That Kid is Bananas...B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Out of nowhere, when we were getting Wm into jammies after bath, he busted out with this gem (wearing his little kid tightie whities and socks only - which is the best combo ever for this sort of thing, I think):


Wm's awesome Child Starvation Twiggy-ness is on full display. He is having a bit of a better time in kindergarten (good days and bad days), but we CANNOT get that kid to eat in school!  He's wasting away!

Steve Feels Pretty

After we put Wm in bed, Steve asked what I wanted to do.  So I convinced him to put on my new bright red lipstick.  Honestly, I think it looks better on him:

So not only does it look really good with his coloring, but Steve apparently has super pretty rosebud lips.  Who knew?  How does Steve have better hair AND lips than me?!?  Not fair.  

And then I discovered why Steve was so agreeable about letting me play dress up:

Me...post Steve kiss attack.

The Narcissist

Steve to Wm: You're a narcissist.
Wm: What?
Me: He's 5.  All 5 year olds are narcissists.
Wm: What?
Steve: It means you only care about yourself.
Wm: Oh. Yeah.
Steve: Exactly.

O-H-I-O

Wm is becoming quite the reader!  He sat down and read me an entire book - it was amazing!!  He just picked it up, and read the whole thing out loud, cover-to-cover.  He's also getting really good at writing words and sounding them out.  One thing Mrs. Couch did say when we talked was that Wm was at the very top of his class, academically.  The fact that he acts out but is super smart totally backs up what I have been saying forever: Wm is an Evil Genius.

Wm disappeared into his room for "quiet play" and emerged to watch the OSU game with an O-H-I-O lego sign he made.  It is awesome!  And he did it totally by himself!  Genius.  GO BUCKS!

Achy Breaky Heart

Poor Mr. William is still having a tough time at kindergarten.  He had a really hard day yesterday and came home and cried and said he missed his preschool friends, that he didn't want to go to kindergarten anymore, and his belly hurt all the time at kindergarten.  I emailed his teacher and she called me today.  We talked and hopefully came up with some strategies to help Wm.  One thing he HATES is the bus ride home (he says the bus driver is mean).  So I told him I will drive out and pick him up as a reward if he has good days at school. He came home today with a note from Mrs. Couch saying he had a great day!  So I will be heading over to pick him up tomorrow and he can bypass the bus.  He is THRILLED with that development!  Hopefully Mrs. Couch's tactics work at school and my tactics work at home.

One thing Wm needs to work on is his listening.  He has to be asked multiple times to do anything.  Meanwhile, Steve got in trouble at the dentist for not flossing.  So at dinner I said, "Wm needs to work on listening, Daddy needs to work on flossing...what should Mommy work on?"  Wm says, "You should work on making more money to get me an iPad!  Work on the weekends!"

Steve harvested about half our pumpkin crop because they were infringing on our steps:

While we were outside readying the garden for winter, Steve found a worm.  Which he threw at me.  Wm screamed, "DADDY!!!!  APOLOGIZE!!!  That could have hit her in the eye and she'd be deaf!"

Funny Stuff & A Shout Out

Funny Stuff: Wm says, "Mommy, I want Plants vs. Zombies. Can you download it to all my electronics?"  Yeahhhh...it is a sad state of affairs when my 5 year old has numerous "electronics."  I do think he counts MY cell phone on his list of electronics, though.  I know my iTouch is on there.  Well, really, that thing has become Wm's iTouch...I'm never allowed to iTouch it.

& A Shout Out: Steve = Best Husband Ever.  I was all, "Steven, our sink is leaking intensely...we need to call a plumber."  He's all sick and pathetic, but he says he wants to take a look.  He tells me the head to our sprayer has sprung a leak and the entire thing needs to be replaced. So I say I'll call a plumber to come out and take care of it.  Steve says, "let me go to Lowe's first and see what I can find."  He comes home with some stuff that cost $20, goes into the kitchen, clanks around in there for about 10 minute and yells, "FIXED!"  I go in and check it out - brand new sprayer that works like a dream.  I bow before Steve's awesomeness.  Additionally, all he did was give me "the look" when he dug the receipt for some ridiculously expensive lipstick I bought out of the trash where I had cleverly hidden it from him.  Steve is apparently a trash picker...unbeknownst to me.

Sickly Weekend of Fun

I found some awesome pictures I took a couple weeks ago of Wm and his bike.  You can see his shark helmet better!

