Funny Four year old

My Christopher is just the sweetest little boy.  He is so funny and so sincere that he just makes me smile.  These are some things about him that I've written down over the last little while that I just didn't want to forget, and I thought they might make you smile too.

One time around 3 in the morning he woke up screaming because his foot hurt (He sometimes has growing pains). After a long while, I finally got him to calm down and I tucked him back in bed.  I leaned over to tell him good night and that I loved him but he shushed me.  He said he was worried I was going to wake up his stuffed animals.  How thoughtless of me.

Last night he came into our room crying because he had had a scary dream about a giant.  He cuddled with me for a while, and then I took him back into his room and tucked him in.  He was still worried about dreaming about the giant, so I told him that maybe he could dream that a fairy came and shrank the giant so he was really really small.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said "Mom, I only dream about boy things, not girl things like fairies."  We decided a wizard could probably do the job just as well, and that was more acceptable to him.

Once I had to carry him up to his room while he was kicking and screaming to put him in time out for a while.  I don't remember what he did, but he was mad.  It was during Nathan's nap time, and as I was leaving, Christopher stopped his fit and told me in a very serious voice to make sure I closed his door so he wouldn't wake up Nathan.  I closed the door and then he started screaming and crying again.

Once he told me that he wanted to be a hockey goalie, but then changed his mind and said he wanted to be a dad instead, but he wanted to ride a motorcycle.

He doesn't quite understand the meaning of "yeah right" when said with the sarcastic inflection.  (Did that make sense?) So he'll often say "yeah right" in a way that sounds like he's saying it meaning "you've got to be kidding me" when he really does mean "yes".  It's just really funny to ask him if he wants a bowl of ice cream or something and hear him respond "yeah right" in that tone of voice.  Maren and Joshua have been trying to get him to say "right-o" instead, which also is very funny.

During the summer, when I would ask the kids to put their shoes on and get in the car, I would often find him buckled into his seat with no shoes on his feet.  When asked about it, he would respond "I'm wearing my secret shoes."  Usually I caught him before we left the house, but a couple of times I arrived at the grocery store only to turn around because he wasn't wearing shoes.  I had to be very careful to say "Everyone get their shoes on and get in the car. And that means real shoes not secret shoes." And he would say "Ah man."

Sometimes we have apples and peanut butter at snack time.  He often asks for extra peanut butter, even when his apples are gone, "for his finger".

I take my boys to speech therapy and it's connected to the hospital.  Sometimes we see these robots that deliver things to different labs as we're walking to and from our appointment.  The first time we saw them, the kids were all really excited, or at least I thought they were.  We saw one as we were walking to our appointment and passed another on our way out.  Christopher whimpered, grabbed my hand, then looked at me and said "Mommy, how are we going to get out of here?" Confused, I responded "the same way we always do, through those doors to the parking garage."  He replied "I mean how are we going to get out of here with those bad robots following us?"  Apparently he thought they were evil robots intent on keeping us in the building.  I don't know where he got that idea, but he was so scared and sincere it made me laugh and cry at the same time.  Sweet funny boy.

Today I was unwrapping a fruit roll up for him, and apparently Christopher was quite impressed with how quickly I was able to get it open.  He told me that I was "as fast as a pickle herding peacock."

Yup. That is my sweet funny Christopher.

Creative Christmas Cards - Cancelled

In 2008, I was feeling too busy to think of anything clever to do for a Christmas letter, so I decided to cancel it.  We sent out this letter letting everyone know they weren't going to get one this year.

Notice of Cancellation

To: family and friends                 

Re:  Family Christmas Letter

Dear loved ones,

      Due to the busy holiday season and other events, and after much thought and tribulation, our family has decided to cancel our Christmas letter this year.  

       Jason has little enough time to read all the content on espn. com, let alone write a christmas letter.  And then there is work to go to, and UK games to watch, and woodworking projects to dream about, so he definitely does not have time.

  Maren, our precocious 6 year old, is busy with homeschool Kindergarten and all the work that comes with it.  She loves to read her books and can’t spare the time to sit down and write about the ballet, violin, and piano lessons she’s been taking this year, or about the 4 teeth that she has lost.  She would much rather play with her dolls, read her books, wrestle with her brothers, and do lots of crafts than write about any of that stuff.  

Joshua, who just turned 4, can’t hold still long enough to write about the gymnastics class he started this year.  He is too busy cartwheeling and doing headstands on the couch to tell you all about how he was on his first soccer team this fall, and now shares his father’s passion for sports, especially the Kentucky Wildcats.  No, he can’t write a Christmas letter this year.  He’s too busy playing the Wii,  scoring touchdowns in the backyard or playing “hockeybud” up in his room (one of the many sports he has invented).  

