from Facebook
A “weighted” tale from the #landofcute

So, here we are up at the cottage. Marcus and I are snuggled together in a chair. It is so unbearably cozy I start to get a bit chocked up. As we were enjoying our movie Marcus gently and unconsciously began to stroke my hair. It was so sweet. Out of no where he says.
“Mommy you look fabulous, even though you are chubby!”
I totally love the feeling of being gobsmacked. I could see from his face that he totally meant it as a compliment, so I took it as one. Let’s be honest here, I am pretty damn fabulous.

from Facebook
A lovely tale from the #landofcute

Marcus: Mommy can we go to an orphranage?
Mommy:a what?
Marcus: An orphranage so that I can get a little sister?
Mommy and Daddy feeling so sad and full of love for him at the exact same time.

from Facebook
A muttering story from the #landofcute

As most of you know, I am homeschooling Marcus. One of the activities I have introduced into our day is house keeping. I have to muster steely nerves on the inside, and a gentle demeanor on the outside. The task was wash two pots, rinse, dry and put them away. The idea is that he has to do everything. Can’t reach the sink? I guess you need a stool…..go get your stool.
So, he is now ready to wash the pots. Scrubby in one hand and he looks at me to turn the water on. I wait for him to turn the water on…I am prepared for anything…
Is muttering under your breath for the first time a milestone? Cause if it is, we definitely hit that one yesterday!
Muttering under his breath I heard him say
“Do I have to do everything around here?” OMG I was not prepared for that. I almost burst out laughing. I had to remain calm. My cheeks were hurting from suppressing laughter….It continued for the whole task, my ears pricked to hear his mutterings.
“Why do I have to do this? This is SO boring! When I become a man I am going to have a house maid come and do my dishes.” on and on for about 4 minutes.
I was bracing myself, what I would do if he asked for some applause when he was done? Once the door to the cupboard was shut, he just turned around and said
“Hey Mommy, do you want to play Lego with me?” As if the last 4 minutes didn’t happen. I wish I was 7.

from Facebook
A game making story from the #landofcute

Some of you may know that I am homeschooling Marcus. Today we were doing a lesson from my favorite book “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” when Marcus started asking me how to spell things totally unrelated to our lesson. I soon realized that he was feeling pretty determined to take over today’s class, so, I said “what should we do?”
“I know. Let’s play eye spy with something in this room. So, for instance, for the carpet I would say “I spy with my little eye something that begins with c-a, and then you have to guess what it is and then we spell it.” We were at it for 35 minutes totally engaged. He and I are just amazed at how silly English can be. Words like light are the silliest, what is up Mommy with”ight”? He also did a tiny drawing of each word he learned. This is what he learned to spell today.

Bat Man
Light bulb
Heater
Mother
Towel
Phone
Carpet
Bed
Paper
Boxes

Feeling kind of awed. Now he is making Lego droids. Gary and Bill Nye the Science guy are going to introduce Marcus to nutrition today for science class.

from Facebook
An enebriated tale from the #landofcute

Mommy “Wow, Marcus there is a woman out jogging on the coldest day of the year!”
Marcus “She must be drunk!”

from Facebook
A future tale from the #landofcute

For those of you who do not know, Marcus has his future life planned out. Today he made a new edition to the story. This is how the story goes.
Part 1 – about a year ago
“Mommy, I am going to have 10 kids!”
“Really? That’s cool. Hey, all of those kids need to eat. How are you going to feed them?”
“You are going to open up a bakery and you can feed us, and the warmth of the oven can keep us warm in the winter”
I was actually kind of impressed by this answer for a 6 year old.
Part 2 – 6 months ago
“So, are you going to have a job?”
“Yes, I am going to be an inventor like my dad” Heart melts

Part 3 – Today’s contribution to the story, which is kind of my favorite part……The first four kids are going to be named Eenie, Meenie, Miny and Moe. I burst out laughing and then he says and the next two are going to be named Michael and Jeff. I love that he doesn’t think about gender. I do feel bad for Meenie though, that is a tough handle to grow up with.

from Facebook
A bit of advice from the #landofcute

Sometimes, you should buy a package of balloons and blow them all up and leave them on the floor of your child’s room in the middle of the night while they are sleeping. The delight of watching their confusion in the morning is awesome. So is the balloon fight that had to happen….3 days in a row. There is one warning. They migrate…to the the tub, the car and the living room. Good luck!

from Facebook
A birthdate tale from the #landofcute

So, Marcus and I were at the doctor’s the other day and the nurse asked him
“When is your birthday?”
“May 26th”
“What year were you born?” And Marcus replied…
“The year of the dragon!”And made a scary face with his claws extended.
The nurse was Chinese and had a great belly laugh. An astrological conversation ensued. He now knows he was born in 2010, but I think his answer was far better.

from Facebook
A magical tale from the #landofcute
So this week Marcus is at a wonderful camp called Riverwood with his best friend Lucas. It is so beautiful there. It looks out over lake Ontario at the Petticoat Creek Provincial Park. The best part is that it is 20 min from my house!

So, I signed Marcus up for multi sport in the morning and a general camp program for the afternoon. Yesterday when I picked him up he said camp was “awesome”! But Mommy, I am not a sporty kid”
“Well, it is just for a week”
Marcus is at a stage where he gets really upset if he doesn’t do well at sports. I knew it could go either way, he could continue to feel challenged or find just the right councillor to coach him along the way and turn a corner. I decided to stick it out.
Marcus decided to take matters into his own hands today. Rather than wasting time complaining to his councillor, he asked who the camp director was. He approached her and said “Hello, I am Marcus and I am not a sporty kind of kid, are there any other programs I can sign up for?”
The camp director when we spoke later said he was so polite and asked in such a gown up fashion she felt compelled to help him out. So, she told him ” We have magic class still available, would you like to try that?” Marcus loved the idea. Rowan said “Well, we have to call your mom and ask if it is OK first”
” I know mom’s telephone number off by heart. Just call her right now and ask her” So, she did. She left a message on my cell phone and I could hear Marcus prompting her in the back ground and giggling excitedly…..what a kid.
The funny thing is, when I first heard there was a magic program I thought for sure Marcus will love it, but let’s work on this not liking sports thing first…I have learned my lesson. The boy has spoken.

from Facebook
A future Minecraft tale from the #landofcute.
“Mommy! My new friend Aiden has an XBOX 360!!!!” he shouted with excitement…….pause, quizzical look….”Mommy, what’s an Xbox?”