Santas little helper

Every year we donate a toy or two to any one of the various places that help families in need. I figure out what the budget is that year and I usually let Zack pick out what to give. This year he reminded me weeks ago that we need to go shopping so we could help Santa. Any parent who does the whole believing in Santa thing with their child knows how hard it can be to come up with an explanation of donating gifts for needy children. After all Santa and the elves make the toys and Santa delivers so why do we need to give toys for kids when Santa will deliver some on Christmas morning? Several years ago when he really started questioning why we do this, I did not want to ruin the belief in Santa so I came up with something that would work for my child. Santa and the elves work really hard to make all these toys but sometimes they do not have enough time to finish making them and some kids are left without any gifts, by us giving we are being Santa's helpers and making sure that Santa has enough toys for every boy and girl who is on the nice list.
He seems to get this and he wants to make sure all kids have toys for Christmas.

This year the toys were purchased and yesterday we finally made it to the store that was a collection site. So in walks this six year old boy arms struggling to hold not one but four toys to donate this year. He knows exactly where the donations are stored and he heads in that direction. He passes a few employees, they smile. He passes another employee who is obviously having a not so stellar day and she totally ignores him, he doesn't let it stop him. After all he is on a mission. We arrive at our destination and he is putting the toys in the fenced off area and another employee comes over and starts talking to him. He lets her know he is giving four toys this year so Santa can make sure more kids have toys.She stands there chatting with him for a few minutes. Before we walked away she told me how nice it was to see so many donations and to see children wanting to help other children. I couldn't agree with her more.

I can only hope my child remembers the pride he felt by giving to others and continues to give year after year.

Cocoa powder may smell good but mommy is evil.

I am sitting here laughing hard. First I must tell the beginning of the story that happened weeks ago.

Zack was bugging the crap out of me asking me nicely to make more chocolate syrup. He was out and that really is a no no in our house. He really wanted a glass of chocolate milk. So I eventually got off my butt and was making some more, yes I make my own chocolate syrup. It has a lot less sugar than Hershey and I know exactly what is in it. All the while I was getting the ingredients ready and mixing and cooking he was all up in the can of unsweetened cocoa powder, (you know that stuff smells heavenly)! He kept licking his lips. He begged to have some. I told him no multiple times, finally after hearing him ask for the millionth time I spooned some out and held it out to him (now don't be getting all irritated at me, it was only about an 1/8 of a teaspoon). He practically took a dive for the spoon. He opened his mouth wide, you know so every last bit of it went in and he did not spill any. Then BAM, the look on his face changed. The smile that was previously there had disappeared and the look of shock had replaced it. He was actually spitting it out while yelling at me. Now I will admit to laughing then and thinking it was funny all the while he was telling me it was gross.

BUT today out of no where he says "Mom you are so mean!" When I asked him why he was saying I was mean when I had not done anything mean to him. He replied with "You are so mean, I can not believe you gave me that cocoa, you knew it was gross and you let me eat it! How could you?" I gently reminded him that I said no each time he asked but his insistent little self would not give up until he had some. I started to chuckle thinking about it but he was not liking that one bit and told me I was the meanest mom and he can not believe I could do such a thing to him. The look on his face today while yelling at me over this episode was priceless. I guess I will never make mother of the year now.

So there are several valuable lessons he could have learned from this incident but I am not sure which he will retain in that little mind of his. Will he learn not all that appears heavenly really is? Or will it be that he will remember when Mommy says no there is a reason for it? Or maybe the lesson he will really learn is Mommy has an evil side and he should never mess with her?

The death of the television

Two nights ago the television that we have in the den decided to croak. We still have another to watch but this is the only one upstairs and the only one that the video games are connected to.Yes I am mean, I refuse to allow them to be connected to the one downstairs.

Well last night we were sitting at the dinner table and Kris told Zack the television broke and is no longer in working order. I looked at Zack and the look on his face was a look of absolute fear which morphed into anger, then turned straight to total panic (I seriously thought he was going to hyper ventilate at any second). He looked at his father and I swear at one point I saw rays of death shooting from Zacks eyes. How could this man just blurt out such horrid news? How could he say such a thing and expect this child to go on with life when something so important was just ripped from his chest?  I could just imagine what was going through that his mind. Think about it for a moment, the poor child is deprived (at least in his mind). He does not get to watch a ton of television (because most of the time the mighty mouth of his gets it taken away). He does not get to play video games everyday like his friends do (because I am a mean mom and only allow them to be played on days he does not have school). Now here he has someone telling him his video games days are over for a while, oh no something must be done about this real quick! But what? What could he say or do?

Of course in true Zack fashion he said the first thing he could think of  "well we need to get a new one." Notice the word need in there, yup for a kid who has been trying very hard to beat a level of a certain video game, it is not a want, it is a need. Kris told him "sure let me just pull one out of my pocket." Zack was not so amused with this statement, so he turned his attention to "just call the repair man and he will come fix it". I politely asked if he had the money to do that. He asked what it cost and when told it cost a lot, he said "what like a $1,000?" I responded with a simple Yup. He was not amused not by any means was he amused. My smart ass darling little child raised his voice yelling "What? Are you nuts? Why would it cost $1,000 to fix a TV when you can buy a brand new one for $200." Ah so he is listening when I speak (even if he has no clue at the cost based on the size of the television)!

Then out of no where he started laughing, a rather hearty laugh too. He looked at Kris and said "Dad, that was funny when you said you would just pull one out of your pocket." Now apparently he thought we were playing a prank on him and he certainly let us know that he planned on checking the television to see if we are lying. I am not sure if he actually did check it or not but this morning he declared Kiki the elf to be the culprit. Apparently Kiki stays up playing video games while we are sleeping and because he uses it too much that is why it broke.There we go, always placing the blame on someone else!

