You know you're a grownup if...

It's not the mortgage, the husband or the two kids that clued me in to the fact that I am an official grownup .

It's not the fact that I'm forty years old that makes me think hmmm you may finally be a grownup.

It's not the fact that after a good long run I have to use my arms to pull myself up to a standing position if I'm trying to get something off the bottom shelf at the grocery store. 

Nope.

It's the fact that the taste of a Cadbury Creme Egg makes my stomach turn.

I used to eat large amounts of these  eggs as a young girl.  And each Easter I would wait excitedly for them to be in the stores.  Because, if you will remember, they were only around as long as Easter.

Oh how I loved the taste of a Cadbury Creme Egg.

But now I prefer some nice dark chocolate.

Rich, decadent, grown-up tasting dark chocolate.

You know you're a grownup if...

Well, I'm glad you asked because I have a whole list of things...

After Sarah wrote the note about going to the store, we took her.  She had been saving up her money and decided she finally wanted to spend it.

In addition to Tooth Fairy money, it was also money she had received and been saving from her grandparents for various reasons.

So we headed to Wal-mart on Sunday afternoon and proceeded to stimulate the economy.

Peter was very upset that he didn't have any money to spend.  I had to remind him that he spent his money about a month ago.

After he finished grousing and complaining about not having any more money he said, "So what's a guy got to do to earn some money around here?"

Well, I'm glad you asked because I have a whole list of things!

We've tried several times to institute chores and allowances but the kids were never interested in receiving small sums of money for manual labor.  They prefer to receive large sums of money for doing absolutely nothing.

But things may be changing around here.

After Christmas they decided to pool the money they both received  to purchase a Wii.  They had just enough money between the two of them to buy the system.  But they also wanted a Super Mario Bros. game which cost around $50.  I told them they were going to have work around the house to earn the money to buy the game they wanted. 

So they worked very hard doing anything I asked them (and without complaint!) for three weeks and I bought them the game. We instituted a checklist.  Anytime they did a chore without complaining they got a check.  After they reached 200 checks, we got the game.

Now that Peter would like to purchase more games, he seems agreeable to the concept of working to earn money and then actually saving it for a specific purpose.  And Sarah will always do whatever Peter does so now they have a weekly chore chart and an allowance.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will actually work this time.

Who says computer games are ruining our kids?  In this case they may actually be helping mine and now I'm not the only one dusting around here!

Of course. Just sound it out!

Peter is very much like his momma in that almost as soon as his head hits the pillow, he is sound asleep.

Sarah, on the other hand, is very much like her daddy in that she is a night owl and needs some time to unwind before falling asleep.

So every night after we put the kids to bed, we can hear Sarah in her room opening and closing drawers, jumping on her bed, pulling tomorrow's outfit out of the closet, flipping through books or whatever may strike her fancy.

And many times, we will find notes that she has written to us on our bed or somewhere in her room.

She wrote the following note to us on Saturday night:

It says:

Mom and Dad
Tomorrow can we go to the store
I will bring my money
Please!

As I was reading it out loud to her and trying my hardest to make out all of the words I got stuck on "sowr" or store.  I was struggling with it and pronounced it "sour" knowing that wasn't the word she had in mind but not knowing what she really meant.

Sarah in her most exasperated and teacher-like tone said, "Mommmmm!  If there's a word you don't know, just sound it out!"

Well if our President is black...

I feel like I owe an apology to all the parents in Sarah's class.

I have just added one more thing to their Tooth Fairy to-do lists by perpetuating the latest in Tooth Fairy lore.

Apparently, according to Jennifer's daughter Caity (who is almost 9 and is an expert on such things), if you leave a glass of water out for the tooth fairy she will drink it and the water will turn whatever color she is.

When Caity told us this last year, I said to myself, there's no way I'm playing along with that.

But then Caity lost a tooth and her tooth fairy was red and then her brother lost a tooth and his tooth fairy was blue.  And I knew by how excited Peter and Sarah were with the whole thing that once again, I would be eating my words. 

Peter has lost three teeth and has yet to think about leaving out the glass of water but last night as we were placing Sarah's tooth under her pillow she declares, "I want to know what color my tooth fairy is.  Get a glass of water!"

And then Peter excitedly joins in, "Yeah, yeah!  Get a glass of water Mom."

Is it not enough that I have to remember to constantly have a wallet full of singles just in case one of the kids happens to lose a tooth?  Now I am also supposed to remember to put some food coloring in a glass of water while I'm trying to slide said singles under their the pillow without waking them?

I tried to talk her out of it but she had her mind made up.  So we left a glass of water out and the kids went to bed wondering what color Sarah's tooth fairy would be.

