Apologies

Charlie,
Sorry for poking you and hitting you.
I [heart] U


Will,
Sorry for yelling and being annoying.
I [heart] U


Helen,
Sorry for kicking you in the head.
I [heart] U


Mom,
I'm sorry for the whole fit I through.
I [heart] U


(Here's to hoping Joe has a better day tomorrow.)

You've got to learn to fight like a girl

The other day Will and Helen were playing with their friend, M, when suddenly M ran in crying with huge scratch marks across her neck and shoulders.  Helen followed right behind her, crying/screaming too about how M was being mean.

After a loooong cooling off period, which involved M going home and Cort carrying Helen kicking and screaming and then wrestling her into the shower, I got to the bottom of it.

Apparently M told Will and Helen that if they wouldn't play what she wanted to play, she wouldn't be their friend anymore. M has an older sister, so she knows how girls work to manipulate their friends. Of course, Will didn't want that to happen, so he immediately started playing with her. 

Helen, on the other hand, was not so persuaded.  And she does not have an older sister.  She has older brothers.  So she did exactly what the boys do.  She got mad and attacked M.  Hard.  The girl still has the marks two days later.

Um, seriously?  That's not how we girls do it, Helen.  Just tell her you won't be her friend, either.  You can change your mind whenever you feel like it.  Unless you continuing attacking people, because then they might not change their mind.

I'm trying to decide whether she'd be better off if I taught her to fight like a girl.

Tales from Kindergarten

The other day the kindergarteners were learning about the difference between "wants" and "needs."  The teachers had them cutting out items from magazines and pasting them on paper to identify whether each item was something people need, or something they just want.

Helen cut out a bottle of beer from a magazine and took it to her teacher:

"I know this is really a 'want,' but my daddy thinks it's a 'need.'"

Top 5 Signs My Kids Watch Too Much Food Network and HGTV

1.  Charlie and Joe begged to stay up late last night so they could find out whether the homeowners would "love it" or "list it."

2.  I'm going to the grocery store today to buy ingredients for a Maddux Family edition of "Chopped."

3.  While playing Minecraft, Will announced that he was making houses for House Hunters.

4.  The other day at dinner the kids were predicting how many kids they each might have, and how many would be required in order to be able to have an entire basketball, baseball, or football team of Maddux cousins. Then Charlie announced that they should each have three. His reasoning?  Each sibling could take a kid if one of them had to be gone for a long period of time to appear on "Design Star."

5.  All the kids were incredibly excited to find out that the Property Brothers are not only brothers, but are actually twins.

Copycat

"Mo-om!  I can't sleep because Will keeps copying me!"

Um, stop talking?

Why I Rarely Post to the Blog Anymore

This weekend we:  came home from school on Friday, greeted Grandad and Gransan, had a snack, planned a science project, supervised the putting on of two baseball uniforms, went to a baseball game where Cort was a substitute coach and the boys substitute players, went out to eat, came home and went to bed, got up Saturday morning and got donuts before 7am, supervised the putting on of three soccer uniforms, left the house at 7:40am for an 8am soccer game, followed that with a 9am soccer game, came home, ordered from Five Guys and picked it up, ate lunch, went to the Travis Halloween carnival, worked one one-hour shift at the kindergarten booth, walked around the carnival with the kids, took the kids home so they could rest and two could change into baseball uniforms, went back to the carnival and worked two more one-hour shifts at the third grade booth, went back home to pick up the kids, went to another baseball game, came home, ordered food, went to pick it up, fed the kids, put them to bed, washed uniforms, showered and got ready, went to a friends' party, put uniforms in the dryer, "slept in" till 8am on Sunday, had breakfast with the kids, learned how to play Rummikub, worked on two science projects, went to Costco and bought a new TV and some lunch, ate lunch, supervised the putting on of two baseball uniforms, went to another baseball game, said goodbye to Grandad and Gransan, went to the grocery store, bought some pumpkins, cooked dinner, supervised two kids' showers, ate dinner, listened to one kid read, carved one jack-o-lantern, played Rummikub again, read a bedtime story, put kids to bed, cleaned the kitchen, and wrote it all down on the blog.

Glory Days?

This morning, because our housekeeper comes today, I ran around the house picking up all the miscellaneous unknown scraps of paper that my kids write on then leave around the house.

This one caught my eye.  It appears to be created by Joe.  Apparently, for only $1.50, I can have two minutes of glory.

Sounds like a bargain to me.

Best Answer Ever

So Will and Helen have a little over a full week of kindergarten under their belt, and things are going well.  Last night, I asked Will if he liked kindergarten.  He responded:

Yes!  I love kindergarten.

