Some Recent Funnies

These kids crack me up.

During sharing, early in the year, the boys had to share something about their heritage.  I wrote their middle names in Japanese for them and we talked about being Japanese and Norwegian.

During their sharing, one of their friends said, "I didn't know you were Japanese"  to which Evan responded, hands flung in the air, "I KNOW!!!!! We JUST found out!"

Their teacher Ms. Erin, laughed so hard she cried.



The other day, I made tried to make my Aunt's Fried Chicken.  It calls for an ice cold salt bath overnight, so I assumed brine. I cooked up the chicken, using the translated from Japanese instructions provided to me from another relative who watched once as she prepared the dish and asked some questions.  I have a few of these recipes from her, and well not always perfect, I have managed to recreate some of Auntie Masako's finest.  (her potato rolls are my crowning achievement)

I fried up the chicken, plated it up and served it to my boys.

Evan:  "What makes this chicken taste so much like salt, mom?"

Ryan:  "It's okay, as long as you don't eat too much of it."

Their kind and tactful words were very, very kind.

The chicken, it was inedible.

When I said this out loud.  Ryan said, "no, not really inedible, just hard to eat."

Reading Ryan

So this transition into first grade has been seamless.  The boys LOVE their teacher, and I do as well.  She is thoughtful about her lessons, she is dedicated to her kids, she is funny, sarcastic, and an amazingly patient teacher. 

Evan has been reading for some time now.  It really clicked with him.  He is reading books at about a third grade level, but I find that he can sound out just about any word that follows traditional rules.  Scary, I now have to be very careful with what I leave laying about.

Ryan, has been slower on the uptake, and it was alarming.  I could not get him to read ANY thing to me.  He would tell me he couldn't or it was confusing.  So imagine my surprise when I went in for Parent Teacher conferences to learn that he was one of the best readers in the class.  "Ryan?" I asked, "No, you mean Evan"  No, she meant Ryan.  That little faker.

Ryan has always loved to be read to.  He was the kid that I read to for four straight hours one day when he was sick.  He is the kid that would choose having stories read to him over Legos...okay maybe not, but he loves to be read to.   So, I guess in his little brain, he decided that if he shows me he can read, he will not get stories read to him. 

Since that meeting, I have breathed a bit easier, not pushed him to read to me as much. However while on a cleaning binge, I found a set a books that I had picked up quite a while back, I gave them to Ryan, made a big fuss about how these were books I knew he could read and they could be his special books that he could keep in his room.  Within minutes, he was calling me to come see, he could read this whole page!!! Success!!!!