8 Things To Know About Will

8 Things To Know About Will, originally uploaded by Wendy.A.

The challenge was to scrap a list, and this was a list of things I had written a couple of years ago when Will turned 8.

I'm not at all sure how I feel about this layout. Even blaming some of it on the horrible iPhone picture of it, I have to admit I'm not feeling great love for this one. I got the idea to use a bunch of tags from something I saw in Elsie Flannigan's book, 52 Scrapbooking Challenges. Her style is super-doodly (that was even fun to type. Now say it out loud: super-doodly!) and random. On the scrapbook style spectrum, I fall much closer to the Cathy Zielske (Clean and Simple Scrapbooking and Clean and Simple Scrapbooking The Sequel) end than the Elsie Flannigan end.

So, yeah, overall, having 8 different snippets of the list sneezed all over the layout kind of stresses me out. Lesson learned. But isn't the patterned paper adorable??

First Pro Football Game

First Pro Football Game, originally uploaded by Wendy.A.

Have I mentioned that I'm scrapbooking a lot this month?? :) Somehow I missed uploading this page from last weekend. Katie saw this one and said she thought I had a shot at winning this scrapbook contest! That's pretty amazing, considering that the page isn't about her.

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch, originally uploaded by Wendy.A.

I could have done 2--maybe even 4--pages with all the pictures I took at the pumpkin patch, but after I messed with it and messed with it, I finally decided these four pictures told the story best. I'm reserving the right to use pumpkin patch pictures on a "2010 in review" layout later on.

Dinomania

Dinomania, originally uploaded by Wendy.A.

I've made it to day four in LOAD! This page has been in the back of my mind for several years, and it feels wonderful to have it out of my brain and ready to finally go in the scrapbook!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's layout! :)

Bedtime Stories

I've recently started going to a monthly scrapbook crop with some ladies from our church. I look forward to it all month, and by the time it finally arrives, I am so excited that I can hardly concentrate on anything else all day. When Will heard I was going out that night, his immediate reaction was, "Will you be home in time to read to us?" Knowing that the scrapbooking deal ran until 10:30, I hedged with an evasive, "Possibly."

Bedtime stories are solely my responsibility, partly because Scott goes to bed earlier than the rest of us and partly because Will and Katie just prefer it that way. For the most part, reading bedtime stories is my favorite thing to do and bedtime my favorite time of day. We're relaxed and winding down; everybody is usually feeling snuggly and loving. Will likes funny books or adventure books, and we usually read a couple of chapters together. Then I head into Katie's room and we read a girly book. The girlier, the better. It's nice.

To be completely honest, though, some days I just want everybody to go to bed with a simple tuck-in. Some days I wish I could lay in my own bed and read a couple of chapters of a mom book, but by the time I've read to both children, Scott is completely zonked out, and only a crazy person would turn on a light and start reading at that point!

Anyway, I was having a good ol' time up at the church, and when 8:00 rolled around, I told myself that Will was really getting too old for bedtime stories. Surely he could tolerate Scott reading for one night, or even skipping the story all together. I could read to him the next night, if he still wanted a story. If he still wanted a story?? Where did that come from? When I realized that this could actually be the last night--or the last week, or even the last month--he wanted a story, suddenly I couldn't get home fast enough.

We read a little Melonhead.

Snapshots of our First Day

Like many families, one of our back-to-school traditions is to take pictures. Here are a few of my favorites from this morning:



"Take one like I'm going into school, Mommy."

Will spent a lot of time striking poses to look cool. Last year it was silly poses. I would be sad over that, except that I have a strong feeling that silly will be back in vogue with him soon.


Miss Thing, though, needs to stop looking so grown up. Right. Now.


I love these kids.

Another tradition we have is to try to capture a snapshot of who they are as they begin a new school year. To that end, I have them tell me some of their favorite everyday things. They call it The Interview, and they take it very seriously.

