Overheard and Understood

Last night at the Scooby Doo deal, I overhead the mom sitting next to us say this while taking a picture of her two adorable costume-clad daughters...

"You better smile right now, or we are going home!"

At first, this statement made me very sad. However, when I got to thinking about it, I'm guilty of the same... dragging my children to events just for the photo opp. I just finished culling down 174 photos taken just today after activities we did in the name of "family fun." This has caused me to step back and wonder, am I doing all these things for them... or for me?

Back to the lady at the museum... I try VERY hard not to judge other parents because I don't know their situation, and I also know what it's like to become so frustrated with your children that you're almost at your breaking point (the key is NOT to break, though). But this mom continued to fuss at her children while she spent the majority of the evening texting on her phone. I kinda wish she would've gone home like she had threatened.

That being said, I'm giving myself a little break on the matter. Sure, I plan outings so I can get cute photos and preserve the memories. But my kids have fun at them, too. I do exercise some discernment. In the past two days, we've done pottery painting, Scooby Doo watchin', park playing, and fall festival-izing. However, if it had been MY choice, I probably would have opted for the air show that's going on at the nearby air force base. That would be too loud and unnerving for my boys, though, so we crammed our adult selves into the seats of a kiddie train instead.

All of that to say, sometimes I feel like the work involved with certain outings outweighs the actual fun we had. And sometimes the actual good photos of my busy boys are few and far between. So I do want to be more careful about choosing activities for my kids. I don't want to become the mom who is frustrated because they won't just stand still and smile for a picture.

I did read somewhere that we don't really remember much about the first four years of our own lives, so we get to enjoy reliving them (and childhood, in general) through our own children! So, really, it's OK if I choose to be super crazy busy for ME to enjoy these fun, formative years, too! As long as everyone gets a good nap in (me included), then we're good to go!

So, after this week's worth of festivities, I have to figure out some way to share the photos on the blog. I've been posting to facebook pretty regularly, but I'm not sure of the best way to share pics here. I've almost maxed out my Google Picasa space, but I'm not crazy about the Flickr interface. I'll be thinking on that one...

Another Unfounded Obsession

Don't you love how kids just latch on to things as their "favorites" without much rhyme or reason? (And sometimes change their preferences as soon as the very next day?) Just like Spiderman, Ian also claims to be a huge fan of Scooby Doo despite his limited exposure to it. I mean, sure, Scooby's a dog, therefore very likeable, but the show's plotlines are definitely over Ian's head and sometimes a little scary even. All I know is that Netflix doesn't have a lot of Scooby to offer, and the one time we watched it here, it scared him.

That being said, Ian owns a Scooby shirt. He loves to say, "Scooby Dooby Doo!" And he watched a fair bit of it while staying at my parents' house a few weeks ago. Sure, I'll feed the obsession... so we went to meet Scooby at a local children's museum tonight. They played a movie afterward, which from my perspective was pretty, uh, stupid (the one with real actors and a computer-animated dog). Ian said it "was only a little bit scary... the part with the monsters." While I feel slightly convicted to better screen certain things that Ian watches, it was fun to have a mother-son date night all the same.

The First of Many

It has been Ian's request for several months now that he dress as Spiderman for Halloween this year. Does he watch Spiderman? No. Does he really know that much about him? Well, he's had a mask and gloves for a while, he's read a book, and maybe seen a cartoon or two. So, I'm not entirely sure where the obsession comes from, but oh well, we'll roll with it. He's played around in his costume a few times, but today was an official wearing... the first of many. So, here's my little Spiderman on Superhero Day at school.

I've been fighting experimenting with Photoshop tutorials all night trying to get the right effect for a comic book version of these photos (or more that might be taken in the near future). So far, this is the best I've got...

Update: Still working on the comic book thing. I tried a different photo, and it seemed to work a little better. Seth went as a little Incredible to school today... I guess he was Dash because he wouldn't stay still for any decent pictures!

Seth's Words

The reason for this post is two-fold. One, I know the doc is going to ask about this at Seth's 18-month appointment next week, and I honestly don't know how many he has. Two, I've been recording his milestones on a calendar, but he picks up words so quickly these days, I've lost track! This is more for me than you. So without further ado and in no particular order, Seth can say...

