Movie of the moment

Brantley tend to watch a movie, like it, and then proceed to watch it every day for a month. The movie of the moment is The Sandlot. It's actually a really good movie. Even though it came out in 1993, this is the first I had seen it. It's about a group of kids who play baseball every day in a sandlot. A new kid moves to town who is a real dork, and they take him in and teach him the game. My only complaint is that the kids do use some bad language during the movie, but Brantley knows he is not supposed to say those words.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I claim to be Irish because both of my family names, maternal and paternal, can be traced back to Ireland. Of course, the families have been here so long, I'm sure my percentage of Irish is way low. Brantley informed me that I can't be Irish because my eyes are not green. Anywho, may the luck of the Irish be with you today.

Snowballs are good from something

Yesterday, before the snow melted, we played in the snow. We tried to make a snowman but the snow would not stick together when you rolled it. But, it did make an excellent snowball. We had a little snowball fight. Lawson accidentally hit Brantley in the mouth with a hard snow ball. He was upset about it but we didn't think to much about it. Later that day we were dropping him off at Grandma and Pops (they watched him so we could go to Dewayne's 40th birthday gathering---thanks Grandma and Pop!) and Brantley was complaining his tooth was bothering him. I looked and the tooth had been pushed up and back. I could see why it was bothering him, but he wouldn't let me pull it. I thought it might come out while he was eating. So, when we got back to pick him up later that evening, he came over running to me with a ziplock bag. He had pulled it all by himself. I was so proud of him. Now, I just have to get him to pull the one that really needs to come out.

Is snow safe to eat?

Brownies!

We never have cookies, cakes, brownies, etc in our house. Some might think I'm a terrible mom because Brantley has never really eaten all that much junk food and still doesn't drink soft drinks. I think it's a great accomplishment. I decided to make brownies tonight. I have made brownies very few times since Brantley was born. This was the first time he participated in licking the bowl and the spatula, because you know you can't make brownies and not do that. He seemed to like it and was excited about the brownies. When they were done and I gave one to him, he took a tiny bite and said he didn't like it and went to the trash can and spit it out. I was very surprised, but it made Lawson happy because he finished it for Brantley.

The Answer

Either no one is reading, or no one wanted to venture a guess. Only my long time friend from junior high school commented on what Brantley was talking about. We are sort of kindred spirits. I have one child, she has four. Does that mean four times the Spongebob? Knowing how hard it is to raise one child, I have the utmost respect for anyone raising multiple children. But, now I feel old. Isn't Tyler getting close to driving age? Anyways...on to the answer. Spongebob uses a cannon to shoot articles of clothing at Mr. Krabs. One of the articles of clothing that lands on Mr. Krabs is a bra...hence...boobie cases. Only in the mind of a four year old.

I'll end this post with a couple of quotes from Albert Einstein:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

We should always try to have and encourage the curiosity and imagination of a child.

Snow

I meant to post this the other day. We got some more snow. Here's a picture of our back yard including the bird feeder that Pudge watches intently every day. Of course, it doesn't compare to the snow Uncle Matt and Aunt Rosemarie get.

New Wall Art

I just got some new art for my desk area. The pictures are by this new artist named B. A. Freeman. What do you think? Look out Van Gogh!

Brantley Speaks

On February 23 we went to see David copperfield.AT first they showed David copperfield in a box.On a motorcycle.David copperfield and a girl disappeared to Australia.Only David copperfield came back.And nest they had picked a girl and the girl picked a card and the scorpion picked a card and the scorpion got it right.A man and gave his tie to David copperfield and mad the tie danced and mad the tie drink some milk and the tie burped.David copperfield made hemself as big as a new born baby.David copperfield send about ten balls out.And we were like hippity hop ball whoever had the ball they got to git disappeared to there favorite place



The End

More cute and funny

Okay, I debated whether I should post these stories or not, but, what the heck. Because I am not a skinny girl, when Brantley gets me laughing really hard my belly shakes. Well, Brantley started coming over to me and grabbing my mid section and makes this funny noise. I had asked him to stop doing it. This morning while I was putting his toothpaste on his toothbrush he did it and again I asked him to stop. I said, "Brantley, I know I'm fat. You don't have to do that." He look at me and threw his arms around me with a big hug and said, "Mommy...you're not fat!" How sweet is that!

