Do you notice how loud I'm speaking?

Connor is having trouble controlling the volume of his voice. :) He's gotten into the habit of yelling quite a bit. Yesterday I decided I'd had enough, it's seriously been giving me a headache. So I've been saying "No yelling." every time he yells. Yesterday I said it probably about 100 times. Today, only like 10 so far... so we're getting there.

I went to Costco today and spent an even $100. I'm always so surprised how fast you can spend money in that place. I thought I had done well. But never fear, we now have a year's supply of toothbrushes. One thing I went there to check out was their diapers. Connor is now in a size 6 and since they get more and more expensive the bigger the diaper I thought I would look around a little. See if I could get a better deal. I can't. They cost 20 cents per diaper at Wal-mart and 27 cents each at Costco. Granted, that is store brand vs. name brand but still. Costco doesn't make their store brand in a size 6. Boo on them!

Connor was Mr. Friendly at the store. Just saying "hi" to everyone. Most people ignore him or don't notice but he really got this one lady's attention. She came over and started talking to him. Which just made him all shy. It was kinda funny. So to tease him she pretended like she was going to take the tiger off his shirt. He didn't say anything but when she left he got all mad. For the rest of the time we were there he had both his hands over the tiger and was saying "My shirt!" and "Connor's tiger!"

Summer

There was a time in my life that I never thought I'd say this but... I'm so dreading the summer. The heat, the boredom, the driving mommy insane by following her around and asking ten billion questions about every little thing. My hope is to live at the pool. I want to go to the pool a lot. I've said that before though and we went like twice. It's hard cause it's... you know, hot.

It's hard to convey a Phoenix summer to someone who has never lived here. I will probably spend the next few months trying to do just that. But imagine if you lived inside your oven. It's something like that. The valley is just a big giant oven, cooking all it's inhabitants til they scream for mercy. Then the thunderstorms come and provide just enough relief to trick you into thinking it's over. But it's not... it never is!

But enough about that... it hasn't even gotten over 100 yet. I should enjoy the last few days of "spring" while I still can.

Ants

Thanks for all love for my Wii poem. It got an editor's pick over on BlogHer which gave this blog the most traffic it's ever seen by far. Big smiles from me!

But on with the show...

There is a hook next to the door that I hang the diaper bag on. Yesterday when we were leaving the house I noticed a line of ants coming from the door jam over to the hook. I announced my findings and Larry made quick work of them with some bug killer. I didn’t think too much about it.

While we were out I noticed that I had forgotten to take Connor’s sandwich out of my bag from lunch the day before. So when I got home I put it in the sink, container and all. Again, I didn’t think much about it.

Then Larry went to do the dishes and found a ton of ants inside the sandwich holder. Oh yeah… peanut butter and honey. Those ants were after the honey in Connor’s sandwich. I can’t believe they found it so quick. Less than 24 hours. And it was in a ziplock baggie inside a Tupperware container. Neither one was shut all the way apparently.

Which means I had a diaper bag full of ants the whole time I was out. Gross.

T'was the day the Wii was due to arrive

T’was the day the Wii was due to arrive,
I didn’t know how I was supposed to survive.

The Wiimotes were hung by the TV with care,
In hopes that UPS would soon be there.

I peeked through the blinds, “When will it be here?” I said,
While visions of Mario Kart danced in my head.

I had given up hope, “It’s not coming today.”
I sat down with the kids and started to play.

When out in the street there arose such a clatter.
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.

Away to the door I flew like a flash
I stumbled on the front porch and made a big crash.

The sun was so bright I could hardly see
I shielded my eyes and was so filled with glee.

Then what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a big brown truck, it was getting so near.

With a little old driver, dressed in all brown,
I knew in a moment he’d been all over town.

The truck shone in the sunlight as it pulled to a stop,
The driver grabbed a big box, from right there on the top.

“Here is your box.” He said with a smile.
“Thanks” I replied, “I’ve been waiting awhile”.

His eyes were quite blood shot, his wrinkles were deep,
The tattoo on his calf kinda gave me the creeps.

He gave a small sigh and climbed into his truck.
I could tell from his face he’d had some bad luck.

But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
“May you kick Larry’s butt at Mario Kart tonight!”

Poor Maddy

Awhile ago I got a letter from Maddy's school asking if I wanted to have her tested for the Accelerated Learning Program. I said yes. I honestly didn't think she was going to get in but might as well have her tested, right? Well we got the results of the test last night. She didn't get in. No surprises there, but we also got her scores. She was in the 81st percentile for nonverbal communication which is awesome, but only the 27th percentile for verbal communication. That kinda worries me, especially considering how much that girl talks. Larry pointed out that while she talks a lot she doesn't ever really listen. Which is a big part of communication, the listening part. She does do a very poor job of telling stories or describing something. I pretty much never know what she is talking about. She will tell me things that happened at school and I'm totally lost. I just figured it was cause she is 6. I don't know how well 6 year olds are supposed to communicate. But I guess 73% of them communicate better than she does. I don't know how to improve this skill.

The paper said not to worry as long as their grades are ok then they are doing fine. It tried to reassure people like me that these scores are not a big deal. And I don't doubt that. I know she is doing fine, but still...

Oh and then just to top off my failures as a mother Maddy brought me a cryptic note she had written that said "You spend time with Connor and Larry but you don't spend time with me." UG! Which isn't entirely untrue. There are only so many hours in a day. She gets home at 3:30, we go over her school work together. I start cooking dinner at 4ish and when dinner is over and cleaned up it's time for baths and then it's pretty much bed time. Then every other weekend she goes to her Dad's house. So it's hard, everyone is busy! But I asked her to think of some things we can do together. I will try to think of some things too. I also taped the note up in the back of my closet so I will see it at least twice a day. Hopefully that will keep her feelings in the front of my mind.

A moment of panic

Most mornings Connor and I stand at the door and send Maddy off to school. We give kisses and hugs and then watch til she is across the street. Then Connor closes the door and locks the deadbolt. Such a big clever boy that he knows how to lock the door himself. It's a very proud moment for him.

Well, I went grocery shopping yesterday. When I was bringing in the groceries, I would say I had about three trips worth. (Can you see where this is going?) Anyways, first I load all the groceries onto the front porch. Then from the porch onto the coffee table. Then from there into the kitchen. I do this so that I can keep a better eye on Connor. I don't want to leave him unattended while the front door is wide open. Anyways, so I had all the groceries on the porch and I was bringing them into the living room. I brought in one trip and went out to grab some more and Connor closed the door behind me. No! No! No! OMG!

He didn't lock it though. phew! I then took my keys off the coffee table and put them in my pocket.

The library is backwards.

The library has story time at 10:30 on Thursdays. I intend to go every week but for some reason I never do. This week I actually got my act together and we arrived at the library at 10:20, only to find out that the last story time was last Thursday and won't be starting again til September. Why?? It seems like the summer time would be the best for kid things. I don't get it. The other time we were there was during spring break and they didn't have anything going on that week either. It makes no sense.

So instead I wandered around and found the chapter books for kids. I don't know if I mentioned this but I've started reading chapter books to Maddy. We are reading Charlotte's web right now and she is loving it. I even got a very high compliment about it yesterday during breakfast. She said "I didn't think about seashells one time while you were reading Charlotte's web." Wow, that is quite amazing. Especially since she lays on her side facing away from me while I read. I didn't even know she was listening, let alone not thinking of seashells.

If anyone has any suggestions for good chapter books for a 6 year old girl please let me know.