Wedding....

Uncle Brandon got married on June 9th... and we now have new aunt in the family and I've upped my sister-in-law count to three.  Congratulations Uncle Brandon and Aunt Shayna!

The big boys served as ring bearer and applause coordinator. Jonathan was just bonus entertainment.

They were crazy well-behaved and had a blast.  I was so proud of them! :)

These are just the pics from my camera. Can't wait to see the professional ones!

The little guys danced their little hearts out at the reception. The professional video of that should be priceless too. LOL. Here's a snippet of what went on for a solid hour or so...


They are actually right now entered into a local radio station contest with that video. LOL! They made the top 10 and are in the running for $500! If you feel so inclined, free free to go vote for them every day until the 23rd! ;)
http://www.z1043.com/cc-common/contests/?id=238092

So my baby brother is married... which is ultra-weird because I remember when he was Jonathan's age. Heck, I remember the day he was born. (one advantage of being 10 years apart!) Time flies...

Getting to the Bottom of It...

Why is it that all the most dramatic things happening in my life lately seem to revolve around pickup time at the elementary school? 

So Thursday, I was standing there minding my own business, like I do every day... entertaining Jonathan, chit-chatting with the two other kindergarten moms who are always there in line with me. 

Then my librarian friend came around the corner and rocked my world -- 

Her: "Soooo... did you get any emails from teachers today?"

Me: "Uh. No?

(silence) 

Me: "WHY?" 

Her: Nothing from Mrs. B? (Simon's teacher)

Me: No. WHY? OMG. What did he do?

Her: Do you want to hear it from me or do you want her to tell you?

Me: (already mortified) Just please tell me what he did. 

Her: Well, apparently, he pulled his pants down and showed his butt.

Me: He did WHAT?  Where?! When?!

Her: In the gym line. 

The gym teacher walked by right then and knew what we were talking about. She stifled laughter and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know why! I just don't know!"

Right then, Mrs. B. came down the hall and pulled me aside to tell the story. Apparently, they were lined up after gym and someone reported that Simon had "shown his butt". This news went from the gym teacher to the kindergarten teacher who said she'd had a talk with him about it and hadn't felt the need to email me... that I should just talk to him when we got home. 

Simon came out skipping out of the parent pickup line all smiles.

I was NOT smiling.

"Simon, WHAT did you do today?"

"Hi Mommy!"

"Simon, WHAT did you DO TODAY?!"

"Um..." He put his finger to his mouth while he thought...   "I drew a picture? It's in my folder!"

"Try again."

"Ummm... I played on the playground!!" 

"Simon... did you pull your pants down in the gym line?"

"No?" 

This was my first clue that maybe the story needed further investigation. Simon, while known to fib occasionally, is usually pretty quick to admit when he's been caught.

Ben came out of the line, followed by my two Thursday carpool friends... so I didn't have time to dig deeper.

"We'll talk when we get home." 

Later, at home, I asked him to show me what he did that got him in trouble.  He turned around, stuck out his backside and wiggled it. I couldn't help but laugh. 

"THAT's what you did?"

"Yeah!"

"That's it? You just wiggled your butt? You didn't pull your pants down?"

"No. I just showed them my pants butt. Not my REAL butt!" (as if this was the most absurd thing he'd EVER heard.)

"Well why do they think you said that?"

"I don't know. Maybe because that's what the kids said? They told Mrs. L."

Okay, so I whittled away at the story the rest of the evening until I was confident that what had ACTUALLY gone down is exactly what Simon demonstrated. Probably not the smartest thing he's ever done at school, but certainly not as bad an infraction as mooning the class.  I quizzed him about it 47 different ways to make sure he wasn't pulling one over on me and then I emailed the teacher. I pointed out that it didn't sound like a teacher had seen this happen, that they had heard the kids say "Simon showed his butt". But that they meant he had done what he showed me. 

I told Simon he needed to go to school and tell his teacher what really happened. She asked him toward the end of the day and he gave her the same story. She came up and told me I was right... that the kids had reported it to the teacher who didn't see anything and it seems like it got miscommunicated/lost in translation. 

WHEW. 

I did tell her that I was 99% sure this was what had happened, but that the pants down scenario was not entirely out of the question given that he dropped his drawers and peed on the preschool playground just last year. 

I'm just glad to have cleared his name... it turned out to not be a big deal but really had me concerned there for a good couple of hours!!

OH that Simon... what will he do next?!

Mix it Up!

Today is "mix it up" day at the kids' school as part of anti-bullying week. They are supposed to wear mis-matched clothes and sit with people they don't normally sit with.

Ten to one Ben wants nothing to do with the mismatched clothes and Simon goes bananas with it.

Pictures coming. ;)

Simon had a little Valentine's Concert at school on Monday. SUPER cute... ridiculously super cute. Video coming!  He did a great job, though seemed to have trouble singing and doing hand motions simultaneously. LOL!

P-U-R-P-L-E....

I was vaguely aware of Simon's class learning a purple song a couple weeks ago to sing on their school's Live News show that airs on Fridays because the teacher asked us to make sure they all wore purple that day. Had never heard the song though ... until this afternoon when Simon spontaneously belted it out in the driveway.  LOL.

Numbers Man...

Simon is very into writing his numbers right now. (I'm assuming numbers were the project last week at school, in addition to the letters F,G, and H. LOL. ) Anyway, his favorite thing is to write one number HUGE on a sheet of paper. He must have gone through 40 sheets of paper yesterday morning, all of which he stuffed into his kindergarten folder to take to school and give out to friends. He told me he specifically created several of them for his teacher to use when she says, "1,2,3 eyes on me!" He also drew a set of eyes. 

I briefly considered emailing the teacher to let her know he was doing this so she didn't wonder why he came to school with a folder stuffed full of paper. 

Then I remembered, this is Simon, not Ben.... he won't be shy about it.

When she came over to me at pickup time, she informed me that Simon had "let her" use his numbers during "1,2,3" AND, bonus, he told her "he would allow her" (LOL!) to keep the number 2 and the eyes.

Too funny. I am counting down the days to American Education week... can't wait to see that child in action at school. He's a hoot!

Thanks for Clearing That Up....

I was in Simon's room while he was getting dressed yesterday morning and noticed a weird mark on his chest.

"What's that, buddy?" I asked. "Did you scratch yourself with something?"

Looking down he replied, "Oh that? I don't remember. But that thing underneath? THAT is my nipple."

Funny Conversation....

From Simon's room last night....

The conversation that just went down in Simon's room that still has me laughing. 

Me: Simon, daddy is leaving really early for work tomorrow so he won't be here to see you open your birthday presents when you wake up. Do you want to open them tonight?

Simon: Oh! Yes!

Me: Okay... but when you wake up, you won't have any presents to open.

Simon: Okay then. I will only open ONE.

Me: Are you sure? Because you can open all of them.

Simon: No. I will pick just ONE.

Me: Seriously?

Tom: Well, he is clearly not YOUR child.

Me: I know! Sheesh. Simon, who ARE you?

Simon: I'm SIMON!

Ben (from the bathroom): She meant that metaphorically, Simon.

Birthday Chair Day!

Simon's big day in the birthday chair at school!  :o) 

Ham on the Side...

Highlights from today's preschool Mother's Day concert/luncheon/graduation thingie...

These are not in the order in which they were sung... I will say though, that somewhere in the middle of the second song (the numbers one), I knew he was getting revved up. The more people giggled, the more silly things he did... by the Alphabet one (my favorite and the one where I literally cried from laughing so hard), he was in full-on performance mode.

HILARIOUS. What a memory!

Singin' Our Alphabet


Love Somebody/Skinamarinkeedinkeedoo


You Are My Sunshine


Rollin' Numbers

Cousins Picnic...

The weather turned GORGEOUS with the time change. We spent almost the entire day outside yesterday and it was sooooooo nice. :) Aunt Sarah and cousin Audim stopped by and had a picnic on the deck with Simon and Jonathan and I!

Jonathan stuffed himself with almost an entire bowl of strawberries!!! (hence the red juice running down his face)

Just Keep Swimming...

