Meal Mishaps

I think I should start a different blog carnival. I think I should call this one meal mishaps. Because at least once a week, sometimes even more often, I try to make a meal, but something goes horribly (sometimes, anyway) wrong. The latest: I tried to make these pizza pockets on Sunday. Does this look like pizza pockets?

It doesn't? Well, I guess that's because it's not pizza pockets, just pizza. You see, sometimes I don't read ingredients well enough and get the wrong thing. This one called for pie crusts, not pizza crust. Oh well, the boys still ate it, at least a little. Xander preferred to have applesauce.
What have you messed up (or gotten right) in the kitchen recently?

31 months

Three years ago yesterday, I was devastated when I saw this:

Then five months later, after this:

and this:

This precious miracle made his way into the world:
Today, he looks like this: (will insert picture when I take a good one after naptime)

And he is 31 months old today! My two-year-seven-month-old little boy:

• still refuses to eat most fruits and vegetables most of the time.
• copies everything his big brother does, good and bad.
• adds s to the end of lots of words: yours house, babies cows
• still cannot say his name, he says Nanner
• loves Mickey Mouse, though I don't think he's ever actually watched the Disney Channel
• has the cutest voice when he's singing "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children"
• knows almost all of his letters but mixes up K and J
• can count up to 13 or 14 but can't count objects one to one
• is a little snuggle bug
• is getting closer to being ready to potty train every day (he peed in the potty before bath time the other night), but has a Mommy that's dreading it
• has reached his independent stage: taking off shoes and coat, buckling himself in his booster seat, walking in stores (though he still wanders)
• is still my precious baby!
  
  

genius

I know every parent thinks their kid is a genius, but we were talking last night about what's going to happen with Zack in the coming months and years. When Zack started kindergarten, he was already reading on almost a second grade level. They have done a wonderful job accommodating him by letting him go to a first grade class for reading time. They tried to do the same with math time, but the schedule wasn't working out for it. If he was just a little more mature, I would have considered skipping kindergarten.

Yesterday, Zack's teacher called me. Whenever I see "Wake County Pub" on my caller ID, I get apprehensive because we've had some not so good calls from the school more than a few times this year. So here's what Mrs. W. had to say: Earlier in the year, we talked about Zack's above-grade level performance, but she didn't feel like he was so far beyond that he was getting bored. She is seeing that now, that he already knows just about everything they are doing in class. With the schedule not working out for letting Zack go to first grade for writing and math, they decided to let Zack go to first grade for the entire day! We're going to try this out for a couple weeks to see how it goes.

The other thing they are going to do is have Zack tested for AG (academically gifted). We had talked about this in November, but Mrs. W. is seeing more of a need for it now. They usually don't test for AG until 3rd grade, so this is really something! If the things he does in first grade seem too easy at all, she also said we could use the end of first grade assessments and go from there, seeing if he needs to work with the AG teacher.

Even though I haven't been 100% pleased with Zack's school, I have to hand it to his teacher! I know from experience that one of the hardest things is to challenge and accommodate those students that are performing above grade level. She has really gone above and beyond my expectations for what they could do with Zack. I really appreciate all she has done for him!

I'm really praying that this will help Zack, academically, behaviorally and socially. Knowing what the other students are learning has left too much time for Zack to be silly and get in trouble, and he's had a lot of difficulty making friends. His words a couple weeks ago of "I just don't want to be bored anymore" have really stuck with me, too. Please pray that things will get better for Zack!

You might be a mommy...

• if you know one or more stories by heart, and can recite them to your child to help calm him down while he is getting a breathing treatment at the doctor's.
• if you call your boss, and when he answers, he hears, "Get off the table right now!"
• if you discover something in your purse that you thought you bought, only to get home and realize it's not on your receipt and then you have to bring it back to the store.
• if you fold socks only to end up with more unmated socks than when you started.

This is my own little "blog carnival!" Feel free to add on to it on your own blog with things that undeniably make you a mommy, but add a link to yours with MckLinky!

And my Not Me! Monday entry...(You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.)
I did not have a dream last night that, after having "relations" with my husband (I don't know if he was my husband in my dream or not), I came home to a pretend long-time crush "waiting" for me in my bed. But the "crush" had already had "relations" with my roommate, a real person, who I like to call the mega -itch. I did not try to tell my husband about this dream (because we do not tell each other everything) in code while eating breakfast with the family this morning. Nope, not me! (And I certainly would not blog about this dream!)

Snow cream for breakfast (yes, it's pink, for Valentine's Day!)
A little time to explore (We played in it later, but I didn't have my camera. The boys got to make a snowman with their cousins. It was perfect snow for snowmen and snowballs!)

What Daddy did while we were gone...

He made the big ball that's by itself for the original bottom of the snowman, but when he made the next one, it was too big to lift up, so he just used it for the bottom. Zack decorated it when we got home.

Now it's the only snow left on our block!

Just boys

Xander always loves to be underfoot when I'm working in the kitchen or cooking dinner. I decided to taker her idea and fill the sink with water, give Xander a spoon, a cup and a sponge and worry about the mess later.

Zack was just working on his Valentine's for his classmates. Look at that sweet face!

One sick baby...

plus some cushy quilts...
plus a bit of sun shining through the door...

plus Xander's turn with the camera...

plus a Daddy who thinks Xander is cute when he's sick (all cuddly and feverish [insert sad face])...

plus falling asleep laying on his dog on the couch...

equals a cute blog about Xander being sick and cuddly and cute.

