Scooby Doo and Bob the Builder

Scooby Doo Stuff

We don't buy very many movies because in our house, the parents and the children, will watch a movie once and be done with it forever. There are a few that we like and will watch over and over. But that is the exception. I have recently bought a few Scooby Doo movies because I noticed that the kids do not seem to tire of these movies and gripe that they are never checked into the library. This summer we bought a dvd player for the car when we traveled to Maine. We thought this was a good buy because we also travel 170 miles to the Oklahoma City Temple every month and drag the kids along. So we use this DVD player a lot. Well, pretty much the only movies the kids seem to want to watch in the car are our Scooby Doo movies. So I have bought some more and there are a lot more I can still buy. John and I have not watched them all, but we could tell you about every episode because we have listened to them all again and again and again. I even find myself humming the What's New Scooby Doo theme song all the time.

Adam has really enjoyed watching Scooby Doo movies recently. At least Scooby Doo is the only thing he wants to watch right now. The last two times he has watched Scooby Doo I asked him how he liked it. Both times Adam has said that they were scary. The first time Adam said, "The Tiki Wiki made my Scooby Doo run away." The second time Adam said, "That scary bad guy made my Scooby Doo run away."

Bob the Builder Stuff

From Halloween until after New Years my kids are pretty wild. They run and scream a lot more and everything gets broken. They also never go to bed when they are supposed to. This year there has been a new twist in things. Ruth, Kate, and Johnny have found that life is more exciting if they can get Adam to chase them around. To rile Adam up they say, "Adam, Bob the Builder is stupid. Adam, Bob the Builder can't fix it." Then Adam yells, "He is not stupid. Bob the Builder can fix it!" Then he runs after them and chases them all over the house.

Adam bought a Bob the Builder hammer with his birthday money and has been hammering various things around the house. If I ask him something like, "Adam are you putting a hole in the wall?', or "Adam why are you banging on our Nativity Set?" Adam will reply, "No, Mom, I am fixing it."

Gender Idenity (Not For All Readers)

Since I am printing these and keeping them for a journal I am printing something that other people may be offended by. But I have found it so funny that I just needed to write it down.

I recently read some developmental material on three year olds. Adam is now three and I like to read things like that as a reminder every once in a while. This keeps me from being too surprised or alarmed at my children's behavior. One thing that this article mentioned that I did not know was that at three children start to recognize gender difference. When I read that, I thought, well Adam does seem to know who is a girl and who is a boy in our family, but I am not sure he has any idea why some of us are girls and some of us are boys. A few days passed and I forgot all about this with Thanksgiving and everything. Then one evening after Rachel's bath Adam came into my bedroom where I was drying Rachel off and putting some lotion on her before I put on her diaper. Adam asked me what I was doing and I told him. Then he said with surprise, "Mommy, Rachel not have a private." So three is the age when children notice the difference between boys and girls. I did try and explain that Rachel was perfectly normal for a girl, but Adam insisted that private parts just do not exist for Rachel.

Thanksgiving

We have all decided that Thanksgiving is a difficult and not fun holiday. I spent 20 hours cooking and cleaning; the kids disliked all of the food. After the feast and the clean up Kate said to me, "Mom, let's not do Thanksgiving next year-- that was boring." During the dinner, Ruth said,"Is this all that we do for Thanksgiving?" Clearly we had a lot of dissatisfaction. I suppose when I first got pregnant with Ruth I made a pact with myself to not be bothered by what my kids like or don't like to eat. Kids are naturally rude and picky when it comes to food. I actually am not bothered that our kids don't like turkey and squash and pie etc. I never base meals on what kids want to eat. We would all be sick and half starved. But I was so exhausted after all the work (probably from being 7 months pregnant really), and the kids don't really care, so I have concluded that Thanksgiving is not worth it. But we will do Thanksgiving next and year and from hence forth for one simple reason. We are weird enough when it comes to holidays. Our kids don't believe in Santa Claus because Kate decided he could not be real when she was only three and declared that to everyone else and I just couldn't say, "You idiot, Santa is real." I did say, "You are right, but it is fun to pretend." That was not convincing so we have no Santa. We also do not do the Easter Bunny because I think that is lame and could never bring my self to tell the children that a talking bunny hops around hiding eggs for kids. Instead we celebrate Easter as a religious holiday and buy all the loot when it is 50% to 75% off and have an easter egg hunt a week after the rest of America. So we are too weird as it is. If I want my kids to be semi-normal Americans I think that I must keep with Thanksgiving traditions despite objections from the children.

I must add one funny note at the end. John said how much more he appreciates Halloween in comparison to Thanksgiving. Halloween is easy to set up and clean up and you get a weeks worth of candy. Thanksgiving is difficult to set up and clean up and you get a weeks worth of Turkey. Which would you choose?

Who in the World

Johnny : Kate I am going to tell you a joke. Knock, Knock.

Kate (with a tone of exasperation): Who in the world is there!!

A Thanksgiving Dinner to be Thankful For

John, my husband, was thinking about what he would like for Thanksgiving Dinner this year. This is the Menu I received from him.

Dinner

1. Barbeque Pork Ribs
2. Cheese Fries
3. Banana Nut Squash (mashed) (He means mashed butternut squash)
4. Emerald Salad
5. Milkshakes

Dessert

1. Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream
2. Cream Puffs
3. Magic Cookie Bars

He wrote it down on my Thanksgiving shopping list and labeled it food to be thankful for.

Hmmmmm........ Maybe for Fathers Day.

Adam

While I was preparing to make grilled cheese sandwiches I had the grill heating on the counter. Adam climbed up to watch me as he often does. He looked at the grill and said, "It's hot." I said yes it was and he should not touch it. A moment later I saw Adam jump back and grab his mouth. I said, "You didn't just put your mouth on the hot grill did you?" Adam said, "It burned me." I handed him a glass of water and left to set the table. I heard Adam crying to John that he got burnt and John saying something a long the lines that he should have obeyed his mother, but that he was sorry that he was hurt. Adam sounded rather distressed so I got him an ice cube which he stuck onto his chin. Apparently, he had rested his chin on the hot grill. I didn't worry too much. But then he asked for another ice cube just as we were sitting down to dinner. I brought him the ice cube expressed some concern, but said that he should have obeyed and not touched the grill. Adam very defiantly declared that he had obeyed because he did not touch the grill with his fingers. Well, the poor guy has a big popped blister on his chin that will take a few days to feel better and we hope that he doesn't get a scar. I guess I will have to be more specific in the future and mention that you should not touch hot things with any of your body parts.

This just reminded me of another Adam story. A few days ago while I was cleaning the bathroom Adam wandered in picked up the bottle of Ammonia water and in a very serious voice said, "Mom, this is poison. You should not drink this." I assured him that I was only planning on using it to clean with, but thanked him for the advice and concern.

The Hand of The Lord

We had to have our circuit board on our furnace replaced. Unfortunately, the circuit board is not a cheap part. It was going to cost about $350. We got this estimate about two weeks ago, but it wasn't until Saturday that we were notified that they could replace it on Monday. I looked at our account and knew that it would be very tight, but if I spread the bills some and bought nothing we could manage with only having to put the weeks gas on the credit card. I then looked through the cupboards and freezer and wrote out a menu for the week where we would only need to buy bread and milk and $1.50 more in groceries until payday on Friday. Today, the repair man came and put in the new circuit board. When he was finished he said, "I have good news for you. The part was still under warranty, so you only need to pay for the labor." That was only $140. We know that the Lord really blessed us in this, and we are very grateful for His hand in our lives.