Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad around!



It's been quite the journey, but boy do we have some amazing little wonders to show for it. We're so lucky you're ours!

Cute Baby Saturday - This One

Oh this boy. He's got himself a little temper, and he likes to use it.

On those days when I have the NERVE to tell him that he can't do something, the reaction is immediate.

There are tears.

He falls deliberately to the floor and wails as if his sweet heart is broken.

If he can't do something he really had his mind set on, he goes all out. He'll lightly bang his head on the ground to get my attention.

If that doesn't work, or should I not pay any attention, he follows me to the next room to maintain his starring performance.

Sigh.

It's a good thing this one is cute...

See these sad, pleading eyes?
How can I be so mean?
How? HOOOOOOOOWWW?

Look! Even real tears!
This little dude pulls out all the stops.

even when he's throwing a fit.

Because mean mom that I am, I have the nerve to tell him no repeatedly. :)

Awakening

I forgot to cancel my alarm, so I woke up at the same time I do when working. Granted, it isn't the earliest one could wake up, but for this night owl, it is plenty early enough. That should have been my warning.

I look forward for days weeks (okay fine) months until the end of the school year. In my head I envision sleeping in, productive days of fun and adventure, and well, doing a whole lot of whatever we want. Ahhhhh, it all sounds so wonderful!

And then the first day of summer starts and I am given a good dose of reality. lol. Let's just call it my awakening. Ahem.

By the time lunch rolled around, I had dealt with:

• three different pee episodes which resulted in an extra load of laundry
• Jason left the bathroom door open which resulted in Jack have a bit of play time in the toilet. I should mention that it wasn't a flushed toilet.
• a quick bath for Jack
• While I was in the bathroom with Shawn, I came out to find Jack had emptied a bag of diapers and decided putting said bag over his head would be fun
• the offices of three different doctors and scheduled appointments for swimming therapy and new magic shoes. (three more doctor check-ups are in the works for some point this summer)
• I had to field what had to have been somewhere around three million questions on just about everything. (My. Brain. Is. Not. Equipped. For. That. Many. Questions. I. Tell. You!)
• Three debt collectors who called looking for, in this order, Sheila, Isabel, and Sarah. Each time, the operators gave me that whole "sure you aren't so and so" attitude when I told them that the person didn't live here. (Here is my public service announcement for the day: Do not put just your first initial in the phone book. Better yet, pay so you do not even have your phone number in the freaking phone book.)
• The little tornado had managed to dump just about every container of toys we have in the entire house
• Jack choked on a chunk of peach

So much for a leisurely vacation, right? I'd be totally gray by now if I wasn't already dyeing my hair.

It's all good, though, and I did actually have a good day with the boys overall. :) Once we all get back into the swing of me being home full time, we are going to get going on that whole "fun and adventure" part of my fantasy.

Then look out summer!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Life By the Numbers

0 - days left of the school year (can we all say, "YIPPPEEEEE!")
74 - days of summer break ahead of us
1 - trip back to Sea World tentatively planned
0 - other trips planned at this point
unlimited - possibilities for fun!

~~~

10 - minutes a night the boys get to play on my IPad
countless - matching games played
80 - levels played on the Snail Bob
0 - levels left to play
2 - people bummed that we have to wait for an update to keep playing
1 - new car racing app downloaded
2 - very happy boys

~~~

and a few blog stats for prosperity ...

754 - daily posts we've added to this blog
2.23 - which translates to two years and 23 days of posting every day
1178 - posts written on the blog thus far

60,180 - people have visited the blog since it started

9 - countries represented by visitors ISPs over the last 3 weeks alone

Mostly Wordless Wednesday - What Is It?

Jackson Ghost? 

or
 

A Jawa from Star Wars?

or
 

Blanket Jackson?
 

.....and no, not that Blanket Jackson.

So what is it?

 

 

We'll let you decide.

She Does This Only to Make Life More Difficult

Just to make life more difficult

If you know anything about Jason, you know that he is VERY particular about his cars, especially about where he "parks" his cars. He has various parking lots all around the house, and believe me when I say that he knows exactly which cars are where and exactly how he last left them.

