Play dough has been a big hit around here lately. Monkey has finally reached the age where he does not immediatly stuff it into his mouth, and Monster's imagination has really taken off in the last six months so he does more than just squish it.
The boys were helping me clean it up one afternoon when I got distracted by the new puppy, and Monster decided to keep playing instead of cleaning. This is the conversation I overheard:
One lump of dough, shaped by a spoon and slightly resembling ice cream, said to the other lump of dough "I love you."
"I love you too" the other lump replied.
"You look small" the first lump retored.
"Don't worry, I will get bigger" the second explained (this is much more funny in person because Monster says "don't worry" in this adorable little voice, like he can fix the world for you in any circumstance. We get a "don't worry" a lot when we tell him no, and he has an idea on how to compromise.)
"Where is my baby sister?" The first lump says. The lumps start looking around, Monster forms a third and forth ball of dough. "There is my baby sister!"
Monster loads the four lumps (not sure who the fourth is...) into a bowl and takes them to the play kitchen.
"Let's go in the cooker and cook!" the lump family says. He inserts them in the oven and starts to sing about cooking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right about here is where Monkey picks up the dog's empty water bowl, places it on his head and runs, with just enough hop in his get-up that the dog pan bump-bump-bump's on his head with every other step, making a ping-ping-ping noise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monsters dough family finishes baking and he takes them out.
"Now let's get you all cleaned up!" at which point he "washed" the lumps in his play sink and ran back to the table.
Most of the rest of the conversation was mumbled random words, but I did over hear more about a baby sister and then one lump ask the other "Are you a baby daddy?" and the other lump replied "Nope." Thinking there was some confusion of names there...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And at this point the play dough adventure is interrupted by Monkey standing in the middle of the table, holding onto the chandelier and screaming "DING-DONG, DING-DONG" and, of course, I had to go pull him down. Monster decided it might be fun to try and in the yelling/screaming/upset mommy parade that followed, play dough was forgotten.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
Trippin': 101
For the last few years we have made a pilgramage south to visit Daddy-Cakes family. Mainly his grandma who currently lives in Vegas. Last year we flew, which was fun, a little easier in some ways, but also a huge headache. Trying to cart two kiddos, car seats, luggage and carry-ons through the airport was difficult to say the least. This year we decided to drive. And to visit friends and my aunt in California on the way. We also made the decision to visit the little mouse who lives in Anaheim.
We have taken several long (i.e. 8+ hours of driving) road trips with the boys and there are some things that have been great, and some that have not. Here is a list of ideas to help you get to your destination without leaving the kiddos at a rest stop, or getting out and refusing to go any farther yourself. ;)
1) New things. Doesn't matter what they are, just as long as its something new. The dollar store is your best friend here. Some of our favorites this trip were glow sticks, cheap dollar sticker books, and I splurged on $2.50 airplane which had a moving propeller and lights. These were a huge hit and even more fun when the boys realized they had candy in the bottom. It became a game then, with them asking for candy, me placing a few small candies in the bottom, and them opening it like, ta-da, candy magically re-appeared!
2) Candy. Or snacks they don't usually get. Try to go with clean foods, but if their favorites are messy (like my boys) just remember extra baby wipes. Some of our favorite rare treats for trips include fish crackers, plastic cups with mandarin oranges, gummy candies, jerky or pepperoni sticks (only a hit with Monkey who was then banned from eating them after choking and puking all over himself and his carseat), and pretzels.
3) DVD player. This was our first trip with one and Monster LOVED it! Monkey on the other hand hated it and would scream when we turned it on. So think about your kiddos ages before deciding to use one, or give the older child his own device to watch videos or play games. We had our tablet with us and Monster used it on the last day of our trip.
4) Organize your car so everything is within the co-pilots reach. If you are traveling alone with kids, put everything in the passenger seat organized in separate bags or buckets such as food, toys, new items, etc. I had a bucket of toys between the boys, pillow and blankets within their reach, and the food/new items bucket on the floor in the back seat. We also kept coats, shoes and an extra set of clothes for each boy up front with us and stored everything else in the bed of the truck.
5) Take kids music. We didn't and we ended up singing random songs we could remember the words to for 3/4 of our trip. Then my mother in law gave us some kids Cd's while we were in Vegas and the boys really enjoyed listening to them instead of Daddy-Cakes and I's off key singing. :)
6) Make stops count. I have the smallest bladder in the world, so I need to stop every 1.5 hours. Daddy-Cakes doesn't care, but it doesn't go over well with the two back seat drivers who want to get out every time we stop. We aimed for stopping about every two hours. We ate at the golden arched fast food trap for most meals on the road because it is the ONLY one in most towns with a play place. But it saved our sanity as the boys got time to run, they love chicken nuggets and Monster is hardly eating anything lately, and although none of their food is extremely great for you, they do offer salads and un-fried chicken sandwiches. We did take food with us and stopped at parks occasionally, but sometimes it was just easier to let someone else cook.
7) Daddy-Cakes wins again with his ingeniousness for this trip. We bought a mini fridge over the summer for $20 at a garage sale to keep eggs in, which we buy in bulk from friends. Daddy-Cakes hooked it up to the truck and we had it in the back- keeping cool whenever we drove, staying cool when we stopped because the little freezer compartment held ice packs, and getting nice and cool when we were at a house because we could plug it in to an outlet. We took ham sandwich making, pulled pork filling for sandwiches, extra snacks, and the boys milk. I don't know if I could ever go on a trip again without it!
8) Stay with friends. It's cheaper, you get to visit, and they usually know the best places in their area to take kiddos who need to get some energy out. If you don't have friends or family on your trip, book your hotel the same day, but at least four hours ahead of time. You can get discount deals on the same day you are staying, but if you wait too long, we found out, they sell out or the offer expires. Or if you are brave (I wasn't) take your tent and camp along the way.
*********************************************************************************
Funnies from our trip:
We had gone about 1/2 a mile on our trip with Monster asked "Are we there yet? Or not quite yet?"
