Bedtime

Josh, I have to admit, currently (and for the last 2 or 3 years), I hate putting you to bed. You like to run away, hide, yell, scream, kick, all the while laughing your head off. After I have fought and forced and held you down to get the bedtime routine done, we may or may not read (which I actually enjoy) depending how naughty you are. Not fun for me. However, there is one thing about bedtime that I absolutely love. After all the craziness and frustration, I turn off the light and I hear a little, "mom". I hear a little hand patting the bed. If there is enough light I can see your little smile as you lightly pat right next to you. When I lay down next to you, you grab my head and hold it against your chest tightly. I can't help but start to whisper about how much I love you and how much you mean to me. After about 45 seconds, while still holding my head tightly, you whisper, "go!". "you want me to leave?" Head nod. It is only 45 seconds of a 15-25 minute ordeal but that 45 seconds means the world to me.

Bruce Wayne?

So if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you will know that my son likes to dress up as many different superheroes. Now that it is hot, he often just puts on a cape and/or mask instead of the whole get up. Even so, I still play along. I will say, "Oh my goodness! It's Batman!" He grins and lifts his mask with a look that says "Won't she be surprised?". "DOSH!" "Josh?" one big head nod "Oh, I thought you were Batman!" Huge grin. He pulls down the mask and we do the whole thing over again. Sometimes we add in, "You know, there is a rumor that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne." Shakes the head no then shows me who Batman really is. The most interesting thing is that I think he really believes it. Not that he is Batman necessarily, but that when he is wearing the mask I can't tell who he is. There is just something so sincere about his face when he pulls up the mask. A look that is both reassuring and amused. Like when a parent tells the secret to a magic trick.

Bullied Bus Monitor

I do not normally post news stories of humans at their worst. I may talk about it but I feel that most people know how bad other people can be. However, when I watched this, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/21/155491802/bullied-bus-monitor-wants-apology-but-still-believes-all-kids-arent-bad(**WARNING** Watch this video without kids or with earphones, there is bad language) I was outraged. Actually, I didn't even finish it. I couldn't I only got about 3 minutes in (it is 10 minutes long)and for my own well being I could not finish. Children are getting more and more disrespectful and nasty. Parents: we need to stop this! We need to speak to each other and treat each other in such a way that our children know what is okay and what is not. Everyone: We need to be kind to everyone. We need to stick up for others. I believe if we do not want our futures and our children's futures to look like this, we have to change ourselves and our children NOW. I will step off my soapbox, if any of you want to use it, feel free.

Bird feeders

Today Josh and I went on a "nature" scavenger hunt (just around the neighborhood) to find pine cones. To find them I told him about the differences between deciduous trees and evergreens. Then we looked for "the pokey kind" (since he never really seemed to differentiate if I just said evergreen) to look for the pine cones that grew and fell off of them. We found many different kinds but I described what kind we needed to find and when he found other ones we could compare to see if they were in fact, the right kind. We found 5 really good ones. Then the fun part. First you take the pine cone and tie a string around the top. Then cover it with peanut butter And more peanut butter... Then roll it in the bird seed And then you hang it up! And then you attempt to take a cute picture of you and your son with the bird feeder in the background which proves impossible because: He looks like he is dead drunk/high the camera focuses on something else besides you are wrestling him down which does nothing for either of your hair or it finally focuses and he smiles but you forget to because you are trying so hard to get him to smile. So then you try him alone with mixed results

Play place breakthrough

Today I got out of fieldwork early so I took Josh to McDonalds. It is a dream of mine that one day he will say, "Oh l, look, other children. I bet they would be fun to play with. And look at this huge plastic labyrinth. That looks like fun!" Instead he spends his time "playing" the video games, playing with his happy meal toy, and perhaps staring while standing too closely to strangers. Today, however, with only about 20 minutes of bribing and coaxing, he climbed the tower part (not the tube) and into one of the large domes. First I stood on the right side then the left progressively higher to force him to go to the next level to interact with me. The deal was that once there I would use his Madagascar 3 toy and shoot the zebra out of the cannon at him multiple times. Then he laughs, comes 1/2 way down the tower to where he can hold my hand and give me kisses through a slat in the plastic before going back up. We did this for about 45 minutes. He even stayed (although frozen) when someone passed him in the tower (he is afraid of other children because they are so fast and they tend to knock him over without noticing). One time there was even a bigger boy (9ish) in the dome but he was so excited to see the zebra shoot up at him that he kept yelling "Bo!" until the boy looked mildly concerned with his sanity and left. Maybe within the year I can convince him the tube bits are not evil. I am so proud of my little guy.

Wolverine

Setting: last week in our driveway. (Josh almost 6) While I am at school and Josh is out of school for the summer, Tyler gets him ready and then drops him off at either Melissa's or my parents' home for the day. He lets him bring a bag of toys and Josh almost always brings/wears some part of a superhero costume. This day Tyler is carpooling to work so Ben is picking them up. Josh has never met Ben. Josh is also has his X-Men Wolverine mask perched on top of his head. Ben pulls up, Tyler opens the back door, and tells Josh to get in. I guess Tyler did not explain fully what was happening because Josh peeks fearfully into the car at Ben, back to Tyler, back to Ben, back to Tyler. Then he resolutely pulls down his mask onto his face, looks at Ben and growls, then climbs into his backseat. His challenge made clear. "Don't mess with me man, I'm Wolverine and I will kick your butt."

WUSTE!!

(The title of this post should be yelled) So this is the 3rd year my husband and I have been to Wuste (the biggest car show in the Western United States, which just happens to be in Las Vegas). I love it. It is hot, we get to swim (although I did homework instead this year), plus stay in a hotel (which I love doing), play in Vegas (which is still pretty fun), and see some amazing cars. The cars are amazing! This year there were 2,000 cars and 8,000 people at the show. I will not bore you with the details of these cars because I know those of you reading my blog do not care about that but they are SO COOL! But I have found my favorite parts of Vegas are not all of these things. First of all, I love to see my husband in his element. He knows everything about everything, I swear. People are constantly asking his opinion or how to fix this or that. He is more than respected. Last year, we were walking out of our room and the guy across the hall said, "Tyler? Tyler Davis?" "Greg!" I was lost for a moment but came to find out that they have been talking online for years. Greg kept saying all weekend that Tyler was a "scene celebrity". I laughed it off but for two years it has proven to be true. People come up to him and gush about his engine building thread. People he does not know have been following him for years. I just love seeing him surrounded by people who appreciate his knowledge and experience. The other thing that I love: People think that I am awesome. Probably because I love the car show and because of my husband I know more about cars than other girls. But this year I may have found the actual reason that people think that I am awesome. I have heard about Tyler's friend Thomas for years. I met him for the first time at Wuste. He yelled my name with a huge smile and hugged me like we have known each other for years. He spoke of how excited he was to meet me and how amazing I am. All of this he has gotten from talking to Tyler. I heard a few times from different people this year of the sweet things Tyler says behind my back. It isn't that I was surprised that he thinks so highly of me, but I just imagined that he only talked cars with them when apparently some of the time he has been bragging about his "cool wife". I love that man.