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

Getting ready for elf time!

I needed a refresher in my elf ideas from last year so I don't repeat too many of them as I get ready to bring out my kid's "watcher" for 2013. So I thought I'd put together a compilation of images from 2012 and the fun times our elf had in the house.

Our elf's name is Zaphod. Here were his 2012 adventures:

Playing with friends.


Offering up a LEGO project.


An impromptu sleigh.


Doing some activities.


Fishing!


Marshmellow fight!


Hanging from the attic rope, after TPing Reilly's door.


Ate some cookies and used a medicine cup for some milk.



"Decorating Reilly's room.


He got into the advent calendar!


Offering up a fun activity!


Zipline!!!


Making snowflakes.


Snow angels in the rice krispies.



Spider elf dangling from the light left some magic peppermints to be planted.



Board game with friends - and you can see what the magic peppermints sprouted next to it!


A little mischief with the pictures on the wall and some dry erase markers.


Hanging out on the mistletoe.


Gift wrapped the toilet.


Playing scrabble with friends.


Decorating the Xmas tree with Reilly's underwear.



You can't see it because there wasn't much milk left, but the elf made the milk green.


Marshmellow bath in the sink.


Farewell letter.


So now I have to start the planning for 2013... any new exciting elf ideas out there?

Really? Elementary school secrets working mothers forgot to tell me

I must have missed the memo about how uncoordinated and poorly run public school activities are for working parents. I complained before about bad timing for daycare activities, but those were few and far between so they didn't require too much complaining or planning to work around. Now that I have a kindergartner, I'm indoctrinated into the real work of the horrible life of a working mom.

School ends at 2:45. Let's start there. Really? Who can get their kid every day at 2:45 and hold down a steady job? (especially at a commuter school like the one I'm at where you have to be in line by 1:55 for that 2:45 pickup!) Which is why some brilliant entrepreneurs started after school programs! Yay! Thank you!

Now what about the days that my kid has some sort of instrument class? Pick him up when he's done at 4:40? Okay, easy enough... I will plan to do that one day a week, no problem.

Kindergarten open house? Sweet! Let's go! Oh, wait - just got a memo that NO KIDS ARE ALLOWED? Really? REALLY? So either one parent can't go, or I have to pay $50 for a babysitter? Awesome.

End of year music concert for my kid with an instrument: 3pm on a Thursday? REALLY? COME ON!

And I thought work-life balance was tough with a little kid. It's even harder with a big kid!

Cheers to you, working mothers! I'm in awe that you have been managing this for so long. I'm in week 3 and I'm tired already.

Ditching for Donuts

Obviously, I'm a working mom. My husband is a working dad. We pay for daycare. Soon we will have a child in "real" school and the other still in daycare. I LOVE my daycare. They teach, they play, they create, they explore, they love. They are absolutely positively awesome. It is one of the best daycare centers on the planet, in my personal opinion. They also do great things like Muffins with Mom on Mother's Day, and Donuts with Dad on Father's Day, and Preschool Graduations for the kids moving on to Kindergarten, and random pancake breakfasts where parents can come spend a little time with the kids. They truly are an awesome organization. Have I complimented them enough to let the "but" loose?

But...Here's my problem: I'm a working mom. And my husband is a working dad. So Donuts with Dad at 9:30am is tough. Take kids to daycare, go to work. Have 3 meetings. Leave work to have a donut. Go back to work for the rest of the day. Of COURSE you have to participate in this, or your kid is in shambles all day that you didn't go. Of COURSE kids are more important than work... the vast majority of the time. But the reason the kids are in daycare is because we have jobs, so I'm just wishing for a little consideration on the part of the daycare - 8:30am is way more reasonable than 9:30 for activities like this.

And I know this is just the beginning - something tells me "real" school doesn't spend a lot of time considering working parents' schedules either, so I guess I'd better buckle up and hold on for the ride!

I'm not ready!

I am a suburban mom of two. That is the reality of it. Next year, my oldest will begin kindergarten and the prospect of carpooling is in our future. Therefore, I need a car that can hold a baby carseat, a booster seat, and potentially two additional booster seats. It will be the car that I will have for the next 7-8 years or so, and I'm certain my children will have friends that need to go places with them.

BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE A MINIVAN DRIVER!!!!!

I am a suburban mom of two. I know I am destined to own a minivan. I should give in. Roll over. Submit.

My minivan-owning friends all say, "You're a suburban mom of two. Get a minivan and get over it. When they go to college, you can get a sports car."

