a conversation with sawyer

My favorite food is: pizza

My favorite movie: Hotel Transylvania

The best show on television right now is: Wild Kratts

The coolest person on earth is: Justin Bieber

My best subject in school is: reading

The thing I do most awesomely is: read

If I could change my name, it would be: Jimmy

If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd go to:  Hawaii

My favorite color is: blue

My current favorite band is: Foo Fighters

The book I am reading is: Kung Fu Panda 2 The Novel

When I grow up I am going to become: a police officer

The thing my parents are too strict about is:  not playing Wii on weekdays

Three words that describe me are: nice, generous, helpful

When I was little, I used to: be silly

My favorite season of the year is: summer

The snack I could live on is: Doritos

The food that makes me want to puke is: sunbutter

My best friend is: Dailey

If I could make one wish it would be: that I wasn't allergic to anything

My best memory is: when we got our puppy

Sawyer, age 7

i'm good with the random lately...

So we'll just roll with that. ;)


Warm banana bread just out of the oven, applesauce in the crockpot, smells so good in here. :)

******
I don't know how I had an even halfway decently cleaned house with kids home all day... cleaning this place has turned into a full-time job lately. Free time? What free time??

******
I finally got some things hung in Sawyer's room yesterday (his walls have basically been bare for this past year). I put up his storypeople print (that had to be reframed after getting peed on. don't ask.), a painting of Savannah's we framed and a Sawyer version of the collage that I finally got around to doing for him. As I was tucking him in last night he gave me an extra hug and said, "Mom, thanks for making my room look so nice."
This was from a five year old.
Boy.
Love that kid.
:)

******

Speaking of Sawyer, I overheard him telling someone at church the other day that he was allergic to lions. I asked him later why he said that and his reply?
"Well, mom, I'm allergic to cats and lions are a type of cat. I think it's much cooler to say I'm allergic to lions than to dumb little cats, so from now on I'm saying I'm allergic to lions."


******

I'm not sure how our weekends get filled up so easily. For one thing, we have soccer every Saturday morning into November, but this weekend marks the start to a few extra crazy busy ones. We're headed up to STL to keep our tradition of attending the Forest Park Balloon Race/Nightglow. The kids are so looking forward to it! And seeing friends!
The following weekend Ryan and I are attending an adoption/foster care connection conference here in Brentwood for two days. The next weekend we have a weekend thing for church. By then October will be well underway!! And I really, really, really want to go camping before it gets too cold.

Man, just thinking about all that makes me think Christmas is going to be here before we know it.

Meaning, I need to get started on planning and making my gifts... Yay!

we're out of yogurt

Sawyer is not a breakfast person, but he does love to eat yogurt in the morning. He won't eat cereal or eggs or toast or fruit in the morning, but he'll eat yogurt.
And today we're out of yogurt.

I know we're out of yogurt because he told me this approximately 137 times while I was getting Savannah put together, fed and out the door this morning.

After bidding Savannah farewell I (again) ran down the list of other breakfast options for Sawyer which he shot down one and all amidst sighings of "if only there were yogurt...." and strong hints at the Gogurts he knows are in the freezer reserved for special lunches and picnics or as other treats.

Then I remembered we made cookies yesterday.
No fat, no sugar, banana oatmeal raisin cookies.
"Hey Sawyer, you want a couple of cookies for breakfast??"

He hopped up to the table and happily started munching away.
As he polished off the first one and moved on to his second he pondered...
"Mom, I have a question for you.
Did you give me these cookies to get my mind off the yogurt?"

"Why yes. Yes I did."

