Foohy to Phooey!

Since I cannot spell, I Googled Fooey when I was looking for Foohy the other day. I came up with things for Phooey too. And you'll never guess what I found! Hong Kong Phooey! If you were a kid in the early 70's then you know who I am talking about! He was a janitor that ran into a closet and changed into a villian fighting super hero with some crazy karate moves!

When this carton was on, it was so different from today. There were not cartoons on 24 hours a day - and let alone 30 channels to watch them on. Now there is Nickeloedon, Nick Toons, Nickelodeon 2, GAS, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network etc. I don't think the major networks even play cartoons all day on Saturday anymore. We only had Saturday mornings, PBS and maybe and after school special or two! Maybe that is why we played outside so much more than kids do today. Although I have to say, my kids spend a lot of time outside. And when they don't want to go outside, I send them out anyway. I think fresh air is good for them, and so is time away for me. They sometimes protest but quickly find something to do and forget that they even wanted to watch TV.

I was trying to think of some other shows from my youth. Scooby-Doo. Tom and Jerry. The Great Space Coaster. Captain Kangaroo. The Electric Comapny. The New Zoo Review. Smurfs. Gummi Bears. Fat Albert. Looney Toons. The Muppets. Land of the Lost. Woody Woodpecker. Heckle and Jeckle. Mighty Mouse. Sigmund the Sea Monster. Josie and the Pussycats. The Monkees. The Jetsons. H.R. Pufnstuf. The Pink Panther. Mr. Magoo. Space Ghost. Casper the Friendly Ghost. Super Friends. He-Man. Popeye. Romper Room. Maggila Gorilla. The Great Grape Ape. Lassie. Little House on the Prarie. Johnny Quest. Brady Bunch. Dastardly and Muttly. Dudley Do Right. Yogi Bear. Flinstones. Gilligan's Island. Gumby. Huckleberry Hound. Growing Pains. Our Gang. Lone Ranger. M*A*S*H*. The Munsters. Punky Brewster. Rocky and Bullwinkle. The Three Stooges. The Banana Splits. Greatest American Hero. The Mighty Heroes. Speed Buggy. Jabberjaw. Pac-Man. Speed Racer. Super Chicken. Wonder Woman. Six Million Dollar Man. Batman. The Hulk. Babar. Snaggle Puss. Webster. My Two Dads. Head of the Class. Small Wonder. Just the Ten of Us. Eight is Enough. Mr. Belvedere. Love Boat. Underdog. Perfect Strangers. Blossom. The Partridge Family. Good Times. The Facts of Life. Different Strokes. Mork and Mindy. Fantasy Island. Bosom Buddies. CHIPS. One Day at A Time. Alice. Happy Days. Laverne and Shirley. Magnum P.I. Night Rider. MacGyver. The A Team. Family Affair. Dennis the Mennis. That's Incredible. Ultra Man. Captain Cave Man. Let's Make a Deal. Harry and the Hendersons. Alf. Leave It To Beaver. I Love Lucy.

I searched on YouTube for the links! I cannot believe so many were on there - some I couldn't find the theme songs for - but I did the best I could! It brought back some memories and also helped me to think of some of the shows. No, I did not come up with all of them off the top of my head! Can you think of any more? I know there are more - I just thought of them now - no time to look for more links! - Rin Tin Tin, Benson...

I remember TV before the remote control! We had to turn a dial and then when you needed a channel after 12 you had to put it on the "U" and then turn the lower dial to get upper channels. My brother and I used to fight over shows and once we broke the dial off the TV! Then we had a cable box. It was a big box attached to the TV by a long cord. Ours could reach to the couch but we got in trouble for stretching it across the room! It had a long row of buttons and then a dial to switch between three levels to change the row of buttons!

Our digital cable has come a long way - we can now stop, rewind and pause live television. There are more channels than we could ever watch. I think Brian and Sean would think that I was crazy if I described the TVs I used to watch! And just think if they realized that movies were not available to buy two or three months after they were in the theatre! Can you imagine coming home after going to see a movie and telling the kids that you don't know when you will see it next? I can just hear the crying fits now! But, when I was a kid it didn't cost $75 for a family to go to the movies, so I guess we went to see it again!

