Father Knows Best

Jonas has gone through several hair-related trials over the past year or so. There was the infamous “page boy” cut that nearly resulted in us mohawking the kid and DID result in three visits to and my MIL opening a can on Fantastic Sam’s and a super short little boy haircut. OK, that was really the only trial. And it was really more of a trial for me because I love my little boy’s shaggy blond hair. It grew out again quite nicely and I got it trimmed a couple more times, this time at one of those fancy pants kid salon places who know what a “long surfer boy haircut” is. And oh, he was adorable:

[INSERT “BEFORE” PICTURE I SHOULD’VE TAKEN WITH MY PHONE BUT DIDN’T BECAUSE I SUCK]

This past weekend, however, my husband decided it was time to get the boy’s hair shorn again, due to some super gross cradle cap that won’t go away. He figured maybe the shorter cut would enable us to better attack The Gross with Tea Tree oil and expensive spray leave-in conditioner from the fancy pants kid salon. Plus, the kid’s been asking for a haircut for a while so I figure, y’know, it’s his hair. And really it’s par for the course with this kid and his needing to have a say in how he looks ways.

Matt: “Is that kid haircutting place over by Kid’s Rack?”

Me: “Yeah, why? Are you taking him in?”

Matt: (casually) “Yeah, maybe, I was thinking about it.”

Me: “Are you going to go short?”

Matt: “Oh yeah. Really short.”

Me: (uneasy) “Ok….”

Matt: “Hey, Jonas! You want to go get your hair cut today?”

Jonas: “YAY!!!!!” (much jumping up and down and running around) “I’m go get my haircut! YAY! I going to [preschool gibberish]!!”

Matt: (looks at me)

Me: “I’m going to sit in the fire truck and ring the bell.”

Matt: “Oh! OK. Well, let’s go buddy.”

Jonas insisted on bringing Squeaky Turtle along, wearing his Toy Story sneakers (with flashing lights!), and his golfer’s cap.

40 minutes or so later, the boys came home and I squealed and almost cried. “OH! LOOK AT YOU!! OH! YOU’RE SO HANDSOME! OH! IT’S SO SHORT!”

As you can see, it’s quite short but he wears it well. He looks so grown up now. Both kids have hit a growth spurt over the past month and they need to just stop it right now.

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Saturday, I woke up from my nap and heard Matt saying, “Don’t just lick the peanut butter off, Jaden.” And Jaden responding, “I know.”

WELL.

That evening I went into the freezer to get some ice and found this:

It would appear the knowledge is one thing and actions are a completely different matter.

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Sunday we took the kids to the “dollar theater” –so called because it used to cost a dollar, now it’s $3 or $2.50 for matinees—and saw “Puss in Boots”. I would recommend it. Very cute and it stars Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek who are both just awesome. When we got home the kids asked to play outside and seeing as it’s been 40 degrees in JANUARY in MINNESOTA, we said sure and off they ran. Five minutes later, Matt threw open the patio door and yelled, “HEY! PUT YOUR COATS ON!” and then went out to lecture them:

“Just because it’s unseasonably warm, doesn’t mean you don’t have to wear your coats outside.”

Indistinct protest

“If you get warm, come inside!”

And I laughed a lot.

I love that man.

I hope this lasts forever

This morning, my MIL walked the kids to the bus stop as she does every weekday now. There’s my nephew, niece, Jaden and Jonas. I think the little ones are starting to miss not having their big siblings with them during the day. Jaden and Jonas are walking a little ahead of my MIL. MIL sees Jaden take her brother’s hand and kiss his palm. She catches up in time to hear Jaden tell her brother:

“That’s for later. If you miss me, put your hand on your cheek and I’ll be there.”

Cloud Gazing

Track Building

Protective Arm

So, yeah, I’m the mother of a first grader and a preschooler now:

Jonas is “homeschooling” at gramma’s and is rocking the connect the dots and colors and shapes. And we’re down to the last pullup from that first pack so he’ll be in just underpants soon.

Jaden is going back to her “magnet school” that focuses on math and environmental science. She doesn’t have any of her kindergarten friends in her class but she sees a couple at recess. According to yesterday’s report, there’s a bit of a power struggle as one of her old friends has a new friend who’s a bit bossy and Jaden doesn’t do well with bossy. She’s in the “let’s all agree on what to play together” camp.

  

Reading remains a thorn in Jaden’s side. She gets very frustrated and whines and just gives up. I tried something new last night: I told her I would read the book but before I read each page, she needed to pick five words she knew and one word she didn’t know but would try to read. It worked. By the end of the book she read a complete sentence all on her own without even realizing it. Baby steps. She’ll get there.