My anti-minivan friends all say, "Get an SUV! Get a Ford Flex! You don't have to get a minivan! Don't give in! Fight it!"

*sigh*

I think I'm about to buy a minivan.

But in my heart, it's an adorable little sports car.

Idiots

On the way to t-ball yesterday, a car was going too slow for my husband's liking so he honked at him and said, "Reilly, I know I'm not supposed to call that guy stupid, but he is an idiot!!"

The 5 year old responded, "You can't say idiot, either, dad."

So my husband inquired, "Then what do you call a type of person who consistently makes bad choices and doesn't pay attention to the people around him?"

Thinking for a moment about the people he knows, Reilly answered, "I call that type of person Josh*."


*(note: the name of the child in question has been changed to protect him :-) )

Back to work

Last week was my first week back to work after 11 weeks of maternity leave. I tried to ease back in, taking 3 half days and working two full days. I think it was a pretty successful endeavor - though work was like drinking from a firehose, instead of the trickle of a water fountain that I was expecting...

My most stressful moment was a 5-6pm conference call. I had to pick up both kids from daycare early to be home in time to take the call (since the call was timed right when I would normally be picking them up). When I got home, the 5 year old wanted to talk, build things, show me what he built, play, etc. The 11 week old was crying because she was hungry. The dogs were whining and growling at each other. And I was having a hard time getting my phone off mute to contribute to the conversation due to the noise going on around me. Most. Stressful. Hour. Of. The. Week.

I *was* successful getting to work by 8:30 or 9 each day, so that was a huge win!

Work stress aside, the baby girl did great in daycare, and the awesome boy was soooooo excited to have his baby sister at his school!

So now it's time to settle in to the life of working parents with two kids. We should be alright... as long there aren't any meetings before 9 or from 5-6...

Bring it.

Supportive communities

After decades of parental advice books, better parenting blogs, and helpful tips on how to balance work and life coming from all sorts of experts, I'm pleased to report that I feel like I'm seeing a ton more supportive publications encouraging us to realize that we are real and do not have to try to be supermom (or superdad) all the time.

Here's a small collection of the posts and books I've seen lately that I feel offer much more supportive advice than the usual ones.

This one is written from the perspective of stay at home moms, but I found it completely relevant for all moms.
What we need when we say we need a break:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-king/stay-at-home-parent_b_2558642.html

This is a great reminder that you are very, very human, and you should forgive yourself!
To parents of small children: Let me be the one who says it out loud:
http://www.stevewiens.com/2013/03/12/to-parents-of-small-children-let-me-be-the-one-who-says-it-out-loud/

And another along those lines:
How to be a perfect parents in 5 easy steps... or probably never:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/una-lamarche/how-to-be-a-perfect-parent_b_2888253.html

A lot has been said about Sheryl Sandberg's new book Lean In and how it tells women to prioritize work over family. The people who are saying that have NOT read the book. I found the book to be incredibly supportive, real, realistic, and inspiring. I recommend this book if you have chosen to be a mother and also in rat race. If you don't have time to read (a true reality of motherhood...) then just watch her Ted Talk here: it's the same message, and most of the same stories. And its still really good!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4

And I'll leave you with my favorite description of true life these days:

How the hell did that happen?

At Easter this year, my 5 year old got some silly putty - an Easter tradition in my family because it conveniently already comes in an egg container - and who doesn't like copying Sunday comics and stretching them out of proportion?

About an hour after the basket fun, while I was in the kitchen working on breakfast, I hear, "Sorry mom, I'm so sorry, and I don't know how it happened."

Silly putty in his hair. In his hair! Seriously? I've heard of girls getting bubble gum in their hair because the wind blows and hair gets in their mouth or whatever, but seriously?

So while I was busy googling "how to remove silly putty from hair," my husband cut it out. No worse for the wear, my monster was quite pleased with himself that he had done something so crazy. And I got a great picture of my 5 year old boy being, well, a 5 year old boy. 

Commercials that rock

While on maternity leave, I have subjected myself to live TV. Yes, including commercials. And I've actually found some pretty awesome commercials that I felt like sharing.

Here's one that makes me cry every. single. time. Nice job, J&J. Okay, and now I'm crying again because I had to watch it. :-) I love this commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotq4zr0dRc

A few that make giggle from the truth.
on breastfeeding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgmbJso-2-o
on potty training: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imz6jdTME0w
on potty training: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIIDh2BXumI

And a random AT&T commercial that really cracks me up.
http://youtu.be/yYaSl_VgqbE


Enjoy!