Kiki's fun.

We have been having some fun with our elf. Since Kikis kindness of making the pancakes the other day he's been getting a bit mischievous again this year. We woke up one morning to find a picture on my camera. It was a picture of not only Kiki  but a few of his friends playing a board game.

I am happy to add they cleaned up the board game and put it back where it belongs when they were done.

The next day Kiki was sitting on a shelf in Zacks room but it took Zack all day to notice him. Zack did look but for some reason he just kept overlooking  the shelf that Kiki was sitting on. Kiki must have been very very bored that day. When I turned on the CD that Zack falls asleep to every night, his eyes widened. It was not the music it was supposed to be, instead it was Patsy Clines song Crazy.(Yes, my child knows that song well. It is one of the songs I have sung to him nearly everyday of his life). I asked Zack if he was playing with my CD's and of course he said "It must have been Kiki.". Sure enough we found the evidence on my camera.

The next morning we were getting ready for school. At one point Zack stopped and in a grumbled voice and he said "KIKI" I asked him what was wrong and he responded with "Just look what he's done now." This is what we saw on the refrigerator.

 Well Zack could not be outdone by an elf so that night he retaliated with his own version. (he only had one Y so he became creative to make the Y in the word MY).

I think as the month of December comes in Kiki is going to have to step up his game because Zack is on to him.

Bobcat

I am very happy to report that my little scout has earned his Bobcat badge on Monday night. He completed the requirements two weeks ago but had to wait to get the actual badge at a pack meeting.

They did a ceremony where each of the boys who earned the badge had to stand with a parent and the leaders came by and painted the boys faces with various colors which had meaning to each color.

 

 He likes scouts and can not wait to be able to do some of the outings that they plan on doing. He has taken the time to complete some of the electives and some of the achievements already so he's excited to be getting some beads to add to his uniform.

BLUE is from the sky. The paw print of the Bobcat on your forehead is the spirit of the bobcat. This reminds you to do your best on the Cub Scout Trail.

YELLOW is from the sun. The marks under your eyes will help you see the light of the Cub Scout trail and they symbolize the bright spirit of Cub Scouting.

WHITE is for purity. The mark on your nose helps you know right from wrong as you go along the Cub Scout trail.

RED is for courage. The mark on your chin reminds you to always speak the truth.

GREEN stands for the spirit of nature. The marks on each cheek will guide you to live in harmony with the great outdoors.

Elf fun.

I think Kiki is trying real hard to make up for all the mischievous things he did to Zack last year. This is his 3rd day back this year and we were totally surprised by the thoughtfulness we found this morning.

Zack and I planned to make pancakes and bacon for breakfast this morning so before Zack went to bed we set out the griddle and the pancake mix. We made sure we had the bacon and enough eggs for the pancakes. All was good to go for the morning.

Well...

When he woke up he couldn't find Kiki. He and Kris hunted high and low until they finally found him sitting on top the microwave! Of course he was so excited and everyone had to hurry up and get it there to see Kiki sitting there (as if he were going to move). Then we noticed the pancake mix was already mixed, I asked Zack why he started without  me.
 He was insistent that he had not started it and he thinks it must have been Kiki who mixed it up.

 Yeah right like a tiny little elf can mix up the ingredients for pancakes! Then we looked at the griddle, not only had it been turned on but there were six small pancakes what were cooked and ready to be eaten. Wow we were shocked especially since they were smores' pancakes! Hello! Yummy delicious smores' pancakes. Who knew an elf knew how to make pancakes much less the most delicious pancakes in the entire universe!

While I was making the rest of the pancakes and cooking up the bacon, Zack could not thank Kiki enough. He says Kiki's makes better pancakes than both his parents! Humph, the kid has nerve! When I pointed out to Zack that Kiki had made a mess on the counter, Zack was more than happy to help clean it up for Kiki. Trust me when I say I have never seen that kid clean up so well!

Let's see what new and amazing things our little elf will do within the next month before he heads back to the North Pole.

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Also adding that last night Zack and I made brownies, he said "Mom you need to make more for Santa" I told him not to worry we would bake cookies closer to Christmas for Santa. Here I am thinking that would satisfy him and he would end that conversation. NO, no such luck! He continues with "Hey Mom maybe we should leave him a pie" When I asked him why a pie, he responded with "If we leave him a pie, he might leave a puppy for me!"Oh no, not again. Apparently hearing daddy say no five hundred thousand times is getting to him. No he's taking it up with the big guy in red, the one who can bring anything and daddy has no say. First he started asking for a dog, after hearing no many times he started asking for a cat. Hearing no many times he started asking for a bird. Hearing no many times he started asking for a gerbil (Mommy is the one that says no way on this one) and after hearing no many times he started asking for fish. Notice the trend when he hears no enough the size of the animal gets smaller.

He's back!

Well you know it is that time of the year when you wake up the day after Thanksgiving to find a suspicious looking letter sitting on your dining room table. A note you know was not there when you went to bed the night before. A note written on the stationary of 'the boss', 'the big guy', 'the man in red', the one and only Santa Claus! How did it get here we wondered?

