Only a Lansing would be proud!

Teagan and Ireson were sleeping so I had my "special time" with James since he only needs a nap about 1-2 times a week now. During this time I like to do our 1 on 1 school time. Most of the time it's reading and phonics and is reading has blossomed since it's quiet and he can concentrate without his 2 younger siblings clucking in the background. Today we decided to just play games. Crazy Eights was the game of choice today...a game that we played many a time with my dad when we were all little. This particular deck however, is decked out (no pun intended) with animals. So about the 3rd or 4th game I told James to go ahead and deal the cards while I went and started dinner. I got the meat browning and he called me over when he was done. About a third of the way through the game I realized that the kid had 3 eights (wild in this game) in his hand and he didn't need to draw a card yet! I on the other hand had to keep drawing to find the card tho match what he kept changing it to with all of the eights he had! Finally, he goes out on an eight!

I sarcastically said, "MAN - You didn't shuffle very well! How did you end up with three eights?! Sheesh!"

He just looked at me with this "stop feeling sorry for yourself/matter of fact" look on his face and said: "What?! I gave you one."

Allow yourself to imagine my face in total shock and awe at this point! Uh huh- that little stinker totally stacked the deck.
"You little cheater. James! I can't believe you did that!" He's just laughing and turning red and giggling at his clever little self.

Honestly though, I couldn't help but grin and chuckle to myself and be a little proud thinking about he was following his natural genetic predisposition of becoming a Lansing cheater.

Sucked Dry!

Ireson still nurses about 2-3 time a day: morning, nap, and night. He only goes for about 30 seconds or so on each side. Then he pulls off and looks at me and says, "All gone, Suck dry." I said that to him months and months ago as he looked at me with question and concern and says "all gone?" I simply had to tell him that he drank it all...it's sucked dry! Now it's his affirmation that he's done and all is well.
He loves to be all sweet, loving and fatherly and role play with baby dolls and nurse them, etc. Yesterday he was nursing his baby and patting her back. He pretended to pull her off and said, while shaking his head and giggling, "doh, doh, doh, baby...all gone. Sucked dry."

Packed and Dry

Teagan has this thing where she LOVES to put her baby dolls and stuffed animals in Rubbermaid bins. She packs them in there nice and tight and then snaps the lid on...nice and tight. It just seems wrong on so many levels doesn't it?! I can't help but laugh whenever I see a new stuffed and shoved toy! I asked her what the deal is with doing that - to which she replied: "Oh, it's so they won't get scared and they feel safe."

And yet I can't help but think that her poor little lamb is scared to death of suffocating and feels anything but safe!

To make matters even more interesting. I found one of Teagan's dolls all tied up on her dresser with her jump rope. She told me that she got her wet and that she was "hanging her out to dry." I shudder to think she gets her parenting tactics from me:)

Einstein?

I was helping James build a fort/garage with his Lincoln Logs. We were having a heck of a time trying to figure out the best way to maintain stability for the structure on the carpet. Amidst the assembling and encouraging of each other, James asked me if I knew how to build houses like Daddy does. I told him no but I can still be pretty handy around the house when I need to be. Then I suggested we use a certain piece to brace this other piece, and so on and so forth. James boisterously burst out "Mom, you are a genius!"

Golly- he'd never called me that before! I felt very honored and so smart. Why did a compliment of this caliber, coming from an almost 6 year old, make my day? Well, I don't know- but it did!

Then he concluded: "Even though you can't engineer stuff like Daddy, you're still pretty good at this building stuff...but you're NOT as smart as Daddy is though!"

Huh...pride, warm and fuzzy feelings gone. Sigh. I just convinced myself that he was talking about me not being as smart at building stuff rather than everything in general because...well....come now! I had to retain some semblance of dignity at this point!

It's sad to think that the day is soon coming when my son will realize that I don't know EVERYTHING! I remember thinking my parent's knew EVERYTHING when I was younger. Yet, thank goodness that I don't remember the point when I realized that they didn't know everything...because...well...come now! - that would have been as shocking as me admitting that James is smarter than me at EVERYTHING!

Oh Bother Brother!

Teagan has been saying "Oh, bother" as her personal expletive for a few weeks now. It's so cute how she gets all Pooh-ish when something goes wrong. James was playing with her the other day and accidentally broke whatever she was building with her Krinkle blocks and glumly sighs: "Oh Bother Brother Bear. Just look at what happened. Now you must help me re-assemble it!"

Teagan gets to go to her cousins Sadie and Josie's house on Wednesday for a Princess sleepover party- complete with dress up clothes, finger sandwiches, and frills! The excitement has been brewing for weeks and it has finally arrived! She keeps reminding her brother, much to his dismay, that "the party is only for girls. No boys allowed because their stinky and they don't like princess stuff! Only Uncle Jesse is allowed to be there because he lives there." I asked her what she was going to do if Uncle Jesse started to get all ornery. "Well, he better watch it because we'll just have to kick him out," she said with such seriousness that I wouldn't dare mess with her! Then shaking her head in disgust, she concludes, "And if he is all stinky then he will have to sleep upstairs because I am not going to sleep near him, and Aunt Von Von (Devone) can just (insert long sigh) well- sleep with me I guess."
And there you have it.