My son Calvin

Every day last year, when I asked Soren what he did or learned at preschool he would say something like, "We talked about dinosaurs." Or "we learned about purple dinosaurs." ect. Every time he said he only learned about dinosaurs. Whatever. It is preschool. He is 4. No big deal. Well, first day of kindergarten I pick him up and I ask,

Q "How was school?"

S "Good."

Q "What did you do?"

S "We talked about dinosaurs."

What?! He had all summer to forget this little answer but no luck. We are back to the dinosaurs. It has been 3 weeks and that is still more or less what he says. There was once when he gave a different answer. He said they ate pickles and marshmallows on pepperoni pizza. - Still no where close to truth.......I am assuming. Today he actually volunteered information about school.

S "Guess what I did today?"

Doth my ears deceive me? He actually wants to tell me something about his day? I excitedly say, "What did you do today?"

S "I rode on the back of a dinosaur. It was just bones. I rode on the bones of a dinosaur."

This is when it struck me. Soren is like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbs. He must be day dreaming all day about dinosaurs. So for him, that is all he did that day. Awesome. I live with Calvin. Have you ever noted the state Calvin's mother is usually in?! Yeah, I do live with Calvin. Soren is less malicious then Calvin, but Xander fills that gap. Xander enjoys a good torture activity for some poor soul.

So realizing this potential I decided to ask an important question.

Q "Soren, do you go to time out very often at school?" You see, I rationalized that if he is like Calvin, he will be in time out very often.

S "Yeah, I go to time out everywhere I go everyday"

Q "What do you mean?"

S "When I am in class I go to time out. When I am at lunch I go to time out. When I am at recess I go to time out."

Q "Why do you go to time out?"

S "Because I don't follow direction. I don't obey."

Okay, this is probably true. The boy becomes deaf whenever convenient. Just 20 minutes before this conversation Soren comes up with the great idea to make chocolate milk and starts making it without asking. I didn't want him to make chocolate milk because he just ate a brownie. I am 4 feet away and I tell him to stop.

Q "Soren no chocolate milk. Soren stop. Soren I don't want you to have that. Soren stop." But he just kept on going until Ryan took it away from him. At which point he says,

S "Sorry, my ears didn't work."

-Uh huh. He loves playing the innocent victim. And so I fear that Soren is actually telling the truth about his time out activities. In fact, the other day I got a message from someone at school saying Soren and another boy were playing too rough and they had been warned several times but didn't stop and so they are both missing recess. With this new added information I wondered more about this phone call. I originally thought, okay, no big deal that happens at home too. But now I wonder how many times has he been doing that. Are phone calls to home not that common? Should I be reading more into this. Oh dear.

Back to the above conversation I searched for more information.

Q "Why don't you follow directions? Do you not want to?"

S "No, I want to follow directions very much."

He said this so sweetly and sincerely it almost broke my heart.

Q "So why don't you?"

S "I don't hear her." - we have had his hearing checked several times even at the request of his preschool teacher. His ears hear sound fine.

Q "The Dr. says your ears hear just fine. You just aren't paying attention so that is why you can't hear her. We are going to have to think of something to help you."

........I am still thinking. How do you teach this to a 5 year old? Uhg. I don't know what to do.

To the teacher we go. What will she say.........

9/28 Update. When I asked if Soren has gone to time out the teacher replied, "We don't have time out." After a more in depth discussion I concluded that Soren was average in his behavior and verified it by saying, "So what you are saying is Soren is still in the realm of normalcy?" I guess that is weird to say because she laughed and bit and said yes. Sweet! Now, how to I code what he tells me about his day?

First day of school

Well, my life changed forever this week. Soren is now in all day Kindergarten and Xander is in preschool 4 days a week for 2.5 hrs. Wow!

Soren has been looking forward to the first day of Kindergarten since the second quarter of preschool last year. So when the day arrived he was psyched. We are walkers despite the mile distance on a busy road. So, the sun was out and Xander was at the dentist with Dad, so I decided to walk with him. It took 20 minutes and that is with me almost dragging him.......I am not so sure about this walking thing. Regardless he was so happy. He said, "Mom, I am just so happy. I am going to be smiling all the way." He wasn't scared or nervous at all. As we were walking I asked him if he was nervous about not knowing anyone and he said, "No, I like meeting new." I just wanted to give him a big hug and kiss right there. I love that trait.

I missed Xander's first day. I have a new job in the ER and am being trained right now so am working more. Xander has also been looking forward to that day all summer long. He loves going to preschool. In fact he rides the the school bus both ways which makes my life so easy. I love school buses. I must admit it is a bit strange to buckle your 4 yr old child on the bus and wave them off. He loves it and it is a bus only for preschoolers.

I don't get a lot out of the boys when I ask what they did, or who they played with ect. I am going to have to volunteer in their classrooms to learn anything about their day I think. I am so proud of the boys for transitioning so well and being so positive. They are great kids.

Apples for sale

The other day I was working out in the shop and the boys were running around outside. I noticed they started dragging our camping chairs around and this is what I found.

