Zombie Attack!

Wm had an awesome Halloween!  He and Steve spent all weekend carving up all the garden pumpkins (and saving seeds for next year's patch!)

After I got Wm into his zombie gear, Steve decided to get in on the action.

Wm went up and down the street trick or treating.  I told him he could have 3 pieces of candy tonight.  He chose: a bag of teddy grahams, a bag of goldfish, and a small box of Nerds.  Who is this kid?  Where was the CHOCOLATE?!!?  We have an insane amount of candy leftover - and Wm got quite a haul. So all my students will be making out like bandits.  

Wm did manage to make it through the night without eating anyone's brains...

Gobble, Gob-

Wm is eating a turkey sandwich...
Wm: Is this turkey I am eating from a turkey that was alive at one time?
Me: Yep
Wm: How do they make this out of it? [points to sandwich]
Me: Well, they take the turkey that is alive, kill it, take all it's feathers out, take all it's insides out, cut it up into pieces, cook it, then cut it up into thin pieces we put on bread and eat.  There may be more, but that's about how I'm guessing it goes.
Wm: It sounds...involved.
Me: Indeed.
Wm: [pause] And kinda mean.
Me: Yeah.
Wm: [takes big bite of sandwich] Hmmmm....well, it's good!

Stop! Pumpkin Time!

Wm had a great visit with Grandma and Papa.  They brought him Halloween goodies, which he loooooved!  He got to play on Grandma's iPad...which he really didn't want to stop doing.  But, we pried him away to go see the Haunted Santa Maria and for a walk on the Scioto Mile.  On the way home, he got to stop at Target (and snagged 2 Lego guys) and Jeni's!  Wm was very sad to see Grandma and Papa go!

Wm just finished carving his pumpkins.  It got a bit cold, so we moved the party down by the fire.  We are all prepared for trick or treat on Monday!!

PAR-TAY!

This is the most exciting day of Wm's life. He had his Halloween party and parade at school, I drove him home instead of the bus, Mimi and Guy are taking him to Graffiti Burger for dinner, and Grandma and Papa are coming to visit tonight!  The party and parade were actually pretty fun.  I got there and helped Wm and about 3 other kiddos into their costumes - which was fairly painless.  Then we walked all around the block, came back, and had a party in Wm's classroom.  One of the moms came over and asked if I was Wm's mom.  Thinking Wm had somehow tortured or wronged her child, I thought about lying, but Wm staring at me and going, "MOM!" didn't help.  Turns out that her daughter has been BEGGING to have Wm over for a play date!  Score!  So she made a point to find me and introduce herself so we can work something out.  Wm is quite the ladies man.

Mimi came to the parade and got this great shot of zombie Wm!

Wm says he wants to be vegetarian zombie and carry about broccoli. 

Wm did not want to be green at school, so we're saving the green face paint for trick or treat!

All the little dears waiting to get started with the parade.

Spiderman is popular this year, apparently.

Parade complete.  Now waiting to go inside and party down!

Wm's class!

You'd think he wasn't excited about that cookie by the look on his face.  That would be incorrect.  He meant business.  He wanted me to capture his cookie art like I was Ansel Adams.  It's just intensity.

Impossible

Wm: Can I watch Nightmare Before Christmas?
Me: No.
Wm: Why not?
Me: Because you have a pointy head.
Wm: [deep, exasperated sigh] You are impossible.

Bluuuuuuue!!!!

The Big News today is that Wm got a BLUE card!  That is an extra special card reserved for extra good behavior!  Wm was VERY excited that Mrs. Couch even said, "if you aren't doing what William is doing right now, you need to start!" to the whole class.  Wm also got to go on his first field trip to Lynd's Fruit Farm to go pumpkin picking and on a hay ride.  He had a BLAST!

I told Wm that because he was a Blue Boy today he could have ice cream on his brownie after dinner.  As we were eating, I reminded Steve that we had brownies and ice cream for dessert and Wm says, "you can thank me for the ice cream - I'm the one that brought that into play."

Wm also got his school pictures back today!  They are suuuuper cute!  We have them in all sorts of sizes - and millions of them.  If you would like one, feel free to send me your requests (note: if you are related through blood or marriage to Wm, you are getting one whether you want one or not!)  Here is a teaser:

Zombie Apocalypse

I decided I wanted to do a zombie test run before I was sweating it out at Wm's school right before the parade.  Wm, of course, was thrilled with this idea.  I'm glad we did it because I will change/improve upon the first go-round for the school parade (for instance, Wm was very skittish about my getting close to his eye and calmed down when he realized nothing bad was happening).  And then trick or treating he'll look even better because I can add the blood and scabs!  The teeth may be my favorite...

Apology

Wm: Mommy...I'm sorry for being a shit this afternoon.
Me: Why were you so mean, buddy?
Wm: I'm just a douchebag.
Me: No, Wm, I think you are a nice boy - so that's why I want to know what's wrong and why you have been being so mean recently.
Wm: That's just how I rock n roll.

Workin' Willie

Wm if off school today for some teacher in-service day (again).  So he gets to come to work with Mommy for a bit and then Mimi is going to pick him up and hang out with him for the rest of the day. Wm is besides himself with glee.  He keeps asking why he can't do this every day.  Though, his teacher was out sick yesterday and he LOVED the sub!  He had an "all green" day.  Hmmmm.

