The blog needed a fresh look. Ugly? Okay? Don't say a word about the picture not filling the width of the page. I tried for far too long to get it right and finally gave up. I think it'll be a nice little daily reminder of how persistent I can be even when I fail in the end. There's a lesson in there, right?
Tonight I worked on the blog template, but prior to that, I worked on a bunch of things with Jack. Things discussed and/or solved at bedtime:
1: Jack initially said he "doesn't like his life" - in response to which I almost fainted. After some careful prying, I deduced that what he MEANT was that he was upset that he was rushed in the morning and had to take too long in the bathroom. (I'm SO SORRY Teenage Jack, when you go back and read this. Momma's just trying to explain this epiphany to her readers...). See #s 2 and 3.
2: I will attempt to wake up earlier to hang out with him longer in the morning.
3: He will now have prunes or apricots at dinner. We'll leave that one right there.
4: We might take on a version of praying at bedtime.
5: With Chuck's help, I recounted the life of Jesus and his death. I'm not kidding. Not that someone would joke about that.
6: Again, with Chuck's help, we tried to explain the concept of the Holy Ghost.
7: Jack decided that he might very well follow in the footsteps of many in Chuck's family and study theology. And yes, he now knows that word. Do you think at school they'll ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up, and after hearing "doctor, astronaut, fire fighter..." from the other children, he'll respond with "theologian"?
8: Chuck and I decided that Jack might well be Manning (Chuck's late father) reincarnated.
9: Jack is no longer anti-School Picture Day.
10: God did not die, and Jesus was not shot like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.
It was a long, long bedtime, but Jack seemed pleased.
In related news, Ryker went on a field trip to pick apples at the "Apple Church" - and no, that's not it's real name. Rykerisms never cease to put a smile on our faces.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Jack's 6th Birthday Weekend
Six year olds pay attention to how much celebrating they get to do. Jack milked this birthday for all it was worth, and we had a great time spoiling him.
It started on his actual birthday, Thursday. I had CJ, his idol and next door neighbor, come with me to take him to school. Ryker, CJ and I traipsed into the school, got visitor nametags, waited with him, and then marched him down to his classroom with his treats for the class. He felt REALLY special.
That night we let him choose where to eat. He picked IHOP. Someday he'll deny that IHOP was his favorite restaurant, but this blog is here to prove it. And to embarrass him. But back to IHOP. Right when the waitress came, Ryker yells "it's Sassin's birfday!!!" We translated for her. Jack asked her several times when, exactly, they were going to sing to him.
Then Friday Grandmommy arrived (always makes the boys SOOO happy) and he got to go shopping with Uncle Ry Ry and Grandpa Mark (a favorite birthday tradition). Ryker got to go too, and then they got to have ice cream. I had to work late, but when I finally caught up with them back at the house, Ryker was running laps around the great room with a new kid-sized shopping cart and Jack was playing with a huge new crane and making bird calls with a water-whistle. I slept in a hotel. I heard the rest of the weekend was lovely.
Just kidding.
Saturday was party-day. Jack's favorite people kept arriving - Gaga, Papa, Ry Ry, Grandpa, Grandma Bernice ("Gram-eece" according to Ryker), Uncle Bob, Uncle Dave, Jill, Nicki, Cullen, the Hayes' kids, Payten, Chuckie & Samantha, old daycare buddies, Miss Mari & Miss Kristy & Miss Pryanthi (all from Ryker's school - Jack's old school), BBall Aunties Kari & Abby & Lisa - as well as lots of other people who Jack tracked on briefly but are friends and family of Chuck and mine (no offense to any of you who are reading this! He's six!). The party was mostly kids running around screaming and playing and the adults eating and talking and enjoying the beautiful fall day. Oh, and sugar. Lots and lots of sugar.
After the party we opened presents and played with all the new toys. They all make noise too. SCORE! There are some pretty sweet toys though, even a kid-version of beer pong. Hilarious. He's going to go to some kegger sometime and say "I'm AWESOME at this - I've been playing since I was SIX!" And then he'll never get drunk, right?
Later Saturday night we had one of MY favorites - Brasa. YUMMY! And more sugar, of course.
Sunday we had two waves of breakfast - first with Charlie and BJ, until they had to run to the airport to start their ten hour trek back to StL, and then with Ryan and my dad, until THEY had to run off to the airport too. Then we had quiet time. I'm not actually sure it was quiet for everyone else, but it was SILENT for me because I had my pillow wrapped around my head and was sound asleep.
After MY nap, we went to another of our favorites, The Tavern on France. It's fairly yummy and fairly inexpensive and you can have gigantic beers and yummy fries. AND, for dessert you can make smores at your table. It was AWESOME. Ryker thought we had lost our minds and stared at the flame in total awe until Jack stood with him, and until he caught site of the marshmallows. Then he was fine. He asked to eat the melted flame-goo once the fire went out. I think he'll eat anything.
So that was the weekend. Thanks to EVERYONE who came out for it. I kept telling Jack how great it was that all those friends came, and how special it was to have 5 people all come into town especially for this. He's very loved. Me too!
It started on his actual birthday, Thursday. I had CJ, his idol and next door neighbor, come with me to take him to school. Ryker, CJ and I traipsed into the school, got visitor nametags, waited with him, and then marched him down to his classroom with his treats for the class. He felt REALLY special.
That night we let him choose where to eat. He picked IHOP. Someday he'll deny that IHOP was his favorite restaurant, but this blog is here to prove it. And to embarrass him. But back to IHOP. Right when the waitress came, Ryker yells "it's Sassin's birfday!!!" We translated for her. Jack asked her several times when, exactly, they were going to sing to him.
Then Friday Grandmommy arrived (always makes the boys SOOO happy) and he got to go shopping with Uncle Ry Ry and Grandpa Mark (a favorite birthday tradition). Ryker got to go too, and then they got to have ice cream. I had to work late, but when I finally caught up with them back at the house, Ryker was running laps around the great room with a new kid-sized shopping cart and Jack was playing with a huge new crane and making bird calls with a water-whistle. I slept in a hotel. I heard the rest of the weekend was lovely.
Just kidding.
Saturday was party-day. Jack's favorite people kept arriving - Gaga, Papa, Ry Ry, Grandpa, Grandma Bernice ("Gram-eece" according to Ryker), Uncle Bob, Uncle Dave, Jill, Nicki, Cullen, the Hayes' kids, Payten, Chuckie & Samantha, old daycare buddies, Miss Mari & Miss Kristy & Miss Pryanthi (all from Ryker's school - Jack's old school), BBall Aunties Kari & Abby & Lisa - as well as lots of other people who Jack tracked on briefly but are friends and family of Chuck and mine (no offense to any of you who are reading this! He's six!). The party was mostly kids running around screaming and playing and the adults eating and talking and enjoying the beautiful fall day. Oh, and sugar. Lots and lots of sugar.
After the party we opened presents and played with all the new toys. They all make noise too. SCORE! There are some pretty sweet toys though, even a kid-version of beer pong. Hilarious. He's going to go to some kegger sometime and say "I'm AWESOME at this - I've been playing since I was SIX!" And then he'll never get drunk, right?
Later Saturday night we had one of MY favorites - Brasa. YUMMY! And more sugar, of course.
Sunday we had two waves of breakfast - first with Charlie and BJ, until they had to run to the airport to start their ten hour trek back to StL, and then with Ryan and my dad, until THEY had to run off to the airport too. Then we had quiet time. I'm not actually sure it was quiet for everyone else, but it was SILENT for me because I had my pillow wrapped around my head and was sound asleep.
After MY nap, we went to another of our favorites, The Tavern on France. It's fairly yummy and fairly inexpensive and you can have gigantic beers and yummy fries. AND, for dessert you can make smores at your table. It was AWESOME. Ryker thought we had lost our minds and stared at the flame in total awe until Jack stood with him, and until he caught site of the marshmallows. Then he was fine. He asked to eat the melted flame-goo once the fire went out. I think he'll eat anything.
So that was the weekend. Thanks to EVERYONE who came out for it. I kept telling Jack how great it was that all those friends came, and how special it was to have 5 people all come into town especially for this. He's very loved. Me too!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Pics
I just put a bunch more pictures on the Flickr site - don't forget to check them out! The newest ones are always posted to the thumbnails to the right.
Bad Idea
It really seemed like a harmless enough project. I have wanted to redo the kids' bathroom since we moved in here. The people before us did two colors with this froggy/caterpillar/praying mantis border going through the middle of the wall. It was sort of cute for a boy bathroom, but the border was peeling off and they didn't do a very good job painting.
We didn't have plans this weekend, so I thought this would be a good accomplishment.
This was a bad idea, for the following reasons:
1. We tried to peel some of the paper off, which was fun and a good bonding thing for Jack and me. It stopped being fun when I had paper stuck under my finger nails and it was all over the floor and I couldn't straighten my fingers out anymore.
2. To take the rest of the wallpaper off you have to spray this gooey stuff on the wall. It's gross and gets everywhere. And after about 2 hours of working with it, I read the fine print on the bottle. It said in big letters on the front that it was non-toxic, but the warnings said that it contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer.
3. The project-time doubled when I learned about the cancerness of the gel, because I then had to wash my hands every 14 seconds.
4. I had to tape and I hate taping. It falls down.
5. This is a BATHROOM I'm painting. Bathrooms are small rooms to be locked into with noxious fumes.
6. Bathrooms (especially bathrooms used by small boys) smell badly to begin with.
7. Bathrooms have tiny walls, so you can't get much done with rollers, and there is no where to turn around.
8. Bathrooms have toilets, which cannot be removed and don't actually touch the wall, but you have to paint behind them anyway. To get around the weird configuration of the toilet, I had to contort myself and get nastily smooshed up against it. Read #6 again.
9. Jack and Ryker REALLY like to help do things, so I had at least one companion in the tiny bathroom the entire time.
10. In moments of clarity I'd remember that those are my babies who are now covered in cancer goo and breathing noxious fumes, so I'd have to remove them from the bathroom and wash their hands over and over again.
Now there is one coat up and I quit. I'll do another coat whenever I forget how much I disliked the process, or whenever the ugliness of the first attempt gets to me.
We didn't have plans this weekend, so I thought this would be a good accomplishment.
This was a bad idea, for the following reasons:
1. We tried to peel some of the paper off, which was fun and a good bonding thing for Jack and me. It stopped being fun when I had paper stuck under my finger nails and it was all over the floor and I couldn't straighten my fingers out anymore.
2. To take the rest of the wallpaper off you have to spray this gooey stuff on the wall. It's gross and gets everywhere. And after about 2 hours of working with it, I read the fine print on the bottle. It said in big letters on the front that it was non-toxic, but the warnings said that it contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer.
3. The project-time doubled when I learned about the cancerness of the gel, because I then had to wash my hands every 14 seconds.
4. I had to tape and I hate taping. It falls down.
5. This is a BATHROOM I'm painting. Bathrooms are small rooms to be locked into with noxious fumes.
6. Bathrooms (especially bathrooms used by small boys) smell badly to begin with.
7. Bathrooms have tiny walls, so you can't get much done with rollers, and there is no where to turn around.
8. Bathrooms have toilets, which cannot be removed and don't actually touch the wall, but you have to paint behind them anyway. To get around the weird configuration of the toilet, I had to contort myself and get nastily smooshed up against it. Read #6 again.
9. Jack and Ryker REALLY like to help do things, so I had at least one companion in the tiny bathroom the entire time.
10. In moments of clarity I'd remember that those are my babies who are now covered in cancer goo and breathing noxious fumes, so I'd have to remove them from the bathroom and wash their hands over and over again.
Now there is one coat up and I quit. I'll do another coat whenever I forget how much I disliked the process, or whenever the ugliness of the first attempt gets to me.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Three Days of K
It's official. Jack LOVES kindergarten. Loves it. He made three new friends on the first day - none of whom have names that he remembers. He liked his teacher, liked what they did, liked the bus. Each day has been the same report.
The transition hasn't been ALL smiles though. He's discombobulated and throwing smallish fits at night. He is defiant. He comes right out of it, apologizes, gets really lovey dovey. He slept on our floor for most of the night last night.
Ryker is not a happy camper either, in his own little Rykie kind of way. I asked him last night how he was doing without Jackson at his same school. He goes "it okay. But I not happy." I said "what?" and he goes "I not happy cuz Sassin not dare wif me." UGH.
So it's a work in progress. I expected this. Par for the course with Jack and transitions, but we're working through it.
