MamaBloo » boys

Will You Marry Me?

Kari at MamaBloo — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:04:42 +0000

Through a strange series of questions and topics while snuggling in bed with Ty last night, he informed Dave and me that he plans on marrying his little sister, Emme.

This doesn’t alarm me at all — I know that this is totally normal as kids grow up and explore family relationships and love. Often times a kindergartener will want to marry the parent of the opposite sex. Ty used to want to marry me, but I have been ousted for the new and improved model…little sister.

“Oh, Ty, I am so glad you love Emme so much.” Even as I say this I am envisioning the torment she put him through only hours before. How no matter what he wanted to play with, she snatched it out of his hands and ran off with it. Not really an inaccurate foreshadowing to marriage, but still…

But just to be silly I ask Ty, “Why don’t you want to marry Lily?” One of his older sister-cousins.

“Because, Mommy, she. wants. to. be. a. dentist!!!”

Of course, this makes perfect sense to me.

————–

Click here to learn more about why I don’t like the dentist.

Jonesin’ For Hot Chocolate

Kari at MamaBloo — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:00:37 +0000

My son is obsessed with Hot Chocolate. He has not had any since last winter and when he saw me come home with a box of Swiss Miss and a bag of marshmellows, he became focused on having that first yummy mug of cholately goodness.

It is a well known fact that Ty can negotiate just about anything. A friend and neighbor announced recently that he planned on having Ty — age five — negotiate the re-fi’s on his mortgage. I have to have nerves of steel and a heckofa line in the sand when Ty sets his sights on something. And recently he set his sights on that box of Swiss Miss and that bag of marshmellows.

For days now he has been asking me about the weather report. It took me a while to figure out why. His angle? Rainy, wet, or even snowy weather equals….Hot Chocolate. But I once I was onto him I could tell him, hey, it is not quite cold enough yet! He then turned to the “others” he figured would cave in or at least didn’t know the rules. He asked babysitters and friends for hot chocolate. Nope. No luck.

Driving home from school Monday afternoon he told me, Ah Mommy, I am soooooooooo cold.

I was distracted by a garbage truck and the rain. Ah honey, I am so sorry. What can we do to warm you up?

You see it coming, don’t you? Well, I didn’t. Moment of weakness, I guess.

I need Hot Chocolate. He says in his sweetest, I love you mommy, voice. So, I answered with the good ol’ mother standby. Let me think about it.

He smilled and then actually cackled. Because, basically, he knew he had me at “I’ll think about it.”

An hour later, out came the tea kettle. Out came the mashmellows. Out came the Swiss Miss. I even got out the whole milk.

Okay, bud, I said. You can have the hot chocolate on one condition. You have to let me take your picture while you drink it.

I am pretty sure that his internal dialoge goes something like this… “SUCKAAHHHH!”

I am doomed, aren’t I???

The Pumpkin Patch That Kicked My…

Kari at MamaBloo — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:07:37 +0000

Normally, I love the Pumpkin Patch. But this year the phrase “pumpkin patch” should have been accompanied by a warning sticker…or at least background music that went “dum dum dummmm!” In years past, our beloved trip to the patch was at this lovely little working farm. We were the only school there, there was a worm barrel, a few animals to look at, and small little pumpkins to pick. It was, well like I said above… lovely. So, when our beloved farm closed its door to school pumpkin patch visits, our school was forced switched to another venue. A venue known as THE FARM — que music… “dum dum dummmmm…”.

With my previous paradigm in place of the lovely local patch, I decided that taking Emme (age 19 months) on Ty’s kindergarten field trip to THE FARM… dum dum dummm… was going to be just fine. It became immediately apparent after our 30 minute drive on fog infested country roads that this was not a farm. This was an amusement park. Designed by Stephen King. Luring peace and pumpkin loving parents to their doom.

The rundown looks like this. First of all, we were there with about 20 other preschools and kindergartens — so about two billion children under the age of 5. Making it a chaotic melee of children moving from station to station on THE FARM…dum dum dumm… while being shouted at by the “farmers” to keep moving, folks. The hayride scared Emme. While all the kindergarten girls picked out cute little purse pumkins, Ty picked out what felt like the world’s largest pumpkin. So I had to enlist our neighbor to carry it because with 28 pound Emme on one hip, the 30+ pound pumpkin was too freakin heavy and it didn’t fit in the grocery bag the school provided. Some may say, why did you let Ty get such a big pumpkin. I DON’T KNOW is the answer. It make sense in the intial nano-second and then I was committed. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

After the hayride and pumpkin search, there was a hay maze which ended in a slide from the top of the barn. The attendant asked for two parents to “man the slide.” After the first kids went down the slide, it became obvious that “manning the slide” was code for “try not to let any kids kill themselves while shooting off the end of the world’s fastest slide into a pile of hay.” These kids were like wellie-clad bullets coming off that thing. Ty stood at the top of the slide for quite some time before risking his life to exit the hay maze.

