How to get your babysitter in trouble....

or - in reality - how to get your babysitter to THINK she's going to be in trouble.

I guess that Jacob ran into a table on Saturday night while Brian and I were at a holiday party - nothing major, just a bruise on his leg. While the babysitter was helping him / figuring out what the problem was - Allison colored the dog pink. Now - why Astro stood there and accepted being colored on may be more a statement about his desire for attention than his desire to be pink. "Who cares? It feels like she's petting me!"

Anyway, this was nearly the first thing out of the babysitters mouth when we got home and I think she wondered if we were going to be mad. However, it was about all Brian and I could do to stop laughing. Oh well - Astro needed a bath anyway!!

Forgot the stats

I forgot to mention that Allison went to the doctor on Monday for her 8-yr check up. She was deemed in good health - albeit small.

She weighed in at 42.5 pounds, a height of 45.5 inches - which put her in the 3rd percentile for each. This is down slightly from the 5th and 10th percentiles from last year - but the doctor was not too concerned. The ritalin supresses her appetite so there is usually a period of stagnation when kids start taking that - but they typically will catch back up to their growth curves (hers is just small to begin with).

She does - however - have humongous teeth. She looses two baby teeth for every one adult tooth that comes in.

She lost another tooth last night. When the tooth fairy visited, the tooth fairy did not find the tooth in the tooth fairy pouch. The tooth fairy left $1 but was unable to retrieve the tooth (I swear it was gone). Allison must have squirreled it away somewhere because in the morning she comes down very excited because the tooth fairy left her $1 AND the tooth. Sigh.

From frustration to laughter

So we were driving back from karate last night and Jacob and Allison were busy telling me things from the backseat. Jacob had been talking for a while (as he's apt to do) and Allison wanted to say something, but couldn't get a word in. So she let out "a yell" followed by a loud proclamation that "Jacob was NOT letting her talk."

This was followed immediately by two kids both talking about how THEY should be the ones talking. Ugh.

So I say - "well, I'm not listening until you two figure out who's supposed to be talking."

This led to a long debate in the backseat as to who should be the one to go first.

J: I should be the one - I got a new karate belt and kids with new belts go first.
A: I got a new prize - so kids with new prizes should go first.
J: No - I should go first because my new belt is orange and your watch isn't orange.
A: I should go first - I'm oldest and we should go oldest to youngest.
J: No - we should go youngest to oldest and I should go first.
A: Oldest to youngest.... me.
J: Boys first.
A: Girls first.
J (placing his new karate belt on his head): Look - I'm a reindeer and reindeers should go first.
A: Yes - reindeer go first - but I made reindeer antlers out of paper so I should go first!

Needless to say..... we got home first.

Blizzard

It snowed. On Sunday we dug ourselves out. Let the winter of 2010-2011 be the year that we go buy a snowblower....

We began with shovels.



After a few feet, I joked with the neighbor about renting his snowblower and he let us borrow it. Here are the kids being assaulted with the blowed snow.



We also began a fort. It wasn't really "packy" snow (Jacob's word) - so we really could just dig out a hole and try to build up the walls. Perhaps in a few days it'll be warmer than zero degrees out and the snow will get more packable.

Happy 8th Birthday!

Allison's birthday began with breakfast with Santa. There were a total of 12 of us there - so it was an intimate breakfast with Santa. Santa made everyone balloon animals.... who knew he was so multi-talented!



They were having family days at the old paper mill where the breakfast, so we stuck around, did a scavenger hunt, pet some goats and llamas, and made paper snowflakes.



Allison opened presents later in the day. Her birthday loot included her birthday dress (pink - she wore it all day), Bratz doll, barbie fishing rod, pictionary game, and a paint-your-own tea set. She made Thank You notes with the stamping supplies she'd gotten at Thanksgiving.

She also made her own birthday cake. That's right - if the kids want a birthday cake - they'll make it themselves, Thank You.



Then she blew out the candles and we enjoyed the pink frosted birthday cake.

A new song

Jacob and Allison were making up Christmas songs in the car today (first real snowfall). Jacob had the following gem:

"you'll put out your stocking for Santa...
and you might get toys or toothpaste...."

Soooooo tempted to put toothpaste in his stocking now.....

Christmas Parade

So -it's an attempt to catch up on old stuff. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Allison's brownie troup participated in the Appleton Christmas Parade. I'm not sure I'll jump on that bandwagon again.



First off -it was cold, cold, cold. We took a trolley from the school to the start of the parade route. We were there at 5pm. The parade started at 6:30pm. Our "float" started actually walking in the parade at 7pm. So, we stood outside with 20 girl scouts (with no bathroom, no food, no drinks) in subfreezing temps for 2 hours. After about an hour and half - Allison started asking if we could go home. After making it that far - the answer was NO.

Once we started walking, I think she had fun. And we saw Jacob and Brian who were huddled together along the parade route. Fortunately, Brian told me where he's set out the chairs (at 9am that morning - the Christmas parade is a serious event).

Right, Mom?

Jacob has an odd conversational quirk (which is starting to bug me.) Rather than asking a question, he'll make a statment followed by "Right, Mom?"

No: "Can you see that building over there?" Instead: "You can see that building over there. Right, Mom?"

No: "Are we going to meet Kaden there?" Instead: "We're meeting Kaden there. Right, Mom?"

Sometimes, this also comes into the conversation as reassurance of a statment.
No: "Hey, it's snowing!" Instead: "Look outside, it's snowing! Am I right, Mom?"

Yesterday, he said some form of "Right, Mom?" 4 times in the 10 minute car ride to karate. I asked him why he says it so much and he said this: "well, I can't say it at school, so I have to say it to you."

Is this a quirk? A phase? Is he seeking reassurance?.... does he just want to always be correct?... is it simply to make sure that I'm still paying attention to the conversation?

Or is this some form of Northern-speak and we're just substituting "right, mom?" for "eh?"

"Look it's snowing, eh?"