Halloween

Turned out pretty good this year. We waited until the last minute (today) to carve pumpkins and finish Parker's costume, but it all worked out well. The kids trick or treated on our block and that was enough for the girls. Parker and his pal Aidan (aka the Dragon) did a few more houses, but announced quickly they were done. They handed out candy to other kids for while, then ate too much of their own and crashed. Parker got lots of compliments on his costume even though some thought he was the tin man or a crayon. Compared with all the super heros and princesses, he was definitely an outlier. He also designed his own pumpkin face which turned out pretty damn funny (far right below).










Earlier in the day, I took the girls to a local business district where they closed off the street and all the merchants had candy for the kids. Eli and Miranda mostly seemed shocked, but got into the whole "stick out your bag for chocolate deal". Who wouldn't be really?

Sleep

I look forward to Thursday nights all week. Michael and I watch Project Runway and then Survivor. We also sometimes watch The Office and 30 Rock, but I usually record them and watch the next day as I have to get to sleep in order to get up for Boot Camp.

Last night, I only made it about 20 minutes in Project Runway before I fell asleep. I didn't feel tired all day but when I hit the couch, I was done. Michael woke me up and said, "You should go to bed." So I did and actually got 8 hours before getting up at 4:30. Amazing!

Michael on the other hands had two girls screaming for no reason at 2am. Fantastic.

Parker Lies Again

My ethical boy seems to have found something he likes: lying.

Yesterday he didn't eat much of his lunch at school. I asked him why not since he usually eats all of it. He said that Circle Time went really long and lunch was really short. Sounded plausible.

Today, he did it again but ate almost nothing. So I asked him again while we were still at school why he didn't eat his lunch. He thought for a moment and then said, "Mrs. Loey didn't let us have a long lunch again and I didn't have time to eat it."

So we went over to Mrs. Loey and I said, "Parker hasn't eaten his lunch two days in a row and he says the reason is because you have been doing long circle times and this is making lunch short."

She responds: "No that isn't the case, but some kids do like to socialize too much during the 30 minute lunch time and this keeps them from eating."

Parker then says, "Ryan and Charlie were making me laugh so much during lunch that I didn't have time to eat."

I found the whole thing pretty sweet actually. He's got friends that make him laugh. That's more important than lunch on some days I think.

The mother in all of us.

Miranda came over to me this morning with her baby under her shirt. She said, "This baby has her mouth on my boobie."

I said, "Why is she doing that?"

She said, "She is doing that because she is a baby and babies put their mouths on mommy's boobies."

I said, "But do you know whey put their mouths on their mommy's boobies?"

She said, "No."

So I explained.

Then she proudly said, "This baby is getting milk!" smiled and walked away.

TPS: One Duck Stuck

One of Parker's favorite books when he was 2 or so was One Duck Stuck. So I got it out of the library today for the girls. It's about a duck that gets stuck in the muck and all his swampy friends (snakes, crickets, frogs) try to help him out. It's a counting books, so it starts with 1 duck, 2 frogs, 3 whatever, etc. None of them can get him out, but then at the end they all work together to free him from the muck.

We read it at bedtime tonight but to keep it interesting for Parker, at the end I asked him, "So Parker, if all the animals helped him out, how many animals was that?"

Without pausing to do the first set of addition, he says, "Well, 55 plus 9 is 64 so 64 animals." I turned to Michael and said, "Is that right?" not being willing to add up 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10, but thinking it didn't sound right. I started to tell Parker he was wrong because there was only 1 duck and 1+2+3+...+10 equaled 55, but then he showed me the last page which shows all the animals helping him in a sort of montage of shots across the page and the duck is in each one. Parker assumed that they were different ducks (rather than the same duck in each frame) and added them all in as 9 (since there were only 9 other animals and hence 9 other duck pictured.) Got all that?

In any case, Parker was right, according to his view, so we went on to the next book where there was no counting, just silly George and Martha.

Bucket sitting.

The girls never get sick of sitting in buckets.

Mommy and Miranda

Elizabeth the photographer strikes again.

Unlikely pair.

In general, Parker isn't fond of Elizabeth. He spends most of his time with Miranda. They holds hands, sit together, play games together. So this picture is particularly sweet.

TPS: Elevators

In the car on the way to god knows where...

Parker: Mommy, the elevator at the hotel near the museum we went to (2 months ago) had these buttons: L, C, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17. Isn't that a lot?

Me: Yes. Was there no 13?

Parker: Nope.

Me: Do you know why?

Parker: Because there wasn't room for it.

Me: Oh...

Good news for the future.

And speaking of Parker, I heard some good news that will hopefully benefit him next year. Aidan, his buddy who was able to read at about 3, and who goes to the public school Parker will attend, was moved to 1st grade for Math and Reading. His teacher realized he would not be challenged in Kindergarten in those disciplines so he goes to 1st grade for a couple hours each day. I'm not sure 1st grade will be sufficiently challenging either, but apparently that was the most he would be able to skip for now.

In any case, I was very encouraged by that news as I can't imagine what Parker will do when they are learning their numbers. Teach them which ones are prime?

