| Rocket Men | | Date Created: Nov 13, 2007, 02:48 PM |
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Gosh, I've been even worse than usual about writing in the blog! Things have been as crazy as ever and I am so so so excited to say that I have been writing little things here and there for Charleston Magazine. That has been a dream-come-true situation for me so far, but it takes up a lot of my writing time. So I've been even less able than usual to find time for this. Forgive me!
The boys get even funnier as their vocabulary takes one step forward one step back. They are adding more and more words to their repertoire but I can't say the correct meaning or pronunciation of many of these has made it there quite yet. And they are more obsessed with SEC football than ever. Their comments about who has what mascot amused me, but now that they have moved on to knowing who has how many losses and to whom I am downright embarrassed. You'd think we had a house with Florida Gator Orange walls and wear Gator warm-up suits and watch only college football on TV the way they talk about it. Actually besides the wall part, it's not that far from reality. James likes to say, "We don't like Fuktucky except when they're playing the LSU Tigers." I think that would make a great bumper sticker.
I brought home a bunch of my childhood books from my mom's house and the boys have found some real treasures. James' favorite is "You Will Go To The Moon." It has my barely legible 1st-grade signature in it, but it must have been my mom's when she was a little girl because it takes place BEFORE anyone went to the moon. Reading this book to the boys requires lots of work and quick thinking. First of all, space travel is hard to explain in the first place. Now try doing it while every single picture in the book is so so so wrong. The people in the rocket wear no space suits and sit in seats just like in an airplane. As you read the words, you have to interject and say, "But it's not REALLY like that." Luckily the guys can't read yet, so they won't notice every time I say "rocket men and women" instead of the printed "rocket men." Honestly, space travel doesn't excite me. I think it's dangerous and I don't really ever want to go up there. But this book has the boys hooked. Maybe it's because the Space Station looks like an oversized man cave. There are checkerboards, a TV with baseball on it, books for the rocket man wearing glasses, a movie projector showing a Western, even a soda jerk behind a counter with stools. And then once on the moon there are "moon cars" that are basically dune buggies that the rocket men bounce all over the moon in, jumping craters and doing do-nuts. Space: the ultimate male getaway.
In some wonderful twist of fate, there is even a book about a zebra in my childhood collection and one about Noah's Ark that George has claimed. George has gotten so smart lately that Will and I have got to make sure we don't always ask only him the hard questions. The other day at the grocery store, George was in the big part of the cart with the groceries and with the reusable bags I am trying to use. He put most of the groceries in the bags and told me he was doing that to save time when we paid at the check-out. He understood when I told him good thinking but they have to scan each item before we can pay, but I could still see his wheels start to turn as if thinking, there must be a better way. Last night John was being a real pill at the supper table and George told me and Will, "Someone needs to tell John N-O."
If you've seen the pictures, I think you can tell we had a great Halloween. George was everything you'd think Super Peacock would be. At the neighborhood party, George relished every instance an adult asked him what he was. "I'm Super Peacock," he said. Then he turned around and stuck his rear-end out so people could see the feathers on his cape. Then he ran so the cape would fly out behind him. Then he would look back and wait for words of grandiose adoration and admiration. He was so independent at the party, flitting all around without us. James was the only kid who got the beanbag through the pumpkin eye and won four pieces of candy! He was so proud. Super Peacock was busy at the time and Superman was simply too strong. He threw the beanbag over the pumpkin. They did a great job trick-or-treating, but James did say his legs were too tired to walk toward the end even though we only went to a few houses. Then there was the Milk Dud horror and that about put an end to his night. John had to inspect every single piece of candy and ask me all about it. I guess I'm a terrible mother because they'd never seen "Sour Fries" or Skittles or gummies in the shape of a severed finger before. And how to explain a "jawbreaker"?
Our other big outing recently was to the fair! We had a great time! We went with our brave friends Todd and Jessica again who brought their very brave 3-month-old twin girls. We had so much fun and the guys were able to ride a lot more rides this year. Their favorite was the NASCAR cars on a track. I think these little cars were made from vintage scrap metal and full-lead paint they were so rickety, but the guys may aswell been driving in the Daytona 500. The funniest part was that John kept looking back at the car behind theirs, actually thinking it was going to pass them. Then on every curve, he would be relieved because it looked like they had fallen back a little. Todd and Will took the boys to play games while Jessica and I fed the baby girls. The boys were apparently whizzes at picking up rubber duckies. James chose as his prize two tiny toy four-wheelers which promptly broke. George picked out the latest addition to our family, "Snakey", a stuffed cobra. "Snakey was waiting for me to pick him and take him home," George likes to say of the resoundingly successful adoption. John picked a white "Ninja Sword." But don't worry about the violence factor too much. He told me the next day in his "goo goo voice" that he was a "Ninja Baby." I guess the sword does make less noise than a rattle.
We are hosting Thanksgiving here this year and I simply cannot wait!!! The only problem is that my housekeeping, lousy by nature, has been especially spotty lately. The downstairs bathroom smells like a gas station bathroom, the type that's on the outside of the building and that used to have a key. IT REEKS! I'm so embarrassed. I think the wallpaper coming down is the only thing that will make it better, because I think during the potty training efforts and with the boys' roving attention spans that have no time for focusing on aiming for the potty, the wallpaper is saturated with T-T! YUK! Someone the other day suggested maybe I could use some of that spray people use for pet accidents. Sadly I think it makes perfect sense!
Thank you so much if you're still checking to see if we're all still alive. I will try to write again sooner than later! |
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