Interview with Dylan, age 5 3/4

It seems there are hundred's of meme's going around on Facebook these days. This is one of the cuter ones I've seen lately, and I've decided to post it here instead.

1.What is something mom always says to you?
D: I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
D: That I listen to you.

3. What makes mom sad?
D: Not listening to you.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
D: Being silly

5. What was your mom like as a child?
D: I don’t know, probably little or something.

6. How old is your mom?
D: Ummmm, I don’t know. Because you don't even tell me.

7. How tall is your mom?
D: I don’t know. 100 years?

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
D: Watch me play Wii.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
D: I don’t know, watch TV?

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
D: Seeing persons that are good at playing Wii.

11. What is your mom really good at?
D: Playing Mario Cart. (Which is SO not true, I suck!)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
D: fixing cars (true!)

13. What does your mom do for her job?
D: Hmmmmm, you take care of us? And clean the floor.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
D: hmmmmm, healthy things?

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
D: You playing Wii with me. You should play Lego Star Wars, you could be one of the girls.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
D: I don’t know, but if I were a cartoon I’d be Darth Maul.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
D: we play games, and Wii

18. How are you and your mom the same?
D: we’re in the same family

19. How are you and your mom different?
D: You’re a girl, I’m a boy. That makes us unique.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
D: Because I listen to you tell me that.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
D: at the pool? And the lake house? Even though there is no Wii there, it’s still one of my favorite places.

Can you tell he's a little obsessed with the Wii? Lordie.

little boy, big attitude

Dylan's been wearing the sassy pants lately. We're not sure if its a school thing or I'm-five-going-on-13 thing. Talking back, bossing Logan, not listening..... Fortunately this behavior only seems to occur at home and not at school. We've removed video games of all sorts for a little while to see if he pipes down the attitude.

I got an email from his school today, telling us to save a date in May when the current kindergarteners invite their parents and incoming kindergarteners to school one evening, and sing to them, welcoming them to kindergarten. Its a night for the current kindergarteners to say goodbye to kindergarten, and hello to first grade. My eyes well up just typing about it. Big boy school. All day. Wow.

I was looking through some old photos today, realizing just how fast they grow up and reminding myself he's pretty cute when he isn't being sassy. When I look at photos of Dylan when he was 2, I barely even remember him looking that way, or what his voice or laugh sounded like. Thank goodness for photos and videos. The photo up top was taken Christmas night, 2005, at my Mom's when Dylan was just over 2 1/2.

These below were taken in July 2005, Dylan was 2 1/4.

He turns 6 in about six weeks. Slow down, my sweet little boy.

cupcakes

Our boys love cupcakes. And whats even better than cupcakes? Naked cupcakes they get to decorate themselves, of course. So this weekend, while Grandpa Joe and Grandma Bobbie were visiting from Florida, Uncle Chris and cousin Maya (cousin Josh was home sick with Aunt Jessica) came over for playing. And cupcakes.

It wasn't completely subzero outside, so first we let the kids play and got a fire going. We didn't last long but at least the kids got to burn a little energy off...

Then after dinner, it was time for a sprinkle and frosting extravaganza. Logan dumped out 3/4 of a bottle of sprinkles then proceeded to inhale his cupcake in one continuous not-stopping-to-even-take-a-breath bite:

Dylan and Maya were much more civilized.

Grandma and Grandpa flew home yesterday, and I'm sure are glad to be back in warmer weather and a sprinkle-free floor.

rock on little buddy

My friend Sandee has tagged me for fun little blogging task... I'm supposed to open my fourth folder of photos on my computer and choose the fourth photo, post it here and explain it. And then tag someone else. So here it is:

The story is this. I was pregnant out-to-there with Logan, and we decided to take one last family vacation while we were still just a family of three. As I've written about many times before, my Dad and Stepmom live in Cape Coral, Florida. We enjoyed a week of lounging by their pool and going to the beach and waterpark. One night, we all ventured down the road to a little hole in the wall bar on the water called Bert's Bar and Grill in Matlacha, on Pine Island. We went for two reason's. First, Bert's offers some mighty fine bar cuisine, including our first ever encounter with fried macaroni and cheese (genius!). Second, a local band called The Yard Dogs was performing. They had a cool sound ... a combination of Zydeco, blues, and Cajun. They played some cool instruments including a Rhumba Box, accordian and a scrub board.

Dylan had just turned three, and he had an all out obsession with music. He used to carry his electric guitar everywhere we went. More than once, he has been asked up on stage to 'perform' with the band at a wine festival we've attended. We didn't take his guitar to Florida but we did bring his harmonica, which was a little more portable. And I don't think the band was halfway thru their first song before Dylan was right in front of them, dancing and playing along.