Zackary quickly forgot about eating his breakfast and read the letter aloud. He read every word carefully. He did get a little quieter as he read that Santa wants Zackary to behave so he does not have to put his name on the naughty list. Santa went on to say it is true that children on the naughty list only get coal and coal is not fun to play with. Then he came to the words indicating Kiki the elf was sent back to our house to keep an eye out for good behavior, he couldn't wait to go find him. For those that do not know Kiki is the name of the little elf that visits our house and reports back to Santa Claus each night on how Zackary behaved that day. Each morning when we wake up Kiki is in a different location of the house so Zackary has to find him. Kiki can never been touched or he will loose his Christmas Magic and not be able to fly home to the North Pole and Santa may never know if Zackarys name should be on the nice or naughty list. Do you realize how disastrous that could be?

It took Zackary 15 minutes to find Kiki. He was sitting in a prime location for his first day back. Sitting on top of the curtain rod in the dinning room which means he can see everywhere. No way to secretly misbehave because Kiki will see it for sure.

 I wonder if this little friend of ours will try to get Zackary in trouble again this year like he has in past years. He can get quite mischievous and tends to make us believe Zackary made the mess. I wonder what he will do this year?

Birthday news

Yesterday was my birthday. I started the day like I do everyday, beat the crud out of  gently turn off the alarm clock. Climb ever so slowly upstairs to wake the child. (I thought it would be my back hurting after raking all those leaves at my moms but it is actually the back of my legs that are killing me). Anyway I get the boy up then go through the process of our hurried morning routine, make breakfast, fix lunch, make sure everything is in the back pack, blah blah blah, then bam things changed. Kris offered to take Zack to the bus stop. This is such a rare event that my first thought was "it was going to snow", my second thought was "he's looking for something". He claims he was just being nice on my birthday but I am still unsure of that.

I spent my day being lazy running errands, doing more laundry and chores. Fun times I tell ya!

I was told they were taking me out for dinner, cool I didn't have to cook! Doing the happy dance. I just did not think I would get embarrassed while at the restaurant. My darling child (and I say that in my most sarcastic voice) told the waitress "Today is my mommies birthday so make sure you tell them". Um no thanks I don't care to be sung to. My brother did that to me once and it embarrassed the heck out of me. Well darned if they didn't come out and sing! Seriously there are people waiting patiently for their drink to be filled, do all the wait staff need to be here to sing? I don't think so. Save the singing for the kids since they enjoy it so much. But I think Zack has figured out that they bring out a dessert if it is your birthday and he knew whatever they brought out he would be able to consume the majority of it! And before you ask, yes he inhaled ate the ice cream they brought out.

On a happy note my guys gave me a heated throw blanket since I am always so darn cold. You can bet if either one try to use it I will slap the living crap out of them I will be nice and let them use it while I continue to shiver from the cold.

1st grade problems.

On Saturday morning Zack and I were in the car riding to his first football Jamboree. He was a bit nervous but also a bit excited so that meant he was talkative. At one point he said "Mom I have 2 problems." I asked him what his problems were, all the while thinking he was going to say something about football. Oh no, much to my surprise it had nothing to do with football.

He started to inform me of the first problem and I nearly choked. "Well Mom, you see Maddie in my class has a crush on me, BUT I think I can handle that problem. My second problem is these 2 other girls are always chasing me and wanting to tag me." So I pondered which 'problem' to deal with first. Ok so I figured I would deal with the second one first. I asked him if they had crushes on him too. He let me know they did not have crushes on him and he did not have crushes on them, they just always chased him. I told him if it was that bad of a problem he needed to let them know he does not want to be chased. There has been no mention of these girls since then so I am sure it was never really a problem to begin with.

Now on to the crush. First I figured I would ask him what a crush was. Yup he responded with "Mom she has a love crush on me!" When asked if he has a crush on her he reassured me that he does not. I then asked how he knew she has a love crush on him and apparently it is pretty clear when someone comes out and tells you they have a crush on you. I asked him what he needed me to do about it. He said "Nothing I think I can handle that one."

Ahh, my baby is growing up. I can only hope all his problems are like these two.

Changing his name and speaking his language.

The latest funnies from Zack that I thought others would appreciate as much as I did.

A week ago Zack and I went to the children's museum and met up with some cousins he had never met before. One of the youngest cousins (Paul) does not really talk yet so he grunts and groans much like Zack did at that age. When we were going into the garden area of the museum Dawn asked Paul if she could put his shoes on. Paul grunted and kept on walking. I asked him if that was a yes or no grunt as he was shaking his head in response Zack chimed in with a that was a yes. I asked how he knew that (especially since Paul was behind him and he could not see which way he was shaking his head) Zack's response was "I used to speak that age". Dawn and I just stood there laughing hysterically. So now I know that there really is a language that only children understand.

________________

Yesterday at football practice the boys had to get their gear. They were all lined up alphabetically and walked from the field to the building that housed it all. Trying on helmets, pads, pants,  getting mouth guards and weigh in for all those boys. It took forever! Of course my poor kiddo was last in line again. Once he finally got up there and started getting his stuff he was bored out of his mind, hot and tired. He had to be spoken to a couple times. When we were trying on the pants, he looked at me and said (in a not so pleasant voice) "Mom, you need to change my name." When I asked why he would say something like that he responded with "Mom you just need to change my name to something that starts with an A, I don't like being last all the time!"

*I did laugh at his comment but I do have to sympathize with him.

1st grader

Several times throughout the summer I made a comment. Yesterday I wished I could take that comment back. You see I wished that school would hurry up and get here so I could have some me time. It is tough having a child permanently attached to your hip when you need to get something done or just want a few minutes alone. Well yesterday was the day. The start of a new school year. The day I got some alone time. The day I could do what I want, when I want, and how I want. Darn it, don't you know after dropping my little man off at school, coming home, getting some stuff done, I sat down for a minute and realized I am missing out on my all day hugs. :( I am a mom, those hugs, the kisses the I love yous are what keep me going!