All the Matyai have been brought low by different germs.  Steve and Wm have a yucky cold, while my belly hurt like crazy.  Despite their ailment, Steve and Wm went up and partied down in NE Ohio for Grandma and Andrew's birthdays.  They had a great time!!!  Wm says he wants to move there and live in a giant house with his ENTIRE family.  Meanwhile, I did not want to be separated from my potty, so I stayed behind.  This causes great anxiety because I am terrified to sleep in the house alone.  Thankfully, Suzanne was my hero!  The wind beneath my wings, if you will.  She brought me tummy calming foods for dinner on Friday and spent the night with me.  It was pretty awesome.  And, after a good night's sleep, I felt much better by Saturday.  Unfortunately, Steve and Wm returned sicker than when they left!  Weirdness.  They have been having fun this morning with a fake mustache Wm got from some machine at Andrew's party.

Me Bake Long Time

This post has, pretty much, nothing at all to do with Wm.  I just wanted to show off my baking skEElz (recipes available upon request!)  The pie I made with the apples we picked (which, sadly weren't really good pie apples...but, hey, it's still pie - and the crust is from scratch, man).  You'll notice that that is an elf cutout on the top.  All we have are Christmas cookie cutouts.  Fa la la la la:

I decided to make Steve his favorite meal (sloppy joes) because we have a plethora of green peppers growing in the garden (which I have been ignoring since I'm not a fan) and I don't really like them in anything else:

The only problem with sloppy joes is that they necessitate buns.  And Steve and I are in agreement that the buns at the store - all stores - suck.  So I decided to try my hand at bun-making.  It was super easy!  And they were GOOD!

Steve was a very happy camper!  Sloppy joes made with garden green peppers and homemade buns!

I'm Awesome

Wm: I am going to have Daddy read me this book while I play my DS.
Me: Dude...why don't you just turn the Nintendo off and focus on the book?
Wm: I can do both.  Because I'm awesome.
Me: You are awesome, but why don't you still turn off the DS?
Wm: I'M AWESOME.
Steve [from upstairs]: Are you seriously going to play DS while I read to you?
Wm: Yes. Totally.  Because I am awesome, I can do that.  BECAUSE I AM AWESOME.

Willie Appleseed

We finally had good enough weather to take Wm apple picking today. Apple pie making tomorrow!!  Wm says he wants to take an apple he picked in for Mrs. Couch.  He was VERY intent on that.  I will also be making super special brownies for Wm to take to school in his lunch tomorrow.  So it will be a baking day.  Wm always eats his dessert first (oh, yeah), then moves on to crackers/carbs, and, if there is time remaining, he goes onto the main course...and sadly, last choice is fruits and veggies.  This leads to dessert and crackers being eaten daily, some main course being eaten, and rarely any fruit/veggies.  So, to foil his plans, I got Wm something called "super crackers" that have a whole serving of spinach in them.  BOOM! Then, tomorrow, I am making brownies with whole wheat flour and subbing half the butter for pureed carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes.  So, it's still a brownie...but a "super brownie."  2 points to Mommy. I am also hoping Wm will eat the apples I will put in his lunch since he picked them!

YUM!

12 years, man!

Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband, Steve, who has not only tolerated me for so long, but has provided me with 12 years of silence to fill with my incessant chatter.  And, if I'm not mistaken, I do believe he actually listens at least half the time.  That's love, man.

I love you, Steve!!! 

Oh, this is Curriculum Night...

Steve and I went to "Curriculum Night" at Wm's kindergarten last night.  We basically got to learn all about what Wm will be learning this year.  It was exciting to see the kind of books he'll be able to read at the end of the year!  And pretty cool to hear about how the classroom runs.  The only thing that was disappointing is the math they are doing.  Wm can count to "infinity" (his words) - and  I have heard him count well into the hundreds...as he enjoys doing so all the time.  But the teacher said they will be working on counting to 10.  TEN!?!?  Then, they'll "possibly work up to" doing math that involves 5.  Like 3+2=5, 4+1=5, 6-1=5.  Ummm, note to kindergarten: Wm can do that in his sleep.  I've started explaining multiplication to him.  That dude loves math.  He is going to be BORED with math at school.  (Interesting sidebar: I had the opposite problem - math was boring because none of it made a lick of sense to my simple ladybrain. Sidebar to the sidebar: my simple ladybrain could also not do simple "lady" things like sewing...I got a C in Home Ec's sewing unit - no joke.  I sewed the legs of the shorts I was making closed [poorly]. I had to work my butt off at cooking and other homey arts to get it back up to an A so I wasn't humiliated.)

Wm had the best morning yet yesterday.  He did GREAT.  Got himself up, dressed, and teeth brushed all by himself without me asking.  Then he was happy and chipper all morning.  Popped on the bus, no problemo.  I was totally prepared for the After Long Weekend Meltdown.  But it did not come!  We may be through the worst!!

