Mom of an 8 Year Old Boy Means...

Most recent dicoveries about boy behavior:

When boys hurt themselves, they don't always tell you. I went to the downstairs bathroom one day and found blood on the wall. I came out and asked, "is someone bleeding?" Jacob responds, "Oh, yea, I am." He comes over and blood is running down his leg. (just use your imagination for the pic...decided to clean it rather than take a pic of it...)

When you expect him and his friend to be excited about a sleepover involving a bunk bed, they will not be. They will want you to blow up air mattresses-NOT sleep in his sister's full bed because it is a GIRL bed- and then complain that the air mattresses not being as comfortable as their own beds. They will not compromise on who sleeps in the top bunk. So you will be up all night dealing with tired, cranky boys and forbid future sleepovers. Until you have an epiphany one night, force your stepdaughter to help you take the bunk bed apart, and put the top one on the floor making two twin beds.

His fave part of a family trip will be when his cousin tries to push him out of a speeding inter-tube into a lake:

When he puts his full football uniform on for the first time, he will ask, "are you sure these socks are supposed to be this long? Is this right?"

He will hang random Lego men on your cute, froo-froo thingies hanging from your floor lamp.

When he overhears you and Grammy discussing a recent tragic death involving a 15 year old, whose Uncle said to reporters, "the good die young," he will ask/say, "am I going to die soon? Oh, that's right, I'm not good."

BUT, they will entertain you when they do things like cough and fart at the same time, and then fall onto the floor giggling about it :)

Football!!

I still can't believe it. Wasn't he just born??? Madness. I am just so excited to be watching him playing a sport, I am beside myself. Plus it is a sport I like. Fabulousness. PLUS, all the games (except this jamboree game) are played on Tuesdays. TUESDAYS!!!!! Do you know what that means for our Sonic family!!! It is so hard for Jon to get off on Saturdays. But a Tuesday night! Shut up. Seriously. Jon and I do not know what to do with ourselves. I just can't tell you how many of Hallie and Abby's games have been missed because of schedule conflicts.  I know it won't always be like this, but we are going to enjoy it while we can.

Sitting around before practice one day. On their helmets. Teehee

A scrimmage game they played at practice one night. Jacob is in there somewhere...

The pep talk after that first scrimmage. Their coach is a relatively young guy, whose girlfriend's son is on the team. Before the season started, we all kept getting emails stating the league needed more coaches. Or else no league. Well, the night all the kids from all the teams went to get weighed in, the league was still one coach short. This guy signed up. Plus, he brings along 2 guys (one of them is in red to the left) with him to practices. And games. One of them has a kid on the team, the other does not-the one in red. The 3 of them played football together all through elementary school and high school. IT. IS. AWESOME. Because they are young, have played more recently than most of the other coaches, and because only 1 of them has a son on the team. The other 2 are totally objective, and mean! Every time they make a kid or kids run for not paying attention, the other parents and I want to stand up and cheer. Plus, we wouldn't even be playing AT ALL if it wasn't for these guys. Do we love them? Yes we do. Oh, and this speech started off like this, "I don't expect you guys to know what's going on out there all of the time right now. Just remember this: whatever you do, do it hard and fast."  Surely that will go down in the Hall of Fame for Coach Pep Talks...

!!!!!!!!!!

This is right before the Jamboree game. The dads helped out. Jon is right in front of Jacob. And Jon is the 2nd dad from the right.

 Jon helping during the game. He may be a little excited also...

In this one, Jacob is over to the right, the one crouched down the lowest.

 In this one, Jacob has just gotten up from that position and is running toward the middle.

 Jacob is crouched in the middle, in front of the coach. You can sort of see the first 4 of his number.

Jacob is all the way on the other side of the line up. I will have to change positions next game.

Bob's Bday

Jacob is 8!! Didn't I just have him??? Sigh. Well, in perfect Garzoli tradition, he had 3 celebrations. One the night before his actual birthday with Jon, Abby, Hallie & Josh, because Jon's mom was having surgery the next day and we knew Jon would be tied up.  The second one came on the night of his actual bday with Grammy and Grandfodder because Grammy wanted to see him on the actual day.  And the third was a friend party at laser tag.  I don't think he minded... His tally? $280 in cash and gift cards. Craziness. He was beside himself.  He actually got two actual gifts, but had both, so we took them back to Target. Then we sat down at a Starbucks table to figure out the total. He freaked out, started a LOUD chant informing the entire area of how much he had to spend while I frantically tried to shush him so that no one would mug me. He was able to buy 4 Lego sets he has been wanting, and still has money left over. Here are the pics.  Not many...I never manage to get many of his birthday parties because I am so involved in it and am not able to take pics.

