Jack's Missile Defense

Jack is very interested in missiles these last few days.  I can't really remember what might have been the catalyst for this.  He keeps asking to look at pictures of missiles on the internet and wants to know what they are doing.  I explain as much as I can, from what I know and what I'm reading about the picture.

I just built him a missile out of a couple pieces of construction paper.  He's happily playing with it along with a Lego airplane and a plastic box.

"Mommy, do you know who Berker is?"

"No, Jack, I don't.  Who is he?"

"He's the pilot of this airplane and just shot the missile out of it."

"Oh, okay."

The plastic box is his aircraft carrier.  He's moved on to a bigger one because it's easier for the plane to take off and land.

"Mommy, do you know what a surgent is?"

"No, I don't Jack.  What does it do?"

"It helps the planes take off from the ship.  It gives them a surge."

"Like the catapult?"

"No, it's a surgent."

"Where did you learn about surgents?"

"I just know it."

Next question.

"Mommy, do you know what this missile is going to shoot?"

"No..."

"Think about it first Mommy, don't just say it.  You can think about it."

This has been going on for 30 minutes now.  His missiles are coming out of submarines, airplanes, ships and big places underground.  He has definitely been absorbing what I'm telling him.  Welcome to Jack's world.

What the Future Holds

Jack:  Mommy, Casey and I are going to get married when we get older.

Casey:  Yeah, and I'm going to be a princess when I'm married.

Jack:  Don't you want to be a ballerina when you get older, Casey?

Casey:  Yeah, I'm going to be a ballerine

Jack:  I can be a firefighter and Casey can be a ballerina.

Casey:  I want to be a ballerine

Jack:  ah, Casey, ballerin - ah!

Christmas Catalogs

"Oh, a new vaccuum" says Jack as he looks at the computer screen where I'm actually looking at steam mops.  I tell him it's a steam mop to clean the floors.  "I think I should probably ask Santa for one of those for Christmas too.  But...maybe in a smaller size for me."

The Christmas catalogs are arriving daily and Jack has a lot things that he wants from Santa.  He has been pouring over them and with a little assistance from some commercials he has seen on TV he thinks he has a pretty good idea of what he would like.  Just a few things from each page usually.  As he is looking through the magazines for the first time he'll say, "Mommy!  You're not going to believe this...come look at what's on this page."  That's pretty much for every page.   But he's so serious about it, like I'm really not going to believe it.

After looking at the back page of the Target catalog, he said, "Casey is going to want those princesses and I want this [garage] and one of these [nerf guns] but I want it in blue because blue is my favorite color and I saw a blue one in here somewhere else."  When I asked him what he might do with a nerf gun, he said he would shoot it in the backyard.  I'm not sure Santa is going to be able to pull that one off this year.

This week I feel like Jack has been growing up before my eyes.  He seems taller and seems to be talking more maturely.  I just keep looking at him and wondering when he got so big.

Casey's New Boots

How cute is Casey in this outfit?  She had the dress on but the tights were still in the wash, trying to recover from getting trampled on during a rush to get Halloween candy.  Then I pulled out the new boots.  Daddy thought she was so cute that he took her outside to get a photo shoot.  I ran out with my camera and I think these are some of my favorite pictures of her.  Later Pat and Casey went on a date to the mall and Pat said there were some older girls in line who couldn't get over how cute she looked and the fact that she had those cute boots on.  I might be a little proud of myself for having purchased the cute dress and boots but it's really the model who makes them look so good.

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween weekend, but super busy!  It started off on Friday morning with Jack's class Halloween party.  Casey and I attended and the kids all enjoyed ghost shaped sandwiches, fruit, spider cupcakes, crafts, a story and a fun game.  It was cute seeing everyone in costume although I thought it was funnier watching the little kids in costumes tumble out of their cars in the drop off line.  We spotted another dragon right in front of us.

Oh yes, Jack was a dragon and Casey was a princess.  Since I bought Casey her costume, she's been asking to wear it but I had to hold off because I knew it wasn't quite durable enough to take on and off many times for dress up.  So on Friday morning, she was so excited to wear it and Jack was excited to be a dragon and it just started my day off right!  Casey was also introduced to tights to keep her little legs warm.  She's worn them before but I know she doesn't remember.

On Friday afternoon, we had a birthday party to go to at Color Me Mine, a pottery painting studio.  Jack had gotten a little warm in his dragon costume at his school party, so he opted not to wear his.  However, Casey wasn't missing out on another chance to wear hers.  Jack and the princess got to paint little pottery pumpkins.  I was a little concerned when Jack didn't pick out any orange to put in his paint tray, but eventually Casey got some and the poor little pumpkin got a little bit of it's real color.  Jack was pretty disappointed that he couldn't take his pumpkin home.  Wasn't too concerned about the whole baking and glazing process the pottery has to go through.  He wanted his craft!

On Saturday morning we headed to the zoo for Zoo Boo.  Different businesses hand out candy as the kids trick or treat around the zoo.  Sounds very cute and the line of cars to get there indicates that a lot of people thought it was great.  But, the cynical me notes that we paid money to trick or treat at the zoo for not very good candy and didn't even see any animals.  The kids had a good time though and don't really have a preference for "good" candy yet - it's all good to them.

There was a community picnic on Saturday afternoon where the kids bounced off a lot of their candy energy in the bounce house and had a great time.  I volunteered to help clean up after which meant that I came home with a car full of leftovers.  That was probably my main clean up function - try to take some of these leftovers so they don't go to waste.

