Thursday, November 29, 2007

Over Breakfast

Trevor told me that he wanted a dragon. Then, he described this dragon...

First, it would breathe fire and ice. When he was hot, it would breathe ice into the clouds and cause snow to fall down. When he was hungry, he would use his fiery breath to cook something for Trevor.

This dragon would be the size for a house, which is about as big as our cat. How big do you think she is? About twelve pounds maybe.

His Dragon would have scales that turned to fur so that it would be nice to pet.

Where did he get all this information about dragons? From his own thoughts, that's where. At least that's what he told me.

Dragons are also good for the world. He told me over Thanksgiving that Dragons from China are good for the environment. And, then we picked up trash at the park we were at because we were both sad to see all the litter. We didn't pick it all up, but we got some of it. There's also dragons from South America. I don't think they are as good for the environment. Those Chinese dragons, though, they control the weather in addition to being good for the environment.

He may have learned about Chinese Dragons at school. I'm not sure. But I can't convince myself that he doesn't have a vivid imagination because he certainly does.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Vacationers

Here we are in frigid Oklahoma, bellies full of Turkey and noodles and *real* mashed potatoes. Trevor and Devin taught cousins Logan and Jena all about wrestling, and Memaw has said at least once a day, "Just one more?" and then disappeared to her bedroom returning with armfuls of gifts for her four little grandchildren. (The big grandchildren are, in fact, jealous.)

We brought Logan home from my Grandma's house, while Devin rode with his Aunt Vikki. Trevor begged a sleepover. I was non-commital and when they didn't bring it up again, neither did I. Then, they talked about Christmas. It's a little confusing, I think, since Memaw has brought Christmas early and every day that we've been here. But, Trevor told Logan that we won't be coming to Oklahoma for Christmas because we will be getting some vacationers.

He told her that Pete, Charlie, Aunt Ramona and Uncle Jim will be coming to visit.

Logan wanted to know who all these people were.

"Well, Charlie is a Golden Retreiver. Pete is, uh, hmmmm, a chocolate lab. Aunt Ramona is a human. And, Uncle Jim is a human, too."

I guess girl cousins are cool. Teaching them to wrestle is awesome. Big boy cousins are fun to kick about the head and chest. But, dog cousins are very much anticipated, too... (as are the human aunt and uncle.)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Flu Shots

I got mine a couple of weeks ago. Trevor watched as the needle was pressed into my arm, and he winced.

They got theirs today.

Devin went first. Normally, Trevor would go first because he's got a pretty forceful personality that requires he be the first in line in our family. But, this was for a shot, she he said, "Why do I have to go first?" in a whiny voice. We told him that he didn't and Devin could go first. Devin said, "YAY!"

We followed the signs to the flu shot clinic, and Trevor was tense. Devin was non-chalant, none-the-wiser, happy as a clam.

Devin went first.

He finally realized what this was all about, and he was reluctant. Still, he cooperated. He got the shot in his leg, lucky kid. I pulled his pants down, sat him on my lap, the nurse crossed his arms across his chest and instructed me to hold him tight. She said, "this will be quick," and then plunged the needle into his thigh. I was amazed at how far it went in.

I winced.

Trevor watched, and he winced, too.

Devin said, "Ow-wee, Ow-wee!" And, he cried for about 15 seconds. Then, he was all better and ready for the next thing, whatever it may be.

Then, it was Trevor's turn. He had to get his in the arm, and the Computer Guy was in charge of him (poor computer guy). The nurse told him to hold Trevor's legs with his own because those little legs were flailing. He had turned into board boy with the loud cry. Since Devin was cool with his little flu shot hole and sports themed bandage, I stepped in and rolled up Trevor's sleeves. It was a little tougher than normal since he was wearing two layers as is his new custom.

As the Computer Guy held him in his leg vice, the nurse gently closed the door to muffle his cries to the rest of the office and then plunged the needle into his arm. His cries continued, unabated.

For about 2 minutes.

As we left the room where the shots were administered, Trevor was still not happy.

The nice ladies at the nurse's station offered stickers. Devin was all, "YEAH!" And, then he stepped around Trevor to get to the stickers. Very decisively, he picked out a Transformers (More than meets the EYE!) sticker and tried to stick it to his arm. "It won't stick," he told me. I removed the backing, and that fixed the problem.

Trevor was more deliberate in his sticker picking out. He was still picking a sticker and his face was still pouty when the nurses offered suckers. Devin was all
"YEAH!" and stepped around Trevor to get to the lollipops. Diverted from the sticker choosing, Trevor deliberated over a sucker. After successfully choosing a Creme Soda dum-dum, he finessed a Jimmy Neutron sticker out the bucket o' boo-boo stickers.

And, at this point, both boys were happy again. No more tears.