TPS: quick multiplying

Parker: How many minutes until Jenna gets here?

Me: About 20.

Parker (literally without skipping a beat): So 1200 seconds?

Flu

2 trips, 3 kids, 6 shots, 2 cried, 0 stickers, 45 minutes, 2 ice creams, and we get to do it all again in a month.

Differences

To the age old question "what did you do at school today" here are the answers of my three kids.

Miranda: I did a project and I played with the kitty and I ran around and I sang a song and I did a project and saw Riley and did a project!

Elizabeth: Mom, you forgot to ask me what I did at school today!!! (Me, oh, what did you do?) Well...I first played with the stamps and made cards for everyone saying I love you and then posted them on the wall so I would not forget them. Then I did circle time where we sang this little light of mine (insert song here), then we had a snack and it was grapes, crackers, and juice.

Parker: I don't know.

Bad Guys

Every Wednesday after school, the kids play at the park across the street with the other boys from Parker's class (yes, they are all boys). It's incredibly sweet to see Parker having actual friends and actual conversations with those friends. What isn't incredibly sweet is all the things he is learning. Today, some of the boys were the good guys and the others were the bad guys. They would run around and chase each other and then change positions. Parker doesn't actually know what a bad guy or good guy is since super hero stuff hasn't come across our radar yet. But that didn't stop him from participating.

What did stop him from participating was the one kid who took a twig, pretended it was a giant "knife" and used it to the "cut Parker in half". Parker was not super stoked about that and got pretty anxious. I had to explain to the kid that sometimes Parker didn't want to play those games. The other kids asked, "Did he think I was really going to do it?" "Possibly," was my answer, so he went over to tell him he was just pretending.

Miranda got in on the action too by yelling to one of the boys, "You can't catch me!" Every so often the boy would try to catch her, but in general, he was oblivious to her taunts. Didn't stop her from doing it though.

This little light of mine.

At preschool, they always start circle time with the same song. Here is Miranda and Elizabeth's version of it.

Parker's Newest Trick

No, it isn't long division...

Ted's Back.

Ted has been missing for a while. Probably over a week. This is most likely his longest "trip" ever. I've looked everywhere for him. It baskets, drawers, under couches, deep in closets, in boxes...everywhere. I knew he was in the house, but I was stumped.

Then this morning, Elizabeth wanted a bandaid. I went to the bathroom and got the costco sign container of bandaids, opened it up and found Ted lying in it, like it was a coffin. Parker was so happy to see him, it was quite sweet.

Good Playing

Last night, the kids were all playing extremely well together. They first started just running around the house in circles, laughing all the while. Then they pretended to go to sleep in the dining room. Then they moved to the living room and all pretended to be on their computers. This lasted a good long time (30-45 minutes). At one point, Michael said, after our usual 10 minutes to bedtime warning, that it was time to brush teeth. I quickly said...let's give them more time. They are playing so nicely. And it then it continued. They do this a lot, but it always ends badly with someone being hit or pushed or some toy taken.

Does this signal the beginning of a new era around here? Can we expect more playing and less fighting? I hope so!

Ridiculous

Prime

Parker's class was doing odd and even numbers the other day so I thought he would be ready to hear about prime numbers. I starting talking about them and why they are called prime and then I starting saying numbers and asking him whether he thought they were prime. He immediately understood even numbers weren't prime, but go confused on 15 and 21. By the time we go to 25, he said, "Mom, any number that ends in a 5 is not prime right? Because those numbers are like the clock numbers!" Then he said, "Tell me more prime numbers." Each time I got bored with it, he would ask for more.

I also told him about the 'number places" like ones, tens, hundreds. This topic seems pointless to teach to a kids that already fully understands numbers and how to get to bigger number like 10,000 from smaller numbers like 100, but it's in all the workbooks, so I threw it out there. As I imagined, he quickly grasped this concept.

****As a side note, as a follow up to the post below about annoying things, I get annoyed when parents remark about the "cuteness" or smartness of their children. The most annoying are when they the parents think they said or did something way beyond their age. Obviously, I enjoy doing this tremendously. And anyway, I figure anyone still reading this blog, had they ever been annoyed at such things too, would have gotten over it at this point.

Annoying.

I get annoyed a lot. I'm not really sure why and I've sort of given up trying to figure it out. I just try to realize that much of what I get annoyed about it petty and to let it go. That strategy usually works well. Lately I've realized that I get annoyed at people doing things that I do. One would quickly say that I don't like those behaviors that I do, so when I see it in others, it reminds me that I am hoping to change. But, you see, that isn't really the truth. I have good (or not so good) reasons for doing the things I do and want to keep doing them even though they totally annoy me when others do it.

For example:

Biting my nails. I've always done it. I like doing it. It's my only real habit (other than eating too much). But when Parker puts his hand in his mouth or Miranda does it, it drives me up a wall.

I admit that I tailgate. I think my father taught me to do it when I was 16 and it has just stuck with me. But man, when someone is tailgating me, what jackasses.

