No time to say "Mini-Wheats"

I can always tell when I might be saying something too often because my kids start saying it, too. I think I need to stop saying that I'm too busy for things.

This morning I asked Rachel what kind of cereal she wanted and she said, "the same kind that Tristan has." I poured her a bowl of Mini-Wheats, thinking nothing of it. Apparently she wanted to discuss the matter further, though, as she then offered up this long explanation: "Mom, I've just been getting really busy lately. That's why I just said 'the same kind that Tristan has' when you asked me what kind of cereal I wanted, because I didn't really have time to say that I wanted Mini-Wheats."

Then she did a big sigh as she pondered her busy life. I'm not exactly sure what she's got on her schedule today that has her so concerned. It will be interesting to see what other "time-saving" techniques she comes up with.

Pictures from March

Miscellaneous pictures from last month:

Tristan and Oliver started playing baseball a few months ago (the season starts pretty early here in Texas). It's been really fun watching them play, partly because they just look so cute in their little uniforms. Here are some baseball pictures from their games last month, mixed in with a bunch of pictures of the girls playing around during the games (they're not that interested in watching yet):

Movie Trivia

Oliver: Okay, Mom - what would be worse - to get your finger cut off, or your thumb?

Me: Oh, wow. (As usual, I had been given no warning that we were about to have this fun conversation). Um, probably your thumb.

Oliver: Why?

Me: Well, you have lots of fingers, and only one thumb, and if you lose your thumb it would be hard to pick things up.

Oliver: Oh, yeah. That makes sense. But which one would HURT worse?

Me: I bet it would feel the same. I think they would both hurt pretty bad.

Oliver: Then I NEVER want to get my finger or my thumb cut off.

Me: Well, then you should probably always be careful around things like knives and doors.

Oliver: Yeah, and Gollum.

Me: ?

Then I remembered that at the end of Lord of the Rings movies Gollum bit Frodo's finger off. So I guess he probably is a character that we should try to steer clear of, especially if we want to keep all of our fingers. Which we do. It's a good thing we have Oliver around to remind us of things like this.

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Speaking of movies, Tristan did something the other day that reminded me and Daniel that he's getting too smart for us. One evening Daniel and I noticed that the show "Holes" was on TV. We watched a little bit of it, and then decided to record it to watch with the kids the next day. Daniel had realized that the main character in Holes is the same actor who plays the main guy in Transformers, which as I've mentioned, is one of Oliver's top movies. Anyway, the next morning we got all set to watch it with the kids (it was a Saturday), and Daniel thought it would be fun to see if Oliver could recognize the main character. He said, "Oliver, pay attention when we turn on the movie and see if you recognize anyone." We knew it would be kind of tricky, because he's so much younger in Holes (in fact, I hadn't even been able to figure it out the night before) but we thought maybe Oliver could do it because he's really good with visual stuff like that. Ollie never even got a chance. Before we even turned on the movie, Tristan said, "Okay, I'm guessing it's Sam from Transformers." Daniel and I just looked at each other and started laughing. We couldn't believe he had figured it out without even seeing anything. I asked him how he knew, and he said something like, "Well, I could tell that you thought Ollie would know who it was, which made me think maybe it was a person from a movie Ollie likes, and I know one of the movies he likes is Transformers." So there went our little guessing game. Tristan was very pleased with himself.

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Speaking of Ollie's love for all things Transformers, I think a little bit of that has started to rub off on Rachel. Recently I have noticed that she uses the word "transform" instead of "change". She says it very casually, as if it's perfectly normal for a 3-year old to be using the word "transform" on a regular basis. Examples:

• "Oh, Mom! Did you see how when I put on my nightgown I transformed into Wendy from the Peter Pan movie?"
• "That's dang weird how the oven can transform that dough into bread."
• "When am I going to transform into a grown-up?"

I haven't told her yet that she sounds kind of odd when she says things like that. Sometimes you just want them to keep saying the cute wrong things.

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Speaking of Rachel and movies, though. . . . Rachel has a great memory, especially for random, obscure things that she's seen in movies way in the past. For example, I think she saw the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" maybe 8 months ago or so. Anway, I generally don't get too fancy with her hair, but the other day I did it in a side ponytail just for fun (I was laughing as I did it, because I remember being young and begging my mom to do my hair in a side ponytail because it was just so cool, and then being frustrated that she wasn't getting it far enough on the side of my head). So, when I was finished with her hair, Rachel went to look at the final product in the mirror. She got kind of an unsure look on her face, and then said, "Mom? I look just like Napoleon's girlfriend." I'm not sure if she was pleased with the idea. There have been no more requests for side ponytails.

"She's just really gotta learn!"

I think Tristan is ready to take over the role of educator in our family.

He discovered a new website at school that he really likes (rainforestmaths.com, in case anyone's interested) and I guess he got so excited about it that he wanted to share all that fun math knowledge with Rachel and Oliver.

(Side note about Tristan and math: Tristan really, really loves math, and he's always been pretty good at it. I think he may not realize that not everyone shares his enthusiasm for the subject. For example, yesterday I asked him if anyone had done any April Fools tricks at school. He informed me that he had actually performed some of his own "fools", as he called them. "It was SO funny, Mom", he said. "Listen to what I did. I asked someone if they knew what 42 x 42 was, and then when they didn't, I told them that it was 1,684. And they believed me! But then I said, 'April Fools!", and told them it was really 1,764. Ha ha ha! Wasn't that a good trick?" Hmmm. Gee, son. I bet you were a big hit with that joke.)

Anyway, a few weeks ago he came and asked me if he could get on this math website and show Rachel how to do some of the activities. "It'll be really good for her to work on her numbers, you know?"

Rachel was thrilled to get a private lesson, so I said sure, and pretty soon they were "working" away. I guess the website has a preschool/kindergarten level that focuses on counting and numbers. After 5 or 10 minutes, Tristan called out, "Mom, she's doing great! Now the only ones she misses are when I try to trick her and I tell her to click on the wrong answer!" I thought this sounded a little harsh for 3-year old math lessons, so I told him maybe he shouldn't try to trick her anymore. He defended his method firmly, though, and reprimanded me by saying, "Mom - she can do this. Now she's to the point where I really can trick her, you know? She's just really gotta learn!"

I thought both "now she's to the point" and "she's just really gotta learn" sounded so funny coming from a 7-year old, but I tried to keep a straight face because he was taking the whole thing so seriously.

As soon as he decided she'd had enough for the day and he ended their little lesson, I asked how it had gone:

Me: "How'd she do with recognizing the different numbers? Did she know 6, 7, 8, and 9?"

(That shows you how neglectful I've been with teaching Rachel anything - I usually leave her to fend for herself, which is maybe why Tristan decided to take over in the first place).

Tristan: "Yeah, she actually did know those. Where she was really having trouble, though, was with her counting."

Me: laughing inside my head that he actually just said the words, "where's she really having trouble. . ."

Tristan (in a very grown-up manner): Sigh. "I'd say she's doing fine, but she's just still having a hard time when I try to trick her. Maybe you can work on that with her this week."

I couldn't believe that my 7-year old had just given me an assignment for the week. It was just so cute the way he was acting so excited, serious, and grown-up about the whole thing.

Tristan then moved on to Oliver's lesson. "Okay, let's see. . .", I heard him say. "I think I'll have Ollie do counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. That should be good for now."

I guess he was pleased with Oliver's progress, as a few minutes later he called out, "Perfect! He's really learning, Mom!"

Thank you, Tristan. Where would we be without you?

Here he is tutoring Ollie: