Two Quick Stories

I can't believe how long it's been since I've written on the boys blogs. I mean, I can't believe how long it's been since I've written on Thomas' blog and Jonathan's written on his. ;-) At least I'm posting pics on my other blog so you have some idea of what they've been up to.

Thomas was going to wrestle with David the other night and looked at him, waggled his fingers and said, "Bring it on old man!"

We went to eat chinese food a couple weeks ago and for the first time ever, he tried one piece of chicken in a sweet sauce called Stripped Chicken. He noticed that he'd gotten a little of the sauce on his hand and said, "I've gotta get this Chinese sauce off my hand!" Then he proceeded to eat the rest of his chicken and french fries, which is what he usually eats. After the meal, he sat back and said, "Woo! I'm FULL of Chinese food!"

As his proud mommy, I get to tell you that he's finished all 40 readers at school and is now working on additional readers. No one else in his class is even close to finished so we're definitely proud of our little reading machine. It's funny when they start reading though, some of the things you'd rather they didn't read, they do. Like flipping through the guide on the TV, he sees shows he wants to watch and asks for them even though I didn't want him to know that particular show was on because I didn't want to see it AGAIN. And ordering food from the kid's menu, he now gets onto me for not pointing out all the options. He'll say, "You didn't say taco and enchiladas and hamburgers." Of course, I didn't because he won't eat them. But hey, maybe if he can read them, he'll start eating them.

Why?

Thursday was a really cold day here so I picked out sweaters for the boys to wear. As he was getting dressed, Thomas looked at the sweater and asked me, "Mommy, why are you trying to make me handsome?"

More Lyricality

We were listening to Abba last week in the car and Thomas asked if he could listen to the song that went, "I was in jail before we met..." I racked my brain trying to remember what it was. Never did. So we started going through the CD. We finally found it, Lay All Your Love On Me, and the lyrics actually are, "I wasn't jealous before we met..." :-)

And I did get my iPhone. Yippee!

iPhone Envy

I've wanted an iPhone ever since they came out and have REALLY wanted one since the iPhone 3G came out last summer but I can't upgrade until 1/9/09...this Friday! David, meanwhile, had been dithering for the last 18 months over what phone he wanted to upgrade to. After his trip to Amsterdam in November, he came home and said, "I've decided I want an iPhone." He said every other person in business class had one and were busy watching movies, playing games, and listening to music and he decided he wanted to be one of them. So he got one just before Christmas. And it's really cool. I knew I wanted one already but seeing one in action is that much cooler. And both of our children like it too. There is a lightsaber app that both kids love to use, it turns the iPhone into one that you can swing around and hear the sound effects. Thomas also loves playing a number of David's games, watching Horton Hears A Who!, and watching You Tube videos all on David's phone.

So, last night, we had dinner with David's uncle Rik who was in town for a conference. Thomas and I were sitting in the back row of the van and he asked David if he could borrow his phone. I told him that Daddy was busy talking to uncle Rik and that he could just play with my phone instead. He said, "Mommy, I don't want to play with your phone. It doesn't have any cool stuff on it!" I completely agree. Only two more days.... ;-)

Get Ready Tooth Fairy!

You're gonna be visiting our house soon because Thomas has his first loose tooth! He's been checking his teeth periodically to see if any were loose ever since Natalie lost her first tooth a couple months ago. Today at lunch, he said, "Mommy, my tooth feels funny!" I asked if maybe he had a loose tooth. He said, "No!" but went ahead and felt his teeth anyway. His eyes lit up and then he yelled, "It IS loose!!!" His eyes lit up with excitement. Mine got misty with tears. My baby is growing up.

Donkey Bottom

We were at the mall this morning buying David some new clothes. While there, we spent some time at a kiosk that had a lot of board games, puzzles, and other misc. toys. David pointed out a game to me called Smart Ass. We were giggling about that when we noticed the tag line: Even a dumbass can win! and giggled even harder. Thomas noticed us looking at it, saw the donkey on the cover, and asked what the game was called. We said, "Never mind, it has a bad word in it." Well, our little reader sounded it out himself and proudly said, "Smart Ass!" We explained to him that "ass" is a bad word that can either mean a donkey or a person's bottom but that we don't say it. He thought about it for a minute and then said, "Well, I'm just going to call this game Donkey Bottom."

Finally An Update!

I know you've been waiting for an update...Jerry. ;-) Here you go. And while I'm on the subject, where does the time go? My last post was over a month ago? Really???

Thomas has been full of funny comments lately. And since it's been a month, I don't remember them all, but I did write down a few that I wanted to share.

David was out of the country last month for a week and a half, more on that later in this post, but while he was gone, the boys and I decided to have Chick-Fil-A for dinner one night on our way home from the Y. And since no one was waiting at home for us, we decided to eat in the restaurant so they could play on the playground. Thomas immediately climbed up to the top and came down the slide. Jonathan was having fun climbing up and down the stairs but wouldn't go where Thomas wanted him to...the rest of the tube area. That really bothered Thomas and he made it his mission to get his brother up there to show him all the fun things he was missing. He kept telling Jonathan to "come on, I'll take care of you! Do you wanna go down the slide? It's fun! Come on up!" There were a couple other parents in there and they told me they thought it was really sweet how Thomas encouraging his brother. Jonathan finally decided to go the rest of the way up (a mistake because it took 15 minutes of coaxing and a trip up there by me to get him down when it was time to go) and it wasn't 5 seconds before I heard Thomas saying to another child, "Don't you block my brother from there!" We parents giggled at that. Thomas is a sweet big brother but he can also be the enforcer if required.

As I mentioned, David was out of the country, he was in Amsterdam and London. He called us every day and each day, I would ask if Thomas wanted to talk to his daddy. Each time, his response was the same, "No thank you." Luckily David thought that was funny and understood why Thomas didn't want to talk. If it'd been me, it probably would have hurt my feelings. :-)

On our way to the airport to get David on the day he returned, Thomas said, "I can't wait to see what Daddy brought me." I then reminded him that we'd missed Daddy and that the first thing we said to him had better NOT be about souvenirs. Thomas listened and then said, "I think I'm feeling what you're saying Mommy." And he did well. It was at least 5 minutes before he asked.

David brought Thomas some Euros from The Netherlands. Thomas put it in his wallet and a couple days later while counting his money said, "I'm going to take this with me when we go to Arizona next month since I can't use them in this country." We explained that although Texas IS the best state in the United States that there are actually 49 other states in this country.

Thomas is doing really well learning to read. He's sounding out words all the time: as we drive around town, in the grocery store, in his books, etc. Today he checked out a new library book from school and was trying to read it in the car on the way home. He read a page or two and was really excited that he knew all the words. The last page cracked me up though. Here's how it went:

"These are my FRIENDS! They are here to PLAY! Mommy, do you know why I said that last part really loud? Because there were two straight lines and two dots under them and that means yelling."

All I could get out between my stifled giggles was that he was right, those were exclamation points. We'll discuss another day that the whole sentence should be exclaimed and not just the last word.

Ice Skating

Lisa sent this pic of Thomas ice skating. Thought you might enjoy it. I definitely did NOT have my camera out there. :-)

Lyrical Missteps

We haven't listened to our Queen Greatest Hits CD in a while. We've been too busy with our Abba one, but Thomas still sings 'We Will Rock You' pretty regularly. The actual lyrics say, "You got mud on yo' face, you big disgrace" but Thomas sings two versions. One, "ya got mud on your face, you big green snake." And two, "ya got mud on your face, you big bee sting."

I have to say he comes by it honestly. David keeps telling me that the Scorpions are actually singing "Here I am. Rock you like a hurricane" but I hear and sing, "Here I am. Raunchy like a hurricane." We've had many debates on what exactly a raunchy hurricane is. :-)

Funny Kid

Thomas is cracking us up as usual. He's had some pretty good ones lately. Enjoy.

Thomas' friend Sembree had her birthday party on Saturday morning. David told him that he and Jonathan were going to watch Tech/A&M game while we were at the party. Thomas said, "Daddy tell me if the Aggies win." David agreed. Then Thomas said, "Oh wait Daddy, if the Aggies lose, don't tell me at all."