Anyway Zack started his first day of first grade yesterday August 27, 2012. He was up a few times the night before, the first day jitters starting to hit. When I woke him up, he did not want to get up but did. We went back to our school morning routine fairly quickly. I did have to drive him to school because it is just to much to ask a 6 year old to carry in a mountain of supplies to the teacher. Once we arrived at the school we couldn't find a parking space so we had to park at a nearby church and walk over. We saw many faces that we already knew so he was mister talkative to them. I could not really tell if it was because he was happy to see them or just the nervousness showing through. We arrived in his classroom and while I was helping the teacher put away the supplies he was putting away his backpack and finding his desk. He sat down and started doing the sheet of work the teacher had put on the desk to keep them occupied until everyone was there. We talked for a minute and he looked like he wanted to cry but I asked for a smile so I could get a picture.

Zackary 1st grade August 27, 2012

By the time he got off the bus, he was happy to be home. I was happy to have him home too. He told me he had the best teacher and he knew that because everyone told him so. He also told me they had to write a journal sheet and he wrote about still not liking school. So why am I getting the feeling that this is going to be a very long school year!

Why can't we breathe underwater?

Wow, I did not realize it has been a month since I last posted.

Zack asked a question today which led to some Internet searching which led to more questions and so on. His original question was "If we drink water why can't we breathe underwater?" Seriously? He is six, where are these types of questions coming from? I, being the not so scientific type HAD to look that up. When trying to explain the info that I found he started asking more questions like why does our bodies need the water?... what happens if we don't get enough water?...will humans evolve into super humans?...I can not wait for school to start back in session so he can ask his teacher these kinds of questions and I don't have to feel so much like an idiot not knowing the answers.

Smartie Pants

Yesterday I told Zack to get ready we were going out. In typical Zack fashion he questioned me a hundred times to find out where we were going. Each time I told him I would not answer him, just to get ready, buckle up and sit back. As we got closer to Kris' job Zack said "I know we are going to pick up dad and go to lunch." Me being the smart butt that I have been known to be responded with "Nope, I am dropping you off at Dads job so you can work for him. Then him and I are going to go to lunch without you." Zack took all of 2 seconds to come back with "Mom, I can not do Dad's job, I have no idea if X = 2,342."
All I can say is aww crap I have created a kid who can come back with the smart butt comments quicker than I can!

Storms and conversations

We had a storm tonight. Storm nights usually require a lot of conversation to bring down the level of anxiety from my little man. There was so much lightning that I made Zack turn the television off. Then the  power went on and off a few times so he sat and listened to his Tag Reader for a while. When he started getting anxious I quickly started thinking up different subjects of conversation to keep his mind off the storm. At one point we were talking about the trees getting enough water, then the conversation turned to the tree in our front yard having to many branches and it needs to be trimmed. Then out of no where he says " Mom if someone ever invents a pencil that never needs sharpening we are all going to be in trouble." I wasn't following in what he was saying so I had to ask what he meant by that. He responded with "well Mom if someone invents a pencil that never needs to be sharpened then all over would be forests because no one would be cutting down the trees to make pencils." I didn't have the heart to tell him that those kind of pencils had already been invented and his theory was wasted. Maybe one day soon I will get him a mechanical pencil and see if he catches on.

Zacks funny for the day.

Weeks ago I warned Zack that just because it was summer time it did not mean he wasn't going to be learning. I bought a couple different work books for him to do a few pages in each day. Today was the day we started using those books. He chose to do some pages from the spelling book. But...while he was making his choice of subject to work on, he took a close look at the covers of the work books, he pointed to the circle at bottom of the cover that says 64 fun pages. He looked up at me and said "Ha that's a lie, there is nothing fun about these books." Then he grabbed the spelling book and walked out of the room.

I just had to laugh because as smart as this kid is he sure does not like anything that forces him to learn.

Summer time.

It is official

We now have a rising first grader in our house. I can not believe my baby has finished kindergarten. Why is he growing up so fast?

Yesterday was the last day of school, the final day of kindergarten. My baby was excited. He was as happy as a clam. He was thrilled that only a few more hours of school time before he gets to "goof off" for the summer.

He was awake when I went into his room to get him up for school. He finished his breakfast in record time. He brushed his teeth, washed and combed his hair in a matter of seconds (yes I made him brush his teeth again the proper amount of time). He dressed quickly even after fussing over wanting a different shirt. The shoes and socks were put on more quickly than I had ever seen it happen before.

Why was he getting things done so quickly? I will tell you why. The last day of kindergarten in my sons school means all kindergartners get to walk over to the local park with their class after the awards ceremony and spend the day playing on the playground and eating pizza for lunch! Yeah buddy what better way to end the school year.

He was all smiles when he came home. Telling me all about playing with his friends from last years pre-k class, playing with his friends from other kindergarten classrooms. He proceeded to tell me all about how many pieces of pizza he had (he should be grateful I did not show up because there is no way I would have let him eat that many). He told me about the cookies they had, the watermelon and all the drinks.

I have to say he is going to be disappointed next year on the last day of school because all the other grades get the privilege of staying in the classroom with the teachers and taking down all the artwork and decorations from the walls, making sure everything is counted and inventoried and boxed up for the summer.

Of course the celebration had to continue at home too. Once school was out the video games came out (playing video games in our house on a day other than the weekend is unheard of). We took him out to eat and ended dinner with dessert (yet another thing that is something we rarely do). Once we were home from dinner I gave him a year end gift (books of course) and to top it all off, like a cherry on top of an ice cream cone, he was able to stay up an hour later than his normal bed time.

