Here is the elaborate setup the kids did for Santa. There are 2 of each kind of cookie that we made, a glass of milk, and carrots for the reindeer. Plus, the cookie jars are there in case Santa wants more cookies. This way he will have easy access and also he can see that some of the jars look just like him. And as a side bonus, they added the slice of pizza in case he wants something different.
Last week, my Grandpa Jim was having some heart trouble. We were still waiting for some test results to find out what was going on. (BTW, Everything's OK!) Chris overheard me telling Ron about it. He then asked me if he had a crumble in his heart. Turns out that at school his teacher had told the class that every time you say something mean to someone else you get a crumble in your heart that you have to live with for the rest of the day. So sweet of Chris to be worried.
Since Payton is still so small, we have her use one of those toilet seat inserts so she won't fall in the toilet. And, of course, she's tried not using it and fallen in. So the other day, Ron was insisting that she use it. After some arguing she looked at him and finally said, "Why do I have this little butt hole?"
We had black beans at dinner tonight. Chris eats them up no problem. Payton's were just sitting there. I told her to eat some of her beans. She says, "No, they're bugs." I explained they weren't bugs and told her to eat at least one. So she picks one out and pops it in her mouth. Then she scrunches up her face and tells me, "You made me eat a bug."
Tonight at dinner, Chris didn't like something I said, so he said, "Mom, you're lame." Lame is his new favorite word now that he's heard it on a couple of shows. I said, "That's fine. Still doesn't change anything." Then Payton came to my rescue, "Mom, you aren't lame. You're just regular." Thanks sweetie!!
Today Payton asked me when she's going to get boobs. I told her probably when she's 12 or 13. She said, "how about when I'm 5?" I don't think I would be ready for that. I'm positive Ron wouldn't be ready for that. Oh, and by the way, she wants them to be purple.
At dinner, we were talking about how tall Chris is now. He told us that he's the tallest in his class (which doesn't surprise us). Ron says to him, "Wow! The tallest in your class." Chris responded with, "You know that means? I can't punch anyone." Good policy to have :-)
Saturday night, I had my very first girl's night out with some of the neighbors. I had a great time. Apparently, it was a busy night at home as well. Christopher decided to cut his own hair!!
So now he is back to to his buzz cut compliments of Mom. When it finally grows out just a bit, I can take him back in to Kim and she can do it much better than I did.
The next day, we found out that a kid in his class also cut his own hair. I'm not sure if it's better that he didn't come up with the idea on his own or if it's bad that he was so influenced by his classmates. I guess I'll have to whip out the old "if everyone jumped off a bridge would you" speech.
When I was taking Payton to daycare today, she asked me why lemon pie went down the driveway. I had no clue what she was talking about. I asked her if she read that in a book or saw that on a show. No to both questions. She kept saying, "You know, lemon pie." Finally she tells me it's Jayden's dog. Oooooohhhhhh, CLEMENTINE! Payton was talking about a night about 2 weeks ago when Clementine got out and came over to our house when we pulled into the garage. And when we tried to catch her, she went down the driveway. So that's why lemon pie goes down the driveway.
Chris' first day of school was Sept 1st. It was only 2 hours. The boys went for 2 hours and then the girls went for 2 hours. His teacher, Ms. Zinn, talked to the parents while the boys colored. Then, the parents went to a meeting with the principal while the kids stayed with Ms. Zinn. It was a short day but a good intro. The first picture below is just inside the school. The second is putting his stuff in his locker. He's actually using Ron's old backpack from college. And I swear we aren't making him use it either. I offered to get him a cool spider man one but he wants to use his Dad's. And the last picture is Ms. Zinn pinning his name tag with bus information to his shirt.
Christopher just asked if I knew how to get his bike or scooter on the roof so that he could jump off. At least he asked first...
Report on Christopher's first day of Kindergarten: "Mom, my first day of school was perfect!"
The kids were talking about a song they heard on the way home today, "Fart at the Party," which turns out to be "Fight For Your Right To Party." Obviously.....
Just wondering how worried I should be when I hear Christopher ask Payton, "Are you still breathing?"
Chris starts Kindergarten this fall at West Salem elementary school. A nice thing the schools do is have a 2 week kindergarten orientation during the summer. Chris loved it. His teacher for the summer was Mrs. Crow, but she may not be his teacher during the school year.
I drove Chris to and from school since we didn't think the bus was coming through our neighborhood for the summer. Turns out the bus did come to our neighborhood. On Tuesday he decided he wanted to ride the bus. We tried it in the morning. He actually went up the stairs to the bus. The he immediately turned around a told me, "I changed my mind!" OK. So I drove him that morning. But he decided he wanted to ride the bus home. I told him to make sure since I wouldn't be there for him to change his mind. He still wanted to try it. Great! And he made it home just fine. We he got off the bus he told me, "I thought I was lost! The bus took me a crazy way home." I guess we forgot to tell him how the bus worked :-)Chris got some rollerblades for Christmas (Thanks Uncle Jim and Aunt Shannon!) It was finally nice enough out to give them a try. I helped him along a couple of times and then Ron helped him a bit. Then he was off and skating. He loves them.
This video is about a minute and a half long. At the end he wipes out, but only because a car is coming and he's trying to get off to the side of the road: http://vimeo.com/5564356 .
Chris and Iwere eating lunch just the 2 of us. Somehow we were talking about all of my siblings. He was saying how none of them were married. First he suggest that Aunt Andrea and Uncle Ben could get married, but I explained how you can't marry your brother or sister. Then he said that Aunt Elizabeth used to be married to Spencer. He talked about how he remembered going to their wedding. Then he told me, "But she lost that job."
