so sweet in so many ways

The boys and I had breakfast last week, and they tried dipping their chicken in honey. While no one really liked it, it led to a 'sweet' discussion:

Jack: You know sweet can mean several different things: sweet, love sweet, sweet, sugar sweet, or sweet, awesome!

Harry: And it can mean suite, like a hotel!

It's been fun and crazy this summer, and I'm still digging through vacation pix - hope to get them up soon :-)

Happy Birthday to Dean's mom - good talking with you this morning, and Jack is in a better mood ;-)

Marvin's Gaye's How Sweet It Is

Just another night

Dean is home and all is right with our world tonite.
The boys enjoying their 'working dinner'. It seems like they come home with a whole new vocabulary of working types of phrases from school like this and 'finish-up folder' and a whole lotta others I can't remember at the moment. One of Harry's favorite is 'working ___' - he will seem to do just about anything if I phrase it just right ;-)

You may remember these Valentine's mailboxes that the boys made a few years ago. Jack came up with a brilliant, sweet idea this year. He and Harry put special notes and pictures in the mailboxes for us, and we do the same for them. You always know there's a little bit of love in the box when the flag is up....
......looks like a little sweet for our sweeties!

I try to keep things picked up, but I can't complain too much when the 'mess' is stacks of books they are enjoying. It's been a mix of fiction and non-fiction lately, and they are really enjoying their reading club at school. It's the first time they have been in a real learning environment together - we'll see how it goes. My hopes go out to their teachers that it goes well!

Jack has had a real struggle this week with being too talkative and interrupting. If have no idea where he gets that :blush:, let alone the fact that he gets a double dose! It's been quite a while since he's had a 'yellow day' which means his teacher had to warn him about his behavior....he's had TWO this week, so he wrote his teacher this email:

Let's hope the self-control kicks back in soon! He's awfully sweet, so I have faith
Cat Stevens

Mama said knock you out!

So, Harry has been experimenting with assertiveness of late, especially with Jack....he had always deferred to Jack and would probably cut off an arm if Jack would just ask. So, today when Jack was annoying him, Harry asked him to stop, Jack didn't, Harry told him: stop or I'll stop you, Jack looked at me and said he wanted to see what would happen.....Harry punched him right in the face! This is a total first, and if we hadn't worked so hard to have him be more assertive and Jack hadn't been being such a brat, I probably wouldn't have thought it was such progress ;-) It was a pretty good right jab.

Then they ran into a bully in the playarea and apparently no one has learned anything we've tried to teach them ....alas, the parenting continues.

Later,
Harry: Jack, you just jumped into my conversation with Mommy, and I am MAD at you!
(no real response from Jack)

Even later:
Jack: God must have really studied for a long time to make all the words in the whole world!

LL Cool J

Interjections! (Well!) Show excitement (Oh!) or emotion (Hey!)

We've found a whole treasure trove of videos that were in storage, and we broke out the School House Rock today. Much to Jack's annoyance, but then he listened and decided he LOVED it! They can't wait to see the other episodes, so thankyouthankyouthankyou, Miss Heidi for a much-loved gift!

I've decided that Harry's latest title should be Mr. Interjection. He's all about spicing up the verbage and has been reading enthusiastically to his class recently. Makes me wish I could have deciphered all those extended unintelligible chats he had when he was a teeny ;-)

According to Dictionary.com:
4. Grammar.
a. any member of a class of words expressing emotion, distinguished in most languages by their use in grammatical isolation, as Hey! Oh! Ouch! Ugh!
b. any other word or expression so used, as Good grief! Indeed!

School House Rock's Interjections

Tell me boy, now does that sound like you?

The boys have finally finished all their thank you's, and Jack cracked me up last nite with this one....he said "Mommy, you're all ACTIONED UP" huh? He said I was mad because he punched Harry.....*look* at those eyebrows ;-)

10CC's Action Man In A Motown Suit

It's Hot Tonite

This was their penultimate (just to see if you're reading) game, and it was H-O-T tonite. We've been spoiled this summer, barely reaching the three-digit days, so I'll stop whining now. Here are some cute boys who miss their Daddy and really stepped up their hitting tonite - yay!




A few random shots from this month's t-ball games ....

Harry, Cody, Jack, Grayson and Zach

Jack thrilled with a recent hit - I love it when they go airborn!

Nothing like team spirit!

Harry still loves the dirt

Grayson, Cody and Jack get a little encouragement from Dean

Alice Cooper

Sweet sayings from the last weeks:

Jack: Mommy, I love you more than the most hungriest number!
Jack: Daddy, I love you as much as your wife!

Harry: We're going to Cowboy Camp today! See you later, buhbye!!

Jack: I'm just having jobs of relaxing today; Saturday and Sunday are for relaxing!

07/28/09 Harry: Mommy, can we put a K in the Garmin so it says Zack's and not Zaches?Jack:Sometimes I just can't my mind off of Layla; she's so much fun to play with!

Then I awake....in my bedroll

The boys are in Cowboy Camp this week, and I have to say it's shaping up to be the best summer activity they've done so far. It's stiking just the right balance between cool toys, information, imagination, and just plain fun. They both walked around most of yesterday in 'cowboy mode'....and Jack woke up this morning, tossed his hat on and said "when I get out of bed, I mean, out of my bedroll, I stretch like this!"

He loved this picture because he looked like he was touching the ceiling....the fact that he's stretching all the way to his toes makes me feel a little better about how quickly they are growing ;-)

Yesterday's theme was the cowboy's hat, and today they are focusing on the horse, describing it as the "GPS of the west"....guess who's gonna dig today?!?

Chris Ledoux's Stampede

with a twinkle in his eye

Harry telling me about the fish he caught last weekend....

It was this big...
....no this big....

.....ok, it was really about this big

Aesop Rock's Fishtales

But for now I'm glad I got you on the line

These are some sweet boys who miss their Daddy!

Overheard during their goodnite phone call ~

Harry: Daddy, when you go to be tonite, what will you dream about? Have sweet dreams! I love you.

Jack: I love you out of the whole world.(Dean repies) I love YOU more! I love you more than (lists about 20 things), then the coup de gras....more than Dylan! (sorry, buddy, but see how high you rank?!)


Vaughan Brothers' Telephone Song

Behind The Clouds and Tick Tock

Morning:
Harry: I can't see the sun; maybe it's doing its jobs!
Jack: Maybe they drank too much water and it can't see around them!

Riding home:
Jack: Mommy, what's a hockey tank?
Me: what?
Jack: It says right there Brooks and Dunn are singing 'you can't take the hockey tank out of the girl'....what's a hockey tank?
(I guess I don't have to worry about his vision after all, I can barely read the radio display from the front seat)

Nite:
Harry: I'm growing into a man!
Jack: Then whatever wife you pick, you'll live together!
...later...
Jack: When I'm a daddy, I'll have to give the kids a bath.




Brad Paisley and The Vaughan Brothers

Say it all

Jack: 3/5 Maybe these hurting things just *don't like* medicine (he has some eczema patches that are healing)
3/4 It's an ice-melting day
3/5 It's an even drippier day!
3/5 J: I'm so sad because I miss my Grammy Sue.
M: Do you want a proxy hug?
J: No, I want a REAL hug next time I see her! Fair warning, mom!

Harry: 3/5 I'm gonna give you a hug and a kiss!
3/4 Mommy, what does F***ing mean? M: Argh
3/5 I have a walkie-talkie so I can walk with it and TALK too!
3/5 Get in the car, we're going to Hawaii! (yay! Carol, here we come!)

There was a story about St. Louis on the tv the other day, and here's how the three of us processed it:

• I thought about my funny bloggy friend, HP! I heart her!
• Jack said "it's just like the state on my puzzle (thanx, Grandma S!) - it's supposed to have an arch...(a new picture) it DOES!!" (Do you remember when such small things made you so giddy?!)
• Harry said "They're building like I build!" when he saw the bridge-building project they were reporting

Some random photos, Jack hamming it up at a party in December

I thought this Halloween picture was cool - it looked like his light saber was lit up!

