Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
August, 2008 – Antonio prank called my business phone. He left a message saying his name was Larry and he needed some legal documents prepared.
December 12, 2008 – Christian prank called the house with my cell phone. He said his name was Dave and he was calling to fix my power lines.
August 2, 2009 – Today I was, once again, searching all over the house for Nicolas. Christian found him and gave away his position under a blanket in the laundry room. When I yanked the blanket off and yelled, “Gotcha!” He said, “Aw, man, you blew my cover!” And then he turned to Christian and said, “You are my mortal enemy.” What makes this funny is that he is only three and the only cartoon he really watches is Diego.
August 11, 2009 - Today Sierra saw that Gabriel needed to be cleaned up and taken down from the highchair while I was in the middle of something. So, as she was taking care of him, I heard Antonio go over to her and say, “Sierra, you’re a really, really good sister” in his soft, little voice. I immediately wanted to acknowledge his kind words so I called him over and asked him if he just complemented his sister. He said yes and so I told how sweet of him that was. He stood there with his apple in his hand and he couldn’t resist the big smile that came across his face. He explained, “Well, it’s ‘cause when I was patting her back I put my apple sticker on her!”
December 12, 2008 – Christian prank called the house with my cell phone. He said his name was Dave and he was calling to fix my power lines.
August 2, 2009 – Today I was, once again, searching all over the house for Nicolas. Christian found him and gave away his position under a blanket in the laundry room. When I yanked the blanket off and yelled, “Gotcha!” He said, “Aw, man, you blew my cover!” And then he turned to Christian and said, “You are my mortal enemy.” What makes this funny is that he is only three and the only cartoon he really watches is Diego.
August 11, 2009 - Today Sierra saw that Gabriel needed to be cleaned up and taken down from the highchair while I was in the middle of something. So, as she was taking care of him, I heard Antonio go over to her and say, “Sierra, you’re a really, really good sister” in his soft, little voice. I immediately wanted to acknowledge his kind words so I called him over and asked him if he just complemented his sister. He said yes and so I told how sweet of him that was. He stood there with his apple in his hand and he couldn’t resist the big smile that came across his face. He explained, “Well, it’s ‘cause when I was patting her back I put my apple sticker on her!”
Thursday, April 23, 2009
March 21, 2009
Nico has a way of disappearing quite often. To date (knock on wood) he is the sneakiest of all the kids. Not in a manipulative way, but more of in a quiet, stealth, would-make-a-good-spy kind of way. Today I went into the back yard for just a minute and then went back into the house. I saw the front door wide open so I started calling out for Nico. I called inside the house and outside the house, out past the driveway, down the street and nothing. I made another round over the whole house inside and out, calling his name and even demanding that he answer me. Still no answer. At this point I started to get a bit panicked and went to grab my keys. I could already hear the comments, “There goes Nicole looking for one of her kids again…” In a last ditch effort to see if he really was missing I walked into the middle of the house and yelled, “Nico, do you want some ice cream?!” To which I heard a muffled, “Yeah.” It still took me another minute to discover his location, but I finally found him at the bottom of the laundry pile.
March 21, 2009
Today during dinner I was seated directly across from Nico. I was talking to one of the other kids when I noticed Nico start to choke. He was grabbing his throat and making horrible noises and his little face was turning red. I dropped my fork and started to run around the table…it takes a few seconds, it’s a big table. Right before I reached him he picked up his fork and started laughing. “I trick you” he said. Would it be wrong to demonstrate real choking so that one doesn’t think it’s funny again?
April 22, 2009
Today Nico was visiting at Aunt Crystal’s house and playing in the backyard. When she went out back to check on him, she found him jumping up and down to his little heart’s desire and just having a good ‘ole time on the ‘pogo-stick’ he had found. This is when Crystal yelled, “Nico, get off of the toilet plunger!”
Nico has a way of disappearing quite often. To date (knock on wood) he is the sneakiest of all the kids. Not in a manipulative way, but more of in a quiet, stealth, would-make-a-good-spy kind of way. Today I went into the back yard for just a minute and then went back into the house. I saw the front door wide open so I started calling out for Nico. I called inside the house and outside the house, out past the driveway, down the street and nothing. I made another round over the whole house inside and out, calling his name and even demanding that he answer me. Still no answer. At this point I started to get a bit panicked and went to grab my keys. I could already hear the comments, “There goes Nicole looking for one of her kids again…” In a last ditch effort to see if he really was missing I walked into the middle of the house and yelled, “Nico, do you want some ice cream?!” To which I heard a muffled, “Yeah.” It still took me another minute to discover his location, but I finally found him at the bottom of the laundry pile.
March 21, 2009
Today during dinner I was seated directly across from Nico. I was talking to one of the other kids when I noticed Nico start to choke. He was grabbing his throat and making horrible noises and his little face was turning red. I dropped my fork and started to run around the table…it takes a few seconds, it’s a big table. Right before I reached him he picked up his fork and started laughing. “I trick you” he said. Would it be wrong to demonstrate real choking so that one doesn’t think it’s funny again?
April 22, 2009
Today Nico was visiting at Aunt Crystal’s house and playing in the backyard. When she went out back to check on him, she found him jumping up and down to his little heart’s desire and just having a good ‘ole time on the ‘pogo-stick’ he had found. This is when Crystal yelled, “Nico, get off of the toilet plunger!”
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
It’s been almost a year since I stopped buying cereal as part of our effort to start the day off with more protein and less carbs. While on vacation we stayed at a hotel where the “continental breakfast” was a fancy way of saying cereal. Christian polished off his bowl and started eating mine when I wasn’t looking. I told him to stop eating my cereal and he replied with, “But it’s so good. I can’t keep my flesh off of it!”
