bare baby feet...

What is Grief?

2011-09-10T16:12:00.005-04:00

A few years ago, I put to paper what my experience was on September 11, 2001. Like most, I can remember snippets of the day, television screens, quiet skies, disbelief. This ten year anniversary has brought to mind not the initial shock, though, but the feelings that followed and continue today when I hear the newscasters recount "the events as they unfolded." In actuality, my world seemed to stand still for several months following 9/11 as I wound my way through life on autopilot, unable to believe that there would even be a tomorrow (let alone a next year). I vividly remember a bike ride with Mike where I felt so overwhelmed with sorrow that I stopped on the side of the road and wept. When he asked what I was feeling I described it this way...the only thing I wanted to do at that moment was take my bike over my head and hurl it into the field. I wish I had accepted then what it was that kept me up at night and miserable during the day. It was grief.

My reaction seemed ridiculous to me at the time, knowing that I was safe in the Midwest, nowhere near danger. I scoured the lists of people who were killed convinced I should know at least one person...that would validate my emotions. But there was no familiar name, no face I recognized. Looking back it seems so obvious...much as I complained about the concrete and the oppressive crowds, I considered New York my city. People in Michigan always raise an eyebrow when I say I'm from NY, even though my hometown resembles Okemos more than it does Detroit. On September 11 there I was, hundreds of miles from "home," where my people were suffering.

My brother was working downtown during the attacks, and for several difficult hours I did not know where he was. My sister knew one of the firefighters that was missing, the father of my niece's friend. Once I could get a call to her (close to midnight), we sat and talked as we watched the horrific videos shown over and over again. In the months that followed, I was not only grieving the 3000 strangers who died, I had lost my sense of security. How on earth would I travel when I could never envision boarding a plane again? I thought I was pretty smart, and knew how things worked. But apparently the world can change overnight, and we are left powerless, small and terrified.

I still cannot fathom what some people lost that day...friends, co-workers, family. But having since experienced the death of my father, sister, and mother-in-law, I now have a clear picture of where my depression came from. I fought it because I didn't feel like I had the right to grieve, but I did. We all do. There is no sense in making an internal comparison of who lost more, or when. If I had owned my loss ten years ago, talked about it, asked for help, I might have been able to switch off the autopilot sooner. Really, I should have just thrown the bike.

My First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-07T21:10:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not writing this from E's point of view. In the hour and a half I spent in her classroom yesterday, I learned a lot. Tons. More than she did, probably. Now I know what people meant when they said, "Just wait til your kids start school."

On my first day of kindergarten, I learned...

I'm going to need an inbox for all the papers E brings home. And an outbox for all of my homework.

Although they deny it, they're expecting kids who enter kindergarten to know how to write their names, cut paper with scissors, and match letters with sounds. Gone are the days of tissue-paper-crinkle projects.

There is a big difference between "carline" and "parent drop-off."

My girl is so much like me it's scary. As I filled in the sheet describing her, it was as if I was answering the question, "What were you like, exactly, as a 5-year old?"

Put me in an elementary school and I'm immediately a teacher-pleasing machine. I hope she liked me.

The Pledge of Allegiance makes me cry.

This is going to be a big year for us. In the end, I hope my hard work merits a "satisfactory," but I'm betting on "needs improvement."

The (Cat) Gods Must Be Crazy

2011-08-11T14:58:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe that I have old cats. How did this happen? I had no idea that Larry was 13 until I was forced to do the math for a new veterinary office last fall. That means that in this house, we have Larry, now aged 14 (or thereabouts), Bean, aged 14 or (gasp) 15, and Mac, who is at least 10. It shouldn't surprise me that they are accumulating health problems as numerous as their whiskers, yet I find myself truly expecting them to live forever. They HAVE to live forever, by the way, because E and baby M love them. These cats must never die.

Larry's Fall Adventure (short version) included six (or more?) trips to the vet, a feeding tube, two nights of saying goodbye (sure he wouldn't make it until morning), and a miraculous recovery. He now looks and acts like a healthy, young kitten with a new lease on life. E calls him "Lar-Lar." Rhymes with "Bear-Bear." Betcha didn't know even nicknames have nicknames.

Mac's Belly Bomb was diagnosed last month as either something like IBD or Lymphoma, take your pick. Either way, the Big symptom is lots and lots of puke and a big old tummy ache. He's been on medication that he takes rather well, and he probably will be on it for the rest of his days. He seems happy enough and the puking has all but stopped, so we're just thinking happy thoughts for now.

Bean's Sugar Shake started a few months ago, when he was looking thin and lethargic. I brought him in to said vet and he was diagnosed with (EEK) diabetes. During a tearful meeting, I blubbered that I didn't want to start insulin, I couldn't deal with another sick cat, couldn't we do anything else? Please? So we changed diets (high protein, low carb) and crossed our fingers. Bean improved for a while, but last week I saw how thin he was getting and decided that the insulin had to happen now, or never (if you get my drift). So I entered the vet's office yet again, full of angst and tears, and said that yes, I could probably TRY the insulin for a few months. If my quality of life was suffering, I would re-evaluate.

Well, dang it if that cat's blood sugar wasn't back in the normal range! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I think I did both. Though he IS skinny, it is probably due to the shift in diet, and he's losing the baby-fat that I had grown to love. I always called him "Big Boned," to spare his feelings when friends said he was overweight. Oy.

So the current plan is just to stop time altogether, prevent everyone from aging (kids included), and that will be that. We'll just live today over, again and again, Groundhog Day style. Let's, okay?

Flashbacks

2011-08-07T15:36:00.002-04:00

When E asked me to go on the log flume at Michigan's Adventure last week, I had to pause for a moment to think about it. I was banking on a day without roller coasters...the kids are only 5 and 3 after all. Surely they're not tall enough to ride anything that would scare me, right? Absolutely wrong. With an adult, a kid her height could ride several of the larger rides, said flume included.

I know that the log flume is technically not a roller coaster, with only the one hill and all, but it's a big hill. It is. It's a lose-your-belly kind of hill, which I know because I accompanied E for three trips up the clickity-clacks, around the (leaky) river, and down the drop. Eek. "Why did you scream the whole way down, Mom?" Oh, did I? Sorry. I'll try to be quieter next time.

When she asked Mike to bring her on the smallest of the adult coasters, I was a bit nervous, thinking back to the time I took poor little Stephanie on her first coaster at Great Adventure. I was fooled by the fact that it looked like an innocent little train ride with a few hills...it actually turned out to be a moderately rough ride, and was, um, a bit much for her. If I remember correctly, it ended with crying and screaming about love and trust and never again.

Thankfully, E's experience was much more on the delightful side, and the only crying came when it was time to go home. Mike, ever the good Daddy, rode with her no less than six times, though I think he would have preferred to watch the action from the sidelines with a cold beverage. It was a great day trip for us, though I'm looking forward to the time when we can send her off with a school or church group to satisfy her enthusiasm for the biggest, fastest amusement park rides. 'Cause I'm NOT going on that bungie thing, or the coaster where your feet are dangling out the bottom. I'm just not.

What Rhymes with Frustrated?

2011-03-30T22:33:00.002-04:00

A transcript of a conversation at bedtime....I tried to get it about word for word.

Me: (saying a prayer)
Baby m: Is that a rhyme?
Me: No, not really.
Baby m: What's a rhyme?
Me: Well, like 'star' and 'far.' I think you know how to rhyme...what rhymes with 'red'?
Baby m: Strawberry!
Me: A strawberry IS red, but it doesn't rhyme with red. 'Bed' rhymes with 'red.'
Baby m: What rhymes with 'motorcycle?'
Me: Some people say 'Michael motorcycle.' That rhymes.
Baby m: What starts with 'tree?'
Me: You mean what letter does it start with?
Baby m: No. What does it rhyme with?
Me: Hmm...'tree' rhymes with 'me.'
Baby m: 'Tree' rhymes with you?
Me: No, it rhymes with 'me.' Say, "Tree rhymes with me."
Baby m: "Tree rhymes with me."
Me: So what does 'tree' rhyme with?
Baby m: It rhymes with Mom.

Unplugged Project - Borax Snowflakes

2011-03-29T06:26:00.004-04:00

We've been away from the Unplugged Project for a while, probably because we've been away from our blog! But we checked back in for the "Soap" theme, and made these pretty Borax crystal snowflakes.

There are many different sets of directions out there, with varying amounts of Borax added to hot (or boiling) water, but it seems that the gist is that you have to get the water super-saturated. Hang your pipe cleaner slow flake in the solution overnight, and in the morning you have lots crystals! In fact, they started to form in just about an hour. The kids liked the measuring and stirring, and checked on the progress quite a few times during the day...

Yes, it would have been more appropriate project at Christmas time, but we have had sleet and ice here in Michigan at least three times this month! Maybe we can hang these in the window to appease Jack Frost. :)

Earth Hour Adventure

2011-03-27T07:30:00.002-04:00

When a friend reminded me of "Earth Hour" on Facebook yesterday, I was so so so glad that I hadn't missed it AGAIN! I've heard about this event for a few years, and have yet to plan well enough to actually do it...turn off all the lights for one hour (8:30pm - 9:30pm) as a symbolic gesture about energy savings. Here, our electricity is powered almost exclusively by coal, so if everyone in Okemos took part (they didn't), we might actually save a pile of carbon entering the atmosphere. Besides the lights, we also took it as an opportunity to go low=tech, turning off the electronics as well. Here's how our night went:

8:20 - At the end of Scooby-Doo and the Crocodile something or other, I turned off the TV, put away my computer, and all the lights I could find. It was not quite dark yet, but the kids were totally into it. Mike lit some candles, the fireplace already had a lovely little fire going.
8:30 - I asked Mike about the timers on the outdoor lights (just out of curiosity, really), and he went out and shut all of those off too. :)
8:32 - We looked out the windows to see if anybody else in the neighborhood was participating, and found that each house looked doubly bright now that all of our lights were off. I joked to M that we could start calling people to inform them that they should be turning off their lights, and E thought I was serious. She brought me the phone.
8:33 - I called cousin S, whom I knew was also already sitting in the dark, and Grandma P, who said she would be very glad to turn off her lights and go to bed right away. E was pleased.
8:35 - We found a flashlight for each person, and E immediately suggested that we play hide-and-seek in the dark. Then, just as abruptly, she said she might just be too scared to do that.
8:45 - Deep into a game of hide-and-seek, the kids were now comfortable enough to creep around with their flashlights looking for M and me...so much so that I felt okay jumping out from behind the furniture to scare them when I heard them coming.
8:50 - Together, we took a tour of the house in the dark. We found that even without flashlights, there was enough light coming through the windows that we could see well enough to avoid the furniture. Downstairs, though, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. A few bumps and dings, and one little anxiety attack (E), but it was pretty fun, really.
9:00 - We gathered in front of the fireplace with one flashlight and read two chapters of Mary Kate and Ashley, The Case of the Haunted Camp. In an unfortunate turn of events, the "ghost" turned out to be girl named Emma. Whoops. We changed her name to Grace.
9:20 - Bedtime for the kids...E was pretty freaked, but we did try to get her to relax without all of the nightlights we usually use. Baby m had no problem..."I'm very brave, right?"

I would say this was a really nice way to end the day, and this morning E has already asked when we can do it again. She did have one nightmare last night, but it had to do with robots, not sleep-away camp. Though in recounting the dream (at 3am) she did use the phrase, "Never to be seen again..." - a direct quote from Ashley Olson. :)

Do Caterpillars Sleep?

2010-06-14T19:43:00.004-04:00

Well, we're not really sure if it's technically "sleep", but a caterpillar does take a long rest in his chrysalis. We did a caterpillar project from the book, Explore Spring! Yes, it's still spring, even though the temperature was in the high 80s yesterday.

E and I colored pictures of butterflies and caterpillars that we copied from the book. Baby m colored everything, including his arms and the table, and he graciously helped me finish coloring my butterfly. The good news is that he does get excited when I ask him if he wants to do a "project"! When we were finished, we cut the pictures into strips and glued them to construction paper. Then we folded them "like a fan" (according to E) so that you could see only one or the other. I had hoped that she would do the cutting herself, but she was nervous about getting the lines straight enough. I probably shouldn't have done mine first.

I couldn't get E interested in the butterfly life cycle...she was much to intent on getting her pink and purple wings done the way she wanted them. But on the plus side, I was reminded about this cool type technique, which you can also use with cutouts from magazines and such. I had forgotten totally how neat they look!

Teaching Fractions

2010-04-21T21:43:00.005-04:00

Not sure how it started, but E is very interested in math. She always wants me to quiz her on addition, and she uses her fingers find the answer. We haven't gotten past ten, for obvious reasons (ie not enough fingers), but I have been impressed with her level of understanding!

She asked me a while ago, what "half" means...okay, well, you try it! I stumbled around talking about cutting a pie into equal halves, wait, I mean parts, and you have the same amount on this side and that side...finally she lost interest. I really didn't think she was listening, but the next day before nap time she said, "I only ate HALF of my snack. I'm saving the rest for later." Oh, I thought, she gets it! Then she handed me her bowl...

Yes, she ate HALF of each M&M and each Cheez-it. Now it's your turn to judge whether I'm a terrible teacher, or a terrible mother for letting her eat any fraction of that!

Huh?

2010-04-05T20:44:00.003-04:00

My babies have been especially funny lately...E talks non-stop and Baby m is struggling to keep up. Today he greeted me at school with a big hug and stuttered, "I love...I love..." I looked down at his precious little face and his teachers had that "awwww" expression as he struggled to find the words to express himself. "I love...I love...I love....Daddy." Oh, well. I already knew I was a distant second.

Spring has brought some new vocabulary to the house, as E picks "daffadillos" from the garden and watches the "red robin orange breast" look for worms. And by the way, did you know that "Wedgies are bad. They can kill you, even."

In addition to her unintended humor, E has discovered knock-knock jokes and she can deliver a few pretty well. Her favorite happens to be the same as mine...have you heard the one about the "Impterumpting cow?" Moo. Oh, and her second favorite one is a bit over my head, I guess...the punchline is "Poopypants underwear." Get it?

Why is Everybody So Mad at Jay Leno?

2010-01-29T15:33:00.002-05:00

Regardless of your opinion on the quality of their shows, the whole Jay/Conan fiasco has been difficult to watch. What an all-out mess. I heard a quote from Jay on the radio yesterday that said something like, "I don't know why everybody is so angry. They offered me my job back. Who wouldn't take it?" Good point, Jay. A job is on the table, big bucks, fame and fortune, who wouldn't grab it?

So I found myself contemplating why I, too, was angry at Jay. I mean, he may be a perfectly nice guy, probably won't be meeting him any time soon...why am I really, really mad? It's because I, like most of middle Americans these days, am fearful for my own position. I am darned lucky...I get a paycheck every two weeks, and I supposedly have job security. But hey, "in this economy," who knows. Jeez-Louise, poor Conan and his entourage pulled up stakes and MOVED ACROSS THE COUNTRY. Now what? Granted, he's not going to have trouble putting food on the table, but Conan represents us. We the people, terrified of a pink slip, counting on stability. Jay is apparently the one holding the cards, the one we're all afraid is going to sneak up and pull the world out from under us.

Be aware, Jay, that your audience will be changing. Many of your faithful will leave you as soon as Conan is allowed to show his face again on TV. He is one of us, you no longer are.

The Cheese Queens of Okemos

2010-01-22T19:00:00.004-05:00

Among the many activities planned for the Clark family visit was one I've been dreaming of since reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." We, humble suburban family in middle America, made cheese. In the kitchen. And it was good.

Barbara Kingsolver describes it as "easy", and multiple websites said that it would take a half hour, but I just couldn't believe that mozzarella could be produced from milk so effortlessly! Until I read up about it in preparation for the event, I didn't understand that there were quite a few soft cheeses that can be made without aging and without expensive equipment. I did need to buy "rennet" (we went with the veggie kind) and citric acid, which (truth be told) pushed the price of our batch up to about $14 dollars, but if I make it even once again, it will be totally worth it financially speaking.

The brave girls went to work in the kitchen, stirring and testing the temperature so as not to overcook the milk. The menfolk stayed a safe distance away, in the living room, watching the Jets accomplish the impossible! I can't blame them for not getting involved, considering the incredible football game and the prospect of having to acknowledge what curds really are. But for real, this cheese thing was nothing short of miraculous. Check out the curds and whey!

Honest and true, if we had been a little less nervous, we could have done it in about 25 minutes. And after N pulled and shaped and pulled again, it looked an awful lot like spectacular cheese. And with a little salt, it was freakin' awesome. S and I feasted on little cheese slabs on tomatoes with olive oil, and we were very happy. So happy, in fact, that we endeavored to take the next step and turn the leftover whey into ricotta.

Now, I had read that this was not so easy, and more than one website said, "Don't try it, it doesn't work." But after much heating and stirring and straining through cheesecloth, we ended up with about three tablespoons of darned good ricotta. If you paid us by the hour, that cheese was worth about $36 per pound. But let me tell you this....there is nothing, I mean nothing, like a bowl of pasta covered in your own stinkin' kitchen cheese. Seriously.

My Little Star (with no video attached)

2010-01-04T20:50:00.002-05:00

A few weeks before Christmas, M and I heard a rumor that there was going to be some sort of holiday presentation after E's Sunday school class. We asked E about it, but couldn't get anything out of her. We went to church thinking we'd probably hear a pre-school rendition of "Silent Night", and then we'd eat cookies. No big deal, right?

Wrong. It was a whole production based on a story about little pine trees in the forest. One of the teachers read the script and the kids carried birds, bunnies, trees, and stars glued onto sticks. First the little trees stepped up and "grew" on command, and two of them were picked to be Christmas trees. The one that was left looked sad (also on command) and the forest creatures tried to cheer it up. The bunnies brought berries and the birds brought feathers...they decorated the tree and everyone was happy. Then, the stars came out.

E marched up into place with the other "stars-on-a-stick" and held hers high in the sky above the tree. It was so sweet, and I was really wishing we had brought a camera. Then all the stars moved away except one...one little star took its place right in the top branches, and guess who it was! AHHHH! How could she not have told us that she was THE star? My little baby girl star, on top of the tree. Another little girl star walked up and tried to take her place, and E did the only thing she could...whacked her with the stick. I have NEVER wanted a video camera more than at that moment.

I never really understood the "ooohhing" and "ahhhhing" that parents do at every little thing their kid accomplishes...that is until I saw my daughter perform in her first play, a star in every sense of the word.

Dear Oprah, It's still true.

2009-10-01T12:23:00.004-04:00

Today I was cleaning out the files on my work computer and found a letter I wrote to Oprah about 5 years ago. She had a contest to find the "most romantic man," and lucky me...I have one.

Dear Oprah,

Romance is not all about flowers and candlelight…it’s an attitude. Some men have it, and my fiancé is one of those wonderful men. It took me a long time to find him (I’m 33 and he’s 36), but as you know, the best things in life sometimes drop out of the sky when and where you least expect it.

Mike dropped into my life at a local running club, and I knew he was the real deal on our first date. It was Easter Sunday, 2001, and he came over to my apartment to pick me up for a movie. When I answered the door, he was standing there with a plate of desserts from his family get together. He had brought me a slice of cheesecake, chocolate pie, and some cookies wrapped in plastic. That night he held open every door and gave me a goodnight kiss on the cheek (I tried for the lips, but didn’t get anywhere!), and of course he called me the next day to tell me what a good time he had. Since that day, I have never had a doubt about his feelings for me.

During our relationship, he has shown me romance in the classic ways like giving me flowers, taking me to dinner, and giving me presents. But anyone can do those things…TRUE romance is different. Last year a non-profit organization where I volunteer had an art sale. Not only did he show up early to help out, but he went home with an armful of recycled art, including a wooden pig made by a local third grader. And he was happy. The pig sits in the living room, peeking out from under a potted plant.

He calls me from work whenever there’s a full moon out, or when there’s a beautiful sunset that he doesn’t want me to miss. He starts my car in the morning so it’s warmed up by the time I leave for work, and he makes all of his own greeting cards on the computer…mushy sayings and all!

Oprah, when I send you a video, you’ll get the rest of the story, including how he proposed. Your heart will melt just like mine did…thanks for giving me the chance to gush over my man.

I did send in a video, but (sigh) never heard from Ms. Winfrey. Five years later, all of the above is still true, and more. He's a great Daddy, and now he writes out the mushy sayings in crayon and markers. I have tried a few times to toss the pig in the trash, but he won't let me. :) I love you M, more today than yesterday.

International Rock Flipping Day

2009-09-21T20:46:00.003-04:00

When I told her we were going to flip a rock, E kept asking, "Do you have it all set up already?" I think she registered it as some kind of craft project. But I sat her next to my prized "pickle rock" (collected from Maine many years ago) and told her to wait there until I got the camera. When I came back outside, she was explaining to Baby m, "Don't flip this rock yet. Mommy said to wait!" She had nothing to worry about, because Baby m was not interested at all! Turns out our pickle rock was the cover for LOTS of ants and a few millipedes. But a neighboring rock, casually flipped on the way inside for dinner, found us the Ant Queen of Okemos, Michigan! Holy cow, she was big. I almost said "YUCK!", but then I realized that two toddlers were staring at me...so instead I said, "Wow! Look at her!" Thanks to Wanderin' Weeta for sponsoring IRFD! Click here to check out other rock flippers' finds.

Unplugged - Sound

2009-09-13T18:50:00.008-04:00

I told E that this week's theme was "sound," but she kept telling me that the real theme was "noise." Figures, since this house is never quiet...seriously, noise is the theme pretty much every day.

We kept it pretty simple with the first project, and made a telephone from red plastic cups and string. I figured that E would enjoy hearing me whisper from across the room, but in reality she only put the cup to her ear once. The rest of the time she shouted into her end, and totally missed the point of having the phone in the first place. But she did have fun screaming at me, and I didn't tell her to be quiet, because sound was the theme, after all.Our second project was a little more successful. I went around the house with my little digital voice recorder, and recorded snippets of sound from various objects. The toys that make music, the horizontal blinds, the light switch. Then E, Baby m, and Grandma listened to the sounds one at a time and went on a hunt around the house to find the source. E LOVED this...anything that resembles a treasure hunt, or involves clues or hints, and she's all over it. Baby m just trailed along behind her giggling.

Click the play button below to hear the sound that cracked everybody up...

Even Grandma laughed at that one. Check out the other "sound" projects at Unplug Your Kids!

Unplugged - Ocean

2009-09-08T13:04:00.003-04:00

Activity number one this week was to create an ocean under the kitchen table. From the start, I couldn't get the vision of the classic "Under the Sea" prom theme out of my head, so I adapted it for toddlers. I cut some fish out of construction paper and the kids colored them. I also gave them sponge stamps to stamp scales onto the fish, but that didn't really go as planned. They just stamped willy nilly...then we made jellyfish from paper plates with plastic bag strips as tentacles. That was a lot of fun....when I told E and her cousin that the tentacles could sting you, they began a jelly fish fight along with much giggling.
E and Baby m helped tape the creatures under the table, and added crepe paper kelp. Baby m really just liked tearing the paper off the roll and crumpling it up, and E just kept shouting, "We need more kelp!" I draped a tablecloth as a backdrop and the effect was pretty cool. They pretended they were swimming, and it made a fun temporary clubhouse. We also made our first lap-book, which I had been wanting to do for some time. I couldn't think of how to start, so I used this website (Homeschoolshare) for templates. There are some great ones there...I did a lot of prep work for it, but E was able to help cut and glue, and she especially likes the little envelope with counting starfish in it. If she shows any further interest, I will be making more of these. Check out other ocean themed projects at Unplug Your Kids!

A Sample Size of Six

2009-09-03T14:38:00.003-04:00

Last night I had a much needed night out with the girls. Now that I'm back to work, I have enough time out of the house, but not enough time with friends...I missed them, and I didn't know how much until I was driving home from the restaurant. Our conversations flew around the table like wildfire...here are some stats on the night:

At least 3 of us spent a good portion of kindergarten and 1st grade chasing boys. Literally, chasing them and trying to kiss them. We all agreed that what passed for cute in the 1970s would get us kicked out of elementary school today.
Five of us are married to men who watch little to no sports on TV. And 5 of us are married to men who rarely read a full length book.
Only 1 of us wears make-up on a regular basis.
Three of us need help cutting our own child's fingernails.
All of us thought that the food was good but the service was poor. Some of us regularly tip 15% for poor service, and some of us tip 15% for good service.
At least 4 of us do not have children who sleep through the night. All of us are tired.
Two of us are reading "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."
One of us went to Japan, London, and California this year!
At least 3 of us hope that next summer finds us less on the road and more on our folding chairs in the back yard.
Two of us are reading, um, literature of a questionable nature. Four of us remained quiet on the subject.

All of this while consuming 4 salads, 3 pizzas, one calzone (sauce late and on the side), one pasta dish, 2 bottles of wine, 1 beer, 2 cups of coffee (one with Bailey's) and a hot chocolate. Seriously, I cannot WAIT until next time. Thanks, Girlfriends.

Unplugged - Geometric!

2009-08-30T20:06:00.003-04:00

We pulled out an activity for this week's project that's been in the closet for a while. The last time I tried Playful Patterns with E, she just lined all of the pieces up in rows on the couch while I wasn't looking. I came back in the room and actually gasped when I saw this...

The game comes with picture cards to build on, and this time she was really into it...she's getting me a little worried with her perfectionism, though. She was not satisfied until the shape was RIGHT in the middle. If she bumped one with her finger, she carefully replaced it. We also talked about how to make a rectangle out of two squares, and an oval out of two semi-circles and a rectangle. I really thought these concepts were beyond her. I knew there was a reason that we came back to the Unplugged Project!

We read a book about patterns, and we went on a walk and looked for different shapes. I'm not sure what we'll do with the photos, maybe a matching game. E lost interest pretty quickly...our usual game during our walks is for me to get "stuck" in the nearest shrub and yell "Ayudame!" Then she runs up and rescues me. That was much more fun than finding squares and circles. All the same, M and I got some nice shapes pics to work with.

Baby m is showing some interest in participating in games and crafts, but he mostly just wants to throw the pieces on the floor and hit things with his hockey stick. Um, could that be considered an Unplugged theme???

I Don't Understand This World.

2009-08-27T20:49:00.003-04:00

So I have finally started volunteering for our local hospice, writing personal histories. Last week I delivered my first "Tuesdays" story (named for the book, Tuesdays With Morrie), and I felt really good about it. Good enough that I thought it would be okay for me to go to the Volunteers Appreciation Event, even though as yet I have spent more hours in volunteer training than I have as a volunteer.

They had people share thoughts about of different patients that they worked with...I didn't feel like saying anything because the memories of my sister are still to intertwined with this experience. It didn't feel right to say anything but the whole story, so I just kept quiet and listened. I left there feeling very peaceful...so many of the stories were positive. The other volunteers talked about patients who had been able to laugh and love, give advice and ultimately say goodbye.

When I got in to work an hour later, I walked in to a nightmare. I stopped by a colleague's office and said, "How's everything?" She said, "Not good. Did you know B?" I didn't understand what she was asking? B was, is, this incredible man that we work with, and yes, I just talked to him on Friday. "He was in an accident last night and he didn't make it." I was just overwhelmed with sorrow. We found out later that he was killed by a pick-up truck while riding his bicycle, a hobby and passion of his that took him all over the state and country.

I'm just so angry right now. How do some people just disappear from the earth while you're not looking? I'm reminded of my father's death, just hours before we were to visit him. Senseless and just wrong. Why didn't they get to say goodbye? Where is the fairness here? I have a hard time believing that we are mortal, even given the proof that surrounds me daily. But I do not know how to live as though every conversation is my last. B didn't know that when we talked about my daughter on Friday that we would never talk on this earth again. But he laughed, he was engaged, he was listening, he was wonderful. He made me feel important, as he always did. I guess that's the lesson I'll take from him...but I wish I could remember if I gave him the same feeling.

Cry Me an Estuary (They're Salty)

2009-08-14T22:32:00.005-04:00

Today, I took part in a garage sale with a neighbor. I managed to bring home about $90, which isn't bad considering how FUN it was! I LOVE sales, shopping and selling. But the crazy thing was, no less than 4 (count 'em, 4) women cried at our sale today. I'm not kidding. Real tears. I think that there was some cosmic intersection of lives going on there...and I was glad to have shared the raw emotions.

First, a friend cried because she sold something to which she had no idea that she was emotionally attached.

Second, a stranger cried because she was shopping for a child after going through a recent and devastating loss.

Third, an acquaintance cried because when she asked me "What's new?", I told her that my sister had passed away last fall.

Fourth, I cried because I felt the exact emotion that each of them felt.

It was good, really. I always like to be reassured that other women have the same lack of control over their tear ducts as I do. I cry at Discovery Channel commercials, weddings, watching reality shows, and during committee meetings. Oh, well. I'll never be president, or governor, or even on the school board. My heart (and salty water) is just too close to the surface.

A Dinosaur Sensation

2009-08-05T21:52:00.002-04:00

I have a confession to make. I don't hate Barney.

There are many reasons to dislike him...his annoying voice, the robotic children, the bad lip syncing. It was very fashionable, when I was in college, to make jokes about the giant purple dinosaur. But now, Mommy that I am, I'm actually a fan. Wait, I can defend myself.

The songs are easy to learn. E loves to sing, and Barney is a melody thief. In almost every video, you can find a song that has the tune B-I-N-G-O...my favorite is the Christmas episode that spells out, "S-A-N-T-A!" E catches on very quickly, and sings right along. It's a joy to listen to her.
Nobody is mean. It's hard to find a show nowadays (am I 80?) that doesn't have any menacing characters or storylines. The worst thing I've seen on Barney is a lonely child, who ends up with tons of friends by the end. The crises are mild, and always resolved quickly.
M asks for "Ba-neee!" It's charming. It's sweet. He's mesmerized...and he dances.

I have already checked out every Barney video that the library offers, and I'm working on inter-library loan and Netflix. Don't judge me, I'm a mother.

What motivation?

2009-07-28T20:45:00.003-04:00

I know that I need to lose a few pounds. Since I stopped breast feeding last September, I've really gotten, um, wider. Oh, and I don't exercise. At all. I always thought that I'd find some motivation inside myself to take care of business like this, but, well, it turns out that I needed a kick in the butt.

My sister-in-law stopped by the other day and told M and me about her plan with some friends to hold a "Biggest Loser" contest. It will be 5 weeks, $25 to enter. Each week that you lose, you get $2 back. Then at the end of the competition, the one who loses the largest percentage gets whatever's left in the pot. I'm in, baby!

I can't lie, it's the competition that gets me excited. I couldn't find the grit to lose the 10 pounds to look decent in my bathing suit, but throw a few bucks my way, and I'm already boiling up the 0 point soup. Oh, well. As long as it works!

Olivia the Brave

2009-07-24T14:28:00.004-04:00

There was no reason for me NOT to drive the wave runner during our Clark family vacation last week...I'm 38, I have a driver's license, I'm moderately responsible, and I really, really wanted to say "I CAN drive the wave runner." I did not want to be the one on the dock while everybody else did exciting things. More importantly, I didn't want my kids to see me being a chicken sh*t.

I know exactly why I was so afraid to drive it. My constant and irrational fear of deep water originated in the very same lake we were visiting. Too many Jaws references, too many legends about the crazy depth (100+ feet), too many older kids threatening to throw the younger ones "off the rock." I was terrified of what would happen if I was to fall off and panic...in my mind I knew how to get back on, but could I actually do it? I KNOW that I will not drown with a life vest on, but some part of my brain doesn't believe that at all.

My solution was to ease in. First I started talking about driving it, then I asked about how to turn it on, how to dock it, you know...pretending that I would actually do it. Then I sat on it...uh. The view from the seat was even worse than I thought. Before I even got into the scary lake, I had to maneuver it away from the dock, avoiding rocks, a small boat, and said dock itself. Then, to park, I'd have to aim the nose between the rails of the hoist, and hope I didn't launch over it onto the beach.

Once I actually started it, I seriously considered bagging the whole idea, but I do not want to be the one who can't. I want to be powerful, I want to DO things. So I pulled away from the dock carefully, and actually perfectly. I went for a very slow toodle one way, then the other, then docked it, perfectly. It was not hard, but it was not fun. When I cut the engine, my hands were shaking, and I was SO DARNED PROUD OF MYSELF!

Two days later while paddling the much calmer kayak, I passed a camp where a little girl was poised to dive into the water off of her family's dock. Her brother was trying to be encouraging, meaning he was calling her names and diving in over and over while she stood there. Her parents watched from nearby, and occasionally said, "You can do it, Olivia. Just don't think about it." But I was right there with Olivia. She was taking her time to understand just what she was getting into. She wanted desperately to dive, and to do that you have to get into position. There are no rules as to how long it should take you to actually hit the water. She was at least much closer than if she was inside watching TV while her brother was out having fun.

