RePete’s Pet

We went to Sonic yesterday and RePete got this bug catcher in his meal.  Thankfully, the bugs did not come with it!

At my sister’s house, he caught a bug and showed it to me.  It’s a beetle.

Repete:  Mom, Mom, Mom (his new speech thing), I have a pet.

Me:  Really (resisting urge to say it two more times), what’s its name?

RePete: Bug.

Me:  Oh that’s great!

RePete: Look at his little head.  It’s tiny.

Me:  Yep, it’s a beetle.

RePete: Oh.  He’s my pet.

At this point my sister and I, and later BN and I, laugh our asses off (when he can’t hear us of course) as we borrow lines from “Dumb and Dumber”.  “Pretty bird”, we say as we stroke an imaginary bird head.

I forgot to mention that the beetle was dead.  I love that kid.

~R

Speaking of Poop

After 3 days of hiney squeezing and tippy toes dancing, RePete, at the ripe old age of 4 years, 4 months and 16 days crapped on the pot.

A very welcome ending to this chapter in my Mommy Book.

~R

On farting

Our minivan conversations are always lovely (??) and lively. Both of our children are inquisitive and full of laughs.

On this particular trip, BN had gas. Everytime he farts, RePete giggles. Which makes me giggle, which makes BN and Pete giggle. Until we are all giggling over a fart! It doesn’t take much, people.

Pete says, “Oh gross Dad. That is going to smell.”

BN: “No it won’t. My farts don’t really smell.” (which is true – healthy equals clean farts)

Me: “And besides, Pete, if they do smell, it’s usually a potato chip kind of smell.”

Pete: “Yummy, potato chips.”

Me: “That is not a good thing. Chip smells coming out of a butt is not good.”

BN: “Well, I can’t even describe the way yours smell.” (Me? Not as healthy)

Me: “Maybe like burning rubber?”

BN: “No, more like rotten pig flesh that sticks like napalm.” (you may remember my aversion to napalm farts)

Both boys, giggling like crazy randomly saying, “potato chip farts” “rotten pig flesh” “heh heh”.

Extremely appetizing before dinner, no?

~R

Forrest Gump

That’s my new name for RePete. No matter what we call it, he calls his ass a but-tock (complete with that little separation.)

~R

School Is Out

It is with mixed emotions that I post about the end of the school year.

Yesterday, we visited with friends and heard about award ceremonies and I was shown all the awards that my kids will not be getting since we home school. I thought about making some for them, like perfect attendance. Everyone who home schools gets perfect attendance, right. But I didn’t make any. Maybe next year.

Today, I passed the high school on the way home and saw kids driving away from school for the last time this year. Everyone was laughing and I imagine the ones that are seniors must feel…exhilarated. Do you remember that day? Your last day of high school? Signing yearbooks, laughing, crying, hugging. It was like the air more filled my lungs when I stepped out of that building for the last time. I can still feel it even 20 years later. (gasp)

Tomorrow, I’ll be over the nostalgia part. Because tomorrow the parks and museums will be crowded. The zoo, the mall, and the beach will be crowded. And the pool will be crowded. One of the benefits of home schooling, and one that came as a surprise bonus, was being able to go to any of those places during the school day and have it all to ourselves. No waiting in long lines or not being able to see my own children in the sea of laughing faces.

So here in Casa de Robinella, we look forward to the next school year. At least I do. What are your summer plans?

~R

Hillbilly Hell

I’m in it. and deep.

Once we cleared out the flower beds, our porch railing’s eyesoreness became even more apparent. So we decided to go ahead while the beds were empty and install new rails. BN started them almost two weeks ago. Here they are today. Gosh that sun is bright.

My husband, who is damn near genius, cannot figure out the rails going down the stairs. He has the angles done, but it’s lining up the top and bottom stiles that he can’t seem to get.

You may be asking yourself why he’s doing it when we can afford to have someone else do it. I know I am. BN’s answer, “why would I pay someone else when I can do it?” ???? So he’s scheduled to complete it tonight. I actually have faith he’ll figure it out, he just needs to look at it a bit longer. (smirk)

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We’ve been in the 100’s for the past 5 days. Our upstairs has two skylights. I’d like to beat the shit out of the person who decided this house needed them. Anyhoo, I went to Lowes to get the film that blocks heat. I don’t want the blinds, we actually have a pretty view of…the sky and…the trees and they do bring in a lot of light.

Unfortunately, they also bring in all the heat. As it turns out the film I need to put on the windows requires two sets of hands and BN has not been available the last two days since I bought the film. So I tacked towels over the windows to help with the heat. T-A-C-K-Y. Yeah, I know, but it has helped quite a bit. Hopefully, after the railings are done, BN can help me with the film. Cause these have got to go.