Katie's Interview, as she begins first grade:
Favorite book: The Gingerbread Girl
Favorite movie: Hotel for Dogs (which the rest of us hated with the fiery passion of a thousand white hot suns.)
Favorite TV show: Hannah Montana and Sunny With A Chance.
Favorite color: pink & purple
Favorite breakfast: scones
Favorite lunch: a salad, with no dressing (which, to my knowledge, she has never had.)
Favorite dinner: lobster (which, to my knowledge, she has never had.)
Favorite snack: celery (which, to my knowledge...well, you know the rest.)
Favorite thing to do with our family: play Fancy Nancy
Favorite thing to do alone: play dolls
Favorite song: The Dream of Diamonds (an original song by Katie)
Favorite toy: Sunshine, a stuffed dog
Favorite restaurant: a French restaurant (Undoubtedly one that serves lobster and celery.)
Favorite drink: waterwithice. She says it as one word and orders it in restaurants like that. As if they would bring her warm water without ice.

William's Interview, as he begins third grade:
Favorite book: Copperheads (a non-fiction gem he picked up at the library last week.)
Favorite movie: Transformers 2
Favorite TV show: Suite Life on Deck (Interestingly, last year's answer was The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, which spun off itself to become the Suite Life on Deck. I'm embarrassed that I just told you that.)
Favorite color: orange
Favorite breakfast: muffins
Favorite lunch: Famous Dave's
Favorite dinner: chicken fricassee (He admits that he likes saying the name of the dish as much as eating it.)
Favorite snack: Fruit Gushers
Favorite thing to do with our family: swimming
Favorite thing to do alone: watch TV
Favorite song: Bad (Are you kidding me?)
Favorite toy: Transformers (any of the thousand he has, I assume; he didn't specify one.)
Favorite restaurant: Playtime Pizza (which is located, rather inconveniently, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He also struggled briefly with whether it could properly be defined as a restaurant.)
Favorite drink: Orange Capri-Sun

He said/She said, part 87

A couple things Will & Katie have said lately that left me laughing:

Will told Scott, "I'm not getting married for a loooong time, because I like making my OWN decisions."

The backstory. Scott wanted to wear shorts to church one Sunday.

I said no.

He countered that he had worn shorts to church last summer.

I said, yes, that was because we were doing a Hawaiian-themed VBS in the children's department through the summer and this year we were up in an adult class.

He countered that I was wearing what he called "3/4 length pants."

I told him that if he had any 3/4 length pants, he could wear them.

He changed tacks and tried the old "Will gets to" argument.

"Will's legs are not as hairy as yours." I reminded him.

"So you're saying if I shave my legs, I can wear shorts!" he said triumphantly.

"Yes, dear, that's what I'm saying. If you shave your legs, you can wear shorts to church."

(I loved watching the conflicting looks on his face as he realized that to do what he wanted to do, he would have to do what he didn't want to do!)

Katie told me, "Daddy just can't say no to me."

The backstory. Scott tends to be on the cold-natured side. (I attribute this to his low body-fat and regularly advise him to eat a cheeseburger and put on a sweater.) In Scott's ideal world, everybody would wear flannel pajamas year-round. However, Katie is hot natured as well as opinionated about her clothes, even if she's just going to be sleeping in them. This particular night, she had chosen a sleeveless, princess-y nightgown. Scott had chosen long-sleeved princess-y pajamas with long pants.

"No," she told him cheerfully, "I'm in the mood for this gown."

"I'm afraid you'll be cold," he told her. "Let's wear these warm jammies."

"No, I don't think so. I'm in the mood for this gown."

"Sweetheart, I don't want you to be cold. Let's wear these jammies."

(I'm sitting on the bed, just being amused by the discussion. This same back-and-forth was repeated a couple more times.)

Finally, Katie said in her this-is-my-final-offer voice, "I will wear the jammy top over my gown but that's it."

I couldn't help grinning, and Katie didn't miss it, as she gave her Daddy a big hug and said, "Daddy just can't say no to me."

