Nolan

I know I have been horrible about blogging lately. I mentally blog all the time. I just rarely find or make the time to sit and type it out. 

Nolan is having a great year in second grade. He's on a break from private PT and OT, which my HSA account appreciates. He's on a break from his night leg braces, which thrills him to no end. And his crowning achievement? He learned to tie his shoes. 

His school occupational therapist was the one who finally got him to master it, although Grandma had also been working on it. The day it 'clicked' for Nolan was a big deal. He was so proud. A few days later, he told me one of his classmates needed their shoe tied, so Nolan helped the boy out. Nolan is usually on the receiving end and he just loved being able to help someone else for once. 

Nolan had his school Christmas program the other night. He had a small speaking part, which he was both excited and nervous about. He didn't need to be worried. He nailed the line and his delivery was perfect. I watched him closely through the whole musical. He put his heart and soul in to his performance. I suspect he has a passion for that. I foresee a lot of school musicals and plays in our future. 

Bill says he can see Nolan on stage, TJ in the orchestra pit, and Sam running lights and sound. We will have to see if the kids' interests change. I hope not!

Jockey Walker

When recounting an experience from one of the first days of school, Sam was cheerfully telling us about a poem his teacher had read during class. He said the name of the poem was 'The Jockey Walker". I immediately pictures of pair of Jockey underwear, strolling down the street and was amused, and puzzled. Bill and my parents looked puzzled too, until my Mom suddenly had an epiphany. 

"Sam, do you mean 'Jabberwocky'"?

Sam's eyes lit up! "Yeah! That was it!"

"Jabberwocky"

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“

”

from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).

So....not quite as funny as underwear out for a walk, but I'm really pleased that Sam enjoyed some poetry so much!

Nolan's salsa scale

Last night, Bill made up a batch of homemade salsa. His salsa is delicious. However, the boys tend to be suspicious of it. It has chunks (ew!) and flavor (the horror!). But I convinced Nolan to try a little. 

He chewed thoughtfully for a moment. I asked him how he liked it. He said, "Well, on a scale of Legendary to Epic, to Good, to Poop, to Super Poop, I'd have to give it a rating of...."

Yes. He paused for dramatic effect. The kid is going to grow up to host reality TV. 

"Good. I'd call it good."

He seems to think he was giving Bill a great compliment. He would have been in trouble with me if he had labeled it as 'poop' or 'super poop'. 

I told Bill I thought it was legendary. He seemed to think I was exaggerating. I'm not. I could eat it with a spoon, no chips needed. 

What were they thinking??

Last week Saturday, we took the boys to Mackinac Island.  We were on our way home from our U.P. house, so we spent the night in St. Ignace and headed over to the island first thing Saturday morning.  Sam would have been perfectly content to ride the ferry back and forth all day.  He was fascinated with it.  TJ was only mildly interested in things...he was more annoyed that he was without internet all day and couldn't play on his iPod.  Nolan was up for adventure and was pretty impressed with everything we saw.

We rented bikes and rode around the island.  TJ was on a bike by himself, Bill and Sam were on a tandem bike, and (lucky me), I was on a bike with Nolan behind me on a tagalong.  This means that I rode 8.1 miles with 48 pounds of cheerful dead weight behind me.  He doesn't feel obligated to pedal very often.

We made several stops.  One was at Arch Rock.  A  new staircase was just built last summer so you can access Arch Rock from the road that wraps around the island.  But it's quite a commitment.  I believe it was 207 steps up...in the sun, right after we got off of bicycles.  It was a slow climb.  Nolan clung to my hand and needed encouragement to keep going.  At one point, he was completely out of breath and said, "What were they thinking, putting this rock up so high?"

I laughed.  Yeah, what were those guys thinking...4000 years ago when the arch was formed?

When we got to the top, Nolan looked around in awe and proclaimed that the long climb up had been "totally worth it".  We all agreed.

European Parking Problems

Last Friday night was my summer work picnic.  This year, we had a picnic area reserved at the Whitecaps Game, with dinner included, and all expenses paid.  We even had $20 each in spending money.  That means $100 for my whole family.  The boys got a ton of stuff and I didn't spend a dime of my own money.

But Sam did not come with us.  The day before he started complaining of a headache and running a fever.  I had hoped he would be feeling well enough to come with us to the game, but his fever was still 103 at 5 p.m. on Friday.  One of the nicest things about living with my parents is that I didn't have to scramble to find a babysitter, nor did I have to fret about Sam being home without us.

Shortly after we left for the game, Sam really perked up (ibuprofen is amazing stuff).  For fun, he started reading an atlas (I know...his idea of Friday night fun is rather peculiar).  He felt a need to keep texting me some of his observations.

The one that had me laughing hysterically?

"Hey Mom, did you know that there is a country that's only .7 square miles big?  It's called Monaco."

I wrote back that yes, I had heard of Monaco.  He came back with:

"It's so small, that when they throw a party in Monaco, some people have to park in France."

The kid is hilarious and he isn't even trying.

And in case you are wondering, we got Sam a hat, a blinking sword, blinking teeth (don't ask) and popcorn.  He was pretty happy with his loot.

Mom, the Human Dictionary and Thesaurus

Nolan wears me out, mentally. He is constantly asking me to define words or to give me other words that mean the same thing. I love that he has a hunger for knowledge, but sometimes it's very tiring.

Last week we were camping. Over the course of the week, TJ got stung by a wasp on his lip, Nolan got kicked in the nose while playing on the beach resulting in an epic bloody nose, and TJ got some nasty mystery infection on his leg that resulted in a trip to the emergency room for antibiotics. Needless to say, the First Aid kit my mom keeps in her camper got quite a bit of use. 

On Friday night, Nolan was sitting there, studying the box. "Mom, what does aid mean?"  I explained that it was providing the type of help that was needed at that time. "So what does first aid mean?" I went on to say that the first thing you need to do when you get hurt is clean and bandage the wound. And everything you need is in the kit. 

Nolan nodded. "So what's second aid?"

Now I'm stumped. I never thought about it before. He is annoyed I don't have an answer for him. 

12 days

The movers come in 12 days. We are totally and completely packed.

Not. 

We are trying to box up and move as much stuff on our own as we can. The movers charge by the hour and since there is a four hour drive involved (two hours each way), we want them to spend as little time as possible packing the truck. 

So anything that we know we won't be using at the new house isn't coming. The first item to go was the bunk beds. I detest those things (changing the bedding is exhausting and annoying) and the boys will each have their own room at the new house (you know...next year...after it's built). The beds weren't particularly high quality and I said I didn't even want to keep them to split them in to two twin beds. So I put the set on Craigslist for $100 and even threw in the mattresses. Bill said he hoped I could get rid of them before moving day.

Well, apparently there is a big demand for bunk beds. Either that or I underpriced them. I had over a dozen people try to buy them. I had my buyer within 2 hours. TJ burst into tears when I told him. I hadn't realized he was so attached to them, but he was genuinely upset to see them go. 

For the next two weeks, TJ and Sam will be sharing the queen bed. We brought it up from the guest room. For the first time in over 7 years, TJ is no longer sleeping on a top bunk (he even sleeps on the top bunk when we are up north). For years, I noticed that he slept pressed firmly against the side rail. I suspect he is going to fall out of bed a couple of times before he learns. 

If you look closely, you can see Sam's knee on the far side of the bed. I'm not sure where the rest of him is. 

The next item to go was Bill's table saw. He has had it for years and the bearings were starting to go. He said there was no way he could build another house with it. I agreed that it was time for a new one. Bill said the old one was pretty worthless so we decided to put it at the curb tonight. Tomorrow is trash day and someone comes through the neighborhood in the middle of the night to pick up interesting looking trash. We hoped they would take the table saw. Otherwise, we'd be charged extra for throwing something that large away. I helped Bill get it down to the curb. It took us a good 5 minutes to lug that thing down the driveway. We got it in place and Bill said a fond farewell to it (TJ is definitely his kid). We walked back up the driveway just as a landscaping truck pulled up. The guy got out and asked if he could have the table saw. Said his brother could use it. Bill was thrilled to hear it wouldn't be scrapped. I couldn't stop laughing.  I think the table saw sat at the curb for 45 seconds. The guy kept thanking Bill. Everybody wins.