"Well, nice try but your plan didn't work because I'M STILL THINKING ABOUT IT!
It is NOT that easy."

school boy

So in my blog neglect, I haven't even touched on poor second child Sawyer's starting pre-K
preschool... over two weeks ago! His actual first day was the day we closed on our house, with our final pre-closing walkthru at 8am... so we took pictures in front of our apartment before taking SJ to school....



























































and then got to take pictures of the First Day Boy in front of our new house(!) before we had to scoot on to his drop off:








































Sawyer LOVES school! He was so excited to go because he did so love preschool last year and we've been in to see his classroom here and meet his teachers a couple of times in the last few weeks before class started. I'm thoroughly impressed with this school and the director and love love love his teachers. As does he.
He goes two days a week from 9 to 2, so it's a long day but he's loving that he gets to bring a lunch everyday "just like Savannah!". I wasn't thrilled with full days, but that's kind of how things roll around here (kindergarten is full day too), and turns out we all love it. He's wiped out at the end of the day, but he's having a great time and already learning a ton. I love our conversations on the drive home... he's excited to tell me everything they did that day (which is so different than Savannah ever was) and all about their music class and their PE time and cooking projects and art and Bible stories... he was anxious to quiz me on whether I knew how many books are in the Bible and pleased as punch when he could tell me. They've picked apples off apple trees on the property, they're watching pumpkins grow in the garden, we have a field trip to a farm next week, they earn marbles by being good listeners and good helpers and he's already been invited to a playdate and a birthday party.

He told me after the first week of school, "We're have to learn how to say 'Yes Ma'am' at school to our teachers. It's kinda hard for me 'cuz I forget to say it."
I told him it's something he'll probably hear a lot down here and it's a good thing to say a lot of the time because it's good southern manners. I told him he was welcome to practice at home and we could start saying Yes Ma'ams and No Ma'ams all the time to help him get in the habit.
His reply:
"Um, no thanks mom. I think that should just be a school thing." :)

chuckles

Sawyer still cracks my up every day.

Driving down yesterday, we were playing Nameits in the car and we were on a roll:
Savannah: "Name Things that are Green!"
All of us shouting out: "the grass... leaves... mom's shirt... our kitchen wall... Perry the Platypus... frogs...", etc.
Savannah: "Okay, name Things That Roll!"
All of us: "cars... trucks... skateboards... a rolling pin... dice... bowling ball...", etc.
Savannah: "Okay, name Types of Games!"
All of us: "soccer... board games... hockey... card games... freeze tag...", etc.
Savannah: "Okay, name Things That Are Ancient!"
Ryan and I: "um... pyramids... um.... Greek mythology... um... um...."
Sawyer: "What's ancient mean?"
Us: "Something really really old that's been around for a long long long time."
Sawyer: "Oh! I have one! Gramma G, Grampa G, Gramma Debbie and Grampa Andy!"

And this morning, after getting up and getting dressed I went to join the kids in the living room and Sawyer greeted me, "Good morning Mom, Welcome Up!"
Made me smile. :)

thinking ball

The kids made up a new favorite game.
In between every activity or game they play, they now do "Thinking Ball".
They get this one certain ball and sit across the room from each other on the floor. They then roll it back and forth to each other and the rules are (and they actually did sit down and make up rules the other day);

1. no talking unless you have the ball
2. every time you get the ball you give an idea of something to do
3. you then roll the ball to the other player
4. play continues until one player yells "let's do it!" on his or her turn following the most appealing suggestion

example of most recent game played out in front of me just now:

"Sawyer, let's play Thinking Ball!"
each get situated
"play puppy", roll...
"work on art books", roll...
"go fish", roll...
"marbles", roll...
"Zingo",, roll...
"walkie talkies", roll...
"walkie talkies in the fort", roll...
"let's do it!!"
and they both immediately get up and head down to the blanket fort in the basement.

They've so far done this no less than four times today.

milking it

In the saddest voice he can muster up: Mom, I really miss Dad.

I know buddy, would you like to call him right now?

Nah. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. I don't want to talk.

Well we can either call Daddy to try and cheer up or we can think about something else and try to cheer up.

Let's think about something else. Liiiiiiike... can I have a cookie?

things heard in our house in the past week

I'm not just any funny kid, I'm Sawyer!

*****

Would a restaurant be a .com or a .org?

*****

I think Lucy wants to marry me.
-Why do you think that?
She just loves me too much.

*****

Something stinks in here!
-It smells like skunk.
That's not how skunks smell.
-Well then how does it smell?
It stinks like Grandpa's farts.

because

There's been an unfortunate combination of Lazy Blogger and entirely Too Much Going On this past month summer, and I'm not only behind on documenting the big, fun stuff, but also the little funnies day to day.

So real quick, here are a couple of things from yesterday I wanted to jot down...

While we were away on vacation, the Swinigans kept our pet frogs.
(Didn't know we had pet frogs??... oh yeah- that's because I never wrote about it. Refer again to initial sentence of this post)
Savannah was headed over yesterday to play with Norah so she made the family a thank you card for their pet-sitting services. I didn't read it until we were on our way over there, and when I did, it sure had me chuckling...
the front read:
Thank You a hole lot!
inside:
Dear Swinigans,
Thanks for keeping our frogs.
Did you feed them crickets?
Did I hear a YES?
You better have!
Love, Sawyer and Savannah, Ryan and Heather, Frank and Fruity (the frogs)

Hehe. Did I hear a yes? She cracks me up!

Also a couple of things from Sawyer...
I ended up really sick on Tuesday and had been in bed with a horribly achy head, the chills and a throw up bowl when the kids got ready for bed that evening. They had both come in to say goodnight and Sawyer left with a "hope you feel better soon Mommy!"
Well, in the morning I did feel much better (still annoying cold symptoms, but at least the fever/flu stuff was gone) and I was downstairs before Sawyer woke up. When he did wake and come downstairs he was calling ahead for me...
"Mom?!"
"Yeah bud?"
"Mom, are you feeling better today Mom?" Awww.
I was surprised and touched that that was his first thought in the morning; to come looking for me to see how I was.

But amusingly, that evening, as I was tucking him into bed (and had recently had a sneezing fit making my hoarse voice sound even more stuffed up and sick) he didn't seem so concerned;
Sawyer has a bugbite on his neck.
He asked me, "Why did God make us have necks? So our head can stay on? Why do we need to keep our head on? Why do we need a head?"
We were playing around being a little silly and I said "So I can pinch your cheeks."
He said, "And so we can keep our ears on and hear?"
"And so we can see,"
"So we can snore?"
Then I said, "So we can give goodnight kisses" and I puckered up for him.
He held up his hand, suddenly dead serious, and retorted, "No kisses for me tonight Mom, you have a cold!"
"Okay, how about a hug then?"
"Uh, no. You're sick with a cold all over."
So he blew me a kiss.

Then for prayers, we usually hold hands, but when I asked, he informed me (like, DUH) "You probably have the cold on your hands too, so I'm not going to touch your hands either."
Apparently I suddenly have a germ-a-phobe under my roof.
Hope I'm over this soon; I missed my hug and kiss from that little guy last night!

that's my boy

Following his dad around the yard with something in his hand,
"Daddy, what's this?"
"That would be rabbit poop."

After returning from playing four square with the bus stop boys this morning, calling out to them to say good bye,
"Bye guys! Thanks for letting me play! Bye Chicken Butts!"
"Sawyer, what did you just say?"
"I didn't say butt Mom, I said nuts."
"I think I heard you call your friends a Chicken butt. You know I don't like that."
"I didn't... I said nuts. I only called them Chicken Nuts!"
"Um, yeah. That's not any better."

He does this cartoony thing where whether he's going to run or just quick going to get or do something, he bends his leg up sideways in front of himself like he's winding up to take off. I don't know if that description makes any sense at all, maybe I should try and get it on video. Regardless, I think maybe he's been watching too much Tom and Jerry.

"Phew" is the most common phrase out of Sawyer's mouth lately. He says it all the time in a comically dramatic way. Whether he's "phewing" about not having to take a bath that night or the fact that daddy's on his way home from work or that he found a toy he was looking for or just that he only has to have three more bites of dinner. It's pretty funny. It's like the tiniest little thing takes such a load off his mind! :)

Sawyer never says "Savannah" these days unless he's talking directly to her. If he's talking about her it's always "my sister". Which I think is kind of sweet whether he means it that way or not; "Where's my sister?""It wasn't me, my sister did it.""No thanks, I'm going to sit by my sister.""Is my sister in trouble?""My sister needs some too.""I miss my sister." Cracks me up.