About 10 minutes later when I paddled past again, she was still there with her arms out in front, bikini and goggles and tiny little toes, ignoring her pestering brother. I am rooting for her, because she knows what she wants. She wants to be "one who can dive off the dock." And I know she will.

Delay Tactics

2009-07-13T20:51:00.003-04:00

Ever since E was about 18 months old, we've had a pretty good bed time routine. Sometime around 8 o'clock, we brush teeth, read two books (Daddy reads more), prayers, and lights out. Little by little, E has been testing strategies to prolong the bed time ritual. Some nights she asks for a drink, or to go potty, or develops phantom itches or owies that need attention. Tonight as I left the room, she tried to rope me into a conversation in the hopes that I'd stay longer. And tonight, it worked.

E: Mommy, mommy, you know those black things with white stripes?
Me: You mean skunks?
E: No, like, they fly.
Me: You mean bees?
E: No. They're like bees, but they're not. They're not bees.
Me: I don't know honey. Good night.
E: Wait! They're swaps. Yes, swaps.
Me: You mean wasps?
E: Yes, wapss-pss. That's what I'm talking about. Those are bad.
Me: Yes, they are. Good night.
E: They fly really slow. And to get away from them, you have to run very fast. That's what I was talking about, Mommy.
Me: Okay, honey, good night.

I finally succeeded in backing out the door, but she followed me out a minute later to tell me that she was too hot. Too many banklets. Oh, and she had an itch. I'm actually terrified to move Baby m into a toddler bed. I'll be outnumbered!

Results - Feeling Sixy!

2009-06-29T20:06:00.003-04:00

Wow, June flew by, didn't it? I know I have one day left, but there's about no chance I'll finish up tomorrow...so here are the long awaited results of my sixy challenge.

1. I did barbecue three times, so I fell short of the once a week goal. I think I should get a few extra days on this one, because we WERE up on vacation for a week...

2. The freezer is definately cleaner. I threw out two things...a bag of hot peppers from someone's garden from a growing season past, and a container of what may or may not have been leftover potatoes. AND today I made cream of brocolli soup from some pieces and shards of questionable age. But holy cow, was it good! And I really don't like broccoli...it's a good recipe.

3. I did START to organize my recipes...I tossed some that will never be made, and put some into a binder that I started a few years ago. All in all, I'd call this one about a 50% success.

4. Yippee! This one was a winner. I cooked a green bean casserole with real mushrooms, a fantastic mushroom soup, and grilled portabellas. And I really enjoyed the soup. I used a package of dried wild mushrooms, reconstituted with chicken broth.

5. The sweet potato grilling was okay, but they didn't taste any better than ones out of the oven. Not worth the trouble in my opinion.

6. I only cooked from the cupboard one time. I made a very sweet cornbread using a bunch of cornmeal...but I didn't even seem to put a dent in it! I need to make about 5 more loaves. The molasses and fluff recipes are still pending.

So what's the theme for July? Maybe I'll get started early!!!

June is so Sixy!

2009-06-01T20:12:00.003-04:00

My friend M has encouraged all of her friends to participate in a monthly club of sorts...well, this is the second month so I'm calling it "monthly". If we're still going by August, I'll be pretty impressed! Last month was "Every Day in May"...do something, anything, every day for a month. I tried to do a random act of kindness every day, but it really only turned out to be every third day or so...BUT, I did do one big thing that should count for quite a few days. No, I can't tell you what it is, that would be cheating. But if you guess it, I will nod.

Though I haven't received the catchy title for June, the gist of it is to set six goals of any sort (avoiding "nots" if you can) and actually do them during June. Kind of like short term New Year's resolutions. I like this. I decided to center mine around food. Yes, I need to lose a few pounds, but dieting is not what I mean. Here, read them and you'll see:

Barbecue at least once a week. I have a very nice grill and a husband who loves grilled anything.
Clean out the freezer by either eating or chucking the "mature" food.
Organize my recipes...no small task. I have about a thousand ripped out magazine pages and an almost empty binder with good intentions.
Cook with mushrooms at least three times. Again, husband.
Grill sweet potatoes. I've been wondering whether this is possible, and today there was Bobby Flay doing it, right on Food Network.
"Kitchen Cupboard Cook" once a week. I have molasses, marshmallow fluff, cornmeal, and a dozen other random ingredients that need to be utilized. Allrecipes.com has an ingredient lookup that will give me plenty of recipes to choose from. And I will NOT BUY additional ingredients in order to use up the offenders.

Thanks, M, for the kick in the butt. I love lists...but uh, six is bothering me. Five or ten would be so much better. Next year do this one in May or October, please!

Unplugged - We're Back!

2009-06-01T09:07:00.003-04:00

The Unplugged Theme this week was "petal". At this time of year, this theme should have been easy for us, but on the afternoon that we were supposed to plant flowers, it rained. It was cold. We did not go outside.

So we started with flowers made from Styrofoam egg containers. We have done many open ended projects, because wanted to encourage E to create without boundaries, something I really think is lacking in education at all levels. But this time I decided to challenge her in a different way, by showing her how to make the flower, step by step. Thanks to my crazy-craft-supply-hoarding tendencies, we had all of the materials...egg containers, pipe cleaners, beads, and tissue paper. You can see by the picture how easy they are to put together...E is 3 and had no trouble with the steps involved. The stiffness of the pipe cleaner makes it very easy to put the beads on.As you can see from her pose, she wanted to "smell the roses", so we took out some Tommy Girl perfume and gave each one a little squirt. Warning: The tissue paper in the center of the flower holds the scent VERY well. So use the perfume sparingly.

Baby m was pretty fascinated with the pipe cleaners. I did give him a completed flower to play with, and in true "boy" fashion he demolished it in seconds. (And no, it's not up his nose...just dangerously close).Later in the week, when Grandma and Grandpa came for dinner, E and I got them crafting...E really doesn't take no for an answer. She passed out all the pieces and "supervised", and then reminded me that we had to squirt them with perfume. Seriously, next time I'll use a diluted mixture. My eyes water every time I go into the dining room!
Once we had a dry day, E and I went back to the task of planting the annuals. She really loved picking out the colors and placement. The digging was a little hard for her because our soil is heavy on the clay. But she would gladly pull that wagon around all day!

Mr. Man Pants

2009-05-28T20:56:00.002-04:00

Baby m's vocabulary hasn't quite taken off like E's did, but he's getting there. He clearly calls us "Mommeee" and "Dadeee", and he just started saying his sister's name. He will NOT say "milk" or "eat", but will nod furiously if you ask him if he's hungry. And if he's unhappy with anything, he proclaims, "No wayeee!"

He says "Chuchi" and "cookie", and when he wants to be picked up he says "down." He still does the signs for "dog" and "finished", but he has learned to say "Kank yew." If his mouth is full, he will also do that sign...looks a little like an Italian hand gesture-type insult, but he doesn't know that!

But my favorite thing to hear him say is "Lalie", which means Lambie (his flat little buddy). He usually says it with desperation in his voice, as in "Please get me my Lalie, so I can mush it up against my cheek! Now!" Sometimes when I go to take him out of his crib he will say a sort of sentence, "Uh-oh Lalie." This means, "I've thrown Lalie out of my crib and he's on the floor. Pick him up and give him to me."

He gets a lot of what he wants by pointing, which I hear is typical of a second child. No worries, though. Actually, we worry a lot less with Baby m...the only thing we are going to rush him on is potty training. I am SO DONE with diapers!

Funny Photo Freitag (Friday)

2009-04-17T13:46:00.002-04:00

We got an email from a friend called "Five Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug"...it was a microwave recipe. Because E is so chocolate driven, I figured it would make a nice after dinner project. Well, the results were a little, um, strange, but she ate quite a bit of it! I thought it was a little chewy, and not in a good way. In my opinion, the picture says a lot about the quality of the product.

Check out other funny photos here!

Baby Greed

2009-04-17T13:26:00.002-04:00

On the day before Easter, I invited a few tots over for an Easter egg hunt. Following my family's example, I color coded the eggs, so that each kid would have the exact same number in their basket at the end. I was tying to avoid the free-for-all, knock-em-down, greedy run for the money type hunt...the kind I participated in when I was about 4 years old.

I don't remember much, but Mom brought me to a shopping center of some kind, and there was a fenced off area in the parking lot. On the word 'go,' about a million other kids and I went a'running, with big dreams and baskets in hand. I remember seeing a little stuffed bunny, or some such thing, way far away. I ran past countless eggs to get there, only to lose it to a faster kid. I'm not sure whether my memory is accurate, but I believe I left with an empty basket.

I don't think I'll ever bring my kids to a 'survival of the fittest' egg hunt, at least not until they're old enough to process the competitive nature of the event. The capitol (in downtown Lansing) has a hunt on the lawn every year, and I read about it in the paper last week. One little girl left the hunt with just one egg, and her quote was, "Well, I guess it's better than none!" Sorry, little honey, I feel your pain. Next year you're invited to our house. We'll make sure you feel like a winner!

How Do You Spell Success? B-A-C-O-N

2009-04-07T16:29:00.002-04:00

I have been trying to give blood since March 19, my sister's birthday. That day, my friend T met me at the Red Cross...she gave a pint, I gave a drop. I failed the iron test. This was not unexpected, because I had been borderline before. But darn it, I was taking a multi-vitamin with iron EVERY DAY for weeks leading up to this appointment. Needless to say, this was a big disappointment. I called M and asked him to meet me at Red Lobster, so I could load up on iron rich foods and try again the next day.

A big steak, five yummy shrimps, and a good night's sleep later, I went back for another try. Again, failure. Matter of fact, my iron level was even lower than it had been the day before! Fine. So home I went, to dig out the heavyweight iron pills that the doctor prescribed me after I had E. For a week and a half, I took them religiously...now mind you, these have, like, a hundred times more iron than the daily recommended dose.

I waltzed back into the Red Cross with confidence, but no luck. All of those pills had barely made any difference at all. I was close, but not close enough. This time the nurse not only gave me the list of iron rich foods, but she hand-wrote a note at the bottom of the sheet..."Wendy's bacon double cheeseburger with a side of chili. Eat for lunch the day of your next appointment."

So yesterday when I saw that there was a blood drive on campus, I went immediately to the cafeteria. Alas, I was too early for the hamburgers...so I settled on the next best thing. A make-your-own omelet with LOTS of bacon. Funny thing is, I didn't ask for extra bacon...the woman behind the counter just kept piling it on! When one container was empty, she even reached for some extra pieces out of the buffet! Maybe I looked pale. Then I grabbed an orange juice, because Vitamin C is supposed to help iron absorption.

After giving it a little time to work, I went over to the blood drive and BINGO! I passed with flying colors! I walked out a half hour later with my little "I gave blood today" sticker, and a date...56 days from now, on June 1, I can do it again. And this time I'm STARTING with bacon.

Unplugged - Illegal???

2009-03-29T21:02:00.005-04:00

Oh, I hope we don't go to Federal prison for this...

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the post office to apply for their passports. We live in Michigan and need to keep our options open for travel through Canada to New England. We knew that it would take about 6 weeks for them to come in the mail, but E has been asking every time we go to the mailbox, "Is my new passfort here yet?"

So when I heard this week's theme, I decided to make the kids some fake passport books...JUST TO PLAY WITH. I took out some junky scrapbooking paper and very cheap stickers and attempted to make two books in about 20 minutes...the results were underwhelming, but fit the bill.
When the kids woke up from their naps, I showed them their passforts, and they were thrilled! E was really surprised to see her own picture in there. I set them at the kitchen table with stamps and ink pads, and we stamped the books while talking about life. It was quite cool, actually. I gave E the cow stamp, because we saw a cow decoration on a neighbor's house yesterday. Baby m got some fish and cars, two of the words he actually says pretty clearly. I was surprised how he really got into the stamping! Most of his "hits" were on the table, but it was washable ink. We all put our fingerprints in too...
I think we'll take these out in a few days and stamp them some more, and maybe I'll write a few notes about the things we did this week....for an older child, this might be a simple scrapbook project, or even a mini-diary. Ours will probably will be shredded by the time we start next week's project.

Oots

2009-03-27T20:47:00.003-04:00

My babies are entertaining, to say the least. I've decided that some people have children just to listen to their cute little voices saying cute little things. E and Baby m cracked me up about a dozen times today. Let's see if I can recall a few...

Watching a commercial on Nick Jr., E declared, "Mommy, I want dat!" A few moments later, a little quieter..."Mommy? What IS dat?" Go ad geniuses. You have toddlers asking for plastic junk and they don't even know what it is!

Upon seeing a squirrel climb a tree, E said, "I wish I could climb a tree like that." To which Baby m replied, "Oots!" Makes perfect sense to me.

While pretending to be a doctor, E took out a plastic cleaver from her kitchen set and said, "Your leg is sick. I'm going to cut it off." When I told her that would hurt, she said, "Don't say ouch."

When we got back from our walk tonight, E walked in the door and took off every last piece of her clothes...even her socks. Then she ran around in circles through the kitchen and living room for 5 minutes. I could just see little flashes of her bottom zipping around here and there, and I could hear a constant giggle. Baby m chased her around, pointing like, "see that?"

After lunch, E asked, "Can I have some melted chick balls?" (Malted milk balls.)

Baby m is not a conversationalist yet, but he's getting there. He says fish, cookie, ball, car, mama, mo mo (more), gook (book) and of course, oots. I can't wait to hear what he thinks of this amazing world.

Unplugged Project - Long

2009-03-22T20:45:00.003-04:00

I'm afraid our project did not turn out as long as I'd thought it would. My niece and I made a marble chute out of paper towel tubes, and attached it to the fridge with magnets. The cool part is you can adjust it up and down and change the angles. The not so cool part is that an actual marble is too heavy for this set up. As soon as the marble hit the second chute the magnets gave way and the whole thing came crashing down. We ended up using a little ball of dried clay instead.
Again, I think I can be accused of picking a project that is more appropriate for a 10 year old than a 3 year old, but E certainly did love the end product! Her face lit up when the ball landed in the Pringles can with a "Clang!" I'm excited to add more chutes...maybe we can run the entire length of the fridge! (By the way, notice the little girlie magnet from Unplugged "Old" looking on!)

Funny Photo Friday

2009-03-13T16:32:00.004-04:00

June 2007, we took a trip to California with E, who was just 15 months old. It was a fantastic vacation, and we spent 4 days in Yosemite. On the last day we took a short hike and E found a sandpit to play in. This is a talent of hers....she did seem to be having fun shmearing the dust on her face! I'm sure that other visitors were taken aback by her appearance, and then by her screaming as I tried to clean her with baby wipes back at the car.

Check here and here for other wonderful Friday Photos!

Unplugged - Happy! :)

2009-03-08T20:55:00.004-04:00

Happy? Well, any of our unplugged projects could have that theme! Even when they go wrong, at least SOMEONE enjoys themselves! This week, I decided that we would try to do something to make others happy.

At some point in the last few weeks, I stumbled on The Toy Society blog, where people make little tchachkes and put them out in the world for others to find. Sounded perfect for us. After the kids went to bed one night, I turned a baby sock into a bunny, and labeled it as directed on the site. The next day, we left the bunny in a bag at a bus stop down the road...in hopes that someone would take her home and, well, be happy! Though I knew she wanted to keep it, E seemed to understand that we were doing this as a gift for someone else. Alas, two days later she was still hanging there, in the rain, sadly. So E and I rescued her, dried off the bag, and brought her to the grocery store. E gave her a kiss and whispered nice things in her ear, and we left her in a cart. When we passed by not two minutes later, she was gone! Who knows whether she ended up in the lost and found or whether someone brought her home, but that's out of our hands now. There's a note with her that directs the finder to the Toy Society blog, but the owner does say that some people never report their find. That's okay. It made us happy just to throw some love out into the world. Thanks for the inspirational theme!

Funny Photo Friday

2009-03-05T20:35:00.005-05:00

Here is Baby m enjoying the beach last summer. It was a great trip to Seapointe Resort in Cape May, New Jersey, but it was tricky keeping the kids cool enough. Photography note: This angle on a chubby baby makes a funny picture! Couldn't you just bite him?

Check out Yelli's site and Carrie's site for other photos!

Wink Wink

2009-03-05T15:52:00.002-05:00

Now that E uses the potty, we are forced to accept that she will be up during the night to do her business. We can no longer tuck her in "for the night" and expect her to stay there. The problem we've had during the last few weeks is that she leaves her bed immediately after we close the door, and follows us into the living room. Then she will look at us with kind of a sad, apologetic face and say, "I need to ask a question. I gotta go to da potty."

We are trying not to discourage her at this point, because there is the off chance that she may actually have to go. So we walk her down to the bathroom, sit her down, wipe, and back to bed. It seems that this freedom has opened up a new door for her, and she will often try to wander back 3 or 4 more times before settling down.

