Jack and I walk into the house. Teddy is playing a video game.

Me: hi babe, how was your day?
T: Jackson I'm really sorry to tell you this, but Bandit ate that cool plane you got at Aunt Lara's house.
J: What? where?
Ted never looked up
T: over under the tree in the other room
(Yes there are still trees up in our house, but I haven't been home long enough to get them down. In our defense, the lights haven't been on in weeks.)
Jack runs to see for himself - finds the remnants and immediately starts sobbing

And now for the second minute home.....


Teddy hands me a piece of paper while I was I was getting the Chinese food I brought home out on plates.
Me: What's that babe?
T: Something for you
M: Yes I got that, what is it?
T: It says what it is right on top

Lord give me strength.

Those were about par for the course this evening. Did I mention Brad was away...

Camela

Jackson's speed - No longer a good thing

Jackson is seriously fast. He's pretty small, but super speedy. This is why he excels in football; he can just flat out run past anyone else on the field - or while on defense, given enough room he can catch up to just about anybody. In basketball, Brad just got him more interested in the flow of the game by equating a fast break to a race and well Jackson hasn't lost sight of his 'man' since. At the end of soccer practice they run laps around the field and during the eight laps they'd run he'd lap half of the team (more than once for a few of them) and then just keep running the laps until the last kid finished the original quantity.

Starting in third grade at his school they have an annual race called the "little toot run" which is a mile long. Last year when he was in second grade they had a practice race of the same distance and he came in second and he's still very, very unhappy about that. When they had to postpone the race this year from the fall to the spring due to weather he was beside himself annoyed. He wants to redeem himself. He NEEDS to redeem himself. He regularly says to me... "hey mom, is it okay if I go for a jog around the neighborhood?" Uh.. sure honey. That's a great idea. (insane child) Really he jogs around the neighborhood so he'll be ready for the distance of the Little Toot Run. (as a side note - if that boy doesn't win this race in April, he's going to be impossible to live with)

This little story about my very fast boy is just background to our latest .... um.... "issue" with him.

It all started when Brad told him he had to brush his teeth. Certainly, I fully understand how unreasonable such a request is, but still Brad's a stickler about such things and tell him he did. Jackson did not react well to this and much dramatic bellowing ensued. Once the teeth incident was behind them Brad had the nerve to remind Jack that he had to go to Teddy's basketball game since I was at work. Well this was more than one little boy could possible handle so he did what any dramatic and fast little boy would do. He opened the door and ran.

Yup. Ran.

At top speed.

Away from the house.

Brad finished getting the basketball stuff together and packed Teddy in the car in search of Jackson. He found him down one of the cul-de-sacs and told him to get in the car. Jackson thought about it, but then turned and ran.

Yup. Ran.

At top speed.

Away from his father who was out looking for him. (CAN YOU IMAGINE???)

Brad drove to the next cul-de-sac and parked. He sent Teddy in one direction and he went in another. Eventually Brad found him and I'm sure expressed his displeasure and explained to him how things were going to be and told him to get in the car. You guessed it...

He ran.

At top speed.

Away from his father - who was standing right there in front of him.

Well, this time Brad gave chase and managed to catch him. (Not that Brad isn't fast, but I'm thinking all that running must have tired Jackson out.) He managed to haul his little butt into the car and get Teddy to the game before tip off.

So far.... he's still alive.

Camela

A Dance? Is that really allowed?

Teddy is going to his first dance tonight.

Oh. My. God.

I mean seriously, the boy is going to a dance. When I ask him who will be going that I know he consistently only mentions his friend Robin. Robin is a girl. I think she's absolutley wonderful, but still... she's a girl.

I'm working late... again... so I'm not there to guage whether he's just excited for the new experience and the clear sign of his growing independence he believes it to be (which, duh yes I get that it is in fact a clear sign) or if he's excited to be at a dance with Robin (the girl). I think I'm glad I'm not there.

Did I mention he's going to a dance.

Camela

Not thinking ahead - a man's problem?.....

Brad was meeting Marc and John for dinner...

First a little background.
John lives roughly an hour or so SOUTH of us. Marc lives just under half an our NORTH of us. The plan was to meet for dinner about 15 minutes SOUTH of us; presumably to make John's trip home a little easier. Before the 'dinner meeting' John went up to visit Marc at the store he owns and I'm sure they had a nice visit.

So now for the ...... stupid... uh.. I mean.. um... not as well planned out as it could have been part.
So for some reason not apparent to the rest of us, John and Marc thought it would be a good idea for Marc to drive down to dinner with John which I'll remind you is about 40 minutes-ish SOUTH of where Marc lives. Then oddly enough when dinner was over at 10:30pm John didn't want to drive 40 minutes NORTH of the restaurant so he could then turn around and drive nearly two hours SOUTH back to his home.

