John Adams - husband to Abigail.

Yesterday I asked Peter if parents were supposed to come to his Women in History presentation.

"They can if they want to," was his response.

"Well, do you want me to?  I'm free tomorrow morning so I can come if you want me to come."

"Great!" he replied.

So instead of heading out for a run on this clear, sunny and why-is-it-so-cold-in-March-it's-springtime-for-heaven's-sake morning, I went to school.

Peter's famous woman from history was Abigail Adams (wife of John and mother to John Quincy).  He had to read a book about her and prepare a timeline from her life.

And then he had to attend an "interview" where he (since he is a he) had to be a male from her life and answer questions about her. He chose to do the interview as her husband, John.

And, of course, there was extra credit if you wore a costume.

So I did what any good (but lazy) mom would do.  I scoured eBay until I found a used colonial boy costume for cheap.

Please note, I did make the lopsided buckles.  My non-craftiness is apparent in all that I do.

When he walked into the classroom wearing his 1700's polyester blend costume, one of the girls said, "Ooooh, Peter, you look soooo handsome in that uniform!"

Yes, little female classmate, he does look handsome. But please step away from my child.  He currently isn't interested in little girls and I would like to keep it that way for a while.  ...ahem...

The kids were the studio audience and the teacher was the talk show host.

They shook hands and the interview began.  She asked him questions about Abigail's youth and education, about their family, why she's famous, etc.

Telling the studio audience all they will every need to know about good ole Abbie.

And telling them a little more.

At the end of the interview, the class got to ask questions.  He did a great job with that as well.

I'm so glad I got to hear him.

Although, it's supposed to rain tomorrow and you know what that means.

Don't be discouraged if they say no.

We did something new and unusual this weekend.  And I guess when I say "we", I really mean "Peter and Daddy".

This is Peter's 4th year as a Cub Scout so that means this is Peter's 4th year selling popcorn.  And I guess when I say "selling", I really mean "asking Grandma and Grandpa and the aunts and uncles".

This year Peter's pack has upped the ante and the grand prize for the boy who sells the most popcorn is a Traxxus Stampede valued at $225.  When Peter heard this, he decided he really wanted to get out there and sell because he had just decided that he wants a remote control car for his birthday.  And he's smart enough to realize that the one being offered as the prize is way nicer than any remote control car we would buy for him.

So after Sunday lunch at my parent's house, Peter put on his uniform and practiced his spiel and I gave him helpful pointers such as "look them in the eye", "don't mumble" and "don't be discouraged if they say no". And then he and Dan headed out the door with clipboard in tow.

The first stop was my parent's house (they happen to live right next door) and of course they bought popcorn My brother was there so lucky Uncle Brad got to buy some as well.  Peter was on a roll!

Then he started going through the neighborhood and reality set in.  The first three houses he went to declined to make a purchase.  But Peter persevered and the next three bought something. (Never mind that one of the houses was his best friend's house - it was still a yes!)  Throw in three houses with  no one home and that made his non-family sales average 33%. 

And all of that took over an hour - apparently going door-to-door selling popcorn is slow and tedious work.  Maybe his spiel is too long. Regardless, I'm proud of him for deciding he wants something and getting off his adorable yet usually-lazy rear-end to work for it. 

Unfortunately though, he's got to sell a lot more popcorn to earn that remote control car.  The top seller last year sold well over $1000 in product and Peter is no where near that.  And in my estimation, there aren't enough houses in the neighborhood to even support those numbers!

Um, anyone want to buy some popcorn?  I know a cute 9-year-old that will look you in the eye when he's giving you his spiel.

He won't mumble either.

 

It was a good one.

Aunt Cathy arrived on Friday evening to surprise the kids.  In addition to some Mad Libs and a Clue game, she must have tucked a whole bunch of good luck into her overnight bag.

Sarah, who has not scored a basket (other than free throw shots) during the game since last season when Aunt Cathy visited, took a shot during the game and scored!

