December 2014 - Elf escapades

Say what you will about the Elf on the Shelf, but I admit to getting really into it and so does my 7 year old. The 2 year old thinks its humorous, but of course doesn't fully get it yet... next year will be the real challenge when she's into it, too and I have to keep up the creativity without repeating something! (seriously... how can the kid not remember what he ate for lunch today, but remember what the elf did 352 days ago???)

Our Elf, Zaphod, greets us the morning after Thanksgiving, so below is a compilation of our first two weeks of elfdom...

Day 1, the night of Nov 29: Zaphod made a North Pole breakfast. He got the mini donuts and a smidgen of banana bread, but the kids got real powdered donuts and real piece of banana bread. 

The night of Nov 30: it wasn't quite time for the calendar, but Zaphod went ahead 

and filled it anyway and left two tasty treats on top. 

The night of  Dec 1: Zaphod got this cool idea for putting bows all over the kitchen 

cabinets...thanks to Pinterest, I'm betting! :-) 

The night of  Dec. 2: He acquired some sort of robobug kit and tried to 

assemble it, but then left it for the kids to try. 

The night of  Dec 3: Pez sleigh... and there were Pez in the advent calendar this day, too. 

The night of Dec 4: Ever seen a Hexfish? Neat. Just drop them in and they swim like real fish! 

For like 5 minutes. 

Then they never work again. 

The night of Dec 5: Time to make a Gingerbread house!

The night of Dec. 6: Bubbles!!!

The night of Dec 7: With the balloons from the Dec 6th birthday party sitting 

around doing nothing, Zaphod took a ride!

The night of Dec 8: On the birthday morning, the bedroom 

had been toilet-papered and outside of the bedroom:

The night of Zaphod dangles from the attic string above (that star you see is a 

ninja star that the kiddo had made at school the day before)

My picky eater... an experiment.

So I have this 6 year old who only eats white food... pasta with olive oil, sandwiches, french fries...and I need him to branch out. He's actually a very willing experimenter, he just absolutely does not like anything after he tries it.

But I'm devising a plan. I've purchased this adorable start-to-finish plate from Amazon (to arrive on Friday), and we're going to start New Nibbles Night once a week.

One night a week, I will plan some items that we can try out together in small doses and see how it goes. The plate allows for 8 taste-testing opportunities (but that would probably be overwhelming to a kid), and then a surprise at the end. Here are some of my ideas - lets see how this goes! I'll report back!

Chicken grill night:

1. Chicken w/Lemon & Rosemary
2. Chicken w/BBQ sauce
3. Chicken w/Italian seasoning
4. Chicken w/Ranch seasoning
5. Chicken Teriyaki

Beef night:

1. Steak (no sauces)
2. Teriyaki beef
3. Hamburger
4. Meatball
5. Meatloaf

Pork night:

1. Pork chop (plain)
2. Pork chop with apples
3. Proscuitto
4. Sliced Ham
5. Spiral Ham

Seafood night"

1. Grilled/boiled Shrimp
2. Scallops
3. Fish sticks
4. Popcorn shrimp
5. Breaded tilapia

Grill night:

1. Hamburger
2. Hot Dog
3. Bratwurst
4. Turkey burger

Veggie night #1:

1. Zucchini
2. Squash
3. Mashed potatoes
4. Asparagus

Veggie night #2

1. Eggplant
2. Cauliflower
3. Broccoli
4. Brussel Sprouts
5. Cooked carrots

Bean night

1. Edemame
2. Green beans
3. Lima beans
4. English peas
5. Pinto beans
6. Refried beans
7. Black eyed peas

Sauce night (pasta with these sauces to taste):

1. Red sauce
2. Bolognese
3. Alfredo
4. Pesto

Salad Veggie night:

1. Cucumber
2. Tomato
3. Raw broccoli
4. Raw carrots
5. Assorted lettuces

How vacations from kids make you miss the kids

So my husband and I are on a "workation" for 7 days and left my parents to take care of the kids for the week. We've had to work each day, but are able to get out and explore each evening. Get to sleep without worry of kids or dogs waking us up each night and early in the morning. Haven't have to watch Spongebob Squarepants even ONCE the whole time! It should be pure bliss!!!

