"In my ears and out my mouth"

The week of January 20th was difficult for several reasons. Of course, daddy hasn't been home. The Principal of his school was murdered over that past weekend, and we both were still trying to process events surrounding a boy kissing him several times, wanting to try 'another kind of kissing' (french), and his revealing to me past incidents that were very inappropriate and disturbing.  It took us the entire week to really sort things out in our heads.  Thankfully, because the Principal died, there were therapists and counselors at the school all week. I did email his teacher mid-week to let her know what I'd learned over the weekend so she could be aware if anything came up at school. I'm so glad I did! Either Thursday or Friday they were walking in line back to class and he said, "Ms. Hobbs, there is something I just can't get out of my head." He mentioned the incidents I'd emailed to her and she immediately pulled him out of line and allowed him to speak. She told him none of those things were his fault, and he has a voice that he is free to express himself with.  Then he said, "Do you think I could talk to one of those counselors?"  So she sent him to one. He again talked about the incidents, as well as missing daddy, and questions he had about the murder of the principal.  What a tragic week for us it was.  Though it did make him more eager to move to Colorado.

Also that week, I tried to make some soup like Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi soup, and some chocolate chip cookie dough. When Andrew got off the bus he asked, "What do you have planned for today?"  I told him, "Eating chocolate chip cookies!"  He said, "for real?!" I told him he had to eat soup first. I told him I had chicken gnocchi soup.  "Do we have Gnocchis?"  I told him I had to use biscuits instead. He said, "Then you should have called it Chicken and Biscuits Soup."

That weekend, Andrew developed a cough and some sneezing. Daddy got to come home too for an overnight visit!

Every day he gets off the bus and asks, "Do you have any plans for today?" He is always disappointed too. It's so hard to get together with people during the week since there isn't much time to play before dinner and bedtime.
Thursday February 5th, Joy and Barry came over  to experience FCT and then we followed them home for dinner. So he had an enjoyable time playing there and staying up late.
Saturday the 7th I had to tell him that if he wasn't ready for service on time - he was going however he looked. He managed to be dressed but still had bedhead.  Fred took him into the bathroom and helped him fix his hair.  Then we joined the phone witnessing group with Ann. He got embarrassed when he tried to talk to another sister and she snapped at him, "SHHH! We're talking!"  So, we helped Ann figure out how to get her copier to work and then put Andrew in charge of bringing us the letters to send, and putting the stamps on the envelopes. We only stayed for about an hour and a half and went home to rest a bit. At 1:45 Joy and Lauren came to get him and headed to Bellevue to babysit 14 month old Henry. He didn't get home again until 8:45.  He had some fun, and some not so fun moments. He did tell Joy that he was not going to tag along the next time she goes to Bellevue. lol
Sunday morning he woke me up asking if he could use the microwave to heat up his hamburger. I got up to help him and went back to bed. When I got up he had also made a huge mess on the table with peanut shells.  We didn't have time to clean up before meeting.  He enjoyed sitting with the Laffertys during the meeting. After meeting I let him watch "Robots" while I made some cookies and pumpkin pie. He helped me clean up the mess the dogs had made the night before. They got the bag of barley and bag of lentils off the counter and spread them all over the place; and of course his mess. I think he only helped because it meant he could get a cookie later.   I asked him to hang up his clean shirts and he said, "no, that's your job!" (shakin my head)

Monday February 9th he came bounding in my room when he knew I was awake. He cheerfully suggested pumpkin pie for breakfast and was very excited when I said that sounded like a great idea. He hoped to have the entire pie. I did let him have a second piece but he was too full to finish it.
Monday night at dinner he looked at me and said, "Mom, you're dehydrated."  I said, 'oh yeah? what makes you say that?"  He said, "Because under your eye is a little dark. That one too. Both eyes."  Hmmm.

Andrew has also been obsessed and afraid of wolves since being at the farm. I have told him nearly every day that he is unlikely to ever even see a wolf and there is no need to be afraid. It's been driving me nuts. For the hundredth time we talked about wolves all the way to Kingdom Hall Wednesday night and I was ready to scream. He's convinced there are wolves in ever patch of woods, waiting to come out and get him.  The Wrights were entering the same time and I pleaded with Paul to tell Andrew that the chances of him seeing a wolf in Spring Hill are very slim.  He so badly wanted to encourage that imagination to run wild but very kindly succumbed to my request and told Andrew that they're pretty rare.  Cairo suggested a coyote would be easier to find - but still, in an area so populated it's not that common either.

We never used the microwave up until we started packing to move. In an effort to keep the counters cleared, I moved the toaster oven to the garage for a while and we have been using the microwave. Andrew is very interested in it and likes getting to push the buttons.

He's been saying a lot lately, "It went in my ears and out my mouth" to reference having a though or idea that he expresses. And also saying, "You took the words right out of my mouth!"  He told me this week, "I like saying 'in my ears and out my mouth' but my teacher says it 'goes in one ear and out the other.'" I chuckled to myself but didn't explain to him what that means. 

Friday I picked Andrew up from school early since they were having Valentine parties. We ran a few errands and he was awesome and patient and helpful. At the bank, he convinced the line of customers behind us that he is a real ninja and very strong.
When we got home, he told me that since he didn't have a valentine box - all of his gifts went into a bag and he wouldn't bring it home. I was very proud of him. There were a couple of loose things in his backpack and he had a beaded necklace with a heart on it around his neck. He made the heart, and apparently it originally was on string that kept making him itch, so his teacher put it on a beaded necklace instead. He was pleased with it. 
Of course he spent the rest of the afternoon swinging it around (like everything!). I kept asking him to please stop swinging it when I or the dogs were around. He almost got me in the face. Moments later he arched his back and leaned against the couch with his face looking like he was screaming but no sound was coming out. Then the crying started. I brought him toward me and held him and he arched his back again when my hand wrapped around his rear as he cried, "It still feels like stinging real bad!" He had accidentally whipped himself.
I suggested it might be a good time to go ahead and get jammies and brush teeth. He had a hard time with the toothpaste making it onto the toothbrush instead of in the sink. I gave him a few tips and he successfully got the job done himself. So we cuddled into bed together and I finished reading Junie B. Jones and the Stinky Smelly Schoolbus. I gave him some more hugs and he asked me, "why do you like to hug so much."  I told him that when we hug someone, chemicals are released from our brain that make us feel better.  He gasped, "it does?! My body releases chemicals? Where do they go - into the air?"  I told him they go through his body wherever they need to. He said, "They go down to my feet." He gave me some more hugs while we prayed and talked. 

Andrew sitting on the toilet, "MOM!!" To which I come running. "Did you know you have a thousand and one things in your bathroom?"
"No, I don't think I do."
"Uh huh! I even counted the dots in the drain and everything!" as he gestured toward the shower drain and up the tiles"