 Just remembered I had this cute picture from our walk Scioto walk with Mimi on my phone!

Meanwhile, the garden is in the final stages of death.  All we have left are fall crops: carrots, a dozen freakishly giant pumpkins that have taken over our entire hill and, weirdly, some butternut squash and gourds we did not plant.

 Steve showing off our butternut squash and gourd with an unexcited look on his face.

 Steve after I told him he should look more excited about our unexpected bounty.

Baby Steps...and Meat

Wm had a good day both Thursday and Friday at school - no more tears!!  Turns out breakfast was the issue...and when we helped him develop some coping mechanisms to deal with the overcrowded and noisy cafeteria, he felt a lot better.  Mrs. Couch sent a note home in Wm's backpack that he had a great day Friday! I'm sure Tuesday will be rough after the long weekend, but I think Wm is going to get over it quickly and be off and running!

We had planned to go apple picking today, but it was 96 degrees, so we skipped that.  Wm is having his friend Vivian over for a play date tomorrow morning, so he's looking forward to seeing an old friend from preschool.  Then Mimi and Guy are coming over for a cookout.  And, despite playing light saber with her curtain rods right in front of the windows of her brand new house, Suzanne has invited Wm over for dinner on Monday.  So Wm has a jam packed weekend of fun!  

I sent Steve to the butcher for a good cut of beef for dinner tonight (My hero, Ina, had a delicious looking butter dijon glaze for beef that I wanted to try).  -- I should preface this by saying that our credit card bill had arrived the day before and Steve and I had a serious discussion on cutting our food costs when we saw how much we spend on food...I have no idea how much anything costs, I just go to Whole Foods and buy whatever I want to cook, not even checking prices until I hit the cash register.  Not good -- So Steve comes home from the butcher with this:

A $38 2lb cut of beef tenderloin.  I was not happy.  But then I cooked it.  And it was AMAZING.  Like butter.  Better than almost any filet I have had a restaurant.  Steve said he was in a "meat coma."  But the true tenderloin lover was Wm.  He ate everything we gave him and screamed, "MORE MEAT!"  He even ignored his bread!  He then had thirds...and forths.  Finally, when he screamed, "MORE MEAT!" for fifths, I was like, "eat your carrots, man."  Wm says he wants "fancy meat" every day.  While I am still not super pleased that it cost $38, it was pretty damn good!  And we got 3 dinners out of it - and enough to make at least 3-4 sandwiches (with horseradish sauce!) for lunch tomorrow.  So, really, that's only $6/meal.  Not too shabby.  And Wm ate more food at dinner than he ate all last week.  Meat Winning!

Wm only moved onto his bread after he ate 4 servings of beef!  It's what's for dinner.

Good Mornin'

We *may* have pinpointed Wm's school issue.  I had a feeling he was crying in the morning, but had a good day once he got to his classroom.  But I wanted to be sure, I so emailed his teacher.  When we were putting him to bed last night, he said, "I don't want to go to school tomorrow."  When I asked him why not, he said, "because I don't like breakfast."  (They herd all the masses of children from their buses into the very tiny cafeteria, where it is loud and crowded and insane, and then "call" them to their classrooms from there.)  Ah ha, I thought!  Breakfast seems to be the culprit!  Which makes sense since Wm hates crowds of children and loudness (unless he is the source of the loudness). 

When I got downstairs, I had an email from Mrs. Couch.  She said she can tell Wm has been crying when he comes into the classroom from breakfast, but then he has a great day!  She said he's really good, and is a very good listener (which I don't buy).  She did say that he seems nervous when she leads the kids to lunch.  But, otherwise, he is super good and has a great time in kindergarten. 

Conclusion: Wm hates the small, over-crowded cafeteria - and especially breakfast, but is otherwise having a grand time.  So, we sent him armed this morning!  We let him take a little picture book with him to sit and read during breakfast (since we feed him at home and he won't eat it), along with 2 lego guys he is allowed to play with during breakfast and during recess following lunch, as well as a locket necklace that contains a picture of Daddy and a picture of Mommy.  Steve just called and said there were no tears at all this morning - and Wm didn't say once that he didn't want to go! 

I'm sure Tuesday will be a bit bumpy after the long weekend, but it looks like progress is being made!  And in a matter of a couple weeks, Wm will have developed his own coping skills (or just gotten used to) the noise and people in the cafeteria.

After all, he is my son...despite all his anxiety, he manages to scarf down all the cookies I send daily (but not much else).  That's m'boy.