How we like to kick off summer at our house

Jackson likes to rot his brain playing computer games

Sam prefers to greet the new season with a nap (in his defense he's been sick)


And Clara kicks back on the couch with no pants and an oven mitt



And it's not even noon yet.

Happy 1st Birthday My Sweet Girl!

But I didn't... because she's only in 1st grade.

This morning I pulled up in front of Jackson's school to drop him off. When I opened the door there was a little girl from his class standing outside who saw that Jackson still uses a booster seat and she said, "Oh my god, you still ride in a booster?! I don't have to use one of those anymore. I can sit in an adult seat. I can't believe you still ride in a booster!"

By law Jackson is not required to ride in a booster, but sometimes we have to look past what the law requires to see what is actually safest. Age and weight just don't seem like the best standards by which to measure a child's readiness to move out of a booster. There could be a really short, fat 6 year old who meets both the age and weight requirements yet still needs a booster so the seatbelt doesn't cut across his neck. Four feet nine inches seems to be the consensus on when a child can safely be in a shoulder/lap belt only. There are diagrams on the web showing exactly where the the seatbelt should be positioned, how the knees should bend over the seat, etc. And, yes, I have consulted these diagrams because I am just that anal about my children's safety.

So when the little girl, who was clearly under 4'9", mocked my son for being in a booster this morning it was all I could do to not roll down my window and say to her, "That's because your mommy doesn't love you as much."

We may be in trouble

Today a package arrived from a kids' gear store. Inside were a pair of water shoes like these I had ordered for Clara so her tender little feet would be protected when we go to the water park and pool this summer. When I opened the package and pulled out the shoes, Clara got silent. Mesmerized by the glorious beauty of the rubber and mesh she sat down on the floor facing me and stuck her tiny pink feet out in front of her. I handed her the water shoes, she gave them the once-over and then grunted at me while she shoved them back into my hands. Her request to me was clear and simple: put these magical slippers on her feet. I acquiesced and she stood up to take them for a test run. Strutting around the house, she kept her gaze always on the shoes. When one would fall off she would return to me and shove the aberrant shoe into my hand so that I could quickly restore it to its rightful place on her foot.

When David arrived home from work she was barefoot again and I handed her one of the water shoes, telling her to go show daddy. She dutifully took it over to him and then shoved it into his hand while grunting her request that he please put it on her foot. We eventually had to hide them so she would leave us alone.

This is all so incredibly cute until you realize that she is only 11 months old! I mean, what kind of shoe budget are we going to have to set for her when she can actually talk?

The wonders of children

David's life line cell phone went missing tonight. He didn't go anywhere today other than work, which is literally 3 minutes from home. So we knew it had to be here, there or somewhere in between. Shortly after dinner he began looking for it as he was going to go out for awhile. He used the land line to call his cell so that he could follow the ring to its location. But first he had to find the land line. I had just used the home phone and told him exactly where to find a handset. He grumbled that there were no handsets to be seen. I rolled my eyes at his complete ineptitude. And Jackson saved the evening and produced a handset.

"Where'd you find it?"

"Uh, I saw it under Sam's bed."

Odd place but it didn't surprise me since we have a grand total of 4 handsets and a petite, blue-eyed thief so they do sometimes find their way into obscure places. But after David had gone back into work to look for his phone and still couldn't find it then we started to wonder what was going on. So I told him to take my cell phone out to the parking lot of his work and try calling it from there. That was the only place we hadn't checked so surely it had to be there. I reached into my purse to get my cell phone but it wasn't there. I had made a call from my car earlier that day so I checked for it in the van. Cue the Twilight Zone music; my phone, too, was missing. David, clutching the only remaining phone, dialed my cell number and a glorious melody floated down from above. I followed the sound up the stairs and into Jackson's bedroom where it was dark and he was sleeping. David came in behind me, turned on the light and pulled my phone along with his phone and two of the home phones out from underneath Jackson's dresser. Clara misplaces things; she does not purposely hide things as had clearly been done with these phones. Sam can be ruled out pretty easily. So we knew who the culprit was. And it was very disturbing. Jackson just doesn't do things like that. And the kid can't lie very well, either... usually. He's just always been one of those kids who you can trust not to get into trouble. He's not typically the mischievous type. But, here's the thing, he lulls you into a false sense of security then... WHAMMO!... he'll go and hide all the phones. Or eat a tube of toothpaste. Or pee in the bathroom trash. Those other two things took me by surprise, too. At least David and I have until morning to exact some form of revenge, like sewing closed the leg-holes of all his pants.