Hair

James has been growing his hair out forever. We trim it every once in a while, but for the past five months or so, he has not wanted anyone to touch it. He looked like a sheep dog and had gotten to the point where he had to tip his head back to look at anything, so I knew it was time.

I knew that he wasn't going to be thrilled about getting a hair cut, so we decided on a secret mission. After dinner on Monday night, he and John headed out to an undisclosed location. He was suspicious, but he went willingly.

James: What are we doing at Albertson's?

John: (silence)

James: (spotting the hair cut place) Hey! Is that....

John: Come on, buddy.

Once inside the hair cut place, James told the stylist that he knew he could no longer trust his parents. I guess it's good to learn that lesson young, huh?

They arrived back home, a LOT of hair lighter. I was picturing a tiny trim, but it was shorter. A lot shorter.

Me: It looks nice, James!

James: But this? (gesturing to his frowning face) This does not look nice. At all.

Me: It will grow!

James: It better.

He looks different. Younger (and a tiny bit nerdier.) I know it will grow, but I felt a tiny bit guilty that he went from this:

Photo taken by my mom on Sunday

To this:

Photo taken by my phone, in our poorly lit kitchen. It did look better after a shower and style. I blew it dry and put product in it. Oh yes, I did.

Cousins!

I just got home from a beach trip with "the cousins" (my sister, three cousins and I). We left yesterday at 11, and we got home today at 3, which is probably the longest time that the cousins have been together, just the five of us, since we were little. Probably the longest time ever, since when we were little, our parents would have been there.

We have made an effort to spend time together as adults, meeting for lunches and staying up late and talking on our annual family trips, and we have the best time. Not only do we laugh a lot, but we have a shared history. We have hundreds, maybe thousands, of "inside jokes." We respect each other's opinions, and we can be completely honest with each other. There are very few (if any) other people in the world that I could discuss religion and politics with and come out unscathed on the other side, but with my cousins, anything is possible.

The weather was beautiful, way more beautiful than it has any right to be at the Oregon Coast in February, so we walked, probably miles, talking the whole way. And we ate. A lot. We laughed even more. I am so grateful for time with my cousins, and even more grateful that I have them. They know me and accept me and tease me and like me like no one else in the world. Thanks for a great trip, cousins!!

Big Girl

Abby finally lost that tooth tonight!

I was at an appointment with Josh, and I got a text from Teresa with the big news. But then, I got a text from John that she wanted to surprise me. I promised to play along. When I got home, she came out of her room, smiling like the cat who ate the canary. As soon as she opened her mouth, I gasped in "surprise." She told me the whole story, and I then I got out my phone to take a picture. She smiled and said, "That's what Teresa did too! And then she texted it to you." Some surprise.

She is pretty excited about the tooth fairy coming, but she has A LOT of questions for me. How does the tooth fairy know that there is a tooth there? How does she get the money under the pillow? Can she see the tooth fairy if she waits up for her? How much money? She is exhausting me, so I am sending her to bed and hoping that she won't be up all night so that the tooth fairy can get some sleep too.

THIS time I Got Permission First

(Josh gave me his blessing for this post!)

Happy Valentine's Day! I woke up to flowers and a few of my favorite things (crossword puzzle book, Diet Dr. Pepper and lottery tickets) and had a fun day at school. I so love my class this year, and some returned the love to me today in sweetly worded cards and gifts. We had a yummy dinner at home (which I cooked!! It was a big day!) and went out for Valentine's ice cream afterward. The kids were delighted with their Valentine's cards and sweet treats, and John will soon enjoy freshly made coffee in the mornings (horrifyingly, he leaves so early that coffee shops in our little town aren't even open yet) thanks to my oh-so-practical gift.

But this is the real reason for this post. If you are my friend on Facebook, you know that I wrote a nervous status last night about Josh. He had made a bead bracelet for his girlfriend (it spelled our her name and said I heart you! Gah!), and I was pretty concerned that it wouldn't go well. If there is one age I know, it's the tweens. And tweens are unpredictable. They want to be grown-up, but sometimes being grown-up is too much, and they dissolve into a seven year old right before your eyes. So this girl might love the gift. OR, she might laugh at him or make fun of him. You just never know!

