Vacation and Stuff

After spending ten days in Utah, I feel like I should write a truly epic post to chronicle our adventures. But I find I have no talent in summarizing big adventures. I only know how to write about the minutia of life. So here's the summary on vacation: It was fun. Thank you friends and family.

Now on to more interesting matters like the price of spilled rice in the Davis house.

This morning I was sitting at the computer paying bills. I was fairly focused on the task at hand; consequently I was completely ignoring my children. Ignoring them until I heard Parker say, "You are in big trouble. Mom!!! Come here!!! Who made this mess?"

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The mess would be about five pounds of rice that my two youngest children were gleefully spreading throughout the kitchen. I was still fresh from vacation, so my children got to deal with good mom instead of frazzled mom. I handed them two brooms. Two minutes later McKay began whining.

"This is too hard."

"I'll clean up the rice for you. But you will have to do one of the chores I would have done if I wasn't cleaning up the rice."

"O.k."

"I need you to take Deacon's jammies off, sit him on the potty, put a clean pull-up on him, and get him dressed."

"O.k.," she said gleefully, excited to play the "mommy" role.

A minute later she's back, happily showing me a potty full of yellow liquid. (Note to self: Assign McKay the task of potty-training Deacon.) "Deacon didn't want to go upstairs to sit on the potty, so I brought the potty to him."

"That's fine."

"I put it inside the laundry hamper where he was playing and let him sit on it there."

Unconventional. But it worked...

A few minutes later, I came to check on McKay's progress. Deacon hopped over to me. Literally, hopped. Both of his legs were in one hole of his shorts. He did not seem at all concerned about this.

"McKay, we have a problem. Both of Deacon's legs are in one pant hole and for some reason your shirt is off."

"Well, I tried to take Deacon's shirt off, but it was too hard. So I had to teach him how to take his own shirt off by showing him how."

Glancing at my topless son, "You taught Deacon how to take off his own shirt? And you got him to go pee-pee in the potty? You are hired, my dear."

McKay gave me one of her smiles accompanied by her happy little laugh, which literally sounds likes someone saying "heehee."

"Now about pant legs, McKay. Generally, we have two..."

Summer

Back to School

At this time of year mothers across the country are buying lunch boxes and backpacks. Though the price of school supplies is high, they realize no price is too great for seven hours of sanity. Seven argument-free hours. Ahh, bliss.

I am planning on losing my sanity this year.

Parker will not be going back to public school this fall. He is going to stay home and do online/homeschool through K12 Virtual Academy.

Homeschooling does not seem very Kodie-esque. First of all, I do not eat enough whole wheat. Secondly, I haven't given up my nap yet. Maybe when I'm forty.... I take a nap almost every single day. I love my nap. I've tried to give it up by distracting myself with chocolate or calling my sisters on the phone, but I tend to slump after lunch. So I'm thinking this homeschooling thing should be interesting--"Parker, you do your math, and I'm going to sleep on the couch for an hour." Third, I really, really love kid-free time. One time last year Parker was in school, and McKay and Deacon both took a nap at the same time. As McKay rarely naps, this was a major event. I may have done a little happy dance that involved me kicking up my heels and squealing for joy.

So you may wonder what would make me decide to pull my child out of public school. I am not opposed to public school in general, but I was dissatisfied with Parker's public school in particular. I will spare you the rant. If you are one of the two or three people I have not given the long rant to, call me--I can go on for hours. My real excitement about K12 is the superior curriculum and the fact that Parker can work at his own pace. That means that if he finishes his third grade work by Christmas, he can start on fourth grade work. But the best part is that Parker is really excited about learning.

Look at all the cool stuff K12 sent him. Besides a computer and printer, he also got boxes and boxes of textbooks and manipulatives. I counted the books. He got 36. Do you know how many books my students had when I taught third grade? Two--an outdated reading textbook and a math book they had to share because there wasn't enough to go around. They definitely did not get their own graduated cylinder, science goggles, or math cubes. History textbook? What public elementary school still teaches history? Parker gets to learn it this year. He pulled out one of his history books and read the title out loud. "Michelangelo? Where's the rest of the Ninja Turtles?"

We have a lot to learn this year.

If I can stay awake to teach him.

Baptism and Little Green Men

Parker's baptism was on Saturday.

Highlights included:

1. Having so many of our family members coming to share in Parker's big day. (Thank you.)

2. Deacon asking after every talk, song, etc. during the service, "Are we done yet?"

3. After Parker's baptism, Deacon saying, "I want to go swim with daddy, too."

4. Parker telling me he hasn't sinned once since his baptism.

Though that last statement might be in question, as he got very upset at Deacon for knocking down some of his army men and Lincoln Logs. (See picture.)

And while your looking at that, see another.

Or how about some more from this angle.

I went to download the pictures from Parker's baptism, and I was quite surprised to find 73 pictures on my memory card, especially as I had made sure it was empty for the big event. After looking at the ten pictures or so from the baptism, I was greeted with sixty pictures of army men. (Note to self: Don't leave Parker alone with a camera.)