When other parents make there kids say "Good bye" or "thanks", I find it so annoying. I don't need those 2 and 3 or even 4 year olds to be polite. Whatever. But I still do it. I think I realize how antisocial (not in a psychotic way of course) Michael and I (and Amy) are and are hoping desperately that are kids turn out different. Life is easier when you like being around other people.

When people let their kids wander aimlessly in stores or even on the street as you are trying to pass by and then grin at you cutely like, "So sorry...he is just a little kid", I want to rip their head off. Control your damn kid! But then, I do the same thing. Often. Sometimes because I have no choice and sometimes because I just forget that other people exist and sometimes because they are just little kids who like to wander aimlessly.

When people have cell phones and then don't answer them, I find it very irritating. Isn't that the point of the cell phone? To allow other people to reach you all the time? But me? I don't even know where my cell phone is. True, I don't give the number out to many people since I don't really answer it, but to those rare few that do call me, generally don't get me to pick up.

I could probably go on and on, but when people talk about themselves too much, it totally bugs me.

Parker Lies

Parker is one of the most honest kids I've ever met. He has a strong sense of justice and follows rules extremely well. And if he messes up, he generally owns up to it quickly.

Yesterday, the kids were all playing in the house. Parker was on the floor in the dining room and Elizabeth was walking by. Elizabeth had a balloon in her hand. Then I heard the balloon hit something so I turned my head to see Parker's hand come down past the balloon. I asked Parker what happened, knowing that he would tell me the truth, and he says, "Elizabeth hit me with the balloon." I told Elizabeth to walk away to her timeout position (she hits people frequently) and she looks at me and says very sincerely, "Mom, I didn't hit him, he hit my balloon." Since this is what I originally thought, I actually believed her and realized that this was the first out and out lie that Parker has told.

TPS: Fractions

Parker: Mom, is one and a half plus one and three quarters, three and one quarter?

Me: Yes, parker.

Parker: Mom, I'm trying to figure out what plus two and one quarter equals five. Oh, (without any pause) is it two and three quarters?

Me: Yes, Parker.

TPS: God help us.

I had to go to this church today to set up for a Twins Club meeting tonight. Parker came with me. We were in the main part of the church with all the seats and bibles and Parker says, "What do they do in here?"

I said, "People sit in here and listen to a person up front talk about God."

Parker said, "What is God?"

I said, "Ask your father."

Matching

We lost one of the girls' water bottles on the camping trip in August. I had been making Miranda and Elizabeth share, but when I saw one today that matched Miranda's lunchbox, I bought it. When I gave it to Miranda I said, "Look, it matches your lunchbox!"

Elizabeth said, "Mommy, what is "matches"?

I said, "see how it has horses on it and her lunchbox has horses on it? That means that they are the same and we call that matching. So they match!"

No response. I think, maybe that concept is too confusing.

Then 10 minutes later at home, Elizabeth runs to me and says, "MOMMY! MOMMY! The Dora on my toothbrush matches the Dora on TV!"

Damn, she misses nothing.

Little Amy Gets Old

I'm glad Amy was born 38 years ago and so are these kids.

Moore Pumpkin Patches

Everyone woke up late this morning due to late nights last night. I figured we should stay home this morning since everyone had long, exciting days yesterday. But by about 11am, I was ready to get the hell out of the house. So off we went to the local pumpkin patch called Moore's. We've gone every year now and it is just the right distance and size for us. They have little rides, plenty of pumpkins and other fun halloweeny things. After checking things out, the kids hit the rides. The girls did a spinny pumpkin ride, the scary house, and the jumpy thing. I was going to limit the number of rides, something I never do at these kinds of places, but when they didn't take tickets on the scary house or jumpy thing, I said screw it. Then we went on the giant slide. I thought only Parker would go on, but when they wouldn't let him go alone, the girls wanted to go too. I sat with Miranda, thinking she would freak out the most, but it was Elizabeth who started crying in the middle of the slide. This this isn't the first time this has happened, I should remember that Elizabeth is the one who gets scared not Miranda.

After more rides, we had lunch and then actually picked pumpkins (what a concept!) They each picked white ones and then a big, tall one for Daddy. No one suggested we get one for me, which is just as well.

Parker's dietary preferences

"I don't like to eat french fries on Sundays."

Julia Turns 3!

Today was Julia's Birthday party. Amy had invited 4 kids from her preschool and had set up some pretend cooking. She had little aprons for all of the kids and they all immediately starting "cooking". It got pretty messy, but not nearly as messy as it could have been and I think I'm going to lobby hard to have this at the girls' preschool one day soon.










The parents snacked on fruit, delicous salads, bagels and toppings, as well as home made scones. Then it was time to open presents. Many of the other kids wanted to help Julia with the unwrapping, but Julia wasn't having it. She also didn't want them to play with her new gifts. Amy said something magical to her in the kitchen and then all was well and more gifts were open. I gave her a photo book of her first three years. Amy gave her some puzzles and animal masks which were a big hit. Grandma Judy gave her some gardening tools. She also got a little purse, a crayon/zoo thing, and some legos.














After presents, it was time for cake. Of course, Amy made a fabulous strawberry shortcake cake that was enjoyed by parents and children alike. The girls were tired after the party and went to sleep easily...the true sign of a good party.