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    Smarties

    June 28th, 2014

    G: Mommy, is this a Smartie? [shows me a Smartie candy roll]
    Me: Yes!
    G: Do they make you smart?

    Ha, Kid! You’re kinda funny.


    First tooth gone

    June 27th, 2014

    The wiggly tooth. It is gone. G jumped out of the car today, and the first thing he did is show me his gap from across the parking lot. He lost it while eating a snack. He’s playing it off like it’s no big deal, but I can tell he’s excited.

    I asked S what approach we’re taking here. The “tooth faerie” has new tooth-brush heads ready for him and a crisp $2 bill. On the other hand, the Bulgarian tradition around losing teeth is to throw your tooth up to the roof of your home for the crows to carry away. S wants to keep the tooth, so I guess crows are out.

    I miss his smile already. Here come the awkward years.

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    Sleep-over

    June 27th, 2014

    The boys had their first sleep-over two week-ends ago. I have a friend who lives in Gilroy, and really wanted to try Rock N Jump with us some Saturday, and to spare them the drive I offered up a sleep-over. It was our first, and actually worked out pretty decently. The living room floor was the kid sleep zone, and while S2 did in fact sleep with his new buddies, G2 opted our bed. It was a good, non-windy summer evening (a little rare around our parts) so after-dinner treat ended up being smores on the fire-pit… whose calories were instantly burned by 4 kids running laps around our yard.
    So there you have it. I grabbed my camera mid way because people were just being sweet, and quite frankly I just hadn’t in a while 🙂

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    So… that last picture? No comment?!?!


    A case for building Lego

    June 26th, 2014

    S2 asked to build Lego tonight. Instead of watching TV. He asked me to build him an ambulance. I’ll admit: often the hour between dinner and bed-time, when the kids watch TV is catch-up time for me, so I don’t play as often as I should. But tonight I did, and I’m glad. It’s the little things that happen while we sit on the floor of his room. Though the majority of this Lego build-out is quiet, S2 drops in some events of his day. Kids he played with. What they did. Things he doesn’t volunteer to me otherwise. It’s actually kind of neat. Tonight I learned that he’s been working on sharing, and in the two week’s his been at his new pre-school he’s made two new friends. He still misses his friend, A, though, and thinks A is very strong when it comes to prying little Lego pieces apart.

    Maybe this is why play therapy works 🙂


    Right of passage: head lice checks

    June 24th, 2014

    Right of passage experience going on today: checking for head lice.

    We had a really active Sunday last week-end, and from one of our gatherings, a mom reached out to me to let me know that after the party, she found lice in her kids’ hair. It was good of her to say something. But it put S and I into an educational frenzy: what do we look for, how do we do it, how do we treat it?
    Then, this morning I had to check the boys and explain to them why I was doing this and what head lice were. It included informational conversations and dances that looked something like this:
    Me: Well, head lice are bugs that live in your hair. They like to jump from head to head. And when they come to your head and see ALL the room  they have, they go “Ooooh! Lookie. I had stretch out. PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and then they go “BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY! BABY!” and make lots of babies.
    They also do a dance like this:
    “Party in G’s hair. Woo! Party in S2’s hair. Woo! Party in Mommy’s hair. Oh yeah! Party in Daddy’s hair. Oh, eh – he doesn’t have any. Never mind! Back to party in G’s hair!” (be sad there’s no video recording of my lice dance)
    The kids thought it was hilarious. I hope they still feel that way if we do get lice to turn up and we have to treat it. Meanwhile, everyone’s getting their hair treated, bugs or not as soon as the Amazon order arrives.


    Your favorite Mommy

    June 11th, 2014

    S2 and I have a little routine going on. It goes something like this:

    Me: Who’se my favorite S****?

    S2: Me! (cackle)

    Me: Who’se your favorite mommy?

    S2: Me!!! (cackle)

    He actually likes this exchange and asks for it often.

     


    Graduation Day

    June 10th, 2014

    G’s school had their graduation ceremony this week-end. I gotta say: it was quite the production. The kids had a pretty big performance before accepting their diplomas and walking the stage. It was pretty impressive! They performed a whole bunch of songs, by decade, starting with the 60’s. We were graced with an Elvis impersonator, The Beatles, The Village People (complete with mustaches), mini-Madonna’s, Psy, among others. They’ve been rehearsing this since Jan, and you could tell. Everyone did a great job. S and I recorded some video here and there, so you can see for yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll only subject you to the song G was the lead performer in.

    The graduation also made me cry. Surprisingly not because of an age we’re moving past, and a whole new era we’re entering. I cried during the part where the kids talked about their dreams of what they wanted to be, as they walked off stage. A striking number of vets and soldier’s aside, my face was wet because all I really hoped for was that these kids would get a chance to do their dream. To live long enough to try. Sucky thing to say, but true. This is what JLK’s life has reduced me to. But I digress.
    G? G dreams to be a helicopter pilot. Be proud, Rockwell!

    I’m going to miss this class a lot. While I wasn’t as involved in this school as much as I have been in the past, I can tell that it’s been a great, growth-filled year for G. He’s matured a lot in this past year, and I feel so glad we gave him this year before starting kinder. He’s ready! He’s (more) than ready, I feel.

    I’m going to miss the friends that he’s made here. Most of the kids in his class are continuing on to the private school the pre-school is part of. We’re not (25K a year/kid is a little hard to grasp right now), so I hope we can schedule some play-dates, and make a genuine effort since they won’t be playing every day at school.

     

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    Bedtime songs

    June 9th, 2014

    When I was little, there used to be a TV show that come on every night at 8pm. I wrote about it here, previously, and it’s been a song that’s been making it’s rounds nightly at bedtime with the boys. They don’t really know what the words mean. G has been trying to sing it, and I’ve been translating it to him, but it took me a bit by surprise that S2 was the one to accompany me last night… out of no-where. I had to pause and ask him to do it again so I can record it from Grandma and Grandpa to see.

    So Grandma and Grandpa? This one’s for you!

    PS. There is an actual video here. It’s dark (it’s bed-time after all), but if your monitor is as crappy as mine at work, it will appear black. Sound is fine on it’s own, but the imagry is worth it finding a better screen.


    Movie Monday

    June 2nd, 2014

    Our new playground gag:

    [youtube=http://youtu.be/3bFhFC-M9g8]