Back at the car, the Computer Guy said to Devin, "You did really great, Devin!"

Trevor said, "What about me, Dad?"

To this, Dad told him that he cried and kicked and that he wasn't so very good, really.

To this, Trevor said, "Oh, that hurt my feelings."

More discussion on the topic revealed that Trevor actually didn't want to talk about it anymore, by the way.

Well, the sports themed bandages made the whole thing all worth it.

Have you gotten your flu shot, yet?

5:38 AM

Devin woke up at 5:38 AM, and he had an interesting list of wants at 5:38 AM:

Here's the list in the order that I remember:
1) I want Homer (we watched the new the Simpsons last night before bed).
2) I want Apple Juice (I bought some for an upcoming car trip, and he can hardly stand having it in the house...he wanted to leave for the car trip last night just so that he could his lips on some of that apple juice!)
3) I want candy.
4) I want my pants on (I changed his diaper because his pants were wet, and I didn't put his wet pants back on.)
5) I want my blanket (I took him to bed with me, and he wanted his blanket from his bed.)
6) I want a pet (a stuffed animal).
7) I want a pet (another stuffed animal).
8) I want a book.
9) I want another book.
10) I want my sock.

He had a lot of wants at 5:38 this morning.

When he woke up for real, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He wanted, in this order, 1) Candy 2) Marshebbows...

Monday, November 12, 2007

DOH!

That Devin!

I thought we were on the track towards a diaper free household what with his telling me he was poopy and then asking to go potty. I thought it would be, like, TODAY! But, today, he denied being poopy for about an hour. Silly me, since he'd been telling me when he was poopy, I thought if I asked him and he said "NO" that I didn't have to check. Sometimes, kids smell from an earlier poop, you know? This wasn't an earlier poop. It was an old poop by the time I finally changed him. Will you potty train my child?

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Quirk Update

DEVIN ASKED TO GO POTTY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!

He didn't actually go potty, but he asked, I took him the bathroom, and he sat on the toilet without pretending to pee and said he didn't want to go potty. He also took that time to tell me tht he had gone potty at school last week. That may or may not have been a lie or a misrepresentation of the truth. I see this as a milestone, a first step, and hope that he will be potty trained before he goes to kindergarten. HOO-RAY!

Trevor has combined his cleverness with his status as a clothes horse and his desire to be semi-nude in pur 68 Degree home as of yesterday after my original post about his quirks. His dad recently introduced him to the idea of layering, sort of a cool thing to do. Yesterday, we made him get dressed in a long sleeved shirt and some jeans so we could go out. The moment that we got home, he took off his long sleeved shirt revealing a tank top beneath. Then, smiling, he took off his jeans, revealing his favorite red, shiny Nike shorts beneath (which matched his tank top, of course). He took off his socks, and he was OFF! My clever, little clothes horse...

Saturday, November 10, 2007

My Quirky Family

When he comes home from school, no matter the temperature outside or in the house, Trevor may take his shirt off or run up to his room right away to change into shorts and tank top. Because he's hot. I was holding him last night, and he asked twice to take his shirt off and we told him no, it was too cold. So, he asked me to take my sock off so that he could put his hot foot on my cold foot. That helped for a minute, but then his dad suggested he go get a short sleeved shirt on. He ran upstairs and came down in a pair of shorts, no top. "I can't find a shirt I like," he says. He's a clothes horse of the highest order. We suggested a couple of places he could look, and he went back upstairs on his mission. When he came down, he had found a shirt, a tanktop, and was wearing different shorts that matched the tanktop he found. And, he was happy! Happy to be matching. Happy to be wearing a tank top.

This clothes horse... I took him clothes shopping at a store that sells second hand clothes. I can't remember the name of this one, but it's a lot like Once Upon a Child. I love these places. The one I went to is less like a thrift store and more like a boutique. They have clothes, toys, strollers, and some maternity clothes. It's all clean and all pretty good quality. And, I got him and Devin several pieces of clothing. And, the reason I took Trevor was because I recognized his budding clothes horse status. Unfortunately, there was a kid his age in the story and a bunch of toys, so I ended up picking out the clothes and asking him to approve or not. He approved all of it. He wears virtually none of it. I didn't get any tank tops. I think that's why his new stuff hangs unworn in the closet.

His other quirk has to do with wasting electricity. He sleeps with a fan on his face. Mr. Hottie Hot Hot sleeps with 2 to 3 blankets to stay warm enough with that fan in his face, he builds a little barrier of blankets to keep the cool breeze off of him. But, he tells me he likes the breeze and not the noise. And, then there's the light. Not a night light, but a lamp. It must be on. He wakes up at night if we turn off the fan and/or the light. And, then he screams, the terror in his voice obvious. So, we run upstairs to comfort him, usually take him to the bathroom, and then turn on his light and fan. When a calmer Trevor wakes in the morning, he politely asks us to stop turning off his light and fan after he falls asleep. Personally, I've decided I'm not picking this battle. I would prefer he stop picking his nose. The light and fan can stay. Computer Guy wants the fan to go. We're at an impasse, I think. The fan should go. Trevor gets bloody noses at night, and I'm sure the dry wind blowing around his face is a contributing factor.

That's my little man, quirks and all. His little quirks make me happy.

Devin's not quirky. He just does everything his brother does. Our new house has light switches, right? But, no lights. I'm supposed to plug lamps in everywhere, and each room has like one switched outlet. I do really wonder about rooms with light switches and no lights. Well, we finally got a lamp for Devin's room last week. And, of course, he wants it on almost every night so that he can be more like Trevor. Plus, his door should be open. And, he needs me to read at least two books, and then, he needs those books to stay in his bed. The other morning, he came to my bed about 6 in the morning. Both my boys will bring their sleeping friends, normally that just means stuffed animals, with them when they want in bed with us. Devin brought two stuffed animals and two books from his bed the other morning.

Potty training...Well, I didn't even try before he was three. Every now and then, we'd offer him the potty. Nothing consistent. I planned on just getting him potty trained when he was three. I even got him 6 pairs of underwear for his birthday. Forget about it. He has no interest at all in the potty. He resists the potty with words and tears. He ignores bribes of the biggest toy ever and candy for breakfast. When I ask when he will be potty trained, he tells me, "in a few minutes." In a few minutes, indeed.

Our new house has a pretty open floor plan. The kitchen is a lot like an eat-in kitchen, and the dining area faces the living room where the TV hangs over the mantle. Yeah. We watch TV during dinner sometimes. Not always, but yes, sometimes. So, no food in the living room is actually an easy rule for me to enforce and indeed follow myself, for the most part. There's no reason to take snacks into the living room since you can sit at the table and still watch TV. It's the American Way. Devin won't follow this rule. He'll break this rule when the TV isn't on. He will break this rule even as Trevor eats his snack at the kitchen table. I guess it's his expression of individuality.

While on the topics of snacks, Devin calls them 'nacks. "I want a 'nack." Lately, he wants all his 'nacks to include marshebbows. This morning, he wanted marshebbows for breakfast, but the computer guy said "no way" to that request. (Marshebbows? Marshebbows? Marshmallows.)

Despite his total lack of interest in proper toilet habits, he's anti-diaper changing. He had a blow-out at school the other day. His teacher had to undress him because it was so bad. He told her, "Not my shoes! Not my shoes!" Oh, the humanity, the indignity! Another day, his teacher gave him the choice of walking upstairs to get his wet diaper changed or not going to recess. "Well, I'm not going to recess, then!" was his response. He didn't want to walk up the stairs, he wanted to be carried. When all his friends went outside to play, he agreed to walk up the stairs to get changed. "I'll walk! I'll walk!" Even at home, he seems reluctant to get his wet diaper changed, telling us, "I'm not Poopy!" when we try to change his diaper that dragging between his knees because it's so filled with the pee-pee.

I guess every kid has his quirk. These are my kids' quirks.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Guess What!?

This isnt' a post about the boys.

It's a post about this Ron Paul guy.


“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
--Irish politician Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

When I think of Iraq, Iran, New Orleans, the housing bubble, the price of milk, and the way some people don't understand how the left lane is for passing only, I feel like one of those good men, doing nothing and letting the evil flourish.

I've only just discovered Ron Paul, and he's a Republican! Oh, my! But, I like what he has to say, and he may have just kicked Obama out of that place in my heart reserved for a Presidential candidate I can get behind.

So, look at the video, and consider his views, and let's not let George W. Bush, or anyone like him, happen ever ever again.

Thanks,
Tricia

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Overheard...

I was hiding in the bathroom this morning when I overheard this exchange...

Trevor: "POOPY ALARM! POOPY ALARM! POOPY ALARM! DEVIN IS POOPY!"

Dad: "Oh, is that the Poopy Alarm?"

Trevor: "Yeah. It was just me using my voice to be the poopy alarm, though."

******************************

We were at a festival at a Marsh Nature Center over the weekend. I overheard a mom say this to her son who looked about 7:

"Yes, honey, I know it's a Marsh, but there are no marshmallows."

Saturday, November 03, 2007

How Trevor doesn't look like me...

I think it's like the weather. When I meet new people with kids, I want to know which parent the kid looks most like. On the one hand, I know there is nothing I can do to change the weather, and I recognize the cliche of talking about the weather AND where your kid got his nose. On the other hand, I really want to talk about it and understand how your kid can be so tall while mine is not so tall. For some reason, knowing the parent that your child most resembles is compelling to me the way that the drought is affecting milk and corn prices. I can't do anything about where your kid got his ears or the lack of rain in the Southeast, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to talk about it.

Thing is, I never can tell. The only reason I think that Trevor looks like me and not his dad is because he's round and I'm round and the Computer Guy is not round in any way. And, I think Devin looks like his dad because he doesn't look like me because he's less round.

But, here's the real truth. My kid, Trevor, who some folks may be compelled to call a little Tricia doesn't really look like me much at all.

See that chin. It's darn near chiseled. His nose is nothing short of a perfect button nose. If you look close at his hair, it's actually red and blonde. No, golden. And, his eyes are HUGE and strikingly blue.


See this chin...not so chiseled. The nose, though cute, is not a perfect button. The hair color may have been similar, but I doubt it was as MAGICAL as Trevor's is. And, my eyes were not HUGE, though they may have been strikingly blue when I was little.

So there it is. Trevor looks less like me and more like him than previously thought (mostly by me.) I will probably continue to believe that he is a little bit of a mini me because who wouldn't want to resemble Trevor with his red hair and huge blue eyes? But, I'll know that he really just looks like him because I read it here first.

That won't stop me from examining your kid and trying to figure out where he got his lips, though. It also won't stop me from commenting on the weather, either, for that matter.
Side by Side for easier comparison:

Friday, November 02, 2007

Let's call this...Tricia Cooks!

Cooking is like fishing for me. I like it when I'm catching fish. Or, when those who eat my food enjoy it. Or, when I enjoy it. And, it has to be easy, too. See how they're similar.

So, here's a recipe. I just made it, and it was very very very Good.

Spinach Salad
Ingredients:
Spinach
...I prefer the spinach that's triple washed that you can use straight out of the bag. I also prefer e. coli free spinach. Good luck with that that.
Bacon...I prefer the bacon that is already cooked that you can use right out of the package.
Olive Oil...the kind that doesn't cost as much as a nice bottle of wine but which still has some health benefit.
Vinegar...I like a mixture of Balsamic and Red Wine or Apple Cider Vinegar. Avoid white vinegar. If that's all you have in the pantry or under the sink, don't make this salad, please.

Saute a splash or two of oil in a small skillet. As the oil warms up, tear up some of your pre-cooked bacon and crisp it up in the olive oil.

Put some spinach in a bowl, preferably a bowl that won't melt when you pour hot oil into it.

When the oil is hot and the bacon is looking a little crispier than when you first took it out of the package, pour it over the Spinach.

Add a splash or two of the vinegars that please you the most.

Toss.

Best Served Warm.

Why Two are Better than One

When Devin was little and I resented him because he cried more than Trevor and had to be held all the time and kept me awake at night just at the time that Trevor had started letting me sleep, I looked forward to the day when my two boys would play with each other and let me and the Computer Guy sleep in.

Well, that day is now here, usually.

Sometimes, they come in and try to get me out of bed to pour them each a bowl of cereal, sometimes I whisper for them to go ask Daddy, and sometimes Trevor takes charge and gets out bowls for both of them and pours their cereal. Milk is harder, but sometimes cereal is good without milk.

Anyway, yesterday morning was one of those days. Yesterday morning was also the day after Halloween, an important fact that I neglected to remember as I lay in bed stretching like a cat and luxuriating in the notion that motherhood can be easy and rewarding when you have two little boys 21 months apart who can entertain each other for the hour after they wake up. I laid there all warm and content for at least 45 minutes.

But, then it was time to get up and do all the things I need to do in the morning.

As I was straightening the kitchen, I realized the trick or treat buckets were not where I had left them the night before. The quiet 45 minutes I had spent in bed stretching and feeling secure took on a different light as I realized it was probably the candy and not each other that kept them occupied for the last hour.

I got Trevor to bring me his pumpkin full o' candy. Devin wouldn't do the same. He was a little scattered.

When I finally made it upstairs, I was surprised to see candy wrappers all over the floor. I was sure that our daily mantra, "No Candy for Breakfast," had sunk in and become one with our children. I had convinced myself that they had been searching for more toys in their buckets and sorting their candy during their quiet hour.

I picked up at least 10 to 15 candy wrappers.

Even if they split it, 5 to 7 pieces of candy is alot of sugar in the morning. We got Trevor to have some cereal, but Devin was too wound up for it. Trevor assured me that he didn't have any of that candy. He said it was all Devin. It may have been. I don't think Trevor really *gets* lying. But, it's hard to believe that Trevor didn't partake of at least 1 or 2 of the 10 to 15 pieces of candy that was opened yesterday morning.

So, that's why are two are better than one. It's also why I need to hide the Halloween candy before I go to sleep on Halloween night...