WDJD Anyway??

I just thought I'd relay a couple of conversations with Jake about the upcoming holiday. Christmas, I mean, not Kwanzaa...

Last week, just after Thanksgiving (or maybe even right before), we passed a house in our neighborhood with a Nativity scene in the yard. This was obviously an old decoration, with faded colors. And it was lit...you might even say it was lit in a similar way to how Halloween decorations had just been lit in yards a couple of weeks earlier... Jake, who is five and is allowed to confuse his holidays, said, "Look, Mommy! Ghosts!" I told him this was a Nativity scene, showing the birth of baby Jesus.

This seemed a good time to open the conversation, so I added, "You know, that's what people celebrate at Christmas. Jesus' birth."

"It is?" He asked this incredulously, the way he says things when he's sure I don't know what I'm talking about. Then he added, "But what about Santa Claus?"

"Well, Jesus and Santa have the same message for people at Christmas, that we should love each other. They kinda do the same thing." (I know, I know, but he's five.)

Jake was quiet for awhile. Then he piped up again.

"I know that Santa brings presents, but what DID Jesus do anyway??"

WDJD: The new slogan for the skeptical kid...

Daddy Gets What's Coming To Him...

Some of you may know, either from personal experience or from my complaints, that Ike is a little bit picky when it comes to eating. Some may recall the Thanksgiving menu issue (yes, that's three separate links). It's not just the food Ike is picky about, it's the presentation as well. In fact, he's offered to draw my mom a diagram on just how to serve his desserts properly...

So, you'll understand now why I gloat when I write this story. Tonight Jake got (Nana's) pumpkin pie for dessert. Because he'd been particularly good today, he got whipped cream and ice cream with it. So after he'd eaten his turkey rolls and his required number of peas (10), he said he was ready for dessert. I offered to get it for him.

He said, "No, I want Daddy to get it for me, but let me tell him something first."

He walked into the computer room and said, "Daddy, I'm ready for my pumpkin pie. I want my pie on a plate, with the whipped cream on top. I want my ice cream in a bowl and I want a fork and a spoon to go with them."

This may not seem significant to many of you, but there are a couple of you (actually, there are probably 5 of you--Mom, Dad, Caitlin, Mary Lou and Jane) who are nodding your heads right now and saying, "Yep, you reap what you sow, Ike."

Heh heh.

Also, I'd like to point out to Jake's future therapist (should s/he ever read this) that I really don't think it's bad for his self-esteem for me to make him clean his room tomorrow if he wants to go to the park with friends on Wednesday. AND I'd like to let that therapist know that when Jake said to Ike that he wished he could trade lives with someone else (because his life is so bad now that he has to clean his room), Ike didn't mean to say, "Who'd want to trade places with you??"

He meant, "Your life is so good, son, that you wouldn't want to trade for someone else's." Really. So however Jake remembers it, his dad really wasn't saying, "Your life sucks." He was just still confused by all the directions for dessert.

Perhaps Jake can draw him a diagram...

Thanksgiving at Nana & Granddaddy's

A few pictures of our Thanksgiving day...

Ike and Jake building with Lincoln Logs
 

Annie in the same dress she wore in the last picture I posted. I promise she has more than one dress... And we haven't started working on manners or how to sit like a lady...
 

Jake with the final product. That's a Batman tattoo on his arm.
  

Cute Kids!

A couple of weeks ago, Jake, Annie and I went to visit my friend Katy in Winston-Salem. Katy and her husband Luke have an absolutely adorable little baby boy named Matthew. And when you put Matthew and Annie together in one picture...it's almost too much cuteness!

See for yourself:


Man, is that cute or what...

Happy Lazy Day!

We have initiated a new holiday here at the Quigley home: Lazy Day. The day after Thanksgiving is hereby designated as just that: Lazy Day. This came about thanks to Jake this morning. He walked into the living room, where I was feeding Annie her first bottle and said, "Happy Lazy Day, Mommy. Happy Lazy Day, Annie."

And so the Lazy Day tradition was born. We did nothing all day, except for feed the kids. Ike and I traded off between napping and watching the kids, and we managed to keep from leaving the house all day.

I'm almost tempted to clean a little tonight, but I wouldn't want to break the spirit of the day...

...hhmm...maybe this could be Lazy Week? Lazy Month? LAZY LIFE!! :)

Go forth and be lazy, there are only a few hours left of the holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm exhausted from stuffing my face for our third Thanksgiving meal (not all in one day), but I wanted to check in to say hi. I'm so thankful today for my healthy and happy family. My husband who is so thoughtful, my son who is so intelligent, and my daughter who is so curious. I can't imagine my life without them.

Although I would probably get more sleep... :)

On our way to Nana and Granddaddy's house today, Jake questioned the materialism of the holiday season. "Why do 'they' spend so much money on Christmas?" He asked this from the backseat when we got to downtown Winston-Salem, where Christmas wreaths are hung from every street light. I thought for a second we might get out of buying Christmas presents this year, but he quickly decided that "the most important thing about Christmas is being good so you can get presents." (Nana pointed out that perhaps this would be a good time to get the kid back to church...)

Oh well. A materialist at heart.

Speaking of materialism, Ike and I actually almost got sucked into Black Friday shopping. The newspaper fliers, the deals, three Transformers for $15... We were making plans for who should go out at 4 am, when we remembered...OH. Black Friday. Crowds. Malls.

So we're sticking to the plan tomorrow. Barricade the door, sit in the living room with a shotgun in case a stray shopper wanders onto our doorstep...

One more thing to note from the day: Annie loves Ike more than me now. She's been asking for him all day and kept fussing when he tried to hand her to me for bedtime tonight. Perhaps she just didn't want to go to bed, but I suspect she has discovered a life truth: Daddy is cooler than Mommy. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted...

Happy Thanksgiving again. Enjoy your leftovers!

A Day Out Of School

I tell you, I don't write for weeks, then just give Jake one day off (actually, the first of five) and I can't stop writing what he says. Like this when I was making lunch...

"Mommy, how come some men have big balls?"

....

....

"Jake, what do you mean?"

"You know, big balls in their throats."

"Ahhh...oh. Okay, those are called Adam's apples, and they're just different sizes in different men. Just like some men are tall and some are short."

"So do tall men have bigger balls?"

[Treading carefully here, knowing Jake will mostly like be on the shorter side as an adult...]

"First of all, they're called Adam's apples. And no, I don't think height has anything to do with it."

I could've added that I had a roommate in college who had a theory about the height of a man and his...Adam's apple size... but instead I served lunch.

Another Try With The Gratitude

This morning I decided to try again. Just maybe he'd remember me...

"Jake, what are you thankful for?"

"I'm thankful for cows (??) and Wesley and Jeremiah and all of my classmates except ______ and _______." (The blanks are two little girls who shall remain nameless in case next week he's in love with one of them.)

"What's wrong with those two?"

"Umm...I'm just not into them."

Ok. And apparently he's not into Mommy either.

Just as I sat down to write this, he came running in to say, "Oh, and Mommy, I'm thankful for one more thing! TV!"

Oh well. It could be worse. While he was playing with Annie this morning, he looked at her wistfully and said, "I wish we had a dog."

Read as, "...instead of a sister." At least he doesn't wish I was a pet.

I Am Thankful For…Gratitude (and the Walking Entry)

I don’t want to complain, just two days before Thanksgiving. Really, I’m glad my son is thankful for anything at all and that he has a teacher who remembers to help her students focus on being thankful at this time of year.

But…

Jake brought home a turkey that he colored at school yesterday. The turkey had lines for writing, and the top of the page said “I am thankful for…” Well, Jake finished the sentence with “JAKE,” so I think he thought that was the line for his name. But then again, maybe he did mean he’s thankful for himself because he went on to write the following things he’s thankful for…(spelling is his)

“myslf and dada / Annabel and Wesley.”

Wesley is a friend in his class who just happened to have a birthday party Friday, so I suspect the party and favors are the reason Wesley made the list. Or maybe he and Wesley made a deal, “I’ll write your name if you write mine.”

The thing is…not to complain but…um…

Hello? Who was in labor 15 hours and awake nonstop for the first nine months of his life?? Was Wesley there???

It’s okay, I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that I’ve raised a child who is grateful for himself and the people around him.

Oh, and one more thing about this. We spell Annie’s name “Annabelle.” We always call her “Annie.” I think he was referring to the Annabel in his class when he wrote that name. Oh well, at least he remembered Ike…

It’s been awhile since I’ve written because I’ve just had too much to say. The most important thing I haven’t yet said is this: Annie’s walking!! She took her first multiple steps Saturday, November 11, and has been adding a few steps ever since. Yesterday she walked from our couch to the closet door (probably 15 steps for a baby), where she promptly banged into the door and fell down. I had no idea I was supposed to pad the walls when I started babyproofing…

That’s all for now, but I promise those who’ve been asking that I’ll write again soon. :)

Wal-Mart Rant AGAIN

I have much to say about life in general, but it's overwhelming (in good ways), so it needs to wait until my family has clean dishes and clothes. But in the meantime, check this out, oh ye WalMart shoppers. I'm not really trying to change minds, but just to make us all aware that, indeed, Satan lives at WalMart.

Full article

Excerpt:
Our earlier research into Wal-Mart's organic initiative has also uncovered other disturbing moves. They are turning to factory-farms for their organic dairy products. This move is extremely contentious right now in the booming organic dairy industry - where demand already outstrips supply by an estimated 10%. Family dairies, that have built the organic dairy biz, are facing intense pressure and the likely demise of their family farms should the industrial scale operations that confine thousands of cows in feedlot conditions be allowed to grow. Wal-Mart has chosen to side with this unseemly side of the business.