So now I'm tagging three other friends: Di, Kristin and Danielle, you're next!

what we've been doing

Its the time of year known as the Preschool Registration Shuffle around here. I feel like I've visited half the preschools in our town in the past two weeks, trying to decide where I want to register Logan for next fall. Its a painful and annoying process because they all operate registration differently. And the demand for preschool is so high around here, they all know they have us by the balls. Most of them work on a lottery system. Your application is placed in a pile with everyone else, and names are randomly drawn. Some schools might have 300 forms in the pile and only 10 spaces to offer. It was easier for me to get into college. I've narrowed it down to my two favorites and we'll take our chances. Once you accept a spot (if one is even offered), you have to cough up the money to save it. And if you change your mind, you can kiss your money goodbye. So I'm really only taking my chances with my favorite two schools. We might have to settle with getting on a wait list for one of them and hoping a spot opens up over the summer.

Next fall will be the beginning of a whole new deal. Dylan will be in school until 2:45 each day. If Logan gets into preschool, he'll go two mornings a week. Two mornings I could go to the gym, get some work done, or even just use the bathroom by myself with no one flipping the light switch on and off. A girl has to dream big!

the birds and the pigs

Lots of good blog material over here lately, I can't help myself!

We have four hermit crabs (the fifth one recently bit the dust) in an aquarium in our kitchen. At least I didn't kill him, like I did our sea monkeys this past summer when I spilled them down the garbage disposal. No, the fifth crab was eaten by his bretheren crabs. Nasty little cannibals.

The other night, I'm on the computer and Dylan walks over to tell me:

"Mom, one of the crabs is on top of the other crabs' back!"

Me "Oh really?" (pretty disinterested, as I was probably busy reading some ridiculous Facebook photo tag or something)

"Yea! The one crab is on the other one's back and they're you know...doing that thing... "

Me: (slightly more interested, turning to look at Dylan now) "That thing?...."

"Yea, you know that thing when they get on each others backs?"

Me: (eyebrows raised, slightly increased heart rate, mind racing to a rather spicy episode of Dirty Jobs we once came across where Mike Rowe was at a farm and I had to change the channel quickly) "Ummmmmmm.... Ummmmmmmmm" (mind scrambling... are we really going to have to have this conversation right here, right now?)

"Yea, you know the pig thing? When they get on each others backs?"

Me: "Pig thing? Pig thing... Hmmmmm... pig thing......" (Dylan looking at me clearly expecting some sort of answer and now....)

LIGHT BULB!

Me: "You mean a PIGGY BACK RIDE?!!!!"

Dylan: "YES! A piggy back ride! You know, when they ride on each others backs?!"

Whew. I love the innocence of the five year old mind.

we're going to need a napkin

Tonight after dinner, we decided to break out the fudgsicles, February 30 degrees be damned. I found a multi-pack at the store last week with three flavors: white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate.

Last week, we all tried white chocolate and they were delicious. However, tonight we were out of that flavor. It didn't take long before the boys looked like this:

Dylan declared that "This one taste - ez (he sometimes adds an extra syllable when a word ends in 's') gooder than the udder (other) one".

Today was the 100th day of the school year. And in my hustle to leave the house this morning, I totally neglected to photograph Dylan's project. Each child was to construct something out of 100 random items of their choice. Andrew went to the office store last week and found some cool colored paper clips in all kinds of wacky shapes. For the past three nights, Dylan counted out 1/3 of the clips and hooked them all together, forming a huge chain that would make Mr. T proud.

step right up. everyone. and their brother.

I'm so ready for warm weather. And really, I shouldn't be whining because we have many friends and family who live elsewhere and are dealing with weekly snowstorms and subzero weather.

Its just that we're running out of fun indoor stuff to do. And its probably my fault. But here is the thing. I hate crowds. I don't know when this happened, because I can remember being smashed in between hundreds of sweaty bodies at the 9:30 Club in my 20's and not minding a bit. I don't know if its a 'since I had kids' thing, or a 'since I'm getting old and crotchety thing' but I just can't stand to be indoors among huge crowds of people. We're lucky to live in an area so diverse with tons of cultural day trip excursions right around the Beltway. But living in such an area also comes with the price of having to share it with bazillions of other people, who all seem to have thought of the same idea on the same day at the same time you did. Which somehow doesn't seem like such a big deal in the warmer weather, when everyone can spread out. Plus there are a trillion more options in summer - pool, parks, beaches, heck, just taking a walk around the block. Things just don't get as crowded. We tried taking the kids to an indoor rec center pool three weekends ago and had to leave; there were no parking spaces left in the lot. And I've purposely been avoiding places like Chuck E Cheese and the mall this winter, where all those hundreds of little plague-infested fingers touch everything and two days later, someone at our house is puking.

I subscribe to a weekly email digest of kid-friendly activities. Every once in a while, something on the list sounds really fun and not to be missed. Last Friday, I read that Strathmore Hall in Montgomery County, Maryland (about 40 minutes from us) was having a free open house this Sunday. Ringling Brothers Circus would be there with shows and workshops all day. Free! (Hmmm, maybe that explains the crowd, now that I think about it more). We set off yesterday morning, arriving when it opened. Our GPS took us to the parking lot using some back roads and thank goodness for that, because the line of traffic coming in the other way went on forever. Once inside, we got in the long line to get a goody bag with some free circus garb. Except extremely rude people kept walking right up to the table, ignoring that there was a line all together.

We pushed our way through the crowd (no strollers allowed, so Logan was walking among the sea of legs), and decided to settle into some pretty sweet balcony seats for the circus show. We had to wait 30 minutes but the show was actually fun and well worth it. Every seat in the huge auditorium was full. When it ended, the kids were starving. Off we went to follow our noses to the popcorn stand. Except 100 people had already beat us there. And then we would have had to stand in another line of 200 people to buy some drinks. The line for lunch type food was as far as the eye could see. Heck, we could barely make our way thru the crowd to find the elevator. It was at this point we decided we were done. The kids were beyond hungry and even if we miraculously found some lunch there, any type of clown workshop or balloon animal would have been a two hour wait. It was a mob everywhere you turned! As we walked over the bridge, stomachs grumbling, back to the parking garage, the line of people waiting to get in went further than we could even see.

So smart were we, we headed to Chili's for a late lunch at 2 pm, only to have to wait there again for a table. Then our order took 45 minutes and I thought I was going to have to eat my own arm off. With full bellies and renewed spirits, we realized we weren't too far from the local Ikea, usually an hour from our house. Why not go since we were already so close? We circled their parking lot for 20 minutes looking for a spot. Dylan wanted to play in the kids area, he said. Great! Shopping with one less child! Except we got inside and there were about 20 people in line waiting for the kids play area already. Oh well. Off the four of us went to shop the packed and chaotic Ikea. Full of more rude people and unusually unhelplful employees. We're big fans of Ikea, but there was something sour in the employee coffee there yesterday. And they were sold out of what I wanted to buy, too.

5 pm. Back home. Our little quiet home-sweet-home. No crowds. Our own, clean bathroom. With no pee all over the seat! A kitchen full of food we don't have to wait for. Ahhhh, when did I get so cranky?

Here are the few photos we managed during the Circus Day. At least we got to see some crazy cool acrobatics while wearing these rubber clown noses. All was not lost.

randomness of the day

Breakfast time tends to spark some seriously random questions at our house sometimes.

Today it was:

"Mommy, did Jesus Christ live during the Ice Age? Did he get born when the dinosaurs lived and turn into a grown up during the Ice Age?"

We don't go to church and we don't talk about religion much around here. Maybe a random book about Noah's Ark once in a while. So this was totally out of left field.

all the way to the moon

Today was, of course, Dylan's Valentine's Day party at school. Boy, how times have changed since I was in kindergarten. I remember writing out Valentine's cards and dropping them in decorated boxes all my friends had made. Dylan's oh-so-efficient teachers decided to pre-distribute Valentine's earlier this week so that today at the party, the kids could focus on crafts and dancing. Dylan wrote all of his 27 cards himself last week, and we sent them in earlier this week for the teachers to handle.

I love this opportunity I have to be room mom for Dylan's class. This is what I always dreamt about when I first left work to stay home with the kids. Its so special to get to go see him at school and help create a fun, memorable day for all of the kids. The teachers and kids are so appreciative of everything the room moms do, and I'm really enjoying the role. I hope I can do it for both boys through their school years. Andrew works from home on any party days so I leave Logan at home and just focus on doing this for Dylan and his classmates. Thanks, honey!

As one of the two room mom's, I had an important job today. FOOD! Yesterday I made 48 cupcakes. The kids got to frost and decorate them today as part of the party. Here is Dylan with his cupcake. He was pretty modest with the sprinkles. Some of the kids put at least 1/4 cup of sprinkles on their mound of frosting.

