My Birthday Flower

Christian woke up this morning and told me Happy Birthday first thing. Then he gave me a hug. He also made me a flower from Legos. Huts will post a photo of it soon. I took it to work where everyone admired it. But now I must take it home so Christian can dismantle it and return it back to his game, which is the first thing he did when we all got home.

Bellyacher

Christian came home Monday with a great assignment: to research and report on someone in black history. His choice? Martin Luther King Jr. Since he was out of school, I decided we would tackle it and get it done well before the February 23 due date. We sat him down to look at some photos and listen to some clips of King’s speeches. Then we printed some research and away we went. I helped him complete all of the notes and then yesterday we put them together into a report.

Christian wrote four pages on Martin Luther King Jr. and we just touched the surface. We could have said so much more, but it was grueling just to get him to write four pages. When he was done, he leaped off the bar stool and crawled into the living room. Huts coaxed him up to the computer screen where they printed off photos and glued them to a folder. I tucked his report inside, along with his research, notes and some other photos. Now all he has left to do is the oral report.

I tried to teach him all I could about Martin Luther King, but I don’t know how much he understood. It’s hard for an eight-year-old to
comprehend being treated differently because of the color of your skin or how much money you have. Racial and class discrimination is hard to define in eight-year-old terms.

The only thing we missed and probably should have mentioned was King getting the Nobel Prize at the young age of 35. Oh well, I will keep talking to Christian about it and hopefully get him ready for his oral report. I don’t think they get a real grade on it as long as they do it to the best of their ability.

Birthday Party

Christian came home yesterday with an invitation to a birthday party tomorrow, so tonight we’re headed to Toys R Us for a present. The kids don’t really know it, but they will be happy. They’re always ready to check out what’s new in toys.

Huts is hoping to take them outside for some sledding this weekend. We bought another sled so the two older kids could coast down the hill at the same time. Huts went down on his tummy last time and was sore afterward. It was fun to watch them go sledding!

Mr. Affectionate

Christian will turn 8 in a few months, but that doesn’t mean he has forgotten his mom and dad. He snuggles up to us on the couch and relates stories of school and Lego sets to come. He comes down every night and tells me about everything he has seen on TV, gives me a kiss and hugs me tight. He tells us that he loves us when we tuck him in at night and he gives everyone a kiss, including his little brother. He may be growing up, but he is still the affectionate kid he has always been. He is going to make some lady very happy one day if he keeps this up.

Cleaning Time

There are new Lego sets and Christian has already started collecting them. This weekend, he got a small set in exchange for some serious hard work. Usually he avoids all chores, but he wanted the white ninja, so he decided he would pitch in. He vacuumed the whole upper floor and the furniture too. He’s got the height to push the vacuum cleaner around, but not the strength. He huffed and puffed pushing it around, but I have to admit he did a good job.

Tori also pitched in to earn a small toy. She and Eli helped me wash down sticky doorhandles, tables and walls. They also helped me scrub up spots on the carpet and stairs. We put things away too and dusted. It was funny to see them scrub the walls with their wet cloths. They helped without complaint and Tori was happy to play with her LaLaLoopsy tea set.

Christian Quote of the Day: "They didn't lie it is refreshing!".

Lego Mania

Christian, Tori and I played some of Christian Lego games he got for Christmas last night. First we played Race 3000, which was a pretty decent and quick game once we figured out how to play. Some of the directions were pretty confusing, especially adding tiles to the die. Christian beat me by a wide margin and we moved onto the Lava game. After each of us getting burned by "lava" a couple of times, Christian scooted up the pyramid and took off on the dragon for the victory again. Lastly Tori joined us for game of Creationary. We kind of made up our own rules and rolled the dice to determine which category we were going to build. Christian's Wishing well was pretty good, but I had to cheat and sneak a peek at his card for a blimp. Christian guessed Tori's, which I wouldn't have gotten from her building technique. Both were able to guess my tractor. They both enjoyed the fun of the games, but it was getting near bed time for Tori, so the games were put away for the night. Luckily Eli didn't destroy the games or the Lego pizza truck while we were playing. At least that is one set that won't have to be rebuilt tonight.

The Lego Christmas

Christian LOVES lego's. So much so that it was 90% of his Christmas list. Since he was a good boy, Santa brought him a 8 lego sets and 5 Lego games! This does not include the Hero Factory figures, Trio's and Transformers that you have to put together. On Christmas day alone, he spent 10 hours putting 7 sets of lego's together with over 2000 pieces. He barely ate, he barely used the bathroom, he just did Lego's and spent the day in his Jammies. He is still playing with his lego's and getting into the smaller sets that you can remake into different things. I came home from work and he was playing in his Jammies with Star Wars Legos all by himself and he was having a great adventure. Though I think General Grievous and the Droids were a little embarrassed to be seen being played with by a 7-year-old. They grow up so fast, one day they are in the box, the next a kid is making them play all kinds of crazy adventures. Christian seemed a little sheepish about me seeing him play with toys. He's not even a teenager yet!

Christmas at Grandma's was fun for him as well. He got to go to Monkey Business, which is a giant indoor play area, twice and go crazy on all the climbing equipment. He was going so fast the younger kids had a hard time keeping up. We were able to go into a 2nd play area which had different bouncy's for the kids to try. Christian ended up hot, red-faced and sweaty both times, but he enjoyed it. We also stopped by the pet shop in the mall to check out the animals. He loved the fish and bunnies, but hated the snakes and birds. The snakes because they were gross and the birds because they screamed.

Back home was recuperating time after 1 more holiday. They crashed on Thursday. Christian went to bed at 8 exhausted, but he was determined to stay up for new years. He made it to almost 11:30, but his tiredness overtook him, just too much travel and fun. He seems to have recovered and is ready to go back to school as his Mama's post said.

Crazy Crazy Crazy

It’s been one long vacation filled with visits here and there, bouts of sickness and loads of glee, but the kids made it. They spent one last day with me yesterday, and they were wonderful. Ollie played upstairs while Tori hung out downstairs watching one show after another.

Eli ran around the house all day, playing with things he shouldn’t as well as his new toys. They got up this morning with some tugging, but by 6:30, they were ready to go! Ollie and Tori were all ready for before care and Eli couldn’t wait to play with the girls at Sharon’s. Mom and Dad are also glad to be back at work and glad to get the rest of the trash out of the garage, including the recyclable cans—those went to PAWS to help out the shelter animals.

Christian The Penguin

This past weekend in the snow, along with the usual snow man and angel making, Christian decided he was going to be like the Penguins of Madagascar. He succeeded several times, here's one of his runs.

I think his parents need to buy him a sled!

Eerily Quiet

Christmas is nearly a week away, and the kids are amazingly quiet about it. No crossing off days on the calendar, no looking around for presents, no real requests for presents. It's very weird. Maybe next week will kick them into the spirit with the Winter Holiday class parties on Tuesday and all of the preparations. Maybe they are just trying to be good so Santa will visit.