Back to work

ESL classes resumed this week and I'm teaching a couple of classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. My night class has got me a bit concerned. All 20 of my students are Spanish speakers and it is the very lowest level, i.e. they can answer the question, "What is your name" and "How are you?", but that's about it.

I'm doing a little experiment this semester and not letting any of my students know that I speak Spanish. It has been my unfortunate experience that once they know I know Spanish, the vast majority of their questions are asked in Spanish and they want Spanish explanations, etc. I'm using the word Spanish a lot. Anyway.

It's been really difficult to pretend that I don't understand the conversations swirling around me and watching them struggle to put together simple questions when I KNOW what they want to ask, but I want them to at least try to do it in English.

There's a couple of other issues to deal with in the class. I've been assigned a Grad Student who is doing her practicum to get her MA in TESOL. She has to teach practically half my class. Yeah! Kinda. She's from France, has parents from Tanzania and English is her 3rd language. I'm not doubting her abilities, I'm worried about the accent. I guess that's a bit hypocritical since I've done my fair share teaching Spanish to gringos. We shall see.

Third issue: I've got 20ish students and there are 7 Marias. I'm not even joking, and none of them want to be called by any other name. I guess I'm going to have to call them by their first and last names or just use a lot of pro active eye contact. The class thinks it's hilarious.

Ben texted me the other night during class and I told him I was busy dealing with 7 Marias. He made me laugh out loud as he responded, "How do you solve a problem like 7 Marias?" I'll let you know the answer as soon as I figure it out.

Branded

Here's James, shortly before bedtime. Bob the Builder hardhat, Spongebob pjs and Elmo Slippers. You have to admit, he's a cutie!

In the bathroom this morning:

James: I hope my pee comes out like honey.

Me: What are you talking about?

James: Well, I ate Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast this morning.

(Well, honey pee would be better than the nut alternative.)


At the restaurant this afternoon:

Server: What will you have to drink?

Ben: Water

Me: Water, and can you bring him (James) a water with a lid on it? You never know with these little kids. Better safe than sorry.

10 mins later, before our food had even arrived, I knocked MY WATER glass over. It covered the whole table, ran off onto James' lap and puddled all over the floor. Hello, Karma! Teeny, tiny one room restaurant. Thankfully there were no obvious mockers. The employees didn't even mop it up while we were still there. They just kinda stepped around it carefully in their comings and goings. Weird.

All I want for Christmas...

Inevitably when we go to Walmart or Target or anywhere on the planet earth, James sees something he wants. The miracle is that he is almost always placated when we say, "Oh, we should put that on your Christmas or Birthday list."

Today we were watching a bit of TV and an ad came on for a new kind of bathtub cleaner. I said, "Oh, that looks like that would do a good job. I should get some of that."

James says, "Ok, we'll have to put it on your Christmas list."

I am so excited to open presents this year.

The Chucky Experience

There are no thumbs up for Chuck E. Cheese here.

When we were in Texas we decided a nice air conditioned activity would be to visit CEC. James had never been there and was MEGA WAY OVER THE TOP EXCITED when we told him we were going. Papa even decided to go with us. Yay! We thought we were all jumping in the minivan to provide James with a one of a kind special experience. The one of a kind special experience we had was probably the most traumatic thing that James has gone through since exiting the womb.

He was fine when we got our hands stamped and ordered pizza and got drinks. His beautiful long lashed eyes were all aglow as we walked through the maze of games and rides. And then it was all over. James spotted him. Yes, him. The 10 foot tall furry rodent staring at him dancing mechanically like the tin man on a stage. James stopped dead in his tracks and could not even say a word. We picked a table to sit at and we led James by the shoulders to sit down because he had his eyes focused on the mechanical monstrosity. He still hadn't said anything and his mouth had been hanging open so long that he had probably begun to drool.

All of a sudden he snapped into life and said repeatedly, "I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that." We turned his chair and we thought he was ok, but he continued with the whole slack jaw stare thing. Papa cut up pieces of pizza and put them in his mouth and he just sat there mechanically chewing. (I know it's sounds terrible but Ben and I thought this was all terribly entertaining, especially since James isn't even fond of pizza.)

