Very artistic

We took Wm to one of those places were you can paint your own pottery.  Wm picked out a gnome and a bowl to paint.  In hindsight, the timing may have been poor - both Wm and I were exhausted and crabby.  (I was tired because I had taken Wm on a Steve-less expedition for our weekly groceries right beforehand...and now that Whirlwind William has outgrown the little cart seat, it is an intense experience; and Wm was tired because he woke up weirdly early).  The pictures look a lot more fun than it actually was - but I do think Wm had a good time!!  I tried hard to hide my impatience and annoyance with him (example: I had painstakingly "helped" him paint tiny stripes along the whole outer rim of the bowl, then two seconds later he dragged his sleeve across it, ruining it completely).  I just had to keep repeating silently to myself, "he's 4, he's 4, he's 4..." throughout the whole experience.  I do think my "smile" boarded more on a grimace at some points, but Wm didn't seem to notice!

Wm putting the basepaint layer on his gnome

Steve doing some cleanup work

Wm is painting snakes and scorpions inside his bowl

DONE!

The car ride home.

Jacked Up

My friend Mel and I went shopping and drove past this sign...which we thought was hilarious.

When I got home, I found Wm like this (which I also thought was hilarious):

The outfit rocks.

Wm's new teacher, Ben, seems AWESOME.  And I think he is a big Wm fan.  He has told us the same story twice and thinks Wm is a comedic genius.  Apparently, Wm walked over to him and goes, "hey, Ben...I dropped a block on foot and jacked up my toe."  Ben thought that was gold.  GOLD!  I was like, "hold on, partner, that's nothing...Wm has a million of 'em."

Not Appropriate

With the advent of a new X-Men movie coming out (starring James McAvoy...yaaaay!) I tried to get Wm interested in that group of super heroes.  X-Men is one of the few super hero cartoons I enjoyed as a child and wouldn't mind watching.  So I pull up an episode on the computer and Wm and I start watching (after a very lengthy conversation in which I tried to explain what a mutant was...to no avail).  We watch 5 minutes, a fight breaks out, someone gets punched, and Wm says, "Nope...I don't think this show is appropriate."  And walks away.  Now Wm is policing his own cartoon viewing.  I think he's a better parent than I am!

The Enforcer

I went to pick up Wm from school today and when he ran over to me, his friend Eliza followed.  As Wm is putting on his coat, she started tugging on her lip and said, "William?  William?  Are you leaving?  William?"  So Wm sighs and with such long-suffering and adult-like disdain says, "Eliza...don't pick at your lip."  Then just walked away and opened the door and looked back at me expectantly.  The poor little lamb took her hand away from her lip and walked away, shoulders slumped.  My kid can be a real dick.

Wm's Whirlwind Weekend

It was one of those weekends where I have to come back to work to relax!  On Saturday, Wm had his amigo Vivian over for a play date.  The two of them are insane.  I had a BIG talk with Wm about staying OUT of Mom and Dad's room with friends (the last time he had a friend over they entertained themselves by taking all our clothes out of the closet and throwing them at each other).  So Wm is going potty and I hear him yell, "Vivvie!  You can't go in my mom and dad's room!"  Then I hear feet running.  So I scream up, "DO NOT GET OFF THE POTTY UNTIL YOU ARE DONE!"  Wm poo flying around is waaaaaay worse than clothes flying around.  I may have oversold the "you can't go into my room" line.  

On Sunday, while I went out with Suz, Steve and Wm decided to go out to lunch and to see a movie.  I come home, expecting to find an empty house.  Instead, Steve is sitting downstairs fuming and Wm is quietly playing in his room.  Turns out, Wm MAJORLY freaked out at the movie and demanded to come home.  So Steve was livid, but trying to reign it in and act like it wasn't a pain in the butt.  He was grumpy all evening.  Wm and I have been to see movies and he never really cares for the dark or loud noise, but he's always had a good time.  So I'm going to try and take him this weekend to make sure he's not getting weird phobias.  Cause that DEFINITELY does not run in the family.  :)  Because, perhaps, I can relate to weird phobias and Steve cannot, I usually handle Wm's freak outs better and can talk him down.  Steve just thinks we both belong in a padded room and very poorly attempts to conceal his disdain for us crazies. 

