It's Raining, It's Pouring

No, really... It is. It's all thunderstorms and tornadoes outside. *eek*

I don't really have all that much to say, but I thought I'd at least make the effort to get on here and say "something" - I mean, with the following I have and all... I'd hate to let down my reader(s).

So... that being said...

I don't have much else to say.

Except:

I love my babies with all my heart! You two are my most favorite people in the whole... EVERYTHING!!

Lunch With My Boy

Just thought I'd post a couple pics from lunch today with my boy:

I can't expect him to be serious for too long...

Career Day

So Christian wanted to be "the donut guy" for Career Day at school...

I thought it was just about the cutest thing he could ever request. It's one of those moments that remind you how innocent and pure a child's mind is, ya know? [like when our little brother said he wanted "a car like PawPaw's" when he grows up (an old station wagon) - for which we have teased him relentlessly.] Cause Christian didn't request to be someone with a high paying job, or even something that would put him in the spotlight as the hero (like a cop or a fireman). Instead, he went with his heart... and probably stomach.

And sweeter still: When we went by Dunkin Donuts to see if they had any paper hats (like the ones at Krispy Kreme), the manager hooked us up with an official Dunkin Donuts visor and name tag - which totally made Christian's costume!

It's official...

I'm old.

My lil' man starts.... KINDERGARTEN tomorrow!! I can't believe how quickly time flies by these days. I swear I just posted something in here yesterday, but alas... It was in July! So I definitely need an update - as per one of my two readers' request.

So back to my youth slipping away and into my youngins...

Yesterday was Meet the Teacher night. I warned Gabi before we got there that we would be visiting Christian's classes first, as this was his VERY FIRST experience with the whole thing. Gabi, like the big 2nd grader she now is, smiled and said, "okay."

Christian was very excited - but soon realized there wasn't much to Meet the Teacher night. He said a quick, "hey," to his new teachers and promptly asked if he could play with the toys. [sigh. boys.]

A few kids started to trickle in, and I tried to get Christian interested in meeting his classmates, but you know how absorbing dinosaurs are...... he threw them the same, "hey," he gave the teachers (still with no eye contact), never skipping a beat - or a dino bite.

I've noticed Christian's the type that can hang with anyone. He'll just walk right up and say, "Hey! Can I play with you?" He doesn't seem intimidated at all; he'll ask a 10 year old to play.

My Gabi, on the other hand....

She's my shy gal. She sat by herself and played with the mini doll house while we did the meet & greet with Christian's class. While it was time to meet her teacher and "friends," she stayed to herself, too. She found a puzzle of the US and quietly worked on it solo.

When I told Gabi there was a girl she actually knew in her class (who had been in the same kindergarten room with her), she finally perked up and actually wanted to speak to her. Unfortunately, though, the little girl and her parents didn't remember us. :(

My poor Gooby....

I'm eager to see if my little ones switch roles as they get older, like my sister & I did.

Hmmmm....

Facebook Friends

We all have them... Cause everyone has a Facebook these days. And on there we have our friends, and then we have our Facebook friends. They're easy to tell apart: your real friends are the ones you talk to on a regular basis and even, technology forbid, see them... IN PERSON.

Facebook Friends, however, are the ones you either requested because they have a private page and you couldn't snoop their life without asking to be their "friend" - or maybe you accepted a friend request from them because you think maybe you remember someone with that name going to your high school back in the day. Or perhaps you just accept any ole person as your "friend" to get those numbers up...

But my brother: He has over 900 Facebook friends... NINE HUNDRED, people!! I don't know if I've even met 900 people - let alone have that many friends! But if you know my brother - and if you're breathing, you most likely do - then you know that he probably actually does have that many friends - possibly more.

Everywhere my brother goes he knows someone. Either people recognize him or he recognizes them, and they seem almost excited to be in his presence. And who wouldn't be? He's one of the greatest people I know - and I'm not just saying that because he's my baby bro. Besides being gorgeous and incredibly intelligent, he just has a wonderful soul. He can be friends with anyone.

I see these traits in my son, too. I used to think he was going to be my shy, quiet child - but now I know better. He's the one that will walk up to any kid and ask if he can play with them. He has such a sweet soul, and if he grows up to be like my baby bro, I will be so proud.

Sowy

My son is almost always doing something to crack me up. I could write a book of the funny things he says and does (hmmm.... that's a thought).

Being me, I decided it would be a good idea to roam all of Michael's. I do this just about every time I shop - especially there. I guess I'm searching for inspiration or something. Or maybe just making quadruple sure I didn't miss/forget anything. I had to have gone down every aisle in the store and ended up not getting anything anyway (GO ME! Yay! for not spending any money). My son, however, managed to snag a souvenir.

We get out to the car, and his tattle-tale sister belts out, "MOMMA! Christian STOLE something!"

What?!.

I turned around to see my son raise his eyebrows and throw on his cute little smirk as he pulled a tiny bunch of plastic grapes from his pocket.

In my defense, It's hard to be stern when he's so cute... And yes, the first words out of my mouth were, "What are you gonna do with THOSE??"

He made the sound that somewhat resembles "I don't know," and grinned some more.

{sigh}

I marched him right back in the store, telling him all the way that he had to take them back, apologize, and that I hoped they didn't call the police on him and take him to jail. He didn't seem all that phased, so I tried to make it sound worse and worse as we walked.

We got inside, and I asked for the manager. I think she thought I was going to complain about her people, as mad as I (hopefully) looked. "Go on, Christian. Tell her what you did."

He just held his hand full of grapes out and breathed, "Sowy."

