A mom and her boys

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Again

after the piano recital

Bye Bye toothy!

Well, the tooth fairy has struck again. Evan lost a tooth on his own without any surgical intervention and was rewarded for his heroic efforts by none other than the tooth fairy herself...aka...mommy! Click here to see our first tooth fairy fiasco.

 I have been wiggling that loose tooth all week to no avail and during his piano recital I noticed that he was pushing it all the way forward with his tongue.  I told him to open wide and I pulled twice and it was out! I know it wasn't the best timing in the world but I honestly didn't think the doggone tooth would actually come out. After all, I've been twisting and turning and pulling on it all week! Terrance just shook his head and the nice lady behind us gave us one kleenex to wrap the tooth in and one kleenex to catch the blood drooling down Evan's chin. Priceless!

I assembled a certificate, a couple of bucks, a toothbrush and a receipt from the tooth fairy....overkill!

closeup of certificate

closeup of cash, reciept and toothbrush

 I worked very hard trying to masquerade as a fairy which is odd for me because I have an issue with all things make believe. But at the last minute I decided to celebrate the cause. I will have the conversation later about how the tooth fairy really isn't real, just something parents made up to help kids feel better about being buck toothed! Anything to help him through this ugly phase is fine by me at this point.  Plus, I was so happy that nature took it's course without me having to fork over my hard earned cash to have more teeth removed by the dentist which is what we thought was going to happen... again!

Doesn't he look like a walrus?!
Notice the tooth growing in behind the top one and the fact that the teeth that were pulled by the dentist a few months ago (for the same reason) still haven't pushed themselves forward

Evan's 1st Piano Recital



Our practice area...where the magic begins!

In an attempt to turn Evan into a more well rounded individual instead of a kid who only cares about video games and television, I enrolled him in piano lessons.  He has only been taking lessons since April of this year but he's made great progress. Lets just say that I haven't been impressed when listening to him practice but just when I think he's not getting it (or he doesn't care)...he surprises us! Well, today was his first piano recital and....he nailed it! I am one proud mama!

Getting a feel for the piano before the recital

We got a little distracted when I saw him wiggling his loose tooth with his tongue before the program started. I politely gave it a yank and it came right out seconds before the first performer was announced. He had a look of shock especially when he saw the blood on the Kleenex. Terrance took him to the water fountain to rinse down the blood remnants with a little H2O and he was good to go! Gross huh?!

Goodbye toothy! (yes that crooked monstrosity right in the middle needs to go to!)

I can't wait until he's playing more advanced pieces. I was in awe of some of the other student's playing ability. One day Evan....one day!

Practice book.  Where all the learning takes place.

Can't really see it but Evan is the third performer on program.  He's all set to play Yankee Doodle!

Money! Money! Money!

The other day I decided to cash in all of our coins so I emptied all of our piggy banks and headed to Coinstar to turn our coins into cash!

After 15 minutes of pouring pennies, nickels and dimes into the machine and enduring all the stares from the people in the check out line at the grocery store, we ended up with $183.36! Watch out now! We are living high on the hog!

I decided to take the boys to open up their first savings account. They were really bored throughout the whole process and they didn't understand why we were giving their money to a nice little white lady to keep for us instead of heading to Toys r Us to spend our newfound riches on video games. Perhaps I should have done more education...ya think?

Petsmart Visit

Evan's 1st grade class recently visited Petsmart to select new guppies and fish pond accessories for their refurbished classroom habitat (which is an in ground aquarium in their classroom). They have spent a lot of time preparing for the arrival of their class fish family. They had a marine expert (I forgot her exact title....Dr. Something or other) come out and talk to them about the types of fish that would do well in their environment and she tested the water over several weeks to decide the perfect time to introduce the fish.

Here are the kids getting ready to pick out their new Classroom 11 friends. It was a really nice turn out of kids for an unusually cold Saturday morning for an optional school event. They really enjoy one another and Ms. Angela does a good job of making learning fun and applicable to life.

Aren't they adorable? Yes, Noah is dressed in his Harry Potter cape in front. and Evan is posing with Sophia...his kindergarten crush.

Mrs. Angela truly made this a great learning experience. She made them earn all the money themselves, made them responsible for counting the money, deciding how much to spend and on what, she even let them take turns holding the money! The nice cashier in the background was patient as they tried to figure out how much money they needed for their purchase.

I really love this school. It is an Applied Learning Center which basically means that they learn by applying classroom learning to real life situations. They are allowed to lead each other and themselves to learn about all subjects and how to apply what they've learned to real life. It is a school that's perfect for those who like to think outside the box. They have tons of parent resources as well as parent involvement. Did I mention that I love this school!?

