ain't misbehaven

Today has not been our best. Papagenois overtired and obnoxious as all hell.
I think my favorite line was:

"Yes, Daddy bought me new baseball pants, a new mit, took me for pizza, then a movie where I got a rootbeer and popcorn, but ... he didn't buy me licorice and he promised so he didn't live up to his deal."

a wee bit spoiled perhaps.

But he made it all up at bed time. He claimed a notebook as his journal and this is what we found:

and ... he is a mathematician.Now for Bug. Unfortunately for him he has not been a flattering reflection on us. Here is his school photo. I think the photographer thought he was a girl and pulled his hair forward.

Of course the pink and purple shirt didn't help. But he loves it.

As you know it's since been cut.

Thursday

Today is Thursday, as indicated by the title. We have had a pretty fun week.

On Tuesday, Dan's basketball day, we went to the BHCC for a Pirates and Princesses party. The boys were super excited to go. I dressed them up in matching Grey shirts with skull on, a bandanna on their heads and an eye patch. Unfortunately I didn't get any good photo's. Kellen had a super good time. He was laughing and screaming the whole time. We started out with dinner. A buffet of the usual, pizza, hot dogs, chicken fingers etc. They served lemonade and the tables were covered with gold coins and eye patches. There was also a dessert table filled with ice cream, hot fudge, m & m's, marshmallows and sprinkles. And as if that wasn't enough they had someone there making cotton candy. After dinner there was a show/treasure hunt. It was totally cheesy but Kellen loved it. There were pirates running around, dueling each other rescuing princess's ... you get the picture. Kellen was front and center screaming his participation.

The BHCC is a problem for us. We don't know whether to join or not. On the one hand it would give us something to do, a pool to go to, kids to play with, activities on stupid holidays like memorial day and labor day. On the other hand maybe the kids would be better off at camp for a month and then we could find stuff to do for the rest of the summer. I just don't know.

Dan is still muttering about the dog. I confessed to him, under the threat of great torture if he ever brought it up again, that the dog is a handful. Other people even agree. Now he is using it against the puppy. Thereby reinforcing the idea that DD is not to be trusted with personal and private information!

We have Bug's first class photo. It doesn't show us or him at our best. I will try and scan it in later.

Yesterday I hiked up Runyon with my friend and neighbor Nadia. She has a German Shepard, Maya. It's fun. Althought today (Friday) we established that we are not hiking far or fast enough. We have a good solid workout, uphill for about ... 10 minutes. ooops. We obviously need to increase that.

Bug wants to play

Not to be outdone by big brother.

First Hit

Papageno's first hit at t-ball.

Our cuppeth run over

With excitement.

Ok, I am late in posting the illustrious entry into t-ball. It was very exciting for Papageno. He looooved it! So here are the pics.

























More can be seen at: http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=8be051bf089cfd005b2f2841c4d4a52e

I have been trying to post a video of our first hit. But I can't. I blame our connection.

I will try again another time.

In the meantime here is a photo of bug and his new haircut.



Btw, the other day I could have sworn I broke my foot. I knocked a portable heater over and ... ouch! Anyway, you will all be relieved to know I am fine. My foot is not broken, it just needed a couple of days of rest :)

oh, and re the fish. It was doing so well we added another one. I named the first one Clyde. Kellen name the second Captain Rex.

Jordan goes to the farm

This weekend we took the monster to the farm (AKA my friend Glen's house in upstate NY) plenty of fun animals for Jordan to play with while Sue was left at home to have a morning off to rest. Jordan was paticularly intrigeud wuth Glen's Python. Luckily this was a good experience as Sue was not there to tell Jordan how terrible Snakes are. Granted I was not thrilled with the snake myself but luckily I was able to contol my emotion (albeit from a distance). We were also able to play with rabbits, ducks, goats, chickens, and horses. I was paticularly amused to see Jordan have a great belly laugh at touching the goats. Unfortunately the poor goats were severely reprimanded by Jordan for jumping onn the table were they are not supposed to be. I hope you all enjoyed my first post and we look forward to our next trip to the farm.

I love my children and I want to be with them always.

The chocolate milk incident.

