not fit for a family blog notes

(This is about a year old but I forgot to publish it….)

the "f" word

Asher whispered to me on the way to piano last week.  My friend at school said "f-u-c-h" is a bad word.  First, it drove me insane that it was misspelled and had to correct it.  Then I said, "Yes.  it is a very bad word. one of the worst."  REALLY? said Asher totally shocked.  Worse than the S-H-U-T word (shut up).

the finger

Awhile back, Asher came home from school and said a friend (perhaps the same one as above? Who is this kid?) said it was bad to stick out your middle finger to someone.  I said, yes it is and don't do it.  he asked what it meant.  I said it means "go away" in a very mean way.  I was proud of my explanation without having to get into more details.

Fast forward a Thursday afternoon that always has us running to catch the bus to UW for Noe's speech therapy.  There is a short window of time between when I get the kids from school and when we need to catch the bus.  We almost always end up running up a Seattle hill, book bags and therapy bag in tow, in order to catch the bus.  That day was no different, except the bus pulled away as we got to the bus stop.  I couldn't believe the bus driver wouldn't open the door for us (he had closed it, but hadn't pulled away. I know they can't stop once they pull away) so I flipped him the bird in frustration.   Most of my bird flipping was contained to my NYC living days, but once awhile, in an extremely frustrating situation, it makes an appearance.  As soon as I did it, I heard Asher shout out, "Yeah, GO AWAY!"

larceny

We were walking University Ave trying to find something for a school project after Noe's therapy appt at UW.  I looked down to see Noe was eating a bag of Swedish Fish.  I didn't buy him any Swedish Fish.  He had taken the five finger discount at one of our stops.

Take 2 Seattle Times Sports Blog

A piece I wrote was recently featured in the Take 2 Seattle Times Sports Blog .  It is all about my love/hate relationship with the Seahawks and coming to Seattle amidst NFL football madness.  I wasn't in love with what I wrote when I submitted it, but it has received a lot of attention.  It was really fun to have my "own editor" and to see my name on a byline.

I'm trying to find more time in my life to write.

Funnies for the Week

Just a couple of funnies from this week that I want to jot down to bribe the kids someday for the sake of posterity:

Asher, age 9
Noe, age 11

Asher:  Opening a mini-Three Muskateers bar from his Trick-or-Treat stash, "Why do they call it THREE Muskateers?  There is only one piece of candy here!"

Noe's teacher told me that he pulled out a back molar during class this week, walked across the room, and handed her the tooth.  Too bad it wasn't Teacher Appreciation week?

Asher told me at dinner one night this week that his friend Ben told him that a girl in the class "liked" him.  He told me that after Ben told him, he marched over to her and told her that he was too young to make up with girls.  I asked him what exactly making up with girls means?  He paused for a couple of moments and said, "I really have no idea."

Noe goes through periods where his OCD is high and this is one of those times.  His big thing right now is going through the house constantly turning off lights, shutting doors, etc. I'll be in the kitchen with the dishwasher door and various cabinets open, putting away dishes, and he'll rush in and shut all the doors in a huff, and rush off.  Also, when we are using the toilet, Noe will be lurking outside the door and as soon as we start to open the door, he'll rush to it, run over to the toilet, shut the lid, and run out.  It feels like I'm in some kind of bizarro skit ala Saturday Night Live.