A 4-Pack to be Proud Of

Another morning on the way to summer camp...
Levi says "hey Mom, did you know I have a 4-pack?"
I say, "what do you mean, honey, a 4-pack of what?"
He says, "you know the muscles around your bellybutton..."
I say, "Around it?"
He says, "hold on" (he lifts his shirt up to check) "no, they are above my bellybutton...right now I have a 4-pack, but when I get bigger, I'll have a 6-pack"
A little later, "Mom? can you have a 8-pack of muscles?"

Fingers to Spare

We were driving to camp one morning when Levi pipes up from the backseat..."hey Mom, if I ever get attacked by a shark, I know which two fingers I'll let him have!" I said "really? wow...which ones?" He holds up his pinky and ring fingers in the rearview mirror for me to see. He wiggled them and said, "I don't think I really need them anyway!"

Cast as the Villain, Again

This past summer, the kids were in theatre camp. They auditioned for parts in the performance of Aladdin Jr. Mason came home and announced he had gotten the part of Jafar, the evil sorcerer. Mason looked disappointed, so I asked what was wrong. He replied, "All my life I've been cast as the villain...in kindergarten I was the dill pickle, in third grade I was Rumplestiltskin and now, I'm Jafar!" Yeah, I always thought the dill pickle was a bit evil! :)

War on the Front Lawn

The other day as I was cleaning up the house... all four kids and Alan ran around the house with air soft guns playing "war"...Mas (my 9 year old) tried to end the war, declaring himself Barack Obama (didn't work, no one listened to him). When I posted this on facebook, someone took it the wrong way, but I wasn't making a political statement as much as I was marveling at how we see truth in our children's interpretation of our world. In their innocence and naivete our children may believe that war can be ended by one great leader. They've yet to understand that war is human nature and much more complicated than that.

Ant Trap of a Different Kind

I laughed one night at the beginning of the summer, when the ant problem is the worst at our house. Mason noticed some ants were finding their way into the kitchen. He worried that they would find their way back to his bedroom. When I tucked him into bed he let me know that he'd taken care of the problem by placing his own "ant trap" in the kitchen. I went back to the kitchen and on the floor near the refrigerator was a plastic fork with a jellybean stuck on each tong. Mas says "I figured it would keep the ants busy all night and they wouldn't make it back to my room"

Ghandi Day

Mason came home one day saying that he read a story about Ghandi and he's decided that he will now spend one day a week in silence. Ghandi did this, he said, to bring order to his mind. He tried the silence thing one Saturday, however, he forgot that we were headed to the arcade for Levi's birthday. He hands me a written note that read "how am I going to stay quiet at the arcade? PS. I didn't see that one coming!" I hope that he keeps trying the Ghandi days...it brings order to MY mind!

EYE Step Testing

At the dinner table, Mason, a third-grader, was talking about how his class would soon be taking the I-STEP (Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress) tests for the spring semester. Levi, my first-grader, piped up and said "we already took those tests!" Mason said "no way, you don't take I-step in first grade." Levi persisted, "yes we did! The teacher told me to step on this line, cover my right eye like this and read the chart on the wall." Yes, he did, indeed, take an EYE-Step test!

Double or Nothin...

Just about every night I can be heard asking my boys "which one of you is getting in the bathtub first?" ...only to get the classic little boy moans and groans about having to bathe.
However, last night Levi was in a wheeling and dealing mood, "Mom, I don't want to take a bath tonight, but I promise to take two tomorrow!"

Welcome Home Game?

Yesterday we were at the Lucas Oil Stadium at a Welcome Home celebration for the 3500 Indiana National Guardsman who recently came home from being deployed. We're sitting there watching the guys march around, a band playing, the governor speaking and about half-way through Levi says, "Mom, when is the game going to start?"

Can't Buy Me Love...

The other day I received a call from a parent of a girl in Mason's class. He left a message asking that I call him back. Before calling back I asked Mason if he knew why her father was calling. He thought a minute and said, "I don't know...maybe because I gave her some fake money." "Fake money? What fake money?" I asked. He says, "You know that fake 100 dollar bill that was on the table? I took it to school and gave it to her" Then I remembered that the night before I'd emptied my purse of a couple of Christmas gift envelopes..."Honey, that wasn't a fake bill, that was REAL!" So I call the girl's father back and he says, "It was a really sweet gesture on Mason's part, but we can't let her accept the gift." Whew! My son just skips the sweet nothings and valentines and just gives the girl cold hard cash.

A crack is a crack is a crack...

A co-worker/girlfriend of mine has a son who is the same age as Mason...the other day he was visiting our office and she has this caricature drawing of herself hanging up by her desk. She told me that when she had had it drawn that she'd requested that the artist make her look voluptuous. Upon seeing the drawing her son said, "hey mom, this picture of you shows you having a BOOB crack!!"

Happy No Underwear!

On New Year's Eve we went to a family party with a couple of other families. Before leaving we rushed around the house, getting food prepared and everyone ready. As we piled into the truck (yes, we all barely fit into an extended cab F-150) I kiddingly say, "Everyone got their pants on? I hear Levi from the back "yes, but I don't have any underwear on! I thought it was a Happy No Underwear party!"