Snapshot of a Little Boy

Paul and Katie both have parent-teacher conferences tomorrow. Of course, I have no idea when Paul’s is. He waved a form in front of my face at some time when I was too busy to actually hold the form. I have a feeling it was at 9:00, and is possibly tomorrow. Of course, it could be any time tomorrow or Wednesday. If I don’t find this paper tonight, we’re showing up at 9:00, and if we’re wrong, then we’ll find something else to do to fill the time gap until it actually is his conference time. In an effort to ascertain the actual time, I decided to look through his backpack. I didn’t find a conference letter in the paper jungle, but I did find a snapshot of my little boy. He gives me a run for my money on a daily basis, but at this moment, when he was sleeping sweetly downstairs and I was having a sneak-peek into his six-year-old life, my heart melted. God gives us these moments for a reason. Here is what I found: A small notebook completely filled with sketches and notes. I found a small calendar in the back, and the two dates written down were Mom’s Birthday and Gymnastics. He loves me! Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. I try to steer my children toward good literature, but both Katie and Paul love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. A army guy action figure and one of the plastic green army men holding a bazooka. A bookmark. The wrapper from some sort of Japanese playing cards A composition book. Many, many pencils. Now I know why I have no writing implements in my house. Books on ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. A Magic Tree House book. He’s way past these books, but he still enjoys reading them. A Lego Club magazine. A little book that came as an insert in the Ghostbusters movie. A Lego Star Wars comic book that’s been read over and over and over. Candy wrappers. Completed homework (Paul is an excellent student) and a parent newsletter that I never saw. A drawing that appears to be the ever-resourceful  Hardy Boys putting out a fire. Paul has just gotten into the Hardy Boys series and is reading his third book right now. A birthday invitation from two months ago to an Angry Birds party. His math textbooks. His speech for class office. He ran for president, vice-president, senator, and supreme court justice. Every office you could run for. He didn’t get elected for anything. He’s a super-smart kindergartener in a class of second and third grade boys. Of course he’s not going to be elected. But you couldn’t tell him that. Surprisingly, he never seemed disappointed. He just said, “Oh well. I’ll run for the next office.” And when there were no more offices left, he said, “That’s fine. I’m an alternate in case someone loses his office for bad behavior.” I would have voted for you, Paul. If we had more candidates for office who had the qualifications you have, the world would be a much better place.

Quick photos from Easter

Just popping in with a few photos from Easter. I sewed all the dresses, made the bows, and made the bow tie. I was sewing on buttons Sunday morning. I’m tired. Trying out shaving cream marbled eggs. We did this (successfully) with preschoolers. My kids, not so much. It’s starting out fine here. Starting to get out of control. And now it’s disintegrated into chaos. This is what happens when Mom leaves the room for five minutes. Not as beautiful as I would have liked. Of course, they look much better once the shaving cream was rubbed off.   Bridget got to do the traditional dyeing. Yes, she drank the dye. I thought she was just going to look. You would think I would learn, since after looking back through old Easter photos, I have many shots of a kid trying out the dye. Doesn’t taste so good.   She wanted to kiss the egg. Why? I have an adorable family. Seriously. How are they all so good looking?      His primary teacher said he should be a pediatrician, because apparently pediatricians wear bow ties. And since my boy Paul is wicked smaht, he could, if he wanted to.   Not sure why I thought I could get a good photo of a 19 month old. Past Easters should have taught me better. I really should do a post comparing Bridget and Averi at this same age on Easter. It’s bizarre. They’re twins born three years apart. She was fine when she was distracted. Aww! So cute! P.S. I designed the pattern for her dress myself. *Pats self on back.* “I’m tired of pictures and I’ve missed my nap two days in a row!” “But at least I have cute shoes.” Bridget adores shoes. She insists on wearing them at all times, even if she’s only in a diaper. She’s always asking for her “shs” (not really a vowel in the word the way she says it). Easter dinner spread. So yummy and adorable! Sneak peek of the new table. Its size definitely came in handy for this meal! Michelle’s cute bunny fruit bowl that she made. Carrot cake. Of course. Yummy Easter bread. The kids were wild about the eggs in it.