Underwear

The kids usually take their baths/showers in the evening. Which means that this is when LilKat2 changes his underwear. Well, it seemed as if LilKat2 was running out of clean underwear more quickly than he should. We found out that the reason for this was that he was changing his underwear right when he woke up in addition to after his shower. Mrs. BigKat told him that since he took a shower in the evening, he didn't have to change his underwear again in the morning. That way, he wouldn't run out of clean underwear so quickly in his underwear drawer.

Unfortunately, I think he took this underwear conservation concept a little to far. The other day, he says 'Mom, guess what...I think I've worn this same underwear for FOUR DAYS!'

I hope he at least turned it inside out after day 2...

Like Father, Like Son

Want to know how brave LilKat2 is? Today, he had to have an Ear The Cow. Which is kind of crazy to me. I had never even heard of this insane procedure before. Now, our family has had 2 in 2 months.

Recently, it has seemed like LilKat2 has been ignoring us sometimes. We talk to him and it just seems like he's not listening to us at all. He's actually gotten in trouble for it a couple of times. Well, it turns out he really isn't listening. Because one of his ears was all clogged up. I noticed that when we were praying together, he would start praying while LilKat1 was praying. That clued me in that something was wrong with his ears. So last night, I gave him a little hearing test. I had him close his eyes while I made little sounds around his ears. His job was to wave his right hand if the sound was on his right and wave his left hand if the sound was on his left.

He failed miserably (and yes, afterwards, I felt really bad for scolding him for not listening to me).

So today, he went in to the doctor's and got his ears checked out. The doctor saw that one was clogged (so clogged in fact, that for the first few shots of the Ear The Cow, no water actually went into his ear). And he bravely sat there while they squirted water into his head. The nurse was very impressed! She said that most kids try to run away and hide in the corner. Not my son! He just sat there with his eyes closed until they were done (which is pretty much what I did too).

Child's Play

PrincessKat is now 3 years old. Know what that means? Time to get her started on BOARD GAMES!!!

Now, finding a good game for a 3 year old is not nearly as easy as for a 5 year old. But there are some good ones out there.

Let's start with her first game, Go Away Monster! Go Away Monster is an excellent first 'game'. The fact is, it's more of an activity than a game because there aren't any winners or losers. But there's taking turns, placing items on a board, some sharing, and some surprises. When PrincessKat first got this game, we must've played it 10 times that day (and the following morning too, if I remember correctly). Basically, you're taking turns pulling items out of a bag. The items are things you find in your bedroom, a bed, teddy bear, chair, and a picture. When you get one of these things, you place them onto your board in the appropriate spot. Every once in a while, instead of bedroom furniture, you pull out a monster. When you do, you say 'Go Away Monster!' and toss them into the box. That's it! That's the game! Sounds simple, right? Maybe even too simple? Well, it's actually perfect for 3 year olds who are learning to play games!

Another game that I found was Batik. This is one of a series made by Gigamic games. I really like the Gigamic games series. They all have very nice looking wooden components. Gameplay for the ones that I have played is super simple, yet interesting. I purchased Batik from another local gamer at a coffeeshop. PrincessKat was with me and we immediately started playing the game while enjoying our hot chocolate. She picked up on it right away! We probably played 6 or so games right there. Each person has a set of shapes. You drop the shapes into this vertical wall (kind of like Connect 4, but with only 1 large slot. If you drop a shape in, and any part of it is sticking out of the top, then you lose. That's it! Again, perfect for a 3 year old.

The last game I'm going to mention is Gulo Gulo. This is a highly regarded game on boardgamegeek.com by boardgaming parents. However, I was never that big of a fan of it. I originally bought it for LilKat2. We played it a few times, but he never got that into it. PrincessKat, on the other hand, LOVES this game. And the funny thing is, she can beat me at this game, even if I'm trying my hardest. This is a GREAT feature to have in a kid's game. In Gulo Gulo, you move around the board by grabbing little colored eggs out of a bowl. There's also a weighted stick in the bowl. If you can get your egg out without knocking the stick over, you can move ahead. If the stick falls, then you have to move backwards. Simple enough. But grabbing those little eggs can be hard! Especially when you have big fat grownup fingers. 3 year olds, however, have little tiny ninja fingers, perfectly made for stealing colored eggs out of a small wooden bowl. And there's a nice built in catch-up mechanism, so that even if you fall behind, you're never really that far back. Again, another great thing to have in a kids game because it means that everyone is always in the game.