So today I am looking … not to shlumpy. I am wearing a skirt and a t-shirt with a sweater. I must say, not bad. So I decide to make myself some juice. I am starting a juice diet and was hungry and thirsty so I figure it’s a good time for an enriching carrot, apple and beet juice, with a little ginger to spice it up. Then the whining comes in. “I want chocolate milk, I want a sippy cup” So I stop what I am doing and proceed to get the milk out of the refrigerator. Of course this means that I have to rearrange the fridge because my husband has decided that is more important to have the beer in the front of the fridge thereby pushing the milk to the far reaches of the back. As I proceed to rearrange these items I start pulling out my ingredients for the juice as well. Only to be greeted by “mama what are you doing? I want chocolate milk. That’s not chocolate milk” you get the idea. Of course when I tell him I making juice he wants carrot juice as well. Then the phone rings. I dare to talk to my friend while preparing the erstwhile drinks. Bug insists on putting his chocolate milk in the microwave to heat up. I let him, mostly because I am not really paying attention. I start on my carrots only to notice the microwave is on 4 minutes. I stop the microwave and reach into grab the milk which is of course to hot to touch. I then have to use a cloth to take it out. Bug is screaming that I am ruining his milk. I hang up on my friend to fix the situation. I think I am going to be very clever by dumping the milk in another glass only to be greeted with more screams about needing that very sippy cup. Daaaan, didn’t I get rid of all sippy cups six months ago for this very reason! I cool down the milk by adding cold milk and stirring it. I then put the cooled down milk back in the sippy take a sip in order to ensure the proper temperature. The results of my generouse kindness is a spray of chocolate all over my face and nice clean shirt, and then all over the kitchen. So much for being presentable. I hand Bug the sippy cup and tell him to wait a few minutes because it’s too hot. That only elicited screams of how he must have his chocolate milk right away. I then think to myself well it’s your problem now and hand it too him so I can clean up and start my juice, of which I get “where’s my carrot juice” grrr.

"I love my children and I want to be with them always. I love my children and I want to be with them always. I love my children and I want to be with them always. I love my children and I want to be with them always. I love my children and I want to be with them always. I love my children and I want to be with them always."

Are we convinced yet?

The boy is killing me

Today was a "pupil free" day for Papageno. So we planned to hike up Runyon. I was proud of him for wanting to do it. I was afraid that since his legs hurt after the last hike he would be reluctant. But no, he was keen to go. We got off to a bit of a late start. I had to talk to Simon on the phone for a while and go over some web stuff. We eventually left at 10:15, considerably later than I had planned. I was wondering how far we would be able to go since I had to pick up Bug at 12:30. This left us about an hour of hiking. The last hike took a lot longer. Now I know it was Bug slowing us down.

We get to Runyon and found a parking spot pretty quickly. Before I knew it we were at the first viewing point. It was pretty quick so I figured we had time to do the whole hike. The second leg of this hike is a pretty steep. It has stairs through most of it. When I did this the other day with Dan and Bug it seemed like a breeze. Now let me tell you, I normally go up the opposite way, so I am going down the stairs. I chose not to do this with the boys because the other way is a more gentle slop but it is a much longer one, and it is up the whole way. I thought short and steep would be easier than a long steady incline. So I have never gone up the steep side on my own. As mentioned when doing it the other day I had no problems. Today, however, was another story. I don't know if it was me or Papageno, but HE KILLED ME. Seriously, I thought I was going to throw up. He went up that hill so fast and I was left behind yelling Papageno, Papageno stop! I was the sad old women who couldn't get up the hill. If only all those people knew how fast we were doing it, hmpf. We got to the top and I wanted to die. he pops on the bench and comments on the beautiful views and the ocean blah blah blah. I am standing next to him bent over gasping for breath trying to talk. We were quite a site. And I was worried I wouldn't get any excercise today.

So we are ready to stroll down, I am relieved we ought to make it in plenty of time. We may even have a few minutes to pop into Trader Joes. Then it all goes to hell, Papageno trips on a rock and skins his knee. Now I love him to death, but he can be a bit of a, what I call, a dramalama. 20 minutes I spent trying to get him to stop crying and acting as if he had lost a leg. I wasn't about to carry him the whole way down, so he had to stop crying and start walking. Whille all this is going on Quincy is romping around playing with people who are throwing a ball or a frisbee. I get Papageno to slowly start walking, he dramatically limps along while crying. I eventually give it up and pick him up a cary him to the path which is like a back road, it is tarred, albeit roughly. I put him down and then tell him I am not moving untill he stops crying. He eventually gets it together. We then discover Quincy is nowhere to be found. I realize that there was a slight dip when we went to the tarmac and he probably couldn't find us. Fortunatly after a few minutes of calling him some people come down the path who had seen him. He then comes running down the path himself. He didnt leave our side the rest of the walk down, it was cute. Now why do I mention this whold trauma, it's does not show Papageno's best side. I will tell you. The second we get Bug Papageno is hiking up his pants and showing off his skinned knee as if it's some kind of war trophy or something. Now there is some internal editing!

Quote of the day: Dan.
When I emailed Dan I was going to be sick from trying to keep up, he responds "First rule of hiking. Don't try to keep up with someone 36 years younger than you are." Thanks dear, you're a real help!

Another quote: Bug
I had to add this. Under instruction I am putting on a costume for Bug. It's way to big for him so i have to roll up the arms and legs. He says "roll up the foots, they are down there". It made me laugh.

Go Fly a Kite

Kenneth Hahn Park

Ok. we are having a tough time adjusting to the time change. Who isn't? We can't get to sleep on time and of course can't get up on time either.

So, just to change the subject for a moment ... We are back in Wii hell. I realized that obsessions for 6 year old's isn't a good thing. I started out letting Papageno play the wii after he finished his homework. It was awesome. He ran in and did his homework in 5 minutes flat. No fuss, no muss. I was in heaven. Then he was off to the wii. I tried limiting the time to an hour. I know, that seems like a long time, but it fly's by and still doesn't give him enough time to accomplish whatever it is he wants to accomplish. Of course in the process Bug is left sitting there by himself wondering where his playmate went. He will watch Papageno for a while, then play by himself and then want to try and play the wii. Which he can't. The controls are too complex for him. I tried to bribe him with a "Diego" game. It doesn't compare with the excitement of "Star Wars". During all of this I was in heaven because I was mostly left alone (tiny little guilty yea!). Eventually I did realize this was probably bad parenting. Plus, one thing I had been proud of was how much fun the boys had together. The wii was killing all of that. So, I implemented a new rule. No wii except for Thursday and and the weekend. (Thursday because Papageno get's off school early so we have more time to kill.)

Today was the first day of the new rule. We went to our favorite park,Kenneth Hahn, the photo above. You see why it's my favorite , it has stunning views of downtown LA. I love sitting there looking over the vista while the kids are running around having a good time.

As you know on Sunday we went to a party, Ava's. As a party gift they gave out kites. What a great idea! Both kids had been wanting to fly them and today was the perfect day. It was windy but not to bad that the kite was blown out of our hands, although close :) Papageno was running around letting the kite go higher and higher. It was really fun to watch. The sheer glee on his face was awesome. Of course Bug wanted to do it too. The wind was a bit to strong for him so he abandoned his efforts and played star wars. Oh well, next year.

So, going back to our opening statement, we went to the park late ... because we could. We got back late and set our whole schedule back an hour., that is dinner, bath and bed Consequently, tomorrow the cycle of exhaustion will continue.

Quote of the day: Bug
Well it's not really a quote, but Bug is trying to decide whether is is a big boy or a baby. He has now decided he is a "bigboy baby".

Weekend Warriors

Today we went to a birthday party for Ava, a girl in Bug's class. It was cute. They had it at the same park we had Bug's. He gets so excited about birthday parties now. He loves being with kids his own age and having his own friends.

Yesterday, Saturday, was a good day as well. We dragged the kids up Runyon Canyon (above). I was so proud of them. I was hoping to make it to the first viewing area, we made it no problem so we decided to push on to the top. The second leg are steps and is quite steep. Dan had to carry Bug but Papageno powered up it like a jack rabbit. It was awesome. I was thrilled to see him attack something that could be so daunting. Of course by the time we got to the top he was tired and said he was done. "oh well hon, now we have to go down". We went up the steep side because it is shorter and got all the hard work out of the way so we had a nice leisurely walk down. Well sort of, I had to carry Bug on my shoulders most of the way down. It was a good workout just not the one I expected :)

That afternoon we took Curt to Farrells for his birthday. Dan had actually been telling Papageno about it for weeks. He sold Papageno on "the Pig's Trough", a giant ice cream sunday which he had to have. Dan told him that if you finish the giant sunday they come out and sing a "piggy piggy piggy" song. We were disapointed not to get a song for our pigginess. However, we did get a birthday song for Curt. Later we found out what a horrible childhood Dan had because he never got a birthday party at Farrell's, so it turns out we had almost righted a terrible wrong done to Dan. So thank god for that!

In the bowels of trouble

Not a very exciting day today. I was really tired. Bug got up three times last night. The last time I gave up and pulled him into bed with us. The outcome of all this, I didn't want to move from the house today. I picked up the kids but that was about all.

OK, funny story for the day: Bug
Bug has some sort of stomach thing going on. He is pooing all the time. Yucky, stinky, smelly, smells like acid poo. It's gross. His poor little butt is getting red. So after something like the fourth diaper change since school I decided to drop him in the bath. Now a bit of back story here. Thursdays suck! Bug doesnt really get a nap because Papageno gets out of school at 1:30. So I have to pick up bug at 12:30 then kill half an hour and pick up Papageno. Usually Bug falls asleep in the car. But you know how that is. He doesnt really get rested. So Thursdays are really a no nap day. So it is about 5:00pm and I decide to drop Bug in the bath. He flips out about not wanting to go in. He says he is "working" which means playing. He is crying to the point of being one step away from hyperventilation. As we are standing in the bathroom I dump a little vitamin E oil in the water. Of course he starts screaming he wont go in with that in there. I make a big show about taking it out thinking that he cant see it anyway. I finally move to get him in the tub. He won't let me take his shirt off so I stand him in the water untill he lets me take the shirt off. He won't sit down, it's all a drama, you get the picture. Finally I get him to sit down I put some water on him. He tells he wants to get out. I say "of course dear" and then proceed to putter about hoping he will relax. He eventually does settle down and enjoy the bath. Later I take him out and he announces what a nice time he had in the bath. Now, finally the point of the story. He said he like the bath because it was good for him and took away his diaper rash. He talked the rest of the night about how much he like the oil and how it made him feel better.

Oh, here is the promised pic of my tatoo. It should be gone by next week. Boo hoo.

Growing up is tough

So I have bought a new book on Sibling Rivalry. It's called "Mom, Jason's Breathing on Me", who can resist such a title. Basically it councils stepping out of the conflict. So far ... loving it. I can only hope that the basic premise doesn't scar the kids for life. Regardless, I like the fact that it takes out my stress of having to figure out who did what to whom. I just say "there there, want a hug" and it works. yea!

oh, I forgot my favorite story of the week. Papageno. We had another playdate with Aviva the other day. It went well as always ... for the most part. Things got a little quiet for a while, never a good thing. We look for them and notice that both kids are in his bed, the top bunk. of course we say "what are you doing?" Aviva looks at us, shrugs, and states "Papageno is getting in his pajamas" At first I think nothing of it. Then I realize in order to get into his pajama's he has to completely undress. So I look up and sure enough he has a shirt on but no pants. What's worse is when I tell him to put his clothes back on he innocently looks at me and says "I am putting my pajama's on" where upon he lies down, thrusts his hips in the air and pulls his pajama pants on. All while Aviva skeptically looks on. Thankfully Simon is a mellow dad. Oh Papageno, where do I begin?

oh and Bug. He told me to "put my clothes on" again at nap time. hmmpf. I am beginning to get a complex.

Addicted Again

So, I thought I had escaped the video game obsession. I know. I previously posted about playing a lot, but then Papageno and I lost interest in it for a while. I don't know how it happened, but the Star Wars Wii game has reared it's ugly head, with a vengeance! The boy would play all day if I let him. After an hour he is screaming and yelling when I tell him to get off. He is addicted! Now I know I may have posted an issue or two about playing the game myself, and I must confess, I have started it up again. It's fun playing with him. We actually compete and share re the stuff that we found. It's fun, and kind of bonding. I like sharing a game with him. That said, I do have to reign it in.

On Sunday Dan and I went to the celebrity roast for Larry The Cable Guy. It was fun. We had passes to the pre-party and after-party. We stayed up really late ... 11:00pm and were wrecked the next day. I got a rose tattoo on the back of my neck. Much to Dan's usualy protests :) Pictures to come later. It was fun and we get to do it again over the summer, yea!

Also on Sunday Dan took Papageno to "The Magic Castle". It's a private magician's club that dates back to the days of Houdini. I was jealous because it was my idea and I love it there and thought that Papageno would really get a kick out of it. His first kind of "big boy" show. It worked out that Dan took him.

I took bug on a playdate to Bowie's house. He was really excited to go. He doesn't have many of his own friends. It was fun, Bowie's mom is a vet and in addition to the usual menagerie of pets they had two desert turtles. Everyone was freaking because Sunday was the day the turtles decided to come out of hibernation. They were awesome and now I want turtles too!