It was such a special occasion as a kid when The Wizard of Oz,Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or The Sound of Music came on TV. We all got comfy as a family and made popcorn - it was a big event! Then there were the holiday specials - Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Peter Cottontail and don't forget Baby New Year!. Now kids can rent them, buy them, and order them On Demand! They watch a movie for a few minutes and then come back to it days later - our DVD player even saves from the last spot. So, they can put the DVD back in and watch it from the exact spot they left off days before! They don't know how good they have it - of course I bet my parents said the same thing!

Some Sean Sayings

While eating his favorite Sloppy Joes dinner which Brian doesn't like:
Sean - "Brian just try it again, you will like it!"
Brian - "I don't like Sloppy Joes."
Sean - "That's okay, more for me and Daddy!"

While watching a football game:
Sean - "I don't want the "V" team to win."
Brian Sr. - "No we want Delaware to win."
Sean - "Yeah, I hope the fence team wins."
Brian Sr. "I hope they do well too - but it it defense."
Sean - "Nope. On TV I saw a fence that the people wanted
to win. And it had a "D" on it for Delaware."
Brian Sr. - knowing he will not win - "Okay Sean!"

Dressing up in Eagles uniforms to go outside and play:
Brian - "Sean I am Brian Westbrook and you are Brian Dawkins."
Sean - "Yeah, I am Sponge Bob Brian Dawkins!"
Brian - "Sponge Bob doesn't play football for the Eagles."
Sean - "No, but Sponge Bob Brian Dawkins does!"
Brian - just looked at him and walked away, he has learned when to give up too

Foohy Gum

Today, I was actually cleaning and the downstairs was to the point where I wouldn't be embarrassed if someone knocked on the front door. I say was because it was this way for about ten minutes and twenty-eight seconds. I know this, because this was the amount of time before the boys came in from playing out front. It is amazing how long it takes them to clean up but it is only a matter of seconds before they can rival any tornado.

Funny how life works that way with things. So hard to lose weight and so easy to gain it. (for most people anyway!) So hard for kids to listen and so easy for them to misbehave. So easy to cook and so hard to clean up. So easy to go out partying and so hard to get up the next morning. It seems like the fun things are hard and they not so fun things are easy. Life just isn't fair sometimes.

That is why straightening up the house drives me crazy. If I start upstairs, then the downstairs is a mess. Then I finish the downstairs and the kids have either retreated to the upstairs or to the basement and now one of them is a mess. So, I move to the basement and now the upstairs is a mess again! It is a never ending circle. The only time my whole house is clean is when all the boys and and the dog are gone all day! I love my clean house - but then I miss the boys - I can't win!

Okay, there I go again - just typing in completely the other direction! So where was I. Okay - I was cleaning. And what do I find? I have to add it was in the same place as the old banana that I found behind the TV cabinet. So Sean, I mean someone, has found a hiding spot. This time I found a big wad of gum with a Foohy stuck in it. What the heck is a Foohy? If you have school aged kids, I think you might just know.

Foohy Gum

Foohy is technically a brand name - they make erasers and markers and some other school supplies. These Foohy pencil topper erasers come in a pack of ten or pack of two large ones sell for about a dollar. My kids go crazy for the monkey head ones. There are also zoo ones and regular shaped pencil toppers that have fruity sents.

But the funny thing is, the teachers have banned these from the schools. The kids fight over them, and trade them, and throw them, and get mad if they don't have them! So, your kid begs you for these while shopping for school supplies, you give in since it is only a dollar and will keep them quiet for the remainder of the time in the store, and then they cannot use them at school after all!

a Foohy Family

I remember when we were back-to-school shopping for Brian. He said, "I need Foohys and you get them at Staplers." I had no idea what a Foohy was and thought Staplers was probably the office supply store, Staples. But no, he insisted that it was Staplers! When we got to the store I asked a clerk about Foohys. It was an older gentleman and he looked at me like I had two heads. I was thinking to myself that maybe there was a store called Staplers and I was just out of the loop. I then found a younger clerk and he knew exactly what I was talking about. They took us right to a big bin of them! Woo-hoo! Foohys!

our Foohy Collection

My post was supposed to be about a hidden wad of gum, and now it is about Foohys! Oh well, such is life. Well, my life anyway!

Rub, a Dub, Dub...

