week ending nov 30, 2008

Week ending Nov 30, 2008: This week the kids didn’t have any school or any gymnastics because of parent-teacher conferences and Thanksgiving. Even though I had lots of entertainment planned, we all got on each other’s nerves a bit. In addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, the kids and I made cookies, went to the play area at the mall, went to the playground, watched “High School Musical”, got some craft items at the dollar store, decorated the Christmas tree, and went to the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles. Most of the details about Thanksgiving are best summed up in our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Thanksgiving2008# One part of Thanksgiving that didn’t come through on the pictures but still worth mentioning is the “trash talk” that Alex did while he was playing Wii. He was SOOO excited about the games. He tried boxing, tennis, bowling, a shooting game, and a racing game. Whenever he decided he was doing well he’d shout “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” or “you didn’t think I was that tough did you?!” or “I am AWESOME!”. Casey said he can’t think of many other times when Alex, our usually reserved child, has been so outgoing.

Alex’s phrase of the week is “ohmigosh!” (as in “oh my gosh” all run together). That was another popular phrase while playing Wii, and we heard it about a hundred times at the Air & Space museum. Chloe, on the other hand, wasn’t thrilled with the museum. She said it was too much “boy stuff”.

The kids are starting to try to tell jokes, but they don’t understand double entendre at all. They’ll say “Mom, wanna hear a joke?” I’ll say, “Sure!” Then one of them will say, “Why is cantaloupe easy to swallow? Because it is made of chocolate!” Or some other non-sequitur, at which point both of them will collapse in laughter. Luckily they aren’t offended if I don’t follow suit.

Alex got really angry with me this week when I put one of his toys in “time out” on top of the refrigerator. His response was to tell me he didn’t love me anymore. I tried to explain that it is hurtful to say that you don’t love someone and that what he really means is that he is angry. He insisted that he didn’t love me. I asked him if that meant if I went away he wouldn’t miss me. He said that is what he meant. About 15 minutes later after a short quiet car ride he opened his arms to me and his face crumpled and tears sprang to his eyes. I got down on one knee in the parking lot and gave him a big hug and told him I loved him. He said “I’m sorry I didn’t love you”. I explained again that he was just angry. He said “No, I meant it”. There was just no winning that one. I guess if I’d thought more quickly I could have explained that the reason he was feeling so sad and worried is because he knew it was wrong to say that he didn’t love me. Oh well, I’m almost certain we’ll repeat this episode and I’ll get another chance to try to get my point through.