Flutter Nutter and Hotels...

We recently learned that Flutter Nutter is a "responder".

If we are unhappy he is unhappy. If we are calm, he will be somewhat calmer. Hard at 4 to be calm. :)

No truer is the "Responder" definition than when he stays in a hotel.

Last night, after lights out. He would bounce out of bed saying, "I hear laughing!"
"I hear people!" He can reach the light switches, so on goes the light. Shortly after the light is out again, I think after he realized we were all in bed and ignoring him. A little more bouncing to match the laughing, and "I can't sleep". To which dad finally says, "Lay down and go to sleep."
I try to smother my giggles....he just said, "He couldn't sleep."
This morning as I type....He is snuggled with his blankie, lying down watching tv. A nap in the future?

My Sweet Little Buttercup...

Recently I had a kiddo wanting to change his name.
He wanted to be named after a Star Wars character.
I informed him, he would be called by the name chosen for him at birth or "My Sweet Little Buttercup" His choice. He chose his given name.
Last night and today, on facebook there has been a little conversation about Moms.
How sometimes we just don't want to hear " MOOOOoooooooooooooom" one more time.
Or "MOM" with the teenage inflection of annoyance.
I have renamed myself at times as Mrs. Capt. Crunch. My children and their friends were renamed Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, Fruit Loops, Coco Loco (for Cocoa Puffs), Rice Krispies and Raisin Flakes (Bran).
Today I was thinking, I might just force my manly boys to call me "my sweet little buttercup" in an effort to correct their obnoxious boyish behaviour. That or call them that in front of their friends. You should have seen their eyeballs pop.
I asked Daddy's Buddy if he would call me buttercup?
"Uhhhh NO!" with a bug eye rolling expression that he does. LOL
Maybe for a day I will have one on them.
But in contrast Flutter Nutter, was all for it! "Call me Buttercup! Call me Buttercup!"
Oh for them all to be 4 and still love their mommies and not be embarrassed by it.

The humility that comes with teaching...

So off to the library we go today.
Our mission: to find books for a research paper.
I only had the 2 fourth graders.
While driving, I thought I would introduce the dewey decimal system and the card catalog to my students.
It started with, when I was your age we had a wooden dresser like cabinet full of drawers...
There are non-fiction and fiction books. Fiction is arranged alphabetically by author's last name.
Non-fiction is arranged by topic. Enter explanation of dewey decimal system and the card catalog. And.. when I was your age I had to learn what the numbers meant and memorize them. Today that is not necessary because of the computer. It is so much faster than the card catalog ever was.
At the library, I direct my eager pupils to the computer (aka card catalog).
I cannot seem to pull up what I am looking for.
Dewey decimal numbers all over the place. Hmmm, this isn't going quite so smoothly.
I finally look at these two young men and say, "The most important lesson today is: when all else fails ask the librarian!"
So off we go. She takes us back to the computer and shows me the best page to do the search on.
She then starts explaining, this book will be on sociology of the country you are looking for, this one will be on the religions of this country. Hmmm, all back to the Dewey Decimal System. Guess I need to re-memorize those numbers.

One Busy Weekend

The kids kept us jumping a couple of weekends ago.
First there was the Awana Grand Prix.
This year we had 2 entered...Hockey Player and Little Princess
Little Princess took first place for best non-car design
Then she took 4th overall and first (which she received the trophy for)in the 3/4th grade girls bracket.




Then Hockey Player was off to Arkansas for a friendship tournament.
His team won all 4 games + he scored in the last game!

Little Princess participated in the AWANA games on Saturday.
Lots of fun and she was tired later that afternoon but denied it with all the energy she could muster, which wasn't much.

The girls and I took care of some necessary shopping.
We did our nails, slept in and had devotions while snuggled under the covers.
We got a little bit of work done, but mostly enjoyed just being us girls.

The guys stopped at Grandpa's on the way home to enjoy the second half of the Super Bowl.
They walked in glad to be home, but TIRED! No arguments about going to bed that night.

My favorite memory...Fun Mom, she missed Hockey Player sharing the basement with her, so she slept upstairs with us. I am ever so grateful for the close friendships my children are forming with each other.