...three boys in a tub! Justin just loves taking a bath with Brian and Sean - although the tub is getting a little crowded! He kicks and splashes and tries to eat bubbles. The older boys thought it was funny to put bubbles on his head. At first it was cute, and then there were too many bubbles and they slid right down over Justin's face. He got upset and started thrashing around - I think if he could talk he would have said, "Who turned out the lights?"

Brian and Sean thought his was very funny and they kept trying to put more and more bubbles on his head. I guess when you are an older brother that it is funny to see your younger brother tortured. Luckily, Justin had me there to rescue him! He has no choice but to be tough with two older brothers. I am sure this won't be the last time that they do something crazy to him and laugh! Note to self - hide razor, crazy glue, hammer, and duct tape.

I know it won't be long before they tell him to do stuff - "Justin, go get us the cookies form in the kitchen. And don't get caught!" or "Go clean my room and I won't beat you up today!" Brian Sr. says all of this is normal - I only had one brother and we never wrestled and fought like Brian and Sean do. But Brian Sr. had five brothers - and they were all older. So, I guess he is pretty much an expert on being a younger brother.

I seem to remember something about hanging him from the bunk bed by his underwear and always making him the hockey goalie - his pads were couch cushions secured with a belt! Yikes! I don't even want to know the trouble they will find together when they are older. But I still say that it has to be better than my grocery bill will be!

Below is a picture of Brian that I have labeled "scary." I really had to laugh when I saw this picture - it is the exact crazed lunatic face that our dog makes when he is eating a good snack. He gets that psycho "show the whites of your eyes" look when he is trying to get the last drop of milk out of a glass or is licking the empty ice cream carton. So, is Brian starting to look like our dog? Do owners really start to resemble their dogs? Brian thinks he looks like Dracula - I say not enough teeth!

Sean laughing at Brian

boys in the tub
Brian relaxing
Did Santa come early?
studying the bubbles
a little taste with a bubbly wig
uh-oh! Where is Justin?
scary
Sean strikes a pose

Santa, the Bunny, and the Fairy

Brian's tooth fell out today while he was on the playground after school! He said he was just running in the mulch and it fell out. Luckily he caught it, because I cannot imagine searching for a tiny tooth in a playground full of mulch and kids! Well the searching might be okay - it's the tears that would get to me. But it would be a good "I told you so!" If he had just let me or his Dad pull it out - he would have it safe at home and probably have the money in his pocket. I know that it would probably make him cry harder. Maybe just maybe he would let me pull the next one out! I do believe the rule is that if you cannot find your tooth and have made every reasonable effort to find it, that the Tooth Fairy comes anyway!

We brought it home and put it in his plastic tooth for the Tooth Fairy. Then he changed his mind. He wanted to take his tooth to school for sharing the next day. So, this meant that he didn't want the Tooth Fairy to take his tooth - but of course he still wanted the cash! So, we wrote a note asking the Tooth Fairy to please leave his tooth so that he could bring it to school the next day! He was very happy to wake up in the morning and see that he had three dollars from the tooth fairy! He told me the night before that he thought he might get three dollars since it was the third tooth that he lost. The Tooth Fairy must have been listening!

Then he showed me on the back of his tooth holder that there was a little picture of the Tooth Fairy. He says, "Mom, I think this picture is on here so that if kids get up at night to go potty or something, that the Tooth Fairy can just go here and blend right in. I think the kids will never see her and that is how she can hide." What great thinking! We have come a long way from his first tooth where he wanted his it in the bathroom because he was afraid of her "poofing" into his room at night.

A few other parents and I had a discussion about his fears on the playground the other day. It is funny how we tell them to be wary of strangers, not to talk to them and to never accept gifts from them. Yet it is okay for the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus to enter our homes in the middle of the night and leave gifts for the kids.

We shove them crying onto Santa's lap. Here kids sit with this strange man with a beard in a funny suit. Get on his lap and let him put his arms around you! We bribe them to smile with the Easter Bunny. Let's go - there is nothing to be afraid of - except for a six foot tall bunny that walks on two legs and doesn't talk! Just take one picture and smile, then I will take you to the toy store. I would think that they have to get a little confused sometimes!

Brian has always been a little afraid of these icons - Sean, on the other hand, seems to like them. Neither have ever been afraid of mascots or other types of costumes but then we have never asked them to get on their laps either. Plus, Sean did have Brian to go with when he was younger and Brian was all alone.