Christopher, who will be 2 in February, would probably love to write the Christmas letter, because it would mean he could pound on the keyboard, and he loves playing with anything that is not actually supposed to be a toy.  However, nobody would understand that the random numbers and letters were trying to tell you about how adorable he is, and how he has a wonderful smile that often gets him out of trouble, which he gets into pretty easily these days. 

And as for me (Erin), I am swamped with projects and activities that make it impossible for me to sit down and think of some clever way to tell you about our family’s activities this year.  I’ve got a house to clean, laundry, meals to prepare, children to take care of, Chamber Chorale to attend, homeschooling lessons to plan, and chauffering to do.  But I didn’t want all of you to be expecting a card, and so I knew I had to at least write and explain that even though we would love to tell you about our lives, and how grateful we are for all God has blessed us with,  and wish you all a Merry Christmas, we just didn’t have time this year.  Perhaps next year . . .

Love, 

Us

Unique Christmas Cards - The Candidates

Christmas 2007

Last pre-election year, when there was all the buzz about who was running for president (2007? I think) I sent out a Christmas letter outlining some lesser known candidates - us.  Here is my letter, minus a bunch of the details, because I don't want you to get too bored reading it:

As we enter an election year, we’d like to introduce you to a few candidates the media has somehow overlooked.

 

Jason – Labor Party

         Jason labors to support his family all day. He is a wonderful father who loves to pillow fight and tickle his children.  If elected, he will push for Health Care reforms, more funding for UK basketball, better pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, and more time at home with his beautiful and talented wife.  Although he is currently a member of the Labor party, in 2 1/2 more years he is hoping to join the Green party.

 

Erin – Monarchy

         Erin was briefly a member of the Labor party in February (yay baby Christopher!), but has decided that to best control things, democracy should be overthrown and a monarchy established, with her as Queen.   If elected, she will be a just and magnanimous ruler, who will see to it that all her subjects are well educated, have lots of books to read, and are musically trained.  

 

Maren- Independent

         Maren is a very independent 5 year old. She learned to read this year and has started doing her chores without help.  If elected, Maren will enjoy all the attention and demand that everyone in her presence look at her at all times.  She will also change the flag to include pictures of the Disney princesses.

 

Joshua – Opposition Party

         Although Joshua officially completed the Terrible Twos on December 6th of this year, he still hasn’t fully embraced his three-ness.  He is a very sweet boy who can be very darling and affectionate, but if he is opposed to something, he will let you know, especially at “nap” time.  We probably should call it “kick the door, climb and jump off furniture, sing songs really loud, and throw things at the wall” time.  He is very good at throwing things, singing, eating lengthy meals, writing the letter “H”, and pushing his sister’s buttons.  If elected, Joshua will push for more game playing and for changing all meal times to snack times. 

 

Christopher – Undecided

         Christopher is now 10 months old, and doesn’t say much, so we don’t really know what kind of a candidate he will be.  He is very happy and easygoing and gets really excited when people talk to him, although the exuberance of his older siblings sometimes frightens him.  Judging by his behavior, we can say that if elected he will push for more books, fewer naps and more milk.  

 

Even if you choose to vote for one of the more well known candidates in the upcoming elections, know that we still love you and wish you the best for the upcoming year!

Unique Christmas Cards - The Recipe

Merry Christmas!

I always like to write some kind of cheesy yearly update letter to send out with our family photo at this time of year.  It's my mother's fault.  She would always come up with fun ways to share our family news with others.

Back in 2006, I wrote a recipe for our family's year that was really clever, if I do say so myself.  I can't find it anywhere.  Luckily, my sister copied me and wrote a recipe for their family the next year, and for some reason I do have hers, although I apparently didn't save mine.  Weird.

I'll just share a bit of hers, so you get the idea.

At the top of the page, you have something like :

Recipe for a great 2007!

Then you write out a separate recipe for each person in your family, such as:

Peter:
1 cup employment
1 cup playtime with kiddos
3 family camping trips
2 dozen Candy Cane JoJo's

Andrew:

4 cups kindness
3 cups silliness
sprinkle of cayenne pepper
1 lb. each reading, sports, art, wii, piano, preschool
set aside for 50 minutes quiet time each day to reduce volatility

Then after you've written a recipe for everyone, you write something like:

Take 1 each of (all the names in your family), stir together and let simmer for (however long you've been a family).  Sprinkle with music and laughter and garnish with a cheesy Christmas letter.  Enjoy!

See?  Different, yet informative.  There you go.

Making Thank you Cards - Activity Day Girls

Since it is November, for our activity this past wednesday we talked about the importance of gratitude in our lives.  We pointed out to the girls that people who whine and complain aren't happy, and that people who are grateful usually are.  We found examples in the scriptures of the people showing gratitude to God even when times were not ideal.  Then we made cards to tell people thank you.

