Best babysitter

We never left the kids with a babysitter until the twins were toddlers.  Because of the magnitude of the situation, we hired the most responsible person we could have found.  When she started, she was getting her master's degree in speech and she's now a full time speech pathologist.  She's an incredible young lady.  She's kind, fun, and has great boundaries.  She likely does a better job with them than I do on my best day.  So, the only experience our kids have had with a sitter has been with an adult who's basically a teacher.

Over the weekend, Dave and I went out with our neighbors at the cottage and left our kids and the neighbor kids with a younger, less serious sitter.

The next morning, we asked the kids how it went.  They were all really happy about it.  Then Luke replied, "It was awesome!  She didn't say 'no' to anything!"

His body looks even littler in his wetsuit.

My sweet Ally

Ally is incredibly empathetic.  I think this adds to her sensitivity.  She can't be happy if someone around her isn't happy.  I was upset on Sunday.  She was helping me work in the garden, and I thought I was being really positive, talking about the strawberries and things.

Out of nowhere, she asked, "Why are you so fwustrated?"

"Hmm?" I asked, surprised, "I'm fine."

"No," she said, "You're bweathing like you're fwustrated."

Our responsible spotter!

Look what she talked me into that evening.

Life dreams and career choices

I was driving the boat while listening to the kids have a conversation about how Luke was going to live on a yacht when he grows up.

"The nice thing about having a yacht is you don't have to have a house and a boat because a yacht is a house and a boat," he explained.

Anna thought it was a pretty cool idea.  "When the bus brings your kids home, it'll have to bring them to the pier so they can get to their 'house.'"

"I won't make my kids go to school," said Luke, "I'm going to homeschool them."

"I'm going to get mine a tutor," Anna said.  Then she started talking more about all the things she was going to have.  In December she began saving up her allowance and birthday money for a mansion with a fountain in the front and a circular driveway around the fountain.  This idea stems from the game of Life and trips up and down Lake Drive looking at Christmas lights.  (Because she no longer buys anything for herself and was frugal about Christmas gifts for her siblings, she currently has around $95 toward her down payment.)  Then, after attending the auto show with Dave, she's also decided she wants to buy a big expensive truck.

She was now telling her siblings more things to the list of things she would have as an adult.

Luke got up while Anna talked and walked over to me.  Glancing between Anna and me, he commented, "If Anna wants all that stuff, she's going to have to be a robber when she grows up."

TAP

The kids' school's discipline referrals are called, TAPs (Turn Around Program).  In Anna's mind, as in the minds of many well behaved kids her age, these TAPs have taken on a bit of an enigmatic status.  They are something to talk about, wonder about, and occasionally joke about...

Last week, a student who won a raffle and gotten to be principal for the day.  When I picked up Anna, she was being goofy, so I said to the child principal-for-the-day, "Will you give Anna a TAP!?"  She said, "Yes" and jokingly tapped Anna on the shoulder.

Anna found this hilarious and has repeated the joke a few times.

This afternoon I taught the support staff at school Love and Logic, and I took the kids out to Noodles and Company for dinner afterwards.  While we were there, the kids started talking about some of their classmates misbehaviors.  There were rumors about kids who'd gotten a TAP for what they'd done.  

Then Luke and Ally both went into details about a boy who'd broken a puzzle piece at school.  It was positively scandalous.  After a while, I joked, "Luke, how many puzzle pieces did you break today?  Ally, how about you?  3?"

Suddenly Luke turned to me and whispered something I couldn't understand, so I put my head down to listen more closely.  Then he shamefully repeated it, "I got a TAP."

I didn't say anything right away, so he continued, "Alex and I..."

I didn't catch what he said, but I said, "No, honey.  I don't think you got a TAP.  School would have told me."

He looked utterly ashamed and insisted, "I did.  I got a TAP."

There was only one other family in the whole restaurant, so I told the other kids to stay where they were and brought Luke over to a table where we'd have more privacy.

"What happened, Buddy?"

He told me all about how they were in group last week and he wasn't listening because he was talking with Alex, and Mrs. Hirst gave him a TAP.

I asked, "Did you have to go talk to Mrs. Grimm-Nilsen?"

"No."

"Honey, I don't think you got a TAP.  Usually, if you get a TAP, you'll have to talk to Mrs. Grimm-Nilsen and they'd call Mommy and tell me."

"I did, Mommy.  I got a TAP.  Mrs. Hirst gave me a tap because I wasn't listening."  As he explained this again, he gestured a pat on his head.