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Fall of 2007
Last night at a church carnival Sierra won a goldfish at the ring toss. Today I was outside working in the yard for a while. When I walked into the house to get a drink, there was Christian sitting in front of the TV holding his hand up and appeared to be petting something in it. As I got closer, I noticed that in his hand he held Sierra’s goldfish. “What are you doing?!” I yelled. “Put him back in his bowl – hurry!” He ran the fish back and plopped him into his bowl, where it appeared to be recovering slowly from it's morning shock. I told Christian that fish cannot live outside of the water and to never pick him up again. “But he was watching SpongeBob with me,” he argued. “Yes,” I replied, “But if he had stayed out of the water any longer he would have died. Fish have to stay in the water to live. He didn’t look like he was having fun in your hand.” Of course, Christian set me straight. “He liked it because he was laughing. He was going like this.” He demonstrated by sucking in the sides of his cheeks and opening and closing his mouth. I pointed out that that was the look of death, not laughter. Of course, Christian (as usual) found a way to outsmart me. The next time I came back in the house, he was watching TV with the whole fishbowl in his hand.
Last night at a church carnival Sierra won a goldfish at the ring toss. Today I was outside working in the yard for a while. When I walked into the house to get a drink, there was Christian sitting in front of the TV holding his hand up and appeared to be petting something in it. As I got closer, I noticed that in his hand he held Sierra’s goldfish. “What are you doing?!” I yelled. “Put him back in his bowl – hurry!” He ran the fish back and plopped him into his bowl, where it appeared to be recovering slowly from it's morning shock. I told Christian that fish cannot live outside of the water and to never pick him up again. “But he was watching SpongeBob with me,” he argued. “Yes,” I replied, “But if he had stayed out of the water any longer he would have died. Fish have to stay in the water to live. He didn’t look like he was having fun in your hand.” Of course, Christian set me straight. “He liked it because he was laughing. He was going like this.” He demonstrated by sucking in the sides of his cheeks and opening and closing his mouth. I pointed out that that was the look of death, not laughter. Of course, Christian (as usual) found a way to outsmart me. The next time I came back in the house, he was watching TV with the whole fishbowl in his hand.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Recently Tony has been asking for ways to earn money so I gave him a list of some extra chores he could do. Always looking for a quick fix, he asked if he still got a dollar if he lost a tooth. I told him yes, but he didn’t have any loose tooth at the moment so he might want to consider doing chores. About twenty minutes later he came back with half of his tooth in his hand and asked for fifty cents.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Summer of 2008
Tonight I was up late working. It was about midnight. I was the only one up…or so I thought, when I heard Antonio suddenly start crying hysterically. I ran in his room and was asking him, “What’s wrong? What happened?” He was standing up holding his head and doing a kind of little dance. He was clawing at his head and crying so hard he couldn’t even answer me. I didn’t really know how to help him since I didn’t know what happened. I kept asking what was wrong and he just kept crying. I felt his head and he had a humungous knot – no, bigger than a knot – on the side of his head. Meanwhile, Tony came out of our room, half asleep, and asked what was going on. I handed Antonio to him and instinctively went to check Christian’s room. Just as I suspected…Christian was not in his bed. I stood in the hallway and called Christian’s name. I heard a muffled “what?” come from the living room behind the couch. Why in the world would he be behind the couch in the middle of the night?! “Get out here NOW!” I commanded. He slowly walked over to me and I asked him what he did to Antonio. Antonio managed to say, through his sobs, “It wasn’t him. I don’t know what it was.” After a moment of coaxing, Christian admitted that (for who on earth knows what reason) he went into Antonio’s room (where Antonio had been sleeping on the ground), climbed on top of his dresser and tried to hang a flashlight from the swag lamp chain hanging from the ceiling. Of course, the flashlight was too heavy, so it fell from the ceiling to the floor onto Antonio’s unsuspecting head. While Tony was calming Antonio down and icing his head, I took Christian back into his room and tried to figure out what possessed him to do such a thing – and in the middle of the night! He broke down and said he didn’t know why and he felt like a bad brother. “I even feel ashamed of myself," he said. I told him that that was a horrible way for Antonio to wake up and he would probably have a very back headache the next day so I thought it would be fair for Christian to do Antonio’s chores for him. At that point, Christian started crying just as loud as Antonio in the next room and suggested that he was no longer sorry.
Tonight I was up late working. It was about midnight. I was the only one up…or so I thought, when I heard Antonio suddenly start crying hysterically. I ran in his room and was asking him, “What’s wrong? What happened?” He was standing up holding his head and doing a kind of little dance. He was clawing at his head and crying so hard he couldn’t even answer me. I didn’t really know how to help him since I didn’t know what happened. I kept asking what was wrong and he just kept crying. I felt his head and he had a humungous knot – no, bigger than a knot – on the side of his head. Meanwhile, Tony came out of our room, half asleep, and asked what was going on. I handed Antonio to him and instinctively went to check Christian’s room. Just as I suspected…Christian was not in his bed. I stood in the hallway and called Christian’s name. I heard a muffled “what?” come from the living room behind the couch. Why in the world would he be behind the couch in the middle of the night?! “Get out here NOW!” I commanded. He slowly walked over to me and I asked him what he did to Antonio. Antonio managed to say, through his sobs, “It wasn’t him. I don’t know what it was.” After a moment of coaxing, Christian admitted that (for who on earth knows what reason) he went into Antonio’s room (where Antonio had been sleeping on the ground), climbed on top of his dresser and tried to hang a flashlight from the swag lamp chain hanging from the ceiling. Of course, the flashlight was too heavy, so it fell from the ceiling to the floor onto Antonio’s unsuspecting head. While Tony was calming Antonio down and icing his head, I took Christian back into his room and tried to figure out what possessed him to do such a thing – and in the middle of the night! He broke down and said he didn’t know why and he felt like a bad brother. “I even feel ashamed of myself," he said. I told him that that was a horrible way for Antonio to wake up and he would probably have a very back headache the next day so I thought it would be fair for Christian to do Antonio’s chores for him. At that point, Christian started crying just as loud as Antonio in the next room and suggested that he was no longer sorry.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
July 2007
Today while at Sierra’s swim practice, the rest of the kids and I were waiting on the poolside bleachers. I was chatting with the other parents when a nearby mom came over and tapped me on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said, “uh, but your sons are eating ants.” I looked down at my industrious little snackers and said saw that indeed, they were eating ants. “Yes,” I replied, “they’re into that right now.” I read the look on her face to read somewhere in between disbelief and confusion. Either way, I figured it was keeping them busy and now I wouldn’t have to worry about lunch. Having boys has really made me come to realize that the old saying is true, what doesn’t kill us, really does just make us stronger.
