Stories 2002 Part I

Stories From Early 2002

	March 25, 2002 Just before Daddy left for work/school this morning, he went up to wake Gus. Gus woke pretty quickly, and the first thing he did upon awaking was smile. He then immediately said, "There's one thing I can't figure out. Grim from "Grim and Evil" is a grim reaper. When he has pool balls for eyes, he can't see. But when his eyes are empty, he can see." Where did that come from? This evening, Gus and Daddy watched "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" on TV. Gus laughed and laughed and laughed. Daddy remembers seeing this movie for the very first time and loving it when he was about the same age as Gus is now. Gus even recognized Don Knotts--from a Scooby Doo episode! Just prior to that movie was "The Pink Panther," another movie Daddy remembers seeing and loving at about the same age Gus is now. Gus didn't seem to enjoy "The Pink Panther" much, although that could be because he didn't watch it from the beginning. He did laugh at the big car crash scene at the end, though. This worried Daddy, as Gus will be driving in just over seven years.

	March 24, 2002 On Saturday night, we ordered the movie "The Princess Diaries" from Pay-Per-View and taped it while we watched it. On Sunday, Gus watched it about four more times. We think he might like it.

	March 22, 2002 While Mom was at work, Gus went to his friend Nate's house to play, and Nate's sister Hannah came to play with Zoe. Zoe and Hannah are old friends from Gus's baseball games. When it was time for Hannah to go back home, she told Zoe, "I don't remember what your mom looks like." Zoe described her mom for Hannah. "She's blonde, her hair is long like this [Daddy assumes some gesture was made here but both girls were in the back seat so he couldn't tell], she has fingernails, and they're sharp. She scratched me today." Apparently, this was a good enough description for Hannah, as that's where the conversation ended.

	March 17, 2002 Mommy and Daddy were resting on their bed discussing Mommy's "Greek Tycoons" series of Harlequin Romances when Zoe ran in. "What do I have on my chin?" she asked, holding her finger on it. "Your finger," said Daddy. "It's a pimple," explained Mommy. "A pimple? Why do I have a pimple?" "Just because," said Daddy. "Have I had a pimple before?" "Yep." "When I was a baby?" "Yep." Zoe ran (because she doesn't walk anywhere unless she's bringing you something you need in a hurry) out of the room. She turned on the hall light and looked in the mirror. Then she ran back in to Mommy and Daddy. "I know why I have a pimple!" she exclaimed. "It's 'cuz I'm almost ready to grow up!" A couple minutes later, Mommy brought up the subject of supper. "I need you to go out and get some salsa, [something else], [another thing], and some tomatoes," she told Daddy. "I've already got a tomato," said Daddy, giving Mommy a squeeze. Zoe thought this was funny. "A great big one!" she exclaimed. Daddy laughed so hard that Zoe felt sad. She thought Daddy was laughing at HER and not at what she SAID.

	March 10, 2002 Zoe and Gramma 'Ancy were talking about what was for breakfast. "Can we have those, ya know, round things?" Zoe asked. "Pancakes?" asked Gramma 'Ancy. "Yeah," replied Zoe. "Pancakes."

	March 7, 2002 While packing for a trip to Gramma 'Ancy's house, a discussion was going on about Zoe's being dry all night. "You can't be wet on Gramma 'Ancy's bed, so you'll hafta try extra hard to be dry while we're there. Maybe we should get some Pull-ups for the trip," suggested Daddy. "Well, I could use one of those pads like Mommy has," countered Zoe. "I had to use it one time, and it felt like it was gonna fall out of my panties. It was very uncomfortable." Daddy chuckled at the use of the word "uncomfortable." It was eventually decided to take Zoe's bed pad along just in case, and she was dry three out of four nights!

