June 21, 2009

I have some funny kids.

Jesse walks around like he owns the world.  Running across the floor to the bathroom today he's yelling, "I have to pee on the potty - I'm such a good boy!"

Jocelyn reported this week that she touched a snake with her finger and he was her friend.

When Morgan spills, he scoots his socked foot over the spill to wipe it up.

Timothy wrote Josh a Father's Day note last night before bed, it said:  "Dad, you are the awesomest, don't ever leave me."

Funny, annoying, sweet, loud, or any combination thereof - I tell Josh he can't complain because he raised them that way.  Thank goodness for that.

Timothy got an award at 5^th grade graduation, essentially for being a good kid.  The graduation was otherwise nothing special, though it was nice that all the kids cheered for each other despite the principal telling them to wait for the end. Everyone got claps and hollars - of seemingly equal magnitude.  Timothy chatted with the little girl next to him during the downtimes, and she was cute.  But apparently that isn't the little girl he likes.  Josh brought over the yearbook and showed me who he likes.  "Oh she's cute," I said.  "Well of course she is," Josh says, "she looks just like you."  Well a bit of an overstatement if you ask me, but Josh is now convinced that Timothy likes her because she looks like me.

According to the note from the last day of school, Timothy can stop by the middle school any time on Aug 24-27 to find his homeroom and practice opening his locker. Homeroom! Locker! Middle School!  ACK!

Last Sunday was Timothy's birthday party.  Josh and Joey took Timothy and 2 friends to a Rock Cats (baseball game).  While he was gone I cleaned his room.  I emptied the closet, rearranged the furniture, emptied all the drawers and started over.  It took me 3 hours and I was dripping with sweat by the end of it.  He thanked me profusely but around midnight that night I heard him crying and went in.  He couldn't explain why he was upset other than he was used to his tv being in another spot.  It hadn't really occurred to me that putting things in a different order would upset him.  We moved him to the other side of his bed so that he was about the same distance from the tv as before and I told him if he didn't like it Monday I'd put it back.  He's gotten used to it and seems fine now.

Jocelyn’s teacher reported the following this week:

We had a reptile expert come in with lots of reptiles and amphibians yesterday. Jocelyn was afraid at first and asked to sit next to me.  When he brought the first few reptiles around, she curled up as close to me as possible.  HOWEVER, by the 4th animals (a bearded dragon!), she totally changed her mind, scooted herself next to Madison, and decided to touch and enjoy all the rest of the animals!!!  She touched snakes, lizards, a turtle....  I was very proud of how courageous she was!  I didn't get any good pics because I was sitting behind her.  She's done very well this year and has really grown up a lot!  I'm so glad I get her again next year!

Yesterday we went to Elisabeth's place for the annual Father's Day BBQ, which was fun as usual.  Morgan kicked all the stones into the yard, as usual.  Timothy flirted with Lauren, as usual.  Of course, Lauren is now 5 inches taller than him!  Sage refused to speak to me or make eye contact and Patience gave me the stink eye, as usual.  Jocelyn ate 2 whole cheeseburgers!  Jesse was beside himself with all the kids to play with and just ran around from toy to toy. Then Jocelyn and Jesse conned Grandma into pushing them on the swing, and we pretty much didn't see her the rest of the afternoon.  About 5 minutes after she joined us again on the deck, Jesse found her, climbed in her lap, batted his eyelashes, and said "swing?"  Yeah, my kids have long attention spans.

Jocelyn just told Josh she wants to buy a water slide, so now Jesse and Jocelyn are both following Josh around asking for a waterslide.  Jocelyn has gotten the idea of shopping on the internet.  When boxes come with new clothes, she says - oooooh, did you buy me things on the ‘puter?  On the subject of new clothes - I bought Timothy some much needed shorts and t-shirts a couple weeks back and washed them and stacked them with his laundry.  I told him to go put his laundry away, which he did.  He came back and said "hey - you bought me new clothes!  thanks - I love them!"  I didn't really think he would love them, he just needed new clothes (when you grow 5 inches a year, that tends to happen), so it was cute that he was so excited.  Though he was even more excited this week because I found shirts and ties on clearance at Kohl's and ordered them for him and Morgan for Passover next year. He wanted to wear it to school!  He's wanted to wear a shirt and tie forever - too cute.

That's it from here - Happy Father's Day to all the dads, even mine.