Alexander Chicken

One of the kids' latest games is to run around the house, well to be more accurate, run away from Eliot when he runs in the room.

Remember, Eliot is 18 months old so 'run' is a relative word.

So it goes, Eliot runs towards them and they all yell 'oh, no! It is Alexander the Chicken!'

Alexander the Chicken, presumably from Alexander the Great which we just learned about.

Of course, them yelling and running makes Eliot all the more excited, so he runs after them very happily.

Well, tonight after dinner, they started to play this game.

Jack then very seriously told me, 'Mom, Eliot knows his name is Alexander the Chicken. I know because I called him that earlier today and he turned his head.'

I then turned to Eliot and said, 'Eliot, are you called Alexander the Chicken?'

And Eliot did what he does best, shake his head no. This kid is one head shaker.

So much for that nickname sticking!

Wrestling Update

You will be happy to know that Theo was feeling much better this morning. He did have a brief run-in with a bit of apple at breakfast that caused his lip to start bleeding again, but other than that he has plowed through the day without incident.

In fact, wrestling resumed this evening. Evidently, according to Theo, our bedroom was 'Detroit' and 'Detroit has a very rough stadium where lots of blood occurs'. He even informed me that their wrestling match was called off last night after his injury and would resume again tonight; but because Detroit has such a dangerous stadium, they had rescheduled the wrestling match back to Kansas City (which is their room).

Honestly, I couldn't make this stuff up! But it sure does keep me entertained!

The Danger of Wrestling Part 2

Mr. Foot Down here. Little did we know the prophetic nature of the last blog post. Right before bedtime tonight, Jack and Theo were in the bedrooms playing, and Mrs. Thumb Up and I were in the kitchen cleaning up.

Suddenly we hear Jack's tell-tale scream when something has gone wrong, and Theo starting to wail. We both ran to the scene and found Theo bleeding profusely from the mouth. Mrs. Thumb Up is masterful in these situations, and we were able to clean the mouth, identify the gash on the lip, and begin to calm everything (and everyone) down. Theo sat in Mrs. Thumb Up's lap for our family Bible time and some extra reading after that and then went to bed as normal.

So how did it happen? Jack told us that they had been wrestling in our bedroom and Theo had fallen and hit his face on the frame of the bed and cut himself. Theo was adamant that he had hit his head on the bed, and so it was okay, but he hit his lip on the metal frame, and that's why he was hurt. So it turns out that wrestling really is hard on your body.

Wrestling and Resting

On the way home today Jack was asking me a lot about American Football. He had overheard Charles and I commenting on how it was so hard on one's body. He asked if I thought it was okay for him to play it in the yard with his friends.

I quickly clarified and told him that I thought that was absolutely fine. It is just the intense hitting as you get to higher levels that can be so hard on you. He seemed satisfied with that answer.

He then followed it up with the question of what other sports were hard on your body?

I thought for a second and said, 'well I guess wrestling is kind of hard on your body.'

Fast Forward a Few Nights  

I was in our bedroom folding clothes when I heard noise that I just wanted to ignore, but my motherly instincts told me I should go check to make sure someone was not about to get hurt.

I walked into Jack and Theo's room to find them both as calm as possible lying on their bunk beds.

I asked them what they were doing and they said that they were resting. I looked a little confused, and Jack followed up with, 'Well, we were wrestling for a little bit, and we so worn out now. I mean seriously. We only wrestled for about one minute Mom, but our whole body aches now. It really does. We are so sore.'

Too funny!

Acceptable: Bottom Crack????

I hesitate about whether to post this story, but it is too good to forget so here it goes:

Today Theo was walking around the table very purposefully looking for his pencil and saying 'where is my pencil? where is my pencil?' We all kind of ignored him because it just felt a bit dramatic. Then all of a sudden he pulls his pencil up from under the table and said, 'oh, here it is. It was right in my butt crack.'

Jack and I were so startled and surprised by Theo's 'joke' (with no discretion) that we laughed. I then quickly pulled it together and told Theo that that joke was inappropriate and unacceptable, and I didn't want to hear it again.

Theo got really serious and said, 'OK. I understand, but would it be more acceptable if I said bottom crack?'

Seriously. HE. IS. FIVE. YEARS. OLD.