Trick or Treat!

A great and too-late Halloween night was had by all in the Maddux family. This was the first year that all of the kids chose their own costume. And they chose well. My kids aren't often into typical Halloween costumes, which I think is partly why we garnered so many positive comments as we traversed the neighborhood. That, and let's face it, the kids and the costumes were super, super cute.

Will has been enthralled with airplanes and airplane pilots since our summer vacation, when the pilot let Will and Helen into the cockpit to look around. So he wanted to be an airplane, or "the man who drives the airplane." So, I ordered him a pilot's costume, and Cort set about trying to make an airplane out of a cardboard box. Cort apparently missed his calling, because the plane turned out great! Then we took it to our next door neighbor, who is an artist, for painting. After that, it turned out phenomenal!! And sweet Will was proud as a peacock!

Helen, of course, is never one to be outdone. Once Will decided to be an airplane, she announced that she wanted to be a rocketship. (I can see the wheels turning in her head. What's faster than an airplane? A rocketship! OK, then I must be a rocketship.) After surfing the internet and confirming that there were no rocketship costumes for purchase, we had another homemade costume project on our hands. Cort made the body, and I helped with decorating, and we bought her an astronaut costume for good measure. She was, like her brother, a huge hit!

As for the boys, is it that hard to guess? Every year since they've been old enough to choose, they've been a different sports player. (With one exception - the year I forced the Wizard of Oz on them. Which was so awesome.) They've been a football player, a baseball player, a boxer, and a hockey player. This year, Charlie was a basketball player, and Joe was a golfer. These were actually easy costumes, but they turned out pretty great.

We trick or treated around our neighborhood, going to quite a few more houses than in the past. It was much easier on mom and dad now that everyone is old enough to get the drill. Then we came home and passed out candy. For some reason, that is the favorite part of the night for all my kids. And of course, the kids ate tons of candy (but still have quite a bit left . . . ). And got to bed an hour and a half late. But they sure did enjoy it.

Charlie and Joe led the way through our neighborhood

Will brought up the rear, and always got the biggest reaction.

They love handing out candy so much that they meet the trick or treaters on the sidewalk rather than waiting for them to come up to the house. And they each hand out a piece of candy, so the trick or treaters each got 4 pieces. No wonder we ran out so quickly!

Sampled from the stash, of course.

It was yummy!

Happy Halloween!

Half off Tuesday dinners

Every Tuesday night (yes, we're that scheduled) we eat out as a family. Except that for the past two months, Charlie and Joseph have had soccer practice on Tuesdays. Since Cort is their assistant coach, that leaves me taking Will and Helen to dinner by myself. Hence the title of this post--not half off the price, but half off the family, and the parental supervision.

Other than ubiquitous trips to the restroom, it's really not a big deal. (They aren't old enough yet to go alone, and the other one also is not old enough to stay by him or herself while I take one, so we all have to go--after finding all the waitstaff and making sure they won't take take our dinner while we're gone.)

I don't think I took Charlie and Joe to eat by myself much when they were that age. And what I'm finding, now that I take Will and Helen, is that there are some pretty great people who work at restaurants.

Last week, the manager of Jennie's Noodle House completely saved a meltdown (brewing because Helen, not Will, got to pick the table to sit at) by leaving his post and coming over personally to bargain with the kids for good behavior in exchange for a sticker now and later, if they listened to mommy throughout dinner, a TATTOO! The little ones are still talking about the tattoo. And while I went around the corner to fill up our drinks, he sat at the table with my kids and taught them how to use chopsticks.

Will was game for the chopsticks and ate with them the entire evening

Helen trying out the chopsticks, which were a tad tricky with rice


Proud of his tattoo

And last night, even the staff at Boston Market was great! They brought out crayons and papers for coloring, hung out with the kids while I ordered at the counter, talked Helen into eating her green beans, and cheerfully cleaned everything up when she spilled her milk. I felt bad that I only had a few coins to leave as a tip, but I honestly didn't expect such great service from what is essentially a fast food restaurant.

I don't know if in this economy these restaurants are just that grateful for my business or what, but seriously--eating out with my kids has never been so easy! Score one for customer service.

