Thursday, December 28, 2006

Jingle bells, Batman smells!

I don't know how many times we sang this classic song this holiday season. Hopefully by next Christmas, he will be past this stage.

Lucas, as usual, raked in the presents this year. Yes, he got his new shoes (just like Owen's) and a myriad of other gifts.

But this was the gift that got the most play right off the bat. (Warning, this video is all about Lucas, so only watch it if you're a big fan of his.)


Lucas has dubbed himself Captain Superhero, but Kevin and I secretly call him Captain Sticky.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Thanks Betty!

Today I've been running around since 6am. Around 10am, I drove by Bakesale Betty, my favorite out of the way bakery. I wanted to get something sweet, since I hadn't had anything to eat all morning.

I perused the baked goods, my eye specifically on the scrumptious banana bread. However, for a mere $1.50, you could get a huge hunk, equal to about 3 normal slices.

I asked for the smallest slice. It was still huge. So I asked if I could have 1/2 of that and I'd pay full price. She cut it in half and said, "I'm not going to charge you full price, just 75c." So I paid her the 75c and put $1.25 in the tip jar.

Crazy? Caught up in the holiday buzz? Or just thankful that someone will accommodate my request?

Happy holidays Betty!

Dear Santa

After reading in the past couple of weeks about people doing holiday video cards on DVD and video resumes, I thought we should get up to speed.

I asked Lucas to talk to the camera and tell Santa what he wants. (He can write his letters, but an entire letter to Santa detailing each thing he wants, would have taken a very, very, very long time.)

This year, Lucas wants to keep it simple. His wish list, albeit somewhat odd, covers the basics in every 3 year old boy’s life – food, clothing, shelter and trains.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

On babies and lies

Sunday night we went to a Hannukah party. There were a bunch of other kids there, but they were between the newborn and 2-year old phase.

At one point, Lucas said, "Mommy come over here." I asked why. He pointed to a toddler and said, "He's stinky." His mom assured Lucas that she just checked and her son didn't have a poopy diaper. Lucas was skeptical.

On the ride home I asked Lucas if he had fun.

Lucas: I had fun. But those babies all smell alike. They all smell like pooh.
Me: Sometimes little kids smell like that if they have pooh in their diaper.
Me: When you were little sometimes you smelled like pooh so I would change your diaper.
Lucas: No that's not true.
Me: Yes, it is true.
Lucas: You're lying mommy. And you shouldn't lie like that.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Adventures in babysitting

Last night Lucas had his first "slumber party". Owen, Lucas' good friend, came over with sleeping gear, while his parents attended a Christmas party. He was just going to fall asleep here, not spend the entire night.

For the Cliffs Notes version, this is what it was like.




The evening started out innocently enough. The two were literally running around screaming from room to room like wild monkeys. Kevin was chasing/scaring them, which sometimes crossed the fine line to too scary.

Then we settled down for some dinner. Pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs and carrots. The boys tested their culinary talents by pouring water into their full pasta bowls. Owen seemed to approve as he kept eating his, but Lucas decided he didn't want watery pasta after all.

There was more general running around, then we thought it would be time to watch a movie, "A Charlie Brown Christmas", courtesy of YouTube. Since Lucas doesn't normally watch TV, he was mesmerized.

Owen was less so. After about 5 minutes they abandoned the movie in favor of...more running around.

I read the boys a couple books and tucked them in around 8:30. I fell asleep around 9, and could still hear them discussing which one was the bigger poopyhead and what-not as I drifted off to sleep.

Owen's parents came by around 10:30 and both boys were fast asleep.

The next morning Lucas woke up and the first thing he said was, "Where did you put Owen?" I'd say the slumber party was a success.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Attack of the alien potato people!!

The other day my friend Noel emailed that her daughter is drawing these "princesses", which really look like aliens. I was very curious to see what these drawings looked like.

Then Lucas surprised me last night. We had our own invasion of alien potato people!


This is his first recognizable attempt at drawing people. I think they're pretty cool looking actually.

Has anyone else had sightings of these alien potato people?

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Oh Nurse Ratched...

I look into the room. I see people seated at small tables for two. At one table, two people are stringing beads onto pipe cleaners. Then there's the person who is using a very primitive looking utensil to cut apples, lots of them. He's not eating the apples, just cutting more and more. Seated at another table is someone who is methodically taking a sponge putting it into a cup of pink liquid, soaking up the water, then putting the sponge over another cup and squeezing the liquid out - basically transferring the pink liquid from one cup to another using a sponge. Oh and the two people who are meticulously placing beads on small different-shaped peg boards. And let's not forget the blindfolded guy, picking up and putting down different things in front of him.


These could easily be scenes from a mental hospital, but they're from Montessori preschools.