What's been keeping us busy this summer

This is the second summer that Will & Katie have done swim camp with an outfit called Swim Kids. I am not much of a swimmer (and even less of a swim teacher!) so I love handing them off to a trained professional to learn good, solid swimming basics.

Katie had grown enough over the past year that she is finally able to touch the bottom of the pool. Her confidence was way up over last year, too. She had a good time with the lessons and enjoyed her coach, but--in true Katie style--Miss Thing wasn't going to do anything she didn't feel comfortable with, no matter what trinket they promised her out of the treasure box. Her personality leads me to suspect she'll always prefer laying in a lounge chair poolside over swimming laps, but at least she's now able to enjoy an afternoon of splashing around the pool with her brother.





Will, on the other hand, absolutely loves swimming and spent our afternoons at the pool practicing his strokes, his breathing, everything he could think of to move ahead in his class. He enjoyed it so much I even toyed with the idea of enrolling him in the homeschool swim classes this fall. Then I remembered how much I despised the six weeks of that we did last fall and the holy oath I swore that I would never do that to myself again. Sorry, dude.

We still have a month before the outdoor pool closes for the season, so we'll be spending our afternoons there if you need to reach us!

Introducing the IKEA "Fjelldal " Loft Bed

I wish I had pictures to share of the Eight-Hour Adventure of assembling this bed, but alas, whipping out the camera just never seemed prudent. The whole thing went surprisingly smoothly, but any time you have 1500 pieces of wood, 12, 000 screws, directions in Swedish and two children helping...you can just expect a few tense moments. Will was beyond excited and--as he normally does when he is awake beyond excited-- chattered almost incessantly. "I've never had a bed with a ladder before. Can I put the ladder together? Well, when it's time, can I put the ladder together? This is going to be so cool, it's going to change the whole look of my room. Is it time for the ladder yet? Oh, okay, just let me know." All. Day. Long. Fortunately, Scott finds that level of noise excitement endearing rather than annoying.

One thing he thought was perhaps less than endearing was that I bought the bed without actually measuring anything. In my world, a full-sized bed has the same measurements whether it's on the floor or elevated on a loft dealie. My only concern was that the bed took up 85% of the floor space in the room and elevating the bed would solve that problem. I was technically correct on both points, but I failed to consider the height of the ceiling or the proximity of the ceiling fan. Or the challenge of getting the mattress onto the loft without taking out said ceiling fan.

But it will all work out, and one little man is so happy that he still hasn't stopped talking about the many, many positive aspects of his new loft bed, not the least of which is that the available playspace in his room just doubled.

Poetry in Motion...Lots of Motion

I think Children's Museums, Wonder Places and the like are just about the most fun ever. When I grow up, I want to either own one, run one or maybe just hang out in one. I took this video at the Gilbert Children's Museum in Salem, Oregon, which we had never had the chance to visit before. (And never would have, if Amy had not arranged the outing.) It has been stuck in my camera since our summer vacation and today was the day that I decided to get it uploaded or die trying.

Gilbert House more than lived up to my expectations. There were creative play opportunities, cultural learning opportunities, and science opportunities galore. Will's favorite exhibit was "A Child's Trip to China." Besides practicing writing Chinese characters and cuddling giant stuffed pandas, he, Katie and John dressed up in traditional costume and made up a tea ceremony.


Katie thought that was pretty great until she saw the next room. Every single thing about this room was custom-made for my expressive little free spirit. (The video starts off a little slow; please give her 10 or 15 seconds to find her groove.)

