I ran across something that I wrote on March 1, 2007. It made me laugh, and also realize what a difference two years can make when you are a child. Here is a picture of the boys taken around the same time that I wrote this. In this picture, Adam is 4 years and  Zach is 3 years.

Why I do not go inside Starbucks
(March 1, 2007) After getting haircuts, I took the boys to Starbucks for a treat. When we arrived, several groups of people were enjoying nice quiet conversations and hot cups of coffee. As we were standing in line, the boys knock over this little tree gingerbread thing. No big deal…at least it was wrapped so nothing went all over the place.


Then they start going up to the cold case that holds bottled water, milk and other cold drinks, some of which that are glass. They start clinking the bottles together and then saying “BRRRR!” (because it was cold).


After that is under control, I order my coffee, two little waters, and one piece of coffee cake for all of us to share. While they are preparing our order, I get the boys settled at the table. I go back to the counter to pick up our order, and when I came back (10 seconds, no lie!), Zach had spilled his water.


The employees get out a mop and help me clean it up. We move to a different table, and I pour half of Adam’s water into Zach’s cup and tell him to be careful. The cups had lids on them, by the way. I go back to the counter to get two more forks and when I came back Zach had spilled his water AGAIN. The people at the next table leave. The employees are very nice... “this happens all the time, don’t worry!"

We get everything cleaned up and Zach realizes HE doesn't have a plate and does not want to eat off the plate that Adam and I are sharing. It’s finally agreed that I will put Zach’s cake into the little container that the cake came in (like a to-go box). Then Adam has to count to make sure that he and Zach have the same number of pieces of cake (I had cut it up).


Zach drops his fork on the floor and insists on eating off of THAT one, instead of a clean one. I finally convince him to eat with MY fork (which is full of germs too, but I figured it was better than the one that fell on the floor). Meanwhile, Adam is eating his cake, but most of it is crumbling in his lap and falling on the floor. We finally finish our food. 

While I’m cleaning up a major mess, the boys play with the trash can and tap it with their hands because “listen mom, it makes a funny noise!” By the time we leave, I don’t think there were any other customers…

In one of my earlier posts, I included a video of Zach playing basketball. Here's some footage of Adam.



Today was the last game of the season. They both scored lots of baskets and each received a medal for their hard work. As you can see, Zach did not want to be in the picture with Adam.

Two weekends of freedom until soccer starts!

My first thought when I heard "chocolate fountain" and "preschool Valentine Day party" was..."this cannot be good." But the four and five year olds did a pretty good job of keeping the melted chocolate on their plate and not dripping it everywhere. Now, their faces were a different story: chocolate in hair, chocolate in noses, chocolate smeared on cheeks, chocolate in ears and chocolate under fingernails. Zach was actually one of the cleaner ones...the girls seemed to make the biggest messes.

We had "skewered" marshmallows and strawberries, and they could also dip graham cracker sticks. They all thought the chocolate fountain was fun, and all went back for seconds...and some for thirds and fourths!

At Adam's party they played a game where you tossed candy hearts into a bucket. But the best part was that they each got a cookie, chocolate bar and licorice. He said he didn't eat much of his cookie, "only two bites" because he didn't like it. This child also does not like donuts...must have got that trait from Scott.

They both brought home the usual amount of candy. Only one student in Zach's class made a "homemade" valentine, and four in Adam's class. Some were done on the computer and I did see the iPod valentine that was featured in Family Fun this month. Most of the others were superheroes, sports or princess themes.

For dinner tonight, I ordered heart shaped pizza's from Papa John's. Then it's off to Zach's basketball game (Adam had one Tuesday night). Then another round of games tomorrow morning.

Both boys had parent teacher conferences today. The update from the teachers were great.

Zach: Ms. Ginger said she enjoys having Zach in class. He listens well and always has a story to tell. He can write all his letters and numbers, tested "task accomplished" on everything and is ready for Kindergarten. She showed us a picture Zach had drawn of himself...and boy, did that person have big muscles! Each child picked their favorite color of construction paper to mount the picture, and Zach picked black, because, of course, that is his favorite color.

