It is REALLY Cold!

I was raised in snow and ice and even by my standards, it is cold outside. For these parts, freezing weather is very unusual. If the current forecast holds, we could see freezing rain and sleet that will virtually shut the county down because we are not equipped to handle ice and snow situations (with good reason...it only happens once every few years).

The boys and I have had a fun afternoon. We got out the paints and had a great time. It was Nathan's first time to use paints. He always ate them before. He painted with both a paint brush and his fingers. Kenny painted a trains and a blue airplane. Afterwards, we sat together and read books and played trains. Later, we all got together as a family, played an intense round of Hide-and-go-seek, had some hot chocolate and played tic-tac-toe. It has been so wonderful to spend some quality time together as a family.

Kenny just called me into the kitchen to read me some words he wrote. I asked him to bring the paper to me to read it and he said, "I can't. The words are on something that does not come." I went into the kitchen and sure enough, he had written on the wall. At least it was in pencil. I told him I was proud of his words but to please put them on paper next time.

Here's a few more pictures from the last few days.

Playing Kitchen (Thanks Grandad!)

Baking Cookies

The Arctic Blast is Here!

I LOVE winter! And since we see so little of it here, I am truly grateful for each and every cold blustery day. We haven't had ice or snow yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Of course if it snows even a handful of snowflakes, school will be canceled and I'll get another day off! Since Nathan is refusing to nap and my hubby is heading off to work I think I will embrace this lovely weather and head out to run a few errands. It's hard to imagine it was in the mid-70s just yesterday.

(This is a picture from the last time it snowed...Christmas Eve 2004.)

Random Thoughts

I had a great day yesterday. I spent the day cleaning house, cooking, and caring for little boys. I am definitely cut out to be a housewife. I am perfectly happy at home. Now, when I am off during the summer, I look forward to the trips to the store without kids and the other little breaks you get. Housekeeping and kid duty 24/7 is overwhelming. But overall, I would always chose a day of dishes and diapers over anything else.

I have tomorrow off and we were going to have a fun family day. I just found out that Ken now has to work all afternoon and evening. I miss him. We've hardly seen each other in over a week. I work all day and he's been flying, working, or at scouts every night. He spent Saturday at scout training. He spent today at church and home teaching. Tomorrow he'll be working. Ho-hum. Maybe next weekend.

The boys have the best Primary teachers this year. Nathan's nursery teachers just love him. When I dropped Nathan off today, his teacher reached out and said, "Here's my Nathan. Now we are going to have a wonderful day." He smiled and went right to her. For his little coloring page they traced his little feet and let him color. It is so sweet. Kenny's teacher is also great. Each kid in his class has their own 8 count box of crayons with his or her name on it. It really gives each child a sense of belonging. She plays games with them and sings songs. Kenny just loves her.

Drawing on the Kitchen Floor

I believe this picture speaks for itself.

Gotta love 'em!

They Woke Up At 5:30 AM...

For anyone who has children, you already know the tale that is about to follow.

You see, adults, when tired, act lethargic and lifeless. It is the logical course of action to follow when your body is running out of energy.

Children do not follow this logic.
The more tired children are, the more hyper and uncontrolled their behavior becomes.

I do not believe that Kenny has spoken a single word since I picked him up today. He has cried or screamed hundreds of words. I also firmly believe that he has gone selectively deaf. He seems to be desperately annoyed by the mere sound of his brother's breathing, but cannot hear anything that comes out of my mouth. I thought making cookies together would be good distraction. In hindsight, that was probably one of the least intelligent ideas I have ever had. The floor has to be mopped because of the sugar and flour spilled. The cookies may have a crunch to them from the egg shells. And we can't forget fighting over the spoons (yes, there were two, but each of them wanted the other spoon and so on). After the cookie fiasco, I realized I was completely out of diapers and had to change a stinky Nathan...again. Luckily, my mom came to the rescue and brought diapers so I did not have to take them to the store (can you imagine doing that!) I am also doing laundry right now that contains poopy undies and a puked on shirt. Of course, being the amazing mom that I am, I was able to tough it out until 8:00 PM with most of the capillaries in my face still intact.

I can only hope today's early rising and late bedtime will be the magic key to a long night's sleep and a blissful Saturday.

And because my life is chaos, my hubby is at work tonight and Nathan has croup. Fortunately, he does not have a bad case. He makes a horrific sound, but once he has a breathing treatment, he does fine.

Helicopter "Pirates"

The future of aviation is in good hands.

We have two future helicopter "pirates" (as Kenny says it) in training.
They both spoke into the microphone to the control tower.

Kenny said, "Contection...helicopter to fly."

Nathan said, "Hiiii."

Just One Of Those Days

Every once in a while, you have one of those days that makes you want to charter a jet and take off to Jamaica- without telling anyone else where you are going. Today, I had one of those days...

It started out okay. I am getting sick and my joints are achy, but I felt alright. The boys woke up really early (this is an important detail because it will come back to bite me later) and I got to see them before I left.

My class was VERY talkative and restless today. I had to fight them tooth and nail to get them to progress scholastically. All of that came undone, however, when one of my students –just back from being suspended, decided that he needed to choke one of his classmates –again. He was totally unprovoked. It was like he just looked at one of his classmates and thought to himself, “You need to be choked right now,” and he proceeded to do it. Afterwards, he was completely content –not angry in the slightest. He was suspended previously for the same behavior. It's disconcerting to me that he's angelic one minute and then randomly and spontaneously, physically attacking his classmates the next. Fortunately he hasn’t seriously hurt any of his classmates yet. But, like I said, he hadn’t even been back one day from suspension when he decided to do this. I sent him to the office and fifteen minutes later I got a call from the AP who told me that we need to fast-track an intervention on him. Usually an intervention is a month-long process of filling out paperwork and documenting behavior, and filling out paperwork, and forms, and paperwork, so that the child of concern can get the help that he or she needs. Fast-tracking the process means that a months-worth of paperwork needs to be completed in one day. My boss told me to do whatever I needed to in order to get the paperwork done. So, I stopped teaching at about 12:30 and my class played in centers and watched the Magic School Bus.

When I picked up the boys they were both crying. It was that high pitched "I'm tired and nothing can make me happy" cry. I literally had to drag Kenny to the car when I picked them up from Mom's. We had even more of the same when we got home. The fits continued, Nathan messed his diaper three times, Kenny dropped his dinner on the floor, and they both ran around screaming and throwing toys at each other. Did I mention that I'm getting a cold? When bedtime came, Kenny got really mad. He threw a huge fit about going to bed, so I put him in bed and asked him to lay down so I could tuck him in and give him a kiss. He told me he didn't want a kiss. I asked him if he would like me to blow him a kiss then instead, and he said, "Mommy, I don't love you anymore."

I know he doesn't mean it. He felt angry, and frustrated, and doesn't yet have the vocabulary to express himself completely. Even so, it still stung. I thought I had a few more years before I heard that phrase. And just to make me feel worse, my former little mama's boy sat on the floor of the bedroom crying for his Daddy (who isn't home tonight). Nathan is obsessed with Daddy right now. I know that it's silly, but I had a very bad day and I wanted Nathan to be crying for me.

I need a Dr. Pepper...non-diet.