no soliciting

Am I the only parent who has to remind their 7 year old before he goes out to play, that he may NOT try to sell the neighbors anything?... because I do.

His latest business venture was selling "nature". He quickly assured me that he wasn't planning on keeping his $.50 profit, he would be donating it to the local flood victims.

kindergarten

Did we mention that this little guy started school last month?

Excited to hear all about his first day, I asked him how it went. The only reply I got was, "Mom, there's a girl in my class!"... great.

Daily after school routine:

• carefully hang up beloved Mario backpack
• eat a handful of goldfish
• find Theo

the right way to make a s'more

The boys were in heaven when our friends Jason, Calvin's popsicle parade and paper airplane pal, and Charlene came for a visit. They came bearing gifts that would make any little kid's heart stop- GIANT candy (e.g. , 1/2 lb. Reeses peanut buttercups and 16 in. long twizzlers).

After grilling a delicious dinner filled with Calvin's favorite thing to eat- meat- we got to finish it off with s'mores. While the best way to make them over the grill was debatable, we all ended up in a sufficiently marshmallowy chocolate mess; evidence of the sweet time had by all.

Noah's near death experience

Picking up Noah from school the other day, I noticed he still had an unopened granola bar from his lunch. As he climbed in the back, I instructed him not to open it in the car because of the mess the crumbs would make.

Three minutes later, we arrived home. I opened his door and saw a now empty granola bar wrapper on the seat. Before I could say anything, he defended his action with the most serious face he could manage:

Mom, I was ACTUALLY starving. And I didn't want to die.

the end of bikini season

Driving home from soccer practice a few weeks ago, Calvin was lamenting the fact that he hadn't been fishing in a while:

"Mom, Dad promised me he'd take me fishing again and he hasn't yet."

"He just took you last week on our trip to Missouri."

"Well, I meant here. We haven't gone here yet and it's already the end of bikini season."

"... the end of what?"

"Mom, the end of bikini season- it means summer."

"Well, ... let's just say 'summer'."

how to deal with it

While I was reading the other night, Calvin was watching a National Geographic special on the oceans. At some point they started a segment on orca whales, and Calvin turned to me excitedly to inform me that they "had no enemies," would "jump out of the water onto ice to eat seals," and "wouldn't be afraid of humans." 

 After some thought, he said, "Dad, I know how to stop them." When I asked him what he had in mind, he stated very confidently, "land mines."

the binky fairy

There is a binky fairy in our house. If I leave Theo unattended for even a moment, without fail, I return to find a binky in his mouth and a blanket neatly tucked around him.

Though I've never seen him in action, I'm pretty sure I know which sweet little boy to pin this on: