Now that the Kinnect is out, they love dancing!
January photos are finally online!
>>> January pictures are posted at Shutterfly.
Changing rooms!
So, remember about two weeks ago when we set up Owen’s new bunk beds? And I thought we made a huge mistake because they were really low? Well, Tom fixed that part and gave Owen more headroom…but then it came time to change the sheets. And…I came to the conclusion that buying the bunk beds quite possibly ranks up there as one of the worst decisions I have ever made in my life.
Hoo boy.
Of course the kids love them—Katie runs in there every chance she gets to zoom up and down the stairs and loves being on the top bunk…and Owen loves his “double decker” bed (like the double-decker couch from The Lego Movie). I, on the other hand, pretty much hate them with every fiber of my being.
The problems started when I realized that I couldn’t use the bed skirt that goes with the sheets. That wasn’t SO bad, but it was just the first strike.
Then I came to realize that I literally COULD NOT make the top bunk. The mattress is too hard and too heavy to lift (from the ground) to wrap the fitted sheets around. The way the bed has to be placed, there’s not enough room for me to walk around the other side—even if I could lift the mattress. (Come to find out later after talking to friends, the mattress we had placed on the top was really meant to be on the bottom; a much lighter and more flexible mattress was supposed to go on top. So I briefly thought about buying a more appropriate mattress—but decided against it as time wore on because I mostly didn’t want to spend any more money on something I already disliked.)
The bottom bunk was somewhat easier to make, but still annoying—because of Tom having to lower it, it sits directly on the floor…which means any time you’re dealing with the bed (changing sheets, folding clothes) or dealing with your kid in bed (reading books, kissing him good night), you’re on the floor. Which obviously I can still do but it is so much more comfortable with a regular size/height bed.
But still, I honestly thought I could power through it. And Tom helped me make the top bunk. And the kids were SO happy playing on it…
And then the cat puked on the clean sheets and I had to change them again the very next day and I decided that even though I love my children, I just don’t think I can live with these damn bunk beds for the next X number of years. I mean, I could easily see myself getting more and more bitter every time I had to change the sheets. I had talked to Tom about selling them, but he didn’t much want to do anything because he just hauled them all up there and set it all up and “fixed” them. But then, he’s not the one that needs to deal with the day-to-dayness of it.
So I made the decision to just list them and see if we had any interest. I posted them on a Facebook sale group, saying we just bought them off the page, they just didn’t work for us, asked for just what we paid…and crossed my fingers. I had a response within two minutes and three more people after that who wanted them. We made plans to pick them up in a few days (today) since I wanted Owen to have them for his sleepover.
Of course, Owen was bummed when I told him we were getting rid of them. I had to explain that it just wasn’t easy for mama to deal with making the bed and it really took up too much room (not really, but at least a decent reason he could understand). He was sad but eventually shook his head and said “Mama, I understand. But I’ll miss my double decker bed.” Awwww. /sniff
But, I promised him we’d do something special in his room when the bed was gone…and let him put up the Despicable Me decals I’ve had for ages but had just never gotten around to letting them put up. (Yes, it drives me absolutely insane that they are placed willy nilly, but I’m saving my objections for things that really matter.)
And then we let Katie put up more Doc McStuffins decals that we’ve had for awhile but have just been holding on to until we needed them for a good reason. They were actually a bunch of duplicate decals from what she already had on her wall, but there was a life-size Doc that was new that she was enthralled with (she likes saying that Doc has a big head!):
Scooting at the playground
Owen made friends with a kid at the playground who had a scooter—and he let Owen try it. He loved it, but he definitely needs practice. And a helmet if he wants to go any faster than walking speed. 🙂
A sleepover success!
Everyone slept through the night—WOOHOO!
Owen got up about his normal time (6:30) and let his friends sleep in. Katie slept in until about 7:15 and they got up about 7:30.
They played some Xbox while we were making breakfast.
Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit, and hot chocolate. The boys ended up not liking the fried eggs, but couldn’t tell us what kind of eggs they liked! (See, it’s not just Owen who can’t answer simple questions.)
They got picked up around 10 and neither one really wanted to leave! I guess we did a good job!
Owen has already started planning his next sleepover saying he’s inviting six kids (and he wants it next weekend!). We had to tell him sleepovers were special things that only happened occasionally. Then he decided his next sleepover would be three girls (and he named them).
Sigh.
What have we created?!
But it was AWESOME seeing him interact with his friends. And just the fact he HAS friends makes us SO extremely happy. 🙂
Owen’s first sleepover
Owen’s first sleepover was tonight—and it was the first for both of his friends, too.
The kids played for a bit, then we started Fruit Ninja, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s somewhat exhausting—and they can only really play one at a time—so then we did Crash Course which they could all play at the same time.
