I hope there isn't an episode on gardening

The other day Christian and I had the following conversation:

Chris: Mommy, you're a tool.

Me: What? That's not nice Christian, you don't say that to people.

Me/Ren (in unison): Where did you hear that?

Chris: On Handy Manny

Me: Oooooh. OK. Well, the little friends he has such as the hammer, the drill, the screwdriver...those are tools. People are not tools OK?, so don't say that anymore cause it's not nice.

Chris: Ok mommy.

I'm just glad he didn't call me a Hoe, that would've been a whole 'nother conversation.

Then.....This morning his teacher pulled me aside to let me know that Christian has been saying bad words and calling children names. My first thought was...oh my god he called her a hoe. I was relieved to hear that that wasn't the case, but the teacher did say that a parent had complained because their daughter said that he had called her a loser. I feel bad because I'm always telling him not to be mean. Then again, as much as we try to teach them, kids pick things up and love to repeat them. I'm guessing he either got this from daycare (where the kids are all ages) or from TV. The teacher made it a point to let me know that she called him out on it and made him apologize and that I should follow up at home by telling him not to say those things.

With all the talk of bullying on the news, I'm glad that his teacher is the way she is. However small the insult may have seemed to me at the time (vs some of the other words I imagined), it's good that they're nipping it in the bud. God knows I could've benefited from this no bullying tolerated stance in my time.

The crazy lady with the costume bin

Wow, this has been the craziest Halloween season yet! This year, ever since mid-September, I've felt like I've been pulled in all directions. It all started with my Adam Lambert concerts and then it was Christian's birthday (he had a little party at school) and then I went on a cruise to Europe for the first two weeks in October (which I STILL have not documented, yes, I know, bad blogger) and then I quickly put together the Thrill The World Miami event for this year at the last moment (I've lost several years of my life stressing over THAT one) and then I went to Halloween Horror Nights and then I went to 3 parties the night before Halloween and then I went trick or treating the actual night of. I AM EXHAUSTED! Hello November! I welcome you with open arms! The only craziness you offer me is Thanksgiving (which I don't cook, so it's not really crazy for me) and Black Friday (which I go to purely for sport).

Anyway, that having been said, back to the Halloween blog. This year, someone commented that they had seen me in 3 different costumes in one season! Oh how true that is. I'm a Halloween nut and I have a costume bin at home. Every year I just pick from there and mix and match to make my costume. I hate the pre-packaged ones, they're just so void of creativity and ingenuity. Christian is starting his own costume drawer as well because this year, he too had on 3 different costumes (Wolverine, Spiderman, Darth Vader). Jordan on the other hand, hates costumes. He clearly got that from his father. I had to struggle with him to get him to wear a superman pajama (not even a real costume, but whatever) to go trick or treating!

On to my costumes, for Thrill The World, I dressed up as a zombie of course.. For Halloween Horror Nights, you can't dress up, otherwise, you know I would've had a 4th costume. No crazy costumes there, just good ole crazy me (in the asylum house no less).

On Saturday night, our Thrill The World group performed again at Hellrotika. This was a fundraiser for Save Dade (which truly deserves its very own blog post for the vast number of outrageous and creative costumes that were in attendance...I LOVED IT!). For that gig, I was dressed up as Alice Cooper in Wonderland. I picked this because later that same night I went down the rabbit hole (not a dirty euphimism I swear) to my friend Melanie's Alice in Wonderland party. She totally went all out with the decorations and her backyard looked awesome. She goes all out with decorations just like I do (even more so I would say).

And last, but certainly not least. On Halloween night I dressed up as Junice Merill. For those of you unfamiliar with Juney, she's a character from SNL. Here's the video of the skit. I was recently introduced to her via a friend's post on Facebook and once I saw it, there was no turning back. I had to be her!

Unfortunately, I didn't really go anywhere with the costume on, I just took the kids trick or treating (and went to Jenny's Halloween campout later on). I don't think that many people would have recognized who I was anyway, so the costume was purely for the self satisfaction of being able to put it together and be a freak for a night...oh wait, I'm a little strange all the time.

When it comes to watching SATC, is it ever too much?

I've just spent the last couple of weeks watching the entire DVD series of Sex and the City. Yes, I know, you're probably wondering what cave I came out of since I am just now getting around to watching this....well, aparently, my cave did not have HBO.

I liked seeing all the crazy outfits Carrie wore and all the crazy man-troubles these women had. At times, it reminded me of my short, but turbulent, dating life...sometimes a little too much. I really enjoyed the show and basically had to force myself to stop watching it and go to bed everynight. I laughed, I cried, I loved it.

