So, Will Your Nose Grow?

A few days ago, Joey had the honor of eating breakfast with Mr. O, the principal of his school. He sold the most items out of all the Kindergartners in a fundraiser for the PTA! He felt quite proud, and was excited to eat pancakes with bacon (and milk - plus you KNOW I fed him apples before school, knowing what he'd be eating!) from McDonald's while kicking back with the head of the school.

Of course, I reminded him of his manners, but didn't make a big fuss of things ... I didn't want to make him unnecessarily anxious. However, I did ask him to notice what color eyes Mr. O has. I had recently read to do that as a trick to get kids to look adults in the eye when talking. Joey normally doesn't have a problem with that, unless he is nervous or distracted. And he wouldn't normally be nervous in such a case (as I would have been at his age!), but I was covering the bases.

Naturally, Joey asked me why I would want to know what color eyes Mr. O has. And since Joey is the type who would be more apt to remember something more logical, I told him the real reason why.

He looked at me seriously and replied, "No, no ... I only have to do that if I tell him the truth."

PS> If you're reading this and you bought from Joey back in September, thank you again!

Things Are Not Always As They Seem...

About six months ago, Joey was playing on the cul-de-sac with a friend, riding around on the friend's toy car. Another boy, who is actually better friends with the boy Joey was playing with, showed up and went over to Joey. He kind of sat on the front of the car Joey was riding on, blocking him from going further. This boy is a nice boy normally, but he just turned eight, and I thought maybe he was being territorial with his friend and intimidating Joey, who was then five. I was at a distance talking to our lawn mower (uh, a man - not the machine!) and I don't think the boy saw me.

I felt my nerves on end; my blood started to boil and I even felt almost sick - at the thought of someone picking on my little boy. I wanted to run over and save him. It took me back to when I was in grade school and an older boy from my school would come up and scare me with threats when he'd see me playing in our neighborhood. He terrorized me, and it was awful.

But I fought my urge, stayed back, and let Joey handle it himself. After a couple minutes, the boy got up and walked away. Joey started to ride around again when I casually called him over to ask him what the boy said. Joey answered, "Oh, he was just asking me if I would say the alphabet backwards for him again."

Ha! and whew! That was it? I didn't know the boy knew Joey could do that; he first surprised us by reciting it backwards out of the blue when he was two years old. I came to find out the boy asked him any time he saw Joey, ever since he first heard him say it.

I still have to deal with that first time I see or hear of my little boy getting bullied by another. But I have a feeling he'll hold his own pretty well. He didn't comply with the boy's request ... because he "didn't feel like it".

Maybe We Should Start Putting Our Beer In Coffee Mugs

Last week, our local newspaper interviewed some kindergartners in light of upcoming high school graduations, to remind this year's graduating class what life was like when they were starting school. Without letting Joey read any of the answers the kids gave, I asked Joey the questions myself, since he'll be starting kindergarten as a 6 year old this Fall. Here are his answers.

What do you think you will be like when you graduate from high school?
"I will like space and science."

How will you celebrate graduating from high school?
"I'd have a party at Supergames." (A place with moon-bounces and rock-climbing wall.)

What will you know by the time you graduate that you don't know now?
"I'll know how to open a beer cap and how to cook."

What do you think you'll be allowed to do by the time you graduate from high school that you aren't allowed to do now?
"Get snacks whenever I want, without asking - and drink beer."

What gifts do you hope you'll get when you graduate?
"Money to buy plants." (At least he didn't say beer!)

Rock and Roll

My husband, like many, reads in the bathroom. Last week he was running to the restroom, searching for reading material on the way. The front page of the Sunday paper was nearby, and the main story was about Lead Poisoning - something he wouldn't normally care to read, but I would want him to do so since he longs to move back to his childhood neighborhood, where the houses are very old. I said quickly, "Here, you want to read about lead?", and was a tad curious at his eagerness to do so as he grabbed the paper and ran with it into the bathroom and closed the door.

About thirty seconds later, he yelled out,
"Aw man! I thought you meant
Led Zeppelin!!"

Reality Checks

Yesterday, I was reading Bossy's post for the day (Momo got me hooked on her!) when five year old Joey walked up. He looked at the picture on the screen and said, "Uh, Mommy, you know they aren't real, right??"
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I can tell because (click on Bossy's name above for full effect) he doesn't have a head."