Today while at Sierra’s swim practice, the rest of the kids and I were waiting on the poolside bleachers. I was chatting with the other parents when a nearby mom came over and tapped me on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said, “uh, but your sons are eating ants.” I looked down at my industrious little snackers and said saw that indeed, they were eating ants. “Yes,” I replied, “they’re into that right now.” I read the look on her face to read somewhere in between disbelief and confusion. Either way, I figured it was keeping them busy and now I wouldn’t have to worry about lunch. Having boys has really made me come to realize that the old saying is true, what doesn’t kill us, really does just make us stronger.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
December 2008
Tonight after church we decided to make a run to Wal-Mart. Before entering the store, I gave the kids the usual reminder about staying right next to me and not wandering off, hold on to the cart, etc., etc. Well, after sticking by my side for about twenty minutes, Christian runs around a corner down an aisle. I yell, “Christian, I’m leaving. Let’s go.” After not receiving a response I follow the route he took. No Christian. Here we go. The kids said that he was talking about visiting the fish tanks so Tony stayed with the kids while I went over there to get him. I reach the fish tanks and still no Christian. I go back and Tony and I divide kids and split up to look for him. After our second round around the store, I start to get a little concerned. (Usually I find him on the first round…yes, this has happened perhaps once before.) Just as I’m thinking, “Okay, if we don’t find him this time, I’m going to have to go get some help looking for him” I hear over the loud speaker, “If you are missing a little boy with a brown shirt, and your name is NICOLE, please come to the front desk.” At this point, I now am thinking two things: 1-Thank you Lord, and 2–Please don’t let anyone from church be here. They’ll know it’s us! Without even giving me time to get to the front, the loud speaker repeats, “If you are missing a little boy with a brown shirt, and your name is NICOLE, please come to the front desk.” At this point Tony looks at me and is laughing. Ugh! Why do they have to keep saying my name! Shouldn’t somebody know if they are missing a child? I get to the front and hurriedly identify the boy. He’s mine. I hug him and I tell him all at once how dangerous it was to leave me and chastised him a bit. Then I told how glad I was that he was safe and how smart it was for him to find somebody who worked at the store to ask for help. And last, but certainly NOT least, I added, “And good grief, if that ever happens again, give them Daddy’s name!”
Tonight after church we decided to make a run to Wal-Mart. Before entering the store, I gave the kids the usual reminder about staying right next to me and not wandering off, hold on to the cart, etc., etc. Well, after sticking by my side for about twenty minutes, Christian runs around a corner down an aisle. I yell, “Christian, I’m leaving. Let’s go.” After not receiving a response I follow the route he took. No Christian. Here we go. The kids said that he was talking about visiting the fish tanks so Tony stayed with the kids while I went over there to get him. I reach the fish tanks and still no Christian. I go back and Tony and I divide kids and split up to look for him. After our second round around the store, I start to get a little concerned. (Usually I find him on the first round…yes, this has happened perhaps once before.) Just as I’m thinking, “Okay, if we don’t find him this time, I’m going to have to go get some help looking for him” I hear over the loud speaker, “If you are missing a little boy with a brown shirt, and your name is NICOLE, please come to the front desk.” At this point, I now am thinking two things: 1-Thank you Lord, and 2–Please don’t let anyone from church be here. They’ll know it’s us! Without even giving me time to get to the front, the loud speaker repeats, “If you are missing a little boy with a brown shirt, and your name is NICOLE, please come to the front desk.” At this point Tony looks at me and is laughing. Ugh! Why do they have to keep saying my name! Shouldn’t somebody know if they are missing a child? I get to the front and hurriedly identify the boy. He’s mine. I hug him and I tell him all at once how dangerous it was to leave me and chastised him a bit. Then I told how glad I was that he was safe and how smart it was for him to find somebody who worked at the store to ask for help. And last, but certainly NOT least, I added, “And good grief, if that ever happens again, give them Daddy’s name!”
Monday, January 19, 2009
January 19, 2009
Today Tony and Christian went hiking with the walkie talkies. They went up in the hills somewhere and about a half hour later Tony called me on the radio and said, "Mayday, mayday, I bit into a cactus apple and my mouth has thorns in it." (I could tell he was on the brink of panicking.) “Come home!” I said, and then “What made you eat a cactus apple?" His soft little voice cracked as he answered back over the speaker, "I forgot I had pretzels in my backpack.”
