The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

Pumpkin Girl has a hermit crab named Rose. Before she came to live with us, Rose was named Larry and belonged to my cousin Mallory. Mallory is stationed in Norfolk and so were we last summer. We got to see her quite a bit which was a lot of fun. She took me to get a pedicure on my poor preggo toes and I let her do laundry at our house. She brought Rose, then called Larry, over one day for the kids to see and Larry, now Rose, stayed. Pumpkin Girl loves him, uh, her so much! Rose is the perfect pet because she is so low maintenance. Since we have been working on chores with the children, Pumpkin’s weekly Sunday chore is to take care of Rose. With my help, Rose gets a bath, fresh food and water and her cage rearranged. While we work on her cage, Rose soaks in a baking dish full of water. We found that she prefers something you can’t see through. I think she feels safer that way, and then she will come out of her shell. Today I could see that she was attempting to climb out of the dish, but I was in a hurry, having lost an hour to Daylight Saving Time and had to go bathe the children. I left Rose to soak as usual. Forty minutes later, I am changing the baby and seeing if he’s sleepy yet (hah!) and I remembered Rose. I just prayed that if she did get out, that she wouldn’t fall off the counter or into the sink and down the drain. As soon as I was able, I went to check on her. This is what I found:

Silly crab. The children thought this was tremendously funny. So now as I type, she is back in her bath and I can hear her shell hitting the dish. I’ll put her back in her cage soon.

As you can see, Rose is a very big hermit crab, so is probably very old. And she is quite the crabby crab. She gets a burst of energy after her bath and cruises around her cage, rearranging things to her liking. She does this until about Wednesday then curls herself back into her shell and sleeps until the next Sunday.

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Last summer Boo starting putting his new-found skills to use by writing me notes. He would slide them under his closed door during quiet time, since he was supposed to stay in his room. They would say things like, “Is it raining,” “can we go to the pool” and “is it snack time yet?” Sometimes during the day he would come up to me and hand me one of those magnetic doodler things and say, “Here, Mama, I wrote you a math problem.” He’d say it so casually, like doesn’t everyone write each other math problems during the day? He’d check back with me, too, to see if I had come up with the answer. One day, his quiet-time note came shooting out from under the door and it read, “Is it snack time? Is Daddy home? 2+5=____” I sent it back to him with all the answers and an additional math problem. We went back and forth a couple of times until a new note came out saying, “No more math problems!” Who can blame a mother for trying?

Yesterday morning, before I had gotten ready for the day, a note came under my door:

Front

Back

It says “Brectfist on the othr sid” (breakfast on the other side) and Eegs (Eggs). This one really made me laugh. He’d been wanting eggs for breakfast for a couple of days. I particularly like the rubber stamps he added for emphasis.

Seeing him learn and using what he learns is such a pleasure . He reads road signs, which he thinks makes him a good driver, and sometimes tries to read the computer over my shoulder. OK, that’s not such a pleasure. But the little notes he writes really make me smile. He writes so many that I can’t keep them all, just the best ones.

Watching both of my older children learn these fundamental skills of reading and math is greatly satisfying. That moment when all the hard work pays off and a whole page is read without struggle or math facts have finally sunken in- those moments are golden! And they belong to me! We share a hug and maybe a whoop (or quiet whoop, a whoop-ette, if the baby is asleep) and then a sigh of relief. The sibling who was also in the room offers congratulations and shares in the victory. We may even stop and call Daddy at work and share with him. I’m glad I don’t have to wait until the end of a long school day to hear about it. These golden moments, they are blessings not to taken lightly. I am grateful for each one of them.

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Our oldest son is being tomato staked.  I have reached the end of my patience with him in regards to how he treats his sister.  He loves her very much (though he’s too embarresed to admit it) and they are best friends.  But he just doesn’t know how to take "no" for an answer from her.  Every day during school, I need to stop and put the baby down for his nap. I tell them to finish their assignments and then take a break. Then I tell him, "Do not touch Pumpkin Girl," and to Pumpkin Girl I say, "No screaming at Boo." I tell them every single day. He is always doing something to her to provoke her. It could be pushing her, sitting on her, tickling her or even just ignoring her when she’s trying to talk to him. This results in her screaming at him. Part of this is because she is only 5 and is still learning to express herself with a talking voice, not a screaming one, and part of it is because he just won’t listen to her. In 5 years he has never once stopped doing whatever it is he is doing to upset her, so now she just goes right to screaming at him. I have literally pulled him off of her to stop him. I have talked to him and punished him until I thought my head would explode. I have told him that he needs to stop because he is abusing her and if he were an adult, he would be put in jail. That got him to stop for about a week. Then today, I went up to put the baby down and forgot to warn him. I came back down and continued reading to them when out of the blue, ds says, "I scratched myself" and shows me three welts on his arm. After a little bit of probing, he admits it was dd that scratched him. I turned to her and she immediately started crying and when I asked her what happened, she tells me that ds made her angry. OK, to make this already long story short, he was tripping her and wouldn’t stop grabbing her legs, so she scratched his arm. I was so angry at both of them, I sent them to separate rooms and went to read about tomato staking.  I am angry with dd to a lesser extent, for not using her words, but really, they are ineffective against her brother. I am very, very angry with ds for 1)being a little you-know-what to his sister, 2) continuing this behavior, 3)causing her to sin in an effort to get him to stop hurting her.