But we're 3 days in, with 4 more days to go, and every time we see a kid, we think how cute s/he is and how we miss our kids. Every time we see a nice nature trail, we think that our son would love to hike that. Every time we see a dog, we hear our daughter saying "Doggie! Doggie!"

So nice to get away, but I think family vacations are better when its THIS long! Miss my kiddos!

Business meets pleasure

For the first time ever, I brought my 6-year-old son on a business trip with me. It was an event that I was overseeing, but had a crazy-strong event manager and agency on every last detail. I was really only needed for moral support and the occasional problem-solving request. The hotel where the event was taking place had a kids club for $75/day from 9-5, so I would be able to do all the conference-time work I needed to do, and would just have a few evening moments where I either needed to leave the kiddo in the room for 10 minutes or just bring him with me.

I had a romantic notion in my head that he'd have a great time playing with the kids in the kids club all day, then I'd pick him up and take to the evening events where everyone would say how cute he is and he would talk randomly about Minecraft and how much fun he was having.

We'd take walks on the beach and look for seashells, and maybe eat at the hotel restaurant by the pool. We'd order room service and watch a movie. So much fun we would have! The memories we would make!!

Here's where the fantasy unraveled: There were no kids signed up for the kid's club. He was alone with the staff member. Nothing at the restaurants even came close to anything he would ever eat. He had no interest in going to the beach, he just wanted to play on his Nintendo 3DS or play Minecraft on the computer. When I took him to the evening event, everyone DID say how cute he was, but he was too shy to respond in any way, just hid behind my leg and kept his eyes down, and told me that it wasn't his kind of party because he didn't like any of the games. And the in-room movies we wanted were nearly $20 PER MOVIE!

Truth and memories: He actually had a wonderful time with the staffers in the kids club. 1-on-1 attention was perfect for him. On our last day, there will be 3 other kids signed up for the afternoon, so the final memories of the kid's club will be perfect. We did watch a cheap $5 movie and had fun room service dinners, which really loved. I let him play Minecraft while I caught up on work emails at night, so it was a win-win for both of us. We bonded over old episodes of Full House on Nick at Nite, instead of $20 movies. The staff made him a giant tower of leftover candy from one of the evening events, which he told me the day after must have been a dream because there's no way it could have been real. And as we were going to sleep in our double beds, he whispered, "Mom, can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

That's when I knew it was a successful trip.

Questions

On the way to swim class this morning, the questions began. One after another. Nonstop. So I answered every single one of them. And then I ended my answer with “What other questions do you have?” So he came up with more. In the 15 minute car ride, we discussed electricity, wildflowers, bridges, rain, street lights, and clouds. By the time we got to swim class and I asked again, “What other questions do you have?” He finally said, “Well, I guess I don’t have any more.”

WHEW! Now I know it takes 15 minutes to reach the end of an inquisition!

The Classics

While watching one of our favorite Disney movies the other day, my son asked, “Why is there fire in all the movies?” “Fire in all the movies? There isn’t fire in all the movies.” He said, “Uh huh! Bolt. Sleeping Beauty. The Incredibles. Shrek. Aladdin. Bambi. ” 

I suppose there is supposed to be a great element of evil to counteract the good, but he’s right. There sure is a lot of fire in those movies!

#thatmom

I decided in the grocery store the other day to start using a Twitter hashtag and Facebook page about motherhood called #thatmom.

I was #thatmom who pulled one of those baby food packets off the shelf and opened it so my 1 year old would stop screaming. Of course I paid for it. But I was embarrassed. I posted to Facebook to help relieve my guilt via public awareness and received overwhelming response from my friends that it was common practice. Good to know. But I still feel guilty about it because now my one year old expects it to happen every time we go down the baby food aisle… #thatmom.

So join me on Twitter by setting your search feed to #thatmom, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/yesiamthatmom