Today Tony and Christian went hiking with the walkie talkies. They went up in the hills somewhere and about a half hour later Tony called me on the radio and said, "Mayday, mayday, I bit into a cactus apple and my mouth has thorns in it." (I could tell he was on the brink of panicking.) “Come home!” I said, and then “What made you eat a cactus apple?" His soft little voice cracked as he answered back over the speaker, "I forgot I had pretzels in my backpack.”
Saturday, January 17, 2009
January 17, 2009
Today was Tony’s first day in the Young Marines Program. The order was that all recruits had to wait in their vehicles until the squad leaders starting barking orders for them to get out and get into formation. The active duty Marines and the squad leaders stood in front of the rows of cars with stern facing and their arms crossed, just staring us all down. As we sat in the car and stared back at them, I have to admit I felt intimidated myself. Tony poked his head up from the back seat and whispered, “They look like they want to eat me…I saw that happen on Star Trek once.” I took a minute to respond because I don’t think he was far off…
January 17, 2009
Sierra busted Nico (2 years) indulging in a large quantity of ketchup. She told him that if he ate too much he’d get a tummy ache. His response was, “So what. I don’t care. It give me big muscles.” I think he’s turning thirteen this month.
Today was Tony’s first day in the Young Marines Program. The order was that all recruits had to wait in their vehicles until the squad leaders starting barking orders for them to get out and get into formation. The active duty Marines and the squad leaders stood in front of the rows of cars with stern facing and their arms crossed, just staring us all down. As we sat in the car and stared back at them, I have to admit I felt intimidated myself. Tony poked his head up from the back seat and whispered, “They look like they want to eat me…I saw that happen on Star Trek once.” I took a minute to respond because I don’t think he was far off…
January 17, 2009
Sierra busted Nico (2 years) indulging in a large quantity of ketchup. She told him that if he ate too much he’d get a tummy ache. His response was, “So what. I don’t care. It give me big muscles.” I think he’s turning thirteen this month.
One from the archives...
November 2008
Today, after way too much quiet time, I noticed that Christian was not in the house and I hadn’t seen him in a while. I went outside and called for him. No answer. I went out past the driveway and called down the street for him. One of the neighborhood dads down the road stepped out of his driveway and said, “You looking for Christian?” “As usual” I replied. He said that Christian walked by his house a bit before and said he was going to the ranch. The ranch borders our neighborhood but is still quite a walk away. I said, “Are you kidding me?!” It was getting dark, Christian didn’t ask, and above all, he knows better! “Yeah,” he said, “he walked by with his cowboy hat and boots [which turned out to be snow boots] and said he was going to the ranch.” Ugh! I got in my truck and drove off in that direction. When I rounded the final turn after driving down the long, dirt road to the ranch I spotted Christian standing next to a corral, with his cowboy hat tilted forward and he was doing his best imitation of a cowboy pose…which looked interesting with his snow boots. When he saw me, his cowboy face quickly dropped into an “oh-man-this-is-bad” face. I pulled up next to him and said, “Get in dude. You’re in some big trouble.” On the ride home I pulled over and explained, with tears in my eyes, that it was so dangerous to be walking down a long dark road alone. I told him, as I have in the past, that there are people out there who will take children and then I would never see him again, and so on. He just looked at me incredulously and said in a most passionate voice, “But everyone was soooo nice. They even waved.” I then went on to explain how some people pretend to be nice to trick kids. I asked him what he thought would happen to be if something ever happened to him. He responded, “I know, I know, you’d die of a broken heart.” I wiped away a tear (of mine) and he said, “Mommy, I’m sorry. I am even so ashamed of myself.” He looked so stinking cute sitting there all remorseful. I thought to myself, “How am I ever going to spank him?” At the end of the car ride, I had to reduce the consequence to not be allowed to go to the ranch for a week and just call it a day.
November 2008
Today, after way too much quiet time, I noticed that Christian was not in the house and I hadn’t seen him in a while. I went outside and called for him. No answer. I went out past the driveway and called down the street for him. One of the neighborhood dads down the road stepped out of his driveway and said, “You looking for Christian?” “As usual” I replied. He said that Christian walked by his house a bit before and said he was going to the ranch. The ranch borders our neighborhood but is still quite a walk away. I said, “Are you kidding me?!” It was getting dark, Christian didn’t ask, and above all, he knows better! “Yeah,” he said, “he walked by with his cowboy hat and boots [which turned out to be snow boots] and said he was going to the ranch.” Ugh! I got in my truck and drove off in that direction. When I rounded the final turn after driving down the long, dirt road to the ranch I spotted Christian standing next to a corral, with his cowboy hat tilted forward and he was doing his best imitation of a cowboy pose…which looked interesting with his snow boots. When he saw me, his cowboy face quickly dropped into an “oh-man-this-is-bad” face. I pulled up next to him and said, “Get in dude. You’re in some big trouble.” On the ride home I pulled over and explained, with tears in my eyes, that it was so dangerous to be walking down a long dark road alone. I told him, as I have in the past, that there are people out there who will take children and then I would never see him again, and so on. He just looked at me incredulously and said in a most passionate voice, “But everyone was soooo nice. They even waved.” I then went on to explain how some people pretend to be nice to trick kids. I asked him what he thought would happen to be if something ever happened to him. He responded, “I know, I know, you’d die of a broken heart.” I wiped away a tear (of mine) and he said, “Mommy, I’m sorry. I am even so ashamed of myself.” He looked so stinking cute sitting there all remorseful. I thought to myself, “How am I ever going to spank him?” At the end of the car ride, I had to reduce the consequence to not be allowed to go to the ranch for a week and just call it a day.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Here's just some of the past to catch you a bit up to the present:
September 2004
Today I was vacuuming under the couch and found a huge wad of empty candy wrappers. I instinctively sought out Tony and asked him if he had put those there. He confirmed that he had and went on to reveal that he had taken them during the night while I was sleeping. I asked him what it was called when you take something without asking. He replied, “It’s called stealing.” I asked him what Jesus says about stealing. He said, “He tells us not to do it.” I asked him why he did something that he knew Jesus tells us not to do. He replied with, “Well, I guess Jesus wasn’t talking loud that day.”