Jacob's fave pizza is Milano's. He usually just gets one slice when we go. When I asked where he wanted to go eat with Grammy for his bday, he said, "Milano's. And this time I want 3 slices!"  Well, Grammy did better than that: she bought him a whole pepperoni pizza, just for him!

This is at his friend party. There was a claw game there with "gold" cufflinks and a tie clip as one of the prizes. Calvin was beside himself that he won. Couldn't wait to show his dad ;)

Friends from school.

After seeing Calvin win the, ahem, gold cufflinks, all the kids got in line to try their luck...

Inside of the laser tag room. Really cool.  The blue colors in both pics are actually kids running past me. Their t-shirts glowed under the black light. 

Halo edible images for cupcakes. Awesomeness. 

Knoxville!

We went to Knoxville to visit family. It was a great end of the summer trip, and we had so much fun!

The poster Jacob made for Jon. We hung it up in the kitchen.

We rode on a Megabus there and back because it was so cheap. It was a pretty good experience...until we got in trouble for using wipe off markers on the windows...

When we first got on in Memphis

This is how high we were up on the double decker.

Life is rough...

This is on the way to Knoxville...this first bus driver apparently didn't care what her passengers did...

 

 

Truly, the best surprise of the bus. Outlets. 

 Oh the technology...

That first day on the way up we were able to spread out. It was a very pleasant trip. 

Jacob is actually lying on the floor...yes, it was gross. Did I care? No,  HE WAS LEAVING ME ALONE.

A semi is going past us. Our level was higher up than the cab of it. They thought it was cool at first...

I took this just because it was funny that when Morgan wiped off her window the wipe had her handprint on it. Now it just serves as evidence that we cleaned up after ourselves...

Morgan wrote this with the colored pencils that Aunt Debbie bought, on the notebook from Aunt Debbie. This was on the way home ;)

Before getting in trouble. Gee I'm glad we didn't mess up that top-notch cracked window....

Who wouldn't want this on their bus??? I think Megabus should just make it part of their slogan...

We were walking in Gatlinburg and saw an airbrush shop with this example in the window. It has a Halo man on it (Jacob's fave video game) and his name!! Oh the excitement.

Morgan found this shirt in a shop and had to have it. Even though the smallest one was an adult small. She tied up the side in a ponytail. It says "Rock Star." Goober.

We were going to go tubing but got rained out. As we were heading home, it stopped raining and decided to go for a helicopter ride instead!

Waiting for our turn.  The helicopter was taking off with another group. 

 

About to take off...she was so excited she couldn't look at me :)

 ditto....

In the air!

Home depot!

Hard to see but the Smoky Mountains are in the background.

Aunt Debbie and Grammy waving at us. 

Jacob was so funny because when Lily and Anderson were at Aunt Debbie's he would get quite annoyed with them for messing up whatever domino or Lego creation he was working on. But then Friday night neither one was there and he said, "I'm so sad that there are no babies here tonight..."

We are going to have to get Morgan over this shy phase she is going through...

 

Just as I was aiming to take a pic of the half moon Lily was sporting, I noticed my son's underwear sticking out of his pants. Sigh. 

Noah's birthday was this weekend and we celebrated by playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey when he wasn't even there...

But then he was there and we had cake. And brownies. And cupcakes. And ice cream. It's a shame how we deprive the children in our family.

Jacob found Uncle Vince's hats...

Lily wasted no time with Morgan.  They were having a Barbie party. 

The boys. Doing what boys do.

 

Mario balloon!

Mom got Lily a princess pig.  Yes, I said a princess pig.  She has clothes and talks. And snores, I think. As mom was opening the package and assembling the whole thing, Lily watched SO PATIENTLY AND WITH TOTAL AWE. Totally and completely opposite of how Morgan and Jacob have ever acted. I am sure Mom didn't know what to do with herself. 

Yea, I think Lily likes Morgan. 

