My Son

This is my 8 year old son, Tyler. As I have said on many occasions, he is my soul walking around outside my body. We are two peas in a pod, I am afraid. I passed down many terrible traits to him, both personality-wise and physically. He has my bony legs and feet, my teeth, a constant tummy-ache, the need to save and collect everything, my fine art of being sloppy, my moodiness, and my reading obsession. I tried, but he got all these things from me anyway. We get each other, though. Being empathetic towards his flaws does not make it any easier, though.

I am afraid we won't make it to his 9th birthday. One of us isn't going to make it, anyway.

Tyler was the best baby, toddler, and small child. So obedient, polite, and a joy to be around. I could take him anywhere and people would always comment on what a precious child he was. I knew it wouldn't last forever, but I hoped, deep down inside, that I was wrong.

Now he is 8. And potty humor reigns supreme. He loves Power Rangers and Pokemon cards. He lives to harass his little sister. He pushes, screams, and scares her on an hourly basis. Let's not even discuss behavior in the car. I'd rather take a bobcat on a road trip. His room is ALWAYS a pigsty. He drips toothpaste from one end of the bathroom to the other. He pops the knees out of new jeans within a month of getting them. And, he will wear the same socks for days on end if no one intervenes.

I. HAVE. A. SON.

And he is a doozie. I get so frustrated with him, and just when I am at my breaking point, I will hear him whisper, "Hey Em. Will you sleep with me tonight?" Or, "I'll play Polly Pockets with you if you want." Maybe he'll be human afterall.

In the car this week, he asked me what it meant to be mature. I thought about it a while and felt it was easier to explain what it meant to be immature. We talked about different examples of maturity versus immaturity, and he sat back and took that all in. Then he said, "So basically, I am mature at school and church, but immature at home and in the car." Yes, Tyler, that is exactly right. Anywhere you are with your mother, you are immature. I guess I'd rather have him be mature for other people than me...

But, at the end of the day, he is my precious boy and I love him beyond words. So concerned about his friends' feelings and looks out for kids that need extra help. So deep in his faith at such a young age. So crazy about his family.

If you'll excuse me, I have to go wade through piles of webkinz and legos and Magic Tree House books to get to his dirty clothes.

My favorite gifts

I have decided that since I am out of school and have some time to blog, I am going to devote each day to someone in my family. Today is yet another crazy day, so that might not happen. But, I will TRY!!!

Ahhhhh...

Today is the first day in a long time that I have had time to just breathe. I have lots to do around the house, but for the first time in weeks, NOTHING has to be done TODAY. I am officially on my Christmas break, so maybe I can get caught up on blogging. I never blogged about Halloween, Senior High Retreat, or Thanksgiving and I don't know if I ever will!!! I am just going to pick up with December.

We went to see Santa Claus last night. I THOUGHT Thursday would be a great night, but I was so wrong. We waited for an hour to see the big man, but we were waiting on Brent for dinner anyway so it was fine. I did not make the kids dress up this year, per Tyler's request. He also gave me an ultimatum while in line...no more Santa pictures after age 10. I told him we would see. I know he is questioning things and that I am lucky to still have him believing at 8, but deep down, he knows. I know he does. But, he just plays along with it all. I think for my sake!

I had my class party yesterday and it was my last day of school until January 6th. I so need this break to take some time for myself. I love to do for others, but I have to remind myself that I am no help to anyone if I am a Grinch.

Involuntary blog break

Ever since I have gotten back from Dallas at the beginning of November, it has been a constant stream of deadlines and commitments. I am a bit at the end of my rope, but I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Tonight is my only night home this week and I am using it to play catch-up with my life. It feels good to get caught up a little! Everything should settle down a bit after this weekend and I can get back to blogging about our misadventures!

A dream come true!

Ok, so I spent the past few days at the NAEYC conference in Dallas. About 20,000 preschool and kindergarten teachers under one roof...you can only imagine.

Being the insane Sesame Street fan that I am, I nearly wet my pants when I found out that Bob would be teaching a music class at the conference. I got to play the hand bells with him on the stage. It was very exciting! I got to meet him and get a picture with him. He was so great and so genuinely glad to meet everyone. He did ask me how old the girl I was buying his newest cd for was...I was like, "33...you got a problem with that?"

One quick post

I am running around like crazy trying to get ready to go to Dallas tomorrow. I am going to the National Association for the Education of Young Children conference. But, I just had to post some pictures of my sweet Tyler with his new glasses!

A for effort

I tried, but I couldn't get totally caught up today. Maybe tomorrow...

Elegant Event

In my class, we study a letter a week, much like in a kindergarten class. (We have had students raise their hands the first week of kindergarten and tell the teacher that they already know what she is talking about!) When we do letter "E", we have an "Elegant Event" which is a fancy party where we only eat "E" foods...egg rolls, ears of corn, deviled eggs, eclairs, and elbow macaroni. It is always so much fun and the kids love being all grown up!

