A Lesson and A Wish

Once upon a time, S had a favorite jacket. It was a Wisconsin jacket and he loved it so. It was a link back to his beloved state, his favorite neighbor had given him the jacket and he loved wearing it.  Oh woe was the day when he reallized that his beloved coat was lost.  Much moping around occurred for a few months when this was discovered and there were perhaps a word or two from Mom about being responsible for his own stuff and keeping track of things. And by word or two, I mean lecture (he'd say scolding). Ahem.  But, I digress.

S wore his winter coat as the weather got colder but still missed his Wisconsin jacket. He would sigh as he put his coat on and I knew he was remembering his old coat/friend. He missed his Wisconsin jacket every day. Poor S!

Imagine his surprise when we went to the first Cub Scout pack meeting, walked into the Church gym and lo and behold.....we spied THE jacket.  Grins abounded, his step lightened and I swear he saw a golden beam of light and angels singing. After checking the pockets and finding some of his beloved stash/junk...er, I mean stuff....we concluded that is was indeed the long lost Beloved.  Oh joy of joys!!!!

On the way home after the meeting, as S is all snuggled up in his new/old jacket (and yes, he still had the coat he wore to the meeting next to him) I asked him if he had learned anything through all of this.
"Oh yes, definitely!" he beamed.
"Oh, thank heavens" I thought to myself excitedly, "I wished he would have learned his lesson and he has!"
"I learned," he continued, "that if you're going to lose something, lost it at church 'cause they'll be honest and save your jacket for you!"
My mouth dropped open, and few seconds, I was speechless. Then I chuckled. Sometimes, I need to be more careful what I wish for.

Future Generations or the Next Butt

S had a social studies assignment to rewrite the preamble to the constitution in his own words.
It was a long and arduous process, for both of us.
But, he slogged on until this part.
"Mom, this says 'for ourselves and our posterity."
"Yes, what do you think that might mean?" I asked.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure. I know posterity means 'butt' and I just can't figure out why they're talking about butts in the Constitution. Does it have something to do with the freedom to pass gas?"
"No, dear, the founding fathers were not concerned with gaseous eruptions. The word you're thinking of is posterior not posterity."

We are going out to get a dictionary this weekend.

Highway Signs

Went up to my Dad's a few weeks ago. Just me and the kids. But no Maggie, thank goodness. She gets whiney in the car with only the kids for company.
Anyway, we're tooling along the highway, la de da and I come up to a slower moving vehicle. I get into the left hand lane to pass and realize that I need to pass a couple more cars. No problem, I'm kicking right along.  We were on a four lane highway so there was plenty of room to pass.
Suddenly, I look up in the rearview mirror and see this little 2 door car right on my backside. No, seriously, I couldn't see the front 1/3 of the car the guy was going so close. Well, that rather slightly ticks me off. I mean, it's dangerous and stupid so I very, very gently tap my brakes so the lights go on as a "Back off my a**s!" signal to Mr. Driver (who is about 22 and is in the little car with his girlfriend riding next to him).
I actually speed up so that I can move back into the right lane as soon as possible 'cause I'm perfectly okay with Mr. A**hole, er, I mean, Mr. Driver cruisin' right on by me. Go ahead, I think, really, I don't mind, speed along and go far, far ahead of me. And I may have prayed real quick  for a Mr. Policeman to be up ahead with a speedtrap for my new friend. Ahem (or is that Amen?!).
I get back into the right hand lane and I glance over at Mr. Driver. He is now even with me, rolling down the passenger side window, hanging onto the steering wheel with his left hand and leaning out the passenger window with his arm and hand hanging out and he's giving me the one finger salute. Waving it madly around and about. His girlfriend is trying to pull him back into the car and yelling at him to "Knock it off and behave! Watch where you're driving" And, I believe that he may have been saying a naughty word or two directed at me. 'Cause I'm good at reading lips that way, I guess.
Holy moly, that was one nasty case of car rage. Geesh!
Meanwhile, C & S have witnessed Mr. Driver's behavior.
"What is that man doing?" asked C looking very confused by they whole thing.
I qiuckly respond, "Oh, he's just waving hello. Let's all wave back to him and make his day brighter."
I wave (with all fingers not just one), C enthusiastically waves and S half-heartedly waves.
 There was a few second of silence then I hear, "Ah, Mama?" says S.
"Yes?"
"I don't think he was waving hello."

Where's that Lunchbox?

