Cereal Boy

Seminar paper writing isn't going very well, so I thought I'd write something I know I can do decently well.

Turner loves cereal. I suppose all kids do, but Turner doesn't really get to eat kid cereal (a.k.a. sugar zombie cereal). He is content with the classics from my childhood Corn Flakes, Special K, Oatmeal, Cheerios, Rice Krispies. Andy and Laura say that Fruity Pebbles and Lucky Charms were saved for vacation. We aren't that strict...mostly because Andy likes to down a box of Cocoa Pebbles in a few days. I buy sugary cereal for him and hide way in the back so Turner doesn't see it. If he doesn't see it, he is mesmerized by the huge Corn Flakes box instead. In all honesty, it really is a HUGE box and I'm a bit mesmerized by it too.

We haven't been to the grocery since Laura got here (and probably won't go until Cheryl comes...sorry Ci Ci). The Corn Flakes ran out on Thanksgiving Day; Turner had two or three bowls I think. We had already most of the good leftovers. I think the dressing was gone Wednesday night after Andy and I both had midnight snacks. Turner requests Corn Flakes on Friday and I have none to offer him. I tell him I have something that is like Corn Flakes. He says that is fine. I give it to him. He puts his sugar on there. He stirs. He enjoys.

Saturday Turner asks me for some "Like Corn Flakes" in the exact way I would ask for Brie Cheese. The Like is a type or category and Corn Flakes equivalent to cereal. I think I hear him incorrectly. "You want some what?" He opens the cabinet door and points. "I want some like corn flakes." I laugh. I grab the box of Special K. He picks out his spoon while I pour the cereal into a bowl. He waits patiently for me to retrieve the milk and to scoot the sugar container to the side of the counter. It is a well-orchestrated event--the assembling of cereal--that Turner and I share probably too often. I place the bowl on the table. We have a quick discussion about why it is not in his Einstein's bowl. He climbs to his seat. Settles La La bear next him. Places Thomas securely at the corner of his table space. He exhales. I put the bowl in front of him. I reassure him that there is sugar on the cereal. He takes a bite. He looks at me. "I love Like Corn Flakes."

Andy returns from golf on Sunday. Turner wakes up from his nap requesting in a very deep, sleepy, uncharacteristic voice a bowl of like corn flakes. Andy looks at me. I laugh. He sits in silence and eats for fifteen minutes two bowls of Like Corn Flakes while I cook dinner and Andy washes dishes left over from who knows when. Once Turner finishes, he scoots from his seat and walks to me. "I help you with dinner now." It is the familiar voice. I put him on the counter and he starts chatting away about everything as is normal for this little guy.

I must note that it is as though Turner needs an adjustment period after waking (which he gets honestly from multiple women in this family) and associates breakfast cereal with this downtime. I must also note that while Laura was here I made mention to the fact that Turner is as chatty as Cheryl indicates PK was as a child. I can't wait for you, PK, to spend some time with him over Christmas and see just how much energy it takes to keep up with that much conversation. :)

Black Friday Conversation

I am in the floor of the living room grading essays. OK, so I've graded only one and that happened yesterday. BUT, I am going to get them graded tonight. Anyway, Turner is having the most elaborate conversation with his cars and I thought I'd share parts of it. Forgive the lack of quotation marks.

Shoooooooo (Sally is flying)
Where did this one go?
Woo hoo (he is lining the cars up and putting them in a pattern, not just in a line)
Their making...that's my train....Mommy that's my train...the cars look like a train. They have to go back home. It is getting dark. That have to be a train another day. Sally is sad she has to leave. (whispering) Sally goes right there.
I ask: Is she back at the train?
She has to go. She not back at the train anymore.
Me: Where is she?
She leaves those guys. (inhaling air) There's a lizard in there. Oh wow. There's a lizard in there.
I'm making a train. It going to fly over that train (pointing to the red Thomas train thing). They're out of tires. They're not moving. Sally is driving the train. There she goes. She's dreaming about her wife and everything. She knows the day (he is singing).
Choo choo. All aboard. Stay here. The trucks say stay here. The crocodiles are coming. Now they are going to their house because it started raining. Come in you guys. Till it stops raining. Come in you guys fore it starts raining. They all go into the house. Uh oh (a car is pushed out the back of the house). It'll start raining. Come on guys. It's going to start raining. Sheww (exasperated; not sure why) You're pretty. Gotta get outta the rain.

