Alex's "big bagel"

Our church is fortunate enough to get free day-old Panara bread on Sundays, and often there are plenty of leftover loaves and bagels for the church attendees to take home for their own use. Usually right before we leave church, I ask the kids if they want to help me pick out some bagles, and we usually grab a bag of random bagels and sometimes bread loaves.

Today, Alex asked if he could have a bagel, and he got a sesame seed one for a snack. I thought he was eating it. Then Molly got home from school. He ran to the door and said, "Hi Molly! I'm eating a really big bagel!" I didn't think much of it. Then I walked into the kitchen and looked at the table. This (photo) is what I saw.

That is NOT a bagel. LOL! (Yes, Alex ate ALL of that. It is an enormous loaf, too!)

 

Probably more than you wanted to know...

(warning - poop story)

Just now, Alex said he had to go poop (and he makes me go with him to the bathroom because he won't go to a different floor of the house alone). We ran upstairs, but instead of going into the bathroom, he went into his bedroom. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was just getting something. He got a crayon, his Star Wars lunch box where he keeps his drawings, and a notepad and brought them into the bathroom. He then said, "Mom, draw my poop."
I said, "What?"
A: Draw my poop.
E: I don't want to draw your poop, Alex. Yuck.
A: Not with my poop, with the pencil (it was a crayon but he said pencil).
E: I don't want to draw your poop with the crayon Alex. Just go. Hop on the potty now.
A: Draw my poop. Do it. Draw it with the crayon. (still not on the potty)
I decided the fastest way out of the bathroom would be to just draw it so I drew a little turd on his paper.
A: (looking at my drawing) No, that's a banana. Draw my poop. I have a big poop.
E: Just get on the toilet now.
Alex does and poops. After he's finished and we've wiped and washed hands and all that he looks at the drawing and says he's going to fix it because he has a long poop. I left, and he sat there for a while working on his drawing. Lovely.

Valentines and other things

Molly's "homework" for this weekend is to fill out Valentines for all of the children in her class. She is supposed to neatly write her name and their names on all of the cards.

I have a lot of card-making things, and I thought making homemade Valentines would be a fun project for us to do together. I also thought it would give her more room to write names (have you seen how tiny and junky the standard store-bought Valentines are now?). We've been discussing store-bought vs. homemade for a few days now. I told Molly how we can use a bunch of heart stamps and paper, but she is STUCK on the idea that the girls in her class need princess Valentines and the boys need Spiderman ones.

Here's what I can remember of our conversation this morning.
Cory and I were hanging out together on the couch in the basement, and Molly ran downstairs and said, "Mom, Dad, we need to go buy our Valentines at Target NOW!"
E: Molly, would you like to make Valentines with me instead?
M: Well, we can give the girls in my class princess cards and the boys can have the home made ones.
E: Molly, I think if we make home made ones we should make that kind for your whole class.
M: Ok, we can just put princesses and spiderman on those cards.
E: We don't have those stickers, Molly. We can use a lot of heart stamps and the words, "Happy Valentines Day" on them, though.
M: (thinks for a second) I know! I will DRAW spiderman and princesses on the homemade cards. Let's do that. Let's do it now. Can we go do it now????
Cory: Molly, I don't think you can draw Spiderman on 20 cards...
M: Dad, I would just draw Spiderman on the boys' cards and draw princesses on the girls' cards.
E: Molly sweetie, you are a very good artist for a 5-yr-old, but I don't think you can draw spiderman or princesses.
M: Yes I can!!! I can!
E: I think we should just go to Target, then.
M: Ok, let's go RIGHT NOW. Let's go now. Can we go now????
C: I don't think Target is even open yet Molly...
M: That's ok. We can go right now. We can get there early and just wait in the van until it opens. Then we will be the FIRST ONES in the store!!!
C: Why do you want to be the first ones in the store?
M: Because I really want Spiderman for the boys and what if we are last and all the spiderman ones are gone and then I have to get Superman? I really don't want to give them Superman Valentines!!! Can we go now????
:)

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The other night Molly was playing with her food while we were eating. She started waving her fork around all over, and I asked her to stop waving her fork and just try to eat. She looked at me and said, "Mom, I was just getting funky with it!"
What? Where does she hear these things?

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Oh, and I have an update on Alex. It seems that the Madeleine's magical nap spell only lasted for 7 days. Life is back to normal (he won't be in his room without me again, and even if I lay down with him in his bed he won't fall asleep anymore. No more naps... and still no quiet times.... sigh.)

Random January Fun

Here are some random photos of fun times in January.

 

Cory took Molly and Alex geocaching. Most of the caches are some kind of waterproof contaner hidden in a tree or similar, but the kids were thrilled to see this creative one. It was a monkey hanging from a tree! The monkey had a peanut butter jar glued inside of it, and it was hung up in a tree by a cord that you had to unwind to let the monkey decend. Molly and Alex loved it! :) Geocaching has to be the best family-friendly hobby out there.

 

Molly had her first school concert! It was really fun to see all the little ones and hear all the songs they had prepared. :) Molly is in the center of the first row.

 

We made it to the zoo a couple of times. Alex and his buddy Isaac posed for a quick photo on a tortoise. I'm so glad the MN zoo has so much to see indoors!

 

Alex hiding in some toy tubs. :) He's always trying to get a laugh.

Funny Stories:

Alex stopped napping in early September. He wasn't 3 yet, so that is pretty early for a child to stop napping, but he just would not fall asleep anymore. Also, on days when I successfully did get him napping, it would mess up his bedtime and he wouldn't be able to fall asleep until around 11. Not good.
Alex also has always hated being by himself and would pretty much have a full blown panic attack if I tried to get him to stay in his room for "quiet time". Even as a baby, when he'd wake up in the morning he would just start screaming hysterically instead of happily babbling in his crib like most babies. We just accepted that this is how he is, and for 6 months I've just had Alex with me all day long every day. There were a few days in the last few months when Alex was really overtired or sick, and I TRIED laying with him in his bed to get him to nap. He just screamed and would have nothing to do with it.

Then, everything changed last Thursday. It was the weirdest thing. Alex's friend Mado came to stay with us for a few days because her new baby brother was born early Thursday morning and her parents were at the hospital. Madeleine still naps, and on Thursday afternoon we were getting Mado ready for her nap when Alex announced he wanted to be like Mado and take a nap too. I doubted it would happen but played along of course. After Mado was settled, I went with Alex to his room. He had a CD he said he wanted to play and put it in his CD player. Then I told him he could climb in bed.

He looked so confused. It was honestly as if he had never even heard of the idea of napping before. He asked, "I get into my bed with my clothes on?" (Rather than putting on pj's) I said, "Yes, Alex. That's what we do for naps."
Then he asked, "It's dark outside?" I said, "It's nap time. Let me get that blanket on you. Good night Alex." He was still acting really confused, but he stayed in bed.

I walked out the door... and they NAPPED!!!

When we gave the bedtime warning, Alex again looked confused. He said, "Again???" He really couldn't figure out why it was time to sleep again.

Alex has now been napping consistently again. Crazy, huh? He still acts very confused and often asks about putting on pajamas or if he should eat his vitamins (which they do before bedtime) or brush his teeth. I am in shock that he actually stays in his room by himself! Wow.

We're still trying to play with waking him up after an hour so it doesn't affect his bedtime sleep, and he HATES to be woke up. It makes him really cranky and emotional. So I guess I'm not sure what he should be doing - napping or not napping - but for now I'll try letting him nap for a while and see what happens...