I can now feel my sanity exiting THE FARM.. dum dum dummmm… along with my sense of humor and the spring in my step.

We then went to the animal area. Emme loved the giant pig. Ty loved to climb on the tractor –which resulted in a perilous fall where it appeared that he cracked his head on the cement. After barking clone-trooper-esque orders at our neighbor to GRAB EMME, I ran to Ty’s rescue — all the while going over the signs of concussions in my head and calculating how far we were from the nearest ER. As it turns out he miracously didn’t hit his head, only his elbow … and his bum. But his bum was okay, he said, because he was “wearing really tough pants.”

We finally get to the picnic area where Ty is enjoying a POPSICLE of all things. I din’t even care that now we were injecting the kids with sugar, I was just relieved we had made it to a chair. It is at this point that my friend Kristi considers texting our friend Kim (who will be attending the afternoon session at THE FARM..dum dum dummm…) that THE FARM is almost as bad as Chuck E. Cheese. Now, I have a deal with my husband about Chuck E. Cheese. I will carry the children in my uterus for 9 months, undergo surgery to bring them into the world, and then nourish them off of my breast. But HE HAS TO GO TO CHUCK E CHEESE. And from now on he is on THE FARM.. dum dum dummm.. duty as well.

It is at this moment that some yells, “Hey come watch the PIG SHOW!”

Enough said.

Twas The Night Before Kindergarten

Kari at MamaBloo — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:00:27 +0000

We made our peace a long time ago that Ty prefers to sleep with mommy and daddy.

I think in Ty’s first week of life, we realized that this kid may sleep with us until he goes to college. No joke. College.

It complicates certain issues, surely, but, it also has its perks.

Last night I turned the light out and turned toward my sound asleep little boy who was starting kindergarten the next day. I looked into his slumbering face and marvelled at his perfection, his long lashes, his scraggly hair. I thought about how I was probably NOT going to cry when I dropped him off the next morning at kindergarten — really — but right now in the moonlight I wanted to memorize his face, what he looked like the night before. I cuddled in, I felt my heart swell.

My heart swelled just in time for Ty’s right arm to swing around and punch me smack in the nose.

His eyes then fluttered open and he said, “Oh, sorry mommy, I thought you were Lily.”

Holding Up "K's" For Kindergarden

A Tail

Kari at MamaBloo — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:30:35 +0000

Saturday at lunch Ty informed the family that he has an invisible tail.

Ya wanna see?

Well, I will try to see it. It is invisible after all.

He wags his bum at me and says, see it?

Uh, well….

It has very small feathers on it that you need a microscope to see.

It does?

Mommy? When something is invisible can you still touch it and feel it?

I think so. But I don’t really know for sure.

Well, then my tail is also intangible.

Of course it is.

MY SON IS NOT A PACIFIST

Kari at MamaBloo — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:34:58 +0000

Before having a boy, I never knew that the ability to transform everyday objects into guns was actually imprinted on the Y chromosome. But it is. About a year ago my son started shooting things. I was mortified. I am, afterall, a pacifist. A good pacifist, in fact. But, there he was using any and everything as a gun, blaster, pistol, bazooka, light saber, etc. The good news is is that until recently we have never actually ”stooped” to purchasing a gun-like toy and offend our peace-loving sensibilities. He has taken care of that all on his own.

Items that my son has transformed into an imaginary gun:

Foot-shaped calcualtor
A slice of cheese – bitten into the shape of a gun
Clothes hanger
Broom
My flip flops (work great as over-the-wrist attack blasters… apparently)
A pillow
My $900 camera
Toilet paper holder
Vacuum attachments
Baby bottle

Socks
Pens
Soap dispenser
His old leg cast
Foam leters, particulary the “L” and the number “7″
Sticks in varying shapes and sizes.
Baby Monitor
The headrest in the car
A traffic cone
A candy cane
Breast Pump – seriously, this one stopped us all in our tracks.
The car key remote
Kleenex box

I keep telling myself that an active imagination is GOOD thing. And… I try to stay out of the line of fire whenever possible.

A “Bloo” Little Moment…

Kari at MamaBloo — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Lately my sweet little boy has started drawing a lot of pictures.

Daily he presents me with dozens of drawings. Usually of aliens and space battles.

Apple Alien and Friends

This next one we drew together. See if you can spot my footwear-inspired ship in the lower righthand corner.

Space Battle w/ Mommy

I get soooo many of these per day, that they all tend to morph into one picture. And, I get a little tired of ooh-ing and aaah-ing all day long.

But the other day, he drew me his version of Santa Claus. And although it looks like a Santa pumpkin, there was something about THIS picture that truly touched me. Sometimes out of the busy-ness and crazy-ness of my life, something rises to the top and makes me take a deep breath. And this day, it was this picture.

Santa by Ty (age 4)

And truly, truly it made my day better. Merry Christmas, everyone!