BEWARE the Kindergartner's locker!

My apologies for not posting as often as I should! A Mom's life can get pretty busy! I realized just how long it had been when I finished a baby carrier the other day, and used Brandon to test it out. Of COURSE, he kept asking if it was his, and I had to tell him no. He was very sad that he couldn't take his nap with it, but he was better when I told him he could use the cuddly-soft penguin one that I let him steal from someone. LOL  Those poor penguins didn't have a chance.

So here I was, wondering what to type this week. I mean, does the babywearing adventure stop once they start walking? It seems a bit sad, really. But I guess even though the babywearing might stop, the adventure NEVER stops. There is always something new and exciting happening in the life of a Mom. And the babywearing was just the start of the adventure. I think babywearing helps to establish a certain adventuress-ness... Is that a word? Not that babywearing is any better or worse than any other type of parenting, it's just an extra way for Moms to be able to do more and get out more when they have two hands free instead of one. I would like to think that I did more things out of the house because I had two free hands and I wasn't dragging a clunky stroller around. I had a lot of adventures with my jogging stroller too, but there were definitely things that I was able to do with a carrier that I couldn't have done without it. (Or maybe I mean, I didn't WANT to do without it. Getting out of the house is the first step, really, and the desire to do something is what really gets us out isn't it?

Okay, well, on to the adventure part of my week. To be honest, we haven't been very adventurous this month. (YET.) But sometimes, adventures are handed to us out of necessity. Like today...

Brandon looks forward to Wednesday all week long. It used to be Friday. But now it's Wednesday. Why? Because his 'show-n-share' day was moved to Wednesday at school. So this morning he was very excited about getting to take his bey-blade toy with him to show his friends. He's been practicing spinning it all week. If you walk by our house, odds are you heard "THREE! TWO! ONE! LET-IT-RIP!" being shouted over and over... and over... and over.

Of course, as a Mom, I was more concerned with "Do you have your socks on yet? Do they match? What am I packing in your lunch box today your highness? Did you finish your pancakes? I'm sorry that one dropped on the floor.... I think it hit a clean spot... what? You had homework? Hurry up and grab a pencil! Wait, where's your coat? The bus is here already???"  After he left, I was busy cleaning up the after-math of the morning, when I noticed his bey-blade laying next to a single sock on the couch. GREAT.

I'm just standing in the living room, stunned, imagining the crocodile tears and the meltdown that will ensue when he gets to school and realizes that he has nothing to take out of his pocket, or his backpack, to show off to his friends at his show-n-share table. It was like I was channeling the disappointment he was feeling, knowing how it would feel to sit on the corner of a table without being able to be part of the group. My heart sank. It was just a toy, and I know sometimes we need to learn how to deal with disappointment early on so that it's not so devastating later... but come on! It's his favorite day of the week! He LIVES for this stuff!

So I rush around, grab my stuff and throw something leftover into my bag and rush out the door. I make a detour to the school to drop off his toy before work, and I luck out by getting there before the crowd. I park right in front and walk into the office. I explain the situation and she tells me that I can take it straight down to his teacher if I like. (I think she was just sympathetic since my foot was in an orthopedic boot and she remembered seeing me on crutches the week before.) Luckily his classroom is right in the main hall just down from the office. As I walk past a bench outside the office, I see one child hop on the bench next to three others, and I hear "Late again? You're always late..." and the joking goes on while I walk down the hall. I can't help but chuckle at how kids that young can sound just like grown ups when they talk.

I knocked on the classroom door, then decide to peek inside when there is no answer. The room is dark, and no teacher to be found. I didn't want to just leave it on a table where another child might take it before Brandon even saw it. No, his locker is better. That way he will see it as soon as he hangs up his coat. So I walk out to the hall, and see his name on the locker. I walk right up to the locker and open it, then move his carpet pillow out of the way on the shelf, and carefully perch the toy on the front edge of the shelf where he will see it right away. I pause, smile, and think of what his reaction will be when he sees it magically appear there, and then close the locker.

No sooner did I turn to walk back down the hall when I hear a chorus of "AWWWWWWWWW.... nuh uh.... oh oh.... gasp! awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"  It took me half of the hallway to realize the whole bench was staring at me, and I was the culprit. I had obviously done something VERY wrong. In hindsight, I find it pretty funny that I was actually scared for a second because I was getting in trouble by a bunch of 5-7 year olds. But I seriously got nervous... I kept thinking "oh no, is the principal going to come out and tell me that I'm in trouble? Did I break some secret security rule? Was I supposed to have a name badge and I don't? What did I DO??!?!?!?!"

YOU'VE BEEN TOLD.

