Imaginary Friends

I think lots of kids have an imaginary friend (or friends) at some point in their childhood.  I've read that it is healthy and normal for children to create a fictional character to "hang out" with.  I know that I had my fair share of imaginary friends growing up.  One in particular that I can remember is the one that I named Katie, my sister's name.  Although I'm pretty sure that my reason for having that imaginary friend was just so I had yet another way to annoy my sister growing up.  I would constantly call out, "hey Katie," and when my sister would reply I was then able to yell at her about the fact that I'm was not talking to her, I'm was talking to my imaginary friend, Katie. (Yes, I truly was a horrid sibling!)

Joey has had two imaginary friends so far.  About a year and a half ago Joey's first imaginary character came into our lives.  It was a cow who lived with us in our Raleigh apartment, and Joey was often found feeding it (imaginary) soup or (real) goldfish crackers.  The cow stayed with us for probably 6 months or so, and was usually hanging out in the hallway.

Recently Joey started talking about his friend Emily.  Emily has red hair (coincidence? um... no.), lives with her mom & dad, does NOT have 2 sisters, and is always on her way to our house.  Emily has never actually come over to our house as of yet, and I'm wondering if she ever will.  Today she went to school, but not the same school as us... a different school.  The funniest thing I've learned about Joey's imaginary friend Emily is when he told me that she has her own room, but she sleeps in her mommy's bed because her bed is "all messed up." 

Lately we've been having an issue with Joey staying in his own bed all night, so the boy is clearly living vicariously through his imaginary friend's privilege of being able to sleep in her mommy's bed.  I'm wondering if he is going to do something to "mess up" his bed in hopes that he'll get a free ticket to sleep in my bed one of these nights.  I sincerely hope not.  I'm not a happy mommy when I get awoken in the night, so this getting out of bed thing has got to come to an end soon.  And his damn friend Emily is not helping the situation with her stupid messed up bed!

Aside from the fact that I don't want my kid picking up any bad habits from his imaginary friend, I have to admit that I think that this is one of those really neat things about childhood.  I love having conversations with Joey about his imaginary friend.  I love the way his little mind is working to think up random stuff about a person (or cow) who doesn't even exist.  It's one of those things that is cute for little kids to do for a certain amount of time, and then it's gone forever.  I mean seriously, I couldn't just come home one day from the store and tell Ron all about some woman that I met & became friends with who has wonderful, well-behaved children, a magic wand to make them disappear whenever she wanted, and a money tree growing in the backyard.  Oh, and she's going to come over tonight and cook for us & do all the dishes and clean up too.  Well I could try to tell him all of that, but he obviously would just know that I've now completely lost my mind & that it is time to begin looking into group home options for me.  So I won't do that.  But I will continue to talk to my kids about their imaginary friends because I think what they have to say is so creative, funny, and innocent all at the same time.

How about you?  Do your kids have any imaginary friends?  Do you?

Class Clown

Lots of little boys are silly.  Potty talk is always funny to them, as is being naked, falling down, and acting generally unruly at any and all given opportunities.  Joey is no exception to this boy stereotype.  In-fact, I think he's the poster child for all things silly.  He's had a great sense of humor and funny little way about him for as long as I can remember, and turning 4 years old has not stopped him from calling everything stinky, skunky, or banana. (each time followed by a loud belly laugh & usually a fall to the ground!)

I've gone back to teaching within the last month, and I've been blessed with not missing a minute with my funny boy.  That's right... I'm his preschool teacher for 4 glorious hours every morning of the week. (Don't worry... he's moving up to the Pre-K in a week, so he'll get to entertain another set of classmates and a different teacher very soon.)

Since Joey's been home with me for the past 4 years, he's been allowed to be silly much of the time.  That means falling down, making up words, adding stinky to every sentence that comes out of his mouth, etc. etc. etc.  However, we've had to have many talks about how we behave differently at school than we do at home, and Joey has quickly learned that being the class clown is far more exciting than following directions from his "mommy/teacher." (his school nick-name for me) 

So while the other children are sitting at tables quietly building, coloring, or manipulating small toys in an organized format, my son is tossing himself off the chair, knocking down block towers, or calling himself "banana-head."  And all the other children laugh of course, just encouraging him to do it more.

Last week we did watercolor paintings during art time.  I showed the children many different pictures to inspire them.  Some chose to paint themselves, their family, a favorite place, or object.  As I went around the room to write a caption on every one's paper I got responses like, "This is me swimming at the beach," or "I painted a mommy bird in a nest."  Joey's response: "Banana-skunky-stink-bread."  The three other children sitting at his table laughed which just encouraged him to say it again.  And again.  And again.  I couldn't actually write that on my son's painting, for fear of what the other parents might think as they viewed our classroom artwork in the hallway, but I also didn't want to squash his enthusiasm, and perhaps he really did paint a picture of banana bread.  So that's what I wrote.  Minus the skunky-stink part.

There are worse things I suppose, than having a child who is too silly for his own good.  I do wonder what Elementary School days will be like for Joey though.  Perhaps he'll chill out by then and save his silliness for at home or outside.  Highly unlikely I suppose.  I'm pretty sure we're going to be having a lot of parent-teacher conferences, and possibly some "Joey had to visit the principal's office today to talk about appropriate behaviors for school."  Yes, I see a lot of "appropriate behavior" talks in my future.  Perhaps I'll be able to win over his teachers with some of my famous banana-skunky-stink-bread...

