Embarrassing Moments and Classic Playground Games

So not much has been going on this last week. Just the usual routine things that we all do on a daily basis...waking up, getting kids off to school, laundry, cleaning...you know what I'm talking about. But there were 2 things that happened to Jack this last week that I thought I'd share.

On Tuesday he and Natalie were playing outside with neighborhood kids when he comes running in the house crying. I ask him what's wrong and he says that Josh and Cory are making fun of him. I ask what they're saying and he tells me its not what they're saying but what they're doing. So I ask what they're doing and he tells me that they pulled his pants down in front of the girls who live next door. SO I'M PISSED! That's embarrassing as it is but for you all to fully understand the emotions that were attached to this moment for me, please rewind and flashback 19 years to the playground of W.O. Mitchell Elementary school. (If we were on last night's Grey's Anatomy the we would hear the clock ticking)

I was in grade 3 and it was recess. I was wearing a purple Esprit sweat suit, very stylish for 1986, and I was on the monkey bars when the bell to go in rang. I was hanging from the bars, ready to drop down to the ground and run inside when Shane Sutherland ran up to me and pulled my pants down. My silky blue panties were on display for all to see. I was so humiliated because I was STILL hanging from the monkey bars. I dropped to the ground and pulled up my pants and was bawling! I think this memory is still so vivid for me because it was the first really embarrassing moment of my life and I never wore sweat pants to school again after that.

So (clock ticking again) back to present day. My sweet, precious Jack had his pants pulled down by his "friends" and I use that term very loosely! So I go outside and Cory, the younger of the 2 boys is getting ready to ride his bike home and to make a long story short I get to the bottom of what happened and tell the boys that if they treat Jackson that way ever ever again they won't be welcome at our house anymore. Then the next day on the bus they act like little s*#t heads and won't let Jackson sit by them. It didn't bug Jack though because he's a cool kat and there are plenty of kids who want to sit with him on the bus! Turns out the joke is on Josh and Cory though because all the neighborhood kids play down at our house and the house next door so for the past 2 days they've been at home while everyone is playing down at our house. We'll see how today goes and if they're back on speaking terms.

Now for the Classic Playground Game. Jackson says to me after school yesterday, "Mom! ALL the girls were trying to KILL me at school today." I say, "WHAT? ALL the girls were trying to KILL you?" He says, "Seriously mom, they were. They were chasing me and grabbing my sweater and everything." Well, this is all sounding too familiar so I say, "Was it at recess?" And he says, "Yep!" And I say, "were they trying to kiss you?" And he says, "YEAH! How'd you know?" And I say, "Aaaaaahhhhhh! A classic game of kissy-tag!" So his eyes get really really big and he says, "How do you know about Kissy tag? Did you play it when you were little." And I say, "Of course I did! Its a CLASSIC!" It was so funny! I guess some things, like kissy-tag, don't ever die! And apparantly, to Jackson, getting kissed by a girl is the equivilent of getting killed by a girl!

GO CHIEFS!

WHAAAAAAT? WHAAAAAT? I know you're all very shocked to read the "Go Chiefs", especially on the eve of the Broncos-Chiefs game but never fear. I DO NOT mean the Kansas City Chiefs. I mean Jackson's flag football team the Chiefs! Today was his 6th game I think and was by far the best game the team has had. The kids finally figured out how to block and we even completed a pass for a touchdown.
Now, for those who don't know, Jackson's been playing Center because he was the only one who could snap the ball, but today he was moved around a bit and had the chance to do some other things. He does pretty good but he gets really pouty if things don't go his way...like the QB tried to complete a pass to him and it was too short so Jack couldn't figure out why they couldn't try again, and again, and again. Ummmm, its called 2nd and 10 dude! Come on!
There was a great moment in the game though that the kids had been practicing all week. It's called the "Center Special" and what it is is the QB does the snap count and pretends to take the ball and hand it off, but really the center keeps it and runs for a touchdown. Well, they did it today with Jack at center and he totally ran for a touchdown. The other team was so confused--they had no idea what was going on, which of course was the point, but it ended up that it didn't count because apparantly the rules state that there has to be some sort of "exchange" with the ball. I'm actually gonna check on that because I think that's a bunch of crap and the ref was just making stuff up!
Anyways, as far as Jack's football career goes he's doing well. He's learning the game and figuring out what it means to be on a team and play as a team. It’s a hard lesson to learn for the kid who wants to be a star, but hey, that's life. I figure he'll get it eventually and maybe someday he will be a star. "You're a star, you're a star. Buy a suit and a new guitar..." That one's for you Twee! I couldn't resist.

