blue

The boys and I were playing Uno today.  I will say that playing Uno with a 3, 4 & 5 year olds is really fun and I suggest anyone who has the chance should *totally* take the time and teach young kids how to play.  It's not hard to teach at all.  It's really a lot like crazy 8s.  Be prepared, most kids play open handed (with all their cards out on the floor) so it's really hard to decide if you should A) cheat to win or B) cheat lose to booster esteem.  I have found a nice middle.  I usually don't cheat to win but I do play the best hand I have but I also guide the kids through their hand.  J has learned to play with his hand closed, A is just figuring out how to play. 

A only has two cards left: a wild and a yellow.  He has a red card to play on. 

Me:  Ok, you have a wild and a yellow. . .what do you want to do?  What card can you play?

A:  puts down the wild and looks at me

Me:  What is that card?

A:  a wild

Me:  good...so what do you get to do now?

A:  pick a color?

Me:  yep. . . what color do you want to play

A: blue! (that's his favorite color)

Me:  A,  you have a wild and a yellow, what do you want to play?

A:  a blue

Me:  A. . . do you have a blue?

A:  no

Me:  so can you play a blue?

A:  no

Me:  What can you play?

A:  a yellow

Me:  so what color should you play now?

A:  yellow

Me:  good job


Eye-i-i

* if you try to teach Uno make sure to take out the "special" cards:  skip, reverse, draw 2 and draw 4....it makes it hard to teach but once they get really good at Uno you can start to add them slowly on "special" card type at a time.

chiropractor Wednesdays

A: Jess your back is hurt-ting (that's how he has hurting) very badly

Me:  ummm no it's not

A: well sister is very heavy

Me:  Yes she is

A:  She's just a little baby

I think he was implying that I'm a wuss.

end of vacation

I have been on vacation for the past 11 days.  And I am anticipating tomorrow being awful.  However that's not the reason for this post.  I want to give the boys nicknames to use in my posts.  I am tired of writing A and J. Sometimes I get confused when I use A because I read it as "a" and then the sentence doesn't make sense so I know you guys might be confused.

Any suggestions are welcome.  I know my bosses sometimes call A the Master of Disaster; so that is a possibility.  I'll keep you posted with my ideas and see what you think.  And since only Michelle, Celeste & Erin  have ever commented on my blog I'm not expecting much. 

*I'm not really sure why the back ground to the words are white.  But I don't really feel like trying to fix it...sorry

dinner

Me:  What do you want for dinner nuggets or cheeseburger?

A:  cheeseburger with nuggets

Me:  which one?

A:  cheeseburger with some nuggets

Me:  A you only get one...which do you want?

A: I want both

Me:  You can only get one.  Nuggets or cheeseburger?

A:  But I am so hungry that I need both

TMI

If you're your a regular reader than you know that A likes to talk about his poop.  Its shape.  Its size. All of it is fair game.  I was in the kitchen, washing a dish when I heard

A:  Jess I went poop!

Me:  Are you finished?  Sometimes he will call me in to the bathroom before he is done and makes me stand there and wait. 

A:  Yeah,  I just went two rabbit poops.

Me:  What?!

A:  I just went two little rabbit poops.  That's what you call little poops...rabbit poops

what happened?

There is a movie theater in town that shows $1 kid's movies on Tuesday and Wednesdays all summer.  They are all older ones, but it is still nice to get out of the house and do something.  So today we went to see How to Train Your Dragon.  The boys own it, so they have seen it many many many times before.  Which is good.  If any of you have watched a movie with a child who has never seen it before, you know they ask questions non-stop.  But, alas, A did ask questions throughout the entire movie, even though he knew all the answers. 

Anyhoo....at one point he says to me "ow!  kiss my finger."  So I kiss it only to realize that his finger is dripping with spit.

Me:  Eww!  Did you lick your finger?

A: no

Me:  Why is it all wet?  Don't put your fingers in your mouth.  What happened?

A:  My teeth bit my finger

say wha???

A has what I like to call the 3 year old speech impediment.   It's mostly blends he has trouble with.  And that is not uncommon for 3-5 year olds.   Most times I can decipher what the hell he is trying to tell me.  Other times....what he says sounds like other words, real words.   Sometimes A wants to put on his "fiderman" (spiderman) costume.  One time he asked me where the "shaper" (scraper) was.  Now if you can figure that out on the first try. . .kudos to you. 

The boys love to play with water and it's nice to give them a job to do so today we were washing some outside toys.  Finally go to their bikes and A says, "We gotta wash our bikes cause Mommy says they are 'effensive'"

Me:  They're what??

A:  Effensive

Me:  They're offensive?

A:  No effensive

It took me awhile, but I finally got it.  Their bikes were expensive.

and the nanny of the year award goes to. . .

. . .me!!

They belong to a pool and tennis club; and after a week of taking the boys to swim lessons there, I felt comfortable enough with the layout and staff to take them there for a the day.  Neither of the boys can actually swim.  J can touch with no problems and A can just about touch but can't really walk around in the water.  They both hate to get their faces wet or go underwater. I watched them "jump" off the side of the pool with their swim instructor all week. Really it was them holding on to her hands and falling into her. I was having them actually jump off the side of the pool and into my arms.  I contemplated not catching them so they could see that going under isn't all that bad, but I knew doing that would ruin any trust I had built.  So I kept telling them "I'll catch you.  Have I ever dropped you??  Will I start now?"  They both did a good job jumping while holding my hands.  Then A jumped into my arms and we were all excited that he did it and was such a brave boy.  Then what did I do?  I let go of him.  And what did he do?  He sunk to the bottom.  After some major tears, I convinced him that it was such a cool thing.  He got to go underwater. J didn't get to do that.  J was too scared to do that, A was so brave.  He then started to brag to J that he got to go underwater. 



I'll take my trophy now



pardon my non sequitur

Heads up: this is not something funny the boys said.

I'm not one for pubic displays of opinions and feelings via social networks. It's your birthday?... I'll stop by your wall.  You just got engaged/married/pregnant?...you may get a congrats from me.  Gay marriage is legal in my state?...oh I turned around and made it about me getting to wear more pretty dresses to more weddings. 

But I have to get it off my chest how sad and disgusted I am about the Casey Anthony verdict (and side bar: the verdict was the afternoon and wikipedia already updated the page...I'm disgusted by that too).  The boys* aren't even my kids and I would be a complete mess if one of them ever EVER went missing.  If it was on my watch, forgetaboutit.  Even if (and that's a HUGE if) she didn't do it...SHE DIDN'T REPORT HER CHILD MISSING FOR 30 DAYS PEOPLE!!!!!  How can 12 people not see that she deserves to be punished??  I don't get it and that makes me sad.

*and when I say boys I really do mean all the kids, it just that boys and I "do" stuff together and, for now, BabyGirl is just along for the ride

that's not playing!!!!!

The boys were showing me how they could make Eiffel Towers with plastic cups. 

A kept building his too close to BabyGirl and I kept telling him t=that she was going to knock it over.  Finally she did and he got upset

A:  She knocked it over!!!

Me:  I told you she would.  That's what babies do.  She just wants to play.

A:  That's not playing!!! That's knocking over!!