Back and better than ever

So after a bit of a hiatus (when work got crazy and those 10 minutes I used to spend on blogging after the kiddo was in bed got spent working more...) I'm back to my keyboard and finding comfort in the ability to post again!

I'm currently not working as I'm on maternity leave, though the days seem to disappear even faster now, especially since I spend about 3-4 cumulative hours of the day sitting on the couch feeding my darling new baby girl!

Baby girl will be 8 weeks old tomorrow, baby boy is 5 years old already! We've finally gotten into our groove where I wake up around 6 or 7 and feed the baby, then get the big boy breakfast and make his lunch and make sure he's dressed, teeth brushed, etc. (if he's not already) while hubby showers. Hubby takes him to school and I spend the next hour or two (while baby girl naps) getting laundry going and cleaning the insane disaster that somehow occurs between the time the hubby and boy get home from work/school and when they leave the next morning. Seriously. How does that happen??? Its like the Tasmanian devil whirls through this place!

So here's my concern: 4 weeks from now I will be going back to work and won't have that 2 hours each morning to get it done. I don't want to do it at night because that's when I have to make dinner, spend time with the kids, give baths, get them into bed, then actually spend an hour with my husband watching some TV show we've had recorded for weeks.

Yes, I know the 5 year old can start helping with things like cleaning and laundry, but I need your advice! If you're a working mom of 2 or more kids - how do you get the home stuff done??

Time has flown by!

The last time I posted to this blog my daughter was 4-years-old.  She's now 5, will be 6 in March and I have another daughter due on January 6, 2013.  Oh, time has flown by.

However, I'm still a 2-hour Mom, and with kindergarten starting next week (Jesus, help me) I feel like I'll be the 1.5-hour Mom...or less.

I'm looking forward to kindergarten because she's going to learn so much and really blossom.  But I know I'm going to struggle with the schedule of Daisy troop meetings, dance and gymnastics classes and religious education classes.

I'm supposed to figure it all out, and I'm sure I will...eventually.  I'm glad to be back on the "blogger scene".  More to come and any advice is welcome!

Pay Attention

I constantly find myself telling my four year old to pay attention. Stop fooling around. Don’t look at the TV. Put that down and PAY ATTENTION. 

But I’m not a very good example. When he talks to me (and he talks A LOT), I’m working on the computer, playing on my phone, reading the paper, reading a magazine, looking at the TV, cooking dinner, cleaning up, or doing laundry. So asking him to pay attention to me is one of those “do as I say, not as I do” scenarios.

It’s important that I do pay attention at the key moments, like every once in a while one of those “Mom, look at this” requests is actually for something worthwhile and cool. Like the abstract horse he made out LEGOs. Or the hat he made out of tinker toys. Of course, like the boy who cried wolf, only 2 out of about 500 of the hollers actually are something important.

I truly don’t want to miss the amazing things that he does. I also don’t really want to miss the mundane things he does. But none of us can give 100% attention to 100% of things all the time. And no, I really don't need to see what Spongebob just did.

But I guess when I tell him to pay attention, I need to be mindful of what I’m doing when he says it to me... and I should probably cut him a little slack.

Teachable moments

I went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time today since I was like 10. It was insane. It was noisy. The kids were inconsiderate. The parents were worse. I was overwhelmed, frustrated and at the point of just wanting to give my kids tickets to someone and get the heck out of there. So while standing in like for the prize redemption, I was talking to another mom and complaining about all the big kids getting in front of my kid. I said, I don't know when to let him fend for himself or step in. And I said, "Like this girl. Standing with her mom and she just let her go in front of him. Isn't it the parents' job to teach their kids?"

The mom turned around and RIPPED in to me! She said, "You know, you could just point it out, or say excuse me, or ask remind me that your child was here. Talking about me right behind my back is an ineffective way to get your point across. You could use this as a teachable moment and explain to your child what to do."

Score one for the good mom. Shame on me. She was dead on and I told her so.

I said, "That's fair. You're right. I'm just overwhelmed with this place and watching parents let their kids trample other kids. You're right. It's my first time in and I shouldn't have let that get to me."
Her: "Your FIRST time here?"
Me: "Yes."
Her: "Oh. I get that. We all just want to get our prizes and get out of here."

So message to parents, and learning for me: Next time, I'll try saying, "Excuse me, I was ahead of you. Do you mind if we go in order?"

And we should remember that none of us parents REALLY want to be in that godforsaken place. We do it for the kids. We should keep our cool, teach our kids manners, and try harder to get along.

That was my teachable moment for the day. but it was me getting taught.