House and Home III

I was doing the checkbook the other day, because, you know, it's February. And February is the time to pull out the January statement, print out the February interim statement (laugh mockingly at the August-December statements), find Quicken 2003 on the computer, and start a new file. Suffice it to say that I'm not a good money manager.

So in the process of entering almost 2 months worth of deposits and charges, I came across some entries that sparked some recent memories.

To wit:

1/30/07 McDonald's 12.91

This should have been about $20, but it was the day after the new McDonald's opened up and they were running a 99-cent special on kids' meals.

This particular McDonald's had been closed and had slipped its Dec 06 re-opening date. I had stopped paying attention to it, but my wife drives by the location with some frequency, usually with Jonah in the car.

So on that day (a Tuesday, if memory serves), she came home and said, "I have to clean the house. Take the boys to McDonald's after work. Then go somewhere else, maybe the grocery store. You like the grocery store, right? Go and don't come home for at least 2 hours."

And I said, "Ok."

So I took the boys to the new McDonald's and a good time was had by all. Jonah got his cheeseburger Happy Meal, I got a Coke, and they all got to run around kicking and screaming in the new PlayPlace. One of the ladies from our babysitting co-op was there, and true to form I didn't recognize her at all. Jonah talked with her similarly aged son for about 10 minutes before she turned around and introduced herself.

Sitting behind me was a poor girl trying to do her Accounting homework. I apologized for the noise (4 boys + new McDonald's PlayPlace + friends = lots and lots of noise), but she pointed out that she had brought her son here so that he could play while she did her homework. Good for her.

It was on this trip in particular that I noticed Jonah's new eating habits. He eats a lot, and does so all the time. There's a growth spurt coming soon. That night, he ate his entire cheeseburger, all of his fries, 3 of Sam's chicken nuggets, the remaining half of Sam's fries, 2 of my chicken nuggets, and a handful if my fries. It's at this point that I'm thanking God for the produce co-op with its big box of apples and bananas, and for the inspiration for the "any fruit, any time" rule.

That night is also worth remembering because it was the last time Timothy got a kid's meal. For a few months now, the portions of the kids' meals just haven't been enough. Mama Fu's, McDonald's, Chick-fil-a, none of them give enough food for my 9-year-old. And so, in the checkbook, the very next McDonald's entry is this:

02/15/07 McDonald's $17.34

That's pretty high, especially considering that there's only 4 of us. But now, instead of Timothy getting a $3 Happy Meal, he's getting his first adult combo. He likes those Chick-fil-a knockoff sandwiches they have (southern style?) and so I got him the combo meal with that in it. He loved it, and ate the whole thing.

What does this bode? Well, it portends us eating out a little less often, unless I strike it rich. If Timothy is eating adult-sized portions, then it's only about a year or two before Stephen does the same, then Jonah a year after that, then Sam a few years later. And then my $20 night out at McDonald's becomes $30-$40. Mama Fu's goes from $30 to $50, etc.

And no more entries like this in the checkbook:

1/17/07 Chick-fil-a $17.75
1/19/07 Chick-fil-a $ 4.68
1/20/07 Chick-fil-a $ 7.31

Still, I'd rather have children than money. And as a very wise woman once asked me, "Do you really think God would give you all those children and then not provide for them?" I agree, and hope that said provision also covers a bi-weekly McDonald's run. I don't want to be the one to break the news to Jonah if it doesn't.

Lottieland

It's just . . . different. She's great, I love her, I wish she could stay for a lot longer. But . . .

She's polite. All the time. Yes ma'am, no ma'am. Yes sir. Please may I?

Last night we had tacos, and she ate over her plate without us having to ask. Sam couldn't find his plate and dropped taco innards all over his lap for the entire meal. Jonah wasn't much better, and Stephen and Timothy can eat tacos without shattering them.

She's changed clothes 3 times today already. I have to cajole and plead with my boys to convince them that they can't wear the same shirt 3 days in a row. Changing underwear usually requires threats.

Today, when my wife got back from her morning carpool run/child switchoff, Lottie walked in from the garage and yelled, "Hello! We're back!" It took me a second to realize that she was talking to me (my guys usually just run in and head straight for the TV or their toys). She wouldn't stop yelling hello until I responded.

Then she told me about who had come home with her, where they had gone, etc. I sat there amazed. Never, ever, had so much information been offered to me voluntarily.

She heads out tomorrow to stay with another aunt, then her grandparents (she's a popular girl).

I'm going to miss her terribly.

matthew18five

A new blog. Scroll to the first post for the full story.