Now just because it is summer does not mean the learning stops, one of those books I gave him was a gross science experiments book, that should be fun. His school does a thing where they ask parents to clean off their bookshelves, donate some books so all the kids get to come in and choose some books to take home for continued summer reading. They also started a program this year where the kids keep track of their reading over the summer and earn prizes when school starts in August.

All this reading is a good thing. My rising first grader is reading at a 2-3 grade level. We will be working on the writing all summer long too because he now has his very first pen pal (how awesome is that). Plus his teacher requested that he write in a journal all summer because (as she says) as smart as he is, he should be writing his own books by now.

Here's to a happy exciting mind expanding summer!

A Mother's Day Tribute to my Mom.

It is Mothers Day. A day set aside to honor your mother. A day to show your mother just how much she means to you. A day to shower her with flowers and jewelry and cards and dinner and everything else the retail industry tells you she needs and wants.

Having said all that I just wanted to take a moment and write about my Mom and how she taught me lessons the hard way (what better way to show her how much I love her). My Mom is a one of a kind.

Mom raised 6 kids and has many many gray hairs to prove it. She loves us all, even though we (and by we I really mean my brothers) gave her many reasons to be forced to use hair coloring at an early age. We always thought she was gullible. Now I wonder if that was just her way of saying she didn't really give a darn what we did just as long as it didn't kill us or anyone else.

Speaking of killing, she taught me at a very early age (as early as infancy) that it was not okay to mess around with an over tired mom. Remember Mom? Remember all those nights you fell asleep sitting/standing up with me in your arms nearly dropping me?  It wasn't my fault those darn boys wouldn't give her a moments rest during the day. All I tried to do was spend some quality time with her at night. hehe. The lesson I learned... let Mom rest at night or chance getting dropped on my head.

Remember the strawberries Mom? I am not really sure if she was trying to kill me or if she was just evil and wanted to see what kind of reaction I would have. Either way she knew I was allergic to strawberries and yet she still force fed them to me. She always told me that she was determined to knock that allergy out of me. (Between you and I, she succeeded in that. I eat strawberries all the time). The lesson I learned... it's ok to let your children suffer in the name of science.

Other than trying to kill me she has been a good mom.

Yes, she was the Mom to teach us lessons the hard way. Lessons like you better be home on-time or you will suffer the consequences. I learned that lesson a time or two. If I was not home when she said to be home she locked me out of the house and went to bed (yet when the dog ran off she would be up all night worrying about him). Lesson learned... actually I learned two lessons from this one. First one, take the bedroom that you can climb on something to get into your bedroom window. Second lesson, the dog was more important.

Or the lesson about making sure you get your butt home at night. When I went out one night and the person who was supposed to give me a ride home didn't/couldn't. I stayed the night where I was and went home at 7am the next morning. I was grounded for more weeks than I care to remember for that one. Lesson learned... walk your butt home no matter how far away home is or the only thing you will see for weeks is the 4 walls of your bedroom!

Oh then there was a lesson on lying.You see my brother Don and I never really set out to lie, it just happened. When he needed/wanted money to go out, he would tell Mom that she told him she would give him money. Of course she could not remember telling him so I would chime in with something like "yes you did, we were sitting at the table eating dinner and you told him you would give him ten bucks". He would in turn do it for me. Then one day Moms friend was at the house when this was going on and darn it she blew that whole con to smithereens! Lesson learned... do not tell a lie that can someone else can prove wrong.

I also learned a valuable lesson in not getting what I wanted. I had this absolutely awful yellow flowery wallpaper in my bedroom. Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a flowery kind of girl and I certainly did not like girly colors. So I asked, I begged, I plead to have that nasty stuff taken off the walls, she always told me no. Well darn I was going to get what I wanted one way or another. So I started writing on the walls, first with pencil (the eraser actually took the colors off the wallpaper), then with pen, then I graduated to black magic marker. I was determined to get her to let me take it down. She was ticked off to say the least when she finally saw the writing but still would not let me take it down. Then I started ever so slowly peeling the stuff off the wall. Shortly after that she sent me on vacation for a week. Lesson learned... Do not go on vacation when Mom is mad at you. You will return home to a bedroom that is not longer an awful flowery yellow but one that is now an even more offensive pink flowery wallpapered bedroom!

She also taught me the fine art of... it is ok to embarrass your children in public. I won't even go into details on some of things I remember but I will say she was very good at embarrassing me. Even after all of the lessons I learned from my mother, I still love her.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Love your innocent little girl. (ok stop laughing)

I laugh now but...

Oh my I feel a letter from the bus driver coming home soon. This afternoon Zack and I were on our way home from the store and he was telling me his favorite songs. A few minutes later Luke Bryan's Country Girl (shake it for me) song came on and he started car dancing and singing it. Now I have known that is one of his favorite songs but he piped up with

"Hey Mom, I always forget to sing the part about the animals when I sing this song on the bus." 

Imagine my eyes getting wider at this point 

"What do you mean you sing this on the bus?" 

"What?, I sing this on the bus all the time." 

Shaking my head, I having a feeling the bus driver is not going to appreciate this if she hears it.

________________________________________________________________


On another note, I think my little man is thinking to much...

"Hey Mom, it's a good thing I am a boy and not a girl!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it would really hurt trying to get a baby out."

Relations

Zack knows David is his brother but I am not sure the whole who is related to who thing has caught on yet and what being related really means.

Tonight Zack asked if David was related to him. I said 'yes but do you know how he is related to you?'