Friday night, we went to Amy's, James' big sister, 9th birthday party. It was an ice skating party and I've only ice skated once, fell down, realized how hard the ice was and immediately stopped. So even though I had a bad prior experience, I still had to suck it up and help my 5 year old try to ice skate. We started off around the rink, staying by the wall to hopefully not fall down much. Thomas had a very hard time figuring out how to keep his feet underneath him. I ended up supporting his entire weight while his legs were going opposite directions. It was slow going but we eventually made it about 1/3 of the way around the rink. At that point, Lisa and Judee skated up and offered to help Thomas. He was a little hesitant but I told him they were much better ice skaters than me and could probably help him learn faster. So off they went, holding his hands and supporting him between them. They finished the first lap around the rink and then I took over again. By that point, Thomas had figured out how to keep his feet under him and started doing much better. He then said, "Mommy, you helping me" (and gave me a thumbs down) "Lisa and Judee helping me" (thumbs up). Our second lap around the rink, he was doing a lot better and didn't need much help from me. He could hold onto the wall himself. Then he said, "Mommy, you're getting better helping me! Oh wait, I'm getting better learning on my own."

After the birthday party, we met David for dinner. It was really crowded and the only table available was one of the tall tables with big barstools. Thomas loved sitting there. When they brought him his milk, it was in a big glass and he said, "Wow, big table, big chair, big drink, this is the best big day of my life!"

Last night, David and the boys were playing catch with a big ball. Thomas said, "Daddy get ready 'cause I'm gonna eat your dust!" We did eventually explain that when you're smack talking, it's the other way around.

My Little Aggie

We went to Lubbock last month and while we were there, I wanted to go to my favorite Tech store downtown to buy some new t-shirts for us all. I told Thomas where I was going and asked if he'd like a shirt. He said, "No way, Mommy! I'm an Aggie...REMEMBER!" So no Tech shirt for him.

I think he was disappointed in that later though because he wanted to wear a Tech t-shirt and his Aggie shorts one day to school so his clothes could fight each other.

ABBA

David and I went to see Mamma Mia a couple weeks ago at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. It was a LOT of fun and I came home and bought an ABBA greatest hits CD right away. We've been listening to it a lot in the car and Thomas loves it. His favorite song is Mamma Mia and he also loves Take A Chance On Me. I just love hearing him sing, "Honey, I'm still free. Take a chance on me." and "Mamma Mia, here I go again. My, my, how can I resist ya?" I know I can't. :-)

Mr. Phonics

I've tried over the years to use phonics to teach Thomas. That never interested him. But now he's Mr. Phonics. Between school and a new Leapfrog Word Factory DVD that he loves, he's now crazy about phonics. Every word he says is enunciated like this: "C-c-c-c-a-a-a-t-t-t-t, C-A-T spells cat Mommy!" or "P-p-p-p-pizza, Mommy, pizza starts with P!" It's pretty cute.

We LOVE Kindergarten!

Every day when I pick Thomas up from school, I ask, "How was your day sweetie?" And every day he answers the same, "Awesome!" That statement combined with his other frequent, enthusiastic comment, "Mommy, Kindergarten is even more fun than I thought it was going to be!" help us know that we made the right decision concerning his school.

First Homework

Thomas got his first homework assignment yesterday. It was a questionnaire titled All About Me. Things like, when is your birthday, who's in your family, what's your favorite TV show, etc. As we sat down yesterday afternoon to do it, Thomas looked at me and said, "Mommy, when am I going to get homework where I do all the work? Big kids have homework like that you know." I told him he could write the answers on his paper if he wanted to and I'd tell him how to spell it all. He decided that was too much writing and that I could do it this time. I'm glad he's excited about homework and am definitely NOT going to burst his bubble about how much homework he's going to have in his lifetime and that it may not all be fun.

First Day of Kindergarten

Thomas had his first day of Kindergarten today. He's going to the same school he's gone to for the last three years and knows most of his classmates. But it's in a different building and with different teachers and he was nervous today. He was talking about how nervous he was at breakfast in that teary/cryey voice that just breaks my heart. And he was talking about it as we were getting dressed and I tried mentioning the new girl and how scared she must be not knowing anyone but that he knew pretty much everyone. And we talked about it in the car on the way to school when he said, "My outside is unnervous but my inside..." I asked if his inside was a little nervous and he said, "No, my inside is a LOT nervous." And as I was getting ready to leave his class, he started crying, not screaming and sobbing like one of his classmates, just tearing up. I gave him lots of hugs and left knowing he was in good hands. When I picked him up, he said, "Mommy, remember how at art class I started out nervous and then things got better?" I said that I did. He said, "Well it was the SAME thing in Kindergarten! I was sad when you left but then I just recognized that I could do it and I did!" And he did. We're so proud of our Kindergartener. Seems like just yesterday he was born...

