Tuesday, June 29, 2010

My Sweet Sam

Sam's birthday is coming up. It isn't until July 23, but it is already causing me some stress. Why? Because I have no idea what to get him. He spends hours outside carrying around a spray water bottle I got him at the dollar store. He walks around studying the sprinkler system, our air conditioner, and asking endless questions.

I decided to be up front with Sam. I told him his birthday was coming up soon and that I needed gift ideas. I asked him what he wanted. He turned to TJ with a slightly confused look on his face. TJ said, "You want a train table." Sam immediately turned back to me and said, "I want a train table." I told him that no, he didn't want a train table. I didn't want TJ's gift ideas, I wanted to know what HE wanted. Sam agreed to think it over.

The next day, the topic of birthdays came up again. Sam informed me that "When you turn four, you stop wearing diapers." I asked him if that meant HE was going to stop wearing diapers when he turned four (he still wears pull-ups at night and occasionally during the day). His response? A very firm, "Yes". If Sam has made up his mind, I strongly suspect he will never allow a diaper or pull-up to be put on him as of his birthday. Fine by me. We are making very slow, but definite progress with having him poop on the potty, so he may be completely trained by then.

After this bit of information, I asked Sam if he knew what he wanted for his birthday. He looked hesitant and then said, "A toy?" I asked him what kind and he admitted he didn't know. I asked him if he would like a new squirt gun and his face lit up. He will definitely be getting one.

He is so sweet, but this also makes me sad. I mean, is it normal for a child not to know what he wants? I don't want a child who is constantly demanding things, but having a child who doesn't seem to know what he wants is also frustrating.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

My Apologies

My apologies to the Schwan's delivery man. Allow me to explain what you saw tonight...

On Monday, we put up a 16 foot wide, 4 feet deep pool and had it filled. Tonight, it was warm enough and chlorinated enough to swim in. It is not perfectly round, due to the fact that a mystery child or neighborhood dog climbed up one side, let some water out, and made the pool slightly misshapen. Anyway...all 3 boys were very excited that it was time to swim. I started to change into my bathing suit (as they obviously need an adult chaperon), when Sam started banging on the bathroom door. He had to poop. It was very exciting that he came to tell me, so I yanked my bathing suit bottom on and let him in. It took him a few minutes, so I blew up Nolan's inflatable ring and got out towels. Sam was finally done and ready to head out, but Nolan had filled his pants, so I needed to clean up his diaper. Then, I ran it down the hall to get it in the wash with the rest of the diaper laundry. Then...the doorbell rang.

As soon as I heard the doorbell, I knew who it was. It was time for our bi-weekly Schwan's delivery. I looked down at my attire. I was still wearing the shirt I had worn to work. I had on that and the bottom half of my bathing suit. But everyone else was in the backyard and I needed to claim my frozen food items. So, I opened the door. I have no idea what the delivery guy thought, but he stayed very professional. I figure he was either amused and understanding, or completely horrified. I am not even sure if he realized I was wearing half a bathing suit, and not running around in my underwear. I decided not to bother explaining. As long as he brings me my food, I guess I don't care if he thinks I am a freak.

Monday, June 21, 2010

It's all in your perspective...

Sam is lactose intolerant. It's not as bad as it used to be, but we are still careful with dairy. Sam can have cheese in small amounts and the occasional ice cream cone without experiencing any ill effects. When it comes to milk, I only serve him soy milk (usually Silk milk in the light vanilla flavor). He gets it twice a day, and I can make the $2.94 half gallon last a week.

Yesterday morning, however, we were out of Silk. He normally has a little on his cereal in the morning, and a glass of milk with his breakfast. I gave him a glass of apple juice instead, and poured a very small amount of 1% milk on his cereal. Sam was very upset about this change in routine. He insisted no one should drink juice at breakfast, which I found amusing. But what really cracked me up was when he tasted his cereal. He declared the milk 'yucky' and said his cereal just didn't taste right.

I thought he would consider 'real' milk a treat. But he thought it tasted funny. Just like I think Silk milk tastes funny. It really is all in one's perspective of what 'normal' is.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Poor Daddy

Bill is weird. If you are reading this, Honey, I'm sorry...but you are. I don't think you are offended. In fact, I think you probably agree. Although, you might use the word 'unique' instead of 'weird'.

Many, many months ago, Bill was excitedly going on and on about some subject that made no sense to me. When he finally stopped for air, I turned to the boys and said, "Your daddy is an odd duck." They laughed and laughed. Sam has never forgotten this. Only, he has trouble remembering the word 'odd'. He frequently walks up to Bill and says, "Daddy, what type of duck are you?"

Another time, Bill turned on some VERY weird music and said, "This is the musical equivalent of a shag painting." Honestly, I do not know what a shag painting is. But I have two boys who walk around and at random moments say, "The musical equivalent of a shag painting."

I think weirdness is hereditary and Bill has passed it on to our children.

Monday, June 14, 2010

"My Club" and other Sam-isms

Sam's favorite store is....you guessed it...Sam's Club. He refers to it as "My Club". He acts as though he is doing the general public a big favor by allowing them to also shop at his club. What's funny is we don't even have a Sam's Club membership. The only time he's there is when my mom takes him shopping.

