Potty Mouth

When Maria was younger (maybe 5 years old or so), and Sam was a toddler of few words, I used to look at other moms with potty mouth little boys and think they were doing terrible jobs at controlling their children. I mean, here I had this little girl of the same age, and all it took was one time of her using a potty word and a "We don't use that word" from me and that was the end of it. I'll always remember when we were in the car and Maria said "Holy crap, it's 75 degrees." And I said "Holy crap is not really a nice thing to say." And that was it. Really - it was that easy.

But raising a little boy is a whole new world, and I am so glad I never actually said anything to those other moms because I am so eating my words now. I do have a couple of things to be thankful for even though Sam has found his potty mouth. First, he only uses one word: Poop. (And I think we can agree there are much more offensive words out there.) And second, one has to appreciate (secretly, of course) the creativity with which he uses this word. He has hit several parts of speech using this one 4 letter word as a springboard. And while we still tell him he is not allowed to use the word each time, sometimes I do wonder how he comes up with this stuff. Do little boys stand around at school and try to top one another with how many ways they can use that word? Don't answer that - I really don't want to know.

Here's a few samples:

"Where are my poopy shoes?"

"That's poopy."

"I'm going to poop-ify you." (I do NOT want to know what that means)

And then there are the times where he just says "Poop poop poop poop poop poop..." You get the idea.

So when we finally get him to stop saying it, I'll do something stupid to start the whole thing over again. Like today when I noticed he had been in the bathroom a while, so I stopped to check on him to make sure he was okay. And of course without thinking I had to ask "Are you pooping?" and I got "Mommy! That is not a nice word!" as an answer. I thought it was progress until I was taking him in to brush his teeth tonight and he said "Poop poop poop poop poop..."

When it rains, it pours

It all started about a month ago, when our entire water softener went bad right before Christmas. It had been going bad before that, but we didn't know it until the drinking water filtration system broke, and then we found out we had to replace the whole thing.  Since then, it seems like most appliances around here have been on strike.  Okay, maybe just today, but three in one day is a lot.

It all started this morning.  We were so thrilled to have a 2 hour delay due to wind chill, the first weather related delay we've had since we've been back to school, which is odd for January.  The thrill wore off when Ben opened the garage door to find that it was frozen solid to the driveway, and broke several bolts when it opened.  We didn't realize that there was any frozen water underneath there to begin with.  So we called the garage door guy and he's coming tomorrow. But after he fixed it the last time, a couple of years ago, he told us the next time something happened it would most likely need replaced.  

Yesterday our desktop computer started shutting down on its own, and its much worse today. Its been into the Apple store for repairs for this same thing twice in the fall, and twice they said they fixed it and the problem gradually comes back.  But now the warranty has run out, and we don't think they really fixed it in the first place.  So if it coast several hundred dollars to fix, we're going to have to consider replacing it.

Then when Ben went into our bathroom tonight and turned on the fan, it made a growling noise and refused to turn on.  I don't think its been replaced since we've lived here (12 years), so it probably does need replaced, but the timing isn't great.

I'm scared to see what else happens - its like everything we touch breaks.

0 for 2

Maria and I have been spending quite a bit of time watching the food network. For some reason, its soothing to watch someone else make dishes that are way too much work for me. And sometimes I do pick up hints that I can actually use - like the seeds are where most of the heat is in a hot pepper. Anyway, while I am happy to watch someone else cook, these shows make Maria WANT to cook. So trying to be a good mother yet still stay sane (and relaxed), I thought buying a kids cookbook would be a good compromise. She picked out The Magic Kingdom Cookbook at book fair last week and I bought it for her.

Yes, Disney was not going to pass up the chance to sell cookbooks featuring their characters to innocent children for $16.99. But it is a cute book, and most of the recipes are healthy.

Except, kids in this house (and Dad too) are not very receptive to trying new recipes. Or anything where the foods touch each other. And the boys in this house don't eat any fruit and very few veggies. But Maria promised that she would try these recipes, and so we got started this week.

