And yesterday, he participated in the science fair:

I asked him what kind of party he’d like. He said, “Surprise!” So we’re working on that….

We almost didn’t do a family costume this year, since initially Rebecca wanted to be a princess and Hayden wanted to be a ghost. After flirting with the idea of pirates, finally Hayden settled on . . . KING, “for Princess Becca.” (Becca, however, insisted she was “Princess Beyya” and also from Princess and the Frog. Got me.)

Rachel’s sticky gem tiara lasted longer than half her earrings—but still not very long.

I made Rebecca’s dress, and you can read more about that over on Wayward Girls’ Crafts (if that doesn’t work, I’ll be along to fix it soon!).

Here’s the royal family. If Hayden’s the king, I guess I’m the Regent. No way I’m letting my five year old rule the country. And I just realized our royal orders are worn opposite. Oh well.

At the end of the night, we handed down our tiaras for a little while:

And where was Ryan? Well, mostly he was running the church Halloween party, but when you caught a glimpse of him, he was part of the entourage, too.

Head of royal security, of course. (And yes, it was his idea.)

What are you doing for Halloween?

Sounding out bat black cat block cut                 pin pen pan cob cap cub cup pup up yup nap

Sight words like see can no go am he and at it yes I love you

challenge word: pumpkin

Sentence: I can see like you.

(The sight words came from a school list, and from words I know he knows already; everything else I made up. They’re working on sight words at school, which mystifies me to some extent. When I hear “sight words,” I assume you’d focus on words that aren’t phonetic, and then focus on phonics for the rest of the words. The first sight words Hayden learned [I, am, can, see, like] follow regular phonetic rules. While there’s definitely something to be said for the feeling of accomplishment at reading a whole word, it seems more worthwhile to focus on teaching broadly applicable phonetic rules. I mean, the only reason the kid can read is because I’ve been teaching him his vowel sounds. </rant>)

I’m suitably proud of him. I might be praising him a bit too much. The other night, after he put together a toy, he sighed in satisfaction and said under his breath, “I’m always a genius.” He turned to me and added more loudly, “I’m always thinkin’, Mom!”

Yep.

As we walked through our home airport, after three weeks’ summer vacation at Nana’s and 8 hours of traveling:

“For my birthday, I’m gonna go back to Nana’s,” Hayden proclaimed. “Becca, do you want to come with me?”

“Come wis you? Awe we gon’ get mawwied??”

While we were visiting, my wayward sisters taught Rebecca what to say when she received a proposal of marriage. I didn’t realize how deeply it’d sunken in until we’d been home a few days. Rebecca was rolling around on the floor (for fun, you know) and after a minute, I heard what she was saying:

“Whewe’s my big diamond?!”

Last night, since Hayden was sick, I brought Rebecca with me to his school’s literacy night. She was so well-behaved! I let her draw in Hayden’s notebook and she used the crayons on the table—though not always for pictures. Well, two-dimensional ones:

I asked if it was a house. She informed me, “It’s Hayden’s schoow! An’ dis ownge c’own [orange crayon] is Hayden!” After I took the picture, she added another crayon next to Hayden: “His teachew.”

I was letting Rebecca play in our fenced-in backyard while I put Rachel to bed. “Be careful,” I warned her.

“Don’t wowwy, Mommy.” She gave me a thumbs up. “I wiww be pewfectwy fine.”

“You are so funny,” I told Rebecca.

“Yes, I am.”

Both girls do love to play with baby dolls and stuffed animals. My in-laws just gave Rachel a stuffed caterpillar that’s a miniature version of her lovey, “Callie” (they didn’t actually know about Callie). We call the little one “Baby Callie,” because we’re imaginative like that.

But today, before and after her nap, Rachel has adopted a new favorite:

Yes, a book. But what book?

Oookay. She also bawled for twenty minutes when Rebecca took it from her (and started screaming when I took it to turn it around). I think she hadn’t quite gotten through it yet. But she does like the sound of flipping the pages.

(I don’t know why I have this book.)

