Appropriate...

A friend gave Jake and Annie piggy banks that her daughters are no longer using. Jake named those banks this morning. Fungrace is the pink pig and Bologna (you know, "baloney") is the Blue. How appropriate...a pig named Bologna.

Also, going along with Jake's new money theme (Am I raising a Republican??), last night at a benefit dinner for a friend Jake received $2 from someone for helping clean up. On the way home he kept playing with those dollars, and eventually we heard, "Here comes the money train! Choo choo!"

The money train. It seems he's either a future banker or a future pig farmer. Regardless, he'll be fiscally conservative...

A Prayer

(Prayer from Jake tonight before bed.)

Dear God,
I have a wonderful family and a great life. (Mommy, hold Annie's hand, too.) I want you to know that my mommy has a good son and a good...everything. Please give me more money and Annie more money.
Amen.

Spreading Peace...One Sweaty Kid At A Time

Today was Peace Day at Jake's school. Annie and I joined Jake for lunch at 10:45 (yes, that's right--we ate lunch at 10:45 in the morning), then spent the rest of the day following him and his class around. All the kids wore tie-dyed t-shirts and decorated doves (I mentioned these in a previous post). They got to try Native American dancing (which meant they ran around in a circle and screamed...I don't think that's what was originally intended). Then the day finished outside with Peace Day festivities.

Now when I say the day finished...I mean that we were outside for over 2 hours, sitting most of the time. I should have called this post "The Power of A Teacher's Finger," because it's amazing how quickly that many kids will shut up...just by a teacher raising one finger in the air and another to her lips. (After re-reading that, I see that it looks like I'm saying she flipped the kids off, but that's not what happened.)

The kids sang songs (and yes, Jake sang. It was adorable and I teared up.), made a "peace table" and a "peace rock garden." Yvonne Johnson spoke and was very good at being brief. In fact, her message was perfect for kids. She read The Peace Book, by Todd Parr (I really like him), then she went from class to class, asking them to define peace for her. The answers were great: friendship, happiness, feelng great... Jake told me that he thinks peace is helping people. That's good; I half-expected him to say peace is fighting swords or something...

The best part of the day was the peace march around the school's track. We were led around the track by A&T's drumline, which was awesome. Then after the march, very little fanfare was given to planting a tree for peace...but much more attention went to the freezer pops the students got at the end.

It was a hot, hot day, and I don't think any of us have recovered yet. Jake is back in his room, alternating between being grumpy and being asleep. Annie is fussy when she's not asleep. And hey, I'm fussy too. It looks like we'll all sleep well tonight.

And that in itself is enough peace for me.

(By the way, when one student's mother showed up in her police officer uniform, Jake said, "Madison's mommy is a policewoman. I wish you were a policewoman." Apparently, "Stay-At-Home-Mom" is not exciting enough to tell his friends...)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my best friend and to the best father my children could ever have. I love you and look forward to celebrating at least 100 more of your birthdays with you.

6 Hours No Longer Enough

Note to self: must go to bed earlier.

This morning, after getting six hours of sleep (which was enough only a few months ago), I have spilled over half of my dry oatmeal container into the sink, I have poured Jake's orange juice into a dirty glass instead of the cup I got out for him, and I have forgotten to put the lid back on the oj so that when I shook it to pour my own...it went all over the kitchen.

My brain is apparently just too old for this. Must get more sleep.

Happy Easter!

GA Pictures (two posts)

Blogger won't accept all these pictures at once, so here are the other four.
This is Nana holding the kids at Grandma's birthday party.
 
Here is Jake, Eli (my 8-year-old brother), and Grandpa. Yes, this is Jake's redneck picture, and no, we are not Dale Earnhardt fans. That's Grandpa's hat.
 
Here are Jake and Eli in the "gator," which Jake loved but which scared me to death.
 
Here are the kids posing. :)
  

GA Pictures

These are a few of the pictures from our trip to GA. Here's Caitlin holding Annabelle the night before we left.
 
Here's Jake in Nana's room, trying on Granddaddy's funny hat, also the night before we left.
 
This is my grandma holding Annie. See, don't they look alike?? Well, except for the obvious age difference...
 
This is my aunt Dottie holding Annie. She's one of my favorite people in the family, so I'm glad we got to visit.
  

Way More Than Hippity Hoppity

This year we've somehow ended up tackling the reason behind Easter. In the past, we've stuck to the Easter Bunny and God's love, but this year Jake has been interested in more information.