In other news, while it's not the "retire before 40 to the Caribbean" raise we had been expecting, the owner of Soccer First has been doling out new job responsibilities to Steve slowly and cornered him yesterday to tell him he has been SUPER impressed with Steve's awesomeness and gave him an on-the-spot 6% raise.  To be followed by another raise in January.  As part of his new role as Tournament Manager, Steve had to lead some meeting and was all nervous.  His tummy actually started to feel sick with nerves the morning before.  There were 8 people there.  Coworkers.  EIGHT.  Poor Steve.  I found this and it totally cracked me up (not so much Steve):

Wm and have a very exciting Daddy-free weekend planned. Lots of playing, shopping for mittens and slippers, the park, practicing writing our numbers, and lots o' reading! Maybe we'll even visit Daddy at work now that he's a Big Deal!

Dread Plague

I avoided the Steve and Wm Dread Plague only to fall victim to some other germ.  And, this time, I was the only one.  I have felt awful for the last week (thus ruining a gorgeous weekend!)  But I am finally feeling better today - and returned to work.  Hence the silence on Willie the Wonderkid.

Meanwhile, I volunteered to help chaperone Wm's classroom Halloween Party and Parade.  I am half dreading it and half looking forward to it.  25 kindergarteners will be intense.  But Wm is thrilled that I will be there, and that's all that matters.  Wm is doing better in school.  Well, I should say, I think Wm is doing better in school.  I'm not sure if his teacher agrees.  He does have "green days" about half the time - but even when he comes home with some report of some kind, it is my opinion that it is - frankly - stupid.  For instance, Wm came home with a red card today.  The harshest punishment kindergarten can dole out.  He earned said red card for mooning a classmate to make them laugh.  Red card?  I say this: kindergarten is humorless.  And completely intolerant of wiggles.  I'm not sure what they did to Wm, but he came home crying, not because of the mooning, but because of their reaction to it.  He wouldn't say what they did...but it wasn't pleasant, that is for sure.  He is now traumatized.  And, I'm pretty sure, will think twice before trying to make someone laugh.  Which is a shame.  Because Wm is hilarious.  And so are butts.  Get over it, kindergarten.  (Note: I am not condoning mooning, but I am a bit horrified that they made Wm feel so awful about the whole business when he was just clowning around and didn't do anything mean or malicious.)

Steve has to work this weekend, so Wm and I will be on our own.  But Steve was off today, which was sweeeeeet.  We got to out to breakfast before I went to work and then had time to watch most of movie when I got home (Tuesday is my short day - woot!)

Wm was playing with a shoelace when Steve decide to hogtie him up.  Wm, strangely, loved every minute of it:

Starving Children

Wm: How much money do you make?
Me: That's not polite to ask someone.
Wm: Why not?
Me: Well, some people may think badly of you if you make too little or too much money.  So it's not polite to ask people how much money they make because it puts them in awkward position.
Wm: Oh.
Steve: But you have everything you need, right, Wm?
Wm: I guess.
Me: Wm...you know, there are people - a lot of people - in the world who do not have houses to live in or enough food.  There are lots of kids who have hungry bellies all the time.  In fact, some kids are so hungry they are are literally starving - and actually die because they don't have enough food to eat.  So we should always feel very lucky that we have a nice house to live in and enough food to eat.
Wm: Can I have some cheese puffs?

Buckets

I had a crappy day at work - some evil coworker sent me a nasty email.  So I get home and pick Wm up at the bus stop and as we're walking back, he asks me how my day was.  I told him that a lady was mean to me, but that my friend Mel took me out to lunch and made me feel better.  Wm says, "it sounds like the mean lady is a bucket dipper and Mel is a bucket filler."  I ask what a bucket dipper is and Wm says, "when someone is mean to you, then take away from your good feelings bucket - and when they are a bucket filler, they do things to make you happy and fill up your bucket with good feelings."  I thought that was super cute.  Then Wm says, "you know, my whole life you have been a bucket filler for me."  Yeah.  *tear*  That kid is totally getting ice cream tonight.  Jeni's even.

Spelling Master

The other day, Mrs. Couch wrote on her teacher log that Wm had had a good day, but had trouble late in the afternoon sitting still at group time.  I asked Wm what was going on and he shrugged and said, "oh, yeah, we didn't get to go outside for afternoon recess - so I didn't have a chance to get my wiggles out."

Wm is still struggling with the structure of kindergarten - as well as the lack of adult interaction.  He's used to fewer children and many more adults (OSU preschool has 18 children and usually 4 adults in the room at any given time - kindergarten is 25 kids and one teacher...and a sometimes teacher's aide).  Unfortunately, there seems to be the expectation that Wm will sit still and quiet for stretches of time in kindergarten.  That does not happen.  And no matter how much they try to bend Wm to their will...I don't think it will ever happen.  He's just not that kind of kid.  We had hoped he'd be in an environment where he would be free to "get his wiggles out" whenever he needed to by standing or bouncing or pacing - but that is not allowed.  Luckily, school years are short - and maybe Wm will be assigned to a classroom next year with a different set of rules.  But I have already warned Steve that if he has a negative kindergarten experience followed by a negative first grade experience, we will find a different, alternative, elementary experience for the rest of his time.  Wm is here, he's wiggly, get used to it.