Seat Belts and Head Resters

OK, so among this summer's Issues, Joey has decided it is delightful fun to play with seat belts and take the head resters completely off. Nothing to get the heart leaping that to be entering a dangerous intersection, to realize your child has decided to unbuckle his seat belt and play with the head rester, which has two large spikes on the end of it when it is removed from its intended position (who designed that?) Every time we get in the car now, we start with a litany of rules:

1. Get in your seat and lock in.
2. Once you are locked in, you leave the seatbelt alone.
3. Do not play with or touch the head resters.
4. Do not touch any other seatbelts, either.
5. Stay in your seat, sitting upright, with your shoulderbelt properly over your chest and your lapbelt over your lap.
6. Do not duck from under the shoulderbelt to lean forward and remove the head rester.

And then we proceed to have constant reminders of these rules throughout the trip. The length of the trip does not matter. So now a typical fly on the window in my car hears something like this:

Internet! Internet! Internet!
Toppit, Doey!
Honey, don't play with the seat belts.
I put glue on Grandma! I put glue on Grandma!* (Wild cackling laughter)
Toppit, Doey!
Sweetie, put the headrest back, please.
Head rest ER.
Yes, dear, just put it back.
TOPPIT, DOEY! (smack)
We don't hit. That's a star.
AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Joey, sit up, please!
Boys have wieners and girls don't.
Joey, stop playing with the seatbelts. Lock in, please.
TOPPIT, DOEY!!!
Joey, put. the. head. rester. BACK.
It's after twelve o'clock. We are late for getting lunch.
TOPPIT DOEY!!!
Joey, PUT THE HEAD RESTER BACK!!!


Anybody know where I can get locks for headresters and seatbelt buckles? Because the addition to the general cacophony is not good.



*I have no idea why this phrase is funny, what it actually means, or why it has become so prevalent in the chants, other than the amusing alliteration and probably funny visualization. He has never actually put any glue on his grandma.

Wordless Wednesday: The Cyclone Experiment

Weather Camp: Rainbows

This week Joey has no ESY, so we are doing Weather Camp. Yesterday we got a little interrupted because we are looking for boards to replace our front porch (currently the original 1929 boards, and our isn't the only porch in town going bad fast) and got a line on some we thought would be affordable. Anyway, we did manage to take a picture of the clouds in the sky and watch a Magic School Bus on storms, but that was all.

So today we we worked on rainbows. We read the Magic School Bus book on rainbows, then I got out the prism. Joey was very excited about the prism, and is very proud that I let him actually have it, since it is glass and therefore a breakable. He's been making rainbows for me (or trying to) all day. The we put up some cards about different kinds of clouds. We had picked up our print of yesterday's sky, so we pinned it to the board under the matching card (cumulus). Joey was totally excited. There were no clouds when we took Andy to camp, but when we came out to pick him up, there were lots more big puffies out there, so we talked more about cumulus clouds. I'm hoping to do a book or poster on clouds on Friday. I managed to snap a cirrus cloud this evening, and maybe we'll get some thunderheads tomorrow (cumulonimbus clouds!) I doubt we'll get stratos clouds this week, but one can hope.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to work on storms, and do the famous Cyclone Experiment. I'll keep you posted.

Back from New Jersey

I woke up this morning to Joey saying, "Never leave this family again, Young Lady!"

So excuse me while I squish me some boys, and set up for Weather Camp. But I'm back!