Mama (or Mommy), Dada (Daddy), Ian, brother, ball, dog, snack, banana, milk, water, all done, down, hi, bye-bye, diaper, thank you (only heard once), I want this, bath, teeth, swing, slide, goodnight, love you (only heard once), no (heard many times), bird, shoes, eye (while pointing at his or mine), pjs, clean up, and book. I've also heard him hint at something that sounds like "one, two, three" or even "abc," so I'm wondering if he learned that at school.

He definitely understands a lot more than he says. It's a fascinating age, really, and I look forward to hearing more of what Seth has to say in the future.

MPM: Party Prep

This week we are having a spider party. How did I arrive at this idea? Well, Ian's Halloween costume is Spiderman (it's been his request for months), and Seth gets to be the radioactive spider that bit him! So with two spider-themed costumed crazies in the house, why not add more crazies (the boys' buds) and have a spider party! I'm sure I will post more on that later...

So, we needed to do some crafts to get ready for our party. This first craft is going to be something we'll offer to our friends at the party, so I thought we'd prepare some samples. Usually I come up with my own MPM crafts (or by some compilation of stuff I've read about or just jumbled recollections in my head) but this time I had purchased two kits from Oriental Trading. These spiders and webs came in all black, but when you scratch them with sticks, they reveal color!

So Ian and I made a few for decorations. I plan to put the craft table under the bar here and let the kiddos have at 'em. Hopefully they won't use the sticks to poke at each other, but you never know with this bunch! The next craft involved a lot of gluing to make little spider pops to put in the kids' goodie bags. Ian helped mostly with squirting out the glue and putting on the heads and feet. After a while, he told me, "These spiders are too gluey!"

Of course, you can tell which part of this craft Ian enjoyed the most!

Lookin' on the Bright Side

Let's see... the bright side? That would be the southeast corner of our house that now has significantly less shade since one of our trees FELL DOWN earlier this week. And if a tree falls in your yard, yet no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Pondering the answer to that question is perhaps simpler than dealing with your home insurance company on such a matter.

The truth is, I was actually here and did hear it, but the "crunch" sound was so underwhelming, I didn't even get up to check. It was a pretty blustery day, and it sounded like maybe a branch fell, NOT an entire tree! And as you can tell from the photo, it didn't fall to the ground, but rather our other tree caught its fall, thus creating a crazy mess of intertwined branches and leaves.

There really is a bright side to all of this... like the fact that if the tree had fallen a few feet over and about five hours earlier, it could've fallen on Ian's head since his room and bed are in that corner of the house. In fact, if it would have fallen in any other direction, it could've caused damage to our house or fence or that of our neighbors. It did take out half of the other tree, which is still standing but was looking pretty shabby once the tree trimmers were done with it.

Tree trimmers took care of everything the next day. Bright side.

In the photo above, you can see a concrete slab that was also uprooted. On that slab rests the neighbors' air conditioning units. Their a/c still works, thank goodness, but this part of the whole ordeal may be the trickiest to tackle with the insurance company. Otherwise, the cost of the tree trimming (which is a pretty penny, mind you) fell short of our deductible.

And while such events were totally unexpected, we did have money in the bank to cover it. Bright side.

And the tree? Well, good riddance! It was an old 50-foot hackberry that probably needed cutting down anyway. It was a messy tree, its position gave too much shade for the grass to grow underneath it, and apparently it was even infested with bugs as the tree trimmers discovered. I am sad about the state of our live oak (the other tree), but I still marvel at the fact that this could have been so much worse.

And did I mention that no one was hurt? Bright side.

Well, unless you count Ian's minor head injury which occurred when we pulled up the blinds in his room to watch the tree trimmers, and the blinds FELL on his head! There seems to be too much falling going on around here.

Speaking of fall, we've been enjoying some nice fallish weather lately. Bright side.

MPM: This just in!

Did you notice that we missed last Monday on our weekly craft? (Probably not, but oh well.) Of course, I was off gallivanting across the country, but while Ian was staying with my parents, he got to do crafts there! My mom assured me that they would carry on the tradition.

However, in the madness of getting home, unpacked, and resuming our regular schedule, I didn't get to see the crafts until this week. In addition to coloring and sticker fun, Ian helped my mom make bracelets and necklaces for everyone.

Ian says dad gets the necklace with the most beads.

Ian shows off his creations.

Seth thinks his are pretty fun, too!

The whole family is decked out!

