This was all forever ago, but I need to record them before I forget them...
My Chemical Shelf-Manny made my medicine cabinet in my bathroom (which was empty, thank goodness) his chemical shelf. He would mix things (soap, lotion, contact solution, anything he could mix) and make "potions." He even made a sign saying "My Cemicool Shelf" and drew pictures of beakers.
"I'm gonna kill you"- said very calmly. "Fine, nobody like you, nobody play with you" Quotes from Marcel
I had chaperoned a field trip for Manny's class to a science museum. They had a fun demonstration with animals explaining what they eat. One of the animals was a cockroach-yuck. Well they described how cockroaches are the world's garbage can, they eat really old stuff and help the earth/world. Later that week I asked Manny to help clean up food that was spilled on the floor. He told me he wanted to leave it for the cockroaches. I said no way. I clean up to keep cockroaches away. If they want to eat my garbage they can eat it out of the garbage at the dump. Or they can just eat outside our apartment. Anywhere but in my apartment please. Then he tried to convince me not to kill them if I saw them in our house...
"You don't clean up you're not getting a treat" "Okay you're not getting treat"-more threats from Marcel.
"Just do it!"-Marcel would sometimes yell for me to just do something. We would be in the car and he would say he wanted a drink. I would say that I didn't have one and he would yell-just do it. Come to think of it I don't remember if this was supposed to be for Manny or Marcel. Sometimes Manny would insist I knew something (a story or where a toy was hidden) and when I said I didn't know he would yell-just do it.
"Let the dogs say whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo"-how Marcel would sing "who let the dogs out"
"I'm annoying!"-Marcel is still learning English (not that he knows Spanish any better). When Manny would be crying/yelling/throwing a fit Marcel would yell this.
We read the book Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. All about a woman who has positive cures for special problems talking back or never wanting to go to bed. It was really funny. We had been having some of the same troubles. "The Never Go To Bed-ers" especially caught our family's eye. Manny thought it would be a good idea to try the cure she recommended. The cure was to let the kids stay up as late as they wanted for a few days and then when their friends wanted to do something the kids would be sleeping during the day and supposedly the kids would want to go to bed on time eventually. We gave it a try. Obviously the results were horrendous to begin with. We did this during the summer. My house was a disaster after the first night. It only lasted a few days-the cure did surprisingly work. But
it apparently doesn't last forever. We come back to the same problems. No way am I doing that again though.
We also read a book called "Bunnicula" about a bunny the other pets of the house think is a vampire because he sucks the juice out of vegetables. Funny book. But there was a kid who had the privilege of staying up as late as he wanted to on Friday night as long as he was reading. Naturally Manny wanted to try it. He had me go to the library and get tons of books the day before the fun night. When it was time to go to bed he brought all the books in his bed, covered them with a sheet and had a countdown. On your mark, get set, go! And then he uncovered the books and they read for a long time. Manny lasted until 10:30. Ridiculous.