We sat there and ate for a few minutes more and then I saw HIM coming. Yes, him. The man who comes out every hour dressed up like Chuck E Cheese. We had spent the last 20 minutes convincing James that CEC on the stage was a machine and would not come get him. And here comes trouble, BIG FURRY TROUBLE. Before I could jump up and warn him not to come near us he made his way over. I wish I could convey James' reaction. It wasn't a scream or a cry, but he looked up, saw CEC standing right next to him, and it was one of those moments that would have brought us $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos. He startled, just about fell out of his chair and started the whole "I don't want to see him!" thing again. I have to credit the man-CEC for his very rapid backward stepping tiptoe departure. I thought we were going to have to leave before spending any tokens.

However, James was wa-ay excited when Ben proposed that they go play games and ride the rides. He looked around continuously to make sure no CEC was near him and then went on with his business. We won lots of tickets and got him some fun little prizes. We thought all the trauma had been forgotten. How stupid are we.

For the next week. And I mean 7 days, people, James said the words Chuck E Cheese and Chuck E Cheese's approximately 30,000,000,000 times. It was like this:

"We went to see a mouse named Chuck E Cheese at a Place called Chuck E Cheese's. He lives there. It is a machine. Sometimes it is a man in a costume. He dances like this. [does demo of mechanical dance] I don't like Chuck E Cheese. Chuck E Cheese wears clothes that are purple and red. I don't like Chuck E Cheese. I only liked the games. I don't like Chuck E Cheese. Chuck E Cheese blah blah blah. Chuck E Cheese blah blah blah. Chuck E Cheese blah blah blah. Chuck E Cheese blah blah blah. Chuck E Cheese blah blah blah. Chuck E Cheese." Etc. Granny was pretty sure we needed to get the kid in therapy.

Anyone who came by the house was subjected to his narrative about CEC. He'd tell people at the grocery store, church, on the sidewalk. Wherever. Then after about a week the story changed and he LOVED Chuck E Cheese. Was really excited about it, talked positively about the whole thing. Granny felt tons better and we regained our sanity about having to hear him repeat everything a million times a day. Things sounded so great that Granny and Papa decided to take him again before we returned home. Two days before our departure they told him, "Hey James, we're going to go to Chuck E Cheese today!"

Long story short, we didn't make it back to CEC. It was a major "NO I DON'T WANT TO GO!" I don't know why I'm bummed out that he doesn't want to go back to the land of gross expensive pizza and ridiculous games and cheap prizes, but I kinda am. C'est la vie, right? I don't see Disney anywhere in our near future, either ;)

James and Friends

After Fruit Snacks soothed the savage beasts!


James and Lilly, being angelic for a moment.

Sad, But True

These are the only pics I took when we were in Texas. I could have taken pics at Gatti Land, the sea center, the pool, with more family, at the INFAMOUS Chuck E Cheese's (which you will surely hear about soon) The Great Texas Mosquito Festival, The Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory, at the park, etc etc etc, but we just didn't do it. Shame on us.

James finally allowing Aries to be near him.

Styling Papa's hair

Enjoying himself at the beach. All he wanted to do was keep throwing things into the waves and watch them come back.

Shapes, Letters and Numbers

James likes to point out shapes, letters and numbers in odd places. He'll call out numbers on a truck passing by or arrange his noodles to be a certain number. Sometimes he'll make letters out of sticks, etc.

Yesterday I heard him calling, "Mommy, mommy I made a J!" When I realized he was calling me from the bathroom I should have congratulated him from afar. When he demanded that I come see it, I should have politely declined.

At least I didn't take the picture he requested.

First Day of Preschool

James has wanted to go to school for the longest time. Every time he reads me a word I didn’t know he knew or says something bright I ask him, “Where’d you learn that?” and he always answers, “At school.” He asks about school all the time and frequently our days are full of him asking repeatedly, “What are we going to do next? What are we going to do after that? What are we going to do then? What are we going to do after nap? What are we going to do before dinner?” Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Once I started to tell him he was going to get a fun treat called a tranquilizer, but I didn’t think that would sound good if it came out in public.

