For my memory

[threadwalker]

Singing
Evie sings in the car (over and over):

Frosty the Snowman, a holly jolly snow
corncob in button nose
toes all made of snow

Evie sings in the bathroom last night (I laughed so hard I cried):

I got teeth I bite I can be what I want to be
I got teeth I bite
I bite I bite I got teeth
you got teeth you can be what you want to be
Barbie Girl
I want to be your friend
I got teeth you got teeth
I can be what I want to be
barbie girl

... there was a LOT more, but that's all I committed to memory. I asked her to sing that to me when we were in the family room, but she said she can only sing in the bathroom. That was amusing.


Money Exchange at School
A kid at school "sold" nicholas a broken leggo action figure in return for Nicholas's bag of change (which had over a buck in it). I made them "unexchange". At home, we had a talk about "buying" things from friends and how that falls under the category of "you have to ask mommy first"; that's our rule for receiving gifts from people when it's not a birthday or x-mas. I was honest and told him about the dangers of getting stuff from people and how they might not be honest or they might not know that their "thing" is hurtful. Then I confiscated all his change/money for the forseeable future. No tears or fuss; just explaining and rules being clarified.

Future steps in Boot Camp Mom Training
I think that when N hits 14, he's going to have his allowance (which doesn't exist yet) cut off or severely reduced and then be taken down to the nearest fast-food joint to fill out an application.

Jumping Jacks
Nicholas was falling asleep while trying to read so I suggested 10 jumping jacks. Uncle J was there and N said he was too embarrassed to do it infront of Uncle J. E jumped up and did some sort of enthusiastic jumping around that included an attempt at mid-air splits and hand clapping over her head. I had to hold my breath in order to NOT laugh. She was squealing and giggling with glee. N then got into it and did his really fast. A round of applause for all the jumping jack kings and queens.

The pronunciation of "Was"
How would you prounounce "was" if you were learning to read and sounding it out? N used to say "whaz", with the "a" sound in "cat". He had the worst time remembering to say it correctly even though we practiced and practiced. So I came up with a tickle game. If he says "whaz", he gets tickled. Where practice and drilling and forehead slapping didn't work, being tickled did.

Now, if he's reading and wants to start a tickly fest, he says "whaz" and watches me from the corner of his eye to see if I'm paying attention. I am, but sometimes I wait until he's not paying attention... muh-hah-hah. Last night he got zapped by me and, after I explained the rule, Uncle J jumped in with glee. Then E wanted to get in the action and sang out "whaz" until she was held and tickled.

This evolved into both kids being held by me and tickled on my lap, which is NOT easy. They squirmed, bucked, kicked, threw their heads around and made ear-splitting shrieks. I'm amazed I didn't get a skull injury from either a random head-butt or pierced eardrums from E's high pitched shriek. During this massive squirm-tickle, E wriggled out of my arms and out of reach. Worried that I might miss an opportunity to tickle her, she loudly sang out, "And E is sneaking away", from behind my chair. That had me and Uncle J laughing.


Bedtime Rules... or Bedtime RULES!!!
More tickles. I count to 3 to let them get a head start. N takes off like a jack rabbit and springs to the top of the stairs. He can't quite go all the way to bed... he wants to see me coming up the stairs in anticipation of the final dash. E is still in the "baby" phase where she's too bonded with me to be okay with running from me. N went through the same thing and it's only been in the last year or so where I can play chase and monster with him where he doesn't break down in tears cuz Mommy got Scary. E, however, is still not ready for Mommy to be Scary. She took 2 steps as I started to count and then said, "Mommy, I just can't run from you," and stood rooted to the spot. So I just scooped her up under my arm (told her it was okay if she wasn't ready to play chase with mommy yet), and charged after the 7 yr old loittering at the head of the stairs.

More shrieks and laughing. N leaped into bed and was under his covers in a flash. I torpedoed E into bed, and kissed her good night after tickling her and turning on the required night lights and the fan. During my time in her room, N was singing out, "Whaz-whaz-whaz!" from his room. So I flipped all the upstairs lights off thinking I'd creep into his room, but I spooked myself out. (Yes, I'm easily spooked. I don't watch horror films. I have broken F's nose 2x from movie-inspired nightmares. Thus no scary movies for thread-walker). So then I "fee-fie-foed" my way into his room in the dark and lept onto his bed. There was an unfortunate owie (that's what happens when we plays "monster" in the dark with leaping and jumping! bad mommy!), but recovery was quick and tickles ensued. During which E started to sing-out "whaz-whaz-whaz," from her room.

I got them finally tucked in and joined F and Uncle J. They were being loud and I admonished them to pipe down because the kids were going to sleep. Boy - the look I got from them! And then the comments about how much ruckus we made upstairs. Hey! Bedtime RULES, Man!