I think I'm gonna barf (or fart)...

At our house we do not use the word fart. We use the word toot, instead. Once Charlie realized there was another word for tooting he was all over it. Or, at least, he wants to be all over it...

Charlie cannot keep the words "fart" and "barf" straight. He mixes them up all the time. Case in point, we were sitting in our boat, waiting for the log ride to start at Nickolodeon Universe at the Mall of America and Charlie looked at me and said, "Mom - I hope you don't fart!" I didn't realize until much later that evening that he was afraid I was going to barf, not fart. It sure made a lot more sense once I figured that one out...

And yesterday, Charlie tried an almond out of a bowl of almonds and honey nut cheerios that I was eating as a snack. He bit into the almond, grimaced and ran into the kitchen. When he returned and said, "Sorry Mom, I had to go fart that one out."

"BARF! You mean you had to BARF it out - FART means toot! BARF means throw up!" I screamed at him.

If you would have told me five years ago I would be having this conversation with my children, I never would have believed you...

The Start of Summer

Uh-oh. Summer officially starts tomorrow at our house. George's last day of school is tomorrow. Then we have all three kids home for three months or so. Around twelve weeks. Ninety plus days. But who's counting.

We don't have a ton scheduled. No big trip is planned. None of the kids have any week long, full day camps. The boys have six weeks of Urban tennis (one hour a morning, just a block and a half away). George has two circus classes a week, Charlie just one. We will do swimming lessons at some point. But as for the rest of the summer - roughly 35 hours a week for twelve weeks, we will just play outside, explore the urban parks and recreation offerings, check out some cool places (zoo, museums, nature centers) and hopefully read some good books.

The more outings we have, the better summer will be for everyone. Just sitting around the house and playing in our backyard tends to get old fast. So, hopefully I will be a creative, active mom this summer. Three kids, twelve weeks, and no school can really go one of two ways...

George's Star Student Event...

George had his Star Student Event today. He got to bring his family into his first grade class and talk about what makes him special.

Nana, Poppop, Aunt Peg, Charlie, Clare and I all went. George introduced us to his classmates in a very grown up manner. He had warned me beforehand that he would be introducing Poppop as Grandpa Michael. Nana was still Nana, but apparently Poppop was a little too exotic a title, so Grandpa Michael it was...

He started by writing his name up on the big piece of paper on the easel in huge bubble letters (very cool). Then he showed the class photos I had printed off of he and his dad, he and his siblings, and him in a fake jail cell in Arizona with "Wanted Dead or Alive" written across it.

He introduced my side of the family as his Minnesota family. Then, he explained how Matt is from New York and we have a New York family contingent as well. We played a DVD slideshow of our trip to Florida with the New York relatives. His class loved that the song, "If I Had a Million Dollars" was the soundtrack to the slideshow. They played air guitar and bounced along to it and even asked to see it again (which we vetoed) when it was done.

The class had a question and answer period where George was asked, "Why does your brother look so much like you?" (I answered, "Genetics"), "What is your favorite football team?" (George said NY Giants and Vikings - always the diplomat) and "What is your favorite movie and popsicle?" (Combo Question - Gremlins 2, Indianna Jones 4 and Lime). He was also asked what are his favorite shoes, to which he said, "Congresses", but meant Converse.

Then he went to the front of the class, posted three big sheets of paper with his mythical beast drawings. Each kid was given paper and instructed to create a mythical beast (George suggested a Tornado Monster) in pencil.

Charlie sat at George's table and drew with the kids. In typical Charlie fashion, his monster was tooting in his picture, so he leaned over to the girl next to him and said, "My monster is farting." To which the girl replied, "George! Did you hear what your brother just said???" It's a little disconcerting to me that Charlie was astute enough to know that although you say toot at our house, you have to say fart to the big kids...

The kids loved it. George loved it. And we really, really, really loved it.

Clare sans diaper...

Clare has been using the potty pretty consistently. So consistently, in fact, that sometimes she just appears there. Out of the blue, there is Clare, perched on the potty with a smile on her face saying, "I pooped!"

I was sick yesterday and trying to nap upstairs while Charlie and Clare watched a show. Twice during my less than an hour long nap, Charlie appeared at the edge of the bed saying gravely, "I"ve got bad news. Clare's on the potty and she pooped." And then he'd run gleefully away knowing that I had to get up and come downstairs to wipe her bottom.

Little does he know, the fact that Clare pooped on the potty is great news, it's when she doesn't make it to the potty that it is truly bad news...

Already aspiring to a life of crime...

Yesterday we were home sick with a horrible intestinal bug. I was trying to recuperate by lying on the sofa in the No Kids Zone. I had been up all night, sick as a dog. I just needed to sleep.

But alas, Charlie and Clare were full of energy, even though they too had been struck by the bug. I finally decided to put a movie on for them, in hope that I might get to close my eyes for awhile. But when I went to get the movie out of the case, it was not there. No one knew where it was. Overtired, sick and cranky I told the kids, "Blockbuster is not going to let us rent anymore movies if you keep losing them!"

I put in a different movie and sulkily stalked out of the room. Before I was out of earshot, I heard Charlie say to Clare, "Don't worry about it, Clare. We'll just put on disguises when we go to Blockbuster. We'll still get to rent movies..."

Clare may end up in reform school...

Clare is off the hook crazy. She is in almost constant motion - jumping, bouncing, running, climbing - and NEVER seems to stop talking. She also screams to make herself heard and cannot be reasoned with (at two and a half years old I suppose this is to be expected).

I am so tired by the time she goes to bed. Literally, she and I are together the majority of her waking hours. And she is very, very high maintenance. Even when she says she is helping me. Today I attempted to fold laundry. She screamed over and over again that she had to help. Her version of helping is taking the items I have folded and shaking them open and throwing them on the floor. When I empty the dishwasher, she just starts grabbing utensils and cramming them into drawers, while perching precariously on the dishwasher door.

I try to give her chores to perform along side of me. A few towels to fold, spoons to put away. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But every night at some point, she is asleep in her bed and I am alone at last...

What do you do again?

Last Thursday, Charlie, Clare and I went to see Matt. It was a spur of the moment get together, our usual plans fell through and we called Matt to see if he wanted to have a cup of coffee with us. Surprisingly, he said yes. He is usually way too busy to see us during the day, but the planets must have been aligned because he had about a half hour to grab a cup of coffee with us.

As we drove to meet him at the coffee shop near his work, I told the kids what a special treat it was to be able to go see daddy during work. It was silent for a moment and then Charlie said, "I didn't know dad worked at a coffee shop..."

We love Mr. Cheese...

Charlie was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's today. He was sooooooo excited - bordering on hyperventilation.

We got there and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite big and very clean. And the arcade games were age appropriate. Each summer when we go to Long Beach Island (on the Jersey Shore) we go to an arcade. And it just about kills me. It is dark and depressing. The kids are too little for the majority of the games so it is very frustrating. I am not very good at video games, so I am pretty much useless in an arcade.

But at Chuck E. Cheese's, the games are age appropriate for our kids (and more importantly for me). We had a blast. Charlie ran around the place with his cup of tokens clutched to his chest like a senior citizen in a casino. He played a bunch of different games and truly enjoyed himself. Clare kept getting in the mechanical cars that shake you up for two minutes after you put in your token. She loved it. She'd appear periodically yelling, "I need a coin! Gimme a coin!" And then back into the mechanical car lot she'd go...

Mr. Cheese throws a great party. We had a terrific afternoon. George is super mad, however, that he did not get to go since he was in school. I am thinking we will have to go visit Mr. Cheese with the whole family one night soon...