+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Date! With Houston!
Tonight i got to go on a date with Houston.
Um, i love this kid. He is awesome.
Houston chose, for his date, to go to Toys R Us to walk around. And look at stuff. He did not once ask me to buy anything for him. He did not once even HINT that he would like me to buy something for him. He simply walked around with his $4 and a baggie full of change, looking at the shelves full of toys. More often than not, his comments were, "Well...that's dumb. Why would anybody want a [Hulk piggie bank/Bakugan figurine/giant Pokemon thingy]?" I asked him if he knew what Bakugan was, and he was all, "Yeah. Everyone in my class has them. I think they're kind of dumb. It's just a ball that you roll and it pops up to a guy. (Insert eye roll.)" He is a boy who knows what he likes. And while he may be swayed by peer pressure behavior-wise, nobody is going to convince him that a toy is fun if he doesn't see the merit. He likes moon shoes and hot wheels and remote control cars. Don't try to convince him differently.
He found a gumball machine for $3, and was thrilled. And a little pen like the kind Autumn has had for several months now. And a hot wheels car. He chose all three things very confidently, and is completely happy with his purchases.
I spent the entire date just totally enjoying him. He makes me laugh. There were many, many times that i wanted to write down what he said so that i wouldn't forget, but i figured that would be kind of rude. And now i can't remember most of the things that tickled me. One of the things i can remember? They had tryouts to see who would be a dancing penguin in music class. He wanted to be chosen, but he was too shy so he hid in a corner during tryouts. He didn't get the part, shockingly enough.
I wish i could remember more. He really is hilarious. And totally cute. And sweet. And silly. (Me: "Hold up your car so i can take a picture, ok?" Him: .........)
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Thankful!
This is Zaney's "happy face." We've been practicing. He doesn't quite have it down yet. My kids are much better at making silly faces.
We were talking about Thanksgiving and things that we are thankful for today. Here's a partial list of the things that the kids are thankful for:
Christmas
The people who died
Uncle Rick that is in the army
Poor people
Flat tires
Matter
Transportation
Gases
Alarm clocks
I can't fully explain most of those.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Before and After
For a few months now, Katrina has been asking to get her hair cut. At first i was all, "Um, i'm going to wait and see if this is a passing phase and she'll want long hair again right away." And then i was all, "Ok, well, you're not allowed to get your hair cut until after we get our family pictures taken for Christmas, because this is what you've looked like all year and your hair is so CUTE long!" But now Christmas pictures have been taken and she was still adamant that she wanted to have her hair cut - short - so i was kind of out of excuses. So, even though i LOVE her hair long, and even though i would have totally kept her hair long for a long time, i gave in. I called around and found a place that would cut her hair for free if she gave her hair to Locks of Love, and after school we went to get her hair cut.
She was surprisingly blasé about the whole thing. She was sort of excited to go, and while she was waiting for the lady to cut her hair she seemed a bit anxious, although that might be because this is the first time she's had her hair cut by someone other than me. She showed me her ponytails, and was perfectly happy, but that's about it. As we walked out, i asked her if she liked her hair, and she said, "Yes." And then dropped it. I asked her if her hair felt lighter, and she asked, "Can we get a cookie?" So...not overly interested. I kept mentioning it, because when i look at her it's such a noticeable change, and she was all like, "Dude. Get over it." Except those weren't her words. Just her attitude.
She was eager to go take cute pictures of herself, though. So i guess she's a little excited. Here it is...Katrina's second haircut.
(And there you have an entire post about my daughter's haircut. Even though i know my friend Linda has mentioned that she thinks it's lame when people write in their blogs about their kids getting haircuts. This is why people hate mommybloggers.)
If it detracts at all from the haircut lameness, may i present to you King Zane, as he now prefers to be called.
P.S. For the record, i think she looks totally adorable, and although i'm sure i'll miss her long hair, i'm totally happy with her new short hair as well.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Log cabin
Houston has a homework assignment to do, wherein he has to make a replica of a house from early America. He got this assignment the last week of October, with it being due this Friday. I was all, "Woohoo! We're going to start working on this early! And get it done before its due date so that we are not rushing to finish it!" And then i got sick for forever and couldn't quite care about building a house, what with all the coughing and scratching and lying on the couch. So it waited...and waited...and waited. And this weekend i said, "Uh, HEY! That there house has to get built!" So Houston (who chose a log cabin) went out and found some sticks, and then i went back to sleep on the couch.
So here we are, three days before it is due, building a log cabin. Juanito is doing most of the building, with Houston helping with smaller tasks like building a teensy wood pile and bouncing a ball right next to the cabin so that it threatened to knock it down. Tomorrow we will put on some of the "extras," like trees, animals, and possibly a chimney. And HOPEFULLY, it will be finished in plenty of time.
I'm so proud to be passing this procrastination method on to the next generation. Sigh.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Dating!
Katrina and i were supposed to go on a date a week and a half ago, but we were both sick and miserable and there was no way that was happening. So today we finally got to go on our date! Katrina is easy - she wanted to go to the YMCA to go swimming. So we used a gift card that she got from school ages ago, and that paid for dinner, and then we went to the Y to go swimming, and then we came home to color and make brownies. So basically, the thing that cost the most for our date was making brownies. Awesome.
Katrina is awesome. She talks and talks and is so fun and empathetic and sweet. We talked about all of the kids in her class - who is nice and who is naughty, who she is friends with, etc. We talked about what people would want for Christmas, and she surprised me by having really good ideas about what people would want. Not what SHE would want, but what they would actually really want. We may use some of her ideas! We swam and played and generally had fun. And she told me several times, "I love you! You are really fun!"
My two favorite quotes from today:
Me: "Why were you crying?" Zane: "Because the fork poked me right in the eye!"
Me: "Do you like your new lip gloss?" Katrina: "It smells like rubber!"
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Christmas cards!
This afternoon, Beth went downtown with us and took pictures of our family by the Calder. Pictures for our Christmas card! Most years we take a picture a couple of weeks earlier than this, and it's freezing cold and threatening snow. This year it was ... well, it was a little chilly, especially for our little delicate flower Katrina, but it was still quite lovely. And since we were in front of the Calder, which looks the same year-round, it didn't matter that most of the leaves have already fallen off the trees and it's all barren-looking. Hurrah!
So the picture we actually ended up choosing was actually one of the very first pictures Beth took. By the end of the picture-taking, everyone was starting to lose it. Zane, who doesn't like to look at the camera in the best of times, would barely glance at Beth. Katrina was So! So! Cold! Her hands! They were freezing! So after the first pose or two, she starts getting this look of torture on her face. Houston started out awesome, but by the end he was acting like Calvin from the famous Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. More than half of the pictures from the end pictures have him pulling all sorts of crazy faces. He thinks it's hilarious. Me? Less so.
But we have a few pictures that we liked, and one that we agreed was our favorite, and we ordered our Christmas cards and are ready for some holiday cheer.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶We like our friends
Tonight we got to go to Linda and Andrew's house for dinner. Linda made delicious chicken and dessert, and Juanito made naan, and everything was very delicious. I like having good friends that we enjoy hanging out with. And it's great that our kids are friends too.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶May i introduce....
Katrina, Student of the Month for October. There was an assembly this morning, at which she got to go up front and get her little certificate and a sticker that says "Student of the Month" on it. (Now i have three of those that we haven't used yet.... I'm going to have to put them on my car or somewhere, or my kids are going to feel slighted.) Each class has two SOTMs - one for academics and one for "moral focus." Katrina is, apparently, very diverse and respectful. Hurrah!
(Also, it was pajama day, which is why she is wearing her pajamas at school. I got to take the kids all over the place today, including to the doctor's office, wearing their pajamas. Sadly, no one ELSE knew that it was pajama day, so they probably just thought i was a terrible mother who couldn't be bothered to actually dress her kids in the morning.) (And that is only true on days when we don't go out of the house.)
Houston got a hankering to spend some of his allowance money yesterday, and he ended up buying two little goldfish for 19 cents each. He's been wanting a new fish for a while now, and even put it on his Christmas list, so he was terribly excited to buy them and bring them home. He wanted to pour them into the bowl himself, which i let him try to do, except that he was pouring them out of a plastic bag, and he didn't really know how to hold the bag properly so that it would pour INTO the bowl, and he ended up unintentionally pouring a large amount of the water onto the counter, along with one of the fish. The poor little fish lay there gasping as Houston backed away, aghast, hands over his mouth, crying, "Help him, Mommy!" I now have the dubious distinction of having held one of his little fish in my hand. I'm happy to say that he seems to have survived relatively unscathed, although i took over pouring the rest of the water into the bowl. So without further ado, i give you Spotty and Swimmy.
For the past few days, Zane has worn these googly eyes every chance he gets. He thinks he's hilarious.