Maturity

Conversation in the car on the way home from school:

B: "Mommy."
M: Turning the radio down "Yes..."
B: "I wanted to tell you about naptime today."
M: Already knowing what happened at naptime because it was written on his daily report "Uh huh..."
B: "I got in trouble at naptime."
M:"What happened? Were you talking?"
B:"I was talking to Michael. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to be disappointed in me."
M: Did he just say that? "Well, you know that you don't have to sleep at nap time, but you have to lay down and be quiet. I know it's hard because you don't really need a nap anymore, but you do need some rest and quiet time. Thank you for telling me. I want you to tell me things like this. I might be disappointed, but it's better that you tell me so we can talk about it."
B:"Okay."

How could I be disappointed with that!

Quotable Quotes

Whenever Brantley needs to do some business in the bathroom, he has to practically strip. Today, he's half naked about to walk through Grandma's house and and I stop him and tell him to put his underwear on. He messes around, and I, already being a little irritated with other things, say "Put your underwear on before I spank your bare bottom." He says to me "I don't have a 'bear' bottom. I have a people bottom." Smarty pants.

T-ball

Welcome to Spring baseball! It was cold for practice this morning. But, the kids did great. Brantley's attention span was lacking this morning. All he wanted to do was hit, but what's new about that. He did a great job and is all about hitting being pitched to. He doesn't want a tee anymore. We went to Academy Sports to find him some cleats - 'cause everyone else has them and why not? He's about wore out his tennis shoes anyway so I figure we can save his tennis shoes and he can wear cleats in the clay. I found some Nike ones that had a removable pad in the back that gives them another half size. So, the shoes are basically a size too big but with the pad in the back he has a half size of growing room. We also got a red equipment bag to hold all of his stuff. Last week, they had a pole with a ball on the end that they were using with the kids. I saw one at the Academy called the Hit-a-way Target Swing Trainer. It came with a DVD. It wasn't expensive so I grabbed one. We were out in the yard practicing and I think it will really help him with his swing, especially since I can't pitch. I can hold that and help him practice. I really do try to pitch but I'm not good at it. I just put the DVD in and he sat right down to watch it. The guy is explaining the basics of how to stand and where your arms should be. Brantley keeps asking "When's he going to hit the ball?" One track mind.

Playing with bugs

A couple of years ago, Brantley participated in a study at the Peabody College Dept. of Psychology and Human Development. The study was to see if a 2 year old understood that what he saw on a TV was real. So, they showed him a room that was set up like a living room. A camera was set up in that room. In another room was a TV. He watched the TV and the girl hid a stuffed animal in the room. The test was to see if he understood what he was watching on TV was actually what was happening in the next room. If I remember correctly, he totally didn't understand. Interesting experiment. So, when they called me a couple weeks ago about another study, I said Brantley could participate. This study was about different ways of teaching patterns. They used different colors of different bugs to make patterns. Then, Brantley was supposed to tell them what came next. First she asked him to count the different bugs and then to tell her the colors. Then she asked him what each bug was. A couple he didn't know. Then she would put down some bugs in a pattern - yellow dragonfly, yellow dragonfly, red beetle, yellow dragonfly, yellow dragonfly. Then Brantley was supposed to tell her what came next. The practice one he got right so I'm thinking this will be easy. Then, he started missing them. The problem was that he didn't understand what she wanted. She would put them down and ask which one came next, but he would just pick whichever one he wanted to come next. There were 3 ways they were conducting the test. Brantley was supposed to explain to himself how to tell which bug came next and they would tape record what he said. He wasn't about to do that. I think one of the other 2 ways they are testing was that the subject was to explain to the tester how to tell what came next. I'm not sure what the 3rd way was. I don't think he understood that she wanted him to follow the pattern to tell her which one came next. Curiosity got the better of me and while we waited for American Idol to come on I decided to do my own test. I took the cars that Brantley was playing with and put them in a pattern and I would ask Brantley what came next. So, it would be fire truck, fire truck, car, fire truck or red car red car green car red car and so on. Interestingly enough, he got them all. So, my question is this - did he not understand what she was asking him to do or was he just toying with her? Hmmmm....

Go Dodgers! (the t-ball team that is)

Wow! What a great practice. There are 4 kids, including Brantley, back from last year. They are the youngest ones from last year that got off track because of the new birthday cutoff. Everyone was ready to play yesterday. There is also a girl on the team this year and I bet she can knock the pants of some of these boys. I was surprised that Brantley actually remembered what he learned last year. Here are some action shots...

Spring is sprung!

I don't need a nap!

After a day at home and afternoon with the cousins....

Cousins

I took the day off today to meet the furniture people, again (long unrelated story), and I decided to keep Brantley home. My sister called yesterday and said they would be in town today. Since my niece and nephew are on a year round schedule, they are currently on a 3-week break. So, this afternoon, we met them at Chuck E. Cheeses. The kids had a good time and they gave their tickets to Brantley. I have saved his tickets each time rather than him get some little piece of junk. He doesn't even know that you turn in the tickets to get stuff. With the tickets from today, he has almost 1000 tickets. The sad thing is that even with that many tickets, you can't really get anything good. I was looking at the little ticket receipts and I have some are dated in 2004. I'm betting that was the first time he went. Although we have several receipts, they are all from only 5 days there. Not too bad over the course of 2 years. One day, Brantley really got into feeding the ticket eater so we have a lot of receipts that are just for a few tickets. In a couple more years maybe he will have enough tickets to get something good!

Brantley was right....