Ben usually watches James while I teach 1 or 2 classes per semester, but that just wasn’t a possibility this time around. We had to decide what to do with the James. It was pay to have a friend watch him or pay to send him to a bit of preschool. After much agonizing (only on my part) we finally decided to do the preschool thing. (Something that really helped me make the decision is that one of our regular babysitters just got hired as the classroom assistant and knows the owner and teacher.) Today was the first day and I was up half the night worrying about this morning. I can’t really explain my drama; I just knew that things were going to be different now. It’s a small preschool with a certified teacher and includes the kindermusik program as part of the fee.

Today was ‘transition day’ when the parents come and spend the morning with the kids at the school. In other words, transition day = "hold your breath while you hope your child doesn’t do or say something mortifying while you’re actually there to witness it" day. James was in love from the first moment. He just ran in and started playing with the toys and trying to talk at the other kids who were still surgically attached to their parents. I think he went from one room to the other looking at every single thing and touching them and asking about what they were for. I am hoping (really hoping) that he learns the culture and norms of being in a preschool soon. Well, there’s only so much culture (ha!) you can have in a room full of 3 and 4 year olds.

Miss Yvette started putting down circles on the ground for the 8 kids to sit on.

James: I want a green one. I want a green one. I NEED a green one!

Other assorted kids: I want a red (blue/purple/yellow/white) one!!!!

(At this point I once again remembered why I could NEVER have a career with other peoples’ young children. I found myself thinking, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit! If you ask me for a specific color, you can forget about it!” HA!)

Miss Yvette starts reading a story about the first day of preschool. This becomes a heated competition to see which of the BOYS could yell out the end of the sentence first. (Meanwhile the girls were sitting quietly in their cute pink outfits being all polite and quiet.) Seriously, what is with boys anyway? Miss Yvette handles all of this quite tactfully.

The kids go outside for playtime with Miss Audrey while the parents have Q&A with Miss Yvette.

Parent 1: So how was your summer, Yvette?
Parent 2: Anybody see any good sales this weekend?
Parent 3: Oh, so and so’s baby is soo cute.
Parent 4: I can’t believe it rained this morning.
Me: So who will call me if there’s an emergency or something like that?

Everybody gets all quiet and looks at me and one mom says, “Oh, first time, huh? He’ll be fine, don’t worry, blah blah blah”. All the rest of the moms continue to console me until I feel like I want to console their butts right out of the room.

Snack time: The kids get to choose what they want off of the serving plates. You hear a chorus of: I don’t like oranges! I don’t like bananas. I only like oranges. I want a WHOLE banana. My mom says I can’t have cookies. This orange has seeds. My banana has a brown spot. William has more milk than me. I only drink chocolate milk. I want juice. Jonathan took my cookie. I dropped my napkin. AAAAAHHH! So glad transition day is only once a year.

After doing some time at different stations, it’s time to have the going home story and song. Miss Yvette (M.Y.) gets one page into the book:

Kid 1: My dog made poops in the house this morning.

M.Y. acknowledges and goes on with story.

Kid 2: Walmart doesn’t have any more purple notebooks.

M.Y. acknowledges and goes on with story.

Kid 3: I don’t like peanut butter.

M.Y. acknowledges and goes on with story.

JAMES: My daddy says…. My daddy says….

M.Y.: What does your daddy say, James?

(PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE DON’T LET HIM SAY, “My daddy says my mommy has hairy legs.” Or “My daddy says I need to not touch my face after I pee.” Or “My daddy says President Obama pooped his pants.” (Which James has said before, but Ben did NOT!) )

JAMES: My daddy says I can be Bob the Builder for Halloween.

(Ok, HALLELUJAH it wasn’t “My daddy says my mom should wear more clothes around the house!”

M.Y. acknowledges and goes on with story.

Ugh. Soon enough it is time to collect our belongings and head home. James is weeping because we have to leave and I’ve had more than enough preschool for this year. James goes back solo on Wednesday and I’m pretty positive I’ll be glad to see him off.

This child!

As in this child may not survive 3 years old!

He has turned into Sassy McSassy over the last couple of months. We try not to humor what he says, but sometimes he just amazes us with what comes out of his mouth. We came down hard on his use of poop jokes and he finally complied after a couple days worth of timeouts. Next thing I know he is making PEE jokes. I tell him, "Let's go look for daddy." He says, "OK, let's go look for Pee Pee." Is this a little boy thing or a 3 year old thing?

