Starts With "J"

My last post here was May 2010... yikes!!!... it's been awhile!!  As my friend Jess would say... I'm a slacker ;)

On our way home from the store today, "Stop This Train" by John Mayer came on...




Chase immediately complained saying, "Aww... turn it."

I said, "What now you don't like John Mayer??...  Too bad, I'm not turning it."

Claire then chimes in and sarcastically says, "Chase you don't like anyone whose name starts with a 'J'... you don't like Jack Johnson... you don't like Jason Mraz.... see you don't like any music by people whose name starts with a 'J'."

To which Chase replies, "....I do too... I like Jay-Z."

:D  (that's my boy!!!)

Little Carrots

On the way home from karate tonight... oh wait... rewind....

A couple of weeks ago, Chase decided that he no longer wants to take horse riding lessons. He just wants to ride a horse on a trail and was bored with all the "learning" involved with his horse lessons. Of course, this didn't come out of nowhere.  For the past few weeks, he has taken an interest in karate (this could have something to do with "The Force" he has been trying ever so hard to use on me... and not to mention all of the junk food in the grocery store.)  Finally, on Tuesday, Aaron took Chase to his first karate class. He had such a great time that he couldn't wait to go back tonight. On the way to his class, he asked, "Mom, you're going to sign me up tonight, right?!!" He's already made friends... "fought" with these "battle sticks" (they totally look like light sabers or the 'noodles' used for swimming).  He had such a blast... and, of course, was all smiles throughout the class.

So.... as I was saying... on the way home from karate Claire says, "Mom, how come we never have Little Carrots?"

"What??"

"Little Carrots. How come we never go there?"

"Claire, what the heck are little carrots????"

"You know that place with the orange sign.... Little Carrots, when can we go there for dinner??"

Obviously, I was completely baffled... THEN, it hit me.

"Claire you mean Little Caesars???"

Chase's Pink Ride

The other day, Chase kept stealing Claire's bike.  Claire was so distraught over it... crying wailing, "Chase won't give me back my biiiiiiiiiiiiiiike."  Of course, during his joy rides on Claire's bike, Chase thought that it was hilarious UNTIL Aaron pulled out his phone to take a picture.  Chase tried to get away, but was no match for his quick fingered Dad!

And all Chase could say while laughing was, "Don't put it on Facebook."

HAHA!!  This'll teach him to steal a pink bike ;)

Turtle Art by Chase

For the past several months, Chase has been studying sea turtles at school.  What's great about where he goes to school is that what they're learning in the classroom carries over into other parts of their education such as using their technology classes and art classes to explore different ways to learn about turtles.  Today, Chase brought home his turtle artwork that he's been telling me about for weeks....

It's crayon that's been painted over with black and then etched.  I think it's beautiful :)

(Click on the picture to see it enlarged)

Chase is 8!!

8 years ago today, I held my not yet one day old baby boy.

It's amazing to me how quickly time has flown by since he was born... but what is even more amazing to me... is that it seems like it was just yesterday.  BUT... it's not.

Yesterday, Chase celebrated his 8th birthday.  Ahhh... the 8th birthday... I'd been referring to this year for Chase as the "Countdown Year."  Months before his birthday, he'd ask, "How many days til my birthday?"  Then as the day grew closer his excitement couldn't be contained.  Anytime someone asked him how old he was... he would immediately start talking about his birthday and how he was almost..."well pretty much"... 8.

So yesterday... was the day Chase had been counting down for.  It was a really great day...  he took some cookies to share with his class and he said they even sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  If anyone knows Chase... they know that he absolutely positively does NOT like being sang to... years past he's covered his ears or hid...but this year he said that it made him feel kind of special :)  YAY!!  I picked the kids up early from school so that we could all eat lunch together... have cake and open presents.  (This is the first year since Chase started school that his birthday wasn't on Spring Break.)  We had our lunch... opened presents, sang "Happy Birthday" and plunged our forks into a special birthday request Chocolate Ganache Cake with Mint Newman O's.

We spent a few hours playing with all of Chase's gifts, then made our way to dance-- for Claire and me ;)  After dance, we met Aaron at Hiro (Japanese Steakhouse) for dinner.  Chase loves it for many reasons including (but not limited to ;) ) soup, the onion volcano, lo mein (hmmm... maybe it's called something different at a Japanese restaurant?), and rainbow sherbert.  Once again... "Happy Birthday" was sang (a candle in the sherbert) AND once again Chase didn't cover his ears!!  Dinner was loads of fun... getting squirt in the face with water by the Hibachi chef, jumping as food caught on fire... and celebrating 8 years of Chase :)

Check out this pic from 2005...

YES!  That's Chase (3) blowing out his candles!

Not Bad Words

I'm not sure what has been going on lately with my kids and bad language.