About 3 weeks ago I noticed a small cluster of red bumps on Brant's inner thigh. He told me he had a bug bite. Well, I thought 'I don't know what kind of bug would bite you this time of year, but okay. ' Well, 3 or 4 days later it was still there so I got on the internet to try to figure out what it was. The description for ringworm on the body is a small cluster of red bumps. Exactly what Brantley had - about the size of a quarter. So, I go to the pharmacy and pick up so anti-fungal cream. I even asked the advice of the pharmacist who agreed that's what it probably was. He told me it would take a couple of weeks to clear and that I would need to continue the cream for a couple weeks after the rash was gone because the fungus would still be there even though it looked healed. So, two weeks of cream later the rash is still there. In fact, it was a little worse. So, I called the doctor and he wanted to see him. After looking at it, he said that he could not say definitively that it was a bite, but he tended to agree with Brantley! He said it looked more like a spider bite! Why would I possibly think that a cluster of tiny red bumps was a spider bite? Since the rash was old, the doctor was not 100% sure but he said to put a hydrocortisone cream on it for a week. If it didn't clear, then he wanted to see him back. So, last night we started the hydrocortisone cream, and the rash looks a little better this morning. Go figure!

American Idol

Well, we watched the Idol together tonight. It's weird watching something with Brantley that's not a kids show, although Idol is rated G. Brant would ask me during each performance if I liked her song. Most I wasn't very impressed with, but Madisa was very good. After her performance, Brant looked very sad. I looked at him and he said "She sings better than me. :(" Oh Brantley, you've got a long time to practice. Of course while I was putting him to bed he proceeded to tell me that he sings better than everyone!

American Idol

This is the first year that I have taken an interest in American Idol. Brantley watched part of it with me one evening and now he wants to watch it every day. Every day he asks if he can watch that movie where the boys and girls sing. And I say "American Idol?" He says, "yeah, can I watch it." While giving him his bath today, he says that I should go on American Idol. I told him you have to be able to sing to go on the show. He says he is going to go on the show and proceeds to start making up a song. "Mommy, do you like that song?" I say, "Yes, that's a very good song." Brantley says, "But, maybe they won't like my song." I say, "I think they would. You are very good." He proceeds to make up another song. Keep up the creative juices!

Saturday night in the country

You probably have to be from the country to appreciate this story, but I think it's funny. We spent the night with my parents Saturday. For dinner, my dad wanted to go out. There is this new place called Cheddars and they haven't been there yet. Mom says it will be too busy - it's Saturday night. So, how about the Sam's Club. Yes, I'm talking about Sam's Warehouse club. They have these pizzas you can buy, bring home and bake that are really good. You can also have them bake them there and eat them there. Mom had one in the freezer, so I said we should just bake that one. We decided to do that and then go out for desert at the Dairy Queen. (Joe Dirt fans can appreciate that!) Well, the pizza didn't turn out right. Lesson learned - bring home the Sam's pizza and bake it, don't freeze it! Well, we ate it anyway. The crust got a little crispy. It reminded me of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation when they are trying to eat the turkey that had cooked for a week. Get the picture? After dinner, Brantley had a game of soccer in the kitchen with Grandma. Funny how grandparents are so much more fun that parents. He kept calling her Grammy (not sure where that came from) and saying "Grammy's losing!" He also kept changing the rules on how to score points. After the game it was off to the Dairy Queen. It had been so long since I had ice cream from there. Yummy! Dad got the large caramel sundae, Mom got a medium cone, I got a small hot fudge sundae and Brantley got a kids cone dipped in chocolate which he proceed not to touch. So, mom took the chocolate and I took the ice cream. Couldn't let it waste! How's that for a Saturday night?

Time to feed the dinosaur!

Maybe Brantley will grow up to be a paleontologist. He loves dinosaurs and learning about them. We watch all of the Walking with Dinosaurs and Dinosaur planet shows. I've even learned a lot about them, especially how to pronouce a lot of the names like Troodon, Coelophysis, and Spinosaurus. The shows are really good. They take footage of actual scenery and then put in computer generated dinosaurs. I have to say they look extremely real.

Time for T-ball!

T-ball is starting again. Last year Brantley was on the Red Sox. This year...the Dodgers. They changed the age cutoff for this year. Last year, he was considered a 4 so he was in the 4/5 T-ball league. That league was for 4s and 5s that hadn't played before. 5s that had played before went on to the 5/6 league, which is where Brantley would be this year if they hadn't changed the cutoff. Since they changed it, he's considered a 4 again. But, he's a 4 that has played before. Oh well, I wasn't very comfortable with him going to the 5/6 league yet anyway. He's going to have the same coach as last year so we know at least 1 other kid will have played before. Wonder how many of his team last year will be on the team this year. Guess we will find out in a couple of weeks.

Our new chair...Brantley's favorite color!

Doesn't it look comfortable!

More Snow!

Snow two weekends in a row! That's rare here. And man it's cold! Brantley got to enjoy a little time playing in the snow this morning. Just ask him what 26 degrees feels like. It's freezing out there. Better come in and warm up.

Be my Valentine!

Here's Brant's valentine. Isn't she a cutie!

Finally...SNOW!

A Special Valentine

Brantley said he made me a valentine this morning. I went into his room to get his clothes and I found this. Notice anything about it? - and, no, the picture is not transposed.

Reading?

Tonight we worked on Brantley's valentine cards for his party on Tuesday. We got scooby doo cards and Garfield lollipops to put in them. We were attempting to have Brant write the names. He did okay but it just wasn't working out so I wrote them. We had his class list on a piece of paper. Brantley pointed at one of the names and said is that Olivia. I told him it was. Then I started pointing at other names and asking him who they were. He knew them all. I know he wasn't really reading, only recognizing the way the letters were arranged, but it's a start and I was impressed!