Today I went with Connor to the World Wildlife Zoo with his preschool class on their fieldtrip. It was a fun day. Our family has not been to this zoo for a couple of years due to the 
price increase for the admittance fees. Because of the preschool and group rate Connor and I were able to go for about ½ the normal cost. I should have taken more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the zoo myself. They have wonderful aquariums that have hands on activities for the kids. Connor got to touch a starfish, urchin, and stingrays. These were the pictures I did not get. Then we got to feed the birds. At first Connor was nervous with the birds flying around him, but as soon
as I got a bird on his arm he thought it was very cool. After the birds, we looked at more animal and just before we left we visited the tortoises. They were pretty active today and Connor enjoyed following them around their pen. Overall it was an entertaining day.
I am a little behind on my posts, so I will do several today. Saturdays are usually lazy mornings around our house. It usually consists of the boys waking up early and watching TV quietly until a reasonable hour. I consider 8:00am on a Saturday a reasonable hour, anything earlier is not acceptable. Then breakfast, this can vary from cold cereal to full blown pancakes, eggs, bacon, waffles, French toast, or something along those lines. After that, I start with some of my chores… the ones that take some time before I really have to do much work, like laundry (the clothes have to go through the washer and dryer before I have to fold them) or dishes (dishwasher… need I say more?). While that is going on, the boys kick back and watch more TV. I know it sounds like a lot of TV, but during the week they have to earn the privilege of TV. For every 30 minutes spent outside playing, riding bikes, scooters, etc., they get 30 minutes of TV time. So Saturdays they get a little free TV before they do their chores. As you can see from the picture below, they really know how to kick back and enjoy their TV time.
For Christmas this year we got lots of presents, and along with the presents came boxes. Now I know that young children seem to enjoy the box more than the present sometimes, but I thought at some point they outgrew this phase. Evidently, Connor has not quite outgrown the idea of a box being an awesome toy. One of the boxes that were left over from Christmas was quite a large box. The box was used as a fort, a hiding place, a storage box, a bed, and many other things. But my favorite was when Connor used it as a “theater seat”. He filled it with pillows and blankets and put it in front of the TV to watch his movies. Evidently the seat was
a little small, so he even made a leg hole to stretch his leg. He absolutely loved that box and was completely crushed when Dad decided that the box was torn up enough and hauled it to the dumpster. It took Connor about a week to quit crying about his mean daddy for throwing away his box. Maybe next year Santa will just bring a box instead of the toys.
Today started out normal... wake up, get the boys up, make sure they are dressed, take Zander to school, come home, feed Connor... But that is where the routine ended. Shortly before 9:00am I got a phone call from Zander's school nurse telling me that he threw up in class and I needed to come to school and pick him up. So, off I go to school.
At this point I really need to interject that for the past several days, Zander has been begging me to allow him to buy a yo-yo at school, and I finally said if he wanted to spend his own money it was fine.
As I am walking out of the school office I ask Zander how he was feeling. He says that his stomach hurts, but then quickly follows up that statement by another, "I bought the yo-yo before school started!" I am curious at this point and ask him if he felt bad before school, while he was at home. He answered that he did feel sick at home, but did not tell me. So I continue to question him as to why he didn't tell me he felt sick. Just as I thought, he wanted that yo-yo so bad that he went to school knowing he didn't feel good just so that he could buy his yo-yo.
Well, in his defense, I guess the yo-yo will bring him joy longer than the memory of being sick at school… at least I hope the yo-yo lasts that long.
“YOU’RE SO MEAN!” This phrase is used entirely too much in our house lately. Running a close second is, “THAT IS SO UNFAIR!” Now, if it was just one of my boys saying this, I would chalk it up to a phase, but it is both of them. Some days I think they should join a choir, because it feels like the whole thing has been orchestrated.
At the dinner table I will tell them they must eat all of their veggies or they can’t have dessert, “YOUR’RE SO MEAN, I hate (most veggies can be inserted here)!”
I tell them they have to pick up their toys before they can ride their bikes, “THAT IS SO UNFAIR, I didn’t play with THAT toy. Why do I have to pick it up?”
Then again when they are playing games on the wii, “Connor it's my turn now.” I explain that Connor has only been playing for 10 minutes, Zander played for 20 minutes. Connor still gets to play longer. “But I only played 2 games and Connor has already played 4 games.” Yes, but Connor is not as good as you and he doesn’t last as long on one game. “YOU’RE SO MEAN; you let Connor play more than me.”
And the list goes on and on. At some point I really need to explain that life really in not fair all the time, but somehow, I think I will hear the words, “YOUR’RE SO MEAN!” in response.
Uncle Kevin was eating dinner with us tonight, and as we were sitting down for dinner, Zander said something rude or mean to his brother. My first response was to tell Zander to apologize to his brother. As Zander is saying "I'm sorry" to Connor, inspiration hits me. I then tell Zander to say one thing nice about his brother. At this point several things happen at once: Lee begins to laugh, I turn my head to give Lee a dirty look for laughing while I am trying to discipline our child, and Zander says to Connor, "You have pretty eyes." At this point, both Lee and Kevin are laughing even more. I turn back to look at Zander and try to figure out why he would say such a thing. Uncle Kevin speaks up and explains that he told Zander what to say. Not wanting the teaching moment completely ruined, I tell Zander that he has to say one nice thing about his brother that he thought up himself. He thought about if for a while and after a little prompting he comes up with, "Connor you make me laugh." Close enough for what I had in mind. Now I turn to Lee and ask why exactly he had to laugh during this whole event, to which he responds, "My Mom used to make me do the same thing, and it was awful hard to come up with something nice." Kevin confesses to much of the same. I guess some things never change.
Last night Connor was sick. That is when I feel the most helpless. The poor boy was in such pain. His stomach was cramping long before he was sick and long after he was sick. The only thing that seemed to help was a warm flax bag on his stomach. That at least calmed him down enough to sleep. Lee is such a great help in time such as these as I am a sympathetic puker. I am very thankful for such a man. Lee handled the clean up and I handled the child. My next fear was that Connor would be sick in the night. That is always worse, but lucky for us he slept through the night.
The next morning at 7:00am, Connor ran into my bedroom and exclaimed, "Mommy, I am all better!" Well, I am glad the he feels better, but today was a holiday for the kids, MLK Jr. Day, and that is supposed to mean I get to sleep in late. However, in this house the children have their schedules mixed up. They are up early every Saturday, Sunday, holiday, vacation, and summer break, but they are never up when it is a school day. I guess the only reason I object to them getting up early is that I have never been a morning person. I have always preferred to stay up late and sleep in late. Even now, it is 10:11pm as I am writing. I know it is wise council to be just the opposite, as the old saying goes: Early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Perhaps I should go to bed... I could use a little extra wealth right now!
For Zander's 5th birthday party he got a Nerf gun. No big deal, one gun. For his 6th and 7th birthday he got one more each year. This year for Christmas year both Zander and Connor got Nerf guns yet again. To go along with the Nerf guns they were given Nerf darts. We now have a small arsenal of Nerf guns and ammo in our house. On Christmas day, we had a all out family Nerf gun war. It was very fun, but since then Zander thinks that every day should be a Nerf war. Because of this, I find Nerf dart all over the house. Even after I clean, I still find them... under couches, beds, desks, and tables. I find them in the laundry hampers, in the boys bed, in the bathrooms, and many more places. Some of these darts even have suction cup tips. I find these on windows, walls, and TVs. I guess this is the one of the joys of having boys.
Sometimes I remember my dreams, but not very often. Zander has never told me about dreams that he remembers, but lately Connor has had some very odd dreams. I would say he is making it all up, but he tells me first thing in the morning before he really had time to make stuff up.
The first dream he told me was that Zander was in a chicken cage. (Hmmm.... what does that say about how he feels about his brother?)
The second dream was tickling spiders. Not scary spider, just spiders that tickled him.
The next day he woke up and exclaimed, "Mommy, I dreamed that I was a duck and Zander SHOT me!" (I guess his brother got back at him for the chicken cage thing.)
The latest dream came several days later. Connor said that he dreamed Zander fell down a hole and said, "AHHHH".
I guess at this point all I can say is Connor has a very vivid imagination!
Today's trouble begins with shoes. As I got the boys up for school and had them get ready, Zander discovered that he was missing a shoe. We looked all over downstairs: under the couch, piano, coffee table, kitchen table, in my bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. We looked all over upstairs: in the living room, both bedrooms, and bathroom. In the end, we found it downstairs in a corner under the drapes. However, after all the searching, Zander was 10 minutes late to school, which means I have to go in the office to check him into school. Due to our late start, Connor was not able to watch cartoons before he left for preschool, which put him in a bad mood. What a way to start a day. However, things did normalize throughout the day, until I went to pick up Zander from school. Connor was not in a hurrying mood and did not have his shoes on when we needed to leave to get Zander. I told him to just take his shoes and put them on in the car. Connor insists on opening and closing the car door by himself, but while he was trying to close the door, he smashed his big toe in the door. Of course this was without shoes on his feet. Lucky for us, Connor is one tough boy and was able to "walk it off". Needless to say, today our troubles began with shoes.
price increase for the admittance fees. Because of the preschool and group rate Connor and I were able to go for about ½ the normal cost. I should have taken more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the zoo myself. They have wonderful aquariums that have hands on activities for the kids. Connor got to touch a starfish, urchin, and stingrays. These were the pictures I did not get. Then we got to feed the birds. At first Connor was nervous with the birds flying around him, but as soon
as I got a bird on his arm he thought it was very cool. After the birds, we looked at more animal and just before we left we visited the tortoises. They were pretty active today and Connor enjoyed following them around their pen. Overall it was an entertaining day.
