She did not even notice my hair cut

School had a fund raiser – of sorts – last week. One of the restaurants nearby gives the school a percentage of the proceeds during a particular night. So all the parents took the kids out for a night (including us), while their we ran into the family that we car pool with. As parents we find a certain amount of pleasure in teasing Melinda and one of the boys about how they argue like an old married couple. They of course adamantly deny it.  But about this time Alex commented about the other boys new hair cut.  He thanked Alex for noticing and added that Melinda did not notice. NO!! that’s not acting like an old married couple at all.

Earrings?

So this past weekend Melinda wanted to try having her ears pierced again. Last year it just did not work, as they became infected and she had to let the holes close up. Now it is one year later and she is trying it again. Having never had my ears pierced I am not sure why it is so important, but it is! If you look close you can see how pretty her little earrings are.

She went to school with her new earrings in, and at the end of the day she asked her friend (the boy that is not her boy friend) if he noticed her new earrings. His comment: yes I noticed but I was pretending not to notice because you (Melinda) did not notice my hair cut!

I thought the girls were suppose to be sensitive about this sort of thing. And are you sure your not an old married couple? At any rate Melinda is very happy to have earrings again and said she is sorry she didn’t notice his very important hair cut.

Tags: Kid's and animals, Melinda, other kids, parenting by Randall
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Fresh snow - but word of bad roads, bad traffic and wind made us decide to stay in town. Alex and Melinda took this opportunity to build walls and prepare for combat. They both were outside braving the wind and snow building their strong hold and preparing for the inevitable onslaught of snowballs. All of this preparation started before I was even out of bed. Sure enough Brendan and Kalin came over just before noon and sides where taken. After a brief warming up and a little food in their stomach the battle was on. The snow balls flew back and forth for most of the afternoon. They had one glitch when a couple of kids from around the corner utilized some gorilla warfare techniques to attack both sides and then retreat. Alex and the gang found this irritating as they wanted to just battle each other but they survived this third world attack and proceeded to wage war on each other. The good news was that after crawling around in the trenches fighting off frost bite they were able to come in to safety and warmth. As they tended their battle wounds they drank hot chocolate watched TV and discussed which battle strategies worked and which ones didn’t.

Tags: Kid's and animals, other kids, parenting by Randall
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The girls showing off their hair -  Yes Melinda enjoyed the attention from Savanna

   Alex trying to read while the girls do their hair.  He is still struggling with his fluency but he is capable of sounding out most of the words he runs into as long as I don’t let him mumble through it. 

Tags: Kid's and animals, other kids, parenting by Randall
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Our kids are so lucky…  They might not think so but really they are.  My niece (Amy) and nephew (Matt) took them all the way to the country (Rock Creek Farms).  We were working and couldn’t go.  We didn’t want to have them miss an opportunity when two willing adults wanted to take them on an adventure.  Lucky that their friends were able to go too!  Below are pictures taken by Matt and Amy of the days adventure.  Not only did they get to pick awfully big pumpkins – they also got to go through a corn maze.  I have not been through a corn maze:(  I don’t think I have even been to a 100 acre farm.  Lucky kids – wonder if they think so – hmmmmm.  Probably not – but maybe someday.  Thank you Amy and Matt for taking the kids.  Hope it doesn’t scare you too much from entertaining them in the future.

Tags: Uncategorized, other kids, parent guilt, parenting by Randall
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Back to the kids tonight, maybe I will have another rant tomorrow.   The two young boys that carpool with us frequently come over after school.  Today they got into a fight with our kids.  I try not to get too involved so they can learn to work out things without us intervening all the time. Alex and Melinda came in complaining about the boys and I tried to get them to calm down a bit and to understand their friend’s point of view with out telling them they shouldn’t be mad.  Parents seem to fall into one of two camps.  Some parents always blame their own kids anytime there is an altercation.  They are quick to ask what did you do to the other children or why did you start the fight.  Then there are parents that always assume that their kids are perfect and could never be the ones causing the problem?   I hate dealing with those parents because it is never about finding out what has happened, the truth (or close to it).    I try to find that middle ground of not blaming everything on my own kids and yet not being so naive as to believe my children to be perfect and would never be the ones starting trouble.   It is a difficult line to ride.  I was also quite impressed that Melinda took Alex’s side instead of her friend’s side.  This time I stayed out of it (for the most part) and within 20 minutes all four were playing together again.   They worked it out better than I could have.    sometimes it is necessary to back up and watch and let them deal with it.

Tags: Kid's and animals, other kids by Randall
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