Sarah is the one with the long pony tail and the white short sleeves underneath her jersey and that's HER shot coming out of the basket!  Way to go Sarah!

And then, if that wasn't enough excitement for one weekend, Peter competed in his pack's Pinewood Derby and not only did he win 1st place in his den, he won 1st place in the whole thing!  He had the fastest car in the whole pack!  Way to go Peter!

Aunt Cathy, you're coming back next weekend, right? 

Because it's more than a silly old computer game.

He loves computer games. And when he finds one he loves he plays it all the time. And when he is not playing it, he wants to tell me about it.

All about it.

About how it works, about what he can do in the game, about the tutorials he's found on YouTube that explain how to play the game better. About all the minutia of a game that I don't understand and don't really even want to understand.

And he talks. And he talks. And he twists his hair while he's talking about it. He follows me from room to room talking about it. He even talks about it through a closed bathroom door. He keeps talking.

And I keep listening. Even as I am folding laundry, or making dinner, or taking out the trash, I am listening.

I usually don't understand a word he is telling me but I listen. I, honestly, am usually bored by what he is telling me. It's just a silly old computer game after all.

But I try to stop what I'm doing and look him in the eye and shake my head up and down while I am listening. I want him to know that I am listening.

And he continues to talk.

Why do I let him babble on and on about something I don't understand, something I'm not even too interested in?

I do it because one day I hope he will come to me with that same excitement and intensity and tell me about a science experiment he just did at school, or a joke a friend told him, or about a math problem he figured out all by himself.

I do it because one day I hope he will come to me with that same trust and expectation and tell me about something that a friend did that he knows isn't right, or tell me about a girl he's falling in love with, or tell me about a girl who has broken his heart.

I do it because one day I hope he will come to me with that same enthusiasm and confidence and tell me about an interesting class he's taking in college or tell me he thinks he's figured out what he wants to do with his life or tell me how that job interview went.

I keep listening now because I want him to keep talking later.

Good job kid!

Yesterday after school, guitar, lessons, and allergy shots, Peter came right in and did all of his homework. 

Immediately. 

With no prompting from me.

And with minimal complaining.

He usually starts his homework right after school and it is my goal for him to finish it every afternoon before he plays.  However, he has a lot of homework every day so I typically let him take a break before he has completed it all.  So the fact that even though we didn't get home until 5:15 and he came in and did all of his homework (it took him an hour) without stopping was huge!  I was very proud of him.

Dan is always telling Peter to do his work first so he can be free to play without anything hanging over his head.  Yesterday he said he wanted to be "just like Daddy".

This is a trend that I would love to see continue! 

The Sculpture Garden Ice Skating Rink - Washington, DC

When we were visiting Dan's sister on Thanksgiving weekend, we went ice skating at an open air rink in Washington, DC. 

This was the kids first time skating and they did great!  I was so proud of them.

Peter was very determined to do it on his own once he got a quick lesson from Aunt Cathy.  Sarah liked staying close to the rail in case she needed to grab on.

I stayed on the sidelines and took pictures. And what horrible pictures they were.  Most of them contained random stranger's heads as they whizzed by or other people's bottoms zooming past my children.

I wanted to cut off the music, grab the microphone and tell everyone to exit the rink so that I could get some decent pictures of my children ice skating for the first time.

But alas, security wouldn't allow that so here is a random sampling of what I was left with:

It was a great afternoon and the kids, though tired, were proud of trying something new and already asking when they could ice skate again!

You would think at 7 and 9 they could cooperate.

I tried on two separate occassions to take the kid's picture for our Christmas card. 

I thought got a couple of decent shots from the first attempt until I looked at them on the computer and realized that Peter had a big smear of pizza sauce on his chin.  Lovely.

After the second attempt, in which Peter's brow was furrowed so deeply and the "smile" on his face so pained looking he looked as if he should be holding up a copy of today's newspaper and reading a speech written for him by his captors, and in which Sarah's grin made her look like an evil elf about to embark on some sort of devilish Christmas prank, this was the best I could do:

And now Peter knows more about Arkansas than I do.