Makes my Monday

Joe made this on my iphone and left it for me:

Red light, yellow light, green light

I've previously mentioned the universal red/yellow/green conduct scoring system that seems (based on my conversations with other parents) to prevail at Houston area schools. But I'm happy to report that in first grade, the boys appear to have turned a corner. They still aren't perfect, of course, but their conduct sheets always reflect many more greens than yellows, and so far only one red. Plus, even when they receive yellows, it just doesn't seem that big of a deal anymore. For example, Joseph came home with a yellow the other day, which he apparently got because he took all the markers and fastened them together to make a tall tower. Frankly, I'm just not going to spend much time worrying about that behavior.

Which is a good thing, because I've got plenty of other things to do.

The unique challenges of coaching 3-year-old soccer

Cort, who coaches Will and Helen's soccer team, emailed me this picture during last night's soccer practice. This is what happens to a 3-year-old soccer team when the train goes by during practice.

More 6-year-old humor

Charlie: Mom, spell "i-cup."
Me: What?
Charlie: Spell "i-cup."
Me: I don't think that's a word.
Charlie: Just spell it.
Me: I don't know how to spell it. It's not a real word.
Charlie: Just tell me how you think you spell it.
Me: I. C. U. P.?
Charlie: You see me pee? Hahahahahahaha!

Their humor is becoming ever so slightly more sophisticated.

Our stealth smart boy

For quite awhile now, we have considered Will our--how shall I say this? (I know he'll read it someday!)--let's just say we would have voted him our kid least likely to become a rocket scientist. The older boys are, undoubtedly, pretty bright (as in 99th percentile standard testing bright). We aren't sure how academically smart Helen will be, but as far as "street smarts," she's at the top.

Then there is Will. For a long time, the answer to most questions posed to him (for example, to identify letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.) has been, "I don't know."

In all honesty, we have not spent much time worrying about this. He is unquestionably our sweetest child. (Hmmm, I guess all the other kids may read this someday, too. Oh well. Will is so sweet that it's impossible they won't already know this.) I think that sweetness is probably, all in all, a better quality than smarts.

The only thing we were just a little concerned with is his former teacher's comment that he would not do any work independently. He would only work if a teacher stayed with him and guided him every step of the way.

Well, now he's in a new class, and his new teacher has pretty much demanded that he work independently. And by independently, that means without the help of the teacher or Helen. The change in Will is dramatic. He has become so much more independent.

And, as it turns out, I think he may not be slow, just a perfectionist. I don't know why this never occured to us before. Charlie is a bit of a perfectionist himself. He is likely to wait to do something until he knows he's going to get it right.

Our first glimpse at this came with Will tracing his name. At school, they write the kids names for them in highlighter, and the kids use a pencil to trace it. Except Will wouldn't participate in this activity. He refused to trace. So one day, after his teacher had been working hard to get him to do it (with some success), we decided to work on it at home too. I encouraged him, and he refused, saying, "I can't." But after lots more encouragement, he traced the "W." Then he said it wasn't right. I argued with him that it was. He finally told me that it "wasn't a line." It then dawned on me that, to him, his somewhat wobbly, 3-year-old lines weren't straight enough. We all disagreed and heaped praise on him for his tracing. He went on to trace the rest of his name, plus "Helen," "Joe," "Charlie," "Mom," "Dad," and "Bob." He's never looked back. Although he still doesn't have the fine motor skills that Helen does (which I think is typical, given the gender difference), he brings home tracing from school almost every day.

And after that, he started doing things on his own that made us look at his intelligence in a little bit different light. A few weeks ago he was driving a friend's play jeep. He looked at the JEEP logo on the vehicle and said, "Juh. Eh. Eh. Puh." OK, so perhaps he doesn't know that the two Es together make a long E sound, but hey, that's pretty good on his own. What is more, since then we have seen various Jeep vehicles around town, and he keeps identifying them as a Jeep. The first one was a true, old-school Jeep, so I thought he was just recognizing the type of vehicle (he does love cars). The next one wasn't, but it still had that boxy Jeep shape, so I wasn't sure. Then, the other day, he saw the front of a Jeep Grand Cherokee out the window at school. It's an SUV. It doesn't look like a Jeep. And he said, "Look, Mom - there's a Jeep!" Then, "Jeep has two Es." OK, maybe the kid's got some smarts after all.

Then just yesterday, he asked for some almonds. When I gave them to him, he said, "Aaaah-aaaah-aaaahlmond. Almond starts with an 'O.'" It doesn't, of course. But I think that's a mistake only smart 3-year-olds make, right?

Sweet and smart? Oh my.