Tucker woke up this week and feeling that is was cold outside, he automatically assumed, “Hey mom it’s going to snow now right?” I guess at his young age, last Winter was certainly the most memorable one and he’s thinking that’s just the way it is in Winter. I explained to him that snow in Devine is a very rare event, and he was a little disappointed to say the least. The kids and I judged the Christmas light contest this weekend. I took my daughter the first night and my son the next as we made the rounds. At one of the last homes, a real life Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus greeted us at the gate. This should have been really exciting, except for one little thing: Tucker is terrified of Santa. I know a lot of kids cry when you set them on Santa’s lap, but I can’t even get Tucker close. As soon as he sees Santa at a party or event, his eyes grow wide and he takes off running the other direction or takes a ninja stance. The Morris family (whose home was in the Christmas light competition) also had a table with hot cocoa and cookies set up and invited families to take a ride in Santa’s sleigh set up below a snow machine. As we entered the yard, Tucker was very careful to keep an eye on the guy in the red suit, and not to make any eye contact with Santa. When Santa did speak to him, Tucker ducked and hid beneath the table. He loved playing in the snow machine (made of bubbles) though. And low and behold, Tucker did get his snow day after all!
Tucker uncovered a not-so-well-hidden Christmas gift at grandma’s house, a laser tag set. So I’ve been re-living my youth, running the halls of my house in the dark playing a lot of laser tag recently. Me and my cousins and siblings used to do this a lot, and Tucker loves it just as much. This morning, he turned the beeping laser guns to the floor and was using them as bomb detectors. The boys got creativity, that’s for sure.
My son’s discovered some old 90s flicks that he’s become obsessed with. Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, and Honey I Blew Up the Kids, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, repeat, repeat, repeat. If I didn’t know any better, I would think Tucker plans on shrinking us. My sister always said he was like a “mad scientist” the way he explores. So who knows. He says if he was “shrunk” he would climb the Christmas tree. His main clever plan is to “shrink his sister though”, he says. When we aren’t re-watching the “honey I shrunk” videos, we are playing with his beloved and very patient kitten which has been re-named many times. Currently he calls it “Butter the kitten”. It is certainly the loving and patient kind. Tucker is a tad bit hyper and rough for most kittens’ taste, but this one is awfully forgiving. Most cats don’t enjoy playing “hide and kitten go seek” as he calls it, but this one seems to tolerate it, for a while anyways. The other night I found he had fallen fast asleep with the kitten in his lap, which was also asleep. It was the cutest sight. We are enjoying having the Christmas tree up, and Tucker made the customary hand-print antlered reindeer ornament. Every year, it’s fun to see the dozens of handmade ornaments we’ve collected over the years and who made what. So far most of them are my daughters and a few surviving ornaments from my husband and my childhood. But I’m sure there will be many more from Tucker. No telling what kind of ornaments my little wild man will make. Maybe he’ll shrink us and put us on the tree as an ornament!
Lots of the little cousins got together this weekend, and as expected it was lots of fun. The highlight of the evening was when I led the little boys on a mission to sneak up on the teenage girl cousins. I had Luke, Cody, Lane, and Tucker all on their hands and knees sneaking up to tap on the outdoor windows of the cabin where the girls were. Then started howling “like ghosts” which actually sounded more like coyotes, but made it all the more hilarious. There’s nothing quite like the good old-fashioned fun of boys sneaking up to scare the girls or vice versa. I have to admit, as their captain, I had just as much fun as they did army-crawling up the porch to tap on the windows and leading them in the ghostly howling. Apparently, we sounded like really scary coyotes, cause we scared the living daylights out of the girls. But I think the girls forgave me since I bought them an enormous bag of junk food for their sleepover. When my daughter was little I was focused on the make-overs and dress-up outfits and other girly fun at the sleepovers. But now that she’s a teenager, it’s my Tucky boy and his cousin comrades who have mama’s attention. So I guess I’ve officially transformed from mommy make-up artist, to mommy drill sergeant. I have to say sneaking up on the girls was even more fun than playing dress up. Can’t wait ‘til the next sleepover! Until then I’ll be planning our next mission.
We got bored one day last week, and the fish weren’t biting, so I said “hey how about I give you a horse ride.” He loved it even more than I thought. He’s transformed from plain old country boy to a rodeo cowboy in one week. All it took was a couple of fun horse rides around the ranch last week and he’s hooked! I’ve always thought it’s amazing how it feels to sit in the saddle and hold the reins in your hand as a kid. Always made me feel like I was sitting on top of the world, and I saw that in Tucky’s eyes and giant smile too. Saturday morning when he woke up for the parade, he said “I know what I’m wearing! My cowboy jeans!” again with his gruff and tough cowboy voice. We added a cowboy belt to that, and I’m sure it won’t be long before his PF Flyers turn into boots now. The Fall Festival this Saturday was a blast as always, except I stood on my feet waaaaay too long. We went from one ride to the next for hours and never ended up leaving until ten o clock or so. Tucker kept begging for “one more ride”. He had a blast following his cousins around for the last three hours, riding ride after ride. Cousins are so fun, and he looks up to them so much. His favorite ride was the giant bungee jumping on trampolines though. By the end of the night, the carnival ride lady in that booth was his best friend. I was surprised he wasn’t scared to get hitched up to that ride, but before he took off for the first time he told me “I ain’t scared of nothin’!” with a real gruff cowboy voice. I should have known that I guess, after all, he is a cowboy now!