Another joy is when he is in an ornery mood-he loudly contradicts EVERYTHING anybody else says. This got him yanked out of church yesterday when he said, "NO SHE DOESN'T LOVE JESUS!" in response to someone's testimony. I was pretty much mortified. Later during church he was being a little tyrant in the nursery telling all the little kids, "BUBBLES ARE JUST FOR ME!" Later he chucked a block in anger and it hit a little girl who happens to be our neighbor. I think he was being a beast mostly because of the late night July 4th and lack of breakfast. After a huge lunch and lo-ong nap he woke up nice again. We had him make an apology card for his little friend and he insisted on taking a bag of cookies and juice box to her, too. He's such a sweetie when he's not being the giant tyrant.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a lovely July 4th! Lots of good friends, good food, good swimming, good naps and good fireworks! I am thankful for all the freedoms we enjoy, namely worshipping as I choose, freedom to study whatever I wanted at whatever University I could get into, freedom to choose whatever career I was qualified for, freedom to marry who, when and where I wanted, freedom to have as many children as we can, freedom to wear whatever clothes I want, freedom to shop at Walmart or Target or both, and freedom to say whatever I want on my own little blog!

Here are the only pics I took all day:

James enjoying his own version of smores.

The Star

This video is cute, but I'm mostly posting it for Lilly, James' other rock star friend!

Being 3 years old is funny

I haven't blogged in the longest time, and I totally blame it on Facebook. Ok, so I don't post that often over there either, but I spend the time that I would normally spend blogging. I keep forgetting that I am blogging not only to keep the family and friends in the know, but also as our family journal.

Ok, so James was a great 2 year old; 3 is not as peaceful. He enjoys doing the opposite of what we say just to see what will happen. He's been quite vocal about what choices we give him. We hear this alot:

"THOSE ARE NOT MY CHOICES!"

"I DON'T LIKE THOSE OPTIONS!"

He's been so funny, but I've been forgetting to take note. I can't forget what happened the other day though. My parents and Ben and I took him to see "UP". He was really scared about being at the movie because "Monsters vs Aliens" ended up being too scary for him back in April. (I took him out of the theater that day and walked around the mall with him.) Anyway, he kept hiding his eyes and staring down at his legs during the commercials BEFORE the previews because he was that nervous. He started to cry a little bit, so I told my mom to say some happy things to him.

Granny: This is sooo fun! We're having a great time!

James: (Staring down at his legs) (cry) yes (cry) we (cry) sure (cry) are! (cry)

We were all laughing so hard that it made him forget he was scared. At least until the previews came on. He finally relaxed after I 1) bought him a bag of skittles 2) He sat on my lap for the whole movie. Ugh, that was not comfortable.

He's in swim lessons at the university this summer and he has been enjoying himself. He's not daring at all, but he's having a good time. The teachers have been taking all the kids down to the 13' side of the pool at the end of class to give them each a chance to jump off the high board, low board or starting blocks. He just sits on the side of the pool and keeps telling his teacher that he'll try to do it "tomorrow". (whenever that is!)

And last but not least, here is an entertaining video of him dancing. I have no idea what gets into this kid sometimes! (and it is entertaining to hear my cackle laugh and my parents singing "shake your booty".)

James' Ears

First, some gratuitous cuteness: Here's my guys making a treat from the Cheerios Cookbook. Thanks, Grandma!

As cute as James' ears are, they are causing us more grief than I bargained for. For the first 2 years of his life he had a ton of ear infections. He got tubes put in right around his 2nd birthday--and that day was a nightmare. When the tube in his left ear fell out a few months ago, the hole remained. The ENT has been watching it since January, but it never closed. It was time to finally do something about it and today James had a "procedure". (Procedure doesn't seem like right word when they take your baby away on a gurney in a hospital gown and put him under anesthesia to fix his ear.)

James had a "paper patch" put in to fix his ear. Basically the dr goes in, scrapes the ear drum up to irritate it and places a tiny piece of rice paper over the newly irritated hole so that the skin is "encouraged to grow". We are hoping and praying this works, because if it doesn't, the next procedure is more like a major ear surgery. Sigh.

Anyway, things went really well this morning and the only things we have to worry about are 1) Not letting James blow his nose and 2) Not changing altitudes for a couple of weeks. We can handle that!

Oh, and for those of you who wanted to know what the receipt was actually for in the last post, it was some kind of water hose repair kit. Ha!

Aah, Walmart

I was going through our receipts tonight and found this gem. If I had known that it was that cheap, I would have got me some of that a long time ago! I hope they sell it at your local walmart. Ben even bought it for himself!

Heaven Help Us

Earlier this evening:

Ben: Let's get ready to go to Albertsons. James, do you want to wear your Star Wars shirt?

James: (Starts crying) No! I don't want to wear that one!

Me: James, what's wrong with your Star Wars shirt?

James: (Still crying) The girls at Albertsons won't like that shirt! Waaaaaahh!

(Ben and Carolyn try, oh we try, to contain the hysteria of his crying and our laughter. James chooses his Bob the Builder shirt.)

20 Mins later at Albertsons:

Female Employee: Hi James!

(I am not kidding: James sticks out his chest and pulls out the corners of his shirt so that she can fully see his shirt.)

Female Employee: Oooh, I like that shirt!

James smiles and gets all shy.

Yeah, heaven help us.

Potty Training Update

Well, It's May 1st and we started potty training on April 1st. It hasn't been that bad, though I can't say that we're done by any stretch of the imagination.

Some of the highlights:

*Missionaries came over for dinner on day 1. As we were eating, James kept telling them about the Potty Party, Pee, Poop, all of his new underwear, etc. As they tried to share a message with us, James kept interjecting potty talk, potty humor and he would dash off to bring in some of his new underwear and wave it in the Elders' faces. Yeah, thank heavens it was new underwear.

* Has to be nakey from waist down to do his business. Not so convenient in public restrooms, you know.

* As we were falling asleep one night, I told Ben if he could get James to poop on the potty the next morning I would pay him $20. I still owe him that.

* Every one of the songs he knows now has the word "poop" inserted in it somewhere.

We are DEFINITELY still working on the whole poop thing. He's not a big fan of doing it in the right place. However, I think we are progressing...Happy Meals are a powerful bribe.

I don't know what to do (or if something needs to be done) about the whole pee thing. It's been 30 days, and he's only had 10 accidents, total. (yeah, I keep a calendar and make tally marks.) Most of those were in the first week. But, and here's the big but, he's never, not once, told us that he needs to go pee. We've just increased the time between potty breaks every week and now we're taking him every 2 1/2 hours or so. Do we need to try to get him to tell us when he actually needs to go? Or do we just leave it alone and keep taking him according to our schedule?

High Fashion

I guess I spent too long making phone calls this morning...but isn't he cute?

Family Birthday

(If someone can tell me how to rearrange pics in the order I want them after I've uploaded them to Blogger, do be a dear and TELL ME! )

Granny covering James' eyes to hide the surprises.
Opening something.

Sitting proudly on his Birthday Bicycle. It's the last time he's been on it. He's way afraid of it :(

Cheesy family time.

Cheesy James time.

Blowing out the candles

Other cheesy people.

James with one of his favorite presents. It's a giant 24 piece puzzle.

The Latest

We went over to walk around the mall this evening.

James: What does that sign say?

Me: Barnes and Noble Booksellers

James: That's a NAUGHTY word!

Me: What word?

James: BOOKSELLERS!

Me: Um, are you sure?

James: Yeah, trust me.

*******

Later, inside the mall

Me: Ooh, I like this***. Tell Daddy to buy it for me for Mother's Day.

James: But when is James' Day?

Me: Every day is James' Day.

James: Yeah, I like that.

***Is something I want, which Ben will have to drag James around the mall in hopes of finding with a 3 year old's description. Hee hee hee!
****************

Tonight, around the dinner table.

Everyone: chat chat chat chat chat

James: Barack Obama came to my nursery yesterday.

Me: Oh really? What did he do?

James: He talked.

Me: What else did he do?

James: He sang the "lead me guide me walk beside me" song.

Me: Uncontrollable laughter

Ben: You better go put that on the Blog. Your parents are gonna LOVE that.