So earlier this week, I read the account of Jesus's death and resurrection to Jake from his children's Bible. When we got to the part about nailing him to the cross (pretty heavy stuff for a kid), he said, "Did they use real nails?" I explained that yes, they did. He then asked (as a child who knows safety when it comes to tools), "Did they use the flat end or the sharp end?" I told him they used the sharp end and his eyes got big. "WHOA."

Yesterday my dad came over to visit with Jake for awhile. He brought a couple of different versions of the Easter story to read. Jake listened carefully.

Last night he asked me, "So, was Jesus the son of God?" I said yes, and he whispered, "But I thought Christ was the son of God." I told him Jesus and Christ were the same guy, and he whispered again, "But I thought Christ was a bad word."

Oops. Well, how do you explain that? Yes, sometimes it is a bad word, honey, like when you say it in anger. But no, that doesn't mean Jake is a bad word when I say your name in anger.

It's all very confusing.

Exploring Other Cultures

This morning after Jake cleaned his room, I asked him to give me five. He hit my hands with his elbows, so I said, "Not with your elbows! Give me five with your hands!"

He looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "But that's how we do it in China."

Ok then. Uncle Billy just got back from China (but no, Jake hasn't talked to him yet, so he didn't get that from Billy), so when we see him on Saturday, we'll have to ask about that...

My Favorite Easter Egg Hunt Picture

Aren't my men cute? :)

Easter Egg Hunt

These are pictures from our Easter egg hunt with playgroup. Notice Annie with her two boyfriends?? And here is Ike showing off Supergirl...
Here's Jake on his way to play with the kids...
And here's Jake again, being picked up by a girl. It was that kind of party...
 

That's My Boy...

This afternoon Jake had a friend over. She suggested they play tag, and she started running, yelling, "You can't catch me! You can't catch me!" She stopped at a tree.

Jake stood still, held his arms to the sky and yelled, "Laser time!"

He turned to me and said, "I just lasered that tree. It fell down on her."

I guess he wins.

(Later he tried to catch her with his magic wand, but when that didn't work, he started chasing her. Not too much later, he convinced her it'd be more fun to fight swords. Of course.)

Peace Day & The Little Gym

Did you know that April 20th is Peace Day? At Jake's school, they will be releasing a dove to symbolize peace, which sounds a little hippie, I know, but I think it's great. If more people could stop to think about Peace every now and then, we'd have a better world. After all, what would Jesus do? I don't consider myself a religious person. When a religion becomes organized, it seems to become a hotbed for politics and corruption, so I like to avoid it. But I respect the Man behind the Plan, as it were.

At any rate, to raise funds for the dove, parents can "purchase" paper doves for their children to decorate in honor of or in memory of someone. Actually...hmm. It doesn't say "paper doves," just "doves." Perhaps Jake will be drawing on real doves... Whatever the case, we've chosen to decorate three doves in honor of Jake's great-grandmothers who have passed (nothing personal to Grandma who just turned 80 and will live forever); Mary Brooks, Nancy Quigley, and Kathleen Jones. I thought I'd let family who reads this know.

In other news, we've found yet another thing Jake LOVES that costs money. The Little Gym. He's been to three karate classes there with a friend, and he'll be able to go to one more. These classes are free for Jake because his friend's mother chose to ask a friend to come rather than have her son do make-up days for the classes he's missing.

He loves it so much. It's not strict like a traditional karate class because they incorporate gymnastics into the classes too. At first I was skeptical about this being "faux karate," but today after class he was actually showing me the various stances, punches and kicks he learned. And what a confidence boost! The instructor takes time to work with each child one-on-one, so they can master the techniques. Jake is learning, albeit slowly, to do cartwheels AND sidekicks. The instructors are very positive and upbeat. Jake concentrates on what he's doing (like he does in everything he tries) and works hard at it, but he also has a chance to run around and be silly.

After the class he takes on the 18th, we'll have to decide if we can do this Little Gym thing at a price. It's far from cheap and would be the most expensive (per class) thing we've ever done.

Maybe I could just buy him a cheap black belt from Target...

The Never-Ending Car Trip & Other GA Tales

Jake, Annie, and I got home from our trip to Georgia last night at 11pm. I took Jake to school an hour late so he could sleep in and have a healthy breakfast. Apparently, they don't sell much healthy food in GA because we can't seem to find it...(That's not completely true--at my Grandma's birthday party, there was no shortage of healthy vegetables. However, at my biological father's home, he believes Fruit Rollups count as a real fruit).

So, now I'm at home, doing laundry to wash the smoke out and recovering from a fun, but exhausting weekend. And here's how it went...