Sister’s volleyball game lasted til nearly 7 on Halloween night, so we got off to a late start on our trick or treating. Brother was “Batman” for the day, and he was loving it. As soon as I slipped the Batman costume onto him, he began his karate and ninja moves. It took about five minutes of those super cool moves before he would pause to let me buckle the back of the costume up. And then came the cape, as soon as it was installed, he climbed to the highest part of the couch, and stood like the super hero he is proudly. Then he leaped down and whooshed down the hallway and back so fast I couldn’t hardly video him. Then he did a few somersaults down the hallway. It was truly adorable. We stopped by the Methodist Church’s Trunk or Treat which was lots of fun, and Tucker even got to sit inside a real submarine. There was only one condition; he had to take his favorite candy with him. He would not relinquish that candy from his hand for nothing. We went to see a few friends for trick or treating, and he showed each of them his “muscles” accentuated by the poofy Batman costume. Aunt Bobbie and Nancy and Grandma West all got a kick out of that. He’s been a real super hero lately. This weekend he put on a ninja moves trick show for us in the front yard. This consisted of him racing across the yard, stopping to do a somersault roll across the little tikes picnic table and trampoline and a few on the ground in between, and leaping off any surface he could find. It was great. He fell asleep in his Batman costume, and what a sweet sight it was. There’s no doubt in his mind that he has the skills to be a super hero. I guess we all have our own super hero skills. If you are not feeling it, do a few somersault rolls and race down the hallway a few times and leap off the couch.
We had a fun day at Devine Acres this Saturday. Mommy even got to ride the barrel train. I won’t say my knees enjoyed the cramped quarters with toddlers sitting on me, but it was really fun, goes a lot faster than I thought it could, sort of like a country roller coaster. The toddlers were screaming with delight every time we went around the bend. Tucky loved the gem stone mining activity, the duck races, and of course, the jumping pad (his all-time favorite). That evening we had a modern water balloon fight with cousin Audrey and my two kids. I say modern, because my sister bought the fancy ones that fill up 20 balloons at one time. I’d never seen them in action before, they are truly amazing. I’ve always been too cheap to buy those new fangled water balloons, and usually get the “fill yourself” kind from the dollar stores. But I might make a little splurge next time. I’ll tell you what though, those balloons go just as fast as you fill them. Easy come, easy go. Of course, I was smart enough to grab little baby Kenneth so I wouldn’t get water bombed. My sister had to fend for herself while I sat comfortably in a lawn chair, with a baby shield. Little Audrey was kind enough to use some of the water bombs to water my plants instead of attacking her cousins, so that was nice. My children the teenager and the toddler went at each other with a vengeance. I know they love each other, but they don’t like to show it very often. What is that saying? All is fair in love and water balloon war I guess. Tuckers favorite thing to do is like a shot put throw, where he holds the water balloon in one hand and swings around in a circle to launch it. Later that evening, we played a game of Simon Says, and that’s always fun to watch. Tucker’s a little too high strung to follow the rules or even realize them in that game. I never was very good at that game either. But it does keep him standing fairly still in one general area for quite a while, so cheers to that! We’ve done water balloons several times over the past few weeks, and somehow, he’s never “accidentally” hit me with any of them. Pretty amazing. Maybe he’s gonna be a champion shot put thrower, trained with water balloons (and the importance of not hitting mom so she’ll keep filling them up). I guess all is fair in love and water balloon war–AS LONG AS YOU DON’T HIT MOM WITH ONE!
I like to buy birthday presents that are sort of “out of the box” so to speak, especially for kid’s parties. A present is all about the surprise factor for me. When I found out cousin Cody was turning 8, after some thought, I set out to find a camping tent for his birthday gift. My teenager looked at me like I was crazy when I told her I was looking for a tent for a gift. I agree, I’m pretty sure that’s totally out of the realm of his normal activities, but he lives on a ranch now, so I figure he’d enjoy a little backyard camping. To my disappointment, there were none for sale at any of the three stores I went to. So I wandered around a little bit on my way out of the last store when I stumbled upon the perfect gift….a gumball machine. I remember the utter coolness of a coin-operated gum ball machine when I got one long ago, one Christmas in the 90s. I was always a little entrepreneur, and I thought I’d get rich selling gumballs. I wasn’t exactly sure if today’s kids would really like an old-fashioned gum ball machine, but I had a hunch they would. After all, sugar never goes out of style. At least, I figured, I can definitely picture him getting a kick out of selling gumballs to all his brothers and cousins at the party. So I took a chance and grabbed the gum ball machine. And boy did they love it; all the boys and girls hovered around it, scrounging the house (and mama and daddy’s pockets) for quarters. I could have gotten a video game or something electronic because I know he loves those, but to me, it’s so much more fun to see their little eyes light up when they get something new and different. Just as I suspected, he is a true gumball entrepreneur. Here’s to getting rich cousin Cody…one quarter at a time. Hey, maybe I need to find my old gumball machine!