So as I get closer, the one boy says "ohhhhhhh no. You NEED to get up OUT of our lockers......"  And that's when I realized that he must be in the same class as Brandon, and he thought that I was just rummaging through their lockers to be nosy. I guess if I was a kindergartner, I'd be pretty protective of my stuff too. I almost laughed out loud, but thought it best to be very serious and respectful instead. So, nearly in tears holding back my laughter, I very seriously said "Oh no! I was only touching my son's locker. I didn't touch anyone else's. That was MY son's locker. He forgot his show-n-share toy, and I didn't want him to feel left out today." They all looked relieved, but then the boy surprised me by saying "You're Brandon's mom??!?!" WOW. Either he knew all the lockers by heart, or he memorized each table's show-n-share day. Smart kid. ...OR, he saw the goofy boot on my foot and remembered Brandon telling his teacher that his Mom's foot was 'broke'. (Not broke, just a little smaller now.)

I paused for a bit by the bench, and confessed to being Brandon's mom, and we joked about what his face would look like when he opened the locker. I asked him to make sure Brandon didn't miss it, then told them all to have a great day and gimped my way out to the car.

BEST LAUGH OF THE WEEK. Really. Kids say the darndest things.

The Crow and The Pitcher

Today Brandon and I decided to finally eat dinner together at the table since we actually didn't have any plans to rush out for. In trying to figure out something to talk about, we started talking about stories we had heard and were sharing them. Then I suddenly remembered that we had a whole series of old books from when I was young that had Aesop's fables in them. So I rushed to the bookshelf and came back to the table and started reading them to him. Although they were put in words that were sometimes a little over his head, he seemed to get the idea of them.

Then we read "The Crow and The Pitcher". Although he smiled and nodded his head as if he enjoyed the story, I wasn't sure if he really understood how pebbles would help the crow get to the water. So we came up with a little experiment! And it was so super easy and fun, I thought I'd share it with you here.

Here is the story, retyped from Collier's Junior Classics "the Young Folks Shelf of Books" number 2: Once Upon A Time. (copyright 1962 by The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company)
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THE CROW AND THE PITCHER

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water: but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him; and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.

Little by little does the trick.
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After reading this, I found a clear plastic cup, a mechanical pencil, and the marbles out of an old board game.



~Then I clipped the pencil to the side of the cup and said "Look, THIS is the crow." ~Then I filled the bottom of the cup with some water from the faucet, until it was about half an inch below the tip of the pencil. And I said "Look, this is the water at the bottom of the pitcher. We need to figure out a way to get the water up to the crow!"
~Then I smiled, and brought out the marbles and said "How many marbles do you think it will take to get the water up to the crow?"
~Then I had him drop them in one marble at a time, until the water touched the tip of the pencil, and we cheered "We did it! We got the water to the crow!!"... at which point he decided it was time to practice pouring water and marbles back and forth from cup to cup to see how long it took for all the water to spill all over the floor. LOL!

But he got the idea. And it was fun for him. And it was fun for me too. And it was pretty cool... if I do say so myself. ;-)

Even babies can play on the internet! :-)

Just had to share this super cute site!!! I used to use this all the time as a way for Brandon to play without messing up the computer... especially when he just HAD to bang on the keyboard like Mommy. So check out this awesome site with really cute fun FREE games!
http://www.kneebouncers.com/

Every time they hit a key, something happens. It doesn't have to be the RIGHT key, just ANY key. How cool is that? Perfect for super little ones!

Sorry that I have been so behind on my blogs everyone! I'll try my best to get back into the swing of things!

Late night grocery trips = hidden blessings

So I admit it... I really don't like shopping. And the shopping I like the LEAST is grocery shopping. There's nothing worse than arriving at the grocery store, with all the seasonal toys and candy propped up right at the front of the store before you get to the kids play place... and then there's that sinking feeling you get when you realize the kids play place is closed for the evening. Now, not only do you have a child who is upset because they won't unlock the door and let him play video games, but you have a child who now wants to push the cart and buy his OWN list of groceries instead of YOUR list of groceries. Tack onto that your Mother tagging along saying "Oh look at that cute..." insert anything here. It's usually about 3 seconds too late to remind her that pointing out anything cute adds to the CHILD'S grocery list instead of yours.

So when I dropped off Gama (Grandma) at the door of the grocery store, I was only way too happy to stay in the car with my increasingly taller 3-year old and sing Mickey Mouse songs from the CD in the car radio. However, this was one of those nights where I realized there was that ONE thing that we needed to get before going home... and Gama DIDN'T have her cell phone on her. Of all the luck. I don't even remember what that one thing was, but when I mentioned out loud that Gama might forget something from the list, Brandon was all gung-ho to run in and remind her. He was just dying to go running through that store to find her. Of course I thought "Fine. I'll walk you in there, and you run around and find her. I'll wait by the cash register." Hee hee. (NOT. But he's fast and it was sooooo tempting.)