You want more? Ok I'll give you one more. Walter Wick: Can You See What I See is a game that is based on a series of books (kind of like 'I Spy' books). In the version that we play, you have a set of tiles. Each tile has a picture of an object, like a rubber duck or a thimble or a yo-yo. In the middle of the board is a set of larger tiles. Each of the larger tiles has a bunch of pictures on them (so one might have a tricycle, a yo-yo, a top, a spool, and a clothes pin). On your turn, you pick one of the tiles in front of you (say, a frog). Then you have to look at the bigger tiles in the middle. If any of those tiles has your picture (the frog) on it, you get to keep it. Each big tile you have at the end of the game counts as a point (some tiles have a special picture on them that make them worth 2 points). That's pretty much it. I thought LilKat2 would like this game because he likes his I Spy books so much. Well, it turns out that all 3 kids like this game quite a bit! And one nice thing was that I was able to pick this one up at Toys R Us (I usually have to go to online retailers to buy my games).

Anyhow, if you have a 3 year old and want to have some fun things to do together at home, these are some great choices for you.

Things Kids Say

I went to help out in LilKat2's Kindergarten class today. When I came in, the new music teacher was there singing songs with them. I had never met him before. The old music teacher was a very kid friendly, chipper, younger lady. The new guy was quite different. I was trying to think of a way to describe him and the best thing I can come up with is Niles Crane from Frasier, but not funny.

Anyhow, while I was in class, I heard a funny story about him. Apparently, he was singing songs with the kids when he got to a part where he started to sing in a very looooow voice. The kids thought that this was very impressive. They said to him, 'Wow, Mr. ___! You sound just like a REAL man!'

Too Many Games

This morning, I was at the computer and I logged on to boardgamegeek.com. I started looking at some gaming articles, nothing with pictures or anything, just text. Anyhow, PrincessKat saw what I was doing and must have recognized the logo on the website. She immediately ran over, jumped on my lap, and, apparently imitating me, started yelling 'I WANT THAT GAME! I WANT THAT GAME!'

That killed me! Me and Mrs. BigKat were both laughing for quite a while. But the whole time, I was thinking...Do I really act that way? Maybe I do have too many boardgames...

World's Record

LilKat1 and I were at Costco looking at the books. LilKat1 found a book about World's Records. He found some interesting things like a guy that set the record for putting on the most t-shirts at one time. He saw the High School Musical kids who apparently had the World's Fastest selling soundtrack album. Then he came to a picture of Britney Spears. He looks at it for a second and says, "Dad...is this the record for the World's Smallest Shirt?"

You want a What?

This conversation just happened at our house:

LilKat1: Mom, I want a French bagel.

Mrs. BigKat: A what?

LilKat1: A French bagel!

Mrs. BigKat: What’s that?

LilKat1: (thinking)

LilKat1: (thinking)

LilKat1: AAAAA! I mean an English muffin!

Box Tops

This week at school, LilKat2 learned that if his class collects the most 'Box Tops', then they'll get to have a party. Well, I don't know if his teacher told him that they're having the party at Disneyland or that maybe that Boba Fett's going to show up with an ice cream cake. But whatever it was she said...it worked. LilKat2 is a highly motivated little boy when it comes to Box Tops.

Yesterday, he was searching through cupboards, pulling out boxes of cereal, scanning the tops and bottoms of anything cardboard and rectangular for the pink Box Top picture. When I came downstairs, I saw him holding a huge pair of kitchen scissors, wearing a very determined look on his face, about to carve off the bottom of a full box of Kleenex.

Here's the conversation we ended up having:

Me: LilKat2, you aren't allowed to cut open that box. There's stuff in there.

LilKat2: But my teacher says we need Box Tops. We need to get the most so we can have a party.

Me: But there's stuff in the box.

LilKat2: But we need them.

Me: But you can't cut it open. We need it to hold the stuff.

LilKat2: But we need them.

Me: Besides, you aren't even allowed to use those big scissors.

LilKat2: But we need them.

(and so on)

He is a boy on a mission. I am fully expecting to find little rectangular holes in any box in our pantry from now until June.

School Bus II

Last year, I wrote about how fun LilKat1's school bus is. Turns out, it's even more fun that I thought it was.

Every once in a while on a Friday, the bus driver will declare that it's 'Jelly Bean Friday'. Know what that means? Jelly beans for everyone! You don't even get stuff like that on airplanes!

Our bus driver is also good about making sure kids cross the street correctly. If they cross without looking, he'll make them go back and do it again. Back when I was a kid, I don't think the bus driver cared if you got home. As long as you got off the bus, that was good enough for her.

