Deal With The Devil...Accomplished

I read my last post and thought that this needed to be revisited, mainly for this reason...

"What do I gain...nothing really"

That statement alone warrants a new post because it was entirely incorrect. While the party itself wasn't the best I've been to, as we spent most of the time waiting in line, we made our own fun. Since Aimee had just read the book that day, we quizzed each other with fill-in-the-blank quotes and comparisons between the book and movie. We actually got a lot of discussion questions out of the way that it really feels impossible to find the time for on a normal day.

The only part that I was really dreading was the drive home, which was totally fine.

So, I gained the movie, which we watched the next day with our friend. But more importantly, I got one-on-one, uninterrupted time with my daughter, which, sadly enough, doesn't happen as often as I'd like.

Great girl time, fun wait.

Deal With The Devil

Devil...aka...daughter.

What do I gain...nothing really.

Honestly, I really don't want to go hang out at Hot Topic all night for the release party--Twilight on DVD in case you live in the normal world, rather than the Twilight-fan world. Mostly because of the drive home afterward. If it were 20 minutes away, I would be much more enthusiastic.
Well, thinking that I clearly had the upper hand in this deal, I told Aimee we'd go if she finished the book tonight before the party. This was truly a sound bargain. I would never have dreamed of bargaining with book reading with Alex, as he read Eragon in 9 hours when he was in 5th grade, but Aimee is not as book determined. While she WAS immediately taken by Twilight**, she still is Aimee. She's distracted easily and simply cannot keep her body still enough to read a book in one sitting. My deal was golden!

**Aimee didn't think Twilight sounded that great. But once she saw previews for the film, she picked up the book. She still didn't read it super fast, and actually read some smaller, quicker books in between. But, since she wanted to read the book before watching the movie, and wanted to watch the movie the opening weekend, she picked it back up. (Naturally, I thought that would happen again.) She finished the book, loved it. Watch the movie, loved it. Bought a Twilight shirt, Twilight posters, bracelets, and a "Complete Illustrated Movie Companion" with her babysitting money.
Aimee also read New Moon for a book report, but gave up on Eclipse, because it "wasn't as fun as the other books." Totally cool with me, since I hoped she'd wait a couple more years before continuing the series.
Still, she wants the DVD at midnight and wants to have a Twilight Party to watch it with her friends.**

Yeah, I'm gonna have to sneak it away because since those words left my mouth, her eyes have been glued. She had a hot pocket for lunch because she "could make it without looking away from the book." She is leaving the room whenever anything slightly distracting occurs, and she is gobbling the words more excitedly than she did the first time through.

So, today, I have been listening to her read aloud all the "foreshadowing" and funny quotes that she is apparently enjoying more the second time through.
"It's not like anyone was going to bite me."
"It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn’t stop worrying that it was true."
"If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid."
"I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly." Although, she did remember that this was in the wrong place in the movie version. :)
"He looks at you like you're something to eat."

She has really been wanting to watch Harry Potter 3 lately, but since mom and dad keep insisting it is inappropriate for Allie, she hasn't been able to turn it on. Right now, Allie is at her friends house, and I'm tempted to turn on The Prisoner of Azkaban. It all depends on how much I think I want to listen to Hot Topic music for 2+ hours tonight.

At her current rate of reading, according to Alex's calculations, she will be finished an hour before she needs to be.

A Peep Hole

There are moments that I'm so swirled up in the chaos of home, family, children, activities, and life, that I forget to savor the moments. For some reason, the moments decided to scream at me today and demand my notice.

A brief glimpse at my children's minds:

Aidan:
Aidan is into independence. His every actions hints that his mind is set. This week, it is all about the car seat. He has only refused to buckle up once, but gone are the days of mom and dad helping him into his seat. He insists on climbing in all by himself. He heaves himself up into the car (remember we have an SUV) and then around the seat, uses the diaper bag as a step, to make it into the car seat. Heaven forbid anyone try to help. "No help. Ayh-an seat." In a hurry one afternoon, I decided that I WAS going to put him in to make it "quick." After his screaming and fighting and twice as much time as it would have taken to let him do it on his own, I gave up the fight, since I really couldn't hold him in and buckle him at the same time. I let him down out of the car and he climbed in by himself.
(DISCLAIMER: Don't judge me too harshly...remember this is a glimpse into a sweet little 2 year old mind, not a glimpse a the parenting skills...)

Allie:
While riding to pick up their older siblings from school, Allie and Aidan were enjoying a "new" episode of "The Backyardigans..." (again, I must refer you to the previous DISCLAIMER). The episode was entitled, "The Journey To The Center Of The Earth," and was, in fact, a journey to retrieve a lost penny. Allie thought it was a little silly that they would go that far for just a penny. "It's only one cent, mom. I don't think they can even buy anything with that."