Well, before Gama got to the register and had to check out twice, I figured I better get in there so we could find that last item. That's when I realized we had a big problem... NO SHOES. I had rushed out of the house to run Gama up to the store and in my haste had just jumped in the warm car in the garage and let Brandon tag along, no jacket and no shoes. I really had NOT planned on taking him out of the car. I was okay with being coatless, but NOT him. Not to mention, my shoulder and back were not very excited about carrying him around the store until we found Gama.

Thank goodness I had Brandon's old carrier in the back seat for an emergency winter blanket in the car. I yanked it out and threw it (and Brandon) on, then we ran into the grocery store all toasty warm, tied up to each other. It didn't take too long to find Gama and then find the last item, but by the time we got to the front register, Brandon was already too comfortable. While standing in line, Brandon laid his head down against the back of my neck, curled his fingers up in my hair, and said "Mommy, I'm gonna go to sleep now. Don't wake me up." LMAO!

Well, the cold wind on the way to the car woke him up anyway, but it was one of those moments that just makes you feel good for the rest of the night. I'm really glad I didn't have to lug him around for very long, now that he's so big, but it made me feel good to be able to manage in a "grocery emergency" like that.

The multiple uses of a WRAP

This last Sunday we had the RARE opportunity to be extras in a movie! Woo hoo! I was so excited! I thought it would be so awesome to have our names in the credits of a movie, and what was even better is that it was a movie about the Soap Box Derby. This was something that my Dad had done when he was little and he was a huge fan of it and I knew he would love being an extra in the film. It would have more meaning for him.

So we got up at the crack of dawn and I gathered some snacks and just a couple toys to take with us. My Dad, Brandon, and I all hopped in the car with my bag of toys/pull ups, the bag of food, and just for the heck of it - a wrap. It was a malafa that my sister had given me, but I knew if I had to carry my son in the heat and if he got tired, that would be the best option for me on a hot day. I didn't want to deal with fleece and the wrap was pretty and I wanted to show it off.

Well, I only used it as a carrier for all of 15 seconds while I was showing someone else how you can carry a child with a big piece of cloth. Other than that, I used it for:

1) a seat cushion, when the wet, dirty bleachers were too cold and hard for our tushies during the hours and hours of sitting in the 'audience'.

2) an umbrella, when the rain started pouring down and I didn't want to lose my spot in the bleachers, since everyone else seemed to be smart enough to bring an umbrella but us. (just grab a couple corners and hold up high! lol)

3) a changing pad, when I found out the port-a-potties were too full and nasty to allow my son to use, and I resorted to letting him go in his pull up that day. Needless to say, the grass was just to pointy for him to be willing to lay down on it.

4) a play-toy, when the toys I brought just weren't good enough. Luckily, it was sunny and windy enough for us to play 'parachute' with it (just like back in elementary school when you had a REAL parachute).

5) a jacket, when the shade was way too cold for a tank top.

6) a hiding place, when I wanted to leave our stuff on the grass and walk over to the vendor booths for a cold drink.

Needless to say, you would never think that you can do so many things with just a huge piece of material. :-) Let me know what you can do with a 'simple piece of cloth' in your comments!

Picture post!

Finally uploaded some Idaho pictures! Go to my photobucket gallery to see some highlights of our trip! Hope you enjoy them!

Talents lost over the generations... Can you add any?

I've noticed that as the needs of each generation changes, the talents passed down in families changes. But I'm starting to wonder if the things we pass down should be different, or if we should just pass down MORE? I think there are some things that, even though they seem antiquated, are still useful and necessary even in today's technology age. Grant it, any child now knows how to 'google' a how-to instruction sheet on just about anything that they want to learn. But isn't it better to get the experience from Mom and Dad first hand instead? I think this gap this shows that there is a huge difference in the way we were raised compared to how we raise our children today.

Yes, we have a lot more knowledge than we did before, and thank goodness for that! We avoid a lot of mistakes and hazards that our parents didn't know about. But, I think we also forget the simple things in light of today's technology age. Our kids are kept busy playing computer games and watching the amazing assortment of TV educational shows (or not educational lol). We know we have less time to get things done because we are juggling work and home and trying to find that quality time (as opposed to quantity time). As a result, we try to get as much done without them as we can, and then try to squeeze in that quality time at the end of the day when we know we will be able to focus our attention on them.

Well - at least, that's what I do. I'll admit it.

But I keep reminding myself of this: involve them in our grown-up daily life, and the quality time will come on its own. It really will!