"Oh!  Did Mrs. Hirst tap you?"  I asked.

"Yes, on my head."

"Oh, okay."  My relief at starting to understand may have been too enthusiastic, because he looked even more ashamed.

"But, it wasn't on my shoulder.  That's the really bad ones."

I was still a little confused.  For a moment, I began to wonder if maybe Mrs. Hirst had a system where kids were individually corrected in a subtle but systematic way, but that didn't make a lot of sense... and then I figured it out.

"Oh, Buddy, no!  It's a joke!  Not Mrs. Hirst tapping you, that's not a joke.  That's a signal you should listen, and I'm glad you understood and listened, but those aren't the TAPs that the big kids are talking about...."

Then I explained about discipline referrals and what they are, and that what Anna was doing was joking that those kind of TAPs were taps.

Luke looked somewhat relived but still contemplative.

We returned to the table and the girls were all concerned about Luke.  I asked Anna to tell us what a real TAP was.  After she explained, Luke said, "Ally, tap can mean two different things."  And he was okay after that.

Oh, my goodness...

We'd just gotten home.  Anna began to work on homework at the table, the twins were bringing their bag books into the kitchen to read to me, and Kate had to pull up a few pictures of animals on the computer to print out for a class fundraiser they're doing.

"Um... Mom..." Kate called.

"What, honey?"

"Can you come look at this?" she asked.

I sighed.  Why must I always come in by them?  "Can you just describe it in words?" I called back from the kitchen.

"Uh... well... I got a really strange picture when I was searching for a picture of a beaver."

Sometimes I hate the internet.

My big ideas

I tend to get big ideas.  

Last week's big idea was to make Lila's mom a really special First Mother's Day present from her.  I set up a couple photo shoots and got some cute pictures of her.  These were some of my favorites.

But I wanted to also include something really cute like this "love footprint" art that I saw on Pinterest.   (I hear you all shouting, "Keep Kristal off Pinterest!"  And I have been staying off for the most part, but I needed something special.)

Then Lila and I spent a couple hours (Why hours?  I don't know.  I obsess.) shopping for the perfect frame for a couple pictures and the art.  I settled on a simple white and blue frame with space for three 5x7s.

I won't even tell you how long I spent choosing, and getting opinions on, which of the photographs to use.  I finally printed seven pictures and randomly chose two to put in.

Then came the time to make the footprint art.  I decided I'd do it on Monday to make sure I'd have time to try again if it didn't turn out.

I set up a towel on the floor and brought in paper, paint, a little plate, a sponge, and little bowl of water with some soap to wash her foot, and some paper towels. Lila was cooperative.  It only took two tries.  

Then I washed off her feet.  And I washed a little more.  I got more soap and tried again.

Oh, shoot.
I stripped off her clothes and gave her a little soak in the sink.
She didn't mind the bonus bath one bit, but there was still a distinctive blue tint to her feet.

I began to imagine all the scenarios that could happen.  What if her mom or dad thought her feet were turning blue because of lack of circulation and called the doctor in the middle of the night?  Or what if they started to wonder what the heck I was doing to their baby during the day?

With only about ten minutes until she was to be picked up, I decided I had to give her mom the gift a few days early so she'd understand the blue feet.  I sent Anna for the hair dryer to dry the paint more quickly, and I shoved the art in the frame.  I sent Kate for some wrapping paper, so we could quickly wrap it.  As I pulled the wrapping paper off the tube, I realized we only had about a 16 inches of it left.

Lila's mom pulled in the driveway.  The gift didn't get wrapped, but it did explain the blue baby feet.

In the chaos of the moment, I never got a picture of the whole frame,
but it looked cute.  Here's the footprint art.

Labeling pictures

Ally and Luke wanted help writing To: Aunt Polly and Uncle Walt on their pictures.  I was doing a bunch of things, so instead of spelling it all for them, I wrote this.

What do you think I got on their cards?  

The exact same thing, with the exact same line, and no names.

Dolphins and Elephants

I've often been told I'm oversensitive.  Kate and Ally definitely have this same character trait.  Dave believes the best "treatment" for oversensitivity is the ability to laugh at yourself and he always jokes around with the kids.  Although I hated being "teased" by my parents as a kid, Kate has become pretty good at taking it and often dishing it back out.

Unless we push it too far.

We might do that sometimes.

Last night, the kids got on an environmental rant.  I was actually the one who started it.  Dave signed up for three months of newspaper delivery or something, because he got a "free" Bucks sweatshirt with his subscription, and it was half the price of buying the sweatshirt.

