Birthday Present

Jack,

Your 8th birthday dawned with you vomitting.  You were sick the night before but hopeful that you would feel better on your birthday.  You were so excited to go to school and bring in your cupcakes but as you opened your Lego gift that morning from us, you vomitted all over the place.  If we had taken a picture at that moment, it would have been worth a thousand words about this birthday for you.

Our fingers were crossed since we had your whole class, cousins, boy scouts, and neighborhood friends invited to a jumping party at Sky Zone the next day and it was too late to cancel.  By evening, I had reason to feel hopeful.  You seemed greatly improved.  You were even able to eat and keep it down.

Your Sky Zone party happened as planned and it was wonderful.  You had so much fun with your friends and cousins.

That night, though, I came down with the illness and within a half hour, Audrey was vomitting with me.  We were a sick pair that night.  We had to cancel the family party for your birthday the next day which we had already prepared for.  To your credit, you were a trooper.  You didn't complain that your party was cancelled, you just said you hoped we got better really soon.  Daddy took you to a movie while Audrey and I recuperated and the next night, Daddy was sick.

Hopefully your 9th birthday is a much healthier one!  I think we just got this out of the way and you'll never have another birthday like that again.

And you have glasses now!  One of your eyes has weaker vision than the other so the glasses you have now help correct that.  You really seem to like them and are very good about keeping them on.  I think you are adorable in them.

Audrey,

You continue to have training difficulty.  I blame myself for saying out loud that it's easier to train girls than boys.  Getting you to sit on the toilet or change yourself after an accident frequently results in the majority of your toys being placed on top of the refrigerator before you comply.  I think this phenomenon is becoming a sign to your Dad when he comes home of the kind of day we had.  If there are a ton of toys on top of the refrigerator, I have noticed he comes over and asks me how I'm doing.  If there aren't, he greets you guys and starts playing with you.

You also have become best friends with our old dogs.  You love to give them treats and talk sweetly into their faces.  They are very happy for the attention and will let you put blankets on their backs to keep them warm.  I don't even think twice about it now when Audrey walks by with a pink Teddy bear blanket draped across her back.  You will also stick toys into boxes and bring them to the dogs and show them what is inside and then look in their eyes to make sure they are happy with the present that you gave them.  So cute. 

The dogs like it best when you open a bag of treats and give them every treat in the bag before I realize you have done so.  They are already fat - and like a thousand years old.  I think they will be fine.

Love,

Mommy

Picking back up...

I have a tremendous amount of guilt that I haven't been submitting entries. I know one of these days as the kids get older, Audrey will wonder where her stories are of her as a little and I am pushing myself to be better in this regard. As much as I may say to myself "I won't forget THAT" when Aud or Jack says something, I known that won't be the case. Heck, I have to schedule when the trash pickup is because I won't remember. That doesn't bode well for my long term memory skills. Anyway, knowing this about myself, I need to push myself to get better about recording the stories that I never want to forget so here I am.

We are having some issues with potty training, Aud. Since I lost my job back in September, you have gone from being potty trained with only the occassional blunder to wetting yourself all the time. I hardly know what to do. Sometimes I think I should put you back in pull-ups and wait till you are ready and other times I think I should keep making you change yourself every time hoping you get so tired of it that you start using the potty again. I've tried both of these, but neither is working.

So, in this recent scenario, I saw you walk out of the room to the great room and followed you. You were hiding behind a chair and squatting. I said "Audrey! Are you going potty?"
You were adamant denying "No! No! I'm not going potty, I'm not!"
The wet spot on your pants proved that you definitely were.
I pointed it out and said "Oh, yeah? If you weren't going potty, then what were you doing?"
You were clearly upset about being caught and cornered in this way and you said with the most stubborn look on your face "I was pooping on your stupid face!"

I was so surprised by this response that I had to leave immediately because it was shocking laughter out of me.  I couldn't let you see me smile about what you had just said since it was so inappropriate. You were immediately sure that I had walked away in anger and began to panic shouting "I'm sorry, Mommy! Come here!!", but I had to have a minute to compose myself before I could come back again.

You can be so sweet, but lately you have this stubborn streak and I never know what is going to come out of your mouth when you get really upset. On the cute side, though, you have also been developing your own sense of music and what you like. You are very much in love with the song "It's Not about the Money" and you have taken to singing it in public while riding in a shopping cart at the store, at the top of your lungs. You get a lot of smiles and laughs and I find myself walking with an embarrassed hand over my face as I try to concentrate on what it is we were here to get again....

Jack - your energy is still in the stratosphere. Since we moved, you have developed many friendships and I love seeing you play with your buddies. Your self esteem has improved drastically since you've developed these peer relationships. Funny how having friends that think poop and butt jokes are funny can make you feel better about yourself, but it's worked magic.