Monkey screamed the first hour and a half of our trip.
We asked Monster what we wanted to do the first night (we stayed on the coast in CA), and he said "See fish and the ocean". We never made it to the beach that first night, but we did see ocean on the drive, and we found a cute little aquarium in Cresent City, CA. We got to pet sharks, see an array of fish, and watch some seals and sea lions do tricks for us. Monster is obsessed with a certain children's pirate show and mis-names a couple pirate items. We drove past giant anchors next to the aquarium and he shouts "WOW! Look at all those hookers!"
The only way to get Monkey to sleep in the car (he hated the driving, by the way), was to sing. The first day out I ran out of new songs and asked Daddy-Cakes what to sing next. He broke out "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall". On average it took about twenty beers and Monkey would be out.
At some point during the trip the conversation of how babies are made came up and Monster instilled this knowledge in us: "Maybe you put food in your mouth and then you have a baby sister!"
Monster was eating pretzels in the back seat and giggling to himself "*giggle giggle* boobies *giggle giggle*" I asked what he said and he shouted "IT LOOKS LIKE BOOBIES!" Yeah pretzel fun...
We have taken several long (i.e. 8+ hours of driving) road trips with the boys and there are some things that have been great, and some that have not. Here is a list of ideas to help you get to your destination without leaving the kiddos at a rest stop, or getting out and refusing to go any farther yourself. ;)
1) New things. Doesn't matter what they are, just as long as its something new. The dollar store is your best friend here. Some of our favorites this trip were glow sticks, cheap dollar sticker books, and I splurged on $2.50 airplane which had a moving propeller and lights. These were a huge hit and even more fun when the boys realized they had candy in the bottom. It became a game then, with them asking for candy, me placing a few small candies in the bottom, and them opening it like, ta-da, candy magically re-appeared!
2) Candy. Or snacks they don't usually get. Try to go with clean foods, but if their favorites are messy (like my boys) just remember extra baby wipes. Some of our favorite rare treats for trips include fish crackers, plastic cups with mandarin oranges, gummy candies, jerky or pepperoni sticks (only a hit with Monkey who was then banned from eating them after choking and puking all over himself and his carseat), and pretzels.
3) DVD player. This was our first trip with one and Monster LOVED it! Monkey on the other hand hated it and would scream when we turned it on. So think about your kiddos ages before deciding to use one, or give the older child his own device to watch videos or play games. We had our tablet with us and Monster used it on the last day of our trip.
5) Take kids music. We didn't and we ended up singing random songs we could remember the words to for 3/4 of our trip. Then my mother in law gave us some kids Cd's while we were in Vegas and the boys really enjoyed listening to them instead of Daddy-Cakes and I's off key singing. :)
6) Make stops count. I have the smallest bladder in the world, so I need to stop every 1.5 hours. Daddy-Cakes doesn't care, but it doesn't go over well with the two back seat drivers who want to get out every time we stop. We aimed for stopping about every two hours. We ate at the golden arched fast food trap for most meals on the road because it is the ONLY one in most towns with a play place. But it saved our sanity as the boys got time to run, they love chicken nuggets and Monster is hardly eating anything lately, and although none of their food is extremely great for you, they do offer salads and un-fried chicken sandwiches. We did take food with us and stopped at parks occasionally, but sometimes it was just easier to let someone else cook.
7) Daddy-Cakes wins again with his ingeniousness for this trip. We bought a mini fridge over the summer for $20 at a garage sale to keep eggs in, which we buy in bulk from friends. Daddy-Cakes hooked it up to the truck and we had it in the back- keeping cool whenever we drove, staying cool when we stopped because the little freezer compartment held ice packs, and getting nice and cool when we were at a house because we could plug it in to an outlet. We took ham sandwich making, pulled pork filling for sandwiches, extra snacks, and the boys milk. I don't know if I could ever go on a trip again without it!
8) Stay with friends. It's cheaper, you get to visit, and they usually know the best places in their area to take kiddos who need to get some energy out. If you don't have friends or family on your trip, book your hotel the same day, but at least four hours ahead of time. You can get discount deals on the same day you are staying, but if you wait too long, we found out, they sell out or the offer expires. Or if you are brave (I wasn't) take your tent and camp along the way.
*********************************************************************************
Funnies from our trip:
We had gone about 1/2 a mile on our trip with Monster asked "Are we there yet? Or not quite yet?"
Monkey screamed the first hour and a half of our trip.We asked Monster what we wanted to do the first night (we stayed on the coast in CA), and he said "See fish and the ocean". We never made it to the beach that first night, but we did see ocean on the drive, and we found a cute little aquarium in Cresent City, CA. We got to pet sharks, see an array of fish, and watch some seals and sea lions do tricks for us. Monster is obsessed with a certain children's pirate show and mis-names a couple pirate items. We drove past giant anchors next to the aquarium and he shouts "WOW! Look at all those hookers!"
The only way to get Monkey to sleep in the car (he hated the driving, by the way), was to sing. The first day out I ran out of new songs and asked Daddy-Cakes what to sing next. He broke out "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall". On average it took about twenty beers and Monkey would be out.
At some point during the trip the conversation of how babies are made came up and Monster instilled this knowledge in us: "Maybe you put food in your mouth and then you have a baby sister!"
Monster was eating pretzels in the back seat and giggling to himself "*giggle giggle* boobies *giggle giggle*" I asked what he said and he shouted "IT LOOKS LIKE BOOBIES!" Yeah pretzel fun...
Friday, October 25, 2013
October Dillman Update
My blog is not going the way I had hoped it would. I originally wanted to do a blog about homeschooling and preschool. However, my family asked that it contain more funny stories about my boys, and recently I have decided to combine the both the best I can. In addition to as often as I can posts about what we are doing academically (with an un-school sidenote to homeschool), I will also include monthly updates on our family and, specifically, the boys development. Partly for my family, partly for the world, but mostly so I can remember these long-lived, short in quantity days.
