The Days of the Week

Here is a list of the "real" names for the days of the week, according to our boys.

Sunday - "Church Day"
Monday - "Art Day"
Tuesday - Tuesday
Wednesday - "Bells and Choir Day" or "Eat dat Church Day"
Thursday - "Gym Day"
Friday - "Alli Day"
Saturday - "Daddy Stay Home Day"

Invisible

We have a little rule in our house. All food stays in the kitchen. I am not the most perfect housekeeper and the idea of vacuuming food out of my couch cushions just sounds like another chore in an already-long list. So...this morning when I walked into the living room, I saw a piece of Life cereal on the floor.

Me: (irritated) Who ate in the living room?
A: It wasn't me.
Co: Not me.
Neil-Te: No way. Not me.
KiKi: I didn't.
Me: Well, how did this cereal get in here?
A: I don't know.
Co: shrugs
Neil-Te: I ate in the kitchen.
KiKi: (innocently) My invisible friend was hungry.

Trick or Treat

The boys got to trick or treat with their cousins this year. They were quite the big crew showing up at people's houses, yelling, "TRICK or TREAT." It was fun to watch them, but the most hilarious part was the things that they would say after receiving the candy - hopefully, after the door had closed!
At one house, a teenager with lots of piercings was handing out candy. As we walked away from the house, KiKi said in confusion, "He looks like a pig." I imagine the teen wouldn't have thought his nose ring was so cool if he had heard that comment!

After pizza and trick-or-treating at Oma and Opa's, we picked up the girls and headed to my parents' for some more trick-or-treating. I'm in the picture because KiKi was afraid of the girls' makeup and refused to be in the picture without me!
We had lots of fun and the weather held out - only a tiny drizzle for maybe five minutes. The time change came on the perfect night - no pangs of guilt about a late bedtime this year. I guess I'm just saving some guilt for all of the candy I intend to persuade the boys to share!
Happy Halloween!

Punk Rock Star?

Or is he really just defying his future baldness? ;-)

Tree Climbers

Neil-Te has watched with envy for years as CoCo scrambles effortlessly up trees. After a few minutes of vigorous attempts, he stomped away in frustration on Saturday, crying, "I'll never be able to do it!"
Co-Co replied, "You really won't be able to if you don't keep trying. You CAN do it if you don't give up."
Much to my amazement, those words did the trick. Neil-Te tried for over an hour with no success, then went back out later and tried again. He realized that maybe if he could make his muscles stronger, he would be able to do it. Yesterday, he worked again.
Today, he did it! He is officially a tree climber and, hopefully, has learned a good lesson about perserverance!
By the way, that interesting pink color is the fun color of everything under our red maples. It even casts red into our living room. Gotta love fall!

Appreciating the Good Things

Today, the boys and I had an interesting discussion about favoritism. In the past, one of the boys used to verbalize that he had a "favorite brother," much to the hurt feelings of the other boys. So there has been this unspoken rivalry to be the "favorite" for quite some time. Though I was aware that it was going on, all of my intervention methods seemed to have failed until today. As one of the boys was sitting at the lunch table in tears over being the one to be left out again, I finally had the opportunity to discuss it at length with all of the boys. After we had discussed the issue for a few minutes, we decided that each of us would share something that we liked about each of the boys at the table. It was such a blessing to see them talk about the shared activities and qualities that they enjoy about each other. It was also so touching to see how inspired and encouraged they were to know that their brothers actually notice the nice things that they try to do. Here's a little sampling.
"He's so cute and adorable."
"He builds cool forts with me."
"He teaches me how to do things."
"He likes to play with me."

Simple things, but it was a moment that I will treasure.

Super Powers of Attraction

Sometimes, Neil-te likes to play the helpful, older-brother role. A couple of days ago, he had just finished washing his face when he decide that he wanted to wash KiKi's too. Though I wish that I had been in the room to see their faces, this is what I heard.

Neil-Te: Come here [KiKi], I want to wash your face.
KiKi: You can't wash my face. I'm a super hero.
Neil-Te: Well, super heroes wash their faces too.
KiKi: (emphatically) No. They Don't!
Neil-te: (without hesitation) Yes, them have to look good so the girls will like them.