Santa

Tonight we purchased two gifts to donate to needy children. We chose ornaments off a local giving tree. When we explained to the boys what we were doing, Michael was perplexed. I explained that these children wouldn't be getting many presents from their parents because they don't have a lot of money. Michael replied , "That is what Santa is for. They will still get gifts from him won't they?" I said yes and quickly changed the subject. Any advice in case he brings it up again ? I am afraid my little smarty pants will be questioning me much too soon about Santa. 

More Firsts...

As the boys were infants, it seemed that we were endlessly watching for their firsts. When would they first sleep through the night, smile, roll over, sit up and the list goes on. Well once we enrolled Michael in Kindergarten, I figured our "firsts" milestones would end even though common sense tells me they never end! Many people focus so much on the first events of a child's first year that the rest seem forgotten.  Well last night we had a momentous first... the first girl calling the house! 

Michael pulled a kleenex out of his pocket with a phone number barely written on it. He said it was Miss A's number (name changed to protect her identity).  Now this was nothing new. Michael has brought home countless pieces of scratch paper and napkins with messages from his friends on them so this kleenex did not strike me as odd. As Michael was completing his homework, the phone rings. I answer it to hear a young girl's voice mention something about Judy. Judy? I ask if she has the wrong number to which she replies," I will call back from a quieter place." Okay, problem diverted. Joe asked what the caller ID said to which I read it aloud and Michael yells, "That's A's last name!" Joe and I immediately run upstairs and pull out the yearbook to look up Miss A to see if we have seen her before. What a cutie!! Michael definitely has good taste in the girls he picks out!

Well about 15 minutes later, the phone rings. I look at the caller ID to see that Miss A has called again. This time it is quieter and she politely states who she is and asks if Michael is home. I say that he is and hand off the phone.  Now the boys have not had extensive experience on the phone, the occasional call to their grandparents or the birthday phone calls from the family is about it. Michael anxiously takes the phone and says,"What do you want?" to which I am flabbergasted and loudly whisper "Michael, you don't talk to girls that way or anyone for that matter!" He and A talk for a bit trying to figure out when she can come over and play.  He tells her that he hasn't talked to me yet and will talk to her later. He hangs up and begins the hounding, "When can she come over? Can she ride the bus home? etc. I explain that he doesn't even ride the bus home,  so no she cannot ride the bus here. I ask where she lives. His reply, "Genoa City". I should have seen that one coming! Of course she lives in Genoa City!!UGH So we get out the school directory to look up her address and start trying to make plans the best we can without talking to her parents. I am in the process of explaining to Michael that I need to speak to her parents to finalize plans and the phone rings again. Miss A is very persistent. This time I give Michael the phone and tell him who is calling. He answers the phone better this time,"Hi A". I explain after the call that he should just say "Hi" in case it was her parents calling to talk to us. Anyway, Michael is then following me around the house with the phone constantly asking me about days and times that she can come over. He tells A to "hold on, don't go anywhere" as we keep walking about trying to organize this Wii play date while making lunches, cleaning up dinner, etc.  Finally I ask if she is going to the Kid's Night Out function at school thinking that if she is, then great, they can just meet up there and play together. No such luck. I suggest then December 10 before the Kid's Night Out function, Michael suggests, A accepts and we have a date. They hang up. I ask what time is she being dropped off. "I don't know." Great. So now we have a play date penciled in and are taking baby steps in order to have a social life. I begin to write a letter to Miss A's parents regarding the plans trying to finalize times, etc.

Fortunately, Jacob is a wise observer and wants to now call his friend C. I ask if he knows C's phone number and Jacob responds, "Yes, 527849653" or some random combination of numbers. I try to contain my laugh and suggest that he write a letter instead to C. So he does and inserts a dum dum sucker in the envelope for his dear friend. I am not so sure about this C kid. I think he and Jacob would be VERY troublesome! Joe and I have always said that Jacob will be our "trouble maker" in school and we will get calls from his teacher for his behavior.  Well since September, I have had the pleasure of his pre school teachers and director stopping me 2 times for his behavior! The first time was a rebel Jacob refusing to sit quietly on his cot and it took 4 teachers to work with him to calm down. I put a cabosh on that and told the teachers to call me if that happened again. Now the threat of a call to mom is all it takes!  The second incident was Jacob calling his friends "Assholes".  We asked him where he heard this and at first he said C but then he said that he heard it at home from daddy, which is very likely.  Evidently though C taught Jacob another word for his penis, "dick" because when Jacob got in the car last week he called Michael a "dick" for not moving over quick enough.  This is not a phrase daddy uses so I really think it is coming from C. I asked Jacob's teachers if he calls his teachers those bad word and they said no so that is a step in the right direction!

