New Friends

(Seriously, could these two be any cuter??)

Getting In The Spirit

Fall has arrived (at least according to the calendar, the thermometer still hasn't gotten the memo) and with it fall decorations and Halloween costumes have started appearing in the stores. I couldn't resist picking up a couple for the kids who LOVE to dress up.


And thank goodness I did, because as you can see we were in desperate need of a fireman (and a princess) to put out the fire in the fireplace.

Hard to be Quinn

We were driving home from school and listening to one of our many audio stories, when they used the word difficult.

Q: Mommy what does difficult mean??
Me: It means something isn't easy, it is hard to do.
Q: Oh. I get it. Like when I have so many friends (referring to her stuffed animals) and sometimes it is hard to remember all of their names.
Me: Exactly.
Q: So when that happens I am difficult.

Yes, Quinn sometimes you are very difficult but I love you nonetheless my sweet Quinncess!!

Go Frog!!

Last week we had Meet The Teacher night at Greyson's school. During part of the program, Ms. Kay discussed how they would start writing sentences soon and how they most likely would be phonetically correct, but in terms of actual spelling horribly inaccurate. They may get the consonants right but perhaps forget the vowels etc. but as they matured and progressed eventually the spelling would come.

This has intrigued me since her talk and so yesterday I got out a piece of paper and told Greyson he could write any sentence he wanted to. I was curious what he would write (in terms of creativity) and how he would spell everything. To my amazement this is what he came up with....


He whipped out the "The" with no help at all (though for full disclosure I did start out by saying that all sentences started with a capital letter). He sounded out "frog" all by himself and got 99% of "jumps" - he intially wanted to spell it jups so I did coax the m out of him. As usual, he far surpassed what I thought he was going to do. I was really impressed and proud. I was also quite intrigued, still am, that of all the sentences in the universe this is what he thought of. I can't remember the last time we actually talked about frogs...go figure. But I realized long ago that it is futile to attempt to understand the workings of my children's minds.

The Value of Boys

On the way home from school today, Greyson was very excited to tell us all of the information he has been learning about in anticipation of his first field trip tomorrow to the local dairy farm.

Greyson: "And it is just the girl cows that make milk"
Quinn: "Oh, the boy cows don't make milk?"
Greyson: "No, just the girls."
Quinn: "So I guess then the boy cows must look after the baby cows when the Moms make milk."
Me: "No actually, the girl cows do that too."
Quinn: "So what exactly do boy cows do, then?"

I paused for a moment to try to think of an answer that wouldn't launch me into a whole other discussion about reproduction that I wasn't quite ready for this afternoon. But then Quinn answered her own question.

"I guess boys don't do much of anything, do they?"

A Moment

Inevitably, within the first 15 minutes of one of my parents numerous visits, my mother will pull me aside and tell me how much the kids have changed. I always wave a dismissive hand at her and tell her she is crazy. In theory, I know she is right it is just that I see them every day so those small changes my parents see seem to pass me unnoticed. But then, there will be moments, random moments, that will catch me off guard and in an instant I will realize how much they have grown.

Raif is out of town this week so I have inherited the task of taking Greyson (as well as Quinn) to school in the mornings. The drop off process is really quite simple and painless at BGA - you drive around slowly to the cafeteria door where a very polite 4th grader opens your door and helps your little one out. This morning was no different than any other day and Greyson hopped out of the car, really paying me no attention as he clamored after his friend Nicholas who had gotten out two cars in front of me. However, as I was pulling away, I heard him cry "Mommy" and as I turned around, assuming he had forgotten his lunch or his bag I saw my little man with a big grin waving at me from the school door and then he said "I love you!!!" He looked so small compared with the older kids shuffling in and his giant book bag didn't help matters much but as he turned to run inside I felt this sharp pain in my heart with the realization of just how big he has gotten, how independent. For the first time I didn't see my 'little' boy, I just saw a boy. That is when I began to weep.

I can't tell you why today of all days I was hit with this revelation, one would think it would have happened on his first day of school, not a month and a half in. Perhaps it was his sweet "I love you" that melted my heart. Who knows, but what I do know is that the little boy who used to cling to me for dear life is very rapidly slipping through my fingers and in his place is an independent, self aware boy who needs his mother less and less each day. My heart hurts.

Love Ties

Today as we were putting our school clothes and shoes away Greyson asked me if he could wear his tie shoes to school. It was an odd request because shortly after purchasing them (his choice of course) getting me to tie and untie them became a bother and they quickly became an unpopular shoe choice. Couple that with the new school purchase of shiny, velcro tennis shoes and his tie shoes have been regulated to the back of the shoe drawer for the past two months.

"Of course you can wear them to school tomorrow as long as they fit."

"They do still fit. Keaton (a girl) ties shoes."

"Oh, good for Keaton." (A ha I thought, so this is why he wants to wear them so he can learn to tie his and be like Keaton. Yay for peer pressure). "So Keaton ties her own shoes, all by herself?"

"She ties lots of shoes."

"Oh really" (Hmmmm, something is up.)

"Yes, she ties Hutch's shoes and Mason's shoes and Eliot's shoes."

"Oh, so you want to wear tie shoes to school so that Keaton can tie your shoes??"

And with a silly grin, a faint blush and a smile I haven't seen before he shyly giggled "Yes."

Me thinks the boy is in love.