We arrived in Ellijay Saturday evening after an 8-hour car ride with Mom. The trip down wasn't bad, as Annie slept most of the way and Jake entertained himself with his magazines, movies and music. When all else failed, Jake made up songs, but he never slept. That amazes me, as I fall asleep between here and the grocery store if I'm not driving.

We spent Saturday night with my dad (otherwise known as "biological father"), while the rest of the family went to Grandma's. Jake got to play with Uncle Eli (my 8-year-old brother) and Grandpa, so he had a blast. He said later that "Eli played a little rough," and that he "didn't like Georgia because he missed Daddy," but he certainly seemed to have a good time. Missing Daddy is a theme in our lives right now since Ike is out of town til Friday night.

Sunday we went to my grandma's 80th birthday party. WOW. What a lot of people! My grandma had 9 children (9 children, 8 toes, 7 husbands, as my sister once pointed out), 8 of whom are still living. All eight children came to the party, most of her grandchildren came, and most of the grandchildren now have children, so they brought her great-granchildren. It was a madhouse, full of people that I either remembered and loved seeing, sort of remembered but couldn't place, and people I swear I've never seen before. Anybody seen the movie Wedding Crashers? Those guys could have easily crashed this party, saying they were someone's second wife's third cousin twice removed...In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw Owen Wilson in the corner.

It's funny when you get 30 or 40 mostly introverts in the same house. We all stood around listening to the same three people talk. While my grandma stood in the corner and complained that those same three people wouldn't shut up. :)

I got to show off the kids before they both retreated to a back bedroom. Jake is definitely an introvert (thank you, God, for giving me a kid I can understand!), so the crowd was too much for him. How many times can a kid listen to, "I remember when your Mama was your age!" and "Aren't you just the cutest thing?" and "Do you want another cookie?" Okay, he could have listened to the cookie comment all day, I guess, but after awhile I set him up with a movie and his lunch away from the crowd. Annie, who seems to sleep best in loud places, smiled and cooed at Grandma a few times, then slept the rest of the day. We've been telling everyone that Annie looks like my grandma (eventually I'll put up pictures that will hopefully show that), and she's got Grandma's middle name (Mae), so I think Grandma's in love with her already. You know, it's pretty stiff competition for the great-grandkids to get Grandma's attention. You have to do something to stand out...like look like her. Great job, Annabelle!

Saturday night back at "Grandpa's" (as Jake calls him), we spent most of our time outside. Jake played hide and seek with Eli and Grandpa's girlfriend's granddaughter. He ran and ran and ran...and threw up. Apparently too much excitement for the boy. After that he was subdued long enough to change clothes, call Ike and cry, then he was out and running again. I've never seen the boy quite like that before.

This long post now brings us to the best part of the trip...the car ride home. Now, under normal circumstances, a trip to my hometown should take 6 hours. Since the birth of my first child, I've known to expect the trip to take longer. This time, we expected to take 8 hours, to allow time for me to stop to nurse Annie. That worked just fine on the way down...

On the way back, however, the trip was not quite so smooth. Annie decided that she hated her carseat (understandable given how much time she'd spent in it all weekend) and that she loved her lungs. So she used them. All. The. Way. Home.

Annie cried more yesterday than she has cried in her entire life up to this point. She cried so much that Jake completely lost his patience. It started with, "I wish Annie wasn't here." Then it became "I don't like Annie." It finally crescendoed to "I WANT TO JOIN ANOTHER FAMILY!!" Yes, so did I.

Not only was Annie crying almost non-stop, while Jake complained and whined, but even GOD was against this trip. It poured for part of our trip, and the wind was enough to blow a small person over for almost the entire day. It was a mess. Mom will probably never travel with my children again. Nor will I.

So the trip that was at one time 6 hours and that was expected to be 8 hours became ELEVEN HOURS. Yes, it took us almost half a day to get from the North Georgia mountains to the Piedmont Triad. We stopped every other hour to comfort Annie and to let Jake get out and run. I'm tired and on edge just thinking about it.

But here's the good news: we're home! And despite the car ride, the trip was mostly a good one. I've got several family members with whom I'll be able to keep in touch with by email now, so for those people, I'll post pictures as soon as I get them developed.

Oh, and one more thing. At Grandpa's, they had several bags of mini candy bars. "Snack Size," it's called. And the wrapper says, "Pack a snack" or something to that effect. I'd like to point out that perhaps this is why America is so fat. CANDY BARS AREN'T SNACKS. They're junk food. Duh.

Just had to get that in there.