The kids understand weekends.

They know that there is no school for them; no work for us; and that we’d prefer to sleep in.

So….most weekends finds them playing loudly, arguing, “Whispering” (if you can whisper at 80 decibels) about being quiet, eventually waking us up at 6:00 a.m. because they are STARVING for breakfast.

Today, I overslept.  I woke up at 6:45 a.m., the time I usually am walking out the door with the kids.  Dayna was off for some appointments so I hoped out of bed, as did Dayna.  I was off to the shower, she to get the kids ready.

Well, ‘Holy Weekdays Batman!’  Maura was quietly playing in her closet.  She had all her little princesses lined up and they were doing Belle’s hair.  Brody was up, dressed himself, and was lounging on his bed.  They were quiet; they never fought; they never once informed us of their dietary needs!?

Not to be outdone, Maura wanted you all to see a recent smattering from her upcoming collection entitled ‘Preschool Year One: Only the Boys Aren’t Potty-trained Yet’ in mixed media.

This is a little Brody heavy in the following posts.  He’s the artistic one and she’s the smarmy one.

Anyway, here in Hartland we have a little community newspaper, aptly titled Community News.  Every month they have photos from each school in the district. 

If you click to enlarge and then look at the photo in the bottom right; you’ll see Brody just over the girl’s shoulder.

This was taken at his school; every December the PTA does a ‘Santa Shop.’  They set up a little store, everything is two dollars, and the kids come in with a list of whom to buy for (and enough to cover two bucks each).

Brody loves doing this, and was especially excited to do it for his Cousin whom he sees rather infrequently.

Brody loves art, as you’ll see in coming postings.  In the attached drawing (click to enlarge) he was given a sheet of paper with a “v” on it.  They were then told to draw whatever they wanted.

As you can see Brody created an astronomy map. 

On his own, Brody decided to label his drawing.  You’ll note that some words are spelled incorrectly.  I don’t know how I was taught, or how you were taught, but I’m pretty certain that at ½ way through first grade, I wasn’t sounding out and trying to sepll ‘astronaut’!

I understand the methodology is to get them used to sounding out words and write down what they hear.  Personally, I’m impressed.  He reads books to me every night, and he sounds out big words. 

I think this is just the coolest piece ever!

Brody has become a HUGE Harry Potter fan.

He had a basic pop up book as a kid (as if he’s 30) based on the first book.  We read it and read it, over and over (like most of his books…which is great).  He recently asked to watch the movie and against my wife’s advisement, I allowed him to.

He enjoyed it tremendously and isn’t scared by it at all.  He especially likes the accents; it’s cute when he tries to imitate them.

Two things to share: 

First, at the end of this post are two documents (click to enlarge) Brody created.  He’s decided he wants to be HP himself for Halloween.  So, he wrote a reminder note to himself AND he wrote and created all by his little ol’ self, a shopping list for a costume!

Second, following this post, are his drawings of the first three movie posters!  I’ve included the originals for comparison. (Again, click to enlarge)

Brody always used to ask, ‘what are they singing about?’ when listening to music.  Real music, not the Wiggles, those songs are blatant references to the drug culture that even a three year old can figure that out!

I always appreciated the requests.  It means they are listening (if they won’t listen to me, then maybe Dave Mustane can get through to them) and thinking.

Today, Maura did the same thing.

Alas, I have no idea what ‘My Sherona’ is about.  I realized that I can sing nearly any top 40 song from 1983 (when I got a car with a FM radio) and 1992 (the year the metal died with the onset of grunge), yet, other than ‘I want your sex’ and anything by Billy Ocean, I have no idea what any of them are sayin’!

We have routines.  Every morning the kids know to get dressed and do the teeth, then come downstairs.  They get b’fast and a little tv before I take them to their respective schools.

They KNOW what time we have to leave!

On some days, they lollygag; they dawdle; they loiter; and don’t get their ragamuffin little @$$&$ in the car on time.

On those days, I have to drop Brody off first; normally I ditch (joking) Mo’ first.

Today was just such a day.  When Brody realized that he was getting dropped off first, he went into ‘whine mode’ with hyper-replay engaged.

We were almost there when Maura said….’Dad!  Just take me to school first.  I can’t listen to any more of this!’

Cleaning up the ol’ blog-pile; found this disk from a photo session last fall.  This was a rare time where the kids not only posed well, but got along. 

I’m so glad there was a photo there to capture it!

I’m sure you’ve noticed.

I know Randy did at the card party and I’m not certain I like that….

But Dayna is dropping pounds like Posh Spice!

So, here are a couple photos of her for you to admire and then call and praise her accordingly (except for Randy!).