March, 2006
Today I took the kids out to pass out flyers advertising our Easter Sunday service for church. We were walking up and down through a row of track homes. Tony asked again why we were knocking on doors and talking to people. (Did I mention that this was a very quiet neighborhood that echoed when you spoke?) I replied that we were doing it to tell people about Jesus and invite them to our church, to which Christian added very loudly in his four year old voice, “Yeah, so they won’t all go to hell!” I’m not sure if anyone from that neighborhood ever came.
July, 2006
Yesterday we gave the boys Mohawk haircuts. Today I walked in the house and my dog was staring at me. She had a Mohawk haircut too. To date, no one has confessed, although, I strongly suspect Christian was the culprit.
August, 2006
The love of a sister knows no bounds. Today on our way home from the grocery store, about a block away from the freeway, Christian starts crying that he has to go to the bathroom. At this junction, I have no choice but to get onto the freeway. We’re stuck in heavy traffic so it’s taking a while. I’m pleading with Christian to hang in there but his painful cries are growing louder. He tells me, “This is it mommy. It’s coming out!” Of course it is. Why don’t they ever have to go when you’re in the store? Then a thought comes to mind. “Sierra,” I ask, “Could you please help Christian go potty? Just have him go in one of Nico’s diapers.” “Okay, mommy” she quipped. Without hesitation Sierra helps Christian stand up and take care of business into his baby brother’s diaper…right about the same time I’m entering the loop-around onramp of the freeway. I wish I really did have eyes on the back of my head. As they’re both multi-tasking the event, they are also trying not to fall completely over while we’re doing a 360 to get onto the freeway. At some point I hear Sierra cry out, “Point down, you’re peeing on me!” Thank goodness for baby wipes. The whole scenario was so surreal. I just found myself thinking, “Am I the only one this stuff happens to?” The story has a happy ending though; minus a little tinkle on big sis, the main tragedy was averted and we were able to travel the rest of the way home in comfort.
August 18, 2006
Today was meet the teacher night at school for Sierra and Tony. Leave it to Christian to pull the fire alarm and clear the building. As I quickly walked outside with him (very embarrassed) a dad in the parking lot gave him a thumbs up (which provoked a dirty look from his wife); apparently he didn’t want to be there either. When Tony drove up (he was meeting us there) and heard the fire alarm, he just looked at me and instinctively asked, “Which one did it?” I pointed to Christian.
September 2, 2006
Christian, three years old, is standing outside looking at his shadow on the ground. After studying it for a while he turns to me and says, “Mommy, look how big my echo is!”
September 12, 2006
Today I had to go pick up Tony early from school because he wasn’t feeling good. Later that day he told me that maybe he shouldn’t go to school anymore because it was probably making him sick. Gotta give him props for trying!
September 13, 2006
This morning when Christian came into my room I grabbed him and gave him a big hug and told him happy birthday. I said, “Wow, you’re growing up! You’re not 3 anymore, now you’re 4!” When Tony came out of the shower Christian said to him, “daddy, I’m 4 my-olds now!”
2007
Christian started Kindergarten this year. I know it’s not a boring class. I really like his teacher. But nonetheless, he feels the need to spruce it up a bit. Each day when I pick him up, he seems to always have a story or two about his portrayal of the day’s events. Here are just a few:
October 8, 2007-“Today all the kids tied me up to the fence and took turns beating me with a bat.”
October 9, 2007-“Today the kids hung me upside down from the edge of the roof and then hit me like I was a piñata.”
October 10, 2007-“Today nobody beat me because I was super fast and ran around the playground and no one could catch up with me.”
October 11, 2007-“At recess today the kids sawed the slide in half and heaved it up with all their might.”
October 12, 2007-“My teacher did something different today. She took our playground and tied it up on the roof and put all of the childrens up there and we played up there and then it broke.”
October 30, 2007-“At recess today me and all the kids were playing very quiet up on the playground and the teacher couldn’t even hear us. Then I got all the children and took them to all the people’s houses outside of the playground the we were so quiet that the teacher didn’t know we were gone. It was fun.”
November 5, 2007-“Today all the kids in my class beat me up at one time. They were all holding hands so I punched them all to their houses and they just landed right inside of their house and they didn’t make any noise and their moms didn’t know.”
November 5, 2007
This morning the boys were out playing on the rocks, under the tree. I went out to call them inside (it was time to go to school). I asked them where the baby was (Nico), and they pointed down behind a rock. I did notice a yellow rope in Tony’s hand but didn’t think anything of it until I told him to bring Nico in with him. I turned around to walk back into the house and then heard Tony say, “Wait, I have to untie him first.” I promptly spun back around to see that in their desire to have Nico join them in the tree-climbing experience, they had tied a rope around his waist, flung it over a tree limb, and were hoisting him up the tree like a piñata.
November 6, 2007
Today Christian said he could speak Chinese…and then he started counting in a language that sounded suspiciously like Spanish. I mentioned to him that he might be speaking Spanish and he said it was because he was Spanish. I told him that he was half Mexican because daddy is Mexican and that people in Mexico do speak Spanish. So then he informed me that he was also half Chinese because he could speak Chinese.