	February 28, 2002 We went to the RAH (Reading At Home) Family Night at Gus's school tonight. Mom came with for a little while before she had to go to work so she could see what was going on. After she left, Gus, Zoe, and Daddy stayed quite a while. There were lots of fun things to do. Gus made a totem pole. He made faces on a piece of paper, which he then rolled into a tube to be the pole. Then he drew designs on the "wings" that stick out from the sides of the pole and taped them on. It's pretty neat looking. Zoe and Daddy made a Chinese dragon puppet. They cut out the body parts that were predrawn on red construction paper. Zoe cut out the head all by herself; she's really good with scissors! Then the body was folded like an accordion, the head was decorated and taped to one end of the body, and the tail was decorated and taped to the other end of the body. A tongue of black construction paper was taped in the mouth. Then a paint stirring stick was taped to the head, another to the tail, and the Chinese dragon was done. Zoe played with it the rest of the night, making noises like "Rarr!" as she made it walk along beside her. There was popcorn and pop, and the Jefferson Elementary Student Council was selling suckers for 50�. Zoe's tasted like a banana split, and Gus's tasted like a strawberry shake. Daddy really liked Zoe's sucker, so Gus didn't let his sucker get very close to Daddy. Fortune cookies were also being distributed, and Daddy ate his own and both Gus's and Zoe's, too. Daddy must not have eaten enough supper! Gus went home with a frisbee, and Zoe went home with a pretty lei. They were reading bedtime stories in foreign languages in the kindergarten rooms. Zoe almost fell asleep listening to a Cambodian fairy tale with her friends Maddie and Megan, who were also there. A girl read the story in English, and then her mom read that same part of the story in Cambodian. Gus liked the story but thought that the Cambodian language sounded weird. Both kids saw a lot of their friends there, and Mommy and Daddy saw a lot of their friends' parents, whom they sometimes recognized by sight but rarely by name. Hannah, Zoe's friend from Gus's baseball games, was there with her baby sister, who was just two weeks old, so Zoe has decided to wish on the wishing star for a baby sister. Now Daddy will be wishing on the wishing star that wishing stars aren't real. Overall, a fun time was had by all. As Gus gets older, he knows more of the kids and teachers and isn't so shy about doing things. As Zoe gets older, she can participate in things more, and then she's not just being lugged around. And as Daddy gets to know the parents from Cub Scouts more, he has people to say hi to while the kids are dragging him around to do their things. School events just keep getting funner and funner!

	February 21, 2002 Zoe is learning where babies come from. On an episode of "Rugrats," she told us, Angelica asked her mom where babies come from. "Oh?" Mommy and Daddy said. "Angelica's mom told her they come from eggs," Zoe continued. "But that's silly. They really come from stomachs!"

	February 20, 2002 Sometimes Daddy and Zoe have deep conversations. Tonight at bedtime, Daddy asked Zoe if she was his little princess. "Yep," she nodded. "Then that makes me the king, right?" "Uh-uh." "No? Then who's the king?" "Gus is." "Gus!?! He's the princess's brother, so he's the prince. The princess's daddy is the king," Daddy explained. Zoe thought about this for a bit, then asked, "Who's the butler?" A little bit later, Zoe asked, "Why is God so special?" That's an easy one, thought Daddy. "Because God made everything," he explained. That answer was not good enough for Zoe. "Did He make Hisself?" Daddy now found himself embroiled in a deep religious discussion, so he replied, "Ask Mommy."

	February 19, 2002 As an assignment for school, Gus had to write a story about knights in shining armor. Having just finished *The Hobbit, he chose to put a dragon in his story. Although things turn out a little differently for the dragon than they do in The Hobbit, the story still has a happy ending. He also came up with some good names for his story's people and places. Gus's story is called "The Great Agreement," and it's a good one! Zoe has been telling stories lately. She tells "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "The Three Little Pigs" quite well. Other times, she furrows her brows and comes up with some whoppers. Tonight, Mommy and Zoe were on their way home from dance class, and Mommy kiddingly told Zoe she was a pain in the butt. Zoe hadn't participated in the dancing, although she watched the other kids. She does* claim to "knows all her lessons," though, and is pretty insistent on demonstrating those lessons at various times. Suddenly, Zoe told a story. "Once upon a time there was this pretty, pretty, pretty girl named Zoe. Sometimes she was a pain in the butt, but always she was pretty."

	February 17, 2002 Daddy went upstairs to check on Zoe after his SimCity marathon. She wasn't on her bed, and Daddy wondered for a moment if she'd crawled in with Mommy. Then he found her asleep on the floor. He stood her up and took her to the bathroom to go potty. "Did I roll out of bed?" she asked. "Yep," Daddy replied. Zoe rubbed her eyes and said, "I wondered what that noise was."