*Here is the point I was expecting him to say "yes, he is my brother."

BUT NOO,

He responded with "yes you hatched him!"

Apparently I need to start teaching him how babies are born!

R.I.P. Clifford

On Friday I lost a beloved friend. His health has been declining over the past years and I knew it was coming but did not want to face it.

Clifford my beloved big red truck died (well he wasn't that big). He died on the side of the road just two and a half miles from my house. Thankfully I was not there when it happened or I would have cried like a baby right there in the street.

I miss him already. I have had him for so many years that he indeed became a part of the family. Lets face it he was always there for me. He took me to the doctor when I was sick. He went on numerous vacations with me. He was there for me when I had to drive back and forth from my house to the hospital (2 hours each way) when mom had her stroke. He kept me warm in the winter and cool in the summer. He was even kind enough to have the music on when I started him up. He would carry my groceries home without complaint and most of all he kept me safe. What more can a girl ask for? He was a steady in my life for so long.

It is going to be hard finding a replacement for my dear old friend. His seat had a perfect indentation of my butt, how could I possibly replace that!

I will miss you Clifford!

Look even Zack loved to take care of Clifford, they have even dressed alike.

Wow, six years already.

Six years ago today after much delay I was finally able to meet my little man.

Zackary was born weighing in at 9 lbs 3 oz (way off the estimate I was told 2 days prior) and 22 1/4 inches long. I did not think he would ever arrive. Being in that bed and contracting every 2 minutes for days was awful. Just awful. My midwife had to pass me off to the doctor because this kiddo was way to comfy in there and did not want to make his way into the world. Think about it, who would want to come out, he had his own place, it was always the perfect temperature, and his meals were prepared and fed to him by someone else (life was good). I should have known right then and there what a stubborn, hard headed male he was going to be. Although the doctor wanted to evict him, I stood my ground and was determined he come into this cold cruel world the way God intended.

The first week of his life was a terrible time for him and I both. He should have never been released from the hospital when he was. He had to be readmitted the following day and then transferred to a larger hospital a day later. Not a pleasant experience for a mom to deal with but somehow we both managed to get through it.

I love this little man of mine more and more each day and I just can not imagine what my life would be without him.

"To the moon and back Zack."

I wish him the happiest birthday any six year old boy could ever have.

TV turn off.

Yesterday Zack was not behaving very nicely. After being told three times to stop doing something, the television was turned off for the night. He promptly informed me that he will finish his homework, read his book then go to bed early. Once he was ready for bed he said "Every time you take TV away from me, I will go to bed early!" Is that a challenge because it sure does sound like a good one to me!
Silly boy has no clue.

Six years ago.

It is so hard to believe that six years ago today I went to the doctors to see if the baby was ever going to make his appearance. After all I was already more than a week late. The midwife did all the measuring and checking then she told me the baby was going to be between seven and seven and a half pounds, I remember thinking 'ok, I can handle that'. When she was finished one of the doctors came in and said "go home and pack your bags, go to the hospital they will be expecting you." I remember thinking "Finally, this baby is coming, I just want to be able to walk without waddling, I just want to be able to tie my shoes, I just want to be able to go without some part of my insides being punched or kicked by this kick boxer that is growing inside me".

Little did I know I would still have to wait to meet him. Little did I know I would have to deal with contractions two minutes apart for more hours than I care to to remember. Little did I know...

Puppy Zee Muffins

You know you are not cooking enough with your child when he asks if we could make some puppy zee muffins tomorrow after school. I will admit it took me a second to figure out what he was talking about.

Tomorrow after school I guess we will be baking some Poppy Seed muffins.

Age is all in the mind

While playing Mario Kart on the Wii a few days ago.

Zack turned around, looked at me and said "remember when I was a child, you would never let me play this part."

Apparently he is much older than I remember.

Veggies and lies

He's a stinker.

Yesterday Zack wanted to buy lunch at school. I agreed but told him to make sure he took some vegetables and eat them. Last night I asked him what he had for lunch, and he told me a chicken fillet sandwich and milk and apple crisp. I asked if he took the vegetables. He said no, when asked why not the little stinker said "Mom by the time I got to the lunch counter there was no vegetables left and I couldn't get a salad because all they had was one piece of lettuce, I am serious Mom just one stinking piece of lettuce." I just shook my head. A few minutes later the guilt must have gotten to him because he told me "Mom I did not tell the truth, they had vegetables left but I just did not want to eat broccoli."

Lets see how today goes because he wanted to buy lunch in school again today. Heaven forbid he should miss out on eating a darn chicken nugget!

Thankfully he still gets the guilty conscience and fesses up. I know in a few years that will all change.

Pleading his case.

He is too smart for his own good!


This morning after Zack had gotten ready for school he still had about ten minutes before we had to leave. He came to me asking if he could watch television, I reminded him he had lost three days for not listening yesterday. (he lost television privileges for three days yesterday for misbehaving at the bus stop). So this morning he tried pleading his case.

Zack: "Mom I know you said I can not watch TV for three days right?"

Me: "That's right so don't even ask."

Zack: "But Mom you said three DAYS right?"

Me: "Yes Zack I said three days."

Zack: "Well then I can watch TV this morning then."

Me: "Umm, no it has not been three days."

Zack: "But Mom this is morning not day time."

I think he is going to make a good lawyer.

My date.

