Up on Other News
Things I have missed in the past week. The car continued to turn against me. The other evening at the library, I dropped my keys getting out (unbeknownst to me) and locked them inside. Luckily Art was home and able to come unlock the doors for us when we came out and realized we were stranded. Actually, he drove into the library parking lot, rolled his window down and clicked the button. Alex said, "I didn't believe he'd come." I'm not sure why he thought Art would leave us there but we are keeping our eyes on him.
Friday's show and tell was "T" and as Alex and I were talking before he went to sleep I asked what he wanted to take. He answered as if he'd thought about it all week - "toast." Oh, okay. So, Friday morning as we were finishing our preparations to leave, I popped a piece of bread into the toaster oven. When it was done, I laid it out on the counter to cool so that I could put it in a bag. When I was ready I called Alex to come get his jacket on.
Alex: "Where's my toast?"
Me: "I put it over there on the counter."
Now some of you who know Alex may say the problem here. I honestly did not think of it until right at this moment:
Alex: "That's not enough for everybody!"
Oh, he wanted me to make toast for his entire class and take it to school for show and tell. We definitely did not have enough bread for his whole class. Even if we did, I was not taking 15+ cold pieces of toast for his class to snack on. I convinced him that we could cut the toast into quarters and we ended up taking 16 squares. His teacher thought toast was a great idea. I was happy that he'd thought of it on his own, without us having to go through everything in the house that started with the letter T. When I picked him up Friday the toast bag was still mostly full. I asked why they didn't eat it. "Well, Julian took two squares and I was afraid there wasn't going to be enough for everyone, so I put the rest back in my cubby." Love that logic of his.
I thought it would be fun for us to go to a concert last weekend. Billy Jonas is a really fun children's music singer that they play on the kids' satellite radio station. When I asked Alex if we should go he said no. I explained that it was a concert, the singer was really going to be there and that he was someone we listened to on the radio. "Then we can hear him on the radio." Obviously. Why would we travel across town for that?
The Abbott and Costello film fest continues, courtesy of Netflix. This week we've been through "Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I wasn't here for the first one but Art said he'd never heard Alex laugh so hard. The second one was interesting for me because we'd seen pretty much the exact same plot on Tom and Jerry a few days before.
Alex discovered Tom & Jerry a few months ago. They play them early on Saturdays on Cartoon Network. I came in last Saturday to see the two of them playing nice and I asked Alex what the deal was. His explanation? "Sometimes they have friendship, sometimes it's a trap." I think that is Tom & Jerry in a nutshell.
Friday's show and tell was "T" and as Alex and I were talking before he went to sleep I asked what he wanted to take. He answered as if he'd thought about it all week - "toast." Oh, okay. So, Friday morning as we were finishing our preparations to leave, I popped a piece of bread into the toaster oven. When it was done, I laid it out on the counter to cool so that I could put it in a bag. When I was ready I called Alex to come get his jacket on.
Alex: "Where's my toast?"
Me: "I put it over there on the counter."
Now some of you who know Alex may say the problem here. I honestly did not think of it until right at this moment:
Alex: "That's not enough for everybody!"
Oh, he wanted me to make toast for his entire class and take it to school for show and tell. We definitely did not have enough bread for his whole class. Even if we did, I was not taking 15+ cold pieces of toast for his class to snack on. I convinced him that we could cut the toast into quarters and we ended up taking 16 squares. His teacher thought toast was a great idea. I was happy that he'd thought of it on his own, without us having to go through everything in the house that started with the letter T. When I picked him up Friday the toast bag was still mostly full. I asked why they didn't eat it. "Well, Julian took two squares and I was afraid there wasn't going to be enough for everyone, so I put the rest back in my cubby." Love that logic of his.
I thought it would be fun for us to go to a concert last weekend. Billy Jonas is a really fun children's music singer that they play on the kids' satellite radio station. When I asked Alex if we should go he said no. I explained that it was a concert, the singer was really going to be there and that he was someone we listened to on the radio. "Then we can hear him on the radio." Obviously. Why would we travel across town for that?
The Abbott and Costello film fest continues, courtesy of Netflix. This week we've been through "Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I wasn't here for the first one but Art said he'd never heard Alex laugh so hard. The second one was interesting for me because we'd seen pretty much the exact same plot on Tom and Jerry a few days before.
Alex discovered Tom & Jerry a few months ago. They play them early on Saturdays on Cartoon Network. I came in last Saturday to see the two of them playing nice and I asked Alex what the deal was. His explanation? "Sometimes they have friendship, sometimes it's a trap." I think that is Tom & Jerry in a nutshell.
Last Friday afternoon Alex and I took off of work and school early so that we could go to the regional robotics competition. These are teams of amazing high schoolers from all over the state, country and some from as far as Brazil and Israel. They work for months to design robots that will play a game in the competition. It's a different game every year and sometimes fairly hard to follow. This year the game was based on soccer and there were six teams on the field at once. The robots got extra points if they could climb a pole at the end of the 2 minute time period. Alex and I stayed for a couple of hours, cheering for teams we thought were interesting, him peeling and eating roasted peanuts. The teams and their fans (other students, coaches and parents) really get into the competition - wearing matching t-shirts, having a mascot and bringing all sorts of stuff to cheer with. They play music throughout the day and I got to share the joy of dancing to "YMCA" with Alex and the rest of the crowd. A good time was had by all.
After the competition I made Alex put on his Easter outfit so we could take some "grandma" pictures at the Botanical Gardens. I had him change his socks, too, because most of his school socks are no longer white by any stretch of the imagination. He decided that his tennis shoes weren't white either and that he must wear his church shoes. The garden was incredible. Their camellia section was in full bloom as well as their tulip trees, buttercups and lenten roses. There were lots of people strolling through, several taking pictures. This one shows Alex's trademark cheesy grin. (And was not included in the Easter cards I sent out!)
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