The Six Year Old Philosopher

L and Z have both requested a turn sleeping on the hide away bed in the living room with me. I'd slept on it with J and N while they were sick, and I guess it sounds like fun to little boys. Last night was Z's turn.

After Z and I were snuggled in bed, I had to get up for a few minutes. When I returned, we had this conversation:

Z: I'm glad you're back, Mom. I missed you. I'm glad you exist.
Mommy (smiling at the use of his word exist): I'm glad you exist, too.
Z: I'm glad I exist, and I'm glad you exist, and I'm glad Daddy exists. But sometimes when my brother jumps on me, I wish he didn't exist.
Mommy (fighting the urge to go into a lecture about how how blessed he is to have brothers, etc): Oh. But I think you'd miss him if he didn't exist.
Z: Well, in this world I would. But if there was another world over there, just like the world here, and we all existed there, but my brother didn't exist, I wouldn't miss him. Here when I know he exists I'd probably miss him if he didn't exist anymore, but in that world over there I wouldn't know to miss him because he never existed.

Ahem. I think he's created a parallel universe. I wonder what else goes on there.

He Made Me Cry

I came home from an errand and L brought me a card on a silver platter. I opened the card, and on the right side was an landscape drawing...green grass, blue sky, white clouds, and a yellow sun.

On the left side were these words:

Dear Mom

Thank you for make-
ing dinner for us.
Thank you for let-
ing us go to
fun places. Thank
you for takeing
carre of us when
we get sick.

From,
L, Z, J, M, and N

He also drew a yellow (my favorite color) flower and cut it out for me.

I mentally ran through our morning after I read this lovely note. I'd spent the first part of the morning taking care of him...tucking him in in the loveseat, getting him medicine, and taking his temperature because he woke up with the ick we're slowly working through here. Once his medicine kicked in he disappeared to the playroom and I remembered that he came upstairs several times to ask how to spell words. Honestly, I was a bit short with him with my answers because I was busy getting lunch ready to take to a grieving friend and making a doctor appointment for J....but that didn't deter L and he didn't abort his plans to create this card for me.

What a sweet reminder of how blessed I am. *sniff, sniff*

Who's The Boss?

As L, Z, and I were driving home from Judo last night we ended up on the subject of what they might do when they grow up.

L: I like to build things and draw them, so I might be an architect.
Z: I know something else you're good at!
L & Mommy: What?
Z: Being bossy....I know! You can be the Bossman!

[laughing and talking]

Mommy: So what do you think you're good at, Z?
Z: I'm good at hanging like a bat. I've taught J and M to hang like a bat. I can give bat hanging lessons!

[more laughing and talking]

Z: I like to watch movies. And play video games! I can make video games!
L: OOoohh.....and you'll have to play them to see if they work!
Z: Alright!

[more conversation about how they'd both like to make movies]

Mommy: Maybe when you grow up you can work together and make movies. That'd be fun, huh?
Z: I know!!!! When I'm an engineer L can come boss me around!

PJ Day at The Academy

I declared today a pajama day here at the Academy. L and Z have done some math and handwriting, but they are still in their superhero pajamas. In between lessons at the kitchen table they've been under blankets on the couch. I originally was just going to call a pj day because of J, but here is a comprehensive list of their ailments:

L says that his nose and neck hurt. He's fighting what I think is a mild cold.

Z woke up this morning, ate breakfast, then told me that his tummy was hurting. I gave him a Tums and told him he could either go lay down in my bed or in the playroom (J was still sleeping on the fold-out couch in the living room). He went to my bed and slept for an hour.

J woke up crying (close to hysterical) last night that his head hurt and he was running a 103.3 fever. I ended up sleeping with him on the fold-out couch. He's got some serious green goop around his nose, but I'll spare you any more details.

Before I left for retreat this past Friday I thought M was getting the infection N had. Cr tells me the M spent Saturday coughing, crying because it hurt to cough, and crying. He had a bad cough when I came home on Sunday and Cr told me that he sounded much better. We thought he was continuing to improve, but he just came up to me crying, coughing and holding his hear saying that it hurts. I'm taking him in to the doctor this afternoon. I think J will tag along just to let the doctor get a quick glance in his ears.