Manuel doesn’t have pets, so he was ENTHRALLED with ours (you’ll see more pics later). 🙂
Getting ready for cake!
Time for a movie! Katie enjoyed the sleepover as much as the boys did!
Getting the boys ready for bed about 9. They lined up for a picture, each with one of Owen’s stuffed animals—and here Owen was realizing that they each had one of the primary colors!
Overall, it went pretty good. The boys were boys (roughhousing and such) but they are all fairly similar—very nice, polite, not too terribly rough, and they listened well. We were most worried about putting them to bed and what happened after that since neither of the boys had had a sleepover before. Of course, their parents were on call to come get them, and I had been updating them via text and pics throughout the night. So they all got their PJs on, brushed their teeth, and decided who would sleep where. We told them they could stay up and talk, but they couldn’t be too loud (since Katie was sleeping next door). I read them a story, pointed out all the night lights, told them that if they were scared at all or if anything was wrong to come get us (and we could call their parents), asked if they had any questions (no), and then turned out the lights, crossed my fingers, and went downstairs.
Within minutes, we heard them coming down the steps. 🙂 Apparently the boys were scared of the big stuffed bear, even though they had all been playing with him. But no biggie, Tom just went up with them and threw it in the guest room.
The second trip down (again with all three of them!) was because the kid who decided he wanted to sleep on the top bunk was apparently suddenly afraid of heights and didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk even though we went over that before. But no biggie, we asked if he wanted Owen to sleep on the top and he said no, he wanted to. Ooookay. Back to bed then, and we sent them upstairs.
The third trip down was to tell us that somehow the top-bunk-kid needed his bed made again (turns out he had pulled off all of his bedding to sleep on the floor). Okay, no biggie, Tom went up and got the bedding issue settled.
At this point, I told Tom we should go upstairs to our bedroom so the kids didn’t have to come all the way downstairs each time. So we did. 🙂
Minutes later (the fourth time out of bed), two had to go to the bathroom—even though they all went before getting in bed.
The fifth time, someone was scared of everything in the room. We added another night light (in addition to the three already in there).
Then we heard them talking quietly and we thought maybe that would be the end of it…but then we heard loud thumping and lots of noise so Tom went down and and found them all out of bed! They got told they could talk but they had to stay in bed. We heard more talking but nothing crazy.
About 10, we finally noticed they were really quiet. Tom checked on them and they were all out! We crossed our fingers and hoped it lasted!
Fruit Ninjas
In preparation for the sleepover, Tom reconnected the Xbox Kinnect. The kids tested out Fruit Ninja as the first game.
Owen’s been buying food again.
I don’t think kindergarteners should be left in full control of their lunch accounts.
So at the beginning of the year, we anticipated Owen buying hot lunch now and again, so we put $20 in his account. A few months in, I happened to check his account and saw a lunch deduction. I questioned it (emailed teacher, etc.) and found out he had purchased a pretzel. That was fine with us, the lunch people fixed the deduction to show the cost of a pretzel vs. the cost of a lunch, we had a talk with Owen about buying food at school, and life went on.
Fast forward to last night when I get a robocall from the lunch account warning us our balance is low, and we have $6.90. WAIT. WHAT? The last we knew, he bought a 75¢ pretzel in October. I looked up his account, and yep, there were four lunches purchased—one in October, November, December, and one JUST THE DAY BEFORE!
WHAT?!?!
We figure maybe somehow some other kid had randomly punched in Owen’s account number. So I fired off an email to his teacher, saying we tried to get an answer from Owen but that’s near impossible (oh, he isn’t quite sure what we’re asking, but then says yes he had a burger (but that was the one I brought him for his birthday)) and he says he doesn’t even know his lunch number so I can’t imagine he’s punching it in. We do know from past experience, however, that if the kid doesn’t know their number, they just give their name and the staff deducts it later.
The teacher writes back that in talking with her assistant (who usually goes to the lunchroom with the kids), she remembers a time or two he bought a lunch (once when he couldn’t find his lunch bag—WHAT?!?!) and once he bought a milk—but the others she had no idea so was going to ask the lunch people.
So I’m sitting here just gobsmacked. Of course the money isn’t the big deal here—we just need to get Owen situated with buying things and telling us he did so we’re not shocked when his account is suddenly $13 less than we think it is…and if I’m not packing enough food and he’s still hungry he needs to tell me! He has been adamant he has never bought anything aside from the pretzel! And he has never brought home an uneaten lunch. We told him he wasn’t in trouble at all—we were just trying to figure out what happened. We asked if he was extra hungry so bought more food? No. Was he buying food for someone else maybe? Or giving away his lunch? Nope. Ugh.
So, I was eagerly waiting to hear the post-lunch report.
And boy, was I surprised.