A couple are photos from xmas, the other is an original crayon commission by the great ‘Crayolaist’, Roberto Brittononnilli.

I am a ‘cynic’. 

To many of you that may not be news.  Others of you may think that it’s just a fancy acronym for whiny or bitter. 

Don’t care!

Anyway, while I am not the most touchy-feely person, and I think people should be held accountable for their own actions (devils don’t make you do anything….they’re pretend); I do have an understanding and appreciation of how our minds developed.  The evolutionary impulses of our minds, there for a far more rustic and primitive world than the one in which we currently inhabit.  So my readings of Gould and Dawkins, have kindled an interest in Psychology Today.

Many hear psychology and thing ‘tell me how you feel about that…’, tv counseling.  But the magazine looks at our behaviors, our motivations and always through the lens of hominid development. 

It’s horribly interesting….basically, it’s a set up for a sitcom: ‘What happens when you you take six billion hunter/gatherers and place them in the big city?  Its neanderthall-rific!’ 

G’ma J was kind enough to get me a subscription for xmas.  The first issue that came had the following article:

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20061201-000005&page=2

I don’t know how long they spied on me, but I’m going to sharpen a rock, tie it to a stick, hop in my car, get a café mocha on the way and then hop, scream, and pound my chest in their general direction.

Within the article is does discuss depression and I’m pleased to announce that I’m far too arrogant to be there, but everything else rang pretty true.

As I read the article I thought to myself….’Self.  You should read this periodically so you know how you’re perceived.’  But then I got to the part about how we’re good at stuff and I said to myself…’Self.  You were a loser a second ago.  You Rock!’

Brody had a snow day on Monday and my Dad, thankfully, was more than happy to have him for the day.

When Brody came back to work at the end of the day, I took him up to see my workstation and meet some co-workers.  Brody was very well-haved, shook hands, the whole ball of wax.  I was very proud.

While there he showed one co-worker how to play Kerby on Gamebow.  He mentioned that he used to have one but that it was old and outdated (still B and W).  On the way home Brody said I should call Santa on behalf of this guy and get him a new one.

On the way out I ran into some former co-workers who were hosting a meeting and had surplus cookies.  They offered one to Brod and h e said ‘No thank you.  They are not healthy.’

He then asked to go to McDonalds for dinner.

Maura has recently informed me of some important data:

1.                  Brains smell like pumpkins

2.                  That if you don’t wear gloves to school, you will get frosting-bite.

Brody heard the story of Rumplestiltskin (or Rumpelstilzchen for our german-speaking readers) today at school.

Ever since he is terrified that there is a dwarf hiding and out to get him.  However, and maybe you missed this part in your childhood; but Mr. Skin is unable to torment children sitting in a laundry basket…or at least that what Brody has determined.  He spent much of the evening there.

Thankfully he did go to bed without the laundry aid though I’ve promised to do periodic checks of his room for evil dwarfs.

Maura has noticed that Brody is now reading books to us at night.  Not to be outdone she read me three books tonight. 

She also wanted to show off and picked two books from xmas that she hasn’t had read to her too frequently yet. 

She did an incredible job telling the story based solely on the pictures.  It was especially interesting as when deciphering the drawings you could hear her sneak in references to our home.  “The little bear was told her behavior was unacceptable and had to go into time out for THREE minutes!”

Brody was reading Super Fly Guy to me tonight.  In one scene, an unpopular ‘lunch lady’ is being tormented and taunted, by Fly Guy, to the point of madness.  The lunch lady is drawn in awful clothing, covered in grease, a nasty hair net, stubbly legs, and a ‘mad’ expression on their face (one eye slightly open more than the other and the eyes facing in different directions).

I look at the farcical depiction and say ‘Brody, do the ‘lunch ladies’ at your school look like that?’  His response…

‘They don’t have name tags.’

Dayna and I were up late the other night, couldn’t sleep, so we ended up channel surfing a little and Dayna ended up at Mtv’s Super Sweet Sixteen.

If you’ve not seen the show, you should see it once, just once.  You’ll be afraid, very afraid that this is the face of our future.  I won’t go into detail but the show truly disgusts and repulses me!

Simultaneously I was reading an tragic article in Time, The $10 Solution. 

To see the excesses poured out by these families to ungrateful, spoiled teens on the one show when millions die daily from something that could be addressed by what the US spends in hours in Iraq is a true travesty.

http://www.malarianomore.org/

http://www.nothingbutnets.net/

We take time to show this to Brody, so he knows how fortunate he is and the importance of helping others.

Brody wants to be an abstract photographer someday.