An interesting thing she said was that if Zach was playing with a group of children, and they started doing something wrong, he would move away from the group and go play something else. She said that shows that he is using good judgment. That kind of leaves me scratching my head, because we all know he likes to get into mischief, at least at home!

She had them write letters any way they wanted, and here is what Zach did. She made the comment that although he knows how to write his name in a straight line, he always likes to write it in a square...as you can see in on the upper right side, the "c" and "h" are on top of the "z" and "a."Before we went to the conference, I asked Zach what he thought Ms. Ginger would say, and he said "she will say I've never had to sit in time out!" And he was right...Ms. Ginger said she has never had to discipline Zach.

Adam: Mrs. Case said she wished all the children would write as well as Adam. She noticed that he is very particular about his coloring, cutting or writing, in that every color must be in the lines, every word must be exactly right, and every cut must be on the line. (I wonder who he gets THAT from?) She also said she can tell when he is thinking something through, because his forehead wrinkles up. He always knows the answer in class, but raises his hand and waits patiently to be called on.

Here is a sample of Adam's writing. In this exercise, he was supposed to sound out the words, and then write them they way he thought they should be spelled. The sentence is "My snowman like to play in the snow. And he builds and snow tunnel."

My Children are Digital Natives…and I’m a Digital Immigrant.

In 2003, Marc Prensky coined the terms Digital Native (a person who grew up with technology) and Digital immigrant (the rest of us). In his study, he suggests that digital natives want instant gratification. They are used to receiving lots of information fast, and understand graphics more than they understand text. They can be watching TV, listening to music, texting, and studying, all at the same time. I know this will only get worse as the boys grow older, but even at a young age, it’s very apparent that they just “know” how to use technology. I try to stay current on trends, but there is still a learning curve for me, which is not evident with the preschooler-kindergartner crowd.

So here are the reasons why my children are digital natives, and I am a digital immigrant.

Adam and Zach insist on “seeing” the picture I take immediately after I take it on my digital camera. They were appalled when I told them that some time ago, people had to WAIT to see their pictures. And then, you were stuck the photo. There was no way to eliminate red eye, or crop the picture to make it better.

They never have to wait to watch a certain television show, or run to the kitchen for a snack during a commercial. They have never been excited for Saturday morning cartoons, because on our cable package, they can choose from hundreds of kids show and cartoons any time they want to, with the touch of a button. And when they watch a “live” TV show, they always ask us to fast forward through the commercials.

Adam knows how to use the universal remote.

I did not know what a “DS” was. It's short for Nintendo DS, for those of you who did not know.

Adam asked me how many friends I had on Facebook.

We watched Santa Claus on YouTube and follow him on twitter.
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Both of the boys know how to use a computer mouse, and play games on the computer. They do not know what a typewriter is, and probably have never seen one.

They give Scott strategy tips for BrickBreaker, one of the games on his BlackBerry phone. And I think Adam has now surpassed Scott in the number of levels he has completed.

They do not know what a rotary phone is, or have really seen a phone attached to the wall with a long cord.

I had to call my 12-year old niece to tell me how to turn off my iPod.

The boys don’t get that before cell phones, you actually went places and people could not get a hold of you. Or that you couldn’t leave a message on someone’s answering machine or voicemail. They do not know what a “busy signal” is.

They think my job is to send e-mails.

My Kindergartner has four computers in his classroom, and a Smartboard. No more chalkboard, white board or overhead projector. And watching a FILMSTRIP? They wouldn’t know what to think.

They will never make a "report card cover" for their report cards, because a child’s grade card can be viewed by logging in to the school districts website.

As long as they can remember, music has come on CD’s and the car radio has told you what radio station you are listening to.

As far as the boys know, we have always had a computer in the house, at least two television sets, cordless phones, answering machine, music CDs, movie DVDs, a video camera and digital camera, cell phones, DVR, TiVo and cable, and a minivan with automatic doors. I’m sure I am forgetting lots of things, but those are the devices I thought of off the top of my head.