Zoo with Friends

Yesterday the kids had yet ANOTHER day off of school. I say ANOTHER because Whitaker has yet to attend a full week of school since the start of the new year. He has either been sick or there has been some holiday (MLK Day, President's Day, Inauguration, etc) or there has been a teacher work day, which was the case yesterday. With nothing to do and a whole day ahead of us, we decided to hit the zoo since we haven't been in quite awhile and I wanted to avoid the pitfalls of just hanging around the house and boredom setting in with the kids.  We also decided to take along a couple of friends. Our friends the Monahans have 3 boys and 2 of the boys (James and Peter) are in each of Mae and Whitaker's classes. Needless to say they are the best of buddies. However, we are so saddened because they will be moving at the end of the school year back to their home state so we have to get in time with them when we can.  

Obligatory ZOO Photo

It was cold so there was barely anyone at the zoo so it felt like we had the place all to ourselves. 

All 3 pandas were outside! 

So unimpressed with the elephant. This kid is a tough audience. 

She really does love him. During her conference Mae's teacher told us the two of them spend a lot of time together. 

He won't look at the camera anymore and let me take his photo so this is the best I can get sometimes. 

As many times as we go to the zoo, following the elephant foot prints never gets old. 

The zookeeper feeding the 100+ years old giant tortoise. I have never seen this and thought it was pretty cool. 

Whitaker with his favorite animal of ALL time - the kimodo dragon!  

Peter, Whitaker, Mae & James: Best Buds. 

Peter & Mae  

Whitaker & James

Cousin Sleepover

We had the good fortune of having Lucy and Jolene spend the night with us on Saturday night. Here are a few shots from the night/morning of their visit. They are welcome back anytime! 

My Family Book by Mae

Today, we had our parent teacher conference with Mae's teacher, Ms. Chapman. The first thing out of her mouth was, "I have nothing but good things to say about Mae." I let out a sigh of relief and then was overcome with pride for how great Mae is doing in school - developmentally, academically, and socially. Mae's teacher has them write quite a bit or as a non-teacher it seems they are writing quite a bit. Mae who loves a good story and loves creating has taken to all the assignments at school and then at home. It was interesting when Ms. Chapman told me they recently were working on writing persuasion pieces a few weeks ago and that was the same time Mae wrote and entire letter persuading me for a puppy. I love how she takes what she is learning at school and also is using it at home. At the conference Mae's teacher gave us a stack of her writing and here is one entitled "My Family Book" that I wanted to share. 

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

The kids are always saying things that crack us up. Their language is constantly changing and evolving. Or they hit you up with questions that you aren't capable or ready to answer. It is always comical and I know that this is what especially makes this age so much fun. Case in point, Whitaker has started to calling me Alison Rooster Cummings. Since my official name is Alison Kogut Cummings and Kogut means rooster in Polish he thinks it is funny. Here are a few sayings or conversations of late and a few that I have saved in my notes in my phone that I forgot about.

Whitaker: I will remember I got a big brain. (September 15, 2015)

Mae: How does Santa watch over everyone when he only has two eyes? (November 19, 2015)

Here is a sample of conversation between Pearson and Mae on February 13th of this year.
Pearson: Mae why is there so much whining today? [In the most exasperated 42 year old dad parenting voice]
Mae: Because nothing goes my way! [In the most exasperated 7 year old voice].

Then there are the conversation I overhear between the kids. This one happened the other morning over breakfast and honestly I can't even remember what they were trying to play.
Whitaker: Mae can you please verse me?
Mae: [Silence]
Whitaker: You want to verse me? Mae, let's verse. You want to verse?
(Whitaker thinks that to play against someone or the shortening of versus, where two teams play each other is verse).

Or on Monday night when Whitaker and I were laying in bed going through a Where's Waldo? book.
Me: We must find a Romantic Caveman and Cave Woman. Whitaker do you know what romantic means?
Whitaker: It means they are in love. 
Me: Do you know what in love means. 
Whitaker: They smile at each other a lot, like this. [Big smile]
Me: You melt my heart. 