My mom is a pretty crafty gal. Hmm, that must be where I get it from! She seems to be into beading right now, but over the years she's done all kinds of crafting from painting to sewing. Thanks, Mom, for giving me your sense of creativity... oh, and for taking good care of my kiddo, too!

MPM: Rice-a-Rainbow

Well, I've searched the internet over and can't seem to find the recipe I used to dye our rice with food coloring. We did this the week before our Boston trip, so I'm trying to remember what we did... maybe 1/4 c. vinegar, 4-6 drops food coloring, and 1 c. rice? The recipe said to mix in jars, but you could also use ziplocs, I imagine. The jars were easier for my little guy to pour things into and shake around, though. Another recipe said to use alcohol instead of vinegar. I suppose both are intended to dry the rice out, but I don't really know the advantage of one over the other... well, except my house smelled like vinegar for a while.

Adding rice to colored vinegar

Stirring... he has marker on his face, btw

Shaking, swishing, hold on tight!

Our colored rice needed draining after this

Lil bro observes that process

Letting the rice dry before storing in plastic bags

So then fast forward to today's craft. Just add glue, and then you've got a whole new meaning to the term "sticky rice." I knew this one was going to be, in a word, MESSY. Needless to say, I was too busy managing the mess to take many pictures. And the best thing I could come up with to create with our colored rice was a rainbow!

It's probably not customary to hand vacuum your back porch (which is where we did the craft) but this part was more successful entertainment than the craft itself. I was afraid we'd attract ants or birds with the rice, and sweeping just pushed it into the grooves. Ian probably vacuumed for 45 minutes (while the craft lasted about 20), and he did a pretty good job!

My Phone is Smart

I suppose it's safe to say that mobile technology has pretty much revolutionized the way we operate and communicate in today's technology-driven world. I have been an iPhone user for nearly a year now, and I was actually a little late in jumping on the "smart phone" bandwagon. It's hard to imagine what the next five or ten years will bring... and wow, what will my boys be using and doing technology-wise when they're my age? All I can say is that the LAST five years have brought about so much change, and this became so apparent to me when I TRAVELED for the first time in five years.

Long gone are the days of having to book travel arrangements through an agent. With the internet, we could handle the prep work ourselves. However, gone are the days of having to look all that stuff up on your computer before you left town. I am amazed at how incredibly useful and invaluable having my phone on hand in Boston was, and here are some examples of how smart my phone really is:

• I used my phone to find out my flight terminal/gate info and even check in!
• Obviously, I was able to keep in touch with folks through calls, texts, and emails.
• I didn't really want to carry around my big camera, so I just took pics on my phone!
• We used the map function quite a bit to find our way around.
• We used the Yelp and Urban Spoon apps to find yummy places to eat in Boston.
• We used their mass transit system app to navigate the subway and commuter trains.
• While waiting for/riding on the trains, we killed time by playing games, reading the news, or checking Facebook/Google+ on our phones.
• I suppose I could have even read a book on my phone, but I chose the more traditional route for that. (Yes, I'm actually reading a book right now!)
• I could have also listened to music on my phone, but I forgot my earbuds.
• We used the weather app to know how to pack/dress for the day.
• I set an alarm on my phone to wake us up in the morning.
• I booked a tour on my phone.
• An urgent thing for work came up, and I was able to fix that... even changed html code and updated a website (with John's help).
• I used the phone's web browser to look into fun things to do in Boston.
• I used my phone as a flashlight to find my way around a dark hotel room.

Oh gosh, the list could go on! It was also impressive how widespread the network coverage is, however, we did hit some dead spots every now and then... now THAT is the limit to the smart phone's smartness... it is only as good as its connection, well, and battery power. Needless to say, John and I drained our phone batteries by the end of every day we spent in Boston.

And I suppose photo quality on a phone leaves some things to be desired, but below is a link to a sampling of the pics I took in Boston. Enjoy!

Boston Bound!

John snapped the picture above on his "water taxi" ride from the airport to his swanky hotel. He has been in Boston this week on business, and I am flying up to join him on Friday. Tomorrow I will head north to drop off the kids with their grandparents and proceed to have an actual VACATION! Woohoo!

