Bared

We spent the night at the cottage for the first time since it had gotten cold.  The other kids were getting dressed, but Luke came downstairs and announced, "Mom, I'm bared."

"You're bared?  What?  Like bare naked?"

"No," Luke explained, "I went to look for long sleeves in my drawer and there weren't any.  Remember when Old Mother Hubbard went to get her dog a bone, but the cupboard was 'bared'?"

"Oh, did you learn that with Mrs. Koscielniak?"

"Yes, so we had to say what we gave her dog instead, and Ally said mac and cheese and I said tea."

I remembered the project the kids had done last year where the kids had to bring in an empty food box and they glued it to a sheet of paper for Old Mother Hubbard to give her dog.  If anyone ever denies the impact of an amazing early childhood educator, send them my way.

I went up to help get Luke dressed, but, sure enough, his winter drawer was in fact "bared."

The power of advertising

My kids only watch a TV show a few times a week.  And, when they do, we're so lucky to have a DVR, so they can watch what we want them to watch and usually without commercials.

The other day, I let Luke watch Star Wars Rebels while I was folding laundry and noticed that that particular show records with commercials.  Immediately Luke started pointing out all the cool things for sale.  I mentioned how commercials try to make you think you need everything they show you, but that we really don't, and I fast forwarded through commercials.

I made a mental note to discuss advertising more with the kids.  We've been lucky to avoid most of it, but they'll see it eventually, so I should be teaching them how to be smart consumers.  But, life is busy, and I never got around to it.

Then today, the kids asked to watch a show.  Kate turned it on and afterwards, Luke came in, very excited and told me, "Mommy, if you call 9-800-299 they'll give you this thing for if you wash your face and you miss some spots!!"

"Whaaat?  Oh, did you watch Star Wars Rebels, and did you see that on a commercial?"

"Yes, it's really cool!  You just have to call 9-800-299 and they'll send it right to you!"

Silly mom

The twins were both home sick again with a bad coughs and Luke had a fever.  I had planned to drop off some coats, hats, scarves, and gloves to help victims of human trafficking, so I took them along.

I met the woman from the organization in the parking lot and loaded the winter gear into her car while Luke and Ally waited in the car.  After we loaded her car, she declared we needed a selfie to mark the work.  We took the picture, talked a moment, and then we said goodbye.

When I got in the car, the twins, between giggles, exclaimed something in unison.  I didn't catch what they'd said, because they were laughing so hard.

I asked them what they'd said, and they repeated it, still in unison, "You used a selfie camera!!"  Then they giggled some more.

The definition of quadruple

Luke, taking after his mother, his Opa, and his great grandpa, really likes numbers.  He'll randomly declare things like, "Two sets of ten is twenty." or "Seven and three more is ten."

Despite his interest in numbers and his growing number sense, he's still a little confused about some things  We were playing a game in the playroom Monday when he began whining about how hungry he was.  Since it was only about 20 minutes after breakfast, and he's rarely ever hungry, I knew he was really just hinting at a desire for Halloween candy, so I was ignoring him.

Then he told me, "Mommy, I'm quadruple hungry."

"Oh!" I exclaimed to show he'd really gotten my attention with that, "You are?  What does 'quadruple' mean?"

"It's two sets of googols.*"

*The company Google makes the original spelling of the word "googol" look wrong, but it's actually correct.

School

Despite seeing the psychologist, Ally is still doing quite a bit of complaining about going to school.  She thankfully seems less anxious now, but she's more grumpy.  So I've been trying to handle it with a bit more humor.

Thursday morning, she wouldn't stop saying she didn't want to go to school.  I said, "Okay, Al.  I have a plan.  I'll go for you."

She looked at me with a grumpy face.

"Yes," I explained, "you can do the laundry, plan meals, make a grocery list, go grocery shopping, brush Finley, and go to my PT appointment.  And, I'll go to school!"

She glared at me more, then mumbled, "Well, just to tell you, it's worse than you think it is."

Ally and me, at her Halloween party at that terrible place we call school.

Pajama Drive

Before school started, Kate decided she wanted to do something for the kids at the Joy House.  The Joy House is the extension of the Milwaukee Rescue Mission for homeless women with young children.

I told Kate I had a lot going on with school starting soon, but I told her she could do it if she didn't need too much help.  She decided she wanted to put together bags of birthday presents for the kids, label them with genders and ages, and bring them for the Joy House to give to kids as they had birthdays throughout the year.  I suggested she call the Joy House and see if this was something they'd like her to do.

She nervously made the call and got in touch with a wonderful man named Tom who told her he loved her desire to help, but he wasn't sure that toys were of what they were in the greatest need.  He asked if she'd be willing to do something else.  She said she'd do whatever they needed.  He told her he'd find out where the greatest need was and get back to her.

Tom called Kate back and told her they really needed pajamas.  Kate said she could collect pajamas from school.

Kate set to work emailing the principal and recruited Anna for help.  The principal agreed to meet with Kate and Anna and gave them permission.  Kate then made fliers to send home with all the students, designed boxes to collect the pajamas in, and made weekly announcements on the loud speaker reminding kids to bring in their used pajamas.

Kate and Anna collected 168 pairs of pajamas and we're bringing them to the Joy House tomorrow!

Very different siblings

Kate and I were finalizing her birthday invitations at the computer when I asked her, "Do you want presents this year, or do you want them to do something to help someone else."

She immediately replied, "Something for someone else."

Anna shook her head and said, "I'd take the presents."

I ignored her, and asked Kate, "So, what should we say? 'Instead of presents, Kate would like you to..."

And Anna piped in again, "...bring presents for her younger sister Anna." 

Kate decided to ask for donations to the World Wildlife Fund.