The Latta Family

A few weeks ago we got a dog.  She's lovely.  She has such a calm personality.  She's loving and sweet and exactly what I wanted.  When I was talking to the previous owner, she described Gracie (the new dog) as totally calm.  She wasn't lying!  Nothing really seems to phase Gracie.  Unless you knock on the window.  So we'd had Gracie for just a few days, on this particular evening.  Doug was late coming home.  Andrew, Alexa, and I were already sitting down to eat dinner. Gracie was laying near Andrew's chair.  It was a lovely dinner, very calm.  No one was fighting, or complaining that they didn't like dinner- yet.  That calm was not going to last long.  Suddenly there's a knock on the window right near where we sit and eat.  Gracie did exactly what you want your dog to do, when there is an unexpected knock, when it's dark and you're a woman alone in the house.  She used, what to this day, is h...

Christmas is one of the most stressful times of year.  I mean, you've got a ton to do, while still having to do all the usual stuff.  For me the most stressful part of the season is coming up with the perfect gift for each and every person.  I rarely do it.  This year I came up with the perfect gift, for one of Alexa's teachers.  Not that she's not a deserving girl, but really Kate?!  You couldn't have come up with the perfect gift for your husband, children, or family?!  It had to be a teacher that in a few years you won't hardly see? Doug came up with the perfect gift for me.  I will confess now, I knew something was up.  Bless my son and his big mouth, he told me weeks ago, that Daddy traced their hands before they went to school one morning.  I bit my lip.  Pretended I hadn't heard.  Ooooh, I wanted to ask what it was for.  What they were planning, but I didn't.  I know the element of surprise is just as mu...

That Alexa is a stinker!  So here we sit, enjoying the spaghetti and salad that I spent 15 minutes cooking tonight.  When Doug gets up to get seconds, Alexa immediately jumps into his seat.  Then sits there and grins at him.  Doug asks her to move- but she won't.  Oh, she's so mischevious.  She knows she's aggravating her Daddy beyond what he may be capable of dealing with. And she just smiles at him, dimples flashing, eyes gleaming. I convince Doug to sit in her chair. He offers to pull the chair Alexa's sitting in- closer to the table, she refuses, "No Daddy!"  In fact, she's so adament in her refussal, she jumps up and pushes the chair across the kitchen.  Then, turns around and demands her chair (the one Doug is currently sitting in) back!  So, Doug makes her bring his chair back to the table, and they switch seats again.  Watching Doug and Alexa tangle, can be pretty stinking entertaining. 

Dear friends with sons under 4 years old, You might sit around thinking to yourself, "I'll never think this sweet, darling boy is anything but cute and wonderful."  And that's true, until they're 6.  When boys are 6, they start the slow, agonizing change towards become a male.  As it turns out, even though they're our sons and we love them sooooo much, they're still male, and therefore they can still be infuriating.  For my house, 7 has been the year when I look at Andrew and I am completely mystified by him.  Where did my sweet, beautiful boy go?  There are glimpses of him.  It was a friends birthday the other day,  and Andrew told me he gave his friend 8 birthday hugs.  I thought how sweet and cute that was.  Then I thought, next year those hugs will be arm punches.  Yesterday it became painfully clear to me- Andrew is a male, no longer a sweet, boy.  I don't get hugs nearly as much as I get bottom s...

Tonight Andrew asks me, "When is the first time you kissed Daddy?"  I won't lie, I was surprised.  First, somehow it never occurred to me my children would be interested in my "love story" and second, why is he wondering about kissing?!  So I told him this story- which, for the record, is true.  I met Daddy for the first time, when I went to our school to take a tour.  It was my first year teaching and I wanted to see where I was going to teach.  When I saw Daddy, I thought "Jeez, he looks like a grump!"  Then we had to go to all these boring beginning of the year meetings, and a friend of his, kept putting us in the same groups.  Daddy thought I was pretty cool and asked me out.  I said, "No."  So he asked me again, I said, "No" again.  Then he asked me out one last time and I said, "Ok" and I realized how awesome he was! Daddy had such good manners!  He held the doors open for me. "He did?!  Did he bow and say, ...

This past week, my sister in law stayed at our house while she was in Charlotte attending a class about investments.  So on Saturday, I just put an exhausted Alexa down for a nap, and Andrew, Doug, and I sat at the kitchen table enjoying lunch.  Suddenly Andrew says, "What is Aunt Janet's class about?"  We responded, "Saving money."  Andrew says: Like car insurance? Me: (clearly too many Geico commercials are played on tv).  No.  Like saving up money to buy big stuff, like we're saving money for you to go to college. Andrew: Oh, I'm not going. Doug: What are you going to do instead?! Andrew: Nothing.  I'm staying here. Not sure which one of us started this response, but . . . : Nope.  Definitely aren't staying here! Once you're 18, you either go to college or move out.  Andrew: Why can't I stay here? (I'm thinking, his sister will be 13 and none of us will probably want to be here, but anyway.) One of us said: You'll be 1...

So, around 5:00 this afternoon, I realized Andrew was playing in his room, Alexa was hanging with Doug and that meant . . . I could sit down and chill out for a minute.  I deserved it.  I had worked hard today.  I cleaned out my car.  The kind of clean where you take the kids car seats out, wash their covers, take the actual seats of the car out, and vacuum under them and wash down all the plastic in the car.  I had taken a moody, temperamental Alexa for a long walk, dashed around hiding cookies and distracting her from remembering they're no longer in sight, and I've down tons of laundry.  I was tired. So I snatched a few m&m's, sat down on the couch and . . . there was no sound.  Huh.  Weird, but with Andrew operating the TV and Alexa stealing remotes, it was probably just something with the settings that children had screwed up.  I decided I didn't really care, because then I can watch the Soap Network, or Friends and not worry ...