Fed Hill Prep Family Day and Auction

On Saturday we went to the Federal Hill Prep school fundraiser/auction/family day. We are grappling with where to send Hamslice to school in a year or two, and this day served to further confuse us.

For a while we'd decided we were elitist private school people, but then we weren't sure that fit anymore, so we started looking at the local public schools. I have no idea what the right answer is, but we had fun on Saturday anyway...

Mornings with Elwood

This is a funny one -- for some reason both Hamslice and Elwood know that when Hambone is in charge (and Mommy's not home) there is an open opportunity for chaos. I hear complaints about how the boy and the dog are always at odds and there's a lot of barking and shouting.

However, in the mornings when Mommy's at the helm... well... the pictures speak for themselves ;-)

Kinetic Sculptures Race, 2011

Rectangular Prisms?

Yesterday Hambone and I were trying to bribe Hamslice into reading some words for us. We had a black box in front of him with the words "Black Box" printed on it. After a few tries, Hamslice did read the words, and then I explained to him that the words 'black box' were describing the fact that what he was looking at was a black box.

Hamslice looks at me and says "You know what, it's also a rectangular prism."

We are in so much trouble.

Months of the Year

Hambone and Hamslice had a running joke during the entire month of April, where Hamslice would say something that was silly and then shout "APRIL FOOLS" to Hambone.

Once May arrived, Hamslice stopped abruptly. So Hambone asked what comes after April Fool's. Hamslice replied "Spanish."

Further probing revealed that Hamslice's current understanding of the months of the year looks like this:

January
February
March
April
Spanish

So much to learn yet...

Easter at the Zoo

Hamslice's school is closed for Good Friday, and that happened to correspond with the opening day of Easter at the Maryland Zoo, so what a natural fit.

Mommy, the typical airhead, got the time wrong for the Easter Egg hunt, and we wound up arriving over an hour early (but miraculously on the correct date). So never fear, we went to Golden West, a hip diner in Hamden, and got pancakes with chocolate chips AND bananas for Hamslice. The pancake was so big that it served as breakfast and lunch, and may well be dinner also.

Then we headed to the zoo for some fun in the windy, cloudy, 45 degree weather. To our extreme delight and surprise, the zoo was offering Face Painting!  This time we got in line right away so Hamslice would be sure to have a turn.

The theme of the face painting was, of course, zoo animals and Easter bunnies. When Hamslice got into the chair, the lady asked him what he'd like to be, he answered without even pausing that he wanted to be 

a green DRAGON. With glitter. 

And... voila...

 I explained to Hamslice that the lady had drawn yellow dragon eyeballs on his eyelids, so when he closes his eyes it looks like a real dragon. From that point on, Hamslice tried to go the rest of the day with his eyes closed. You'll see in the rest of the pictures from the day that he is fully "in character"

 And here's Dragon Hamslice with his Easter eggs after collecting them in the all-city egg hunt. He turned these in for TWO chocolate covered peanut butter eggs.

The zoo also offered some nature activities like planting wildflower seeds in a Dixie cup. This is one of Hamslice's all time favorite things to do -- must be those latent farmer genes from his daddy. He scared most of the other kids in line with his dragon makeup. We drew comments and finger points from children and adults alike. Hamslice was in heaven.

He was enjoying the attention so much that by the end of the day he decided to wear his Easter basket on his head. It's all about the audience, right?

Stuff my Kid Says

Oh we are getting into the phase where Hamslice is figuring things out, and the moment of comprehension comes out statements that make me do a "double take":

Today:
"Mommy, be sure to put on your socks and makeup; otherwise you won't be beautiful."

Saturday:
H:  Why are there these things on my rug?
Me: Those are baseballs and footballs... you know... SPORTS.
H: What are splorts?

Friday:
"Pythons kiss by eating your head" (pronounced as "Pypethons")

Ahoy Hamslice

Last night we headed out to Chick-Fil-A because Wednesday is "kids eat free" night. Hambone and I are never opposed to getting a deal like that.

To further celebrate Kids' Night, the restaurant had hired a face painter for the kids -- again at no charge, so we sent Hamslice over to get some makeup. But our poor baby was the first kid in line after the line was closed, and the face painter let him stand around for 20 minutes before she told him that.

I had to take him out of the line while he cried like his heart was broken.  Other patrons were giving us sad faces and sympathetic 'Tsks" and it was too much for our little man.

When we got home he was still upset, so he and I went upstairs and I put on some of my own makeup to transform him into "Pirate Hamslice." We even put an earring on (resting it over the top of his ear) He liked the pirate get-up quite a bit. I think we made it all better.

This morning he wanted the pirate makeup on again for school. I told him to save it for when Uncle C. comes this weekend =)

Thanks for the New Sweater AB!!

Hamslice had a wonderful surprise on Friday -- his dear Aunt B sent a sweater in the mail, and it is so lovely!

We put it on for school today, and got compliments as we were walking up to the building.  Hamslice is as proud as can be. Good thing the weather is still in the '30s, right?  Ung.

Hamslice and "the power of the finger"

So when we were in the airport, Hamslice came across this billboard. You can see he's a child of technology: the APPLE GENERATION

Too Young for Culture?

This weekend's weather was pretty terrific, so our family made an intrepid trip to Mt. Vernon via our free bus, the Charm City Circulator, on St. Patrick's day. Per the norm, we didn't plan ahead so we arrived at the staging grounds for the St. Patrick's day parade a full 2 1/2 hours early. After a nice brunch at the Midtown Yacht Club, we went to the Walter's Museum to kill some time before the parade.

We didn't really account for how Hamslice would respond to fine art from the 1600s. Probably should have thought that through a little more before we went in there.

Here's the big deal -- every time Hamslice saw a partially disrobed female in a statue or painting, he'd point at it and shout "Look Mommy!  BOOOBS!"

And his Baltimore accent made it sound like this "Beeeyoobs"

Hambone was completely mortified. This, of course, made me start pointing out the boobs to Hamslice so he'd do more shouting. This spiraled out of control until Hambone dragged both of us out of there.

We wound up missing the parade altogether, but that's ok. This was more fun anyway.

Quickie update...

Hamslice & Elwood... inseperable

Hamslice at Gradma Todtz's funeral. Such a sharp dresser.

Elwood, maxin' at home...

Hamslice Movie Star

Hamslice went on a video shoot with me yesterday, courtesy of the snow-induced school closures. The studio owner was nice enough to take some photos of Hamslice and me as part of the shoot. We had a blast, although Hamslice was a little shy at first.

So... it's not all coasting until he's a teenager

I'm sure you all remember my optimistic post a few ago that said "Now that he's potty trained, it's all coasting until he's in junior high."

Many of you commented with laughter that I still had a ways to go, and you're right. But we're having sort of a Yin Yang experience now, with the good mixed in with the naughty so it's a little easier to take.

The Yin:  Our little Hamslice is a fountain of sage wisdom. He's a thoughtful little guy who's piecing the world together one concept at a time. He gives us advice such as, "It's not a good idea to put poop in your hair.... or your eyes." and "If you kill somebody, you'll go to JAIL, you KNOW"

He likes to use the phrase "you KNOW" for emphasis on the very, very important bits. It helps us know when he's quite serious.

The Yang: We have got one stinker of a liar on our hands. And you can tell when he's lying because he uses the word "well" as a verbal pause. So the dialogue goes like this: "Hamslice, did you just step on the dog?"  "Well, well, well, well, well, well, I was just stepping on him so I could get onto the sofa." 

One of my colleagues mentioned that liar kids are actually more intelligent than truthful kids, because they're able to understand their reality and the consequences of their actions more completely. I replied that we must have the most brilliant kid in the world.

But so far, no harm has been done, and we are enjoying the new view of the world through his eyes. I wonder what's next.

New fun with Electric Kitty

Christmas Wrap up

As many of you know, we spent our Christmas holiday in Key West, Florida thanks to a generous friend of ours who let us stay in his house for two weeks. We greatly enjoyed the break from winter temperatures and made sure to be obnoxious by driving in his convertible with the top down every chance we could. The heated pool was pretty awesome too, so even if the weather was only 75 (boo hoo) we could still swim in 90 degree water.

Yesss.

We opened our gifts on New Years day back in Maryland, and that was a bit of a challenge to explain to Hamslice on Christmas morning. We told him that Santa didn't have our address in Florida, and had delivered his presents to our house in Baltimore by mistake. With a single tear standing in each eye, he agreed that this was probably the case. Poor baby.

Below are copious amounts of pictures from the trip, and our holiday. Enjoy!

 Walking the southernmost beach in Key West. It's a tiny little beach, but you get the picture.

We didn't have a swim suit for Hamslice, so he paraded up and down the beach in his Buzz Lightyear underpants.

 Hamslice at the Butterfly Gardens in Key West

 Christmas on New Year's Day. Here's his Chuck the Truck present.

 Crafting presents

 And this here is Hambone's special present from me. His only comment was, "You realize... this means war"

 Hambone's present to me and Hamslice -- Awwwww. our little cutie Elwood

 Hambone macking in Key West

 Brand new PJs for Hamslice

 Sunset on our first night in Key West. Hamslice was having a great time.

 New PJs from Uncle Keith & Aunt Susan

 Still a little bit shy around Santa. Maybe next year...

Screwing Around

So this is me just venting for a minute in the hopes that sharing this with all of you will help me find the patience I need until we move into another phase.

The issue is: Screwing Around

At first blush this might not seem like such a big deal, but it's incredibly frustrating. I've been trying to get Hamslice to dress himself... all by himself... for a couple of weeks now. I'll ask him to put his clothes on and then come downstairs for breakfast. Simple enough, right?

