Weekend Update

We are taking care of Mimi and Guy's cat, Winston, while they are in Finland and Russia. Winston is a bit nervous about us barging in all the time, but he LOVES Wm. Every time we go, Wm wants to come and he and Winston are best buds. Winston immediately runs up to Wm, flops onto his back, shows his fuzzy white belly, and purrs as Wm scratches his chin and pats his belly. Wm loves the kitty cats! (In fact, his first word was "kitty!")

Wm & Winston

Wm was invited to a pretty big sleep over last night with the most kids yet. I wasn't sure what the meal situation would be like, so I tried to fix him a jazzy snack before he left. I have discovered Wm eats MUCH better if his food is cute or interesting. I had seen a hot dog octopus online and decided to try and recreate it.

EXPECTATION

REALITY

Unfortunately, Wm had a TERRIBLE sleep over experience (he was crying when Steve got there to pick him up and cried the whole time I stuffed a bit of breakfast in him). We got him home at 9am (he was supposed to go to baseball at 10), but he immediately fell asleep.  We gently roused him at 1pm so he could eat something. He ate some lunch and went upstairs to play - but about 30 minutes later I went up an he was out like a light again. It's now 3pm and he's still dead to the world. I think we have discovered that too many kids/too much action doesn't work well for Wm!! We'll keep it small scale from now on.

And Jess sent me another gem!!! I sent it to Steve and he goes, "That is TOTALLY me!" Hahaha!!!

Jess nailed it again! :)

Big Kid Decisions

We woke up this morning to nature's majesty hanging out in our backyard:

Deer snoozing under our tree!

Schroeder reeeeally wanted to go out and play with the deer. He spent his morning like this:

Not a giant mouse, Schroeder.

I love that we are in an "urban neighborhood," but we have all kinds of wildlife hanging around! I saw a fox the other day!! And, also, I love that I just read an article about how The Ville has become so coveted that not only are houses selling before the "For Sale" sign even goes up, but there are bidding wars on nearly every house! So real estate agents in The Ville are telling buyers to just come out with their "highest and best offer" right out of the gate and most houses are selling for ABOVE list price! We're sitting on a gold mine! There are about 4 houses on our street that have had multiple offers before the listing is even active. Wheeee!!

Wm is done with school, but Summer Clubhouse doesn't start until Monday. So he decided to tag along to work with me today. He loves hanging out in "his" office next door. I don't have the heart to tell him that my student assistant is showing up soon and she believes that that is her office. I sense a turf war brewing.

Wm loves my office because it has "great wifi"

I told him I will take him to Whole Foods for lunch and he can get a piece of pizza and a cookie. He is exceedingly pleased with this plan.

Wm told me last night that he has made some decisions, now that he is a 4th grader. Here are the things he is going to start doing right away now that he is a Big Kid:

1. He will go to sleep without anyone else upstairs and get his own bedtime water, if needed.

2. He will "stop whining about death."

3. He will help me cook dinner and eat what everyone else is eating, as it is prepared.

I am interested to see how his new plan goes. This was a surprise and completely Wm-driven. He may have had an ulterior motive, because he finished by saying, "now that I am in 4th grade, and made these decisions, I feel like I should have a later bedtime." His current bedtime is 8:30pm. I told him, during the summer, he can stay up until 9pm. But, once school starts, we will have to look at how things are rolling and possibly adjust to 8:45pm. He was happy with that and an agreement was reached.

Wm also said that, starting next school year, he is going to make and pack his own lunch! We'll see how that goes!

Fourth Grader

Wm came home from school yesterday with a picture of him milking a cow! His Math teacher is sort of hoisting him up so he can reach. Wm captioned it, "I don't want to do this." When I asked why, he goes, "the udder was super gross - leathery and covered in scraggly hair...I did not want to touch it." So the hoisting then looked more like supportive insistence. 

Milk Man

Today was Wm's last day of 3rd grade! Steve and I went to Lunch on the Lawn with Wm and watched the PTA band, the "Dad Gummits" and got some tacos from the food truck there. It was a gorgeous day - sunny, not too hot, no humidity. Then we both decided to not go back to work this afternoon and took Wm for ice cream to celebrate his promotion to 4th grade!!

Sprinkle cone of happiness!

You may have a little something on your face...

Yep - got it.

Wm got an awesome report card, his teacher had great things to say about him, and he is now a big 4th grader!! His next to last year of elementary school! Time flies!

Mortality

I heard snifflings coming from Wm's room last night and he was weeping around about his own mortality again. So I tried to be all, "I will be waiting at the end of the tunnel of light for you in heaven!" (Which I do not believe at all, but, whatever it takes to calm him down.) He insisted that that did not make him feel better this time because he has thought about it and is sure there is nothing. So I tried a different approach…

Me: Well, if there's nothing, what are you afraid of?
Wm: I do not want to NOT exist!
Me: But you wouldn't even be aware of your nonexistence.
Wm: That does no help AT ALL! [fresh tears]
Me: Well, if you think this life is all that you have, you are really wasting it horribly being upset about death all the time. You should cherish every single moment. Appreciate the way the breeze feels in your hair, the sound of the rain on the roof, the plentiful and delicious food you have ready access to, laughing with your friends, the feeling of grass under your bare feet as you run through the sprinkler, your soft, comfortable bed, the unconditional love of your parents - all of these things you do not pay attention to every single day. Maybe instead of crying about your own death, which you know is happening, maybe you should spend your life being kind, helping others, and living every moment to the fullest!
Wm: Did you just fart in my bed?
Me: MAYBE.
Wm: That is not improving my life.