I loved Peter's October project because it was done entirely at school.

At the beginning of October, the kids in Peter's class paired up and drew names of states.  Peter and Daniel worked together on Arkansas.  They researched the state in the library and online and then worked together to create a Power Point presentation.

Yesterday, they got to present their information to the class and to any of the parents that were able to come.
My mom and I were there with bells on!  Grandma doesn't like to miss anything that involves her grand babies!

Peter's teacher requires each of the kids to make a presentation to the class with each of their monthly projects.  I remember first giving presentations in middle school and I hated it.  I was always so nervous. 

I've always hated public speaking and I still do to this day. I wonder if I had been required to do oral presentations in elementary school if things would be different.  

Here's my sweet little man before the presentation:

Here he is during his presentation:

He spoke loudly, clearly and didn't mispronounce anything he was trying to say.  Great job, little buddy!

Imagination Station

The kids got out of school early on Thursday and were out on Friday for teacher conferences and all I can say is "I can't believe it's Monday already!"

The conferences went well.  Both kids are doing great at their new school.  Peter is "very intelligent" but needs to "focus a little more" and "talk a little less".  All of these were things I knew.

Sarah is "curious" and "keeps the teacher laughing".  Apparently Sarah asks her teacher questions all day long...like starting even before school starts!  What?  That's interesting.  I never would have guessed that! 

The teacher said she didn't mind and that she likes to joke with Sarah about her curiosity.  Hopefully curiosity doesn't kill the cat!

When I got up on Saturday morning, there was an email from the mom of one of Sarah's classmates.  She was asking if Sarah and 2 other girls from the class would come for a sleepover - that night.  THAT NIGHT! 

Who invites someone they don't know for a sleepover THAT SAME NIGHT?!  I declined on the sleepover, Sarah had ball practice that night anyway and I don't know this family yet.  But they did say that if the little girls couldn't make it for the sleepover THAT SAME NIGHT, they were also invited on Sunday afternoon to a party at Celebration Station.

Sarah had been talking all week about being invited to a party at Imagination Station so I assumed this is what she was referring to.  I knew she really wanted to go and since we had a good 24 hours lead time on this party, I let her go. 

Although at first, I didn't want to let her go, partially because I figured we were being invited last minute because someone else who was invited several weeks ago had to back out at the last minute.

But in the end, I'm glad I let her go because she had a blast.  She went on an on about all the fun things they did which led to Peter getting upset because all he got to do was "spend the whole afternoon at home with mom and dad" and "why does Sarah get to go to all the fun parties"?

To which I can only answer, "I don't know.  Maybe it's because she's curious and keeps the teacher laughing?"

Way too old...

The kids and I got our flu shots yesterday.  Our doctor's office runs a flu clinic 3 times in the fall.  We first got flu shots two years ago when I was working at the preschool.  I just KNEW I would get the flu if I didn't get a shot so we all got flu shots and none of us got the flu.

Last year, it was the middle of November and I called to make Peter's well check appointment and to make flu shot appointments and they said, "We've already done our clinics and we have no more shots."   I  tried to get the kid's flu shots at Walgreens but apparently only doctor's offices can give the flu shots to people under 18 so we ended up not getting flu shots.

And Sarah got the flu.

It was horrible.  She was miserable.  She missed a week of school.  Then it snowed and the kids missed another week of school and then I was miserable.

So I called in October this year to get an appointment and got one of the last spots in the last clinic they were offering.  I guess next year I need to call for flu shots in August

Anyway, we went yesterday and I have to say, my kids can put on quite a show.

The clinic is always held in the waiting room. You just go to a nurse who has your chart, sign a form and get your shot  right there in the waiting room.

Two years ago, the waiting room was packed.  My kids took their shots like men, so to speak, and other than a few quiet tears from Sarah, there were no histrionics.