July 15, 2008
Tonight we were packing up to leave for a camping trip in the morning and the boys went hiking up the hill behind us and Tony and I were both outside when we heard them start screaming like crazy. We couldn't see them and I was yelling at them to run (I just felt that they should be running). They finally started running down the hill, stripping as they came, and Tony and I were running towards them at the same time. (Did I mention I am eight months pregnant at this time?) They had walked over a bee hive without realizing it, and were stung (well actually they were bitten because they were yellow jackets) many, many times. Bees were just flying out of their clothes and they were screaming and jumping all over the place. Tony and I were just swatting bees off of them and Tony got bit a few times too. Little Tony had somewhere between 25 to 30 bites. Christian had less but I guess Tony got bit first and when they bite, their venom lets off a scent that tells the rest where to attack (I learned this from the nurse line) and so that's why they went for Tony the most. Today, one of his ears is still really swollen. (Five bites on one ear). It was pretty ugly. And, as you can imagine, it took me about an hour to calm him down. He panics easily. I called the nurse line because I was worried about the amount of venom (and because the bites were all over their torsos and heads). She gave me a list of symptoms to watch for and said if any of them occur, not to take them to the hospital, but to call 911 immediately. She said that they could go into cardiac arrest and it could be fatal. Great. I really slept well that night. Of course, this happened in the late evening, right before a camping trip. The boys still have welts all over them from it. So right now Christian just got bit again and so he panicked a bit. At least they ran right away this time. Apparently, during the hive incident, when they first started getting stung, Christian stood there punching and kicking at the bees, fighting them. It was quite a scene. I told him next time to run fast and don't stop...hopefully there won't be a next time.
July 20, 2008
Today Christian got stung by two bees again. It took me about five minutes to convince him they were gone.
August 27, 2008
No way was I planning on delivering at home. I actually labored from 9 p.m. the night before, but I figured I'd go as long as I could at home to let everyone sleep. At about 3:30 a.m. the contractions were getting too intense to lay down, but still they were 8 to 10 minutes apart, so I made a bath to soak in to help me relax a bit. I think that progressed it much faster than I anticipated. By 4:15 a.m. I called my mom and said she needed to come now to stay with the kids. I called her back at 4:45 (she had to drive from Fallbrook) to tell her I couldn't wait for her, that I'd leave the kids home. She said she was on her way and that was fine. Then I woke up Tony (who didn't hear me yelling for him because he was snoring!) and told him to call someone to cover for him at work. By the time he got off the phone my water had broke. He still hadn't been with me at all during the labor so I don't think he knew what kind of condition I was in. At this point, I knew I wasn't making it to the hospital...but I didn't tell him because I didn't want him to panic. He said he was going out to start the car. I heard him starting the car and moving his truck around. He was out there for a long time. The night before he had brought a trailer home from work and it was blocking the driveway so he had to move it. Meanwhile, I had to push and I was trying hard not to while he was still outside. He finally came in, heard me, and asked through the bathroom door if I was okay. I said, "No, I need you." He came through the door and I said, "Babe, get his head, get his head!" At this point, I hadn't been able to hold back the push but I was trying to pause long enough for me to make sure there was no cord wrapped around his head. We caught the baby together and I started giving orders to bring me towels and sanitize scissors to cut the cord. We did that, tied off the cord. An hour later, we drove to the hospital. By the time we got there, the baby was bathed, fed, and had pooped! We were only at the hospital for a few hours and then checked back out. It was quite a day!
September 19, 2008
I picked up the kids from school today to have Christian's teacher come up to the car and tell me that he got in a fight in the boys bathroom today. On Wednesday she told me that he has done exceptionally well in school and is enthusiastic about his work and is respectful to everyone and then today he picks a fight with an older kid. This is Christian's version of the story: "I told the kid not to read my shirt. Then he read my shirt and I slapped him. Then he hit me. Then I started doing fighting moves on him." If you can picture his baby face saying this as seriously as he could, then you will understand why I had to look away because I couldn't help but smile. Then he said, "That nice lady in the office [who happens to be the principle] said if it happens again I get to stay home for two days and if it happens a third time I don't have to go back at all."
October 2008
I was sitting in the living room nursing the baby (Gabe) and at about the same time I started thinking it, Christian said, “It smells like smoke”. Well, in my house, if you smell smoke, you investigate – pronto. I checked the usual suspects, but no candles had been lit and the barbeque was off. Then I ventured towards the front door, where the aroma grew stronger. I put the baby down and went outside. There, I discovered that the front yard was on fire. Apparently, Tony had tried to burn a pile of leaves with a magnifying glass. When that didn’t work, he just went straight for the big guns and used the barbeque lighter. When the spark grew to a blaze, my little quick-thinker decided to put it out with more brush…then went on to investigate an anthill. This is where I come in. I find Tony playing on one side of the car, poking at ants, and on the other side I find a fire. I promptly ran towards the water hose, which was on the opposite side of the driveway. Tony noticed me scurrying about and saw what happened. He began to help me unwrap the hose. I’m doing all this running around like a madwoman quietly, so I don’t alert the neighbors to the Velasco fire. I get the hose across the driveway to find that it is about five feet short of the growing blaze. At this point, I whisper very loudly, “Turn it up! Turn it up!” Christian now discovers what I have already discovered and yells, “Tony started a fire!” What a relief! As if I hadn’t noticed. So I then whisper shout at Christian to “hush up” before the neighbors hear his revelation. After a minute or two (which really felt like a year) the fire was quenched. This is when I, probably for the first time, noticed how strong a fire smells after it’s put out. I may need to be the first to patent some type of air freshener for such an occasion. I’ll put it right up there with shopping carts with lids. Next week we’re taking a field trip to the fire station.
