Monday, November 25, 2013

Dental dreams

At some point late Thursday night (or early Friday morning), I awoke to Sam shaking my arm.  He wanted me to know he had a very loose tooth.  I had been sound asleep and was having trouble making sense of why he would be wiggling his tooth in the middle of the night.  Sam informed me that the tooth wasn't quite ready to come out yet, but that his mouth was filled with blood.  I told Sam to go rinse his mouth with cold water.  Sam went in the bathroom, but the sink didn't turn on.  After a long moment, he quietly came back out of the bathroom.  He very sheepishly told me that his tooth wasn't loose after all and he had made a mistake.

At this point, I am thinking he had just acted out the most vivid dream ever.  He crawled into bed next to me and went right to sleep. 

Other than being amused (and thinking this story would make a great blog post), I didn't think too much of his loose/non-loose tooth all day Friday.  Perhaps I should have.  Because just before 5 a.m. Saturday morning, there was Sam, shaking my arm again.  This time, he sounded more coherent.  "Mom, my tooth IS loose after all!  Here it is!"  Once again, I'm half awake and completely confused and a child is popping out a tooth and pressing it in my hand.  I was so surprised, I dropped the tooth.

So, while Sam is cheerfully rinsing out his mouth in my bathroom I was combing through the carpet at 5 a.m., searching for his tooth.  I eventually found it.  Sam informed me that he woke up because his tooth felt funny.  He wiggled it and realized it was about to come out.  Of course, his mother couldn't miss out on this joyous occasion, so he came to get me.

I convinced him that 5 a.m. was not the best time to be discussing such things.  I also told him that I was pretty sure he had missed the tooth fairy.  He completely agreed with me on that one.  Everyone knows the tooth fairy comes in the middle of the night, and we were past that.

I put his tooth on his dresser for his brothers to admire in the morning.  Then I crawled back into bed, still trying to figure out the last two nights.  I've never heard of a kid waking up in the middle of the night to pull out a tooth.  But I've never had a kid quite like Sam, either.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

No More Nines!

Yesterday was TJ's tenth birthday.  If you are wondering how that is possible, join the club.  Time is flying by.  Although when I think about life pre-TJ, that seems like ages and ages ago.

At any rate, Nolan had a concern about his brother's birthday.  Nolan asked me if I had bought TJ some new clothes for his birthday.  I said yes, just the shirt that TJ had opened.  (TJ was allowed to open one gift before school, so I had him open a shirt, his boring gift.  He was not impressed.  He told me it was as if I had given him no gift at all.  Drama queen).  Nolan was shocked.  "That's it?  Just one shirt??  What is he supposed to do??"

I didn't understand Nolan's panic.  So Nolan clarified.  "TJ is ten now!  He can't wear his nine clothes anymore!  And you only bought him one shirt?!"

I tried explaining to Nolan that TJ hadn't grown over night.  Nolan was clearly doubtful that I knew what I was talking about.  Apparently, parents are supposed to understand that kids need new wardrobes when they have birthdays.

When TJ got home from school, he opened up his real gift--an iPod Touch and a case for it. TJ couldn't stop hugging me.  Then he said he understood why we didn't give him that gift in the morning.  He wouldn't have wanted to go to school.



Tuesday, November 19, 2013

So delicious

We had a visitor tonight. We invited Bill's co-worker, Linda, over for dinner. Linda has been a big help to Bill over the years and has been a wealth of information for us since we moved to the east side of the state. She always has some sort of treat for the boys, and they adore her. 

During dinner, it was hard for the adults to carry on a conversation because the boys kept thinking of things they HAD to tell Miss Linda. At one point, Sam was talking her ear off when Nolan had a question for me. 

"Mom? Can you give me another word for delicious?"

I was a little surprised, as this question came out of nowhere. But honestly, nothing these boys say should surprise me anymore. 

I tried to turn on my mental thesaurus. "Yummy" was my first suggestion, but Nolan shook his head. Apparently that wasn't the word he was searching for. The next word I came up with was "delectable". Nolan immediately smiled and said, "Delectable. Yep, that's the word I needed."

