Deep Thoughts from Caedmon

It’s no secret that Siri is not my favorite person artificial intelligence. Because I maintain that she isn’t all that intelligent. Those Apple commercials are completely misleading. Siri gets my requests wrong about 75% of the time.

(Let’s just pause for a moment and recognize that a computer that can recognize your voice and speak back to you is pretty dang awesome, even if it’s dumb as a post.)

Anyway, we were driving home from the grocery store, and as is our usual custom, I was going to call Mimi. I decided to try to let Siri make the call for me. Clearly, I was delusional. She didn’t recognize “Mimi” and she and I went round and round about who Mimi actually is.

After sitting quietly in the back seat listening to Siri make the same mistake over and over again, Caedmon finally piped up. “If she says that one more time, I’m going to pull all my hair out!”

I know exactly how he felt.

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Caedmon is very…boy…when it comes to a few things. Especially bodily functions. One of his favorite things right now is to jump up and run out of the room saying, “I left you in there with my toot!”

Yes, yes you did.

Randoms

1. When it comes to soda, I am a Coke girl. Always have been. And? I am loving the white cans right now. I don’t usually keep Coke in the house a lot, but I want to buy it because I like the cans. Marketing genius.

2. Caedmon created an “obstacle course” for his Veggie Tales nativity figures. How the yellow ninja got there, I have not a clue.

3. We broke out the Christmas pajamas the other day. Let’s be honest here…Caedmon has worn his Grinch pajamas all year.

4. Also? The boy I couldn’t have paid to wear pajamas 3 months ago now tries to declare each and every day a pajama day. When I folded his laundry yesterday, 50% of it was pajamas.

5. Honor has now figured out how to get to her belly from a sitting position. When she’s sitting in her Boppy pillow, it’s quite comical. But she loves it. Still, there’s no rolling over.

6. I am almost done with Christmas shopping/wrapping. I’ve felt so behind, and I’m hoping to be completely done this weekend. Fingers crossed.

7. I’m going to attempt to make “gingerbread” cookies. They’ll be sugar cookies, but you know what I mean. Caedmon has been dying to make them. And wants to make another gingerbread house. Probably because he’s licked all the sanding sugar off the front side of the house and can’t get to the rest without getting busted.

And because my brain is fried, that is all.

You Know It’s Bad…

…when you find this and it needs no explanation.

I love my boy. (He was protecting our food, by the way.)

And So It Begins…

Well, it’s happened. I’ve officially become a “Soccer Mom.” We signed Caedmon up for soccer this week.

(I still have no plans to drive a mini-van.)

We went to the sporting goods store the other day to buy his equipment. It was interesting. Mainly because I know next to nothing about soccer. Football? Baseball? Volleyball? Yes. I get those. I know that equipment. Soccer? Nope. Nada. I’m sure the guys who helped us find Caedmon’s cleats were snickering as we wandered off in search of shin guards.

Also? A piece of equipment called a “shin guard” just sounds wrong.

We came home with the new stuff, and of course, Caedmon wanted to wear his gear. Clothes? Not so much.

After dinner, Husband required Caedmon to wear clothing and they kicked the ball around for a while. (Of course, Caedmon went for the bare minimum and just donned a pair of shorts.)

Oz was super excited about the whole thing.

Caedmon had his first practice yesterday.

I have a large amount of respect for a man who volunteers to coach little kids and maintains his patience and sanity. It’s kind of like herding cats.

Caedmon’s first game is tomorrow. You can bet we’ll all be there to cheer him on and the “Momarazzi” will be out in full force.  Be ready for more soccer pictures on Monday!

Now I’m off to put Google to good use. I might ought to learn the rules of this game. Maybe.

He’s Super Fast

Remember when you were a kid and honestly thought that a new pair of shoes would make you run faster, jump higher, and just in general be more awesome? (Even if you didn’t have to pickle The Beast.)

Yeah, you do.

Caedmon is right there with you.