Over the weekend I went on a date. It has been so long since I have been on any date so when this little cutie asked I was all for it. He is funny, smart, fun loving and handsome. He has blond hair and blue eyes. (Who doesn't love a blond with blue eyes?) I was pretty sure he would be coming home with me after our date was over. He took charge of the date and made all the plans (I love a guy who knows what he wants). First we went to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Red Robin. Then after some nice conversation over a good meal of chicken strips and fries, we went off to a wonderland of toys. What is the old saying 'a boy and his toys'? We spent about an hour looking and touching every toy and video game in Target. Let me just say this guy have expensive taste. Then he wanted to continue our date over dessert so i took him home with me and we had a great conversation over brownies and milk. Does it get any better then brownies and milk for a night cap? I don't think so. He was not ready for the date to end so we spent the next hour playing Mario Kart on the Wii. He is very competitive and I could tell he plays this game as often as he can. He certainly would not cut me any slack, at one point he said "hey woman, would you concentrate." (hello, where did he hear that?) He beat me every race we had. He even went so far as to give me a few pointers, which I thought was such a nice thing to do. When I went to use one of his pointers, I found he was not telling the truth and he laughed hysterically saying he could not believe I fell for that! I kept thinking he would at least give me one race but no such luck. His competitiveness is just to high. At the end of the night he gave me a big kiss and told me it was the best date EVER! Then he fell asleep on me. I think I am in love.

Even though he wouldn't let me win any races, I still had an awesome date and I plan to do it again. My husband is going away again this weekend so I have already set up another date with this cutie. I really could get used to this dating thing since he makes it so easy.


By the way when asked where my little man heard that hey woman line, he responded with "In daddyville". Kris is of course denying this but I think his memory is failing him!

I am good for something.

Tonight at dinner I was trying to explain to Kris how to do something. Zack was listening quietly then started to ask questions. When I answered all his questions the little bugger said "OK, I guess we will keep you around!"
Way to make a mom feel loved.

My Duh moment

One morning I was joking around with Zack when he asked for an egg sandwich for breakfast. I told him it would cost him $4.50 for breakfast and that he had to pay up. He was insistent that he get his breakfast for free. When I asked him how much daddies breakfast was going to cost he responded with one hundred two forty. I asked if he meant one hundred two dollars and forty cents. He let me know that he meant one hundred two forty dollars. (Note to self, teach the child about money). He then changed his mind and said "daddies breakfast if going to cost one zillion and nine." I did not want to attempt to figure it out so I asked Kris what one zillion nine pennies would equal. My ever so smart child looked at me with a straight face and said "One zillion and nine pennies would be a lot of pennies."
DUH.

Go away sickness

My poor little love muffin has an ear infection. Yesterday morning he was fine, no signs of any problems. I sent him off to school and I started my day. At 10:30 his teacher called me and said he was complaining of his ear hurting and that he felt warm. Less than ten minutes later I walked into the school office and he was sitting there waiting for me. He looked miserable. After signing him out of school, I called the pediatricians office for an appointment. When he heard me make the appointment he said "Mom you don't need to make an appointment, I feel one hundred, one million, one trillion zillion times better so I could just go home and watch TV now." ~um, I don't think so child.
By the time we left for the pediatricians office he was miserable. Of course he was already starting to panic about having to go there (nothing I say or do can reassure that child that it is okay to go to the doctor). Turns out he has ear infection in the left ear but there is a lot of fluid in both ears. He also had a fever of nearly 101 degrees. How is it I was able to keep him healthy enough to have only had antibiotics once in the first five years of his life and now he has had to take them twice in the past six months?
He was really upset with me last night because I would not let him go to basketball practice. I promised that if I see improvement by Saturday I would let him play in the game. This morning he woke up saying he did not feel any pain in his ear. I checked his temp and it was normal so he went to school. Lets hope he makes it through the day and I don't have to go pick him up.

Heart healthy

Do you know what the month of February means? It means it is heart healthy month. Want to know how I know this?

I received a lesson last night in the human anatomy. A lesson given by a five year old who I have to say sure did pay attention is class because he was spot on! Not only did he tell me about keeping your heart healthy but also about the lungs and the veins in the body.

He decided yesterday to jog the whole way to the bus stop, so he did. Then he kept jogging in circles while standing and waiting for the bus. I think had the bus been on time he would have jogged the whole time he was waiting but since the bus was late by fifteen minutes he gave up. He jogged to the bus stop again this morning but did not jog in circles because someone at the bus stop was playing a video game and the pull to watch that was much more important!

One good thing about him jogging to the bus stop, it makes me walk faster to try to keep up with him.

Report cards and notes sent home.

Zack brought home his 2nd quarter report card on Monday. It was a good report card, he is above grade level in reading, writing and math. He is on level with everything else. I can not complain about his report card.

On Tuesday he had a dentist appointment. I was dreading it, as usual. He still has a lot of anxiety when it comes to anything medical. He was nervous but he climbed into the chair to get his x-rays. Once the x rays were done he went into the cleaning room, he climbed into the chair and was happy to see they had the television on. He did well and came out with clean teeth but they want to switch him to morning appointments. They are hoping he will be less fidgety in the mornings. I actually laughed at the hygienist and said "Good luck with that because it never shuts off." At least he came home with a good report card from the dentist too - No cavities.

Wednesday he was in a happy mood going off to school. Coming home from school was another story. I guess it all started when someone cut in front of him in line and did not appreciate that one bit. He told me how it was against the rules to cut in front of someone, so he was not going to let it happen to him. Needless to say he had a note sent home saying he was arguing and pushed someone. Now I get the privilege of meeting with his teacher next week! Yea me :(

He was in a really good mood this morning so I am hoping there is no problems in school. Tomorrow is awards day so we shall see if he does as well this quarter as he did last quarter.

