Mom Talk

I love a day when we can finally just RELAX. This morning Kiefer and I got up and around and much to his approval - no work, no school! Nice. "So, let's just stay home and a-lax Mom," he requested. Amen to that, little man... So, we did. Stayed home. "A-laxed" (Relaxed).

We started the morning with a few a-laxing episodes of Curious George from the comfort of mom's bed (so I could "sleep in", not really - but at least not have to get up.) Then it was off to the playroom for a spin around the farm followed by good times with the Lego pirates, a new favorite. Please note, there are seven guys - I got one, Kiefer got six. What? How is my pirate going to have a chance at winning battles single-handedly with one cannon and no ammo while Kief has basically everything else? Well, of course I thought it was only appropriate to treat this as a "choosing teams" sort of fairness lesson. "Ok, Kiefer - let's put all the pirates in the middle and then take turns picking one at a time until we each have (close to) an equal number of pirates." Well, he agreed with this little game until he saw that I had three pirates then said, "Ok, Mom, I'll just take these two and you keep that one then I'll play with all of these. In one minute, we will take turns, ok?!" Boy, has someone heard the "sharing" speech/rationale a few thousand times...

So, we played and out of left field Kiefer said "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit, Mom." I realize this is excellent Mom Talk and a phrase that I should adopt, but I have never said this to Kiefer. I can't quite envision this one flying around at his school, so the jury is out on it's origin! Needless to say it brought down the house, even if it was just my party of one. In hindsight, he used this phrase out of context considering the conversation that preceded and followed his lecture, but I loved it nonetheless. I could use a lesson every once in a while to keeps the complaints to a minimum, so I'll try to remember this ;)

We had a great time today and spent part of the afternoon outside covering every square inch of the driveway in sidewalk chalk. Coloring with sidewalk chalk at our house usually consists of Kiefer picking out the colors then delegating to an adult what he wants where. "I need a huge pirate ship right over there. Now draw the sails. Now draw the anchor. Now draw the pirates... No, this one needs a bandana, not a hat." and so on and so on. Well, in an attempt to encourage Kiefer to execute his own creative vision I pulled out a chair and said "Ok, I'm going to relax a minute, it's your turn!" So, that lasted all of 30 seconds and Kiefer was pulling my arm, "Ok, my turn to a-lax, Mom. Now, go draw me an orange T-Rex, please."

When dinner time rolled around, we came in so I could get things ready. I guess we worked up an appetite relaxing because Kiefer actually asked for seconds and refills. When he asked for more milk I poured it saying, "boy, you sure are my milk drinker, buddy!" to which Kiefer replied...

"Mom, you sure are my water drinker."