He got some new shoes on Monday. He slept in them at naptime. And has had them on almost constantly since then. Which also means he’s been wearing clothes…because you’re not going to wear shoes with just underwear…it’s just not right.

He’s pretty serious about them. They’re some serious shoes. And yes, they light up.

So he goes stomping around to make sure the lights are working.

And of course, they make him super fast.

I have a feeling he has a new pair of favorite shoes.

It’s Friday!

It’s Friday. And I’m so glad. Even if all our days seem to run together sometimes, Friday is somehow always better than the rest. I know, it’s all in my head. But let me have it, people.

I spent the majority of yesterday cleaning out Little Sister’s new room. Yes, we just moved furniture in there, but the pile o’ junk that we were accumulating for a) a garage sale or b) a huge trip to the donation place kept growing as we moved things around. And it was starting to take up a lot of room. Still not enough to justify putting forth the effort for a garage sale, but enough to itemize for our tax return next year.

That’s right, Uncle Sam, I’m already thinking about next year and the brand new deduction we’ll get to mark on our tax return. Take that.

(I know that’s really sad. But as expensive as it is to have a baby (and how much you boost the economy by buying all sorts of stuff), you should get a double deduction for the first year. I’m just sayin’. Somebody wanna write that proposal for Congress to take up? I’m sure they have plenty of time.)

We still have to clean the closet out in that room, and it’s going to be painful. Mainly because there’s nothing else we can really get rid of in there and we are running out of room. Scratch that. We are out of room. I love my house, but if I could just have some more storage space, that would be awesome.

Once the closet is done, I feel like I can start doing other things. Because I will be able to put things away in the closet and get them out of the middle of the room. And then I can take pictures. There are currently no pictures because I almost start twitching every time I look in there, and who wants to have memories of that? Or start twitching again in 15 years when I pull out the photo album?

(Just kidding. I don’t do photo albums. I really mean, when I pop the DVD in and scroll through the photos.)

I had this grand idea to make several kissing balls from The Idea Room’s post for her room. To use either as a mobile or to hang from the light. They’re not hard, but they take a sweet forever. And I do mean forever. I’m loving how it looks, but at the rate I’m going, I may get one finished by the time she’s born and the rest…by the time she’s actually allowed to kiss a boy, which will be age 21.

Meanwhile, Caedmon is managing with his missing Snoopy. We haven’t seen him since Tuesday. And it’s been a little difficult, but Eeyore has done well in his stead. I seriously have no idea where Snoopy could’ve gone. He didn’t leave the house…he’s here…somewhere. We will find him one of these days, I’m sure. But since it took me 2 1/2 weeks to find the spackle (that was sitting in the exact spot I left it in), Snoopy might just be lost for a little while longer. A crazy preschooler who likes to stash stuff and a Momma with pregnancy-brain isn’t a very good combo when it comes to locating items.

Also, Caedmon has had an issue with clothing the past week or so. As in, he doesn’t want to wear any. Most days, even when I force him to get dressed in the mornings, he looks sort of like this by noon:

Although in this photo, he’s actually wearing socks and shoes. I have no idea why, because those usually don’t get anywhere near his feet unless we’re going somewhere.

Clearly the warmer temperatures are going to his head.

He’s also been stripping his pajamas off after I put him to bed. I find him in the morning with just his underwear on. As long as he doesn’t freeze to death during the night, I don’t care. It just means I don’t have to worry about buying the boy pajamas.

So now we’re off to enjoy our Friday. And the rest of our weekend that will neither be snowy or frigid. Ya’ll have a good one, too!

Snowpocalypse: The Revenge

As much as we were in amazement of last week’s snow storm, we were all caught a bit off guard by today’s! We were expecting 4-8” of snow and at last measurement about 8am there was 16” in our backyard. I haven’t waded back out to measure.

The last time we had anywhere close to this much snow was in February of 1993. I remember it clearly. I was 14 and very sick with at Staph infection and could do nothing but look out the window. Actually, I was so sick, I didn’t care we had 13” of snow. I must admit that I don’t really care much about it this time either. It’s sad, really. Caedmon is experiencing a record-breaking snowfall and might be too young to remember it. Maybe the pictures will help.

