::fad::

So we're in the midst of a true and actual fad.
Max came home the other day with a little rubber band shaped like a flamingo. One of the little girls at school had given it to him. He told us it was called a "silly band" and that he loved it. He also said he wanted some of his own.
I'd seen these little shaped bands around before, but never thought anything of them.
Max's broke of course and he was very very sad.
Then we went to church a few days later and a bunch of kids had different ones--they wore them on their wrists. I realized this was a pretty widespread phenomenon.
Then last week at church one of the little girls in my class gave me one of my own (so cute, right?). Of course I turned it over to Max after church and he was delighted.
One of the little girls in his class had so many of them with her they stretched from her wrist to her elbow. Nuts.

Today we thought we'd go after some of these silly bands so Max could take them to school and share. We finally found them at a Walgreens not too far away.


It took Robin Hood a while to decide which shapes to pick.

He finally picked sea animals and pets, and we got enough for him to share with everybody in his class. And those dang things are expensive! Somebody's making bank on this somewhere!

He was so excited. He called himself something like the "Silly Band Hero."


Hopefully the sharing will go well and nobody will get left out. Hopefully it doesn't drive his poor teacher crazy.
I guess I'll hear all about it when he gets home.

So is this going on elsewhere besides RI? Anybody else getting begged for silly bands?

::large and in charge::

When we were gone to UT in Feb our Primary president had a "meet your teachers" activity. Since Kris and I are lucky enough to teach primary together, the president asked me to email her a picture so she could print it out and make sure the kids knew what we looked like.
When we got back from the trip and walked into the primary room there we were, huge--life sized basically, on one of the blackboards. It was a little scary.
She gave us ourselves and we took us home and put us up in the hall. It was really weird to walk by and see ourselves staring back every time.

At least I like that picture.

We moved it to the laundry room recently. I think it's a little better place for us and it looks a tad less narcissistic when people come and visit us.

::welcome::

Welcome to our house. This is what our front door looks like:

(See Nancy, it's red!!)
It's also outdated. Max was concerned that there might be somebody out there unaware of the date, so that's where the "Januay" sign comes in. The others mean "No cats No dogs" and "No people." These two confuse me. I mean the no cats thing works for us, but the no dogs and no people? Plus the dog in the picture looks so happy.
Mysterious...

::he's crazy::

I have proof:

::coolness::

Back when I was in high school there were times that I thought I was awfully cool.
One of these times was after I saw how this picture turned out.

Obviously somebody else took this picture, but it was my idea.
And I'm just so edgy, right? So artsy. It's mostly the braces and the National Honor Society sweatshirt--oh, and the chewed off silver nail polish.  I was cool.  
What happened?  Ah well, that's a subject for another day.

Anyway, the other day we were at the dog park, and suddenly there was a photo op.

Look familiar?

How about now?
What's that saying--Like mother like son? Hmmm, I actually don't think that's a saying, is it?

All he needs is some braces and some nail polish and he'd be set for life in coolness.
How can he help being cool? He's my kid.

::Never Gets Old::

This morning I finally got done folding and putting away about 12 tons of laundry. I looked up and here's what I saw:

I suddenly had flashbacks.

2004:


early 2006:


later 2006:


Sitting in a laundry basket is the kind of coolness that seriously never gets old.
I just wish I had one my size. Sort of.

::He can WRITE! Who knew??::

A little background here. Up until this point Max has hated to color, and didn't ever care to draw. I got all sorts of fun coloring books to try to tempt him and would always offer to draw with him, but no dice. He's been doing better with coloring at school lately (he was terrible when he first started), but it's still much more of a chore than a pleasure.
Alright, on to the news.
A couple of days ago Max decided he wanted to write his name on some paper. Which really meant he wanted ME to write his name. So I did. A couple of times. Then I asked him if he could do it. He said he couldn't, and that it was just too hard.
I made the first line for the M and then had to go and answer the phone or something. When I came back, he had written his whole name, starting off the line that I had made.
I was basically flabbergasted. He was so proud he looked like he could've floated away. Then he wrote his name again right away. Just as well. Then again.

He proceeded to write his name a zillion times, for about the next two hours. (and yes, his paper was upside down for this picture, because he was making Ws, otherwise known as upside-down Ms!)

I helped him write a few other words, you know, dad, mom, fish, mama, love. He did really well.
It was a little tough to get him to take a break for dinner.

I knew he could do it. Sometimes it's so funny that all it takes is finding out you can actually do something to do it! He's such a smart guy, he's reading a lot and has known his alphabet backwards and forwards for a couple of years. So I'm not surprised he can write like a champ--I'm just surprised at the suddenness of it. It's so funny.

He's very serious about it. Obviously. When I picked him up from school the next day his coloring page was covered with cute little MAXes. Oh yeah, and AXM and XAM. He's experimental.
We're proud of him and his adorable chubby little arms!