Titus’ Buddy or Our Buddy

So, I’ve been a little worried about the baby lately.  In just a few days from now (at 9 weeks) was when I started bleeding with Titus.  I’m hoping all goes well, but I can’t help but worry.  Jude’s so sweet.  He told me, “Either Titus gets a buddy or we get a buddy.  Either way it works out.”

Literate Levi

Levi (who recently turned 5) is ridiculously literate.  He’s reading his 4th Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, which run over 200 pages.  Since Jude got such an early start on reading (age 2) and Levi lagged behind, I would have never seen this coming.  Levi will start Kindergarten this fall and we anticipate that, like Jude, he’ll skip right to 1st grade in reading and math.

Jude’s Quote of the Day

So, I was telling Jude (age 8) the somewhat good news that I’m getting caught up on my work and things actually seem light for a big change.  Jude said, “But, they’re just going to give you more work.  The only way you get out of work is to lower people’s expectations.”  (Seriously, where does this kid get this from?)

Bike Rodeo Grand Prize

So, yesterday Jude convinced me to let him and Levi skip their last swimming lesson in the frozen water of Sandburg.  I had recently called to cancel summer lessons there and successfully negotiated myself out of the $30 cancellation fee, using the argument that I didn’t want to cancel but was being forced to cancel due to safety issues (the Sandburg pool is kept at a chilly 83.5 degrees, which is enough to turn my skinny boys’ lips purple in no time).  So, given I didn’t know if I wanted to appear there anyway since we are parting ways with that swimming school, Jude succeeded in convincing me.  His argument was that he wanted to go to the Bike Rodeo in Crystal, for a chance to win a door prize.  We went to Jude’s karate and then Levi’s karate and then booked it to the Bike Rodeo down the road.  When we arrived, we had just 15 minutes to find the free raffle tickets and get them submitted for the drawing.  Jude made a beeline to the raffle area and, with my blurry vision, I followed him, just hoping he was right.  He was.  I shuffled the 3 boys up to the line.  The old guy manning the booth gave us just one ticket.  I asked if it was one per family or 1 per kid.  He said it was 1 per kid.  I then made the other 2 shorties obvious and got them their tickets.  We huddled and discussed which bike we wanted to win.  The clear choice was bike #2, a bright orange big boy bike — the perfect step up for Jude.  Asher wanted bike #1, a small red and blue bike with training wheels that was just his size (but the same size as another bike we already have).  I did the secret fold on Levi and Asher’s tickets and then stuffed them into the box for bike #2, as did Jude.  I distracted Asher so he wouldn’t have a fit about not going for bike #1.  We walked away hopeful.  In just a few minutes, after getting their helmets adjusted, it was time for the drawing.  We went right to the front.  When it came time for bike #2, I remembered Jude saying he didn’t see that many tickets in that box.  We were hoping and praying.  When our number wasn’t called, we were disappointed, but it was going to be okay, we could still win a bike light or something.  Then, to preserve our hope, the winner wasn’t present.  They drew again and called #199.  It was us (although I have no idea whose ticket won us that bike).  I had Jude run to the front and his obvious excitement had me welling up with tears.  It was so wonderful to come home with that fancy new bike, especially after Andy had opened his big mouth and told Jude that there was no way he was going to win the drawing anyway so he should just go to swiming lessons.  What a night!

Scary Movie

So, this weekend Andy and Jude went to see Avengers.  It is rated PG-13 and we hesitated about sending Jude at all.  He said it wasn’t scary at all and that the scariest movie he has ever seen is a Disney movie called Nemo.