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Valentine Views

15 Feb
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Nia's Pile of Sweet Sayings

I can’t believe I’m just now realizing how Valentine’s Day brings out some interesting opinions and reactions in people – even at a young age. There are those who are anti-“Hallmark” holiday. Those who do just enough to swoon their significant other. Those who may go overboard. And those who are encouraged to participate. I suppose that last category can apply to adults too but I’m thinking about it more related to kids.

Like many young kids, both Nia and Nate had valentine exchanges at school. They were given a list of all the children in their class to make sure no one was left out. I always enjoyed doing these exchanges as a kid and remember all the fun and creativity that went into the boxes for collecting the treasures. I remember how extravagant some of the boxes were. I have a memory of one child’s being not a box at all but a mini-Love Boat. (Mine was always a shoe box covered in construction paper with hand-drawn crooked hearts and predictable love messages on it.)

They don’t ask us to create boxes like that now – just have the kids write out their card of choice to all the other children. Some people add to that with candy, scrapbook-type elegance or even individual goody bags. Others don’t give any valentine at all. It made me wonder if their parents just didn’t take the time to do it with them or maybe they can’t afford such a treat-type thing or maybe the child/parent just didn’t want to buy into the “Hallmark” holiday. Whatever the reason, for future V-Days, I plan to donate a few boxes of blank cards to the classroom so that all kids can participate if they’d like. After all, soon enough the exchange won’t be mandated so that even the little mean Johnny/Suzy gets a Be Mine card. It will be more strategic. Where only a someone special is wished Be Mine. Picking and choosing a Valentine. What age does that start?

It seems Nia is already creeping toward that. While writing hers out, she was so concerned about running out of the standard “Happy Valentine’s Day” cards and having to give a non-BFF a BFF card. Nate wanted to make sure all of his friends would like the card they got. He was worried about giving the girls a Buzz or Woody character card because, “they’re girls.” When I told him that they will love to get any card he gives them, he relaxed a bit but still made every effort to give them either the cowgirl, Jessie, or the horse, Bullseye.

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Nate's Love Wishes

I suppose I remember reading into my mandatory valentines some when I was a kid. Is so-and-so really “head over heels” for me?! He must be! I mean, he picked this card just to give to me, right?!

Glad I kept that all to myself. That would have been embarrassing to admit out loud.

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Homework, Honesty and Hush!

9 Feb

The case of Nia’s misplaced homework has been solved. Turns out, her BFF thought it was hers. When she realized she had Nia’s, the sweetie asked her teacher if she could bring it to Nia in the other classroom. I so love that! Also, Nia’s teacher told us having Nia create the homework herself was “good improvising.” Love that too!

As her school day went on, Nia was tested on a few other responsibility areas and I actually like their outcomes and her reaction. One involved her running in the hall to catch up to the class line. Her teacher heard someone running but didn’t know who it was. When she asked Nia if she was the one running, Nia told her it was. She was punished for breaking the running rule but her teacher wrote to us that she appreciated Nia’s honesty. I know she shouldn’t have been running but I’m proud of her for telling the truth.

The second issue involved lunch and a “mean” (according to Nia) teacher (Nia says, “She’s only nice to the adults.”) who made Nia have what’s called “silent lunch” for talking too loudly.  I don’t have a problem about the punishment, nor do I believe this teacher is only nice to adults. I just found her interpretation and commentary of what happened kind of precious. I mean, “She’s only nice to the adults.”

Oh, Bean. You make me proud, laugh and shake my head all at the same time. Now, stop breaking those rules!

A Day for Him

6 Feb

It’s all because of her Second Grade ears. Her Second Grade mind. Her Second Grade sweetness. When her teacher made the announcement about the baseball youth camp, Nia thought about Nate. She got the paper, put it in one of the pockets of her Kitten folder and packed it away in her backpack to make sure we got it. To make sure her little brother could go to the baseball camp.

Nate loved it. He got to play ball with the high school baseball players. He got to soak up the older kids saying, “look at that little guy run/hit/field!” He got to learn from the boys wearing the high school uniform shirts. He was in his element and it showed. Andrew said the head coach even came up to him at end of the camp inquiring, “Is that your son? How old is he?” Apparently, he’d been watching Nate during all the drills and couldn’t believe how good his technique was at such a young age.

What I love most about it all is that Nate doesn’t know how cool that is. He doesn’t know a head coach from another dad. He just knows he loves to play. For him, that camp was about him and baseball. And his sister made it happen.

Warming Up

Blurry Baseball Boy

Couldn't Wait to Bat

 

Batting Practice

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Keeping his enemy closer?

22 Jan

Nate’s relationship with his glow-in-the-dark Hulk has taken an unusual turn. He used to have a fear of his glowing green guy. I wrote about it almost a year ago when we caught him on hidden camera escorting Hulk from his room.

Now, he requires us to “charge” Hulk each night so that he can have him nice and bright. It is such a necessity to have Hulk bright that he will often tell us that there is still “green” on him. That means Hulk is not glowing to Nate’s satisfaction.

I can’t figure this new night-night obsession out. I really believe it is a “keeping his enemy closer” thing. Why else would Hulk often be found buried way under the covers (like foot-of-the-bed-buried) in the morning?

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Surviving the Southern Snow

12 Jan

If you want to make days stuck in the house surrounded by unmelting, unsalted and unplowed snow really awesome, have your birthday during it.

I swear, I never wished for such a thing. Maybe it had something to do with me wishing for more time with the family. Snow made that happen. In fact, I’m so content on my family quality time that I’m pretty sure my next wish will involve a pedicure or massage.

It’s not that it wasn’t nice to be together. It’s just it was really together. For three days. Stuck in the house. For three days.

