Excuse Me

I have tried over the past few years to teach the kids to gently touch my arm and say "excuse me" when they wanted my attention if I was talking to someone. This is successful a good bit of the time. Overall, I'm pleased.

In this area, Wesley is an over-achiever. He sits in the back of the van and I hear his tiny voice -- with a lisp no less -- "excuth me, excuth me, mom." If he wants something in the middle of the night, it 's the same tiny lispy voice bending over my head that I wake up hearing.

That was how I was woke up yesterday morning - to the sound of Wesley's lispy "excuth me." When I opened my eyes and focused on the clock, my immediate thought was that he had better be sick at that hour of the morning. But no - he was healthy - he just had an urgent question that he had to know the answer to at 5:35 am.

"Excuth me, mom, but do we have to do school today since it's a holiday? You don't do school on holidays." As I leaned up to ask him exactly what holiday it was, he shrugged his shoulders and looked at me as if I were the crazy one and answered, "it's Andi's birthday and birthdays are holidays."

Not quite - but good try little man. After they got done with their school work, Jacob, Carly & Wesley played a game called The Allowance Game. This game teaches adding and subtracing with money. There are also options to invest in lemonade stands and other things. I wonder how long it will be before they figure out they are still doing school work.

Andi had a great birthday. Zac made her a carrot cake, a banana/pineapple cake and banana pudding while I ran back and forth to the grocery getting things I had forgotten in the previous trip(s). Several of her friends came over after church last night and took care of all of the desserts. Not a scrap was left by the time everyone left. What wasn't eaten was sent home with people.

My friend, Staci, made Andi her favorite cookies - chocolate no-bakes and took them to church. She was embarrassed that they didn't set up and were little scoops of goo individually wrapped in Saran wrap. If only she had known ahead of time we could have saved her a lot of worry. That is exactly the way Andi likes them. She loves it when they don't set up and you have to eat them with a spoon. Those little jewels were not pulled out to share - I do believe she is hoarding them. I was able to get just enough to make me want to make some of my own today.

Andie came over to help celebrate and when she left, Zac went with her. It was good to spend some time with him. The kids always act have a good time with him. He played games with them and watched movies. It's been a very good week around here.