You are in love with computer games. You want to play them all the time and it's about the only thing you want for your birthday.

Speaking of birthdays - you are turning 8 on Friday! How is that possible?

You keep losing your baby teeth and you've lost so many at this point that we've begun to joke with you that we are going to have to feed you through a straw if they don't come back in soon. You look so funny with the huge gaps in your smile and that cute little dimple when you are being silly.

I'm one lucky mom!

Love,
Mommy

Sing Sweet Nightengale

Jack, You would eat simply lemonade, popcorn and popsicles if you were in charge. You love to bug your sister and anytime she says anything, she is wrong. It's that simple. You are still scared to go to the bathroom on your own. You have a fantastic imagination that soaks up all stories of interest and excitement and while I'm sure this makes everyday life exciting, it's also a little scary that way. You still believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy as you should so magic is a believable part of life for you still. Unfortunately you have a friend that tells you that ghosts are real and zombies, too. He tells you that he found an arm in the street one day and that he once sneezed so loud, he broke the windows in his house. Wonderful.... Butts are hilarious sources of humor for you. Farts - just awesome. Anything that your body does that is remotely embarrassing is totally funny to you right now. Audrey, You are in love with princesses. This developed recently in the last few months. Before that you loved ponies, strawberry shortcake and Dora - now it's all about the princesses. We took you and Jack to Disneyland in CA this past year and I indulged and got you a princess makeover. That was it. You were gone. You are absolutely in love with princess now, are determined that you will be one and sing and dance with the clumsy grace of a toddler emulating a movie princess. I love when you sing the princess songs because you don't understand what they are saying and thus the songs are improved by your attempts. As a family, we have been enjoying watching America's Funniest Video. Jack believes that we can win the show and make the best video ever. We are still attempting that, but haven't succeeded yet. We are about to move, too. Our little two bedroom home that has been home to the four of us, two dogs, many hamsters and gerbils, hermit crabs and up to 5 cats, is now to little for all of us. Simbling rivalry has reared it's ugly head and you and Audrey are frequently at odds with each other over any little thing. A little space for you two to grow will be a good thing. I have switched jobs as we ready for the move and my new job is within a mile or two of our new home. I'm excited to be there in about a month or so. Life continues to be good and so very packed with life, that it's hard to stop and record the moments here as I've done in the past, but I've kept up with pictures and videos so as time progresses, I hope to have plenty of wonderful memories collected for you so you can remember with us what a joy it is to be in this family. Love, Mommy

The Parent Teacher Conference

Jack,

So my story about the Parent Teacher Conference this evening begins yesterday. I picked you up from school and we were in the van driving to get your sister. I asked as I do every day how your day at school was and you gave your normal response that it was fine.

Things were going as normal - you were sitting in your seat looking out at the traffic and I was thinking of what dinner would be when you seemed to be wondering out loud about something.

"Mommy - it's not good when someone asks you to do something that gets you in trouble."

WARNING - WARNING - RED LIGHTS FLASHING - THIS IS NOT A TEST... Sorry - that's just what happened in my brain when you said that.

"Why do you say that, Jack? Did something happen?"

"yes."

"What happened?"

"Sebastian told me to draw a bad picture."

(sigh)....

"What was it a bad picture of?"

(whispering to me): "a penis"

"I see. What happened when you drew it?"

"My teacher got mad at me."

"I'm sure she did. Did you tell her what happened?"

"Yes."

"Did she talk to Sebastian?"

"Yes. He got in trouble too."

"Where is this picture?"

"She said she was going to keep it till after conference."

GROOOOOOOOOOOOOAN!!!!!

So.... this Parent Teacher conference is happening this evening. As it currently is - I know that I'm going into this meeting with my child's teacher knowing that my sons artist reference of a penis will have to be discussed. I feel like the thoughts in my head are completely schitzophrenic in nature....

On one hand - THIS IS FUNNY, RIGHT?!?!? I mean - come on. We all have done something like this. It's funny!

On the other hand - why is my almost 6 year old drawing penises at school? Isn't he too young for this? Or is it because I'll always consider him a baby that this seems so totally wrong?

And a little part of me turns defensive. What - do we live in such a Puritanical society that we can't admit that kids are going to be curious about sex and their bodies? Isn't this completely natural? I don't want my child to grow up thinking that penis is a bad word or that there is any type of negative connotation associated with having one. I wouldn't want him to be ashamed or anything like that.

But mostly, it's just funny.... right?

I'm sure I'll post tomorrow on how this really turned out and maybe I'll have to post a picture of the artwork. Maybe... :)

Love,

Mommy

Happy Ween!