Letter to Santa

Landon and I sat down on Saturday to write his letter to Santa.

Which actually turned out to be more of a book to Santa.

And I thought we'd share.

[DEAR SANTA] We used all caps, because when I wrote his guide with small letter he got mad and said we had to use big letters.

[TOY DINOSAUR] No salutations or anything, straight to the point with the list!

Picture of Toy dinosaur just in case Santa can't decode the above hieroglyphics

At this point he was no longer in the mood to write words, so he drew a bouncy ball - or more accurately, a bouncy ball path.

And that's it, no need for formalities of saying thank you or bye or anything, just end with the drawing.

Chocolate Face

Christmas Party Success

Balloon sword? Check.

Hand Painting of Ornament? Check.

Chocolate all over shirt? Check.

My company hosted a children's Christmas party on Sunday, so Landon and I went to see what kind of trouble we could cause. It was a lot of fun. They had a Santa, a magician, all kinds of yummy sweets, face/hand painting, and balloons. The magician wasn't all that magical, but he was pretty entertaining. And Santa's line was enormous, so we didn't talk to him, but just seeing him go by was enough for Landon anyway.

The most fun part? Was the duck on the terrace, and the circles on the carpet.

Making Up For It

In our house if you get your blood drawn, not only do you get a lollipop on the way out the door, you get to have ice cream when you get picked up that day and you get to choose where you want to have dinner. In whatever order you choose.

So when I picked him up after school - he totally remembered. He said he wanted ice cream and salad. I may have the only three year old on the planet who requests to go to "that salad place." Which worked out especially well for me, since I was able to get both in one place.

Early morning lessons, and maybe some from yesterday

Landon needed a blood draw for allergy testing. I've been putting it off for a month, but his doctor sent a letter that basically said "Hey, 'member when I said he needed this blood draw? I was totally serious, so do it!"

Anyway, I took off work a couple minutes early yesterday, thinking the lab was open until 6, and I picked Landon up and went over there at 5:25 only to find out that they close at 5. I guess I should have called. But they do open at 6:30, so I decided to take him over there this morning.

And based on what happened when he was 3 months old, I think I should have been prepared for the next problem. Um, the phlebotomists that are on the super early morning shift...are apparently not the best sticks - combined with the fact that Landon has deep veins with hiding super powers. Well...they stuck him once in each inner elbow (is there a word for that body part?) with the butterfly looking doo-hickeys with no luck. They asked me what I wanted to do. I asked Landon if we could try again and he said no, I said, if they don't try again we're going to have to come back, and he freaked out about not wanting to come back.

One lady, during the freak out went ahead and stuck him with a more regular looking syringe, no butterfly or long tube, just the little syringey thing and the test tube. They got the blood, then they taped him up.

To his credit, Landon did everything they asked him to do. Even as they were doing the third stick, and he was saying he didn't want to, he was pretty still. He didn't even cry until they told him they might stick him again.

So lesson - if we do this again, we need to come later in the day so we can get the best stick in the place, and also the lollipops I put in my purse were essential for recovery - also, maybe we should bring our own fun bandaids, it's like these people never see children or something.

Community Service

Last Tuesday, I took my Girl Scout troop to the retirement community where my grandmother lives. We went to a couple different areas of the building and handed out ornaments that the girls had made and candy canes to the residents.

Landon got to wear his Girl Scout shirt for the first time - although when the ladies would ask him if he was a girl scout he very confidently would say "No, I not a giiirl scout, I a boy."

My Grandma joined us in the lobby and walked the halls with us as we passed all of the stuff out. I think the people there really enjoyed us being there and the girls (and Landon) had a pretty good time too.

Houston Snow

Talking Back, Part 2

So, as I stated previously, I come from a family that did not use the term "talking back." But Landon has been getting in trouble in school for talking back [no further detail and the teacher who writes it is gone by the time I pick him up]. When I ask him what happened, he says "I don't know." When I ask the teacher who is there, I get “Well, you’d have to ask Ms Joy, I don’t get in here until 4, so I don’t know.” Thank you for all your insight, as I suspected, the range of talking back is kind of varied depending on who you are.

Not knowing what she considers to be “talking back.” I can only assume he’s doing with her what he does to me, which is that he tells me about not wanting to do whatever it is I have told him he needs to do. He is of course whiney to me at that point, and I spend a lot of time saying "I understand that you don't want to XYZ, but these are the reasons it's important to do XYZ. Blah blah blah, so you have to do it anyway." And he generally says "Ooooooh-kaaaaaaay." And then does it.

So, is he talking back to me when I tell him to do something and he tells me he doesn't want to? And maybe I'm alone on my parenting boat, but I feel like he should be able to tell me how he feels about things he's being asked to do - now, it doesn't mean he's going to get out of picking up his toys or whatever, but I think he should be allowed to say "this sucks" [probably not using those words] because it does suck, I hate cleaning up too - and we can commiserate and then get to cleaning up.