It's funny because the whole reason why I started watching this is because I went to see the second movie for a friend's birthday party (and then again with another dear friend). Nevermind that I had never watched a single episode before, but there I went (twice!) with popcorn in hand. Poor Amanda had to sit next to me and field all my questions...who's that guy? why did she marry him? why is that woman such a hornball? (Yes, I am that annoying person that asks questions mid movie) I liked the movie without having had seen the show, so I figured the show had to be good.

So Amanda lent me her DVD's and I was off on my Big marathon. Of course now, I'm worried that after spending so many evenings with Carrie and the girls, I'm going to feel lost without them. I had a little routine going there: put the kids to bed, grab a snack and watch one or two (or 3 or 4) episodes all cozy in bed. OMG what will I do now that I don't have my nightly date with Carrie and Big (or Aiden/Berger/Petrovsky)?

I know, I'll go watch the first movie...

Four seconds of fame

I haven't really blogged about this yet (but I did talk about it on FB) because I was waiting for it to come out, but now that it's here.

Check out my little man in the latest Hooked on Phonics commercial. He comes out at 1:10 and again at 1:32.




We went to Orlando and Venice Beach in March and April to film this and it was a great experience. Everyone was so nice and patient. I'm so proud of him because he was really tired that day (we had gone to the beach earlier because the film crew was running late), but he was a real trooper and did what they asked him to (for the most part).


I found the video last night because Christian wanted to play his Hooked On Phonics games on the computer. I wondered if the commercial was ready, so I looked on their website and found it in their YouTube channel. Christian was pretty excited to see himself on the screen. I hope he sees it on TV though because then he'll really freak out (and he doesn't get excited over things that easily).


As far as the product goes, I think it's wonderful (and I'm not just saying that because we were in the commercial). Christian has really gotten ahead with his reading. He reads three and four letter words now and I often catch him trying to read and pronounce longer words as well. He's half way through the Kindergarten book. Because he is only four though, I don't pressure him to do the workbooks or lessons or anything. That way, it's not something that becomes a chore, but something fun that we do together. It's there on the counter in plain sight, whenever he wants to work on it, he asks me and we do so. The fact that he wants to do it almost every day though speaks volumes for the product and how great it is. I'm really glad I stumbled upon it.


Now, if only I could get Jordan in a commercial too....hmmm....that's next on my to-do list!

Fighting and Stealing

The other day my parents brought to my attention that CMan was watching a movie that was not appropriate due to its violent content (XMen) with all the fighting that was going on. I shrugged it off because although there is probably a grain of truth to what they were saying, I'm not one of those people that overly concerns herself with that. As long as he's not watching Friday 13th (yet) or watching super violent movies every day, it's OK with me. For the most part, he watches Spongebob, Disney movies or Dora and sometimes he watches iCarly, Drake and Josh, Spiderman, Pirates or Wizard of Oz.

You know what though? Even cartoons can teach kids bad things. The other day when Cman got mad at me he said "I hate you". I told him that it was not nice to say that to people. I figured that he picked it up at daycare. He could have, but the other day, Spongebob was playing in the background and I heard Squidword say "I hate you!" to Spongebob and CMan said "look mom, he said I hate you!" and I said "I know, that's not very nice is it?" and he said "no". Granted, Spongebob may not be geared towards preschoolers, but even the Dora cartoons have bad influences.

Any parent familiar with that cartoon knows that there's a character named Swiper. It's a fox that goes around stealing or swiping things every episode. The lesson comes in when Dora and her clan say "Swiper No Swiping!" and that usually puts and end to it. My son on the other hand, doesn't pick up on that nuance. On Easter morning, we went to Manders house and CMan and Brandon were playing with one of Brandon's toys. When it was almost time to go home, there was no sign of the toy that Brandon had lent to Christian. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. We asked CMan and all he said was "I lost it". Brandon was convinced that CMan was trying to steal his toy and had hidden it. I, not thinking that Chris was capable of that, assured him that it would be found eventually under a couch or something. Just as we were about to leave, R looked inside of CMan's Easter basket and sure enough, there was the toy. When we got in the car, we asked Chris why he had taken the toy and put it in his basket. R told him it wasn't nice to swipe things. His reply? "I was swiping it like Swiper!". Nice.

Just comes to show you, even the most innocent show can teach them something bad. Perhaps a little sword fighting isn't too terrible after all huh?

Pfavorite

Ha ha! I just found one of my favorite moments from the Golden Girls TV show: