Can you guess what stage jakey is in?

I did NOT teach him the finger wave. He thought that up all by himself.

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Anthony Cracks Me Up

We have some totally delightful neighbors.  Lucinda, Anthony and Becca (oh yeah, and Scott - husbands are always at work and get forgotten).  We spend a lot of time together and swap babysitting and trade off bus stop pickup from the kindergarten drop off.  Anthony is Ben's very best friend in the entire world.  Lucinda told me once that when she asks Anthony if he wants a playdate he will immediately say yes and ask when he can go to Bens/have Ben come to his house.  I'd say the feeling is the same from Ben.  They have tunnel vision, the two best friends.

 

Today Ben and Anthony were playing at our house and discussing which days they might have to miss swim practice because of t-ball and soccer practice.  One of them suggested that if it rained that would be another reason to miss some of their practices when I heard the following.

 

Ben: "Yeah, 'cuz if it rains then the sand on your t-ball place will be mud."

Anthony: "Maybe, but really if it rains then the grass will grow and they have to keep the grass at a certain tall."

 

Yes.  I'm sure they cancel practices regularly because of a serious phobia of growing grass. 

 

In other news, Anthony told me today that his mom got a new computer and wanted to check if I had the same kind as her.  While he inspected mine he absent mindedly said, "I think my mom got a new computer because she got so tired of me asking her if I can play games on hers."  It's even twice that funny too, because if I understand things from mom correctly, Anthony didn't exactly inherit the old computer, dad took it to work.

 

We all love Anthony around here.  He's a funny kid and always nice to Maddie and Jacob.

You Know You're A Good Cook When...

you ask your kids what they want for lunch, offering the suggestion of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Maddie replies, "No. I want the kind of sandwich that has all the grease all over inside of it." By probing, I learned she wanted grilled cheese sandwich, but still makes you feel just a little bit bad if that's how your cooking is described.

Center Piece

We went last night to the late night party. It was fun. The kids did okay.
Jacob was a wild man with the dancing and everyone there enjoyed watching
his moves all night. Eventually he found the drinking fountain in the hall
complete with a stool to help him get up. Lovely. I really loved the
centerpieces made of fruit. The kids loved it too and ate every piece of
fruit at our table.

They got in bed at 10:15 pm. Way too late. And the two big kids were up at
6:30 this morning. Can you say mandatory naptime today??

I Can't That Night, I'm Washing My Hair

We're supposed to go to a family party tonight. It starts at 7:30 pm. That's bedtime. I'm doing what I can to set the kids up for success, but I don't know how this will go over in the end. I've been considering changing our plans and claiming that I have to wash my hair tonight. My other out is that I can't miss the National Spelling Bee on TV tonight. Really it is. And you wouldn't want to miss that. Do they broadcast the National Spelling Bee anywhere else? I don't ever remember that anywhere else. Maybe it's a DC thing. I'm hoping tonight works out and is loads of fun, but I'm bringing extra binkies just in case.

Will Power

Meetings tonight. On the drive home after 9pm I was thinking to myself. Telling myself that if I was serious about losing the muffin top, I had better quit eating candy bars and chocolate muffins. I was resigned upon my arrival to eating an orange if anything at all. Thirty minutes later, Brian got some ice cream. Tempting, but I was strong. I don't need that. Then he sat down next to me and turned on the computer to watch a show we missed this week. Crunch. That soft, beatiful chocolate ice cream had crunchy things in it. I couldn't resist. "What is the crunchy stuff in that ice cream?" "Peanut butter cups," came the reply. All hope was lost. Now, I'm eating ice cream next to my sweetheart. I'll have oranges tomorrow.

Using Your Imagination Outdoors

It's been a long, long, long day. Usually is, when I have an overwhelming amount of computer work to do and the kids are in my care. There is never a moment that they don't need something or just need to be within two feet of me and loud, loud, loud. I was grumpy. Finally I got Jacob down for a much needed nap. Maddie set up with a little show in an attempt to trick her into a nap. Ben and Anthony figured out how to have fun in the back yard. They tied a rope around our Clifford the dog backyard swing and one kid would pull it up as high as they could get it to go in the air while the other kid squirted Clifford with a water gun. They squealed and giggled like crazy for nearly an hour when I finally noticed they had found some new fun. Somehow they caught on to the fact that when the outside unit for the air conditioner goes on the fan blows really, really hard. They put their faces above the fan to make their hair go wild, sang songs into it to hear their funny voices and found one lone pile of autumn leaves tucked behind the unit to throw up in the air currents and watch the leaves go wild every which way in the air. It brightened my day to see their complete and total joy. They are really, truly good boys and I'm glad Ben has found such a great friend.