Shopping Day, part two

So our next stop was Tyler's surprise...the Lego store. He overheard Brent's mom ask Emily on the phone if we had been to the Lego Store yet and he FLIPPED OUT! He could not stop laughing!

He got the one hour time limit as well. He had a blast. Emily loved it too. She found something she wanted, but Gran has already gotten it for her for Christmas, so I had to play the "You already got something" card. They both LOVED the Darth Vader made out of legos.




Now imagine spending the rest of the day shopping with 2 kids that had their dream toys in a bag in the car. Not easy, let me tell you. It was actually a pretty dissapointing outlet shopping day for the grown-ups, so after supper, we went back to the mall where the AG store was for us to do some shopping. I bet Santa did some shopping, too!

Shopping Day, Part one

We decided that Monday would be shopping day. The first stop was Emily's surprise. We told Tyler the night before about the American Girl Store, so he knew. We were walking in the parking lot and she actually fell on the ground when she realized where she was!



We gave her one hour to stay in the store. It was amazing. Each item was displayed with little cards that had the picture and bar code on the card that you took to the cash register. Tyler immediately started collecting cards. After about 5 minutes, Emily looked up and whispered "Can I get one?" like she knew I would say no. She could not believe it when I said yes! She would choose a doll, carry it around for a while, then change her mind and choose another. She finally chose Mia. I was sad because I wanted Kit. Emily really wanted the concession stand but had to leave it there.

Six Flags

We spent our Sunday at Six Flags. This was both a great day and a terrible day. We had a great time, but I have realized I am officially done with roller coasters. I LOVE roller coasters. We went to Kings Island a couple of years ago and I was seeing some signs that my body was not happy with the roller coasters. This trip to Six Flags confirmed it. Every bone in my body ached and my head felt like it would explode. I am so bummed! Looks like it's the tin lizzies for me from now on! Next thing you know, I'll need a hover-round.
We got the kids on an upside down coaster, which they did not know was going to go upside down. I nearly wet my pants at their reactions. It was hilarious. Emily was terrified, but still says it was her favorite thing. Tyler, on the other hand, would file for independence from us if he could. He was MAD. There was a Thomas train ride that was really for little kids, and Tyler was mortified that we asked him if he wanted to ride it. Emily really did, so he "did it for her." He secretly loved it. There was lots of fun Halloween stuff to do, too. It was a great day and the kids loved Six Flags. It just made me want to go to Disney!!!

Please be kind and rewind

I cannot believe it is the last day of October and I have done so little blogging! Where did my month go??? I am going to try really hard to catch up today. I need to blog about our trip to Atlanta, Elegant Event, High School Musical 3, Farm Breakfast (Oh, I have already covered that), Trunk and Treat, Tyler's eye appointment, and the Halloween party flop of the century.

Ok...I'll start with Atlanta. We went to Atlanta for our fall break. We checked the kids out a little early on Friday the 10th. Everyone was so happy and fine for the first couple of hours. We popped a movie in and Tyler fell asleep. Very odd. We stop in B'ham at Cracker Barrel and he leaned over on my shoulder. He was burning up. I went to the car and got the thermometer...he had a 102* fever. WHAT??? We scarfed our supper and got back in the car. I gave Tyler some Tylenol. A while later he said, "Hey mom, what flavor was that Tylenol you gave-------barf, barf, barf. Everywhere. All over the van. We were in the middle of nowhere and somehow got a roll of paper towels and some garbage bags and somewhat cleaned up the mess. We got to Atlanta late that night and bathed puke-boy and put the kids to bed. I washed out whatever I could in the tub. It was terrible. We had car mats all over that hotel room.

We got up Saturday morning and Tyler said he felt fine. He had a slight fever, so I gave him some Tylenol and we headed to Stone Mountain. We had the greatest time. We rode the train, explored all over, went to the little town, and rode to the top of Stone Mountain. It was so windy, it nearly blew the kids over, literally.
All of these pictures are of some of the pumpkins dressed up as story book characters.





Here are some shots of Stone Mountain. Tyler loved to repeat the fact that a tall man could stand in the horse's nostril!



These are from the top of Stone Mountain. They actually had to close it down later in the day because it was so windy!





There was a neat ropes course for the kids...also one for adults, but the wait was 2 hours.





We waited for more than 2 hours for the Laser Light Show. We rested on some blankets and ate and read during this time. Tyler was over Stone Mountain and was running fever again. (I know, mean mom) The light show was great, but Emily was scared of the fireworks. That has never been an issue before, but she was freaking out. It was a great day and we plan to spend more time at Stone Mountain the next time we go to Atlanta.







Oooh! One more thing. My kids had their first chicken on a bone. At first, they thought it was great, but Tyler eventually decided that it creeped him out. Amen.