peelosophy

important definition you must know before the story…

“butt-butt”(noun) – a word used in affectionate teasing between the Peel brothers.

JJ’s 7th birthday is today and we went to Steak and Shake for dinner and then onto the Boy Scout Talent Show.  As we were on our way to the talent show we passed our street and Henry whined, “Where are we going again????”

John: “To the Boy Scout talent show.”

Henry complained: “Why are we all going to the Boy Scout talent show??”

George says, “Because we are a family,  butt-butt.”

Seriously, where did he get that from?!? It was totally unexpected and hysterical -preach it brother George.

Today JJ’s friend Madeline stopped by to drop off a gift for him that she picked up in LegoLand at Disney World last week.  It was a little tub of Legos – so sweet.

He told her thank you twice when she gave them to him. Then tonight he felt he needed to call her and thank her again.

He looked up her number and dialed it and this is how the conversation went….

Mrs.J: Hello

J: Hi, this JJ Peel is Madeline there?

Mrs.J: Why yes she is just a moment JJ.

M:  Hello

J: Hi Madeline, this is JJ.  Thank you for the Legos you gave me.

M: That is the third time you thanked me JJ.

J:  I know.  I really like them and wanted to tell you that my brother and I made 3 things with them already.

M:  Cool!

long  pause……..

M: You know were are partners tomorrow for school.

J:  I know.

M: That’s exciting!

J: Yeah.  Here comes a burp…..

M: What?

Me in the background:  JJ We do not burp over the phone.

J: Ok see you tomorrow.

M: Bye.

So how did I know both sides of the phone conversation?  I totally put the phone on speaker.  I figure I have a small window of time my sons will let me listen in help them with their phone skills and I took it.  Hopefully my control issues will be resolved by the time they are teenagers.

John – she was wearing her Ferrari Formula 1 T-shirt when she dropped the gift…..

Today was JJ’s first day of 1st grade!!! I always get undue stress about things like the first day of school.  I thought I had to have a lot of silly stuff ready or perfect… like this was the first day of the rest of our lives or something!

On the other hand JJ was the normal one, he usually is,  just calm,  cool and collected.  Although he did get upset because I was rushing him out the door and he still wanted to tell John about the dream he had last night…which explains the sad pictures.  Honestly, I didn’t have any compassion for his case,  but John did and decided that he would drive him so he could hear all about his dream- good dad.

New school year resolution #1…This year I will try my hardest not to be a stressed out Drill Sargent trying to get the kids to school in the morning…ahem

Here’s another post about what we have done to pass the time until dinner.  Like I said before, after 4pm over here is more often meltdown city, so I’ve been trying to come up with things to get through it.  It’s funny though the unplanned things (or acts of desperation) we do tend to do end up being the real winners as opposed to something “planned”.

For example, a couple of days ago, I put some cardboard, masking tape, crayons and paddle sticks in the middle of the table and ask, “What can you build with these?”.  An HOUR later JJ is done and here’s what he came up with…

He grabbed the Army and space guys when he was done and played with his camp set-up until dinner was ready.   He’s amazing.

My friend, Erin, just started cutting hair and came over to give me and JJ a haircut yesterday.  JJ does not like getting his haircut, and actually last summer he acted like we were beating him when we tried to shave it.

JJ went first and a couple of minutes into it asked me quietly, “Mom. can you get me my glasses?”  I didn’t understand because he doesn’t wear prescription glasses, I clarified with him what he meant and he wanted his sunglasses. I found his sunglasses and he put them on and wore them through the entire haircut, I guess they helped him cope.  We all have our coping mechanisms I guess, Erin and I quietly giggled about it – she said it reminded her of the kid in Big Daddy with Adam Sandler.

Something fun though for all summer playgroupers over here…I asked Erin if she could come over like once a month and do kids haircuts inside during playgroup – and she loved the idea.  Now I just have to swindle a Starbucks barista, and esthetician and work on my kids cleaning machine and all my playgroup dreams will come true.…summer come quick!

For a background on how/why we do Tot School, click here.

It’s been a while since we have done any sort of Tot School!  Now we are slowly coming out of the Emma transition and have been enjoying trying to enjoy the snow and being cooped up inside.  Here’s a little peek at what we’ve been up too…

Read more…

John suggested I take JJ out to lunch when the other boys are at Kids Day Out on Wednesdays.  I don’t know if it’s because he is the oldest or because he has always been SO independent, but I feel like he never “needs” me as much as the other boys.  And he usually has a play date with Scott over here or over at his house on Wednesdays , so I didn’t know how hot he would be with the idea of hanging out with mom.

I told him a couple of days before and when i picked him up on Wednesday from school, he asked excitedly if today was the day for our “special lunch”.  I was glad he was excited.  I took him to Carl’s Drive-In, which he has never eaten at the restaurant but we have had take-out several times.  For those that don’t know, Carl’s is just a s”stool” restaurant, you walk in either door and there is just counter seating and you can watch them cook your food.

Read more…

JJ had his first day of Kindergarten today.  He was ready to go and did not want his picture taken – he was playing it “cool” all morning.   Surprisingly, with hormones raging, I did not shed a tear and neither did he.

Afterwards,  I asked how it went and he replied, “I only got to play a little and had to listen ALOT.”  And now it begins, the rest of his school career.  And the transition to more structured mornings and getting out the door.  I do not “get out the door” very well and do not do transitions well – especially when I am pregnant.  It will probably rock my world more than his.  I am relating a little to what Melinda said last year about Riley’s first day – “Today is the end of the rest of our lives.”

Here’s some pics…

I know all five year olds say amazing things.  JJ is a lot like John and I already – he’s in his head too much.  You can see when his gears are trying to crank something out. Today he offered me two insights, one spiritual the other just something I needed to know.

He was telling me how great it is that “Jesus can live inside our heart and be with us all the time.”  I agreed.  And then came the long thoughtful pause, and he asked, “So is there like an ittty, bitty, tiny land inside my heart?”  And then, with his fingers, he showed me how itty bitty tiny the land would be.

We were trying to get out the door and I asked the boys to put the couch cushions back on the couch before we left.  As they were doing it, I noticed how dirty the darker cushion got from being on the floor.  So I reasoned with them and said,  “This is why we don’t put the cushions on the floor, because they can get dirty.”   JJ then explained to me, “but the reason you had little boys was to play with couch cushions on the floor”.  Yeah, I still don’t get it exactly, but it probably was one of the reasons why I had little boys.

Do you ever come up with ideas and then next thing you know someone is marketing it?  I’m sure this was not my idea to begin with, but JJ and I have been making masking tape “race tracks” and railroad tracks for years and then I see this…

this is a picture of one of ours JJ took, circa oct 1998…

Oh well, what could have been right?  What is wrong with their marketing person anyways? The Mini is totally not proportional to the road and I’m assuming the Formula One car (go Ferrari!) is racing in Monte Carlo because it wouldn’t be on a lined road otherwise.  And what, no toilet paper roll tunnel? Weak.