September 2004
Today I was vacuuming under the couch and found a huge wad of empty candy wrappers. I instinctively sought out Tony and asked him if he had put those there. He confirmed that he had and went on to reveal that he had taken them during the night while I was sleeping. I asked him what it was called when you take something without asking. He replied, “It’s called stealing.” I asked him what Jesus says about stealing. He said, “He tells us not to do it.” I asked him why he did something that he knew Jesus tells us not to do. He replied with, “Well, I guess Jesus wasn’t talking loud that day.”
March, 2006
Today I took the kids out to pass out flyers advertising our Easter Sunday service for church. We were walking up and down through a row of track homes. Tony asked again why we were knocking on doors and talking to people. (Did I mention that this was a very quiet neighborhood that echoed when you spoke?) I replied that we were doing it to tell people about Jesus and invite them to our church, to which Christian added very loudly in his four year old voice, “Yeah, so they won’t all go to hell!” I’m not sure if anyone from that neighborhood ever came.
July, 2006
Yesterday we gave the boys Mohawk haircuts. Today I walked in the house and my dog was staring at me. She had a Mohawk haircut too. To date, no one has confessed, although, I strongly suspect Christian was the culprit.
August, 2006
The love of a sister knows no bounds. Today on our way home from the grocery store, about a block away from the freeway, Christian starts crying that he has to go to the bathroom. At this junction, I have no choice but to get onto the freeway. We’re stuck in heavy traffic so it’s taking a while. I’m pleading with Christian to hang in there but his painful cries are growing louder. He tells me, “This is it mommy. It’s coming out!” Of course it is. Why don’t they ever have to go when you’re in the store? Then a thought comes to mind. “Sierra,” I ask, “Could you please help Christian go potty? Just have him go in one of Nico’s diapers.” “Okay, mommy” she quipped. Without hesitation Sierra helps Christian stand up and take care of business into his baby brother’s diaper…right about the same time I’m entering the loop-around onramp of the freeway. I wish I really did have eyes on the back of my head. As they’re both multi-tasking the event, they are also trying not to fall completely over while we’re doing a 360 to get onto the freeway. At some point I hear Sierra cry out, “Point down, you’re peeing on me!” Thank goodness for baby wipes. The whole scenario was so surreal. I just found myself thinking, “Am I the only one this stuff happens to?” The story has a happy ending though; minus a little tinkle on big sis, the main tragedy was averted and we were able to travel the rest of the way home in comfort.
August 18, 2006
Today was meet the teacher night at school for Sierra and Tony. Leave it to Christian to pull the fire alarm and clear the building. As I quickly walked outside with him (very embarrassed) a dad in the parking lot gave him a thumbs up (which provoked a dirty look from his wife); apparently he didn’t want to be there either. When Tony drove up (he was meeting us there) and heard the fire alarm, he just looked at me and instinctively asked, “Which one did it?” I pointed to Christian.
September 2, 2006
Christian, three years old, is standing outside looking at his shadow on the ground. After studying it for a while he turns to me and says, “Mommy, look how big my echo is!”
September 12, 2006
Today I had to go pick up Tony early from school because he wasn’t feeling good. Later that day he told me that maybe he shouldn’t go to school anymore because it was probably making him sick. Gotta give him props for trying!
September 13, 2006
This morning when Christian came into my room I grabbed him and gave him a big hug and told him happy birthday. I said, “Wow, you’re growing up! You’re not 3 anymore, now you’re 4!” When Tony came out of the shower Christian said to him, “daddy, I’m 4 my-olds now!”
2007
Christian started Kindergarten this year. I know it’s not a boring class. I really like his teacher. But nonetheless, he feels the need to spruce it up a bit. Each day when I pick him up, he seems to always have a story or two about his portrayal of the day’s events. Here are just a few:
October 8, 2007-“Today all the kids tied me up to the fence and took turns beating me with a bat.”
October 9, 2007-“Today the kids hung me upside down from the edge of the roof and then hit me like I was a piñata.”
October 10, 2007-“Today nobody beat me because I was super fast and ran around the playground and no one could catch up with me.”
October 11, 2007-“At recess today the kids sawed the slide in half and heaved it up with all their might.”
October 12, 2007-“My teacher did something different today. She took our playground and tied it up on the roof and put all of the childrens up there and we played up there and then it broke.”
October 30, 2007-“At recess today me and all the kids were playing very quiet up on the playground and the teacher couldn’t even hear us. Then I got all the children and took them to all the people’s houses outside of the playground the we were so quiet that the teacher didn’t know we were gone. It was fun.”
November 5, 2007-“Today all the kids in my class beat me up at one time. They were all holding hands so I punched them all to their houses and they just landed right inside of their house and they didn’t make any noise and their moms didn’t know.”
November 5, 2007
This morning the boys were out playing on the rocks, under the tree. I went out to call them inside (it was time to go to school). I asked them where the baby was (Nico), and they pointed down behind a rock. I did notice a yellow rope in Tony’s hand but didn’t think anything of it until I told him to bring Nico in with him. I turned around to walk back into the house and then heard Tony say, “Wait, I have to untie him first.” I promptly spun back around to see that in their desire to have Nico join them in the tree-climbing experience, they had tied a rope around his waist, flung it over a tree limb, and were hoisting him up the tree like a piñata.
November 6, 2007
Today Christian said he could speak Chinese…and then he started counting in a language that sounded suspiciously like Spanish. I mentioned to him that he might be speaking Spanish and he said it was because he was Spanish. I told him that he was half Mexican because daddy is Mexican and that people in Mexico do speak Spanish. So then he informed me that he was also half Chinese because he could speak Chinese.
