Congratulations Hanes

Eli has grown out of his character underwear so I bought him some new Hanes "big boy" underwear. When I put them on him this morning he said, "Cool, now I look like Michael Jordan." He is 4. Congratulations Hanes, excellent name recognition and marketing plan.

Merry Christmas - From The Boys

A Christmas Prayer

Eli's prayer tonight:
"The best way to bring Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. Amen"

Peace...

"Christmas" Tree

Much like the nativity scene, which has added gifts each day from our little "wisemen", the Christmas tree has collected a few "ornaments" over the past week.

A Wrench
Tickerbells treasure chest and a grape
A hammer, Mr. Potato Head
Cream of Mushroom Soup
A Project Lucas Bracelet, more grapes
A block
A french fry, an onion ring, and more grapes...

Because nothing say Christmas like fried food and grapes.

Christmas Illness

Eli & Isaac are starting to get into the spirit of Christmas - the true spirit of Christmas. Eli received a coloring book from his Cubbies teachers about the Christmas story and baby Jesus. He could recite much of the Christmas story. It was sweet.

I wanted to share a picture from this color book. I jokingly asked if Mary, Joseph and Jesus were green because this was an alien version of the Bible story. I was quickly corrected that Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were green because they were "sick" and had acquired some sort of "bacteria". I guess even the King of Kings is susceptible to the swine flu.

Maybe I should hold off on the sanitizer a bit.

This one is about poop...

Just so you are fair warned, this is all about poop, and it is kind of gross, but really funny.
Eli had to go to the bathroom today before we left church. He lifted the potty seat and it appeared that someone had a major accident. In our house we call it explosive poo. There was poop all over the bottom of the seat. I know poop is a part of life, but it was really gross. So Eli starts talking it up. "Oh mom, I have to get out of here - there is poop everywhere." He proceeds to come out of the stall, pants around his ankles, moving to the next free stall (luckily there were only two other people, mortified middle schoolers, in the bathroom with us). By this time he decides he has peed all he can, yet he continues, "I can't believe someone did that to the bathroom. Why would someone poop all over the toilet seat? I know adults have really big butts and they have to poop sometimes, but come on."
Oh my goodness. I was trying so hard to hold it together, but it really was hilarious. I redirected him to washing his hands VERY good in VERY hot water, and asked him to talk about something else that someone was probably feeling very sick and didn't mean to. He said, "OK - but that was really gross."

Water

I have made a grave error. For years I have given the boys a mix of juice and water to drink for snack/meals etc. It is about a 50-50, or 60-40 (juice) mix. It tastes nasty, but they are used to it. They aren't allowed to have it until after 10:30 AM, but after that it is fair game. I have recently decided that I would like to start moving the kids towards water, at least for meals. I have noticed that the few times I have given them water they have drank less and ate much better. Today at lunch I was met with screaming and tears. Eli had several amusing reasons as to why he does not like to drink water:
"It tastes bad"
"I'm allergic to it"
"It makes me sick"
and my personal favorite - "It's gray."

Nativity

Since the boys are a little older I have placed a few nativity scenes around the house this year for Christmas. I have a neat kid friendly one that I put in the upstairs living room. This morning - I found that it had been a bit altered.
Eli had added a Christmas tree - since "obviously Jesus needs a Christmas tree" and a car, "how else is he going to get around." The worldly and the spiritual collide.

My allergies

It is hard to know how to teach Isaac about his allergies. For the most part if he has had a bad experience with the offending food he knows first hand that that particular food doesn't bode well with his system. So he often he'll say - I don't like fish, or I don't like peanuts. As a two year old - he even knows that his food allergies are the cause of him disliking food. So why am I surprised that Eli has adopted the "I have food allergies" response to any food he dislikes. Eli asked yesterday what we were having for dinner and I said - chicken casserole. "Hum," he said, "I am pretty sure I am allergic to that - can I have pizza instead?"