Lucas' school is a pretty regimented Montessori school - it's good for him, he likes the structure. For instance, when they walk in groups, they walk single-file with their hands behind their backs (I hear this may just be a school thing, to discourage pushing and shoving in line). My friend's daughter goes to a different Montessori school where they ride the tricycles only in pre-determined circles in the school yard. If they do their work on the floor, they roll out these little mats to do their work on. When they're done, they roll up their mats and put them away.

Here's Lucas picking up small objects with small tongs and putting them in one side of the container then taking them out and putting them back in the other side

Then there are the comments from the teachers to the parents. They're there for everyone to see on the sheet where you sign your child out when you pick him up. They could be from a daily report from an insane asylum, but I guess they could also be from any type of preschool.

- I saw Joey poke someone in the eye. When I went over to ask him to say sorry, he said he didn't do it, it was someone else.

- Amanda had a BM (bowel movement) in her pants during circle time. She didn't want to come out of the circle to get cleaned up. (I assume they cleaned her up anyway.)

- Sally was crying over a broken cracker. She calmed down after 5-10 minutes.

Just another day at school I guess.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Deck the halls...

Lucas is so excited about Christmas this year. His excitement was contagious - we decided to up our holiday decor from last year. It wasn't too tough to do since we only had this little tree that my mom brought home from a Christmas party and lights up in the apartment we were renting.

I've been cutting out snowflakes for the last week and a half. This has been a learning process in itself. At first I was folding paper 4x into rectangles and my snowflakes turned out boxy. See the snowflake on the upper right of the window? Then I turned to my favorite resource and typed in "snowflake patterns" and found out what I was missing: the third fold should make the paper into a triangle. See the other snowflakes on the bottom half of the window? Much more like snowflakes, don't you think?

I've been using some of Lucas' artwork, with his permission of course, as well as remnant wrapping paper and colorful Christmas catalogs, which we've been receiving daily. This makes for more colorful snowflakes, since it's so hard too actually color on them after they've been cut-out.
(See the detail on this LL Bean catalog snowflake?)

This past weekend we got a tree. Even Kevin got into the Christmas spirit a little and put the lights on it (go Kevin!).

Lucas and I went to Elephant Pharmacy and bought a bunch of artisan-crafted, beautiful little ornaments, which cost an arm and a leg. I supplemented with some cheap standard silver and white balls from our local big box store. We had a great time decorating.

And we topped off our weekend with a holiday party, complete with friends and everything!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Lucas gets a job

Yesterday Lucas informed me of his new role in the family.

We were in his room and I thought I saw a spider. He started to look around for it. That's when he made his big announcement:

Lucas: Don't worry mommy, I will protect you. If there's a bug or something else in our house. I will whack him with my sweatshirt(demonstration followed of extreme sweatshirt thrashing).
Me: Oh, good. But who will protect you?
Lucas: I don't need anyone to protect me. See how fast I am (more and accelerated sweatshirt thrashing). If something happens to you. I will rescue you. Look how big I am (standing up tall and straight).

Friday, December 08, 2006

Canine couture

In the car this morning I covered Lucas with my warm coat. He started talking about how we should drive to school with blankets in the morning. Then he said even Maggie (our 7-year old pitt mix) should have a blanket in the back.

This started him down a whole new tangent for Maggie.

Lucas: When Maggie grows up, she should wear more clothes.
Me: What type of clothes should she wear? Does she have a favorite color?
Lucas: Her favorite color is yellow. Maggie should have a yellow shirt, then some pink pants.
Me: Should she have a picture on her shirt?
Lucas: Maybe a picture of Kona (my sister’s dog). And then she needs some shoes.
Me: What color?
Lucas: Yellow on one foot and pink on the other foot.
Me: What about her other two feet?
Lucas: Orange and brown.

I would pay good money to have a visual of this.

My dog ate my homework, the check is in the mail, my toilet exploded...

Okay, so our toilet didn't explode, but it was filled almost to the top with water after Lucas put some unknown thing (he explains it as "some toilet paper") down the toilet.

As I was in the bathroom yesterday morning telling Lucas not to put anything except small amounts of toilet paper in the toilet, he reaches over and flushes it.

Water, and yes, shit, comes overflowing out of the toilet.

I screamed for Kevin to come down and help. After we cleaned up as best we could, I shuttled Lucas off to school, came home, cleaned the shit (literally) out of the bathroom, changed clothes, and went to work.

I got into work just before 10am. My excuse? "My toilet exploded..."

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Lessons learned, revised

A month or so back, Lucas educated me on the Golden Rule, which he learned at school.

Well he has a new version now.

Last week I asked him what he did in school and he said they talked about the Golden Rule.

Lucas: You know, "Treat others as you want them to treat you."
Me: That's a nice thing to talk about.
Lucas: It means if somebody hits you, you hit them back.