I know it won’t come as a surprise to you, my loyal readers (Hi Mom!), that meal time can get a little crazy around here. That is doubly so for lunch, without Mr. Authoritative Ringmaster around. I curb the ‘getting to the table crazy’ by fixing their lunches before we leave to pick up the big boys from pre-school. From that point we’ve got a routine that gets us to the table: park car, hand keys to circus boy #1 who unlocks front door, trailed by circus boy #2. Both boys take off shoes, hang up backpacks and get lunches and drinks out of the fridge and put them on the table. Meanwhile I get circus boy #3 into the house, shoes removed and to to the table, along with the little princess (who generally waits patiently in her car seat carrier until the boys are eating lunch. Princess nurses. And then, the crazy nuts come out.
Here is a list of things that frequently come out of my mouth during lunch time:
- Sit down.
- Stop saying “Nah, nah, nah, nah….” (insert any repetitive, random noise here)
- You’re getting crumbs all over the floor
- You’re sitting on your sandwich
- No potty words at the table
- There’s peanut butter on your behind
- Do NOT stand on your chair
- Did you really just stand on the table and push that chandelier?
- Go back to the table
- Do not show your bottom and shake it at your brother (generally while standing on the chair).
Ok, now, I do not actually say all of those things, every single day. But between the three boys, I hit a lot of them on a pretty regular basis. It is, hands down, my least favorite part of the day. Enter Flat Stanley.
I was flipping through my son’s book order form, and I saw a box set of Flat Stanley books. I had been thinking about trying to read them some children’s chapter books a chapter or two at time. And I figured, why not, lets give them a try. So on the day they arrived via Circus Boy #1’s backpack, I opened up the first book and sat down at the lunch table (instead of running around trying to stay two steps ahead of all the mashed sandwiches and yogurt paintings).
If you’re not familiar with them, Flat Stanley is about a boy, obviously named Stanley, who gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. He becomes a half inch thick, and the story follows his adventures as a flat boy. The boys have been completely enthralled with the story. This has resulted in significantly less dancing on chairs and peanut butter on rear ends. Hands down, win for everyone. And, they have really surprised me by remembering details from the story as we have read it over several days. We finished the first book a few days ago and yesterday made this diorama of our favorite scenes. Flat Stanley slides under doors without opening them, becomes a a kite, and pretends to be a picture of a sheep girl on a wall so that he can help to catch thieves at the art museum.
(Don’t ask me why circus boy #1 kept coloring Flat Stanley blue, I don’t know. )
It’s been quite enjoyable. Today we are on to the second book. Here’s to less mess and chandelier swinging. (Ok, they haven’t actually swung on the chandelier….yet.)
If you’d like to take a look at the Flat Stanle books, you can find them on Amazon here:
Underneath the Big Top 