Linda was suitably impressed with Nolan and his vocabulary. But don't worry. He isn't growing up too fast. After a tour of the house, we sat down in the living room to chat. Mr. Delectable crawled in my lap and fell asleep. 

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Jaywalk All-Stars

Bill and I always thought the people that Jay Leno interviewed were some of the dumbest people around. They get some of the simplest people around. 

Well, we discovered today that we are contenders for the show. We were taking about the boys' names and how TJ shares his name with a president (Theodore Roosevelt). Sam asked how many presidents had the name Samuel. 

We told him two. Samuel Adams and Samuel 'Stonewall' Jackson. 

A few minutes later, I was still mulling this over and to my horror, realized we had given Sam the name of a beer and an actor. There are no presidents named Samuel. How embarrassing. 

Friday, November 8, 2013

Homework

Of the three boys, TJ has the least homework this year.  But when he does have homework, it's tough stuff.  Today he had a test on government.  And I don't mean, "How many states are there?", I mean "Describe the three branches of government" and "Explain checks and balances".  It's good stuff for him to know, but I'm positive this was not 4th grade material when I was in school.

At any rate, getting him to study was like pulling teeth.  I was still trying to beat some knowledge into his head as he got on the bus.

Tonight, he didn't want to go to bed.  He had spent part of the evening researching Mount St. Helens on the Internet.  Then he wanted to discuss neutron stars.  Neither of THESE items were homework.  They were just things he was interested in.  Unfortunately for him, I highly doubt he's going to be tested on either one in the near future.

I threatened to trim back his iPad time if he gets a bad grade on his government test.  He looked horrified.  Maybe I can scare him into studying the correct material?

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Amazing discovery

Nolan was rather cuddly today. I think the time change was harder on him than he wanted to admit. At one point around lunchtime, he was snuggled next to me when he suddenly got a very thoughtful look on his face.  

"Mom? Do girls fart?" 

I laughed and pretended to ponder this for a moment. Then I said yes, they do. 

Nolan looked absolutely shocked. "Seriously?!"  That was all he could manage. 

Later this afternoon, I was grocery shopping and Bill was getting the grill ready to make some steaks. Nolan wandered up to him and said, "Dad? I really could go for some bacon right now."

He is 100% guy. 

Idiot-proofing the appliances

The builder of our new home provided our new stove, microwave, and dishwasher. We were responsible for purchasing the refrigerator. We liked the fridge we had at our last house, a stainless steel, French door style, with no water dispenser in the door. (We especially liked the price of the models without the dispenser. Pricey little convenience!) So when we started looking for a new fridge, we wanted something similar. 

What we found was the same style, but slightly larger (always a good thing with three growing boys!) No dispenser in the door, but it does have a small dispenser just inside, which is really nice. It has an ice maker, which the boys will not leave alone. Those kids eat ice like most kids eat junk food. As my mom would say, "You're going to break your teeth!"

The fridge was delivered one day before we had possession of the house. Bill said the Best Buy guys essentially stuck it in its place, plugged it in, and left. So the next day, I opened the fridge and discovered everything was still covered in tape and cellophane (which was now nicely chilled). I spent about ten minutes carefully removing all of the packaging. 

After about five minutes, the fridge started chiming at me. Bill heard the noise and came to investigate. We both laughed when we realized the fridge had an alarm that sounded if the door was left open for too long. I thought it was a fairly silly feature. You know, just another way to jack up the price. 

So, our new fridge doesn't close as easily as our old fridge. With the old fridge, I knew exactly how hard to flick my wrist to get the door to slam shut. I've been using the same technique here, and have discovered that the door doesn't shut all the way. You really do have to physically push it shut. 

On at least half a dozen occasions, I have been startled while preparing a meal by the sound of the fridge chiming. I sheepishly shut it before anyone comments. 

Last week, TJ beat me to it. He was walking through the kitchen when the fridge started its merry little tune. He pushed the door shut and shot me a look. "Sure is nice that this fridge reminds you to shut the door, huh, Mom?"

Oh hush. I feel like the fridge is tattling on me.