Mommathon

The past two weeks Liam has been attending summer camp at Barstow for half the day. The first week was Lego camp which he liked very much. This week he is at Pokemon camp…the boy is in his element. He LOVES it! Did I mention that his teacher is a wee bit eccentric? She, yes she, is a certified Pokemon Master or something like that. Liam loves her and she told me yesterday that he is the best second grade player she has in camp. Should I be proud? He was. 🙂 Today is the last day and they are having a tournament with prizes. When he was walking up to the front door this afternoon, with his hat on his head and his Pokemon deck in hand, he said, “Bring it on boys.” He thought he was pretty clever.

This is a book I found at Target in their “Bookmarked” section and I really liked it. It is the story of a woman with two young children whose husband is accidentally killed. It follows her life that first year and chronicles her pain, agony and anger as well as the extraordinary and surprising people who help her get through it all. I especially liked the ending and that doesn’t happen very often.

This is another fun back to school book whether you are in kindergarten or not.

Earlier this summer we took Liam to the allergist because he had started getting hives and we couldn’t figure out why. It was determined after some discussion that he might be allergic to latex. They did a couple of different tests on him and they both came out negative. This is great, but he is still allergic to something and we don’t know what it is. The hives are usually on his back and stomach. Sometimes they are relatively small and sometimes they are freakishly scary and huge. He had some today that were pretty small. He didn’t go to the pool or play outside today, but he did have some cantaloupe. He had some last week that were ginormous while we were at the pool. We go to the allergist on Friday; I hope he can point us in the right direction.

Once upon a time a long, long time ago when I was in elementary school, my dad had his office in the River Market area. I spent a lot of time down there during those years. To get to my dad’s office you had to walk in this little courtyard area and up a pretty long set of stairs before you even got to the door that led inside and then to another set of pretty long stairs. There was a plant store downstairs and a bar beneath that. Across the street and down a ways was an Asian market and down from there was the market. You could go there on the weekends and wander around; my dad would chat with the vendors and get some yummies to eat from the local farmers. It was fun to go there with him because my dad knew everyone. When we went there to eat lunch or breakfast at one of the eateries, he always knew the owner and probably the waiter. He was friends with the man who owned the Old Chelsea and the man who owned the restaurant down the street where you could eat lunch in the caboose of a train.

Sean and I took the boys to the River Market today and I was kind of sad. It was teeming with people. It was so crowded it wasn’t fun and although there were definitely local vendors there, there were a lot of people selling goods there that definitely are not grown locally. Bananas anyone? We walked down to where my dad’s office used to be and it still looks pretty much the same. The plant store is gone though, as is the bar and the Asian market. His office building is now lofts and the long staircase I used to walk up has been painted neon green. I know that progress is good, but it still made me a little sad to see so many familiar things gone.

Saturday-Fajitas
Sunday-Chicken with zucchini and tomatoes over quinoa
Monday-Potato, onion and zucchini frittata with breakfast sausage, salad and casaba
Tuesday-Eggs, leftover breakfast sausage, blueberry pancakes
Wednesday-Pasta with tomatoes, basil, garlic, zucchini, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Thursday-Chicken and Spinach Risotto
Friday-Spin Pizza

I am such a bad mom. Colm rode his bike today without training wheels and I have no pictures. He asked me this morning completely out of the blue if I would take off his training wheels. I did it to humor him, but I honestly didn’t think there was any way he was going to actually be able to do it. He is still pretty wobbly with the training wheels on, so I just didn’t think he could do it. Boy, was I wrong. We practiced up and down the cul-de-sac this morning with all of the construction guys cheering him on. (He loved the audience.) He did okay and asked me to hang on to the training wheels “just in case”, but he didn’t want them back on. Then tonight before dinner he wanted to try again and this time he did REALLY well. I don’t think he’s ready for a big bike ride quite yet, but he definitely made some progress today.

Colm was just full of funny things to say today.

We were at the car dealership for over two hours today waiting on my car. When the guy finally called our name to say we were done Colm said, “We’re free!!!”

Colm has had a whopper of an afternoon. When Sean called to say he was going to have to work late I almost cried, but he did have one funny that went along with his antics. He had been sent to his room and he wanted to come down.

Colm: Mom, can I come down now?

Me: Are you ready to be a good boy?

(Pause)

Colm: I better stay up here.

One of the things that we did with Liam and are now doing with Colm to get everyone thinking about kindergarten is to read a bunch of books about kindergarten. Some of our favorites are: Off to Kindergarten, A Place Called Kindergarten, Welcome to Kindergarten, Kindergarten Rocks, The Night Before Kindergarten, Kindergarten Countdown and Countdown to Kindergarten to name a few.

This month’s pics for our neighborhood kid book club are The War with Grandpa by Robert Smith and Stink and the World’s Worst Super Stinky Sneakers by Megan McDonald. The first book is about a boy who loses his bedroom when his grandpa comes to live with him and how he declares war on his grandpa to get it back. Very sweet and cute book and it’s nice to see the relationship between the grandpa and his grandson. Stink is just a silly book about a boy who has super stinky sneakers. He and his best friend enter a stinky sneaker contest and you might be surprised who wins. (Stink is Judy Moody’s little brother if you are familiar with those books.)