I Love This Kid :)

Silas has been asking for a mohawk for a couple months now.  I wasn't too keen on it during school but now that school is out, Justin decided to whip out the clippers and give Si a trim on the deck. 

He absolutely loves it - he was grinning from ear to ear all evening after the cut.  Ella and Mason were oohing and aahing over it and I think that made him feel really special.

He said something funny the other day -

Me: where did  you get those mosquito bites?

Si: when I was outside eating my ice cream sandwich, because mosquitoes like ice cream sandwiches

Me: ouch

Si: yeah, I wish the mosquito would have taken bites from the ice cream and not ME.

It was funny how it said it - very deadpan :)

I travel to Los Angeles this week for work.  I'm excited but I always get nervous about leaving the household.  We all know it won't run nearly as smoothly without me (ha ha) - hopefully they will survive! ;)  

Today was an incredibly gorgeous day.  The temps went from 90 yesterday to 75 today - it was beautiful! 

This was Silas on the swings...

This will be one of those photos that I'll look back at and know just how the day felt...

Much more to update - we had NY Youngers in town this weekend, but the alarm will go off in 4.5 hours and I need to get to sleep!

Crazy Kids

Me: what are you doing? 

Silas: Dancing to the music in my head. 

Me: what music in your head? 

Silas: Brass Monkey, that funky monkey.

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Ella had a school citizenship project.  This was her final project (to give examples of how to be a good citizen.)

 

Patriotic is my favorite :)  It looks like we've got our work cut out for us in the spelling department!  

A Sampling of...Stuff

From none other than Silas James:

Mama, how does God make ear wax?  and where does God even live?

*

Does God make cat butts?

Me: probably

Si: does he touch them?

*

Will I die if I don't eat my vegetables?

*
Is Michael Jackson dead?  Is he a Zombie?
*
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And a few comments:

Mom, Ella is lying through her teeth gaps!
*

Si: every day I dream about weird stuff

Me: what kind of weird stuff?

Si: eating healthy stuff like milk and I get fat. I don't know how to change that.

Me: what do you want to dream about?

Si:Scooby Doo movies.

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And a text between Ella and her daddy (on the way home from a fun day)

ella - I haded so so so so so so so much fun!

jp - Awesome! I'm so so so so so so so so glad that you did! Lyg

ella - I am so happy you respondid

jp - always

ella-  ok

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the other morning I was rather startled when I looked out my kitchen window and saw a duck standing on my deck. 

He hung out for a bit and then decided our place was pretty boring. and loud.

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Silas got a bike this year.  It became too pain for me to watch him bang his knees on the tricycle handlebars any longer.

  

I should have gotten the next size up but it'll do for this year.  He loves it and maybe we can try it without the training wheels...

And happily, it's tree climbing season again.

And this picture makes me smile...Ella's class is taking a trip around the world.  Their first stop is France.  This is a picture of her teacher/flight attendant giving out the in-flight snack.  I love that she adores her teacher!

(no wonder her teacher thinks she is such a sweetie pie!)
 

O Cannon Bomb, O Cannon Bomb

We put our tree up a little earlier than usual this year (several weekends ago). We made the annual trek to Lowe's because that means I get to avoid walking around a tree farm in -8 degree weather.  We are NEVER at Lowe's more than 12 minutes total.  And Silas and I are usually back in the car warming up after 6 minutes.

We got home, turned on the Christmas music, poured the eggnog and got out all the decorations. I noticed that Silas was singing very heartily to "O Tannenbaum" (Nat King Cole version) but Si's words were a little off - "O CANNON BOMB!  O CANNON BOMB!! Mah blah mah bah bu bee bo. O CANNON BOMB!  O CANNON BOMB!  Ba dum ba dee bo moo boo."  I know I'll never hear the words to that song the same again...

Ella decided that she wanted to be the Christmas Lion.

This was her wreath that she made last year in Kindergarten

- it now hangs on her bedroom door.

It's nice to have a (tall) teenage boy in the house for things like helping his dad string the lights on the tree - that is a job that I don't care for!

I like this picture (below) because you can't see who's holding the lights.

Mason was walking with them and I hadn't changed the shutter speed - hence the "ghost" 

Miss Ella Boo is also very helpful in the decorating of the tree - she loves to hang the ornaments and her job is to be the angel topper (at least while she is still small enough for Daddy to lift her up there)

We've been lucky that Cleo has not showed any interest in the tree or batting the ornaments off of it.  She is much more interested in sleeping in the basket of junk on top of Ella's book bag (she sleeps on it everyday if Ella leaves it on the floor or anywhere accessible).  Like I've said, she's a funny cat.

I CANNOT believe that Christmas is a week away.  It totally snuck up on me this year, especially with the events of the last few weeks.  I was out shopping until 11pm tonight (sounds worse than it was - I didn't even go until 9pm).  Target was dead and it was a good time to go (thanks to Margie, otherwise I'd have been in my pj's in bed at 9:05). 

I'm feeling pretty good - starting to bounce back and somewhat ready for the holidays.  I think the kids are going to be happy with Santa this year and I am taking time off between Christmas and New Year's to get some organizing done around the house, recharge myself, do some fun stuff with the kids AND to mourn turning 40.  I think I see some massages, pedicures and wine in my near future...