These are great memories and if this is the worst our kids do, Joe and I are doing a fabulous job of being parents!  To my brother and sister who have our beautiful nieces and nephew, celebrate those first rolling over and first teeth moments and buckle up for a wild ride!

I'm baaaaccckkkk!

Well after reading a couple nice comments and talking to some very supporting family members, I have decided that I will try this blog thing again.  Last night we attended the visitation of a distant family member that passed away. He was my dad's cousin's husband. I don't really know the last time I saw him but his wife has always been great about coming to family events and she even was the cake cutter at my wedding. So I figured I would go see her and maybe catch up with some other relatives I don't see very often.  I have a cousin that is a professor at a university in Minnesota. When my grandpa was alive he called her "teach" for a nickname. Well then I became a teacher and she became a professor so our nicknames were upgraded.  Every family event we chat about school, curriculum, how our careers are going and she is a great inspiration to me.  I wish we lived closer so that I would have such a great role model so close to me. Sure, I have email and facebook but these technology sources just don't cut it when you need to bounce ideas off someone that knows what you are talking about without having to give extensive history.

It seems that at each visitation/funeral people always make comments like "We should really keep in touch better" or "It is a shame bad events are what brings people together."  Well I agre, however, it dawned on me...maybe this is God's way of making sure we keep in touch with people we need in our lives?  In this case a family lost a husband, father, grandfather, brother and a patriarch.  With this loss though, they were able to see relatives that they hadn't seen in a while.  We all want to get together with friends and family, but "don't have the time."  With the death of a family member or friend, this is I guess God's way of making us take time out of our days for friends or family.

Well, it is 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning and I think that is enough deep thinking for now. Until later...

To blog, or not to blog, that is the question...

Trina here...
So I have heard of people making money off blogs due to ads. Joe and I started this blog for two reasons. First to share our experiences with the boys, and secondly, to make a few extra bucks. Well, Google deleted our ad sense account saying people weren't clicking on the ads correctly. This put a nasty taste in our mouths and we stopped blogging.

But...

then I thought about our original reason for the blog, to share our experiences. My question is, who reads my blog though? Is anyone out there? Is it worth blogging? I know a few people have commented on my stories, but I guess the real question is "should I start blogging again?"

Please share your thoughts...

Backpack, Backpack

Joe here . . .

Well, this morning we had an incident. Trina had to get to work a little earlier this morning so I was in charge of getting all the boys stuff together. No big deal. I've done it before. I got the boys out to the car and we were early heading out. We went to McDonalds for breakfast today instead of the usual homemade breakfast. They were very quick today and we got to the preschool at about 5:40. We have to wait until about 5:55 to get in since they don't open up for us until 6. So, the boys ate their breakfasts and I sat listening to the radio for the next fifteen minutes.

Time came to go in. The boys were done and everything was going smoothly. Until, I asked Michael where his backpack was. It was answered with the much expected "I don't know." My reaction, "WHAAAT! Are you kidding me!" Then it was followed by a punch to the top of the car. I mean, we sat there for 15 minutes doing nothing! We would've had plenty of time to go back home and get it. As angry as I was I felt bad for Michael as he was crying because he was so upset. He takes school seriously and he prides himself on being a model student so the anticipation of getting in trouble for not having his folder (which was in his backpack of course) was unthinkable to him. I did my best to control my anger (albeit that's not my strong point). I tried to console him, but he was still upset.

I immediately got on the phone to Trina and asked her how much trouble he'd be in. She informed me he'd get into a decent amount of trouble. It is first grade after all! So she came up with the idea of calling Grandma and Grandpa Madole to see if they could get his backpack and drop it off for him. I was able to calm Michael down with this information and he regained his composure (as did I). We went in to the preschool and went about our usual routine.

All's well that ends well. Grandma and Grandpa saved the day! They were able to drop off the backpack to Michael at the preschool so he had it before he even got to his school. The moral of the story (if there has to be one) is that no matter how smart, mature and responsible a 6-year-old may seem, he is still a 6-year-old. When going out to the car in the morning always make sure you, as the parent, go last so you can see the backpacks on the boys' backs. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa. You came to our rescue once again.

Always Be Prepared

Joe here . . .

Tonight we are going to Michael's first cub scout meeting. I'm actually kind of nervous about this. I remember my time in cub scouts and all the things we did and how much I really didn't care for it. Yeah, I wasn't the cub scout type. Don't tell Michael this and I apologize to anyone who loves scouting, but I always kind of thought of cub/boy scouts as dorks. I just couldn't get into it. I felt like we were just pretending to be adventurers or something. It always just felt like a big game, not like we were learning any skills that we could use later in life. My views of scouting have changed though. My favorite shows to watch are all these survival shows like Dual Survival and Man, Woman, Wild. When I'm watching them, I keep thinking how useful scouting knowledge would be in these situations.

Anyway, I hope Michael likes it and really wants to be involved in it. It would be a welcome break from his video games. He gets so involved in his DS games. We just got him the "New Super Mario Brothers" game and every free moment he has he is spending playing that game. I guess he gets some of that from me. I remember spending many long hours playing video games when I was younger. I just don't want him to turn into a couch potato like I am. That's why I'm hoping he'll get interested in all the scouting stuff so that he'll get a little more activity in his life.

On a different topic, Michael received an invitation to another birthday party today. This will be his third party this year. This kid has more of a social life than I do. His party is on the same day as Jacob's party. So, it will be double duty for Trina and I. Trina will go with Jacob to his party (she will have to stay with him) and I will take Michael to his party. I don't have to stay with Michael. :) Yes, this means an afternoon of college football all by myself. Woohoo!

It's good to see the boys getting invited to these parties. It is good socialization for them. At the same time I fear it is a mere preview of things to come. I can see us chauffeuring the boys around to parties, practices, scout meetings, etc. for many years to come. Ugh. Oh well, I guess that's what being a parent is all about. I'll just have to get used to the fact that my kids get invited to more parties than I do.

Well, we have to get ready to go to the meeting, so until next time . . .

Jacob the Player

Joe here. . .

Well, less than a week after Michael wanted to have girls in his room, Jacob made his attraction to the female persuasion quite clear. Having dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Madole last night Jacob was asked if he still had a girlfriend. Last year at preschool he had become quite fond of one particular girl. Well, he announced to us that he has not just one but three girlfriends! He told us all that for his birthday party next year he is going to invite just these girls to his party. No boys, just girls. He figures he has a better chance with them if there's no competition. He ain't no dummy.

Oh, boy. What to do with two little boys who are already becoming interested in girls. I know the boys have no idea (for the most part) how male and female relationships work, but it is cute to think of these two little boys having girlfriends. Lord help us when they figure out what to do with the girls! I am definitely not looking forward to that.

Everybody Loves a Good Sandwich

Joe here. . .
Today we went to the Sandwich Fair in Sandwich, Illinois. This is by far the best county fair that I have ever been to. We go to a lot of fairs including the Lake County Fair, McHenry County Fair, Kenosha County Fair, Walworth County Fair and even the Boone County Fair. Of all those fairs, none of them can compete with the Sandwich Fair. I believe the Sandwich Fair is actually the Dekalb County Fair (correct me if I'm wrong), but everybody knows it as the Sandwich Fair. It is so big that you need to plan your attack on the fair. Which, of course, we did not do today.

We started out by eating. All kinds of food all over the place. Michael opted for the footlong corn dog while Jacob had a normal corn dog. Trina and I had giant pork tenderloin sandwiches. Grandpa Metz had a two pork chop meal. Grandma Metz wasn't hungry so she just had a funnel cake (deserts don't count as a meal says Grandma). It was all good and we figured this was a good idea to start with this so we'd have the energy to continue through the fair. Boy were we wrong!

The way we should have done it would have been to go see some attractions, then sit down and eat, and then finish strong. We didn't and by the time we got through about half the fair we were exhausted. Our feet were killing us. Luckily we brought the stroller for Jacob so we didn't have to listen to him complain about all the walking. Michael was a trooper and never complained once about the walking. Instead he found something else to complain about.