However, N is doing better. He's been on an antibiotic for an ear infection for a week. He's back to eating, jabbering, and exploring.

It's snowing again. I'm looking forward to Spring and fresh, germ-free air!

A Conversation with The Monkey

I returned from a weekend women's retreat yesterday afternoon, and M has been ending almost every thought directed towards me with "Mommy". I think that means he missed me. Here's a conversation I had with him as he was watching me bake this afternoon.

M: "I want to watch you, Mommy. What are you making, Mommy?"
Mommy: "I'm making cinnamon rolls for Women's Bible Study tomorrow." (there was intentional emphasis on "Women's Bible Study" so he didn't think he'd be getting a roll for dinner)
M (with enthusiasm): "You're making cinnamon rolls to take to Jesus, Mommy???"

Maybe I Should Change His Name to "The Accountant"

Yesterday, on our drive over to church for dinner, Cr pointed out a company he'd interviewed with in the morning to all the boys. He told the boys how some of their parts were in stuff NASA uses, and that when you walked in the front door there was a big picture of an astronaut. Cr's thinking was, of course, that the boys would be amazed and impressed since they like outer space stuff.

The only response was from L (the boy who likes to earn a quarter for getting his brother out of his crib, searches the house for loose change, and has his brothers trained to give him any money they find):

"And how much would they pay you for doing that?".

Poor Baby

L went up to get N up this morning to earn a quarter. L came running back downstairs holding his nose and telling me N threw up in the middle of the night and there was no way he was going to touch him. I ran up, and sure enough N had thrown up, and spent the rest of the night rolling around in it. I bathed him, and now he's just laying on the living room floor letting his brothers pat his back.

Poor Baby.

Happy Valentine's Day

We were out of routine yesterday, and the boys had chocolate (thanks, Grandma B!) at lunch. They can (sort of) handle being out of routine, and they can (sort of) handle having chocolate, but I was reminded yesterday afternoon that it is a fairly volatile combination when both occur simultaneously.

We went over to church for dinner last night. The boys were not on their best behavior and they were having a quite near impossible time not following their little boy desires of running and play fighting with their friends. We decided the night before that since there were no kids events or nursery (there was a guest speaker), we'd have dinner together and I would bring the boys home.

We (barely) made it through dinner, and as I was driving the boys home there was a bunch of whispering. Then there were requests for scissors. I granted this request after J promised he wouldn't cut his hair. We walked into the house, and there was more whispering. They needed paper, and they needed me to stay out of the school room. I agreed. This led to more whispering. Then L walked up to me (trying to appear nonchalant), and asked "Just out of curiosity, how do you spell Happy Valentine's Day? I just want to know."

Hmmmmm....what could they be up to?

They disappeared to the school room and after about 30 minutes they all reappeared with Valentine's Day cards for me. A large heart cut out of red construction paper accented with blue cutout squares from L, J, and M. Z worked on a card independently and it was a small red heart cut out of red paper, glued on a blue square card with a hand drawn flower. I love my boys (and yes, everything was spelled correctly).

Maybe This Should Be Our School Song

Thanks to Amy at The Foil Hat for sharing this!

No Identity Crisis Here

M is always the first boy up. He normally wakes up and thumps down the stairs on his bottom yelling "Ma! Ma! I want juice!" (or chocolate milk, depending on his mood).

This morning I poured him his chocolate milk and went to the computer to check email. He came up and started pushing me in the knees and grumbling about something (it really is amazing what I've learned to tune out over the last 7 years of being a mom of boys). He finally got my attention with a rather hard wallop. I realized he was summoning me to sit in the recliner so he could "sid in [my] wap".

As I was holding him in the recliner, I told him "M, you're incredible." He responded, quite offended, with "Ma, I NOT Mr. Incredible. I Curious George!".

At least he knows who he is.

My Mom pointed out in the post below that in the Title I called M the Monkey, but then only referred to him in the post as the Peanut. To eliminate any possible confusion, M is known as both the Monkey and the Peanut.