For Sale

I guess Evan is trying to tell me something. I found this message written on the etch-a-sketch...

Black Eye

A couple of boys laughing, yelling and having fun while sliding down a slide resulted in this...




All of a sudden, I hear screaming and see tears rolling down Evan's cheeks. Apparently he and Ian crashed heads at the bottom of the slide. Kinda looks like he has on eye shadow doesn't it!?

(The top left picture was how it looked immediately after contact and the other three are from the next morning.)

With Love,
Shanita

Bye Bye Shark Boy

Well, we can no longer call Evan Shark Boy which is a bummer because I was kind of getting used to the nickname. Not many people can boast that they have an extra row of teeth! But his second row of teeth were getting out of control! They were towering over his baby teeth and impeding his speech and food was always getting stuck between the two rows! I know, disgusting right!?




After having his teeth removed, Evan attempted to give me a smile. Doesn't he look like he has gas!! The tooth pulling went well. There was a slight scream when he saw the needle and another scream when he saw the blood but the whole thing only took about 15 minutes from numbing to pulling!




I will admit that the two rows of teeth look a lot better than having two gaping holes in the front of his mouth but I'm told that the holes will look better with time!! Geez...I hope so!



This is the afternoon of the procedure. Evan never takes naps but after a dose or two of Tylenol...he was out like a light!



I didn't really know how to handle the tooth fairy protocol. Does she visit homes when the tooth was removed via medical intervention. Does she frown when she sees two teeth, root and all, placed in a medical specimen bag? Well, Apparently she doesn't discriminate! Evan found $5.00 under his pillow the next morning (the tooth fairy didn't have change...oh, and she may or may not have borrowed the money from Evan's wallet).



With Love,
Shanita

All About The Bejamins

With Evan being 7 years old now we figured it was about time to teach him how to manage money responsibly. So when our close friends asked what he wanted for his birthday, we told them... Money. Dinero. Benjamins. Greenbacks. Moolah. Dough. Scrilla. Loot. You get my drift! Well our pals came through and Evan walked away with some serious currency!



Isn't that the cutest wallet ever!? A cute little robot.



He even has pockets to put his ID and his zoo pass in. He feels all grown up. Every time we leave the house, he asks if I have his wallet. (He has not proven worthy enough to carry it on his own. I can just see him now...in class standing on his desk 'makin' it rain' showing off for all the ladies)



Can any one guess what his first purchase was...that's right! A new video game. There has to be a 12 step program for video gameaholics!

Our goal was to teach him how to tithe, save, and spend. This is really a hard concept for kids to grasp. Heck, it's a hard concept for adults to grasp. But I theorized that if you start young then it will become second nature to you. So we divided up all of his cash and counted it. Then we explained what 10% meant and why we tithe 10% and why we save 10%. It got a little tricky trying to explain to a 7 yr old about a rainy day fund and why we give back to God. After all, God owns all the cattle on a thousand hills so why does he want my chump change!

Anyway, I'm not sure if he gets it all. The next step is giving him an allowance so he can keep practicing. That means I need to come up with kid friendly chores. And a funding chart. Because putting away your toys and taking out the trash are on two different pay scales!

With Love,
Shanita

HAPPY 7TH

My precious Evan recently celebrated his 7th birthday.  Let me tell ya… it was a wang dang doodle of a party. Geez….who says wang dang doodle?!  Anyway, Evan kept saying that he wanted a video game party so a video game party he received!  We were entertained by Rolling Video Games which is a video game theater on wheels.  Evan had the time of his life along with all of his pals.  (Please forgive me for not having more pictures of the party, but I lost my memory card and these were the only pics I could find)

Check out the rolling video game trailer.  I wish I had pictures of the inside of this bad boy.  It was pretty sweet!  16 people playing video games on widescreens with surround sound speakers.  I was a bit overstimulated in my old age but the kids were in hog heaven!

 

Evan and his video game addiction is getting a bit out of hand but he was excited to receive more video games!

 

Since his birthday was on a Tuesday and his party was the Saturday before, we spent his actual birthday eating with friends at our favorite Hibachi restaurant… Edohana.   Everything is better with friends!  The boys had fun watching our chef prepare our meal in front of us.  Okay, maybe the volcano explosion/fire was a bit much but the rest of the show was fun to watch.