"Where's your lunchbox?" I asked S.
"I don't know, I'll find it" S replied. It's about 5 minutes until the carpool comes.
"Better hurry" I offer my  oh-so-helpful advice.
Mumbling something (I prefer not to know what it was), S looks for the elusive bag that has his lunch inside.
It's now 2 minutes before carpool.
S uses the bathroom. I say (with slightly more emphasis, well, if you count yelling as 'slightly more') "Where's the dang lunchbox? You are NOT ordering school lunch. I packed a perfectly good lunch and you need to find it. It was in your hand not 5 minutes ago, where is it?"
"Mama, I'm in the bathroom, I'll look when I get out" S replies.
I still think it's an avoidance tactic.
By now, I've looked all over the house. S has looked and can't find it and the carpool has arrived.
S hightails it out of the house (I believe he was secretly glad to leave the increasing pressure cooker that was our house with the missing lunchbox).
"Mama, I can't find it. I'll just eat school lunch" S yells as he's getting into the carpool car.
I may or may not have well, not so gently, slammed the front door  all the while muttering "he just wanted school lunch, bet I find the ding dang lunchbag right after he leaves."
I continued to look for it for about 1/2 hour. It remained unfound. I remain convinced that S had hid the lunchbag just so he could have school lunch. Not a happy mama.
Fast forward to the next morning.
"S, where is your lunchbox?" I asked.
"Mama, I looked everywhere, I can't find it?" he said.
"Are you sure you didn't put it somewhere so you could have lunch at school?" I ask.
"NO! I didn't but I'll keep looking even if I can't figure out where it might be" S decides.
I walk over to open the front drapes. Look outside the window, and lo & behold, there's that lunchbox. Outside, on the ground, behind the bushes, next to the house.
Now, why didn't I think of that??!!

Webelos

S had his Cub Scouts Blue & Gold Banquet. That's the big celebration where the boys get all their badges and pins. They have a meal and some entertainment. This year, it was the FrogMan. He's a hoot, we've seen him a few times. At the end, the boys and any other kids/adults there were allowed to hold the snakes he brought. S jumped right up and grabbed one. I, however, watched and took pictures from a safe distance. Me + snakes = not a good match. S had no such compunctions though:

Course, he also threatened to come over and drape the snake on me. I politely refused. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

S also received 3 pins that night, physical fitness, citizenship and art.  But, most importantly, he is now a full-fledged Webelo Scout (that's the final stage of cub scouts before becoming a boy scout).  Webelo stands for "We'll be Loyal Scouts."

It was really hard to get a good photo as things were moving along quickly, but here is S checking out his new pins and ribbons.
We're proud of our little Webelo!!

My Royal Family

We went for a nighttime walk tonight. The weather was beautiful, the moon was out, the snow was a-melting. As we were coming home, C started this conversation:
C: Look! Maggie is walking and leading us, just like a Princess!
S: Yep, she's a princess all right.
C: Princess Maggie and I'm a princess too.
S: Oh boy, here we go.
C: I'm Princess of Nice and Maggie, she's the Princess.... Princess of.... um.....
S:Pooches?
C: Yeah, Princess of Pooches. And Mama is the Queen. She's always the Queen. She's the Queen of Mamas.
[At this point, I was thinking that I've taught my youngest well!]
C: And Daddy is the king, of course. King of all the boys.
S: Well, what am I then, if you're the princess, Mama the Queen and Daddy is the King?
C: Oh, that's easy. You're the Joker.

Two Thumbs Up

We were eating at our favorite Korean restaurant, and we got dessert for the kids. It is very unusual for us to have dessert when we go out, so this was a big occasion. The kids chose fried ice cream (doesn't sound very Korean to me either, but hey, that was one of the choices).

Two thumbs up. It was a hit!

My Boy

We had a day the other day. A big fat, we can't agree on anything, you always make me do stuff I don't like, why do I need to listen to you day. Me and S. It was a tough one.
All day, it was a struggle. We butted heads, we said stuff, we went to our respective rooms, we yelled, we retreated. It was hard. No one told me that there would be days like this when I became a Mom. And, oh, it hurt. It hurt like nothing else could hurt me. My heart was aching even amidst the accusations, the yelling and the tears, from both of us.
At the end of the day, after C was in bed and Hubster hadn't gotten home, we were in the kitchen together, alone, finally, for the first time that day, just talking. I looked at this boy, this boy that I used to sit and rock to sleep, who loved cuddling with me, this boy who used to call me 'the Mama' and jump right up into my arms and exactly at that moment, my heart just melted.

He's getting so big and growing so fast. I held out my arms and he stepped right into them. Wrapped his arms all around me, squeezed, and before I could say anything, he just simply said "I'm sorry Mama". The tears came faster than I could stop them. "Me too" I said, "I don't like it when we argue."  "Me neither," S said.

This boy, this up to my chin, size Men's 7 shoe-wearing, Harry Potter-obsessed, Lego maniac, is growing up. But, underneath it, he's still my boy. And he always will be, even when his heart belongs to that other special someone he'll meet someday.

It was a nice way to end the night.