Or a few months ago.
Whitaker: Mommy, what does sexy mean? 
Me: Huh? 
Whitaker: Sexy, what does it mean? 
Me: It is a world to describe really beautiful.
Whitaker: Mom, you are sexy. 
Me: Well actually it is only a word that mommies and daddies can say to each other. So Daddy can say it to mommy. But it would be very inappropriate for you to say to Mae or any other girl. Got it? 
Whitaker: Yes. [Let's hope he doesn't call his teacher sexy].

Week In Review

There are some weeks where I feel that I blink my eyes and it is already Friday again. Then there are others where a week seems like a month and just 6 days before was a distant memory. The latter was this past week. Last Friday started off with a bang. It was the disco dance at school! AND because I was feeling extra groovy, I decided to dust off an outfit of my mom's from the 70's and show these kids how a dress up dance is done. I also used to where this outfit to a bunch of college parties so it brought back many memories. Needless to say I was happy it fit.  I only did this because I know Mae and Whitaker aren't embarrassed by me ...YET! Mae also gotten in the spirit by dusting off an old dance top of Heather's. We put on some blue eyeshadow, Whitaker spray painted his hair and we were ready to boogie!

Mae was proud of her outfit. 

Our friends had a few families over for pizza before the dance. Fun was had by all.

Pearson even entered the hula hoop contest. He lost. 

Then on Saturday, I went for a longish run. I am running in a half marathon in a few weeks with a bunch of folks so we went for a training run. The run was followed with back to back basketball for both kids. 

I also completed two home projects as of late. Well actually my mom was responsible for doing the main part of one. I am so lucky to have a talented mom. 

Roman shade sewed by my mom. I hung it on Saturday.

I built this picture ledge all by myself. Pearson and I hung it and now just working out what photos I want placed. The good thing is that it can be interchangeable.

On Sunday morning at 5:30 Whitaker woke up sounding terrible. I decided to keep him home from church and religious education. So Mae and I went and we got the good fortune of bringing two of my nephews home. 

This flower shop changes displays for every holiday. I now have some combination of the kids for Halloween and Christmas so didn't want to stop for Valentine's Day. 

When I got home from church, Whitaker sounded terrible and couldn't stop coughing. I suggested to Pearson that we should take him to urgent care as I foresaw that no one was going to be sleeping that night and he truly sounded terrible. I had never heard him cough nonstop. In addition, selfishly, Heather and I throw a Valentine's cookie decorating party for a bunch of our girl friends every Valentine's.  I love the party and makes dozen upon dozens of cookies for everyone to decorate. Sunday was the night of the party and I was worried that Whitaker's whole illness was going to ruin it. I was hoping that taking him in that afternoon would clear up what the problem was and we would be on the road to recovery. Pearson came home from urgent care with a diagnosis of acute asthmatic attack and was prescribed an inhaler and steroids. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the steroids down and kept throwing them up.  Then things took a turn for the worse and I talked to a neighbor friend who is doctor, she suggested we take him to the ER. Unfortunate for me, I got to be at the party for 5 minutes and then had to leave to spend the night in the hospital for 6 hours. Happy that we were released at 1 am with a relatively happy patient who could breath with the diagnosis of viral pneumonia. 

Then late Sunday night we lost power when we were at the hospital. We stayed the night on Sunday night but left that morning for my parents for warmer temperatures since Whitaker couldn't be in it. Nor could Spike our lizard survive. 

Despite missing the party, Whitaker and I decorated cookies on Monday. 

Spike chilling at my folks. 

On Valentine's Day I took the kids to District Taco for dinner. Whitaker was out of school for it and missed passing out Valentine's but he didn't seem all that upset or I should say, upset at all. Then, Pearson came home and made nice steaks and a dinner for us. 

Whitaker finally returned to school on Wednesday and we played catchup for the rest of the week. Happy for a healthy week next week! 