Since I told an embarrassing story on me, time for one on Lawson. Recently Brantley's school had Donuts for Dads. Lawson took Brantley to school and asked if Brantley wanted to go get Donuts and he said no. When Lawson asked why he said, "Cause I want you to lose weight so you can play with me more this summer." Okay, that wasn't so sweet.

And finally, it's time for Brantley speak. You have to guess what it is you think Brantley is talking about. I love this because he always seems to make up his own words for things. So, we are watching our favorite show...SpongeBob Squarepants. The episode is 'The Algae is Always Greener' in case you want to watch it for hints. In that episode, Plankton and Krabs switch lives. Toward the end of the episode, Krabs has just tried to steal the krabby patty and he's flying through the Krusty Krab naked. SpongeBob says ,'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service' and starts shooting at Krabs with a cannon. Brantley laughingly says, 'Look, he's going to shoot boobie cases at him!' There's your test folks. What do you think boobie cases is/are?

Brain Age

For Christmas, Lawson got me a Nintendo DS with the game Brain Age. Yes, I asked for that...don't laugh. Well, Brantley loves playing with it. He's actually really good at some of the exercises. Sometimes he plays with it when I'm not aware. He loves low to high, head count, and triangle math.

One of the things that the game does is each person sets up a profile. Sometimes when you begin it will ask you to draw pictures or answer a question like what color are you wearing today or what was the most interesting thing you saw on tv today. Once more than one person has drawn the pictures, it will show them to you side by side so you can compare and discuss. Brantley has drawn pictures for Lawson before. Now, he's answering his questions. Lawson opened up his profile and it asked what was the most interesting thing you saw on tv on 2/22. What you are supposed to do is remember what you wrote that day. Of course, he wasn't the one who wrote it so when he clicked enter and it brought up the answer from that day it said 'fidel castro'. It was even spelled correctly although Brantley didn't capitalize the names. I'm guessing he was playing with it while the news was on. Believe it or not, he really likes watching the news too.

David Copperfield

I remember watching TV specials of David Copperfield when I was growing up. I kept watching until he started doing the things that were obviously not real, like making the statue of liberty disappear. I never liked it when he did those things. I was happy just watching the normal magic he did on stage. So, when I heard David Copperfield was coming to town, I decided to take Brantley and his cousins to see him. Brantley had no idea who Copperfield was. I thought my niece and nephew might know, but they didn't either. My niece was skeptical about it. Before the show they had a large movie screen on the stage displaying descriptions and accomplishments of David Copperfield like the fact that he is the only living magician on a postage stamp, or that he was named Magician of the Millennium. She said, 'Is this just going to be a movie or is it going to be in person?' Boy was she in for a surprise. The show opened with a large box on the stage. The stage hands came out and showed the box was empty, spun it around like they do and then revealed David Copperfield sitting on a motorcycle inside. His first big act was coming through steel. He lay down on a table and a piece of steel was placed on top of the box. Then they draped a shiny silver sheet over the entire table and David Copperfield came through the steel. Brantley was unimpressed. (Today I found out he figured out basically how Copperfield did that trick.) What did impress Brantley was when he got a volunteer from the audience and borrowed his red tie. He took the tie and made it dance and do other things. Brantley was amazed. I wish I could have taken a camera inside just to get a picture of his face. The rest of the show was complete amazement for him. The look on his face was priceless. We all enjoyed it. My nephew even wants to go see him again, and I think I wouldn't mind seeing him again also.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What else do you do on Valentine's Day but pretend to brush your teeth with frosting!

SNOW!!!

Well, we finally got some snow, but it was gone by the time we got home. It was really pretty coming down this morning. Since it didn't get above freezing all day, I thought for sure it would still be on the ground when we got home. No such luck. I didn't even get a picture.

Family Photo

We don't get many of these.

How about some basketball?

