Self-Proclaimed Sprinkler Monitor

Sam is still enamored with sprinklers.  He has been outside every day, checking on ours.  I must say, I never worry about our lawn being watered.  He does ask permission to turn them on, and then he switches zones every 20 minutes or so.  Bill still hasn't gotten around to buying a timer, but as long as we have Sam, I'm not sure we need one.

If our sprinklers aren't on, Sam is wandering around, checking on the neighbors yards.  He knows where all of their sprinkler heads are, and how many zones each family has.  In case you were wondering, this are the number of sprinkler zones per family:

Baron: 6 (so far.  Sam is anxiously waiting for Daddy to put in more zones)
Van Dop: 8
Goodwin: 12
Meyer: 10
Draft: 13

Considering there are only 11 homes in our neighborhood, I think it's rather impressive he has gathered this much information already.
  
Our neighbors to the west, the Goodwins, did not get their sprinkler system up and running this spring as quickly as Sam would have liked.  So, he carefully drew this sign and posted it in our bay window.
 

In case you have trouble deciphering the printing of a five-year-old, it says "Mr. Goodwin, turn on your sprinklers".  He did it all by himself!

Don't worry.  Our neighbors couldn't see or read Sam's not-so-gentle reminder.  This is what the sign looked like from outside.

Besides, I'm sure they would have just laughed.

Not your average rocket scientist

Bill is in Detroit tonight.  We've been having some trouble with our phone and Internet connection over the past few weeks, and after dinner tonight I noticed we had lost our connection again.  Using my cell phone, I called Bill on his cell phone (which he rarely answers) and left him a voice mail.  I then sent him a quick email, letting him know I needed guidance in getting things re-booted.  I was hoping he would think to check either his voice mail or his email fairly quickly.

About an hour later, TJ asked me a question about his remote control submarine.  I know the boat is yellow.  That is the extent of my knowledge of that toy.  TJ got frustrated with me, and asked if he could call Dad and ask him about the boat.  I replied, "No.  You can't call Dad.  The phones aren't working right now."  TJ immediately responded, "Well, I'm going to call Dad and tell him that!"  Before I could stop him, TJ had taken off down the hallway, grabbed the cordless phone out of the kitchen and was dialing Bill's cell phone.

So, I just waited.  A minute later, I heard TJ grumbling.  He came down the hallway, holding the unresponsive phone and looking confused.  I asked him how he thought he was going to call Daddy to tell him the phones weren't working when the phones weren't working!

It took him a minute, but he finally figured it out.

About five minutes later, Bill called my cell phone.  He was wondering why I hadn't called.  I asked him if he had checked his voice mail or his email.

Uh.  No.  He had not.

Hmmm.  I wonder where TJ gets it.

TJ's New Look

Yes, I posted this on Facebook already, but getting your first pair of glasses is a big deal.  TJ got his a week ago today.  He looks very nice, but I'm not sure if I'm too crazy about them.  They almost make him look too grown-up, and he's growing up so fast as it is.

Almost a tender moment

This morning, Nolan crept into my bedroom, came over to my side of the bed, wrapped his arms around me and said, "Mama?  Can I ask you something?"  There was a slight pause while he waited for me to nod.  Then he smiled and said, "I love you."  I was both touched and amused, since that wasn't a question. 

But Nolan apparently had an ulterior motive.  He waited to melt my heart then he hit with me with the question.  "Can I play the iPad?"

I laughed.  Tender moment over.  I let him play.

One more "Sam-ism" for the evening

When we take the kids out in public, we often make unexpected trips to the bathroom.  I'm not sure if my kids can't plan in advance (go BEFORE we leave!), have tiny bladders, or just like to check out the average public bathroom.

At any rate, I found myself in the church bathroom with both Sam and Nolan over the weekend.  Nolan INSISTED he had to use the same stall Sam was in, so he and I were waiting outside the stall.  I was watching Nolan do his potty dance, and kept encouraging Sam to hurry up.

Sam cannot be hurried up.

At all.

Ever.

So don't ask.

Finally, he climbed off the toilet, and announced, "Don't open the door!"  (of course, those words immediately send panic through the average parent).  But he continued, "Don't look in here!  I'm going to perform a miracle!"

Now, a church is a good place for miracles.  But the church bathroom?

Sam's 'miracle' involved him flushing the toilet without using his hands.  I decided I didn't need any info beyond that.

Sam Baron, Cat Lover (Part 2, Reproductive Expert)

The day after Toby's untimely passing, we were in Grand Haven, retrieving the Saab.  It is officially for sale, so if you know of anyone who promises to love that convertible as much as Bill has, please let me know. 

Sam was in his glory.  He loves the close-knit neighborhood feel of Papa and Grandma's Grand Haven house, and was wandering around, checking on the neighbor's sprinklers and meeting a few of the neighborhood cats.  One pretty long-haired fat cat followed him back to the front door of the house.  I was sitting in the living room with TJ and Cindy when Sam started hollering excitedly.

"Mom!  Come here and look at this cat!  She's educated!"

Cindy and I looked at each other, completely confused.  How does one educate a cat?  But Sam wasn't done expounding.

"Mom!  She's educated!  That means she is going to have babies!"

When was the last time you laughed so hard you couldn't breathe? 

For the record, I'm not convinced the cat was educated, or pregnant.  She was just a big cat.