After 20 minutes of hearing footsteps and some grunting and rustling from his bedroom, I'll go to check in on him; finding Hamslice completely nude, standing with one foot on top of his dresser and wearing underpants on his head. His Buzz LightYear toy will also have one sock over his boot.

There's just no giddy-up in this boy these days. He knows how to actually get dressed, he just likes screwing around so much more.

*sigh*

Now that I write it all out, he sounds a lot like me when I was a kid.

Monster Trucks for Christmas

Hambone took Hamslice shopping for trucks over the weekend. This one was Hamslice's favorite, and he asked if he could buy it and take it home to put in the garage.

Hambone asked Hamslice how much he thought this truck might cost, and Hamslice said, "It's probably about $20."  and when asked where the $20 would come from, Hamslice thought for a while and said, "I think you have $20 in your wallet."

They learn so young...

When to be funny

So now that we're getting past the 100% rebellion phase, we feel like we may be able to mold Hamslice's young mind somewhat.

Lesson 1: When to be funny

International Day at Montessori

So below you'll see a few videos from International Day at Hamslice's Montessori. It was his first school performance, and just as cute as can be. I should mention that Hamslice's class was the last one to perform, so they had been sitting on the floor patiently for about an hour before this. I imagine this explains some of the behavior...

Here's the warmup -- Hamslice fooling around on stage with his favorite buddy, Brooks. Our guy is the blond in the front row, wearing the dashiki


Next comes the introduction where the class says Good Morning in Swahili


Here's Hamslice doing his speaking part. I was so proud


And then... well.... then there was the singing and dancing portion, which Hamslice took to a new level complete with stunts, a time out, and a dash to his mom. My poor baby.

Taking a break from uploading Movies

I've noticed that this blog used to be written by hand with my own comments, but lately all I've done is upload movies. (not that there's anything wrong with that, right?) So to take it old school, I'll try a text entry again.

Hamslice has been giving us a run for our money lately, with the pinnacle being the specially requested parent teacher conference two weeks ago. I was sweating that conference BIG TIME because I was sure he was going to be kicked out of Montssori due to his inclination ignore anyone in authority.

To my (sort of) relief, they just wanted to see how we were managing him at home, and they wondered if they could borrow any techniques. I said "sure... here's one, stop letting him push you around!"

Since then his behavior has improved greatly. I'm not sure if it's because some new synapses attached in his brain because he's growing, or if it's because his home and school lives are now more similar. Either way, we'll take it.

I hear that after you get through the 3s its smooth sailing until they're about 8. Here's to riding it out for another 10 months!

Cyclone!

Night Time Reflexes

Sometimes Hamslice still wakes up in the middle of the night, and often his first impulse is to grab a toy and crawl into bed with Mom and Dad.

Last night, his toy of choice was Hambone's Makita cordless hammer drill... fully charged...

I am pretty impressed that I was able to spot this as a no-go even at that groggy time of the night. We all emerged unscathed, except that I may never sleep again.

Goin' CRAZY at that playground

While we were on vacation over Labor Day, we took a day trip up to Lewes Delaware just for kicks. Hamslice found this playground and played his little heart out. There was a long nap that afternoon!

On a side note, Hambone dug around in the house where we were staying and found a bowl of old, obnoxious sunglasses. He picked out a special pair just to wear while standing next to me. You'll see those highlighted in this movie as well.

Awesome.

OC Hurricanes make great vacations

We had a great time in Ocean City this weekend. We drove up around 2pm on Friday and stayed through the weekend. Vacations are awesome.

Happy Birthday Hamslice

His actual bday is later this week, but we celebrated on Sunday anyway

Dino-Mite

A little motion sensor never hurt anyone, right?

"Dripping"

Last week Hamslice had a touch of stomach flu, and spent the morning being sick in the bathroom. It was the saddest thing. He would come to me and say "Mom, I'm gonna Drip" and then out would come anything he might have had to eat in the past several days.

Since then, he's been obsessed with "dripping." All of his toys now have little sauce pans next to them just in case they need to be sick. I get emergency calls into the living room to check on his toy dinosaur who is "dripping on the rug."

It must have been pretty traumatic for him to be sick that day. My poor baby.

Electric Cars in Iowa

Hamslice School Picnic

sharing with mommy

Shopping Shennanigans

Deconstructionism

You put the lime in the bathtub and shake it all up

Nationals Vs. O's game recap

Dr Doolittle look out

Hamslice Fishing Adventure

Vacation Pics and Video

Earlier this month, Hambone, Hamslice and I went mobile. We packed up the Avalanche and drove to Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan (and then back to Maryland) in one week. We were tired at the end, but overall had a complete blast. I have more videos, but can't seem to get them out of my phone (stupid Apple). Here's what I have so far...

Here we are at Navy Pier:



And here's a video about the Ferris wheel sign...



Here we are at Dutch Village in Holland, Michigan: