The Weekend

Today is Monday. Most of our weekend revolved around basketball, which is NOT Daniel's favorite topic. If you aren't into the Madness yourself you may not know that the Michigan State University Spartans made it to the Final Four. Spartan basketball is a HUGE deal to Todd and I, and now to our 9 year old Zachary. Daniel has been an incredible sport (no pun intended!) this weekend. As I mentioned, he went and picked out a t shirt that he proudly wore all day Saturday. He even donned the Spartan *S* sticker on his cheek. They were actual stickers instead of tattoos.

Saturday afternoon I suggested that my husband get out our Sparty to display in our yard.

Yes that's our house with the giant inflatable Sparty. We had the Spicers' over and took the above picture at halftime on Saturday. Daniel would not watch the game because of the fear of the "evil Belle Tire guy". But I have to say we've seen an improvement. Daniel had a great time "helping" Todd set him up in the front yard. He was very into the hoopla of the weekend and people driving by and honking at Sparty in eager anticipation of the game. I really think he had fun.

Zachary started his basketball camp today. It's from 9 - 12 everyday. So I told Daniel we would go somewhere, just the two of us. He chose Treehouse Toys to go look around at everything. He is waiting for me now, to go and do this. One thing is for sure, he will NOT let you forget a promise!

Currently everything outside is covered in SNOW. I was afraid this would be very upsetting. A good portion of yesterday afternoon Daniel was extremely agitated. I know it's because this weather front was coming in. He feels it and gets very upset. I warned him of the snow that was coming so when he got up this morning came he wasn't TOO shocked. Luckily I was still snoozing away in bed, so he got to endure this shock, alone!

Yesterday when some things were going badly we started saying all of these silly sayings, that come from a book he loves "One, Two, Three, Oops!" Whenever something happens the father rabbit in the book is getting more and more upset and yells these silly things like "oh noggin sploggin". Daniel thinks it's HILARIOUS and once he gets going he can't stop. He hurt his foot swimming yesterday and was screaming bloody murder in the pool. All of the lifeguards came running to see if this child was seriously injured, because by the sound of it you would have thought he was on the brink of death. I talked to him and I actually (?) got him calmed down fairly quickly. He took a few deep breaths and listened (!) to me. He showed me where he hurt his foot (he slammed it on the bottom of the pool jumping in RIGHT after I told him he wasn't deep enough!). I for some reason said "oh, Noggin sploggin, you hurt your foot!" and he totally flipped around. Now he has been saying it about the snow. I admit, that book drives me crazy, but I think, for now, him laughing and saying noggin sploggin, boodle doodle, grizzly wizzley, is better than having him yell at me and tell me to "get rid of the snow". My response always being "Daniel if I could get rid of the ?#%! snow I would!" Ok, I don't SAY the cursing part, but I definitely, definitely THINK it. Especially on April 6!

So here's my question, do your children have a silly saying that can help turn them around?