The Ingebretsens

The comings and goings of the Ingebretsen family.

What a morning!

I am not a fan of potty humor, as many know. But this morning I couldn't stop laughing.

Oliver and George were fighting and George was holding quite the grudge about the whole thing and when I asked Oliver to apologize, of course he was already over it so he didn't even remember what he was apologizing for. So I was coaching him and he was copying my words, "George sorry I fought with you." Then George looks at him and says, "why are you sorry you farted." Oliver looked at me confused and so I piped in and said, "no, he's sorry he fought with you." then through my laughter I was trying to explain that "Fought" is the word you use for fight when it happened in the past."

Anyway, it was hilarious! Because the thing you have to know about Oliver is that he doesn't say his Rs. We tease him about being from Boston. Anyway it was seriously so funny. I haven't found that much humor in them in a long time and it felt so good to laugh that hard! I think I need to do that more often. It was good for me.

Seriously this morning was comical though with such a series of events that lead to getting the kids to school almost an hour late. Oh dear. I hope I can hang in there this last month and a half we have left of school. I think I must have spring fever.


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If you knew me...

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My mom likes to ask us to continue this sentence..." If you really knew me you would know that..." I think it a nice way to not only spark conversations to help us further understand each other but also is a great introspective question to recognize about yourself. So today as I was making my lunch and was so excited because I was so hungry. I thought to myself, "if you really knew me you would know that good food makes me happy!" I think I have been undergoing some analytical thinking about myself these days. What makes me tick, what things must I do to feel like my best self?

Yesterday I came home and Robby had made me lunch and it put me in the best mood. It reminded me of when we were first married and we were in NYC with my family. We had been walking around quite a bit and I was a bit cranky. The kind of cranky you just move past when you are on your own, but for some reason when another person is involved and it means communicating effectively, things were just not going the greatest. So, Robby and I were walking on the sidewalk, he sees a hot dog stand, and bolts across the road. Brings me back a hot dog and immediately my total mood shifted. I had no idea I was so cranky until I was not so hungry anymore. And I remember Robby looked at me and said, "I should have bought you a hot dog a long time ago." Now remembering that line maybe it sounds rude but it was hilarious at the time because it was so true!

So anyway, this is a little post giving tribute to good food and good moods, and how lots of times for me they go hand in hand! I think I have my mom to thank for that one. And I guess when good food is not around a hot dog can sometimes do the trick. Or maybe there is just something special about a hot dog from the streets of NY, cuz that one was sure memorable!

Skipped out on Yoga

Well, I skipped out on yoga tonight.  I had a better offer come along. Robby suggested getting a sitter and going out. I'd take him up on that offer any day. So, no yoga for me.

We spent the night getting some food and we acutally went and bought patio furniture.  Hooray!  I am super excited.  With the new playground back there and the nice big table on its way, we hope to have a festive summer with lots of entertaining and relaxing.  Summer, here we come!

Our "little man"

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Today Robby told Oliver he looked like a little man.  Oliver looked down, laughed and chuckled, "Oh ya, I do!" And was just so darn humored by it he wanted to look in the mirror a few times.  It was hilarious.  This kid loves to laugh and loves to make other people laugh.  He is just a big ball of energy and fun.  We had a really good day today which meant a lot to me.  He came up to me many times and gave me hugs.  It is those times that I just soak it in.  I tried to tell him each time how much it meant to me.    

The kids played on their new playground in our backyard and he came up to me a few times, separate from the hugs actually and told me thanks so much for the playground.  He is a thoughtful boy.  

I love my mellow mornings with him while George is at school and Jane is typically napping.  He is just a delight to have around.  I think it is relaxing for him as well to be by himself a bit with me.  This was a picture of him this morning.  George was back to school for the first day today after Spring break.  Notice Oliver's lovely juice mustache from breakfast, so funny, it wouldn't come off!  Anyway, I just loved this picture and wanted to remember what a sweet day we had together today.  

George learns to read

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I know that I said this same line when he was three and could read three letter words for the first time, but his reading has been steadily improving the last 7 months with various sight words and his interest.  But today was the first time it seemed he caught the fire and the interest and initiative was solely from him.  He said to me today, "I am going to read all day so that I can know how to read by tomorrow."  I told him, "You know George, reading is really like that, the more you read the better you get.  You really can learn to read as fast as you want."  He did that thing where he gets super giggly when he is excited about something.  (Actually the same giggles he gets when he gets in his jammies at night and gets all cuddly and warm in his blanket)  Anyway, it was so cute.  This crash course approach lasted a good two and a half hours and then 3 hours later after playing outside with Oliver, Olivia, and her brother Bennett, I invited him to read to me.  I suggested if he was tired I would love to read to him.  

He chose reading to me.  It was so fun to me that he wasn't tired of it.  Usually he gets pretty worn out mentally after reading for 10 minutes.  He then brought down 4 of these great planet earth beginning reader books.  He loves these books!  He read all of them to me and really only needed help with a few words.  

It was honestly so fun to see not only his success with reading but more importantly the success following his own determination to achieve something he wanted for himself.  It is that drive and initiative that you really want for your kids and it was just so cute to watch.  I said to him, "George I am so proud of you that you are working so hard to practice reading."  He said, "I have been waiting for this day for a long time."  I wish I knew exactly what he was thinking but I figured he meant this moment that he felt like he was really doing it.  

He told Eryn, our friend who brought by some yummy cupcakes to us tonight, "I learned how to read today."  I am so glad he feels like his efforts paid off.  We will see if this spark keeps up!   It really was such a joy today to see him reading so well.  It is just such an amazing process to watch your kids learn things and get fluent with things that were once a struggle.  I am sure this amazement will continue as he keeps getting faster and faster.  But it is so fun to see him have the skills and patience to work through most words and begin to really read.  

 

Oliver's hilarious "get-up"

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So I had to take a picture of Oliver because he had run outside to play yesterday and had put on the most hilarious combo as you can see here.  He is so funny.  In fact today he came in from being outside and said to me, "Boy, it is chilly out there."  Sometimes when I look at him I just never want to forget just how darn cute he is at this age.  He does and says the most darling things.  And even when I write it here there will be no way to actually capture the way he actually said it that made it so funny and charming.  But this is my attempt to at least describe it.  

Oliver, I love you.