October:
This month brought Monster's 3rd birthday party, appropriately train themed (his favorite thing in the world) and the beginning of a terrible month of behavior. One day when I have time I will search "three year old brain development milestones" and it will directly link this age group to a huge brain development milestone which I should remember from classes in college.
At the mere mention of not being able to bend to his every whim, Monster throws himself on the floor, screams at the top of his lungs, or extrudes a serious of angry words. Before the three year old was born, his reaction would be to reason with me until we came to a compromise.
Besides continuing to be the energetic, enthusiastic terror we have come to love, Monster is excelling in social skills. His manners have grown tremendously in the last year, resulting in more "pleases" and "thank yous" than I ever expected. I have to pat myself on the back for this because as I watched mother's and father's at play groups force manners out of their children, I led with example and boy has it paid off!
Monster repeats words...that he heard months ago...randomly...but almost always in context. And, thanks to his Grammy Mae, he returned home this weekend uttering "Why? Why? Why?" at every word I say. :)
Monkey boy is up to his usual antics. He climbs literally everything and I find him often in high places in the house, enjoying eating whatever he found there. His vocabulary is booming and he repeats everything I say, including a collection of Spanish words lately thanks to his brothers obsession with a certain Spanish speaking children's show. Monkey is completely obsessed with dogs and calls everything he sees "doggie!". For whatever reason he never calls me mommy/mom/mama. He almost always refers to me as "manny" (his version of my real name) or "daddy". The kid scares me with how smart he is and is extremely empathetic for a 1.5 year old. The best thing about him is what we call his "stinky face". He wrinkles his nose, squints one eye, and grins from ear to ear. A regular cutie-pa-tootie!
The boys have just started playing together. They will run off to their room for stretches of 10-15 minutes of giggles, shrieks and the occasional loud bang. Although now they are interaction together instead of merely trying to remove the other from their presence, they have begun to work together to cause me even more trouble...as if that is possible.
The other day Daddy Cakes figured out it would take some 600 odd laps around the kitchen island to make a mile and after observing for a few days, I think it is safe to say the boys get enough exercise.
I catch the boys doing cute things together often, like sitting on a bench their daddy made in high school and Monster giving Monkey some life advice. Or one day last week Monster was in a very loving mood and tackled Monkey in a bear hug every ten minutes, screaming "I LOVES YOU!" at him.
Today Monkey was in the kitchen, sitting in a cardboard box and pretending to drive, when I opened the dishwasher. He immediately jumped up and grabbed a sharp knife.
"No, no, that's owies, give to mommy" I said. Monkey gave it up easily, then grabbed a butter knife.
"Owies?" He asked me.
"Yes, owies." I reached for it and he snatched it back, exclaming "Uh-uh!"
He then proceeded to stab angrily at the air, laughing, and then ran to his cardboard box car. He jumped inside, stashed the butter knife beside him, yelled "Go, go, go!" and proceeded to make car noises.
I am starting to wonder if we should be concerned about him....
October:
This month brought Monster's 3rd birthday party, appropriately train themed (his favorite thing in the world) and the beginning of a terrible month of behavior. One day when I have time I will search "three year old brain development milestones" and it will directly link this age group to a huge brain development milestone which I should remember from classes in college.
At the mere mention of not being able to bend to his every whim, Monster throws himself on the floor, screams at the top of his lungs, or extrudes a serious of angry words. Before the three year old was born, his reaction would be to reason with me until we came to a compromise.
Besides continuing to be the energetic, enthusiastic terror we have come to love, Monster is excelling in social skills. His manners have grown tremendously in the last year, resulting in more "pleases" and "thank yous" than I ever expected. I have to pat myself on the back for this because as I watched mother's and father's at play groups force manners out of their children, I led with example and boy has it paid off!
Monster repeats words...that he heard months ago...randomly...but almost always in context. And, thanks to his Grammy Mae, he returned home this weekend uttering "Why? Why? Why?" at every word I say. :)
Monkey boy is up to his usual antics. He climbs literally everything and I find him often in high places in the house, enjoying eating whatever he found there. His vocabulary is booming and he repeats everything I say, including a collection of Spanish words lately thanks to his brothers obsession with a certain Spanish speaking children's show. Monkey is completely obsessed with dogs and calls everything he sees "doggie!". For whatever reason he never calls me mommy/mom/mama. He almost always refers to me as "manny" (his version of my real name) or "daddy". The kid scares me with how smart he is and is extremely empathetic for a 1.5 year old. The best thing about him is what we call his "stinky face". He wrinkles his nose, squints one eye, and grins from ear to ear. A regular cutie-pa-tootie!
The boys have just started playing together. They will run off to their room for stretches of 10-15 minutes of giggles, shrieks and the occasional loud bang. Although now they are interaction together instead of merely trying to remove the other from their presence, they have begun to work together to cause me even more trouble...as if that is possible.
The other day Daddy Cakes figured out it would take some 600 odd laps around the kitchen island to make a mile and after observing for a few days, I think it is safe to say the boys get enough exercise.
I catch the boys doing cute things together often, like sitting on a bench their daddy made in high school and Monster giving Monkey some life advice. Or one day last week Monster was in a very loving mood and tackled Monkey in a bear hug every ten minutes, screaming "I LOVES YOU!" at him.
Today Monkey was in the kitchen, sitting in a cardboard box and pretending to drive, when I opened the dishwasher. He immediately jumped up and grabbed a sharp knife.
"No, no, that's owies, give to mommy" I said. Monkey gave it up easily, then grabbed a butter knife.
"Owies?" He asked me.
"Yes, owies." I reached for it and he snatched it back, exclaming "Uh-uh!"
He then proceeded to stab angrily at the air, laughing, and then ran to his cardboard box car. He jumped inside, stashed the butter knife beside him, yelled "Go, go, go!" and proceeded to make car noises.
I am starting to wonder if we should be concerned about him....
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Monster(s) in my house.
Monster is afraid of monsters. Ironic? Maybe. Super fun and silly? Not one bit.
