Theme songs

When I was a kid, I was sure that one of my dad's primary goals in life was to embarrass me.

Now it's my turn. I love to sign pointless songs. When one of the kids is pouting, I sing the 'Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms...'

If it's morning and I'm trying to get them to wake up, I'll sing 'Good Morning, George' from the Veggie Tales. I've been doing that song since TJ was a baby. I even found the song on iTunes. When I turn it on, the kids can't help but sing along.

When things are quiet, I'll break out with Winnie the Pooh's 'I'm just a little black rain cloud'.

But my all-time favorite is the theme song to 'Bonanza'. It has nothing to do with the TV show. I don't think I've ever watched a full episode. I just love the music. All of my children and most likely, all of my nieces and nephews have taken horsey rides on my leg while I sang the Bonanza song. The other day, I discovered it was on YouTube. There's the instrumental version (which I prefer) and a version by Lorne Greene where he is singing a lot of lyrics. Too challenging for me! So now I can turn on the music and 'sing' along while I gather up laundry. TJ never knows whether to laugh or look disgusted.

My kids may think I'm nuts, but it makes me happy to sing. Especially when I'm trying to motivate them or cheer them up. And I can tell you, it's not nearly as embarrassing as having your dad pull over to the side of the road to retrieve one empty pop can and then doing a victory dance while confused motorists drive by. Trust me. I lived through that.

Nolan Baron, Negotiator

Tonight after dinner, I was down in the bedroom, folding clothes. Bill was cleaning up the kitchen. Nolan did a great job eating his dinner (we've had some trials and tribulations lately) and was cheerfully bringing his plate over to his dad. He requested jelly beans for his dessert. Bill said, "Okay, how many do you think you deserve?" Nolan promptly answered, "Mama said five." Now, Mama said no such thing, but Sunday night I let him have five as he was so anxious to try all the different colors.

Tonight, Bill said that five was too many. Nolan thought for a minute and said, "Two?" Bill laughed and offered him three which Nolan happily accepted. I was enjoying this exchange. I'm still trying to decide if Nolan is the worst negotiator ever, or the best. After all, he got his dad to go up on the offer instead of down.

Shoot. Now I want some jelly beans.

A few questions

1. Why is it a child always has an emergency the moment I step in the shower?
2. Is it an impossibility to get all three of my children to play nicely together?
3. Why is it my kids think if they scream and throw a tantrum, they will somehow be in less trouble?
4. Why is it that the only toy a child wants to play with is the one his brother is currently playing with?
5. Why is it that my three children are all out of bed at 7:00 am on a Saturday morning? Even worse is why do they feel a need to wake me up to tell me they are awake?
6. Why is it that the harder I try to clean and organize, the messier my house gets?
7. Why is it that my children use the most colorful adjectives during dinner time? (Disgusting, awful, nasty, gross, icky...)
8. Why are disgusting and obnoxious noises so hysterical to boys?
9.Why is it that despite all the things above, it makes me sad to watch them get older and I often wish I could freeze time?

What's her name?

Friends of ours from church are having a baby girl soon. Their six-year-old daughter's name is Daisy. The baby will be named Lillian Elizabeth, and they will call her Lilly.

TJ asked me what the baby's name was going to be and I told him that she is named after a flower, just like Daisy. TJ wanted me to tell him the name, but I encouraged him to guess. His first guess was 'Rose', which I thought was an excellent guess. His second guess was 'Dandelion', which I found very amusing. He was running out of flower names, so I told him to think of one that starts with "L". TJ thought for a minute, then said 'Lulip?'

Yep. I had a good laugh.

Pockets

Earlier today, Nolan was standing on my bed, admiring himself in the mirror over my dresser (yes, he does this often).  He was jumping and twisting around when he made a fascinating discovery.  I was cleaning the master bathroom when he started shouting.  "Mom!  Mom!  I have a pocket over here!"  Nolan had just noticed that he had a pocket on his right hip.  I asked him if he also had a pocket on his left hip.  He leaned and twisted and discovered that yes, he had pockets on both sides!  He is just getting out of size 4T and into the slightly longer size 4.  Apparently, this is when they start using pockets on pants. I put my hands in my pockets and said, "Now, you can do this!"  Nolan nodded, but then had an even better idea.  "You can give me pennies to put in my pockets!  And other money!"

If Nolan ever puts his hands in YOUR pockets, you've been warned.  He's looking for your money.

Any volunteers?

I am taking volunteers for people to sit next to Sam in church. It's not that he's naughty or annoying, he just asks so many questions. It wears me out! Here are a sampling of this morning's questions:
*Why isn't Methuselah still alive?
*What does Jesus look like?
*Do you think the Holy Spirit knows what Jesus looks like?
*Take the words 'there', 'their', and 'they're'. Would you spell them and use them each in a sentence?

TJ listened to Sam's questions and chimed in one. He informed me that if Methuselah had lived 31 more years, he would have been 1000 years old. The Children's Bible TJ was reading from said Methuselah lived to be 969. TJ's math was right on.

I can remember these things. Unfortunately I didn't get a whole lot out of the sermon this morning. I wonder why.

Funny kids

Things that made me smile this week:

Nolan keeps losing the stylus that goes to his Nintendo DS. We have a package of extras, but I would prefer not to give him a new one every week. But he forgets to tuck it in the back of his DS when he's not using it and then it vanishes. I think the cats help with that.

At any rate, Nolan lost another stylus this week. I was talking to him about taking care of his stuff. He calmly looked at me and said, "Mom, you know I can't be responsible for that."

Sam had a good week. He was in the first grade musical and even had a speaking part. He did so well. Wednesday night we were at church. TJ participates in the weekly kids' drama and he thoroughly enjoys it. Until this week, Sam has had no interest in the drama. But they were short-handed and TJ sought out his little brother and asked him to be in the drama. Sam was quite flattered and very enthusiastic. As he and TJ ran up the stairs to rehearse, Sam said, "I may be only six, but I'm a challenge." I think he meant 'up for the challenge'...

Nolan wasn't feeling well Wednesday night. He was running a fever and was quite lethargic. I took his temperature to see how bad it was. Helpful TJ took a look at the digital numbers after the thermometer beeped and said, "Whoa! A hundred and twenty! He's really sick! No, wait! One THOUSAND twenty!!"

The thermometer said 102.0. I assure you, all of Nolan's brain cells were intact.

I missed you

I was at a scrapbooking event this weekend from late Friday afternoon to the middle of Sunday afternoon. It was great. I finished our family Disney album and worked quite a bit on Sam's album. It was a nice weekend away.

On my way home, I stopped by the grocery store and did our shopping for the week. So my car was quite full by the time I got home. I walked up to the back door, arms full of groceries, and Bill yanked the door open. He didn't even say 'Hello', just announced that 'You know, I miss you for completely different reasons than I did ten years ago when you would go to these things. You see, you're on my team.'

Apparently, he's saying that ten years ago, he missed me and was lonesome when I was gone. Now he just misses me because he's a man down. How touching.

In his defense though, I have been where he has been. I don't think I've ever met him at the back door, but I have felt tremendous relief at hearing the back door open when he's been in Detroit for a few days. Being alone with three boys is scary!