Michael had asked early in our day if we could buy a new Wii game if we had enough money left over after the fair. I said yes knowing full well that we would not. Bad idea. From that moment on anytime we bought something it was followed with "Do we still have enough money to buy a game?" Michael has this crazy idea that we are made of money and that all we have to do is go to the bank and they'll just give us money. I wish it was that easy. He doesn't realize you have to have money in the bank before they'll give you any. His desire for a game came to a head after we had spent just about all of our alotted funds. He began whining and crying and carrying on saying that it was his worst day. I, being the diplomatic, calm person that I am, became furious. It all but ruined our entire trip to the fair. Luckily, however, Michael and I did finally talk on our way out (after about 30 minutes of me not wanting to hear a word from him) and smoothed things out. Thank heavens.

Ugh, what a day. We did enjoy the fair, but trips like this really do test you as a parent.

Internal Time Clocks... *YAWN*

"Good Morning World" this is basically what both boys said at 5:40 am this wonderful Saturday morning! At first my reaction was, "GO BACK TO BED!" which of course was received by, " I can't, I am done sleeping." Once I cleared the Sandman's dust from my weary eyes, I realized why my little angels were up so early. First, they went to bed at 8:30 so they have already slept 9 hours unlike me that was up until almost midnight. Secondly, this is the time their little bodies are used to walking out the door during the week to go to daycare/school.

So being the good wife I am, I take the little noise boxes downstairs to get them set up to watch a movie, hoping they will fall back to sleep while Joe slept. Michael of course wanted to play Wii which I put my foot down on that one and said absolutely not!  When the boys were younger, we would put in a movie to watch during rest time and snuggle up with blankets and pillows on the couch. Our movie of choice was Polar Express as it was calming, darker in color and had that soothing effect. 99% of the time, the boys fell into their own dream land upon watching the movie. It worked so well, that occasionally when we told them we were watching it, the boys whined "I don't want to go to sleep". Okay, so they caught on to our plans!

Well, I was hoping that since it has been a long time since viewing Polar Express, the boys would revert back into their old habits and get at least a few more winks of shut eye. I set them up with the basics, a snack, juice, blankets and pillows and retreated back to the quiet of the upstairs. Once upstairs, my mind started racing about emails I should send out, paying bills, lesson planning, my discussion with Michael's teacher (nothing exciting), and the list went on. ( As I stated in a previous blog, my mind races all the time. Even my dreams are full of action. )

So now I am trying to fall asleep, my mind is racing, and every so often I hear the little chatter from our first floor! Eventually after literally doing some relaxation techniques, I drift off into slumber land only to be awaken an hour later by Jacob being Tigger and bouncing back into our bed with his juice. Jacob has decided he is not interested in the movie any more which is fine, except that now I am worried he will spill his juice all over me. I roll over, take his juice and try to quiet him down. No luck. Well now Jacob is fully awake, Michael is talking loudly and I just give up. So at 7:00 on a Saturday morning, I reluctantly go downstairs, pay bills, straighten up the blanket/pillow mess and begin my day.

The boys used to sleep in on the weekends. I am sure it will return...some day. I guess I should be lucky, at least they slept through the night!

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Joe here . . .

How young is too young to be thinking about girls? Michael, at only six years old (soon to be seven), is already thinking about girls. Earlier this week as Michael, Jacob and I were riding home together from daycare, Michael brought up how he wanted to play on his DS. Nothing new there. Then as we got closer to home he told me how he was going to go upstairs in his room and play on his DS. A little unusual for him. To make a long story short, I went into his room when he was up there to ask him what he was doing. As he quickly sat up and turned his DS so I couldn't see it he informed me he was spelling. For those of you that don't know, Michael is already a very good speller, so this didn't fly with me. My mind quickly began thinking, "He can't look at pornography, can he?" He showed me what he was doing and I saw that a girl's name was typed into his DS. He said he was trying to "chat" with her. Oh boy, here we go!

This morning Michael informed Trina that he wants to have friends over for his birthday party. He wants three boys and two girls. She asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted them all to go up into his bedroom and play DS. Wh-wha-what?! Yes, in his bedroom! Trina informed him that girls were not allowed in his bedroom. He asked why, she said "because you might kiss them." Michael, for once was speechless.

I am entering a period in my life I had hoped I wouldn't have to deal with for at least 3 or 4 more years. I hope I'm ready.

Addictions...

Trina here...