[The assistant] talked to the cafeteria lady and we all seem to feel that it is pretty accurate. I think there were only four lunches purchased and a couple of extra items and three of the purchases were made prior to January. It is really hard to expect a child to remember what he/she did a couple of hours ago, much less a couple of months ago. We will try to make sure that Owen does not purchase lunch unless he needs to. The cost for lunch is $2.90, so it doesn’t take much to go through twenty dollars. I hope this clarifies things for you.
Well, honestly, it doesn’t clarify much of anything other than you are pretty sure he did buy that stuff. They did give us an exact printout of what he bought, and it still blows my mind. Owen is not a big liar—granted, his memory for things non-Lego is pathetic—but I can’t believe he’d forget BUYING LUNCH THE DAY PRIOR.
Needless to say we’re not putting any more money in the account this year. And for future, I’m setting a “low balance reminder” for like $1 less than what we put in his account so we’ll get notified when he purchases anything.
And we’re hoping this behavior gets better in first grade!
A 45-second job as done by a toddler
She likes to help and today I let her do it all. This is why things take forever when kids help. 🙂
Dancing with daddy
For a tiny while anyway.
THE KRAGLE!
Unfortunately, Kragle is sometimes called for (after the string to the drawbridge has popped out four times and gets tangled up).
Owen’s okay with it: Kragle me up!
King’s Castle, Part 3
He doesn’t want to build and then he goes through three bags a day.
She loves these puzzles!
And she’s really good at them! (Yeah, so they’re not exactly puzzles, but they’re close.)
Post-birthday crown
Owen got off the bus today with a birthday crown! He told me they forgot to sing to him in the crown yesterday so they did it today!
A new playground!
We had an unseasonably warm 50° day so I took Katie to a new playground after we left Owen’s school.
As soon as we got there she was off and running!
She LOVES swinging.
And the bridge:
And then this happened and it was all I could do to just let her go—she’s way more daring than Owen ever was at this age:
Story time and volunteering in Owen’s class
As part of the Star of the Week stuff, family members are welcome to come in to do something special. We chose to bring in a book for me to read during story time. Of course, I wanted to read one of the cool books we’ve had specially made for Owen with his name in it but he wanted Pirates Love Underpants. 🙂
Hallway artwork:
Owen’s SotW poster on display:
Owen is Line Leader this week so he gets to do a bunch of things in the classroom (this will likely be super boring for anyone except grandparents 🙂 ):
Their Groundhog Day predictions:
Of course, Katie wanted to go sit with Owee during their other story.
But it didn’t last for long:
And that didn’t last long either… Soon she was back over playing with the toys:
“Mama! A lion! Mama! Mama! A hippo! Hippo! Chomp chomp! Crocodile! Kangaroo! Hop hop!” While placing each animal on the floor around her. 🙂
Trying to keep her occupied so she doesn’t bother the class:
I saw this and laughed. It seems to say a lot about kindergarten in one picture. 🙂
After storytime, I had agreed to stay and volunteered to help while the kids did their daily center activities. I lucked out this time and Owen got to be at one of my tables. 🙂
Katie is a bit more outgoing now and doesn’t want to stay in the play area while the kids are working so she kept bothering me and I finally just gave her a sheet of paper and let her color with the big kids.
What they sing before every snack time:
Birthday dinner, cake, and presents!
Even though we went to Red Robin this past weekend to celebrate Owen’s birthday… AND I took him a Five Guys burger on his birthday at school… We still went out to eat for his birthday dinner! 🙂 (Yeah, we like going out to eat.) 🙂 We tried a new pizza place that’s close to us and it wasn’t too bad. I’m actually getting sick of pizza so I had a Stromboli which was pretty good. And Katie was introduced to the Parmesan shaker. 🙂
When we got home we Skyped with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob, sang happy birthday, ate cake, and opened presents.
Then I gave Owen his gift certificate for the Magic School Bus monthly experiments. Before he opened it I explained it was from mom and dad, Gramma Jean and Grandpa David, and Papa and Grannie—and I was sure he’d be over the moon!! And of course he couldn’t have cared less, LOL. He just couldn’t understand that it meant 12 new experiments (like the volcano he just did) and kept looking at the paper like Aaaand?! I kept trying to explain it and I think he finally started to get an idea…but he probably won’t fully get it until the packages start arriving (it should be mid-month).
Things never turn out as you expect when kids are involved. 🙂
Santa says happy birthday to Owen!
When I made the Santa video for Owen at Christmas, I also signed up for a birthday greeting. 🙂
Notice at the end Katie is saying it’s her turn—because she remembered that at Christmas her Santa video came after Owen’s. She never did really understand that she wasn’t getting a birthday message now because it wasn’t her birthday.
Guess what this name is.
