Tuesday, November 23, 2010

God Bless Grandparents

If there is one thing that parents and kids agree on it is the greatness of grandparents. My grandparents saved me from certain death at the hands of my parents more than once. Thank goodness my parents feel the need to pass this kindness forward by frequently saving me and my children from each other.

I have a few things that I'd like to get done tonight and so I asked my mother AKA "Grammy" to keep the kids for a while. The kids are happy, grammy is happy, and I'm happy! PawPaw, my dad, just sent me the following email about a phone conversation he just had:

PawPaw: Hello
Grammy: Hi dear. I just picked up the boys. They got out of school early. We are going to the popcorn store.
PawPaw: So you are going to make at least one of them happy.
Grammy: Yes, but I’m thirsty so first we are going to McDonald’s.
PawPaw: uh
Eli: I want ice cream.
Grammy: Eli if you get ice cream you can’t have Rocky Road when you get to the house.
Eli: (unintelligible)
Grammy: You can’t have both.
Me: So, you know you are going to end up giving in on both, right?
Grammy: Okay, I’ll talk to you later.....

I know this conversation would be enough to send Brian into orbit, but I can live with it. I remember my grandparents doing the same. We just visted Brian's granddad this weekend where we were spoiled so rotton, Eli got up at 1 AM the night we got home to come and tell me that he was ready to go back to Houston (and I completely agreed with him).

In other news, my kids can expect more spoiling because Brian's parents get in to town tomorrow!

God Bless Grandparents!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI!!!!!!!

Eli turns 5 today!!! I recently read a book that said, “The days are long, but the months and years are short.” That is so true. It feels like the years have flown by, but the days themselves are very long. We get up earlier, go to bed later, and are a lot busier during the day than before kids.

Eli is now reading! He has homework every night. He reads a few books to us, we sing songs, and work on flashcards. The kid is crazy smart. He is a sponge just soaking up all the information people will give him. Eli is also good about teaching his brother how to read books. He likes to help Jaxon through the flashcards too! Their favorite songs right now are: Themes to Indiana Jones and Star Wars, I Wanna Be a Dog, Yech!, and The Marriage of Figaro (probably in that order). Eli is officially 60 pounds and 49 inches tall which is roughly the size of the normal 7 or 8 year old. He has scored 5 goals in soccer this season (we still have 3 games left). Jaxon doesn’t have any goals, but he has managed to get in the mix and kick the ball in the right direction a few times. I’m just guessing, but I think Eli is going to favor science in school.

My 5 year old is a fantastic big brother. He teaches Jaxon everything he needs to know and a lot of things he doesn’t! They stick to each other like glue. Jaxon’s teacher even took a picture of them playing with each other through a window (Eli’s class was outside and Jaxon’s class was inside). Mrs. Arthur had Eli last year and has Jaxon this year. She said that last year Eli called his brother “My Jaxon” and now Jaxon does the same “My Eli”. I think Jaxon got scared in bed the other night. It wasn’t until the next morning that the boys told us that Jaxon slept in Eli’s bed. We are ready to let them sleep in the same room if they will actually sleep and not stay up all night playing.

Tonight should be fun. Grammy, Papaw, Papaw, and the four of us are going to celebrate! Eli has requested his favorite Mexican Food restaurant for dinner. I am not at all in the mood for Mexican. I tried to get him to change his mind to Chuck E Cheese, but he wasn’t going to have it. Ojeda’s here we come!

Here are a few of pictures from Halloween. Uncle Aaron and Aunt Elizabeth helped the kids carve pumpkins. The kids were Anakin Skywalker (Eli) and Darth Vader (Jaxon). They were very particular about their costumes. They wanted to wear the masks, gloves, and carry light sabers until it was time for candy. At that point they ditched all non essential costume pieces, grabbed their buckets, and ran for the door.