Levi’s Quote of the Year

Little Levi says something uniquely his own.  He likes to ask questions, and follows them up with a “yes or no” to really force the responder to get to the point.  For example, “Is Grandma coming over today?  Yes or no.”

Chore Chart Continued

Today I found the 3rd of 3 lists Andy kept of the chores he did during the day while I was at work.  I’m not sure why he stopped keeping track after 3 times, because I’m more curious about what he did on all the unrecorded days.  For the record, here it is:

  • Made beds
  • Dishes
  • Lots of school
  • Broke up fights
  • Tried to declog green bathroom sink

 

 

Biker Boy

We were watching home videos the other day and we watched an adorable video of Jude learning to ride a pedal bike without training wheels.  After it was done, I had to watch it again to catch the date on the video.  It was October 2010, meaning Jude was 3-1/2 when he began riding a pedal bike without training wheels.  Levi is just 4 months from being 4 and after I realized that at his age, Jude was riding bike like a little expert, I was overcome with guilt about my neglected little middle child.  I set a goal of getting Levi up on his pedal bike by the end of this weekend.  Yesterday after getting Asher down for a nap, I accomplished my goal — little Levi, who is still 3, can now ride a pedal bike without training wheels.  Too bad snow will be coming so quickly!

Last Day of Soccer

Today was Jude’s last day of soccer on his combined boy/girl team of 5 to 7 year olds.  Jude’s team hasn’t won a game and it’s not from his lack of trying.  He likes to blame the girls that he doesn’t think are aggressive enough.  Today, he was bound and determined to win and was totally on fire on the field.  He scored 5 of 5 goals for his team and was super aggressive and on the ball like glue.  After he’d run down the field and score a goal, I’d see him holding his abdomen.  After the game, I asked him what was up with that and he told me that he had used up all his air by running down the field and getting the goal and he said he was “giving myself CPR.”  Hilarious!  Then he said, “Do you know why I only kick the ball to me and not to my teammates?  Because I can only trust me.”  He was super upset that the game ended in a tie.

Cleaning Competition

Tonight I challenged the boys to a cleaning competition.  The one boy that did the best job cleaning up the toys in the playroom would win a prize.  Jude was doing a great job, but then seemed concerned about what the prize might be.  I was running around cleaning up the house and he yelled out to me all angrily, “”It better not be a kiss!”

In the end, Asher didn’t help so he was out of the running.  And, Jude and Levi decided to share the prize.  It was 4 quarters.  Jude decided he got 75 cents and Levi got 25 cents because Levi “took big breaks and stuff.”   Within minutes Jude had convinced Levi to hand over Levi’s quarter to Jude so Jude could buy a toy a Dollar Tree that they could share.  Poor little Levi.

Nis, Nat, and Nese

Jude’s behind the scenes kindergarten/1st grade teacher last year recommended extra handwriting practice to prepare him for 2nd grade this year.  He ended up getting accepted into Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of MN occupational therapy program for handwriting, probably because of the brain cancer diagnosis and the possible impact his brain injury has had on fine motor skills.  His occupational therapist recommend he receive an evaluation for speech therapy and — surprise, surprise — they determined he needed that as well.  He’s been doing both OT and speech therapy for several months now.  Still, Jude occasionally mispronounces words.  The words he consistently says wrong are “this,” “that” and “these” — he says, “nis, nat and nese.”  Drives me nuts!

Rushing Around

After church today, we swung through the Burger King drive thru.  We had just an hour and a half to get 4 heads of hair cut and get everyone dressed and looking their best for a family photo shoot.  After Burger King, we dropped in at a local hair salon.  There was going to be a 10-15 minute wait so Andy and Jude stayed behind to wait and the 2 little boys and I hurried home to pick up our outfits (which I had chosen in my head but hadn’t gathered).  I left the little ones in the car while I raced around the house getting everything for me and the boys.  Then the boys took turns getting their hair cut and getting dressed by me in the bathroom of the salon.  At one point I told Levi that we had to “hurry up.”  He said, “Why do we have to hurry up?  Why don’t we ‘hurry down'”?  Still don’t think I have an answer for that one.  In the end, we made it to the photo shoot and I’m just hoping there is a cute family picture and also a cute picture of the boys.

 

Soccer Star

Jude is winding up his first ever crack at soccer through park and rec.  It turns out, he’s really good (relatively speaking).  He is on the ball like glue, but so much so that he sometimes even steals it from him teammates.  He scored his team’s only goal today.  I had to laugh when the other team would be kicking the ball in and Jude would yell out that he was open, trying to trick them.  He likes to keep track of the score in his head, even though they are not supposed to, but he was lamenting to me that his team hasn’t won a single game all season.  It is sure fun to watch him hustle.