 

No birthday dinner is complete without having to wear a silly birthday hat and have the wait staff sing happy birthday to you while everyone in the restaurant sings and claps along.  Evan had the audacity to be embarrassed!  But we all enjoyed the fried ice cream topped with whipped cream and chocolate.  Yum!

 

**Please note that I am aware that my son has on the same shirt on both of these days.  I assure you that it was washed between wears…I think!

Cub Scouts

Well, my little Evan is growing up.  He is now a Cub Scout.  A friend of mine says that joining Cub Scouts is the All-American thing to do.  I must admit that I had reservations about him joining Cub Scouts at first.  But since he asked me about it on several different occasions, I gave in and let him join.  My prejudices about Cub Scouts are totally asinine.  I’m just being honest.  First, I kind of thought Cub Scouts were for the uncool kids.  You know, the nerds and other socially inept kids who had no athletic prowess.  This stems from my school days when the kids in scouting were kind of …weird.  I know times have changed and honestly, whose to say that my kids won’t be the uncool, non jocks!  You never know.  I’ll love them just the same! The major issue that almost kept me from allowing Evan to become a scout was all of the rumors about some of the adult scout leaders being pedophiles.  Just Google it and you’ll read about case after case of scout leaders taking advantage of innocent little boys who are taught to trust and respect their scout leaders.  Not to mention the fact that the first page of our scouting book contains a warning about the fact that child abuse is a big problem in our society, even in the scouting world and you should teach your child how to be safe.  I just told Evan that if any grown up tries to touch his private parts then kick them in their private parts, scream, and run like the wind to tell someone they trust!  Also the fact that my citified husband has never in a day gone camping in the wilderness or pitched a tent or showered in a lake or roughed it in any kind of way is a bit scary seeing as though we are required to do overnight camping trips.   But I suppose there is a learning curve involved for all of us!  Evan seems excited about it and he’s already earned his first badge. The Bobcat Badge.  My prejudices aside…he is well on his way to becoming a decorated cub scout!

 

 

Evan receiving his Bobcat Badge from his scout leader

Throwback

Here are a couple of pictures of Evan from way back when... circa 2004! The first one was taken on his 2nd day of life in the hospital. Notice how long and skinny and pale he was! The second picture was taken at his 2nd month of life! It is one of my favorite pictures because it captures his personality perfectly! Enjoy!




With Love,
Shanita

Shark Boy

Evan has been pretty upset that he's one of the last kids in his class to lose his primary teeth. Well now he can be the first kid in his class to brag about his transformation into... Shark Boy! Duh..duh..duh!!!



Yep! Those are his adult teeth growing in behind his primary teeth! It's pretty disturbing actually. Terrance has nick named him Shark Boy! Evan thinks it's a compliment like some type of superhero alias, but it's actually because he has extra rows of teeth like a shark!



We are scheduled to visit the dentist in a couple of weeks so we'll see what our next step is! I'm sure it will involve tooth extraction since his primary teeth aren't even close to being loose!

But for now, Shark Boy is still in full effect!

Don't feed the children

I don't have to cook today! Here's the note I found on my fridge yesterday from my dear sweet Evan:



Translation: Please feed me nothing tomorrow mommy and daddy!

This note stemmed from a weekend of eating junk which resulted in the tummy ache of all tummy aches! So perhaps a day of bowel rest is a good idea for all of us!

Mama Bear

My rational mind knows that I can't keep my kids safely tucked away in a cocoon in order to keep them happy, healthy and safe, but the 'Mama Bear in me wants to protect them by any means necessary!

Where is all of this coming from you ask! Well the other day Evan came home from school and told me that he touched Mackenzie (a pretty 'lil caucasian girl in his class) on the shoulder and she told him that she doesn't like for brown people to touch her. Evan's little feelings were so hurt. I think it was magnified because Evan has spent the majority of his life thinking that he's white since his skin is lighter than the rest of the family and all of the other black people he knows. So to hear from one of his peers that not only is he really black, but that also people may not want to have anything to do with him because he's black was a double whammy!

I spent some time explaining to Evan that he's smart and wonderful and handsome and a good friend and black is beautiful and so forth and so on in an attempt to build back up the self esteem that 'lil miss Mackenzie attempted to tear down.

One of my character flaws is that I tend to hold grudges so I had to swallow the disgust I felt toward the child that hurt my baby's feelings when I saw her and her mom the next day in class. I wanted to say something to the mom but what could be said? I had a few things in mind but it would not make the situation any better! I was itching to lay my hand on her little shoulder and say "Good morning Mackenzie" just to see what her and her mom would say. Instead I just smiled my sweet smile, uttered a faint 'good morning' and walked away.