I found this on Owen’s drawing table. He had been practicing writing the names of his friends. Take a guess as to what this name is. 🙂
Candle time!
Oh and noticed his cake pretty much as soon as he walked in the door after school. He had to put the candles on himself—immediately if not sooner. 🙂 it was especially excited because these were the cool silver candles he picked out at the dollar store.
Satisfied with his work! (He really did do a good job—spacing them out very evenly along with the Happy Birthday sign.)
A bunch of new stock!
We’ve added a bunch of small colorful corals! My favorites are the active ones that rustle in the current.
Birthday lunch at school!
I took Owen a Five Guys cheeseburger and fries for lunch. 🙂
Katie got some fries, too!
Handing out his birthday treats (mini candy bars) to his classmates!
Hugs for Maggie
Owen is six years old today!
The morning started with Owen telling me it was his birthday and he was six years old…before I could even open my mouth to say Happy Birthday! 🙂
King’s Castle, Part 2
He’s been taking his time so there’s just a bit more done.
This has been my day.
Katie has started whining about not wanting to take a nap…when I’ve said nothing of the sort. This was after I told her no about some random thing.
I accidentally took the video with SLO-MO on, so I edited it to put her big “I DON’T WANT TO TAKE A NAP” in slo-mo at the beginning. 🙂
I’m still working on how to get the real video with no slo-mo.
Edit: here it is, except it got cropped.
Owen’s six-year well-visit
Height: 50-3/4″ — was 47-1/4″ at 5y (greater than 100th percentile)
Weight: 81# — was 66.5# at 5y (greater than 100th percentile)
This was our first time seeing this particular doctor, and she was very nice. She said overall he did well—his vision was deemed good, he has a very strong heartbeat “which should pump for another 100 years,” he answered all his safety questions well (What do you to before crossing the street? Do you always wear your seat belt? Do you wear sunscreen? Do you brush your teeth?), and he is still “off the charts” (over 99% for both height and weight—as a point of interest, he gained 15# last year—the same as the previous year). This year, however, I didn’t get lectured about BMI and exercise and feeding him vegetables—the doc was very nice and was happy he was enrolled in baseball, glad he liked sports, and was glad we keep trying to get him to eat veggies. I think she was happy to see that his BMI dropped since his last visit (in the fall when he was seen for something else).
Red is age 5. Green is age 6. BUT…after some research today, I’m not sure how I came up with a BMI of 30 last year (maybe they wrote it down wrong or I read it wrong).
Friends have expressed concern with his weight, but believe me—we are watching it closely. Tom and I both know what it was like to be a chubby kid and IN NO WAY do we want that for Owen. Just for shits and giggles I put his info in an adult BMI calculator and it comes up normal. So a tiny adult his size is fine, but an identical weight and height large kid is not. So I take the kid BMI results with a grain of salt. His face and belly are a bit chubby—but otherwise he’s just a big, solid kid.
The only somewhat sticky point of the entire visit was when I asked for a referral for a Pediatric GI. I briefly explained that we had had one before we moved here and we were currently on a maintenance regimen but that I’d like to have a doctor ready if we needed one. She said “Constipation? We can handle that here. A specialist isn’t necessary.” I reiterated that we had seen one for a year and Owen had been hospitalized for a cleanout—an again she said she could handle that. So then I told her that we’ve been dealing with this for over two years now, to include monthly to bi-weekly cleanouts, and the last time we had an issue a month or so ago, he had four ex-lax and about 12 doses of miralax with no results and I had to keep him out of school. THAT got her attention and she said “Ohhh! No, we’re not equipped for that. I’ll put in the referral.” 🙂
The most exciting thing for Owen, however, was learning that (aside from yearly flu shots) he’s done with shots until sixth grade!
Testing out the top bunk!
We let Owen test out the top bunk bed tonight. He was giddy. I’m glad he’s enjoying it but I fully admit I made a bad judgment. I hate bunk beds.
Owen’s King’s Castle begins
Owen is starting his 996-piece King’s Castle set he bought with birthday money he’s been saving for years. (Well, he technically wasn’t SAVING it so much as we just kept stuffing money he received in his bank. We’ve been trying to teach him about money lately—and how expensive Legos are—so we counted out over half of his savings for this set.)
He is one happy little boy!
Kidisms 3
Katie: Are you done?
Owen: Does it look like I’m done?
Owen: School is closed! I love that kind of day!
Owen upon seeing Katie this morning in her dino PJs:
Hi little dinosaur-y.
Katie, as she’s done eating dinner:
Okay, I’m done eating. Goodbye.
Owen: Ahhh, this is comfy.
Owen, after a bath:
Mom, if I wear comfy stuff, I’m calm. If I don’t wear comfy stuff I freak out.