Kids Say The Darndest Things...

I titled this post after the infamous Bill Cosby show, because I think it to myself at least once a day lately.  I think it's not until you become a parent and spend a good 70% of your time conversing with people less than 3 feet tall that you don't realize how funny their little minds are.

A couple of silly things my kids (and those around them) have said lately:

• While putting Joey to bed I asked him what he wants me to pack in his lunch box for school tomorrow.  His response: A Blueberry Pie.
• A conversation between siblings: Joey: What's your name? Olivia: Sissy. Joey: Who do you love? Olivia: Sissy. Joey: What's your favorite color? Sissy.  This went on for several more questions until Joey and I were laughing so hard he couldn't ask anymore.
• While drumming on the bottom of a flipped over big tin garbage can last week Joey suddenly started chanting my swear word of choice.  That's right... my son was drumming right along saying, "f***, f***, f***, f***" to the beat.  Even better?  His 2 year old cousin quickly chimed in and the two of them were loudly drumming and swearing in unison.  I didn't actually witness this happening, but was later told about it by my mother in-law.  Awesome.  Thanks Joey for ratting out your potty-mouthed mother.
• My sister and I work at the same preschool as of this week, so we carpool the 25 minutes to work with all the kids in the car. (my three, and her one)  As we are driving along my nephew Jack (3.5yrs) declares, "I see a bunny over there!"  Joey quickly responds, "Where?!?!"  Jack answers, "You missed it Joey." Less than 30 seconds later Jack says, "I saw a cow out there!" Hoping for a glimpse Joey excitedly says, "Where?!?!" Jack's response, "You missed it again Joey."  Then it was the bunny again, and so on and so forth.  My sister and I sat in the front seat shaking with silent laughter while Jack continued to point out a myriad of animals that we didn't actually drive by while Joey missed seeing each and every one, never even catching on the fact that Jack didn't see any animals either.  It was probably the highlight of my Kids Say The Darndest Things post...

That's it for now.  What have your kids said lately???  Leave me a comment to tell me to be entered to win a prize.  Just kidding, there is no prize.  But a comment would be nice just to let me know you're out there. ;)

OK Dresses

My sweet friend Christine made these cute dresses for the girls for their birthday.  She is so super fancy that she even personalized them with her embroidery machine!  These little tie-top dresses are the perfect summer dress, easy to slip on at any time, for any occasion.

When Olivia and Katelyn were born and I called my Grandma to tell her the news, she told me that she would just call them the "OK Kids."  Here are a couple shots of the girls acting silly in their OK dresses after we got home from the pool one night:

"Smile, Katelyn:"

Then she smiled really big!

A lot of pictures I take of Olivia turn out this way... she was actually doing "ring around the rosie" here...

"We all fall down!"



Sissy!

Apparently these dresses are perfect couch-jumping attire.  Actually, pretty much any item of clothing is perfect for jumping off couches according to my children.

This picture melts my heart:

Thrift Store Finds

My kids grow out of and/or ruin their clothes faster than I can get the tags off.  For that reason, I try to get their clothes as cheap as possible.  I've shopped at consignment sales, consignment shops, and thrift stores for my kids attire, and I have to say that the good old thrift shop is where it's at as far as the most bang for your buck.  My general rule of thumb when purchasing previously owned clothes for my kids is if it costs less than what I can buy it on sale at Kohls with a coupon, I buy it.  It also has to (obviously) be in excellent condition. 

In recent experience, I have found that clothes on consignment are priced according to brand name more than they are according to condition.  For example, a 7-seasons ago sweater from the Gymboree covered with pills and probably a small stain is usually priced higher than an entire outfit from Carters new with the tags attached.  And it's for that very reason that I try to avoid shopping at places like that.  Like I said, if I can get something brand new for 3 or 4 bucks a piece at a store like Kohls or Target, there is no way I'm gonna pay 7 or 8 dollars for something used.  Even if it does have a Gymboree label!

This weekend my sister and I took a little trip to one of my favorite places to score quality kids clothes at dirt-cheap prices.  It's a huge thrift store in town with a great selection of kids clothes at a one-price fits all attitude.  They happened to be running a BOGO special on kid's shorts (priced at $1.59each!), and all other items are buy 5 get the 6th for free.  At $2.39 a piece, how can you go wrong?  I managed to get 17 items in all for a total of $31.  (Including 4 2-piece PJ sets that were brand new!) That's less than 2 dollars each on average, and definitely fits into my lowest price rule.  Here are a couple of cute things that I scored for the girls:

I absolutely fell in love with this dress.  It's still a size too big for Katelyn (and about 2 1/2 sizes too big for teeny-tiny Olivia!), but I know we'll get plenty of use out of it in years to come!

Love, love, love the ribbon and lace detail:

Back view:



Denim skirt with leggings and boots this fall?  Um... yes, please!

Another adorable skirt great for lounging around:

I don't want to bore you with pictures of the other 14 items, but let's just say my trip was a huge success.  So, if you are like me and not wanting to pay an arm and a leg for clothes that your kids are going to wear for one season (or maybe not even, if they are anything like my dirty three...) I highly suggest checking out your local thrift shops, Goodwill Stores, and Salvation Army.  Sure, there are a lot of DUDS in these places, but also a lot of treasures to be found!