I do realize that Mackenzie could have picked up her distaste for brown people from someplace other than her parents. It could even just be a personal preference instead of some type of prejudice! For instance I don't really like for random people to touch me at all, whether they are black, white, purple or green! And maybe Mackenzie was just being descriptive. I realize I'm reaching here...

Anyway, Mama Bear is safely tucked away for the time being. Evan was fine this morning. He even smiled at Mackenzie (although she didn't smile back). So if he can carry on like nothing happened then I can too. I'm sure this won't be the last time we have to deal with something like this so I'll just keep my bear claws sharpened till next time!









With Love,
Shanita

Gifted

Guess who just got accepted into the Gifted & Talented program for the upcoming school year? Drumroll please...



You guessed it...Evan Lofton!!!!

Ok so it was kind of an easy guess considering the fact that Evan is my only offspring that attends school but anyway...

I was so excited when we got the letter in the mail. Evan, however, could honestly care less. Well I shouldn't say care less but he was not as enthused as I was. I don't think he gets it. How's that for gifted!! And I'm not sure how to explain it to him without sounding pompous.



This news came just in time because I was seriously starting to doubt my mothering abilities. It's good to know that even when you come up short, your kids still have a chance to turn out somewhat normal!

Truth is... I don't have to be perfect because I serve a perfect God and as long as I let Him be in control...everything will be a-ok!

Burst of creativity

Sometimes I wonder what goes through Evan's head throughout the day. I'd like to know why he does some of the things he does. Like this...


I looked over his homework the other night and saw this girly elaborately designed lettering. I mean really... Where did this burst of creativity come from? I have never in my 30 something years of life added curly cues to my letters... and I'm a girl! And look closer...



He even added a flower above the 't'! Geez! I have no further comments!

Finally....A Post

It's been a crazy couple of weeks around these parts.  As evidenced by my lack of posting.  For the first time in 2 1/2 months I don't have a menu planned for this week!  My goal is to utilize the food we have to throw together meals for this week.  We'll see.  I'm not very good at last minute planning especially when it comes to cooking.

My boys are doing fabulous.  They amaze me with how much they've grown in the past few months, especially Ian.  He's taller than everyone else in his class and he's often mistaken as a student when we volunteer at Evan's school (I personally think he still looks like a 3 yr old and these people are crazy but whatever).

Evan has a new girlfriend at school named Sophia.  He started writing a book to express his love to her.

 Translation:

My Girlfriend

From: Evan  To: Sophia  By: Evan L.

Illustrated by: Evan L.

I asked him why he likes Sophia and he said "Because she has long hair!"  Umm....OK!  I then started to ask him about some of the other girls in class and why he didn't choose them to be his girlfriend.  His reply was "Sally Sue is mean to me" and "Betty Boop is bossy" so then I asked him why he didn't choose the only other black girl in his class to be his girlfriend (I couldn't resist) and to this he said "She's browner than me".  My eyebrows shot up to my hair line and I went all sista girl on him (I may have even rolled my neck!)  Terrance was sitting across the table saying "Sweetheart, he's only 6!"  I educated Mr. Evan on all the different shades of brown and how one is not better than or worse than the other and he should like someone because of the person they are inside and not because the color of their skin.  I then asked him what he thought of me, daddy and Ian since our skin was darker than his.  I got no answer!  At this point Terrance is shaking his head and muttering something under his breath about me needing to relax!

Maybe I'm taking it too far or going about it the wrong way (or maybe I need to check my own emotions) but I feel like now is as good a time as any for a reality check. This is the same kid that for the first three years of his life, claimed that he was white and argued with us when we told him different.  We've bought books on the subject, tried to expose him to other little brown friends, etc. At least now he tells us that he's light brown instead of white since he has darkened up a little bit over the years.  I'll take that as progress.

 We bought this book for Evan when he first declared that he was white!

I think my fear is that he will go through some sort of identity crisis when he gets older and realizes what it really means to be black.  The doors that will be closed for him that he'll have to push harder to open. (Cool metaphor, huh). The car doors that will be locked and purses held tight when he walks by.  The little girl of another race whose parents forbid her from dating him all because of the color of his skin.  I also don't want him to think that just because his skin is lighter that he's any better than his darker skin brothas and sistas. I guess I just want to instill in him a healthy respect and pride in his race.  I want him to embrace who he is instead of trying to be something he's not.  I'm sure you're thinking....man, all the boy said was that his classmate was browner than him.  Hey, it's about the big picture here people, the big picture!