6yr old Birthday Interview with Cody

First, the favorites:

color - lightest blue

cereal - Lucky Charms (they get a box of "sugar" cereal for their birthday, so had this not been the day after his birthday, he probably would have said Rice Kripies or MultiGrain Cheerios)

vegetable - pear (hehe)

drink - blue cream soda (Russ bought them these just a few days ago and I think he liked that he got a special treat, and just fyi, they were absolutely disgusting and FULL of sugar.  big surprise.)

toy - Trio blocks

TV show or Movie - The Lorax (we actually very rarely watch TV, and I think its funny he said that movie since we haven't even seen it yet.)

game - Kizi.com (that was his automatic response to "game" his other was the card game "Mille Bornes")

book - Fly Guy

restaurant - the bakery

holiday - Mondays, because my friend comes over. (we just stared babysitting a couple little boys every Monday)  (When I clarified 'holiday', he said "Christmas, because it has snow")

animal - horse (although he really wanted to buy a snake or a guinea pig with his birthday money)

activity - playing with legos

What do you like to do after school?
do my homework so I can play games

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Game maker, movie maker, store owner

If you could change your name, what would you choose?

Striker

What is something you learned this year while you were 5?

Not to hit. "this teacher that comes to classes taught us that we cannot punch, we cannot bite."

Songs - ABC Rock

What do you love about each person in our family?

Mom - "because she makes food, because she feeds me food and she cleans the house"

Dad - "he picks me up from school.  he helps mom clean up the house.  he makes food when mom's gone"

Corbin - "he plays with me" "he loves me (but really you all love me)"

Colton - "he plays with me, he helps me with my jobs"

What are some of your wishes for this year?

sleep in the bunkhouse at Grandma's

And a couple stories about Cody (by Mom):

A few weeks ago we had a lesson in Family Home Evening about tithing.  At the end, I gave the boys their allowance (which they get for completely things on their responsibility chart) and helped them figure out what 10% was.  When I look over, Cody is stuffing most of it into the "tithing" slot on his bank . . . So I say "Cody, you don't have to stick the much in there".  With enthusiasm he responds, "I want more blessings!" . . . When were at church filling out the tithing form, I showed him where to write his name, address, etc. and he said with a knowing nod, "So He knows where to send the blessings."

 

The other night, Cody and I were laying in bed and I sang him the song "Families Can Be Together Forever" which led to a discussion about how great it was that mommy and daddy would get to be together for eternity.  He asked what other people do that weren't married in the temple and I told him that sometimes they are married "till death do us part".  Cody concluded that he needed a girl who wanted to get married in the temple - he said, "I'll make a sign that says "I need a girl who wants to marry in the temple.  Girls who don't want to marry in the temple KEEP OUT!"  This made me smile.  Then he added to the sign, "If you expect to marry me - 1,000 dollars.  No, 10,000 dollars!"

Cody at Five

On his birthday, he insisted that he wasn't 5 "until he blew out his candles, and then God would make him 5."  Well, he's 5 years old now and loving it.  He reminds us how he is the boss of himself now that he is 5 and is constantly telling Colton all the things he will be able to do when he is 5 (including "play rough" with the big boys). 

He was a little bummed though that he wasn't going to his new school (kindergarten) after he turned 5, I assured him it would come soon enough, and that he could still have fun at preschool until summer came and then after that he would go to Kindergarten.  He said, "So after it's warm."  Something like that.  These things are so hard to explain.

Cody's favorite things to do:  playing video games (which he has finally learned not to whine about how little time he gets, because then he knows he gets even less), jumping on the trampoline (since it is finally warm enough again), playing with his ninja dog (I gave him a little stuffed dog for valentine's and Russ told Cody he would make some clothes for it and Cody picked a Ninja outfit), building all kinds of weapons and contraptions with his Trio blocks, legos, or whatever else he can find (then he lines them up on the couch so I can buy them for my kids and husband) playing with his friends (there are 5 little boys just on our little cul-de-sac street that are just his age),  having snowball fights with said friends when its cold and riding his "fast bike" when its warm.