Oh yeah...GO BRONCOS!!!!!

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"bye-bye, soo-soo"

We have hit a milestone at our house this past weekend. A very important milestone I might add. For those who don't know, at our house we call a pacifier a soo-soo or a soose. That stems from the fact that Canadians call pacifiers, soothers, and somewhere along the line, whether with us or my sisters kids it became a soo-soo, a soose, or a see-soo. Anyways, all my babies have been major "soo-soo" kids, with Natalie being the worst and Brady coming in at a very very close second. A mere 2 weeks ago he could hardly function without it in his mouth all day, but on his birthday I decided that he was a big boy and he could only have it during night-night (nap and bedtime). So I got a little box and every time he woke up from night-night he said bye to his soose and it was forgotten until the next night-night. Well, the first few days of that was pretty rough and emotional but as the days went on it got easier and easier for him to part with his soo-soo's.

So this past Friday night TJ put him to bed and he didn't ask for it. He slept all night long, even though he did wake up earlier then normal. So on Saturday I wasn't sure what to do since I had a babysitter, but finally decided that I wouldn't make her deal with that whole issue and told her to go ahead and give him one for his nap and bedtime. Then yesterday he asked for one at his nap so I gave him on but then he didn't ask for one at bedtime and again, slept a full 12 hours without it. Since he was doing so well we decided that we didn't want to watch this very small window of opportunity to ditch the soo-soos to close so he didn't get one at nap time today. When he woke up from his nap, (he did sleep shorter then he normally does, but that is to be expected) I asked him if he was ready to throw his soose's away, and he said, "unkay". We took his box downstairs to the kitchen trash and he picked up each soother and one by one threw them in the trash and said, "bye-bye, soo-soo". Then tonight when I put him to bed he didn't ask for one again, but after about 5 minutes of being in his crib he started calling for me. I went in and asked him what he needed and he said, "soo-soo?" And I said, "Brady, you threw your soo-soo's away in the trash, remember?" And he responded simply by saying, "Oh No!" It was so funny! That was it...no crying, no fussing, just "oh no!" How freakin' cute is that?

When I told Heather about it later she said that he was actually probably thinking, "aaaaahhhhhh sssshhhheeeeee!" but since he can't say that he just said, "Oh no!" (for those who don't know the aaaaahhhhh sssshhhhhheeee story, let me know and I'll tell ya)

So there it is! One more milestone down, hundreds more to go. I'll tell you though, its sad that my baby is a big boy now. All he needs now to be an official big boy is to be in a big boy bed, which he's getting ready for and we actually tried last week, but he was way too distracted by Jackson being in the same room. We'll probably try that again soon, but for now I'll keep him in his crib to try to preserve what little is left of his baby-hood.