Zack and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Sounds kind of boring, right? Well, read it anyway, because I just don't know what to do with this child sometimes!! Sorry it's kind of long, though.

The following is a conversation held by Zack (Z) and Mommy (M) on Tuesday evening regarding his homework assignment to draw a picture, label it and write 1-3 sentences (of which he is perfectly capable):

Z-I don't know what to write about.
M-Well, what happened at school today?
Z-We had fun.
M-What were you doing?
Z-Playing in the gym
M-What were you doing in the gym?
Z-We were playing "cross the ocean."
M-Can you tell me about it? (At this point, I heard the teacher in me talking.)
Z-It's a game where you have to cross the ocean. The floor is the ocean and you have to stay away from the sharks. Those are the people who are "it."
M-Oh, so it's kind of like a tag game.
Z-Yeah. If you get tagged by a shark, you have to sit on the floor like this (sat down and waved his arms out to the side).
M-Do you turn into a fish?
Z-No, you're a jellyfish.
M-So you get to tag people when you're a jellyfish?
Z-Yeah.
M-Okay, well that's a great story. Let me get you a piece of paper so you can draw your picture.
Z-That'll be a lot of people to draw.
M-That's okay, you don't have to draw all of them.

...A few minutes later, after he had been working on it, I went back to check on him. He had drawn a floor and two walls. In the middle was a stick figure whose arm was stretched out like he was trying to tag someone. (sorry, we got a bit more)
M-That looks good, I like how that person is reaching out to tag someone.
Z-Yeah, I don't like it. You can't see his smile.
M-Well, his head is really small, it's okay that you can't see it.
Z-But his legs don't look right. They're not the right size. And I don't have room to draw everybody. But we had to sit on the stage because there were too many people playing.

I wanted to help, but I also wanted us to be done with homework, so I added the stage to his drawing with a person sitting criss-cross.
Z-But their legs were hanging down. (I fixed it.)
Z-But his arms don't look right and I can't draw the other people.
M-(getting frustrated but trying to stay calm)Okay. Since we're getting frustrated with the drawing, let's just work on the words. You can write the story.
Z-I don't know what to write.
M-Write what you told me. "I had fun in the gym today. We played cross the ocean." Then keep going. (I even tried to encourage him that that was a great beginning and that I used to teach my first graders things like that.)

(I promise, it's almost done.) Well, it went all downhill from there...Instead of writing his story, he was scribbling on his paper. Then I found him playing in his room, saying he was doing something to write about. He was knocking over the chair, banging stuff, fussing and crying about getting it done! Mark took over, but it didn't really help. We did find out that Zack didn't really get to play the game, that he had to sit on the stage most of the time because he was tagged early in the game. Zack was eventually sent to time-out, where he cried and screamed that he didn't want to be bored anymore. Mark finally said, "Ok, if you're not going to do your homework, I'll tell you what to write and you'll write it." That's what happened, and this is what he wrote: "I was really grumpy after school today. I got angry doing homework. Daddy told me what to write." Yup, that's what he turned in, with a picture of himself on the top with a very sad face.

I went to work that night with a pain in my middle back that I attributed to the stress of a child crying about homework (and another child miserable with a cold, whining about not wanting to eat). Of course I want Zack to be happy, but I'm getting to the end of my rope. Mark said last night that Zack is going to hate school by the end of the year. I dread homework time everyday because I know it's going to be difficult, no matter how hard I try to be nice and reasonable.

So I guess I'm looking for 1. a way to make homework time NOT be a battle of wills and 2. reassurance that this is going to get better. Oh, and any suggestions on how to help him make friends, besides making playdates. (We would love to do that, but our question would be who to invite or how would I contact the parent?) He's lonely and unhappy, and I wonder if he's sometimes depressed. Help me help my little boy!

You might be a mommy...

• If you find random toys in your purse or pockets.
• If you use words like yummy, yucky and potty, even when your kids are not with you.
• If you hear the word why hundreds of times per day.

You might just be a mommy!!

And you can join in, too!! Just think of a couple of things that you have done this week or ever that make it quite obvious that you're a mommy, and write a post about it. Oh, and feel free to give me credit :) and add a comment on this post! Have fun, Mommies!!

Snow!!

The battery died during the first day of snow, so we didn't get much. And the hubbie didn't know that you can't zoom while shooting video. But here's a good one: we were sliding from behind Mark's car, down the cul de sac, and into the neighbor's yard. Xander thought it was always his turn, though...

Mmm mmm good

We made granola bars this morning!!! And they were so easy, so much so that I'm not sure that I'll buy boxed granola bars any more! Here's how we did it...

Mix together 2-1/2 cups of rice crispies, 2 cups of oatmeal (I used quick oats, don't know if it makes a difference), and 1/2 cup chocolate chips or raisins. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, mix together 1/2 cup corn syrup (I used Karo syrup) and 1/2 brown sugar. Bring it to a boil while stirring it. Remove it from the heat and stir until smooth. Pour it over the cereal mixture. Here the recipe said to add 1/2 peanut butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. I added the vanilla and a little bit of honey. Mix it all together, then press it into a pan (it said ungreased, but I didn't trust that, so I lined it with waxed paper).

They were so yummy!! And hopefully healthier than store-bought ones. What was really cool was that they turned into chocolate granola bars instead of chocolate chip, because pouring the syrup/brown sugar mixture melted the chocolate! Finger lickin good!!