Artist Tucker

My cousin’s wife, an artist, gave Tuck a set of bathtub crayons for Christmas.  Here is his first effort.  I think it is a masterpiece.

It’s called “Portrait of Mommy”.  Note the lovely eyes, cute button nose, the flowing mass of hair on top, the arms and legs (totally proportional and true to life, unfortunately), the raving smile and the prominent belly button on the slim tummy.  It’s a striking rendition, I tell you, and he studied me so very hard while he was creating.  I love it, Master Tucker!

Lie to my children? Hell Yes!

So I read all of the parenting magazines, blogs, articles etc and they all say that you should not lie to your children. That this is the worst thing that you, as a responsible parent raising well rounded moral children, can do.  Well, I say: bah.

We are having trouble with Tuck eating.  He complains that he is ALWAYS hungry and yet when dinner time comes he wrinkles that little nose and tells us "Me no like that". 

And yet, if he thinks Daddy shot it... look out, the plate is licked clean even after thirds.  So yes, we lie. 

Did Daddy shoot that spaghetti?  Sure! 

Did Daddy shoot those chicken nuggets? Oh yeah, it's chicken nuggett season right now and we are stocking the freezer. 

You haven't seen chicken nuggets in the wild?  Well, they are nocturnal.  And they tend to co-habitate with the snipes.  Elusive to say the least.

Rousing Game of Musical Pants

I got home last night and Tuck was not wearing the pants I sent him to daycare in nor were they the backup pants that stay in his cubby in case of accidents.

Here is the story of the mystery pants as relayed this morning from Missy.

After nap, Tuck was the first one on bathroom run.  Missy sends them to the bathroom and they are to get their pants down while she goes back and rolls up their nap mat then comes back to help them get on the potty.  Tuck was being very slow so Henry made it into the bathroom to start the process as well.  Tuck finished up but was still running slow so while Missy was getting a diaper on him and directing hand washing at the sink, Cole came into the bathroom as well. By now she has a pile of pants on the floor from the 3 little boys.  So Tuck grabs a pair and says to Missy "Snaps?".  She snaps them up, sends him back to the play room and proceeds to finish up with the other boys as well.

Skip to pickup time: Henry's dad comes in and says: "Oh no, Henry, did you have an accident?"  Missy replies "No, why?" Henry's dad says "Those are not his pants." and points to the cords on Tucker. So Tucker and Henry swap pants and off Henry goes.  Later TJ picks up Tuck and Kora and just heads out the door (TJ is gone to work in the morning before we are even up so he has no idea what the kids start the day wearing). (Another side note: Missy later tells me that she should have known something was amiss since Tuck never wears cords and Henry almost always does).  Next Cole's Mom comes in and says "Oh no, Cole, did you have an accident?"  Deja Vu!!!  By now Missy is beside herself with confusion because NO ONE HAD ANY ACCIDENTS!

I just had to laugh.  These three boys are peas in a pod; all the same age, all the same size and all still potty training.  And all typical boys who could care less about what they are wearing.

Musical pants; it could really catch on as a party game.

The Nutcracker

Tucker, Mom and I had a first time experience together.  We went to see The Nutcracker presented by the Lafayette Ballet.  It was our first ballet and I really liked it.  Tuck did too.  He was so into it.  We sat on the 8th row and he was literally on the edge of his seat.

This is his friend Elizabeth.  She had on the CUTEST little dress.  Her mom, Angie, as well as Megan and a friend of hers went too.  Tuck was quite the ladies man for the night, what with 6 dates.

All the other girl’s had seen the professionals in the Nutcracker.  I thought these kids (age 9-19, I would guess) did such a great job and I was so proud of them. 

Afterwards we went to Scotty’s for appetizers and desserts. It was a big night for the kids.  Tuck was asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot.

The Letter of the Day is E

Today Mom and I took the kids to Indy.  Kora had her 3 week follow up appointment with the ENT to check on her tubes.  They were fine, no more infections, AND she had gained a whole pound and now weighs 17 lbs. 8 oz.

We had planned on going to the Children’s Museum afterward but they were closed so instead we went the Eiteljorg Museum.

They had the Jingle Rails display and it was impressive.  You traveled from Indianapolis to many of the western site seeing spots by rail. There were at least 8 trains and all of the displays were made of natural materials like bark, moss and lichen.

Here is Kora and Nanna and you can see Mt Rushmore above Kora’s head.  They had many of the National Park Inns depicted too.  And Mesa Verde was there too, I used to live right next door.

And here is Tucker back home in Indiana.The next stop was the interactive area.  Tucker’s favorite part was riding the horse.  We nearly didn’t get him off of it.

Luckily there was a second one so Kora got a ride too.

You wouldn’t know by the look on his face but he was actually pretty infatuated by the stagecoach.  He just doesn’t like picture taking right now.

Nanna got in on the fun.

And then we went to visit Mr. Olson at the mercantile.  I thought this was a funny reference but none of the kids around got it….

Mommy and Kora playing dress up.

Here we played in the buffalo chip campfire.

We found lots of traditional Spanish clothes so we dressed…

And we danced.

We had lots of fun.  The kids slept the whole way home.  Another successful adventure.