Next thing you know we’ll start storing extra appliances in our yard.

~R

Crud, Zohan, Blogs, Drowning

I’ve had the crud for over a week now. I can’t decide if it is getting better or settling in my ears. The pressure alone is enough to make me want to stick the baby blue bulb up my nose and squeeze til I start to see brain matter.

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BN and I saw the a free early showing (meaning first-come, first-served) of Zohan last night and it was funny. I’m not all gaga over Adam Sandler but get his humor. It would have been more enjoyable if some people in line didn’t hold spots for 10 of their relatives – complete with garbage bags full of cheaper-than-movie-house-food. Or if those same people didn’t have a toddler and 4 young girls of about 7 or 8 years old in a movie where the restriction states Crude and Sexual Content THROUGHOUT, Language and Nudity. Um HELLLOOO. I’ll gladly give you the money to take those kids to a Disney movie or something. Some people take FREE a little too far in my opinion. Or if the guy sitting next to me didn’t smell sour and have a hacking problem. Otherwise, good times, good times.

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I am faithfully reading everyone on bloglines, even if you don’t see me comment. This crud just zaps my energy and I only have so much time that I am up for doing anything. I’ll get back to commenting soon and I appreciate all who have read and commented here.

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Yesterday, I took the boys to meet some friends at the pool. RePete can’t swim yet so he wears a vest when in the water and I am always in the water with him. Well, he decided he didn’t want to wear the vest while playing in the splash park area and I was fine with that. Soon, he and a boy a few years older start playing in a fountain and the older boy decides to push RePete out…repeatedly. So I go over and nicely let the boy know I don’t want him pushing and that they both can share. The pushing continues and then the boy chases RePete around the splash area – RePete thinks they are playing a game. So I intervene again. The little boy leaves. His Mother? Nowhere in sight.

RePete continues to pretend he’s farting and the water is the noxious fumes coming out of his rear and the bigger boy comes back and begins the pushing thing again. Before I can get out of my chair, they take off, but instead of running around the splash area, the kid chases RePete over to the pool. I finally get up and out of that low-to-the-ground-strappy-chair-that-sticks-to-your-skin and take off running myself. RePete, scared, runs, flies down four steps and jumps straight into the pool. Flashbacks of his first near drowning nightmare (in my lost files) are happening as I see him struggle to get his head above the water (four feet here) with no success before I finally get to the edge and jump in and bring him up. He’s coughing and sputtering but fine and I looked at that kid and said, “Where is your mother? And don’t you ever come near my son again.” I’m not real big on reprimanding other people’s children but when safety is involved, it’s another story. He took off while I was consoling RePete and I didn’t see him again.

A few things about this tick me off.

• Where was his mother?
• Why did the lifeguard not even move?
• What is wrong with kids today?

The lifeguard motioned me over and said something about me being able to be in the pool with RePete, if I want to. Um, duh. Didn’t you just see my kid jump in and almost drown – which is exactly what I said to her shocked face.

Thank goodness swim lessons start in a week. And thank goodness Pete is such a great swimmer. I don’t think I could take them both to the pool by myself if not.

~R

Math Whiz

I like to head over to this blog when I need to pump up my brain. Tonight I read her post on Lightening Fast Math Tricks and had to share.

Beware: You too may sit with your mouth gaping as you watch. Here’s their site.

The bad photo years

Okay, so I am going through all the photos I took during our vacation. I’m planning to print the photos that are most representative of our time and scrapbook them.

However comma Pete has entered the goofy photo stage. My nephew did it around this age and still does come to think of it and now Pete has started. Why oh why do they have to get goofy? Or more importantly, why oh why do they have to mess up every photo taken.

Pete has three main poses. Allow me to demonstrate.

There’s this one…

And this one…

And finally this…

I totally plan to show all my scrapbooks to the future ladies in his life. That is if he ever gets over this.

~R

Blue Dyes

One of the things we do to ensure happy healthy children, well healthy at least, is to limit dyes in their foods. Actually, we just don’t do dyes at all. Until vacation rolled around.

While at Universal Studios, Pete and BN rode Twister (awesome, btw) and RePete and I looked around. What caught his eyes was a huge container of blue frozen stuff. I decided, what the heck, poor guy has been riding around in the stroller since these rides are too big for him and he needs a little fun. So I bought him one. He was tickled pink (or blue in this case).

He slurped and slurped … and slurped. Then he looked at me with the biggest grin baring all his teeth. I immediately belly laughed and pulled out the camera.

Let me just say it looks the same going out as it did going in. His butt was stained blue for two days. Nasty stuff. Just another reason to avoid dyes.

~R