What's in a name? and more

When I picked Paris up from band practice this week, he declared that next year he was going to trade his trombone in for a French horn. When I asked him why, he said:

"Because it's French, and I'm part French."

Of course, that makes perfect sense. Brian and I have finally started to do some genealogy work, so I thought maybe Brian had uncovered some roots I hadn't heard about yet.

"How do you know you're French?" I asked.

"'Cause my name is Paris!" (Duh.)

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Apollo really, really doesn't like to be woken up. And he's never excited to go to school. So mornings are touch and go, as we all try to not make Apollo mad and have a total meltdown. Since he has no motivation to do anything, I have to get out his clothes, dress him, find his shoes, pack his lunch, make sure he has his folders, etc. etc. (This hour of the morning is not my favorite).

As we were leaving the other morning, he put on his backpack and demanded, "Is my lunch in here? My snack?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Mommy loves you; she would never send you to school without your lunch and snack!"

Guess what was on the counter when I got back from dropping the kids off?

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Apollo is eager to earn money for some new toys. And he has been very diligent at getting jobs and completing them. He cleaned the toy room for an hour one day. And when I asked him to sweep the floor, he actually moved the rug and swept under that too (everyone else just cheats and sweeps around it).

One night, he and Athena put on a magic show. His tricks were: "hold out your hand" and he put a couple of drops of water in your hand. Then, "now, wipe them on your shirt. Ta da! The water disappeared!" And, holding out a pile of Bakugun cards, "take a card" so you take the top one; "take a card" "take a card" "take a card" until the cards are all gone. Ta da! The cards are all gone. Yeah, we didn't quite get those tricks.

But Athena (who read a magic book at Grandma Pat's a couple of summers ago) moved a ball back and forth without touching it. Then she had Apollo crawl in a box, say some magic words, and he disappeared! Then with some more magic words, he was back. Very impressive.

Afterwards, Apollo went around with his palms up, asking for money. "Money, anyone, money?" Which reminds me, we've got to get back to NY....