I'll Either End Up like Psycho's Mom or a Build-a-Bear

Build a Bear

The other night I was lying in bed with my six year old son and he was playing with my hair, like he often does to fall asleep.

"You're not going to be able to sleep with me any more. You're getting big. You need to sleep in your bed."

"No, I'm always going to sleep with you, even when I'm big."

"Uh, no I don't think so. First of all you aren't going to want to sleep with me and that's just weird if you do."

"Yes I am! When you die I'm going to stuff you with cotton and you're going to be my big teddy bear. And I'm going to play with your hair and you won't even feel it because you'll be dead," he said.

I immediately had flashbacks to Psycho and his mother in her rocking chair and a Build-a-Bear.

I laughed so hard and I went and told my husband what he said.

"Well if he tells us he wants to study taxidermy I guess we should worry," was his response.

Yeah, I guess so.

I've been selling cookie dough with my kids for the past couple of days. My daughter is older and very outgoing, so she had no problem with going door to door. She goes right up to the homes and knocks and does her presentation on her own. Many times I just wait at the end of the sidewalk and only step in if she needs me.

My son was another story. I don't think he really knew what to expect and when he realized what it entailed he had second thoughts. Especially when the first house we walked up to had yappy dogs in their window. He was hilarious! I wish I'd taken a picture of the expression on his face when he realized what going house to house meant. He looked like he hadn't signed up for this.

The second time we went out I was very proud of him. He sounded so cute giving his presentation. I don't know how anyone could tell him no. (which a man did)

"Hi. I'm Seth Ruiz and I'm selling cookie dough for my school." 

As his mom I just wanted to eat him up, he sounded so cute. But then again I am his mom, so I'm like obligated to think he's cute.

All in all I think this is really good for them and it builds character. I was just telling someone about my own parents recently. The Bloggess, one of the funniest, and sometimes offensive depending on who you are, bloggers talked about a dead squirrel in her wall and it totally brought back a really bad memory.

STOP HERE IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

When I was a pre-teen my father got the smart idea of killing a rat with poison. Well the rat went and died in our attic and we couldn't get it out. The stench was horrible. I wish we'd had the "rat-sorb" Jenny talks about in her blog. YUCK! Talk about stinky!

Then my father tells me that since I'm the smallest person in the house I should go up into the attic, crawl on my belly, and grab the rat with a plastic bag. Why I agreed is beyond me, but I guess I'm pretty sick too. I don't remember too many details except that I wore a red bandanna across my face and that the rat looked like its stomach was half eaten by maggots. Somehow I grabbed the rat and took it down from the attic.

Now THAT'S character building! George Lopez says that kids couldn't survive being a kid for one day if they had to live back in our time. Yeah, if they had to go get rats out of attics probably not. They would just die of the bubonic plague or something.

So I guess I'm doing good just building character by making my kids sell their own cookie dough and encouraging them to do it themselves. That is much better character building than getting dead rats.