Our bus driver has also changed our designated stop so that it's closer to our house. Our stop is supposed to be down at the corner of our street (about 50 yards away). But since LilKat1 and LilKat2 are the only ones to get picked up at our stop, the bus driver will just stop wherever we happen to be standing. Over the past few days, LilKat1 and I have tried standing closer and closer to our house to see how far he'll go away from the designated stop. Today, we stood right at the edge of our next door neighbor's house and, sure enough, the bus stopped right in front of us. When I was a kid, I think our mean bus lady would probably have done the opposite and driven around the corner and made us run to catch up with her.

And here's the most recent cool thing that has happened with our bus driver. LilKat1 and I were standing at the bus stop, when we saw the bus come around the corner and pick up some kids down the street. I heard him saying something to them over his speaker, but couldn't quite make it out. When the bus come over and pulled up in front of us, I noticed that there were no kids in the bus. LilKat1 got on and started walking to the back. Right as he got to the middle of the bus, all of the kids jumped up and once and said 'HAHHHHHHHHH!' Oh, that was too funny! It really made me laugh.

Then, LilKat1 quickly hopped into his seat and joined the others in getting ready to surprise the kids at the next stop.

When LilKat1 go home, I found out that they did this at all of the stops. Some of the stops were better than others (they said 'HAAHHHHHHHH!' a bit too early at a couple of places). But it sounded like a very fun time.

You know, it's too bad that they don't do stuff like this on regular buses and trains. I think that public transportation in general would be more popular if they did.

New Logos

I finally got around to finishing the boys' soccer team logos. Here's LilKat1's logo. His team is the Bakugan Battle Blazer Penguins:

LilKat1 liked this logo. First of all, it has one of his favorite Bakugan's on it. And second the penguin is in his Super Mario Smash Bros. game, so he works for both 'Battle' and 'Penguin'.

Here's the logo for LilKat2's team:

Ok, this one was kind of funny. The boys didn't know what to make of it. First of all, LilKat1 told me that the firecracker wasn't a firecracker. It was a bomb. And they couldn't figure out where the coyote was.

Our conversation went something like this:

Them: Dad, who's that guy in the picture?

Me: Who's the guy?!?!?!?! That's the Coyote!

Them: That's not a coyote.

Me: Of course it is! That's the Coyote! Wile E. Coyote!

(puzzled stares)

LilKat1: He looks like a rabbit.

So of course I had to fire up YouTube and find a RoadRunner cartoon for them to watch. So now they know who the Coyote is. Kids these days...

In the Toy Aisle

I was at Target the other day looking around the toy aisle. A mom and her sons were near me. They were buying a birthday present for someone and were having a hard time picking it out. It was pretty funny to watch. Some of the stuff was funny because it's stuff that I've said many times in the past when picking out presents, but some of the stuff was brand new. Here are a few of the highlights...

Mom: Now remember...we're not picking out something for you. We're picking out something for Brandon...

Boy 1: We HAVE to get THIS! He needs THIS!

Mom: Does he even like G.I. Joe?

Boy 1: What's G.I. Joe?

Mom: Ummm...that thing in your hand...

(Boys are trying to decide on which Transformer to get their friend)

Boy 1: Oh, we should buy this one!

Boy 2: No...we can't get him that one...That's from the OLD Testament.

(Boys can't decide on which Transformer to get. Boy 1 wants Transformer A. Boy 2 wants Transformer B. So Mom comes up with a brilliant idea.)

Mom: Ok, I'm putting these both behind my back. And whichever one gets picked, that'll be the one we get. And no complaining!

Boy 1 (pointing to his mom's left arm): THAT ONE!

(Mom looks at box...it's Transformer A. Boy 1 is very pleased...)

Mom: You were peeking! That's why you chose that one!

(Mom not sure about what to do...)

Mom: Fine, I'm just going to pick one.

Fixed

This is a great idea. Next time our house needs fixing, I'm raiding the boys' Lego bins...

You can see more pictures here.

Fooled

I've been waiting all day for the UPS guy to come. He's got a case of my new favorite-boardgame-that-I've-never-played-before-but-I've-read-about-it-and-it-looks-really-cool Monsterpocalypse (or MonPoc as the cool kids call it). I ordered it last week and have been not very patiently waiting.

Well, a little while ago, I heard the knock at the door. My wait was over! The UPS man was here to hand over my box full of plastic dinosaurs, robots, aliens, and other monsters ready to do battle on a paper map amongst tiny plastic buildings. I flew out of my chair, tossed open my office door, avoided plowing over Mrs. BigKat in the hall, and sprinted down the stairs, all in about 4.5 seconds (seriously! If it took me any more than that, I'd be surprised).

