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One night, Lars went to bed before his comforter ('Bob', since it has Bob the Builder on it) was done in the wash. When Chris went up later with Bob, he found this note on the pillow next to Lars, who was fast asleep:
"Bob gose on top of me. OK. Good night!! take blanke off of me before you put bob on me please!!"
Every now and then, Lars will take a pause, draw himself up taller, form his mouth into a very operatic O, raise his eyebrows and emit a single, wavering note which he holds for a few seconds. He will then instantly return to whatever he had been doing (homework, whining about what's for dinner, running after a friend in the yard, tying his shoes, whatever...). He's been doing it for the last week or so, sometimes even using port de bras to highlight the moment. I have no earthly clue where this new habit came from but it's pretty amusing.
At the 4th grade concert tonight, Chris pointed out the girl he thinks has a crush on Ross. "How do you know she likes him," I asked?
"You'll see tomorrow when he gets home from school. She sits at the window of the last seat so she can see him get off the bus each day."
"Oh, she's that local? We can never get a dog." Chris looked at me like I had three heads, so I elaborated, "We can't just hand him such a great excuse for late-night walks!"
This Mother's Day, I decided to spend time with my kids doing whatever they wanted to do, which turned out to be playing Tony Hawk's World Skaters 3 on xBox. After watching the kids play for a while, I got to make my own character and try the game out. With a lot of help and instruction from the boys, I achieved a grand score of 3,475 on my first run through the Foundry (note: the lowest milepost score is 30,000) and I only fell into the vat of molten steel twice! I did achieve cries of delight from the boys for some skill I executed along the way but since I had NO CLUE how I did it and couldn't repeat it or teach it to them, I lost esteem. After that first exhilarating run, they decided to show me how it's done and I spent a few hours watching the great ones trash my poor score. We also had bacon with breakfast (we're using it liberally to prevent Swine Flu) and Chris made (and cleaned up from!) a delicious dinner. All in all, a great day.
"Awwww, why are we having a normal dinner? When you go away, Mama, Daddy makes us special dinners. Hot dogs!"
"That's because I don't like hot dogs much, so Daddy serves them when I'm not around."
"So?!? Serve a special dinner that Daddy doesn't like, since he's not home."
"Daddy doesn't like fish."
"Thanks for making us pasta, Mama!"
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"You need to finish the bottom four questions on your homework and then I'll quiz you on your spelling."
"I never do the bottom four. Daddy doesn't make me."
"Oh? I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure he'll ask you to do them from now on."
"No, I mean I never do them and he doesn't check!"
"Oh! He doesn't check because he trusts that you do all your homework. He'll be disappointed to learn that you need to be checked all the time."
"Mama! Just don't tell him! Why do you check? I don't want to do it! AND WE DON'T NEED TO WORK ON SPELLING. I CAN SPELL ALL THE WORDS."
"Fine, spell 'Indiana'."
"I-N-D-(pause)-... I-N-D-A-N-A."
"Missouri."
"M-I-S-U-R-I-E"
"Maryland."
"M-A-R-R-Y-L-A-N-D"
"Louisiana."
"L-O-I-S-I-E-A-N-A"
"Illinois."
"I-L-L-O-N-I-S"
"Sit. For the record? You're right. You sure can spell all the words...you just can't spell any of them correctly."
"WHEN will Daddy be home?"
"Tomorrow. You can mangle the other 45 states for him then."
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I would never hope for better weather than we had this weekend - it was absolutely perfect! Sunny and just hot during the day, cool in the evenings but nothing you'd shiver in without a jacket.
On Saturday, Ross put new batteries in the old talkie-walkie set and then went adventuring with a friend. They discovered full communication between their houses using the talkie-walkies, so Sunday morning I woke to find Ross idly chatting with his friend via radio while playing xBox in their underwear (each in their respective houses). If you're planning to appear at my house on a non-school morning, consider yourself duly warned.
Lars spent Saturday morning asking when it would be time to go to his friend's birthday party and Saturday afternoon at the party. He had a fabulous time! The party was carnival themed and full of water balloons, games of chance with candy prizes, a bounce house, and a great climbing gym. The whole class had been invited and I couldn't help thinking how lucky the hosts were to have backyard weather for the festivities!
After Ross had gotten dressed and Lars had been adequately sugared up, we all piled in the car and headed for Chéz Stoll for an evening of great food and RockBand. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night and I hope we get to repeat it often (or at least enough for me to figure out how to use that damned blue fret button).
On Sunday, the kids played outside with friends from the neighborhood and called in a few spares. Chris and I cleaned a couple of bathrooms and made a big pot of chili in preparation for an invasion of overnight guests, including a pile of cousins and a friend from college.
Chris made breakfast for the army this morning, a great start with pancakes, eggs, fruit and good coffee, before we all split off on separate journeys to the elementary school, DC, SC, NYC, and Edison. An extra car in our driveway is the only sign of last night's festivities and our house seems so quiet with only us in it!
We had a birth today! Chris noticed a mama deer and two tiny babies out our kitchen window (yay for bay window in new kitchen!).
We cautiously went out and took some pictures. I watched the fawns wobble a few steps at a time and saw how mama licked them every time she could and I determined they were VERY new. Chris guessed within a week; I guessed within the hour.
After about twenty minutes of watching, Lars got impatient with being so far away and climbed on the playhouse for a better view. Mama was fine with me (mothers know) and ok with Chris (he's a good dad) but was a little skittish about the excited eight-year-old, and decided to move her new brood off toward the creek.
When they'd gotten far enough away, Chris decided to check out my "within the hour" theory - and, lo, found fresh afterbirth right there where mama had been laying. What can I say? Mothers know these things. 
I asked him to take a picture from the birthplace to the house - they were close! We're usually the wildlife nursery yard anyhow - a few weeks from now, mother deer will swing by and drop off their cherubs to eat my plants while they wander off to have their hooves done - but this is a new thing for us to see.