A Silas Funny

The phone just rang and I answered:

me: Hello?
telemarketer: Hi, this is John from Yada Yada Chimney sweep company
me: Oh, no thanks, we don't have a chimney...
(hang-up)

Silas: Mama, was that Santa??

Adorable

Watching Marley and Me yesterday (for the 100th time over the weekend)...

Silas: Is Marley cute?

Me: yes, he is cute - he's adorable.

Si: what does adorable mean?

Me: it means very, VERY cute

Si: I'M adorable...aren't I?

The Death of Me....

We all know Silas...we know he's rotten...we know he says whatever he thinks - which most 3 year olds do. The problem is: WHAT HE THINKS!

I get this email today from Kelly:

"has Silas been talking about seeing people naked lately? or some discussion about him seeing (or not seeing) people naked?...it's all he's talked about the last few days"

Well, I can tell you he isn't seeing much in the way of naked around here. And I'd imagine not at Kelly's. And he wouldn't see naked at my parents if his life depended on it...so...

me: "well, he has been asking a lot if (so and so) will laugh if they see him naked. but we haven't had any naked talks...or rather...talks about nakedness"

kelly: "he asked the same thing to (little girl S) - if you see me naked will you laugh?"

me: "maybe he's channeling Mason's thoughts?? seems much more like a 14 year old would think." UGH!!!!!

So, we did have the nakedness talk to Si when he got home. It's not polite to ask about nakedness, talk to anyone about nakedness, ask anyone if they want to get naked...ask if they want to see you naked. Nothing. No naked talk.

Okay. all is fine and dandy until after dinner. Then I take Mason's phone because he is slacking on this homework. I look to see that he's been on Myxer (is that bad?) and I see that some of the ring tone names are really raunchy.
"Mason I don't really want you on this site. The stuff is raunchy."
Mas: "huh, what, why not, what's bad??"

I read down a few of the songs: sex this, bonk that, Boats and Hoes, yada yada..

when up pipes Si: "Boats and Hoes mama, that rhymes - BOATS AND HOES RHYME!"

Well...
1. NO they don't rhyme
2. How can I discipline (him or Mas) when I'm laughing my butt off?
and
3. Is he going to go to school tomorrow saying that "boats and hoes" rhyme and talk about being naked? Can a 3 year old get kicked out of preschool??

Silas Says...

Si: Sometimes on Sundays we have ice cream for breakfast.

me: we do?

Si: yes

me: When have we done that?

Si: On Sundays.

Overheard:

Silas: Ella, are you my sister?

Ella: Yes

Silas: If I was sinking in Bef and Greg's pool, would you save me?

Ella: (pause, pause)...Maybe.

Silas: Okay.

Ella: I would try so I could practice swimming.

Only Silas...

Last night we were all in the van, Silas and Ella are in their car seats with their drink cups.
Silas says "I've got boogies on my cup"
"Gross!" Ella and I both yell.
"Did you get it off?" I ask him.
"No" - and I notice he's about to take a drink.
"STOP!" I tell him as I hand him a tissue.
Upon closer inspection I realize that the "boogies" are really just pulp from the lemonade that he's drinking (Thank God) but the fact that HE thinks it's boogies and is still going to take a drink...GROSS!

And last night he was also running around saying "Knock Knock, it's party o'clock!" Something that (I swear!) Justin and I don't go around saying... not even on Fridays. No clue where he heard this.

Words to Remember

Some recent Si and Ella words....

Silas:
"Mama...the ducky bathroom toilet is plogged again!"

"Can I help you water the pasta?" (he means Hosta plants...)

Ella:
Silas asks - "Can I drive when I'm this big (holding his hands out)?
Ella responds - "You have to be 16 to drive and 18 to get kicked out of the house!"

Today at the zoo when we're looking at the new baby elephant...
Ella: "Wow, how big are elephant eggs???"

My Sweet Boy

Silas just woke up and came downstairs...rushing to the potty. I asked "Do you have to go to the potty?" (duh)
He says in his sweet, baby voice, "yes - and then I'll hug you and kiss you" :-)

I just love him...

Remedy for Being Cold

Another Silas James moment today. I was pulling my sweater around me and said:

"oh, I'm cold"
"you're cold mommy?" he asked.
"yes, I'm cold"
"maybe you need to go poopy" he says.

1. Does a 3 year old know what sarcasm is and how to use it?
2. Do I really say that to them every time there is a bellyache, toothache, boo-boo?
3. Reminded me of Tim Hawkins talking about moms:

Cinco de Mayo

It was a nice evening on Cinco de Mayo and since I still needed some shots for my shutter speed assignment, I decided to break out the camera.

There wasn't a lot of movement with Ella in the hammock but she
certainly looked cute

Silas and the other kids were running around, throwing balls,
playing golf - so I was able to get some "action" shots.

Justin was working (the Baker's room and garage addition officially kicked off today!) and Mason was hitting golf balls with my dad so it was just me, Ella and Si. We invaded the neighbor's and hung out with a margarita or two...