If someone accidentally touches one of his cars, he knows it. His ears are finally tuned radars for the sound of cheap metal and plastic scraping across the floor. It's kind of freaky actually.

In fact, when Shawn is feeling extra ornery, a mere whisper that he's going to mess up Jason's parking lot will set Jason off into a dramatic fit of tears and yelling.

So, you can see how seeing Annie's new favorite place to sleep makes me cringe. She does it to drive Jason (and the rest of us) crazy.

That can be the only explanation.

The Wonder of Technology

Although Isaac and I have had our smart phones for years now, the boys very rarely get to do much more on them than watch Youtube videos. Occasionally they've been able to play "Naughty Birds" (otherwise known as Angry Birds to everyone else) or Fruit Ninja, but that really has been the extent of their exposure to the wonderful world of Apps.

Then we got my mom a Kindle Fire for Mother's Day. Approximately two seconds after they saw her the next day, Jason discovered it and began to play. He loves that thing. Then he remembered mom has an IPad...and well, you all can guess where that led us.

Now IPad time is a nightly reward. Sigh. (And gone are the days I had it all to myself.)

Anyway, I thought I'd document some of the Apps we've been using.

The first Apps are leveled learning games. Shawn works on the Preschool/Kindergarten level (although I imagine he'll outgrow that level before too long) while Jason plays the first grade level.

It's amazing what the boys do on these programs! Shawn is working on spelling three letter words--the program calls out a word and provides the letters while Shawn decides which letters go where in the word. He is also working on matching, simple addition, and subtraction.

Jason's level is pretty mind blowing. For someone who has yet to enter school, he is doing some pretty advanced skills. Today, he was working on creating compound words. Granted, he was hit and miss with his success level as it was his first try, but still. He was doing it. I KNOW it won't be long before he has it mastered.

Another App that Shawn likes is the Team UmiZoomi App. I think more than anything, he likes this App because it has characters he recognizes. Frankly, it is more appropriate for younger preschool age kids, but he likes it. Jason played it once and hasn't asked for it again.

The Teach Me Kindergarten App is one we have just started. Shawn is not a totally convert yet, but what I like about this App is that it keeps a record of the kid's progress on various skills as he works his way through the different activities. Hopefully Shawn will start to be more enthused about it if for no other reason than it's cool (for me) to watch how much he's learning.

Jason likes to play this Reading Raven Vol 2 App. No, we do not have any idea what volume 1 is, but it hasn't mattered. This App is truly language based. It asks for kids to be more discriminating as they work (by asking him to find the word "file" while providing words like "fine" and "tile" as other answer choices). The reward for the various tasks he completes is a digital sticker, which Jason is all over even though it doesn't seem all that exciting to me. lol. That just shows you what I know, right?

As we were scrolling through the App choices, this one, Jake's Never Land Pirate School, caught their eyes. We HAD to have it only to find they are not interested in it in the least. Lesson learned.

Jason is in love with the Snail Bob App. Bob is a snail that must make it through various scenes/obstacles as he works his way to finding his grandpa. Jason thinks it is HILARIOUS to watch poor Bob succumb to electrical shock frying him to a crisp or wind storms turning him to dust or aliens eating him. Together we try to figure out how to get Bob safely through each level all while Jason laughs hysterically. :)

The last App is not exactly a learning game, but Jason loves it nonetheless. The character is chased through a temple by a bird monster type creature. If it catches you, the creature tears you to shreds and eats you. Um, yeah it isn't all that educational or anything unless you take into consideration that you earn coins as you play and can redeem the coins for various upgraded characters.

 

One of them he has named Foxy. Jason was quite proud of himself when he "bought" her.

He settled on Foxy because he wanted to buy something but didn't have enough coins to buy his true love, Karma.

With grandma's help he eventually earned enough to buy her, too. Oh that was a happy day!

I don't even want to think about what moral implications this will have on his psyche! Ahem.