The company has also elected to turn to China for importing a number of organic ingredients. The Cornucopia Institute is very concerned about this move. In particular, there are several outstanding issues related to the integrity of the Chinese organic certification process. The USDA has yet to even make a site visit to the country to examine what organic actually means in China. And is transporting organic food half-way around the planet really your idea of sustainability?

Wal-Mart could choose to work with domestic producers to grow our own organic economy, but at this time, they don't seem interested.

[ Becky's note: Because they don't care about anything but profit. They certainly don't care about you or your health or your children or your family or the well-being of the local economy.]

Body Fluids

Mothers never tire of discussing their children's body fluids. It's true. I will gladly tell you just how many times Annie pooped today and the consistency of each one*.

But sometimes even I get grossed out by it. For example...

Just now I picked Annie up to kiss her on her sweet baby lips. She took that opportunity to spit up.

On my face.

That's worse than the time she spit up down the front of my shirt (where it pooled in my bra) right before Sara and Woody came over.

(And see? I just managed to tell you about my baby's body fluids.)

*Two times. She had corn and raisins yesterday, so you can imagine the consistency.

Big Brother Quote of the Day

"Watch! I can knock Annie over like a bowling pin!!"

A T&A Boy...

Yes, that's the dirty t&a that I'm talking about there...

Jake has today off from school because Guilford County doesn't believe in sending kids for a full week of class during the month of November. Apparently. Oh, and it's Election Day, which is very very important. If you haven't voted, stop reading and go do that. Unless you have to walk along a highway in the rain (Caitlin), you have no excuse. Or if you're planning to vote for Vernon Robinson. Then please stay home.

So this morning we had an end-of-quarter parent-teacher conference with Jake's teacher. Have I mentioned that she is the sweetest teacher ever? Ike said it was strange to be sitting at the table with her and me because we're both introverts. Apparently we were trying to out-whisper each other. :) Anyway, we've asked her to please move up every grade with Jake, so he has her the whole time he's at the school.

Even if I didn't love her, I would love her after getting Jake's report card. No grades in kindergarten of course, but he got all "O's" and "S's" (Outstanding and Satisfactory). She showed us his reading assessment and math assessment, where he on grade level for math and in the highest group for reading. I know this sounds like I'm bragging, but actually I was tearing up a little while she was showing us these things because I'm just so proud of him. I gave him such a hard time over the summer with those evil Summerbridge books, and here he is, doing it all on his own without me standing over him being mean. And the reading thing... From the time I could read, it's been my favorite thing to do, so to know that he's on his way and enjoying it... I'm happy. He might look like Ike and argue like Ike, but in some ways, that boy seems like he sprung straight from my head.

Now to the point of all this, the funny part. (Blah, blah, blah, you think your kid is smart, get on with it already.) At the beginning of the year they did an assessment to see how well kids recognized their letters and their letter sounds. With each letter, the child was asked to give a word that started with the letter.

We're reading down the list, and Ike chokes a little and says, "Oh? Is that really what he said for T?" Ms. Burke giggled (have I mentioned how young she is?) and said, "Yes, but the important thing is he knows the sound."

So I scan down the list and see it for myself: T: TIT.

Seriously. Tit. I swear, he has never heard that word here. But there it was. Tit.

Suddenly the fact that he said, "Butt" for B didn't seem so bad...

That's my son. Tit and Butt.

Actually, that's Ike's son this time.

Ball!

Okay, I know I've written before about Annie's first words. Dada, Mama, that kind of thing. But now we have a word that is very deliberately spoken. She's very excited about it too.

Annie's new word is BALL. She thinks it's the best thing ever to hold a ball and talk to it. "Ball, ball, ball." It's adorable, not that I'm biased.

And this morning she climbed into Jake's little chair, turned, sat down and picked up a book beside the chair. She handed the book to me, as if to say, "Okay, let's read."

Smart AND demanding. That's my girl.

All the things good parents do...

So, here's yet another sampling of How To Be A Good Parent.

Otherwise known as, "What Not To Do."

1) It is not a good thing when your son walks in while you're watching tv and says, "Oh no, Grey's Anatomy again??" And when your husband says, "You don't like this show, right Jake," it's bad if your son answers, "Oh, I like it. I like all the blood."

Nice.

Then, there's this one.

2) It's a good idea to make pretzels with your son on a cold Sunday afternoon. It's a bad idea to assume your daughter is playing quietly in her room.

If you don't hear her, she's doing something wrong.

When you hear "splash, splash, splash," and a teeny baby giggle...don't bother to wash the dough off your hands as you run. Get there and get there fast. Your baby girl is having a great time discovering the splashy water in the toilet.

That's not good.


I hope you learned something from my mistakes. And don't call DSS about my kid playing in the potty, okay? :)

A Step!!

It's official. Annie took her first step today while we stood outside Jake's school, waiting for the school day to end. She took a real, honest-to-goodness step, then sat down to return to a crawl.

But it was a step. A real one! She's on her way...