The manager was on the same page with me and kept the story about the police going: "Oh... I see... Well, you have to promise me you won't do this again. [Christian nodded] I would hate to have to call the police and have them take you to jail. Your mommy would be very sad -"

And that's when I lost it.......

Our jail threats clearly were no biggie, because Christian chimed in, "Oh, that's okay. It'll only be for one day."

[slap forehead] Doh!

The Culprit

This incident reminded my sister and my mom of when we were younger and had sticky little fingers. Our mom made us take the stuff back and apologize, too. But, really, it wasn't the same... cause what we "stole" was going to be trash anyway!

Our mom was browsing through the purses in a department store, and my sister and I must have been intrigued by the little paper identification inserts in the wallets - cause we snagged a whole bunch of them. Most people chunk those anyway, right? No harm. I wanna say they had fake boxes of cigarettes in the cig pouches, too (you know, just big filters) - yeah, we took those.

Anyway, we were busted and had to be humiliated by returning the "valuables". Lesson learned.

Somehow I doubt my son's experience is going to have the same effect...

Choose Your Words Wisely

I like to take my kids to Barnes & Noble. There are all kinds of birds we can knock out with that stone: Gabi gets to add books to her monthly reading logs, Christian gets in some "boy time" at the train table, I get to thumb through a couple pages of my latest self-help book, and my mocha frap fix is taken care of.

So I took the kiddos to B&N after school yesterday. I think I actually got to read two pages of my book - a silly, but strangely hard to obtain goal when I'm accompanied by two youngins. Gabi added about five more books to her reading log for April; she's says she hates reading, but she's soooo good at it! Her teachers say she's already at a 2.6 (as of a few months ago) reading level - which means she reads as well as 2nd graders in their 6 month... something like that.

And being a proud mom is getting me off track... This post is actually about Christian. Ah, Christian, Christian, Christian... My Boy.

Sometimes I don't think Christian was born with the ability to adjust the volume of his little 5 year old voice. Then I remember I can never hear him in the mornings when he's tired and half-answering my questions under his breath. Okay, he can do it. He just doesn't want to.

This was the case yesterday in B&N. I had to keep getting onto him about using his inside voice. He gets so excited when he finally has some male bonding goin' on, and he's like yelling at whoever is within arms reach. To add to it, he was crawling all over the floor, under the train table.

So, after reminding him to turn it down and get up about five million times, I called him over and asked if he wanted to keep playing with his friends, or if he wanted to sit beside me. Of course he picked his friends (Moms are no fun) - to which I warned him, "Okay. But play on top of the table like your friends... not under."

And, being literal, my son goes over and crawls on TOP of the train table to sit and play.

{sigh}

"No, Christian... I didn't mean SIT on top of the table."

I guess I really need to think before I speak.

Day 5

If someone had told me I would one day be writing with much enthusiasm at the thought of my son making it FIVE days in a row with No Time Out at school, I don't think I would have believed it... Christian is the one with the big heart. He's the one that sits down beside me and tells me he loves me "just because." He isn't supposed to be the hellion!

That's Christian At Home; Christian At School, however, is a whole other child that I must not know. For quite a while now he's been in timeout, let's see.... EVERY DAY!! If he isn't fighting with pretend swords and guns, he's not following directions - at least he mixes it up from time to time.

Recently I've been trying to do better at commending him for doing well - which means special surprises and such for every day he's managed to keep his fanny out of the T.O. chair. His prizes have included: toy cars (which I can usually find at Kroger for $1), a random action figure at Target, a book from Barnes & Noble or Borders, and (the big one) a trip to see How to Train Your Dragon - which I thought was really cute, btw.

So far I think this plan of action is working (must be: FIVE DAYS). And, although I am very proud, I think I may go broke if he keeps it up!

Ooops...

Save a Christian Blogathon

Let me preface this post by clarifying: Christian is my son. The following is in no way a religious campaign.

You know those mothers, the ones who think their children are so sweet and innocent...?? The teacher must have something against their children, or maybe their child is just misunderstood. Well, lately I have been that mother. And I really don't WANT to be. But I keep feeling like maybe that persona just crept through for an unexpected visit. And to me, that's as bad as those women on A Baby Story who reenact their own personal version of The Exorcist during labor [and, for the record, my immense disgust - and probably FEAR of becoming one of those women - kept me from becoming Linda Blair. My sister is my witness. Two points for me :) ].

My son has always been my child with a big heart. He's actually my sweet one: so loving and giving - melt your heart kind of sweet when you catch it. But, for some reason, he's the one with the behavior problem at school here recently. My "Miss Independent" know-it-all daughter (who is only six, by the way) is on her perfect color everyday, and my angelic little boy has horns that emerge between 8 AM and 2 PM.

In all honesty, I'm completely clueless about how to 'fix' the situation - or even make it a little better. He's in "Time Out" EVERY DAY now. I'm lucky if he takes one day off from his new routine a week! Last Friday was his only good day all week!

I've tried rewarding him at the end of the week with little Hot Wheelz cars, if he manages to stay out of TO.

I've tried taking away video games (and even took away watching someone else play them).

I've tried taking away all his sleep buddies (and then letting him earn one back with every Non-Time Out day).

I've even tried spankings - which I feel is kind of like spanking a dog when you've caught him an hour or two after he's peed on the floor... What's the point??

So, my latest attempt: Today I got his sister a big surprise as a reward for having such good behavior. Being excluded brought bug crocodile tears to my little boy's eyes at first (here's my heart; I saved you the trouble of RIPPING it out), but it was pretty soon out of sight, out of mind. I guess I have to wait til tomorrow to see if it made a dent.

Til then, the blog lines are open and accepting your verbal donations toward this great cause. The comment is free, and YOU could potentially help save a Christian... and his butt.