So, while I'm gone, oh faithful readers... if I actually have any, leave me a shout out in the comment section. I have to ask for this every once in a while to boost my blogger self-esteem. You see, I'm getting very few comments these days. (Many thanks to those who do comment.) That's OK... I'm commenting less on other people's blogs, too, but I just wanted to see who was still out there. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

MPM: Where There's a Will, There's a Way

My original plan was to just put rice in the mailing tubes and seal them up. But then I thought making one of those rain sticks would be cool, and John advised me on the mechanics. He's so smart like that. I read a few different methods online and settled on the one that used a hammer a nails. Because I like to do crazy things for our crafts. I mean, my child is at the ripe old age of three, you know.

What's better than one 3-yr-old with a hammer? TWO 3-yr-olds with hammers! I think I may have a few slight dings in my table... or maybe those were from Ian's fork during one night's dinner protest. I'm not sure. Oh, the stories that table could tell. So, anyway, we invited Ian's friend, Will, over to participate in our Monday madness... now, that's a MPM first– fun with a friend!

Ian did pretty well at wielding the hammer.

Best buddy, Will, inspects the nails.

Checking out the nails on the inside of the tube

Adding rice to the tube

Will's super cute twin brothers (They are Seth's age)

Decorated sticks and silly boys

So you hammer in nails all around the tube to make a sort of spiral on the inside... when the rice hits it, it makes a cool sound. We probably could've used more nails and perhaps more rice, but it serves its purpose. That is one good thing about crafting with three-year-olds. They're not really critics. Until next time!

MPM: Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble

Last week the boys got fun packages in the mail from Uncle George and Aunt Mary. Ian loves to get packages, thought the mailing tube itself was lots of fun, and well, the bubble wand inside was also a big hit.

Our resident bubble-blowing expert

Can't blow, yet, but LOVES bubbles all the same!

After our involved feet-painting project from last week, I wasn't sure what to do for this week's craft. I started eying those mailing tubes. Hmm, what could we do with those? An idea popped into my head, John helped me expand my vision, and with a little help from a google search, we were ready to go!

Supplies... well, except for the brownie mix

Thus begins the toil and trouble...

Like a lot of our crafts, Seth was too little to participate. So, we invited a friend over for this one. And I proceeded to hand hammers over to three-year-olds. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion...

A Brownie Experiment

Here is what I've read online about adding beans to your brownies (to make them healthier or get your kids to eat more protein/fiber). Basically puree a can of black beans and add it to your brownie mix (sans egg and oil). I did not try it this way, but...

I had both black and white beans pureed as baby food in the freezer. Seth didn't like them because they were pretty bland, and I've mixed them with other things like veggies. But it got me thinking... I wonder if you could taste them in brownies? So, I experimented with this yesterday...

I used two brownie mixes and then split it three ways into 8x8 pans. I made the mix according to the directions (with egg, oil, and water) and then added 1 cup black beans to the far left batch and 1 cup white beans to the batch in the middle. The batch on the right is the no-beans-added version.

John and I both did blind taste tests. Our results were slightly different... he said he could taste "something weird" in the black bean version, and I thought "it" was more noticeable in the white bean version. "It" is not necessarily a distinct bean flavor, though, and perhaps it wouldn't phase you if you didn't know you were looking for something. John and I both agreed that the texture of the beanie brownies was different... more chewy than the original. John used the word "spongy" which sounds kinda gross, but I didn't think so.

When compared side by side, there was a noticeable difference. But the beanie brownies didn't taste BAD, and I'm pretty sure my kids wouldn't be able to tell. Later today, I'll taste again and then get Ian to weigh in on the matter... as in, give him a beanie brownie and see if he eats it. Do NOT tell the kids beans are in there... Ian would be prompt to tell you, "I don't like beans."

Oh... and now I have a lot of brownies at my house. What to do with them? Hmm...

Paranoid

Top Ten Reasons Why We Are Not Having More Children

1. John and I are both in agreement on the matter.
2. A surgical procedure has been performed to ensure the matter.
3. I have already sold/given away a lot of our baby items.
4. I am still SO TIRED from the first two!
5. I wouldn't know what to do with a girl.
6. I wouldn't know what to do with THREE boys!
7. Seth is already my needy child, he doesn't need middle-child syndrome.
8. We're planning to convert the baby room into a guest room... so people will come see us!
9. People might not want to come see us if we had three crazy children running around.
10. We're pretty comfortable with the parent:child ratio right now. We really don't want to be outnumbered.

So, why am I paranoid? Because I'm late...