I don't know when it happened, or why, but he started talking about "monsters" six months ago or so. It started with a dragon. One day he ran, screaming from his room and when I went to investigate with him he said there was a dragon outside his window. We looked, he freaked out and cried, and I was left wondering if his imagination had gotten the better of him, or if something had flown by and scared the pants off him.
Either way the whole monster debacle is payback, I just know it. I am going to tell you a secret, once when I was working in a daycare the heater vent kicked on and started making noise. One little boy, who always took forever in the bathroom jumped and asked what the noise was. Me being frustrated, and not thinking it through, told him it was a monster. The poor boy started refusing to go in the bathroom at all. I overheard his mom asking another staff member about monsters the next week, and I totally avoided her and never explained his sudden aversion to bathrooms. If I ever bump into him I will have to apologize, but for now we will just continue to keep it a secret and keep our fingers crossed it didn't ruin his bathroom trips for life!
My monster, on the other hand, came up with his fear on his own as far as I know. He wont go in a dark room, he wont go in a room if he has to open the door first, and he wakes up screaming at night after talking about monsters during the day.
I have tried a couple solutions. First, an idea from a friend, I told him our dog ate monsters, so he was totally safe because she eats them all up. But then we had to put our dog down this summer so the monsters started appearing again. So we started shooting them. He has several play guns and runs around shouting "There's one! Pew! I got 'em!"
Then today I came up with my "best" idea yet! He went to wash his hands in the dark bathroom which had the door closed. I heard him open the door and call out "Hello?" and then he ran back to me and asked me to come with him. When I opened the door and turned on the light I screamed "AARRRRGHHGHGH!!!". Monster jumped and said "Don't DO that!!". And then I explained:
"If you yell at the monsters they will all run away. They don't like yelling!".
And now, Monster is running around the house, yelling at the top of his lungs to scare all the monsters away. Yup. Best idea ever.
I don't know when it happened, or why, but he started talking about "monsters" six months ago or so. It started with a dragon. One day he ran, screaming from his room and when I went to investigate with him he said there was a dragon outside his window. We looked, he freaked out and cried, and I was left wondering if his imagination had gotten the better of him, or if something had flown by and scared the pants off him.
Either way the whole monster debacle is payback, I just know it. I am going to tell you a secret, once when I was working in a daycare the heater vent kicked on and started making noise. One little boy, who always took forever in the bathroom jumped and asked what the noise was. Me being frustrated, and not thinking it through, told him it was a monster. The poor boy started refusing to go in the bathroom at all. I overheard his mom asking another staff member about monsters the next week, and I totally avoided her and never explained his sudden aversion to bathrooms. If I ever bump into him I will have to apologize, but for now we will just continue to keep it a secret and keep our fingers crossed it didn't ruin his bathroom trips for life!
My monster, on the other hand, came up with his fear on his own as far as I know. He wont go in a dark room, he wont go in a room if he has to open the door first, and he wakes up screaming at night after talking about monsters during the day.
I have tried a couple solutions. First, an idea from a friend, I told him our dog ate monsters, so he was totally safe because she eats them all up. But then we had to put our dog down this summer so the monsters started appearing again. So we started shooting them. He has several play guns and runs around shouting "There's one! Pew! I got 'em!"
Then today I came up with my "best" idea yet! He went to wash his hands in the dark bathroom which had the door closed. I heard him open the door and call out "Hello?" and then he ran back to me and asked me to come with him. When I opened the door and turned on the light I screamed "AARRRRGHHGHGH!!!". Monster jumped and said "Don't DO that!!". And then I explained:
"If you yell at the monsters they will all run away. They don't like yelling!".
And now, Monster is running around the house, yelling at the top of his lungs to scare all the monsters away. Yup. Best idea ever.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sleep Wars: A New Hope
Don't judge. Our bedtime routine of late has involved bath time before dinner, dinner extremely late, and then switching the TV from cartoons to episodes of whatever sitcom Daddy Cakes and I are watching. And then we wait. Until the little darlings conk out from exhaustion of repeating how very much they would like to watch their shows again.
It has become such a habit recently to let them fall asleep in front of the TV that I decided we needed a change. I was hopeful, excited even, to go back to our old dinner-bath-jammies-story-and straight to bed routine. So last night we implemented it. We even had dinner early. And even though Monster had a nap and Monkey had had two naps, they both just had a long and tiring weekend.
Daddy Cakes took Monkey to the living room, turned off the lights and snuggled down on the couch; the common bedtime routine they formed when we night-weaned a few months back. Monster finished his bath, picked out pj's and climbed into bed. I sang our goodnight song, tucked him in and settled into the rocking chair, smug with the knowledge that I just knew he was going to fall asleep easily because we followed the tried and true bedtime ritual.
First he asked for a song. I sang "Rock-A-Bye Baby" off key. "I LIKE dat song!" He exclaimed, which had me stiffling giggles and wondering if he was thinking of his brother.
Next he asked for train stories. I have invented two train stories I tell on nights when he is not very tired. Feeling smug again, I thought the train who visits the train's house in the woods and eats all the poridge would be enough to have him dreaming sweet train dreams and me tucked into bed in mere minutes. (Ok, so my train stories are not super original.)
No luck. After that he asked for more songs, then our next train story which involves a hungry train, colors, fruit, and many train friends. It is an original, and maybe someday I will share it.
By this time I was frustrated. He was supposed to be asleep and me snuggled up sawing my own logs. I told him he needed to go to sleep. And then the fake snoring started.
"Hooooooonnnkkk-shhhhhhheeeeewwww" Monster repeated over and over.
Then he asked for more songs. He asked to get out of bed. He pretend snored some more.
And then. Silence. I peeked out of one eye and turned my head a fraction of an inch...and whether he had been asleep or not I invoked the next question "Mommy?" I decided not to respond.
Silence.
"Mommy?"
Silence.
"Mommy?"
"What?!?!"
"Where is Daddy? I want daddy to put me to sleep!"
"Daddy is putting Monkey to sleep in the living room."
"I want to go to sleep in da libing room!"