Dates

Zack was sitting at the kitchen table doing his homework. He had just finished writing his name at the top of the paper and was working on writing the date. He stopped writing and said "Mom I can not wait until December 12th." I asked him why and reminded him that December 12th is so far away. He responded with "Mom It is going to be so cool on December 12th the date will be 12-12-12."

He is so observant.

Basketball 2012

Well I was going to take a moment and write a post about my surgery but I guess that will have to wait a while longer because little mister had his first basketball game Saturday morning.

For some unknown reason I felt nervous for him. I don't understand why since I was not nervous when he started Soccer or T-ball. He was a bit nervous but nothing like he normally gets so I know he was looking forward to it. He had been working hard on dribbling and passing correctly and blocking. He told me he would do his best, what more could I want?

When we arrived we found his coach and brought him to the room where they all meet and have their talks then Kris and I went to the gym. I had no clue that this league makes it like they are NBA players. They have cheerleaders, they come running into the gym as an announcer says their name, they sing the national anthem. It was so far from what they do in the league we use for soccer and t-ball.

During the game he did his best, he had a great pass that lead to a teammate scoring. Then half time came and they went to the room for their halftime talk. They came back out and the game got started. Very shortly after he got tripped up with another child and down he went. He hit the floor pretty hard. He laid there and several coaches and refs ran over to him. I let Kris go out there to check on him, I knew if it was not bad he would be more emotional if I went out there.
When he got up off the floor, a coach and Kris took him to the back and put some ice on his head.

He did not come back to the game to play but he did come back and sit on the bench. He was doing fine. Several parents asked if he was going to be OK. After they had their talk and their snack we headed home. I did make him take some Ibuprofen to help prevent any headache. He assured me he would be fine. Apparently he was either kicked or had his ankle stepped on when he was going down because he complained about his ankle hurting so I iced that up and let him chill out on the couch for a while.

For the time he was in the game he tried his best. I do have to say I was very proud of him for that.

On an end note I will say my child is accident prone. On the first day of soccer he was elbowed in the face and came home with a black eye, on the last day of soccer he was hit in the face and had a slight black eye again. On his last day of t-ball he fell on some pebbles and cut his knees up pretty good. Now he gets hurt on his first game of basketball. I hope this is not a trend that he plans to continue because I am done with seeing my child hurt.

Is he really trying to kill me?

This child nearly gave me a heart attack!

I was in the laundry room working on that daunting task of climbing to the top of Mount Laundry when I heard a blood curdling scream come from the living room. Zack started screaming at the top of his lungs then screaming "Mom come here, come here quick." At least that is what I think he was saying. You can imagine how scary it is to hear your child scream like they are being attacked by a grizzly bear.

When I got to the living room some .02 seconds after the first scream he was still screaming for me to come here, come here quick. Once he saw me he screamed something completely inaudible to my now broken ear drums. I had to ask him to repeat it, which he did in the same high pitched, break a champagne glass pitch. I asked a second time to repeat it in a normal voice so I could understand him. All this time my heart is beating so hard I could swear it is going to just burst through my chest.

The poor kid was nearly hyperventilating! My guess is he could not talk properly because he grabbed the television remote and hit the reverse button (thank goodness for playback mode or I may never have been able to find out why my hearing was now ruined for the rest of my life). When he reversed it to a commercial, I seriously had a thought that I just may have to trade this kid in on a new model. A flipping commercial caused all this ruckus? A commercial for YOGURT caused me to almost have to call 9-1-1 because I was surely having a heart attack.

A commercial for yogurt that has STAR WARS characters on it caused my child to scream so freaking loud that my ear drums burst, and my heart would never beat normal again! I know he is becoming more and more of a Star Wars fan but it is just yogurt dang it!! Yogurt that after eating you would just throw those Star Wars characters away!

*I joke about nearly having a heart attack but I am still working on getting my hearing back and seriously people I heard a couple gray hairs pop out!

Worry wart.

A lot has happened since I last posted. So in the next few days I will be updating things that happened in the past month.

Zack went through a tough couple of days in early December. He is a rough and tumble little guy but he sure does have a sensitive side. As my surgery was getting closer he became much more clingy and would cry at the drop of a hat. A week before the surgery, before he even knew when it was going to be, he told me "Mommy I don't want you to die." Wow, I was not ready for that.

Three days before the surgery he was sitting on the couch watching television when I heard his voice say "Mom". It was a shaky voice and I got up to go see what was wrong just as he was running to me. There were tears in his eyes and by the time he reached me he was crying uncontrollably. It took me a while to get out of him what the problem was. He was worried about me dying and not coming home. I tried to reassure him as much as I could that everything was going to be just fine and I would be home before he even got home from school.

Apparently my reassuring did not help because the next night he burst out into tears again. All I could do was talk with him and hope he could understand. He begged me not to have the surgery, when I told him I had to or I could get real sick, he begged me to let him come with me so he could make sure the doctor did not hurt me.

My cousin sent him message which I printed out and put in his 'private' mailbox that he has in his room. He was happy to hear someone else went through the same experience he was going through. (Thanks Kristin it meant a lot to both him and I).

Going to Grandmas house the night before to visit took his mind off everything for a while. He was a little less clingy that night. Of course going to Grandmas house for a visit even if only for a couple hours means you get spoiled. You get to play on the computer, you get to eat some junk food when mom is not looking, you get to turn on cartoons and you get to wrestle with Grandpa.

I did let him stay home from school the day of the surgery. I worried that if he started worrying or something that no one would be able to pick him up from school and it would have made things worse.

I have got to say this kid was making me a bit uneasy about the whole surgery thing. I hated making my child hurt over something that could not be controlled.