I had heard of a technique that uses sort of a bribe in reverse...and I'm actually trying it. I put 3 candy Kisses on the counter and told her that those were her treats for tomorrow (yes, we've graduated from M&M's to a larger, messier candy). Then I told her that if she got out of bed again (not including ACTUAL potty trips), I would put one of the Kisses back in the jar. "So I'll only get two?" Great...she understood. Last night, we only had to put one Kiss back, and there was no crying or flailing on the floor. I don't know if you can count candy deprivation as a "natural consequence" of getting out of bed too many times, but hey. We're desperate.

Unplugged - Bottle (sort of)

2009-03-01T20:31:00.005-05:00

Okay, so this is one of those Unplugged Projects where the clean-up takes more time than the actual project. The upside was that the product was useful! We used a milk jug (or bottle?) to make a bird feeder. E used some gold and silver sharpies to color the outside of the jug, and that's where the first mess took place. She learned that the ink would pool up if you pressed hard and held the pen in place...so after we were done I had to scrape up little dried puddles off of the kitchen table. Then I cut a hole in the side (no mess) for the birdies to access their food. The last step was to lace the string through the top and decorate with beads. E wanted to sit on the couch for that part, and the end result was beads all over the place. As soon as she had two or three on the string, I would drop it or she would bump the jug...I mean bottle. :)

After I filled it with seed, I hung it outside her window. She was pretty excited to see it out there. I hope we get to see a bird on it before the local chipmunks chew it to smithereens.

Funny Photo Friday

2009-02-26T22:47:00.006-05:00

Potty training was a long, hard road for us. A few days ago, apparently E wanted company in the toilet, and this is what I found when I came in to help her take care of business. She had lifted the lid and shoved her brother's stuffed puppy in, presumably to relieve himself. I did my best not to laugh, as all parents can relate to...this is a promising sign, a toddler teaching a stuffed critter how to use the can! (Visit Expat Yelli for more funny photos...)

Unplugged - Clothing

2009-02-22T21:29:00.003-05:00

E and I tried our hands at weaving for this week's challenge. We did not intend to weave clothing, but rather with clothing...reused shreds of clothes that had seen better days. I remembered from an arts fair how to attach lengths of fabric without tying (kind of like how you make a string of rubber bands), so I made us a long strand while E "helped." She thought I was making her a jump rope, which we did try, but no luck...it was too light, and baby doesn't know when to jump.

I made a simple loom with a cardboard box and we were on our way. During E's nap, I started weaving just to see how hard it would be...pretty hard. But of course she was eager to join in once she woke up and saw that I had started the "project" without her! She did get the hang of over under, over under, but we did NOT get the hang of how to keep the fabric equally tight between rows. The result was, well, pretty ugly. But one thing I've learned from the Unplugged Projects is, if it's really ugly, just zoom way in when you take your pictures. Everything looks like art if you get close enough. After the fact, we decided it was not an ugly pot holder, it was actually a very nice hand woven rug for the doll house daddy. He is just happy to have something to sit on, since we don't have any chairs for him.To keep with the theme, we also did some dress up, but E is not too crazy about being in costume. So the game was mostly me dressed as a princess (complete with crown...the beaded headband I wore at my wedding) and talking in a "princess voice." Don't ask me what that is, I just tried to sound snooty and said "thou" and "thus." It worked.

Then Daddy broke out a giant pile of CLOTHING so the kids could go outside and play in the snow. I stayed in and did some cleaning...with the TV on. But Daddy was truly unplugged, dragging two toddlers around on a sled through deep, wet snow. Thanks M and thanks Unplugged Mama for the weekly inspiration!

My JellyBean

2009-02-21T20:06:00.004-05:00

We have 3 cats, though a visitor to the house might not know it. We love them, we so love them. But they are now in "isolation", because they were destroying the house. They had marked so many times near the back wall of the living room that we had to rip the carpet out, replace the padding, and have the carpet sanitized on both sides....and you KNOW that they would have marked all over again. It's what cats do, especially when irresponsible cat owners let their pets saunter up to OUR back window to torment our indoor kitties. So Larry is in the bedroom, Mac is in the basement, and Bean travels between the two rooms. It's working...they are well fed, they don't mark, and they seem okay.

We acquired these kittens in very different ways...here is the story of Bean.

My last year of field work, I was living in a cabin in the Pigeon River Country State Forest. The nearest town was Vanderbilt, and we often went to Darcy's Bar to unwind after checking traps on the weekends. One night when we walked in, there was a skinny white cat behind the bar. She was sniffing around looking for food, and the bartender said they were calling her "Darcy". I called her over and she jumped into my lap, and fell asleep...purring. Over the course of the night, I endured jokes from one persistent biker dude, who thought it was funny to refer to my "p*ssy." It didn't matter, I was totally in love with that cat. They said she was the bar cat, and that they were keeping her. I left my phone number just in case, and wouldn't you know, they called. "Guess what? The owner said it was a health violation to keep a cat in a bar."

A few days later I was the proud owner of an imaciated one-year old cat that I promptly renamed Emma, until one of my roommates pointed out should be called "Emmet." Huh? Oops. So his new name was JellyBean, or Bean for short. The first night he spent in the cabin, he stood on the window sill and yowled. The next night he invaded the garbage can. It was a rocky start, but once I moved him to my apartment downstate, it was all good. I had him checked out at the vet, convinced him that he wouldn't go hungry, and let him sleep under the covers with me. It's hard for me to believe that that was over ten years ago...seems like yesterday. He's always a kitten to me. :)

Am I a skier?

2009-02-18T20:18:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not. I have skied, yes, but I really prefer not to. Cross Country is okay, but I could go the rest of my life without downhill skiing and I would be just fine with that.

Why am I so bad at it? I think it's because I'm scared of speed. You cannot be a good skier if you are afraid to point your skis down the hill. I can only remember one ski trip that was fun for me, and even that one had a little mishap at the end. I think I was in 7th grade or so, and we took a bus up to Belleayre (?) for the day. I did very well in my lessons on the bunny slopes, and was pretty confident going up and down the lift. Granted, the hill was all but flat, but I thought I was pretty hot stuff.

Most of the day, I skied alone, because my skill level was, well, unmatched among my friends (I was by far the worst). Still, I was happy. On the last run of the day I decided to take another route down the mountain. I zigged when I should have zagged. To my horror, the path I chose was a dead end with a funny looking lift that I had never seen before. It was a T-bar. I was stuck...to get to the bus I would have to take the T-bar to the top and then ski down the main slope. And I was almost late already.

"Okay, I can do this." I got in line for the lift and when the T-bar came my way I did what any normal person would expect you should do...I sat down. The bar of course did exactly what you would expect it to do...it hit the ground. They had to stop the lift so I could roll off to the side and get back in line. The second time the lift operator offered this advice: "Don't sit down." Thank you, really. I tried to stay calm, I tried to relax, but I was starting to panic. When the bar hit my heiny it threw me completely off balance, and I fell again. Again the lift stopped, to the back of the line for me.

After 5 or 6 tries, I started to cry. A very nice mommy-type lady saw me and agreed to show me how to get up the hill. With her help and 3 more tries, I finally made it. My adrenaline was pumping and I just flew down that bunny hill to meet the bus. To my relief it was still in the parking lot idling, waiting for us stragglers. Turns out that adults don't trust 7th graders to be on time anyway. I probably could have made another half dozen attempts before anybody would have noticed I was missing.

Unplugged - Wrinkle

2009-02-15T15:07:00.003-05:00

A baby prune is like his dad,

But we ain't got 'em half so bad.

We've got wrinkles on our face,

But pruney's got 'em everyplace!

No matter how hard a prune may try

He's always getting stewed.

Little seed, within a pru-in,

Is it night, or is it nu-in?

Whatcha doin' pru-in, stewin'? Hmmmmm?

This song has been going through my head since I read the theme for this week's Unplugged Project. My sister used to sing it to me...maybe it's a Girl Scout song...anybody know it? So I looked up how to make prunes and raisins, and you either need a food dehydrator or 17 hours in the oven. So I ditched that idea real quick.

Idea number two consisted of wrinkled, wet tissue paper, and allowing the dye to leach out onto a canvas. The only problem we ran into was that we could only find one color of "runny" paper. So that project was, well, disappointing. Idea number three really stretched the theme...we had piles of wrinkled tissue paper, so I started looking up tissue paper crafts. Lo and behold, Tie-dye! The directions are pretty easy, and E had a great time painting with food coloring.

The hardest part about this was waiting until it dried to unfold it. We did about 6 pieces, and probably diluted the color a little too much, but they're pretty, nonetheless. This craft would be good for a variety of ages...the only drawback I can see is that my fingers are still red, two days later! :)

I Just Can't seem to Get it Right Today

2009-02-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

Today was just a bad day. Messing up at work just really stinks, and I messed up several times today. I forgot to change the time for a class to meet their bus for a field trip, so they were stranded with no transportation. The instructor worked it out, thankfully, but my mistake inconvenienced quite a few people. I feel terrible...

This reminds me of a day in graduate school when I was travelling to Rosebush (maybe?) to talk to another biologist about trapping grouse. The back road that led to his field office was a sheet of ice, and I slid off the road right into a ditch. Do you see a theme with me and trucks??? I had no prayer of getting un-stuck, so I walked (skated) to the nearest house. A very nice lady drove me to the field office, very, very slowly. The biologist was very nice about it, but I could tell he was not impressed. He drove me back to my truck, and hooked up the tow strap. He instructed me to put the truck in neutral, which I did, but then I got out. I don't know why I got out. In retrospect, I'm not sure what I thought would happen. In retrospect, what happened was perfectly logical.

I don't know if Mr. Biologist thought I was in the truck, but he hit the gas and pulled mine out of the ditch, and as soon as it hit the icy road it just kept on going...right into the ditch on the other side. I just stood there on the ice with my mouth hanging open, and I could see him shaking his head. He didn't say much to me after that, and any chance I had for earning his respect as a new wildlifer was gone. I'd say that was the story of my first 2 or 3 years at MSU. One stupid mistake after another. But thankfully, in between, I was able to recover and of course I did not give up. I remembered that we are all human, none of us perfect, all of us flawed.

Unplugged - Floating!

2009-02-08T20:14:00.005-05:00

Float was a fun theme for us. I knew that E would enjoy my first idea, because I had seen hundreds of kids do it at a fair a few years ago. The idea was to take a piece of aluminum foil and make a little boat....then place pennies into it, counting them up as long as the boat stays afloat. It's really a competition, but E just took sinking the boat as the goal!
Baby m had a good old time too, but his theme seemed to be "splash." I couldn't give him too much to float in the water, because he took it all to be food...maybe because I had him in his high chair.When cousins J and L came over on Saturday, we did a "floaty" craft...dragon boats! E had seen an episode of Ni Hao Ki Lan where there was a dragon boat race...oops, does that violate the "unplugged" part??? Anyway, I drew out a template for the kids to color, and then we cut them out and decorated them with ribbons. I told them that the dragons would scare away the bad guys and they seemed to like the thought of that. I was so impressed with the way my niece used scissors...she insisted that she could cut out the dragon herself, and she's only 3! She didn't do a bad job, either. Sure, we had to tape the head back on, but so what? Her independence was to be admired. I think the picture below shows that it was another big Unplugged Success!(My question for those reading is this...is there a way I can share templates on the web? How do people put files out there to share??? Any input would be appreciated.)

The Many Faces of Frustration

2009-02-07T14:14:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a very frustrating day for me. Three individuals (myself, E, and Baby m) at home, each one in a foul mood, each one within 6 inches of the other. Ya. Bedtime could not come too soon. Lately, I've been thinking about an incident in grad school, not one of my finest moments, and perhaps one of the most frustrating days in my memory.

I was given a truck to use for my graduate work...mind you, I was not well versed in the use of a 4 wheel drive vehicle, or in the use of anti-lock brakes (this was in 1993). I got the hang of the ABS, by necessity, on the roads of the Pigeon River Country State Forest. Then one December day, the little light came on...one of those dreaded dashboard lights that sent me to the dealership in Gaylord. "Well", the mechanic told me, "it looks like your anti-lock brakes are malfunctioning. I'm going to disable them for now." My instructions were to bring the truck back to the university for repair, and I headed back to the forest.

The cabin was about 30 miles away, and I got 2/3 of the way there without incident. Then, just after I exited the highway, I hit a patch of black ice on an overpass and lost control. "Slam on the breaks, slam on the breaks!" Long-term memory overtook the short term knowledge that I had no ABS, and I spun part-way around and hit the barrier on the opposite side of the road. I was beyond lucky...there was no oncoming traffic. Some passersby helped me get the truck back in the right lane, and the only real damage was to the driver's side door and the left front quarter panel. As I finished my drive to the cabin, my blood pressure went up and up and up, as I visualized my embarrassment at delivering the damaged truck to my boss.

When I pulled in the driveway, I couldn't even get my door open. As I shuffled to the passenger side and slid out, I began to cry. I can't remember what I said to the truck, but I know it included profanity...and then I did a very stupid thing. As hard as I could, I threw the keys at the hood. In one fleeting instant, I saw them bounce off and sail away into the snow, never to be seen again. Literally. Hours later (with friend M by my side), I conceded defeat and called a locksmith. I remember it cost $70...because I did not have the money, and I had to write a check from my VISA account.

Thankfully I have grown a bit since then, but yesterday I almost threw the keys again...but what good does it do? It lowers the blood pressure temporarily, but in the end it costs you more.

Unplugged - Color and Light

2009-02-01T14:09:00.005-05:00

Working at a college, I find myself constantly collecting strange things from colleagues that I think I might use someday. My office also seems to be a recycle and reuse depot, seeing as I can hardly bear to throw anything away. So I had a lot of things hanging around to use for this week's Unplugged Project.

First, E and I used some old transparencies to make stained glass windows. I cut up the acetate into shapes, using the pictures and graphs for color. Then I drew a church on an old manila folder, cut out the windows, and attached some contact paper to the back. Then E stuck the shapes to the paper...she graciously let Baby m and I finish covering up all the blank spaces, and then she colored the front with crayons. I also have a giant box of random slides that I can't seem to part with. I thought E might enjoy projecting them on the wall with a flashlight, but I didn't know how hard that would be! When I looked up "Make your own slide projector" on google, I came up with directions that involved many lenses, mirrors, jigsaws, hammers, and glue. Finally I figured out that all I really needed was a flashlight and a magnifying glass. The set up below shows the final product...flashlight, slide held up by a cardboard base, and magnifying glass held up by play-dough. The picture on the wall was not perfect, but good enough for E! In fact, I would say that she was a little bit TOO interested for this project. She wanted to move around the light and experiment with the magnifying glass. Every time she touched anything, though, the picture would disappear and she would end up frustrated. I'm now thinking that the guy who recommended a hammer and glue had a toddler! We did finally settle on one fun activity...E liked standing in front of the "projector" and seeing the butterflies tattooed on her body! That's my girl.

Moe

2009-01-29T19:56:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure how it all came about, but the other day I asked E to put out her little fists, and I did "One Potato, Two Potato." She really liked the "you're out!" part, so I kept going and going and going. As we played, I could picture the schoolyard at George Washington Elementary School, and I started remembering all the rhymes that went along with picking "it."

One potato, two potato,
Three potato, four.
Five potato, six potato,
Seven potato, more.

Bubble gum, bubble gum
In a dish.
How many pieces
Do you wish?

Eenie meanie miney moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers let him go.
Eenie meanie miney moe. (To that one, E commented, "I'll be Moe!")

Ink-a-dink,
A bottle of ink.
The cap fell off
And you stink.

My mother and your mother
Hanging the clothes.
My mother punched your mother
Right in the nose.
What color blood came out?

Ahh, the good old days.

Huh?

2009-01-29T18:59:00.002-05:00

After completing number 2 on the potty this evening, E peered into the toilet and proclaimed...

"Ohh. That looks like an apple. With a stem on it." And the funny thing is, that's exactly what it looked like.

Powerful Dreams

2009-01-28T21:05:00.002-05:00

If you know me, you know I'm a dreamer...as in, I dream almost every night, very vividly, very strangely, and in color. I've had all the classics, from forgetting my lines on stage to flying in space to losing my teeth. In the better ones, I see and interact with the people I love, and sometimes I can control exactly what happens (lucid dreaming). I don't usually think of dreams as giving me signs, though. Actually, I'm a little nervous about posting this, because you, reader, friend, might think I'm a little wonky (if you don't think so already).

On Monday at work, I came to my office and found a student perusing the "stuff" posted on my door. I have a few little sayings, some pictures, nothing too profound. I asked him if he was waiting for me and he said "No, just looking." Early this morning (Wednesday) I awoke and remembered a short dream I'd had about, oddly enough, my office door. In the dream, I wrote "You are powerful" on a piece of paper and taped it up with the other decorations. It made total sense to me that someone might see that and get a little boost of strength...so I did it.

I'm guessing I will never know whether anybody else even notices, but I will see it every day on my way in. Come to think of it, maybe the sign is not for the world after all....maybe it's for me! I am powerful.

Unplugged - Painting With Marbles

2009-01-25T20:05:00.005-05:00

I had been wanting to do shoe-box and marble painting for a while, so it was good to see that this week's Unplugged Project theme was "ball". The gist of it is that you put a piece of paper into a shoebox with a glop of paint and a marble, close the top and shake. The shoebox part seemed a little risky, what with the possibility of paint-laden marble flying across the room. So I thought I would experiment with some more toddler-friendly possibilities.

Our first try was with a shampoo bottle...as in, curl up a piece of paper and jam it in, squirt in some paint, plop in a marble, and screw the top on. My theory was that there would be no risk of projectiles. I was right, and the painting turned out pretty good, but I failed to anticipate how difficult it would be to pull the paper out. Basically, I shredded it. So on our next try, we used a wide-topped deli container and heavier paper. Note that for this to work, the paint really has to be quite thick...watery paint is not picked up by the marbles. E loved squirting out the paint, but she was a little under the weather and didn't take to the bottle shaking like I thought she would.
In the end, my favorite product was the deli container with leftover paint in it! I even squirted a little more paint in and rolled the marbles around to coat the entire inside. I don't know what we'll do with it, because the paint will probably peel off pretty easily, but maybe it could be a paintbrush holder for our "art corner"!
Today was also our first "Crafty Critters Club" meeting (that is, toddlers at a table for 15 minutes with craft supplies), so afterwards we played a (very short) game of laundry basket ball to go along with the theme. Below, E's friend W doesn't need much coaxing to throw a ball! In future meetings, I hope to incorporate the Unplugged Theme to a larger extent. Thanks for the motivation, and all the good ideas!

The Times They Are A'Changing

2009-01-23T20:49:00.003-05:00

The other day I entered E's bedroom to find the rail from the side of her bed laying on the floor. I asked her if she had taken it off, and she said, "Daddy took it off." M came in and told me that he thought it was time...I admit I had my doubts. She is a restless sleeper and we sometimes find her out of the covers, flipped upside down, with her head down by where her feet should be. I was sure I'd find her in the morning sleeping on the floor, or even under the bed.

But my baby girl is so not a baby...she didn't fall out of bed. Instead, the next morning she woke up, opened her door, and went to the bathroom. By herself. Okay, she didn't wipe. But still.

A half hour later, I was changing Baby m's diaper, and I asked E to throw it away. She usually loves to help with these chores, but that morning she was too busy with her chocolate milk. Much to my surprise, Baby m stood up, picked up his diaper, and walked away with it. I peeked around the corner and saw him proudly place it in the diaper pail! He looked back at me and smiled, then did a little happy dance.

Everybody told me how fast baby-hood flies by you, but I wasn't prepared for this. Sniff, sniff.

We Are Unplugged Family

2009-01-19T09:04:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago we did a balancing butterfly for our Unplugged Orange project. Everybody LOVED it, and I was immediately obsessed with finding other animals that would balance on the tip of your finger. The one that I couldn't let go was "Balancing Lobster." So, I was very excited that Unplugged Mama picked "balance" as the theme for this week!

A quick google search yielded some clip art lobsters that were almost right, so I printed one and took some creative license to turn it into a template for our project. Maybe it was wishful lobster thinking, but a good chunk of my New York family was in town this weekend for a Michigan State basketball game (go State!) so I printed out about a dozen crustaceans. E went running around the house collecting cousins and other relatives to participate.

It was an Unplugged Miracle. Two toddlers and seven grown-ups grabbing crayons, sharing scissors, fighting over tape. Even my brother (below, the big guy on the left), who I've never seen draw so much as a stick figure, used every crayon in the box to create a sort of psychedelic effect.
After we were done coloring and cutting, we taped pennies to the claws and set the lobsters up for display. It turns out you can balance them on just about anything, including magic markers, noses, chairs, table corners, and chandeliers.

It's always nice when my family comes to town...of course one presence at the table was sorely missed, my sister. She would have been first in line for a lobster and a crayon. But I know she would be happy to see us together, playing games, eating good food, laughing and enjoying eachother's company. We are family! :)

Unplugged - Square Art

2009-01-11T19:24:00.006-05:00

The theme this week inspired us to look into famous "square" artists. Picasso was the first to come to mind (think Cubism), but the lovely book called Math-terpieces reminded us that Mondrian was also quite angular. The book is meant to introduce mathematical sets to older kids, but the examples of art pieces and accompanying poems were perfect for E.

We read the book together on Friday night, then tried our hand at abstract art on Saturday. I gave E a little canvas and some blue masking tape cut into thin strips. We looked at the example in the book, and E used the tape to mask off squares, sort of. Then I gave her just the primary colors to work with, and if you know E, you know that she promptly combined them all into some unnamed shade between purple and brown. She painted happily, though, and was pretty proud of herself. I wasn't sure she knew that we were using the book for inspiration, until she commented, "Mommy, he left some of his picture white." :)
Then on Sunday, we tried to imitate Picasso, sort of. I cut some pieces of random faces and some angular shapes out of magazines, and gave E another canvas. This time, she pieced together some Cube-ish faces, and seemed to approach it as sort of a puzzle. She did not mind that the eyes didn't match, or that parts were facing different directions. I wonder how long that freedom of expression will last!I think these activities would be great for a variety of ages...E certainly did entertain me with her uninhibited comments! When I told her how Jackson Pollock would throw the paint around, she said, "He shouldn't do that." The only thing she found odd about the Picasso (a woman with eyes facing two different directions) was that he didn't paint a ceiling in that picture. I asked her what Dali's clocks were doing, and she said, "Ticking." Duh. But she saved the best for last...Andy Warhol, according to E, did not paint soup cans, he painted beer cans. Um, file that one under seriously questionable parenting.

The Eagle Has Landed

2009-01-11T08:54:00.004-05:00

And by "the eagle", I mean pee. And poop. In the potty. Yay.

I didn't believe experienced parents when they told me how difficult potty training could be. But holy cow. Over the past year, we have had countless false starts, tantrums, disappointments and "missed opportunities." As of today, E says she is a big girl and for the most part she is. We only had one accident yesterday, and that involved number two...to be expected, I hear.

In the hopes of helping another mother, I have compiled a short list of unsolicited advice:

If you push your child too hard to use the potty, you will end up very frustrated. The truth is, they are in charge of the decision making. Don't fool yourself into thinking you have any control.
If you plan to use candy corn as a bribe, be prepared to give out about a million of them in the first few days. A kid who's used to peeing in a diaper at any time of day will NEED to use the bathroom over and over and over and over...
Watch out...you will probably need to do the "grab and run" a few times a day. And by the time you arrive at your destination, your toddler will be too flustered to perform.
Don't be too enthusiastic with your praise. Otherwise your little one will ask you "Are you so proud of me?" after every bathroom visit. Yes, we are proud, but should we be potty training her just to make us happy??? Uh.
Don't use shame either. When accidents happen, you don't want to hear, "Mommy, is kindergarten going to be mad at me?"
At 3 in the morning, when your toddler calls you to use the bathroom, forgive yourself for thinking, "Why are we doing this? Diapers are soooo much easier."

Unplugged - Orange

2009-01-04T15:30:00.006-05:00

This week we successfully accomplished TWO Unplugged Projects for the "Orange" theme. I guess that's what happens when everyone is off work and the weather outside is frightful.

Project 1: "Nothing Rhymes with Orange"
When I read the theme, I couldn't get the phrase out of my head...so we did a rhyming activity. E will be 3 in March, so I figured she was up for some rhyming flashcards. I downloaded a rhyme matching game from the web, and some pretty little flashcards. I printed them in color and laminated them with contact paper.

The game went over well, and she now knows that yes, parrot rhymes with carrot. But she calls the wizard a witch and the jeep a car, which leaves "lizard" and "sheep" without a place on the board. Oh well. We tried again a few days later and the cards all turned to money, and E was trying to buy chocolate from Daddy. Maybe she's not a poet yet, but she IS creative!

Project 2: Balancing Butterflies

When we went out to visit cousins J and L, we did another orange project that was a little more hands-on. The first orange thing I could think of was a monarch butterfly, and I quickly found this awesome balancing butterfly project on the Minnesota Science museum website. I printed out some butterflies for the kids to color, and a few monarch pics in case they actually wanted to make their butterflies orange.

After they were colored, I cut them out and the kids taped pennies on the underside of the wing tips. The effect is really cool. Below, cousin L is showing off her creation, and my husband is demonstrating with E's finished product. As you can see, the "orange" part was marginal at best. Cousin J did a wonderful replica of a monarch, though!

It was really simple, but would work for a wide variety of ages. The other cool thing is that once you get the proportions, you could make lots of other things balance in the same way...a clown, maybe, or even a lobster with big claws. Incidentally, I actually tried a quick version of a lobster and it worked perfectly! I won't show you yet, though, because he may show up on another "Unplugged" posting! Thanks for another inspiring week.

Strange Conversations

2009-01-01T20:37:00.003-05:00

E is full of interesting conversation these days. Her vocabulary is huge, and she just loves to engage people on ANY topic...and I mean this girl will talk about anything. She does know the difference between pretend and reality, but she will mix them willy-nilly without telling you which is which.

This is a word for word transcript of what she said to me yesterday afternoon...actually she said it half to me and half to herself, and she sang some of it.

E: My toe hurts. It's slivered and scattered.
Me: Really? That sounds bad.
E: Then I got a ouchy. That's how it cracked ouchy-ess. It's blooding out.
Me: Oh, my!
E: That's how the team works. You just talk about it. (Singing) It's in my toe, it's in my toe! It's tired. Have you ever seen a bear? Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?

Translation, please...anybody?

Then today my little Baby m started acting like a big boy. He now signs milk, more, fish, finished, and please. Earlier in the day he said his first sentence...shut up, I'm counting it as a sentence. When I went into his room after his nap, he looked at me and said, "Uh-oh." Then he very purposefully pointed to his chuchi laying on the floor. I translated it as "Mommy? I dropped my chuchi. Can you please get it for me?" And he's only just a year old! :)

Unplugged - Wrapping Paper

2008-12-28T20:30:00.004-05:00

This is my first Unplugged Project since sometime in October. My thoughts and actions of the last few months have been dominated by my sister's battle with cancer, and her subsequent passing on November 19th. I am also participating in a second blog to help family and friends share memories of my sister's incredible life...

But here we are back again, and it was an appropriate theme to welcome us back. My husband and I are reuse nuts, and let's just say that there's no shortage of used wrapping paper in the house...any time of year. With E being just 2, some of the more elaborate ideas I had fell by the wayside and we settled on a wrapping paper "quilt". In one of her alphabet books she is a bit obsessed with "Q is for quilt," so I figured she would be all in.

I used a ruler to cut an 8x8 square of white paper and to trace a grid of 2 inch squares on it. Then I cut out a bunch of 2 inch squares of different types of wrapping paper, and I further cut a few of them into triangles. After some searching, I found the glue sticks (right where they belonged, btw) and we were off.E thought it was a great idea, and followed my directions well. Her biggest challenge was fitting together the triangles, but I was impressed that she kept asking for "triangles, not squares, Mommy." In retrospect, I should have found some solid colors to break up the craziness, but it really is quite pretty. The next morning E found the finished product on the kitchen table and told me that she was going to "fix it." Luckily I intercepted the destruction and managed to hang it high on the fridge for safe keeping.
Then I decided to have some Unplugged Fun of my own, and I made some little presents for E's Playmobil Santa. She seems to love the tiny boxes that came with the set...so I printed out a box template and shrunk it on the copier (using scrap paper). Then I glued some wrapping paper to the back of the template and cut out both layers of paper. A few folds and some glue later, and voila, tiny box.When the kids get older, or when I have some time to try it myself, I will attempt the pretty wrapping paper stars on the Family Fun Magazine site. But for now, we are concentrating on projects that take 15 minutes or less. Thanks for the inspiration, Unplugged Momma!

I Never Expected

2008-12-27T20:07:00.002-05:00

Christmas is full of surprises. M and I were agonizing about when to open presents, because the morning church service was at 9am. That meant that we wouldn't really have time to tear through the loot before heading out the door, so the plan was to make E wait until after church. Uh, I did not hold out much hope for that one.

The first thing she said when she woke up was, "Are there presents under the tree?" I told her that we would have to go look. Out she went to the living room in her footie pajamas, where she found a pile of stuff from Santa. She actually jumped up and down...just like the commercials. She also found an empty cup ("Santa drank all the milk!") and a half eaten cookie ("He took a little nibble!") She started grabbing presents, but I told her that we would have to wait...we softened the blow by showing her that there were gifts in her stocking that we could open immediately.

M and I got our coffee in hand and went over to the couch to watch E paw through the little things in her stocking. Her favorites were the lip gloss and a pink fuzzy pen...ever the girlie. Baby m did say "Oooh" a few times as he looked through his stocking stuffers, but he really just wanted to hold E's fuzzy pen.

We got out the door for church without incident, and the service was very nice. We decided not to shake hands during the peace, after E rocked the church with a really gnarly cough. As it was, I'm sure those pews are still covered in toddler germs. Sorry, parishioners. Silent Night and Joy to the World were played beautifully by the organist, and we drove home in some very Christmassy weather.

I was really proud of the patience E showed in waiting for her gifts...but there may be another explanation. Later in the day she looked a little lethargic, and her temp turned out to be over 101. So maybe what looked like patience was actually the inability to put up any kind of fight!

Smarty McSmart

2008-12-17T23:22:00.003-05:00

My girlie has her own language. You may remember that she mistook my words, "grumpy mood" for "grumpy nude." Ever since, she has been using that as a phrase to describe anybody who's not happy. But today, I heard her use the apparent opposite. She said, "Mommy? I am a happy nude to see my Daddy!" I guess you have to give her credit for using it in the right context.

Later, at lunch, she asked me to put some icebergs in her lemonade.

But my favorite (and the latest) strange word of hers is "pangy." This is pronounced pain-gee, with a hard g sound. She uses it to mean just about anything. Like if you ask, "What do you want for breakfast?" She'll say, "Pangy." "What is that you're drawing?" "Pangy pangy." I even heard her singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" using only the word "pangy." What does it mean? I have no idea. But she thinks it's hysterical...and I'm sure it's a sign of brilliance.

Like Mother...

2008-12-15T21:06:00.005-05:00

So my mother loves to tell people that I had imaginary friends when I was a little kid. I hear it's a sign of intelligence to talk to little invisible beings...mine were named Chatti and LaLa. Mom's favorite story about them is when I left them in a store and made her go back and get them. Apparently I was quite emotional, and persuasive enough to get her to turn around and save my poor little friends from being abandoned in the women's section of Rudolph's. I'm guessing that the sales people thought my Mom was a bit unbalanced, holding my hand on one side and and Chatti's on the other as we walked back out the door.

Who would have thought that 30 years later, my little girl would follow in my tiny footsteps? This weekend I sat on the couch and E screamed. "Oh, Mommy! You sat on my babies!" Huh? I moved over to the next cushion and looked at the spot where I had just been sitting...nothing there. "Mommy, you smushed them." I had to apologize, but when I tried to feed them an imaginary bottle, I was shut down. "No, Mommy. Don't do that. They're sad."

I know that I need to encourage this play, and I hate being the enemy...so I asked in a friendly voice, "What are their names?" She thought for a minute, and came up with "Callie, Shallie, and Kashi." So when she went to bed, we tucked the three babies under E's blankets so they would be warm. I don't mind interacting with babies I can't see in the privacy of our own house, but I wonder what I'll do if E ever leaves them in a department store. When push comes to shove, will I risk being judged insane for the sake of my toddler's feelings? I'm betting we'll find out soon enough. That Shallie is a little stinker, just like Chatti.

6 More Years

2008-12-12T14:34:00.002-05:00

Warning - This is not a happy post.

I have struggled with writing here lately, because I didn't want to write about the sad events that had been dominating my thoughts. But today I feel the need to throw some emotion out to the world, so here goes.

Today at lunch, I read an article about a man (a young father) who had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. The article took a very positive spin, pointing out that this guy was strong, "healthy", and had a great attitude. But as I read on, I found myself analyzing the state of the man's acceptance of his disease...one of the comments he made was, "I think I can control this outcome." I understand fighting...I understand positive thinking. But at the risk of sounding cruel, I wanted to say, "You have very little control here. Your life has changed...you need to get used to that fact."

In the face of a very serious diagnosis, there are so many different ways of getting yourself out of bed in the morning. I would never want to take away some one's coping mechanism, but is it really valuable to say and/or believe things that fly in the face of medical reason? Did my sister succumb to cancer because she didn't try hard enough to beat it? His wife says, "I don't necessarily find some of those stories about living six years very comforting right now." Well, we went through that too. When P was diagnosed, I looked up the odds of survival. Five percent probability of five more years. Even the best case scenario sounded awful. Right now, eight months later, we would give anything for just one or two more years...even one more Christmas would be nice.

So, I will try to live each day with the knowledge that there are no guarantees. My daily decisions are only a part of my life journey...most of the facets of this universe are out of my control. I couldn't save my sister, but I am still here. I'm going to wrap my Christmas presents, eat lots of holiday treats, and kiss my husband at midnight on New Year's Eve, thankful that I've been given the time on earth to do it.

Walky Walker

2008-12-03T20:20:00.002-05:00

Yes, we now have two, count 'em, two toddlers in the house. Mr. Walky Walker is now officially on the move, on two feet, off and running. Last week we SAID he was walking, but really he was holding on to one piece of furniture and then thrusting himself towards the nearest warm body...while moving his legs somewhat. Now, oh, now...

This little guy can not only walk while drinking his bottle, he can pull himself up without holding on to anything! I even saw him bend down to pick up his chuchi and stand back up! He is so darned proud of himself, too. He gets this s**t-eating grin from ear to ear every time you look at him, and he will even wave lambie-kins at you like a little flag.

We have video of E walking at 11 months, but everybody said "Girls walk sooner", "You never know with your second," stuff like that. Yet here he is, almost the exact time-table of his sister. If his verbal skills develop anything like hers, he'll be talking in sentences any day! Of course, those sentences will be along the lines of, "I wish my sister would stop hitting me with a toy golf club."

Just to Prove Me Right...

2008-11-27T21:18:00.003-05:00

....E ate the following for Thanksgiving dinner:

One bite of her cousin C's turkey leg.
One bite of asparagus...though she mostly just sucked on it.
One apple.

Then for dessert, she insisted on putting everything on her plate, but ate nothing. Oh, well. I didn't make it a battle until she asked for a cookie shaped like a shell, after she didn't eat the first one that was shaped like a horseshoe. I said no, no more dessert, because she still had shards of each offering uneaten on her plate. She threw a tantrum and I sent her out of the room. I found her ten minutes later on the couch, wrapped in her banklets. I asked her if everything was okay, and she said, "You don't make me feel much good when you say no."

That pretty much sums up the life of a toddler, doesn't it?

It's Official...

2008-11-26T20:26:00.002-05:00

...the boy will eat anything. Today, Baby m had spinach tomato quiche for breakfast, and fried calamari for dinner. Yesterday he had grilled swordfish. So far he has not refused one single thing I've put on his plate.

Compare that to his big sis, E, who finally had her first full meal of the week tonight, and it consisted of one giant piece of pizza. The entire time that she was eating, she had a huge grin, and she was absolutely glowing. She was even singing a little pizza song. The only downside of her dinner was when a piece of calamari ended up on her plate. I told her she didn't have to eat it, but she could not throw it on the floor. She screamed a little bit, but did finally accept it being in her vicinity. Just think what she would have done if I had told her it was squid!

My Sister

2008-11-20T09:31:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I lost my big sister, after a brave, but too short fight with cancer. Not much I can say now, but I will be forever grateful that I got to spend her last moments in her beautiful presence. This is a little "family statement" that we're working on for the paper...I think it sums it up for me, for now at least.

"Pam had a kind and generous soul. When she entered a room, you could feel a spirit of beauty and an absolute love of life. Throughout her life, she gave her heart and soul to the people and animals around her. Her mission was to take care of her family and friends, and it seemed like that circle grew a little bit every day. Her co-workers, the friends of her children, people on line at the grocery store…she treated everyone she met with respect and compassion. Pam will be missed by those she left behind, and our hearts ache for those who never had the honor of knowing her. "

I love you, Pammie.

Getting Harder

2008-11-05T20:35:00.004-05:00

Play dough used to be easy...the old standby. I could just sit and make snakes for a half hour. I would hand each one to E and she would look at it lovingly and then "smush" it. Once in a while she would ask for something different, like a person or a cookie. Now, play dough time is a challenge.

Tonight after Baby m went to bed, E and I went down to the playroom for some Mommy-Daughter time. We sat at the little table and created food for the "restaurant"...she ordered candy corn, a lollipop, and pizza. Then I made her a pretty good looking egg, solid white and perfectly ovoid. She asked, "What's inside, Mommy?" "Just more play dough, honey." Good answer, right? Wrong. "Ohhhh," she said, with a cutesy face. "A teeny little play dough chicky?" Uh. So Good Mommy hollowed out the egg, made a little chicky and stuck it inside. And guess what! She didn't smush it...she gave it a kiss and put it away in the container. Who ever said this parenting thing was hard?

Hidey Holes

2008-11-05T16:02:00.003-05:00

E has developed this strange habit of hiding behind the furniture. Generally we just let her hang out in any number of places, unless there are cords or breakable nick-nacks within arm's reach. Her most consistant hide-out is behind the easel in her room, and I would often find crayons or stickers stashed back there...presumably she was trying to keep these away from her brother. She also likes the little cubby created by the ottoman, couch, and shelving unit, though we do have to be sure she doesn't get hurt climbing in and out. She seems to enjoy lounging in there with her "banklets" and pretend candy, quietly singing to herself.

The latest hidey hole is perhaps the strangest. She has taken to sitting behind/under the fake tree in the living room. There is barely enough room back there for her to sit, but I just walked by and see that she has pilfered the fall decorations yet again...her little space is decorated with the corn husk doll, some dried up chestnuts, and an ear of Indian corn. I guess I understand her need for a little privacy, but I wonder if she's hoarding, or just decorating!

Sarcasm and my Toddler

2008-10-30T21:41:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm a proud parent. Not only does my Baby m ALMOST say "mama", but E has such sophisticated conversations that I sometimes forget I'm talking to a toddler. I have to be very careful about using sarcasm with her, because she takes everything at face value...yes, I know, she's two and a half, but I really do forget. Here's a conversation from last night's dinner table...

E: Mommy? What are you going to be for Halloween?
Me: I'm going dressed as a mommy.
E: (pause) What?
Me: I'm going to dress up as your mommy. That's what I'm going to be for Halloween.
E: But where's your costume?
Me: This is it (pointing to my tee-shirt and jeans). Do you like it?
E: (long pause) Yes.

Now that I think about it, perhaps she was being sarcastic right back at me!

Unplugged Project - Wax

2008-10-20T21:55:00.004-04:00

There is one good thing about keeping EVERYTHING. When it's time for Unplugged with Wax, you're bound to have a crayon maker, a bag full of broken crayons, an entire box of candle making supplies in the basement. So project number one was reclaimed crayons. We spent just a few minutes peeling and breaking the crayon fragments, thirty seconds putting the crayons into the little metal tray, and twenty minutes watching Dora while the wax melted. So much for "unplugged." And the "swirly" effect that was promised by the picture on the box did not appear. Here's a bit of advice...use dark colors sparingly. A few little shards of blue turned the whole crayon blue. The results were underwhelming.
Then I broke out the old crock pot. Perfect for melting down those old candles. I had a fantasy about sharing candle dipping with E, but when I saw the vat of molten wax I panicked. I could think of at least 5 different ways the project could have ended in disaster...so instead, I poured the lava into a Christmas candle mold and called it good. The project took on a life of its own when E saw me removing the mold from the fridge..."Can we light that birthday candle, Mommy?" Well, fire is also dangerous, but I could probably keep it at arm's length. So we sat at the kitchen table in the dark, staring at the flame. E posed for pictures, and then wanted to see them on the camera. It was very sweet, and a really lovely unplugged moment.
Then, serendipity. On Saturday we went out to the Apple Butter Festival, and what did they offer for 5o cents a pop? A vat of molten wax and a wick...so with mommy guiding and daddy taking pictures, E dipped her first candle. Thankfully there were no tantrums and no mis-steps. The only minor crisis was when E tried dipping her yellow candle into the red wax. Her little candle is bloppy and riddled with red splotches...in other words, it's perfect.

R U Texting?

2008-10-16T21:47:00.002-04:00

Then stop. Tomorrow, I will be writing a little essay for my students as to why they are not allowed to text in class. Today there were at least 3 individuals who were texting during lecture. I will write them a nice, diplomatic explanation of my rules, but here is what I really want to say to them...

Hey, Texter. Yeah, you...I KNOW that you're texting! Do you think I can't tell what you're doing with your hands in your sweatshirt pockets? Really...you're not fooling anybody. Your pockets stop jiggling as soon as I look your way. I have held off asking you questions while you text, because I hesitate to use embarrassment as a form of punishment. But I'm THIS close to kicking you out of lecture altogether. There are 20 other students who turned off their electronics or left them at home so that they can engage in a meaningful learning experience...I know, not every minute is riveting, but that's life...and yours won't end if you are disconnected from your friends for a few hours once a week.

Now, I know that it can be hard to get through a long class on a nice fall afternoon, but gimme a break. YOU PAID TO BE HERE. You showed up. Why are you wasting your time in this class, when you would obviously rather be somewhere else? Just GO. LEAVE. It is impossible to both text AND pay attention...so just get out of my classroom and typity-type somewhere else. Or, here's an idea...go BE in the world. Talk. Experience. Live. Oh, and next week? Stay home.

Here's the Mail, it Never Fails

2008-10-14T21:33:00.004-04:00

We got a package today from Cousin S. It was addressed to E and me, so I waited for a quiet moment to present it for opening. I showed E the return address (De-be-vwaaaaa) and she immediately knew who had sent it! "What's in there, mommy?" We opened it carefully, too slowly for E, of course. The first little present was a duck for E's little nest (made during an Unplugged Project). She placed the ducky in its new home very carefully and gave me the little cutesy face, head tilted to the side, lips closed, and eyes sort of sad. I LOVE that face.

The next prize-o was a set of animal hair pretties. E handed me the elephant and said, "Mommy, can you put it in my hair?" So I did. Then the rabbit, the hippo, the giraffe, the cat, and the teddy bear. Yes, all of them. Girl loves her hair pretties. She let me open the last little gift as she admired her hair in the mirror...and it was a winner. Yes, I love small food...and the last gift was a magnet that looked like a chicken leg in a plate of green rice. Yes, green rice. With peas. And carrots. It's perfect. :)

Unplugged Project - Smooth

2008-10-13T16:54:00.005-04:00

For the last theme, "White", one of my Unplugged pals made homemade vanilla ice cream. Mmmm. I thought to myself, "One of these days I'll get the ice cream maker out of the basement, and E and I will make some ice cream." Imagine my delight when I read the theme for this week..."Smooth." Yay! What's smoother than creamy, homemade chocolate ice cream?

Finding a recipe was a bit of a challenge...I had some criteria to meet. First of all, no raw eggs in the recipe. Just, yuck. It doesn't matter if they're frozen, crystallized, whatever. I can't stomach that. Also, no pre-cooking of the ingredients. I wanted the process to be toddler friendly from beginning to end. So after a bunch of web searching, I found a recipe for basic vanilla ice cream (no eggs) flavored with chocolate syrup. E enjoyed the pouring and mixing, but her favorite part was licking the chocolate out of the measuring cup.

I must admit...all these years I thought it was the mixing that made the ice cream freeze. So on the first batch we poured the ingredients into the frozen canister and mixed and mixed and mixed. Much to my dismay, the very smooth concoction never made it past the milkshake stage. So we drank some out of our bowls, and put the rest in the freezer to solidify. Upon reading the directions (duh) I found out that you only need to turn the handle a few times, then you wait a few minutes for some of the mixture to freeze to the sides of the container. Only then do you turn the handle again...so of course we had to try the new method the next morning, this time with strawberry! And guess what...it worked! Perfect strawberry ice cream, delish.

The verdict? I thought the strawberry was great, and the chocolate was so-so. It looks good in the pic, but it tasted like vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce mixed in...go figure. E, M, and Baby m liked them both equally as well, and we will be doing this again soon. It's amazingly easy, really, if you can get over the price of fresh cream!

I Have Big Feet Too

2008-10-11T20:53:00.002-04:00

Listen, I know how hard it is to find shoes that fit...I am a size 11 narrow. So I understand that if a giant primate with huge feet really does exist out there in the forests of the northern United States, he's probably pretty pissed off. That's why I'm locking my doors at night...I'm afraid of Sasquatch.

In my brain, I do not believe in Bigfoot. But gosh darn it, the books and sightings reports are downright CREEPY. I started reading about it because a student asked if Bigfoot could be considered a "new" (undiscovered) species. I went to a friend of M's for information, because I wanted to follow up with accurate information. D is a Bigfoot enthusiast, and he had lots of resources on hand to share with me. The other night I started reading a compilation of stories that had my heart pounding and my mind racing. At one point I heard the dishwasher start (it's on a timer) and I about jumped out of my skin.

I should probably share that I had an encounter myself as a kid...my friend's big brother faked some big footprints (I think...he never admitted it) deep in the woods where we used to play. My friend and I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to track the prints, sure that we would be famous for discovering Bigfoot in suburban New York. The thing is, if I really think about it, I can feel the adrenaline I felt that day...and if I'm not careful, I'll be petrified to turn the lights out at night. You see, suburban Michigan is not that different from suburban New York.

Random Feet

2008-10-11T20:45:00.002-04:00

At some point in the past year, I started letting E carry the GPS unit when we geocached. She just loves having it around her neck, and looking at the computer display. It makes it hard to find the treasure, because I'm constantly looking over her shoulder and guiding her in the right direction...but it's fun to watch her exploring. The funniest thing is if you ask her how far to the treasure she always says the same thing..."A hundred and sixty feet." I have no idea where she got that particular number. I do call out the distances as we approach the geocache, but it's not like a hundred and sixty is anything special! Oh, and when you step on the scale, she will announce that you weigh, you guessed it, "A hundred and sixty pounds."

Bad Medicine

2008-10-09T21:32:00.002-04:00

I admit it...I give my children cold medicine. Even after it had been pulled off the shelves, I had some stashed away for emergencies. I believe that the children's decongestants DO work, and I never worried that I would give them too much...I'm careful with reading the labels and spacing out their dosages. But I had a little moment of panic the other night after giving E a teaspoon of "Little Colds"...

She was sitting on the couch watching Blue's Clues, and from the kitchen I heard her say, "I can't see." I shut off the sink and said, "What, honey?" "I can't see, Mommy." I tried to stay calm as I walked into the living room and looked her over. I turned her face towards mine and I stared in her eyes thinking, Ohmigod. Did I ignore some news bulletin about cold medicine causing toddlers to go blind? "E, are you okay? Can you see now?" "No, Mommy, look!" she replied, pointing at the blank TV screen. The satellite was out....

Phew...that's all I have to say about that.

Unplugged Project - White

2008-10-06T17:17:00.004-04:00

We decided to focus on white pine, Michigan's state tree, for our Unplugged Project this week. We have a nice white pine in our yard, so I collected some needles and brought them inside for us to work with. Guided by an artsy website, E and I put some needles into envelopes for crayon rubbings...I have to say that for a toddler, the envelope was a great idea! You could do this with fall leaves, too, and you don't have to worry about everything slipping all over the table. Also, you can shake the contents around and do rubbings of different colors. Of course, E wanted to put ALL of the needles I collected into her envelope, so her rubbing was a little messy!We also made a bird's nest by pouring some Elmer's glue onto a pile of needles, then pressing them between two small bowls. I used wax paper to keep the "nest" from sticking to the bowls. Once it dried, it really did look like a nest...now we just have to find some little fake bird to live in it. I knew E would like this one because she is obsessed with a tiny nest that G'ma has in her living room. But ask E what she remembers about the white pine theme, and I'm sure she'll say "Chocolate!" I melted some green candy and poured chow mein noodles into the bowl, then we tried some different ways of making pine trees. E just wanted to eat the tree trunks, but we did manage to form some trees! Both the flat free-form and Dixie cup varieties came out looking very tree-like, and they definitely passed the taste test!

