Adam's Into His Book

We found Adam asleep in his bed with his head planted in the book he was reading

Immigration Day

Derek and neighbor Becca

Derek, along with the rest of the 5th grade, has been studying immigration. Yesterday I went to Derek's school and read an immigration story to his class and today the 5th graders are staging a mock immigration.

The school lobby is set up to be Ellis Island with immigration officials, judges, etc. The students were assigned a persona which included name, occupation, country, age, etc. Derek's persona is Mario Osborn. He is 43 years old, a potato farmer, and came over in steerage class from Germany. He has a scalp infection and his suitcase contains a few trinkets he hopes to use to favorably influence immigration officials.

Helen was rushing out the door in the morning when she told me quickly that Derek wanted a mustache for Immigration Day. She showed me the mascara and eye liner and gave me some quick instructions. I nodded to confirm that I had it under control.

I came back from my morning run as Derek was getting ready to head to the bus stop. I quickly worked to apply his mustache. I had two containers to choose from and I was proud that I was able to discern the mascara from the eye liner. However, the mascara applicator did not seem to be working. I quickly remembered that Helen said something about maybe needing to sharpen it. So I sharpened it and tried again. Still nothing would come out and Derek's upper lip was getting raw. I gave up, put down the mascara, and told Derek I didn't know what was wrong. Derek picked up the mascara, looked at it, and pulled a cap off the other end. It turns out there are 2 ends to a mascara container (who knew?) and I was working with the eraser end, which won't apply the mascara - even if you sharpen it.

Adam's Thanksgiving Feast

Adam's class took part in the annual Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast. The kids made an Indian headdress, a macaroni necklace, and painted Indian designs on a tshirt. Adam brought 6 bags of popcorn that Helen pre-popped the night before. Helen asked if I thought it would be ok to send the popcorn in a Victoria's Secret bag and I said, "That's fine with me - that's probably where his teacher's shop for their underwear anyway."

The pictures above are from when Adam got off the bus and his macaroni necklace broke. Derek tried to console him, but it was going to take some time for Adam to recover.

Hogwarts Castle

Derek's been saving his money for quite a while to buy the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and a few weeks ago he had finally saved enough to get it. But we've been so busy that we had not gotten to the store. Thankfully, Derek had been pretty reasonable about pestering us - except for a couple occasions where he didn't have enough other things to do and I had to tell him to quit asking.

This weekend, we finally made the commitment to go to Target after Adam's soccer game on Sunday. Derek was so excited and told us that once he got the castle he was going to be in his room for days and no one was to bother him. As soon as we arrived at the store, Derek excitedly did a walk\run back to the toy section. The store was being turned into a Super Target so everything had been reconfigured and, at first, Derek couldn't find the Lego section and was getting worried that the store had quit carrying Lego's. We finally found the Lego's, but there was no Hogwarts Castle. Once we confirmed with one of the workers that there weren't any in the back either, Derek started getting misty eyed. He had waited patiently for weeks and the day had finally arrived only to be thwarted.

Adam was also caught up in the money madness and couldn't wait to dump his hard earned money on the Matchbox Shark Attack. But that Target did not have any Shark Attacks, either. So I proposed that if they were willing to combine their money then I would chip in the difference and they could get a Nintendo Wii. Derek gave careful consideration to the offer, but Adam wouldn't go for it.

Adam wasn't too upset, but Derek had lost all hope. We were beat from all the weekend activities and still had lots to do to get ready for the week, but we decided, since Derek had been so patient, that we would drive over to another Target to see if they had a Hogwarts Castle. Derek's demeanor quickly changed from mopey and sad to one of eager anticipation.

When we arrived at the store, Derek hustled back to the toy section where he found the last remaining Hogwarts Castle and as we rolled up with the shopping cart, he had the biggest grin on his face and quickly deposited his prize in the shopping cart. Adam also got his Shark Attack.

When we got home, both boys immediately headed up to their rooms with their new toys. It's been a few days and Derek spends any free time he can get up in his room setting up his castle. He gives his friends at school daily updates and pulls us into his room to show us how far he's gotten. Adam has his Shark Attack setup in his room and closes his door so nobody will bother it.

Loose Tooth

One of Adam's bottom teeth has been on the verge of falling out for a couple weeks now. He's asked us to pull it a couple times, but when we try he chickens out. The other day, Adam let Derek tie some dental floss around it, but when Derek tried to pull it the dental floss slipped off.

A couple years ago, Derek had a loose tooth and let us tie dental floss around it, but wouldn't let us pull it out. He was just walking around the house with the floss hanging off his tooth. He happened to be in the kitchen talking to us while Adam was walking around with the phone talking to Helen's parents when Adam, without breaking his conversation, reached out and matter of factly jerked Derek's tooth out as he walked by and then continued on into the other room carrying on his conversation as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, we were all in shock, especially Derek.

Potty Buzzer

We pulled out the "potty buzzer" this week. It's really a bed wetting alarm, but the boys call it a "potty buzzer". When we were potty training the boys we would set a little kitchen timer to go off every 30 minutes, which meant it was time for the boys to go to the bathroom. We refered to that as the "potty buzzer", but oh well.

Adam has still been using pullups at night, but now that he's 5 it's time to stop. He doesn't always wet and when he does it's usually just a small amount, which I don't really understand. It seems that if you can't hold it then it would all come out.

We used the alarm with Derek and it worked really quickly. Derek recognized the alarm as soon as I pulled it out for Adam and he eagerly showed Adam how it works. Adam was excited that now he gets to wear "big boy" underwear to bed.

The device consists of the alarm which looks like a little beeper case that attaches to the neck of his pajamas and then a wire with a sensor is attached to his underwear. When the sensor detects wetness it vibrates and sounds an audible alarm. The idea is that some kids go into such deep sleep that their minds don't get the signal that they need to use the bathroom. The alarm gives immediate feedback and trains the brain to recognize the situation. Here's a link to the alarm and the store where we got it.

I've already been up a couple times this week to meet Adam in the hallway. He gives me that look of "make it stop". Just like the good old infant days.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Adam insisting that his "real" birthday is not today made me remember another funny story. Ever since the boys were very young we've had a tradition where they take their bath and then holler down for me to come up and "chase" them. They put their hooded bath towels on their head, grab some type of weapon like a plastic sword, and I chase them around as they run screaming naked all over the upstairs.

Earlier this year Adam and I were walking back from taking Derek to the bus stop and I mentioned that it was a pretty day to play outside. I asked Adam what he and his preschool classmates have been playing lately when they go outside. He said he couldn't remember, so I got more specific and went through a list of things that I asked him if they played. I finally got around to "chase" to which he responded that, "his teacher won't let him take his clothes off". I didn't quite understand what that had to do with the question. Finally, after some more digging I realized that Adam thought all games of chase involved running around naked like he does when we play chase after bath time.

Helen and I had a laugh at that one and then wondered how exactly he figured out that he can't take his clothes off at school. We pictured one of his friends asking him if he wanted to play chase and then Adam starting to disrobe before his teacher asked him just what the heck he thought he was doing.