A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to School today...

For those who know, love, and have cared for my little boy, it's no secret that Charlie has a way of charming/negotiating a better deal for himself. He'll work any situation to his advantage, whether by being cute, or bringing up his excellent behavior, or really any angle he can get. For example, when he was 4, he'd ask for a cookie, and I'd say "sure honey you can have a cookie" the automatic response would be "can I have 4? Because I'm 4 years old"... I'd lay bets that he would be a successful contract negotiator.

This morning, he was up early, I heard him up while I was in the shower. As usual, he was invading my presonal space and in the bathroom with me within a minute. He asked if we could go to Sonic for breakfast ths morning, because "Mom, I'm dying for a breakfast burrito, and I'm going to go to Albuquerque in a couple weeks, and I have had good days at school everyday". So I told him if he got ready for school with no whines and with complete cooperation, I'd take him there for breakfast this morning. So our morning progressed easily and as promised I took him to Sonic.

After he'd been eating for a bit, he said, "Oh mom, my throat, it hurts, like in the back, reeeealll bad.."

uh-oh we were both on antibiotics for strep the last 2 weeks, and I automatically thought it wasn't cleared up for him.

So I said "well I guess I'll have to take you back to the doctor to have them make sure you are over the strep." PAUSE, Pathetic face, PAUSE, "well I'm sure a mint would help, oh look there's one in the Sonic bag" hahaha! He had to set up the mint request because he was sure it would be denied (no candy in the morning)...

toothless wonder!

Today is Sunday, 2/28/10, and Charlie is one tooth shy of a mouthful!

The loose tooth literally popped out in the bathtub, no pain, no blood, but A WHOLE LOTTA TEARS. Charlie has taken the loss very hard. I'm not sure why, but losing that first tooth is akin to losing something that he loves very much.

I'm hoping the next 19 losses are a bit easier on him.

We've been discussing the tooth fairy for a while now, we even saw the critically acclaimed movie "Tooth Fairy" starring the great thespian Duane "The Rock" Johnson. But it seems as though that didn't really do anything to appease the fear that some person/thing? is going to break into Charlie's room and take his tooth. I offered the option to just not put the tooth under his pillow and I could just pay him, but he didn't accept. I asked him what he thought that the tooth fairy would bring him for his very first lost tooth and he said in between sobs this morning "probably 5 dollars and 4 cents" ... typcial

Happy Twenty-Ten

Happy New Year! Twenty-Ten/Two Thousand Ten/TwoO-OneO...whatever you want to call it, so far it's been a dousy, and by dousy I mean sick, and not in the irritating teenagery slang way to say cool, we've actually been sick (me first, and him now), sandwiched with a birthday in there...

January 8th, the day my life forever changed, has once again rolled around...My baby is 6! I know it's not fair to call him a baby, but like he himself said on the morning of his birth in TwoO-OneO, "mom, don't be sad, no matter how old I am, I'll always be your baby, oh my gosh is my tooth still there?"

Yah, he's got a really loose tooth, which he is determined NEVER to lose, EVER. He's been on a liquid diet almost since the day he realized it was super loose, anything to avoid the inevitable. Tales of the tooth fairy are of no comfort to him, afraid of the hurt that he perceives will come and the blood that may or may not come , the promise of a gift under his pillow means very little at this point. I've created a monster.

Here's to a happy twenty-ten! Loose teeth, 6 years old, graduating kindergarten, learning to ride his new scooter, losing training wheels, and tying shoes! And probably about a million other awesome things, I think this is going to be a great year!

The Polar Express!

What an amazing weekend we just had! I'm pretty sure that in 30 years when Charlie & Noah have their own families and are creating memories, they will most likely remember this weekend.

We (my sister's family, my step-brother, and Charlie & I) spent last weekend in Branson, we planned the trip around Sam's birthday, though unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time with the birthday girl, AND the Polar Express!