Happy Harry at a party in January

The two of them hamming it up one nite after talking to Dean, who was on a trip
Telling Daddy they love him!

Nelly Furtado's Say It Right

Mama Said

They both spout out things I know one of us has said to them...sometimes it's nice, others I cringe :blush:

Jack said a few this week:
I've told you that SEVERAL times
You're awfully cute
and Good morning, Sunshines is a touchstone for happiness around here.

Harry cracked us all up last nite, and I'm not sure it will work in writing because he used a perfect tone - maybe he'll end up on SNL:
All this recalculating is making me nervous (what?!) The Garmin says that every time you don't go the way she directs; he laughs every time and usually asks us to go the wrong way on purpose so he can hear it!

Mrs. J and JJ, our thoughts and love are with you

Vaughan Brothers

My Sweet Italian Man

Sometimes it seems like Harry lives on the wrong continent - the boys KNOWS how to siesta and he mimics accents and tones great, but tends to lean toward-a the Italian, as in:

Mommy-a, I had-a bad-a dream!
So, that's-a why! (This is a favorite thing lately, giving all sorts of round-about details and ending with "that's why" and a funny little face)

Other things I want to get on tape at some point because they crack me
It'll CUT you! (Don't ever make the mistake of telling your son who loves all things aviar that a tall tower could cut you if you fly by it fast....who knows why I said it that way, or why it stuck, but "It'll CUT you!" is a favorite caution of his)

...and to think we used to wonder when he'd ever START talking....apologies to anyone who he's accosted lately with his stories, and thanx for being so patient and kind :-)

AOL has a story about finding the oldest human footprint - I wonder if this is the oldest reference to spooning (circa 1912):
Tony, he make-a da spoon wid Annette
It make her feel-a much better, you bet

And this may be the most accurate motto I've found for him yet:
He got no time to work, he's gotta love

Irving Berlin

2/26/09 Harry: So, that's why! Jack: I love Turbo Typing, and I love Mixed-Up Letters even more, and I love you most of all, Mommy!:wub:

Payin' attention

Harry's been firing on all cylinders lately, to wit:

We've been talking a lot about how to get someone's attention in the right way. Last nite at dinner -

H: attention please, Daddy (smartass-in-the-making)

Jack was getting a serious TalkingTo about some trash talk, and somehow ate faster than usual...Dean looks over at Harry who is not eating very efficiently and asks 'do I need to yell at you, too?' H: MONKEY (ok, there's no way to make this work in writing, but he's quoting a character yelling at CG and uses perfect tone) It cracked us all up. He's definitely got a skill for comic relief ;-)

Today in the car - H: Mommy, I can't see the garmin when you're doing your hair (if you know me IRL, you know I never 'do' my hair, so how did he get this so spot on?!?)
Radiohead's 2+2=5

Where do we go from here?

aka: How the Garmin has changed our lives

Harry's always been our go-guy - he wakes up most mornings asking where we're going that day and is always up for an adventure. Did I mention that he *loves* the Garmin?!

It has solved any slow buckling because he's decided that I'll turn it on as soon as he's buckled (not really, but hey, whatever works). It has solidified a lot of reading and directionality and math understanding - not just mine ;-) It has reduced my stress level despite growling at that lady who can't figure out that we have a drive and don't have to go off-road to get to our house. It has given us a chance to introduce some new words into our daily chats....recalculating, navigate, highlighted, etc. I haven't even shown them the cool phone, picture, and music features, or even used it to find our car yet LOL

Another big milestone has occurred over the last week. I took Harry to do some errands, and we had a good time talking - somehow we got around to working on his L's and he did such a great job that I was cheering like crazy. It stuck this time, and he's been self-correcting and doing a great job. I sort of miss his sweet voice saying "I wuv you, Mommy" but I'll take "LLL-ove" too. My speech path friend says it's really typical to have L's be lacking until 7yo or so, so we are ahead of the game :-)




David Bowie's Looking For Satellites

12/09/08 Jack: I'm so hungry my stomach is screaming all thru outer space! Harry: I need to get a Garmin for my Gator!