Thanks for living up to your name, Sawyer Isaac :)






Oh, and he also learned the "see food" joke. I don't even think he knows what Seafood is... but big sister thinks it's funny so it must be, right?!

the builder

I can't remember if I mentioned this line of conversation with Sawyer before or not; I can't seem to find it off hand, so maybe not.
For awhile he was on this kick of asking (several times on several different occasions) "Who builded us?"
As in who made us. So we'd have discussions about God creating us and "building" our bodies and so forth. He quizzed me often on it; "Who builded us again?" "God did." "Oh, yeah. I remember. He's a good builder."
That turned into specific parts of our bodies and how we grow and questions about "Why did God build it that way?" "Why did He make it work that way" and so on.
It's a topic it seems Sawyer never gets tired of.

Today we had an appointment with his pediatrician to make sure his fever and cough (going on five days) were nothing needing treatment. After the appointment, on the way home in the car, he starts asking questions again. Only this time it takes a slightly different turn:

Sawyer: "So God builded our bodies, right?"
Me: "Right"
"And if we get owies or if we get sick He can fix it because He can just build it again."
"Well, God does often heal our bodies, and you know sometimes he has doctors help Him fix when we're sick or have owies too."
"Like my cough. My doctor said no medicine but God can fix my things in my throat because he builded my throat and he knows how it goes."
"Yes, God can fix your sore throat and your cough, but we also have to make sure we're taking care of our bodies... make sure that we're getting rest and good food and sometimes taking medicine and taking care of ourselves especially if we're sick. We have to help God take care of this body He built, right?"
"Yeah, and Mom, if I crack my head open, God can fix that too. So don't worry about cracking my head open Mom- it'll get broken but God can fix it because He can just build it again."

Um, yeah. Let's not test out that theory buddy.

review

Sawyer on his way to the bathroom this morning:
I have to go poopy and pee pee.

Okay, thanks for letting me know dude.

Poopy comes out of ours back-bottoms (pointing to illustrate) and pee pee comes out of ours front-bottom (grabbing himself).

Yep, you got it.

Let me show you.

I already know buddy, you really don't need to show me... how about you hurry up into the bathroom and do your job?

I want to show you... (pulling his pants down) here's where the pee pee comes from (pointing), and the poopy comes out here at my back-bottom from my big crack...

(interrupting him as he's spreading his little cheeks)

Thanks for the review bud, now get that naked bottom out of the kitchen and into the bathroom, please.

We all have cracks?
Yep.
The crack is so we don't see the poopy bottom?
Sure.
Why is it built that way?
Built??
How did we get built that way? -
God built us that way... he made up what our bodies look like and so they work just like they need to.
Oh yeah, I forgot. Silly God! Him's a good builder. Him makes me a good bottom! And a good big crack so I can do BIG poopies!

more

I feel like I've been a major MommyBlogger lately with all the pictures of my kids and documenting their amusing quips. Not to mention the going into labor talk. :)
I definitely have more non-mom 'me' stuff to write about, but it's kind of heavy and while I know it'll be therapeutic to write it out, it's kind of draining putting it all out there... especially in a way that makes sense to anyone but me. I'll get to it one of these days.

In the meantime, more MommyBlogging:

• Savannah now has two loose teeth! I wish these kids would stop growing up so fast!!

• Sawyer is on a huge five kick... it's five everything around here. Things happen in five minute increments, we'll do things again in five days, he always takes things in servings/piles of fives, and the best one... "I love you so much Mommy!" "How much do you love me?" "I love you Five Days!!"

• I think we're going to take a little family mini-vacation this spring. It's looking like our blog trip is off, so I'm thinking spring break-ish might be a good time to spend a long weekend up in Chicago together or maybe hit up one of these water park resorts. Just some fun getaway time with the four of us.

• We have a couple of projects to attack this weekend; a mini-makover of part of the kids' playroom and also the laundry room. It'll be nice to get some things crossed off the house list.

