Monkeys?

This afternoon was a good time to get out and do something athletic with Will. The snow is mostly gone from the front yard, and Jana took our blue car to the office to do some work for Sara.

We started off with a little tennis, or "tennis racket" as Will calls it. Then we moved on to hitting off the tee. Will's first couple cuts were his best, he hit a couple solid line drives (I took video, then realized later than the memory card was full. Oh well, there will be other chances).

Then we started kicking around his SpongeBob SquarePants kickball. As he lined up his first kick he delivered the line that still has me laugh:"

"I ... make ... MONKEYS out of these!"

Huh?

Sphere vs. beer

The Easter Bunny brought Will some silly putty, and he's been having fun forming it and throwing it around the house. He keeps asking me to make it back into a "circle" for him so it will bounce better, and I took the opportunity tonight to teach him the word "sphere," which is technically more accurate.

So Will chucks his putty at Jana, who says "What did you just do?
Will: "I threw my circle at you."
Jana: "It's 'sphere.'"
Will: "I threw my beer at you."

Hopefully it's the last time.

Will on the keyboard

Will just typed these words on our PC keyboard:

Will
Scott
Jana
Pig
Pig
Apple
Rooster

That's not a typo, he wanted to type pig twice. He still needs help locating certain letters, and it's funny. Told E is next to W, he says "Excuse me W, I need to borrow your friend!" and spelling rooster says "two O's coming up!"

Easter egg hunt

The Easter bunny was good to Will this year, visiting him at Grandma Linda's house last weekend, then making a stop in Scandinavia last night. Will's eggs today contained clues that led him around to 12 eggs, culminating in a basket hidden in the oven ... which he promptly dumped all over the living room floor. A very fun morning.

More of the name game

I can't figure out what this baby's name is and, every once in awhile, I'm compelled to just go up to total strangers and ask, "Do you know any good names?"

I also ask Scott and Will frequently, "What's this baby's name?"

Scott's more likely to say, "Ray Jr" than anything else, but Will usually comes up with some off-the-cuff answer.

He has, inexplicably, settled on one name: Nathan.
It happened again just last night.

"Will, what's your brother's name?"
"Nathan," he says, for the third time in a week.

I tell him again, "We can't name your brother Nathan, you have a cousin named Nathan."

Will puts his thoughtful face on and responds:
"Well, do we have a cousin named Guido?"

I look at Scott, who seems to be wondering if my cousin would find it an honor that we use the name she chose a mere six years ago.

"Guido is not an option either, Will."

"Well, when I tell all the kids the my brother's name is Guido, they all laugh."

When you're 3 going on 4, that kind of laughter is still a good thing.

That's just the way it is

Every once in awhile, Will comes out with some verbal gems that I just had to share:

He told me that one of his friends wasn't going to be at daycare anymore. I had heard rumors that this child had been asked to leave for being very naughty and I was curious to hear what Will knew.

"Why won't she be back?" I asked.
"That's just the way it is, Mommy." (That's what he said, but I heard, "Mind your own business, Mommy."

After an adventure which involved a failed walk in near-zero degree temperatures, a stop at the library and a visit to the local deli that ended in disappointment (they were closed that night), we finally dragged ourselves home and Will says, before I could even get my coat off:
"Why isn't there any dinner on the table yet?"

The other night while I was making dinner, Will was using the kitchen floor as a disco and he says:
"I'm a dancing fool ... watch me work!"

Mad rhymes

Will and I were headed home alone the other night and he really wanted to go to Dairy Queen for "a hot dog, french fries and a hamburger."

He knows it's a lot easier to convince me to free-lance from the routine when Daddy's not around.

However, I wasn't really in the mood for such a huge 3-course meal so I suggested that we could walk to the library and then go to the Hardware Store Deli for dinner.
Will cheered at my suggestion, so I said, "So, that sounds like a plan?"

He added, "It's a plan, Stan."