Sam Baron, Cat Lover (Part 1)

Last week, my mother-in-law had to put her cat to sleep.  Toby (also known as the "Grumpy Cat") did not like my children (or any children for that matter), so they didn't know him well.  Toby always stayed in the furnace room when we were visiting Grandma Ellen.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed taunting him by sticking things under the furnace room door.  Toby would retaliate by swatting a paw under the door at them.  It was quite the game.

When no kids were around, Toby was a very calm, sweet, beautiful, long-haired gray cat.  He was the softest cat I've ever touched.  It was sad to hear that he had gotten so sick, and even sadder to hear that he had to be put down.

I answered the phone when my mother-in-law called with the news, and then I headed outside to let Bill know.  TJ and Sam listened intently.  TJ immediately expressed sympathy for Grandma Ellen and talked about how pretty Toby was, and how much Grandma was going to miss him.  Sam started to agree, but then interrupted himself.  "Wait a minute!  Does this mean we can go in the furnace room now?  I've never been in Grandma Ellen's furnace room!"

Moment of sympathy?  Over.  For Sam, anyway.

Lucky guy

Bill just made some major improvements to our climber.  He cemented in the four corner posts so that it would stop blowing over (we apparently often have gale force winds out here in the sticks).  He added a couple swings and a lot more wood chips.  It looks nice.  The boys love it.

Around the time Bill started this project, our neighbor embarked on his own climber project.  He built the climber of all climbers for his toddler.  It has a straight slide, a twisty slide, multiple levels, stairs (instead of a ladder), swings...it is awesome.  Bill wasn't the least bit offended or competitive.  He and Rob joked about their projects and our boys received permission to use their climber, provided the Goodwins were home to supervise.  We encouraged Rob and Stacey to send the boys home whenever they got tired of their visitors.

So, our boys have been over there visiting more often.  And their visits extend beyond playing on the slide. The other day, TJ hurried inside with a huge grin on his face.  "Mom!" he said.  "Mr. Goodwin let me go out in the cornfield with him and we looked for golf balls together!"

TJ was so thrilled by this privilege that I kept my smiles to myself.  Rob loves to swing a golf club in his backyard.  And now he has a willing assistant who will run around and find the stray balls.  If TJ thinks this is a fun task, I'm not going to point out that he's doing Rob's dirty work for him!

Today's Tidbits

TJ sat down for dinner last night, looked at the food on his plate and said, "Finally!  Nothing disgusting!"

After dinner tonight, Sam was playing in the living room.  He called out to me that his tummy wasn't feeling well.  I asked what would make him feel better.  His response? "A cookie."  I'm guessing his illness wasn't serious.

Willoughby the wonder kitten keeps getting himself into trouble.  This morning, I pulled open our pantry doors to get out a Pop Tart for Nolan.  I handed it to him, put the box away, and shut the doors.  I didn't realize our overly curious kitten had crawled in and was exploring the bottom shelf.  I should also mention that Bill is in Detroit, so the house was empty all day.  This evening, the boys and I got home around 5:45.  I was standing in the kitchen, flipping through the mail, when I heard a rustling sound coming from the pantry.  It was one of those moments where I instantly knew what had happened.  I yanked the doors open, and a sleepy Willoughby climbed out.  He had been in there for over 10 hours!  What's amazing is that other than chewing on a couple boxes of granola bars, there was no mess, and no damage.  And no, he didn't use it as a litter box.  It appears he spent most of the day sleeping on an unopened package of croutons.  He seemed very, very glad to be out of there.  And rather hungry too.  Here's hoping he learned his lesson.

Weird

Sam is an expert at finding different reasons to get out of bed.  Last night, I made a point of sending Sam to the bathroom before I tucked him in bed.  Five minutes later, he was up, claiming he had to go potty again.  I was irritated.  I gave him permission to go, but I reminded him that he had JUST gone to the bathroom.

Sam said in his most disgusted voice, "I know!  I have a weird bladder!"

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Bill and I try to be environmentally friendly.  We don't go overboard, but we recycle as much as we can.  We have a recycle bin that is the same size as our garbage can.  The garbage can is rarely more than half full, but the recycle bin is always overflowing.

We also try to be conscious about avoiding too much 'disposable' stuff.  For example, I always pack the boys' sandwiches in Tupperware containers.  And I bought this nifty fabric snack bags that take the place of Ziploc bags.  I can toss them in the wash every few weeks, and I rarely need to purchase Ziploc bags.  Although, the inside of TJ's chip bag seems to be permanently stained the color of Cool Ranch Doritos....

But there were a few things I couldn't recycle and wanted to.  So I was thrilled to discover Tree Huggers, a store on Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids, had found places to take some of the more difficult items to recycle.  In addition to batteries and egg cartons, they accept empty chip bags, empty Capri Sun pouches, and used Brita filters.  I started encouraging the boys to stick their empty drink pouches back in their lunch bags when they were done with them.  The boys have been raised well, and like to recycle too.  TJ has taken it even further.  He's started collecting trash from his classmate's lunches to recycle.  I have to laugh when I open his lunch bag at the end of the day and discover empty chip bags, etc. that are not his.  He wanted to rescue them from the trash can so I would recycle them.  Bill said TJ is going to get a reputation at school as being 'the kid who takes everyone's trash home'.  I hope no one teases him.  I'm proud of him!  And since I often bring empty coffee canisters, empty creamer bottles, and empty boxes home from work to recycle, I'm certainly not going to ask him to stop!  We'll just get another recycle bin if we need to!