Tiger's Conversation: Dogs

I was reading with Tiger the other day and we discussed getting a pet. He said he wanted a dog. I don't want a pet while I still have little kids that need to be cared for as much as a pet does.

Sox: You can have a dog when you get bigger and you can take care of it.

--Much moving around, wiggling, standing, stretching--

Sox: Do you need to go potty?

Tiger: No, I am getting bigger so that I can have a dog.

Sox: But you need to get a lot bigger.

Tiger: (stretching) I am getting a lot bigger.

Sox: You need to get big enough to take care of a dog.

Tiger: No I don't need to take care of the dog.

Sox: Why not?

Tiger: The dog will take care of me. Can I have a dog now?

Sox: Um, No.

A Tiger Emergency.

"A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." Well, maybe it does if you are my son. Tiger had been reading Chicka, Chicka, 1, 2, 3 and loving it. He saw on
the back of the book a picture of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and he wanted to read that. One day he demanded that I get it for him. I dutifully went to the library's website and put it on hold for him. About an hour later he asked me when we were going to go get it. I told him it would be ready in a couple of days. That was just not going to do. He needed Chicka Chicka Boom Boom today. It was an emergency!

Finally, at 4 o'clock, I'd had it with the daylong requests/demands to go to the library to get the book. I checked to make sure the library had one in stock and then I loaded the whole tribe into the car for a trip to the library when I should have been making dinner. I did manage to negotiate a return of Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 in exchange for the emergency check-out of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. When we arrived one of our favorite librarians asked why we were there (usually we go in the morning) and I explained our "emergency." Liz quickly filled our request and I picked up a few more books for Tiger. We arrived home about 4:40 and started making dinner late. At least I didn't have a dinner emergency where I was out of a necessary ingredient and had to run out for that too.

I hate 4 pm emergencies, even when they don't involve a hospital.

And for the record: Tiger reads Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 4+ times every day in the week that we have had it.

9 years of bliss

'cause I love him. That's just how it is. I'm not perfect. He's not perfect, but we keep choosing
to be perfect together.

Phobia update

Tiger's phobia's are changing. His fear of the dark is minimal (he will walk into a darkened room to turn on the light). His claustrophobia is MUCH better (he will shut himself in the pantry and use a small public restroom stall). But with progress on existing phobias we seem to develop new phobias. His newest--Ancraophobia- Fear of wind. (Anemophobia).

This may seem odd, but around here this:
is commonly the icon for the weather from weather.com. During the spring and fall people fly kites for fun, because you can't play catch (it's too windy). I know, I live at 5900 feet, but this is the prairie and the wind blows and blows and blows.

When we lived in Hesperia, California the weather was "too hot, too cold, or too windy." Here the weather is rarely too hot, it is often too cold, and during the spring/fall it is often windy.

Tiger had an encounter with the wind about a month ago. We went to the park about a block from our house on a low wind day. A strong (40 mph) gust (singular) came up and blew Tiger's hat off, and pushed the stroller (with Mac in it) and dumped trash cans and threw trash all over the park. Ever since, if there is a slight breeze, Tiger cannot be out in it. Tiger is afraid that everything smaller than Blanket will blow away (including, but not limited to: library books in a bag, Mac in a stroller, hats, my hair, etc.) If I have more than one door open on the truck (and there is a draft) or any other encounter with major air movement Tiger has a FIT, meltdown, screaming, flailing, cannot focus or reason or follow directions tantrum. This is the same fit we have had with other phobias. I hope I can be as patient with this newest phobia as I have with the others. But if you see me walking outdoors with an uncontrollable Tiger check the weather, because it is probably windy (or just gusting above 10 mph).

In other phobia news: Blanket has Acrophobia-fear of heights (his only phobia). He won't go down slides. He freaks out being up on Daddy's shoulders. He is very happy being very low down. At least Tiger hasn't acquired this phobia, yet.

Sleep

Because some things are more important than food.

Taming Tiger

Ever since Tiger could crawl sacrament meeting has been a challenge for me. I like my kids to be quiet enough so that I (and those around me) can listen to the speakers. I'd love for my kids to want to sit and listen too. But those aren't my kids. The toys that keep them the quietest are cars (still too noisy for me, but they are the best that I can do). Tiger has never really enjoyed coloring/scribbling. His newly discovered reading/writing/spelling skills have suddenly helped him be more quiet during sacrament meeting (he still talks incessantly during Primary).

This past Sunday (Mother's Day) He spent reading the hymnal. He liked that he could read the words to some of the songs, and he worked on number theory (the hymnal has hymns numbered past 300 with BIG numbers on the pages). Blanket LOVES to color (everything, but that is another post for another time) and so we have paper and crayons for him to scribble his way through the meeting. Tiger now likes to use the crayons too, in his own way:

some, some, more, word, word, word I, word, some

Tiger wrote his name and Mac's name and mom, be, one

like, and some faces

Tiger practicing his name.

Oh, and when he went up to sing for mother's day, he said lots of funny things like, "I can see dad!" that many people heard. And he didn't sing. Not one single word.

Check your calendar

'cause it's supposed to say May!

But, as you can see, the weather around here is failing to cooperate.

I took these this morning.

An inch of snow in the middle of May. Welcome to Colorado.

Rain Rocks

The other day I was feeling totally bummed because the weather was cold and windy.

We could not play outside.

I was letting the kids watch Thomas movies (thanks DVR)

and the sky got dark.

Really, really dark.

Instead of looking at it to see if it was GREEN, or checking for tornado warnings,

I let my kids look out the windows.

Tiger asked me what that noise was. I told him it was hail.

He told me it was rain rocks.

Marble sized hail and tornado warnings (that I missed) make for an interesting afternoon.

20-30 minutes of hail and it looked like winter again.

Though I think it snows here more in the fall/spring than it does in the winter.

On a happy note, the sun came out later and made it feel all springy again.

Today even promises to approach 70.

Turn about is fair play

If you don't know, my kids LOVE adult cereal. Grape Nuts, raisin bran, frosted mini-wheats, and granola. Seriously, I am the one who eats Cheerios, and B.A.R. eats Froot Loops and Lucky Charms. This is necessary information for the following story (which just happened).

Tiger and Blanket like to eat granola without milk for snacks/meals. Earlier today Tiger poached the unfinished granola out of Blanket's bowl while Blanket was napping (saving his own unfinished for later). I refilled the bowls after Blanket woke up. The fresh fillings went 80% consumed (normal). A couple of hours later (just a few minutes ago), Tiger was playing somewhere else and Blanket took Tiger's unfinished granola and poured it into his own bowl. Tiger returned and complained to me (in his whiny way) that Blanket had stolen his cereal. I explained to him that I had no compassion for his situation as he had done the same thing to his brother only 4 hours before.

Now I'm off to make Mac 'n' Cheese for them for dinner.