This is video I shot of her playing in the exhibit called Recollections. I know we must have spent more than an hour in there. She absolutely loved it and went back for more after lunch. (We had a picnic lunch at their ginormous outdoor playground--where I first started to obsess about making raspberry jam after eating The Best PB&J of my LIFE, courtesy of Amy.) You can read more about the Recollections exhibit at the Gilbert House website. Or, here, I'll copy & paste it:

Recollections is a colorful, dazzling projection that allows visitors to create vivid, full-size, time-delayed images of themselves. Combining computer technology, a color camera, a large screen projector, and a special retro-reflective screen, artist/software designer Ed Tannenbaum has created an environment that allows the user to explore time and motion in beautiful colors. Over 256 colors can be displayed on the screen at one time as visitors move and become part of a work of art.

So here's my new plan. Until further notice, I want to go to the Gilbert House every time we're in Oregon. I may never make it to The Enchanted Forest, but I'm okay with that.

Blessed be the name of the Lord

I've had this song stuck in my head for, oh, about 5 years. It's one of Will's favorites and he often (often) starts singing it out of the blue.

A couple of days ago I was telling Scott that I'd recently learned that a guy at our church used to be a hair model. This tidbit was especially juicy because as the years have gone by, his center part has gotten wider and wider, if you know what I mean. Will wandered through the kitchen as Scott was speculating whether losing one's hair would be more painful if one had been a hair model. Ever the philosopher, Will volunteered, "Well, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Just like my song says. " Then he hit the chorus hard with some rockin' air guitar.

More he said/she said

• Yesterday Will (newly 8) walked up to me and said solemnly, "Mommy, I'm becoming a man." I just about fell off my chair. "You're becoming...?" I repeated in confusion and/or disbelief. "Yes," he said seriously. "I just found a hair in my nose."

• At our church, children who are kindergarten-aged or older attend the worship service with their parents instead of having a second hour of Sunday school. After just one week of having Katie with us, I know I have some work to do with her to get to appropriate church behavior. When the offering was collected, Scott passed the plate to Katie and Katie passed the plate to me. I passed it to Will who sometimes contributes some of his own money. On this particular Sunday he wasn't prepared and quickly asked me, "Can I have a dollar?" Katie heard him and said (loudly, of course!) "I want a dollar, too!!" as she (I'm cringing as I type this) started to snatch a dollar out of the offering plate. The family at the end of our pew was shaking with laughter.

• The Air Force has had their people wearing BDUs (that stands for Battle Dress Uniform, the sexy camouflage ones) pretty much since 9/11 unless there is a formal briefing or ceremony like a promotion or retirement. For some reason, somebody recently decided that they would be going back to wearing their blues, but only on Mondays. When Scott came home Monday night, Will and Katie ran downstairs to hug and tackle him like they always do, but when Katie saw him, she stopped in her tracks and demanded, "What in the heck do you think you are wearing?!" I had completely forgotten that, being born in 2002, she's only seen Scott in his blues a couple of times.
  

Nature's Alarm Clock and other observances on country life

While visiting Scott's family in Oregon, we got to sleep in the back yard in a tent, which is really fun. Except his sister has this rooster who apparently has an extreme sensitivity to light. He starts crowing about 3:00 in the morning. It's insane. Scott nominated this particular rooster to be the guest of honor at the family barbecue. (Steve said no, because the rooster somehow makes the hens lay good. Or is it lay well? Anyway, I learned a lot about chickens this trip.)

One morning about 7:30, after the rooster had finally stopped crowing, yet another little one of God's precious creatures started chirping just outside the tent. After about five minutes of its joyful singing to welcome the new day, Katie rolled over and grumped, "Will somebody please turn that thing off??!"

And you know what else? It's dark out in the country. Scott noticed it first as we were driving from the airport to his sister's and kept saying, "Man, it's dark out in the country. This is darker than pitch black. What's darker than that? This is like two or three shades darker than pitch black." A little later, Will woke up in the back seat and said, "Dude! Did you see how bright their stars are?!"

One night I was too tired to sleep--is there anything more miserable? My tossing and turning was annoying others, so I got out of the tent and looked for something to do. I ended up stargazing and was truly amazed. The night sky out in the country is breathtaking! The stars are everywhere! (I realize that sounds ridiculous, but in the city they're not everywhere.) I knew I was sleepy enough to get back into the tent when I thought, "Wow, this is as pretty as the planetarium."