I’m betting this is a transition issue, i.e. he’s playing with blocks, but it’s circle time now, so he’s been asked to pick up the blocks and come to the circle and sit. And he of course doesn’t want to and says so. I can't think of a single adult I know who likes being interrupted mid task to be asked to do something else that someone else thinks is important. Why should it be different for kids? Or are they just not allowed to tell anyone that it sucks? [A side question I have if this is the issue, is whether they are giving time warnings prior to transitions, i.e. Ok 5 more minutes until clean up time, 3 more minutes and everyone has to be in the circle, etc. – because when I do that, I get a lot less resistance to moving on to the next activity.]

Now I understand that the teacher has 16 kids in the class with a teacher and an assistant teacher. And I understand that she can't possibly deal with all the dissenting opinions the way I can on a one on one basis – she’d spend her entire day explaining things and then they’d never get anything done.

So my solution is to explain to him that Ms Joy doesn’t have time to explain why she wants him to do something, but that he needs to do what she says anyway, because if she has to spend all her time explaining why they have to move on to the next activity, then they’ll never get to do anything.

We’ll see how that works.

Oh, and we took toys away from him as punishment, and he was hysterical, we told him if he came home the next day with 2 smiley faces that we’d give them back. And he did. So - I guess we have that option too.

Monthly Newsletter #38

Dear Landon,

Why? Why is 95% of what you say made up of only the word “why”? Why don’t you listen to me when I answer you? Why do you keep asking the same question over and over again when I told you the answer the first time…and the second time…and possibly the third time…before I pretend to strangle you behind your back? Why?

In the past couple days you’ve started asking if things are real or pretend. Is that Santa decoration real or pretend? I’m not really sure how to answer some of them, because to me, if it’s physically there, it’s real, but in the sense that a lighted wire “dein-dein-dur” [reindeer] is not a living animal, it’s not real, but it’s not really pretend either. I hope my answers which vary depending on my mood are not more confusing than they are helpful.

I think this is going to be the best Christmas ever. I probably said that last year, but your face exploded in wonder when we drove through the Christmas light display – 4 days later you were still talking about it, and how the lights on the houses in our neighborhood didn’t exactly measure up to the lights you saw there. Although the lady who loves Snoopy on our street does have quite an exciting display. You helped me decorate the Christmas tree, and are much more excited about your Christmas tree this year than you were last year. You willingly got within a couple inches of a Santa and told him the Christmas tree he was sitting in front of was pretty. We might actually get a Christmas picture with Santa this year if this keeps up!

Another thing you’re asking is if whatever interests you at the moment is for “for me? Or for little kids? Or for grown-ups?” It’s pretty convenient for me, since I can just say, “oh, sweetie, that’s for grown-ups.” And you put it down and walk away without argument. And I know by writing this down I am tempting the universe to take it back, but between that and telling you something is against the rules and you back down, I am amazed at how easy going you are.

You have decided this month that no matter what I pick out for you to wear to school, you have a different opinion. That’s okay though, because I figure it’s one step closer to you dressing yourself. And that is a fine goal.

I know the “whys” are a phase you will grow out of, and I know you’re just trying to piece together the world around you, so I do try to answer your questions when I can – I just wish you would listen to the answers, before asking the same exact question over again.

Love,
Mama

Talking Back, Part 1

I come from a family that did not use the term "talking back."

So I'm not entirely sure what it means.

Landon is getting in trouble at school for talking back.

So can you tell me what it means?

Is Landon getting in trouble for having and voicing differing opinions?

Or is he getting in trouble for the way he's voicing his differing opinions?

Please discuss, I need the insight.

Thanksgiving wrap up

You know what would be awesome?

If I had taken more than 24 pictures over the holiday weekend.

Or if I had even bothered to remember to bring my camera to the event on my family’s side.

But as it stands, this is our Thanksgiving wrap up. We went up to East Texas on Tuesday night and stayed through Saturday morning.

Landon got some good quality time in riding the horse trailer with his Grandpa Wood.

He helped me make some ornaments for the community service project that the Girl Scouts are doing tonight.

He played a little baseball with a paint stirrer and the tennis ball that hangs in his great grandparent’s garage.

Aaaand we made our annual trip to the Christmas lights you drive through.

On Saturday morning we headed home briefly and then to Lake Jackson for my family Thanksgiving. And here's where I'd have pictures of Landon getting all excited about broccoli at the Japanese steakhouse, or getting freaked out over the big fire. But not only did I not bring my camera, no one else did either. I guess I'm going to have to be more on the ball for Christmas.