I'm back!

OK....so it's been over 6 months since I last posted anything.  Yikes!  So much has gone on in our lives and I've blogged none of it!  Well I guess I could say we've been too busy running from activity to activity for me to blog about it all but that's really a cop-out.  So, one of my goals for the 2nd half of the year is to blog.  We'll see. Since I've last updated this blog, we've had Gavin finish first grade and Francesca second.  Francesca made her First Holy Communion and also had a pizza party for her 8th birthday.  Both kids have participated in Scouting and sports - tee ball for Gav, tennis for F.  Scott's become a Knight (3rd degree now, go honey!) and I've become the 2nd VP for our school's PTO.  We've gone camping and had many adventures.  Right now I'm just gonna stop writing because this is reading like someone's Christmas card letter and it's even boring me!  Tomorrow's another day and with that brings the potential for something funny to happen.  So I hope you're glad I'm back (all 3 of you who follow me, plus my mother-in-law who reads this but doesn't know how to follow me), I'm glad to be back :)

The Christmas Nightmare

  Gavin wanted fish for Christmas.  3 fish to be precise.  He wanted them to keep Spot, the fish he currently owns, company.  So we bought him a big fish tank and on Christmas Eve Scott went to PETCO and bought him 3 more fish.  2 small sharkfish-y things and 1 sucker fish (UGLY btw...).  He put them, in their bowls, on the top shelf of our closet.  The plan was to transfer all 3 fish to Gavin's current fish tank after the kids went to bed.  Well, before we got a chance to do that, 1 of the sharkfish went belly-up.  OH NO I thought, this is NOOOOOO GOOD.  Remember this?  http://icantstoplaughing.blogspot.com/2009/06/rip-fish.html ).  Don't worry, said Scott.  We still have 2 fish...

  Gavin woke us up at 2 AM to tell us that Santa had brought him 2 fish!  Great...now go back to bed!  We got up around 7, went downstairs and the kids opened presents.  Gavin was so happy to find a new huge tank and some gravel for it.  Later that morning, Scott happened to go into Gav's room to check on the fish and found sharkfish #2 belly-up.  Mr. Sucker-fish (aka "Sucky") was not doing too well.  OH SHIT we thought.  So I called Gav upstairs so we could tell him.  He took it in stride so we thought, until I went downstairs and found him sobbing into the couch pillows.  My dad came over to bring some presents and food over for our dinner later and found poor pathetic crying Gavin.  He was inconsolable.  Sucky ended up sucking his last breath and getting flushed too.  It took us a few hours to get Gav calmed down.  Our family was warned not to even say the word "FISH" at all during dinner.  We promised him that come today, we'd go someplace other than PETCO and get some more fish. 

  Today we went to an actual fish store and bought Gav FOUR new fish (we felt bad after yesterday's tragedy), a tank heater and a large coral thing for the tank.  I am happy to report that all Sam, Sally, Sid, Sucky and Spot are happily swimming around their new home.  Toots the cat has been watching them very closely.  We hope that the fish will have a long long life in Gav's room and I won't have to blog about dead fish again!

The Christmas List

Francesca is a list-maker.  She loves to write things down and make lists of things she wants, things she likes, people she likes/doesn't like - you get the picture.  We always ask the kids to make a Christmas list to give us some idea of what we should be looking for.  This year she outdid herself - she started her list on a long piece of drawing paper and has been taping and stapling extra pieces of paper on to the bottom as the need arises.  So here (in no particular order) are some of the 70+ things on F's list.  Keep in mind some of these things are requests for Gavin, Mommy, Daddy and the cats too!

Francesca's Christmas List 2009

- a TV for my room (good luck with that one, not happening this year!)
- cat food for the cats
- more mixes for my Easy Bake oven
- icing mixes for the Easy Bake oven
- 3 fish for Gavin to keep his fish Spot company
- a Nintendo DSi
- a case of hash (they ask for, and receive this every year from my parents - they LOVE hash)
- OJ for Big Guy
- socks
- a toothbrush and toothpaste
- a package of paper (to make more lists I guess)
- a more sleep for Mommy and Daddy (boy am I wishing for this one!!!)
- the Wizards of Waverly Place "Alex" doll
- a Jonas Brothers CD

The list goes on and on and on and that is all I remember at the moment.  We'll see what they actually get!Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the LaDore's.

What ARE nipples for anyway???

Leave it to Gavin...as he was waiting for the shower to heat up tonight, he puts his hands on his chest and looks at me and says, "Mommy, what ARE these things called?".  Oh my...Well Gav, they're nipples.  "Nipples?"  (giggle giggle giggle)  "What do you do with them?"  Oh my AGAIN.  "Well Gav...boys REALLY don't do anything with them"  I can see the wheels turning in his brain.  Then he says to me "well what do WOMEN do with them?"

I told him to hop in the shower and that was a conversation best left for a few years yet.  I just don't know where he gets it, I really don't.

Ladies Love Big Guy

LLBG.  That's what Scott and I call Gavin sometimes.  It stands for "Ladies Love Big Guy".  This kid is a chick magnet.  He attracts all girls, ages 5-15.  Yesterday I went to pick him and Francesca up at religion class.  I was talking to the director, who mentioned that Gav had come out of class to go to the bathroom.  Another mom who was standing there at the time (I hadn't arrived yet) told the director that her daughter had a crush "on that little blond boy" and the director said "oh that's Gavin".  I am also a catechist in the evening religious ed. program, so they know my kids.  Yessss I said, that is a common occurence.  Girls love Gavin.  Just watch, I told her as class was dismissed and Gavin came to stand next to me.

