At the risk of sounding a little braggy... Again

Gavin was anxiously awaiting the arrival of our twin babysitters, Ann and Leah. He kept asking "how long until they get here." At one point he said,

G-"Now how long until they get here?"
Me-"About 5 minutes."
G-"O.k., then, I don't need to count to 60 five times, I can just count to 300."

He amazes me with his mathematical mind.

The sensitive one

Calling Gavin sensitive might be considered an understatement.
Tonight, I was reading the book "Ox-Cart Man" to the kids. It's a Caldecott winner from 1980. The reason I mention this is because Gavin is super into Caldecott award winning children's books, and it's cute how he refers to them as "Caledecock books." Anyway, back to the sensitive boy thing...

So, the book tells the story of the ox-cart man, his wife, his daughter, and his son, living in colonial times, and how they work all year to gather, grow, and make goods to sell at the market. The man uses the money he makes to purchase things the family needs. After he sells all his goods, even the cart and the yolk for the ox, he ends up selling the ox, before returning back to his family and his farm.

At this point, Gavin is totally choked up, and tears well up in his eyes.
G-"Why did he have to sell the ox?" he asks me, trying not to cry.
Me-"That's what people did back then."
G-"Well, why didn't he just keep the ox, and sell everything else?" (wiping tears off his cheek)
At this point, Emma and Lilah take a hand at reassuring him that everything will be o.k.
E and L- "It's o.k. Gavin"
"He had to do it so he could get money to feed his family."
"He'll get another ox."

Eventually, he accepted the fate of the poor ox. Little does he know, the ox was most likely sold to the local butcher.

Literally

Gavin talking to Grandpa John on the phone-

Grandpa- What are you doing?
Gavin- Standing.

Fluffering

Out of nowhere, Emma came to me looking for reassurance and said:

E-Mommy, everybody fluffers, right?
Me-Yes, that's right.
G-Even God fluffers. (statement, not a question)
Me- Really?
G- Yeah, that's because all people and animals fluffer.
Me-So, God is a person or animal?
G-(disregarding my question) a skunk has the stinkiest fluffers
E- and a person has the loudest fluffers

The conversation just died out, and the kids went outside.

Future Presidential Hopefuls

Emma and Gavin get a weekly homework assignment that is like an interview. I ask the questions and record Emma and Gavin's responses. The assignment is related to whatever they are learning about during that week. This week's interview was related to presidents.
(Emma and Gavin took turns answering each question.)
First question:

-Who is the current president of the United States?
-Emma, full of excitement responds- TEDDY ROOSEVELT!!!!
-Nope-
-Oh, yeah, George Bush.

Question 4:
-Where does the president live?
Emma, again full of excitement- Minneapolis!!!!
-Try again. It starts with a "W"
-Oh, yeah, Washington D.C.

Last question:

What would you do to help people if you could be the president?
Emma's first response- I would help somebody if they got a cut on their forehead, and I would get them a band-aid.

After a little redirection, she ended up changing her response to:
-I would make it so people don't hurt other people.

Gavin's response to this question was:
-I would help change laws to make things better.

A healthy interest gone awry

I think Gavin's innocent interest in Webkinz has evolved into an unhealthy obsession.

This morning Gavin came up to our room, crying, and his eyes were very puffy. He looked like he had been crying for some time. He said he had a bad dream and that he didn't want to talk about it. I told him that talking about it might make him feel better. He said he wanted to keep it a secret. He was sobbing by the time he got into bed with us. I was feeling really bad for him, and wanted to help him deal with this horrible dream that I was envisioning. I probed- Did someone hurt you in your dream? (no) Did someone hurt someone you love? (no) Was someone scaring you or being mean to you? (no) ...
eventually, Gavin offered up some insight into the horror...

Apparently, somebody told Lilah to leave one of her Webkinz somewhere, and Gavin was so upset because in the dream, he thought he'd never again in his life, see the missing Webkinz.

Inspite of the fact that Webkinz are, in fact, stuffed animals that can be replaced, we handled this incident with the utmost sincerity, and consoled him to the best of our ability. We respected the fact that his emotions were very real, and stressed to him that, it was a dream, and not reality. He asked about his dreamcatcher (I got one for him while I was in Arizona because he has been known to have bad dreams). He said, "The dream catcher isn't working." He wants to know why it's not working. Our plan is to place the dream catcher directly over his head. I told him that the dream catcher only catches some of the bad dreams, so it's possible for a few to get through it's web. Sometimes, moms and dads don't always have the right answers for every moment.

love is in the air

Emma had a note in her backpack from her friend Ethan today. It read:

To Emma (Emma's name was written over a crossed out Erika)
From Ethan
I love you

Being that I know Ethan, a fine, upstanding kindergartner, I'll make no issue about this. (I also happen to know that the letter was originally intended for his sister, Erika) There might be issues with Max, however, who is planning on marrying Emma.

President's Day Excitement

Last Friday (the Friday b4 President's Day), after getting off the bus, Gavin said to me:

-Can you wait for President's Day?
-What do you mean?
- Can't you wait for the day?
-Do you mean, am I excited about the holiday?
-YEAH!
-Well, yes, I guess. What do you want to do to celebrate?
-Talk about presidents.

We kind of forgot to talk about presidents. Instead, we played restaurant, got haircuts, went ice skating, read books, and played a lot.

Pull-latypus

Gavin came into a little money for his b-day, and decided he wanted to buy a platypus webkinz with his money. We went to the local webkinz distributor and they were all out of the platypus, so he got a pig (he named his pig Carl) instead, because he couldn't wait another day to try a different store for the platypus. The way he say's "pull-latypus" is so darn cute. He must have said the word at least ten times within a 2 minute time frame.

-Did you know the pull-latypus is my favorite animal?
-No, I did not know that.
-That's o.k. that they don't have a pull-latypus here, because I'll get a pull-latypus next time. A pull-latypus is one of the only mammals that lays eggs.
-Yep, that's right.
-Do you think they have a pull-latypus at another store?
-I'm sure they do, maybe you should wait until tomorrow, and look at a different store.
-No, that's o.k. I'll get the pull-latypus next time.

Later, Mike enters the picture.
-They didn't have the pull-latypus, so I got the pig.

Me to Mike-Did you know that pull-latypuses are Gavin's favorite animal? Or should I say, pull-latypi?

Testimony of her sweetness

Lilah was "Star of the Week" a couple of weeks ago in her class. Everyone in the class gets a chance to shine, and have certain privileges when they are the star. One thing the star does is fill out a profile poster. It's a fill-in-the-blank activity and has frames where the star can put pictures (i.e. this is my family, I like to...). The kids also write about their favorite food, book, place, etc. in the blanks. The last section says;
If I could have one wish come true it would be...

She wrote:
"for my dog to get better" and pasted on a sweet picture of Duncan.

This brought a tear to my eye.

Withstands discomfort without even a single complaint

Lilah has had a fever for the past 4 days. She is the sweetest sick person you'll ever meet. She never complains, not even when her temp. rises to 104.6. I know, that sounds dangerously high. She's been to the doctor, and apparently, it's probably something viral. She's so easy going, and incredibly tolerant with whatever this sickness is. She wants so badly to go to school. She woke up this morning, eyes saggy and red, saying that she feels better and is ready to return to school. Yesterday was the day of the super high fevers, so, of course she had to stay home again today. (hence the reason for the entry- being home from work, I actually have a little time on my hands)

Last night she asked me,

"Mommy, do you think there's such a thing as a health fairy?"

"I don't know, what do you think?"

"Maybe. I think I'll write a note to her, in case."

I am sick.

Dear health fairy,

Can you make me feel better before Valentine's Day? Because I want to see my friends again.

From: Lilah

Write a note

Response:

Dear Lilah,

I will do my best to make you feel better as soon as possible, but I need your help. To get better, you must get as much rest as possible and drink plenty of water and juice. I believe if you do these two things, you should feel better soon. Good luck.

Love,

The health fairy

Needless to say, she's been lounging on the couch resting. She's had 2 glasses of water, and two glasses of juice today. Hopefully the health fairy has given good advice. As of yet, the benefit of her rest and liquids has not kicked in. (still feverish, but not as high as yesterday)

Choices

Emma and Gavin are having their final birthday hoopla on Sunday. Their birthday is like the Energizer bunny, it keeps going, and going, and going. Anyway, they're having the "kid" party at a nature center. I just found out that they have a choice to make about which animal they want to have brought out during the fiesta. Choices include: turtles, snake, hawk, or salamander. They are supposed to choose one. You can guess where this is going.

E-I want turtles.
G-But I want snakes.
E- I really love turtles.
G- But snakes are so cool. They're like my 2nd favorite animal. Mommy, do you think they could bring out an elephant instead? (no elephants)
E- But I don't even really like snakes. They're like, my 8th favorite.
G- But turtles are my second worst animal.
E- But I really want turtles.
Me- What about hawks? They're really cool.
E & G in unison -No

After about 10 minutes of this, Gavin finally agreed to have turtles.