Friday, July 29, 2011

Monkey See, Monkey Do

What cracks me up about this video is that Jacob has to do exactly what Maddie is doing. You'd think it would be the other way around, but typically, Jacob is the one doing what Maddie does!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Feeling like a dinosaur

One of Rachel's Facebook status updates just got me thinking. To quote her post, "perhaps this reveals my age, but will someone please explain to me why you youngins add extrrrrrra lletters to alllll of yooooour postsssss? I probably just totally did it wrong didn't I?" I have NO idea Rachel.

In 10 years, will I understand anything Jacob/Maddie writes? Will it make sense to me? If it doesn't make sense, will I, at the very least, KNOW what they are saying? Meaning, will they still be reading and writing English?

I got to googling. "teen facebook language", "teenage acronyms", "teen dictionary".

Seriously. This is what I do in my free time?

I found a site called teenchatdecoder.com. I am NOT kidding. You can type in an acronym and they will spit out its meaning. The fact that there seems to be enough demand for an entire website dedicated to "teen speak" is baffling to me. Is this what I have to look forward to? Translating my kids' vernacular via a website called "teenchatdecoder"??

I am totally freaked out. Back in the day (I say this as if I'm 100 years old), we used to trade "spirals". A "spiral" was literally a spiral notebook that you shared with a friend and you would write notes back and forth to each other in it. When you finished your note (usually about who you had a crush on and if he acknowledged you in the hall), you'd pass the "spiral" back to your friend. I kept quite a few of those spirals. We would decorate the front of them with cut outs from magazines. I distinctly remember me and Sherry's spiral was decorated with words like "tampon" and "PMS" and the thing was laminated for pete's sake. We thought that was innovative.

It's amazing how far we've come in 20 years. Technology, while I embrace it, horrifies me when it comes to my kids. When they are teenagers, I can only just hope and pray that we are both still speaking the same language...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Simon Says - "Chill Out!"

The kids and I were killing time yesterday with friendly games of racing, "red light, green light", and "Simon Says". I love how Maddie always looks to Jacob before following the commands when playing "Simon Says" (she seems to know there is a right time and a wrong time to do things). I also love it when she puts him in his place (see 2nd video).

They are hysterical!



Watch how Maddie puts Jacob in his place in this video:

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Another story you might enjoy

Our swim lessons at the Y seem to be providing great blog material. I meant to post this over a week ago so I'm a little late in the delivery. But better late than never.

When we get to the Y for swim class, we have a little routine. Childwatch (the kids area where Maddie goes) doesn't open until 3:30 which is exactly when Jacob's class starts. So, we all go in to the pool area together, Jacob takes his shoes off, I hang up our swim bag and we wait on the bench until swim class starts.

On this particular day, we all walked into the pool area and Maddie and I were walking in front of Jacob. I casually say back to him "Jacob, take your shoes off". Maddie and I keep walking toward where his class meets. After about a minute, I wonder why Jacob is not right behind me. I turn around and the kid is NAKED walking toward me on the edge of the pool. NAKED!! Meaning, NO PANTS! For the entire YMCA to see!

Good lord, I nearly dropped Maddie to the floor and went running toward him saying "Jacob! What are you doing! Where are your swim shorts! Why do you not have them on?!?!?!?!"

That poor kid looked at me so confused and said "Mommy, I thought you said 'take your clothes off'".

(GASP!)

I can't ever say that the child doesn't follow directions. Even if he is like his Daddy and is seriously hard of hearing.

Needless to say, I quickly covered him up, got him dressed and we went about our day. Once again, these little people never cease to baffle me.

Monday, July 18, 2011

The highlights

I am in JBF mode again so the blog has taken a backseat. I apologize! We've been super busy too so my camera was filled with fun pics that I finally got a chance to download. Here are some highlights from the last few weeks.

Oakland Zoo with the fam. Maddie REFUSED to turn around for this picture. At almost two, she is quite opinionated.











The zoo can wear a kid out!



4th of July fun with Rachel, Iris, Krissy, Clay, Jaemie, Matt, Joe, Owen and Nathan! Iris is getting SO big.



You will see a trend with the popsicles. They are becoming a daily treat.



Case in point.



We visited the San Carlos fire station and Jacob was not shy about asking the fire fighters a million questions. And I was so impressed at how patiently he waited for his turn in the drivers seat.




Of course Maddie had to get up there too.



Roommate reunion! Priscilla was in town from Australia and Rachel and I were SO EXCITED to see her. What a fun night. It's been literally years since we've all been together.





Do you see the trend I was talking about earlier? Maddie is OBSESSED with popsicles.



And they still love each other more than anything.




These last 2 pics were taken today. For some reason, my heart aches when I look at this picture of Jacob. So handsome...and so grown up.



She is this enormously animated, talkative little girl. She loves to dance. She loves to see you dance. We've already established she loves popsicles. But mostly, she loves her big brother.



And finally, a little "Twinkle Twinkle" by the Broxterman kids: