M's Favorite Toy

M adores her Webkinz stuffed animals. She plays nonstop with her Littlest Petshop characters. She loves her Nintendo DS. But her very very favorite toy... the one she would rather play with than anything else... the toy she could not live without... is C!

Here, along with her Webkinz, she is playing "Eight Below," one of her favorite movies. M and the Webkinz are the huskies, while C is the musher!

Mush! Mush! Mush!

I'm not sure the huskies will survive this expedition, and I wonder how the laundry basket will do through a blizzard...

I promise, I really do dress C. Although the last few posts don't make it appear this way, I honestly do dress him in cute little boy outfits. It's just that I don't feed him in those outfits because he is the world's messiest eater, and most of the pictures are taken right after feeding time.

The Sweet Spirit of the Olympics

As stated in one of my very first posts, we are a family full of sports nuts, so the summer Olympics brings our house much happiness.

We have become true Phelps Phans and even went into a slight state of depression when the swimming events came to an end. How could we possibly get through an evening without witnessing the most amazing Olympic athlete win another gold medal?

We have also fallen in love with Shawn Johnson's bubbly personality, and our eyes were glued to the television as she flipped, twirled and twisted on a board that has to be narrower than my size 10 Nike. Another amazing Olympic athlete.
We love the Olympics. We love the competition between the best athletes in the world, we love the patriotism the Olympics brings about, and we love all the background stories about the world's most talented athletes.

But...yes, there is a but... we are ready for it to be over. You see, the spirit of the Olympics has brought to our household a new source of competition. No, not against each other. Sure, we all think we could beat each other in a game of water polo, handball or badmitton if given the opportunity, but this newly found competetiveness isn't about sports.

Nope, it's about ice cream and cookies. How much could one person possibly purchase at one time.... how much could one person possibly eat at one time... how much money could one person possibly save when the ice cream and/or cookies happens to go on sale during the Olympics? (3 for $10.00... are you kidding me???)

See, with the most exciting events of the Olympics being presented live on television at 11:00 PM or later, the only way we can stay up to experience the real time excitement is to eat. And instead of choosing raw carrots, apples, grapes, or any other healthy pick-me-up, we choose ice cream and cookies.

K's favorite...mint chocolate chip. Now, it is the slow churned variety, which means half the fat and calories. But when you consume an entire half gallon in one night, half becomes a whole lot!
My new favorite... Breyers' Caramel Tracks. Do you remember the candy bars we used to sell in high school to raise money for our sports teams? The chocolate ones with the creamy caramel inside? Yep... this ice cream contains itty bitty miniature caramel candy bars. Delicious. Again, it's the slow churned type, so I'm not cheating too much. Half the fat, half the calories. It's just that I feast on more than half the container as I watch that Jamaican guy coast through the finish line for another world record. And the cookies. Nestle Toll House cookies that you can scoop and bake. No messy flour or eggs. No mixer. Just scoop and bake. Warm, homemade chocololate chip cookies at your fingertips in nine easy minutes. If the Olympics are on, so are the cookies.
If ice cream and cookie consuming were Olympic sports, we would be sure to hold the world records in this house!

Boys Will Be Boys

Boys and girls are different. Now that I have one of each, in my mind, there is no doubt about it. Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls. C is now nine months old. His personality is beginning to shine, and while that personality shines, so do the differences between him and M when she was that age.

While M casually crawled around the house at nine months, cooing and squealing in delight, C bulldozes through the house, growling and grunting. Although much different methods of maneuvering, both equally adorable.

*Side note: I'm sure you will notice the difference between the attire of the first born compared to that of the second. M joyfully crawled around in a cute little dress, ribbon in hair. C.... the diaper is just fine.

M, at nine months, would joyfully sit with a toy, usually a doll, in one place, for at least twenty minutes. C will sit with a toy, usually a ball of any type, in one place, for no more than 6.5 seconds.
He will then gently... no... carefully... no... nicely... no... rambunctiously throw the ball to retrieve it and will do this again and again. Kind of like Sampson, our labrador, who at that same age would partake in this identical activity when no one else would play fetch with the poor guy.
Again, much different than M, but just as adorable.

At nine months, M loved Sampson. Don't get me wrong. C loves him too, he just prefers to display his affection for the old man in a much different way. M used to crawl up to Sampson and give him an enormous bear hug. C prefers to crawl over Sampson, several times, before pulling an enormous chunk of shedding hair from his back. Sampson, as shown above, simply goes with the flow, knowing this activity will only last for no more than 6.5 seconds, as C will then be on to his next activity, which may include, but may not be limited to, happily banging the remote control on the coffee table, digging his hands into the soil of the closest potted plant, pulling the cookbooks off the small kitchen bookshelf, finding the pantry door open and rummaging through the jars of baby food found on the bottom shelf, sitting (for no more than 6.5 seconds) in front of the dryer, giggling at the clothes being tossed around, or playfully splashing his hands in Sampson's water bowl.

So, forget the loads of toys we saved from M's younger years. A few balls, some household items and a twelve year old lab are all we need around this house to keep this nine month old entertained (in 6.5 second intervals, of course).

Back to Reality

Yesterday was M's first day of 2nd grade. She has been looking forward to the new school year much more than I. I love summer. I'm not quite ready for the structure to return to our lives. We had gotten used to being able to sleep in, casually eating breakfast, slowly heading to the pool, playing games, walking (and riding bikes or scooters) at the park in the evenings, going to bed a little later than normal, etc. Now it's back to reality and structure.

M is at a new school this year due to overcrowding at her old school. With this new school comes new school hours... earlier school hours. Fortunately, she loves school, so going to bed extra early Sunday night was not especially difficult.

Monday morning, M woke up to her alarm clock, got dressed for the big day, and even made herself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. She was ready for the bus approximately 35 minutes before it was scheduled to arrive. 15 minutes later... 20 minutes earlier than the bus is scheduled to arrive... we notice a few of the neighborhood kids with their parents waiting at the bus stop. M wanted to head that way, but being the smart mom who carefully reads the bus route/arrival time handout, I said, "M, I really don't want to stand out at the bus stop for 15 minutes. The bus is not scheduled to arrive until at least 7:30. It's first stop is scheduled at 7:25, and we are the 5th stop. We can go out there in five minutes." M decided to spend her extra time logging on to Webkinz to care for her TWENTY THREE pets (that's another story!).

Five minutes later, while walking to the front door, giggling to myself at all the overly anxious parents and children standing at the bus stop and knowing positively well that we still have at least fifteen minutes before the bus will arrive, I noticed a big yellow blur head down the street, AWAY from our house, and all of those overly anxious, but now smiling parents walking back to their homes. Hmmm. Seems as though the daughter of the oh so smart mom missed the bus on the first day of school.

We hopped in the car and headed to school. Just as we pulled out of our subdivision, M exclaimed, "Mom! I don't have my tennis shoes on! What if we have PE today????" Not able to let her arrive at school on the first day worried about missing PE, we turned around so that she could run back into the house and change her shoes.

Believe it or not, she arrived at school on time and excited about the first day. When the bus arrived that afternoon, she hopped off with a huge grin on her face. A great first day, I could already tell. When she reached our house, we sat on the porch for awhile, talking about her first day of school. After a minute by minute replay of the day's happenings, I finally asked, "Did anyone else miss the bus this morning?"

She replied, "Mom, you're never going to believe this! One of the buses BROKE DOWN, and all the moms had to bring the kids to school. I guess there were too many kids on the bus and the wheels fell off and the bus just went down... like, to the ground. It just broke down!"

Being a former educator, and knowing the importance of background knowledge and how it affects comprehension, leads me to believe that M has never had the experience of a car breaking down. After explaining what "broke down" actually means, we both laughed. It was then time for homework, then dinner, then softball practice, then bath/shower time, then reading, then a little bit of Olympics watching, and then bedtime. Back to structure, back to reality, back to school.