Fixing the draft

We woke to yet another frosty morning in the heart of the Midwest. Our drafty old house reminded us that 68°F feels warm at Nana & Papa's house, but our house still feels chilly at 72°F (when our thermostat clicks back on after just a few moments of rest... round the clock!)

We'd recently been noticing that our stairwell was cold and drafty. Granted, this IS the only cold air return for the upstairs... as there really are only heat registers upstairs... so, it is natural to feel cooler air here. However, we thought there was a bit of a draft by the (new) window that Mike installed so, he checked it out.

Soon, he had the trim pieces off and started checking things out. Turns out, he was not happy with his initial selection of insulated foam that he used around the windows when he had first installed them. He pulled it all out and opted to use a spray foam instead.

I had asked him if he had the materials he needed BEFORE messing with the window... you know, because that's the way a woman's brain works... efficiently. Turns out, an hour later, Mike announced "To answer your earlier question, NO, I do NOT have all the things I will need to fix this window."

He and his little helpers ran to the hardware store to buy some. They were more-than-eager to go on a BOYS ONLY OUTING with Daddy.

Silas came home with POPCORN in his hair. 

What????

Ah, yes... he's three. That, you see, is what happens when you fill YOUR HAT with popcorn and then, proceed to put it onto your head.

The boys were THRILLED that we could make a cup of hot cocoa for Daddy and pass it to him through the window. They also made sure to stand there, keeping him company, and asking LOTS OF QUESTIONS.

The boys also enjoyed bundling up to go outside, watching the first of the snowflakes fall. (It gave them more-than-enough reason to ALSO need a cup of hot chocolate.)

Daddy's little helpers....

Here's to a less-drafty window!

Friday Family Fun: Bumper Bowling

Our family seems to have little-to-no athletic ability, but that didn't stop us from enjoying some Friday Family Fun tonight! Between kindergarten pickup and dinner, we went to Cherry Lanes and bowled one game. (Eventually, we all ended up with bumpers!)

I had bowled a few frames before I realized that Mike had turned my bumpers on. It MAY have had something to do with my first gutter ball. Granted, we haven't attempted bowling since January 2013.

Photos from our first family bowling outing on January 18, 2013.

(Silas is still TRUE TO FORM... he does NOT like to be told he is too little to do anything, which was apparent on January 18, 2013 as much as it was today!)

I had to laugh when Mike changed his own settings to have bumpers. He started strategically throwing his balls off of the bumpers so that they would bounce just so. (Actually, he was doing pretty well this way and having more fun.)

"Honey, it's NOT like playing pool."

"It's a lot like pool. I'm using geometry skills." he insisted.

I never really DID care much for geometry, but at least he was having fun with it. We were also lucky enough to be serenaded by him to one of his favorite karaoke songs "Jack and Diane" . What a special treat to hear him sing!

It was challenging to bowl with Sydney tonight. He kept running around and charging up after the bowler. I was afraid he would run into my backswing so, I kept trying to move him farther and farther back. He liked to slide all over the floor on his pants, as well as have the blower blow on his belly by the ball return. His brand new, bigger, big boy pants (way too big in my opinion) kept hanging out the top of his pants. He acted as if we should have gotten him his own lane... as HE wanted to bowl every frame. His lack of listening was not the most fun, but we will choose to remember the FUN FAMILY MEMORIES.

The sassy mockingbird repeating the entire ride home wasn't all that fun either. Mike wonders "how can he have such good behavior at school - to get RED two days in a row - and then, come home to be THIS NAUGHTY?!?!? Three and five year olds pick up so many new tricks from school....

Thanks for the fun family outing!

*For the record, I wore my "bowling sweater" again today. In 2013, I wore my gray one. Today, I wore my khaki one. (I only have the two sweaters that really have NOTHING to do with bowling. I opted to wear this because it is a long sweater that offers better coverage.)

** We all bowled better last time. In 2013, Mike bowled 161 and I bowled 93 (without the bumpers!) while Sydney/Silas bowled 59 with bumpers. Today, November 2014, Daddy won bumper bowling with 89, Mommy took second place with 68, Sydney took a close third with 67 and Silas scored 56.

While we were loading into the car, Silas announced that maybe HE wants to go bowling as a special date with JUST DADDY. Sweet...

That was just an extra yawn

Daddy: Silas took a nap today so, he's not really tired.

Mommy: I see that. It kind of scared me for a second there because I didn't hear him come down and when I glanced over, you had two heads.

Silas yawns.

Mommy: Oooh, I saw a yawn! I think he's tired.

Silas: Not really. That was just an extra yawn. It does NOT mean that I'm tired.

Silas doesn't love me anymore because... we now have a booster seat

This past week, Mike picked up a booster seat. He knew that they were selling them reasonably cheap at work and thought it might be a good thing to have. (We noticed on the parent-driven field trips that EVERYONE - but Sydney - has a booster seat.)

After watching a slow-motion crash test dummy video on booster seats, I'm convinced NOT to use them for any purpose. Although, I can see the convenience factor of having one as well.

On Tuesday, Mike picked Silas up from preschool and offered to give him a ride in the brand new booster seat. Silas was VERY APPREHENSIVE at first. Then, he decided that he DID want to ride in the truck with Daddy and that he would give it a shot. Turns out, he's disappointed to ride in the GMC Acadia with me now.

This morning, he was upset that I was the one picking him up from preschool. He insisted that he really wanted DADDY to pick him up because he loved daddy a lot and that he no longer loves me because he loves daddy so, so much. (Ouch!) He proceeded to tell me how very special it is for him to ride in the truck with daddy and to hang out with daddy. We then made arrangements for Silas to run errands with Daddy later that afternoon after violin lessons.

So, that's that.... Silas doesn't love me anymore; He only loves Mike.... because of the new booster seat.

"I really love Daddy a lot!" he proclaims.

"Me, too."

Life is Messy

One of my former MOPS table mates posted a link onto my Facebook page.

After reading the article, I responded. (I was hoping that she wasn't implying that I was the mother who has an immaculate house, but THINKS it is messy because our house is.... well.... LIVED-IN and only seems to stay clean while we're sleeping at night!)

Eventually, I did the unthinkable: I posted REAL LIFE PICS of our messy house because.... THIS IS LIFE!!! REAL LIFE!!! Un-censored and un-edited.

I'm finally starting to get over the embarrassment factor each time that a babysitter steps foot into my house and I have to remind them to PLEASE EXCUSE THE MESS. (They've since discovered how quickly the boys have made messes on their watch and how terribly busy they are!)

And then, JUST FOR PROOF: Once in a while, our house IS CLEAN!!! 

(It is normally late at night, when we are all sleeping. There is almost always, however, a never-ending laundry pile on the kitchen floor... same location, different pile... every single day!)

I take photos of our house in the MESSY STATE because THIS IS LIFE! Sometimes, life is messy!

Reading Words/Sydney - WEEK TWO

Week Two of Word Boxes

MONDAY: slug, hog, nut, fill, slab, got, lost, fluff, stuck, tug (box 3a)
TUESDAY: bun, fun, gun, loft, gift, run, flip, land, band, cub (4)
WEDNESDAY: feed, rail, tree, coat, jail, jog, snail, loaf, rain, lie
THURSDAY: (Sydney hid the word box in the closet, keeping Wednesday's words again.)
FRIDAY: test, get, hiss, bat, best, fat, kiss, mist, pig, log

Each day, Sydney needs to bring TWO BOOKS to school in his backpack. Sometimes, he wants to be surprised, having US pick out the books for him. Other times, he deliberately pulls out a stack of books and selects "just the right ones".

Now that he is reading real words, we will have to make a point of NOT SPELLING WORDS in code anymore (which didn't usually work overly well since Mike's math-minded brain is NOT good at spelling and he would often times GUESS THE WORD OUTLOUD anyways.)

Many nights at bedtime, Sydney is THE ONE reading a bedtime story to our family. (Although, sometimes his five year old brain is tired and he just wants US to read the book.) Poor Silas seems saddened that HE can't yet read books.

Sydney is pleased to know that our library has a large selection of yellow dotted EASY READERS for him to read.

I'm glad that we have (early-on) instilled a love of language and a love of books.

NOV 13: This morning, Sydney selected his own books.

How does your day measure up?

Last night, Sydney was excited to find the leftover paper scraps from the Halloween mummy project. I had saved them, thinking we would use them for over/under art - an activity that BOTH BOYS haven't demonstrated a natural talent for yet.

Sydney knew JUST THE THING for what he wanted to do with these strips of paper!

He ran to the kitchen and found the box of crayons, pulling out the white one. Then, he knelt down at the seat of the chair and started getting to work.

Sydney is making: RULERS!

First thing this morning, he gave me a hug; then, remembered his rulers. He ran into the dining room to find a ruler, proud to show Daddy.

"I made a lot of them so we can give some away." he announced.

Pilot and Co-pilot are off on great adventures

Last week, our neighbor (a pilot) gave us an old poster, wondering if Silas still wanted to be an airplane pilot. (Technically, we're not sure WHAT Silas wants to be when he grows up... it changes as fast as his favorite color and what he wants for Christmas.)

This morning, we hung the poster on the window and turned our dining room into the 4-seater plane that was on the poster. The booster seats were the pilot and co-pilot seats and there were two seats behind. Silas was nice enough to point out that we forgot the WINGS of the plane! (So, we tipped our remaining chairs to be wings.)

These two have been on many great adventures today. What incredibly cheap entertainment!