But this girl gets my seal of approval. She thanked him and then as he ran off to play with his friends, she ran off to squeal about the gift with her friends. It was, as Josh put it, "SO awesome." Ah, young love. Unbeknowst to him, she even checked with Diana (to make sure that she wasn't stepping on any toes in their very close friendship) before putting it on and wearing it "ALL DAY LONG, Mom!" He was so excited and even revealed to me that he had written her a letter where he talked about their "first Valentine's Day." Seriously. How sweet is that?

So Josh's first experiment with romantic gift giving went well, and I'm going to call Valentine's Day 2011 a success!

Alphabet

Tonight, in the car:

Josh: I didn't have breakfast this morning.
Me: Yes, you did. You had a bar. A bar is a fine breakfast. (ummmm, sort of)
James: Yeah. A fine breakfast for a hobo. (proving once and for all that sarcasm is an inheritable gene)

The boys started laughing, and I let it go for a minute. But then, I decided that I couldn't let it drop. I've heard the word "hobo" being used lately, and I'm not sure where James got it. As far as I can tell, kids are using it to mean a gross person. "That shirt looks like a hobo would wear it." "Yuck. That's like a hobo lunch." So, I became the uncool-can't-take-a-joke-mom and gave the boys a lecture about the word hobo. I rambled on for a while about how it would be hard to be homeless, and people don't need to be made fun of on top it. The boys felt really bad, and there was a long silence. And then this....

James: I didn't know that was a bad word.
Me: It's not a bad word. It's just that we don't need to use it that way.
James: Geez! Is there a bad word that starts with every letter of the alphabet?
Me: Ummmmm. Most letters, but I can't think of one for "e."
James: I know one!!
John: (under his breath, and for only my benefit) Eeshole?
Me: What word did you think of James?
James: Eeediot!!

We'll keep working on that alphabet. I love that he categorizes "idiot" as a bad word. It almost makes me forgive the hobo comment......

Questions

I want to make one thing clear. I LOVE my daughter. More than life itself. She is spunky and funny and sweet and beautiful. But. We are at a seriously annoying stage. The questions stage. It was annoying when the boys went through it, but I don't even think there is a word to describe how much more annoying it is with Abby.

Hey mom? How old are you? How old will you be tomorrow? How old is Dad? What color is the ground? What color is the sky? Why do flowers bloom? Do you like flowers? Why? Why, mommy? Why do you like flowers? Do you think they are pretty or something? And what about trees? Do you like them? Why? Oh, hey-why is the mailman here? What day is it? What day will it be tomorrow? Do I have school? Who will be my teacher next year? Can I wear a dress on the first day? What color will it be? Purple? Pink? Can it have sequins? Pink ones?

Oh, sorry. Is that getting annoying? Multiply by four hundred and you'll get a little tiny picture of our lives right now. I am thrilled that she is smart and inquisitive. I do have tiny concerns about her insane need for attention since that sometimes doesn't bode well for a teenage girl, but overall, the qualities that cause questioning are good. I just really wish it wasn't SO ANNOYING.

Quick! Someone comment about how I'll miss these days when she is a hormonal, sullen thirteen girl.

Young Criminal

Two pieces of background information for this story.....1) The boys' school was broken into last night, and something was stolen from James's actual classroom. 2) John locked his keys in his car earlier tonight.

As a result of the break-in, his writing assignment for tonight was "Why is stealing wrong?" (The mark of a good teacher is to turn everything into a teachable moment!) So we spent a while discussing all of the repercussions of stealing both for the thief and the victims.

John, not having overheard this conversation, came from the other room and said "Hey, you guys, want to learn how to break into a car?" (We're classy parents over here.) James was all over that offer, so he abandoned the writing for a minute, and they went out to retrieve the keys. Pretty soon, James came in.

James: Dad is a terrible stealer!
Me: Oh yeah?
James: Yeah! He is WAY too slow. He would SO get caught!

I don't think that teachable moment sunk all the way in......

Feeling Old

James: Hey, Mom! I had a sub today, and she knows you!
Me: Oh yeah? Who was it?
James: I can't remember her name, but she had you.
Me: Has she subbed for me?
James: Maybe. But she had you for her teacher.
Me: What?
James: You were her teacher! She said that she kind of already knew me....

Yikes! I texted his teacher to see who it was, and sure enough, she was in my class 10+ years ago. Since I started teaching right after my 21st birthday, I am a pretty young "veteran teacher." But still! I didn't even have her in my first year. A sixth grader the other day said to me, " You look really young for how old you are!" I think I'll take that as a compliment!

Update

I am not doing a really great job of keeping track of life here, but.....

A (not very) quick update:

John is really enjoying his new job. The commute is crummy, and he has been working a lot of extra weekend hours to keep up with the company's growth, but he is happy there. Plus exponential growth certainly means job security (and since year-end bonuses are tied to the company's success, that doesn't hurt either!)

As for me, I seem to be still really busy even though this is kind of our down time of the year. I spent a much needed weekend at the beach with my mom friends last weekend, and my cheeks are still sore from laughing pretty much hysterically for pretty much every minute of the weekend. What we were laughing about is better left unexplained. We cooked and shopped and walked on the beach and snuggled babies and laughed and laughed and laughed. The kids have fewer activities this time of year, so I am getting to spend more time at home and less time driving around. I still love my job, and I am so sad that the grant part will be ending this year. The hours, the job itself are perfect for me. Despite the dire financial circumstances of schools right now, I am keeping my fingers crossed for something similar for next year!

Josh broke his finger at the last basketball game of the season, so he has to wait for it to heal before he can resume his most favorite thing (contact sports) but at least it has given him some time to catch up on the Battle Books. He is competing in the Battle of the Books again this year,and his team has done well. They will move on to the semi finals this week, and we'll see how far they make it this year. He is liking school a little more, and even occasionally, if I ask how his day went, he will reply with "Good!!" So, some improvement there. He can't wait for soccer to start, and he is still loving piano lessons. He loves his new teacher, and spends a lot of time practicing, so he is really improving. (Who knew that practice would make you better, huh, Mom?) He is very teenager-y at the moment, and I have a bad feeling that this "moment" will be lasting approximately ten more years. The trade-off, however, is that his sense of humor is becoming more adult too, so he often makes me laugh out loud. Must be nature's way of making sure I don't ship him off to military camp?

James is just James. He is still loving school, and at the moment, he has reached grade level in reading!!!! He reads signs and instructions all around him, reads in his bed for pleasure, and has actually started to enjoy writing. He has also decided to be done with wrestling. It kind of came out of nowhere, but he was tired of the practices. They are really intense, and his interest has been waning for a few weeks. When he announced that he wanted to be done, John and I were a little sad. It has been a great experience for him, but I certainly don't want to force the issue. For now, he thinks he will start again next year, so we'll just let that be....that. Soccer starts in a few weeks for him too, so we will only have a couple week break before sports start back up with a vengeance.

Abby is working on becoming a fifteen year old..... Makeup, learning the sultry chereography of the teen pop stars, skinny jeans, developing her own fashion sense, walking with her hips swaying. We don't seem to be able to stop it! I have always vowed to let the kids be their own person, but I just didn't realize that Abby's own person is kind of a hoochy mama. So, we keep working on gently guiding her to good choices while we let her become her own self. If you were a kid like Abby, you probably know how it goes. "No, you may not wear makeup to school, but you can play makeup when you get home." "Please stop gyrating your hips. Let me teach you some other steps instead!" "No, your Easter dress may not be a clingy, sequined cocktail dress. But you can choose your own shoes and accessories to go with this appropriate dress." Fun times. Her latest development is that she has started having bad dreams. And they aren't about monsters, but instead about real things in real life that could wrong. Then I get to answer fun questions about whether a robber will break into our house or whether she will get hurt if she falls at the park or how to call for help if your mom gets sick. Yikes!

Pretty much everything is just normal here. I hope to be posting a little more often in the coming weeks!!