Lookit what Jamie made!

More Mindstorms

Jamie loves it. Much more up his alley.

Almost Time...

Jamie and I are about to head to the airport to pick up Candy and Cassie. We sure do miss those two. Will be nice to have everyone back together again (though I will miss the quiet).

The last two hot pockets are in the microwave (given the choice to eat where ever he wanted, Jamie picked ham and cheese hotpockets...thats my boy.)

Jamie is also feverishly trying to fit in one more game of Zoo Tycoon before we hit the road.

cassie and her first orange julius

she's loving it

BAB ..... Workshop

Marcy in BAB

Kidnapped

kidnapped by my sisters to get a pedi... Gah I have ugly feet.

Trip to Discovery World in N.C.

Looks like the girls are having a good time. Auntie's Ginger and Marcy took Cassie and Cuz Marie to look at Dinosaurs and Shark Teeth.

Jamie and Mind Storms

For those of you that don't know (BTW: Where have you been?) Lego makes a robotics kit called Mind Storms. It is really pretty awesome. We signed Jamie up for a class in them at the YMCA. He did AWESOME. They do not get to start programming them until they are at least 8, but they do get to build their own contraptions.

Here is Jamie and his first creation:




Sorry for the crappy pictures, Candy is out of town and all I have is my cellphone. Ok, ok...AND I take crappy pictures anyways.

Way to go Jamie!

Heard from the plane...

COOL! We're on top of the clouds!!!

Cassie Pouting

... At airport because I told her to stop asking how many more minutes every 20 seconds... She is way excited.

Jamie gets an email address

Kind of cool actually. I set it up at http://www.zoobuh.com - it costs like $12 a year or something. But we have total control of his email box, who he can email and who can email him. Copies of everything come to me and it has an easy interface and then a really simple one. We use the really simple one.

The first email I sent him said, "I'm very proud of you!" and he replied, "WELL YUO SHUOD." -- I forwarded it to Tom who said, "hahahahahaha! Thats my boy!"

He's kind of been asking about getting email. I hope by letting him have his email, not only will he work on his writing and spelling skills, he will also gain some confidence and feel like I'm letting him have some freedom that he wants.

I'm trying to ignore the fact that the first email he sent out to our neighbor was asking if her daughter could come over and play - and he misspelled one of the words. Yes. My son has sent out his first porn spam email. Great. (I'll let you figure that one out)

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Cassie's Game This Weekend

They had a pretty good game... they other team was a little more aggressive than they probably should have been. It's Y, for crying out loud.

Jamie starts Mindstorms this coming week, but Cassie and I are going out of town. I have a business conference to attend and my mother and sisters are meeting me there. When I'm attending conference stuff, they will get to spend some time with her. Jamie and Dad have all kinds of mischief planned. I may have heard about a day of playing hooky from school... hmmm...

Here's Cassie kicking the ball in:


Even when your Dad is the coach, you still get benched...


Back on the field again...


I forgot my lawn chair, so I sat under one of the pavillions. When I was walking up, there were these two teenagers there with a baby. It was being really still and quiet so I just stood back... and then I noticed it was a doll. Which kind of freaked me out. But whatever... then it started crying... apparently the school gives you these babies (instead of the eggs we got) and you have to take care of it over a weekend. I was laughing because one of them was complaining that the baby was up 9 times over the previous night and she's babysat before and no baby gets up that often. I just looked towards my little girl and smiled...

Yeah, so here's the fake baby:

Overalls and Bubbles

I thought Cassie looked adorable in these overalls. Funny thing is she has been steadfastedly refusing to wear overalls for a while and now that she's decided they are cool, these are almost too small for her. Figures. WhaddaBrat.


The kids got these handheld bubble things. You push the handle and bubbles come streaming out. They have also discovered that they can make bubble mounds...

Plant Update and Hey, lookit what my kids will eat!

Look! Green! I think it's like actually something! I took this a couple of days ago and there's more of them! (I'm pretending not to notice that the other 3 haven't done squat). Look! Look! Look!


The avocado split and I took off the covering because it was slimy because I'm an idiot and didn't know to replace the water every day or two. It also had mold on it, but I think I cleaned it off... hopefully...


I've been trying to find a health-ish cereal the kids will eat. They'll eat some of the standard stuff, but still... was wondering what they'd eat... they'll eat this one here, they both like it! Yay! Neither will touch the one with Clifford on the box though. LOL.


Small steps!

Jamie = No More Soccer & Bullies

I know this is not teaching my child about following through, but maybe there's a lesson in there for me (to just listen more often) and for him (speak up more often). It all started with him, again, telling us he's having problems at school. He's been acting really horrible lately about school work, about getting up to go to school, everything. We even had a call from the teacher. She was concerned as well, he actually acted out angrily (not against another child - he stabbed his pencil box with his pencil and stomped around). That is NOT how Jamie acts. There were several things going on - he thought we weren't being fair with some things, he was over-reacting and taking these too literally, his bully is back at it again with a friend this time, just a bunch of little things.