Driving home today, we noticed a guy riding a motorcycle. Chris mentioned that he didn't have a helmet but that he did have a backpack. So we discussed how dangerous it is to not wear a helmet and that the backpack he was wearing would not save his head from any injuries. Then it was quiet for a bit as we watched him go. Then, Payton pipes up and says, "But if he's in an accident, his shoulders will be OK." Thank goodness for the backpack! :-)
Last night, since Ron's not here, I let Chris crawl into bed with me in the middle of the night. He turns to me and says, "You're so lucky." I asked him why is that and he tells me, "Because I'm your best friend. And you aren't a mean mom anymore." Nice....
Christopher has been begging to go to the race track for a while now. Every time he hears the cars practicing, it starts a new round of requests. So we decided to go. As we are walking up to the track, we can hear the cars. Chris yells out, "That's what I'm talkin about!" The kid is a fanatic. He was cheering, hooping, and hollering at the top of his lungs.
I'm pretty sure the kids loved every minute. In fact, when I was putting Chris back to bed after he woke up in the middle of the night, he told me, "Mom, before I got up, I was dreaming about race cars. And it was awesome!" I hope he dreams of them many more nights.
Chris was in the week long soccer clinic again this year. He had a great time. He even played in the Saturday game this time. Here are pictures of the game...
This morning after my shower, I went looking for the kids to get them dressed for daycare. I found Christopher standing with his back to the garbage looking like he was trying to hid something. So, of course, I ask, "What are you doing?" To which his reply is, "Nothing." After we went back and forth like this a couple of times finally he fesses up, "I had a juice box." I tell him that that's OK, he's allowed to have juice in the morning. To which he says, "I had 3 juice boxes!" Well, that is not OK.
I love that he still rats himself out...
Over the years Ron shown quite a lot of road rage. Usually this involves swearing a lot a at drivers that tick him off. Although since we've had the kids, he's been pretty good. Or so I thought...
We were outside today and Chris turns to me and says, "Mom, did you hear about the jerk that tried to cut us off?" And Payton adds, "Yea, we had to drive crazy."
Now I'm just hoping they don't repeat it to anyone else :-)
Today, Chris asked me if I knew what "Kiss the Broad" is. I asked him if he meant kiss the bride. He said, "no, it's kiss the broad. You know you kiss her when she has cherries." I said "Oh, really." And he leaned in and said to me, "Maybe someone in our neighborhood has cherries." So silly! But I still have no idea what he means by the cherries. I'll let you know when I figure it out.
Update 5/6:
So the guess as to what the cherries are is that he really means marries. It could make sense. When I asked him if he really meant marries, he insisted it was cherries. Who knows?
One day we asked Payton if she was going to be excited to see her Grandpa Jim. She told us, "I don't like Brampa Jim." What??? This girl has always liked here Grandpas. Even as a baby when she wouldn't go to any of the women in the family, she would always want her Grandpas. So we asked her, "Do you like Grandpa Bill?" To which she scrunched up her face and told us, "I don't like Brampa Bill." How about Grandpa Larry. "I don't like Brampa Larry." Finally she filled us in on her thinking.... "I just like Brampa."
In honor of Easter, here's another oldie but goodie from Christopher. A couple of years ago, we went to church for Easter. Needless to say, we don't go very often. As we are walking into church, Christopher yells out, "Mom, I've never been here before!" I swear everyone there turned to look at us.
At dinner, Ron started asking Payton, "Who made you so cute? Was it Mommy or Daddy?" Payton looked at him and said, "Kim made me cute." Kim is our hair dresser :-)
Christopher came home yesterday gushing about how he got to eat chocolate egg rolls at daycare today. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he was talking about, so I asked his teacher. Can you guess??? Are you ready for it??? It's Swiss Cake Rolls!
I guess I'm glad that he associates that shape with an egg roll as opposed to cake. Maybe that means we aren't feeding them too many sweets...
At school today, Christopher slipped on the ice. He came home with a butterfly bandaid by his eye. At first, we were afraid he was going to need stitches. But, as it turns out, a bandaid solves almost all problems. Have you ever seen a sadder face?
Payton likes to play in her bed when she goes to bed. One day we could hear her playing and then it was pretty quiet. We assumed she had gone to sleep. At about 11:00, we heard a noise in her room. We went to look and this is what we found
Did I make this mess??
Yes, I did!!
Christopher has always been a little talkative. On Saturday, he was really going at it. Granted, we were at a car dealership and he was a little bored. He was talking to everyone and anybody, even to himself. I said, "Boy, you are really talkative today." Christopher logically replied, "I just like the sound of my voice."
When Payton goes to bed, she wants all her favorite things for the night to go to bed with her. I keep trying to take things out so she'll have some room but she puts up such a fuss that it just isn't worth fighting over it. I think things have gotten a little out of control...
While getting ready for the Superbowl to start, Ron started rooting for the Steelers. Since Christopher seems to always pick the opposite of Ron, Chrisopher said he wants the "Carnivals" to win. And when we asked Payton, she just scrunched up her face and said, "I just like Mickey Mouse."
This is an oldie but goodie from Chris. It makes me laugh everytime so I thought I would capture it here.
Last June, we had our friends from Montana stay with us for a night while traveling back home from their vacation. When I was putting Chris to bed, I asked him what he thought about us going to visit them sometime in Montana. He asked me, "Can we dance when we go there?" I said sure and then asked him why he wanted to dance there. He looked at me like I was the dumbest person in the world and said "Hannah Montana, geez Mom!" I think I almost made it out of the room before I died laughing. I didn't even know he knew who she was.