• We've been on a random Little House on the Prairie spree around here... our elementary school's mascott is a Pioneer, so that started it all off this year. They've had a few pioneer days at school, and Savannah was very intrigued with all of that. She's now read all of the My First Little House Books and I think we're about to dive into the real Little House Series that we all read when we were younger. The past two weeks I've borrowed library DVD's of some of the tv series episodes and Savannah is obsessed. She loves them. I have to admit I love watching them too... that's one of the only shows I remember watching as a kid and my sister and I spent countless hours playing "Little House" and driving a covered wagon (aka perching on the footboard of the top bunkbed with the "reins" of the cord to the shades on the bedroom window).

Is anyone else as happy as I am that it's Friday?!!!

superboy

Sawyer loves yogurt. I think being deprived of it the first two years of his life (dairy allergy), he's more than made up for it in the last one. The thing is, he's not a fan of many fruity flavored yogurts. He doesn't like strawberry or blueberry or most any flavor we offer him. He'll tolerate strawberry banana, but usually I just keep some plain vanilla on hand for him. I've tried sneaking berries or other fruits in there, but he won't eat it.
Strangely enough, he would eat it with quite a bit of wheat germ mixed in there. So of course I'd let him eat that almost every day.
Suddenly now though, he's decided he hates the wheat germ. Even if I try to sneak the tiniest pinch of wheat germ in his bowl of yogurt, he boycotts the whole thing. It's been going on for a few weeks now and I'm about ready to give up. I had a conversation with him about it this morning...

Sawyer was pulling a tub of raisins out of the pantry and I said, "I'd like you to eat the yogurt you asked for before you eat anything else Sawyer."

"I did eat my yogurt!"

"I mean all of it, not just a bite to tell me you don't like it."

"But I don't like it. I tried it and it's terrible. I don't want those yucky sprinkles in it."

"You used to love the sprinkles. They're good for you."

"They're not good for me! They're terrible."

"They help keep you growing and healthy."

"I already growed. I'm a big boy."

"But you need to keep growing, and they help make you stronger!"

"I already super strong" showing me his muscles

"They can help make you faster."

"I already super fast.
Mom, -and here he held up his hand, I guess to emphasize that he was done arguing with me- I already have all the powers. I don't need sprinkles today."

ice day take two and my misbehaving kids

Don't forget to keep the recipes coming in!

******

School's called off again for freezing rain/ice again today. Ugh.
I wish it would just snow already. At least that looks pretty and the kids can play.
Just ice is just such a nuisance...
I had big plans for the day. None of which included being stuck inside with my five year old here and not being able to leave the house this morning.

Since I haven't done much mommy blogging lately, about the kids anyway, and since I'm stuck here staring at their faces all day, I guess I'll take some time to get started on the "updates" I've been meaning to do for weeks now...
Or just vent about their antics lately.

Somewhere along the way, Sawyer's picked up the word dangit. And suddenly started saying it all the time. With feeling. I know it's not a 'bad word' per say, but it sure doesn't sound all that nice coming out of a three year old's mouth constantly. Especially because it's muttered under his breath a lot and he's not the easiest kid to understand on a regular basis and much of the time it really does sound awfully close to the other not so nice word. So I've been trying to nip that in the bud. For awhile there he was saying "oh, Pickles!" and I liked that. That was amusing. Apparently it didn't pack enough of a punch for him though.

I've talked to Sawyer multiple times about saying dangit, letting him know that it's not a very nice word, it doesn't really make anyone feel very good when he says it, it's not helping him feel less frustrated, and it just basically makes him sound ugly. I've offered other ideas of things to say (bummer, oh man, oh pickles!... love that one!) but in the moment he still goes back to dangit. I finally said I've talked about it enough and I just flat out don't want to hear that word anymore. I told him that he'd have to go be by himself if he was going to talk like that, where no one else has to hear if he chooses ugly words. He told me very nicely he won't say it anymore.

