Trebuchet Times

For as long as I can remember, Sam has been fascinated with anything he can build. First, it was a huge bin of Legos that were given to him by Papa Lacy, our beloved Athletic Director when I was at Samohi. Then he moved into more complicated versions of Legos and their instructions with images. Simultaneously, he started using magnets, wooden blocks, train sets, etc to build....and boy did he build! despite being seven years old, he continues to build thing but now they are considerably more intricate and complex in nature.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the toy store and saw a trebuchet kit. Sam is a big fan of Pumkin' Chunkin'. It's a gathering that happens once a year in the farmland of Pennsylvania where a collection of hard core engineers gather to launch pumpkins out of canons, trebuchets, catapults, etc. I hope to take him one day. Sam's favorite is the trebuchet. He's mentioned several times that he wanted to build his own and he got the chance to do so. Sure, it isn't life-size like the ones they use "for reals" but he was pretty happy.

I think we have an engineer in the making....

Number Nine!

Nine years ago today, Brad made the best decision of his life.

Happy anniversary to us, my love!

One weekend-Multiple Milestones!

Scotty is a multi-tasker. This past weekend, he decided to learn how to roll back to front and then front to back, eat his first meal of rice cereal, and grow two teeth!

Our baby boy is growing too quickly. I have video of said accomplishments but I have to share it via You Tube or something like that and I haven't decided if I'm going to take that route just yet.

I'll keep you posted.

Little Miss Feisty

Now that the car is full of children, the seating arrangements have changed a bit. Mainly, Sam now sits in the third row in his own booster seat and gets his private area to stash more crap. Izzy rides on the passenger side for safety and Scotty rides behind me. Not being one to be left behind, Izzy asks almost daily if she can sit in the far back with her big brother. The answer is always a resounding "no." However, to appease her and prevent any tears from coming forth, we let her climb to her seat through the trunk.

So, last week we went through the regular scenario as I was loading the kids in the car before taking Sam to school.

Step 1: Open trunk for Sam and Izzy
Step 2: Load up Scotty
Step 3: Search car for Scotty's pacifier, find it, and place it in position
Step 4: Attempt to help Izzy up only to have her yell, "I can do it MY SELF"
Step 5: Ask Sam if he's buckled in
Step 6: Push Izzy up gently on her tush
Step 7: Go to passenger side door and help buckle Izzy in
Step 8: Tell Sam to sit down and buckle up and stop messing with his brother
Step 9: Tell Izzy to sit down and stop messing with her little brother
Step 10: Buckle Izzy in
Step 11: Remind Sam to buckle up only to have him say, "Can you play Never Say Never, Mom? It's CD five, number seven."
Step 12: Ask Sam if he's buckled in
Step 13: Go back in house and try to think if I've forgotten anything (like a kid)
Step 14: Turn off a billion lights
Step 15: Get in car, ask Sam if he's buckled in, pull out, and drive Sam to school

This is my ordeal pretty much every morning unless Brad is home to shove one of the kids in the car.

In the afternoon, it is the same thing, minus Sam. On Wednesday afternoon, however, the following occurred:

Me: Izzy...It's time to go pick up Sam and Ben, come home, have a snack and go to Taekwondo.
Izzy: Ok, mami....let's go
Me: Great...where are your shoes?
Izzy: I don't need shoes.
Me: Yes, mamita, you do.
Izzy: No, I don't because I'm not getting out of the car.
Me: Fine-go get in our car then.
Izzy: I want to go through the back.
Me: There's no time for that right now, Little Lady. Mami's going to carry you in to your seat and buckle you in.
Izzy: No. I want to climb through the back.
Me: Izzy, there isn't time. Plus, you aren't wearing shoes.
Izzy: Well, I could put them on.
Me: Yes, you could but you're still not going in through the back seat.
Izzy: Yes, I can (proceeds to walk out of house and towards back trunk).

At this point, I'm irritated. She, however, has huffed out to the garage and I can hear her attempting to lift the trunk of our large SUV. I say to her, once again, "Izzy, just go to your side-there's no time for you to crawl through." Not skipping a beat after I utter my sentence, she punches the trunk and then, walking away, says,

"Goddamnit."

I'm going to have to make some serious amends with God for that one.