Now, if only we'd have remembered to check out "Violet the Pilot" from the library last night...

I was proud during one of my NOT-PROUD PARENTING MOMENTS

This morning, my adult brain had a temper tantrum and for that, I am NOT PROUD. The battles of the morning have been getting to me lately, weeks into this struggle. I have school lunch to pack (most days) and two bookbags to get ready on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I have three sets of teeth to brush, three heads of hair to fix and three bodies to feed and dress. I have six shoes to put on. I have a time deadline AND... I have a three and five year old who sabotage my plans of a stressfree morning five days per week.

My husband, who spends the majority of his time AWAY FROM THE HOUSE, has recently been commenting on my lack of an inside voice as I bark commands and squash toddler negotiations as fast as they fly out of sassy mouths. I find myself repeating instructions for shoes to be put on RIGHT NOW and warning that WE NEED TO GO.... NOW! (He can do it in record time... when HE wants to!)

I've tried declaring "No tv until you are READY FOR SCHOOL" but those are the days that they insist upon playing with toys or turning our house into a makeshift library, with no strong desire to go anywhere, anytime soon.

Some days, I find dressing them to be a chore similar to lace-up boots onto an octopus or Barbie clothes onto a cube of Jell-o. Most days, I am lucky to NOT have been accidentally whacked in the face by a flailing arm or a near-miss headbutt because a sudden dance move got into their active imaginations. "You're right, you DO look like a flamingo!" is a pretty common phrase in our house.

We've started the "I'm not going to school today!" battles with the five year old, as well as the "Yeah, well, if I can't have THIS, I'm NOT going to do anything!!!", followed by loud foot-stomping from the three year old. (I get it... it is hard for our kindergartener to hear about the "fun" we have while he is at school each day or how unfair it is that HE doesn't get to hang out in his jammies with us. Thankfully, our end of the day ritual of "what's the favorite part of your day?" almost always has SCHOOL for his answer with levels of excitement that are hard to contain.)

We've ran late every day this week. Yesterday was going to be different. Then, my three year old decided to LOCK HIS CAR DOOR before I could buckle him into his seat while my five year old suffered from sudden amnesia on how to put his seatbelt on.

Like yesterday's goal, today was going to be different. Today was MY temper tantrum when I kept asking our three year old to put his shoes on and when I had continued to take a retired cell phone away from him, which had been renamed a pincher-ma-fincher this morning. When we had five minutes before being considered late and my youngest was still in bare feet, I flipped out. I grabbed the cell phone from him and whipped it across the room, crashing into pieces. (Funny how you can only get the battery case off when you don't want it to come off.)

Immediately, he cried; likely more upset about the cell phone than my eruption. "Put your shoes on NOW... PLEASE!!!" I begged as I ran into the other room to retrieve my own cell phone. When I returned, my five year old son was sitting closely, with his arm around his little brother, comforting him and starting to help him with his shoes.

"Thank you, buddy! Thank you for putting SO MUCH LOVE into all of our buckets!"

On the way to school, I overheard five year old Sydney reminding his brother "You dip love out of mommy's bucket when you aren't being a good listener so, you should just be a good listener."

I was SO PROUD of Sydney's compassion during my moment of weakness. I've got GREAT KIDS!

When Mike returned home from his overnight trip to seminars, I told him about this episode. Immediately, he asked me "What can YOU DO to handle the situation better?" (Easy question for HE who doesn't have his patience tested 24/7 by toddler terrorists.) I proceeded with my story... when I got to the part where Sydney comforted his brother, sitting on the floor and rubbing his arm and back, talking softly to him, making him feel better and HELPING HIM to get ready, Mike's eyes filled with tears.

Yeah, that's what happened to me when I SAW THAT HAPPEN, too!
{proud parenting moment}

Reading words in kindergarten - week one

On Monday, Mrs. Ripley started sending word boxes home with the yellow reading group. (I learned on Tuesday that the yellow group is the most advanced reading group of her class.) Needless to say, Sydney had a different tiny, plastic box of ten words in his schoolbag each day this week and read with considerable ease.

Monday: den, egg, fed, ill, end, sack, fist, bin, hop, lock

Tuesday: sand, snip, men, hill, set, hand, ram, tan, nap, elf

Wednesday: dip, mat, rip, pet, ran, map, hip, ham, rat, ink

I had to giggle when he got to rip, ran and rat because he likes to ask "are you sure it isn't R-E-D? ... You know, R-E-D spells red!" I also giggle when he uses each word in a silly sentence. Sometimes, I noticed, he tries to read words right-to-left, which many of them ARE still real words when read backwards.

I can't wait to see which words he brings home next!



EDITED:
Thursday: sit, it, tin, pan, sat, ant, pat, tip, as, nip

Friday: dip, tap, is, pit, red, in, snap, pin, man, pest