And then the next time he was bummed or got frustrated? He popped out a Bangit!.
And then ever so sweetly turned to me...
"See mom, I didn't say dangit. I say Bangit. Bangit okay? Bangit Bangit Bangit!"
He thinks he's so clever. The thing is, I could totally tell that it wasn't an innocent, 'hey, this isn't technically mommy's "bad word" ' discovery... it was completely a 'haha mom, I found a way around your stupid rules, now what are you going to do about it?'!

Now I realize I should probably treat it the same as the original offending word, explaining that it's the thought and the tone of it that I'm trying to redirect... but I just decided to ignore it. If he says dangit, he still gets reminded and/or sent away, but when he purposely says Bangit, just to get around it and see if he gets a reaction from me, I act like I don't hear a thing. And it's pretty funny because I can tell he's actually disappointed when I don't react to it. haha!

Savannah's currently in about the worst trouble of her life this week.
This kid has always had issues with marking things up... not only has she since the age of two been obsessed with drawing and writing on every paper surface she can get her hands on, often that has spilled over to drawing/writing on walls, tables, furniture, etc. I've always been puzzled by it because Savannah is most definitely the "smart" one. I'm not talking about her pen and paper abilities... I'm talking about the well behaved, knows better, always follows the rules kind of kid. Except apparently when it comes to leaving her mark.

We went through many trials of her writing on walls and furniture. And I'm not referring to a toddler who is learning consequences. This is when she was four and five years old and most definitely knew better. She's been grounded from pens, pencils, crayons, whatever, for weeks at a time. And let me tell you, I thought every time that would turn her around because it just kills her to not be able to write or draw. She's lost without it.
But every few weeks still, I'll find a smiley face somewhere, or her initials, and let me tell you it gets really old.

Apparently she's finally gotten the fact that she can't use a pen or pencil to deface our home.
...She's now moved on to carving.

A few weeks ago we found a capital letter M etched into the newel post (the big post at the bottom of the stair rail) at the foot of the stairs in our entryway. Yes, carved in. Yes, it's pretty much the first thing you see when you walk in our front door. Nice.
Here, I'll show you a picture. Ignore the other poc marks. For now.





























Ooooh, was daddy mad about that one. She didn't get much of a punishment, just a very firm talking to. I was thinking she probably didn't quite grasp the severity, the permanance of what she did. Ryan railed her up and down about taking care of our house and just like drawing on things this was hurting our house, only worse. That she was never ever to do anything like that again.

I didn't think she'd try it again. But look what I found this weekend...























Dozens and dozens of poc marks on every side of the tops of both of the newels posts she sat and made with a pole from one of Sawyer's golf flags.
These I was actually dreading Ryan seeing.















What do you do for punishment for something like this? It's not like she can pay for it... (I can't even afford to replace these). Grounding her doesn't seem like a logical consequence, although I seriously considered it as we discovered this as she was on her way out the door to spend the night at her friend's house.
In the end we talked (again!) about taking care of our home and I had Savannah sit down and help me come up with ways she can help 'take care' to make us feel better about the damage she did to our home. We came up with a list of household chores she has to do this week; she has to clean up the playroom -all herself- every night this week before bed, she has to wash the front windows and the back door, she has to hand mop the hardwoods in the entryway, and she has to wipe down the stair rails/balisters/molding and sweep the carpet on the stairs. She's definitely not happy about these extra jobs (especially the whole playroom responsibilty), but she's surprising complained very little, knowing she deserves it.

What would you have done?

Oh, and any tips for teaching a kindergartner how to tie shoes??

super

I find myself saying 'super' all the time now. I think I have Little Einsteins to thank. I technically should say thanks to Sawyer, who got it from Little Einsteins, because as great as I think that show is, it's not on my list of shows to watch in my leisure time and therefore pick up habits from.

Sawyer loves it though. And the Little Einsteins like to make Rocket go "SUPER FAST!!!". So now Sawyer does everything SUPER FAST! (So thank you, Little Einsteins, for a great little trick to squelch three year old dawdling!)
And lots of other things spill into the SUPER realm around here. Sawyer asks me all the time, "Was that Super Fast, mom?!" "That was Super Tricky, wasn't it mom?!" "Watch me kick this Super High... I have a Super Good Plan... I did a Super Job... That was Super Fun!"