As a Paul Simon fan I just had to add: "Hop on the bus, Gus — we don't need to discuss much."

Then, Will, who, I'm quite sure has never heard, "50 Ways to Leave your Lover," started making up some crazy rhymes:

"Get on the snowbank, DoBank."

"Jump on the building, Dilding."

"Hop in the lake, Dake."

"Jake" might have worked well on that last one, but let's not be too critical of his brainstorming process.

I don't need to be coy, Roy ... I felt that Paul Simon would have been darn proud of a young fan in the making.

Basketball anyone?

Last night Jana and I ventured to Ashwaubenon to watch the Iola-Scandinavia boys basketball team play Manitowoc Roncalli in a sectional final game. Our boys won an exciting game, which means we're going to state next week, very cool.

We took Will along, and he stayed in our spot for the entire game, a minor upset in itself. He clapped at the right times, shouted "defense" along with the rest of the kids, and even got into the We're Number 1 hand gestures, albeit a bit prematurely.

Afterward, over ice cream (a promise made to pacify him in the game's final minutes), I told Will that my daddy used to take me to high school basketball games when I was a boy, and they were some of my favorite times. He seemed interested.

I also asked him if he thought the game was exciting. "Yeah!" "Do you want to play basketball when you grow up?" "No!"

We have time to work on that.

Recorder it?

Recently we signed up for DirecTV's DVR program, which allows us to record and store shows without a VCR, rewind and pause live action, etc. It's a great birthday present from Jana to me, and we're enjoying it.

Will is enjoying the fact that we can record shows that happen during the times he isn't allowed to watch TV - any time other than weekends and from about 6:30-7:30 a.m. on weekdays. So he has continually asked us to "recorder" shows like the Magic School Bus.

After trying to correct him many times, we gave up, and this morning Jana asked Will if he wanted us to "recorder" Bindi the Jungle Girl.

"It's 'record,' Mommy," Will said sternly.

Thanks for the lesson buddy!

Not always our perfect little angel

Most of the posts in this blog will offer glowing or humorous accounts of our children, but in the interest of using it for catharsis, here are two things that bummed me out briefly this week:

-On Wednesday morning, Jana tried to dress Will in the shirt I brought him back from Germany. It's a cool shirt, a T-shirt jersey of Berlin's big soccer team, Hertha BSC, and I looked all over to get him one. He refused to put the shirt on, saying that he didn't like it and never wanted to wear it. This after declaring it "not a good gift" when I pulled it out of my suitcase upon arriving home.

After working himself up into a fury, he then came down stairs, looked at the TV (which had CNN election coverage on), and wailed "I don't like watching the Badger game, it's boring!"

Great start to my day!

He eventually willingly wore the shirt the next day, and gleefully told his teachers it was his Germany shirt his daddy brought him. And he also wanted to wear his Badgers shirt, so his second comment didn't bother me too much - I think he equates anything that isn't a "kids movie" with "Badger game," including CNN.

-Also this week, Will came home with five Matchbox cars from day care in his pockets. This wasn't the first time something like this has happened - last week he came home with Lincoln Logs. Guess who he blamed both times? That's right, Logan. Sidebar: tonight he suggested Logan as a baby name. We'll probably pass on that one. According to Will, Logan told him to take the things, even if he didn't.

We told our son (over and over) that we don't care what Logan says, we care what Will does. The old "If Logan told you to jump off a bridge" line doesn't really work yet, but that's where we were going. Other measures included: giving toys away every time he brings a toy home; pocketless pants (half-kidding); pat-downs before we leave day care (half-kidding); bare-butt spankings (kidding).

Ironically, the next day he came home singing a song about the Hamburgler - apprently they got some McDonald's-produced videos free or cheap - and about how stealing was bad.

As long as taking Matchbox cars home from school doesn't end up on Will's permanent record, we're OK here, just part of Raising Tappas!