July 15, 2008
Tonight we were packing up to leave for a camping trip in the morning and the boys went hiking up the hill behind us and Tony and I were both outside when we heard them start screaming like crazy. We couldn't see them and I was yelling at them to run (I just felt that they should be running). They finally started running down the hill, stripping as they came, and Tony and I were running towards them at the same time. (Did I mention I am eight months pregnant at this time?) They had walked over a bee hive without realizing it, and were stung (well actually they were bitten because they were yellow jackets) many, many times. Bees were just flying out of their clothes and they were screaming and jumping all over the place. Tony and I were just swatting bees off of them and Tony got bit a few times too. Little Tony had somewhere between 25 to 30 bites. Christian had less but I guess Tony got bit first and when they bite, their venom lets off a scent that tells the rest where to attack (I learned this from the nurse line) and so that's why they went for Tony the most. Today, one of his ears is still really swollen. (Five bites on one ear). It was pretty ugly. And, as you can imagine, it took me about an hour to calm him down. He panics easily. I called the nurse line because I was worried about the amount of venom (and because the bites were all over their torsos and heads). She gave me a list of symptoms to watch for and said if any of them occur, not to take them to the hospital, but to call 911 immediately. She said that they could go into cardiac arrest and it could be fatal. Great. I really slept well that night. Of course, this happened in the late evening, right before a camping trip. The boys still have welts all over them from it. So right now Christian just got bit again and so he panicked a bit. At least they ran right away this time. Apparently, during the hive incident, when they first started getting stung, Christian stood there punching and kicking at the bees, fighting them. It was quite a scene. I told him next time to run fast and don't stop...hopefully there won't be a next time.
July 20, 2008
Today Christian got stung by two bees again. It took me about five minutes to convince him they were gone.
August 27, 2008
No way was I planning on delivering at home. I actually labored from 9 p.m. the night before, but I figured I'd go as long as I could at home to let everyone sleep. At about 3:30 a.m. the contractions were getting too intense to lay down, but still they were 8 to 10 minutes apart, so I made a bath to soak in to help me relax a bit. I think that progressed it much faster than I anticipated. By 4:15 a.m. I called my mom and said she needed to come now to stay with the kids. I called her back at 4:45 (she had to drive from Fallbrook) to tell her I couldn't wait for her, that I'd leave the kids home. She said she was on her way and that was fine. Then I woke up Tony (who didn't hear me yelling for him because he was snoring!) and told him to call someone to cover for him at work. By the time he got off the phone my water had broke. He still hadn't been with me at all during the labor so I don't think he knew what kind of condition I was in. At this point, I knew I wasn't making it to the hospital...but I didn't tell him because I didn't want him to panic. He said he was going out to start the car. I heard him starting the car and moving his truck around. He was out there for a long time. The night before he had brought a trailer home from work and it was blocking the driveway so he had to move it. Meanwhile, I had to push and I was trying hard not to while he was still outside. He finally came in, heard me, and asked through the bathroom door if I was okay. I said, "No, I need you." He came through the door and I said, "Babe, get his head, get his head!" At this point, I hadn't been able to hold back the push but I was trying to pause long enough for me to make sure there was no cord wrapped around his head. We caught the baby together and I started giving orders to bring me towels and sanitize scissors to cut the cord. We did that, tied off the cord. An hour later, we drove to the hospital. By the time we got there, the baby was bathed, fed, and had pooped! We were only at the hospital for a few hours and then checked back out. It was quite a day!
September 19, 2008
I picked up the kids from school today to have Christian's teacher come up to the car and tell me that he got in a fight in the boys bathroom today. On Wednesday she told me that he has done exceptionally well in school and is enthusiastic about his work and is respectful to everyone and then today he picks a fight with an older kid. This is Christian's version of the story: "I told the kid not to read my shirt. Then he read my shirt and I slapped him. Then he hit me. Then I started doing fighting moves on him." If you can picture his baby face saying this as seriously as he could, then you will understand why I had to look away because I couldn't help but smile. Then he said, "That nice lady in the office [who happens to be the principle] said if it happens again I get to stay home for two days and if it happens a third time I don't have to go back at all."
October 2008
I was sitting in the living room nursing the baby (Gabe) and at about the same time I started thinking it, Christian said, “It smells like smoke”. Well, in my house, if you smell smoke, you investigate – pronto. I checked the usual suspects, but no candles had been lit and the barbeque was off. Then I ventured towards the front door, where the aroma grew stronger. I put the baby down and went outside. There, I discovered that the front yard was on fire. Apparently, Tony had tried to burn a pile of leaves with a magnifying glass. When that didn’t work, he just went straight for the big guns and used the barbeque lighter. When the spark grew to a blaze, my little quick-thinker decided to put it out with more brush…then went on to investigate an anthill. This is where I come in. I find Tony playing on one side of the car, poking at ants, and on the other side I find a fire. I promptly ran towards the water hose, which was on the opposite side of the driveway. Tony noticed me scurrying about and saw what happened. He began to help me unwrap the hose. I’m doing all this running around like a madwoman quietly, so I don’t alert the neighbors to the Velasco fire. I get the hose across the driveway to find that it is about five feet short of the growing blaze. At this point, I whisper very loudly, “Turn it up! Turn it up!” Christian now discovers what I have already discovered and yells, “Tony started a fire!” What a relief! As if I hadn’t noticed. So I then whisper shout at Christian to “hush up” before the neighbors hear his revelation. After a minute or two (which really felt like a year) the fire was quenched. This is when I, probably for the first time, noticed how strong a fire smells after it’s put out. I may need to be the first to patent some type of air freshener for such an occasion. I’ll put it right up there with shopping carts with lids. Next week we’re taking a field trip to the fire station.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