So now of course I say it. I find myself putting Super in front of almost anything I'm trying to emphasize or describe really in any way. I was actually going to read through my posts lately and count the Supers, but I think I'd be a little embarrassed. Yes, I talk like a three-year-old.

I don't really think of it as a childish word, but I feel like others do. Like, can't you think of a better word to describe something? Because it seems like such a simple word. And it is a simple word, but it's a good one. And if you listen to the way my son uses it, you know it's not a simple meaning... that simple word is packed with a lot of feeling and passion. So that's how I hear it in my head, and that's how I use it. Things are super fun, super soft, super cute, super yummy, super easy, super busy, super hot, super cold, super exciting, super, super, super! (that's kind of a weird word when you just look at it over and over and over!)

Anyway. Just thinking outloud.
And hoping you don't think I'm silly for thinking everything's super.

Have a super day!

he'll probably want to kill me when he's 14

But I couldn't resist posting these anyway...

I finally got him to put it on and not be scowling and/or screaming and trying to tear it off:


















But it took lots of convincing, bribing, sweet talking, and bargaining.
The bargaining involved the fact that since he allowed me to see him in the bear costume for all of 8.3 seconds, he also got to try on Savannah's costume:























And he was much happier about that.

Erin was the first to guess right and hit the nail on the head exactly. We had settled on Sawyer being Baby "I'm a big boy!" Bear and Savannah being Goldilocks. I thought Sawyer would love it as he's been conveniently in a I want to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears book every single night before bed rut for a while now. It was actually Savannah's idea. But of course when it came time to actually try the costume on, he would have nothing to do with it and tried convincing me he'd make a much better Goldilocks than a stupid ol' bear. Grr.

What do you think??

Erin, email me your address and I'll send you a surprise! :)

we're having issues

"NO! Noooooo! I hate dat!! I be Gowocks wike Yanna!"

This is the mild version of the fit response I have gotten each day for the past three days when I try to get Sawyer to do a certain something... any guesses on the issue we're having and what Sawyer's been crying whining yelling saying to me (over and over and over)??

First correct answer will get a fun prize mailed to them...

he's so serious, he's funny

I just wanted to jot down some of the funny stuff Sawyer's been saying lately...

He's real big on being fussated!! He's almost always fussated!! instead of being mad or upset. And it almost always makes me laugh... just the way he says it every time with clenched fists down by his sides and his teeth gritted! Complete with an Arghhhh to go along with it.

He's also real big lately on letting me know when I'm being "rude". Rude according to him, that is. You know; like when he doesn't get a second fruit snack or dessert without eating his dinner...
Basically when he's unhappy with my answers, "You rude Mom!"
He got in trouble this evening before bed and I told him because of his behavior I wasn't going to be reading any books to him -that he had to go strait to bed on his own. He of course told me I was rude. A few minutes later he was saying a long-distance goodnight to Ryan on the phone and when he was done I was talking on the phone filling Ryan in on the pre-bedtime cahoots and consequences. Sawyer heard me tell Ryan that he had let me know once again that I was being rude; Sawyer then interrupted me and said "Wait Mom, I change my mind. You not rude."
Gee thanks Sawyer.

This kid was on a "I hate..." kick for awhile. Suddenly this summer he was walking around saying "I hate this" and "I hate that". Most of the time we would just reiterate with him, "Oh, you don't like xyz?". Sometimes he would argue "no, I hate it!" or when it would just get to be too much (or if he'd use it toward people!), we'd remind him we don't need to use that word, we can use nicer words, just say 'I don't like that'. To which he always replies, "But me hate squitos!! (mosquitos)" in a very proud of himself tone of voice.
You see, one time, he said he hated mosquitos (during our Michigan mosquito infestation this summer) and seeing as we were all completely exasperated with the mosquitos, Ryan agreed, "It's okay to hate mosquitos! You go ahead and hate mosquitos Sawyer!"
Now to this day, if there's any conversation about the word hate, Sawyer has to pitch out the fact that he most definitely hates, and is allowed to hate, mosquitos.