"No! Go to sleep or I have to leave you."
Silence.
"HOOOOONNNKKKKK SHHHEEEEWWW, HOOOOOOnnnnkkkk sshhheeewww, hhooonnk sheew.."
Silence.
"hooonnnnkkkk shhhhhh..." And he was asleep. Complete with one leg hanging off the side of the bunk bed, his blanket most the way on the floor, and his head face turned toward me.
(Sigh) life is never dull in our house. :)
It has become such a habit recently to let them fall asleep in front of the TV that I decided we needed a change. I was hopeful, excited even, to go back to our old dinner-bath-jammies-story-and straight to bed routine. So last night we implemented it. We even had dinner early. And even though Monster had a nap and Monkey had had two naps, they both just had a long and tiring weekend.
Daddy Cakes took Monkey to the living room, turned off the lights and snuggled down on the couch; the common bedtime routine they formed when we night-weaned a few months back. Monster finished his bath, picked out pj's and climbed into bed. I sang our goodnight song, tucked him in and settled into the rocking chair, smug with the knowledge that I just knew he was going to fall asleep easily because we followed the tried and true bedtime ritual.
First he asked for a song. I sang "Rock-A-Bye Baby" off key. "I LIKE dat song!" He exclaimed, which had me stiffling giggles and wondering if he was thinking of his brother.
Next he asked for train stories. I have invented two train stories I tell on nights when he is not very tired. Feeling smug again, I thought the train who visits the train's house in the woods and eats all the poridge would be enough to have him dreaming sweet train dreams and me tucked into bed in mere minutes. (Ok, so my train stories are not super original.)
No luck. After that he asked for more songs, then our next train story which involves a hungry train, colors, fruit, and many train friends. It is an original, and maybe someday I will share it.
By this time I was frustrated. He was supposed to be asleep and me snuggled up sawing my own logs. I told him he needed to go to sleep. And then the fake snoring started.
"Hooooooonnnkkk-shhhhhhheeeeewwww" Monster repeated over and over.
Then he asked for more songs. He asked to get out of bed. He pretend snored some more.
And then. Silence. I peeked out of one eye and turned my head a fraction of an inch...and whether he had been asleep or not I invoked the next question "Mommy?" I decided not to respond.
Silence.
"Mommy?"
Silence.
"Mommy?"
"What?!?!"
"Where is Daddy? I want daddy to put me to sleep!"
"Daddy is putting Monkey to sleep in the living room."
"I want to go to sleep in da libing room!"
"No! Go to sleep or I have to leave you."
Silence.
"HOOOOONNNKKKKK SHHHEEEEWWW, HOOOOOOnnnnkkkk sshhheeewww, hhooonnk sheew.."
Silence.
"hooonnnnkkkk shhhhhh..." And he was asleep. Complete with one leg hanging off the side of the bunk bed, his blanket most the way on the floor, and his head face turned toward me.
(Sigh) life is never dull in our house. :)
Monday, May 13, 2013
Monday's Are Never Dull.
Today was Monday. Usually I have a mental breakdown and finish the day screaming and yelling and pulling my hair out. This Monday went much better than usual. I have a theory about Monday's and how they are the bain of my existence. Basically we spend all weekend with Daddy Cakes home and then he leaves us. For eight hours straight some Mondays. Some Mondays, like today, he comes home for an hour lunch break. This transition from Daddy home all day to Daddy gone all day, seems to put a negative spin on every ones attitude.
This Monday, however, seemed to go better than any Monday in the past two months! I think the biggest change is we now have swimming lessons on Mondays. Monster get's so excited to put on his swim suit and play on the climbing structure before lessons, and tells me he wants to go swimming, he NEEDS to go swimming, and then five minutes into the swim lessons...he is screaming and crying for me. This in only our second week and after enduring two half hour classes of him calling "I need you Mommy! I need you!", trying to climb out of the pool and repeating over and over "I need OUT, I need OUT!" with me feeling guilty, judged, and indecisive about whether I should pull him out of the pool and rescue him or not despite the instructors disapproval, I decided we needed to go to the pool as a family. Over the weekend I drug Daddy Cakes and Monkey to the pool and hoped it would get some of the fears/stressors/whateverthehellisfreakinghimout out of the way so he can enjoy swim lessons. It seemed to help somewhat since it was over fifteen minutes before he started crying today. Hopefully Wednesday will go over even better. But I keep saying to myself "If he doesn't do well this week, maybe we can get a refund." But when do you jump in and save them from the unknown and when do you let them learn independence? Even if it is the hard way?
Today was also filled with a lot of funnies. Here are a few to maybe put a smile on your face as we end this not-so-horrible of Mondays:
Daddy Cakes was on the phone and said "Oh crap!". Monster immediately repeated "Oh crap." in such a nonchalantly way that I nearly fell over laughing.
Monster was not playing nice with Monkey and I was asking him to share. This didn't seem to be helping so I told Monster "Hey, Monster, you are not listening to me!" and he replied "Nope!".
Monkey and I were playing in the bathtub and he kept throwing toys out. "Uh-oh" I would say as he tossed them over the edge. He started giggling then would say back to me "Oh-oh!" and laugh and laugh as he threw the toys out! He now says Oh-oh, mama, yes, no, get-it, and thank you.
Hope your Tuesday goes well!
Cheers,
M.
This Monday, however, seemed to go better than any Monday in the past two months! I think the biggest change is we now have swimming lessons on Mondays. Monster get's so excited to put on his swim suit and play on the climbing structure before lessons, and tells me he wants to go swimming, he NEEDS to go swimming, and then five minutes into the swim lessons...he is screaming and crying for me. This in only our second week and after enduring two half hour classes of him calling "I need you Mommy! I need you!", trying to climb out of the pool and repeating over and over "I need OUT, I need OUT!" with me feeling guilty, judged, and indecisive about whether I should pull him out of the pool and rescue him or not despite the instructors disapproval, I decided we needed to go to the pool as a family. Over the weekend I drug Daddy Cakes and Monkey to the pool and hoped it would get some of the fears/stressors/whateverthehellisfreakinghimout out of the way so he can enjoy swim lessons. It seemed to help somewhat since it was over fifteen minutes before he started crying today. Hopefully Wednesday will go over even better. But I keep saying to myself "If he doesn't do well this week, maybe we can get a refund." But when do you jump in and save them from the unknown and when do you let them learn independence? Even if it is the hard way?
