Thursday, January 29, 2009

Put down the scissors

Best moment working in the kindergarten class yesterday:

During a discussion of baby penguins and how they hatch from eggs, one little boy informed the class that "all babies come from seaweed." The teacher paused.... where to go with that one...

"My dad says you need seaweed to make babies..." the little boy repeated.

Teacher was not gonna go there.

Worst moment:

When the teacher tells me my son has used his child-safe scissors to cut the shirt on the little girl who sits next to him. Apparently she turned around and he went to work... She didn't even know until her mom saw it at home. Great.

Cutting is big with the K-boys. There's been pants, t-shirts and various degrees of cutting going on. Nice of Neil to kick it up a notch and help the girl next to him. Thankfully, her mother was kind and gracious and accepted our apologies.

But now my kid is the one who cut so-and-so's shirt in kindergarten... he's a keeper.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hopeful

I've been hunkered down with inauguration coverage. I TiVo'd one channel. Watched another channel. Stayed up too late watching inaugural balls. Watched parts again. Watched Daily Shows and various analysis. And now I'm kind of burnt out.

Can you tell Dean was out of town?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Neil shares his lunch

It's never good when the school office calls your cell phone.

It's worse when you get there and you see the custodian heading out of the office and he's wearing haz-mat gloves and carrying a bag of towels headed to the trash.

Oh please don't let that be my kid, I pray silently.

But you know it was my kid, right? He threw up all over the office. There was the lovely sent of hard-core sanitizer as I got to the front of the office.

Neil was wrapped up in a beach towel. His clothes were still on but were covered in orange bits and various other items from his stomach.

"I threw up." Really?

"Twice." Great.

Do I bring scented candles on Monday as a proper sorry-my-kid-threw-up-where-you-work gift?

On the way home Neil tells me he earned a Caught-Being-Good (It's a little ticket school staff hands out when kids are doing what they are supposed to be doing or if they go above that. The tickets go into a bin and at the end of the month names are drawn for prizes. One of the prizes is In-N-Out gift certificates. My kids will do most anything for those.).

Neil is really proud of that Caught-Being-Good. 

And what did he do to earn it?

"I was eating healthy. I ate all my carrots, as fast as I could. I wanted to be the first to get the Caught-Being-Good from the lunch lady," Neil explained.

Would those be the orange bits he just hurled all over the office?

Monday, January 12, 2009

I'm just saying...

There are many things I do that make me a sub par parent. One of the latest is that I let the kids watch the SNL skit with Peyton Manning "helping" children. You can see it here.

The boys have been giggling about parts of the skit for days (when he banishes the kid to the port-a-potty may be their top pick, but they also like when he pegs kids with the football).

So this morning as Jack was getting ready for school, I threw out, "I'd kill a snitch. I'm not saying I have, but I'm not saying I haven't. I'm just saying..." (You have to watch the video)

For just a moment, Jack paused. Has she really killed a snitch? What is a snitch?

And then he laughed nervously... Mom wouldn't really kill a snitch, right?

I'm comfortable with that level of fear in my children.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Ice skating

I took the kids ice skating with friends today. I gave Jack the camera and told him to video Neil as he made his way around the rink. As you will see he took his job very seriously ...


Thursday, January 08, 2009

Crushes

Last night I went to dinner with a friend. We had a great time at a good divey kind of bar with great burgers and available libations. 

Somehow we started talking about crushes we had as girls (This was after we made each other cry about favorite dogs who had died. What were we doing?!).

My friend grew up in Nebraska but always knew she would end up in California because she and David Cassidy were going to get married some day (to her credit, she did get the California part right). 

I loved Randolph Mantooth. Yes, Johnny Gage from "Emergency 51." I don't think I was thinking marriage... I'm trying to recall...

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

My Dad

My Dad LOVES dominoes. We were trapped into games as children. He'd bring them to the pizza parlor. He'd beg us to play with him at home. But we were his children... biological law requires us NOT to play dominoes with him until we are older and realize it's a good way to spend time together...

But my boys think dominoes is awesome. They keep score. They know the lingo (It's like a prison yard when a game is going on ...). They even have nicknames when they play.

Jack is "Action Jackson."

Neil is "Neil the real deal."

My creative sons gave Pa the nickname "The Pa."

Listening to them hoot and holler and smack talk each other through a game of dominoes is one of the best things my Dad does for me.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Snow Day

We bundled up the kids and packed up the van for a snow day in Wrightwood today. Friends had visited on Friday and had a great time.

Well, there's been a lot of sunshine and warm weather since Friday... and the tubing area at Mountain High is closed during the week.

So let's just say, unless you are going to the resort where they are making fresh powder every day, you should expect a lot of ice. 

We found a lot of ice. Our first stop was a camping area near Mountain High. It looked beautiful and we had the place to ourselves (should that have been a clue?). Dean and Neil hopped on our sled known as "The Torpedo" and started down what looked like a small to average incline...

They didn't stop. They picked up speed. They were rocketing down the mountainside -- until they found the pit of mud.

This ride ended with Dean and Neil rolling violently into the mud pit. That's when Neil started crying and screaming, "My face! My face!"

Good times. Good times.

Neil is fine. Just some gravel marks on his face. Poor kid. Dean ripped his jeans and might need a hip replacement. Sadly, I didn't get it on video.

We left that area... It was bad mojo if nothing else.

We drove further up Highway 2, investigating more spots. We finally settled on a spot that had a thrill-a-minute kind of ride, but also had the let's-go-a-little-slower-and-not-scar-any-more-family-members area too.

The kids had a blast. Lots of sledding. The "snow" was a little too like ice for a good snowman or snowball fight, but there is always next time.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Word

So a friend on Facebook suggested that instead of resolutions people should pick a word for 2009.  I've been mulling the idea.

What would be my word? No jokes please about my over-use of the word "crap" or how many times I ask, "Seriously?"

I want a real word. Well, they are all real words but I'd like a real good word.

Could I live by a word for a whole year? Could one word cross into all aspects of my life?

Nurture, inquire, learn, listen, scofflaw, hunker (as in hunker down) ... there are lots of good words out there. 

What word would you live by for the next year?

I'm choosing "strong." I like the idea of working on strength -- physical, mental and spiritual strength... There's strength of character, strong convictions, strong-arming ...

It could be a great year. 

Saturday, January 03, 2009

This one is for Emily

Emily is our cousin in Florida and we miss her.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Yukon Cornelius

This is Dean and Neil in costume for the church's Christmas program ("A Christian Carol"). Check out that beard. Dean started to grow it while in the hospital and has kept it up since. I think he is enjoying playing with it. I'm not sure how I feel about it... 

I suspect he would like to be just like Yukon Cornelius and will be searching for peppermint finds in no time.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Boys

This one is for Jane so she knows she has the right site. It's just a photo.

Stop with the video!

So here's Jack and Neil forced to say nice things to relatives.  Actually, they love their relatives, they HATE being forced on video...

And after Jack trips on the skim board, you can make out crying in the background. He hurt his knee, but Mom knew she wouldn't get them to do the video again so she ignored her injured child. He has ice on it now...

Silent Night by Neil


Jack and Neil were going to say something for their relatives in Atlanta, but then Neil broke into a very stylized version of Silent Night. My apologies I didn't have the camera going when he started.

Sing on little man


So be prepared. I'm uploading video. This one is of Neil singing "I'm gettin' 'Nuttin for Christmas." Thank you kindergarten program. I cannot get this out of my head.