To cap off the week, we took a side trip up north to Hartwick Pines State Park, one of the few areas of virgin white pine left in the state. It was a cold and damp day, but cousins and friends of the family all joined us for a walk through the visitor's center and a hike through the old forest. E was in her glory, running back and forth on the trail, laughing and chasing the older kids.

I don't know if E can recall the theme, but I'd have to say that the projects we did were fun and successful! Just look at that smile! (You can see Daddy's foot in the picture too...he was just out of reach, making sure that we didn't need any Unplugged First Aid!)

Baby Got Lip

2008-10-02T21:14:00.004-04:00

Here are some snippets of life in the last few days:

E: I don't like dat corn lady.
Me: But I made her for you! (It's my first try at a corn husk doll, admittedly, not beautiful.)
E: But I don't like her.
Me: Why?
E: Because she's naughty, and chuchily, and orgily. (Wow. Harsh critic.)

E: Mommy, can you get me some milk?
Me: Honey, I'm trying to get dinner ready, and I don't have enough hands right now.
E: Daddy, do you have enough hands to get me some milk?

E: Mommy, when are we going to start our project?
Me: As soon as I'm ready.
E: But I'm ready.
Me: But I'm not ready.
E: But I'm ready.
Me: Honey, I'm not ready.
E: But I'm ready. (I believe we would still be going back and forth if I hadn't just decided to stop answering her.)

Me: E, you need to go brush your teeth.
E: Mommy, dat hurts my feelings.
Me: Well, you still need to brush your teeth.
E: You need to be nice to me. You should say you're sorry.
Me: But I'm not sorry.
E: Dat REALLY makes me sad.

I'm asking you, how do you argue with such a child? Most of the time, I leave the conversation quite sure that she has won and I have lost...and there's only one cure for that. "E, go to your room." At least then I can falsely believe that I have some power left.

100 Things About Me

2008-09-30T21:43:00.006-04:00

Yippee! It's hard to believe, but is my 100th post. In the tradition of the blogosphere, here is a giant list about me. I have to be honest...after I got on a roll, I think it would have been pretty easy to continue on to about 2000. That reminds me of something I forgot to put on the list...I like to be the center of attention. :)

I like very tiny things…especially tiny food.

My favorite tiny thing is a set of carved ivory animals called “Noah’s Ark in a Seed.”

Whenever I vote, I get teary eyed.

I don’t mind peeing in the woods.

Once when I was peeing in the woods I didn’t know how close I was to the road and a truck went by. I couldn’t stop, so I waved.

I had to have about 6 baby teeth and 3 adult teeth pulled when I was in elementary school.

I’m afraid of the dentist.

My dreams are vivid and in color.

Sometimes I can change my dreams and do whatever I want. Once I flew into the clouds and ate asparagus…I could actually taste it.

When I was very young I had a recurring dream about a cartoon boy chasing me around the house. Eventually he would explode and I would see the word “Pow!”

I have run 4 marathons. They were so slow and so long ago that I think I’ve lost bragging rights.

I panic in deep water. I imagine that something is going to grab me from below.

I used to have 4 piercings in one of my ears. Now I wear no earrings at all.

I hate watching TV shows or commercials with hidden cameras. I feel sorry for the people who are embarrassed.

I don’t understand calculus.

I love the song, “Copacabana” by Barry Manilow.

Someday I would like to sit at the piano and play a song while someone else sings along with me.

I get angry when people try to get on the elevator before they give me the chance to get off.

I almost got fired from my internship at Seney Wildlife Refuge because a visitor brought my boss’s dog to the pound…it was running loose in the marsh chasing geese and it was so muddy I didn’t recognize it.

I’ve hunted grouse, woodcock and rabbit, but I’ll probably never do it again.

I was a vegetarian for about two years.

I like to scoop up handfuls of coins and pour them out.

I like to sort coins into little towers.

My dad used to bring me grading books home from his job and I would play school.

There was always a kid in my pretend class called “Missy” and she would always fail.

A real girl named Missy lived down the road and she had a pet squirrel in the cage. If you tried to pet it, it would bite you.

Growing up we had a guinea pig named John Boy. When we found out it was a girl, we renamed it John Girl.

I love genealogy. I think if I could make a living at it, I would quit my job and research family trees for other people.

Sometimes genealogy makes me sad because I think about all of the information I will never know.

In Kenya, I laid awake for an entire night because a lion was roaring very close to our lodge. I was both petrified and in awe.

I’m rarely late for anything.

When I was about 8, I wiped out on a neighbor’s skateboard while trying to prove to my parents that I was responsible enough to own one.

I take a shower every morning. I am not happy if I don’t shower.

When I got married, I took my maiden name as a second middle name. That makes it hard to fill out forms, but it’s legal.

I was born in Peekskill, New York.

When I was young I liked to tell people that “The Facts of Life” was set in Peekskill…then I would tell them that in actuality the girls’ school didn’t exist.

In 8th grade, I got a 100% on the algebra Regents Exam.

When I wear turtlenecks, I feel like I’m choking.

Once when I was teaching, the door to the classroom got stuck and we couldn’t get out. I had to calmly call the office and ask them to come let us out. Inside, I was panicked.

I think I’m a little claustrophobic.

With M, I managed to squeeze through a 14 inch space between two rocks as part of a guided hike. I consider this a huge accomplishment.

I love reality shows…even the REALLY bad ones.

I watch more television than I’d like to admit.

I hate being tickled, even by my daughter.

I was in many musicals in middle school and high school.

I wanted to win “Most Dramatic” my senior year, but I didn’t.

In high school, I attended an Episcopal Youth Event in San Antonio, Texas.

Once I got to college, I stopped going to church.

My least favorite foods are broccoli and mushrooms.

When I was in high school, I went to a computer programming competition where I was the only girl. If I had known that beforehand, I wouldn’t have worn a dress.

I do things in sets of 5 or 15.

While walking, I either count, spell, or sing (in my head) along with each step I take. Always.

When I’m trying to learn something, I try to place it in a “slot” in my brain.

Until I took a learning style test in college, I thought everyone had slots.

Driving to Michigan to start graduate school, I witnessed a rollover accident on the highway. I stopped my car and as I approached the scene, I was sure I would find fatalities. All four people in the minivan were fine and were able to walk away.

I always wear my seat belt.

After I graduated from MSU, I would wake up in a cold sweat every day, thinking that I had forgotten to study for my exams. That lasted for about 6 months.

I’m not a team player.

I’m not a good boss.

I am, however, a pretty good teacher.

I grew up believing in my heart that I could be anything I wanted to be.

We had a dog named Puppy Wiggles…we called her that because the family couldn’t agree on a name. I wanted to call her Cinnamon.

I clearly remember the day my parents had to put my first dog, Ginger, to sleep.

Once I carved an “M” on a table in our playroom and blamed it on my sister.

I let my daughter eat too much junk food.

My wedding day was the happiest day of my life.

There was a “hole” in the hedges between our neighbors’ house and ours. As a kid, I would stand at that spot and yell “Can I come over?” because my mom said I couldn’t go over unless I was invited.

My first job was at Waldbaum’s as a supermarket clerk.

At that job, a lady yelled at me for ringing up her rolls as $6 each instead of 6 for a dollar.

I have worked at two different pet shops.

I was promoted to assistant manager of a pet shop at age 18 because the manager didn’t want to stay at work late enough to lock up.

I have worked at two different veterinarian’s offices.

One time, a man asked me to come to his car because his dog was very sick and he needed help to carry it. When I got to the car, the dog was dead. I decided shortly after that that I could never be a vet.

I cry when I hear “Amazing Grace”, “Ode to Joy”, and most Easter and Christmas Hymns.

I cry at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “Fifty First Dates”, and “Love Actually.”

I consider myself a morning person.

For an entire year, I lived almost exclusively on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Ramen Noodles.

Sometimes I buy things for my daughter not because I think she will like them, but because I think I will like them.

I hate having my picture taken.

There are some people who really, really don’t like me…for good reason. That drives me crazy.

When I was little there was a tame crow in my neighborhood named Amos. I liked to feed him from my hand.

Computer glitches make me very, very stressed.

Sometimes I fantasize about having a job at a coffee shop.

I was in the Girl Scouts for 5 years.

I got in trouble on a Girl Scout field trip when I flushed a bowl of cereal down the toilet.

I’m not that responsible.

But I love making lists…especially checklists.

If there’s ice cream in the house, I will eat it.

If there’s an open can of frosting in the house, I will eat it.

I am the youngest child in my family by 11 years.

I don’t wear a watch but I always need to know what time it is.

I love to entertain. I want the kind of house where people just “stop over” and stay awhile.

I don’t know how to put on make-up.

I sometimes worry about who will teach my daughter the “girlie” things.

In college I dropped my second major (computer programming) when it became “too hard.”

I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I had dropped Zoology and kept Computer Programming.

About 10 years ago, I earned a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do.

“I love the whole world, it’s such a brilliant place…boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada.”

I think my family is a little crazy…I think they think I’m a little crazy.

I consider myself a very lucky person.

Questionable Parenting

2008-09-29T22:04:00.003-04:00

Days like today, I look back at my decisions and wonder how I ever got my license to parent. When I picked up E, she wanted to stay for a few minutes so that she could visit the Pre-K room. No problem. We walked down the hall and entered chaos...in retrospect, I should have known that she would be overwhelmed with the energy of a dozen four-year-olds. She really wanted to play with the harvest corn on the sensory table, but the 2-foot tall queen of the classroom stated, "No. Only two friends at a time." She then grabbed the corn out of E's hand, and threw a few kernels in her general direction. In my defense of my child, I took E aside and said (loud enough for the queen to hear), "That's okay, honey! We'll go to a farm on the way home and get you some corn all for yourself." I thought I saw the queen wince a little as we left the room.

Yes, on the way home we did stop by a farm (it's practically on the way) and I bought a few ears with purple and orange kernels. At home, I put a cookie sheet on the kitchen table and E had a great time picking off one kernel at a time. So the question is, is she young enough that it's okay just to protect her and heal hurt feelings with corn? Or did this call for some sort of pep talk, encouraging words, empowerment, yada yada yada? Why did I feel proud that I had bullied the bully? Is this success, being snarkier than a four year old? Sadly, that's the most successful I've felt in a week.

Unplugged - Fruit

2008-09-26T20:52:00.010-04:00

This week's Unplugged Project theme was fruit. Thankfully I have never had a problem coaxing E to eat plenty of apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, you name it. So we raided the fridge for a "Fruit Face" snack.

I set out a plate of sliced fruit, raisins, peanut butter, and baby marshmallows and called E into the dining room for some unplugged fun. I had a design in mind, having read an online suggestion to use apples and marshmallows as a mouth. With Baby m safely out of reach in his high chair, I gave E a bare plate and we got started.

I used my plate as a model. First I took an apple slice and spread some peanut butter on it. I showed E how, but she wanted me to do hers for her. Then I placed the other apple on top, making a pair of lips. E followed my lead, and then we placed some marshmallow teeth in between. Then we used the bananas and raisins for eyes. All by herself, E came up with the idea to glue the eyes and nose to the plate using the peanut butter. The results on E's plate were pretty, um, hmm...what's the word...strange? But she was VERY proud.

She ate the apples, peanut butter and raisins, and Baby m ate the bananas. As expected, I had all of the marshmallows to myself. Then we went outside and played a game of "Guess the Fruit" with sidewalk chalk. She guessed all of the fruit correctly except for the grapes, which she called "Purple bubbles!" When it got to be her turn, she would only draw asparagus...little pink and purple lines. I decided not to distinguish between vegetables and fruit (or to say that I've never seen pink asparagus), since we were just having so much fun.

I'm glad that E is of the age where she can and wants to play in the kitchen. She wants to stir, mix, measure, and pour...so we're going to have to come up with a lot of ideas to get Unplugged in the Kitchen!

Existential Baby

2008-09-24T21:55:00.004-04:00

This is an actual conversation, as close as I can remember it, between myself and E over dinner last night...

Me: We are going to K's house to have cake because it is her birthday.
E: It's my birthday today, too.
Me: No, it's K's birthday.
E: My birthday is March 14th.
Me: That's right.
E: But why isn't my birthday today?
Me: Because today isn't March 14th. Today is September 23rd.
E: Why?
Me: E, these questions are so hard for Mommy. Maybe you should ask God why today is September 23rd.
E: Where is he?
Me: (Gasp) Well, that's hard to say. Some people say he's everywhere. Some people look up in the sky when they talk to him, because that's where heaven seems to be.
E: Is he in the sky in church?
Me: Yes, God is in church, too. People go to church to feel closer to God...Father John says words that make people feel close to God.
E: Where is Father John?
Me: I think he is at home eating his dinner.
E: (Leaving the kitchen table with her piece of pizza) Can you go look for God in this house?
Me: (Silence)
E: (From the other room) Mommy? Where is he?
Me: I'm not sure honey. I guess he's everywhere. He's in your heart, and he's in the hugs and kisses we give each other.
E: (Returning to the table) Where is his kingdom come?
Me: Well, his kingdom is heaven, and his kingdom come is a wonderful day when we can all be together with God in Heaven.
E: Oh.
Me: (Phew)

Remember, she's not yet three, not yet potty trained, and still drinks from a sippy cup. I am in BIG TROUBLE.

A Toast

2008-09-23T21:32:00.002-04:00

Here's to Mr. O...I'm having a beer for you tonight. Thank you for the friendship that you gave to my father. You were a great friend to him, a great father, a great man. You will be missed.

Unplugged - Hard

2008-09-21T19:59:00.004-04:00

When I read this week's theme, I couldn't get past the meaning for "difficult." I kept coming up with ideas of doing something that was "difficult" for E...but I wasn't happy with any of them. So when all else fails, look to Google. Believe it or not, the very first search result was "hard-boiled eggs." Yippee! E had been asking me for months to color Easter eggs...ever since a well-meaning lady gave her a free egg decorating kit at a garage sale. Note for your next garage sale: The best way to get rid of the junk in your "FREE" box is to hand it to a 2 year old when her mother isn't watching.

I decided that we could color Halloween eggs. The night before our project I boiled 10 eggs, and selected the orange, yellow, green, and purple tablets out of the packet...we saved the other colors for the real deal next spring. Then while E was napping I set up the table with the vinegar, crayons, cups, and all and waited for her to discover it.

She was so excited to finally use her egg kit, that she actually shrieked with glee. We colored the eggs with crayons...I made a jack-o-lantern and a ghost and E made some nice scribbles. She measured the vinegar and dropped one tablet into each cup. The sizzle made her very happy...but her very favorite part was using the little dippy-doodle thingy to drop the eggs into the cup. She held onto it with a white knuckled grip and made sure each egg went in and out without harm.

Her coloring was not so careful, though, and she managed to break one egg with the crayon. That's when we discovered that the hard-boiled eggs were not HARD boiled. In fact, they were barely soft-boiled! What the heck? I've made eggs like this FOR EVER...bring them to a boil, take them off the heat, cover and let sit for 15 minutes. I even set the timer. I have no idea what happened, but I tried not to let on that I was pretty disappointed that our "hard" project was, well, not. When the eggs dried I gave E some gourds and a little pumpkin to arrange with the eggs in a bowl for a centerpiece. In true E fashion, she discarded all the pretty gourds and went with just one pumpkin and a pile of eggs. That's my girl.

In the end, I found out that I could scoop the runny egg innards into a bowl and microwave them to a passable scramble...but I'm the only one who's eating them, because I don't want my Unplugged Project to poison the family.

Not Baby Talk

2008-09-19T21:27:00.004-04:00

E has a great vocabulary...it's pure pleasure to listen to her speak. Here are some of her winning words from this week, age 2 and a half.

Yesterday in the front yard, she saw a sunflower that had been bitten off at the stem. She asked me, "Who did that?" I asked her, "Who do you think?" She responded, "Maybe a reindeer. Or a bird, or an airplane."

This morning we told E that we were taking Baby m to the doctor for a check-up. She asked, "Mommy, does he have a beaver?" I thought she was talking about a little beaver toy that Baby m had been playing with. So I said, "It's in the kitchen." She looked confused and a minute later she said, "No, Mommy. A beaver on his head." That's when I realized she was asking if Baby m had a FEVER.

In the middle of playing with puzzles this afternoon, she paused and said, "Mommy, I'm a pot whacker."

Later, she found a big inflated Scooby Doo at a garage sale down the street. She picked it up and said, "This dog is enormous!"

Just an hour ago, when reading a favorite library book called Turnagain Ptarmigan, I asked her, "What's another name for the Northern Lights?" (We've been working on this one.) She answered, "Rory bory lalis." Close enough!