Almost a Family Picture

This is the closest thing to a family photo (in clothes, not jammies) from Christmas that I have. A nice church member asked if he could take our photo after I took some of the kids:

I did play with it a little in Picnik (a photo editing site, great fun!). I just wish David would have been there, but he took off after dropping us off at church. Considering the three of us didn't even try to coordinate, we did pretty good!

Good News Concert

S had his Christmas Choir concert at church today. He's right in the middle of the picture, behind the girl with the blonde hair.

What fun! The choirs ranged from the Chapel Choir, Grades 2-5 all the way up to the adult choir. There were 2 Bell Choirs, numerous instruments and our church's brand new harp. Listening to all the beautiful music definitely put me in the Christmas mood!

But, it got better. After the concert, they served high tea. Lots of yummy little sandwiches, many, many cookies and tea and punch. Even C tried the tea, she liked the peppermint tea the best. I had apple spice tea and she tried that and like it too. S had punch and mostly cookies, we saw him after his supply ran out.

All in all, a good day. Wish Hubster could have been here to hear and see it.
:)

Meeting with Santa

We went to see Santa. C was so excited, she told me all week long what she would ask him for and what she would tell him.
She and I got there first, we were waiting for the Hubster and S to get there after Fencing practice.
C kept moving closer and closer to me. She asked "Can I ask Santa if he'll bring me my 2 front teeth? I think he knows the tooth fairy, or maybe Mrs. Claus does, maybe he could just deliver them for her??"
I told her I thought that would be fine. She told me again what her wish list contained and tried to be very patient waiting for her brother to arrive.
S and Hubster finally arrived. The kids sat down on Santa's lap and.....
nothing.
Complete silence from both of them.
Santa, bless his North Pole heart, tried to get them to talk but they both just looked and looked at him.
They got their picture taken and off we went.
Soon as we were out the door, they couldn't STOP talking.
And both resolved to be writing him a letter with their wish lists.

Zoo Moments

We spent the last few days before school started doing some of the last things on our Summer 'to do' list. Things like visiting the zoo.  C had to take her standard pose by the flamingoes:

And, then C & S pretended to be giraffes:

It seems my little monkeys fit right in at the zoo!

First Day of School 2010

Here are my kiddos in the infamous "First Day" photo that proud Mamas across the U.S. take on the first morning of the new school year:

They had a great day and came home bursting to tell me about their teachers, class and of course, who they ate lunch with.
We celebrated by having root beer floats after school.
I love these days!

One of Those Days

I should have known what this day would be like when by 7:30 am, we had already had tears, timeouts, scoldings, and a temper tantrum (no, none of the behavior was mine!).
But, at 8:00, off to VBS we went. It went well, kids seemed happy. Had a talk with S about how he treats C. Had a talk with C about how she deals with S. Thought progress was made.
Oh, silly, silly me.
Fast forward to this afternoon. I lost count of the timeouts. TV privleges and computer privileges were suspended, pillows were thrown at the dog, pencils were tossed across the room, workbook pages were ripped. And, all of it by S. I couldn't believe it! If someone had offered to take him away, I think I would have packed his bags myself.
Then, after a session of 'calming down' in his room, S hands me the following note:

"Dear 'I hate you' ("which, by the way, Mama, is you if you don't know," S told me).
Never hug or kiss me again!
Your hateful son,
S
I promptly asked him to get me a pencil. Why, you ask? Well, simply so I could date it and put it in his keepsake box. While not pleased with the hateful words, I simply had to preserve this. Can't wait until I can bring this one out when he has his own kids!

p.s. Did I mention how much I'm looking forward to early bedtimes tonight???!

Change Worthy

S is a saver. Of money. Really, the boy gets his allowance, it goes into his ATM bank and he carefully keeps track of every penny he has. He is always trying to save up enough to exchange his changes (bills & coins) so he can get a $20 bill in return. (I may have, on occasion, had to borrow some cash from him because I was running low, ahem.)
S walks, a lot of the time, with his head down, scanning, looking, hunting, to find the spare penny, nickel, or if he's really lucky, quarter on the floor, parking lot, sidewalk. He is usually successful. (And then he likes to rub C's nose in it).
I have always thought that the saving habit was a nice trait that he has.
Until, that is, until today.
S had a doctor's appointment and afterward, since we were so close to the bread store, we stopped in to buy a few loaves before I dropped him off at school. I thought he might like to go with me because I knew  that there are various treats at the bread store. Like hostess cupcakes and zingers. Yummmm! I thought a little treat before school would be fun for him (and perhaps rate me in the Cool Mom category. Yeah, I will so pay for this vanity later). 
So, in we go. He's fascinated by the little store, even considering that it's 80% bread. We find the bread we need, and after perusing the various treats, he picks out a single Hostess cupcake. Suddenly, he drops to the floor, gets on his hands and knees and sticks one side of his head down on the floor. I mean, one whole side of his face is plastered to the floor (eeeuuuuu) and I can't tell what the heck he's doing.
"WHAT are you doing?????" I asked (I prefer to think that I asked this rather quietly and calmly, apparently not as quietly as I thought as the other 2 customers in the store were now staring at the two of us rather strangely).
Now, at this point, he is laying on his stomach, crawling commando style, underneath the shelves (and all I can picture is the amount of dirt on the floor) and I hiss "S, get up!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? GET OFF THAT FLOOR!!! Dignity is going fast because the 2 other customers are now looking anywhere BUT at the Floor Crawling/Cleaning boy & his Mom. I smile weakly at them and kinda shrug my shoulders.
"S, get off that floor this instant!!" I command, holding back because I soooo wanted to stamp my foot along with it too.
"Mama, I'm almost done" S says. "I'm just looking to see if there's any change under there" S replies.
Seriously??!!
All was well, however. S found a penny and declared it 'totally worth it'.
Heaven help me if he keeps this up.