This year, however, we got there and the waiting room was empty.

So Peter decided to see how much he could get away with. There was whining, there was complaining and a couple of times there was even turning and walking away from the nurse right as she was getting ready to stick him. 

When it was Sarah's turn, she did everything she saw Peter do and finally when she got the shot she screamed, "OOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I apologized multiple times to the nurse who assured me that she had been a pediatric nurse for 8 years and had seen it all.

That may be the case, but I know that she was thinking a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old are waaaaaay to big to be acting like that.

Because that's what I was thinking.

When, people? When?

Peter's 9th birthday was yesterday.   ....sigh...  How did my little man get to be nine-years old and 4 feet 6 3/8 inches tall?

When, people?  When?

Oh how I would love just one day with my little baby back.  One day to hold him, feed him, rock him and sniff his sweet little baby head.  One more day and I would be so happy.

And then after that one day, I would probably looking for my mostly self-sufficient nine-year old.  I think a days worth of diapers and a night of no sleep would be about all I could take!.

Since he celebrated his birthday with a sleepover last week, things were pretty low-key yesterday.  We  went out to dinner with my parents and my brother and then back to their house for cake, ice cream and presents.

I love this face!

Sarah, Grandpa, Peter, Grandma

I love this face too!

Grandma lighting the candles on the cake.

A new bike! 

Nine is...

Nine is...

funny

intelligent

handsome

grumpy

a guitar player

a computer gamer
a Cub Scout

serious

a great reader

talkative
shy

still a momma's boy

an excellent student

tenderhearted

loyal

Nine loves to...

swim

play on the computer

play with his best friend Colton

read in bed

play with Legos, Bayblades and Dagedar

follow tradition and do things just like we always do them

go to the beach

watch Wipeout

twirl his hair

take his time doing anything

Nine has my heart.

Happy Birthday, Peter!

More boats, more disappointment. That's life kid!

The Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta or the Cub Scout Annual Character Building Contest was this past Saturday.  Peter and Dan worked on the boat together and hoped they had a fast one. 

Peter got to use the sander and the saw a little more this year than in previous years and he got to do most of the painting. He decided he didn't want a theme boat or a decorated boat, he just wanted a fast boat.

But it wasn't meant to be.

He lost the first heat but luckily it was double elimination.  He won his next heat but lost in the the final heat to the boy who ultimately finished 3rd.

Peter was not happy and he wasn't a very gracious loser. We are still working on that.  It's a hard lesson to learn.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

Peter's boat is the blue one in the middle.

All smiles before the race.

Peter and some of his friends cheering on the younger Cubs.

Peter at the beginning of one of his races.

Peter at the end of one of his races.

Peter after losing the first heat.

Peter at the end of the competition with his medal and a forced smile for Mom.

On a positive note, there was  also a chili contest and the chili that Peter and I made won for "Hottest Chili".  We were very excited about that!  I'll post my award winning chili recipe later!

Wings, cheesecake, sleepover and best of all - NO GIRLS!

While Sarah was off camping and having a wonderful time, Peter had his best friend Colton over to spend the night.  We took the boys to Christo's for dinner.  Typically Christo's has an all you can eat pizza bar that the boys were excited to get, but of course, they don't have it on Friday.  So they got wings instead.

Eating wings is Peter's new favorite thing to do.  He started out by eating them plain and worked his way up to mild.  But on Friday night, he decided he would get medium.  Dan and I talked the boys into getting medium and mild just in case they couldn't take the heat.

It was probably a good thing because after 3 medium wings, Peter switched to mild.  Here they are enjoying their wings:

Yum.  Look at the sauce dripping off the wing Peter is holding.  Makes me wish I had a big plate of wings right now.

We told the waitress it was Peter's birthday (well, Peter was concerned because it wasn't technically his birthday until next week and he didn't want to lie so we told her we were celebrating his birthday which was true) and she rounded up all the other waitress and came out clapping and singing with a piece of cheesecake.