We boarded the Branson Scenic Railway (aka Polar Express) at the depot downtown near the Branson Landing, traffic was...well...Branson. In other words very, very, busy. Lucky for me, I was a passenger and Uncle Paul was driving! Branson is new to the Polar Express experience, and it showed - organization was severely lacking. HOWEVER!!! The kids had a magical time. It was a nice long and beautiful ride thanks to Branson's gorgeous scenery and light shows throughout. That all led to the culmination of the trip (according to Charlie) the "hot" chocolate, followed closely by the "hug from Santa" .

Loved Loved Loved it!

a few funny things

I haven't blogged in a bit, so much going on. We are getting ready to hit the holiday season full-on this week. Charlie is out in Albuquerque visiting his dad and spending Thanksgiving with the Kofahl's. I've taken the opportunity to get Christmas shopping done, and get the house as clean as can be before the Griswold in me takes over and Christmas pukes all over my house!

This year for Christmas Charlie has asked Santa for "a treasure box, filled with chocolate covered cherries and five bucks". So looks like Sants has a fun one on his hands! Santa will probably throw in a special jingle bell & snowglobe (like he usually does) and maybe a tassle or two.

I also found out from my mom that I have an aspiring musician on my hands. I've always known Charlie loved & responded to music, and secretly hoped that I was raising the next virtuoso or American Idol. Last week, mom was taking Charlie to school and they were listening to the violin virtuoso, David Garrett's CD. My mom asked him if he liked that music, and Charlie said he LOVED it, mom then wanted to know if Charlie wanted to play an instrument and what would it be... Charlie replied "the triangle - because it has a beautiful sound" :) Love him so much... So looks like the keyboard my sister got for him will become an entire band with the addition of a triangle...

my sweet boy

Yesterday was a trying day. Charlie was "acting out" that's PC for "he was being bratty". He had a rough day of bad behavior at school...Just randomly talking for no reason to no one except himself in class. (He said, I was just thinking about what I wanted to play with at recess, and I said it out loud instead of in my mind). He also had to move his "stick" from green (good)to yellow (warning) for distracting others while they were working. (He said, he thought of something he wanted to tell Faith).

Fast forward to the end of the day - we needed some groceries, so on the way home from school we ran to Hy-Vee. Charlie was starving so I decided to eat at the cafe there. Charlie got a piece of pizza and salad bar for me. For some odd reason, I let Charlie have a small kiddie-size cup of fruit punch, or more accurately high fructose corn syrup with red food coloring. WHY?? WHY?? WHY?? Why did I break my own rule of no sugar after 5:00? Oh yah - I lost my mind. The deadly combo of HFCS & food coloring turned him into a crazy, whiney, mess, who couldn't seem to control himself.

As a result of my stupidity, my little boy, who was already trouble for his behavior at school, managed to spend most of the evening in his room "thinking". At about 8:15 he had done his time, and we were sitting on the couch talking about the day and watching TV, and he got up and ran to his room. He came back with a beaded necklace that he had made several months ago and put it in his backpack. I asked why he did that. He let me know that a little girl in his class had been playing on the monkey bars and had broken her necklace that day, and she cried and cried. He wanted to give her a new necklace so that she wouldn't feel so sad.

OH my sweet boy...I've tried to hard to teach him empathy and kindness, and I think it worked. Sometimes I feel like I spend 95% of my time correcting bad behavior, but it's moments like that, that make me so proud! Thank you Lord that my baby cares about others!!

Howdy Partner

Halloween 2009!!! Fun Fun Fun - talk about a haul of candy! Charlie's bag is filled to the top overflowing with tummy-ache producing goodies. In the grand tradition of me being "fun mom" on the night of Halloween, I let Charlie eat all he can handle, then he turns the rest into me for a prize....ala Toys R Us! I'll bring the rest of the candy to work to let my co-workers get tummy-aches instead...

Charlie was a very serious cowboy/sheriff. He had such a cute costume this year. He looked adorable, and it made me thankful that he's past the freaking out about dressing up stage.

I couldn't help but notice how many people in my neighborhood needed a refresher on Halloween Etiquette. So many people had their lights on, even the front door open and didn't answer the door?!? WTH? My favorite quote of the night when we came to one such house "well that Jack-O-Lantern didn't light itself, somebody must be home" LOL - true dat!