At dinner tonight, we were talking about "bad words" and Chase says, "Why did people even make bad words up?" I explained to them that it's not necessarily the fact that a "word" is bad, but more so the meaning placed on the word. For instance, someone could've made up Sloppy Joe and it could have been coined as a bad word.

Then Chase chimes in and says, "Yeah, but there are words that aren't even bad. Like shit. Shit is definitely not a bad word, because if you step in dog poop... you might say, 'Aw, shit I just stepped in dog poop.' See that's not bad." (I immediately covered my face) Then Claire added her two cents about what isn't bad (Damn) and then Henri his....he took the more appropriate route by saying "poop is better to use than shit." Nice.

All the while, I was in the midst of holding back laughter because they were SO serious.

Of course, I'm finding it rather funny that they are trying to justify this all at 7, 5, and 3... because I once did the same. Only when I was in middle school... my English teacher didn't like the way I made my cursive f's. She counted a spelling word wrong, and I said out loud, "That's a bunch of crap." She told me not to use bad language in her class... to which I replied, "Crap??? Crap's not a bad word."

Hmmm... for the most part the words they learned didn't come from me (nope... that's ALL Aaron... ok... and maybe Kanye... and a few other artists), but the justifications are all me :)


Come to think of it... here's where Claire got damn:

Mom Gave Names to All Her Children

I've always said it, "Bob Dylan is an amazing song writer, but I just can't listen to him sing." Claire's new favorite song is "Man Gave Names to all the Animals," of course, redone by Jason Mraz. If you don't know what I'm talking about check it out here.

So yesterday, Claire was taking an after school nap on her floor. Trying desperately to wake her up after about an hour, I started singing a new version.... which of course, she thought was funny and drove her mad at the same time. So here it is...

"Mom saw a girl laying on the floor

She slept so much, that she started to snore.

Couldn't see much, just a lot of hair.

She said, 'I...... I think I'll call her Claire.

Mom saw a boy sitting on the ground,

had so many toys that he couldn't be found.

She tried to get him to look her in the face.

She said, 'I..... I think I'll call him Chase.

Mom saw a boy that was super cute.

He liked to eat vegies and lots fruit.

And on his backpack was Bumble Bee.

She said, 'I....I'm gonna call that one Henri."

Different Perspectives

After I picked up Claire and Chase from school, Claire asked why Henri doesn't eat lunch at his school and began a conversation about why Henri should want to go to school. With that came 3 very different opinions on school.

Claire-- "School's FUN!!"

Chase-- "School's boring."

Henri-- "School STINKS!"

The Tooth Fairy Returns

For the past several days, the kids have been crazy! Last night before bed, they were wrestling and being "animals" (figuratively speaking). All of the sudden Chase runs out-- hand held high-- and says, "Look, Claire knocked out my tooth!!"

Lost tooth count: 4

A New Outlook on School

Talking about school with Chase, I ask, "So... Chase? You really like school?"

He says, "I don't just like it, I love it."

"Seriously? You're glad that Dad wanted you to try that school?" I say

With a huge smile he says, "Yeah, I probably won't be home schooling."

New Day, New Attitude

Waking Chase up for school went just as it always has: SLOW. He's not a morning person... well at least not when it has to do with getting up for school. After many attempts to pry his head out from under his blanket... I succeeded in getting him off to his first day of 2nd grade at his new school. On the way in, Aaron said that he was quiet and that he felt bad leaving him because he just looked kind of sad. We worried about him all day.

Then at 2:45, I picked him up in the multi-purpose room and saw a different Chase. Turns out that he had an awesome day... from building with LEGO's (his favorite) to chasing girls on the playground with all of his friends... there's nothing that wasn't fun. Shoot, his teacher is even "funny"! He didn't have one negative thing to say about his day... well, except for his enhancement: "Spanish, I wasn't looking forward to that...". Little does he know that when he can speak Spanish and we can't... he'll LOVE every second of it!!

So when asked how he liked school, his response: "It's GREAT!!!"

Where'd Farmer Chase Go?

For as long as I can remember, Chase has always wanted to be a farmer. Now, the type of farmer that he's wanted to be has changed, but he's never strayed from wanting to be a farmer when he grows up. However, today that changed.

"Mom, instead of a farmer... I think that I want to be a LEGO Power Miners designer."

Although his comment took me by surprise... it really shouldn't have. We've talked about this moment and figured it would come. And with his love for building things and drawing "inventions"... I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised at all.

Now, I just wonder if and when he's going to replace his John Deere tractors....

Chase's Tooth

While eating his chicken nuggets at Chick-Fil-A, Chase says, "What is this??"

I looked and almost said, 'Bone'... but I looked again and said, "It's your tooth!"

Aaron says, "Great, Dr. Bryan will be by tonight." The running joke is that our friend and dentist is the tooth fairy. Chase gave Aaron THAT look and smirked... knowing full and well that the tooth fairy isn't Dr. Bryan.

Lost tooth count: 3