So she picked two recipes (I said one a week and we ended up doing two - who's in charge here?) and made the grocery list for Ben. First mistake - I did not check the ingredients against the recipes, because she's very smart and can read and write well so I figured I didn't need to check. So for our fruit smoothies, she chose strawberries (good), cantaloupe (not great from Kroger in winter), apples (which don't blend well), and grapes (who was going to take the skin off those grapes?). And she didn't want bananas in it. So we ended up with just the strawberries and cantaloupe, and it was pretty gross. I drank mine, and she really tried, but gave up after the second sip. She was more bothered by the berry seeds, however, than the bad taste, which means she may not ever like smoothies. Next time, I told her we would pick some sweeter fruits.

Tonight, we tried the fresh veggie salad, and I thought this would go well since she does like salad, and we could make changes with ingredients she may not like. But with Maria, you have to follow the recipe word for word (I don't where she gets this perfectionist attitude!) So we went ahead and put in turkey and shredded mozzarella, even though she usually just sticks to tomato and cucumber. And guess what? She didn't like it. She did get down 4 or 5 bites before she admitted she didn't like this either.

It has been fun to cook together, especially since the recipes have not taken much work. Maybe next week we'll find something she enjoys making AND eating. Although I'm not hopeful. Both kids want to make Pirate Island Tuna Boats. And the picture looks really cool - tuna salad in red sweet peppers floating in water with triangular pita bread as a sail. But there is no way they will eat tuna salad. The taste is too strong for Maria, and it goes against all of Sam's food rules (ingredients can't be touching, contains veggies, etc.) But I'll probably give in and try it, then end up eating Pirate Island Tuna Boats all week for lunch by myself.

I should know by now that you can't fight Disney.

Ice-O-Rama

So Maria has been asking to go ice skating again for the past several weeks and since I wanted to give Lisa an afternoon off, I ventured to the chiller with the kids this afternoon. I got Sam a pair of figure skates this time instead of hockey skates in the hope that he might have a little more stability than he did last time when he about pulled my arms out of my sockets. For about the first ten minutes he hung on pretty tight but then gradually loosened his grip. He even let Maria hold on for awhile so I could skate unfettered. Near the end of the first session he finally got brave and took off on his own! Within minutes He'd went all the way around the rink without falling down once. We took a rest while the Zamboni did its thing and then went back out for about another 20 minutes. Sam maybe fell down five times in that session but jumped right back up and kept going. Both kids were really tired on the trip home, but I was fresh as can be since I didn't have to drag my son around the rink for an hour.

Brilliant?

We went to the Book Fair at school today and got Sam the new Olivia book - he's been reading Maria's old Olivia books and loves them. So we're reading it for the first time tonight and on the last page there's a picture of Olivia's dream in a bubble - Olivia the pig sitting with 8 supreme court justices. In the background there is some United States seal. Sam says "I've got a match," runs out into the family room and grabs a 50 cent piece from the Domino game. On the back of that 50 cent piece is the exact same seal as the picture in the book. I couldn't believe that he made that connection - I was so proud.

I sent him off to brush his teeth and went into the other room so I could share with Ben what a brilliant 5-year-old we have. As I'm talking, we hear Sam saying "It won't turn on," and pounding something repeatedly. I go into the bathroom and Sam is hitting the spigot in the sink trying to get it to come on (our sink has the spigot in the middle and hot and cold handles on either side, and has been like that for the last year and a half). I asked him what was wrong and and he said "It won't turn on," and continued to pound the spigot. So I turned the water on for him and said "This is how it turns on," and he said "Oh" and resumed putting toothpaste on his toothbrush.

Maybe not so brilliant after all.

We love her

I met with Maria's teacher today for the second round of parent/teacher conferences. As you can imagine, it was a very good experience. Academically, she is doing great. Way above where she is supposed to be in all tested areas, and has shown improvement from fall. Her teacher also said "I just love her. Everyone loves her. When her name comes up in the lounge we just all say we want to take her home with us."

After the conference I met Maria in the library so we could pick out some Book Fair books to buy. Sure enough, when the librarian was checking us out she said "If Maria's ever missing, just drive to my house to find her - I took her home with me."

We love her, but its always nice to hear that she is making a good impression on others as well.