One of my fave parts of the trip. As we were stopped at a gas station, Morgan spotted this magazine of homes for sale and grabbed it for her Daddy because he has been looking for a house to rent.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that the houses were in the Pigeon Forge area.

Morgan and I got matching hairstyles, courtesy of Aunt Debbie!

We went to a pizza place one night, and they had a game room where the kids could win tickets.  The tickets could then be traded in for crappy toys. Sort of like Chuck E Cheese.  But instead of having to wait for an employee to find the time to saunter over to the toy counter to give you your  crappy selections like at CEC, this place had an automated machine.  Awesome! No, not so much. Because when Jacob selected the yoyo, he got a plastic hippo.  When he selected a plastic rhino, he got a plastic fish. Oh well. I believe Morgan is trying to instruct us on how to do it correctly.  Note: Jacob is nowhere to be seen. This is probably because while we were stressing over trying to figure this machine out FOR HIM, his boy attention span caused him to completely lose interest.

At one point I got to ride in the back with Lily. We were in Aunt Debbie's car, sans technology, and embarking on a two hour rode trip. I actually thought to grab Jacob's DVD player and movies. I let her pick, and she said-in her COMPLETELY CUTEST SCRATCHY VOICE EVER- "I want that bug movie." (A Bug's Life).

 See, right here she is thinking, "cousin Shannon is my favorite."

Party boat at Nicole's house!!

Jacob and Noah

Jacob and Zack after Zack pushed him off the inter-tube. 

Zack, Jacob and Noah on the inter-tube.  Jacob learned quickly to go with the boys. Morgan liked it calmer...

 

 

Jacob watching Zack and Noah.

Lily took this pic (that's her little finger). I brought a disposable water camera which is set up like an old 35 mm camera. She looked at it like it was an alien specimen. After she took the pic she kept looking for it to pop up on the back :)

 Another pic by Lily! Pretty good job for a 3 year old I think!

Jacob chilling on the float.

 Morgan jumping

 Jacob jumping

Jacob and Morgan antagonizing Noah.

Jacob and Morgan jumping

Morgan jumping (I may have taken too many pics...)

Zack and Lily 

Jacob and Morgan getting ready for their first ride. Here's that famous chronological order thing...

When we first got to Nicole's, Jacob and Morgan first ran all over the house checking the inside out.  Then they ran straight outside to the dock. You know, just making themselves at home.  Love that even though they only see this part of the family a couple times a year they still feel comfortable  :)

 "Daddy I need the teys! (keys)"

Morgan decided it was best to go with Aunt Shae and have Hughes pull us slowly, and no circles. 

Jacob LOVED riding with Zack.  When I asked them what their fave part of the trip was, Jacob said, "getting thrown in the water by Zack."  (Morgan said hers was not getting stuck in the rain while tubing. Always the practical worry wart.)

Stole this from Nicole's blog because for once I was actually joining in the fun rather than just taking pics!! Nicole bought a ton of water balloons, which Zack and Amanda filled, and then we had a great fight. It was a lot of fun, and I was super thrilled about it because Jacob has been wanting to have one for a while. We haven't had one because it just isn't as much fun with 2 people...so this was perfect! Thanks Nicole!

I stole this from Melissa's blog.  The first pic is from last year. LAST YEAR. Look at how much they have all changed between then and the second pic, which is this year.

On the last day when Aunt Debbie was driving us to the bus stop to leave, we spotted a giant basketball on the Basketball Hall of Fame Museum.  Of course we had to get a pic.  So of course Aunt Debbie went out of her way to find a spot to park so we could do it.  Cuz she's awesome like that.

 And then we got to the bus stop where we realized we could see it.  So we took another pic. But one is giant and the the other is itty bitty, so both pics were absolutely necessary.

Videos!

Anderson's helicopter

Jacob and Morgan on the tube the first time

Random things overheard during the trip:

Jacob (on the drive to the bus station in Memphis): "OH! We should have gotten Aunt Debbie a purple present!'

Shannon (upon catching Jacob stuffing his face with Skittles one night around 10 p.m.):  "Jacob! Did you ask if you could have those?"
Morgan: Aunt Shae, you know he's not an asker.

Jacob (on the bus): "Morgan, wanna play Truth or Dare?"
Morgan: "We're on a bus. We can only play Truth."