And here's a Ryker story for you all. We've been reading "Llama Llama Red Pajama" every night for awhile now. My mom brought the book and was the first one to hear this. So one of the pages says:
Baby Llama, don't you know?
Momma Llama loves you so
Ryker says "...much." Like we forgot a word. He's never heard that phrase stall out on "so". We love him "so much."
Now he does that every single time we read it. He doesn't make a big deal about it, just quietly adds it in. What must he think about us? "Mommy and Daddy and Grandmommy just can't get this story right."
The transition hasn't been ALL smiles though. He's discombobulated and throwing smallish fits at night. He is defiant. He comes right out of it, apologizes, gets really lovey dovey. He slept on our floor for most of the night last night.
Ryker is not a happy camper either, in his own little Rykie kind of way. I asked him last night how he was doing without Jackson at his same school. He goes "it okay. But I not happy." I said "what?" and he goes "I not happy cuz Sassin not dare wif me." UGH.
So it's a work in progress. I expected this. Par for the course with Jack and transitions, but we're working through it.
And here's a Ryker story for you all. We've been reading "Llama Llama Red Pajama" every night for awhile now. My mom brought the book and was the first one to hear this. So one of the pages says:
Baby Llama, don't you know?
Momma Llama loves you so
Ryker says "...much." Like we forgot a word. He's never heard that phrase stall out on "so". We love him "so much."
Now he does that every single time we read it. He doesn't make a big deal about it, just quietly adds it in. What must he think about us? "Mommy and Daddy and Grandmommy just can't get this story right."
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Kindergarten Eve
It feels like the lead-up to "school" has been super long. It's this THING that comes up over and over again. We talk to him about it, we talked to his daycare providers about it, we talk to family and friends about it. "Well, when he goes to kindergarten..."
I spent several days in the spring going up there, filling out paperwork, taking him to various places for various assessments. Last week was the Open House. Today was the orientation. All leads to tomorrow.
I haven't cried yet. Is that weird? I almost cried dropping Ryker off at school this morning. Jack had stayed home with my mom because the orientation was at 2. I was taking Ryker to daycare, and he was in the backseat hugging his blanket. We got a block away from school and he goes "Momma...why it only me?" Oh my God.
So here's what we know. He goes to the neighborhood public school, and his teacher is Mrs. George. Turns out I played basketball against her in college. Ha! She seems really great. I love his classroom - it's high tech (she has one of 8 Smart Boards in the school and it's AWESOME - Chuck and I tried to play with it at the Open House but couldn't figure it out), it's bright and airy and filled with all kinds of stuff to keep the kids learning and moving and curious. She keeps them moving also, which I liked. She ran us through what the day looks like normally, and I in turn ran my mom through it. She spent most of her professional career as a first grade teacher. She loved what we told her about the classroom so that makes me feel better.
Nonetheless, my little guy rides the bus for the first time tomorrow. By himself. Well not by himself, per se, but not with anyone he knows. And then goes to a big new school with big new people and big new things.
My BABY. If you all need any reminding, it's THIS kid starting school tomorrow:
I spent several days in the spring going up there, filling out paperwork, taking him to various places for various assessments. Last week was the Open House. Today was the orientation. All leads to tomorrow.
I haven't cried yet. Is that weird? I almost cried dropping Ryker off at school this morning. Jack had stayed home with my mom because the orientation was at 2. I was taking Ryker to daycare, and he was in the backseat hugging his blanket. We got a block away from school and he goes "Momma...why it only me?" Oh my God.
So here's what we know. He goes to the neighborhood public school, and his teacher is Mrs. George. Turns out I played basketball against her in college. Ha! She seems really great. I love his classroom - it's high tech (she has one of 8 Smart Boards in the school and it's AWESOME - Chuck and I tried to play with it at the Open House but couldn't figure it out), it's bright and airy and filled with all kinds of stuff to keep the kids learning and moving and curious. She keeps them moving also, which I liked. She ran us through what the day looks like normally, and I in turn ran my mom through it. She spent most of her professional career as a first grade teacher. She loved what we told her about the classroom so that makes me feel better.
Nonetheless, my little guy rides the bus for the first time tomorrow. By himself. Well not by himself, per se, but not with anyone he knows. And then goes to a big new school with big new people and big new things.
My BABY. If you all need any reminding, it's THIS kid starting school tomorrow:
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