Before I went to bed, I placed three gold $1 coins under her pillow and remembered to remove the tooth.  And then I placed a couple of drops of blue food coloring and a couple of drops of red food coloring in the glass. I thought a purple tooth fairy would be nice.

Imagine my surprise when woke Sarah up this morning and turned on her light to see what color the tooth fairy was.

Apparently I got too much food coloring in the glass.

My husband, knowing I was going for purple, snickered a little and said, "Hmmm...apparently the tooth fairy is black!"

Sarah looked confused for a moment.  I'm sure she was thinking that fairies should be pales yellow, light blue or a delicate shade of pink.  But then she shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "whatever".

And I thought to myself, well, if our President is black, it only stands to reason that the Tooth Fairy is black too!

Finally!

Ever since this happened last April, Sarah has been wiggling and jiggling in the hopes that one of her little teeth might be loose.

About three months ago one of them finally seemed like it might be a teeny tiny bit loose so she has been working on that one ever since.

Finally this morning at breakfast it came out!

Posting

She is floating on cloud nine.  When her friends at school started losing their teeth, they all thought she lost two teeth as well because of the big gap on the top and on the bottom.  But now it's official!

Love that toothless grin, baby girl!

Either this child embarrasses easily or I sing worse than I thought.

I was listening to the radio this morning as I was driving the kids to school.

The kids were in the backseat.  Peter was playing his DSi and Sarah was flipping through a book.

It was a rare moment of quiet on a normally hectic school morning and as I was enjoying the solace,  I did the unthinkable - I started to softly sing out loud to the song playing on the radio.

"Mom!  Could you please stop singing?!  You're embarrassing me!" said my horrified 5-year-old daughter from the backseat.

 Oh, sweetie, you think you're embarrassed now?  Just wait a few years until I'm singing and you have some actual friends in the car with you.  Then we'll talk embarrassed.

Embarrassed?  Please!  I ought to make that girl ride the school bus.

Jerry Seinfeld he ain't.

Peter's Cub Scout pack visited a local Christian radio station last night.

As I was tucking him into bed he told me that he had wanted to tell a joke on the air.

"Oh, really?  What joke would you have told?" I inquired.

"I made up a good one.  It goes like this:  What do you call a horse with a mustache?"  he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"I don't know.  What?"

"I don't know either.  It's a horse with a mustache for crying out loud!"  he said collapsing into a heap of giggles.

Ba-dump-bump!

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Last Fall, Peter got all four of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  I got him one and my mom got him the other three at the school's Fall Book Fair.  (Our school has a Grandparent's Day where all the grandparents are invited to have lunch with the kids and then join them at the book fair where hopefully they will spend oodles of their retirement money.)

Peter devoured these books.  Here is a picture I took of Peter reading one of them last October.  I was inside taking this picture through a window because I didn't want to disturb him.  Look at his little furrowed brow - isn't it cute?

He has since read each of them at least twice so when I heard there was a movie coming out, I knew we would be going.

We took the kids this Saturday and what a cute movie it was!  We laughed, we giggled, and we were grossed out.  It was the perfect movie for a 7-year-old boy!  (And a 40-year-old girl for that matter.)

Last week at the school's Spring Book Fair, Grandma got Peter the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Journal and the poster.  Peter has been drawing his own comics and writing in this journal ever since. 

The only problem is that he keeps asking me when there's going to be a new book out.  The fourth book just came out in September so he's disappointed when I tell him it's probably going to be another year or more.

Meanwhile, I guess he'll just keep re-reading the first four and writing his own diary.

Although both Greg and Peter will tell you - "It's not a diary.  It's a journal!"

The Sleepover

Last Friday night we let Sarah have a little sleepover.  Caity and Cheyanne were going to spend the night with her to make up for the fact that she missed Colton's birthday sleepover a couple of weeks before.

Peter and Dan were at a Boy Scout lock-in so it was the perfect opportunity for a little girls-only fun.

Sarah was so excited about this sleepover.  She talked about it for days and even made a list of activities:

In case you can't read this list it says:

Talk with girls
Eat pizza
Watch TV
Wii
Cat
Color
Sleep

Two days before the party Sarah told me she wanted to bake a cake.

"Bake a cake?" I questioned.

"For the party," was her reply.

"I'm busy trying to cook dinner now.  Maybe I'll get a cake at the store on Friday."

"O.k. but make sure Hannah Montana is on the cake."

"Hannah Montana?  I'm not getting a Hannah Montana cake for the sleepover!"  Those things are expensive just because they've got Miley's face plastered all over them.

"I was thinking just a plain little cake," I offered.

"How about one with flowers?" she grudgingly countered.

So even though this was just a regular sleepover and not a birthday party, we had birthday cake.

And the girls did everything on Sarah's list - even sleep.  So everyone was happy - even Mommy.