[Short break to write comments on an essay. The rain is over b/c cars are coming out]

They are getting out. It is raining still. Stay in the house. That one jumped out. Is the rain over? Is the storm (sounds like morm) over? Calk (I think?). Is the storm over? Talk, talk.

Sally fell out. Sally fell out. now she has to get back in. She has to be riiiiiight there. Oh no! All the other cars fell out too (he picked up the house and they all slid out). They are going to get rain on them. Those guys going to get rain on they too.

:) I LOVE this imagination!

Get ready for a LONG update

La La is here and her depature is too quickly approaching. Everytime she is around I remember again how much I love sharing space with her. She and Turner have filled every moment, and I am glad Andy and I were able to spend some time with the two as well in between our crazy schedule.

Thursday: I put Turner to bed. Andy is gone to pick up Laura in Phoenix. I go outside to get something from the car soon after I put Turner to bed. I walk in as quietly as I can. Turner yells from his bed, the sleep evident in his voice, "La La! Are you here now, La La?"

Friday: I teach until noon. Andy works a double. I write and write and write.

Saturday: I go watch football with some school friends (Ohio and Michigan; Buckeyes win). Laura and Turner go to Reid Park and ride the train, jump in castles, play golf, and feed the ducks. We rent Dumbo and Turner is in love.

Sunday: Church and then to the desert museum. We saw otters, beavers, snakes, more snakes, lizards, turtle (a fake one on a table b/c the real one was hiding), puma, deer, turkey, wolves, black bears... We come home to naps and I write.

Monday: I teach, again. Andy works at night and has class during the day. I write and write and write. I bake the turkey.

Tuesday: We go to lunch. I go to school and write and write. I have class. I come home. We have Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, cornbread dressing, cheesy potatoes, cauliflower salad, green salad, broccoli casserole, and .... the best red velvet cake I've made in a long time. It had browned butter icing...I wish PK had a big slice. Having Laura here reminds me how little I have fed PK in the past year.

Wednesday: We go to the firestation. Turner is given a personal tour by Firefighter Ryan, who was apparently the low man on the totem pole. He showed Turner a lot of respect and gave him a lot of information. Turner enjoyed driving the fire engine the most and has decided that his job will always be that of engineer (the guy who drives the fire engine, which is the fire truck that has water). We visit Turner's school. We visit Andy's work. We have smiley face pancakes for lunch. Laura is now trying to get Turner to nap. He is more resistant and probably will win this battle too.:) Tonight we take a very long drive to the airplane that takes La La away from us.

I'll post pictures to speak to the fun we've all had. I can't shake the tears to actually write with wit today.

Funny Sayings Today

It is Veteran's Day and in Tucson that is more than a bank holiday! Andy, Turner, and I spent the entire day doing chores, running errands, catching up on homework, and laughing quietly at some of Turner's very serious affirmations. You can imagine the contexts. I'll try to add more later; Andy and Turner went shopping together, and I'm sure he'd like to add to the list.

"That tastes naaasty!"
"I don't care Momma. I love you too."
"There is no sugar. I stirred it and none there."
"My sailboat is swimming."
"We haf to mop it again in afdernoon."
"Do you hear the ocean?"
"It's not real stinky."
"Thomas and Bertie are goin to Tenkucky."
"Can I have waffle and raisin toast for beckfast?" (He ate oatmeal too!)
"You come stay at my house, Nanny? I see you 'morrow."
"Can I go to park with Kilan?"
"It smells like poopy in there. No poopy though."
"I running errands."
"I don't want pizza. I want corn flakes."
"I do it Turner's self."
"I love you more than mostest mostest."
"Where's La La?"
"I fix it."
"I don't want to go to school today." I reply: "OK" He smiles at Andy like he got away with a secret at 8 AM.
"Carry me. I got full hands."

We have a cat!

I know I have said this too many times but...Turner's imagination is the most intriguing text I've ever encountered. Andy worked late tonight (in at 6) so Turner and I are entertaining ourselves. He asks me to help him build a house. I try to help. He doesn't really want that. He wants me to build it and he take credit for it; sounds like a great plan! I build the house. He pulls it off my Leggo plate and tries to put it on his. We build another house together, he putting one Leggo down and me following. This house has two doors, six windows, and a driveway for the truck we created (with the "make pretend driver"). I sneak in a few pages of my not very exciting rhetoric book for a seminar paper I should work on tonight and won't. I lose myself for five minutes in boring jargon. I come back to hear his voice.

"Get out that house Cat." He slams the door. "You in trouble Cat."
"What happened to the cat?"
"He keeps running out the house. He suppose to stay inside."
"Oh." I wait. He starts driving his truck up and down the driveway. "Oh no Turner. That cat ran out of the house."
He's on his feet. "Oh no Mommy. Where did he go?"
"ummm," I get to my feet. "I think he ran under there." I point to the mill chest.
Turner slides to his belly and starts swatting his arm under the chest. "Get out here now you Cat." He pulls the cat out and opens the door to the Leggo house and puts the cat back in.
"There you go Cat." He turns to me. "There Mommy. He's safe."
I wait. He gets distracted again.
"Oh no Turner. Mommy let the cat out of the house."
He's on his feet. "Where'd he go?"
We sneak around downstairs looking for him. I point things out and Turner corrects me - "That's not the cat that's the grow-shur-ry bags"; "That's just a book"; "That's a pretend tree."
"Ohhh Turner I think I saw his tail run upstairs."
"Otay." He turns on the hall light. Climbs his way to the second floor. He yells down to me, "Mommy. My light isn't working in my room." I tell him to use his stool. An emphatic, "I did" reply.
I go upstairs. Sure enough, he has his stool under the light switch in his room. "I turned it on but it is for the fan." I pull the string on the ceiling fan. The light floods the room. "Tanks."
I go back downstairs while he lassos the cat.
"I got him Mommy."
"OK. Be careful carrying him down the stairs."
"I will."
He appears at the bottom of the stairs. Pushes the cat in my face. I pet it. Turner meows.
"I going to put him in the sink."
"Oh I don't think cats like the sink."
As he walks into the bathroom he says, "I know. He's a bad cat for running out the house." I hear the water turn on and off. Turner appears in the living room again, still clutching to the pretend cat. He opens the Leggo house door. Opens his arms to the one inch whole. "There you go Cat!" He points his finger at the house. "Stay in the house!"

What happened Mommy?

I bought a wireless card to put in the computer. Not really sure how it works, but I now have the Internet (though quite unreliable) downstairs. Not yet ready to stop paying $17.00 for the reliable connection upstairs, but having laptop mobility (I think that was the desire of laptops) is nice. So this weekend I have actually gotten a lot more work finished. While Turner watches his movie, I can be writing or, more likely, be grading the endless stack of student essays in my inbox. Seriously! I started grading when my folks were here. It will be three weeks on Wednesday from when students turned in essays and I'm still four away! What happened to that teacher who was too dedicated to her students...oh yeah I remember.



I figure the wireless Internet will enable me to blog more (and increase my tendency to procrastinate. At least this procrastination is worthy as opposed to cleaning house, which really does little good b/c the house will perpetually be dirty). Long preface...sorry.



I am watching my favorite little boy with his hands thrown behind his head, his eyes half closed at 8:07 pm watching Over the Hedge. He wanted to watch his Thomas movie (thanks Ci Ci; we'll bring it home for Christmas and you can sing along to all the songs). I opposed. We compromised (basically I would have let him watch anything but the Thomas movie tonight).



At quiet moments in the movie he looks over at me and asks, "What happened Mommy?" I can sometimes answer. It really doesn't matter if I answer though. I think he just realizes he hasn't spoken for a few minutes and must exercise his voice. No matter what my reply he says "Oh!" Convinced by the wisdom we all know our parents have until we learn it all in our teens and lose it all in our twenties.