$0.98 per Gallon

So I must share the most awesome experience I had today at the gas station. These days there aren't many of those so this one needs to go down in the record books!
Okay, last week I went grocery shopping and received a coupon for $2 off my next gas purchase at the grocery store's gas station so today when I filled up I thought I'd better use it. Now, at the risk of exposing what a tight wad I can be I'll tell you that in order to get my $2 off I could only fill up 10 gallons of my gas tank. I was thinking that maybe I could fill up the whole thing and still get the attendent to honor my coupon because, as I reasoned, 10 gallons or 14 gallons, $2 bucks off is $2 bucks off. But then I remembered that I'm in 'Cago' and people generally aren't accomodating here so I stuck with filling up ONLY 10 gallons and reasoned that I could fill up the rest after I got my discount. (That is where my tight wad-ness comes in. Who just does 2 seperate transactions for $2? Apparantly I do! But keep in mind that I LOVE to get a discount and I spent enough money at the freakin grocery store to warrant such a discount. Also, I prefer to refer to myself in these types of situations as thrifty, not cheap!) Okay, back to the story...I fill up exactly 10 gallons and go into the store to pay. The lady tells me the total comes to $29.87 so I give the her my coupon and she tells me that it will be $9.98 or something. I'm acting all cool like okay, and I slide my card through but I'm thinking that there's gotta be some mistake and start debating if I should be honest and speak up. Well, the honesty won over since there are some minor dishonest things that I've done lately that need to be made up for like lying to the lady at the Plainfield Police Department, another story in and of itself (I know life doesn't work that way but I can still try right?) so I ask the lady why my gas is only $9. She says, "Well you had the coupon." and I say, "Yeah but it was only for $2 off." and she says, "Yeah...$2 off PER GALLON!" WTH!!!! I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I started to laugh with glee and told the lady that she totally made my day and thanked her profusely. I think I even said, "What a GREAT suprise!" I then went out and filled up my van the rest of the way and made out like a bandit, spending a WHOPPING $16 and some change for an entire tank of gas! Seriously, it made me happier then when I get a surprise $5 mark down at Old Navy at the register and those who know me know that that makes me really really really happy! It was a great start to a great day, to say the least!

Natalie's First Day of School--sort of

So I am a terrible mother! Natalie had her first day of school on August 28th and I took my camera to take pictures but the battery was dead so these pictures are from today even though it wasn't the first day of school. It was actually the fourth. Oh well, I do the best I can, most of the time, and I didn't remember until today to take my camera again. She'll never know the difference and in 5 years she probably won't remember that these pictures weren't taken on her very very very first day of pre-school.

So, on to how the first day went. I think she was excited, and nervous and she did have a great day but there are only 2 other little girls in her class, which kind of bugs. They usually try to even out the classes so I might say something to the director and be like "hey what's up with this?" If anyone needs girlfriends its Natalie...especially right now since she's totally having "I have no friends" complex. She does have friends, but they all, and I mean ALL started kindergarten. The other hard thing for her is that Jackson is constantly going over to play at friend's houses and she's never invited over anywhere so she perceives that as nobody likes me! Its sad really, and it makes me feel really bad for her. I think she's lonely and bored so hopefully one or both of the little girls in her pre-school class can be her friends.

Now, the other day something happened to make her feel even worse about her friend situation. She had a little girl, we'll call her 'Pam'* from up the street over and they'd been playing for about an hour when the doorbell rang. Well it was the little girl who lives next to 'Pam' (we'll call her 'Jane') Anyways, I said to 'Jane', "Hi Jane, the girls are up in Natalie's room. You're welcome to go on up." So 'Jane' ran upstairs to join them and not 2 minutes later 'Pam' and 'Jane' came running downstairs without Natalie. I asked where they were going and they told me they were going to 'Jane's' house and out they ran. Well, I go over to the stairs and here comes Natalie with tears streaming down her face because she had just totally been ditched. It broke my heart to see her so upset and so we had a good snuggle but after that she really felt like nobody liked her. I ended up calling 'Pam's' mom because a week earlier she had been telling me about 2 girls who live next door to me who had come to her house looking for 'Jane'. That day 'Jane' and the girls who live next to me ended up ditching 'Pam' so I wanted her to know that 'Pam' had ditched Natalie. She was very apologetic and she had 'Pam' come over and apologize to Natalie and she even had a talk with 'Jane's' mom and the mother of the girls next door. Hopefully there will be no more ditching!

Anyways, that's the deal with Natalie these days. Even though she thinks she has no friends I know that people love her. How can you not? She's funny, fun, friendly, kind, cute, sweet, giving and loving...among other things. I love her to bits and pieces and hope things start shaping up for her socially in the next few weeks. Just so you know, I'm trying my best to help out by inviting little girls over to play with her and she starts a jazz class with her friend Brooke on Tuesday so she'll have that to look forward to also.

*-names have been changed to protect privacy :)

The outside of her school

Beautiful girl posing for the camera in her classroom

This is her with her hat she made standing by her cubby (number 2)