Today was also filled with a lot of funnies. Here are a few to maybe put a smile on your face as we end this not-so-horrible of Mondays:
Daddy Cakes was on the phone and said "Oh crap!". Monster immediately repeated "Oh crap." in such a nonchalantly way that I nearly fell over laughing.
Monster was not playing nice with Monkey and I was asking him to share. This didn't seem to be helping so I told Monster "Hey, Monster, you are not listening to me!" and he replied "Nope!".
Monkey and I were playing in the bathtub and he kept throwing toys out. "Uh-oh" I would say as he tossed them over the edge. He started giggling then would say back to me "Oh-oh!" and laugh and laugh as he threw the toys out! He now says Oh-oh, mama, yes, no, get-it, and thank you.
Hope your Tuesday goes well!
Cheers,
M.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Is it summer already?!?!
We are enjoying an unusual warm stretch of weather in our neck of the woods. To beat the heat we have been hiding in our air conditioned house...honestly. I am not a fan of hot weather and enjoy it 70-75 degrees. Warmer than that and I hide indoors after lunch to avoid sweating. This works out well with nap time anyways, but by afternoon even the AC has a hard time keeping up, and in lieu of spending a fortune on making the house a few degrees cooler, we eat popsicles. The cheap-o, full of sugar kind are yummy, and easy...and cheap...but I don't enjoy feeding my kids artificial colors and high fructose corn syrup. Instead we make our own. In years past I have used a popsicle mold that always resulted in the plastic handle coming out, but the frozen treat staying inside the mold. This year I got smart. The first picture is Monster drinking orange juice out of a shot glass (no judgement, they make the BEST little kid cups) and helping me mash up previously frozen fruit. We did a strawberry and banana mix and a blueberry mash. We added a little apple juice to both to help thin it out a bit. Now here comes the genius part. I used my vacuum sealer to make ice pop type sections, used a funnel to fill them with mashed fruit, and sealed them up.
Ta-da! Popsicles for the freezer that are actually good for you!
Another snack time favorite of ours is yogurt in an ice cream cone. It is a trick I learned when working at a daycare years ago, and both boys love it. Monkey makes a good mess of his, but the drips of yogurt and sticky handprints give our dog something to do.
.JPG)
We have a sourdough starter that Monster helps me feed every couple of days and we have been trying out different recipes. Earlier this week we made sourdough donuts. They were tasty and semi healthy since we used whole wheat flour, but then not so healthy because we fried them instead of baking.
.JPG)
.JPG)
A few Funnys of the week from my silly boys:
.JPG)
Monster was laying on the stairs leading to the basement hollering at me "I need you mom! I need you!". I went to see what was up and he asked me to come open the freezer in the garage.
"No, it is just meat you don't need anything down there."
"Yes! Need pork!" Monster replied.
"What? You need pork? No come upstairs. Do you want a popsicle?"
"NO! Don't need a popsicle, need PORK!"
I ran through a list of options and he finally settled on milk and forgot about his sudden, and strange, craving for pork.
Monkey's gets his name appropriately; I have found him in the following places in the last couple of days: on top of the changing table, in the kitchen sink, on the counter by the fish tank eating junk mail, on top of the kitchen table anytime we leave something/anything on it, and we just replaced the mattress in our room and it is a good five inches taller than the last one, but Monkey has figured out how to climb on my hope chest and get on the bed still. He also made a good attempt to climb INTO his crib the other day, but fell down instead.
Monster has taken to shouting "MOMMY I LOVE YOU!" whenever he does something he is not supposed to or knows I am upset with him or am not paying attention. It is cute, but also slightly distracting from the issue at hand.
I moved toys around while the boys were at a friends house this week. The train table moved to the playroom in the basement and the building blocks came back upstairs. When I picked the boys up I told Monster I had moved things around. He immediately told me "Move train table back upstairs!" and I hoped he would forget about it, but he asked all day to move it back upstairs...I think he has forgotten now because as I write this he is actually playing with the blocks whereas before he would just tell me to take them downstairs.
Monster has discovered how cool the library is and asks to go randomly. He is not into story time and wont sit through it, but instead we have to ride the elevator, look at the adult non-fiction train books, then go pick out a back pack from the children's area (they have themed backpacks filled with books and usually a video), and then he wants to stand at the front door and push the wheel chair button every time the door closes. It is great fun. This week though we found the children's non-fiction train books and I showed him we can search for train books on the computer. That was two days ago and we have read his stack of seven books at least two dozen times. Apparently he is ready for new ones though, because he asked to go to the library and get new books today. I love that he is so interested in books right now! Our library has a children's card program but I think we may wait until next fall to get him his own card when he will be less likely to lose it!
Cheers,
M.
Ta-da! Popsicles for the freezer that are actually good for you!
Another snack time favorite of ours is yogurt in an ice cream cone. It is a trick I learned when working at a daycare years ago, and both boys love it. Monkey makes a good mess of his, but the drips of yogurt and sticky handprints give our dog something to do.
.JPG)
We have a sourdough starter that Monster helps me feed every couple of days and we have been trying out different recipes. Earlier this week we made sourdough donuts. They were tasty and semi healthy since we used whole wheat flour, but then not so healthy because we fried them instead of baking.
.JPG)
Monkey is teething again. Another tooth pooped through three days ago and Monster had to check it out.
.JPG)
A few Funnys of the week from my silly boys:
.JPG)
Monster was laying on the stairs leading to the basement hollering at me "I need you mom! I need you!". I went to see what was up and he asked me to come open the freezer in the garage.
"No, it is just meat you don't need anything down there."
