Thirteen on Thursday

1. This week...sigh... I'm trying to NOT succumb to a cold and get my act together to go away for a scrapbooking weekend. So since I can't seem to get my brain around any one good subject, I thought I'd share a bunch of little tidbits.

2. Benjamin's case of "Boy Brain" (...or is it "Elementary Brain") is worsening by the day. I find that I frequently have to repeat my very clear instructions THREE times before any recognition of said directions registers. The other morning, as I was leaving his bedroom, I said, "Ben, put your animals on your bed and your pajamas in the drawer." Suspecting that these instructions had not sunken in, I asked, "What did I just ask you to do?" He replied, "Put my animals on my bed and the trains on the track." And he was serious.

3. Ellie sent her first e-mail today. She desperately wanted to send one to Gram. She was very proud. She was even more proud when we checked later in the day and discovered that Gram had replied to her "female." :)

4. Ben has a snaggle tooth that looks as if it could fall out at any moment. It will be his third to fall out, but his first top tooth. I know he'll look so different without it. I'm sure it will fall out this weekend, while I'm not home.

5. There has been a pine cone tied to a blue piece or yarn hanging from our upstairs linen closet door knob for about a week now. I don't know why. I'm pretty sure that Ellie knows why, though.

6. Ellie's class had Red, White, and Blue Day yesterday. The children all wore patriotic colors, learned about the Olympics, played Olympic games, and even had star-shaped Rice Krispy treats for snack. She had a terrific time. Incidentally, do you have any idea how hard it is to find patriotic clothing that still fits fast-growing young children at this time of year?!?!?

7. Speaking of Rice Krispy treats, the aide in Ben's classroom made Cocoa Krispy Treats a few weeks ago as a snack for the teacher's birthday. Ben came home raving about them! "I know what ingredients we need; there are three - marshmallows, Rice Krispies, and chocolate. Can we make them...now?" Having recently earned my black belt in Rice Krispy Treat Making, I was happy to oblige. :) (It did end up taking me about a week to remember to get the ingredients at the store, though.) Ben loved them, but I gotta say I'd rather stick to the "plain" ones, myself.

8. Ellie jabbers in her sleep all the time. We get her up on our way to bed to go to the bathroom, and she frequently has something funny to say. The other evening, I went up to check on her because she was coughing. I sat her up and was talking to her, although her eyes were still closed. She coughed identically three more times and then burst out into hysterical laughter! I was laughing with her (I thought) so hard that I was crying. She flopped over my arms as I attempted to lay her back down and continued to laugh like someone was relentlessly tickling her! Jim came running upstairs to see what was going on, as he heard the two of us laughing our heads off. He, of course, assumed that she was awake. He said in a loud voice as to be heard over all of the commotion, "Ellie! What are you doing?" She abruptly stopped laughing, stuck her thumb in her mouth, rolled over and went back to sleep. And Jim and I were left to simply stare at each other. ...at least the coughing stopped...

9. I've succumbed to the cold. (#1 was written Wed night:) My nose is a faucet, and I coughed all night last night. Bleh... I'm sure my sister-in-law (a.k.a. - my roomie for the weekend) will be thrilled to read this. :)

10. Lately I've been feeling the pressure to devote more time to playing with and engaging Ellie during the day when "the boys" are at school. It seems like "just yesterday" that I embarked on this stay-at-home-mommy thing, and now a little over SIX years later, I'm staring "Returning to the Work Force" right in the eye! I only have a little over a year until my baby goes to Kindergarten!!!! That being said, this little "guilt jag" I have put myself on can only sustain me for so long. The other day, we actually played with PopBeads (plastic beads that you can make jewelry with) for 45 minutes until I simply had to walk away to avoid clawing my eyes out!

11. We got a slight coating of snow last night. I love it! It's just enough to make the big gray piles of old snow look fresh again. :) ...not looking forward to the harsh winds that are supposed to show up later tonight, though...

12. While reading his homework book to me this afternoon, Ben suddenly switched into "robot mode," reading each word detached from the others. When I pointed this out, he explained that he was supposed to do it that way, since there were "those curved marks." He pointed to the quotation marks. He said they meant you were to pause before going on to the next word. I'm thinking that this would be a case of severe over-application of the use of commas????? Too funny. 'Makes for a rather bumpy read!

13. It is now 7:07 p.m., and I am going to bed! I pray to be somehow saved from this terrible cold by tomorrow morning. I had such grand plans to get so much accomplished this weekend! Blowing my nose and drinking a ton of water were not necessarily part of them... I'm also bummed by the thought the this admission of sickness is going to win me the table way back in the corner all by myself! :)

All for now! Hopefully I'll have LOTS of scrapbooking progress to report next post.