But the clincher was when we flew back to Virginia. We arrived very, very late, and as we were driving home, Will asked, "Is the sun coming up already?" Honest to God, it was that much brighter here--at midnight--than there.

More stories (and hopefully pictures!) to come very soon!

Everybody's a comedian

It's an oldie but a goodie...with a Katie twist. No matter how many times I tell her how it really goes, this is what we get.



Not to be outdone, Will wanted to tell you a joke, too.

Sailing, sailing over the bounding main...

Scott has an enormous affinity for the water. E. Nor. Mous. When we lived in Hawaii, there was a stretch of Nimitz Highway that Scott literally could not drive without commenting, "I just LOVE it here." And it was a spectacular bit of scenery--just as you come into downtown Honolulu, to your right was a marina filled with sailboats. I just found it so endearing for that specific point to move him so consistently.

For Father's Day this year, Scott took a sailing course. Sailing, you may be surprised to learn, is actually a lot of hard work, and he would come home every night sweaty and tuckered out. And very, very happy. This weekend he took us for our first sailing adventure as a family.

He had been teaching Will the various knots over the last few weeks. When Scott tossed a rope to Will and told him to put a stopper knot in that so we could grind the jib (I have a long way to go before I'll be fluent in sailing lingo!), Will took his responsibilities very seriously. When he handed the perfectly tied knot back to his dad, there was a look of quiet confidence and pride in his eyes.



Katie preferred to stay below deck to read in the shade. (That's my girl!) Once we were underway, she quickly realized that it was more fun to have the wind in your hair, so she joined the rest of us.



I think everybody got a turn manning the tiller. (Will was only momentarily disappointed that the boat didn't have a wheel like pirate ships.)

Of course I have to share a couple of the really funny moments. Will got to blow the air horn from the bow as we pulled out of marina. Except Scott forgot to tell him just to give a short blast. After about 8 looooong seconds of earsplitting racket, we were finally able to yell, "STOP!!" loud enough for him to hear us. Classic William: he stopped the horn and yelled back, "what? I can't hear you over this horn!"

And then we almost had a catastrophe at the end of our adventure. It was my job to jump out of the boat onto the dock and secure the boat with ropes as Scott finished guiding it in. Because I'm known for being good under pressure and steady on my feet. Does this sound like a setup for America's Funniest Videos?? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I nailed my landing and tied da bugger up perfectly.

But then Scott went to tie up the bow. He admits to thinking to himself, "This is a bad idea,[emphasis mine] but I'm just going to put one foot on the boat, loop the rope and push myself back onto the dock." So--of course-- when he did that, the boat started to push away from the dock. Scott's boat leg was getting further and further and further away from his dock leg, and all I could do was watch in horrified fascination, thinking "he's going to push back...he's going to push back." Well, just a millisecond before he was going to have no choice but to fall in, he did push back. He looked around sheepishly and said, "Yeah, I know that was a bad idea."

But two have such two minor occurrences over the course of a 3-hour sail is pretty miraculous. All of us agreed that we want to go sailing again as soon as possible.

And now Scott and Will are actively shopping for sailboats. It's really pretty precious to see them huddled around the computer screen, discussing various sizes and features. I'm not going to get really worried until they start discussing what to name the boat.

It feels good to laugh again

Will loved that "America's Funniest Home Videos" as a toddler. He called it "Dogs and Babies" and would belly laugh pretty much the entire time.

Fast-forward to 2008: Will and I have been poking around on YouTube and found this old clip from the show. Wait until about 35 seconds into the clip--from there to the end is the reason I'm posting the video. Will and I were laughing as hard as I can ever remember laughing. (I think we were partially laughing at how hard the other one was laughing!) I had tears coming out of my eyes and Will alternated between being unable to breathe and unable to stand.