So now he is being tomato staked.  You can read more about that here. Look for it under teaching obedience.  The bottom line is, until he can demonstrate his ability to be trusted with his sister, he will be staked to my side except for quiet time and when he’s in the bathroom.  This is a very different experience for me as a parent, and I made a mistake earlier, leaving them alone while I took our lunch dishes to the kitchen.  He ended up hitting Pumpkin Girl again, causing him to lose all the rest of his time outdoors today, with or without my supervision.  The resulting afternoon was one of the best ones I’ve spent with him in a long time. Pumpkin Girl is not being deliberately staked at this time, but she tags along anyway.  After quiet time, they sat together playing with their Leappad books.  I was RIGHTTHERE with them, but not getting involved in their interaction and they were getting along so well. Then the three of us watered our newly planted flowers. Pumpkin Girl wanted to keep playing in the backyard and I went inside.  Boo stayed staked to me.  We ended up cleaning off the front porch together, with Boo volunteering to do most of the work.  He is a very good worker.  Then we made dinner together.  We are having one of his favorites, a very simple ravioli casserole.  He has asked me to teach him how to cook and said that this was the first thing he wanted to learn how to do.  I showed him how to do the first layer and let him help me.  Then I stood back and supervised him putting the second layer on.  He did a great job.  I really enjoyed the time with him.  I’m not sure how long he is going to be staked to me for this offense.  But in the meantime, we’ll have no more rotten tomatoes!

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Another beautiful day!  I tried really hard to spend my 15 minutes decluttering my living room, but the outdoors was calling. I also needed to plant my flowers.  I had already sent the children outside so I joined them. Pumpkin Girl helped me weed out the flower beds while Boo carted off the weeds in his dump truck.  Later he raked the beds and Pumpkin Girl helped me place the flowers.  The beds are in full sun, so we left room to plant tomato plants as soon as they come in at the garden center.  In Kentucky, they always say "Plant tomatoes after the Derby."  That is the first weekend of May, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for them in the meantime.

When Bip woke up, we put a hat on him and brought him out in his little chair.  After the flowers were planted we had lunch outside on our picnic bench.  As soon as quiet time was over, I sent them outside again.  It’s just too nice not to be out.  I wish the weather would stay like this.  It’s so nice that Phil even rode his bike into work.

Days like today are just one of many reasons I am glad we homeschool. Children belong outside in this kind of weather, just enjoying the sunshine, not cooped up in a classroom.  And they will be out there until the National Anthem plays at 5:00 when they come in for chores and dinner.  We as adults should get out more, too.  Had my children been gone today at school, would I have gone outside by myself?  Probably not.   I’m thinking of going back out with them right now…

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Now that we have a name for our school, Phil has been “helping” me come up with mottos. He has suggested “Death before Dishonor” or borrowing NH’s state motto, “Live Free or Die.” Fortunately, more level heads have prevailed.

My aunt emailed me today and wanted to know who Rachel is! We have plans to adopt a baby sometime after Bip turns 2. We’d like a girl and we would name her Rachel. Boo and Pumpkin Girl seem more than ready for her to arrive any day now, and are already including her in the pictures that they draw.

Bip is such a sweet, easy going little guy. He’s just happy to hang out with the family, no matter where we go. He’s getting to be mobile, too. He’s been able to roll over for a while now, but he has just recently figured out that if he rolls he can get himself closer to his dropped toys. I found him on the bed, having rolled onto his belly, looking quite pleased with himself. If he’s sitting, he can s-t-r-e-t-c-h out, pressing himself almost flat to the floor to reach something. He can scoot just a little bit, mostly in a circle. It won’t be long until all the tiny toys will move upstairs and the baby gates get installed. He has a new trick, too. If you hold your arms above your head, hands in a fist and say “yay!,” he will very seriously, very slowly, raise his hands above his head, too. He also gives out kisses. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that he was looking at me during church. I smiled at him and he sent me a kiss. He often does this when I come into view, like from another room. He also does it to get my attention. There is nothing like entering a room to kisses from a cute boy!

Last night Bip didn’t want to go to sleep. Phil took him downstairs to let me get some sleep. With Becca, the Original Amazing Non-Sleeping Baby, we would take one hour shifts during the night so that both of us could get some sleep. When we need to, we do this with Bip, too. We suspect that Becca told him that if he stays awake at night, he can watch movies with Daddy. It doesn’t happen often though and Phil, who takes the first shift, hardly ever finishes out his hour before Bip is asleep. Last night after the two of them left, I just couldn’t sleep. I ended up going downstairs and getting them. I just missed my baby. We snuggled right up together and went to sleep.

It is always good when there is a baby in the house.