You Say It's My Birthday

It's been an awesome day!  Wm had to go to the dentist for a checkup this morning at 9AM, so we all got to sleep in.  Wm, annoyingly, woke up at 6:45 and then started wandering around and yelling, "is it weekend?"  Once we convinced him that it was not weekend, but he could still play for a while, Steve and I managed to sleep for another hour.  Then Steve bundled Wm off to the dentist and I went to the gym.  (Side bar: Wm had a great checkup at the dentist!  My compulsive care of his teeth is paying off!)  Wm got to go into school super late - 10AM.  Then I met Steve back at home and we partied down.  I dyed my hair a fun color, we went out to lunch, we went shopping, we went to a movie - then we picked Wm up from school an hour early and played outside in the amazing 60 degree weather!  Wm can't believe his good fortune!  And we're all off to Bravo with Papa in a half hour.  The fun never ends!!

Doppleganger

OK.  So this has nothing to do with Wm.  But I have made a horrifying discovery.  When I get out of the shower, my hair lays totally flat against my head and dries straight down.  For the past few weeks, while I'm brushing my teeth, I keep thinking, "I look like someone when my hair is like this - before I 'do' it.  Who is it?"  And it has alluded me.  Then it hit me last night.  Aaaaaaand I was sickened.  Because I look like an effeminate 16 year old boy. That's right...Justin Bieber.

So I run into the bedroom and demand of Steve, "do I look like Justin Bieber?" His response is, "who is Justin Beiber?"  So I go, "you are so old, he's a singer."  Steve says, "well, what does he sing?  I say, "I have no idea...pop songs, I guess."  Then I make Steve go and look at pictures of Justin Bieber and again ask if he thinks I look like him.  Steve sort of chuckles and goes, "yeah, you sort of do!"

I look like and old, wrinkly J-Biebs with boobs.

Reader!!

Wm is reading!!  I am making it official. He has known all his letters and numbers for a long time.  Then, he learned the sounds that all the letters make (though vowels give him trouble and he often mixes them up).  He also kept asking us when he got to learn to read - he wanted to read his books himself.  So I found a website that had all kinds of learn to read games.  Wm was thrilled...unlimited time playing computer games.  He played for hours.  Then yesterday his new Highlights magazine came and I was sitting and reading it to him.  There was a sentence that said, "The snow is melting!" So I pointed to the word "snow" and asked him if he knew what that word was.  He paused for a few seconds then said without missing a beat, "The snow is melting."  He read the whole sentence!!!  So then we did the Smarty Pants Dance and Wm was so proud of himself!  Watch out, kindergarten, here comes Wm!!!

Lego Architect

Wm is a super genius.  I knew he was into Legos...and that he was good at building stuff with Legos.  But he TOTALLY blew me away this morning!  He said he was going to go to build a Lego gorilla.  He had no instructions, no videos...nothing.  He was just going to go through the Legos he had and design and build a gorilla 100% on his own.  No help from anyone (including Daddy).  And what he came up with is AMAZING!!  The kid is 4 years old and he totally designed and built an AWESOME Lego gorilla! He even put a tail on the back, which cracked me up.  So, basically, I now believe my kid is way smarter than I am. Because I know there is no way on god's green earth I could even do that now!!

Wm is going to spend the night at Mimi and Guy's tonight while Steve and I go out to a fancy dinner and night on the town to celebrate Valentine's Day/my birthday.  Wm says that he is going to take a bunch of his Legos and teach Mimi how to build things.  He is very excited to go pick out and pack up the exact Legos he wants to take for this purpose.

Wm is not only a super genius, but a super sweetie as well.  He was up playing in his room last night and cut his finger.  He comes downstairs, shows me the cut, and asks for a band-aid.  It was a fairly icky cut and he was making The Big Face (with sad lip and quivery chin), so I picked him up and carried him upstairs, telling him he was being very brave.  We put a Star Wars band-aid on it and I kissed it better.  So then as he goes back to playing and I'm leaving his room, he puts down his toys, runs over and gives me a hug and says, "you know....you're a really good mom."  Super sweetie.

