Literal Oscar

So last week at the boys' swimming lessons, we were told that we weren't to bring along swimwear the following week, that it would be safety week and that they needed to wear their normal street clothes. After much thought on this I wasn't going to send the kids this week .... for many reasons. 1.) Right now the boys only have ONE pair of shoes that fit them. Usually we have some "grub" pairs that are old or to get dirty in during fall/spring, but with the timing of when they moved into their newest pair of shoes and the fact that their feet are growing like weeds (old shoes are wayyyy to small) we only have the one pair for right now. And I wasn't about to have them destroy their only pair just for example's sake... not to mention they had school the next day and there was no way they would be dry in time. I think too much don't I? :) 2.) I wasn't quite sure that the boys would "get" the idea of safety week. I thought it might send the wrong message for them to jump into a pool with their clothes on. That they wouldn't be able to differentiate between THIS "safety week" vs any other day of the year. That really.... why is it so important to do a safety week with kiddos that cannot even swim (float, tread water) on their own? What do they get out of it? So instead of acting on my assumptions (something I am SOOOO good at usually) I contacted the instructors to get the low down. They very clearly explained what it was all about, and after hearing what they would be focusing on and how they explain it I was sold..... THIS WAS IMPORTANT.

So I send my kids off to swimming (with Chris) which they are all too excited to do every time .... just chomping at the bit at home waiting to hear how it went. Chris told me that he thinks they got most of it.... and then goes into a story about Oscar.

Apparently one of the many topics they covered while there was about what to do if your TOY was to fall in the water, cuz we all know how obsessive kids get about their toys and HAVE to have them etc. Which I thought was a GREAT topic for this age. They also covered what to do when YOU fall in (scream for help), or someone else falls in (throw them a flotation device of some sort and scream for help) as well .... but I thought this toy discussion was right on the money. So Instructor Megan goes on to explain, to her little group of 4 toddlers, that you do NOT go in after it - that you again get an adult to help. That the toy is replaceable, that they are not. So then she tries to drive that idea home by individually asking each child, in a different way/manner, if they could basically be "bought" (compared to a toy) at a store.

Megan: "Izzy, would I find you for sale at a store here?"

Izzy: "No."

Megan: "Trevor, could I buy you at Walmart?"

Trevor: "No."

Megan: "Oscar, would I find you sitting on a shelf at Target?"

Oscar: "No. ...... we sit on CHAIRS!"

That's my boy ... I love when they take things so literal. On a daily basis I giggle at them and the conversations we have for that very reason. Similar to the story the boys' teacher, Michelle, shared with me about MacKay's counting. How he counted up to 10 for her and just stopped, so she asked him, "MacKay, can you count higher?" At which point, my son MacKay, puts his arms high above his head, gets on his tip toes and in a VERY high pitched voice starts counting from 1 to 10 again for her. I love it. They just say the funniest things lately. Some of it makes utterly no sense, they just talk for the sake of wanting to hold an "adult" conversation with me... but it isn't babble. It is words, full sentences and thoughts .... just not very organized or well thought out ones.

MacKay's favorite saying lately is "Hey, that's not fair!" I tried asking him where he got that from, because it isn't something I say, but he can't really relay to me where he got that from or where it started. And he uses it correctly in the write scenarios and contexts ... with a lot of disappointment (tone) behind it as well. He also likes scolding me when I giggle at them, "Hey, that's NOT FUNNY!" So I have to watch my reactions to some of the things they do and say now as it apparently is making them sensitive and they can read even my body language.... they definitely don't like being laughed at. I keep trying to just tell them that I am laughing because I think they are so funny, but that doesn't appease them too often. Another thing they have been saying which I have been working VERY hard to curb .... "What the flagnog?" said like "What the heck....?" They got this from the movie "Monsters vs. Aliens." The alien on there at one point is shocked by something and says this line. Obviously just gibberish talk.... but when THEY say it, it sounds so bad. So we've had to scold them each time and tell them that it is NOT a good thing to say, that it sounds bad and that they can instead say "What on earth...?" So now they out of the blue will just say, "Mommy.... we can't say What the flagnog.... it's not very nice. We say What on earth instead." I roll my eyes that they STILL are saying it even at all, but .... at least they know they are not supposed to. Those darn movies.... even the tame and innocent ones can have ill effects.

Evie in the last few days since my last post has gotten even more vocal and has added more words to her vocabulary, specifically what she is saying. She understands SOOOOO much... but she's coming along with verbalizing now too. She now points out "way-bohs" [rainbows] on the walls from the glass prisms in our front door. Just today while watching Sesame Street she bleated out "EwMO" [Elmo]. She can point out a snake and knows it says "ssssss" ... which to her is more like "ttthhhhhh". :) She can also point out a pig and knows to do a snorting sound, and an owl and the hooo hoo hooo sound. She knows what a fish is and makes a fishy face with her lips out and cheeks somewhat sucked in. When she sees a page in a book where it is dark out (night etc) she puts her finger to her lips and says "sssshhhhhh." She's going just nuts on animals and their sounds... she has such fun with that and loves reading books that are filled with animal pictures or drawings. And here, just a couple weeks ago, I had said we would probably skip bringing her along on our zoo trips again this summer as she would be too young to even know what all the animals are. She DEFINITELY needs to go to the zoo with us this year. She will go completely insane with all there is there to see. I can't wait.

Well .... that's about it for an update again (about it?, you say?) I just had to share that Oscar story .... and there's so much more to share about Evie. It's hard to keep track of what she's learning lately as it is SO much daily. I try to keep up... but she's like an extra absorbent sponge these days... just begging for more information. But wanted to share this picture that was taken at the Spider Ball about a month back. They had a whole set up there to have your picture taken... sorta like prom where you get fed through the line with the photographer before you go dance the night away. It turned out quite nice. I still have yet to scan in and share the picture of the kiddos at their Antiquities (old tyme) photo shoot. I just opted for the "free" (included in $10 sitting fee) 10x13 .... the others that they had there were so tempting, especially these adorable pictures of the boys in their overalls, with a paperboy saggy cap on, clutching onto a baseball mit and bat .... but their packages are insanely (to say the least) over priced. So I will get on that, but in the meantime ... here's our Spider Ball picture.