Assistant Needed

Every mother of a small child knows that for any chore around the house you need to do you can always find an assistant. Sure, it might take twice as long as it normally would but inevitably there is always an eager helping hand to pitch in. At least that is what I used to think....

Today as Raif had his special helper, assisting him with the lawn mowing duties, I thought that I could surely find someone to help me use the blower to clean off the driveway.

Me: Hey, Quinn - do you want to come over and help me clean the driveway off with the blower?

Quinn: Hmmmm, no not today. I think I will just supervise.

Sweet, I wanted an assistant and somehow ended up with a boss who very happily sat in the middle of driveway and was all too eager to point out every blade of grass I missed.

Is it too early to put in for some Paid Time Off?

Love Lost

Greyson suffered his first broken heart this weekend as his first true love married another.

Ms. Ashley (Greyson's preschool teacher last year) got hitched on Saturday. It was the first wedding the kids attended and we couldn't pry them away. From the kid's playroom that Ms. Ashley thoughtfully provided (both the parents and the kids LOVED it) to the dancing and of course the cake the kids were spell bound all night.

Greyson spent the whole evening following Ms. Ashley around like a little lost puppy and anytime he didn't know where she was he came running to me and said "Where's Ms. Ashley??" And you know what, I think Ms. Ashley was a little sad she wasn't marrying Greyson too because the first person she danced with after her new husband and her father was Greyson. (I of course didn't have my camera with me but the professional photographer shot some pics so I am hoping she will share).

And the evening was made for Quinn when she got to go on stage and be a princess with the beautiful bride....

Plus she got to run around with all her friends


(Seriously, are there two cuter little girls out there??)

Raif tried to prove that he still has his 'moves' with various partners.....



Congratulations to Ashley and Logan!! Y'all need to hurry up and have a daughter to help mend Greyson's broken heart!!

A Rose By Any Other Name....

Lately Quinn has been obsessed with letters. Considering the fact that her older brother, who she wants to be like more than anything, is reading and writing letters, her desire to read and write isn't that much of a shock.

And so it wasn't surprising this morning, when she had a little extra time before school, that she asked for her workbook to work on her writing. And it wasn't that surprising that first she started talking about letters and finally started singing about them while she was doing her writing. What was a tad surprising was the letters she chose to sing about.....

"La la la - you are a P.O.S, la la la, this is a P.O.S, la la la, it is a P.O.S" Over and over and over again."

Honestly, I don't know whether she at some point overheard that phrase or just randomly put those letters together (prior to singing that she was singing a much more benign string of letters). But she was singing so sweetly I didn't have the heart to correct her even though she was actually singing the song to me and therefore calling me the P.O.S. I guess I have been called worse!!

Look Ma, No (Extra) Wheels (Part II)

Apparently it takes me writing that Blogger won't post my video for it to work....

Look Ma, No (Extra) Wheels

My husband tends to get wild hairs at the oddest times....like deciding that 4:30 on the Monday afternoon of Labor Day is the right time to take the training wheels off the kids' bikes...but sometimes it seems to work out alright.....




**Editor's note: I actually have video of the kids riding - much better than these stills but for some reason Blogger doesn't want to seem to upload them today. So grandparents, you will have to handle the pics for now and I will get the video up as soon as possible.

Think Pink

In one of those karma ways that only happens to mothers, I have a girl who LOVES pink despite all of my attempts to the contrary. So naturally her favorite animal is the pink flamingo and naturally when pink flamingos made their grand opening at the Nashville Zoo it was a must see.

Our Labor Day morning was spent ooohing and ahhhing these fascinating birds. Quinn couldn't get enough. She even wore her flamingo shirt and shorts just for the occasion.



(Quinn doing her best impression of the one legged, head on the body flamingo stand)

Oops

On Friday Greyson and Quinn and I stopped in a little toy store in Franklin to kill some time before the football game. We were in the plastic miniature animal section when Quinn noticed a spider on the floor and ran to me screaming. Assuming that it was just a plastic spider that had fallen off of the shelves I went to do the nice thing and put it back. I was seconds from picking it up when this old man screamed at me to stop. I stared at him with this blank look as he came over and very forcefully stomped the thing dead.

He then kindly informed me that I was about to pick up a brown recluse spider. Yeah, that probably wouldn't have been the smartest move I had ever made. So next time I think I will stomp first and see whether it is plastic second.

Rite of Passage

It is a tradition handed down from generation to generation - the art of making kofte. Kofte is a tasty, and I mean tasty, Turkish meatball. Raif's kofte recipe is a well guarded family secret - he won't even tell me how to make them. But today he began to pass the tradition down to Greyson and Quinn as they helped make their first koftes.

I can't say who enjoyed it more - the kids spending quality time with Dad, Dad for passing the tradition on or me who got a night off of cooking AND got kofte for dinner.

Friday Night Lights

Last night was our first home BGA football game. Some good, wholesome (and cheap) fun.


We cheered our hearts out (but unfortunately lost).


And I got a glimpse into my future as my son raced off behind the bleachers to play football with his friends (aka tackle the other kid with the ball) leaving me alone in my seat. (What happened to the days of wanting to play with Mommy??)

Quinn was completely enamored with the cheerleaders wanting nothing to do with the actual game. She declared on the way home that she wants to be a cheerleader so she can be thrown in the air.

Oy vey when did my kids grow up??