Sleep Update

The topic of sleep is a widely discussed topic once having a baby. Countless books have been written about it and it is the focus of most parenting groups. in fact, every conversation I have had with a new parent seems to touch on it. I, like most, was consumed with the topic of sleep when my kids were born. I just wanted them to sleep more, go to sleep easy, and sleep through the night. In fact, the number one reason Pearson sited for not wanting a third kid was he couldn't have any more extended years of sleepless nights. I find this funny since he actually gets up almost every night on his own and for the most part I was the one getting up with the kids. I think his gripe was much more about the early morning. Funny too, because he always has managed to sleep later then most of us. But this post isn't to fault Pearson and his love of sleep. In fact, I love sleep too and sought out those self help books and talked to anyone I could about how to improve our situation, which all things considering wasn't terrible. Although, Whitaker didn't sleep through the night until three despite multiple cry it out attempts. He got up at 5 am for just as many years and it was 4 am with daylight savings time switches. Further, he quit napping at two. I believe I wrote a post about Whitaker smearing poo on the walls in protest of napping. Needless to say, we had some tired years in there. However,  for the last couple years, it has been pretty darn great. Our kids have lived so many places and traveled enough that they will go to sleep anywhere. They don't require special noise machines or blankets or stuffies. They will sleep at family's and friend's houses without us. They don't awake at ridiculously early hours anymore and in my opinion anything after 6 is acceptable. Even better if they do wakeup early or earlier then I want to get up, they know how to get their own food and operate remote controls for the TV just fine. Relatively speaking it is has been pretty great except for occasionally (more like a couple times a week) the kids will come in our bed. I have decided to live with it as I know this is just a phase and they will be grownup before I know it.  Although Mae coming in drives me batty because she rubs her legs against mine and wakes me up ALL night. I have developed a strategy to deal with it though, I just go to her bed and sleep. So this sleep thing keeps changing and I feel like some nights we all play musical beds. A new sleeping phase has happened most recently that I wanted to be sure to document.

Mae at the beginning of the year decided one night she was going to sleep in the extra single bed in Whitaker's room. Following that night, night after night she kept going back to the extra bed. At first she would ask Whitaker permission. Then she stopped asking him and we all just started assuming she would sleep there. He also started expecting her to sleep in there.Then most recently in the last few weeks, the kids have taken to sleeping in the SAME bed. I don't know how it happened but I believe it started with Mae reading Whitaker books before bed. Anyways, it is adorable and this basic ritual of them sleeping together has made them seem closer. They also switch beds now going back and forth between their two rooms AND we even found them in our bed one night! I don't know how long it will last but I am fully embracing it right now.

You be you!

There are those times as a parent that you think an ordinary day is going to be an ordinary day and then an ordinary day turns into a teaching moment. Two days ago we had one of those days. 

Sunday late afternoon Mae asked if she could get a "spa treatment" and paint her nails and use the hair color pens. To which I was more then happy to do and set up a little foot soak and nail painting station in the bathroom. At a little before bed, Whitaker realized that Mae got her nails painted and wanted his done as well. To which I was happy to do also. I know some parents might freak about their boys wanting their nails painted but I refuse to make a big deal out of it right now. He thinks it is pretty and I want to raise a son who thinks that things are pretty and to appreciate beauty. Since we have both a boy and a girl we try to discuss that there are no limits to what boys and girls can do and that we can all do the same things if we want. I want my children to know that gender is not an impediment for being or doing anything. And that goes for both of them.  (Well obviously men can't have babies). However, as much as I don't want there to be gender barriers or stigmas, there are. I get it. Note: this isn't going to be a post about breaking those down. Back to the story….

So we are in Mae's room and I am painting Whitaker nails and Mae comes up and looks at his nails and says: 

Mae: Whitaker you know people are going to make fun of you for having your nails painted since boys don't paint their nails. 

Whitaker: I don't care. 

Me: Whitaker, I am glad to hear that but Mae is probably right, you might get teased, which is not acceptable but I want you to be aware that someone might say something not nice to you about it. 

Whitaker: I still don't care. 

Me: Ok. But this is also a good lesson that if you do get made fun of, you remember how you felt so that you make sure you never make fun of anyone for what they look like/say/do. Got it. 

Mae [out of the blue]: You step up so others don't get step on. 

Me: YES!! Mae that is a great saying and yes that is what this is all about. Where did you hear it? 

Mae: It is on the bulletin board outside of the lunchroom. 

The conversation continued as the kids went back and forth to the bathroom about being a good friend to EVERYONE, bullying and standing up for others that might not be able to stand up for themselves. The kids went to bed and I was so proud of Mae for understanding and knowing the concept of standing up for others and for Whitaker for deciding to be his own person regardless of what others might say, which takes a lot of strength. 

The next day Whitaker woke up and also wanted hair paint like Mae and guess what….I let him. You be you buddy!