U--nique March Madness Recap

After school I picked kids up yesterday.  Ashley said, "I wanted UK to win the basketball tournament."  I replied, "So did daddy."  Ashley retorted, "Yep, but instead U-nique beat them."

Uh...excuse me?

"No Ashley, the team was not U-nique, it was U-Conn."

"Oh.  Whatever.  What does unique mean anyways?"

Vocabulary lesson here we come. 

What is TJ learning at the Child Development Center?

TJ is a very strong-willed, very verbal 2.5 year old.  This is sometimes entertaining, and sometimes trying, but often both at the same time.

This morning TJ gets up and says, "I want to wear my Bengals shirt."

To which I reply (because he always wants to wear a Bengals shirt, and I thought they were all dirty),
"TJ, since you are learning about animals this week, why don't we wear one of these two shirts, one has dinosaurs and one has circus animals!"
"No.  I want to wear Bengals shirt."
"But TJ, Ms. Kay would LOVE to see you in a shirt with animals on it.  You are learning all about animals this week.  Tell me about some of the animals you learned about?"  (distraction...will it work, please oh please, will it work??)
"I WANT TO WEAR BENGALS SHIRT!" (distraction failed)
"But TJ, what about the animals?"
"Mommy, we not learning about animals, we learning bout FOOTBALL at school.  Bengals shirt!!"

And luckily for him...I found one more clean Bengals shirt buried in the drawer.  Let the lesson plans begin.

Toddlers!

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were building a deck.  I offered to watch my nephews while Adam Sr. went to help with the manual labor.  I was a little nervous about have six kids, but I thought it would be ok, and it was.  The night before, I talked with the kids about their cousins coming over.  I asked if they would be willing to help out, because 3 TODDLERS can be a lot of work.  Adam Jr. asked what a TODDLER was, and I replied, "A little kid who is not a baby anymore." 

Before the boys got there on Saturday I again explained to the older three that I was going to need some teamwork from them to help with having three TODDLERS at one time.  They asked if we could go to the park.  "Of course," I replied, "as long you guys help me with the TODDLERS we can walk over to the park."  They were WONDERFUL.  They each took a hand of one of the younger boys and off we went.  Around the corner to the park.  Once there, they each took turns taking the kids up the slide, swinging them on the swings.  It was magical.  We walked home and had lunch.  The older kids helped me to get out plates and the applesauce.  I put TJ down for a nap, down to 2 toddlers.  They decided to relax and we all watched Toy Story and played Legos.  Then Michelle picked up the boys.  It went so smoothly, I could not believe it. 

And then Adam Jr. looks at me and says, "TODDLERS are ALOT of work Jen."