Splashers

I thought I posted this a couple weeks ago. Just noticed today it hadn't.

While we were at the lake, Bobby swam under the dock with Thomas. It's a neat place for little boys...very cave-like. You won't get me under there though, too many creepy crawlies. I was up on the dock while they were swimming under it and heard Thomas yell, "Uncle Bobby get your splashers ready!" Can you figure out what that meant? That's right, to get the spider webs and various other bugs out of the way, Bobby would splash water on them.

Olympics

We LOVE the Olympics in our house. Thomas' favorite thing so far has been the Opening Ceremony. The drummers were totally awesome. He watched intently the whole first hour yelling repeatedly, "This is the best show I've ever seen!!" And since we still have it on our DVR, we've watched it several times since then.

He also likes watching the sporting events, but he cheers differently that us. He always ALWAYS cheers for China. Even if he just walks through the room while a race is going on, he'll yell out, "Go China!!" If they're not in the particular event on TV then Thomas will condescend to cheering for the U.S. We were watching one of the swimming relays last week and David and I were yelling and happy that the American team had won. Thomas stood there, stomped his foot, and said, "I am SO mad at China!" I'm not even sure China was in the race, but he was still mad at them.

On a completely unrelated note, if you've been following the birthday gift saga, or lack thereof saga, you might be wondering what happened. David did not get me anything, and no, Wanda, it is NOT ok. :-) I bought my own present when we were at the outlet mall in San Marcos last week. Let's just say the letters C-O-A-C-H were involved and David actually likes it.

Social Cues

Thomas is really picking up on social cues a lot more these days. Maybe that's not the right phrase for it, but I mean the hidden meanings and clues in adult conversations. Just like him knowing I wasn't happy about the lack of birthday gift even though the conversation we were having was in a joking tone.

Well, last night another one happened. Mom and Dad came over after we had all eaten dinner together. At the restaurant, Thomas had asked Dad to play Lego Star Wars with him...big shock huh? As Dad was walking into the house, he said, "Thomas, what are Wiiiiii going to play?" I looked at him and slightly sarcastically said, "Ha ha" at his lame joke. Thomas immediately said, "Grandpa that's not laughing."

Fishing, Fighting, and Fun

I started this post two weeks ago and never finished it. It might not be perfect but I'm going to post it now before another two weeks go by.

Thomas and David went fishing for the first time a couple weekends ago. They were both really excited about it. When Thomas woke up that morning, he immediately came downstairs and into our bedroom (unusual for him as he usually calls for us over the monitor wanting us to come to him) and woke David up. He said, "Daddy, this is going to be the best day of my young life." I think maybe it was.

We drove to Keller several weeks ago for Bryanna's 2nd birthday party. Since we hadn't been to their house in a while, we set the navigation system to tell us the best route there. As we were getting close to their house, Thomas started repeating everything the car told us to do: Turn right in 1/4 mile, next right turn, etc. After listening to Thomas' repititions for several minutes, David said, "Ok, dude, I got it." Thomas said, "But Daddy, I'm just trying to be helpful." His little innocent expression and priceless inflection cracked us up.


I've told you before about Thomas and Lego Star Wars. He's still obsessed. He and I have managed to unlock every level of every movie over the last month or so and he's really proud of that. The other night, we let Thomas play a little bit before bed. After about 15 minutes or so, David said, "Ok, buddy, time to turn it off. Thomas looked at David and said, "But Daddy, can I just start a couple bar fights?" Definitely words we never thought would come out of our five year old's mouth.

We celebrated my birthday early today because Grandma is going home tomorrow and I wanted her to get to celebrate with us. We were meeting at Cheesecake Factory at 5. David worked all morning and and did bring me flowers when he came in. A little after 1, David looked at me and said, "You didn't want any birthday presents right?" I stared at him and said, "You ARE kidding me aren't you?" He said he wasn't. I then said, "Are you seriously telling me that four hours before we're celebrating my birthday, you're asking for gift suggestions? Haven't you been listening to anything I've said over the last few months? Pick one of them." He apparently didn't listen to any of my suggestions over that time because he claimed he had no idea what I wanted. Thomas listened to this interchange and then said, "Mommy, you're not happy are you?" David and I both laughed hysterically over that one. I didn't tell him any new suggestions and so far he hasn't gotten me anything but he does have until Tuesday. I don't want to have to buy my own gift again this year, but if I do, I can guarantee you it's going to be a big one. :-)