The boys got about 8 rolls of tape for Christmas from my dad. Somehow it has managed to last into February. I was shocked. Even more shocking is that the boys managed to find yet another way to entertain themselves. Nick started this fun little game.
Then he kindly helped his brother.
Who really needs a haircut.
Look, they almost look like they like each other.
I’ve said it plenty of times before that Zander has a pretty vivid imagination and this just illustrates that point one more time. I was back cleaning out some baby toys from Ben’s room when Zander comes strolling in wearing grocery bags. Yes – grocery bags. He had a whole story that he told me numerous times about why these bags were necessary. I’m not going to lie … I tuned him out for about half of the versions. But, what I did catch went something along the lines of he was wet … and dirty … and he was wearing the bags to keep from getting the floor dirty. He used the big Scheel’s bag to keep his dirty feet off the floor.
But apparently one layer wasn’t enough because I caught him in the hall closet putting on a second and third layer of bags.
I personally like is that he was using the snowman bag so it almost looked like he was a fashionable homeless man.
Apparently I need to add used shopping bags (and old recipe cards) to my list of “toys” the boys enjoying “playing” with.
Nick’s teacher sent home a note last week that we needed to make his Valentine’s mailbox at home as a “family project.” The kicker: It needed to be back to school by Feb. 3. So this week he settled in at the table to make his box while I took on the fun task of consolidating my stacks of recipes. I got out some scraps of scrapbook paper for Nick (my mom has all of the stash at her house and kindly sent over a the two Valentine sheets she could find) and I sat down with my new bright pink binder, tabbed dividers and colored paper. Zander couldn’t be left out so he used some scraps of scrapbook paper and my paper to practice his cutting (he called it work, but it was pretty much just cutting pieces of paper into even smaller pieces of paper).
The best part of the night: I was cleaning out my ancient recipes on notecards, keeping those we still used and tossing those we didn’t. Instead of throwing them away I decided to feed my child’s hoarding tendencies (though Zander isn’t nearly as bad as NIck) and passed them along to him. Every time I handed him a new notecard he would turn to me all serious and say “Are these for me? Thank you so much Mommy for sharing your cards. You are my best friend. I love you so much.” Who needs expensive Christmas and birthday presents? I got more love giving him my cast-offs than I did at the holidays. And when I gave him the plastic notecard filer at the end of the night I got the biggest hug ever and another round of “I love yous” and “Thank yous.” He even took it to bed with him. And when he woke up the next morning the first words out of his mouth were again thanking me for sharing my paper, notecards and filebox with him. Sometimes that kid can be the sweetest child under the sun. It’s the other times that I should probably not write about.
From your favorite nephews!
(NOTE: Nick asked if it was picture day. Guess that goes to show just how little my boys “dress up.” If they have on a shirt with buttons there must be something happening.
Nick’s school does Character Counts (what school doesn’t anymore) and each month they have a character assembly. Apparently the pillar (there are six) this month was fairness. I got an email from Nick’s teacher last week letting me know that Nick would receive an award during the assembly and we were invited to attend. Um … yes, please. While I know Nick is a good kid at school I was curious how exactly he was chosen for this award, so I asked. This is what his teacher sent back to me:
Kids are nominated by their teachers. We nominate no more than 2 each month for the pillar we are working on. I think Nick is always very fair with others (many opportunities to share and be flexible were available during our indoor recess days recently! HA! :0) He's always very willing to share, he follows the rules of games and expectations of school and tries very hard to "work it out" when kids need to compromise on issues that may arise. He's such a kind boy to others. It was an easy choice.
Melt my heart. But, of course, in the interest of keeping it real I will divulge that this is what I sent back to her:
Glad to know his bad behavior is mostly only directed at his siblings. :)
She laughed, I’m guessing because she has kids at home and knows how true that statement is. Nick had no idea he was getting the award or that I would be there when he came into the gym that day. He told me later that he knew something was up as soon as he saw me. Nick’s was the first name called. He popped right up, marched up to the front of the gym in front of the whole school and shook his principal’s hand. (NOTE: He is standing next to sixth graders. Sure, they are girls, but he is almost as tall as them).
Thankfully Mr. Wiebers showed him where to go next, because I am pretty sure he was embarrassed confused.
He was soon joined by his classmates and kids from the rest of the school. However, he refused to look at me most of the time he was up there. He knew I was taking pictures and wanted nothing to do with it. I’m already that mom.
It is crazy to think that Nick has been in kindergarten for 100 days! His teacher sent home the reminder letter a few weeks ago so we could start thinking about what 100-item collection Nick wanted to bring to school for the celebration. I was at a loss. I’ve learned very quickly this year that all my craftiness and good ideas were left in the delivery room after having Ben. My brain is mush. So we thought and thought and though and finally decided he would take silly bands. So Nick sat down one night and counted 10 sets of 10 silly bands, put them in a baggy and called it good.
And that was when it hit me. Duh. What does my kid have more of than anything else in this world? That’s right, LEGOS. Why didn’t I think of it sooner. So while I was at a meeting one night Mike and Nick made 10 nice towers (or maybe it was 5) of LEGOS in preparation for the day.
And then I was struck with another brilliant idea. Why not use those LEGOS to make something instead of just leaving them in towers. So he did. And this is what he came up with.
Pretty impressive, right? He swapped out one stack of LEGOS for a bunch of little guys and added the ball. OK, so maybe it was 102 LEGOS (the ball and green board weren’t counted I don’t think) but still, I give the kid credit for his imagination. (NOTE: They left their collections at school. I saw them all at conferences. Next time, we are taking the silly bands or leaving the LEGOS in towers).
He came home from school with this Froot Loop necklace. I can only begin to imagine how many disgusting little hands touched each of those loops, but Nick ate the entire necklace anyway. I’m guessing it’s not the worst thing he’s had in his life.
We have been trying to find a time to get the boys to a hockey game all season, but it just hasn’t really worked into the schedule (mostly because they start kind of late for our boys). So, when the team played on a Sunday afternoon Mike was quick to make me snag three tickets (I stayed home with Ben and ended up attending the visitation for a high school friend’s mother).
The boys are always fascinated with hockey but they seem even moreso after a game. Case in point:
That’s Zander – driving his zamboni. I give the kid credit, he has an unlimited supply of imagination. We’ve upgraded the zamboni so he can sit down now. It used to be he would just push the grocery cart around the kitchen floor. Now, he sits on that little yellow chair and scoots the tea cart he got for Christmas around instead. And his feet must stay on the bottom tray otherwise they get wet.
That’s him moving Ben out of the way. Poor kid was about to get run over by a zamboni and I’m guessing that might kind of hurt.