Look at these cute faces while all the waitresses are singing:

And look at this picture.  Peter looks a little worried that Colton might eat all of his cake!

Here's a cute picture of the two boys.

They devoured the cheesecake in about 30 seconds and then proceeded to have a sword fight with the cutlery because that's what 8 almost 9 year old boys do.

We had a fun dinner and the boys had a great sleepover...I'm just a little bummed out that I didn't get any of that cheesecake!

"Horrible" Mommy Moment

On Monday, Peter came right in from school, sat right down, opened up his backpack, pulled out his books and started to do his homework.

Without me telling him. 

There was no reminding, no nagging, no cajoling on my part and no bartering, no whining and no griping on his part.  He just came in and did it.

I was so happy, so proud.  45 minutes later, I gave a big sigh of relief.  Peter's homework was done for the night!

As I was waiting in the carpool line to pick the kids up on Tuesday, I wondered if the same thing would happen that afternoon.

I didn't have to wait much longer for my answer.

Peter got into the car and immediately started in.  "My teacher is making me redo my math homework from yesterday.  She said it was HORRIBLE!  I can't believe I have to redo that plus all of my other homework."

And so the 15 minute ride home went.  Lots of complaining, lots of griping and lots of unhappiness.

And the whole way home, I was beating myself up. 

In my excitement that Peter did all of his homework without any prompting from me, I FORGOT TO CHECK HIS MATH!

I usually glance over Peter's math to make sure he's done it all and I will randomly check several of them.   I don't typically check all of the problems because he usually has them all correct. 

But Monday's assignment was 8 word problems.  I normally check all of his word problems because he tends to get tripped up on some of them.

But on Monday, I forgot to check the homework.

He missed 4 out of 8 problems.  His teacher was right, that is horrible.

That's a 50%!  That's an F!  That's failing.

So Peter redid those 4 problems and all of the rest of his homework. 

And I checked it all.

And I will check it all tonight. And tomorrow night.  And the next night. And the next night.  Because I don't need any more "horrible" Mommy moments. 

He killed it in a good way.

Yesterday while Peter was taking his guitar lesson, Sarah and I went to Walgreens.  Apparently she and her friend Cheyanne are both going to be cats for Halloween.  Cheyanne told Sarah that she saw some vampire fangs in Walgreens that would make great spooky cat teeth. 

We got back from Walgreens just as the guitar lesson was ending.  When Zach came out, he asked if I could hear what they were playing.  I told him we had just walked in the door and didn't hear anything other than one of the piano students banging around in another room.

"I taught him how to play the beginning of the Harry Potter theme song and he KILLED IT!  He just KILLED IT!  I couldn't believe how awesome he did!"  was Zach's excited reply.

It took Peter a moment to gather up his guitar and his notebook but when he finally came out of the room, he was grinning from ear to ear.  And in the car, he went on and on about how Zach told him he couldn't believe he was able to play the song so well so quickly. 

When we got home, Peter went straight up to his room and practiced the song and then he practiced it again before bed and was practicing yet again this morning before school. 

Not to be outdone, Sarah practiced  piano before school this morning as well. 

Where are my real children?  Who has them?  Who are these little people they have been replaced with?  (I'm sure my real kids will be back this afternoon just in time for a homework battle but until then, I'm going to cherish the fond memory I have of them practicing their instruments before school without being reminded.)

And in case you are wondering, we got the $5 vampire teeth but they aren't one piece of cheap plastic.  Instead, they are two pieces of cheap plastic. Each piece fits over the first two teeth on each side of the mouth.  Sarah doesn't have enough teeth to wear these as she currently looks like a beaver. 

I wanted to leave you with a picture of Sarah's toothless smile but I don't have a recent close-up because by the time your kid has lost 8 teeth, you stop taking pictures of the new grin.  At least I do anyway. 

So I'll leave you with this shot.  It's the best I can do.  (And there's a rainbow in the background but it's all blurry.  I was trying to get a shot of just the rainbow but some little beaver-toothed cutey just can't stand the thought of a camera being around and her own little self not being in the photo kept jumping into the shot.)