Cool Kids, defined

"A cool kid stands like this." Will told me one day, leaning against the wall a la Danny Zuko in Grease. His heelies slipped a little and he flailed his arms to recover his balance. He looked at me sheepishly. "It's harder than it looks. That's why there aren't many cool kids."

Then last weekend, he and his dad went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth. In 3-D. Oh, mercy. They were both so hyped up afterward. "It was so cool!! Things were flying off the screen toward me, and I really thought I could catch them!!" (It was Scott, the alleged adult, who said that.) Will was so enamored with his 3-D glasses that he amended his definition of cool kids to include wearing sunglasses. He has several other pairs that, um, fit but his 3-D glasses are by far the coolest.

Can't wait to see what he adds next. And for the record, I think he's a cool kid, regardless.

I have failed my children

Katie and Will got into an argument today over--I can barely make myself type this--who has more musical talent: Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers.

"Some people like Hannah Montana!" Katie asserted fiercely.

"Some people like the Jonas Brothers!!" Will shot back, just as forcefully.

"SOME people," I interrupted pointedly, "like George Strait."

As I expected, that pretty much ended the conversation. But when I glanced in the rear view mirror, I saw them looking at each other, completely confused.

Finally, Will spoke up. "Um, who is George Strait?"

Stick a knife in my heart, son, it will hurt me less.

Then Katie piped in with the equally painful, "Oh, wait, isn't that Miley Cyrus's dad?"

I guess I'll have to take my kids honky-tonkin' when we go to Austin to meet my sister's new baby.

Update on who I think is cool

I was having a terrible time with Blogger when I posted those pictures of Will. By the time Blogger finally agreed to upload them for me, I had done something to my keyboard that kept it from working. Argh!!

Anyway...

Will turned 8 on Thursday. At what age do moms stop saying, "I just can't BELIEVE you're ____! It seems like only yesterday..."?? Cliche' though it may be, it is completely and absolutely true. I look at his baby pictures (and toddler pictures...and preschool pictures...) and wonder where the time went.

While Will and Katie are at Camp Nana, I've had time to work on our family scrapbook (and other important self-improvement endeavors*). One thing I do each year is a page giving a glimpse into each child's personality and preferences at that age. It's fun to see how they've changed, as well as how they've stayed the same. For example, William has loved the color orange since he was about two:
Don't get excited, Beau; he's loved Texas A&M about that long, too:
(Hmm, wish the logo on his cap showed up a little more!!) He wore this cap until it fell apart. I was so proud.

For Will's page this year, I put together a little list of "Eight Things You Need to Know About William at Eight"
8. He loves, loves, loves his dog Krypto.
7. He is currently a red belt in Tae Kwon Do.
6. He's totally into Prince Caspian and the Wii.
5. He is remarkably helpful and considerate of others.
4. He is known far and wide for his sense of humor.
3. He's a people person and especially enjoys hanging with D. and A.
2. He wakes up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And chattering.
1. His family is absolutely crazy about him.

I hope to get that page finished this weekend. Should I post it here when it's done?

Have a great Saturday, everybody!

*Note to Sis: I earned that score while balancing the keyboard on my knees. "Somebody" snapped the pullout keyboard tray by using it as a ballet barre. I'm just saying.)

Quotable Kids

Lately Katie enjoys counting in Spanish. "Uno, dos, tres, nachos, cinco, seis..."

William was looking for someone to play the Prince Caspian Wii game he got for his birthday. My mom, knowing her limits on the Wii, said, "I can play bowling with you, if you want." William answered sadly, "Cair Paravel is doomed."

And how's this for a Statistically Improbable Event: Katie loves to write long strings of random letters and then ask what she wrote. Tonight, in the midst of many (many) other letters, she had written WARM MILK. I would scan the page to show you, but she was so excited to have written something that she's sleeping with it clutched in her hand.

Katie's ballet recital is tomorrow morning, so check back tomorrow afternoon to see if I had a nervous breakdown!!