Summer is in the air at the House Full of Boys! As I write this, it's 11:30 pm and all the windows are open to let the cool air in.
Jackson is now into maps. He has a map of Sodor Island (The Island on which Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends reside) in a book, and he loves it. So, last week while shopping at Walls, I found a map place mat. Perfect! He can't rip it, tear it or otherwise harm it! He can only learn! Well, we've been learning the West Coast states and their capitals. "Jackson, where's Waasshhiinnnggtooonnn?" I say slowly. He points lackadaisically as thought this is already old hat and he'd rather be anywhere else. "and what is the capital of Washington?"
"O-limpEeaaahhhhh!" He says with some enthusiasm. "And what state is this?" "Californyaaaahhhh" I think that my son watches Paula Deen while I'm not looking. He can make any word into a 3 or 4 syllable doozy. "Now, what's the capital?" "I DON'T know." "Remember.... it's Sssssssss......" "Tell me." "Come on, it's got toe in it...." "Toes?!?!?!" "No, it's Sacramento." "Oh, right, Sacramehntooooooo. I'm all done Mama."
If I had to homeschool, we'd be in trouble.

This One's Hat Fell Off, Mama!

This was Thursday's Most Used Phrase. My ferociously happy 3 year old repeated these words a million times at least. On Thursday, the boys and I went to the strawberry patch with my good friends Anne, along with her daughters, and Jessica and little Siennalee. Who, incidentally moves enough to be two daughters. Into this pool of estrogen my boys and I heartily threw ourselves for a day of fun, sun, and berries. I have no pictures to share with you. Anne did that duty, and better than I ever could.
We gave the kiddlets a veritable playbook of rules to ignore; which they did admirably. The primary one being: pick the berries at the stem, so their hats stay on. Next was: Only pick the dark red ones, the white ones are babies and need to grow, plus they taste yucky. Well, my son, being the smarty that he is would pick the berry and then, as he was showing me the perfect strawberry with its hat still on, he'd pull it off and utter those words... This one's hat fell off Mama! So now I have to eat it!" The scurvy dog!
After a while, he tired of the monotony and began looking for other interesting things to do.
There was a marker flag sword fight with Noah and Siennalee.
He ran off with Noah in the stroller... I have no idea where he thought they were going to go, we were next to a cemetery.
And last, he started picking the white, unripe berries.
"Oh, no, Jackson" I told him. "Those berries are not ready yet and they taste SOOOOO sour. You won't like those! We need to save them for the next people that come to pick berries."
"I'll just have a little taste." He replied. "Oh, I like there Mom. I'm just gonna keep eating these!"
Whatever!
That was near the end of our adventure, and if it wasn't so late, I would regale one and all with more witty "Jackisms".
G'Night!