Simon is two weeks into swimming lessons. My kids need swimming lessons DESPERATELY. I can't believe I have a near 8-year-old who can't keep his head above water. These are NOT my children in this respect.

At any rate, we finally got on it and Simon started a six-week program with two of his little preschool friends. The first week, he spent 20 minutes crying and 10 minutes in the water. This week, he resisted and cried some, but I basically just tossed him to the teacher and all went well after that. He isn't letting go of her yet, but he is learning to kick and blow bubbles.

I'm hopeful that by the end of the six weeks, he can at least swim to the side. Either way, we are just going to keep going with the lessons, starting another session right after this one is over. And next time around, we're doing Saturdays so Ben can join in too. He is LESS THAN THRILLED, but I really don't care. With a daredevil toddler to save from drowning all summer at the pool, I need to know that my older ones, can, at the very least, swim to the side if they fall into the deep end. I don't anticipate that happening and there are tons of life guards, but better safe than sorry.

Today's bit of Simon humor came from his swimming lesson. On the way home, I asked him if he thought Ben was going to like swimming lessons.

"OH yes! You get to hold onto a girl the WHOLE time!!"

"Is that your favorite part?!"

"YES!!!"

Wow. Now I have to wonder if he'll ever show her he can swim on his own or if he'll just pretend he can't stay up just so he gets to hold into her some more. LOL!!

Dear Makers of "Milk Chocolate Scented Lip Balm"...

... I ask you, was it really necessary to make this stuff brown???

Oddest Christmas Request Yet...

So, moving on from the flame thrower...

The middle one, he says he wants a tutu for Christmas. Why, you may ask? Because they look like what princesses wear and girls like princesses and he thinks it may get him kissed. Also? Kissing wakes people up, so he will wear it and find people who are sleeping and kiss them.

My kids are so weird! ;)

Pageant Day!

Edited to add: Video! The very end cracks me up. ;)


Simon's preschool Christmas pageant was Thursday. After four of these, we have the drill down now and scored front row seats for the third year in a row, thanks to Aunt Debbie's 7:30 arrival at the church. (it started at 9:15) LOL!

Simon was SO excited. He was going to be a king... for the second year in a row. Ben was also a king, although thinking back, he may have been a shiny star his first year. But the king thing seems to be a Graff family tradition. When Jonathan goes through, I'm going to try to convince him to pick the Joseph costume. All the Marys and Josephs get to process in first and stand up there alone for a full song and are up in front the ENTIRE pageant (making for lots of great photo and video ops!). The kings? They come in last and so you really only get to see them sing one or two songs on stage before the whole thing is over and they all walk back out again.

Anyway, so king he was. And he was AWESOME. ;) He sang and danced and smiled. That boy loves the stage and i just so entertaining to watch up there.

This was before everything started. I said, "Simon, go stand on the stage so I can take your picture!" He leapt from his seat... "Okay!!!" Gotta love how different my kids are....


Being a king




During parent paparazzi time after the singing


Classroom party after the pageant


Bad picture.. but here he is with his little gift for me. It was a heart-shaped box, glued shut because it was "full of kisses" he had put there. (cry!) He also made the same little burlap handprint wreath decoration that Ben did when he was four. I have matching ones now!! (although Ben's needs a repair job so I can rehang it... ) Simon takes SUCH pride in his little craft projects. I love it!




No Christmas pageant next year, since Jonathan will only be a 2 and the 2s don't participate. But then the following year, the tradition is back! :) YAY!

Here I Am!

So yeah... buried under Christmas stuff and family stuff and oh yeah... PINTEREST. Curse you people who lead me to this evil place. Now I have a list of ideas I'll never have time to execute. However, I practically have a whole category of meals I can make using a muffin tin, so there's that.

I'll work backwards here. Yesterday was a pleasantly quiet day. Tom watched football with his dad and they entertained the kids all afternoon so I got to the grocery store and the Hallmark store, put together Jonathan's Cozy Coupe and make some sugar cookies ALL by myself. So nice. All was well... until Jonathan woke up from his second nap with one bright pink cheek and I thought, foolishly, "Oh, he must have just slept on something." Then his other cheek joined the party. Add in a little uncharactic fussiness and a total meltdown when presented with dinner... when I picked him up from the highchair, he was burning up. Sure enough,, 102.8. I gave him a bath and some Tylenol and then he wolfed down a ton of food and Tom and I passed him back and forth on the couch for awhile while he lounged on us. When he started to doze off around 6:45, we just put him to bed. I dosed him all night long with Motrin and Tylenol, taking his temp each time. It spiked as high as 101, but mostly stayed in check with the medicine, so he got some much needed good sleep.

This morning, he was back to 101, but then, by an hour after he got up, it was down to 99.4 on its own and he was mostly himself. I dosed him with some Motrin before his nap and all seems well, although he does have a gross crusty nose... so, hopefully just a cold.

Saturday, we wanted to do something Christmasy with the boys. It was a tossup between the train garden and our local "Santa Arrives by Firetruck!" event. We opted for the close, less crowded option. We didn't tell the boys why we were standing around in the shopping center... just kept them guessing until the big moment.

Here's Jonathan enjoying the view from Tom's shoulders. He's so bundled up, he actually looks like Simon as a baby for a change. ;)


Ben was cold and complainy... but humored us with a brother moment.


We saw a bunch of school friends from both boys' schools... so that passed the time for a few minutes and the boys were excited to see people they knew.

Then came the firetruck. My children were underwhelmed to say the least. Didn't help that we kinda really couldn't see Santa from where we were standing.


Eh. Oh well.

Ben immediately asked, "Can we go have lunch now?"

So lunch it was.

We abandoned the Santa scene and grabbed a table at the bagel place before the idea of lunch hit the rest of the crowd.






We finished up and in came the rest of the people who had stood in line for Santa FIRST. HA! Off we went to snag a Santa pic with practically zero line.

Free cookies! WAHOO!


The big guy and the big boys. Santa actually "oooooof"ed when he hauled Simon up on to his lap. LOL!


Jonathan wanted nothing to do with Santa, mostly because there were shiny sparkly garlands lining the path to Santa that seemed more interesting to him.

The boys both forgot what they wanted for Christmas. D'oh. I was hoping to get some confirmation that I've secured their #1 wishes. Oh well... guess we'll find out on Christmas morning!

We skipped the glitter tattoo line and the face-painting line and back home we went to sit by the fire and watch Elf. :) YAY!

Friday we had a Christmas party at a friend's house which was SO fun. The kiddos went in their jammies and just had a blast together. :)

That afternoon, I made my annual batch of these heavenly yummy things...



During this time, Jonathan systematically trashedd the first floor.


And just generally got into stuff...


Simon built Star Wars ships out of Legos.


And asked me to take his picture.






Ben had a good week at school and only had to recopy a handful of things. He's learning cursive and is developing the most interesting handwriting... it's kind of cute watching it evolve. ;) I'll have to scan something in later so you can see.

So, there... I think we're all caught up. Right? Oh who am I kidding. I am too far behind to REALLY catch up. So let's just start from where we are, shall we? :)

Halloween Parade Time!

Today was Simon's little Halloween parade at preschool. It was super cute, as usual. :o)

I love preschool. So simple. So easy.

Kind of dreading the utter chaos/parking insanity/crowded mess that will be Ben's Halloween parade on Monday morning. (sigh)

I Have a Hundred More Just as Funny As This One....

My little Simon.... he is a funny guy. For a little over a year now, he's known how to get on my computer and record videos of himself on Photobooth and it's a favorite pastime of his. As a result, I have about 1,000 of these short, yet HIGHLY amusing clips. He especially likes to play with the effects that warp your face... in this one, he is using his favorite one that makes your forehead huge. ;)

Three-fer Update....

Benjamin--

Ben had the weirdest/shortest stomach bug ever over the weekend. I thought for sure he'd be out of school today, but there was only one "incident" and it was overnight on Saturday and then he kicked the fever by early Sunday and was eating, drinking and playing completely normally. He was none too pleased about his recovery as off to school he went this morning. HA.

I spoke too soon when I said in a recent post that he wasn't currently obsessed with anything. It is 24/7 Pokemon over here and BOY am I growing weary of this one. Ready to move back to the solar system or maps and flags or any number of his past obsessions that he revisits periodically.

Simon --

Simon is cracking us lately. He has been pleasant most of the time, which is a nice change from the constant scowling of the last year. He is also mostly over his dislike of girls and even invited one over at school on Thursday, much to his teacher's amusement. He did tell her she would have to play with boy toys since we have no girls toys. Then his teacher said he promptly UNinvited her while waiting in line for the bathroom when he decided (and told her) that he didn't like her hair. But it's progress and we'll take it. ;)

He is big into making movies and "soundtracks" for said movies lately. His most recent creation was a karate movie, which I put on FB and will try to post here later. I couldn't stifle my laughter. He REALLY wants to take a karate class. The very thought makes me cringe... I never thought I'd entertain the idea of letting one of my kids do that. But he keeps asking!!! There is one at the Little Gym around the corner that does karate and gymnastics sort of combined... might have to give it a try.

Jonathan --

I could swear my mostly still non-verbal baby said "marshmallow" clear as day this morning while pointing to the bag I had in my head as I was making Ben's lunch. "Mah me yoh". I did a double take and actually said, "Did you just say marshmallow?" In reply he held out his chubby little hand. I'm sure I won't hear that word again for a year because that's how these things go over here. Weird though. He is SO much like Ben, it scares me sometimes. He is currently OBSESSED with ceiling fans and light switches and turning lights on and off. Gah. He throws a complete fit (as in, lays on the floor screaming) when you won't pick him up to reach a light switch. He's a tantrummy one, this one. I do want to take him on a field trip soon to the fan and light aisle at Home Depot. That was always a huge hit with big brother.

I had a proud mommy moment over the weekend when we took them all out to eat at the Avenue in White Marsh. The older couple at the table next to us stopped me as we were leaving to tell me how well-behaved our children were. And then, walking by the fountain on the way out, an elderly lady and her son stopped us to say they had seen us earlier and the son said his mom had commented how well-managed and well-behaved they all were. She then chimed in to say that she had had nine kids that we should keep going. LOL! Let me think, umm.. no. But anyway, those sorts of comments are always nice when you are out and about. :o)

The Making of a Reader... Take II

So the middle one, just since school started, he is now interested in reading by himself. This is about the same age Ben was when the wheels started turning on the whole reading thing. So, I'm sure the next year and a half are going to be full of magical leaps forward for Simon in this area, with kindergarten being the place where things finally all start to come together.

It's fun to watch things start to click. He had picked up a few sight words here and there... just by living and breathing. With the crazy year we've had around here, I feel badly that I really haven't spent much time sitting down and working with him. But it's just as well because it's just NOW that he's really started to express some interest and some things are starting to come together for him. And frankly, I've learned that pushing things before their time never works for my kids. LOL. (or any kids? I don't know... I can only speak for mine)

Anyway, so we've worked our way through a few of the level 1 Bob Books and he is SO pleased with himself when he finishes one. We put a little sticker on the outside of them whenever he reads all the way through. He loves this. :) He does do the same thing Ben used to do though where he'll see a beginning letter and guess a word he knows instead of stopping and sounding things out.

Yesterday, he wanted to play with the letter stamps, so we got those out and worked on some endings and sounding out. He's getting it, slowly but surely. He only stays interested for 15-20 minutes at a time with that... but he'll play on the PBS website for longer and has learned a TON from that as well as from the Leapster Explorer reading games.

He SOooo wants to keep up with his big brother and he gets very frustrated when he can't read things on his DS or on on a website. I think this will drive him to do a lot of things in life... LOL. A little brotherly game of keepup... this is not a bad thing! ;)

Ben tries to teach him math problems too... which is amusing to watch. I'm starting to see that Simon, my more artsy child, may possibly have my brain as far as math is concerned. At the very least, he is not interested in it the same way Ben was at this age. (this was the age Ben used to say to me, "Mom? Why does 4+4+2+3+1=14?", to which I would reply, "Uhh...")

In other Simon news, he whispered to me last night before bed, "I have a secret that I can ONLY tell my family. Guess what? I am not really six, I am four. Also? I do not like the color pink."

I love that boy. ;)