Minute Details

If you are Brian Jr., you are something different on any given day. Maybe a football player, or a golfer, a fire fighter, a police officer, a chef, a construction worker, an astronaut and even an FBI agent. Over the last year or so his imagination has become closer to real life. Before he would be Batman or Spiderman or Buzz Lightyear. Now the characters that he portrays are usually not fictional.

Most days he drives me crazy - the outfits/costumes have to be just right. We laughed last weekend at the Delaware football game when we saw Joe with black ankle supports on. Brian had been dressing up in his Delaware uniform and put black sweat bands around his ankles. We thought he was crazy because we had no idea why he had sweat bands on his ankles! But he knew better.

He tries to come up with imaginative ways to be as realistic as possible. He even wears a few layers of clothes under his astronaut uniform - He says, "To make it look big and puffy like it does in space!" He has to wear cleats with baseball and football uniforms, work boots when he is using tools and rain boots when he is a fire fighter! Sometimes even Sean gets fed up with Brian's pretending -

Brian on the way to CCD (religious education), referring to his cousin Joe who plays football for the University of Delaware -
Brian - "I am Joe going to church school."
Sean - lets out a huge sigh
Brian - "Sean you can be another Delaware player."
Sean - rolling his eyes - "Brian, I am just a kid going to church school. Can't you just be a kid today?"

Both of the boys pick up on such minute details because they are seeing many things in life for the first time. Most adults take for granted what we see. We have all seen a football uniform and just skim over it - but kids see the exact pattern on the helmet, the color of the stripe on the pants, the color of the socks and cleats - and even ankle supports! They amaze me on the things that they can remember. Sometimes I can barely remember the event, let alone the color of the collar on the dog we saw at a park six months ago! But they can!

I remember one time they wanted to go to a specific place for dinner. They were describing it as the place with the black and white squares on the floor, the red seats, and the motorcycles that were in the parking lot. Brian and I had no idea what they were talking about - we thought that they were making it all up!

Then a few months later we returned to that diner. I walked in and immediately knew this is the place they were talking about - the floor was black and white tiles, the booths were red, and last time we were here there were a few motorcycles parked out front. I felt so bad for not believing them! But the last time we where in the diner was almost a year before this!

My father- in-law has always said, in reference to children, "Be careful, they are smarter than you!" He said his father told him this when he had kids - I think they might be onto something!

Chocolate Fun

With Sean now allowed to eat eggs - we can make him real cupcakes! Not those lactose free, wheat free, peanut free, egg free, might as well be cardboard ones. Well, they were moist, so maybe cardboard left out in the rain! Sean liked them because he didn't know any better. Poor kid probably didn't understand all the hype about cupcakes!

After he had a taste of the good stuff, he will never go back! I am hoping he will soon outgrow his dairy allergy. Sean has never had milk or ice cream or milk chocolate, can you imagine? There are a lot of great substitutes out there - soy cheese and yogurt and milk. But they just aren't the same! Luckily there are a lot of great products out there for kids with food allergies. I bet when I was little there was no such thing as soy cheese!

Sean had so much fun helping me make the cupcakes. He liked using the mixer and thankfully all the cake batter stayed in the bowl. Believe me, I had visions of him quickly lifting the mixer and spraying chocolate all over my kitchen. I really did think it might happen, because in my mind I was trying to remember where the camera was, just in case!

cheesy chocolate smile!

armed and dangerous with chocolate beaters!

The Loosest Tooth Ever!

It sounds like the title to a children's book. Hmmm, maybe I should write one... I could use these pictures of Brian Jr.! His tooth has gotten so loose in the past few days that it is all I can do to keep from yanking it right out of his mouth. It is hanging by a thread on the middle side of the tooth! He can bend it forward and back and even twist it around - but he will not pull it out or let anyone else touch it.

I have to say I cannot blame him - I remember the same feelings as a kid. My parents, especially my Dad, would beg me to let them get in one good pull. He was afraid that it would hurt and that it would bleed - I was too! I told him that it was a like taking off a band-aid - it might hurt for a second but once it was out there would be no more pain. And then he could eat normally! He wanted no parts of it and was content to just let it fall out on its own. All I can do was sit back and wait - and urge him to keep wiggling!

his top left - even hangs lower than his other tooth!

watch it wiggle...
Sponge Bob impersonation!