Please note the scarf made out of a t-shirt that is not only inside out but also choking her because it's so tiny.  I'm sure I would have no problem marketing those bad boys.

It's lonely at the top...and sometimes that's just how we want it!

Dan and Peter spent the weekend camping with the Cub Scouts.  Dan sent me these pictures from his Blackberry.

Both of these pictures were taken from the top of Raven Knob.  It's  a long and hard hike up to the top.  They went late in the afternoon and were the only ones up there. 

And knowing my solitary boys, that's just how they wanted it. 

Neatness counts.

In addition to all of his nightly homework and weekly tests, Peter has a monthly project.  This monthly project is exactly what it sounds like - the kids get assigned a different project at the beginning of the month and they have until the end of the month to complete it and turn it in.

Peter's September project was to draw (on poster board) the floor plan of the first floor of our house.  Windows and doors had to be marked with certain symbols.  He had to create a legend with these symbols as well as any other symbol he used in the floor plan.  He also had to write directions (using left, right, North, South, East, West) explaining how to get from one room to another room.  And he has to present his map and his directions to the class.

His teacher made it very clear that this was the student's project and not the parent's project.  We could offer direction and advice but the project was to be completed by the kids.

So Dan and I offered direction and advice and Peter finally wrapped up his project this past weekend.  He spent almost 4 hours on this project.  It felt more like 14 hours when you factored in all of the whining and complaining and huffing and puffing but when I looked back it was merely 4. 

When it came time to take it to school yesterday morning Peter said he didn't want to turn it in.  At first I thought he may be nervous about doing the oral presentation but he said it was because it wasn't neat. 

And he's right.  I can't tell you how many times during those fourteen 4 hours I said, "Take your time!  Be neat!"  or my husband instructed, "Use the ruler!  You need to use the ruler when you are trying to draw a straight line!"

So, he's right, it doesn't look very neat.  But it definitely looks like he did the work himself.  And at least he can see that it wasn't as neat as it could have been.  Maybe he'll want to spend more time on the October project so it looks nicer.

Or maybe not.  Because when I asked him on Monday morning if he wanted to redo his project to make it look neater (it's not due until Thursday), he said, "Nah." 

And I hate to say it but I actually breathed a sigh of relief.  It was hard enough to get him to sit down over the past couple of weekends  and do this project.  I knew that I would not be able to get him to sit down after a full day of school and after a full evening of homework and get him to redo a project.  I know his limitations. And I know mine. 

So, here's hoping for a neater October project and at least a couple of other less-than-neat posters in his class so Peter's project doesn't stick out as the messiest.

What, me worry?

I was entering my date of birth on the computer when Peter walked up behind me.

"You were born in 1969?  So you lived in the 80's?" he questioned.

"I sure did!"

"And people wore parachute pants back then didn't they?"

"Yes, but I never did," I said shuddering at the mere thought.

"And there was a video game with a triangle that shot at big slow moving rocks?"

"Ah, yes!  Asteroids!"  I used to love asteroids on the Atari.

"And  Care Bears?  What were those things?"

"Those were cute stuffed animals from a cartoon series.  Where did you learn about all of this stuff?" I questioned, impressed with his knowledge of the eighties. 

"Mad TV"  was his answer.

Alfred E. Newman - teaching history since 1954.

What, me worry?

Just documenting something that has never happened before and may never happen again.

Peter come home this afternoon, sat down and started working on his homework.  It was time for Sarah to go to piano lessons and Peter asked if he could go to Grandma's next door so that he could finish his homework.

This. Is. Huge.

Could it finally be that after three years of trying to explain that if you just sit down and do it, then you can play the rest of the afternoon and evening with no interruptions?  Did it finally sink in? 

I hope this new behavior continues because it was so nice to be done with homework early and without any tears.

I'm getting so tired of my mascara running.