On the way to his "preschool" on Friday we were driving along in silence for a few minutes and suddenly Sawyer let out a huge sigh and exclaimed "Me so 'cited... (excited)" letting his voice trail off absentmindedly. It was so stinkin' cute.

And he misses everyone! Ever since he got back from his trip a few weeks ago, he's all about the missing. Every morning when Savannah leaves for school as soon as the bus drives off around the corner he heaves a bigh sad sigh and says "Me miss Yannah..."
Then two seconds later he's happily skipping off to ride his bike.
He misses his dad all day when he's gone at work. He misses me at naptime. He misses the neighbor girls across the street when he sees their mom drive up with an empty van while they're at school. And he always says it in such a sad, dramatic voice. hehe.

And I love, love, love when he talks to anyone on the phone (his dad, his cousin, a grandma, etc) and it ends the same way every time; Bye, Yuv you, have a good day! and then a big kiss on the earpiece of the phone!

There's a ton more; I need to be better about jotting things down.

And just silly things like how he's suddenly taken an interest in Diego (Go, Diego, Go) and totally fully enthusiastically participates in the "interactive" show; full-on yelling out words in spanish when Diego says "louder!" and running up to the tv to point things out when Diego asks a question. He loves it.
Also the fact that he's out playing foursquare and catch football with the boys at the bus stop every morning... keep in mind this is a two year old. The boys at the bus stop are a kindergartner, a second grader, and two fifth graders! Sawyer thinks he's just one of the guys. And don't try to tell him different. He'll emphasize (quite loudly) that he's a BIG BOY!!
And probably tell you you're rude for saying otherwise :) .

scowls and sneezes

Savannah's been super moody and pouty lately; the most common look on her face is a big ugly scowl. Many times with the crossing of her arms and the appropriately placed "HUMPH" alongside of it. When she's told no or asked to do something she doesn't want to or getting reprimanded or most often, anytime her little brother says or does anything to her, she immediately adopts an ugly pouty scowl. Seriously it's getting out of hand. We've been cracking down on this attitude all weekend.

Last night she and I had some nice time together running a couple of errands and she helped me with a quick grocery trip. We were out past bedtime and we talked about how much fun we had and how we'd have to hurry and get ready for bed when we got home. Well, when we arrived home, Sawyer was still up too and he and Ryan were just finishing up one last game of Sequence for Kids. Seriously finishing up, as in they only each played like one more chip. Savannah plopped right down and tried to join in the game and Ryan told her no... they were done. And they weren't playing again, and it was bedtime. And immediately she crossed her arms, stuck out her bottom lip, furrowed her eyebrows and let out the loudest "HUMPH" I've ever heard. I was so fed up with it. After a whole weekend of talking up and down about focusing on attitudes and reactions and checking herself and all that; after a whole weekend of reminders, of turning frowns upside down, of time outs, of apologies, of distractions, of sending her off to be by herself with those faces, I was running out of patience. So in the midst of this pout last night I told her, "If you don't change that look on your face right now, I'm getting a big black permanent marker and making a big black permanent mark down your nose. If you want to spend your days making ugly faces, I'll help you out with that and make a big ugly mark on your face for everyone to see. And when people see your face and ask you why you have a big black mark on your nose you can tell them it's because you like to be ugly."
I was serious and she was scared. She went to bed with a much better attitude.
And apparently that tactic stuck with her because first thing this morning (which is always worse, as she's a grump in the morning) when Sawyer offered her part of his bagel, after she ignored him and he just left the half in her lap, of course she glared at him and started her scowl.
Then she looked at me, I gave her a look like 'watch yourself', and she immediately lost the scowl, her eyes got wide and she said, "I don't want an ugly black mark!!". HA!

*****
And another little funny from the other half of the dangerous duo around here...
Sawyer was sneezing next to me on the couch just now and I said "bless you!".
He laughed one of those you silly mommy, you don't know what you're doing laughs and said "Mo-om... two bless yous!"
He did sneeze twice, duh!