The fact they were so close to the road startled me but what was really worrysome was the question, why are they sitting down? Something must be going on. This was prime run around time. I investigated further and found them each with a bag of cut up apples from our tree out back in a bag.

Q "What are you guys doing?"

S "We are selling apples."

I thought this was funny and cute and thought it might entertain them for at least 20 minutes, so I encouraged them.

Q "You need a sign Soren. Go draw a picture of an a apple and write the word sale."
Quick to do a craft Soren ran off to accomplish the task. Ah - entertainment for 5 more minutes. This is great! I didn't think anyone would actually stop by, otherwise I would have coached them more and helped with the sign a bit. So about 10 minutes later I was surprised when I heard talking on the drive way. I went out to see what was going on. An older German woman with a great accent was haggling with the boys.

This kind woman said, "You have budding entrpenueres on your hands. I had to bargen down from 2$ an apple slice to 50 cents an apple slice."

I sheepishly laughed and then praised her on her generosity. Once she drove away I quickly wrote an appropriate price on the sign. 5 cents a slice or 25 cents an apple. The boys were so thrilled by their business deal they ran off picking a whole bowl full of apples.

Their next and final customer was a friend dropping off some things of mine. she bought 4 apples for a whole dollar. A whole bill! Soren was in Heaven. He carried the dollar around with him for days.

This is definitely Ryan's side of the family coming through. Apparently Ryan was know around the neighborhood to sell dirt.

The Coin

Last weekend we went camping with 6 other families. It was so fun and we are repeating the adventure this coming weekend. We camped at a luxury campground where they had a swimming pool, miniature golf, a little pond/lake that you could canoe on ect. There was also a near by lake that we jet skied and tubbed on. It was really fun. When I think of this trip the biggest constant for me was how funny Soren was. He is in this stage where he says the funniest things.

On the first night we are at the lake and having a picnic dinner and swimming. Soren is at a different picnic table from me. A few minutes later he come over,

Soren, "Mom, I swallowed a coin and my throat hurts."

Q "What?! You swallowed a coin? What do you mean you swallowed a coin?"

S "I was sucking on a coin and it accidentally slipped down. Last time when I did this I could get it back out. But this time I can't."

Q "What? What do you mean last time you could get it back up? Why are you sucking on coins? Here drink this water. "

The coin passed further down slowly. 15 minutes later he is feeling much better and ready to play. Through more investigation we determine the coin is a penny. Before he runs off to play we review wise council.

Q "Soren, what are you going to do if you find a coin again?"

S "I am going to throw it back into the ocean."

Q "Are you going to ever put it in your mouth again?"

S "No."

Q "Why not?"

S "Because I already have one in my body."

..........not instilling confidence.

Wanting to make sure the coin passes without problems I instruct Soren to let me know when he poops so I can investigate. Ah the glory of motherhood. A day in a half later at breakfast Soren comes running from where he is playing and yells,

"Mom, I need to go to the port o potty. The coins going to fall out!"

Nice.

On a less gruesome note, Soren got a lot of "girlfriend" time in. McKenzie was at the campout.

Some of my favorite lines of his were,

While carying a plate of fruit yelling, "Kenz, Kenz, I want to share some food with you. Kenz, come here!"

After a full day of play at the beach with McKenzie, while we drove away Soren says with a big sigh, "Tomorrow I am going to just spend some time with my girlfriend."

Q "Oh? What are you going to do?"

S "Just spend time with her and having fun."

Is he hearing these lines somewhere?

At one point it was starting to get dark and we were all packing up to go when McKenzies mom said a bit worried, "Does anyone know where McKenzie is?"

Q "Hmm, well where is Soren?

Sure enough, down the beach was Soren and Mckenzie just talking and sitting in the sand and sort of playing in it. I need to hang around those two more. Ease drop a little. What do 5 year old love birds talk about anyway?

Girlscamp

I went to Girls camp this year as the camp nurse. I haven't been back since I was a 4th year leader when I was 6 months pregnant with Soren.....for 6 years ago. Man it was so fun. I really am made for girls camp. It is strange because the type of "camping" really isn't my cup of tea. I veiw myself as a "real" camper - or more ideally I would like to be backpacking. But getting together with a lot of awesome woman and girls joking, laughing, being goofy and loving each other compensates for the style of "camping". My co-nurse was Cathy Gilman and I LOVED her. She was perfect. She is a labor and delivery nurse and so I assigned her to comfort anyone who needed some TLC and I would do any life saving or procedural interventions. But the best part about Cathy was on the first morning when she walked into the medical tent and said, "Whatcha doing?" "Oh I am writing a song we are going to sing at role call." and she replied without missing a beat, "Okay." She was the best partner EVER! We did these medical song each morning reminding the girls to drink water and eat healthy and do morning excersizes. The girls loved it and we were superstars. It was so much fun. When I would go to the stage I would just raise my arms up in the air like they should be screaming for me and they would just scream and cheer louder. I seriously felt like a superstar. It was strange and fun all at the same time.
The leaders get to camp a day in advance to get ready for camp. I was itching to lash something. My mom was my leader my first year at girls camp and she taught us how to lash water stations, wash stations and the like - something she taught me in normal camping too. I always thought it was so cool to make stuff out of rope and sticks and limbs. And so, coming back to girls camp, I knew I needed to lash something. I didn't know what until I got there. I realized we needed more organization for our medical supplies.