There's A Girl In The House!

My wife's sister and her husband have gone to Australia (a.k.a. The Promised Land) for a week or so, and we have been blessed to keep their middle daughter Charlotte (yes, that Charlotte) for a few days. It has certainly been a different experience.

Two quick stories.

Like our Sam, Charlotte is the only person in her family with a nickname: Lottie. Now, having been told explicitly not to call her younger sister Maggie, I was unsure exactly what the proper protocols were. So, in the car on the way out last night, I asked her whether she preferred Charlotte or Lottie.

"Either one is fine," she said, "or you can call me Jewelry" (she pronounced it joolery). Then she smiled.

"Jewelry?" I said, "Like the pretty stuff you wear?" She blushed and nodded, then said, "You can call me that if you want to."

Then, when my wife was walking out to the car (she had been on the phone, natch), Lottie gasped and said, "She is so beautiful!"

As these words had never, ever been spoken in that car, it took me a second or two to figure out what she was talking about. I said "You mean Auntie?"

Lottie said, wide-eyed, "Yeah!" I agreed, and in the back seat, oblivious to all, the boys continued playing their gameboys.

When my wife got in the car and I told her what Charlotte had said, she blushed and said, "You're putting that in the blog, right?"

Right.

Cards

It was a full-blown argument before I even noticed, with Stephen yelling, "I am not a cheater!"

Timothy, embarrassed that his private argument was now public, raised his voice just a little and accused again, "You looked at my cards."

We were playing Spoons, Timothy Variation 1:

• X number of players (or "teams" for those brief moments when Sam was playing cards as opposed to jumping on the couch)
  
• X-1 spoons, laid in a row on the table
  
• 7 cards per player, player to the right of the dealer starts
• On each turn, the player takes one card from his hand and passes it to his neighbor on the right
• Once a player has 7 cards of one color, he can grab a spoon
• Once the first person has grabbed a spoon, all other players may grab a spoon, regardless of the cards in his hand
• The player without a spoon is the loser
  

The game is fast, and the cards seem to be a mere pretense and prelude for a mad dash of spoon-grabbing. With a group of 4 people, it is very likely that the game is at most 3 rounds from calamitous spoonery.

(I'm not fond of the single-loser aspect. It's a very elementary school game, very exclusionary. "We're the group and you're not in it," etc. Stephen lost every round as he watched us gobble up the spoons, and would have been very upset -- he doesn't like to lose at all -- except that Sam, who was on Stephen's "team", was walking around with a permanent spoon that they as a team claimed was their just reward.)

Then the fight broke out. Crap. What to do? Cheating is pretty serious, but so is a false charge of cheating. After getting the volume level dropped, Occam's Parental Razor came into effect.

"Stephen, did you look at his cards?"

"No."

"Timothy, this is a serious accusation. Did you see him look at your cards?"

"No."

"Then why do you think he saw your cards?"

"Because he kept giving me reds when he knew I was going for blacks! He kept smiling every time he gave me a card," and here Timothy gave a very good imitation of Stephen's triumphant evil genius face.

Without waiting for me, Stephen leapt to his own defense, "I gave you a red, and you looked all upset like this," and here Stephen made a pretty good imitation of Timothy's disappointed face, upping the ante with sound effects, "and so I knew you were going for black so I kept giving you red . . ."

Timothy blushed and looked embarrassed, and then apologized to Stephen, who accepted gracefully. Meanwhile, my wife and I stared at each other for a few seconds, until she said, "Well, I'm not going to play poker with him."

Spoons soon became tiresome, so we switched to Kings In The Corner. Timothy won 2 out of 3 hands of this game, and had the most spectacular plays. Then Kings also became tiresome (Sam, on my wife's "team", kept grabbing her cards and calling out the numbers).

So my wife taught them Blackjack. Unfortunately, the terminology of the game (which I prefer to call 21) was not properly suited for small boys. Phrases like "hit me" and "bust" elicited sound effects, running around the table to hit brothers, and explosions of cards. We ended the game when three of us hit 20 on the same hand.

So the boys like cards (except Jonah, who really liked his apple and this month's copy of Boys Life). I think this is good. I approve of pretty much any activity that involves sitting around a table and talking to real people. And so human interaction games are becoming more and more popular, especially when my "nothing with screens" rule comes into play.

We'll need to find our Uno set or buy another one. But I at least am looking forward to teaching the boys to play Spades, Hearts, Up And Down The River, Euker, Rummy, Phase 10, and lots of others. Probably even Poker, but I'm not playing against Stephen for real money.