Dad is Just like Abe Lincoln...and other February Funnies

God or Jesus and the Crocodiles
Lou goes through spells where she wakes up crying in the middle of the night, or just shows up in our room.  It is usually because she has either had a bad dream or because her legs hurt.  I totally get the legs hurting- I used to have HORRIBLE growing pains.  But the bad dreams I really want to teach her how to handle on her own (eventually) so RRL and I try to give her some things she can think or pray when she wakes up from one.  Last week when she was telling about about a bad dream involving Crocodiles trying to get her feet, I suggested that next time the crocs showed up maybe she could just tell them to go back to the zoo where they belong.  Her response:
  "Nah, I think I'll just tell God or Jesus, whichever one handles the Crocodiles, to take care of them for me"
Well, ok, then there's that option.

The Invisible Man Saves the Day
Cbug has the most tender heart toward his sister.  She is not really at an age that makes that very easy, either.  She occasionally (cough cough) tries to get him in trouble by whining or crying if he doesn't do things her way.  But he still plays with her and takes care of her (except for the occasionally frustrated lash-out which is definitely not ok, but I can't say that I always blame him either).  Recently the three of us were playing Candyland. I won.  Cbug got second.  And Lou started (fake) crying, "BUT I DIDN'T WANT to be LAST."  She was hoping Cbug would give in and let her beat him.  But instead he patiently and with much enthusiasm responded "But Sissy, you didn't get last.  There is an invisible man playing the game with us and he got fourth place.  You totally beat him and got third.  See, you aren't last."  The hilarious part (if that wasn't funny enough) was that she was totally great with that explanation.  I'm going to have to remember that.

The Monster at the Ball
Cbug and Lou, on our days of playing at home, are both having to learn to be patient with Little Bear having increasing access to the toys they leave on the floor.  Recently, they had set up all of the Little People princesses and superheros at the Castle for a ball.  They were getting so frustrated because the dancing kept getting interrupted by LB crawling right through the people, putting some in his mouth, knocking them over, etc.  At first they got frustrated but when i asked if they could come up with a way for their baby brother to play along, they invented layer 2 of the game...Now, it was time for everyone to go home from ball but they had to rush to their houses before the evil monster came out of the woods and attacked them.  (interpretation: clean up all of the people quickly before Little Bear could eat them).

Family Movie Night

It was thanks to KJ that we had one of our very best family nights during February.  Don't get me wrong, its not like it was anything wildly creative, it was a family movie night.  But somehow, because biggest brother was planning the Friday night shin-dig all week, the excitement level at our house was through the roof.  Cbug's teacher even sent a note home 'Hope you all enjoy family movie night tonight, Cbug has been telling us about it all week."  To KJ's credit, it was a well thought out event.  He chose a movie everyone would enjoy (Robin Hood- Disney version, of course) and made two lists.  The first list was the evenings "activities" which included "1)Eat and 2) Watch a movie in our PJs" and also a list of items that he needed us to buy before the evening.  Here's a photo of his "Ingredients".

The last item totally stumped me.  Turns out, he wanted dinner to be from one of his favorite restaurants "Celebrity" (with a silent H of course).

Daddy is just like Abe Lincoln

KJ really is learning a lot in Kindergarten. But often his application of his newly gained knowledge just cracks me up. For example:

KJ "When will Daddy get to be the Dad on Duty?"
ABL: I'm not sure buddy, he has tried to contact the people in charge but has not really had much success.
KJ: So, he has to wait until he gets elected?
ABL: Yeah, I guess so. He's trying to be patient but he really wants to come to your school.
KJ: He's just like our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.
ABL (confused): Oh really, how is that?
KJ: Well, Abraham Lincoln really wanted to get elected to be Governor, but he didn't get to be but he didn't give up and then he beat the same guy and got to be president. And then he freed all of the slaves because he finally got elected.
ABL: Yep, just like that. (what was I supposed to say)

Love is in the air

We started some new traditions this year, to celebrate the big LOVE day.
I can't wait to see how these evolve over the years.

Early in the week we took turns taking our littler sweethearts on dates that they helped plan.
Sweet CTL pretty much gets a special date with Mommy every-middle-of-the-night.  So he, technically, did not participate this year.  But our littlest love sure is CUTE!

