So proud

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.

Happy 100 days

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.

Monkey see, monkey do

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.

Trying something new

I was cleaning out a kitchen drawer today when I found something that might get Ben eating some real foods. We bought this little mesh bag thing-y (Yes, that is its technical name) when Nick was a baby but only used it a handful of time with each baby. I’m hoping this will help Ben over the hurdle, too. At lunch we put a few oranges in there and he LOVED it. It took him a second to figure out what was going on, but once he did he was sold. Then at dinner I made the mistake of putting an apple slice in there. Bad idea. It was a softer apple, but still too hard for his gums. He wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn’t touch it again even after I refilled it with oranges. I guess we will try again tomorrow.

Bringin’ home Bear

Bear is Zander’s classroom “pet” if you will. He brought it home Thursday and has slept with it every night. Unfortunately, Bear doesn’t get much attention except at bedtime, which is too bad because we are supposed to write a couple of paragraphs about how much fun Bear had at our house this weekend. I’m sure the Catholic school won’t kick us out for a few little white lies. Right?

Dirty boy

My mom got Nick a gross body functions science kit for Christmas and Nick begged and begged to do an experiment out of the box. Unfortunately it is for kids who are a little older and most of the experiments take days, if not weeks, to be done. So a few weeks ago I finally caved and we started one of the projects. We made the gel that goes in the petri dish, let it solidify and then used cotton swabs to get bacteria and gross stuff from between Nick’s toes, under his arm, in his nose and in his mouth (new swab for each location). We covered up the dishes and put them in the cupboard to grow. I kept a close watch for a few days and then I kind of forgot about them. They were hidden away in a cupboard we don’t use often and the bacteria just continued to grow … until now. I opened the cupboard tonight and found this.

I can’t remember which part of his body was the nastiest, but apparently he’s got some gross things growing on/in his body. Remind me to hind this box away for a little while longer. I don’t know if I am ready for these kinds of science experiments just yet.

Blech

We keep trying to feed Ben people food (if you can call flavored puffs people food) but he just isn’t having anything to do with it. The last few times I’ve tried he has literally gagged (once to the point of puking) at just the smallest piece placed on his tongue. Mike tried tonight, but had only a small amount of success. He thought maybe if he ate the puffs Ben would see that they weren’t so bad and give them a chance. It kind of worked … for a second. Look at that face. He just isn’t enjoying this at all.

Neither was Mike when I told him they were sweet potato puffs. When I bought them that was the only flavor Ben really liked. Less than two puffs in Ben decided he’d had enough.

This is going to be a long process.