That's a Deal Breaker

Although our efforts to explain "tattletale" to the kids produced the phrase "Sam's tittletattling on me!", we are not deterred in teaching them these important concepts! Last night at dinner we spent some time discussing what a "deal breaker" was. I don't know if it totally sunk in but you have to admit if your 4-yr old pulls out a "that's a deal breaker!", then it's funny no matter what. I think her best example (after my stellar example of "if you want to go to a friend's house but then they get sick and throw up -- that's a deal breaker!") was "If your friend pulls out her eyeball!" Yeah, Lucy, that's definitely a deal breaker.

Sam couldn't be bothered with such tiresome linguistic lessons. His very first tooth is loose and thoughts about how best to deal with this new and dangerous upcoming event consume him. We've tried to ease his anxiety by explaining our own experiences loosing teeth-- Dad used some pliers and yanked it out after saying he just wanted to check on it. Mom tied floss around it, tied the floss to a doorknob, then slammed the door. Chris even showed him a youtube video of some kid who pulled his tooth out with a rocket (check it out -- it's a riot). Luckily he hadn't paid attention during dinner or he would have said "That's a deal breaker!" He started basketball recently and I told him a good ball to the face might help. He had already taken a few in practice and I wanted him to feel like at least the act might accomplish something good. Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. The first kid, as everyone knows, gets experimented upon mercilessly. Any suggestions on making teeth-loss a fun process? He's relieved that it's finally happening. He's one of the last in his class to loose a tooth.

Ben, well he's busy vacuuming his hair and trying to learn how to be as cool as Sam. He sleeps like a rock and cracks us up with realistic re-enactments of shark attacks and jokes like "Knock knock. I said banana!" He didn't want to go to bed one night. He propped his head on his hands and gave Chris stink eyes. Chris left. 10 minutes later we found him like this.

Chris and I are settled into the new year quite nicely. We have a fresh bag of oranges delivered every couple of days from a goodly neighbor. What more can you ask for, really?

Here's our 2011 in pictures thus far (with a little throwback to 2010 and Courtney's wedding)

I already did a half marathon this year so I'm done with my new year's resolutions early. My good high school friend Jen came down from WA to run with me. I still hold to the truth that running brings people together. I undertrained and still pushed myself, but I didn't hurl and I hit my goal time so all in all it was a good race. I think the best part was recuperating on the beach after.

Sam's the oldest Grandkid at 6. And Courtney's not even started yet. Man, my parents are in for it!

This is the infamous "angry eyes" pose that the Barney men do so well in pictures.
Our best family picture effort.