I got to the front door only to find...LilKat1 tapping on the door with a big smile on his face.

Grinning at me from ear to ear, he says 'It was me!'

So now I'm back upstairs...waiting...

TracBall

I found my old TracBall set in a closet the other day. LilKat2 immediately asked me what 'that tennis thing' was. I told him that it was a game that I used to play when I was little and that we could go to the park and try it out sometime when the weather was nice.

Well, today was the first sunny day in a while, so at lunch, LilKat2 asked if I could take him to the park to play the tennis game (I couldn't remember what he was talking about at first, but Mrs. BigKat reminded me).

It was a lot of fun! Turns out TracBall is great for playing catch with small kids! It took LilKat2 a little while to figure it out (most of his first few throws went backwards. Many went straight sideways.), but once he got it, he could throw the ball quite far. He could also catch the ball pretty well too.

Compare this to when we throw the football around. The TracBall rackets allow him to fling the ball much farther than he can throw a football. And because they impart a backspin, the TracBall floats a bit, making it easier for me to chase his throws down when they're off to the side. He can also catch the TracBall easier than he can catch a football. All he has to do is reach his racket out and get the ball to hit it somewhere. And since the racket is so big, he can catch balls that go over his head (something he can't do with a football).  I can even whip the ball at him with a pretty good pace. He just sticks his racket out and watches the ball slide down into the pocket (the only thing I have to worry about is keeping it away from his face. I imagine getting popped with one of those hard plastic balls would sting).

I think LilKat2 really liked that he could throw the ball far and that he could catch the ball when I threw it normally (I could zip it in there from far away, instead of having to get close and throw it soft at him). I think it made him feel a little bit bigger.

So if you're clearing out your garage and find an old set, try them out with your kids! You might be surprised at how much fun you guys have!

Overcoming Evil with Good

The boys are doing Spring Soccer right now. It's basically a soccer clinic that the boys go to every Monday. They do games and drills and learn new soccer skills.

At the last practice, LilKat1 had an interesting incident. During the middle of a drill, another boy came up to him and took his ball. Obviously this didn't make LilKat1 very happy. I was wondering what he would do. First, he asked the boy for his ball back. The boy said no. I was wondering if he would try to forcefully take the ball back from the other kid (it's what I would've done when I was little). But instead, he started looking around the field. It took him a few seconds, but he spotted whatever it was he was looking for and quickly made a beeline for it. He had found 2 soccer balls sitting together. He ran over, picked them up, and raced back to the boy that took his ball. He told the boy that he would give him both balls in exchange for his own ball. The other boy, being greedy, enthusiastically took the deal. LilKat1 was happy that he had his ball, and the other boy was happy that he had 2 balls instead of one.

Immediately, a Bible verse popped into my head:

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:20-21

The funny part was that the other boy didn't even get to keep his extra balls (he had actually ended up with 3 because he grabbed another one as well). The coach took all of the extra balls from the kids who had more than one and gave them to kids that didn't have any.

Ok, so maybe it's not like burning coals on his head. And maybe what LilKat1 did was more outsmarting the kid, rather than an act of kindness. but I still thought it was funny.

I was also proud of my son for making a good choice. Like I said, if that was me as a boy, I definitely would've grabbed the ball away from the kid and probably got into an argument or fight. I told LilKat1 that I was proud of him for not making a bad choice like I would've made. That little boy continues to amaze me with the stuff his wonderful brain comes up with.

Science Fair

Way back before Spring Break, we found out that LilKat1’s school was having a Science Fair and that students from K-5 were welcome to submit projects. I have always looked forward to helping my kids with Science Fair projects. I remember learning how to make electric motors for my project when I was young and having a great time. But I was in 7th grade! I had no idea that people had Science Fairs for 1st grade and younger.

Well, I thought that it would be a fun thing for me and LilKat1 to do together, so I encouraged him to sign up for it. The first thing we needed was a good age-appropriate project. We tried to think of something that he could do himself. We got an idea from an episode of Curious George. We decided to use our Science Fair project to find out what worms liked. LilKat1 named the project ‘Fascinating Worms’.

Here’s how we did it:

First, we needed some worms. So we went to the worm store and got some:

Next, we gathered up a bunch of materials that we thought worms might like. We had soil, mud, hay, cedar chips, pine bits, coffee grounds, styrofoam packing peanuts, cereal, and easter grass.

Then LilKat1 picked out 4 of the materials and put them into a container like this:

Next, we put a bunch of worms in the middle of the materials like this:

 

Then we waited while the worms figured out where they wanted to go. When the worms were happy in their new spots, we pulled them out of each section and counted them. LilKat1 used a notebook to record how many worms we found in each material.