And Saturday continued...we got a babysitter and went out to Homearama and dinner.  Homearama was a builder showcase of 10 new homes in an up and coming area.  We love to walk through the homes and get ideas as they are all beautifully furnished and highly decorated.  I actually like to pretend I'm moving into these homes and try to figure out where our furniture is going to go.  That might be taking it a little further than most people.

And then Sunday...dinner at a friend's house before trick or treating.  We were treated to a great Halloween feast and the best dessert I've had in a long time - Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  So yummy.  Jack and Casey were excited to get to the trick or treating though.  Pat took them through our neighborhood and I stayed home to hand out candy.  They came back dragging their bags because they were so heavy from the candy!  They got home and we had a few more trick or treaters.  Jack said, "I want some more customers to come so I can give them this candy."  He gave out our last two pieces of candy to some customers and we called it a night!  And a weekend!

 And now I'm going to wield the power of the candy controller for the next month.  Won't eat your dinner?  No candy.  Won't stop fighting?  No candy.  In fact, I just told Jack that if he didn't go to bed he wouldn't get any candy tomorrow.  And it worked.





  

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Today was Jack's first class trip.  Each parent brought their own child(ren) so it wasn't as much of a teacher controlled group as it was parent controlled.  We headed to Hunt Club Farm for a hayride, petting zoo and to pick out a pumpkin.  Casey came along too.

Jack told me last night that we were going to have to get up early and eat our breakfast quickly and brush our teeth quickly so we could get to the pumpkin patch on time.  We did have to leave the house a little earlier than normal but with Casey waking up well before the hour of 7 lately (another post entirely) there was no fear of being late.  In fact, she watched a show, ate her breakfast and then went upstairs to wake up Jack despite directions to the contrary.  Even though I was pretty sure I wasn't going to oversleep, I woke up 4 or 5 times during the night to check the time so we wouldn't be late for Jack's big pumpkin day.

Jack wanted to wear his cowboy hat to the farm.  I was a little reluctant to let him at first, mostly because I figured I would be carrying it around instead of him.  But, since we won't be heading to the ranch any time soon, what better place to wear his cowboy hat than to the farm.

I was looking forward to seeing Jack interact with his classmates.  He's been talking about his friend M. since school started and I thought they would have a great time together.  However, as we were gathering at the farm, the girls in Jack's class all got together and started talking and running around and the boys clung to their mothers.

The hayride wasn't so great for the kids.  We put most of the kids in the middle of the wagon and then realized that they couldn't see anything because all the adults were sitting around them on the outside.  We were all squished in there so there wasn't any room to switch places.  They got to see the horses and the lady who talked all about pumpkins and gourds so they were happy enough.

Then we were off to the petting zoo and playground.  First they ran to the top of the haystack and had a great time jumping around in there.  Then we went to visit some chickens and goats.  Jack loved the goats. He could pet them through the fence and he thought they really liked him.  He kept showing me the best way to pet them.  They all had cute little nametags on and the ones that Jack liked best were named Jack and Jill.  Yeah, the goats had cute nametags.  Anyway.

We did a class picture and a little more haystack climbing and it was off to pick a pumpkin.  Jack kept telling me how he was going to pick the best pumpkin and he had all sorts of criteria for the ultimate pumpkin.  As soon as we got to the pumpkin corner, he said, "That's the one!"  I thought the search was going to take much longer than a quarter of a second, but I guess fate intervened to prevent a long, drawn out pumpkin selection process.

Most of the school left after picking pumpkins.  Casey was so cute and really wanted to show her pumpkin to Jack's teacher so she went over and showed her.  I think Casey thinks Miss H. is her teacher too.  Casey had been begging to go on the playground back near the petting zoo so we headed over there for a little longer.  Jack wanted to hang out with the goats a little longer too.

We finished our trip with me telling the kids that we weren't buying any big pumpkins today.  10 or so times.  I also told Jack that we could not plant his pumpkin seeds today.  5 or so times.  We wandered through the big pumpkins, tried to get some pictures with them and then headed home.

It was a fun trip but I might as well have taken them by myself for all that Jack interacted with his class.  At least he sat nicely for a picture with his class!

Casey's Play Time

Since Jack has started school, Casey and I have spent a little more time together at home.  It's been interesting to see what she plays with without Jack's influence.  She definitely likes her "babies."  Even when Jack is around, she has been playing with her babies lately.

Half the time, I'm not even sure what she is doing and what she is saying, but she is taking care of baby and is very serious about it.  She has about 5 of them, but usually picks one or two to take care of per day.  She talks to them, pushes them around in strollers, puts blankets on them, gives them baths and feeds them.  I can't even describe the noises she makes when she is talking to them but it so cute.

Today she had a friend over here playing and she pulled out three of her chairs and set them around the coffee table.  She pulled plates out of her kitchen and set them up.  She put baby in one chair and put food on  all the plates.  Then she yelled, "It's dinner time!" to her friend.  She had to tell him a few times that it was time for dinner and convince him to come over and eat, but he eventually did.  They had a lovely meal.  I believe one of them had a carrot and the other had some asparagus.  Very healthy eaters.  Unfortunately it ended in a huge fight about who was doing the dishes.  Well, not really.  I think they moved on to play with a garbage truck.  I sat here watching them "eat" and I should have taken a picture.

I am a little disappointed that she's not more interested in the dress I made for one of her naked dolls.  The dolls came with bath tub accessories, but no clothes.  She loves playing with the bathrobe and slippers, but has yet to be concerned that they have no clothes on when they are done bathing.  Santa was thinking of making some more clothes, but maybe he'll wait until she's more interested!