did you know...

...that winnie the pooh lives in africa?

according to cashel he does.

the best moment of the night

jason: robin, i was putting cashel down and telling him how proud i am of him for being such a good boy
cashel: yeah, i take care of kaitlyn (a little girl in his class)
jason: yes. that's very sweet. i'm proud of you for taking care of her.
cashel: dad...i'm proud of you for taking care of me

awwwwwwww

it's been so nice

having jason home at night lately.  normally jason has to work late.  normally, as in, up until last december.  has it really been that long since he's been home at night?  yep.  for the most part.  he had to work in santa monica today and said the commute was a bear.  only today though.  we know at some point he might work on the west side but until then we'll take him being home at night.  cashel actually went to sleep on his own tonight.  i told him that since daddy had to work late i needed to clean the kitchen so i would only be able to cuddle for a few minutes.  he said ok and only requested that the bathroom light be kept on for him.  i had to go check on him a few times and put him back into bed twice but otherwise he went to bed solo!  yahoo!  that's a miracle 'round here!  jason suggested that it's helped that he's been around to do a lot of the night time routine which has helped to tear the strings cashel around me - not sure how i feel about that but the boy needs to grow up at some point and give me some time at night to do things.  i've even been able to get up early this week and do some school work before he wakes up which is another feat.  normally he calls for me around 5am and i have to crawl in bed with him and cuddle...."mama, i wanna cuddle wif you" he says.  how can i resist?  then i'm asleep again...cuddling with the boy....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

more storytime

we went to the rose bowl flea market yesterday.  it's the second sunday of every month and it's huge. 

huge, i say.

seriously.

it's huge.

anyhoo.  we got there before 9am (it's seriously so huge you've gotta get there early).  we were successful in obtaining an end table for our new couches (pic to come when pigs fly).

but on the way here's what our storyteller told us:

cashel:  mama/dada (his new word for daddy lately).  you missed me.

me and jason: we did?

cashel:  yeeyah. (he says it like that sometimes).  i was in the woods and i was a superhero and i fought off the bears and the wolves with a stick.  and i was in the woods and i fought off the bears with the wolves and the wolves with the bears and i had a stick and that's what happened and you missed me. 

us:  really?

cashel:  yeeyah. 

us:  wow.  that's brave.

the best part is the look on his face. 

he scrunches up his nose on one side only and raises his eyebrows and is looking out the window when he says all of this. 

one day i hope to get a good picture of this face. 

but my camera isn't fast enough.  and i'm not fast enough.

until then.

just imagine.

storytime

cashel is quite the story teller.  he certainly doesn't get that from me.  he's not that into legos or building blocks or puzzles (yet).  i know that these things may still come.  he's not that into drawing or painting for more than about 30 seconds and most of that is just wanting to watch.  what he is into is pretend play.  a tone of pretend play.  and story telling.  mostly listening to other people (i.e. me before bed, telling him a story).  i've been able to circumvent this a bit - it's, quite honestly, exhausting for me.  let me give you a good example of why it's exhausting:

cashel: (on the way home from school one day, we're almost home, and Jeilani (our neighbor who rides with us - she's in 6th grade) is in the car) mama, tell me a story

me: ok.  who's in this story (this makes story telling much easier for me)

cashel: a stoplight

me:  ok. "once upon a time there was a stoplight.  and in the town where the stoplight lived there was a boy.."

cashel:   no mama!  there are no people in this story!

me:  um...ok cashel.  "once upon a time there was a stoplight.  and in the town where the stoplight lived there was a bear.."

cashel:   no mama!  there are no animals in this story!

me:  um.  yikes.  ok.  so, i'm not sure what i'm supposed to do in this story (luckily, we're almost home)

jeilani:  (laughing)

me:  ok.  "once upon a time..."  yey!  we're home!

thank goodness.

family

a late post is better than never.  we had a wonderful christmas.  here are some pictures to prove it.

the whole fam

the bryant/barnes clan

the park

the kids' table!

so much fun at the kids' table!

visiting granny

cookie wars 2011

mother and daughter

happy to be home

dance party with madonna

ever since the super bowl we've had at least one dance party with madonna.  the night of the super bowl jason and cashel had a dance party in real time while i was walking the dogs.  i came in and we pressed rewind on the dvr and had another dance party!  he does not like cee lo's robe.  he calls it a dress. boys don't wear dresses.  he makes me be one of the cheerleaders. he break dances and does a version of par court on the couch.

on monday night we had a dance party, just me and cashel.

tonight (tuesday) we had a whole family dance party.

if we have another one tomorrow night i'm setting up the video camera and posting.

warning: cashel may be naked.