I like to read it, though, especially after I saw this blurb on a study from Perspectives on Psychological Science in the October 2011 issue of Fitness (p 105; emphasis mine):

Women reported experiencing worse moods after reading an article touting the importance of joy and then immediately taking part in a fun activity. “Setting higher expectations for happiness can actually lead you to feel less happy,” says study coauthor Jane Gruber, Ph.D. . . . To avoid that buzzkill, pause to savor little feel-good moments. . . . “Enjoying the activities themselves, rather than because you think they are going to make you happy, is key,” Gruber says.

What do you think? What are your “little feel-good moments”? (You can see one of mine at right!)

Riding to school (It’s just a couple blocks from door to door.)

Saying bye

(The little boy behind him is the one mentioned below)

Walking in

His teacher is the woman leading the line. Ryan said the yellow-shirted man had a college ID, so he might have been a student teacher? I didn’t see him today.

Naturally, Hayden can’t give me a minute-by-minute account of the day, but I’ve gathered that he got to play with play dough, draw a picture of himself, sit criss-cross apple sauce(d) on the multi color carpet with our neighbor in his class, make a new friend (Who greeted him today by saying, “Hey! You! With glasses!” and holding out his arms as if to say “DUUUH, I’m right HERE!” [Ack, I can't believe my son is "the one in the glasses!"]). Also, there are stars decorating the classroom. Hayden did his screening interview in this room, and at the time he asked if he could write his name on one of the stars hanging from the ceiling. He tells me he doesn’t have a desk, but a table. Tonight is his back to school night, so we’ll get a better idea of what school is really like.

But he was glad to see me at noon:

And I’m not sure when he picked this trick up, but this was the first I’d seen it:

Rachel slept the whole time. Rebecca loved having me to herself: yesterday, we played games, including one number game (the fourth one here), the entire time. I spent less than half an hour straightening up/on the computer. Today, we laid on the floor and snuggled for 2 hours while we watched Curious George and Toy Story. Every time I even sat up, she’d roll over and say in a perfectly innocent voice, “I thought you were going to duggle me.”

I think she needs a picture:

And Rachel, too. The first time she climbed up in the stroller on her own (I think):

She was very adventurous at the park after school today. She was very upset to leave!

Oh, and what you’re really wondering: how did I take it? Ryan actually took off work and we all went down together, and I teared up, but didn’t cry. My friend/neighbor (mother of Hayden’s friend) pointed out that this is kind of the beginning of the end: from here on out, our sphere of influence will only shrink in their lives. Ouch. But I still managed to keep it together. (Another friend’s son told her that “It was the worst day of my life because you left me,” so I think we all handled it pretty well, eh?) On the plus side, it’s amazing what a difference a few hours makes. He’s done preschool for two years, and still, not having him around and having Rachel down for a nap makes the house so much quieter (and cleaner). But I’m glad he’s still here in the afternoons.

As you can imagine, this didn’t really motivate us.

We were just on vacation at my parents’ house (home again; feels so good not to have that trek hanging over my head!). Hayden was reluctant to eat his Venetian pasta rolls. My dad hastened to assure him, “It’ll put hair on your chest!”

My brother-in-law joined in. “You want a hairy chest, don’t you? Like Papa, right?” (My dad.) “Like Daddy?”

“Yeah,” Hayden said. “Papa has a hairy chest. So does my dad.” He dropped his voice to a mutter. “So does my mom.”

At the time, I knew anything I said would’ve made it worse. But I think I missed the obvious punchline:

“See? It works!”

What silly phrases from your childhood come back to haunt you?

Rebecca loves imagination play. She’s pretended to be Sully from Monsters, Inc. (“Suwwy”), Buzz Lightyear, and Bolt. (No idea why she tends to pick male main characters.) But lately her play has centered around “my west’aunt!” Chez Beck is set up in Hayden’s room (where Rebecca sleeps until Rachel’s ready to share a room). She’s taken to very carefully laying out each and every kitchen toy she has. But on Sunday she developed a new innovation in restaurateurism:

That would be tables.

What kind of fun pretend games do (or did) your kids like?

As the mother of a boy, I’ve long lamented how hard it is to find clothes cute enough to rival my daughters’. Tom & Drew Boys is on a mission to change that with little manly clothing for tiny guys.

They sent us a sample of this shark shirt. Hayden was thrilled! The shirt is nice, too—nice fabric, sewn appliques.

You can get a free gift from Tom & Drew Boys, too!

To enter the giveaway (aka rules)
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