This is what we woke up to this morning.

Husband went out to shovel a path so Oz could go potty.

Of course, Caedmon had to go out too.

We shoved Oz out the door and he bounded back over the snow and immediately came back in the doggie door. He was having none of it. I guess we’re going to see just how long he can hold it today.

It wasn’t long before Caedmon was bouncing off the walls. I don’t know what it is about a snow day, but most mornings he can calmly hang out around the house. On a snow day it’s like he’s been hopped up on crazy juice. Thankfully, Husband took him out in the snow to try to burn off some energy.

The snow was too deep for Caedmon to walk, so Husband pulled him on the sled.

After Husband cleared some snow away from the garage door, I went out to take some pictures.

Everyone’s been worried about trash pickup…looks like ours won’t be getting picked up anytime soon.

A sort of reclining version of a snow angel.

He gave up walking and tried to crawl.

And then ended up trying to swim.

But enough was enough, and they came inside, covered in snow.

And this is what was left behind.

It took me longer to clean up that mess than they spent outside. I’ve declared them done outside for the day. It’ll probably take that long to get everything dry again anyway.

By the time they came inside, this is what our back patio looked like.

It’s almost 12:30pm and it’s still snowing. I have no idea how much more we’ll end up with. But I think it’s safe to say that we will not be going anywhere for a few days!

The Presidents

Last Monday afternoon, as is my usual custom, I was working on balancing our checkbook. Doesn’t that sound glamorous and exciting? I know. I actually find it relaxing when I don’t feel like I’m behind elsewhere.

Yes, I am a nerd.

I usually wait until Caedmon goes down for a nap, but he was playing so well that I decided to get a head start. I brought my pile o’ stuff into the living room and planted myself on the couch so I could work and supervise/help with his bug-matching game.

I had a few currency bills among my stack of bills and receipts, and Caedmon came over and started asking questions about them. I wasn’t surprised that he was interested in “money” because it is something that’s pretty cool to him right now. What surprised me were the questions he was asking.

“Who is this?” referring to the picture of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill that was sitting there. I told Caedmon his name and explained that he’d been one of our Presidents. Then he wanted to know where he lived. “Washington DC” was the easy answer. (Although I couldn’t remember if the capitol was actually in Washington DC or New York at the time.) And then, he wanted to know how Jackson had gotten to be President. And who was our President now. And why Jackson wasn’t still the President. And if he could go to Washington DC to visit him. When I told him he’d died, he asked who killed him.

That one threw me for a loop. First of all, because Caedmon automatically assumed that if someone had died, they’d been killed. And because as best I could remember at the time, Lincoln and Kennedy were the only ones to be assassinated and What’s-His-Name died of pneumonia because he gave an incredibly long inauguration speech in the freezing cold, but everybody else just…died. (Can you tell I’m not a history buff?) So I tried explaining to Caedmon a bit about that without making it a big deal. Nobody killed him. He just got super old and died. He still wasn’t quite satisfied, but he moved on anyway.

He asked about Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. I told him he’d also worked in Washington DC. And then Lincoln…oh my. That one was a challenge. I wasn’t about to use the word “assassination,” and I’m sure you can imagine why.

As I sat, trying to fit numbers into neat little columns, I found myself giving my 3 year-old son a lesson in US History that I felt neither prepared for nor knowledgeable enough about to be sure I was giving him correct information. I know, he’s “only” three. But it matters. To me, anyway.

For a second I thought, “He’s too young for this stuff. Just change the subject. Cartoons! We can watch cartoons!” But I caught myself. If he’s interested in it, I shouldn’t gloss over it just because I think he’s too young to comprehend or because I don’t remember the details well enough. Because in some ways, he’s not too young. And I can always pull out a book. Or Google.

I remembered that several months back, I’d purchased a set of flash cards on US Presidents for $1 at Target. I found them in the closet and handed them to Caedmon. “Here you go, Dude. This is all of our Presidents!” He spent the next 15 minutes looking through all the cards and asking questions about some of them. I pointed out our current President and taught Caedmon his name. I also pointed out Bush 41 and 43 and told him they were father and son. He thought that was pretty cool.