So, we talked. I can fix everything except for the bully. I tried to tell him to walk away, tell a teacher, but these are things he says he has done - sometimes. Apparently the school likes the kids to "all be friends" and "like everyone". Great, right? Yeah, well not when 2 other kids are pushing you (not hard from what I can gather) playing chase when you don't want to, taunting you and calling you names. I'm sorry, I firmly believe that you do NOT have to be friends with everyone. There are people in this world I do not want to be friends with and that's just how it is. I'm sure there are people that don't wanna be friends with me either. He is really worried about getting one of his "friends" in trouble. Finally, I told him to maybe ask his counselor for some ideas. He said he did ask the teacher if he could talk to someone and she said later this week. Tom is going up there as well.

If that doesn't work, my friend Denise and I are going up there and beating the snot out of those little 7 year olds. We can take 'em.

I realize my kid is an easy target. For those of you that don't know him, he (and this isn't all mom talking) is one of the sweetest, most sincere, loving little boys in the entire world. He's very much a thinker and not a doer. He works out problems in his head. He wants everyone to like him and wants to make everyone happy. He doesn't like playing rough and he doesn't like mean words. There's a reason I call him my little love bug. He really is.

So, this has been happening. We also kind of made him play soccer this season. He didn't want to, but we forgot to disenroll him and he (Mr. People Pleaser) agreed to do one more season. Well, he's hating it. He likes talking with the other kids and playing with them, he just doesn't like all the shoving and running around and frankly, he's not that athletic. Again, he's my thinker!

Anyway... so his game this weekend kind of annoyed me. I felt like I spent more time telling him to pay attention or to stop chasing bees or examining the weeds. And it's just been bad all season. So, we found out that Lego Mindstorms starts soon and we've pulled him out. I think the Lego thing will be much more up his alley. He gets to build something and think through stuff. At this age bracket, they just build. In a year or two, if he decides to stick with it, they will start programming them and having competitions. He's excited about it. I just hope he really likes it. If not, he wants to try Karate next. But I have a good feeling about the Mindstorms. It's collaborative with a small group and no one is running or shoving.

Of course, this does mean that I am going to have to get that indoor lens, honey.... *laugh* Okay, Okay... no lens... *sniffle*
*HINT HINT HINT HINT* (Mother's day is coming up, by the way) *HINT HINT HINT HINT*

I've told him that if he does the Mindstorms at the YMCA and participates well, I will see if we can't get him a set for his birthday or Christmas (The YMCA provides the kits). Note to all family members: It's expensive so I may be asking for a "go in together gift" LOL.

Anyway, so here are pictures from his last game... interesting that they kind of tell the story of how he "plays" so I'll kind of talk you through his thought processes. ;)

This is Jamie's favorite part. Sitting here talking to the other kids picking grass.




This is what he does on the field most of the time. I'm not sure if he's pretending to be a robot here or dancing. He does both.


I would love to say he looks like this the whole time:


Instead he makes his 5 kicks of the ball in the game (I said it once and now he figures if he kicks it 5 times, he's done) -- See... he even keeps count and tells me...


So, goodbye, soccer... we'll still be there every week for Cassie, but Jamie's gonna be playing with robots, dude!


If you've made it this far... we're a little worried that Jamie might be depressed... I know that sounds silly. He's SEVEN! But he keeps telling us no one likes him and he doesn't like himself and he's stupid. These seems to be the same words his bullies are using though... ugh. This mommy stuff is hard work.

Hehehe... Tom and I are sick... we keep calling him Emo Kid when he talks like that. Here's a video to make you giggle:


"You're not the only one with issues!" *snicker*

Freaking out the young'uns...

I work odd hours. I work a LOT of hours sometimes. So that my butt doesn't start becoming one with my desk chair, I move to the living room and work on my laptop if I need to work at night. I use this product that let's me "log in" to my desktop computer and work on it like I'm sitting right there. It's pretty cool. Of course, if anyone moves anything on either computer, both screens see it. So, I was watching a movie with the kids in the living room, cutting some checks. I needed to come into the office to grab them and decided to mess with them.

So, I opened Word and typed "I love my kids" and inserted smiley faces and hearts and stuff, made them different colors. The kids were laughing, I typed Jamie's name and he nearly freaked out that the computer knew HIS NAME. *laugh*



Eventually, they figured out it must be me... so Jamie got brave and decided to type back... yes, he wrote "poopy". Great. Just great. 'Course at least it's a word. Cassie just did gobbly-gook afterwards.



We had a good laugh AND it got Jamie interested in learning to "write" using the computer. He's not interested in learning to type (when do they learn that nowadays? I think I taught myself around 10 or so, but we "learned" it in high school maybe?). Anyway... so now he's allowed to type his spelling words once per week. Which he thinks is AWESOME. We let him use Wordpad and he changes the color and font and stuff. Such a smart kid!

So yeah, I scared my kids.

Oh, the avocado seed started getting white and pink mold spores on it. I ended up washing it off and the seed covering came off. It was all slippery. Uhh... duh. Tom and I are idiots and haven't been changing the water. Yes. Laugh. Go on. Feel better? Anyway, the seed is cracked all the way around... hopefully we'll see some roots start to form... the kids will go crazy if we do!

Plants... Alive, but soon to be dead, perhaps?

So, at school Jamie is learning about the life cycle of a plant. Cassie is all flower crazy. Me? I'm scared. I kill everything that I look at sideways.

So, we have the avocado seed thing - that I'm convinced isn't actually going to do anything, and now we have several other things going on...

These are some little $1 mini pot things we found at Target. 2 are tomatoes and 2 are strawberries. I've been watering these things for over a week now. There's a little tiny green shoot sticking up, but I'm starting to wonder if it's a weed or something. Nothing else is happening. On the right is a cutting from a wandering jew plant to see if it roots. If it does, I figure it will be cool to show the kids. Then I can plant it and kill for good.



We ended up moving the little one into the pot with the big one... but these are flowers the kids picked up at Red Barn. I knew we needed something already flowering because there's little to no chance of something we sow actually growing. The others have sunflowers, straw flowers, snapdragons and other strawberries/tomatoes in them. One of the pots (don't know which one) has already had something digging in it (I bet a squirrel so I'm thinking they are eating the seeds. The kids keep watering it though. So far the flowers are still alive, and we have big pots of dirt.



These were my idea. I know I'll have to replace them when they die. Plants die at my house. It's what we do. But they are really pretty now! We put out hanging plant(s) once or twice a year... but haven't here yet, so this should be interesting...



... this all started because the kids decided they wanted to plant a veggie garden and dude, there's no way... so we compromised on this.

Oy.

A funny....

Crystal sent me this... "just get down on one knee and get it over with"... OMG, I just peed myself I think.

Avocado Tree

We are trying to grow an avocado tree from a seed - long story, but it was basically Cassie's idea...

So, I read up on it and the seed has been sitting in water for a couple of weeks (suspended). It's actually starting to crack! If this thing actually gets a root and all, I'm gonna be amazed...

Babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally! A friend of mine *waves to M* had twins about 5 months ago, but they weren't allowed visitors for a long time, then I got sick and I've just not been able to meet them. BUT! Yesterday Tom and I got to babysit for a couple of hours! Yay! Meet Kathryn and Elizabeth. They are SO cute! And yes, I sniffed their heads ;)

I gotta hand it to mom though. With these 2 plus an almost-3-year-old running around, I would be completely insane by now. The babies are so sweet though... I even got them both to smile... crappy quick snapshot pictures, but I wanted to play with them :)

This is talkative Elizabeth aka "The Pink One" because she had on pink...


This is sweet little Kathryn aka "The Purple One" because she had on purple:


And here they are together... awwwww....

(what you don't see is me bent over then begging them not to cry while Tom is making wiggly finger gestures above them. I sometimes wonder what babies think... surely they must think these adult people are nuts.

They *almost* make me want to go out and do it all over again... and then I remember the diapers. Seriously, I can do the late nights, middle of the nights, poop and vomit are my downfall. LOL. That and Cassie was EXTREMELY jealous. She was all excited and then she realized that she wasn't the center of attention... she held it in pretty well, but she was NOT happy.

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Cassie's First Game This Season

Did I mention Tom got himself volunteered to coach Cassie's soccer team? They are The Longhorns. He's doing pretty good... having fun with the rugrats and the kids all think he's crazy. Cassie's doing well. Jamie is playing too, but no pictures because we didn't go to the first game - he had other plans. He's still not loving it, this might be his last season unless he wants to continue.

Here she is wondering if she can not claim the coach *laugh* - okay, I made that up, but her expression was so funny!


Practicing before the game starts...


The ducks around there are so used to people and getting fed, they walk right up to you. I need to bring some bread and let Jamie feed them. He'd love that.

(I am assuming that's a duck - goose - something - whatever)

She's been holding out on us...

It's official. We registered our baby for kinder last week. We took Cassie in, and they gave her the assessment while we filled out paperwork. Tom, Mr. Room Dad PTA President, knows everyone up there so I felt a little out of place, but also glad that Cassie feels so comfortable up there as well. One of the 4th graders was giving the kinder-to-be kids tours of the school and she stalked off right after him without much of a glance in our direction.

I also hadn't realized she didn't know how to do some of the stuff Jamie did. I'm not all that worried, different kids and experiences. But... I thought maybe we could work on her name. I wrote it on one side and flipped it over... and...

So yeah, she pretty much already knows. LOL. I had to do the SS and she traced over it, but not too bad. She knows about 10-12 of her letters, so we are working on those too. But I'm trying to not push it. She'll get it. Goodness knows, if you had told me Jamie would be reading like he is now 2 years ago, I would have laughed.

Anyway, proof that she's been holding out:

Heard from the backseat

Jamie: I'm not actually going to get married. I'll just get a dog.