Wasps and Twinkies

I had to send Mrs. McFarland an email today so she could have a nice little laugh. Maybe everybody will remember at the beginning of the school year when the kids were learning about spiders. It was such an amazing lesson for them and they loved it. There was just one tiny little problem with it, though... It caused Ethan to have nightmares. Well, let me tell a little story about what happened last night. I should start by saying how good the kids have been lately about staying in their beds. It has been wonderful. I think I had actually gone about five days in a row without any nighttime interruptions. That was until last night. You see, Emily has been battling this ongoing cold for a while now and she developed an earache last night. She was pretty miserable with it and so I ended up giving her some Motrin and I let her snuggle with me in my bed for a while until the Motrin kicked in. During this time (it was about midnight) Ethan came into my room and wanted to get in my bed. I figured he must have some kind of radar on Emily and he must have known she was in there and he wanted in there, too. When I sent him back to his bed, that is when the crying started about having a nightmare. We went back and forth from me marching him back to his room and then him coming to my room crying about wasps. It seriously got out of hand. I finally told him to just sleep with the light on. There was nothing I could say or do that would make him not think about wasps. It was ridiculous. The drama was over the top. He finally fell asleep around 4am and then he had to wake up around 7am to hurry up to get ready for school. Well, on the drive to school this morning, Ethan starts telling me all kinds of wasp facts, and was excited about it, too. I sat there stunned for a minute. How did he know so many wasp facts???? I asked him if they had a lesson about wasps the day before in his class. He said yes, they did. Well, that explains the wasp nightmares now doesn't it?!?! It's kind of like having spider flashbacks! Of course I had to email Mrs. McFarland so she could get her laugh. She replied by letting me know that today they learned about beetles and how they fly and grasshoppers and how they make chirping sounds. Hopefully, we'll all get some sleep tonight. :)

Another interesting thing I learned from my son today is about the snack trading that he does at school during snack time. In all honesty, I don't care one bit if he trades his snack with a classmate as long as both children are in agreement. Here is the part that I find funny. When we are grocery shopping, Ethan knows that there are certain things that I refuse to buy. One of those things are gummy snacks. And it isn't even the dental side of the issue (which it probably should be), but because Ethan is always so hungry all the time and gummy snacks are just so not filling. Plus, I make it a point to not buy food items just for the character marketing. It's an issue of mine. My kids don't get the cool cereal or the gummy snacks. They are soooo deprived! :) Anyway, Ethan has suddenly taking a liking to chocolate pudding. I have had to buy more pudding lately than ever before. Every morning, the kids pack their own snacks. They choose what they will take and we have a snack shelf in the pantry. Well, today I find out from Ethan that he has been trading his snacks most of the time, and with this one little boy in particular (and it's okay because he's a really sweet boy). And he tells me that this boy REALLY likes it on the days when Ethan brings chocolate pudding. I just couldn't help myself. I had to bust out laughing. At least Emily told me that she eats her own snack. Maybe I should just check at the store now and see if gummy snacks are cheaper than chocolate pudding. I could save myself some money.

And regarding snacks, I should probably be ashamed of myself. This week at Terrific Tuesday (the after school church program), we were getting the snacks ready for the kids and we pulled out some boxes of Twinkies. When I got to Ethan and Emily I asked them if they wanted a Twinkie and they both just looked at me and said, "What's a Twinkie?" As their mother, I am ashamed of myself!!!!! My six year old children have never in their lives even heard of a Twinkie, much less had one. How is that possible????? What kind of rock have I been keeping them under???? No character cereal...no gummy snacks...and no Twinkies???? I should be drawn and quartered!!!! Well, they are under rocks no more!! They have consumed their first Twinkie and loved every bite!

Also on Tuesday, it was spirit night at Chick-Fil-A. The first Tuesday of every month is spirit night and when the kids eat there, they get to get an out of uniform pass for the next school day. It is a big deal for them and we always try to go. It is a good fundraiser for the school, too. Well, this week I had forgotten that it was spirit night and so I had put something in the crock pot to cook for dinner. When I realized later what day it was, I told the kids that I would take them there to get their food, but we were getting it to go because mommy and daddy were going to eat at home that night. When we were standing in line to order, lots of little kids that Ethan and Emily knew were coming over and saying hi to the them and some were calling their names from across the restaurant and waving to them. As we were leaving, some other kids were asking them if they were staying to eat. Oh, and even Ethan's nurse from the hospital was there and came over to say hi to him. As we were leaving and walking out to the car, I just really started feeling so bad for the kids. At this age, there aren't many social type of gatherings that the kids can go to and hang out with their friends outside of school. They think it is so cool to see all of their friends there and hang out, and I want that for them. I told them that next month I will plan on us staying so they can eat there and then play for a while with their friends. I'm already bordering on uncool regarding their snacks, I don't want to be uncool with their friends, too. LOL