He loves to pretend.  Recently, he was the daddy and I was the mommy.  Our children were several different sized stuffed animals that I had to buy and then bring them to visit him at work.  But when we arrived at his work, he said we had to call first.  So we went home and called, and he had to ask his chief if that was okay.  After a brief conversation with the cheif, he told us it was.  When we got there (from the living room to the kitchen), he hugged his "kids" and said "oh, they missed me!"  I love playing with preschoolers!

We still call him Cody-bug.  Although he recently informed me that he would like to be called "Striker" and if I wanted him to do anything I had to say, "Striker, eat your food", etc.  I think this goes along with his spider light-up shoes that he calls his "strike shoes".  Although, he also likes to be called " middle man" (Colton being "little man" and Corbin, "big man").

He often talks about how he has to eat alot so he can "get as strong as daddy".  And when Russ informed him that he needed to eat all the colors of the rainbow then, he mentioned that candy was the colors of the rainbow.  :)

He loves to play in the sand box, loves to play any sport (although he still gets the names confused), loves to go fishing with dad and loves to play outside at Grandma & Grandpa's (even when it's freezing). 

He is always the first to volunteer for prayers at mealtime and family time.  (When I told him that dad or mom would just pick someone, he smiles with big eyes and gives that "pick me, pick me!" look.) 

He loves back scratches and snuggles.  He gives great hugs and goodnight kisses.  And we absolutely LOVE HIM!  Happy 5th Birthday, Cody!

I so thought we were past this stage

Yes, vaseline. And in case you're wondering, our kids have bad excema so we slather them with the stuff after baths and before bed (not to this extent of course).  But apparently I didn't do it well enough the other night, because I heard him playing around in his room, went to tell him to get in bed and this is what I found.  He said his neck was itching.

More Turkeys

Corbin's "thankful turkey" he made at school:

I am thankful for . . . food. So we can live and not be hungry and so we can give it to other people and do the food drive and so we are helthy and so animals and plants can eat.

I am thankful for . . .earth because it is preety and because people help it and because it gives us foo and water and because it gives its really pretty and fun.  I LLLove earth.

I am thankful for . . . miss nelson because she is nice and fun.  she is awesome and cool.  she helps us learn and read and write and she lets college students come to her class.

I am thankful for . . . my dad because healways does his workout with me, he sometimes drops me off at school and sometimes helps me with addition, subtraction and times.

I am thankful for . . . my mom because she cooks for me. she drops me off at school. she does the dishes. She cleans the house. She helps me with my homework.

I am thankful for . . . water. so we can live and be helthy and so plants and animals can live and so we can swim in it and we can drink it and so we can paint.  I love it!

Cody's "thankful turkey" from school:

Family, Friends
Turkey, Ham
Pizza, Chips
Mom and Dad
World
Leaves, feathers, birds and clouds

We are grateful for so many things!

tomatoes

So yesterday, I finally pulled up my garden and found a huge batch of perfectly ripe, protected-from-the-frost tomatoes.  Yay!  But unfortunately my kids also discovered them.  As I was pulling out the 8ft plants, green and red tomatoes were falling everywhere.  So what do little boys do with them?  Exactly.  Throw them, squish them, put them on sticks, bounce them on the trampoline.  So today, when I looked out and saw what a mess my patio was after I just cleaned the yard, I told Cody to figure out a way to clean up his mess (because of course he is the main culprit).  So I check back a few minutes later and he is out their scooping them up with the kids snow shovel and I thought, "wow, what a good kid."  But here's how it went down after that...

Cody - "Mom, I can't do this, it's going to make me throw up."
Mom - "Too bad, you shouldn't have made such a mess."

And since I promised myself I would never make my kids clean up their own vomit - I guess the joke's on me.  Maybe I should have just cleaned up the tomatoes.

Oh, Cody.