The first day was my birthday and they surprised me with the cute Jessica Simpson purse I wanted. I woke up last and Nia asked me for something out of my purse. When I went to get it, I saw the new one in the old one’s place. Fun! The rest of the day featured an attempt to explore the snow (it was sleeting so we made a quick exit), Wii hilarity with Nate and Andrew, a 500 piece puzzle completed by all of us (Nate rocked it), some Yahtzee playing and tiny burgers (that Andrew grilled out in the snow) that served as my cake.

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The second and third days can be summed up like this: board games, video games, Barbie school day, iCarly watching, fort building, car playing, help me in the kitchen training (Nia peeled half a potato) and we actually got to get out for a bit and enjoy (risk our bones on) the slippery ice-covered snow:

If I had one regret about the snowed-in time together, I wish I would’ve stopped for longer to see it all through the kids’ eyes. For me (and probably other grown-ups), it was a little bit of wow mixed with stir-craziness, inconvenience and stress. For them, it was five days off from school and carefree spirits. They weren’t “stuck in the snow” or “surviving it”, they were happily “snowed-in!”

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Sleep Time Struggle

4 Jan

After last night’s battle around bedtime, I am now sitting on the steps trying to Super Nanny style Nate to sleep.

So far, he’s ventured out three times. The first time, he said he had to tell us something. I just walked him back to his room, tucked him in and said it’s night-night time. The second time, he acted afraid and said he heard a noise. I walked him back, said nothing and tucked him in. The third time, he came out crying about his finger – telling me to “look at it!” This was harder to not acknowledge. I did it though. Said nothing and tucked him in, again.

I know he is fine because I haven’t heard a peep from him since but I have a feeling he’s not finished with his anti-sleep schemes. This is tough. I hope it works. It’s hurting my heart and my bottom. (The carpet and padding on these steps are worn.) I’d love it right now if someone told me to go to sleep. I know I wouldn’t get out of bed. Mommy sleepy.

*He got out of bed again around 11:00. I think he had fallen asleep and woke up thinking, “I’m supposed to get out of bed again.” We still didn’t speak to him…

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Sexperiment Dropout

2 Dec

Well, I took a brisk walk on the manly product side as part of my silly Sexperiment and that’s all I needed to send me running for the temptation of soft skin and sweet smell.

Some differences I noticed during my three days (besides the scent) involved the shampoo and soap. The shampoo dried out my hair and painfully tangled it and the soap dried out my skin to the point of cracks. I’m sure the cold weather didn’t help but at least I get some protection with my moisturizing soap.

I also really did miss my sweet scented products. People could probably smell my perfume before they saw me today because I enjoyed an extra spray or two. Sorry about that. I was lost in the moment.

There are two things I’m going to change after doing this mini-sexperiment though. I will be upgrading my razor and will be buying Andrew some conditioner or at least a two-in-one. That shampoo is brutal, even for man hair.

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My Sexperiment Has Started

29 Nov

I got my first dose of man products today as part of the Sexperiment I wrote about a week ago. It was not as bad as I expected. The thing I missed most was wearing my pink colored and sweet smelling perfume. My two favorites are Pink by Victoria’s Secret and Princess by Vera Wang. I was so tempted to spritz one on this morning. I may have to move them out of sight for the rest of the week. They’re just so inviting.

I am also a little concerned about my sensitive parts yelling at me for using products that don’t have the promise of softness or smoothness. My hands are dry today but that may be because of the weather, not the man-care.

Here’s what I used:

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I must say I do love the razor. It has a bunch of blades and vibrates. Do they make that for girls? I only ever use my two-blade, inexpensive Daisy razors so I haven’t lived the life of razor luxury. If not, I may stick with Andrew’s Mach 3. I’m sure he’ll go halfsies with me on the cartridges. I figure, I’m already stealing his stuff. Right, hon?

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Black Friday Family Fun

27 Nov

Maybe you love all the after Thanksgiving sales. Maybe you despise all that the retail circus represents. Maybe you’re scared of the crazies. Maybe you don’t care either way. I would say I’m all of the above but tend to lean toward loving it. Not so much because of the sales, but because of the fun I have with my family.

The teen-and-up girls of my fam don’t let a Black Friday pass without a purchase. My mom, sis, niece and I set off as early as we can to take advantage of any sales but mostly to have a blast living through the experience together.

This year brought plenty of laughs. There was the man who almost ran us over in front of the mall as he abruptly stopped to shove his woman out of the car. There was the highly mediated cashier who was barely breathing and then needed to attempt to call for a price check. There was the man in the fast line who wouldn’t stop talking to the cashier and then stopped to talk more to us because I told him he dropped his debit card on the ground. (I now know he keeps his card in his checkbook so he can write down every deduction.) But the best was the noisy shopping cart that was bestowed upon us. It could be heard throughout the store, over the terrible shopping music and our in-stereo laughter.

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I’d push the loudest cart with these ladies any day of the year.

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Pants on Fire

24 Nov

Is lying a learned behavior/trait or are people born knowing how to fib? At four years old, it seems Nate is doing his best to improve his tall tale skills.

The most recent lie attempt involves a big “N” scrawled on bed sheets. We noticed it after we were addressing the broken fan light that Nate had caused by throwing a marker in the air (I’m envisioning, like a wild man).

When confronted about the graffiti-ed sheets, he started to stumble over his words and eventually told us:

“I didn’t do it. I threw the marker and it hit the light and then it came down and made that mark on the bed!”

Andrew responds, “Son, are you trying to tell me that the marker made an “N” all by itself?”

My mom and I: muffled, then explosive laughter.

Nate, rethinking his story: “No. That’s not what I said …(undig, undig, undig).”

Here is the mark the marker made by itself, according to Nate:

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Here is the damage done to the lamp, caused by Nate:

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That is one amazing and disastrous marker.

 

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