Cory

Michael's gymnastics team meets twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at the worst possible time, from 5-7pm. Normally during those hours we have dinner and have started moving toward bedtime... Through trial and error (of course, there always must be some error!) we have figured out that the best course of action is for Chris to take Michael to gymnastics and to spend the TWO hours trying to get some work done while watching Mr. Ernesto and Mr. Lu pull, squash and throw Michael's body into awkward positions on unnamed apparatuses (?? apparati?). (Not that the apparati don't have names, we just don't know what they are and while Michael is POSITIVE he does, I don't think the big brown leather thing with the handles on it is called the pomma horse nor are the two bars that are the same height---and parallel---the key bars. But who knows...he does spend 4 hours there every week...)
Anyways, Chris now has class on Thursday evenings so we have elicited occasional help from my family so that Matthew and Joshua don't have to sit still inside Fairland Sports Complex and watch for 2 hours while their big brother gets to jump on the gigantic trampoline in the room below.
Today my Dad, Pepa Tony, came to take Michael to gymnastics. All went well and when they got home at 7:30 the three of us had dinner together while Chris was at class. Joshua was already asleep and Matthew was trying to stay awake.
Michael was devouring his BAT (bacon, avocado, tomato) sandwich and a generous portion of Martha's mac n' cheese while he gave me the run down on the evening's events. After a brief pause to inhale some more food Michael turned to me, gave me the finger and said, "You know what Cory said?"
"No, what?"
"That this is a bad word."
"Well...it is," I said.
"But that's silly, how can that be?" asked Michael.
"Well, I don't know how it came to be that way but it is very rude and impolite to put your finger up like that, on purpose."
"That's silly," Michael confirmed, "it's just a finger!"
"Yeah, it is kind of silly," I agreed. "If you just scratch your nose with your finger it's not bad but if you put it up like that at someone on purpose it's rude, and mean."
pause for digestion of the confirmed knowledge...
"Wow," Michael said, more softly and mostly to himself, "Cory knows so much!"

February 19th

Joshua and the Green Goblin

Joshua has been riding our pedal-less bike since last fall. With these warm days we've been having lately he was riding it again. Chris asked him this weekend if he wanted to try the bike with pedals and he surprised him by saying that he did. Those pedal-less bikes are amazing! Joshua is THREE (almost four) and he can ride a bike! Here's the video, complete with him almost damaging Jerry's Jaguar...

Another one bites the dust

There was an age before which Michael pretty much only told the truth. Ask him a question and you got the answer. Did you draw on the wall with the orange marker? Yes. No pause, no trying to figure out whether he was going to get in trouble, no brainstorming for the right answer. Not sure when it ended but now he's six and those days seem long in the past.

Joshua on the other hand has been a bit more sensitive to the idea that the truth can get you in hot water sometimes. He hasn't really been a fibber, but he has had more of an I'm-going-to-plead-the-Fifth-on-that appreciation of life than Michael ever did at this age (3 1/2). But I think he's getting the hang of how to respond to cross-examinations. Yesterday he was in the bath with Matthew and I was helping Michael do homework on the living room floor. I heard Matthew complain about something Joshua was doing, and went in to check it out. Matthew had clearly had a cup of water dumped over his head and wasn't happy about it.

Me: Joshua, did you dump a cup of water over your brother's head?

Joshua: [Long pause] Which brother?

The old question-with-a-question routine. And so it begins...

Maybe we should let them have treats every once in awhile

Sarah took all three boys to gymnastics tonight and Joshua stood in front of the vending machine as other kids bought stuff and asked them "Wanna split it?"

Birds and Bees

I'll let Sarah tell this story in more detail, but it's too good to wait much longer. Apparently the boys interrogated her in the car the other day about "where babies come from." They weren't content with the fuzzy answer, and pushed until they got the cold hard facts. Noteworthy tidbits from Sarah's version to me included multiple uses of the phrase "trap door."

If you give this speech to 6/3/1 year old boys (the youngest of whom was asleep), does it count?

Saved by the Birds

Lets clarify. The phrase "trap door" was not used once, let alone multiple times. Here's how it went down:

Wednesday: Joshua, Matthew and I are finishing up lunch at the table when Joshua asks me something along the lines of "do you still have a baby in your belly?"
After a quick check of the paunch and a mental note to start sit-ups I answered "no!" pause...
Me: "Why, do you want another baby brother?"
Joshua: "yes, because (pointing at Matthew) this one scratches."

A quick discussion follows in which I clarify that any additional siblings are ADDED to the family---we do not TRADE. ...pause...

Joshua: "But how do babies get out of your belly?"
Me: (quick cough to clear the food I'm now choking on) "What do you mean?"
Joshua: "When you go to the hospital how do they get out of your belly? Do they have a special door?"
Me: (giggling) "Well, it's kind of like a special door... Hey look! Birds at the bird feeder!"

I swear I fully intended to answer this question honestly--I was just looking for a moment to gather my thoughts when the birds flew to the bird feeder! Somehow we never got back to the question....until the next day.