Expanding Father’s Day

This past Sunday, we – along with the rest of America – celebrated Father’s Day.  Since Dean doesn’t do breakfast until around lunchtime, we couldn’t make him breakfast in bed.  And I don’t drink coffee so I don’t really know how to make it, so the next best thing was hitting up Starbucks to get something special for my baby daddy.

The kids and I snuck out of the house at 7:30 – Dean was surprisingly still asleep – and headed 2 miles down the road for the liquid goods.

As we pulled out of the neighborhood, Brooks asked, “Mom, I’m hungry, can Landon and I get something for breakfast at Starbucks?”

“This day is about celebrating dad and doing special things for him – unlike most of our weekends, today isn’t about you and Landon.  It’s only a few minutes down the road, we can make you some breakfast when we get back.” I replied.

Of course, my witty 6 year old had his own thoughts on that: “Well, Landon and I are going to be dads one day, so today SHOULD be about me, Landon and Dad!”

Patent Pending: Brooks’ Taco Clip

I know I’ve mentioned more than once how Brooks is such an out-of-the-box thinker.  While it can be challenging to parent, Dean and I are convinced he’ll be a millionaire one day with his unique ideas and entrepreneurial spirit.

One of his latest is the “Taco Clip”:

Yes, we were eating tacos one night and Brooks said, “I need something to help hold this together.”  He went over to our chip clip drawer and grabbed his solution.

Dean and I looked at each other and I said, “I can see it now, the late night infomercial.  <<insert voice-over>> “Do you have the fillings sliding out of your taco?  We’ll with The Brooksie Clip, your problem is solved… and if you act now, we’ll throw in a second XL Brooksie Clip when you pay separate shipping and handling!”

The Brooksie Clip – Patent Pending 🙂  Seriously, I’d love to sit in his brain for a day, just to see what it’s like 🙂

And yes, we eat tacos a lot. He’s already used his “Brooksie Taco Clip” two or three times!

 

Brooks Says: Earning Points

Each school day, Brooks’ teacher tracks behavior points for her class.  There is an app/webpage you can log into to see how your kid is doing throughout the day:

 

It’s great because I can ask Brooks specifics about his day and have a general idea of how he’s doing.

Lately, he’s been doing great at earning those green, positive points for listening, following directions, being a Bucket Filler (caught doing something good), etc.  Brooks is our “more spirited” and social child, so there have been weeks where there were a bunch of “calling out” or “not listening” -1 points.

95% of the time, the points are allocated in 1-point increments, but sometimes she’ll give a 5-point bonus.  I asked Brooks what these were for and he said it can be super good behavior or solving a challenging math problem.

One day, he came home with a +5 bonus point.  I asked what great thing he did to earn those bonus points.

“At snack time, someone threw their strawberry stems on the floor near the trash, but not in the trash.  Mrs. S asked for whoever ate strawberries to pick it up, but none of the kids went and picked it up, so I did.”

“Wow, Brooks, that was awesome you did something so nice.”

Then as I was tucking him in to bed an hour later I asked, “What points are you going to work on for tomorrow? Good listening? Walking quietly in the hallway?”

“No, I think I’m just going to wait until someone throws their garbage outside of the trashcan and I’ll go pick it up for an easy 5 points!”  😉 🙂

This boy.  I love him.

Brooks-isms

BROOKS ON DRINKING AND DRIVING
Brooks and I riding in the car together.

B: Mom, how do you know if you are going to go to jail or get a ticket when a policeman pulls you over?
M: Well, it depends on what you do. If you are speeding or don’t use your turn signal, you’ll probably just get a ticket.  But if you don’t stop when they pull you over or if you are drinking and driving, they will take you to jail.
B:  (I see him in the rear view mirror and his eyes get big with concern.) Well, Mom, they are going to take dad to jail, because he’s always drinking and driving.
M: Well, it only matters if you’re drinking alcohol – water and soda are ok.

BROOKS ON NFL DREAMS
Having a conversation at the dinner table asking my kids what sport they want to play in the fall.

B: I’m going to play tackle football.
M: No, I’m not going to let you play tackle football. First, I don’t even think tackle football is an option for kindergartners.  You’re too little.  Second, there are many other sports you can choose including flag football, but I’m not comfortable with how aggressive football is.  There is too much of a chance of brain or other serious injuries in that sport.
B: Well, when I turn 18, I’m an adult and then I can choose if I want to play tackle football.
M: You sure can.
B: And I’ll probably start playing tackle football and then go to the NFL.
M: I’m not sure how many NFL players start playing when they are 18, but give it all you got!

Big Goals

My kiddo has big goals.  In 2018, my second grader wants to make $100,000 (down from his original $300,000 goal). #weak

And while most 7 year olds want to try harder at activities like tying shoes, learning the rules of soccer or reading chapter books… mine wants to start bodybuilding. 😉

I’d love to see what the other kids in his class came up with.  I guess Landon’s role models are Hugh Jackman and John Cena? #buffrichguys

Don’t you love to see the answers your kids give to questions like this? It’s so funny to see how their little minds work.

