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.