Next, it was onto the snow globe station. Except he couldn't make a girly pink one, so it was green instead:

Then it was onto homemade bookmarks. Don't you love his festive shirt? He had to wear his Tony Hawk today. Valentine's Day attire isn't exactly made for boys anyway.

And it wouldn't be a party without dancing! Look at his arms in the air, he's ready for an AC/DC concert.

Here is the sweet Valentine's card he made for us:

Andrew, Dylan and Logan, I love you all so much. As Dylan says, all the way to the moon and back again and back again again. I couldn't ask for three better Valentine's than my three guys.

Happy Valentine's Day to All!

his own sweet time

Dylan was born 10 days after his due date. Through the years we have realized it was an early indication he was going to be our happy-go-lucky guy. A meanderer. Anyone who knows Dylan knows he will be the last at the dinner table, long after all of the other kids are finished. He can turn a two minute toothbrushing session into a painful 20 minutes, take an entire TV show to put his clothes on, and if we let him, he would stay in the shower for an hour. Its just the way he is. No hurries, no worries.

So I was not surprised on Monday when his teacher wrote this on his 2nd period report card:

"Dylan is a sweet and happy boy. He enjoys school and has made friends. Dylan has done very well with indentifying letters and letter sounds. He is putting those sounds together in his reading and writing. Dylan can count aloud to 50, but does need to practice identifying teen numbers (he has a problem with 14 for some reason). He also needs continued practice with his fine motor skills and focusing on his work to complete it on time. We will continue to work with Dylan in class and ask that you do the same at home.".

The Plunge

It was the warmest weekend of the winter, and where did we decide to go? Snowtubing, of course! We've had this weekend planned for so long, and the warm weather just added a little mud to our fun. We met five other families, including Jersey Baby, and Tatertown USA, at Wintergreen resort, near Charlottesville, VA.


After dropping Logan at Grandma's house Saturday morning, Dylan, Andrew and I set off down the highway for our little snowy adventure. And after getting a little side-tracked trying to find some restaurant called Pig Daddy's (thanks for nothing GPS) we arrived at our hotel. All 19 of us stayed at a hotel near the mountain, enjoying pizza, desserts, laughs, and many adult beverages poolside. The hotel even had a fancy little movie theatre and popcorn for all to enjoy. It was kid heaven, and no one had to vacuum at the end of the party!

Sunday morning we headed up the mountain for our very first snow tubing excursion. It was a little slushy and muddy. But the tubing hill, The Plunge, is more than three football fields long and we spent a glorious two hours acting like kids and connecting our tubes into trains to fly down the slopes.

Here we go!




Up the people mover to the top...




Logan would have loved it, and I really missed having him there. But he had a great time with Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Robby, with an abundance of fruit snacks, hugs, Wii Fit and Playdough.



We've decided this will be standing weekend adventure every winter. Good friends, great laughs. I'm ready to go again this weekend.

to be a mom

Over breakfast this morning:

"Mom, when Logan came out of your belly, was he covered in blood?"

??

Its not like we let him watch birthing shows. So I told him all babies are born with a little blood on them. But it gets wiped off quickly and they get a bath. Its no big deal. He seemed okay with that answer and moved onto another topic.

But since he asked this question, I've been thinking about both of my deliveries throughout the day today. Its funny how I don't remember any blood, any pain or discomfort or nausea. Now that I look back, all I can remember is the complete sense of awe and overwhelming love I felt for them both immediately. It humbles and amazes me everyday.

cat and mouse

Friday night, after their shower, we let the kids watch a little Tom and Jerry. If we time it right, we can bathe the kids at 7:30 and then all lie in our bed and watch some T & J antics until 8 pm. I love that our kids prefer vintage cartoons to new ones. And nothing is funnier than Tom and Jerry. Laugh out loud funny, every time.

So anyway, it was the episode where Tom lands in the barrel of hard cider in the basement and drinks a bunch of it. It doesn't say 'hard cider' on the barrel, it just says XXX. As soon as he emerges from the barrel, he's hiccuping and falling all over the place. He makes his way to the kitchen, and standing before the open refrigerator, he somehow shimmies his body into a roasted turkey carcass, like a corset. Of course, Mammy waddles downstairs now that Tom has awakened her, and Tom tries to light her foot on fire with a match.

Seriously, there just isn't enough hardcore drinking and arsony in kids cartoons these days.

So Dylan innocently asks "What is that stuff he drank?". To which I answer "oh, just some apple cider"... And Dylan answers back "Um no. That's called 'Losing Your Mind Juice' ".

In college, I can remember doing shots called "Mind Erasers". But I like Dylan's name better.