Back in the day, instead of sitting in the cart at the grocery store and playing by myself with a toy in the cart, Mom involved me in picking out all the groceries. There wasn't an option of buying a toy, or picking out the cookies, but I was in charge of helping cross off the shopping list, or of helping to spot the right brand, or learning how the scale in the fruit section worked. For dinner, I was in charge of cutting or cleaning something (now Brandon's job) and I was the official 'taste-tester' of the house. (That easily became my son Michael's job as he grew up.) When it came time to do spring cleaning, Mom let me help pick out new paint for the walls and whether to rearrange the furniture or not. We had some really creative rooms! Not to mention, I learned a lot about the best ways to organize a room for the most effective use and what it costs to renovate a room on a budget.

So what things might we have fogotten to pass down in the hustle and bustle of everyday life? Well, I have been reminded of a few in the last couple of weeks and thought I would share with you things that you might have forgotten to hand down to your own kids. And don't think you're the only one... I forgot about these, too!

1) The ability to know which fruit is the best fruit at the grocer's.
This is one of those things that you might have witnessed your parents doing when you were younger, but unless you asked them to teach it to you, you might not have inherited this ability. Especially in the day and age of preservatives and wax covered fruit, this knowledge has fallen by the wayside a bit. I heard some great tips on the morning show I listen to this morning, though, and thought I would pass on some of those to you!
Watermelons - look for the yellow 'belly'. If you roll it over and there is a yellow belly on it somewhere, then it's ripe.
Cantelopes - push on the 'button'. If you push on the little belly button of the cantelope and it SMELLS like a cantelope, really smells, then it's ripe.
Peaches - (season: late june-august) Peaches won't ripen more after they have been picked, so pick ones that SMELL ripe. If it doesn't smell like a peach then it won't taste like a peach, no matter how long you wait.
Bananas - Bananas continue to ripen so make sure you buy them when there is still a bit of green at the tops of the bananas.
Corn - don't open it - that makes it go bad faster. You only have one or two days before it's not fresh, so farmer's markets are better than grocery stores. Instead of opening it, feel it, and don't overboil it. Add a tiny bit of sugar to the water too.


2) The ability to wait for someone to call you back if they don't answer the phone.
We live in the "i-generation". Children who grew up during the cell phone era have not learned the patience required for life (or the classroom either) because they have been conditioned to get an immediate response through text messaging and twitter. Instant gratification has replaced the quality of patience required to be able to wait for the larger reward instead of the smaller, more instant, reward. I think we all need to practice 'phone-less' time daily to get our exercise in patience.

3) Knowing how to mend or sew something. I would love to add tips on this in a seperate blog! Too much to mention right now, though. All that needs said is that it is important to teach kids how to sew on a button, mend a sock or hole their jeans, or hem that pair of pants they paid way too much for. A simple needle and thread will do.
When sewing on buttons, don't forget to put a straight pin across the button to add space for the button to move. It puts less pressure on the threads during washing or wearing.
When hemming dress pants, there is a specific stitch to use. It looks like an X and you only grab the tiniest bit of material so that the stitiching doesn't show on the outside. Try this link: http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/hemming-stitch-by-hand/
If you don't want to sew a hem, try stich-witchery or hem tape! It just irons on.
When mending a hole, try substituting a small piece of material behind the hole and then stitching the edges down. This helps keep the size of the garment the same, but helps close up the hole. Use scrap material from another sock or tshirt that is too far gone to use or donate.

4) Proper table settings. Does anyone know how a table SHOULD be set? I don't know how often it is needed, but it certainly is one of the lost arts. Although this website shows you how it should be done, remembering this is a matter of practice... which is why I can never remember it! lol
http://www.trueblissevents.com/2009/12/wedding-table-setting-etiquette/

5) Vehicle maintenance. I remember when I was little, I was the official 'tool-hander-offer' to Dad. I HATED it. I would always pick the wrong tool because I didn't know the difference between a monkey wrench, a crescent wrench, and a rachet. I'm better about that now, but I learned then that you didn't always have to pay someone to change your oil. I know where an oil pan is, where the filter is, and even where the spark plugs and wires are. I also know how to bleed brakes to a point. Heck, I've even changed my own oil pump in the past. NOT fun. And even though the time it takes to do it is really worth paying someone else to do it, sometimes you don't have the money and so you must force yourself to make the time. I severely regret not forcing my son to sit down with me while I changed the oil in my truck as he got older. I would definately feel much better about him being on the road if I was sure he knew the basics of how a car works, just in case he breaks down.

Can you think of any other lost talents/arts that your parents taught you that you realize you haven't passed on yet?