Clean up! Clean up! Everybody clean up!

Keegan just found a tampon in the bathroom (unused, of course), put it in the GI Joe box, and then clapped for himself because he thought he cleaned up!

The many faces of Gray in all his chocolate glory

The Allison Weekly -- Week of 9/7/2009

This week was a vast improvement from Labor Day weekend. Everyone is well again, the 'Noles won (barely), and we had a productive week overall.

Highlights of the weekend:

Logan has discovered Guitar Hero and immediately surpassed my skill level. He eats, sleeps, and breathes video games. After much discussion about the various types of video game consoles available, the boys have decided to "save" their money to buy a Wii. We thought this to be a better option than just asking Santa nicely for it and it's turning out to be a quite a good lesson for them to learn the value of a dollar, how to save. And also how to declutter and sell stuff we no longer need on Craiglist. That's just the way the Allison's roll, you know. So far, we've sold $80 of unwanted crap on Craigslist and counting. At this rate, we'll have our Wii in no time. But if you know me well, then you know that I can't pass up a good deal, and the rumor is that they will be on sale at Walmart at the beginning of October. Stay tuned.


Keegan wants to use a bowl like the big kids. This is how that's working out for us...


More teething.

More video games.

And here, Keegan has decided he wants to sit in a big kid chair like the rest of the family. Despite using the bowls with the suction cups on the bottom, Keegan always finds a way to break the suction, dump the bowl, and spread the food contents all over the table. When he's done eating (or if he doesn't like what you're serving) he throws his food on the floor. Life is good when you're one. He can always just stare at me with a blank look on his face like he doesn't know why I'm mad at him and all will be forgiven.

The Allison Weekly -- Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend was not what I had planned, to say the least. Logan started us off Friday night with a nasty stomach virus that hit about 45 minutes after we had gone to sleep. Jay and I had put the kids to bed early and enjoyed a relaxing evening on the couch, glass(es) of wine in hand. Funny how quickly you can sober up when you need to. Anyway, poor baby. It always hits him the hardest. So, six hours later, he was finally able to get some sleep. By that point, Jay had done several loads of laundry, we had no clean sheets or towels in the house, and we were exhausted from staying up all night cleaning the carpets, floors, and bathrooms. Just as Logan finally fell asleep, Gavin came running in to inform us that he "threw up all over the room". This was the understatement of the year, but I'll spare you the gory details. Luckily, Gavin has a stomach of steel and this was pretty much the end of it for him. Saturday and Sunday were spent cleaning, disinfecting, doing laundry, nursing Logan back to health, and tending to a sick Keegan (of course he didn't want to be left out). Keegan's illness appeared to be something entirely different (runny nose, cough, etc.) and culminated with the appearance of two new teeth! So, not the relaxing holiday weekend I had planned, but everyone is feeling better now.

Rock on, Gray!

Sins against God or a lack there-of

Tonight, as we ate dinner, we discussed going to church and what it means.

ME: Pretty soon we're going to get Gavin and Keegan baptised.

LOGAN: Why not me? Have I already been map-a-tized?

ME: Yeah, when you were smaller than Keegan. Mommy and Daddy have been slacking. I can show you pictures in the scrapbook after dinner. (which is probably the last time I scrapbooked!)

LOGAN: How come we have to get map-a-tized?

ME: Because Jesus died for our sins. And so you can be freed from your original sins. (As an afterthought, I add...) And, by the way, sins means the bad stuff you did.

LOGAN: But I didn't do anything to Him!!!!!!!

Because I always tend to get the better picture...

Today is Gavin's picture day at school. He's so excited about it, but traditionally speaking I tend to get the money shot here at our own little house. Apparently, they're intimidated by the strange adults doing ridiculous things to get them to smile while their entire class nervously looks on. Go figure. Not to mention the likelihood of a drink spill down the front of the shirt or snack stain around the mouth before it's picture time. So here's the best shot of the morning taken in my front yard.

We got slimed at the Nick Hotel!

And by "we" I mean "not me". Just the boys.

A very special Sponge Bob birthday!

Gavin's 4th birthday bash at the Nickelodeon Hotel!

The kids (and adults) had so much fun that we didn't even want to leave the hotel. Not even to go to Universal. Not even to hit the outlet malls (gasp!). Okay, so we did manage to sneak away from the kids to do a little shopping, but we rushed right back to continue to play! If you have kids under 8 or so, I highly recommend this place. It's super-fun for the kids and it's like a mini-resort where Dora and Sponge Bob just walk around all day posing for pictures. They have shops, computers, a food court, games, shows, and two pool areas with lots of slides and lifeguards. They also have a "Birthday Bash" with Sponge Bob if you're celebrating a special someones birthday. But most importantly, they have poolside bars so the big people can relax and enjoy too!

Red, Yellow, Green and Kindergarten woes

After a bit of a rocky start, Logan is really enjoying Kindergarten. He wasn't feeling well for the first week of school and came home a few times complaining that no one was playing with him on the playground. Fast forward one week and he's all smiles in the morning and is already asking for me to set up a play date with "Max". Of course, Max was "on yellow" today, meaning that he did something naughty in class, so only time will tell if Max will really get to come over for a play date. Hey, I'll interfere while I still can, thank you very much.

So about being on yellow...Logan's class has your standard classroom wide behavior system where all children start the day on green and move back and forth through green, yellow, and red for various inappropriate behaviors. Logan brings home a notebook each day with a smiley face colored red, yellow, or green accordingly. He nags me to sign this book about 105 times an evening, which lets me know that Mrs. Kindergarten Teacher is giving them candy upon receipt of the signed notebook each day. Today Logan's smiley face was colored kind of a confusing, ambiguous, yellow-green rather than a primary green.

This was our conversation:

ME: Logan, you're on YELLOW today!?!?! How come?
LOGAN: No, mom. I'm on green!
ME: This looks like yellow to me.
LOGAN: No, really, it's green. I just picked a funny green color today on accident.
ME: Are you sure you're not on yellow?
LOGAN: No! Mom! You know I would never do that to you!!!!!!