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So then it was nap time.  I came out of the laundry room to find the kids desperately trying to put the phone cradle back on the buffet table.  They’d been hiding from me back there where I told them to stay out of.  So after a quick but effective talk, I sent them upstairs for quiet time.  Only they didn’t get quiet.  It took them 7 minutes of running up and down the hallway, laughing maniacly (spell check doesn’t like that one) before they settled down.  So I called them both back down – they came down and said, "yeah?", which I gently corrected- and told them how very sorry I was that they chose not to go to their rooms like I told them, but instead to run up and down the hallway.  I informed them that they would stay an extra 7 minutes in their rooms this afternoon.  And obviously, they need more practice in obedience, so we will practice right now and however long that takes, will be even more extra time for naps.  So I said, "it’s time for naps, please go up to your rooms".  They went quickly and quietly and I waited until I heard both doors close.  I called them down again.  My obedient little sheep answered, yes mama.  I complimented their manners, then informed them it was time for naps and to go upstairs.  They went without complaint.  Then I caught a whiff of breastmilk poop.  I look over at Bip who is sitting on the floor while I fold laundry and he on has his "poop face"  and then I see it…yellow poop bubbling happily over the back of his diaper and making a lovely puddle on the floor, completely missing his pants.  I sigh, get up to get a rag and he leans forward, and more poop bubbles up and over.

And here’s your laugh for the day:

I’d rather hunt with Dick Cheney than
Ride in a car with Ted Kennedy

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Well, the big ‘uns (as opposed the the little ‘uns) are off with their Dad at CCD.  Phil is filling in for Pumpkin Girl’s teacher today. Our Sunday mornings here have become less than idyllic.  Without school to do and Phil off singing in the choir, the children have tended to run amok and just not listen to me.  They have spent a good portion of their Sunday morngings with one of them sitting in the hallway and the other sitting in the kitchen.  Last week Phil and I decided that we need to have a Sunday schedule.  We moved chores and bathtime to the morning and added in time to watch a video.  At first they were disappointed that they would be having their baths in the morning until I explained to them why.  Everything went well, no fighting, no insane silliness, no time -outs.  The trash has been collected up by Boo, and Rose the Hermit Crab is enjoying her own bath.  I’ll move her back into her clean cage with her fresh food and water later. The bonus for rearranging things today is that our Sunday evening will be far less hectic.  Always a good thing.   Now, if only I knew what we were having for dinner…

As for me, after lunch I am going BY MYSELF to the PX to buy flowers for the garden.  I may wander aimlessly around the rest of the store, too.  I wish our library was open on Sundays, but then I probably wouldn’t come home until dinner time.  Not that I know what we’re having.

Well, the house is quiet and I should probably find a more productive way to spend my time.  Like rescuing Rose the Crab from her bath, folding laundry and figuring out what we’re having for dinner.  Until next time…

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Busy, busy, busy!  I spent most of my time yesterday updating our family website.  We got a new computer when we moved along with updated software.  What should have been a very simple process turned into an all day ordeal, checking for broken links, losing the homepage and general frustrations.  I didn’t get a chance to write an entry here yesterday because I chose to use my computer time, and any spare minutes I could find, to work on the website.

Having both a boy and girl in the house makes for some very amusing imaginary play.  Boo is always willing to play house with Pumpkin Girl and her friends, as long as he gets to be the guard.  Yesterday the two of them were playing princesses. Pumpkin sets up all her Polly Pocket-esque Disney princess sets and Boo gets out the Bucket o’ Plastic Soldiers.  He sets them up on the castle walls like snipers on the White House.  All princesseses need top notch security, don’t cha know? Belle’s good friend Batman presented proper ID and was allowed in for a visit.  Other times, they play soldier. Pumpkin named one of the soldiers, "Oy".  Apparently, he’d fallen behind or had been captured by the enemy, and like all good soldiers , his buddies went looking for him.  Not being well trained in stealth tactics, they tramped around the battle field calling…wait for it…."Oy!  Oy!"

When Pumpkin Girl was 2, she really wanted her own Batman, so we got her one for Christmas.  He was one well loved Batman.  One day she woke from her nap and asked me to put her hair up in pig tails.  She grabbed the Caped Crusader, who’d been resting with her and said, "Come on, Batman, let’s get piggy tails."  I can’t imagine what he thought about that.  I wonder if the other superheroes gave him a hard time later.

Chore time is now well established.  The children are doing a wonderful job and work without complaint.  However, they found some loopholes in their evening chores.  Their jobs are: fold the blankets in the living room, put all their books into the book bin, straighten up their shoes and return the toys in the basket to the playroom.  The toy basket is where I corral up any toys that have been left lying around during the day.  Well, they have decided that because the chore card says "empty toy basket",  any toys that didn’t make it to the basket don’t count.   Obviously, that was not my intent.  I’ll have to re-write that card. Pumpkin has a card for cleaning her bedroom that says "return all toys to playroom."  She took that to mean dump all the toys on the playroom floor for poor Boo to clean up.  Nice try!  Boo was rightfully outraged, so we fixed that right away.

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