made with love (and like)

Like most, Elian's kindergarten class will be doing the whole Valentine exchange thing. When I asked him if he wanted me to buy some valentines to distribute, he said he wanted to make them by hand. To expedite the process, I let him choose a font that he liked, then I printed out the list of kids in his class. He painstakingly cut out lovely hearts in pink, red, purple and orange, then glued on each child's name and wrote "From Elian" on all of them. He decided he needed a much-deserved break after all of this labor-intensive art before moving on to the decorating-with-stickers phase. But before plopping down in front of Word Girl, he decided to write personal messages on a few of him. First to his best friend Solveig whom he often proclaims to love and has once proposed marriage to. Here's what he wrote:

Side 1:


Side 2:



He then said he wanted to write a message on another girl's valentine. Thinking he might proclaim his love for her as well, I waited patiently as his marker slowly scrawled out the message:

Side 1:


Side 2:

a very special message for mr. and mrs. rodgers

ho, ho, holy cow, the boy loves santa

So I showed the little man the video from Santa (see previous post) and he was just blown away. "How does he know that?!?!" He said, shaking his head in disbelief. "UNBELIEVABLE." When I plugged the images into the video, I wasn't sure if he was really going to buy into it. But he totally ate it up and loved it. Which is why this probably happened.

Friday night we had a long-overdue appointment scheduled downtown. His haircuts are sort of a big deal -- it happened by default. We used to take him to Kids' Hair. But then, Ed thought it would be fun to schedule their haircuts together at a place that had a pool table, and they could play pool together while they waited for their appointment. They did that for a while and really enjoyed it until the place got more popular and had to make room for more chairs -- goodbye pool table. Also, Ed realized he could save $30 a month and cut his hair at home. Hello #2 razor (and hairy bathroom floor)!

But since the little man had developed a relationship with his stylist (hehe), and we liked the job she was doing, we continue to get his hair cut there, even if it means paying for parking downtown. So we usually schedule it at about 5 or 6, we drive down there, call Papa when we get to his building, walk over to the barber shop, then dine on sushi, macaroni and cheese and salad at the Macy's cafeteria. Friday's haircut was no different only this time we asked Elian if he might want to see Santa (shot down last year and I think the year before that). But this year he said yes, and I had to do everything in my power not to do a little jig. I LOVE SANTA! and it just crushed me that my little boy didn't feel the same way.

Luckily, we cruised through the Santa line like nobody's business while the Holidazzle Parade suckers were watching the parade. There was a part of me that thought the little man might have second thoughts and want to turn around. After all, this appreciation for Santa was very new. Before Ed and I could even round the corner after the magic velvet curtain was parted, the boy was running to Santa with open arms. He jumped on his lap and was very quick to tell him that he got Santa's email. And began to chat up Santa complete with expressive hand gestures for a good few minutes. It's times like these that I wish I had a video camera built in to my brain, but we didn't even know we'd be seeing Santa. Hell, otherwise he would of worn his fancy Christmas sweater (wait, he doesn't own a fancy Christmas sweater).

Of course, the over-saturated Macy's photo doesn't do it justice, but as soon as my lovely assistant gets it scanned I will be sure to post it. As poor as my memory is these days, this was a Christmas memory that will definitely stay with me forever.

test, test, is this thing on?!?

A few weeks ago, the little man had an opportunity to record a little ditty for Hormel. Can you say "Free Talent?"

When we got to the studio, he seemed a wee on the nervous side. And who could blame him? There were a lot of people involved in the production, both of the adult and children variety.

When it was his turn to record, I got totally nervous for him. He was sitting at the mic alone with big headphones on. One of the sound engineer dudes was in there helping him with timing. After a few practice shots, he seemed less nervous and did a fantastic job. About six or seven kids total recorded including two professionals and they ended up using our boy and the two professionals. Eat your heart out Justin Bieber!

Sadly, I don't think this is going to mean early retirement for us. Afterwards we asked him how he liked doing it and he said it wasn't as much fun as he thought it was going to be. I wish I could attach a sound file to this blog so you could hear it. But you're just going to have to settle for the pictures.

betsy ross junior

Lately the little man has been into creating flags -- and countries. Here are two of his latest pieces. One for the country of Macaluia (sounds a little Hawaiian, no?) and Cueblae. Now accepting applications for residency.

you're a good sport, charlie brown

For the past few months, we've been having a few issues with the little man's sportsmanship conduct. He's always been a bit on the competitive side, but lately, he's really been having a hard time with losing. A really hard time.

According to him, he does just fine when he plays with other kids. Somehow he manages to keep it together. But when he plays with us, there's a lot of "IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" a little cheating if he can get away with it, pleas to not count something that worked against him and an all out fit of tears when he loses. After a few ugly games of Sorry, we decided to put competitive games on hold for a while.

Each day he would ask to play Sorry, Skipbo or something else. And each day we would tell him we were taking some time off. We went a good three or four days of telling him we weren't ready to play games with him until he could be a better sport. Then this weekend we gave it a try. I must say the boy learned his lesson (at least for now). He was the ultimate good sport saying "Congratulations" each time he lost and even making jokes about his bad luck. I had to rig the Candyland deck after I won three times in a row -- c'mon, the poor dude can only take so much.

He did really well all weekend. There was one pretty intense game of Blockus when Papa won and the tears started flowing. He tried so hard to keep it together with deep breaths. It was hard to watch but I'm so proud of him for trying so hard. Let's cross our fingers that it lasts.

quote of the day

PAPA: Mmmm, that smells good, what are you making?

MAMA: Vegetable stir fry with peanuts.

ELIAN: (From the other room) Did you say vegetable stir fry with PENIS?

movie night

Last night we had movie night and watched Toy Story 3 (again). If you have not seen it, I can't recommend it enough.

The little man and I were in total snuggle mode on the couch. We got to the end of the movie when before heading off to college, Andy gives his toys away to a little girl (SOMEBODY GET MAMA A TISSUE!). I said to Elian, "So when you go off to college, do you think you might give Target to a little boy or girl?"

He responds, "I don't know. I'm not at that point yet." And there was more reflection and maturity in his response than I ever would've imagined. And I knew I wasn't blubbering because Andy was headed off to college, but that in about 12 fast years my little man will be.

(Unless he goes to the University of Minnesota and lives with Mama and Papa forever. I mean, not that I'm planning that...)