[Pause]

But Mom, I love you even more than I love kindergarten.  Definitely.

Dude is one quirky kid

While Joe was away at Gramma's house, he sent this to Cort and me via email.  Guess he was just looking out for us?  Or for the earth?

Knock Knock

Helen:  Knock knock.

Me:  Who's there?

Helen:  Why did the chicken cross the road?

Me:  Why?

Helen:  I don't know!

Me:  [laughing]

Helen:  No.  Really!  I don't know why.

Makes My Monday, Part Two

When I got home from work, at approximately 6:04pm, I found this countdown that Charlie and Joe had made on the computer counting down the number of hours, minutes, and seconds until we leave for our annual vacation to the Cayman Islands.

I'm as ready as they are.

Makes My Monday, Part One

For their last week at Cathedral House, Helen and Will wanted Charlie and Joe to come read to their class.

I'm not sure who was more proud -- Charlie and Joe to be able to read, or Will and Helen to show off their big brothers.

Or maybe it was me.

Joe reading "Thunder and Lightning" (a Cars book selected by Will)

Charlie reading "The Berenstein Bears Play T-ball," selected by Helen

Makes my Monday

Charlie has become a whistler.  He whistles around the house, everywhere, all the time.

The cool thing about that?  When Cort's out of town, I don't feel alone.  With Charlie whistling away, it feels like Cort's right there.

Just another way that Charlie is like his dad.  Makes my Monday.

Stairsteps

Last Friday Charlie and Joe did not have camp, so they joined me at my office.  A few months ago we moved into new office space on the 14th floor of a historic downtown Houston building.  When we left at the end of the day, the boys wanted to take the stairs down to the lobby.

I wasn't about to do the same in heels, but I figured if they really wanted to, why not.  They are eight years old, and it's not like they could get lost inside the stairwell.  I would beat them down taking the elevator, and I would be right there waiting in the lobby when they got to the first floor.

But when I got to the lobby, I realized that I didn't know where the stairs came out.  I looked around where I thought they should be, but I didn't see anything.  So I finally asked the security guard, who said that they came out "somewhere outside on the street."  I went outside, but still had trouble finding it.

Eventually, they came running out from the lobby.  They had come down fourteen flights to the first floor and found themselves out on the street, and couldn't find me.  Since they weren't sure how to get back to the lobby, or even to the building, from there, they decided to go back up.  They went up six floors (for a total of twenty floors navigated) before they found a place where they could enter the building again from the stairwell.  They got out on the sixth floor (someone's office, I'm sure), and took the elevator down.

They were breathless, but of course fine.  So we headed to the parking garage a block away, where I was parked on the thirteenth floor.  And immediately upon arriving there they ask:  "Can we take the stairs?"  So they headed up thirteen flight of stairs to my car.  

This is why I say, multiple times a day, that I wish I had my kids' energy.

A second grade fairy tale

Football Fairy Tale
By Joseph Maddux
Illistrations by Joseph Maddux*
(c) 2011 10/27-11/7

Once upon a time 1,000000000 (One thousand milion) years ago there was a person named Chad Johnson who wanted to play on the Baltimore Colts.  But the owner of the Colts Vince Foster did not let him.  So he waited another season to see if he would let him play on the Baltimore Colts.  Evrey night he dreamed if he was on the colts scoring touchdowns, kicking feild goals and even interceptions touchdowns and saftys [safeties] and winning the superbowl to get the Vince Lombardi trophy.  One day Chad saw a pebble and thought it was magic and wished for a Colt uniform and as soon as he snapped he saw it laying on the ground and called Vince and Chad said "I've got a uniform" Vince said "what number is your uniform" Chad said "number eighteen" "great there's no Colt number is number eighteen" said Vince "you can play on the colts!" said Vince again.  "Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" said Chad Vince said "first game verses Indianapolis Ravens but if we loose you are kicked out of the team" said Vince.  Soon it was time to play the Ravens kicked off Chad got the ball he ran and ran and ran until sombody tacled [tackled] him he was on the Ravens twenty-nine yard line.  The quarterback Alex Smith tried to pass to Oscar Tate but it was a incomplete pass to Oscar.  It was 2nd down and 10 to go Alex Smith got sacked for a loss of 10 yds.  The Colts were in troble Alex trough [threw] to Oscar it was incomplete.  It was 4th and 20 Alex pased down feild to Chad and he caugt the ball and ran it was end of 1st but play keeps going 20 15 10 5 GOAL TOUCHDOWN COLTS!  That was end of the 1st  The Colts kicked of [off] the ravens got it the Ravens fumbles Chad with the ball 5 4 3 2 1 G TOUCHDOWN CHAD!  The Colts kicked of [off] agian the stop by Sam Cushing that stoped on the 2 yd. line.  "Hut" said the quarterback.  Sacked for 3 yds.  Safty 2 points!  It was 16-0 Colts at the end of the half.  The Ravens safty bunted and Chad got the ball he ran and ran and ran and ran and ran to the 1 yd. line  Touchdown run by Oscar Tate.  End of the 3rd!  Colt kickoff he rant to the 11.  The quarterback trough [threw] to the running back ran 10 yds.  First down.  2 downs pastest [passed] away with runs and a incomplete pass and they kicked a feid [field] goal.  It was 23-3 teh Cots were wining with 1 sec. left.  They kneeled it.  It was game end Chad stayed on the Colts THE END