Today was the final day of basketball. This has been great for Brantley to get some good winter exercise. It's hard to stay active when it's so cold outside so it's nice to have something active that is indoors. Baseball will get started in about a month and it's always so cold at the beginning. Now, I have to be the bad sportsman mom. I'm really proud of Brantley being such a team player. He always passes the ball to his teammates, however a couple of his teammates are ball hogs and won't pass the ball. We kept hoping Brantley would just take the ball all the way, but being the good team player his is, he would pass the ball and run to the square and wait for a pass...exactly what the coach told them to do. You can see in the video he's wide open waiting for a pass and gets a little annoyed. That's his buddy Houston that's about a foot taller than he is. On the way home, Lawson told him next time when he isn't getting the ball, not to pass it. Brantley said that was a dumb idea. He's already a good sportsman.

Blah Blah Blah

Almost a month without a post and no comments saying, "Hey, where are you guys?" I don't know about you, but Winter just makes me blah. The weather is crappy. Brantley has sensitive skin so his cheeks and lips get chapped all the time. He hates for me to put stuff on it, but he let's me because he knows it really does hurt when your skin cracks and bleeds. He continuously licks his lips because some kid told him that it makes it better and we all know that makes it worse.

Did I say I hate Winter?

We've just been busy with school work. Brantley started to type a post the other day but he didn't. He was excited about the 100th day of school and the trail mix that they made. Lately, we have been working on math skills. They have this math superstars thing going on. He has these tests that have 20 addition problems and they are timed. The problems are single digit addition. They have 1 minute to complete them and have to get them all correct to move on. He's really good at math but gets flustered because he wants to finish as fast as possible. I think his best time so far was 37 seconds. He also brought home another worksheet that we aren't supposed to help him with. It has 3 word problems on it. I listened and made sure he read them correctly, but I didn't help him with the answers. He got the easy one and the hard one correct. The medium one he missed. I didn't tell him, but he'll be upset when he finds out he missed it. I was really surprised that was the one he missed and he got the hard one correct.

I can't wait until Spring.

Are you ready for some....basketball!

Brantley is. He is playing in a recreational/instructional league. All they will be doing is learning the basics. They don't have to try out or anything. It's nice because he gets some winter exercise in before baseball gets started. I jokingly told Lawson this is probably the only time he will play for UT. And, probably his only chance to play basketball. He'll get to do it until 5th grade. I'm guessing in middle school they have to actually try out for the team. Unfortunately, my camera won't take pictures inside a gym but it will take video. Go figure.

Officially moved in

Well, it's been over 5 months since we moved and I think we are now officially moved in. We finally got furniture for the great room. I'm really happy with what we got. The couch that I really wanted cost about 3 times as much as what we spent on this one, and that wasn't including tax or delivery. We decided the first one was just too big. We put tape down on the floor so we could really see how it would fit and decided it was just too big. Just as well because we saved some moolah by getting this other one. I was nervous about it because we ordered it online and didn't get to do the sit test with it. But, it was a lot cheaper and delivery was included so we took a chance. After we ordered it, I found a magazine page that I had ripped out a long time ago and it was practically this same couch. It worked out great. I think it fits in the room perfectly and it is so comfy! What's really cool is now we can watch tv from the front living room and the great room.

I do not like the Tooth Fairy

3:40 AM "Mommy, I think I lost my tooth."
Half asleep, "I'm sure you didn't lose it. It probably fell off the bed."

This was the beginning of over an hour his dramatics. It was after 5 when I fell back to sleep. Good thing I didn't have to work today or I would have been more mad than I already was. He slept until about 9:30 this morning. He comes down the hall and has a sad look on his face. He hopped up in my lap and said the tooth fairy didn't leave him anything. So, here we go to search his bed. We ended up pulling out his bed and the golden dollar left by the tooth fairy was there on the floor. We are going to have to talk to that fairy about leaving it on the shelf instead of under his pillow. ;) Oh well, his sheets needed to be changed anyways. By the way, if you click on the picture and look at the big version, you can kinda see his black eye from the boo-boo from Sunday. I ended up taking him to the doctor today to have him look at it. It had started bleeding again and I was a little bit concerned. It's all fine though. He's never had a band-aid on that long and he was actually having a little bit of reaction to that and the neosporin. The bleeding was more than likely from him not being able to sit still for 5 seconds and being too rambunctious. Note to others with sensitive skin, gauze and paper tape are better for your skin than band-aids.