But, these darn papers sit at the end of the driveway,  until we bring them in, take off the plastic bag and recycle them, unopened.  So I said (for the third time), "Dave, it's such a waste to get these newspapers that we're not reading.  Can you ask for them to bill you for the three months but stop sending the newspapers?  I mean, really, it's a waste."

This got Anna going on how many trees are being killed by Dave's newspapers.  She said, "Dad, you're killing trees.  Don't you care about the animals?  Don't you care about the environment?"

Dave defended himself by saying he recycles them and there are a lot of other important things he does for the environment like not using plastic bottles, recycling every single thing, and using reusable shopping bags.

This got Kate started.  She's refused to use paper towels or plastic bottles for a couple years.  She even petitioned the principal to get hand dryers instead of paper towels.  Her latest kick is about plastic bags.

She started preaching the panda bears being hurt by people using bamboo and then went on a long rant about how dolphins are being hurt by plastic bags and no one should ever be using single-use plastic bags.  They shouldn't even be allowed!

Then, in a whiney voice, near the verge of hyperventilating, Kate asked Dave, accusingly, "What do you bring your sandwiches in for lunch everyday?"

Now, I agree with her.  And Dave actually uses a reusable sandwich box, but I couldn't help it.  She was just so preachy.  I said, "He wraps his sandwich up in a dolphin carcass."

And Dave added, "Which I put in my ivory lunchbox."

Thankfully, she just rolled her eyes at our raucous laughter and gave us both dirty looks.  But, yes, that crossed the line.

I love my girl and her moral high ground!

Mother's Day and Ally's revenge

It was a great Mother's Day!  Dave and the kids brought me breakfast in bed with adorable homemade presents.

Luke made me a picture that I had to find all the M's and the O's in it so that it spelled "mom" a bunch of times.  Anna made me a clay heart from clay she'd dug out of the garden.  (I used to dig up clay myself at her age!)  She also made me a paper tube with another paper tube inside and showed me a lot of innovative ways of using it.  Ally made me the same paper tube combo, (which, thanks to Ramona Quimby's lecture, Anna knew was a high compliment and not a "copy").  And Kate made me a lovely clay vase. She'd made me a clay "face pot" in art class but determined, after it was finished, that it looked "creepy," so she made the vase at home instead.

Finley was feeling really left out,

Kate wrote me a letter that made me cry.
I kidded Ally it was because Kate's letter said "a bunch of mean stuff."

Big cuddle.  Finley managed to make her way into the group.

Dave bought stuff for nachos for lunch, but when it was time to eat, he was talking to a new neighbor.  I made the nachos myself and told the kids, "Hey guys, come help me.  It's Mother's Day and I'm doing all the lunch stuff myself."

They asked where Daddy was.  I said, "He's talking to the neighbor, but, you're right, he should be making me these nachos."

Ally said, "Then we're not doing anything for him for Dad's day!"

I laughed and said, "You're right.  We're sure not."

Luke said, "Heeeey, NO!  We have to do things for Daddy!"

I said, "It's okay, Lukey.  We were just joking."

Ally said, "I wasn't joking."

Vengeful child.

I treated myself to a cone since it was Mother's Day,
but I decided to be smart and get a baby cone.
No lie.  This is the Hamburger Haus' baby cone.

I love these people.

These two

I can't get enough of this combination of children.

Anna and her friend Joey.  

 

They just "get" each other.  And they consistently treat each other with love and respect.  There aren't enough friendships like this in the world!

I didn't love the idea, so I supervised and tried to prevent serious injury.

Those teeth!  Joey's lack of them and Anna's mismatched disaster mouth.  Ridiculously cute!

Gusto!

Ally and Luke are learning so much in Kindergarten.  Ally's particularly enthralled by exclamation points, which their teacher must have told them get read with gusto.

Ally won a contest at Riveredge Nature Center and she got a coupon for a free hat.  The director (a childhood friend of mine) sent her the coupon in this card.  Ally looked at it, then asked me excitedly, "Mommy can you read this to me with gusto.  There's a lot of gusto!"

Redheads

Luke said to me as we were getting ready for bed, "Mom, you know what? 'Redhaireds' attract people to say, 'I love your hair.'"

Anna for sale

Ally was complaining about Anna.  I joked, "Maybe we should sell her on Kidscycle."

Ally just scowled at me, so I went to the computer and found a picture of Anna.  

I asked how much we should sell her for.  Ally mumbled, "Two dollows."  

I asked, "Why should I say we're selling her?  Because you're sick of her?"  Ally nodded.