*Questionable on the illustrations, since there were no pictures.

Operation Summer Failure

This parenting thing sure is counter-intuitive.  School's out for summer around here, so we are working on some summer projects.  Of course, summer for my kids is not nearly the same as summer when I was a kid.  Will and Helen are still in school/daycare, so their days haven't changed except to add early morning swim lessons three times a week.  So, busier, actually.  Charlie and Joe are in a different camp every week--this week they have a full day of baseball camp and are coming home exhausted.  So depending on the week, also busier for them.  And they have been assigned schoolwork over the summer (when did schools start doing this?), so add that to the mix.  

But still, there are technically fewer real obligations, so we are taking the summer to work on a few things.  I plan to teach all the kids how to sort laundry, for instance.  I know.  Exciting stuff.  

The big project for the summer, however, is Charlie.  Charlie is an amazing kid.  He is motivated, driven, and successful at almost everything he does.  Schoolwork?  All As.  His yearly average in one subject was a 99.  I don't think he ever made less than a 100 on his spelling tests this year, and most of those 100s came on a pre-test, where they took the test cold without having studied the words at all.  And math - he's crazy proficient in math.  He seems to have memorized most of his multiplication facts already, without even trying.  Reading - he has whizzed through all seven Harry Potter books.  One day he told me that he read four different Magic Treehouse books during his free time in class.  And of course sports, his passion?  Amazing defensive baseball player, best basketball player on his team, and a real leader on the soccer field.  Also easily picks up other things, like skiing, golf, football, swimming, etc.  

Charlie's problem, though, is that he is too successful.  He does not handle failure well.  He is super-competitive, and wants to win.  At EVERYTHING.  He does not deal well with adversity.  (Interestingly, he is generally okay with losses in sports though.)  

Well, life is full of adversity, and a big part of a person's character is how to deal with that.  So, our summer project is for Charlie to fail.  Repeatedly.  Sometimes unfairly.  And then teach him how to handle it.  I never thought I would spend a significant amount setting my kid up for failure.  But there you have it.  Parenting is weird.

"Luck" in the learning log

As the end of school winds down, the boys have been bringing home some of their work from second grade.  Yesterday, Joe brought home his "learning log."  This is a notebook that they write in every morning during "warmup" time, either to do math problems, journal, or write sentences using their spelling words.

One week in January, the spelling words all focused on different words with the "k" sounds--some spelled with "c," some with "k," and some with "ck."  One of the works was "luck," and Joe used it in a sentence:

"The Colts will probably draft Andrew Luck."

 Add spelling to the things that you can learn from sports.

Moms, Muffins, Shopping, and T-ball

This morning was my last Cathedral House "Moms and Muffins."  Sniff.  

I've been every year for the last eight years, with the exception of 2007 when I was otherwise occupied with becoming a mom once again.  (That year Charlie and Joe brought the muffins to me in the hospital.)

We are about to move on to another chapter in our lives.  A few short months and we will have four elementary-school-aged children.  

Here are the pictures Will and Helen made for Moms and Muffins.  See if you can guess whose is whose.  It's not what you would think.  Or then again, maybe it is.

Me and Mommy like to go shopping.

Me and Mommy like to play t-ball.

 (Yes, Will is shopping and Helen is t-ball.)

Look who has a nightgown

Look who has a new nightgown to wear to bed, in addition to all those PJs like the boys.  

No way would she have worn this if I had bought it for her.  Luckily, the Easter bunny brought it, so she's all over it.

And speaking of big . . .

Will has been going to the eye doctor since he was about four months old.  He has always sat in my lap while he was examined.

A couple of weeks ago he had another appointment.  He just got up in the chair by himself and sat there like a little man.  When did my little guy get so big?