Living on the Edge

2008-09-17T22:24:00.004-04:00

When I was in graduate school studying grouse, I lived in a cabin in the woods of northern Michigan for 8 months out of the year. It was shared housing, and you just never knew who would be bunking with you from night to night. We had foresters, hunters, deer researchers, and a few people who may or may not have just wandered in from the nearest two track. Mostly we all got along, and when we didn't, somebody would just camp out in the backyard until the other person left. It was a good deal either way...the backyard was the bank of the Pigeon River.

At one point during my second or third year, a woodsy kind of guy was calling the cabin home for a few weeks while he worked in the area. He was a nice enough fellow, but maybe just a little bit socially challenged. Returning from a hard day of trap setting, my crew and I entered the cabin to find the visitor with the heel of his foot resting in a cereal bowl. It seems he had some sort of injury or infection, and he felt the need to soak it in a little warm water. Now, I would say he had every right to soak any sore part of his body, except that it was a community kitchen, and that was a community bowl. He probably had to rinse some one's breakfast out of it to make room for his foot.

In the moment, none of us had the nerve to challenge him on his strange choice to use a bowl instead of say, a bucket from under the sink or the river out back. In hindsight we were probably too scared to find out what he had been doing with the spoons. So we just shot each other "Eeeewww!" looks and went about our business.

In the morning, the bowl of water was still resting on the table...but did we toss it in the trash, where it so clearly belonged? No. Somebody found a Sharpie, and somebody turned it over and wrote "Foot Bowl" in prominent letters. Our visitor never knew it, but he lived in infamy...each time we went in the cabinet, we would make sure we weren't putting our Ramen noodles or mac and cheese into the "Foot Bowl." We would howl in laughter if some unknowing soul (or better yet, one of us) made the mistake of using it. "Uhhh!" I can remember groaning as I discovered that in my sleep deprived, grouse trapping stupor I had grabbed the "Foot Bowl" by mistake and was eating out of it. What is a person to do? Dump out perfectly good Lucky Charms just because they might have foot cooties? When you think about it, perhaps we were all a bit socially challenged.

Better Bread

2008-09-16T21:16:00.002-04:00

Of course this bread is better...it has beer in it, after all! I found a recipe online after a futile search for K's recipe...I know it's in the office somewhere. After Baby m went to bed, I told E that we were going to cook. She was excited, of course, and helped me gather the "igredents". No, I didn't send her to the fridge for a beer! But we named off all of the dry goods as we added them to the bowl, and she stirred her little heart out. Even when I left the table to answer the door, she just kept on mixing happily and humming some unknown tune. :)

I did remember that K said cheap beer works great, so when I returned I got a Miller Lite (sorry, M!) and poured it into the mixture while E attempted to keep stirring. I had to take over as the dough took form, but E was insistent that she could put it in the bread pan. So I tipped the bowl and she used the spoon to pry it out. Some melted butter over the top, and into the oven it went! We turned on the oven light and watched it bubble and rise. I think that watching through the window is E's favorite part of cooking. Before she went to bed, she asked, "Can I have my bread yet?" I told her she could try some in the morning. No, Miller Lite Loaf is not exactly a breakfast bread, but unlike the bread machine fiasco, at least it's edible.

Unplugged - Sand

2008-09-14T21:51:00.007-04:00

We started this week's project with a call to my sis. When I told her the theme, the first thing she said was, "You can mix sand with Elmer's glue and then mold it into different shapes..." That sounded perfect for us! We have a sandbox full of sand, plenty of glue, and some really cool candy molds that look like shells. So I gave E the ingredients and she stirred away, until the goup was about the consistency of clay. Then she pressed clumps of it into the molds and we set them in the sun to dry. Some of them disintegrated because we didn't press them in tight enough, but the starfish came out pretty cool.

The next day, I glued some sandpaper to a piece of cardboard (the back of a cereal box) to represent the beach, and I collected some shells, sea glass, and "watery" looking things for a collage. Having learned from past projects, I only put out what I thought E would use...nothing extra, nothing that she couldn't do herself. She had a grand time gluing each treasure onto the sand, and she loved the waves I had cut out of shiny paper. The result was a very pretty 3-D collage, with only one rogue wave (bottom left corner).

As we worked, we talked about our beach vacations this summer, jumping in the ocean and visiting with family. We don't keep all of our craft projects, but I might have to find a shadow box for this one. It's a keeper.

Dead Bread

2008-09-14T10:44:00.003-04:00

I pulled out the bread machine yesterday after M suggested we have "make your own" pizza for dinner. I've only tried the recipe once, but it passed the toddler test, so why not try again? While E was asleep, I put the ingredients in and an hour and a half later, perfect dough! Yippee. E seems to like "cooking" with me, so she was all into it when I put the dough and toppings on the table for her. She shmeared the sauce around, then placed the cheese carefully over every inch of the pizza. I was a bit surprised because usually she makes "anchilla mountain" out of any given medium...sprinkles, glitter, whatever. I expected to see the leaning tower of mozzarella, but instead I saw a perfect little pizza!

Dinner was delish, and I figured that since I had the bread machine out, why not try another something? So I pulled out the book and picked one that had applesauce and oats. What's not to love? E helped me dump the ingredients in, and just before bedtime the house smelled fantastic! Imagine my surprise when I peeked into the machine and found a hard, misshapen blob! Where did my beautiful bread go? I mean, this bread is UGLY. Okay, save your judgement for the taste test, I thought. Um, still a problem...this bread tastes as bad as it looks. Dry, tasteless, hard...even butter and cinnamon don't help.

Stupid book! It's obviously not my fault. Except that I think it is my fault...I did a Google search this morning, and found that one thing that can go wrong is that you can kill the yeast. But I knew that! I'm always so careful to use just lukewarm water. Never, ever hot. Oh...my...flashback to the point in the recipe that called for honey. My honey was solidified and I just put it in the microwave for a quick second to soften it up. When I pulled it out, it was so hot, I could barely hold onto the bottle. So what did I do? Quick like a bunny I dumped it into the bread machine...poor little fungi. They never had a chance.

Ouch

2008-09-11T21:23:00.003-04:00

Gotta love those calls..."No big deal, but E got a small bite on her hand today. We put ice on it, and she's fine." She was fine, just a tiny red mark on her knuckle. As far as I can tell, she wasn't really damaged by the experience...just a little confused. It was her friend N who bit her, and the teacher said it was "unprovoked." Hmmm...so it wasn't her fault? Good, because the last time she got bit it was because she was trying to steal the blankie off of a drowsy classmate. Yeah, she's lucky the kid just nipped her.

Provoked or not, I have to think that the parent of the biter is the one most traumatized. I mean, I get to be sympathetic, say "Awww, poor baby." The other Mommy has to sit at home and worry about the "unprovoked" attacker sitting the other room watching Blue's Clues. I know exactly how she feels, because I've been there. E never did bite her friends...thankfully her biting phase lasted only about a week and I was the only victim. But E did regularly hit, push, and generally instigate chaos in the toddler room at her last school. I would watch from the little window as she shouted in K's face every time she approached, and shoved her in the chest if K got in her personal space. E grew out of that, but at the time I was mortified. My little princess beautiful blonde girlie from heaven was acting like a little monster. It hurts a Mommy's heart.

Thank you, E, for leaving that behind. And to N's Mommy, don't worry. N is still your beautiful princess...she's just "tasting the world!"

Acorns of Knowledge

2008-09-09T21:12:00.003-04:00

While surfing around my Unplugged friends sites, I came across a link to free printables for preschoolers. I found a counting activity with squirrels and acorns that I thought E would really like. I cut out three squirrels with numbers on their tails, and three matching acorns. There were actually fifteen squirrels, but I thought it would be good to start with something easy. It seemed like a "schoolish" activity and I wanted E to be successful. I'm afraid sometimes that I overwhelm her with information, and I don't want to scare her away.

I didn't tell her about the game, I just put it at her place at the table. When she found it she said, "Hey, Mommy! There's squirrels here! And acorns!" I asked her, "What's on the squirrels?" She said "Letters!" I told her that they were numbers, not letters, but I took her answer as a good sign. Until this point I had never even heard her talk about letters at all.

It took her all of thirty seconds to match up the squirrels with their respective acorns. I even tested her by trying to match up the number two squirrel with the number three acorn...yes, she corrected me. Before she went to bed, I promised her that there would be more squirrels in the morning. But what will I do when she matches all fifteen? I mean, even Doogie Howser didn't graduate from college until he was a teenager!

Unplugged - Soft

2008-09-07T20:22:00.007-04:00

I guess this week's project is about as close to a failure as we've come while doing our Unplugged Projects. The theme was soft, and I immediately thought of the soft insect puppets I found at a Labor Day weekend garage sale up north. What a bonus...another unintentional "link-em" week, where I combine two themes in one (last week we did cylinder insects).

I've been intending to get E excited over her puppets...they're so much fun and just beg for "unplugged" time. So over the past few nights I've been writing my first puppet play, using a frog, a dragonfly, and a blue morpho butterfly. When E is a little older, I'll help her write a play too...I used to help my nieces and nephews write scripts and then video tape them acting them out. I am so proud of my play...it's cute, it's corny, it has props and involves throwing candy at the audience. This is the first time I've written actual lines instead of ad-libbing dialogue between E's many puppets. And tonight was to be the debut, until "the problem." While gathering the props and deciding on a venue (back of the couch, behind the kitchen table), I couldn't find the dang puppets. Further investigation revealed what I had feared...I left the puppets up North at the cottage. Oy.

I was ready to call it quits, but M was a trooper, and suggested that I substitute other animals, and go on with the show. Okay, well, the frog became a lion, the dragonfly became an elephant, and Seniorita Morpho became Seniorita Big Chicken. She was, after all, bigger than the elephant and lion combined.

My audience listened intently, M laughed at my corny jokes, and they appropriately surprised when I threw a Ziploc bag of M&M's at them during the pinata scene. After I was through, E said, "More puppet show, Mommy." I'll take that as a good sign. Apparently the plot made sense to her, Costa-Rican-beans-and-rice-eating chicken and all.

Me

2008-09-06T21:54:00.003-04:00

I tend to think of myself as a nice person. Patient, understanding, and kind. But sometimes I'm none of those things. Sometimes I'm impatient, snotty, and obnoxious. Sometimes when I'm tired I just lose my composure completely and nothing but a good night sleep can get it back. Sometimes I'm downright mean.

I don't want to be that way. I want people to smile when I enter the room. I want to be a good friend, a good wife, and a good mommy. So I'm sorry, world. I'm working on it.

Him Likes Him's Milk

2008-09-05T20:58:00.002-04:00

Oh, Baby m sure has a mind of his own...you know, we've been trying to get this kid to take a bottle since he was just a few weeks old. Well, he started day care (3 days a week) when I started back to work and he has been refusing to take ANY liquid from his kind and patient teachers. As a result, when I come to pick him up, the little dehydrated prune gives me an instant boo-boo lip and makes a beeline for my chest. Yesterday he had to plow his way through piles of toys, throwing them aside in a panic to reach me, his milky machine. In my desperation I told the room leader, "Tomorrow, why don't you try feeding him the formula with a spoon?" It was worth a try...after all, he has taken water from a spoon on a hot day, and he assumes baby bird position if he sees an eating utensil within ten feet.

So today they did it, they fed him his formula on a spoon...and wouldn't you know it, the stubborn little critter took it. I have a cupboard full of expensive b**b shaped bottles but no...he wants a 50 cent plastic spoon. Now that we've discovered a delivery method that works, I can feel a little better about leaving. At least I know that he won't have to muscle past the other children to "get his milk on" at the end of the day.

Rated G?

2008-09-03T21:07:00.002-04:00

At the moment, I'm a little peeved at children's book writers. It started back when I was looking for books for E about the beach. There was a lovely looking book called, "I Saw the Sea and the Sea Saw Me." I was reading it to E that night, and all was going well until the main character got stung by a jellyfish. I turned the page and the character started shouting, "Stupid Sea! Stupid Sand! Stupid Shells! Stupid Jellyfish!" Before I knew it, I was yelling, "Stupid stupid stupid!" right in front of E. Come on, authors. You've got to know that the mommas and daddies reading your books are sleep deprived and unaware of the words coming out of their mouths. Don't blindside us with words that most parents try desperately to keep out of their children's ears.

Then the other night, another pretty book about clouds turned ugly. In the beginning, the author asks what clouds are...are they pillows? Are they ice cream cones? Are they made by a little cloud machine? Then, out of nowhere, Are they monsters that eat your kite? Excuse me? And the picture on that page is of a cloud overhead with big pointy teeth and dead kites hanging out of its mouth. Really, please. Have the decency to call this book "Attack of the Killer Monster Cloud" and give me the opportunity to leave it at the library.

Unplugged - Insect

2008-08-29T21:33:00.004-04:00

This theme was a natural for our family. E has little fear of creepy-crawlies, and you can often find her on hands and knees observing an ant or a spider VERY close up. I decided to keep the message simple...Insects (or "bugs" as we call them) have six legs and two antennae. She learned the six legs part quickly, though she teased me by saying "Twenty!" every time I asked. I knew she was being a smarty pants because when I sweetened the deal with chocolate she immediately changed her answer to "Six, Mommy! Six!" Yay, Pavlov.

The word "antenna" is proving harder...ask her what bugs have on their heads and she will either reply "Antlers" or "Invitations." Whatever...it's all for fun anyway, right? So I decided that my crafty girl and I should make some insects...we missed posting for the cylinder theme last week, so we combined them and made insects out of cylinders! For a while, I've had this idea to cut animals out of paper towel tubes, so we painted a few in buggy colors...red for a ladybug and green for a grasshopper.

Of course we also had to paint paper, both with brushes and with the tubes themselves. It was a beautiful day...the picture above was taken before I wised up and took her clothes off. I tried to describe that I would be cutting a bug out of the tube, and she kept looking inside it asking, "Are you gonna get the bug out of there yet?" After she went to bed that night, I started "carving" the tubes. I accented the grasshopper with a sharpy. I think they came out pretty cool, and E seems to like them.

I didn't really have a plan, I just removed everything that wasn't bug! :) Yeah, me and Michelangelo, we're two of a kind. I think I might work on some templates for other critters...incidentally, you can make little animals if you cut the other way too, with the curve instead of against it. Then you just bend neck, ears, tail, and legs and you've got critters! We also made candy bugs...well, I made them and E ate them. We used that melty junk (I think it's 90% dye) in a squeeze bottle, and I just shaped little bugs on a sandwich bag (they peel off really easily). Finally, we went to the library, and checked out The Very Quiet Cricket and The Very Clumsy Click Bug, both by Eric Carle. We read them tonight before bed, and were surprised with a special treat...at the end of each book, there's a little sound chip that makes bug noises. E and I looked at each other, confused as to where the clicking was coming from. I can't even describe the smile on her face when she realized the bug was clicking at her.

I think we'll keep on with this theme a little longer. We'll be up north this weekend, in the wood with lots of bugs. Maybe we'll catch some and count their invitations. :)

My Pink Phone

2008-08-29T21:30:00.003-04:00

Uh, I hate to admit this...

I just found my "new" pink phone at the bottom of the washer...it's now dry and plugged in, but no life in it yet. I'm blaming E, because she put it in my back pocket as I walked down the hall. In my haste to get laundry done for the weekend, I flaked out and sent my beloved phone through a heavy duty, warm water cycle.

If it survives, Motorola is going to get one fantastic thank you letter...but it's not looking good. :(

One Big Kid

2008-08-26T07:02:00.002-04:00

We had a wonderful weekend, full of energy and laughter and smiles...including my birthday on Friday. :) When I walked in the door from work, I said to M, "Don't go to work today." Well, he counted up his days off and said, "Okay, I won't." Yay. I really needed that, and it meant a lot to me that he stayed, even though he was literally walking out the door, lunch packed, ready to go. We decided to make it a really special day, and brought the kids to the splash pad at Hawk Island, the sprinkler park that E tried out (and hated) at the start of the summer.

Thankfully she has gotten used to splashing water, and she really made the most of the hours we spent there. She just giggled the whole time, running in and out of the misty water, and making "E-prints" whenever she hit the dry concrete. It was fun watching her, but my favorite part was watching my husband. Besides being a splash buddy for E, he would smile and talk to any other kid who got close to him. There was not one other adult out there. Every other parent (including me) was watching from the shaded seats, waving once in a while to their wet and excited kid. When some little boys started shooting each other with giant water guns, M joined in a three way water fight. I swear, his smile showed the pure fun of being a "boy". Daddies and daughters have a special bond, but so do daddies and sons. I can't wait until Baby m is out there laughing and splashing with his dad. M will not be in the shade watching, that's for sure!