Gavin was standing next to me as the other classes came down the stairs.  Then he started to slowly inch behind my back.

"Gavin...come give me a hug...Gavin, come here, come here you cute thing."
"Mrs. LaDore, Gavin is so cute I just want to eat him!"

Poor Gav.  Those were 2 FIFTH-GRADERS.  Scott told me at religion drop-off a fourth-grader went up to Gav to say hello and smile.  Gav just grunted and walked away. That is his general reaction to girls.

When he was in the tub the other night we had a little chat about love.  He told me that 2 kids in his class "were in love" and he knew this because they always try to talk to each other in class and they sit next to each other at lunch.  He also told me that the girl who was "in love" with the boy ALSO loved him; interesting!  He was very nonchalant about the whole thing, as if girls just automatically think he's cute, which, frankly, they do. 

Gavin is a magnet for older women too.  At last year's Halloween dance 2 girls wouldn't stop "petting" his head, telling me how smooth his hair was and how cute he was.  He is going to be the "bad" Spiderman this year for Halloween. It has a mask that fits over the head.  Gavin told me that he picked this costume not only because he liked it, but because with a mask no one will know it is him, and the older girls will not be able to follow him.  He made Francesca promise not to say his name or call him at the dance "and give it away".  I told Scott the other day that someday, Gavin will be some older woman's Ashton Kutcher to her Demi Moore. 

"Bad Words"

  I heard Francesca talking earlier this evening to the boy down the street out on our front porch.  They were whispering (well they think they were, Francesca has an "Irish whisper", as in she doesn't have one) about curse words that were uttered on the playground today.  After making sure that she was not participating in this bad word party I left them alone and went back inside.  Later on we ran to the grocery store while Scott and Gavin were at a Cub Scout meeting.  As we were driving she brought it up to me

  "Mommy, a few boys were saying BAD WORDS on at recess today.  BAD WORDS."

  Umm OK Checka, share with me.  Spell it, whisper it, tell me what it rhymes with.  Does it rhyme with "truck"..."spit"..."smell"???  Nothing.  She's not talking.  She told me that she didn't want to say it because she may get in trouble.  Noooo I reassure her, Mommy just wants to know what they were saying so we can be sure it's something you shouldn't say.  So tell me Francesca, what does it begin with???

  "Well Mommy it begins with an 'S' and I'll tell you what it rhymes with.  It sounds like 'HEXY OBAMA'.  Baaaad words Mommy."

  Hexy Obama?  Damn I'm confused.  Hexy Obama...Then she whispers it from the back seat...

  SEXY MOMMA!!!

  Ohhhhh sexy momma.  Yep, I guess to a bunch of 7 year olds that would be a bad word.  To someone my age, it would be a compliment.  As long as no one's calling HER a sexy momma.  Nope, she's another word that rhymes with Obama...she's DRAMA!

A Curious Phenomenon

  So Scott discovered something about Gavin yesterday while at church.  AT CHURCH OF ALL PLACES!  We get to church and Gav, OF COURSE, has to go to the bathroom.  Gav has a bladder the size of a flea - either that or he just likes exploring bathrooms.  He's been to the one at Our Lady of Mercy before; several times in fact.  But of course, right in between the homily and the Prayer of the Faithful Gav starts doing the pee pee dance.  I thought Scott was going to shoot him - not in church of course, but Scott was not happy.  But he took him.

  When they got back, Scott had a smirk on his face.  He whispered to me, "I sent you a text message.  Oh, and I figured out why Gavin holds his hand behind his back on his butt when he pees".  Really?  Hmmm I can't say that this was keeping me awake nights, wondering why my son holds his ass when he pees.  Not to be gross, but watching Gavin pee is hysterical enough.  We do value our privacy here at 62 Wesley, however, Gav tends to pee with the door open.  He POSES when he goes to the bathroom and it reminds me of Mark Wahlberg in "Boogie Nights" - you know the last scene, when he's standing in front of a mirror, admiring his super-long...well you catch my drift.  Gav literally poses and pees.  It's hysterical.  And he knows he's funny.  But back to the hand on the butt thing.  Mind you, I have my misselette in hand and I'M TRYING TO CONCENTRATE ON BEING HOLY AND MY HUSBAND IS TRYING TO DISCUSS OUR SON'S TOILET HABITS.  So I shoot Scott a dirty look and tell him I can't check my phone and he can tell me later.  OK, Scott's idea of later is the sign of the peace.  I lean in to kiss him and shake hands and I get:

"Babe, he holds his hand on his butt when he pees because he says he doesn't want the poop to sneak out"

  Oh my God.  Put a fork in me, I'm done.  I can't even look at any member of my family because if I do I'm going to bust out laughing.  Thankfully there is no one in the row in front of us.  In back of us is Scott's sister Joelle, our niece Ali and her friend Trina.  I pray they didn't hear this, although that little revelation would likely liven up Mass for them.  I look at Gavin, who just shrugs his shoulders and shoots me a smile.

  Never a dull moment in the LaDore house.