Michael’s birthday outing of choice

was originally to go somewhere outside and enjoy the great outdoors.  However, it’s raining today.  So he decided to go to the athletic equipment store and buy a punching bag.  Judging from the kids’ enthusiasm with the display ones in the store, I think he’s going to have to share his punching bag. 

This isn’t nearly as random as it sounds.  Michael’s a brown belt in karate, so he punches a lot.  At class, though, the other students don’t appreciate it if you completely whale on them, so his sensei recommends getting a punching bag to practice really making contact. 

We’re back again!

Today is Michael’s birthday.  Yesterday we returned from 9 days on the east coast.  Everyone is jet lagged.  This morning Sim woke up for the day at 4:30 a.m.  On the east coast, that’s 7:30, which is fairly reasonable.  But here, the number 4 as the first number on the clock is really painful, particularly since I had been up multiple times with Simeon in the night.  BUT, Michael got up with Sim (have I mentioned that he’s my hero?).  Then he brought Sim back up for a nap at 5 minutes to 6.  When Sim and I came back down at 7, he was playing his second game of chess for the morning.  The first one was against Hannah, the second one was against Naomi. 

I have a feeling that what Michael wants for his birthday is a nap. 

Sleep

We learned a few things about sleep on our recent trip to the east coast.  We stayed in a Comfort Inn for a few nights, and the girls shared a queen-sized bed. 

One thing we learned is that Hannah is a rampant covers thief.  Poor Naomi, the first night, was huddling into a tiny corner of covers that Hannah hadn’t completely taken over. 

The second night, we got Naomi her very own blanket and gave Hannah the covers.  In the middle of the night, I awoke to this:

N:  HANNAH!

H:  Naomi, these are my covers.  Stick to your own!

I got up to find the cause of the trouble, and found that, not only had Hannah sent ALL of the covers of the queen-sized bed off her side of the bed, but she also was busily stealing the blanket that we’d gotten for Naomi.  I was able to give Naomi back her blanket and Hannah back her covers, and after that, the covers thievery didn’t resurface.

Knock Knock

Me:  Who’s there?

Sim:  Piggy!

Me:  Piggy who?

Sim:  Shoe!

Me:  Hahahaha!

Simeon has learned the knock-knock joke formula, but has no idea (not surprisingly) about the way to make a funny joke.  Hannah has just figured this out, and has been reading aloud knock-knock jokes from various children’s magazines, so Naomi and Sim picked up the idea. 

Naomi doesn’t understand the idea, either.

N:  Knock knock!

Me:  Who’s there?

N:  Owl!

Me:  Owl who?

N:  Owl I’m going to pounce on you!

Me:  Hahahaha!

Advice for stay-at-home parents

Contractors make GREAT entertainment for children.  If you’re feeling like your kids are bored, hire someone to do an energy assessment on your home, put in new windows, rewire your upstairs, put in planter boxes, and any number of other projects that must be done, especially in older homes.  I’m actually having trouble these days getting my kids’ attention. 

The kids also entertain the contractors.  Our electrician thought it was hilarious that Sim followed him around (with me, of course), asking repeatedly, “Wha doing?”  And Hannah provides all sorts of opportunity for them to teach their craft.  She probably could explain how to take out and put in new windows now. 

We had a playdate today, and the kids’ friends were preparing a meal in the pretend kitchen on the porch.  They, being polite children, offered the contractor who was here some lunch.  He, having kids of his own, took them up on it and complimented them on their cooking. 

Naomi tends to be more shy, but once she warms up, she offers entertainment, too.  Like trying to sneak out the back door with only undies and shoes on the other day.  When I asked her to go put some clothes on, she burst into tears and said, “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice!”  Our electrician, who has 3 boys ages 7, 5, and 3, laughed about that for a good long time.  Happily for me, I still notice when my children run around without clothes, much to their chagrin. 

No-wah-me

That’s how Sim says Naomi.  It’s really cute.

Generalizing is fun!

We’ve been watching Michael leave for work some mornings lately.  It’s fun for the kids to watch him get his bike from the garage, then we all run to the front window to watch him bike up our street.  The girls have seen this all before, but Sim has only recently been introduced to the fun of watching Dada leave for work.

This has had some unexpected and fun repercussions.  Sim will see someone on a bike and say to me, “Wha doin’, Mama?” which, in translation, means, “What’s that person doing, Mama?”  So I’ll tell him that person is riding a bike.

Sim then enthusiastically exclaims, “DADA!”

Yes, every person on a bike is Dada to Sim.  A 12-year-old girl, a 65-year-old man, a biker who has the team sponsorship biking outfit on, he doesn’t care.  They’re all Dada. 

Overheard

H:  You know what this is, Naomi?  This is a picture of Gran and Grampa Joe when they got married!

N:  OH!  They got MARRIED!  Well, you know that when people get married they get a baby.  So maybe Gran and Grampa Joe will get a baby!

H:  Naomi, that was years ago.  They were the ones who had Mama!

N:  [Disappointed that there won’t be new babies]  Oh.

Fashion

At some point, Hannah unfortunately told Naomi that pants under dresses don’t look nice.  What this means for me is that Naomi still wants to wear dresses every day, she doesn’t have enough tights for her to wear tights every day, and so on mornings when there are no clean tights, we have the lament of the Naomi:

N:  I want to wear a dress, but I don’t WANT to wear pants!  Pants are UGLY under dresses. 

Then follows the weeping. 

Some of you may have guessed that this isn’t my favorite fashion-conscious development.  There are more tights in Naomi’s future, I think.

In the meantime, I have found a way around the problem.  This morning, I told the girls I was going to make scones for breakfast.  I told them they could help, but they’d have to be dressed and have their beds made first.  I didn’t really think about it at the time, but Naomi had worn her last pair of clean tights yesterday.  It could have been a bad scene. 

However, the promise of scones and helping make them was enough to outweigh the desire to make a scene about clothes.  Naomi returned downstairs a few minutes later in a cute outfit that included pants and a shirt.  And socks.  And clean undies. 

I hadn’t thought of the breakfast bribe approach before, but now that I realize what a powerful weapon it can be, I may just put it to use now and then.

Lesson learned:  scones trump dresses.

One of life’s cutest sights

is seeing your 19-month-old, knocking on the window he’s looking out to see you come home.  Except you can’t see all of him, because he’s too short for more than his eyes and nose to be visible in the window.  So what you see is his little hand, knocking on the window, his little eyes, crinkling with a smile as you look up and wave at him, and his nose, just barely above the window frame.