Aimee:
Aimee was making some changes to her ipod playlist and wanted help getting new songs from a few Cd's onto it. One of the Cd's was a mix of a few different genres that Dustin or I had made a few years ago. As we listened to the intro of each song, and I asked her if she wanted this one on her ipod, she replied yes, yes, yes, to each of them.
Song number 12 was "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman. "Yes," she wanted it on her new playlist. I thought I'd make it clear that Tracy Chapman was, in fact, a woman. "You know this singer is a girl, right?"
"Nuh, Uh." Brief Pause. "It can't be." Longer pause. "Mom, don't tell me things like that, or I might believe you and sound dumb when my friends tell me that's wrong."
"No, Aimee...Tracy Chapman...really is a girl. Her voice is nice, though, right. Just very low."
She only believed me after we found a video on youtube.
The following song, track 13, was "Hands" by Jewel.
Immediately following a couple measures of piano intro, as soon as Jewel's voice came in "If I could tell the world just one thing..." Aimee put on her sarcasm voice and said, "Oh, mom, let me guess, this is a guy, right...nice falsetto."

Alex:
Alex really hates that his school requires the boys to all wear long pants. Even in Washington, in freezing weather and snow, he would wear shorts. Directly after school, he makes a bee-line to his room to ditch the claustrophobia-inducing *gasp*pants! The shorts don't' come off until bed, despite any evening activities...at which point, they are traded for basketball shorts. He doesn't mind his fellow scouts razzing him for wearing shorts even when their activity is held outside. "Nobody should need pants for an hour outside when it's 50 degrees."
Tonight, it was 40 degrees. Mother insisted that he wear jeans to scouts. After a non-stop stream of "I should be able to wear what I want" "It's not cold" "They don't care what we wear, as long as we have our shirt and book" "Shorts are fine..." I informed him that I wasn't driving him there until he changed. I listened to more, "I was ready and I'd be there on time, and you're making me late..." from his bedroom as he changed.
A few minutes later, I called back to him, "I really hope you didn't just put jeans on over the top of your shorts and plan to take them off if the moment presents itself."
"Mom, why didn't you tell me that before I had my shoes back on..."
So, we waited a few more minutes before leaving to correct the shorts/pants issue.

I love it all! I just thought that today, each of these moments was sort of a peep hole view into the complexities of their little minds!

Definition Please

Me: "Are you in bed?"
Aimee: "I'm ON my bed."

(She was sitting on her bed writing and talking on the phone...not exactly what I was hoping.)

Manic Monday: Cell

testing, tiring time
rest in sight; gaming awaits.
drudgery instead

I'm the meanest mom on the planet. Deal with it.

Today after school, my children and I were out in the garage, cleaning, organizing, dusting, sweeping. After benchmark test in school, I knew that the older ones were looking forward to coming home to their video games, despite it being a beautiful day. Unfortunately for them, the cell phone bill arrived today.

Ever since we got the additional phone for "emergencies" and "staying in contact with parents after sports" our cell bill has been crazy, thankfully not as bad as the first month. So, instead of video games, we swept out the garage, put the Christmas boxes up in the attic, cleaned out the car...

Yeah, they thought I was evil. Sadly to say, we did have other activities in the evening, so my evil plan lasted less than an hour before I had to make dinner and get off to basketball practice. And, helpful husband only went along with it all to show support, but was clearly wanting to show off to dear son on the computer game, which they did later in the evening.

Don't worry. Mean mom is back tomorrow afternoon to have them finish vacuuming the car and consolidating a couple of boxes of play things. Mwahahahahaha!

Manic Monday: Harvest

1. We had a pretty good sized garden when I was growing up. I don't have one right now, but I still love fresh produce from the garden. Of course, when the summer came to an end, we had to be sure to get everything we wanted picked and inside before the frost. I remember one year we had tomatoes lined up on newspapers downstairs in our basement. Maybe it was an early frost, maybe it was a shorter growing season, but there they were, ripening and waiting to be made into salsa. My mom even bought tiny salt shakers so that we could eat tomatoes ... we snacked on them with or without salt. Yum!

2. I grew up in an agricultural area, so there were lots of farms around. The only farming experience I have is one year our friend (a farmer) opened up the fields so we could "glean" them, or pick up all the potatoes that had been left behind. I remember it took a long time and I didn't even do much work. Thanks mom and dad for all the yummy potatoes and your hard work!

3. The Law of the Harvest: You Reap What You Sow. If you plant an apple seed, you won't be harvesting peaches.
I look at my job as a mother, and the seed that I plant for my children. Even when we don't think that our kids are watching and even when we don't think we are making a difference, they are watching and they are learning.
This is sometimes easier to observe in someone else's kids, rather than your own. You see the mannerisms that they pick up from their parents, the way that they speak, they way that they walk and talk. Of course our children have their own spirits, their own personalities, their own independence, defiance, and ideas, but as parents, we have a few years to help them develop into the best people they can be.
That job, as a cultivator and nurturer, giving my children the proper seeds planted in their minds and a lot of hard work to get them to grow properly, until they start to decide which ones to cultivate on their own, is something I try to keep a top priority. And hopefully, I don't trim the wrong branches or allow the wrong one to keep growning. I hope I can give them support when they need it and not too much support when they don't, so that they can grow tall and strong.
It's hard work and I love it.

Alright so...country isn't usually my top choice of music, but I love this song and it fits perfectly!



And be sure to check out more thoughts on the harvest at Mo's Manic Monday blog!