Growing Pains

I was at school yesterday to work in S's classroom and to deliver the cupcakes I spent hours decorating. Once our centers of learning were complete, S came over to whisper in my ear.
"Mama, could you please not stay for lunch today? It just, well, is sorta embarassing to me."
"What???" I heard myself gasp, as a sharp pain shot through my breaking heart. As the other part of my brain was thinking "you must not have heard him correctly".
"Well, you're my Mom and it's kinda not great to have you here for lunch" he said.
"Really? But I always come to school to eat lunch with you on your birthday. It's our tradition," I stammered, bravely trying not to look too shocked, too sad, too teary.
He looked down at the ground, glanced back up at me, looked at me with his big blue eyes and whispered once more, "Please?"
"OK," I said, being brave, "I don't have to come back for lunch."
"But," I said as I tried not to grab him and hug him, "do you still want me to drop off  McDonald's for lunch?"
"Oh" he said, "If you're bringing McDonald's, you can come and sit by me. That's perfectly fine."

Nice to know that me and Ronald McDonald rate right next to each other.

Starstruck

S went to Miller Park yesterday for Weather day. WTMJ4 had a science fair and talked about the weather and then the kids got to watch about 6 innings of the 14 inning game against the Pirates. (Boo Pirates, Yeah Brewers, Boo on the Brewer eventual loss.)
What had S most excited? No, it wasn't the hotdog and Pepsi he got, or the cotton candy, although, they were darned high on the list.
No, my son's biggest moment?
He shook Craig Koplein's hand. Craig, one of the TMJ4 weathercasters.
S was literally jumping up and down when he told me.
"I got to shake his HAND!" he bragged.
"Did you ask him a weather question?" I said.
"OH no," S replied, "I was just too stubborn to ask."
I hesitated, thinking 'how does stubborn go with that?'
"I was so excited because he's, like, really famous, he's on tv and EVERYTHING!" exclaimed S.
Then I said, "Honey, I think you mean speechless."

On an unrelated note, later at dinner, S asked me "In Catholic-ology, is Sister another name for nun? You know, the ones who run the Catholic church?"
Good thing my Mom never heard this one!
Guess I have some 'schoolin' to do with my starstruck boy!

Oh Sister!

C was reading a book to me. She came to the word "sister" and couldn't figure it out.
So I prompted her "You know this word. It's what you are to S".
She thought for a moment and then with a confused look, she answered "Sneaky?"
I just grinned.

Complaint Department

S & C were playing outside before school. Suddenly, S comes rushing in and stands right in front of me.
"Yes?" I ask him, meaning "I'm working on an important crop in Farmville and do not wish to be interrupted."
"Mama" S responds, "I want to lodge a complaint against C."
"Really?" I ask, trying not to crack a smile cause he's looking quite serious.
"Yes, I want to lodge a complaint." He stands there and looks intently at me, not saying another word.
Shortly, I say, "OK, consider your complaint lodged".
He stands there a bit longer, just looking at me.
"Is there a specific outcome you would like?" I ask.
"Yes, Mama" S says. "C threw a rock at me and it almost hit my back. Would you tell her my complaint was lodged and that I would like her to stop?"
"Certainly" I respond, "Is that all?".
"Yes, that is all" and S runs back outside to play.

Seriously, where does he get this stuff???

Blue & Gold 2010

S first Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet was a success. He earned 13 belt loops and was quite proud of himself. He should be, he worked hard to get them. The entertainment was a juggler and he was fun. At the end, the kids got to balance peacock feathers on their hands and spin plates on wooden dowels. Even Mom & Dad got to try this.

A fun night even if the kids were up late. Getting up for school the next morning, not so fun.