We are in the process of pricing out an above-ground pool. The type you take down each fall. They aren't terribly expensive, but we're Dutch and we like a bargain. The boys are very excited about the coming pool, particularly TJ. Sam, of course, is being more hesitant, but I fully intend to get him in the pool. I knew TJ needed a bigger life jacket, so Sam will get the one TJ used the past couple years. That may make him a bit braver. I took the boys shopping for the life jacket and some other pool toys on Saturday. Just a word of warning. Never let your boys hold their new pool noodles in the check-out lanes. The next thing you know, your oldest two will be having a sword fight and you are stuck on the other side of the cart and can't stop them. I would like to apologize for the innocent bystanders who were 'noodled' by my children.

Later in the day on Saturday, we went out to Pioneer Park in Muskegon to visit my sister and her husband. It was cold, so I didn't really intend for the kids to get in the water. But before we left, Sam said, "Mom, do we need to bring my 'jap like it'?" I had to say the word in my head a couple times before I realized he was saying life jacket. Funny boy.

Friday night we took the boys out to Village Inn for pizza. They were very well behaved but started getting antsy while we waited for the bill. On the way out to the parking lot, they were practically bouncing off the walls. A couple was on their way in and my boys bounded through the doors the moment the guy opened them. Only Sam stopped and said to him, "Hey! Thanks for taking care of the door!" The couple got a big kick out of that.

Not to be outdone, TJ asked me a for a 'canola bar' for snack the other day. You say 'granola bar', he says 'canola bar'. His doesn't sound like anything I want to eat!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

TJ still cracks us up

At 6 1/2 years old, TJ usually knows what he is talking about. Occasionally, though, he still makes mistakes. He usually has the good grace to laugh at himself, or ignore me when I start laughing.

Yesterday, a box arrived for the boys. I had ordered each of them a Kleen Kanteen stainless steel water bottle from my co-op group. The boys often ask for water to drink, and TJ and Sam each had their own plastic water bottle. However, the water started tasting (and smelling) funky after just a little while, no matter how often I scrubbed the bottles with soap and water. So, I upgraded them to stainless steel and bought one for Nolan too. The boys were very excited. They each have their own color, and Nolan's has a special sippy cup top so he can drink without making a mess. While they were admiring their bottles, TJ informed Sam that stainless steel is really good and that it is 'almost like glass'. No. It's not even close to glass, but whatever...

This was the last week of school. Both Tuesday and today, TJ came home with little treats (and tons of papers! Good grief! I hope he doesn't realize I threw most of them out!). Anyway, on Tuesday, he came home with taffy. You know, taffy...the chewy candy that has zero nutritional value to it. For some reason, TJ could not remember what the candy was called. He kept calling it "Krispie", as in "Rice Krispie Treat". The two items could not be more different. When TJ finally ate the taffy, he realized why I kept telling him it wasn't "Krispie". Nope. He agreed, as he tried prying it out of his teeth.

Last night, Bill grilled hamburgers. Correction...he grilled cheeseburgers. My boys love cheese, and usually call cheeseburgers 'meat burgers with cheese.' While I was slicing up items to put on the burgers, I asked TJ what he would like on his. Sometimes he asks for tomato, and I wanted to make sure I cut enough. TJ thought it over and said, "I just want the meat, the cheese, and the bun. No tomato this time, and DO NOT put cucumbers on it." I thought that was a very strange answer, as I don't think I've ever known anyone to put cucumbers on a burger. I asked him why in the world he was worrying about cucumbers. He looked puzzled, and then said, "You know...the green things you pick off my burgers at McDonald's."

Oh! Pickles! TJ doesn't yet realize how closely related pickles and cucumbers are. He just had me laughing with that one.

Today, my big boy finished kindergarten. I feel a bit sad at how quickly he's growing. According to the report card from his gym teacher, he grew 3 inches this year, and gained 3 pounds. TJ was sad to see the school year end. He told me several times, "Mrs. Marsh is really going to miss me." He makes me smile.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Today's funny

Sam has a new phrase he likes to use whenever he is surprised, very happy, or disgusted:

"Oh, my brother!"

He throws in one of his cute hand gestures, just to make it more comical to Bill and me. Of course, we have to try and hold back our laughter so that TJ won't hassle his little brother.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

New Sunglasses

I need to start this post off by reminding all of you of how much my children love bells. The 3 of them spent an hour on YouTube this morning, watching videos of different church bells ringing around the world. TJ informed me he wants to go listen to a particular one in Amsterdam ring. I told him he needed a passport for that, and he wasn't old enough for one. Ha ha.

Anyway, at the beginning of spring, we had two pairs of kid's sunglasses. A baby pair for Nolan (they have a band that wraps around the back of his head, keeping the sunglasses in place), and a Thomas the Train sunglasses. They started out as TJ's, but Sam has been wearing them this year. TJ asked me if I would buy him some new sunglasses. I told him that I would, and I asked what kind of sunglasses he wanted.

"Ones with church bells," he tells me.

On Monday, I went shopping at Kohl's and picked up a new pair of sunglasses for TJ. I dutifully looked over every pair on the rack, so I could honestly report back that I checked every pair. Not one pair had church bells on them. He got blue Lightning McQueen sunglasses instead. He was disappointed, but not too upset.

Bill says some manufacturer out there is really missing out. If they did design a pair of church bell sunglasses, approximately 10-12 children in this country would be thrilled!!