They gave me candy!

I told Turner on Tuesday night that Halloween was about more than just going to Kilan's house in his rocket costume. He was, of course, very excited about that. Adding the idea of free candy to the night further enticed him to behave like the perfect little being he is (with the exception of biting me in the behind while I cooked dinner and then yelling at Andy when he tried to put him on the stairs; candy does crazy things to little kids).

Halloween arrives. Laura calls me and I am still at work writing a proposal. I realize that I am about forty minutes later leaving than I had hoped. I walk to my car. I get lost. It takes me almost 45 minutes of walking to securely fasten my seatbelt and head to Turner's school. It is 4:30. We are suppose to meet Kilan (and his folks) for trick or treating at 5:30. Not gonna happen.

We make it to the house. I start cooking and cleaning stuff off Turner's face, wetting his hair down, and changing my clothes (almost at the same time). Andy gets home at the perfect moment to help me lasso all our belongings and Turner into the car. These consist of: a big pot of cooked pinto beans, uncooked corn bread already mixed up and carefully sloshing around in tupperware, corn stick pans, pizza dough, pizza sauce, rocket costume, long sleeves, Turner's water bottle. Get it all in the car and I remember his Halloween bag. I run to get it while Andy gets Turner in the car. We arrive around 6:15.

As I've told many of you before, there are no streetlights here. So at 5:45 every night the streets become black like wandering around my grandma's farm at midnight. Marissa, the ever-prepared mom, has glow sticks for us. We take off to the first house. Turner follows Kilan, who is consistently a step ahead because that extra 1/2 inch in height makes a difference. Turner's costume is heavy, but he is heavily grinning to match it. The boys run to the door. Kilan yells "trick or treat!" Turner follows his lead and yells "trick or treat" until the lady opens the door (probably ten times in a row). He gets his candy and just stands on the front porch. We coax him back to us. He walks very slowly at first. Then he looks up from his bag and yells at me, "Momma. They gave me candy!" He shows me his loot. Todd points to the next house. Turner's feet catch fire and he is running with all the passion and energy he can muster. "Free candy!"

It was the most perfect night. We had a wonderful time with our friends and Turner was, as always, so delighted by Kilan. The boys watched the Sandlot (yes I know that should be in italics). We let him have a sucker and some chocolate. He was content with that.

Last night (Thursday) he was especially reluctant to go to bed. At ten (I think) he came to the top of the stairs again and said his belly hurt. Andy took over for me. I went to check on him in fifteen minutes and Turner was on the potty feeling sick. Andy goes downstairs. I get Turner off the toilet and we walk to the sink to put some water in our mouth and take some medicine. I give him the medicine and he throws up all over the place. It was almost instant. I can deal with a lot of things, but not vomit. I yell for Andy. I take Turner's clothes off. I yell for Andy. I wash him down. I put on new clothes. I brush his teeth. He is a walking zombie by this hour, but very cordially lets me clean him up. Andy appears in the bathroom and asks about bedtime or something. I point to the huge mess. "Oh. Why didn't you yell?" Hmm. Something tells me it won't be Andy catching Turner sneaking in at night.

We clean it up and put Turner to bed again. I think it is good that he got the sickness out. We discuss what we think caused it. Within a few hours we are in bed and Turner comes to our room. I grab his arm to pull him into the bed and it is wet with gross stuff. Andy strips the bed. I strip Turner. We do the whole thing all over again. Turner was up and down probably six or seven times. He would sit on his little stool in the bathroom being sick into the toilet while Andy stood over him. We had a family bed last night and every whimper he made I was grabbing the towel and Andy was rushing him to the bathroom. It was absolutely the most pitiful thing. I think it was the lemonade. Sugary drinks make me sick all the time. Add to that, candy he is not accustomed to having. We can't think of anything else. No fever and today he is all better. I canceled class and stayed home with him anyway.

FYI: I don't proofread blogs. I do well to get them up at all; so please excuse the rampant errors that someone so kindly pointed out to me in the comments section.