Sick

Ben has a sinus infection. He's been trying to fight off a cold for almost a week and today he started showing signs of an infection. He made it through the school day, and went to the Dr. and got his antibiotic this afternoon, so hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. Not sure if he's going to try to go to work tomorrow or not.

The rest of us feel fine so far. Although Sam got up at 6:00 this morning - not sure why - and so he's been tired and grumpy for a while now.

Report Cards

The kids got their report cards recently - Maria on Friday and Sam got his today. Maria's was great - A+ in spelling, social studies, language and science, A in math and reading, and S and O in her specials. The special teachers wrote comments like "is a pleasure to have in class" and "Exceptional Overall Effort." So we made a big deal out of her hard work paying off and to keep up the good work, and a little bit of money ($2 per A) for some extra incentive. (Of course, if we were paying $2 per A she wanted to know how much the "S" was worth, but I'm not sure Satisfactory" indicates the same amount of effort the "A" in math required. So she gets a pat on the back for the S). She wasn't thrilled, but knows when to cut her losses.

Sam's preschool report card in more complex and takes a while to interpret all 6 pages of it. All skills have to be assessed - fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, social-communication, etc. And there are additional strands that go with each of these skill areas. So let me summarize and say that he is doing well. All areas are above or right at where they should be. The comments are more interesting though. Here are the most telling:

"Does not like singing and dancing activities." Now he enjoys singing and dancing to Guitar Hero just fine, so maybe he just doesn't enjoy the Days of the Week and Clean Up songs. I don't think this will really keep him out of college, though, so I'm not loosing sleep over this one.

"May need verbal cues to bring attention back to group." This one was written during first quarter and underlined again for this quarter. Hopefully, it will get better as he gets older.

"Sam gets upset if others disrupt his space." Again, not surprising in the least. He's been like that since I can remember - just likes his space. I'm just glad he's not getting violent when other kids get in his way.

But at the end, her comments were as follows: Sam has really great pre-K skills. His skills have really grown and matured since September.. Keep up the good work!"

So all in all, two very successful report cards, from two very different kids!

So I have this cold...

So I am in the midst of my third cold of the winter which is kinda good and kinda bad. On the good side, I don't think I've had two colds in a row in the last decade without one of them turning into a sinus infection. This one might be headed that way... I'm not really sure yet. The bad part is that my voice is shredded by the afternoon of my work day. On Thursday and Friday I could barely talk to my choir let alone sing. Its looking like I'm headed that direction again today. I'm trying to take it as easy as I can so I can actually rehearse my 65 singers. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Also on a good note, it appears that Lisa and the kids have been immune to whatever I've caught... may it continue to be so.

Beating Those Winter Blues

Today's the second day of a three day weekend for us, and the high today was 17 degrees, with wind chills a lot lower. So we tried to stay in and come up with stuff to do here, in spite of the fact that Maria is so bored. We baked chocolate cookies from scratch, played some board games and Guitar Hero, and even did some work in the kids bedrooms. Ben re-arranged furniture in Sam's room, per his request (except the bed, since we just moved the whole room around in December), and Maria and I cleaned out the floor of her closet which was insanely crowded with all kinds of stuff she never plays with anymore. I still would love to get rid of a lot more in there, but am trying to respect her space and her need to be a bit of a pack rat. When we paint and re-do her room in the spring I'll have the opportunity to do a lot more.

But tonight the kids found a very unique way to entertain themselves. Out of the blue, Sam asked me if I still had had the pinata from his birthday in September that never got used. (Due to his concussion 2 days before his party, we decided that a bunch of 5 year old boys swinging large sticks around was just asking for trouble, and he never asked about it, so we thought he forgot all about it. I was hiding it in the back of my closet with the intention of throwing it out. Where is this memory of Sam's when he can't find his shoes, socks, or must-have toy that he can't sleep without?) So we got out the pinata and hung it in the basement. We had to fill it with leftover Christmas candy, but the kids were fine with that. They beat it long enough for the candy to trickle out and the floor to be covered with yellow confetti, but never broke it clear through. We were able to convince them that it would never break in half and they finally quit and helped pick up the floor.

Hopefully tomorrow they will be better at entertaining themselves, because I am exhausted and need to get some house cleaning done, too.