Looking at Jonas’ worksheets from yesterday, it looks like he has a long way to go before he’s an efficient writer of letters and numbers. But, dude, he’s three, I’m not worried. W all “mah baby is SOOO smrt!” looking at his work and how he circled the apple as his favorite red thing.

 

These four kids: my niece, my son, my nephew, and my daughter. God damn, but I am a lucky woman.

99 Cent Store

I mentioned in a couple posts back that I took piano lessons back in the day. That’s right: from 2^nd grade through 5^th grade I was one piano playing fool. Only I didn’t have a piano, I had a Casio keyboard. It was one of the a nice bigger ones, with all kinds of beats and sounds built in, including a Demo Mode that my mom banned after a full hour of hearing four kids press the dang thing on Christmas Eve (it took me YEARS to dare to press that button again, that’s how well I listened to authority). Unfortunately, it wasn’t a full 88-key keyboard (I think it was 30 or something, I dunno) and so as I progressed in my lessons and moved up and down the scale, I had to pretend I was playing the keys that weren’t there. That wasn’t why I quit though; I quit because while I caught on to the piano right away, after a few years it got hard and I actually had to practice and stuff and music theory was introduced and I don’t do well with theories so I stopped. My grampa was very disappointed and for years lamented the lack of a pianist in the family. (Never mind that my cousin took piano, too. I never heard her get any grief about quitting after a year.) (*arms crossed*huff*)

Fast forward years and years later to when I bought Matt a keyboard of his own for father’s day back in…2007 I think. It wasn’t a full 88-key keyboard but it was cool and he was happy to have something to play. And it had animal sounds, much to Jaden’s and later Jonas’ delight. We both talked about someday owning a piano and how nice it would be for the kids to take lessons and for Matt to have a real piano to play and for me to plunk out the first few strains of Fur Elise that I still remembered.

A couple months ago, for shits and giggles, I started looking up piano instructors in the area and saw some that offered lessons in the studio and in home. So, that took care of the instruction part because we could bring the kids into the studio for lessons. Then it dawned on me that the kids would need a piano to practice. Then I remembered my piano lesson days and playing phantom keys and thought about Matt’s keyboard (and this organ thing that his parents picked up at a garage sale…our house is a musical instrument menagerie) and decided before we sign up anyone for lessons, we would need a piano.

I don’t know if any of you know this but pianos are not cheap. Even used ones will go for hundreds of dollars. I didn’t know exactly how expensive so I hopped on ebay to see. “Yeah, that’s about what I figured,” scanning through dozens of pianos listed at $500+. Then I changed it to “local within so many miles of my zip code” and sorted by least expensive. That’s when I found an auction for fully functioning, slightly dinged/scratched, up-right piano ending in 4 hours and was still at its starting bid of 99 cents.

99 cents!!!

“Ok, what’s the catch,” I thought. I emailed the seller and asked what the deal was. Guy wrote back and said that they were relocating to Texas and all the people that played the piano had moved on either to the guitar or to college and they didn’t feel like hauling it across the country. He said it needed to be tuned but it sounds great.

“What do you think, Matt?” I asked, “Should I bid on it? It’s about an hour away and we’d need to pick it up.”

“Sure, go for it.”

“Hmmm,” I pondered what to put for my maximum bid, “I’ll go as high as 5 dahllas.” Then I laughed my ass off thinking about how awesome it would be to be able to say, “Dude, I just got a piano for less than a buck.”

Then some bastard came in and ruined my scenario by placing their own stupid bid.

So I got a piano for $2.25.

Matt got his buddies and my stepdad to go pick it up and then had a great time rearranging the living room to make room for the thing and honestly, I think it completes the room:

Not bad for $2.25

We haven’t signed up for lessons yet but Matt dug out some old music books from the basement and has already surpassed any piano playing ability I ever possessed. Because that’s what he does in life: shows me up in front of my children. Which is fine because there’s nothing cuter than seeing two sleepy kids rush out to see their daddy playing the piano after hearing the first few strains of music.

I think our instrument buying days are done for a while until Jaden starts violin lessons and Jonas starts whatever instrument he wants to play. Maybe THEN I’ll get my 99 cent instrument story.

Good Night Good Night

Looking through my phone I realize that I take a lot of pictures of my kids sleeping:

And my pets, too.

Clockwise from left: Meena, Meena and Daisy (!), Daisy, Polly and Daisy

What’s up with that?