Also, Jess sent me a link to these and this is my favorite one. I owe Jess a debt of gratitude for sharing all the awesomeness!!

Worn Out

Wm is running on fumes! On Friday, he had to be at school an hour early and they drove out to Loudenville, OH to their Math teacher's 1,000+ cow dairy farm. Wm got to milk a cow, eat ice cream from the milk at the farm, bottle feed a baby cow, go hiking on the 700 acres, and made friends with a another baby cow (who he got to officially name - Polka Dot!) I guess the baby cow kept nuzzling him and mooed sadly when he left. Wm was very  moved and has decided he won't eat beef anymore (and even refused one of his favorite meals - a hamburger - that night!)  He didn't get home until nearly 5pm. And he was worn out!

When he got home, he said his neck hurt. Wm is the proud owner of his very first ever sunburn!

Red Neck Willie!

Wm also finally did his "Wonders of Ohio" presentation on Oxley Hall and it was a great success! Steve had 0 to do with it because I am in charge of the oversight of all English/Social Studies homework and projects (Steve is Math/Science). Since Prezi is online, Wm didn't take anything to school with him and just fired it up on his school ChromeBook.  We had it done well in advance, so we actually forgot which day it was until Wm came home and said he had done it. We decided to mess with Steve a bit because it's our hobby....

SUCCESS! 

Because he forgave me for evilly teasing him, Steve sent me this because it is SO SPOT ON. Loved it:

PREACH!

After the Wonders Project ("Wonders of America" happens in 4th grade and "Wonders of the World" in 5th! So more Wonders coming!) and the dairy farm trip, for some reason we decided it was a great time for Wm to have his first ever sleep over at our place last night. Wm invited his 2 best friends and we entertained them with pizza, s'mores, camp fires, throwing things off Wm's high porch, and endless video games. Suzanne came over for moral support, so that was awesome. Otherwise we would have been outnumbered. The boys built a fort in the living room to "camp" in and stayed up past midnight giggling like morons in their sleeping bags. Luckily, they were pretty quiet and Steve and I got to sleep without a problem. HOWEVER, the nerds were up and about and VERY LOUD at 6:45am. So that was not cool.  But the real victim here is Schroeder - who was at DEFCON 5 for the entire sleep over (I have been told NOT to call it a "slumber party"). We needed to clean the hell out of the house after it was (almost) empty of small beings (Wm keeps hanging around). We haven't had the heart to sweep yet because Schroeder is barely alive:

Zonked out

Dead to the world...sweeping paused.

Wm had the TIME OF HIS LIFE! I also have a feeling he is going to sleep reeeeeeally well tonight!

Awesome Kiddo

THE BEST KID EVER

Steve emailed Wm's teacher and offered some coolers/ice (as requested) for the Big Dairy Farm Field Trip this Friday. The kids are leaving an hour before school and won't get home until an hour after the normal school day ends. They have special chartered busses taking them and they are all SO EXCITED. So, anywho, Wm's teacher replied and said they had enough coolers/ice, but she added this:

I have to tell you how much I have enjoyed having William in my class this year.  I'll definitly miss him as he moves on to 4th.

When Wm came home, I go, "Your father got an email from your teacher." And he said, "She told me. She already told me it was good." Foiled again.  Wm has had such a stellar year!! I hope his 4th grade teacher(s) are half as good as the one(s) he has had this for 3rd grade! I thought that was the nicest thing to say! She is an awesome teacher. And Wm is an awesome kiddo!

Continuing with my recent habit of including things from the internet that made me laugh:

Look at his little hands!

Chick

Wm: When I was playing, Ariel came over and just sat right in front of me and did not move - and just stared at me.
Steve: Why did she do that?
Wm: She is just a social chick.
Steve: Did you just call her a "chick?"
Wm: Uhhhh...yeah. She is a chicken.
Steve: Huh?
Wm: Ariel is one of the baby chicks we have at school.
Steve: Ariel is a chicken?
Wm: OREO. She let me pet her. But Snickers is the softest chick.
Steve: This story makes so much more sense now.

After school Wm was all, "come watch me play video games in my room!" Because I am seriously THE BEST MOM EVER, I went up and "watched."  Then I told him I would just stretch out on his bed to watch after a couple minutes.  Soon after, Schroeder showed up and curled around me. Then Wm spun his little fan around so it was gently blowing on me. So I was laying on Wm's bed with a purring cat, a soft wind blowing....and, as would be expected, I totally fell asleep. When I woke up, I was like, "It's after 5! I have to start dinner!" Wm goes, "I was going to wake up you and tell you it was 5, but you and Schroeder looked so cute sleeping." HA!