I supplied paper, stickers, and pens and the girls wrote notes to family members, teachers, and friends.  We also encouraged the girls to write at least one thank you note to send out to our service men and women who are serving our country.  Operation Christmas Cards is an organization that will send the cards out to the troops for the holidays.  This was an easy way to help the girls do some service.

A few girls at a time also went and made these cute turkeys in the kitchen.

favorite cornbread recipe

Where does the time go?  I always have posts in my head waiting to be written, but it doesn't happen.  I figured this would be a quick one I could share though.

This is our favorite cornbread recipe. I got it off some box a long time ago.  I don't even remember where it's from, but we like it a lot.  It's a sweet cornbread, not too crumbly.  It's great with soups on these cooler days.

1 1/2 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. cornmeal
1 T.  baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 c. milk
2 eggs
1/3 c. oil
3 T. melted butter

Mix dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.  Combine and stir just until moistened.  Pour into a greased 8x8 glass dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

I usually double this recipe and bake it in a 9x13 because my kids love it so much.  It's great with honey butter.

Thanksgiving Windows

(Window from a couple of years ago)

It's that time of year again!  Time to help the kids focus on gratitude (and maybe that will help their christmas lists be a little shorter :)).  We started our Thankful Windows again on Tuesday.  Every day during a meal we say 1 or 2 things we are each grateful for and write them on our windows with a window crayon.  We used to do a thankful tree, but it was a lot of work and hard for me to be consistent. The windows work well for us.  They are right by our kitchen table and the kids can easily ready what we've written and be reminded of all the blessings we have.

I love hearing what the kids are grateful for.  This year, the first thing out of Christopher's mouth was "TV shows".  The next day he said "TV".  I said "Christopher, we already wrote that up yesterday." He replied "No mom.  That is for TV shows.  Today I'm grateful for the TV".  Okay, fine. Today he was grateful for Wii games.  Tomorrow I'm expecting iPad.  I think he might need a little less media in his life.

Uses for Halloween Candy

I'm one of those mean moms who doesn't let her kids have all their halloween candy.  I just can't.  It is too too much sugar for those little bodies.  But I don't snatch it away from them while they're kicking and screaming either.  We've talked about health and why it's not good for us to eat 200 pieces of candy in a week and they're good with it.  So this is what we do.

The kids get to eat some halloween night when we get home, and then the next morning they sort through their candy, putting it in piles and trading if they like.  This year I let them choose 30 pieces they can be in charge of (last year I only did 15, so they should be pretty happy with that) and eat whenever they like.  The full size candy bars count as 3.  The rest goes to mommy.  In exchange they get to choose out whatever book they like at the book store.  They like this exchange.  My kids are kind of book nerds, and I love it.

What do I do with all that candy?  I put it in bags for later use. The bag full of lollipops goes into our emergency kits in the garage.  I keep the m&ms and hershey chocolate bars in the pantry to use next time we want m&m cookies or to make s'mores.  I have a bag up in a closet hidden full of fun size chocolate bars to put in Christmas stockings.  We make gingerbread (or graham cracker) houses every December so I put aside the skittles, Dots, smarties, hard candies, kit kats (for fences and such), nerds, airheads, licorice, laffy taffy and other things aside for that purpose.  It makes for an interesting looking house, but it's cheap!  We use some for math activites, and I also keep some put away for school manipulatives.  Then there's a bag to eat, which is still probably too big to be healthy for us. I just have a hard time throwing it away.

Halloween Math

Candy is a great motivator.  I love doing math activities with my kids the day after Halloween.  There is SO much candy.  Here are some that we did this morning:

We always practice our sorting skills

We made a Venn Diagram of favorite candies.  One side is Joshua's, the other is Maren's, and the middle is both of theirs.  It's sort of hard to do when one child thinks all the kinds of candy are his favorite.  We finally just asked him if there was any candy he sort of didn't like, and he decided Butterfingers were his least favorite, so Maren got to have at least one just in her circle.  

We weighed the candy.  The kids love playing with our scale. 

We practiced multiplication!  With some halloween candy, you know exactly how many are inside.  I asked Joshua "If there are 2 kit kat bars in each pack, and you have 6 packs, how many bars do you have?"  It didn't take him long to figure it out.  Maren also practiced with whoppers (3 per pack), and Hershey's mini bars (4 little rectangles per bar).  

She was excited to multiply and discover she had 36 whopper balls

Using Facebook (thanks friends!) I polled people to find out which was more popular: chocolate or fruity candies.  The kids made tally marks to show preference and graphed the results.  What a fun Math morning!