On our way to go get snow cones, me, Audrey and Tucker walked out to the car. He always jumps in the front driver door and crawls over the console to his seat, while she gets in the passenger door because her car seat is by the window. Tucker is usually always racing and rushing to get where we are going, but on this particular day I stopped and smiled as I saw him jump down from the running board and open the car door for his cousin first. I was so proud to be his mother. Tucker is one of those kids who just doesn’t slow down and think about things very often. He is always in a race to the finish line, so it was a pretty big step for him to stop and think and perform this kind act. In fact, it was just so sweet, I literally started crying when I told my mom a story about it later. Later last week, my sister, my mom and the kids all went to the SA Aquarium. It is a really cool place–more like an aquarium/petting zoo/and arcade with jumping castles all-in-one. Of course, when someone asked Tucker what he saw at the aquarium, Tucker answered loud and clear–”there was a huge gift shop!” This is true. My favorite event of the day was when we all stopped to talk to a parrot who was sitting up on stage greeting crowds as they came along. He was up there on his perch saying “Hello”–”Hello”–”Pretty bird” and things like that calmly when Tucker came along. Tucker wanted to talk to the parrot too, but not in English. Tucker started making his high-pitched bird like shrieks, and that Parrot just stared at him for a minute. I’d like to know what that parrot was thinking. He stared right at Tucker for a few seconds before he surprised us and answered Tucker’s calls–loud and clear–with a shriek so loud we could hardly stand it. That parrot was mimicking Tucker in his own annoying way, with a much deeper and boastful croaking sound. Tucker was of course very amused and I’m sure their conversation could have carried on forever, but my ears could only take that shriek-fest so long! Thankfully the fish in the next exhibit couldn’t talk back to us. Parrots sure are entertaining animals. I don’t know what makes us so infatuated with hearing them repeat us, but even us adults we are indeed drawn to it and can’t resist it. But no one was as thrilled as Tucker! I’ve never seen a parrot so engaged in conversation–if you can call it that!
We went shopping at both of the local thrift stores in Devine last week-my absolute favorite kind of stores-because both of the awesome thrift stores here donate all their profits to helping others. Plus why pay full price, when you can find a thrift store treasure? Indeed that is what we found. I was looking for a fancy dress, but very quickly, my little boy spied something else, a pair of really cool looking shoes. It ended up being our most treasured find. The pair of shiny white tennis shoes with cool looking black rubber cleats on the bottom. I won’t lie; they are pretty snazzy looking shoes, though I didn’t know just HOW cool they really were. Tucker, 4, tried them on, and immediately stated, these were “really fast” shoes, using his deep little man voice. He raced across the small room only about 10 feet wide to demonstrate, and I could tell, he had fallen completely in love with these thrift store tennis shoes. Tucker wouldn’t even take those shoes off to try on any other tennis shoes in there. In fact, he walked to the register IN those shoes, only handing the cashier the tag. And as of this writing, he has not worn one other pair of shoes since! Naturally, I shared the legend of the “PF flyers” with him that day. You remember the PF Flyers from the movie Sandlot-the shoes that made Benny the Jet run faster and jump higher than any others? The shoes that helped Benny “pickle the beast”? I myself have never owned a pair of the actual PF Flyer brand shoes, but I always enjoyed it when my daddy talked about how our best pair of shoes were “our PF flyers”. And I was so happy to get to share this magic moment with my little one. I, too, believe everyone has their own pair of special PF flyers in their life, brand name or not. For some, it’s that favorite pair of cowboy boots, and for some, it’s that one special pair of thrift store tennis shoes. When I was a kid, I can remember that we had a race around the goal post everyday in PE, and there was only one girl faster than me in that class…Briana Mann (I can’t remember her maiden name). Every day my dad and I would strategize about how I would eventually get fast enough to beat her. Eventually I found myself the right pair of PF flyers and I believe I did beat her, at least once or twice. In the past three years, Tucker has lost more pairs of shoes than I can count, so in all honesty, I hope this love affair lasts awhile! Here’s to my daddy for instilling the magic and power of “PF flyers” in us-the shoes that can make any kid run faster and jump higher than ever before-even if they are regular old shoes, whatever brand they may be. I am not exactly sure if my rambunctious little son needed anything to make him run faster or jump higher, but then again, I guess everybody does. If you’re feeling a little beat down by the “beast” of stressful days and wearing uncomfortable shoes, you know what to do- find yourself some PF flyers!
