Movin’ On Up – To The East Side

Both of the boys are movin’ on up to new big(ger) boy classrooms. What’s crazy is that their new classes are actually on the east side of the building. What is even crazier is that I just spent 5 minutes of my day thinking about that.

The fact that Hayden is in the new 4 year old classroom is why I was so surprised when I received an email from a fellow daycare mom today informing me that Hayden stood up and performed a solo during circle time. Following The Alphabet Song and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star…Hayden performed none-other-than the Spiderman Song.

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies.

My initial reaction was utter disbelief. Hayden is the child most would describe as shy. This is his first official week in his new class. But then again, if you spend 30 minutes with Hayden, you know he comes out of his shell fairly quickly. However, I was not surprised at all at the song choice. The stairwell by my new office overlooks the playground and I often go watch him play. I seriously think he thinks he is a real super hero….or maybe he really is. Whatever (we don’t say whatever) the case may be, he does not come out of character at all…ever. As I watch from the window, I see him doing swing kicks, air punches, jump kicks, while continuously looking over his shoulder for bad guys. I hope he either learns to fly (if he really is a super hero) or outgrows it before he is an adult, because it tends to look a little strange when no one else is around. Anyway, I was a bit proud of the solo. Sure, it could have been better had he stood up and sang ‘Jesus Loves Me’ or ‘This Little Light of Mine’ followed by his testimony, but I have never, not at age 4, nor at age 27 had the confidence to stand up and perform a solo (for a crowd). That is one thing he definitely didn’t get from me.

One thing I did pass along to Davis is his OCD tendencies (he’ll thank me later). I was told by his teacher today that he won’t take a nap unless his nap mat is placed on his cot a certain way. It has to be silky side up, facing a certain way, with Davis on top…NOT inside of the nap mat. I don’t really know all of the detail, but there is about 3-4

criteria that must be met before he is satisfied. Ms. Shanna said that if she does it incorrectly, he will complain until she fixes it. And when I say complain, I mean scream his head off in the highest pitch scream you can imagine. On one hand, I think this is weird, but on the other hand, Jeff thinks I am weird when I turn the car around 4 times a week to double check that I closed the garage…and that is clearly NOT weird. Consider that Betcha Didn’t Know #37.

Betcha Didn’t Know #38 – I was such a sweet, innocent child that I once cried and confessed to my mom that I couldn’t stop saying bad words “in my head”. A younger brother of one of Matt’s friends (Gabe) would say bad words like “suck” and I couldn’t control my conscience enough not to repeat them silently in my head. It doesn’t seem like a big deal now, but it was traumatic. I felt so guilty. True story…I hope my boys are as good as me!

Betcha Didn’t Know #39 – I am a hula-hooping queen. I once hula hooped for 1 hour straight. Of course, that was twenty years ago, but I was reminded of my hooping abilities at the recent company picnic. Let me just stop for a minute to describe the company picnic. Imagine...doing the Macarena with your boss….followed by potato on a spoon relay races…topped off with a scavenger hunt. It was seriously a cross between a hilarious episode of ‘The Office’ and fifth grade field day. The party was at Southfork Ranch…the set of the hit show ‘Dallas’. Let me clarify...the hit show that aired over 15 years ago. I am sure it was cool to old people, but to me it just looked like a big white house. Anyway, one of the contests was a hula hoop challenge. I knew I had it in the bag, and Kellie built my confidence by going around telling people how great I was at it. I made it into the finals and competed for the yellow team, and Kellie did the same for the red team. There we are, talking smack and hula-hooping in front of 100 co-workers. Unfortunately, neither of us took home the champion title, but we both knew the only competition was between the two of us. I am sad to say I lost the battle, but created an unforgettable memory in meantime… I wonder if that ruined our career.

Betcha Didn’t Know #40 – You know the saying “blood is thicker than water”…well, my blood is actually thicker than molasses. On two separate occasions, I have attempted to donate blood and filled the bag up 90% when my body suddenly stopped bleeding. Here is a fun fact for you. Did you know that they can only use the blood if a full pint is donated.. They have to throw it away if it is not at capacity. But do they have to tell me that after I spend 30 minutes of my time and 9/10ths of a pint of my BLOOD…or couldn’t they let me go on my merry little way, thinking I did a good cause? The second time this happened to me was in college and Kellie was with me. Because her blood drips approximately twice as fast as mine, she was done donating and sitting in a chair directly in front of me. Once the nurses determined I wasn’t bleeding enough, they took into their own hands and began jabbing the needle inside my arm trying to wiggle my veins into bleeding….which hurt like HECK! Kellie saw all of this…passed out…and stole all of the attention. After this incident I swore off donating blood…so if I am ever in a car accident, please help me find blood because I won't have any donation points earned. Although – come to think of it - I would probably be fine, because I would just scab up immediately.

Betcha Didn’t Know #41 – I was once told by a psychic that I was going to have twin girls. The kicker is I totally believed it. At the time, I was already dating Jeff, who is a twin, so it seemed completely logical that this lady knew what she was talking about. We were on a fancy date at the restaurant, The Magic Island…so I’m sure it wasn’t a quality psychic like the ones on TV. A few months later, we took our friends, Jamie and Mason back - - and believe it or not, Jamie was also supposed to have twin girls. What a crazy coincidence! It was then it there that I vowed never to listen to psychics.

Okay, on to some real news…Davis is officially potty training. He’ll go every time you stick him on the potty…which means it is more about training us than training him. Stickers seem to work and I think it helps to have a big brother demonstrate. I haven’t made the switch over to big-boy undies yet because I dread that. But, soon there will be no more diapers in the Lyle household.

The birthday party went off without a hitch except for the fact that we now have toys coming out of our ears. The day was beautiful and other than a few near hits in the head with the piñata stick, I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Hayden decided last minute that he wanted to wear his Spiderman suit to the party, so when Jeff showed up wearing the same Spiderman suit at the time of the cake, Hayden thought he was stealing the spotlight. “It’s just my DAD, ya’ll!” It’s official though, Hayden and Davis are real friends now…70% of the time. Hayden actually asked if we could wake Davis up early from nap, so they could play. It made my heart melt.

I recently went on another work trip to tour some stores in Ohio. It was not bad for work, because I treated it more like a shopping trip than a “store tour.” What typically happens on a store tour is the regional manager comes in with the district manager and drills the store manager about everything in the back room, the courteousness of the associates, etc. etc. What I did on the store tour was look for a new sweat suit. I also learned many interesting facts about what the associates at my favorite retailer are SUPPOSED to be doing, including helping the customer...who knew? Anyway, all this to say that when I got back from my two day excursion, I saw what would happen if I died and Jeff was left as a single dad. First of all, the mail would never again be checked, so send your condolences via email. Second, the kids would both turn into skaters. While I was away, Jeff purchased a skateboard for each of them, and yes that includes the TWO YEAR OLD. He even bought Hayden a skater hat and a wallet with a chain. Scary, isn’t it? I’ll leave you with this…