Jodi was kind enough to feed Si some tomato soup (one of his all-time favorites)
which he somehow got sloshed into his hair...

and began dripping down his forehead which he wasn't thrilled about.

Silas is getting to be a big-boy. He has never been able to say "vanilla" - he has always called it "va-ella" and then gets a kick out of it because it has his sister's name in it. Last week he said he can now say "vanilla" the right way. Makes me sad :-(

When I Get Big...

Silas informed me this morning that...

"when I get big I'm going to buy my underwear at K-Mart and I'm going to have a big pee-pee and my underwear will have a hole in it and I am going to go pee-pee out of the hole". And he said all that without taking a breath of air.

He also informed my mom a couple weeks ago that his pee looks like chicken noodle soup (but without the noodles I hope) - he called her in to see it.

And while I'm divulging info, I should also mention yesterday's ride home from Kelly's. I hear the kids in the back, talking funny - accents or something. Somewhat British sounding. Just being goofy. Silas likes to copy Ella (and that often makes her mad) and I hear Ella say something to him, then says it again, and again...until finally I realize that she is calling him a "Smart Ass" but with a British accent. "Smaaaat Auss" is how it sounded until I asked her what she was saying, to which she clearly replied: SMART ASS. She has clearly been watching too much Benny Hill....

Measure of a Good Day

Silas now likes to pee standing up. We've had a few issues with this...mainly bad aim. Today he was very pleased with himself - and exclaimed:
"hey, hey - look! I didn't pee back there (pointing to the back of the toilet seat) or on my fingers!"

Out with the Old...In With the Older...

As we continue on our purging binge in our house (binge/purge/binge/purge...a very vicious JUNK cycle around here!), this past weekend we tried to tackle the front room. When we put the hardwood down, the toy box got moved to the front room and it has become a big Free For All...

This is what the room looked like mid-purge, but that's what it looked like before too...not good! I'm happy to say that all (or at least 99.9%) of the toys were able to be contained in the toy box after tossing a bag full of total junk.

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Another challenge around here...Silas has decided over the last few weeks that, unless we are going someplace, it's really not important that he get dressed in clothes. It's all Jammies, all the time. He put his pj's on Thursday night at bedtime, and 64 hours later, decided he'd get dressed in "real clothes". Now, he did get a bath in those 64 hours, but refused to put anything back on but his "jammy feeties".

Finally clothed on Sunday....
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Another home decor project. When we got our King sized bed...about 10 years?....we did not buy a headboard and have gone without since. We've talked about making one for years. A couple weeks ago, Justin was working on a house and they had this door - it's 102 years old!
So, they gave it to him (binge)

Next time you see this door, it will be sanded, painted and acting as a headboard for our bed. I can't wait to see it all done!! How "shabby chic" is that? Is that still a decorating term?

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And one more Silas conversation - seriously, 3 is the best age ever for the crazy stuff that kids say and do!
He was talking with Justin here:

Si: Daddy, I'll be big soon

JP: you will?

Si: yeh

JP: why do you want to be big?

Si: (a bit of a repeater...) so so so, I can get the smoke detractor...turn the smoke detractor off when it goes off so it don't freak Zoe out..
detractor=detector
Zoe = FREAKS out now if the alarm or smoke detectors go off, of if it storms out...

More Silas convo

I was just sitting here at my computer finishing up some work emails. I hear Si's little voice from behind me...
"Mommy - your hair looks beautiful today"
"MY hair??" I asked.
"Yes" he says.
"thank you" I say.
"Are you wearing a pra?" he asks. Pra=bra
"um, yeah." ??
"okay" he says.
Conversation over.

As Conversations Go...

Si: I want more chips

Me: no, not before dinner

Si: but I'm not hungry for dinner, I want chips

Me: but if you eat more chips you won't eat dinner

Si: but i want chips

Me: if you don't eat a good dinner you won't get big and strong

Si: but I am strong

Me: but you won't get big and strong like Daddy and Mason

Si: but I like being little

Me: I like you little too - have another chip.

hmm...he wins. again.

A few funnies

So, I've been cleaning out my closet in an effort to get our bedroom whipped into shape (and it's really coming along). Last night Silas was roaming around, going through stuff and walks out of the closet with a piece of the padding from a bathing suit top. He hands it to me say "Mommy, one of your booby things broke".

And Ella - she's been a pretty sweet girl lately - this picture that Melissa took will forever be one of my favorites...
Tonight she is also in my room as I am sorting through clothes and shoes. So sweetly she says to me "Mom, when I grow up we're going to be best friends" (and I, of course, think of this sweet picture and how wonderful it will be to have a daughter that worships me) - "And you're going to give me these shoes!" she demands as she is prancing around in a pair of my favorite summer heels. If that is what it takes - she can have them I guess (and I only paid $6.88 at Target for them).

One other thing that Ella says that is funny (and a sign that she watches too much TV...) She knows what time some of her favorite shows are on (Hannah Montana, iCarly) and so she'll ask "Is it 8 - 7 Central yet?"

I wish they had a way to implant a memory chip in the brain for all the little things that I want to remember forever...
digital of course so I could download and blog it.