Randomness at the Collins household

What I just heard happening in the basement while cleaning up the kitchen...

Brody half-way crying
Hunter: "Oh...you got an owie?"
Brody: In his sad voice..."yeah."
Hunter: "No...I'm not going to kiss your butt."
More crying from Brody
Hunter: "Okay, I'll kiss your butt."
Not sure what that was all about.

And another something I didn't want to forget...Brody has been stealing bites of food off of Tyler's plate and while he does it he says, "Yoink!" He definitely learned that from Daddy!

Lastly, Hunter's conferences were this week and Mrs. Nickel said Hunter is performing at above grade-level (second grade) in reading and spelling. She said he is so much fun in class and while he is very bright she loves having him in class because he still loves to learn and isn't "too cool for school" like some of her previous students who excel like Hunter. She showed us some of his journal entries called "small moments." They write these "stories" every day and then share their best work with the class occasionally. Hunter wrote one about the time he got "grounded" for going outside in his socks. Let me give some background info on this. Hunter has been struggling demonstrating his listening skills and while I have asked him numerous times not to go outside with his socks on he hasn't obeyed. So I finally broke down and told him that the next time he would be grounded from going outside for the rest of the day of the offense if he was outside with socks. His journal entry went something like this..."Yesterday I was grounded for wearing my socks outside. I just went to get the mail and didn't know Mom was in the garage. Suddenly, she caught me. Then there was drama." She thought that one was particularly entertaining.

During the first few weeks of school the parents were invited for an information night in the classroom with their child's teacher. This is to familiarize parents with procedures at school and such. While John and I were walking down the hallway we noticed a bulletin board with pictures drawn by Hunter and his classmates and sentences down below the drawings. These all started with "In first grade I hope to..." and most of his classmates wrote "learn to read" or "make friends." Hunter wrote "learn to drive a car."