Meet my shelf. It was awesome. For the first few days people would come by just to see the shelf. it was that cool.

Girlfriends

You may think this title is for me. Where I blog about all the girlfriends I have and love. Well, although I should do that, that is not what this title is for. This title is for Soren's girlfriend. That is right, by son has his first girlfriend. He has asked several girls to marry him last year in preschool, but this is his first girlfriend - or so he tells me. Today after church he comes running up to me and whispers, "McKenzie and I are boyfriend and girlfriend.

Quinae, "Oh? How do you know that?"

Soren, "We just decided now in the hall. We both said we would be each others boyfriend and girlfriend."

Not knowing what to say I just said, "Well, congratulations Soren."

McKenzie is our 6yr old neighbor directly behind us. We don't have a fence between us and the kids go over to each others houses freely. She is adorable as all the kids are over there and there is no way he isn't going to fall in love with her and perhaps all her sisters. The first thing I thought was, "Awesome. My son is already in love with the girl next door. His life is going to be filled with drama and heart ache." After getting home from church and thinking more of this I thought we should talk more of the subject.

Quinae, "Soren, did you know the prophet taught us we shouldn't date until we are 16?"

Soren, "Yeah, primary taught me that."

Surprised and doubtful, I decided to investigate this more.

Quinae, "What is dating?" (we have never talked about dating or girlfriends for that matter)

Xander jumps in with, "I know what dating is. Dating is when 2 people go off with each other."

Soren, "Yeah and they go to a movie and eat dinner.

Wow, maybe primary has taught this.

Investigating Soren's knowledge more I ask, "What do boyfriend and girlfriends do?"

Soren, "I don't know. Well, actually I do but it is a secret."

Trying to get some early brain washing in I say, "Actually real boyfriend and girlfriends always tell their mom's everything they do."

And without missing a beat Soren said, "Not this boyfriend."

I laughed out of shock and stress.

15 minutes later Soren shows me a card that has hearts and his name on it. He was trying to spell the word dancing but screwed up and ended up cutting it out. He then announced his intentions.

Soren, "Mom, can I run over and give this to McKenzie?"

Quinae, "What is it?"

Soren, "It is a card for a dance show."

Quinae, "What is a dance show?"

Soren, "A dance show is when she comes over to my house and I dance for her..........and then we eat dinner."

Quinae, "Is that a date" That kind of sounds like a date."

Soren, "No, it is just dancing and dinner."

I promptly called McKenzie's Mom to relay this whole story as Soren gives the card to McKenzie in the backyard.

Alita, "Wow, good luck with that"

Quinae, "Hey, I am calling you for advice!"

I never in a million years thought I would talk about dating with my 5 year old boy.

He really does love girls and beautiful girly things. When I came back form girls camp my fingernails were painted and I was wearing a necklace, but my hair was disheveled and my clothes were dirty. Upon my return, in true awe and appreciation Soren declared, "Mom you're so beautiful!" And then he touched my necklace and stroked my nails.

That evening we went to a friends for a BBQ and there was a pretty woman with painted nails, nice makeup and done up hair. At some point in the evening he picked a perfect rose from the garden, walked up to her and smiled and gave it to her and walked away. She was so amazed by the gesture she couldn't help but talk about it for 10 minutes. Later I was talking to her and Soren came up to me to ask a question. Before he could I said, "Soren, I heard you gave this lady a rose. That was so nice." He embarrassingly smiled and briefly buried his face in my elbow.

He is so cute........and I am totally scared for the future.

Hiking Hiccups

We have been trying to go hiking at least every other week this summer. The boys have loved it and so have I. We go on 2 - 4 mile round trip hikes. Soren hikes like a pro but Xander get tired easier and at times can dawdle.

One hike we hiked up to a lake with poor access. I am always trying to find a 2 mile hike fairly local up to lakes - this is not that easy. I was so excited about this one but the final destination was a little less then picturesque. The only access was this area with a log jam. The boys thought it was great though and wanted to walk out on the logs and eat their lunch. These logs are floating in shallow water. Although I knew they wouldn't die, I was worried about them falling in, getting soaked and freezing the rest of the hike. However, keeping off the logs deemed too hard.

They did great balancing walking on them, which was good because despite repeatedly reminding them of the looming threat of getting wet, they kept going back and forth from land to log. Finally it was time to leave and head back down. I called them to come and they delightfully obliged. Soren got on land like a pro and Xander was right behind him. 12 inches from land, he fell of. HE FELL OFF! Into the lake. It was only 12 inches deep but he fell sideways and totally submerge himself. That is not easy to do. The fear had been realized. I sighed as he screamed in horror at the flash of freezing. I stripped down a screaming Xander slowly taking in his clothing options. This is what we came up with.

Luckily he didn't have his jacket on at the time of the fall and I wrapped Soren's windbreaker on like a skirt. He had to wear his wet shoes and underwear. After giving him a sucker Xander didn't complain much.

Year one of brain washing my kids into loving the great outdoors - check.