Quick Hitters

I. Christmas is Coming
Christmas really isn't coming anytime soon, but James certainly thinks it is. I think this seed was planted last Sunday when we are all down at Roland's birthday party and he saw the majority of his Smith relations in one spot. Ever since then he's been talking about Christmas. He drew a picture of a Christmas tree (with presents underneath) and put it up on his shelf. He cut up on a bunch of colored construction paper to make Christmas decorations for his room, and he's even gone down in the basement looking for stockings for George and Steven.
We tried to talk about this at dinner.
James: "Hey Mommy, is Christmas going to be soon?"
J: "Well, not too soon. It won't be for another three months."
James: "Just three more months until Christmas! I am SO ETSITED!!"
Owen: "MEEeee!!!"
(Owen learned out to say "MEEeee!" as an abbreviation for "me," "me too," or "yes" and has been employing the expression enthusiastically.)
James: "We're going to get PRESENTS!"
Owen: "MEEeee!!!"
R: "You know boys, there are lots of good holidays to look forward to before Christmas."
J: "That's right. First there's Owen's birthday."
Owen: "MEEeee!!!"
J: "And then the next day is Halloween!"
James: "And we can go trick-or-treating on Halloween and get some good candy?:
Owen: "MEEeee!!!"
R: "We can. Do you think we should go trick-or-treating at College Green like we did last year?"
James: "Yes, but we only go up to the houses with the lights on."
R: "...yes, that's what we told you ten months ago, right."
J: "And Grandma Joy's birthday is on Halloween, and then the day after Halloween is Uncle Dan's birthday. And then it's James' birthday--"
James: "And we should have my birthday at home. And Owen wants his birthday at home too."
Owen: "MEEeee!"
J: "And then it will be Thanksgiving, and then after that it will be Christmas. So there's a lot between now and Christmas to look forward too."
James: "My cars and I are SO ETSITED for Christmas."
J: "Do you remember what you dressed up as for Halloween last year?"
James: "Owen was a tiger, and I was a monkey."
Owen: "ROARRR!!!!"
R: "What do you think you boys would like to dress up as this year?"
James: "Owen should be a tiger, and I should be a monkey again."
Owen: "Yeah, ROARR!!!!"
J: "James, do you remember Halloween two years ago what happened? Do you remember who came home to live with us on Halloween that year?"
Owen: "MEEEEEEEeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

II. Homeschool
Well, so far the homeschooling experiment has gone...kind of differently than expected. On the positive side, James is doing better in gymnastics and has kept up with the pace we planned for his workbooks.
But it hasn't been particularly easy. For one thing, he's chosen the past couple of weeks to indulge in some really bizzare antics. He started trying to sleep in a crack between his bed and the wall at night, and then under the bed at night, and he keeps on moving all of his favorite stuff under the bed and disappearing there during the day. At night we have to push his bed all the way up against the wall and then check to make sure that he doesn't crawl under there in the middle of the night. He's decorated the underside of the bed with stickers and retreats there whenever necessary.
Needless to say, he hasn't been sleeping great. He looks tired all day and has been unusually cranky.
When he works on school stuff he gives off a distinct vibe of "I couldn't care less about this" and "I'm just going to do the bare minimum to get back to whatever it is I want to do." And it would be one thing if he wanted to rush through school so he could go outside or go play with his toys, but apparently he doesn't have time for tracking the letter M because he needs to go lie in the dark under his bed?
To be perfectly frank, the boy is a mystery to me right now. He's going to do school whether he likes it or not, of course, and he's going to sleep on his bed like a civilized human. I get the sense that something is going wrong for him, and I can't put my finger on it.

III. Owe blog to J
This blog is brought to you as an apology to J. In pouring her a cup of coffee this morning I perhaps accurately but apparently unwelcomely told her she needed to drink it, comparing her struggles to clean a dirty sippy cup to "Betty White in that Snickers commercial."