Well I know everyone has their "addictions". Maybe chocolate, a certain beverage, working out and the list goes on. Well Michael's addiction is video games. This kid's mind is constantly racing and needs constant stimulation so the video games are actually good for him. (Sorry Michael, you inherited that from me.) Normally there are negative associations with video games, however, they do have their advantages. Think of the hand/eye coordination necessary to make Mario and Luigi jump through their worlds using the small buttons on a DS!  Some games provide activity like boxing against the Wii characters that are really good! The problem is when you beat the games and reach the end, then what? Michael received a DS from Santa last Christmas with a few games. Well if you have ever seen a DS game, they are tiny. Why on Earth do they make games for kids that small?? Anyway, we have lost a few of the games he received which leaves him with his Mario game, some Lego battle game and "Science Papa" ( I couldn't resist.) Well he doesn't care for the Science Papa, which after playing it I don't blame him and the Lego game is not really his style. He is not interested in battling knights and the medieval time period.  Anyway, he has reached the end of his Mario game, with Joe's help, several times and he keeps replaying the game. 

So you might be saying, "Get to the point Trina!" Well, my point is...I am asking for more advice. Michael is our first school age child and now he sees what the other kids have and REALLY wants everything.  We used to be able to distract him and encourage him to save his money, but now the items he wants are really expensive. He actually wanted us to not buy groceries so we could get him a new Wii game! We can't afford to keep buying him games. How do you deal with the constant trying to keep up with other kids knowing full well that is not healthy? Share your expertise everyone. :)

8:30 and he's still up . . .

What do you do with a four-year-old boy that refuses to sleep in his own bed? I put the boys to bed at 7:30. Michael (the 7-year-old) went to bed with little argument and fell asleep by 7:45 as usual. Jacob, however, puts up a fight every night. He says his bed isn't comfortable. He wants to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed every night. I tried letting him sleep in our guest bedroom which has a very comfortable bed, but that wasn't good enough. It has to be Mommy and Daddy's bed. Now, before the questions arise, yes, we have let him sleep with us in the past. I know, I know, we never should've started letting him, but nobody's perfect. The mistake was made now we're dealing with it. Back to the original question, how do we get him to stop? We've tried punishments, rewards, bribery you name it. They each work for a night, maybe two, but in the end he still ends up coming back.

We have a king size bed, which is good, but Trina and I still end up sleeping on our sides at the edges of the bed while Jacob is usually lying across the middle of the bed perpendicular to us. It's a good thing he's so cute otherwise he'd have been launched from that bed long ago. I guess that's part of it, he's so cute and looks like an angel when he's asleep so it's so hard to be mad at him. All I know is that this nightly program has to change and any advice anybody has will be welcomed with open arms.

Grandpa's Birthday Party

Joe here . . .
Happy Birthday Grandpa!  Today was Grandpa Dole's "surprise" birthday party.  The whole family got together.  Jenny's family (sans Steve), Jason's family and the four of us all gathered together to celebrate.  Grandpa was honored by having to grill steaks for all of us.  We'll have to work on that for next year. Michael spent his time trying to play the things he wanted to play, but Jacob and his little cousins Sam and Charlotte made that difficult. Michael being the oldest of all the grandchildren always ends up being the focus of all his cousins' attention. But Michael just takes it in stride. Jacob had only one incident today. He apparently didn't quite make it to the bathroom in time as those of us upstairs were treated to a totally bottomless Jacob running through the living room. As funny as this sounds it happens alot with him. We think he has a touch of exhibitionist in him. Later Grandpa was honored by having to go outside with the four older grandchildren (Michael, Jacob, Sam & Charlotte). Grandpa tends to have to work on the days his grandchildren come to visit. Oh well. We hope you had a happy birthday Grandpa. Here's to another year of fun and adventure!

Our first entry...

Trina here...
So we have decided to join the blog bandwagon! Joe and I have talked about starting a blog for a while.  Before long, my brother Jason started a blog about his life with triplet girls and my sister Jenn started a blog for her daughter Kenady's journey with congenital cataracts, and well here we are.  I debated back and forth, what is special about my family. Jason has triplets, Jenn has a daughter with a visual impairment, what is special about me? Well the fact that I am the only one in my family without a daughter is special, the fact that both of my boys are out of diapers is special, the fact that my boys are in a different stage of life (school age) is special, and the list goes on and on! Joe and I have two sons, Michael who will turn 7 in October and Jacob who is 4. These guys bring so much laughter and fun to our lives, I don't know what we would do without them! We hope that you enjoy our journeys with our sons.  Life is different living in a house full of males!