 

We did a total of 4 experiments. Here are pictures of the others:

 

After our experimenting was done, we had to make our display. I think this part actually took longer than the experimenting! We spent a good 3 evenings of cutting and gluing. I thought LilKat1 might start to get tired of working on his project. But he really liked seeing his experiments come to life on the display that we were creating. We actually had a lot of fun making it.

Here’s the display at the Science Fair:

 

Here is the raw data that he recorded from the experiments:

Here is a table showing how he interpreted the data:

Each of the Science Fair projects was scored by a group of judges. Projects that scored high enough received a Science Star award. We must’ve done a pretty good job because we got one!

 

It was a little difficult thinking of a good age appropriate project, but I think we picked a pretty good one. One cool thing was that we (me included) actually found out things that we didn’t know before. Did you know that worms liked styrofoam more than coffee grounds? I didn’t! But most of all, it was a very fun thing to do with my son.  In fact, on the Scientist Question and Answer section, I asked LilKat1 what his favorite thing about the project was, and his answer was ‘Being with Dad’.

Mario Kart

You know how much I love my children?

I love my children so much that I spent hours becoming a Mario Kart expert so that they could play on the 'hidden' courses. HOURS!

Now, I enjoy playing games with my kids. And they love Mario Kart. We have the old version for the Game Cube (actually belongs to My-Friend-Who-Lies who was kind enough to let us borrow it. I guess that somewhat makes up for him stealing my 'Great Escape' DVD). Every now and then, me, Mrs. BigKat, and the 2 LilKats will have some great 4 player races.

But I'm talking about playing by myself after the kids have gone to bed because LilKat1 has told me 'Dad...we REEEEAAAAAAALLLLLYYYYYY want to play on the new courses.' Me, by myself, sitting in front of the TV (on a tiny wooden kid chair) when there are perfectly good boardgames upstairs just begging to be played!

Now, it wasn't all by myself. I did play a bit with LilKat2 to try and unlock the courses. We played the 150cc Star course together during my lunch break a couple of times. I remember once, I was very close to coming in first place. Then, all of a sudden, right before the finish line, I got blown up by a flying shell. I said something like 'Aaaaargh! I had it, but then someone blasted me with a flying shell!'

To which LilKat2 replied: 'Oh! That was me Dad!'

So we had to try again...

Well, over the weekend, we finally unlocked the tracks (actually Mrs. BigKat got the final piece of the puzzle with a 1st place on the 100cc Star Course with LilKat2) and the boys have been enjoying the new courses (LilKat2 woke up at 5:30 yesterday to go play them).

As for me...I think it's going to be a long time before I have one of those Mario Kart by myself sessions again.

Well, until we get a Wii and they want me to unlock those courses too...

Not what I wanted to see...

A couple of nights ago, I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I walked up to the sink and reached over to grab my toothbrush only to find some sort of a white cloth draped on top of it. It seemed pretty strange. I thought it must've been a washcloth or something, but couldn't figure out why someone would put it there. I picked it up and was immediatly thrown into a state of shock, horror, and disgust when I realized what I was holding...

My son's underwear!

LilKat1 had went into our bathroom and tossed his UNDERWEAR on my TOOTHBRUSH! We let him use our shower when his brother is taking a bath in their bathroom. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I can just picture him taking off his underwear and start whipping it around in the air like he was a Steelers fan with a Terrible Towel before randomly flinging it across the room (and onto my toothbrush) as he hopped  into the shower.

You know, finding your son's underwear on your toothbrush is completely disgusting and gross...

But for some bizarre reason, it's made me giggle inside every time I've thought about it today.

I love my goofy kids.

Rock Music

You know what's cute? Watching PrincessKat put her dollies into her little toy crib, get them all tucked in, and gently start rocking them to sleep while singing...

We will, we will ROCK YOU!

We will, we will ROCK YOU!

That's cute!

The McDonald's Slide Lottery

Yesterday, I took the 3 kids over to McDonalds to play in the play structure. It's kind of amazing to see PrincessKat easily holding her own with her brothers on such a big playground. Just another reminder that my little ones are all quickly turning into big ones.

But at the same time, PrincessKat is still pretty little. It's kind of funny sitting at the base of the slide, knowing that your 3 kids are going to come down in a single tangly clump and just hoping that your baby doesn't get squished.

I made up a haiku to capture the moment...

Waiting by the slide

Hoping the small one's on top

Sometimes she is not

It's kind of like a kid-pile-lottery. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But either way, you send them up again and keep playing.