Mommin' It Up!

January 25, 2010

Trash Talkin’

This weekend we had some intense Wii bowling matches in the Rapson household. I know, I know, we know how to PARTAY! You see, we had recently discovered that when you reach PRO status on Wii bowling, you get a shiny bowling bowl. It’s sparkly and beautiful and Joshua, Bobby, and I all wanted to get one and KEEP it! Because, alas, you can lose your shiny ball if you start performing badly.

So, we spent much of this weekend in pursuit of the shiny ball. I am happy to say that all three of us are now in possession of one.

Joshua is quite competitive and in his quest for the shiny ball, was starting to trash talk his daddy. Although, his trash talk was more along the lines of “You’re mean!” when Bobby would get a strike, or “You’re not gonna make this shot!”

Bobby decided to up the trash talking ante. He rolled a strike, pointed at Joshua and said, “IN YOUR FACE!”

Joshua thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. So the “IN YOUR FACE”s echoed loud and long for awhile. Even when Joshua missed a spare by just a little, he turned and said to his daddy, “That was ALMOST in your face, so IN YOUR FACE!”

Bobby and I both collapsed in laughter of course! We are such good parents.

Here’s hoping “IN YOUR FACE” didn’t make it’s way to kindergarten today…and if it did, that it won’t make it’s way into the teacher’s earshot!

January 22, 2010

Snaggletooth

The Tooth Fairy has been a frequent visitor to our house lately – take a look at the state of Kate’s mouth:

kate tooth 3

The whole losing teeth thing? Grosses me out. I don’t know what it is, but the sights and sounds (and yes, there are sounds) involved with loose teeth just make me cringe. Andy feels the same way.

So we just let Kate deal with it.

She’s lost a total of seven teeth now, and she’s pulled each and every one of them herself. Usually as Andy and I hide our eyes.

I’ve been astounded, though, by the demands on the Tooth Fairy these days. When Kate lost her most recent tooth, as she was getting ready for bed she told me she was going to sleep backwards that night, because when her friend slept backwards, the Tooth Fairy brought her a Build-a-Bear.

“YOUR Tooth Fairy brings quarters,” I told her. A Build-a-Bear? Seriously? Kate’s got a lot of teeth in her head, we’ve got to keep the expectations low or we’ll go broke. That night I tweeted about what she said, and someone responded saying that her child’s friend got $100 for her first tooth, and $10 for subsequent teeth. If that’s the going rate, I think I can part with a few of my own teeth!

Needless to say, the Tooth Fairy didn’t bring Kate a Build-a-Bear or a $100 bill that night – it was more like four quarters… which really, I don’t think is too bad! But maybe we are behind in the times.

What is the going rate for the Tooth Fairy at your house? Please let me know – as you can see, Kate’s about to lose another one and I need to find out if I should run out and sell some plasma.

January 21, 2010

The Referee Has Left the Building

It is 1983. I am six years old, and like every other girl in America, all I want out of life is a Cabbage Patch Doll. I want her round head, adorable dimples, and signatured butt to be mine all mine. And like every other suburban parent, my folks make it happen for either my birthday or Christmas that year. Hallelujah! My kid life is complete! Her name is Dorena Monica. Dor-eeeee-na, how beautiful to my six-year-old ears! I could not have chosen a more lovely name if I’d tried.

But my brothers, they had a great idea for a better name.

“Doofus”.

That’s right, the joy of parenting Dorena Monica was pretty much instantly dulled for me by my brothers calling her “Doofus” whenever they got the opportunity. I am sure my indignant shrieks of displeasure were music to their ears. I should have known this would happen, as for the past two years of my life they’d been deriving great pleasure from shoving my favorite stuffed animal’s (Bob the Bear) head down into his body repeatedly. When I’d regain possession of Bob, and pull his head back out of his body, there would be not stuffing left in his head, and I’d have to painstakingly work the stuffing from his belly to his head so it wouldn’t just flop there like he’d had a stroke.

I’m getting an anxiety attack just thinking about it!

And I have a point. The point is, for a long time, I have thought my parents were a little lax when it came to defending their precious baby girl against those monsters they had previously spawned. I mean, honestly the most I can remember being said on the subject was “Well if you don’t cry about it they won’t do it anymore.” Seriously!? They just stuffed my bear’s HEAD into it’s BODY and you don’t want me to CRY about it! I’m four years old, you want me to be STOIC!??

Ok, again, I have a point. The point is, I have always believed that although every parent makes mistakes, my parents did about 99% of things right.

And last night, when Joshua and Sophie were screaming at each other over whose turn it was on the computer, and I told them I was not going to fuss about it with them and they needed to work it out themselves, I had a light bulb moment.

Sibling arguments are a pain in the butt to resolve. And I am not all interested in being a referee. No wonder my mom just let Andy smack me around (while Charles watched)! I guess she got that one right, too.