"Yes! Need pork!" Monster replied.
"What? You need pork? No come upstairs. Do you want a popsicle?"
"NO! Don't need a popsicle, need PORK!"
I ran through a list of options and he finally settled on milk and forgot about his sudden, and strange, craving for pork.
Monkey's gets his name appropriately; I have found him in the following places in the last couple of days: on top of the changing table, in the kitchen sink, on the counter by the fish tank eating junk mail, on top of the kitchen table anytime we leave something/anything on it, and we just replaced the mattress in our room and it is a good five inches taller than the last one, but Monkey has figured out how to climb on my hope chest and get on the bed still. He also made a good attempt to climb INTO his crib the other day, but fell down instead.
Monster has taken to shouting "MOMMY I LOVE YOU!" whenever he does something he is not supposed to or knows I am upset with him or am not paying attention. It is cute, but also slightly distracting from the issue at hand.
I moved toys around while the boys were at a friends house this week. The train table moved to the playroom in the basement and the building blocks came back upstairs. When I picked the boys up I told Monster I had moved things around. He immediately told me "Move train table back upstairs!" and I hoped he would forget about it, but he asked all day to move it back upstairs...I think he has forgotten now because as I write this he is actually playing with the blocks whereas before he would just tell me to take them downstairs.
Monster has discovered how cool the library is and asks to go randomly. He is not into story time and wont sit through it, but instead we have to ride the elevator, look at the adult non-fiction train books, then go pick out a back pack from the children's area (they have themed backpacks filled with books and usually a video), and then he wants to stand at the front door and push the wheel chair button every time the door closes. It is great fun. This week though we found the children's non-fiction train books and I showed him we can search for train books on the computer. That was two days ago and we have read his stack of seven books at least two dozen times. Apparently he is ready for new ones though, because he asked to go to the library and get new books today. I love that he is so interested in books right now! Our library has a children's card program but I think we may wait until next fall to get him his own card when he will be less likely to lose it!
Cheers,
M.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Leap Frog Dog
This weekend we spent time with my family in the great green woods of
the Northwest. Great fun was had by all, thanks to a paintball
free-for-all, good eats, and some good nature teasing amongst my
siblings. Monster and Monkey spent the majority of Saturday outside
playing on my parents patio and the continuous physical activity, plus
lack of TV, started to wear on Monster. He asked to watch a “oovie”
several times and the minute he woke up this morning (he was asleep last
night when we got home) he asked for “leap-frog-dog”. The first time I
had heard of not-to-be named show of leaping frogs, was when my friend Tammy from the Crazy Station Wagon told
me the show practically taught her son to read. I was a little
suspicious of this statement, just like I am pretty sure similar claims
which boast they can teach your 18 month old to read, are just plain
ridiculous. I, however, am totally backtracking on my narrowminded-ness
after witnessing Monster’s two-year-old sponge-like abilities soak up
episode after episode of Leap-frog-dog.
I was sitting on the couch with Monster this evening and he says something about his milk.
“What is your milk doing?” I asked.
“My lilk is fwying!” He shouts, flying his milk above his head. “Lilk fwing into passsst!”
“Your milk is flying into space?!” I laugh a little, knowing thanks to leap-frog-dog, he knows what space is now.
“Is your milk flying to the moon?” I ask, knowing it is the only “plant” he knows of.
“Lilk fwying to da moooooon!” And, complete with rocket noises, his milk took off.
Not only does he know what space is, the moon, and rocket noises, he also has a good number of letters recognized, can name many numbers and count correctly in 4-5 number spans, has a bunch of shapes down, and does amazing with colors. I heard him count the other day “Eight, nine, ten, twelve, nineteen!”. I have counted over 10 maybe two times with him. He points out triangles and circles to me and is starting to sing the ABC song.
TV can be an awesome learning tool when used correctly. My challenge for myself, and for Monster, this upcoming week is to enforce these new skills with hands-on projects and learning moments for Monster.
I was sitting on the couch with Monster this evening and he says something about his milk.
“What is your milk doing?” I asked.
“My lilk is fwying!” He shouts, flying his milk above his head. “Lilk fwing into passsst!”
“Your milk is flying into space?!” I laugh a little, knowing thanks to leap-frog-dog, he knows what space is now.
“Is your milk flying to the moon?” I ask, knowing it is the only “plant” he knows of.
“Lilk fwying to da moooooon!” And, complete with rocket noises, his milk took off.
Not only does he know what space is, the moon, and rocket noises, he also has a good number of letters recognized, can name many numbers and count correctly in 4-5 number spans, has a bunch of shapes down, and does amazing with colors. I heard him count the other day “Eight, nine, ten, twelve, nineteen!”. I have counted over 10 maybe two times with him. He points out triangles and circles to me and is starting to sing the ABC song.
TV can be an awesome learning tool when used correctly. My challenge for myself, and for Monster, this upcoming week is to enforce these new skills with hands-on projects and learning moments for Monster.
April Showers, Bring May Flowers
This week has been all about spring. The neighborhood is adorned in a
bright array of blooming foliage and the sun is streaming down in such a
way that screams “get outside and enjoy it!”. It has been a little
cold, but I am not a hot weather fan, so for me it has been perfect and
we have made two trips out for long walks and just this morning
traversed to a new-to-us park to play.
We also are spending time indoors working on getting use to a school-like schedule. I am trying hard to spend Monkey’s nap times learning with Monster. He is surprising me everyday with the knowledge he has retained from shows he watches and “projects” or learning moments we share together. Here are a few examples from this week.
We bought lacing beads a while back and I was saving them for this fall when we start preschool, but I have decided that many of the project we were saving are age-appropriate now. Also I think he is hungry for knowledge and could use some distraction from the TV, which we rely on too much right now. He had a lot of fun lacing the beads onto the string. We named colors and I attempted teaching him about patterns. Since he wasn’t that interested, I decided to save patterns for later and focused on the colors, talking about the shapes of the beads and introducing words like: lace, pattern, and shape names.
