Bad habits die hard

Kate stopped biting her fingernails (and toenails) about 2 weeks ago, thanks to help from the nasty nail paint and the purple nail polish bribe. However, all of the sudden, last night she started biting again. We were sitting at the kitchen table, and I looked over at her and she had one in her mouth and another was bleeding. Good grief. So we jumped up, washed our hands, and trimmed the rough edges, followed by nasty nail stuff. Poor thing. She said, "I won't bite my fingernails any more, Mama. Please don't use the nasty stuff!" But I told her that until the whites grow back, we'd have to wear it again.

I had just clipped and painted them pink on Sunday, so I know they weren't jagged or too long. We saw some friends last night who has a son that's a thumb-sucker, so that probably didn't help. Still, I was surprised. We were just reading books when she started into them.

I'm so disappointed! I really hoped she was done with that. Now I'm wondering if it will ever stop completely, or if it's something she'll always fight against. She seems to be aware of it afterwards, and knows not to do it, but I guess the draw is still there.

Sam, Sam, the Ladies Man

Sam has two girlfriends from preschool. The Incredible Summer of Fun has become a mini-dating experience for Sam, as evidenced by last Wednesday's trip to the movies. He had one friend on each side. It's a good life.

Afterwards, we had a couple of friends come over to play on the new swing set and have lunch. The kids all played great—there were 5 total—and we actually shared some adult conversation. More good life.

The trouble started when I put Sam to bed that night. Right before prayers he told me, "You know mom, I kissed X (names left out to protect the innocent) on the lip today."

"WHAT!!??" I calmly responded.

"Yeah. It's no big deal mom, because she won it."

"She wanted it?" I asked.

"No Mom. She WON it. We were having this test, and she answered all the question right, and she won it."

"Oh, that's nice. I think maybe we ought to save our kissing for, you know, mommy and Kate and our family and stuff," I suggested.

Sam looked at me like I was crazy and said, "But why?"

"Well, I just think you're a little young for kissing," I said. And you know, at the time, that seemed very logical, but now it does seem a little sketchy. I mean, how young is too young? And you know they don't mean anything by it. It's just to see what things are like and so on. Big deal.

"But MOM," he said, "It's romantic."

Good grief.

The next day, I notified said parents, who were equally surprised and yet not at all. The girls have been kissing Sam on the cheek for a while now, but this is definitely new territory. I thought all was settled until Friday, when we had this conversation:

We were talking about someone being in love. I'm not sure the context anymore. But I thought this was a teaching opportunity, so I said, "See Sam, you ought to wait until you're at least in love to kiss a girl."

Much to my surprise, he responded, "X and I are in love, Mom."

"Sam, you can't even narrow down the list to just one girlfriend. That's not love."

So, the saga continues. No more closed door play for Sam and his girlfriends, that's for sure. And I thought Disney was so clean with its lack of kissing and all…

The New Swingset

You know those huge, permanent-looking, wooden swing sets that are really popular now? Well, after a whole week of pricing and looking at them, Stuart and his dad purchased on on Friday for our backyard. Stu said he figured he'd worked so hard to grow grass back there that there ought to be something to play on.

I've heard horror stories about the assembly of these "building sets", as Kate started calling it. So has Stuart. But he and his dad and my dad started working on it about 10 am on Saturday with the idea of completing it, or getting close to it, by 4 p.m. so my parents could head back to central Kansas.

10 hours later, they were closing up shop for the day with a glorious, very sturdy fort built in the back yard, but quite a bit of work to do to complete the project. Arrangements were made and Stuart and Clarence continued to work all day on Sunday until, at about 3:30, it was completed. Yea! It looks to me like they really did some fancy engineering to get the thing stable and level on our very un-level yard. It's very beautiful and very sturdy.

Kate and Sam, of course, love it. I think my favorite comment during the project was when Kate first saw them digging on Saturday morning and said, "My mom is going to be so angry at you for digging a hole in the back yard!" When I got home later, she ran up to me and said, "Are you mad at the hole, mommy?"

I'm sure there will be many years of fun playtime out in the back yard thanks to Stuart, Clarence and my Dad's hard work this weekend. I'm hoping it will bring a few minutes of non-tv-induced peace to me as well!

Summer of Fun: Day One

It was a good day for the start of Summer of Fun. Even the kids are calling it "the Incredible Summer of Fun," which I think is great. You'd think it would be a lot of pressure to keep up with a name like that, but I laugh in the face of pressure. What could be more fun than summer?

We went to Tunnel Voyage and had the place nearly to ourselves. School was out at noon (or 10:30, if you're a high schooler, and likely not headed to Tunnel Voyage), so I think we beat the rush. After just 20 minutes or so, it looked like I had doused Sam with water—he was drenched in sweat by the time his girlfriends got there. I was so embarrassed/disgusted, but it didn't seem to bother him, or the girls at all. Go figure. At least he's not smelly, someone told me. I guess. How could that be? Even Kate was playing hard with her new friends. Afterwards: Mexican food. Yum. I am pretty sure that the staff at La Fuente will be happy if we never return, but all in all the kids did really well. Next up: OOF for us, and Deanna Rose for the big group in 2 weeks.

As if that wasn't enough fun for one day, we also went to Chuck E. Cheese. Really, it was a day full of parental sacrifice, neither Tunnel Voyage nor CEC having a lot to offer the mother set. The kids had a great time though, and it was good to finally use those coupons that they put in the paper about every 2 weeks, as if anyone goes that often. Okay, I hope no one does. Some guy came in just to get the pizza to go. Seriously? Is it that good? I'm sure someone else delivers pizza without the extra $10 charge for tokens and general kiddie craziness. Whatever.

It's officially summer for the Matthews' kids. Woo!