	February 10, 2002 At lunchtime, Daddy was a little grumpy, and Gus was a bit mouthy. Daddy looked at the boy and said (half seriously), "Knock it off, or I'll thump you into next week." Gus exclaimed, "Mom! I've discovered a way to time travel!" Daddy could only chuckle!

	February 9, 2002 Mommy and Daddy had plans to see Concrete Blonde at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The babysitter was all lined up, but since the weather forecast was bad, Mommy and Daddy weren't comfortable with the thought that they might be stranded in a different city than Gus and Zoe. As usual, Aunt Janny came to the rescue. She said she'd watch the kids while Mommy and Daddy were at the concert. Boy, do Mommy and Daddy owe her. Since the concert wasn't until the evening, we thought we'd make a fun day of it. The first stop was the Minnesota Zoo, where we have a family membership. That's really nice, as we can go fairly often even if we just stop in for an hour or two like we did today. And it's nice that the Zoo is on the south side of the Cities. Zoe, as usual, wanted to go to Como Park Zoo instead of the Minnesota Zoo. This is for two reasons: She likes polar bears (which Como Zoo has and the Minnesota Zoo doesn't have), and she is sure we'll make her ride the monorail again at the Minnesota Zoo (she had a slight case of motion sickness on the monorail last summer). Once we assured her that there would be no monorail riding, she was quite satisfied with the Minnesota Zoo. When we got to the zoo, it was almost closing time. Closing time must also be feeding time, as all the animals were very active. Daddy liked the otters and the gibbons. Zoe, with a gleam in her eye, asked what the tapir was made of. Mommy told Gus not to let the python out of it's glass case like Harry Potter did, and Daddy almost had him believing the python ate a kid on a school tour. We missed the feeding of the sharks in the Tropical Asia area; but in the Discovery Bay area, Gus got to pet a shark, and Zoe saw "tiny" sharks. Daddy was impressed with the small aquarium with shark eggs that were lit so you could see the sharks inside of them. After that, it was off to Archiver's, which is Mommy's favorite store in the world. Then, we ate at Burger King (because they have Dragonball Z and Powerpuff Girls toys, not because their food is any good), and ran through Half Price Books. Gus found a bunch of Garfield comic books for a small price and begged for them. "It's TEN books for only seventeen dollars!" he said; he's going to be a wonderful TV salesman someday ("But wait! There's more!"). Then it was off to Jan's to drop the kids. The concert was great! And loud! And who knew there were so many people with blue hair and 19 lip piercings! Afterwards, Nick and Cindy hurried past a crack bust in the parking ramp and toured downtown Minneapolis in search of 35W. Nick has no problem getting TO places in downtown Minneapolis, but for some reason, he has trouble finding the right way OUT of downtown Minneapolis. Gus and Zoe were coloring with markers when Mommy and Daddy picked them up. The weather was fine despite the forecast, and the drive home was uneventful. Gus and Zoe even slept in the car, although Mommy and Daddy wouldn't have been able to tell otherwise. Their ears were still ringing from the concert.

	February 5, 2002 At bedtime, Mommy was tucking in Zoe and Daddy was tucking in Gus. Then Mommy called "Switch!" and she went to tuck in Gus while Daddy went to tuck in Zoe. Zoe was pretty sure she wasn't tired, so Daddy said, "Yes, you are tired. It's time for bed." Zoe was still unconvinced. "But I'm not tired," she said. Daddy then said, "It's late. It's time for kids to be in bed." "It's not late," said Zoe. Daddy sighed. "It's nine o'clock, and it's time for kids to be in bed." "It's not nine o'clock," said Zoe. Daddy gave her a look that said,"Quit talking back, it IS TOO nine o'clock, and you can't tell time so how would you even know." Zoe saw Daddy's look, considered for a second, decided she'd gone a bit too far, flashed that "oh-yeah-you-ARE-right" smile, and said, "You're right. It is nine o'clock."

	January 4, 2002 Gus is 52 inches tall and weighs 66 pounds. We found this out this morning when Gus saw Dr. House for a plantar's wart. He was pretty brave, although he opted for the new, painless nightly cream treatment instead of the traditional, painful-sounding freezing treatment. Daddy nodded, smiled, and said, "Definitely my son." To help the cream work better, Dr. House had to cut away some of the callous around the wart. Gus was very skittish as the nurse put Betadyne around the area, but barely said a word as Dr. House cut the callous away. Dr. House also told Gus he might want to try to "charm" away the wart. To do this, Gus needs Daddy to drive him out into the country during the next full moon. Then, Gus needs to get out of the car, rub a cut raw potato into the wart, and say, "Wart be gone!" twice. After that, he should throw the potato over his right shoulder without looking where it goes. Gus thinks this might be worth trying. Daddy asked if it works in town, too. Gus was rewarded for being so good with a meal at Burger King, but he couldn't talk Daddy into keeping him out of school all day. He went back after lunch, and listened to opera in music class. He didn't like it. Zoe saw Dr. House in the afternoon. Mommy was concerned about Zoe's ears, since she's had a cold for quite a while and her hearing test went so poorly. Daddy and Zoe waited for almost an hour before they were seen. Zoe watched "The Rescuers Down Under," studied the fish tank, played with puzzles and Legos, and got about nine drinks of water. By the time the exam started, Zoe was still fairly pleasant, although Daddy could see signs that she was nearly ready for a nap. Zoe wasn't too sure about letting Dr. House look in her ears, but she didn't squirm too badly. When he tried to look in her throat, however, she wasn't having any of that! She was sure he was going to do a strep test, and she positively HATES that! She wouldn't open her mouth for anything, and Daddy had to hold her hands so she couldn't cover her mouth. Even then she kept her iron jaws clamped shut. Dr. House is from the old school, so he plugged her nose in order to get her to open her mouth to breathe. Daddy was sure Zoe would suffocate before she'd let Dr. House look in her mouth, but she finally took a small breath and he got a quick peek at her throat. After he was done, she let out a scream and Daddy thought he could see down her throat to her toes. The prognosis, somewhat anticlimactic after the effort put into the exam, was an ear infection. Dr. House prescribed an antibiotic, a grape ice cream float, and then said, "Mom and Dad should wait on you hand and foot until you're better."

	January 3, 2002 Zoe had her pre-Kindergarten screening today. Mommy and Daddy both took her, as Mommy really enjoyed Gus's and thought Daddy would enjoy Zoe's. She was very shy at first, and tried to hide behind Daddy. We found that she weighs 46 pounds and is 43 inches tall. She passed the eye test with flying colors, but her head cold kept her from doing the same with the hearing test. She'll need to be retested for hearing as soon as she's over her cold. Zoe was then given a blank piece of paper and asked to draw a person. She quickly drew herself, and then added her cat, Mischief. After that, she was asked to copy three shapes from another paper (a circle, a square, and crossed lines) and did that excellently. Then came the question and answer period. Zoe knew the bird flies, the cat meows, and the dog barks, but she wasn't sure which animal gallops. She wasn't sure how to answer the questions about what she would do if she were cold, hungry, or tired. Then she told the nurse what a ball, lake, desk, house, banana, curtain, fence, and ceiling were. After describing those things, she knew how to answer the cold, hungry, and tired questions. Then the lady had her put five blocks on the picture she'd drawn, and Zoe put them in a perfect row. Mommy said that Gus had done the exact same thing. Then, while naming the colors of the rest of the blocks, she stacked all five up in a tower. This must've sparked a desire to build, because she got the Legos out when we got home and built very tall towers. The last bit of the screening consisted of hopping on first one foot and then the other, and then walking heel to toe in a line. After that, she got a sticker and went to play while the nurse talked to Mommy and Daddy. Zoe put several puzzles together in the space of maybe five minutes. After that, Mommy and Daddy took their smart smart girl to lunch.

	More Stories Stories of Gus and Zoe Spring Break 2005 Trip to Mississippi Stories From Summer 2004 Stories From The 2003-2004 School Year Stories From Summer 2003 Stories From May 2003 Stories From Early 2003 Stories From Late 2002 Current page: Stories From Early 2002 Stories From 2001

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