One of my favorite home schooling blogs Mud Hut Mama, does a lot of color matching games to help enhance math and cognitive skills. Last week we did color matching with a box of cookie cutters Grandma C brought us, which is an activity we took directly from Mud Hut Mama. I had paper bags with the colors written in marker on the bag and Monster sorted colors into appropriate bags.
This week we made a trip to the dollar store and found these puff balls. I plan on using some for art projects later for fine motor skills with gluing, but for now we did more color matching. We had all the right cups except purple, which I found a pink cup for later and it worked well enough. Monster was able to name all the colors, except red which he has trouble remembering the name of, and sorted them into the appropriate cups. We then talked about which cup had the most and which had the least amount of balls and counted them out. Words we introduced were: empty, full, most, least, sorting, and “puff balls”!
In honor of May Day and spring in general, our art project this week was making flowers. The boys painted paper plates and I cut out leaves and stems to glue on. Monkey explored the texture, and taste, of paint and Monster did some fine motor skill building by gluing his flower accessories on and painting with small paint brushes.
I hope you are enjoying the spring time as much as we are!
~M
We also are spending time indoors working on getting use to a school-like schedule. I am trying hard to spend Monkey’s nap times learning with Monster. He is surprising me everyday with the knowledge he has retained from shows he watches and “projects” or learning moments we share together. Here are a few examples from this week.
We bought lacing beads a while back and I was saving them for this fall when we start preschool, but I have decided that many of the project we were saving are age-appropriate now. Also I think he is hungry for knowledge and could use some distraction from the TV, which we rely on too much right now. He had a lot of fun lacing the beads onto the string. We named colors and I attempted teaching him about patterns. Since he wasn’t that interested, I decided to save patterns for later and focused on the colors, talking about the shapes of the beads and introducing words like: lace, pattern, and shape names.
One of my favorite home schooling blogs Mud Hut Mama, does a lot of color matching games to help enhance math and cognitive skills. Last week we did color matching with a box of cookie cutters Grandma C brought us, which is an activity we took directly from Mud Hut Mama. I had paper bags with the colors written in marker on the bag and Monster sorted colors into appropriate bags.
This week we made a trip to the dollar store and found these puff balls. I plan on using some for art projects later for fine motor skills with gluing, but for now we did more color matching. We had all the right cups except purple, which I found a pink cup for later and it worked well enough. Monster was able to name all the colors, except red which he has trouble remembering the name of, and sorted them into the appropriate cups. We then talked about which cup had the most and which had the least amount of balls and counted them out. Words we introduced were: empty, full, most, least, sorting, and “puff balls”!
In honor of May Day and spring in general, our art project this week was making flowers. The boys painted paper plates and I cut out leaves and stems to glue on. Monkey explored the texture, and taste, of paint and Monster did some fine motor skill building by gluing his flower accessories on and painting with small paint brushes.
I hope you are enjoying the spring time as much as we are!
~M
Earth Day
Happy (late) Earth Day! Our plans for Earth Day celebrations got a
little debunked when Monster shared the stomach flu and then brought
home a cold the next week. Originally I had planned on doing an entire
week of blue and green themed projects to hang in windows, on the
fridge, and pass out to any relatives that happened to stop by for a
visit. Since that didn’t happen, here are the three project we did
accomplish!
First we painted rocks. I went collecting in the gravel portion of our driveway and then dished out the paint. I gave them more than just blues and greens, because the *plan* was to paint food shapes on them and use them as labels in the garden. I forgot to remind myself that a 2.5 year old and a 1 year old wont know how to paint anything but “rainbows”.
Despite my momentary lapse of brilliance (yes, normally I am constantly smart), the project went super! Both boys enjoyed it, although Monkey probably ate more paint than he got on his rocks…but Monster asked to paint rocks again for three days straight! It was a nice low-key project while we recovered from the first of the two illnesses.
After we felt better, and the rocks were dry, we took the starts out to the garden and planted them. I am attempting a sort-of square foot type garden style this year and you can read more about the garden project here.
(once I actually write that post….and then figure out how to hyperlink it…)
Our next Earth Day project was to paint planet Earths. For this I got out just the blue and green paint, but somehow we got some red in there….Monster boy also really liked this one and painted four Earths!
Our finished Earths!
The last project was a sensory play with green and blue jello…only I didn’t have green or blue jello, and instead tried adding food coloring to orange jello. Needless to say, it did not go over well, but the boys did not seem to care!
Next year I am hoping to focus more on recycling and talking about how we can help make the Earth happy and healthy. This year was more about introducing the fact that we live on a planet, and vocabulary involved like: Earth, planet, garden, dirt, types of plants, etc.
First we painted rocks. I went collecting in the gravel portion of our driveway and then dished out the paint. I gave them more than just blues and greens, because the *plan* was to paint food shapes on them and use them as labels in the garden. I forgot to remind myself that a 2.5 year old and a 1 year old wont know how to paint anything but “rainbows”.
Despite my momentary lapse of brilliance (yes, normally I am constantly smart), the project went super! Both boys enjoyed it, although Monkey probably ate more paint than he got on his rocks…but Monster asked to paint rocks again for three days straight! It was a nice low-key project while we recovered from the first of the two illnesses.
After we felt better, and the rocks were dry, we took the starts out to the garden and planted them. I am attempting a sort-of square foot type garden style this year and you can read more about the garden project here.
(once I actually write that post….and then figure out how to hyperlink it…)
Our next Earth Day project was to paint planet Earths. For this I got out just the blue and green paint, but somehow we got some red in there….Monster boy also really liked this one and painted four Earths!
Our finished Earths!
The last project was a sensory play with green and blue jello…only I didn’t have green or blue jello, and instead tried adding food coloring to orange jello. Needless to say, it did not go over well, but the boys did not seem to care!
Next year I am hoping to focus more on recycling and talking about how we can help make the Earth happy and healthy. This year was more about introducing the fact that we live on a planet, and vocabulary involved like: Earth, planet, garden, dirt, types of plants, etc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)