All in all, the whole Presidents thing lasted a good 30 minutes, with all the questions and the cards. He even got up after his nap and looked through the cards again.

Monday afternoon reality check. That afternoon was a stark reminder and a little glimmer of the work and dedication it takes to educate your children and how much you have to know and/or re-learn. Just thinking about the quadratic equation and teaching the boy to spell “chrysanthemum” seems a daunting task. (Honestly, I learned to spell that one by watching Anne of Green Gables a few too many times.) But I reminded myself that I wouldn’t have to start out with that stuff. We’d start out with 2+2 (which I can totally do) and “c-a-t” and go from there.

I was also reminded that Caedmon’s education is our responsibility. Not a teacher’s. Not a school’s. Not a government’s. Ours. Parents. There are lots of excellent teachers and schools and I appreciate them and their dedication to teaching our kids. But we should partner with them instead of depending solely on them. Ultimately, he’s our kid and we are responsible for his whole person, which includes his education. I’m not saying I want to be one of those moms who does their kids’ homework for them or pushes them to the brink of insanity over getting good grades. Because, um, no. (I didn’t want to do that stuff for myself – why would I want to do theirs?) But I should be an active participant in their education, no matter where they go to school, be it down the street or at our kitchen table.

We both got a lesson that day.

New Year’s

Our new Year’s Eve was, um, uneventful. That is to say, Caedmon went to bed at his normal time and I was so exhausted that I was asleep by 10:30. And when I say “asleep”, I mean dead to the world. Poor Husband rang in the new year by himself, watching Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. And listening to our idiot kind, considerate, thoughtful neighbors shoot fireworks and whoop and holler out in the street like morons people who were excited about the new year. I heard their shenanigans and promptly went back to sleep, leaving Husband to worry with Oz, who didn’t appreciate the fireworks either.

New Year’s Day, my guys let me sleep in, which was much appreciated. And we spent the day hanging out at home, doing laundry, and other good things like that.

It was cold outside. After the warm days we’d had the past week, it was hard for Caedmon to spend the day inside. So I found a way for my little amphibian to have some fun while I worked in the kitchen.

We started with a tub of warm water in the floor, pajama pants, and a ball, a cup, and some measuring cups and spoons.

He. was. happy.

But then the pants got wet and had to be removed. If there’s one thing the boy can’t stand, it’s for his clothes to be wet. At all. As in, if he gets his sleeves wet when he’s washing his hands, he strips the shirt off.

And then he sort of went swimming.

We had to stop for a potty break. Which meant Caedmon noticed that his undies were wet (with water), which necessitated a change. When I said, “Aren’t you just going to get those wet too?” He thought for a minute and said, “You can just buy me some more undies.”

Somehow, we ended up with some Hot Wheels and a cow in the tub.

Which was followed by the head dunk.

Which was immediately followed by pouring water over his head.

At which point I had to say “enough.” Besides, it was about naptime. Finally. But since he didn’t actually take a nap that day, my whole “get some energy out” plan sort of backfired.

That’s our New Year’s excitement.

And now I’m attempting to spend the week putting the house and my mental state back to normal after weeks of “holiday” life. I desperately want to clean and organize just about everything. Which isn’t helped any by pregnancy hormones. We are all in trouble.

In Case You Were Wondering…

…someone around here is a teensy bit excited about the presents under the tree.

And he just. couldn’t. help. himself.

It’s a good thing our family doesn’t mind slightly mangled gifts.

Simple Pleasures Of Childhood

Recently, Caedmon has been watching “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” quite a bit. We are fans of the bald kid around here.

One of his favorite parts is when Linus jumps into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker. So I decided the other day to teach Caedmon the joy of jumping into a pile of leaves.

He. loved. it.

First, he helped rake the leaves.

Here’s our pile!

And the jumping…

Again!

And just for fun, a video.