So guess who got to drive Marc home????? No wait, you'll never guess. Let's just say that it's after midnight and my husband is still not home.

Camela

The missing fabric...

Me: Teddy can you explain this rectangular shaped piece of missing fabric in your new bedspread?
Teddy: No
Me: (raises eyebrows (man I wish I could raise only one))
Ted: (big annoyed sigh) Look (points to scissors on top of dresser)
Me: And???
Ted: I cut it.
Me: Good night (I turned and left thinking that was the safest thing for both of us right then)
Ted: ON ACCIDENT
Me: You did not cut out that shape by accident

Then I high tailed it out of there before more damage was done.

Jeez!!!

Our life right now

Brad and Camela
I'm into my busy time at work which means Brad takes on the brunt of our home life. It's so blissful to have a marriage where the ebb and flow of life's outside committments just means the inside committments ebb and flow as well - it's not the end of the world when he has to pick up more stuff at home or when he's out of town for half the week for several weeks in a row and I have to pick up more stuff. I feel very lucky.

Jackson
While we were at Teddy's recent band concert, I asked Jackson what instrument he was going to play next year and he informed me he has just decided he doesn't want to play an instrument. This is a major problem for me. He doesn't have to grow up and be a band geek but he has to, absolutely has to, play some sort of instrument for a few years at least. I think music appreciation is a vital component of a well rounded person not to mention the other more brainiac ways music is good for the brain - music is just plain good for the soul - this just will not do! And of the two kids, I'd say Jackson is more likely to really get into playing music - maybe as a guitarist in a punk band with purple hair, but still...

I really think this is about living in Teddy's shadow and he just doesn't want to do something that Ted already does which I can understand but I need to nip this in the bud. I told him last night it was time to start private lessons. That the first things that popped into my head were the piano, guitar, or drums since we have all those in the house, which made total sense to him, but that he could choose anything he wanted. I'm hoping if I just make this part of a non-school related thing - it won't be too hard to get him started and then he can continue in school.

Teddy
He's still 11. He's actually not been that bad in the last week or so but I don't want to say that too loudly in case I jinx it. Brad and I have seriously stepped up our efforts in tracking his every detail in school. We tried to let him do it himself as everyone suggested but man was that not working. He just does not have that skillset - the one that let's him keep track of multiple things. He's just too easily distracted by anything and everything. Since Brad really laid it all out for him, much to his chagrin, and we've both been going over and over and over it all with him and reminding him and reminding him it seems to be going better for him. And really, he's very proud of himself when he sees the results of actually remembering to turn in the homework he already did in his grades. Hopefully things will keep going well. (I don't want to be more optomistic than that).

The Hampsters
Are very cute - all four of them. Teddy is constantly building new homes and tunnels out of legos for his two little guys, it's cute - but pretty soon his cage will be totally full and you'll only be able to see the little guys in the small gaps between the stuff.

Jackson is madly in love with his two. It's very, very cute. We let them out in the bathtub at least once a week to walk all over each boy (it's supposed to continue to help them get used to their owners) and Jackson is just so gleeful about it. It's an interesting thing for Ted, but for him the whole hampster thing is really just a new reason to build cool lego things.

Bandit
is still wildly annoying. He so wants to eat the hampsters. I can't blame him really I'm sure they look nice and tasty, but it's really funny to see him standing at full alert just watching the cages. The real downside is that he can no longer sleep with Teddy because he can't relax and he eventually starts whining while longingly watching at the cage which keeps Teddy awake which means I feel sorry for him and am more likely to let the beast sleep with us. sigh.

Camela

A Christmas picture

Seeking advice....

Why this one thing is bugging me so intensely I have no idea, but perhaps some of you can give me a suggestion as to how to deal with it....

So the 11 year old was told to take a shower this morning during the kids' two hour snow delay. He is flat out filthy, but our schedule just kept him from getting one last night when he should have taken one. He seemed perfectly fine with this plan; didn't seem to be remotely a big deal to him and off I went to work.

Brad calls me a little later and among other things tells me that Ted totally lied about showering. He told Brad he had taken one, pointed to his still damp hair as proof and completely stuck to the lie when pressed. When in reality he had gone up and slightly dampened his hair with the specific intent of deceiving Brad. The kid doesn't even mind taking showers. I'm thinking he did it just to see if he could, though I wasn't there.

My quick gut reaction was to bring down the wrath of thunder (whatever that is) upon his head. How dare he set out to do such a bone headed thing - and yes I know it's a stupid little thing which of course he's tried in the past with wetting his toothbrush too - but I swear I'm so wildly annoyed about this I don't know what to do.

Any thoughts?