The Frugal Gourmet

They are having a pizza party next week to welcome Wm's new teacher (Ben) to the classroom.  Wm got to meet him today (he is currently an assistant teacher at OSU who is being promoted to master teacher) and is very excited because Ben said he liked his Lego Star Wars tshirt.  So we were baffled when Wm insisted he did NOT want to go to the pizza party.  Then he said he'd go to the pizza party, but wouldn't eat any pizza.  We kept asking him why, and he just kept repeating that he really didn't like pizza.  Which is a TOTAL lie.  Steve and I were at a loss.  So we let it go.  Then later tonight Steve and I are talking about it again and I say to him, "well, why don't you just pay for the pizza in case he changes his mind?"  (Cost of attending pizza part is $3/adult and $2/child.)  Wm screams, "NOOOOOO!!!!!"  So I was like, "OK...well why don't you just pay for yourself and Wm just won't get any pizza."  Wm screams, "DO NOT PAY FOR THE PIZZA!!!!!"  Joking around I go, "well, how about he just eats it and doesn't pay for it?"  Wm says, "fine."  So I go, "what if we don't pay for your pizza...would you eat it then?"  He says, "Yes."  Suddenly, it dawns on me.  I ask, "dude, are you trying to save money for your Lego pyramid for your birthday?"  He turns bright red and nods.  This whole business was about Wm trying not to spend $5!  Steve starts laughing so hard he has a coughing fit and Wm yells, "you just stop that!"  So I had to tell him that I will take $100 and put it in the bank and we will not spend it no matter what before his birthday.  Then we can spend "other money" until his birthday and he will not have to worry about it.  He's all happy now and very excited to go to the pizza party...and eat pizza.  Wm is turning out to be quite the little saver.  I nearly told him that $100 was not that big of a deal, but then the little goober would be demanding things all the time. So we had to act like saving this $100 until his birthday was doable....but barely.  Big sacrifice. BIG.

Lots of Dollars

We took Wm to the Lego store last weekend to poke around - his favorite activity.  While we were there, he fell in love with a giant pyramid lego set.  He said he wanted it for his birthday and I said, "well, Wm, you can have it for your birthday , but it's very expensive, so it will be your ENTIRE birthday...that means you would get no other presents!"  He goes, "I don't care - that's all I want!"  He then became obsessed with staring at it online and asking us to count how many days until his birthday.  Later, we had to go grocery shopping.  While we were driving to the store, Wm asked, "how many dollars is the lego pyramid?"  I said, "It's one hundred dollars, man."  Wm's eyes got huge and he goes, "we cannot spend ANY dollars until my birthday!"  Then, the entire time we were at the grocery store, he kept insisting we didn't need to buy things and asked continually how much the food was going to cost.  I think he'd rather starve than not have legos.  When we paid for the groceries, Wm moaned, "now we'll NEVER have enough dollars!"  He was depressed all night thinking we had squandered all our lego dollars on something silly like food.  I had to promise him a zillion times that we could still afford to buy food until his birthday.

Winter Blues

OK. So here's the deal. I am sick of winter. Like...REALLY sick of winter. And I have recently discovered that places in the Continental US that are actually warm year round are drastically reducing due to climate change (the wind chill was below zero in Santa Fe!) So...let's drive less, people. Keep my dream of moving someplace warm alive. It's the only way I can make it through the month of February. We were sitting at breakfast the other morning and Wm said, "I'm cold."  So I wrapped him up in my hat and scarf. He looked so cute, I had to take a picture! This is one of the only good things about winter.  Cuteness.

And another...

Wm has also said two funny things the past couple days...

1. Steve asked Wm to explain something going on with his Lego game and Wm goes, "Jesus Christ...I have a heck lot to tell you!"

2. Steve was showing Wm how to do something on Lego Indiana Jones and Wm says, "that's not going to work."  Steve ignored him and Wm goes, "THAT'S NOT GOING TO WORK, STEVE!"

Wm's Joke