The other day, Cody brought home a paper from his little church class (they usually have something that they have colored, to keep them occupied).  On the front it said "I Can Be Obedient" and then it had some sort of Cody drawing that I couldn't decipher.  On the back was another similar picture and his teacher had written the following conversation:

"Cody, what things does your mom ask you to do?"
    
--"My mom tells me to do jobs and I hate jobs and I hide under my bunkbed."

"How do you feel when you don't obey your mom and don't do your jobs?
  
--"I feel good.  Really good"

Quote of the week:

From Corbin:

"I never tell lies.  I may be dishonest, but I never tell a lie."

I'm not a morning person

Direct quote from Corbin, said in a most loving way:
 "In the mornings you treat me like you're my stepmother."

I always win

Because Corbin went to school wearing this:

He came home with this:

(Yes, it's lots of yummy chocolate. He won a contest for best dress up from another country. He also got a $5 gift cert to the book fair.)

Which prompted this the next night at dinner:

Mom: Corbin, do you want to tell Grandma how you got all those chocolates?

Corbin: Well, because I pretty much win everything.

(laughs)

Corbin: Remember I won that trip to California. Now I won this. I pretty much always win.

At the book fair about half hour later:

Corbin's name is drawn for bringing a grandparent to family night and he wins another $5 to the book fair and a poster of his choice. Like he says, "I always win."

wise or foolish?

From Corbin's church class last Sunday:
Just in case you can't read the yellow crayon:
Foolish: Hit your brother and don't say sorry.
Wise: Hit your brother and do say sorry.

Great wisdom.

I must be doing something right

Cody brought me a "note" yesterday. I asked him what it said . . .

Cody pretending to read it - "Dear Mother, I love to kiss you. And I like to go to friends."

Then back in his regular voice he said, "So I have to kiss you and then go to friends' house."

Dear Mom

I love you so much. You are the one that mackes my cheks brit pink.

(This was my little love note from Corbin today. I hope I am always the one that "makes his cheeks bright pink"! I have no idea where he got that, by the way. But, oh, I just wanted to squeeze him!)

Favorite One-liners from Cody

(1)

What the heck is wrong with you Mom?

(2)

I can't go to bed, I have to do my homework. (yeah, he just turned 3)

(3)

(heading out the front door) I have to go, my friends want me, they all want me.

(4)
Cody: Mommies don't be mad, they be sad. Only Daddies be mad.

Mom: Do you want Daddy to come here and get mad at you?

Cody: If Daddy was here I wouldn't do bad things.

a dollar for a piece of cheese?

I decided I HAVE to put these down before I forget. Two recent conversations with Cody:

Cody: Where's the people?
Me: What people?
Cody (frustrated): the people!
Me: Honey, I don't know what you're talking about.
Cody (totally frustrated): You're not speaking English. I'm speaking English and you're not speaking English.
(I finally figured out he was saying paper the way little kids can't really say their 'r's, but I still didn't know what he was talking about.)

Yesterday -
Cody: Can I have some cheese?
Me: No honey, we're just about to have lunch.
Cody: If you give me some cheese, I'll give you some money.
Me (laughing): really?
Cody (totally serious): Do you want money?
Me (still chuckling inside): yeah
Cody: Then get me some cheese.
(I cut him a piece of cheese and he pulled out his money jar and gave me a whole dollar!)

A little on love

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would share a few quotes from my little loves on love.

Corbin: "Mom, all the kisses that I have given you since I was born til now, til I was five, that's how much I love you."

Corbin:"Is Pluto the farthest planet?"
Me: "pretty much"
"Well, that's how much I love you, to Pluto . . . and back." (with a little smarty smirk)

Corbin: "I love you so much, I just, I just don't know how to explain it."

Putting Cody down for nap:
"Mommy." pause. "I love you." pause. "And I love brother's legos."

A Little Excitement

So there are two things that I am excited about tonight, but first I have to tell you that it is after 10pm and my 2 yr old has been awake in his room since 8:15! He just came down and said "I just need somebody to talk to." I said "no, you need to get in your bed and go to sleep." He says, "When I'm six can I play with friends?" "Sure, now go get back in your bed. Do I need to tuck you in again?" As we're going up the stairs he says "We forgot to do my homework." Silly kid. Earlier he came out and told me that his teeth were loose and I needed to pull them out. (Corbin lost his first tooth tonight shortly after I tucked them in the first time, so I sort of understood that one.) I told him they wouldn't fall out until he was five to which he excitedly replied "I'm five, Mom, I'm five!"

So onto what I am really excited about:
One, the new HELP International website is now up and running. It is not perfect, but it is much better than the old one. Just in case you forgot, HELP is the non-profit organization I used to work for and now serve on the board. Check it out and get a little glimpse of what I do and what I love.
Second, my neighbor (and other friends) finally convinced me to join the rest of the female population and read Twilight. So that is my plan right now. I am going to go get a bowl of ice cream and start reading. Those who know me know I am not really one for non-fiction and especially not the lovestory, vampire type - so we'll see. But since I really want to see the movie and nearly everyone I know is obsessed with this series, I guess I better see what all the fuss is about. I'll keep you posted.

PS when I started writing this post it was 10:10, so reading was my plan, but since then, I tucked Cody back in twice, switched over the laundry, fed Colton, put him back to bed, and talked to my husband who is at work, so now it is 10:55 - and I am SO tired. So I think I will read for as long as it takes me to eat my ice cream and try for another day.

I hate spiders!

Recently we have had a few unfortunate visitors to our home - nasty black widows. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps! I can't stand spiders period, and those things really creep me out. So the problem is that Cody likes to pick up all types of bugs, including spiders, and bring them in the house and show me. So when Russ saw that we had black widows and several black widow webs, he emphasized to the boys that they should NEVER touch the black spiders with red bellies. So Corbin and Cody were playing outside on Monday and they ran in and told me they saw a "bad spider". It was Corbin who was telling me this, so I thought maybe he was just scared of it and wanted me to kill it. But sure enough, I went out there and right by their playset was a big, sneaky, disgusting, creepy black widow. Since I was in my socks, I ran back in and slipped on my dress shoes - the closest thing I could find - and went back out to smash the little bugger. I hate even thinking about it! Aagh! So the conversation that proceeded was what I really wanted to write about. It went something like this:

Cody: there are good spiders and bad spiders. The black ones are the bad spiders. They could kill you. Then we would have to have a new mommy.

Me: That would be really sad.

Corbin: But then Daddy would have to get married and we would get to be in the wedding.

I'm not really sure what to make of this. Kids are so bizarre.

In the words of a 2-yr old

So the other day I did the typical mom thing where I licked my thumb and wiped Cody's face. He didn't flinch like Corbin does now, he just said "Why you tasting me, Mommy?".

Yesterday I was trying to get him to blow his nose into the tissue, but he doesn't quite get that so I just kept wiping and he's like "Don't take my boogers, Mommy, I need those."

More Table Talk

Tonight's question was "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Corbin: Everything.
Mom: Well, what do you want to be first?
Corbin: a firefighter

Mom: What do you want to be, Cody?
Cody: Ummmm
Corbin: I know Cody, you could be a ninja.
Cody: I wanna be a good guy.

I want to be a spider

Corbin likes to do this thing while we are eating meals called "table talk" (he got it from the kids cup at Red Robin), it's basically just random questions that every person has to answer. Example: what do you want to be when you grow up, what is your favorite color, where do you want to visit, etc, etc. Yesterday it was "What animal would you want to be and why?"

Corbin: I would like to be a spider. [Mom: Why?] Because then I could build webs to protect myself from everything and I could go in everyone's house and they wouldn't see me.

Cody: Ummm, a tiger. [Mom: Why do you want to be a tiger?] Cody: Roarrrrr!