RRL took Lou.  He emphasized that her Daddy was the first one to take her on dates, that her dates should always open the door for her and that the reason he was taking her on dates was to practice how she should be treated.  She was just thrilled to dress in her pink dress, have her Daddy all to herself, and go to a fancy dinner at one of her favorite places...Moo-yah (see her best "MOOOOO-Yah expression below), followed by dessert at TCBY.  Ha, nothing like a fancy dinner of hotdogs and icecream with your Daddy. 

 

We gave the kids books, Lou's was "Miss Nelson is missing"

After I ruled out McDs and Whataburger, the boys chose Celebrity for our date.  On our way home from school that afternoon, the boys and I were planning our outing and I as trying to talk to them about how to plan a date for a lady.  I suggested that having a plan and dressing up a bit were some simple ways to show her that she was appreciated.  So, KJ suggested that they wear tuxedos on our date, since they appreciated me SO much.  Cbug was more hesitant.  When KJ mentioned the tuxes, I said I thought that would be fun and Cbug responded "I like my camo pants".  Short. Sweet. To the point.  Typical.  I told him that was fine, he could wear what he wanted, but just try to think about how he could do something for someone else.  You can tell from the pictures how he compromised.  Love him!

KJ got "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and Cbug got a book that had the collection of "Alexander" stories. 

Also, thanks to a great group from our Bible Class, and an awesome idea by one of them, we enjoyed a date swap weekend.  We kept their kids one night and traded for our date night.  I'm pretty sure we got the best end of that bargain when we took in three extra kids (one from each family), and then got to leave FOUR behind.  SUH-WEET.

Our night to keep all of the kids

Speaking of Sweet...that was the theme of our date.  My man knows the way to my heart.  I mean, other than the ways he takes care of our family, the OTHER way to my heart is my sweet tooth, especially a certain love for milkshakes.  I consumed so many milkshakes while pregnant with KJ that I gained nearly 60 pounds (no exaggeration).  But I suppose my real love for a GOOD milkshake dates way back to the years where there was a little drug store down the street from my childhood home.  We could walk down with our dollars, sit at the counter, and get a great shake and grilled cheese.  The good ole days. 

With that sentimental motivation, RRL and I went on a Valentine's quest (via google) for the best places in our area to get a great shake. And boy howdy did we have success.  When we found an article about the best 3 places to get icecream treats, realized they were within miles from each other, and each had a unique experience to offer...yet another ABL hair-brained idea was born.  One that was nearly as successful as a certain idea to go sledding in rubbermaid tubs.  I mean, why take someone else's word for which of the 3 was actually the BEST.  Shouldn't we make such a pivotal decision for ourselves?  So, RRL kindly played along when I suggested we visit all three of the establishments. For dinner.  A perfect Valentine's date if you ask me- lots of time in the car to talk, lots of time to laugh over choosing dessert for dinner, and the fun of exploring new places.

We had two amazing milkshakes and a homemade icecream sandwich.  I guess it wasn't entire for dinner, I guess, since we also shared a burger and a hamsalad sandwich.  But that definitely wasn't our "main" course.

We loved every minute of these new traditions.  Hopefully they will become part of they way we are setting aside time to appreciate the blessings of our marriage. 

And the ways we are teaching our children to love each other and to love their future spouses.  

I cannot wait until next year.

Not that we technically HAVE to wait 365 days to eat dessert for dinner again.  Right, Babe?

ABL



The Valentine Box

So. Friends with older kids.  You held out on me.  No one warned me about this thing called a "valentine box".  We got instructions to decorate a shoe box or cereal box however HE wanted.  That's it.  So I let KJ go to town with scraps of paper, stickers, tape, glue, markers, etc.  It looked exactly like you might expect from a kindergarten boy.  a big red white and pink glorious mess, and that is just the stuff that actually made it ON to the box...you should have seen the craft table.  He took it to school and well, it didn't look like some of the others.  And it certainly didn't look like any of the amazing creations I've since seen on facebook. 

To be honest, I started this post with the intention of saying sometime about how we'll be more prepared next year to turn our box into a dinosaur that really roars or the like, but as I started typing I got caught up in the mental picture I have of his face while he glued to his merry heart's content.  Nope.  I'm going to let this one be.  He's not disappointed that his box wasn't better than his friends monster box that had "sharp teeth to eat the candy" and I'm not monster-box-maker's mom (who, as a side note, I happen to know doesn't work and only has one child).  If I'll let myself be, I'm actually quite content with our mess of a box.  And I sure love my little mess maker.  And that definitely is the best valentines box making experience money can buy (not that we spent any money on it). 

But at least next year, I'll know to give myself this pep-talk ahead of time.

ABL