Watch List

I think my son might get put on the U.S. Watch List for International Travel when TSA sees his passport picture:

(The photographer told Brooks he couldn’t smile, so this is what we got.)

I asked Dean if we needed to go get the kids passport pics taken before our appointment at the passport office, he said he’d already taken care of it earlier in the week.

I asked how they turned out and he said “fine.” So, I took a look for myself.

Ummm… my word of choice wouldn’t have been “fine” if I was asked the same question. I’d be along the lines of “crazy, hardened, convict, mug shot”.

I hope the U.S. government let’s this criminal-looking child back in the country after our vacation.

 

Brooks-isms

Part of the reason I wanted to post stuff on my blog again is so I can capture Brooks-isms.  That boy is so funny and the things he says are regularly the highlights of my day.

On biblical foods:
In our car leaving church
Me: Brooks, I see you answered a question in eKidz today, what did you talk about?
Brooks: They asked what food God gave Moses… and I guessed “bread”
Me: Wow, how did you know that was the answer?
Brooks: Because every time we read a bible story, they are always eating bread.

On guarding his cousin:
In the car on the way to his basketball game where his team is playing his cousin Lawson’s team
Brooks, out of the blue: Mom, you don’t have to worry, I’m going to go easy on Lawson, so I don’t guard him too much.
(this is a big deal because if you see these kindergartners in action, you know how hard B likes to guard his man – chasing him/her all over the court, with no regard for where the ball actually is!) 🙂

On distracted dinners:
Dean, Landon and I have finished eating dinner and are now holding a conversation on the couch. Brooks is at the kitchen table, still trying to eat his dinner.
Me: Brooks, please stop worrying about what we are doing and eat your food. This is the 4th time I’ve asked you to focus on eating. You haven’t taken a bite yet.
Brooks: But mom, your conversation is so interesting. I can’t help but pay attention to you guys.

On using nicknames on birthday cakes:
At the kitchen table discussing his birthday festivities.
Brooks: Mom, I want to bring a cookie cake for my class.
Me: What do you want it to say? Happy Birthday Mr Bear?
Brooks: No it can’t say Mr. Bear, mom, the kids at school don’t know my nickname.
Me: Ok, what should it say?
Brooks: “Happy birthday Brooks, I hope you have a really special day. You are awesome.”
Me: Hmmm… I think we’d need a bigger cake.

 

Gotta go bathroom.

Brooks is the master of having to go potty at the worst times.  We’ll remind him regularly- when we’re leaving the house, when we pass a bathroom at the store – Brooks, do you need to go?

And it’s always “no”.

And then we get to enjoy this:

Yes, that’s my first-baseman in full potty dancing, holding himself form!

I even got some video and he literally dances around between plays, then the ball is hit to him, he runs to get it, finishes the play, then starts potty dancing again!

 

The Joys of Boys

Dear Sons,

If it isn’t too much trouble, I’d love if you could separate your underwear from your pants when throwing them in the laundry.  I realize that this requires an extra 3 seconds of effort on your part, but I assure you, your pants and undies will be cleaner in the long run!

#atleast3pairseachtimeIdolaundry

And in other news, I think it’s time for longer pants.  Someone had a big growth spurt:

#floodprep

Miscellaneousness

As I mentioned last week, our life has been hectic lately.  Well, this post is going to be just as hectic.  Some random stories and highlights from our life lately:

Landon was out of school for Election Day so he went to the polls with Dean and I.  We talked about the voting process.  Then that night, we participated in a much more delicious vote that the kids actually cared about:
Which cupcake is the best?

Brooks loves to look over at the glassed-in parent section whenever he’s doing his lesson to make sure we’re watching him.  I love watching him get more confident and capable in the water.

Somebody decided they needed a haircut, so they took it upon themselves to give one spot in their head a nice tight trim.  He was supposed to be in his room for timeout. Oh, Brooks!

Brooks had to disguise his turkey so he wouldn’t get caught and eaten for Thanksgiving.  He wanted to do a crocodile but we couldn’t figure out how to do that, so we went with a rainbow/leprechaun theme. Mostly because we wanted to use sparkle glitter and glue and that seemed to fit. The best part though, is when I saw them hanging in the hall and noticed the name Brooks gave to his turkey:  “Turtle the Leprechaun”  Seriously, I wonder what it’s like to be in his brain! 🙂

We were recently in the greeting card section of Target. I was checking out the funny cards and the kids were picking cards and asking me over and over to read them outloud.  I did a few and then told them to just let mom do some quick reading of her own so we could get out of there.  While I was reading the cards, Landon started reading a few on his own.  And he can definitely read now…

He starts outloud, “Have a g-ood damun birth-day.”  His eyes get wide as he looks over at me.  “Mom, what does that word say”, pointing to ‘damn’.  I confirmed that it was, in fact, damn.  He replied, “well, mom, I’m not going to read any more of these cards. I don’t know if they have more bad words.”

That’s a lot of random miscellaneous-ness for one post 🙂  And obviously, we’re totally nailing this parenting thing