These two..

The Second's Second

Tomorrow is Sam's 2nd birthday.  As always I can't believe it's already time for one of the kids in my life to be celebrating another year.  But not as always, I was right on time...no wait...a hair EARLY for his Well Child Check-Up.  We went this morning and everything is going just fine.  He's bit above average in height and a bit below average in weight.  Exactly my opposite!

Happy Birthday Sweet SamSam!

Don't take this kid's ice cream...you'll live to regret it.

Art

This is Alex's clay sun project from his art class at school.  Not surprisingly, I love everything about it.

I love everything except that he dropped and broke it.  But what's a little super glue among friends, right Aunt Nicki?
 

Dance Moves for Dayzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

For Real

People who email you the entire contents of the voicemail they left you mere minutes before sending the email should lose all phone privileges for at least a month.

"I'm sorry sir, you wasted everyone's time and now you cannot use your phone for 30 days.  Aaaaand time starts NOW."

Learning

This year, Alex has been learning math with the "new math" system of the common core.  He seems to get it, which is great, but I figure it would be helpful if I would understand it as well, and that is not going as well as one would hope.  Like at all.  Like I don't get it.  Not even a little bit.

Last night, we were going through his homework worksheet and he was supposed to be using a number grid to solve some addition problems.  He got the answers straight away, but then I asked him to explain to me how he would use the number grid if he needed to.  And that's when we went off the tracks...

Me:  K, #2, what is 63+8?
Alex:  71.
Me:  Yep.  But can you show me how you would use this number chart to get that answer instead of just doing the math?
Alex:  But it's 71, right?
Me:  Yes, you're right, but you're supposed to use this chart to figure it out.  And while I can see you don't need the chart for this one, I would like you to explain to me how you would use it if you didn't know the answer.
Alex:  Oh!  So, you would start at 11 because 3 plus 8 equals 11 and then that makes you go over here and then you bop down to here and you're at 71.
Me:  ...  ...  But that doesn't make any sense.  Why do you start there and how do you know that you should "bop down" to there?
Alex:  Because it's 71.  It's71, right?
Me:  Yes it is.  You have the correct answer.  I just don't understand how to do math this way.
Alex:  Ummm, did you even go through 1st grade?
Me:  Yes.  I went through 1st grade.  We just didn't learn math this way when I learned it.
Alex:  Were you born in the 1980's or something then?
Me:  No.  I was born in 1977.
Alex:  Oh.  Huh.  Ok.  Well, the next one is 52.

Thank you!

This morning, Sam picked up one of Alex's Magna-Tiles, held it up to my face, and said, "triangle!"  I would like to take a moment to thank daycare for teaching him shapes, as I am quite certain I have never spoken a word about any polygons to that child.

It's a Start

It has been printed...

Now to see if I actually follow through on it.  Yikes, it's been a while.

Dino Diorama

Alex's class was learning about dinosaurs and they received an assignment to complete a diorama or poster or poem or song or whatever they wanted to showcase something they learned throughout the unit.  Alex chose a diorama.  Good good.  I have to say, he did a really good job.  He came up with the plan, drew a big ol' TRex, and collected the supplies for everything else.  Travis and I simply wielded the box cutter, scissors, and glue.  I think it turned out pretty well!

 As you can see, there is a fish in the TRex's mouth and stomach to show it is a meat eater, while the Stegosaurus is preparing to consume a meal of grass because it was a herbivore.  The little yellow guy in the back is biting the tale of the Stegosaurus because it is protecting its nest of jelly bean eggs.

All in all, a pretty solid depiction of dinosaur life I think.*

*Solid depiction if we ignore basic time lines.  I.e., the barely visible human in the TRex's stomach as well as the fact that Stegosauruses and TRex's didn't live at the same time...by like 80 million years.

Carnivore!

Sam does not like meat for the most part.  Any time I make something with meat in it, he will eat everything except the meat.  But Grandpa Z's ribs?  Those are a different story.

Mothers' Day 2016

These Two

We had a family filled weekend.  Mix in a track meet, some soccer, a baseball game, horseback riding lessons, a two man car wash, and some tennis and you end up with two tired boys.

Mowin'

When one doesn't like to wear shoes, but also doesn't like the feeling of grass underfoot, one must mow things other than the lawn...

And We're Off!

Sam isn't technically turning 2 until the 21st, but he's giving us a good preview of those good ol' Terrible Two's.  Damn.  Everything and anything that doesn't go exactly how he wants it causes a complete meltdown/reboot cycle in his brain.

This morning was going great for the first hour.  But then we needed to get ready to take Alex to the bus stop and Samalamadingdong spotted some strawberries.  I picked up the bowl to give him one, and since he is ever attached to my hip he had access to the bowl, and he greedily reached in and grabbed two.  I calmly told him that he could have one at a time and took one strawberry from him.  Some quick math wll clearly show I left him with a strawberry in his possession.  But this atrocity would not do.  He wanted TWO strawberries to run around with while I tried to cram him into a sweatshirt.  TWO strawberries Mom...did you miss the memo?

He stood there in the kitchen, screaming at me with little tears staining his ever reddening cheeks, completely unable to be soothed.  Alex came in the kitchen, looked at me wide-eyed, and quietly asked, "What. is. happening?"

2.  2 is what is happening buddy.  Strap in; it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

'Licious!

Made My Day

Alex ran up to me when he came home yesterday and handed me this while saying, "MOM!  I got something for you!  It was the ripest one I could find at the bus stop."