Progress

Steve worked all day yesterday.  I decided I would surprise him by having the kitchen painted by the time he got home.  However, I did not think through this plan and ran into a hiccup when I realized I needed to move the fridge and it was VERY heavy. Using my super human strength, I moved it all by myself! The other hiccup is that Steve came home and didn't like my white kitchen and was all crabby about it.  When I told him he's welcome to repaint it himself, he decided it was fine. ha!  Steve has started work on the floor.  It is a TEDIOUS job since under the tiles was horrific linoleum flooring that some evil demon glued to the subfloor. Steve has been suuuuuper bitchy all day.

Thank god he at least has Schroeder's help

Obligatory butt shot

We went to our second, and last, Path 2 Membership class at the UU church today.  Wm refused to stay in the kid room (it was populated by 3 other kids, all under 2).  So he spent the entire time hunched in the corner of the class with Steve's cell phone playing Minecraft. At least 3 people came in and told Wm there was a kid's room and tried to helpfully show him where to go.  He was not having it.  That kid can be STUBBORN.  To his credit, he was completely silent and good the entire time.

As Steve was driving home from work, he called to give me his ETA.  I looked over as he was talking and saw this happening:

Me: STEVE. I HAVE TO GO. 

Steve: Wha-

Me: EMERGENCY. [click]

[1 minute later]

Me: [calling Steve back] Sorry about that.

Steve: Aaaaanyway, are we going to have lunch before we go to church?

Me: Yeah, of course. But…you don't care about the emergency?

Steve: No.

Me: Wow. It could have been a huge deal!

Steve: [laughs] I'm sure it wasn't. I know you. You probably freaked out and had to go because the cat was doing something cute and you wanted to take a picture of it and you don't know how to do that while you're on the phone.

Me: Damnit.

Kitchen Reno

I was standing in our kitchen the other day and thought, "something must be done." It is way too dark for such a small space and just looked raggedy.  So I told Steve we need to renovate the kitchen.  He was super excited, he loves planning (not actually doing) projects.  He started planning a complete tear-out and re-build.  However, after hours on 3-D kitchen planners he discovered that not only is that crazy expensive, but our kitchen is set up in a such a way that it is currently in the only configuration that works for the space.  So then we scaled back and decided to just paint the existing cabinets and do everything else we planned (new hardwood floor, tile backsplash, fridge, and sideboard).  After watching a couple YouTube videos on how to paint wood cabinets correctly (so that the paint looks good and doesn't chip or bubble), that looked super intense.  Plus, it seemed a shame to paint (at least) 75 year old wood cabinets - even if I wanted to lighten things up. Once again the plan has changed.  We went to Lowe's yesterday and got inexpensive new flooring Steve is going to install himself, I am going to pain the walls white (bright!), we will eventually get a new fridge…and may tile the backsplash at some point.  And that's pretty much it.  So…light kitchen renovation.  Quite a change from the complete demo and rebuild we first thought about!  I still took some before pictures:

Floor and orange are going!

Sideboard will just be organized, not replaced…maybe

New fridge…soonish?

While we were standing in Lowe's getting the paint and flooring, a woman came up and went on and on about what an adorable family we are - she was especially enamored with Wm, of course. She kept saying how much Wm looked like both of us and how cute we all were. She was super nice and made all our days!  Yay for nice strangers!

Growing Up!

Welcome to Willie the Wonderkid's new layout!  Now that Wm is nearly 8, I thought it was time to ditch the little kid themed look and give him a more grown up aesthetic. I can't believe Wm is almost 8 years old, in 3rd grade, and halfway done with elementary school!!

It really hit me last night.  Wm was playing Minecraft on the computer, I told him it was time to go take a shower and get his jammies on.  Without a word, he shut the computer, went upstairs, turned on the water and took his shower.  Then he put his jammies on, returned downstairs, got himself a bowl and a cup, and fixed himself a snack.  He sat down at the dining room table with a book and ate and read until I told him it was bedtime.  He asked if he could take his book in bed and finish it up, which was fine.  When we got upstairs he goes, "You know, I'm pretty tired, I'm just going to go to sleep.  Good night!" He is a little man now!!  Just handles his biz like a champ.  The only thing he refuses to do all on his own is pick out his own clothes because he "doesn't know what looks good together." So I have to lay out a little outfit for him every morning so he "looks good." Adorbs.

Wm has even outgrown his little kid bike, so we are going to go shopping this weekend with Mimi to get him a BIG kid bike!

This cracked me up…
Wm: Where will I go when I'm done with elementary school?
Steve: Middle school.
Wm: What grade is that?
Steve: 6-7-8
Me: Then high school is 9-10-11-12.
Wm: Then work?
Me: Then college.
Wm: How many years is college?
Steve: 4.
Wm: Then work?
Me: Then grad school!
Wm: How many years is that?
Me: If you're getting your Ph.D., it will be at least 4 more.
Wm: THEN work?
Steve: Yeah.
Wm: What if I don't want to work?
Me: You can stay in college and teach.
Wm: What if I just want to stay at home?
Me: And do what?
Wm: Lay around.
Me: Then you won't have a home to lay around IN.
Wm: Why not?
Me: How are you going to pay for it?
Wm: Hm.
Me: But you don't have to work in an office like me. You could be a writer or an artist or baseball player or something else where you are out and about. Daddy is out and about a lot!
Wm: Can I play video games?
Steve: You can invent new video games.
Wm: YES!

Workin' Kid

Wm came to work with me on Monday.  I usually set him up in "his" office when he comes in.  It's basically the reception area/waiting room where students flow in to see me and my student assistants usually sit.  When Wm is here, I keep the door closed to that office and just open my door that goes directly into the hallway (I have a font door and a back door).  Here is a picture of Wm hanging out in his office:

My office attaches to the waiting room by a door that I keep open when Wm is in there, but is always closed otherwise (so no one sneaks up behind me).  So yesterday, the hall door to the waiting room was open (my student assistant left and didn't close it behind him) and my office door to the hallway was closed (but my adjoining door was open so I could hear everything happening in the waiting room).  And then this happened…

Random Student: Uhhhhh.

Wm: [silence]

RS: Hello?

Wm: Hello.

RS: Is…uhhhh…Cory here?

Wm: Yes.

RS: Ummmm.  Can I see her?

Wm: I don't know.

RS: Uhhhh…mmmmm….

Me: [popping my head in] Oh, you met my new secretary.  C'mon in.

RS: Haaa…uhhhh…OK. Should I come through the…uhhhh…this door?

Me: Yeah, that's fine.

RS: [clearly very uncomfortable]

Wm: Bye!

RS: Um. Bye?

It's finals week and seniors are graduating and going off into the Real World.  So another student stopped by to thank me and brought me these:

Wm was very confused about why a boy brought me flowers.  I told him the boy just brought the flowers as a way to thank me for helping him for 4 years since he was leaving and it was probably the last time I'd ever see him.  Wm goes, "Hmph. They don't even smell good." I told Steve that Wm has his back.  He's on the lookout for possible interlopers. 

Easter Festivities

Wm was on spring break last week.  He spent most of the week at the place where he goes to Summer Clubhouse, but Friday he went to work with Steve (tomorrow he goes with me!) Steve texted me a couple pictures of Wm at Soccer First! 

Taking over Daddy's office

Biggest hemorrhoid ever

Wm also colored eggs!  I told him I wrote a surprise message on an egg that would only show up once it was dyed.  I wrote "fart" in the invisible crayon that they included so Wm had a Fart Egg.  I thought he was going to pee his pants he laughed so hard.  I know my audience. Comedy gold.

Drying

Finished product!

Fart egg being born. BEST MOM EVER.

Easter basket form Grandma & Grandpa.  Schroeder was very curious.

Wm did the Easter egg hunt at church, then Mimi and Guy came over for a late Easter lunch and we had our own hunt in the backyard.  Wm found all the eggs!!  (With only a bit of help - we did super sneaky hiding this year!)

Found eggs!

Jackpot!

The hunt is on...

Hidden IN the tree! 

Misson: Accomplished

It was a super busy weekend, but it could not have been more gorgeous and we had a great time!

Weird

Me: Hey, Wm, FYI, next week me and Daddy are going to 2 Path to Membership classes at church.  For the first one you are going to go to Mimi's to hang out, and during the 2nd one you will just stay at church in the Sunday School room.
Wm: I am OK with that.
Me: Really? Hm. Did I mention they will be sticking you with needles?
Wm: [sigh] Mommy. Church does not do achu-puncture.

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Wm: [singing loudly in falsetto] BRRRRAAAAHHHHH…TRAAAAA LAAAAAA!!!!
Me: You're weird.
Wm: You're weird-[pause]-er than me.

New Kicks

Wm has never outgrown a pair of shoes.  He destroys them long before that happens.  His latest pair of sneakers developed large, gaping holes along the sides from where he drags them to break his scooter (despite repeated reminders to use the actual break ON the scooter!) So, the Great Shoe Hunt began again.  Wm, like his dad, is very particular about what shoes he will wear.

I caved and let Wm get tie shoes this time.  It takes him (what seems like) hours to get those things tied. Because of the "time suck" issue, the last time I just got him velcro so we could get out the door in a decent amount of time.  Wm wasn't pleased (they were "baby shoes") and I realized that if I don't give in, he'll still be wearing velcro in college. However, the timing is bad because now Schroeder attacks the hell out of Wm's laces as he painstakingly ties and double knots his shoes.  It took nearly 10 minutes for the whole thing to get done this morning - and ended with me holding an evil, squirmy cat who was trying to lunge at Wm's shoes for the zillionth time and Wm screaming, "GOOOOO AAAAAWAY, CAT!!!!!"

BUT - how cute is he in his new fancy kicks?